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Just as I started reading that, Classic FM started playing GKW.... 8)lawofnations said:Speaking of, how does Good King Wenceslas like his pizzas?
Deep pan, crisp and even...
Just as I started reading that, Classic FM started playing GKW.... 8)lawofnations said:Speaking of, how does Good King Wenceslas like his pizzas?
Deep pan, crisp and even...
The Pharaoh Who Conquered the Sea
Over three thousand years ago, legend has it that Queen Hatshepsut, Egypt's first female pharaoh, sent a fleet of ships to the wonderful, distant land of Punt. A bas-relief in the temple where she is entombed in Luxor shows them bringing back extraordinary treasures. But did this expedition really happen? And if it did, where exactly is the land of Punt?
Drawing upon recent finds, the archaeologist Cheryl Ward sets out to recreate the voyage, in a full-size replica of one of these ancient ships, sailing it in the wake of Hatshepsut's fleet, in search of the mythical land of Punt. A human adventure as well as a scientific challenge, the expedition proves that, contrary to popular belief, the ancient Egyptians had the necessary tools, science and techniques to sail the seas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... d_the_Sea/
Captain Swing was the name appended to some of the threatening letters during the rural English Swing Riots of 1830. Like the Luddites of 1812, the movement had an imaginary leader with a multiple-use name. His name was no doubt chosen, in a form of morbid humour, to echo the gallows which awaited rebels who got involved in his movement.
...
The Swing Riots
Popular protests by impoverished farm workers occurred across the agricultural south of England, and they had a number of structural causes. The main targets for protesting crowds were landowners/landlords, whose threshing machines they destroyed or dismantled, and whom they petitioned for a rise in wages. They also demanded contributions of food, money, beer (or all three) from their victims. Often they sought to enlist local parish officials and occasionally magistrates to raise levels of poor relief as well. Throughout England 600 rioters were imprisoned; 500 sentenced to transportation; and 19 executed.
The protests were notable for their discipline and the customary protocols favoured by the crowds, characteristics that which were very much part of the tradition of popular protest going back to the eighteenth century. The structural reasons for the Swing 'riots' (or risings) are relatively straightforward: un- and underemployment, low wages, low levels of relief and competition for winter employment from machinery. However the nature of the events of 1830 suggest that they may demand just as subtle an interpretation as the events of the previous century.
For most contemporaries, the riotous, but largely bloodless actions of the crowds presented less cause for alarm than the high incidence of incendiarism during the period of Swing (October to December 1830). Swing the rick burner was not only more destructive, but infinitely harder to apprehend than the rioters in this heightened atmosphere of tension and hostility. The relationship between Swing the rick burner and Swing the protester is difficult to assess - although there is little doubt that a relationship existed. Whatever the immediate motivations of the arsonists of 1830 and 1831, their actions undoubtedly gave added strength to the demands of the protesting crowds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Swing
Cavynaut said:I'd never heard of this before, despite having a long standing interest in railways. I only found out about it while researching for a seminar on ancient Greek and Roman technology.
http://rail-history.suite101.com/articl ... nt_railway
According to the Guardian, it's roughly 'Edith'! 8)gncxx said:Are there any descendants left around who can tell us how to pronounce her name?
I was reading a Lovejoy novel today, and in it he mentions going to vist St Oswalds in Switzerland, "one of our own", as he describes him...She was devoted to the cult of Saint Oswald, the 7th-century warrior king of Northumbria, and a scattering of monasteries and churches dedicated to St Oswald in Saxony may also map Eadgyth's lasting influence.
Cavynaut said:I'm currently reading 'Young Stalin' by Simon Montefiore. He mentions that the Bolsheviks were considering flying a dynamite laden plane into the Kremlin in a bid to kill the Czar around 1907-1908. Has anyone come across another mention of this anywhere?
theyithian said:Young Stalin Vs Young Winston: who would win? [And what about Indy?]
CarlosTheDJ said:The basement was being cleared-out last year in preparation for the move to the museum's multi-million pound site
I did email my brother, with the link to this story, but he seemed to assume that I think that the photo album in the article could have been our dad's. I knew it couldn't be, but re-reading my email I can see how I might have given that impression. So he has come back with the admission that he did recover some photos (which he never mentioned before), but hasn't got around to sorting them out yet...rynner2 said:I hope they find out who Siam Joe was. My own father was in the RAF, and spent time in the far east during WWII. I remember seeing some of his photos when I was a child. When my mother died a couple of years ago I hoped these photos would resurface, but it seems they are lost. But reading this story reminds me to press my brother for another look.
No, not ex-RN, but a fount of useless maritime knowledge none-the-less!BlackRiverFalls said:Maybe a funny question Ryn, but you're not ex RN are you?
Just curious, as i was doing some research into HMS Ganges, my stepfather used to talk about serving on it a lot, and discovered that it was actually a land based training centre, not so much forgotten family history as one of those strange paradyme shifts.
McAvennie_ said:CarlosTheDJ said:The basement was being cleared-out last year in preparation for the move to the museum's multi-million pound site
The Cairo Museum is moving? That is a shame, a nice new complex may be better in a lot of ways but the old charm of the current building is much better suited to looking at dusty old relics.
Or am I misinterpreting?
McAvennie_ said:Night before I went to Cairo some fella who worked in the Papyrus shop at our hotel had given me and my ex-gf some of this tea which I discovered after was evidently intended to mend a dodgy stomach. I had been feeling fine until I drank that stuff. :S
MsPix said:I liked the old Museum, it was as much an exhibit as the things in it. Despite being dusty a bit messy you could get up close to the exhibits, not staring at stuff through three layers of armoured glass. And they felt at home there.