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- Dec 12, 2014
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Vikings may not be entirely historically accurate...
For real 80's and 90's period oddness, and convergence with modernity, watch Yes Minister at the same time your public station is running both Yes. . . and House of Cards. But I'm afraid I can't possibly comment . . .I caught a bit of Yes Minister this afternoon. For a show that went out in the early 80s it still seems fairly modern in many ways. In this episode Sir Humphrey and Bernard have a bet on something the minister would say when next they meet. What would people in their position bet? £10, £20, £50...? No, the bet was for £1!
And when it was settled, a pound note was handed over! (The pound coin was introduced in 1983.)
I also learned, from Wiki,
There is apparent convergence of opinion regarding the origin of the term "pound sterling", toward its derivation from the name of a small Norman silver coin,[11] and away from its association with Easterlings (Germanic traders) or other etymologies.[12][13] Hence, the Oxford English Dictionary (and sources derived therefrom)[14][15] state that the "most plausible" etymology is derivation from the Old English steorra for "star" with the added diminutive suffix "-ling", to mean "little star" and to refer to a silver penny of the English Normans.[11] As another established source notes,[16] the compound expression was then derived:
silver coins known as "sterlings" were issued in the Saxon kingdoms, 240 of them being minted from a pound of silver... Hence, large payments came to be reckoned in "pounds of sterlings," a phrase later shortened...
—Encyclopædia Britannica, entry "pound sterling"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_currency#Names
A cunning move? God's Wonderful Railway is still remembered with great affection in the SW. First have a tough act to follow.
They actually did the MOL programme?
Whatever happened to it? Do we know whether it burned up in re-entry?
...The team claim Hitler 'easily' faked his own death through the use of a double, as the corpse found by Russians was said to be five inches shorter than Hitler and with a smaller skull...
I must say, the similarities were amazing.Hold on...five inches shorter. Is that not a bit like someone trying to cover up Margaret Thatcher's demise by using Wee Jimmie Krankie's corpse?
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-plane-that-saved-britain/on-demand/57221-001Is the Mosquito the greatest warplane of all?
The Spitfire is more famous but, discovers Jasper Copping, the de Havilland Mosquito can claim to be the plane that won the war
[video]
By Jasper Copping
7:00AM BST 21 Jul 2013
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/worl ... f-all.html
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the- ... ritain/4od
I saw the documentary last night, and although I thought I was fairly familiar with the mozzie, the fact that it could be fitted with a sub-busting gun was new to me, as was the fact that it could land on aircraft carriers! 8)
Certainly a fantastic plane.http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-plane-that-saved-britain/on-demand/57221-001
This documentary is still available - I'm watching it now!
Anne Frank may have been discovered by chance, new study says
World-famous wartime diarist Anne Frank may have been discovered by chance and not because her hiding place was betrayed, a new theory suggests.
The Anne Frank House museum in Amsterdam believes the address could have been raided over ration fraud.
Researchers say the police who found the secret annexe may not have been looking for the eight Jews there.
The raid on Prinsengracht 263 saw all of those in hiding transported to the Auschwitz death camps.
Summarising its findings, the Anne Frank House said: "The question has always been: Who betrayed Anne Frank and the others in hiding? This explicit focus on betrayal, however, limits the perspective on the arrest."
Shortly before the raid, an anonymous caller supposedly revealed details of the secret annexe to the Sicherheitsdienst or SD (German Security Service) - but the study's authors have questioned this account.
Using Anne's diary entries from March 1944, researchers found that ration coupon fraud and illegal working activities may have triggered the fateful raid.
From 10 March 1944, Anne repeatedly wrote about the arrest of two men who dealt in illegal ration cards. She called the pair "B" and "D" - which stood for Martin Brouwer and Pieter Daatzelaar.
The pair were salesmen for a firm based at Prinsengracht 263, where Anne's father Otto Frank also had his business - and where the family went into hiding.
Anne writes on March 14: "B and D have been caught, so we have no coupons..."
This shows that the Frank family got at least some of their food coupons clandestinely from these salesmen.
Analysing police reports and judicial documents, the researchers also found that the police who discovered Anne and her companions were not generally employed to hunt down Jews in hiding.
Instead, they had worked on cases involving cash, securities and jewellery.
The study also notes that the police spent over two hours at the property - longer than it should have taken to arrest those cornered in the annexe.
Other evidence shows that people linked to Prinsengracht 263 had been punished by the Netherlands' Nazi occupiers for evading work.
"A company where people were working illegally and two sales representatives were arrested for dealing in ration coupons obviously ran the risk of attracting the attention of the authorities," the researchers wrote.
No firm conclusions have ever been drawn about who betrayed Anne Frank and her family to the Nazis.
The young writer ultimately died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, aged 15, just weeks before its liberation. Her father Otto was the only one of the annexe's eight occupants to survive World War Two.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-38349353
So she wasn't caught by Nazi jew hunters but by Nazi benefit-fraud hunters?
Cambridge student discovers hidden life of Renaissance spy
Believed for years to be a garden designer, new research into Constantino de’ Servi suggests covert activity
The garden design it is believed Constantino used as cover to act as matchmaker and spy. Photograph: By kind permission of the Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo
Something odd emerged as a Cambridge student began to research the work of a Renaissance garden designer: although the 16th century Italian artist, sculptor and designer Costantino de’ Servi travelled constantly and never seemed to be short of a bob, he seemed to have completed very few gardens - or any other kind of work.
Wherever there was trouble in Europe, however, be it wars rumbling, alliances being forged, or regime change threatened, de’ Servi seemed to pop up. Then the historian discovered that wherever the supposed gardener travelled and whoever he was nominally working for – and he got as far west as the court of James I in London, and as far east as Persia – he remained on the payroll of one of the richest and most powerful families in Europe, the Medici of Florence. Like any good modern spy who keeps a low profile, there is no known portrait of him.
“In the beginning as I trawled through his correspondence in the archives in Florence, expecting to find evidence of many wonderful Renaissance gardens he had worked on, and found nothing, I was very disappointed. Then as I followed the paper trail, I began to wonder if there was something more interesting going on,” said Davide Martino, a history student at St John’s College, Cambridge.
“I’m not sure you could precisely call him a spy in modern terms,” Martino said. “But his role meant that he could go anywhere and gain intimate access, in any court in Europe, and I think it’s reasonable to assume that he was constantly feeding useful information back to his paymasters in Florence.” ...
https://www.theguardian.com/educati...covers-hidden-life-renaissance-spy?CMP=twt_gu
One of the few pieces of work that de’ Servi definitely completed was a garden design for Henry, Prince of Wales, son and heir of James I – and far more popular than his father. The project came, as so often in de’ Servi’s career, at a politically sensitive time: the Medici were trying to arrange a marriage between the prince and one of their family, Caterina.