Topics

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Historical Discussion / Wojtek the Soldier Bear

« on: April 15, 2013, 12:56:36 am »

This is pretty awesome.

He's like a badass version of Winnie the Bear (the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh).

Sorry, this is a little random. I was gonna put it in off-topic, but it's sorta historical...

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Official Servers Bans & Unbans / Ban Request for 2Brg_29th_Cdt_Radu

« on: April 13, 2013, 09:50:10 am »

Name of the server you were on: NW_Official_NA_1
Name of the person causing trouble: 2Brg_29th_Cdt_Radu
Nature of their offense: Repeated use of offensive language and failure to cease.
Time and date of their offense: Around 3:35 AM EST
If needed, what your relationship was to the offense in question: None, had just hopped on the server.
Any proof if you have it, For instance screenshots:

Spoiler

Oh, and I just noticed that pedophile bit...

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Spoiler

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Also, I noticed another 2Brg_29th ban request further down the page... I haven't been able to find a regimental thread on either FSE or Taleworlds, so I'm wondering if it might just be a troll regiment, something to look out for mayhaps.

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Historical Discussion / The Paraguayan War

« on: March 25, 2013, 12:01:54 am »

My God, I was reading up on my Brazilian history, and was just thinking to myself about how most South American wars have been relatively minor, when I looked up The Paraguayan War and saw the figures.

The war, known in Paraguay as the “War of ’70” or the “Great War”, was among the worst military defeats ever inflicted on a modern nation state. According to Thomas Whigham of the University of Georgia, as much as 60% of the population and 90% of Paraguayan men died from combat or, more often, from disease and starvation. Other researchers put the figure considerably lower—but still atrociously high. Federico Franco, Mr Lugo’s successor, recently called the war a “holocaust”. Yet it is little known outside the region. Even in Paraguay its moral ambiguities have caused generations of leaders to shroud it in myth.

One estimate places total Paraguayan losses—through both war and disease—as high as 1.2 million people, or 90% of its pre-war population. A different estimate places Paraguayan deaths at approximately 300,000 people out of its 500,000 to 525,000 prewar inhabitants. According to Steven Pinker the war killed more than 60% of the population of Paraguay, making it proportionally the most destructive war in modern times.

According to the post-war census only 29,000 males over the age of 15 remained, meaning a 4:1 ratio between females and males (20:1 in some places).

Compare that to the Second World War with only around 2.5% of the world's population killed (with Poland's casualties in proportion to its pre-war population being the highest at around 17%).

From what I've read so far, most of these losses were from attrition and disease (with cholera taking a massive toll) during the drawn out guerrilla conflict that followed the defeat of the Paraguayan army.

Just staggering figures, thought I'd share because, well I don't know really, this just completely surprised me and the war seems to be largely neglected today. Probably due to it being rather poorly documented, here are some paintings by Cándido Lopez, Argentine soldier turned painter (after he lost his arm in the war), who left the only visual record of the war. They depict the Battle of Curupaytí one of the few Paraguayan victories of the war.

Spoiler

They're pretty huge, so here are the links:
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Off Topic / Harlem Hate Thread - Here to stay?

« on: February 22, 2013, 06:36:52 am »

Mayhaps we should just compile all future Harlem Shake videos in one thread, so the board doesn't have to be perpetually cluttered with them? I count five on the first page...

Better yet, take it to off-topic. Or even better yet, just stop making them, at this point you're pretty late to the party.

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Other Games / So this looks interesting... Bungie unveils new project

« on: February 18, 2013, 03:23:25 am »

[youtube] [/youtube]
Dunno what else to say really, but I expect great things of Bungie.

IGN article for those interested.

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Off Topic / Favourite Books - Reading is cool!

« on: February 02, 2013, 06:12:56 am »

Thread for sharing your favourite pieces of literature. Both fiction and non-fiction. Maybe keep it to one book per post so things don't get cluttered.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

Also, apparently they're finally making it into a movie.