Today I learned...

[Rath Darkblade]

Victoria may have been a little more randy before Albert’s death. Below is the painting Florinda (by the same artist) that she placed facing their writing desks in the sitting room of Osborne House, their seaside retreat on the Isle of Wight.

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Victoria was certainly much more randy before Albert died. If I recall (and my memory is a little spotty), she and he had 9 children.

Then again, she didn't love any of them enough to breastfeed them, she considered pregnancy and childbirth to be 'horrid' (in her defence, IIRC, there were no drugs in her day other than laudanum or morphine), and she basically disowned her firstborn (Bertie) after Albert died. Why? Because when Bertie was at Sandhurst, his fellow cadets smuggled a prostitute into his bed, and Victoria believed that Albert's shock at hearing the news killed him.

She was more than a little unfair to Bertie, since Albert died 2 weeks after the news (and after he went out in a rainstorm to talk to Bertie about the "catastrophe"), so he could easily have caught a chill. Not only that, but the drains at Buckingham Palace at the time were in a shocking state, which probably contributed to the official medical verdict: typhoid fever.

But sure, blame it all on Bertie's shocking (SHOCKING, I tell you!!!) moral misconduct. (Not that Bertie was any kind of angel, but hey...)

The book for my British history intro class had a portrait of Queen Victoria on it. In my youthful insouciance, I drew sunglasses, a goatee, and a cigarette in her mouth on the cover. My professor, who ended up being my thesis advisor and mentor, saw it while she was walking by and practically yelled, "What do you have against Queen Victoria?" I said her grandsons were a bunch of ass-clowns. It was the start of a fruitful relationship

Her sons weren't much better ... 'Little Willy' in particular. (This was the nickname for the child who grew up to be Kaiser Wilhelm II, but yes, it can easily pass off as a euphemism ...)

 

[Link the Writer]

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1351&context=mainehistoryjournal

Found an interesting read. Basically, the Natives living in the region of Nova Scotia were steadfast Catholics and would petition British governors for Catholic priests when Britain won Canada from France in 1763. The British governors pretty much told them to fuck all the way off because Catholics Bad™. It wasn’t until the American Revolution when it became increasingly clear they’d need those Native allies did the colonists go, ‘Okay, fiiiiine, we’ll secure you your stupid catholic priests, gawd!!’ Col. Allan secured several peace treaties with the various tribes in 1777, promising “good will, fortune, friendship, lalala yay! Oh, and you can totes get your Catholic priests!”

But, of course, the minute America wins the war, Massachusetts pretty much ignored the Natives for good. Should we be shocked? No. No, we should not.

Speaking of Queen Victoria: her great-granddaughter, Princess Alice, was born with congenital hearing loss that progressively grew worse and worse ‘til she was totally deaf by adulthood. Queen Victoria was said to have learned how to finger spell for her during her youth.

Princess Alice of Battenberg - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

https://www.rit.edu/library/ntid-blog/queen-elizabeth-and-hidden-deaf-history

"Born Deaf, she was raised orally and became fluent in several languages, including sign language. Queen Victoria knew how to fingerspell, because her daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales (later to become Queen Alexandra, wife of Edward VII), had been deaf from her teens, and used fingerspelling to communicate."

" Princess Alice also hid a Jewish widow, Rachel Cohen, and two children in her home and when the Gestapo came to her home to ask questions about them, she pretended not to understand them. She was honored posthumously as “Righteous among the Nations” by Yad Vashem and the British government recognized her as a Hero of the Holocaust. In 1967, due to political instability in Greece, Queen Elizabeth, and Prince Philip invited her to live permanently at Buckingham Palace, where she lived peacefully, reuniting with her son and grandchildren until her death two years later."

OK, that's pretty epic.

 

[Selluwud]

That there's a bridge between Portugal and Spain that is the world's shortest international bridge that also changes time zones.

The shortest bridge in the world… and with an incredible curiosity!
This small structure, just 3.2 meters long, connects the village of La Codosera, in Spain, to the village of El Marco, in Portugal. Despite its small size, it connects two different countries—and even separates two time zones.
When crossing the bridge, you literally change countries in seconds and can even "go back in time" for an hour, thanks to the difference between the clocks. Proof that, even over short distances, the world can hold big surprises!

 

[Rad Scribbler]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I know there is freedom of passage between member states for EU nationals , but I wonder how they would manage passport control for Non-EU nationals.

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Once we went through customs at the airport, no one asked us for passports between EU countries

 

[JLT]

Victoria was certainly much more randy before Albert died. If I recall (and my memory is a little spotty), she and he had 9 children.

Then again, she didn't love any of them enough to breastfeed them

Hardly any royals, or wealthy people, did in those days. That's what wet nurses were for.

 

[Pik]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I know there is freedom of passage between member states for EU nationals , but I wonder how they would manage passport control for Non-EU nationals.

10 or 20 years ago I needed to get visa at the embassies if I wanted to travel to EU countries, at this time I need to have passport that gets checked at one of the bordering EU countries and can then stay or travel around up to 3 months. Not counting the neighbouring countries I went to for workshops and similar programs, I definitely traveled more in my twenties, and Spain was one of the countries I visited on a school excursion.

 

[Naomasa298]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I know there is freedom of passage between member states for EU nationals , but I wonder how they would manage passport control for Non-EU nationals.

They don't need to, at least not between the countries within the Schengen area. There's only one visa required to gain access to the whole Schengen area, so once you've entered via one country, you're free to travel to other countries. They only check passports when you travel between countries inside and outside the Schengen area, and not every country in the EU is part of Schengen, for example, Ireland isn't, so all nationals get their passports checked when travelling to Ireland. EU nationals can just enter Ireland without needing a visa.

 

[Pik]

I had a student visa for few years but it's wiser to do master's or phd abroad, my BA wasn't in English. (the one I changed)

 

[JLT]

Tom Stoppard was once invited to a writer's conference in Australia, and he needed a visa. So he went to the Australian consulate to apply for it. When he got to the question "Have you ever been convicted of a felony?" He replied, "No. I wasn't aware that it was still a requirement."

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Here is the report card for Michael Palin (1943- ), writer and comedian, co-creator of Monty Python.
Shrewsbury School, Shropshire, 1960.

Housemaster's Final Report:
There are doubts beginning to creep in here which have been noticeably absent from his work reports of the past. I very much hope this is a passing phase. Mr. Brown tells me that it appears he has easily passed in Geography - a very commendable effort in so short a time. There may be a vestige of truth in Mr. Charlesworth's last remark; I too have noticed symptoms of the same sort of thing, a slightly put-on manner of affectation, perhaps a sort of aftermath of his fine performance in the School Play. We're all for a bit of jollity and mild eye-flashing business, but he must not try to get away altogether with this slightly facile manner.

He has the makings of a splendid person. Let him ensure that his foundations are thoroughly sound.

Headmaster's comments:
I think he is just a teeny bit pleased with himself - or so I am prepared to hazard.

 

[DLC]

Imagine all these guys living along the riverbank competing to see who could build the shortest bridge

 

[Rath Darkblade]

Imagine all these guys living along the riverbank competing to see who could build the shortest bridge

No need to imagine. Just look at pictures of Ponte Vecchio. Here, I'll even save you the trouble of google-imaging: Ponte Vecchio on Google

 

[Link the Writer]

So apparently during 18th and 19th century battles, there was a concept called 'wind of the ball' where if a cannonball shot past you by inches without hitting you, it created a vacuum of air that cause internal bleeding, so soldiers would, at times, either drop dead or lose a limb despite showing no signs of physical injuries.

 

[Rigor Mortis]

Something I came across yesterday. While I did buy a Django Reinhardt album when I was a lot younger, enjoyed it but can't say I ever went any further than that one album and not otherwise familiar with his work, saw him on youtube video last night, fret hand seemed odd and checked it out to discover he had lost function in two fingers of that hand, when he was an adult, working as a professional musician and had to relearn how to play without the use of two fingers. As if his playing wasn't already defying belief...

 

[Link the Writer]

Did some brief research on the biblical meaning of 'The Number of the Beast = 666' to answer a Reddit question, and of course its servers kuck up so I can't post it there. So I'mma post it here:

According to my copy of the KJV Bible, Revelation 13:18 reads, "Here is wisdom. Let him who as understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666."


Now this, I'm getting out of Wikipedia:

"In Greek isopsephy and Hebrew gematria, every letter has a corresponding numeric value. Summing these numbers gives a numeric value to a word or name. The use of isopsephy to calculate "the number of the beast" is used in many of the below interpretations.


There is a broad consensus in contemporary scholarship that the number of the beast refers to the Roman Emperor Nero.<span>[5]</span><span>[6]</span><span>[7]</span><span>[8]</span>

Since the 1830s, theologians like Christian Friedrich Fritzsche, Franz Ferdinand Benary, Ferdinand Hitzig and Eduard Reuss pointed the number 666 to Nero, who was the first emperor to have persecuted Christians.<span>[25]</span> Preterist theologians typically support the interpretation that 666 is the numerical equivalent of the name and title Nero Caesar (Roman Emperor 54–68 AD).<span>[26]</span><span>[27]</span><span>[28]</span><span>[29]</span><span>[30]</span><span>[31]</span><span>[32]</span> Written in Aramaic, this can be valued at 666 using the Hebrew numerology of gematria, and was used to secretly speak against the emperor.<span>[</span><em>citation needed</em><span>]</span> Additionally, "Nero Caesar" in the Hebrew alphabet is נרון קסר NRON QSR, which in standard gematria (mispar hechrechi) is given the numbers 50 200 6 50 100 60 200, which add up to 666."


The beast/bad guy in question? Popular consensus is that it points to Nero, who was kind of a douche toward Christians (he famously blamed them for the Great Fire of Rome in 65 AD) so it'd make sense that John (or whoever was writing this book) would take Nero and make him out to be the Antichrist. Others speculate that it was written AFTER Nero's death, during the reign of Domitian, and Nero was essentially the writer trying to be sneaky without directly implicating Domitian. Indeed, there was even folks, especially among the Christians, who believed that Nero wasn't dead and would somehow return (insert Poe: 'Somehow, Palpatine has returned' meme) and reclaim power. (Nero Redivivus - Wikipedia)

The TL;DR: Numerology of gematria, and Nero as the big devil of Christendom at the time.