“Neighboardhood?”

*Case in point

… the 50-pound, beach-ball-size nuclear device …

… The climbers scampered down the mountain after stashing the C.I.A. gear on a ledge of ice, abandoning a nuclear device that contained nearly a third of the total amount of plutonium used in the Nagasaki bomb. …

… Scientists say the generator will not explode on its own — for one, there’s no trigger, unlike in a nuclear weapon. But they worry about a sinister scenario in which the plutonium core is found and used for a dirty bomb.

Are you absolutely sure? It doesn’t sound tiny.

deleted by creator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_of_Alexandria?wprov=sfla1

A vending machine that dispensed a set amount of water for ablutions when a coin was introduced via a slot on the top of the machine. This was included in his list of inventions in his book Mechanics. When the coin was deposited, it fell upon a pan attached to a lever. The lever opened up a valve which let some water flow out. The pan continued to tilt with the weight of the coin until it fell off, at which point a counter-weight would snap the lever back up and turn off the valve.

Thanks for teaching me something new. I had never considered the factorial of zero before

It might be referring to German political prisoner and P.O.W. camps (Offizierslager?) during WWII, which housed many of the Polish intellectual elite.

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oflag_XVII-A?wprov=sfla1

The prisoners were encouraged to occupy their time productively. They formed a choir and a theatre group, and built their own sports ground, the Stade Pétain. One of the most popular activities were the lectures at the Université en Captivité, headed by Lieutenant Jean Leray, formerly a mathematics professor at the Université de Nancy. The University awarded almost 500 degrees, all of which were officially confirmed after the war.

I’m not sure if it’s the same incident since it doesn’t seem to be focused on “historians,” but here is an example of an actual legitimate university being organized by (mostly French) prisoners of war while being held captive by the Nazis.

EDIT 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solovki_prison_camp?wprov=sfla1

It might be more likely referring to the early years of the Solovki prison camp, the prototypical Gulag. A lot of the Ukrainian intelligentsia were sent there, including many notable historians. I don’t know enough to say for sure.

It seems to be a crude joke about 14-year-old Marie Antoinette and 15-year-old Louis Auguste having trouble consummating their marriage. Court gossip at the time speculated that he had a small misformed penis, but really they were just young teenagers who were perhaps not ready for sex.

Yeah, Europeans caught syphilis from indigenous Americans, and without any existing immunity to it there was a genuinely terrifying pandemic in Europe with worse symptoms than present-day forms of the disease (and no penicillin to treat it).

But indigenous Americans caught smallpox, measles, influenza, and typhus from Europeans, so it really wasn’t a fair exchange.

TIL! Thanks!

All of the above are true, right? They had advanced astronomy, agriculture, ceramics, economics, and systems of government while living in the Stone Age. Their tools and weapons were made of wood and stone, right? Not bronze?

I don’t get the meme. Do we need context from whatever anime show this is in order to get it?

What a badass.

His son, also named Publius Decius Mus, would later follow his example at the Battle of Sentinum in 295 BC against a coalition of Samnites and Gauls. He performed devotio and the Romans won the battle, which would prove to be the decisive battle of the Third Samnite War.

Like father, like son!

Julius Caesar’s famous last words were “Et tu, Brute?” (And you, Brutus?) Brutus was supposed to be his good friend, but Brutus betrayed him and was one of the collaborators in his assassination.

Familysearch.org has been a blessing!

The prompt says “know you once existed,” not “knew you personally.” I’m sorry for your family’s loss. Even if you can’t pass on a firsthand memory of them, you have the power to learn about them and pass on the knowledge that they once existed.

I know that my great-great-great-grandparents August Bergstrom and Anna B. Bergstrom née Johnson once existed. They immigrated to the United States from Sweden in 1881 and settled in Gibson City, Illinois. They had six children, including my great-great-grandfather Claude Otto Bergstrom. I have photos of their grave markers. According to family legend, Anna was to be a mail-order bride but fell in love with one of her traveling companions, August, and married him instead. God willing, this will not be the last generation to know that August and Anna once existed.

Ahhh. Now I finally understand why the Cunctator’s strategy was sound.

So before bread was pre-sliced, did people say “this is the greatest thing since segmented bread with a hole in the middle?”

*Locusts

Locus is a term that means a position, site, or set of points, often used in mathematics or genetics.

Locusts are swarming grasshoppers.

My current Crusader Kings 3 campaign 😁