Lady Godiva
Posted on 05/30/2008 12:06:37 PM PDT by yankeedame
As imperator he should have mobilized a few legions to restore order, set up temporary quarters, dig latrines and open the granaries for dole purposes.
Actually show up and behave like he might give a rat's ass about his people.
Sure, but I was thinking of the phrase “WHILE Rome burned” so I was focusing just on the fire-fighting aspect that was pretty hopeless in those days. But you are right of course, there is an enormous set of relief challenges beginning even while such a castrophe is underway and continuing long after.
“...However, it is true that Trix are for kids....”
And the walrus WAS Paul.
Excuse me, but there is no such thing as a practical carbon filament arc light. A filament could not sustain an arc for even a fraction of a second.
We all have probably seen a "filament" arc light... it is the extremely bright light you see when a lightbulb burns out. That light is the arc across the two broken ends of the filament as it falls away from where it broke.
Electric light was not a new thing when Edison invented his vacuum filled carbon filament bulb. What Sir Humphrey Davy invented was the Carbon Arc lamp... which was used up until the 1970s in movie projectors (I was a projectionist in college), stage follow spot lights ... and are still being used in the large ballyhoo lights, which are essentially surplus WWII Siege/air-raid lights, used at theater openings and store grand-openings.
Carbon arc lamps work by using two carbon rods connected to a high voltage source. They are touched together and then backed away from contact after a very bright arc of electricity is started. The rods are consumed by the high heat over a fairly short period of time. As the rods are consumed, the operator or an automatic mechanism keeps moving the points of consumption so that the arc is maintained. IIRC, 2 - 10" by 1/4" carbon rods will last about a half hour... or two reels time of a movie... before having to be replaced.
Edison invented the first successful electric lightbulb after trying and testing over 1500 different filament materials.
Captain James Cook did not discover Australia . . . nor was he strictly speaking a captain, holding the rank of lieutenant when he sailed there for the first time.
Yes, he was. He was the master of the ship which makes him, very strictly speaking, a Captain, regardless of any official rank. Another such case was Lieutenant William Bligh, the infamous master of the Bounty, who was also a Captain when his some of his crew mutinied against him. Lieutenant Bligh was exonerated of any wrong doing in the mutiny and was commended for his seamanship. He eventually reached the rank of Vice-Admiral... but when he mastered a ship, as Vice-Admiral, he was still a Captain.
To this day, if a military Captain is aboard a US Navy ship, he is addressed as Commodore, not Captain, to avoid confusion with the real master of the ship, who may have an official rank far below the "Commodore's." Captain James Cook had been hired by the Royal Society, a non-military organization, to make the journey to the Pacific to make observations of the Transit of Venus across the face of the Sun. He and his ship were on loan from the Royal Navy to the Royal Society. His rank aboard ship absolutely was Captain... and he was also the expedition Commander. I do not believe it has ever been claimed that Cook "discovered" Australia. That honor actually does go to Abel Tasman. Cook was the first European to circumnavigate New Zealand and map the South Eastern Australia coast.
Actually the Roman fire department (the watch) was pretty good for that day and time. They had to be as Rome caught fire on a regular basis.
A couple of contemporary sources attest that while the fire was raging he was acting in a play and playing the lyre in safety and luxury.
And some others report that he was active in directing the effort against the fire and assisting with the evacuation.
It is entirely possible that he WAS acting in a play, or playing a lyre, when the first reports were brought to him of the conflagration's start. It is also possible that he delegated authority to handle the problem and remained safely out of harms way.
It is also possible that he had a bad reputation that was imputed to him as propaganda in later years because of his treatment of the Christian martyrs of Rome.
Can you imagine what history/myth in 2000 years will report about G.W. Bush and what he was doing at the time of 9-11?
I thought the same about the allegation that Sir Walter Raleigh did not spread his cloak for the Queen and he merely "pretended" it was true. Would not he be a contemporaneous source—especially since he included it in his family coat of arm? This comment is based on a LACK of contemporary commentary.
The "pretended" comment is particularly egregious given the lack of facts to back it up. There were no "newspapers" with gossip columns— or anything like them that would have published such gossip—at the time. The closest thing was the posting of Broadsheets with announcements and some news that would be read by someone literate to whoever would listen. Word of mouth would have spread the story of the gallant Raleigh and such "gossip" may not or may not have been written down by any of the diarists of the day.
Do you suppose he might be metaphorically related to a certain Pastor Wright who never let the truth get in the way of a bad story?
Remember WWII? Well according to some the Holocaust didn't happen and the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima were war crimes and done due to the violent racism of America and not actually to save lives on both sides.
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from May, an amusement. |
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Lady Godiva
......And Cap’n Crunch was only a Lieutenant
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Cap'n Crunch
Since Apr 21, 1999
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Actually, Cap'n Crunch is a well known FReeper and has been at FR for a long time.
Hiya Cap'n! How's things?
And John Dillinger’s...ahem...Johnson was normal size, not bodacious as often reported. I have read an eyewitness report from a physician present at Dillinger’s autopsy.
I had read once that the riding unclothed was in protest of taxes.
It was. I don’t think that type of protest would do much good today.
The thought crossed my mind that we should somehow get a million nekkid wimmins to ride Arabian horses in protest of the gas prices, but I suspect the ride would have better results if we did it in front of the oil companies’ corporate offices. Mebbe.
Or not.
Protest of taxes, fiddlesticks. She exhausted her clothing budget on the horse.
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