Oddities, curiousities and strangness in history [2]

Arg, since you pointed out the eyebrows I couldn't get past it.- Halfy

{{Took me a coupleof her vids to get over them, they had me sort of mesmerised for a bit, which given her other, um, prominent couple of aspects that's quite something!

'in fact for old men this should be insisted upon'- Halfy

I resent that! I'll have you know Im planning as I age disgracefully to grow a pair of Gandalf's. Ones that, once age has made voicing all my crabbit to much of a physical effort, I can use to bristles at folk, and fully convey the inner crabbit without the need for words.

If I'm really lucky I'll get a pair of Dennis Healey's! }}

cor blimey guv, those are whoppers

They are grown specially like that for the lack of hair on the bonts. Keep those little doozies growing & soon there will be enough for a decent comb over. With time you might even be able to go down the back of the head. Be interesting at the barbers " a little off the top Sir?" ---- not bloody likely ! You could even go a stage further & get the old ear growth going ! now theres a thought join them all up & bingo, a thatch or near enough

{{ History with Kayleigh has a live stream, in 2 days, but you can go wait now if you like! But the actual reason Im putting it up now is if you go to her channel now you can hear her sing an old folk song. She doesnt have the greatest singing voice in the world, but its ok, and with her accent it has a peculiar quality to it I find rather endearing. }}

Something about the embedding means you can't go to it.  May try this link instead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqqNiLkM-jU

(First time I've heard a mainstream non-southern American accent described as "endearing".)

{ Ah probably cause its just a live stream. I think I find her singing endearing because it sounds like an old celtic folk song, maybe Irish, and she does an endearing attempt at it in the celtic style. }}

I don't know why this thread is in the big bad serious forum, fits better in off topic. But anyway.

So things are changing here due to the war we are seeing the first effects in the shops. There is hardly any sunflower oil used for cooking. Empty shelves on that. There is a shortage of pasta. There is a shortage of animal food and paper goods. Wood pellets used for heating have had a huge price hike. All of these goods come from Ukraine. Diesel is also hugely over priced.

Probably the wrong thread. But I think it's kinda cool that many italian homes have wood burning stoves for heating.

The only impact we are seeing is higher gasoline prices. Do you think Europe will hold strong on sanctions as shortages appear? Normally Russia would fill in for Ukrainian exports I'd think.

its hard to say, because people need things like cooking oil, I suppose people will use alternatives, luckily Europe has a lot of olive oil producers. Wood pellets for heating come from Ukraine so I suppose they will use wood from other countries. Everyone is going to have to get used to higher gas prices. On a recent video from the Russian couple to their local mall, many Western stores were closed, but some were open, like Calzedonia which is Italian owned. So not all European companies have left as of yet. Poland is asking for a full European trade ban, which would hurt and lead to shortages in many sectors, but maybe it needs doing.

The war takes Ukraine out of the market, the embargo takes Russia out, that's a pretty big hole in continent!

Russian guy showing us which stores are closed.

Went to the shops today. There's no more cooking oil in any of the shops. No sunflower, or frying oil. The only thing left is olive oil. So no more chips.

I finally started noticing a distinct jump in food prices a little less than a week ago.

If anyone missed seeing HBO's Rome (they cut it short in order to do Game of Thrones, but it was an excellent precursor in attention to detail) you would have missed the street news reader.  It seems he was always reading authentic announcements, and using the hand gestures that may have went with them.  One of the best things in an excellent series.



and a very entertaining interview with the actor about the part. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/ian-mcneice-interview/id1512364912

Now if only the show spent as much interest in things other than T&A...

Actually Rome was not T&A heavy at all. They were aiming for authenticity rather than accuracy for storyline reasons, and no show has come closer to giving a feeling of what ancient Rome was probably like. There was a touch of ogling but didn't go overboard like game of thrones.

Oh I was thinking of bloody Spartacus.

Spartacus knocked my nose out of joint at first mainly due to the comic book touches, but I came to admire it for the storytelling and acting. Given that the subject was gladiators the violence certainly wasn't out of place, and I'm not sure the sex was overdone either. But I doubt authenticity was their goal in including either one; more of an excuse.

A while ago Petty and I had a discussion about the dropping of the Atomic Bomb. I had long believed what we were taught in America, that it was to prevent a ground assault bloodbath. Petty presented evidence that it was more to send a signal to Russia. The Japanese were ready to capitulate except that they could not accept forfitting the power (and hence divinity) of the emperor.

But I think this BBC clip shows that it all can be true together. The Americans did indeed soften the terms to allow the emperor to remain in power, but the Japanese rejected it.

I would have liked to have seen the baths of Constantine.

A space ship?

It says it's private.

It does now. Strange I just watched it.

Wasn't that good to be honest. There trying to raise money for a 2nd trip. People accusing them of trying to make money out of nothing. There lives and kids lives being threatened. Quite sad what people are willing to say and do for having an opinion
.

Don't know what you're talking about because can't even see the title of the video.