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Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

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Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#141
post #35
post #23

Call me a killjoy, but the Battle of Verdun was one of the worst and bloodiest battles of a horrific war that arguably ruined Europe. Is there Lego Auschwitz, too? Bad taste, whoever did this. Bad taste.

considering that the video has a like two minutes long educational section without lego at the end and the fact that it is not much fun to watch this ... I would say: good job.

That was my takeaway. It isn’t gleeful, it is sad… and I think that’s the point. Getting huffy that a horrific battle is being portrayed with toys seems to miss the entire message.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#143

Every year I visit various ww1 battle sites in northern France and Italy. We walk through endless farm lands to find information about certain events. We often stumble upon ammunition and steel scrap. The land is literally filled with shells, bullets, scrapnel everywhere. Some are still live and just brought to the top of the soil by farm tractor machinery. The amount of shells fired at the battle of as Verdun is so…

To give a bit more reference on the scale of the slaughter of Verdun and WW1 in general:

Total casualties for the 1916 battle were ~755,000, maybe less. The battle lasted 302 days, from 21 Feb to 18 Dec. Doing a bit of math, you arrive at just shy of two casualties per minute.

That comes out to crashing a fully loaded 737 jet into the ground every 2 hours, every day, every night, for 300 days straight.

The total casualties of WW1 are worse. In terms of 737-crashes, it comes out to one every ~14 minutes for the ~4.25 years of the war for military casualties. Including civilian casualties you get a 737 plane crash every ~10 minutes for the four years, three months, and two weeks of the war.

Imagine a Lion Air Flight 610 tragedy every 10 minutes, 132 times a day, every single day, every single night, for over 4 years straight. No breaks.

Just building plane after plane, fueling them, training pilots, finding people, getting them on the plane, taxiing, taking off, getting to altitude, and then intentionally running them into the ground, every ten minutes, for 4 years, nonstop.

Where would you even find a place to put all the wreckage? What airstrip's tarmac could support that many planes taking off that quickly? How could you even get that many willing people onto planes at that rate? What kind of airport fuel system could support that amount of consumption for 4 years without maintenance? How could you possible train pilots that fast?

The sheer scale of the slaughter in WW1 is just mind boggling. It truly, really, does make my just head go 'fpoooom!'.

EDIT: I'm having some trouble with my math (maybe?), if someone could double check, that would be great.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The British Army ran faster than the French to the sea but the joke is always on the French. It's also a very anglo-saxon joke…

A British route is not even in the same league as compete national capitulation.

Been like this since the 100 years war... Some tourism on the continent or else, then run back to the security of their island if any trouble. And spitting their British exceptionalism contempt across the channel and the rest at any occasion. Our best "friends".

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#145
post #5

I wonder if this is done with CGI or real Legos. The texture on the prices is excellent but The LEGO Movie achieved this level or realism in CGI. Edit: looked at the rest of his channel. It’s a mix of stop motion, rigs to throw bricks/simulate brick explosions, and CGI.

All I can think of is, in a few years when AI can trivially generate this video from a few prompts, will anyone care about this kind of art anymore?

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#146
post #5

I wonder if this is done with CGI or real Legos. The texture on the prices is excellent but The LEGO Movie achieved this level or realism in CGI. Edit: looked at the rest of his channel. It’s a mix of stop motion, rigs to throw bricks/simulate brick explosions, and CGI.

All I can think of is, in a few years when AI can trivially generate this video from a few prompts, will anyone care about this kind of art anymore?

Will anyone care about any kind of CG art ? Depressing.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But if you design a factory to make shells quickly, each production line can probably do 1 shell per second (they're not so different from big bullets, and those are made very rapidly). 11 of those lines and you can be keeping up that rate forever.

It's not enough to produce them, you also need to get them close to the front. The logistics of transporting millions of tons ammunition outside of normal trading routes should not be underestimated

I just found out a few days ago when I have read about track gauge, that they literally built narrow train lines to transport ammunition at scale. Eg: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/light-rail-ammunition-...

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then I hope that you have plenty of jokes about the country whose prime Minister came back from Germany "with peace for our time" in 1938 :)

Yes, a misleading statement, but also one which bought the British valuable time to build up their military. It isn't clear that Chamberlain believed what he said, politicians are sometimes cleverer than they appear.

He then proceeded to fool the whole cabinet by telling them that Hitler is not insane and has very limited objectives: https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinet-office-100/the-m...

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#149
post #4

"The Battle of Verdun showed the strength and determination of the French, and revealed to the world the chaos and destructiveness of modern war." Based on the jokes from WWII, they must have not recovered that tenacity in time. "We have these gently used WWII French rifles. They've only been dropped once"

No one in Europe makes such jokes, the French fought like lions. Of course, our friends across the pond also think state healthcare is communism, and republicans are “literally” nazis so, I wouldn’t truck too much with such statements.

Yup.

Attacking your opponent's strengths is a time proven rhetorical strategy.

Swift Boat Vets successfully depicted war hero Sen John Kerry as a pacifist. Ditto Sen Max Cleland.

Sen John McCain was mocked as weak for being a POW.

Ad nauseum.

More nauseating is that it works. "Balanced" media coverage signal boosting the agitprop, muddying the waters, begatting cynicism and apathy.

Re: Lego Battle of Verdun [video]

#150
post #86
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am currently born near to Verdun > The amount of shells fired at the battle of as Verdun is so extremely high that you find layers of shells everywhere On the first onslaught on the city, it is estimated the German fired around 2 millions shell on Verdun in two days . [1] It is hard to imagine by today living standards the hell that people lived there. > The land is literally filled with shells, bullets, scrapnel e…

Aftermath - The Remnants of War by Donovan Webster[1] is highly recommended and has a section on Zone Rouge. [1]: https://www.amazon.com/Aftermath-Remnants-Landmines-Warfare-...

I'd second this book -- it's unforgettable in its description of the unexploded bombs left over from war, in addition to land mines and the continuing effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
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