Category:
War
War
Sedimentary Geology and the Civil War
I'm sure Hippensteel's new book (Sand, Science, and the Civil War) is quite interesting (especially if you're a Civil War buff), but the extreme narrow focus of his argument made me laugh. From a review:It "describes the influence of sedimentary rocks and sediments on the tactics employed by both armies during the Civil War and the effects of these materials on the weapons, fortifications, and landscapes from the conflict". Hippensteel believes that "sedimentary geology and sedimentary rocks were important on far more battlefields than either igneous or metamorphic rocks," and that this influence "has been underappreciated by historians."
More info: University of Georgia Press
Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 01, 2023 -
Comments (4)
Category: War, Environmentalism and Ecology, Books, Nineteenth Century
Christmas in Vietnam
Now that it's December 1st, I feel we can start the Christmas music season here at WU.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 01, 2023 -
Comments (1)
Category: Holidays, Music, War, 1960s
Constipation and Political Unrest
I haven't been able to figure out what the title of the article referenced below was, since I can't find archived copies of Blackwood's magazine from the 1970s. The hypothesis, "that a fundamental cause of the violence... in Irish politics may well be constipation," is strange. It might make one wonder about the role of constipation in other conflicts around the world.
The Melbourne Age - Sep 30, 1976
Posted By: Alex - Fri Nov 17, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Violence, War, Vegetables, 1970s
Reassuring news in the event of a nuclear war
The reassuring news, according to Dr. G.D. Kersley, was that if you've had one nuclear bomb dropped on you, you're unlikely to have another.Kersley's article appeared in the Aug 9, 1958 issue of the British Medical Journal. You can read it here. The reassuring comments are on the final page, in the conclusions section.
Birmingham Post - Aug 8, 1958
Posted By: Alex - Mon Nov 06, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: War, Weapons, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s
The Scythe Tree
Atlas Obscura article.Roadside America article.
Local newspaper article.
James Wyman Johnson attended a Union army recruitment meeting at the Vail country schoolhouse in October 1861, about five months after the start of the Civil War. As he was mowing with his scythe the next morning, he decided to enlist. When he returned to the house, he hung his scythe in the small tree, about 8 inches in diameter and just a few feet tall, near the kitchen door. He told his parents he was going to enlist and remarked that the scythe was to stay hanging on the tree until he returned from war.... He died on May 22, 1864, from his wounds and was buried in an unknown grave.... Years passed and the handle fell away, the tree grew and gradually surrounded the blade. The long scythe blade only protruded a few inches outside the mammoth tree trunk.
Posted By: Paul - Fri Nov 03, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Agriculture, Death, Family, War, Fables, Myths, Urban Legends, Rumors, Water-Cooler Lore, Nineteenth Century
Education for Death
The Wikipedia page.
Posted By: Paul - Wed Oct 04, 2023 -
Comments (2)
Category: Propaganda, Thought Control and Brainwashing, War, Children, Cartoons, 1940s, Europe
If war gas falls from the sky
Buy scotch tape, because it might help you in the event of chemical warfare.
Posted By: Alex - Tue Oct 03, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: War, Advertising, 1940s
Death Sand
Radiological warfare is the use of radiation as a weapon. "Death Sand" is a variant of this — the use of irradiated sand as a weapon. Details from Popular Science, Feb 1951.Prof. Hans Thirring of Vienna proposes drying a solution of the RW [radiological warfare] agent upon sand, or metal powder. Naming the preparation "death sand," he calls it "the lightest and most transportable of all weapons of mass destruction."
Airplanes for "death-sand" attacks could resemble those used for crop dusting and spreading fertilizer from the air. A British plane for the latter purpose has dropped five tons of chemicals in a single experimental flight.
To protect occupants from the cargo's radioactivity a death-sand plane would need heavy shielding. (After calculating its weight, one scientist suggested dropping the shielding instead of the RW agent on the enemy!) But shielding could be omitted if crewless planes, under radio control from accompanying aircraft, laid the sand.
Troops in an area sprinkles with death sand will have no choice but to get out. Those who remain will receive a fatal dose in anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the intensity of the radioactivity. Like victims of A-bomb radiation, they will suffer nausea, loss of hair, anemia, and hemorrhages. But those who flee at once will suffer no ill effects.
Airplanes for "death-sand" attacks could resemble those used for crop dusting and spreading fertilizer from the air. A British plane for the latter purpose has dropped five tons of chemicals in a single experimental flight.
To protect occupants from the cargo's radioactivity a death-sand plane would need heavy shielding. (After calculating its weight, one scientist suggested dropping the shielding instead of the RW agent on the enemy!) But shielding could be omitted if crewless planes, under radio control from accompanying aircraft, laid the sand.
Troops in an area sprinkles with death sand will have no choice but to get out. Those who remain will receive a fatal dose in anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the intensity of the radioactivity. Like victims of A-bomb radiation, they will suffer nausea, loss of hair, anemia, and hemorrhages. But those who flee at once will suffer no ill effects.
Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 14, 2023 -
Comments (3)
Category: War, Weapons, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters
Naked women lure soldiers to death
1970: A strange "military-psychoerotic" stratagem was reported from Cambodia.Apparently there was less concern about the soldiers succumbing to the lure of the women, and more fear that the naked women would render useless the Buddhist talismans that (so the soldiers believed) made them bulletproof.
Sydney Morning Herald - Sep 6, 1970
Posted By: Alex - Thu Jul 06, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Military, War, Nudism and Nudists, 1970s
“Lucky” Fluckey: The Only Submarine Commander Ever to Blow Up a Train
So long as submersible vessels are in the news...His Wikipedia page.
In one of the more unusual incidents in the war, Fluckey sent a landing party ashore to set demolition charges on a coastal railway line, destroying a 16-car train.[4] This was the sole landing by U.S. military forces on the Japanese home islands during World War II. Fluckey ordered that this landing party be composed of crewmen from every division on his submarine. "He chose an eight-man team with no married men to blow up the train," Captain Max Duncan said, who served as Torpedo Officer on the Barb during this time. "He also wanted former Boy Scouts because he thought they could find their way back. They were paddling back to the ship when the train blew up."[5] The selected crewmen were Paul Saunders, William Hatfield, Francis Sever, Lawrence Newland, Edward Klinglesmith, James Richard, John Markuson, and William Walker. Hatfield wired the explosive charge, using a microswitch under the rails to trigger the explosion.
Posted By: Paul - Sat Jun 24, 2023 -
Comments (0)
Category: Daredevils, Stuntpeople and Thrillseekers, Military, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, War, 1940s, Asia
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| Alex Boese Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes. Paul Di Filippo Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1. Contact Us |