Cochise
Priest of the cult of the Dog with the Broken Paw
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2011
- Messages
- 8,474
And I get uncomfortable two floors up :-(Construction workers on New York's Chrysler building, 1929/30
And I get uncomfortable two floors up :-(Construction workers on New York's Chrysler building, 1929/30
Where did they think they were going?Not sure if this is forgotten history but I'd never heard of it before.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-51755803
It was the biggest Prisoner of War escape attempt in Britain - as 70 German World War Two PoWs tried to tunnel to freedom.
Now, 75 years on from the breakout on the 10 March, 1945, hundreds of visitors will get a rare chance to view the Island Farm camp in Bridgend for themselves.
Free tickets for the tour of PoW Hut 9 went in minutes - with all 800 places for this weekend taken.
"All that's left of the camp now is Hut 9, from where the PoWs dug themselves out, and the tunnel itself," said Brett Exton, who chairs the Hut 9 Preservation Group.
Where did they think they were going?
My farther at one time had to guard German POW's and at times
had to escort them in trucks, he often handed his rifle up to the
prisoners so he could climb in.
There were at least 3 POW camps in our area one quite small for Italian
pow's, on one occasion a little girl fell into the river and one of the
Italian prisoners jumped in to rescue her, unfortunately he drowned,
many people of the town lined the streets at his funeral.
http://aircrashsites.co.uk/history/an-italian-hero-in-lancashire/
he often handed his rifle up to the prisoners so he could climb in.
The brick works near Bedford and Peterborough provided employment for many Italian POWs who settled here after the war.That's such a beautiful story.
This bit made me laugh though -
Your Dad, he reminds me of how the WW2 POWs were kept in camps near my home town. They were grateful to be there and the locals took pride in taking care of them.
There was a labour shortage so the men were employed (with pay as per the Geneva Convention) on farms and in factories. They were trusted to come and go as free men and would frequent the town pubs, often being given lifts home and smuggled back into the camp to avoid missing their curfew. The local economy would have struggled without them and they were respected as diligent and conscientious workers.
Many stayed after the war and settled down with women they'd met. There was no animosity towards them.
Our families of Italian and German origin get along with everyone, including the descendants of Polish military who were stranded here during the war. We all know Fascism is rubbish.
Quietly do up the nuclear shelter and you've got a bugout cabin.Bridgend hasa lot of WW2 history.
I helped an old timer with a clear out and by reward he took me to see some stuff. Along the railway, -the munitions dump, and further on up, a 50s nuclear shelter.
All overgrown now. I wish I had been able to take pictures and notes. But at the time I just enjoyed the adventure.
Where was it in Bridgend?Bridgend hasa lot of WW2 history.
I helped an old timer with a clear out and by reward he took me to see some stuff. Along the railway, -the munitions dump, and further on up, a 50s nuclear shelter.
All overgrown now. I wish I had been able to take pictures and notes. But at the time I just enjoyed the adventure.
That's such a beautiful story.
This bit made me laugh though -
Your Dad, he reminds me of how the WW2 POWs were kept in camps near my home town. They were grateful to be there and the locals took pride in taking care of them.
There was a labour shortage so the men were employed (with pay as per the Geneva Convention) on farms and in factories. They were trusted to come and go as free men and would frequent the town pubs, often being given lifts home and smuggled back into the camp to avoid missing their curfew. The local economy would have struggled without them and they were respected as diligent and conscientious workers.
Many stayed after the war and settled down with women they'd met. There was no animosity towards them.
Our families of Italian and German origin get along with everyone, including the descendants of Polish military who were stranded here during the war. We all know Fascism is rubbish.
Same thing in our wee Somerset village - there was a POW camp a few miles away, many of the Italian POWs stayed on and hence I ended up going to school with their gloriously-surnamed grandchildren, and the local corner shop used to be run by an Italian couple. You could buy pannetone and soup pasta in the 1990s in there (when even the big town shops didn't stock it)
FULL STORY: https://apnews.com/d7937c0a01a86f589b88d77ad7be7c68End of telegraph era brings question: What’s a telegraph?
The telegraph era in Florida is ending without a flash. Not even a flicker, really.
It’s more like a snicker.
The Florida Senate sent Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis a bill Thursday that removes an entire chapter of state law regulating the telegraph industry, including $50 penalties for not promptly delivering messages.
In the days before hashtags, texts and FaceTime chats, telegraphs were a big deal. Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861, dealing a death blow to the struggling Pony Express, which began operations the year before.
Florida laws regarding telegraphs haven’t had any substantial changes since 1913, and there haven’t been any court opinions involving the statutes since 1945, according to a legislative staff analysis.
And when Republican Sen. Ben Albritton presented his bill Thursday, his colleagues couldn’t resist having a little fun just before he presented his closing arguments for the legislation.
“There are a number of school-age children in the West Gallery, so if Senator Albritton in his close can address what telegraphs are,” said Democratic Jason Pizzo.
Democratic Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez quickly piled on.
“There are also middle-aged people in the entire Capitol. Can you also explain to us what a telegraph is?” Rodriguez said.
Stifling his laughter, Albritton carried on.
“I appreciate the opportunity to clarify what telegraphs were. Just Google it,” Albritton said. “Next year we’re going after carrier pigeons and Morse code.”
The bill passed unanimously. If DeSantis signs the bill, the telegraph regulations will be removed from law on July 1.
Until then, telegraph operators can still be held liable for any mental anguish or physical suffering caused by a delayed delivery of a message.
When was the last telegram sent in Florida?
I think they have been extinct globally some time
SOURCE: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/telegram-not-dead-stop/TELEGRAM NOT DEAD. STOP.
Despite end of India's national telegraph service, telegraphy lives on.
The Christian Science Monitor recently reported what many people may have assumed had already happened years ago: the death of the telegram. With the pending closure of Indian national telecommunications company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's telegraph service offices, the Monitor reported that "the world's last telegram message will be sent somewhere in India on July 14."
But news of the death of the telegram has been greatly exaggerated. "Somehow they got the impression that this meant the end of telegrams worldwide," Colin Stone, Director of Operations for International Telegram, a telegraphy service based in Canada, said in a phone conversation with Ars. "We'll still offer services in India, even though the state-run service is closing."
Samuel Morse's version of telegraphy—Morse code over the wire—died a long time ago. It was replaced by Telex, a switch-based system similar to telephone networks, developed in Germany in 1933. The German system, run by the Federal Post Office, essentially used a precursor to computer modems and sent text across the wire at about 50 characters per second. Western Union built the US' first nationwide Telex, an acronym for Teleprinter Exchange, in the late 1950s.
The precursor to e-mail has been dealt a wallop by instant messages, SMS texts, and other instant communications, to be sure. Western Union shut down its telegram "business messaging" service in 2006, but it was picked up by International Telegram, which operates worldwide. And there are still other nationally operated telegraph services. "Italy still has a printer and Telex line in every post office," said Stone. "And people still send loads and loads of telegrams there. It's a state-run telegraph service, so I don't know if it's profitable or not. But it's exactly as the service was run in India and the same as it's been for 50 or 60 years."
In countries where Telex no longer has the reach it once had—a group India will soon join—International Telegram sends messages the last mile using another "obsolete" messaging system: the postal service. Messages received by a central office are "sent out as express post items," Stone said, so telegrams are usually received the next day now instead within a couple of hours. "But in large cities, you can still get the message delivered same day," he added.
That's such a beautiful story.
This bit made me laugh though -
Your Dad, he reminds me of how the WW2 POWs were kept in camps near my home town. They were grateful to be there and the locals took pride in taking care of them.
There was a labour shortage so the men were employed (with pay as per the Geneva Convention) on farms and in factories. They were trusted to come and go as free men and would frequent the town pubs, often being given lifts home and smuggled back into the camp to avoid missing their curfew. The local economy would have struggled without them and they were respected as diligent and conscientious workers.
Many stayed after the war and settled down with women they'd met. There was no animosity towards them.
Our families of Italian and German origin get along with everyone, including the descendants of Polish military who were stranded here during the war. We all know Fascism is rubbish.
My house used to be home to a Polish ex-POW. He was forced to join the Wehrmacht when Poland was over-run and stationed somewhere west of Germany. When he met the Allied Army he promptly threw down his rifle and surrendered. After the war he and many other Polish POWs, were given tenancies to empty small-holdings here - so many, in fact, that they take up half the graveyard in the nearest town.I've said the same thing myself on here. German ex-POW's openly lived, loved and were part of my community growing up in the 70's. None of our lot had any animosity against them. That generation was about moving onwards, forgetting the war and getting on with it.
Sadly they've all pretty much passed on and by god do we miss them. They could teach our intolerant people a thing or too these days.
I've said the same thing myself on here. German ex-POW's openly lived, loved and were part of my community growing up in the 70's. None of our lot had any animosity against them. That generation was about moving onwards, forgetting the war and getting on with it.
Sadly they've all pretty much passed on and by god do we miss them. They could teach our intolerant people a thing or too these days.
What a horrible way to treat a hero!The first medical man who tried to convince everyone that washing your hands was essential in medical work was laughed at, fired and then locked up in an insane asylum ..
https://www.mirror.co.uk/science/tragic-life-ignaz-semmelweis-thrown-21724212
A miss understood person who's no doubt saved hundreds of millions of lives and that's a conservative estimate .. his hand washing is continuing to save lives now .. and they locked him up ..What a horrible way to treat a hero!
Her 83-year-old grandson, Johnny Crear, had no idea about his grandmother's historic story.
Matilda had been captured by slave traders in West Africa at the age of two, arriving in Alabama in 1860 on board one of the last transatlantic slave ships.
With her mother Grace, and sister Sallie, Matilda had been bought by a wealthy plantation owner called Memorable Creagh. [there's a memorable name]
Matilda's story is particularly remarkable because she resisted what was expected of a black woman in the US South in the years after emancipation," Dr Durkin says.
"She didn't get married. Instead, she had a decades-long common-law marriage with a white German-born man, with whom she had 14 children."