Robert F. Gallagher served in the United States Army's 815th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion (Third Army) in the European Theater during WWII. He has posted his memoir online:
"Scratch One Messerschmitt," told from numerous photos he took during the war and the detailed notes he made shortly afterwards.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 23, 2010 -
7 comments
Few things in history are as compelling as the duel. Refined and barbaric at the same time, this practice has had a checkered history.
The rules of dueling were codified by the Irish in 1777 in the Code Duello (
summarized here), which was codified at Clonmel Summer Assizes in 1777. As evidenced by these
documents, dueling was in practice prior to the Irish rules being drafted. The procedure and philosophy behind duels is illustrated in
this article.
Dueling gained some traction in America in the
19th century, culminating in the famous Burr-Hamilton affair. There are many more resources to find out more
here. For a list of famous duels, you can check out
this list.
Lest you think men were the only ones dueling, here are a
few short anecdotes of women dueling.
Reportedly,
dueling is still legal in Paraguay, as long as both parties are registered blood donors.
posted by reenum
on Sep 15, 2009 -
17 comments
On the cusp of DEVO's first tour of Europe since 1990 , it's become clear that, though largely cast aside after their 1980 hit "Whip It", DEVO's influence is finally being felt on modern audiences, around the world. DEVO has inspired tribute bands,
some traditional,
some not. They've also spawned new bands,
domestic [MySpace link], and Foreign like
Japan's POLYSICS [YouTube], and Germany's
Mutate Now [YouTube]. With musical inspiration like this, can't we forgive such missteps as
Devo 2.0?
posted by SansPoint
on Jun 15, 2007 -
55 comments
In Europe, it's debated whether it's
Suchowola
Poland, the village of
Krahule near Kremnica Slovakia,
Dilove in western Ukraine, or
Bernotai Lithuania. In Asia, there are more disputes, but
Kyzyl put up an obelisk and stages tours. Various places claim that the
Central African Republic is at the geographical centre of Africa, but that seems more likely based on looking at a map than measuring anything. On January 9 1956,
Admiral Byrd
flew over the geographical center of Antarctica.
Alice Springs is pretty close to the centre of Australia. The center of North America is at
latitude 48°21'19" north, longitude 99°59' 57" west in
Rugby North Dakota. South America's center is officially
Chapada
dos Guimaraes in Cuiaba Brazil.
posted by Kickstart70
on Dec 1, 2005 -
11 comments
Europe versus America (PDF) is a report by a Swedish public policy institute comparing the two economies, concluding that "If the European Union were a state in the USA it would belong to the poorest group of states." The
WSJ has read the report, and highlights that "Most Americans have a standard of living which the majority of Europeans will never come anywhere near [...]. in the U.S. a large 45.9% of the 'poor' own their homes, 72.8% have a car and almost 77% have air conditioning, which remains a luxury in most of Western Europe. The average living space for poor American households is 1,200 square feet. In Europe, the average space for all households, not just the poor, is 1,000 square feet.". With a
looming demographic crisis in Europe to boot, will the EU be able to implement much-needed reforms to save their welfare-state system before it is too late?
posted by dagny
on Jun 20, 2004 -
118 comments
Decoding Anti-Europeanism In America: Although European anti-Americanism focuses on one country, with one government and one foreign policy (the U.S.), growing American (i.e. U.S.) anti-Europeanism seems to conflate dozens of separate and disparate countries, governments and foreign policies into one abstract entity, "Europe", which doesn't really exist as such. Or exists just as much as "America", North and South, Central and Carribean does. So what the hell is up? What terrible confusion of categories is clogging up Western political communications? [
More inside.]
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Jan 29, 2003 -
77 comments
How Americans view us... You don't really ... do you? "They responded very readily to Britain and the British: 'Tea... proper... trousers... Monty Python... Jane Eyre... Austin Powers... soccer hooligans... Prince William... dry and witty... educated... not huggy...' "
posted by feelinglistless
on Feb 26, 2002 -
61 comments
