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What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

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Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#91

Post by notarealllama »

bigiain wrote: post #88
Miraste wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Did they improve sanitation, irrigation, medicine etc.? They built a network of aqueducts that was the largest in the world for a thousand years. The plumbing and sewage systems they installed in their cities were so effective that some are not just intact, but in use, right now . There are plenty of negative points you can raise about the Roman Empire, but water systems aren't one of them.

But apart from the aqueducts, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Okay, but apart from orthography and aquaducts, what have the Romans ever done for us?

Now as punishment go write this on the wall 100 times!

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#92

Post by bigiain »

K0balt wrote: post #82
graemep wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that comedy is frequently not factually accurate. Roman Imperial contributions? Was Roman wine better than pre-Roman wine in that region? Did they improve sanitation, irrigation, medicine etc.? Rome was an oppressive slavery based society. Then what about the Spanish Inquisition sketch? It keeps repeating "fanatically devoted to the Pope"" The Spanish inquisition was an arm of the Spanish monarchy, at…

…I think it kinda goes without saying that , perhaps with a very few notable exceptions, satirical television shows are not necessarily renown for their historical, scientific, or anecdotal accuracy. That being said, in my own experience at least, such pseudo-historical references in comedy in particular have spurred me on to independent investigation as to what they were on about, exactly. I’d say that the slapdash…

> It would be interesting, however, to have a backdrop of steadfast historical “accuracy “ in an otherwise pseudo-slapstick context a-la Monty pythons flying circus. That was kinda part of the gig, but it might be even funnier if they obviously took that aspect with unflinching seriousness.

That can get super grim too.

I saw (maybe read?) an interview with Margaret Attwood about The Handmaids Tale. She took the atrocities committed by Gilead very seriously - and did not make a single one of them up. Every one of them was something historically accurate that really happened somewhere in the world.

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#93

Post by inglor_cz »

graemep wrote: post #78
mrandish wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me that Monty Python and the Holy Grail contributed actual historical knowledge about Arthurian legends to my knowledge base while growing up. Other examples of Python unintentional education include knowing the names of a myriad of obscure cheeses (the cheese shop skit), a shocking number of anachronistic synonyms for death (the parrot skit) and notable contributions of the Roman Empire (Life of Brian '…

The problem is that comedy is frequently not factually accurate. Roman Imperial contributions? Was Roman wine better than pre-Roman wine in that region? Did they improve sanitation, irrigation, medicine etc.? Rome was an oppressive slavery based society. Then what about the Spanish Inquisition sketch? It keeps repeating "fanatically devoted to the Pope"" The Spanish inquisition was an arm of the Spanish monarchy, at…

In a pre-industrial agricultural society, slavery or something similar (serfdom etc.) tends to be widespread, as human and animal muscles are the only reliable and ubiquitous source of energy. Humanity only really started getting rid of unfree backbreaking work by adopting steam engines. 300-400 years ago, most of us forists here would be unfree people working the fields in unfavorable conditions, with maybe 5 per cent being burghers and 1 per cent nobility.

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#94

Post by thetisxviii »

icegreentea2 wrote: post #50
hermitcrab wrote: post #16

Germans pioneers wore white uniforms? That sounds like the worst possible colour for digging ditches, recovering tanks or camouflage (if it isn't snowing). Why would they do that? Did Hugo Boss do the design?

From the link, the white pants are part of the "Drillich" work uniform. From searching around, these were intended as work uniforms / overalls. You were intended to wear these (there were both pants and jackets) over your actual uniform, and these would take the abuse. It seems like the early war patterns were simply undyed. Mid-war versions were apparently dyed darker. Here's a forum with a bunch of pictures of exam…

Post WW II the Panzer IV's were offloaded to the Middle East. But it competed well with its Soviet T-34.

At first it looked like Czech military fatigue but the confluence of two rivers points to Germany.

> The man is an unnamed German pioneer likely at the time of recovery.

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#95

Post by nate321 »

noahlt wrote: post #69

This entire deep dive is great. I feel compelled to call out this heroism: > 1st Lieutenant de Wispelaere had prepared the bridge for demolition ... De Wispelaere immediately pushed the electrical ignition, but there was no explosion... Wispelaere now left his shelter and worked the manual ignition device. Trying to get back to his bunker, he was hit by a burst from a German machine gun and fell to the ground, mortal…

This is also mentioned in the ConeOfArc video linked on stackexchange. However, at 4:17 in the video, the speaker shows a sign describing two versions of the event. In the first version, Wispelaere died due to a German shell (not a machine gun). In the second version, he was killed by the explosion of the detonating device after shortening the fuse (“l’explosion du dispositif de mise à feu”; not sure how to translate this exactly).

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#96

Post by thaumasiotes »

graemep wrote: post #78
mrandish wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reminds me that Monty Python and the Holy Grail contributed actual historical knowledge about Arthurian legends to my knowledge base while growing up. Other examples of Python unintentional education include knowing the names of a myriad of obscure cheeses (the cheese shop skit), a shocking number of anachronistic synonyms for death (the parrot skit) and notable contributions of the Roman Empire (Life of Brian '…

The problem is that comedy is frequently not factually accurate. Roman Imperial contributions? Was Roman wine better than pre-Roman wine in that region? Did they improve sanitation, irrigation, medicine etc.? Rome was an oppressive slavery based society. Then what about the Spanish Inquisition sketch? It keeps repeating "fanatically devoted to the Pope"" The Spanish inquisition was an arm of the Spanish monarchy, at…

> Was Roman wine better than pre-Roman wine in that region?

If I were to guess, I would say that Roman wine was made from grapes, Levantine wine was made from dates, the vast majority of wine in the Levant continued to be made from dates during Roman rule, and imported Roman wine probably cost a lot more than local wine did, making it "better" by definition.

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#98

Post by baud147258 »

bigiain wrote: post #88
Miraste wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Did they improve sanitation, irrigation, medicine etc.? They built a network of aqueducts that was the largest in the world for a thousand years. The plumbing and sewage systems they installed in their cities were so effective that some are not just intact, but in use, right now . There are plenty of negative points you can raise about the Roman Empire, but water systems aren't one of them.

But apart from the aqueducts, what have the Romans ever done for us?

well, being part of the Roman Republic/Empire meant peace, even if it was enforced at the tip of a pilum. And the population under the Empire were more prosperous and numerous, so much that the collapse of the Empire in the West had long-lasting negative consequences (I'm mostly basing my opinion off this article: https://acoup.blog/2022/02/11/collections-rome-decline-and-f...)

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#99

Post by mxfh »

bigiain wrote: post #92
K0balt wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

…I think it kinda goes without saying that , perhaps with a very few notable exceptions, satirical television shows are not necessarily renown for their historical, scientific, or anecdotal accuracy. That being said, in my own experience at least, such pseudo-historical references in comedy in particular have spurred me on to independent investigation as to what they were on about, exactly. I’d say that the slapdash…

> It would be interesting, however, to have a backdrop of steadfast historical “accuracy “ in an otherwise pseudo-slapstick context a-la Monty pythons flying circus. That was kinda part of the gig, but it might be even funnier if they obviously took that aspect with unflinching seriousness. That can get super grim too. I saw (maybe read?) an interview with Margaret Attwood about The Handmaids Tale. She took the atroc…

Would say I prefer comedy/satire, since you don't run into the danger zone of historical dramas, where you mistake artistic story alterations for dramatic effect for some historically factual narrative.

Those are hard to rectify once internalized, and have a tendency to even overshadow historical research for the general public.

Re: What is the origin of the lake tank image that has become a meme? (2021)

#100

Post by astrange »

inglor_cz wrote: post #93
graemep wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that comedy is frequently not factually accurate. Roman Imperial contributions? Was Roman wine better than pre-Roman wine in that region? Did they improve sanitation, irrigation, medicine etc.? Rome was an oppressive slavery based society. Then what about the Spanish Inquisition sketch? It keeps repeating "fanatically devoted to the Pope"" The Spanish inquisition was an arm of the Spanish monarchy, at…

In a pre-industrial agricultural society, slavery or something similar (serfdom etc.) tends to be widespread, as human and animal muscles are the only reliable and ubiquitous source of energy. Humanity only really started getting rid of unfree backbreaking work by adopting steam engines. 300-400 years ago, most of us forists here would be unfree people working the fields in unfavorable conditions, with maybe 5 per ce…

It's not that pre-industrial society causes slavery, it's closer to the other way round. If you're pre-industrial then everyone has to do farm work, yes, but slavery is /economically inefficient/ because the slaves don't provide demand (since you don't pay them) and don't grow the economy.

This is why economics was called "the dismal science" - economists told people to stop doing slavery and the slaveowners called them nerds. They wanted to own slaves because they wanted to be mini-tyrants, not because they were good at capitalism. Adam Smith did not go around telling people to own slaves.

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