Suit is the new Toga

Fun Fact

Heath — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 22:00:42 +0000

The earliest recorded “chess by mail” match was between Henry I and Louis IV during the 12th century.

Flying fortress

Heath — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:49:04 +0000

Yeah that’s a big honkin’ plane. Back in the ’30s, before the days of jet engines, the Russians built these massive airplanes, the B-7 bombers. Unfortunately, old school Russians were a secretive bunch, and not many pictures remain. However, now we have technology, and a bunch of people did digital reconstructions of the massive flying fortresses, and they are awesome:

Russian Flying Fortress

Color Pictures of the end of the Occupation

Heath — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 15:21:17 +0000

Here are some pretty nuts pictures of some German officers literally moments away from surrender. The history of the pictures is just as interesting:

German Surrender (in color)!

Oh hay!

Heath — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:11:49 +0000

New theme! Its a little cleaner. The one thing I want is to be able to see pictures on the frontpage. I’ll get cracking on that. Also, you may have noticed that I have changed the name of the blog. The new title is “Suit is the new Toga: Cool Stuff From a Long Time Ago”. I like that a lot better. We’ll see.

Today’s history lesson is over at my main site, and its about the very first webcam.

Shackleton’s whiskey

Heath — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:38:57 +0000

I’ll be blunt with you gang, I had a series of bad experiences on the continent of Antarctica, and what was once a constant source of fascination for me now represents a black hole of hate and failure. That being said, one of the greatest stories that sings the glories of the boundless human spirit is the tale of Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance. Basically this guy was leading an expedition to the Antarctic, and his boat got stuck and his crew was marooned on an ice floe for nearly a year and a half. And you know what, not a single one of them died. One had a heart attack and they ate their dogs, but none died. This is definitely a great story, check it out.

Anyways, on an earlier voyage (in a ship called the Nimrod), he also experienced a loss, cutting short his expedition. He left the better part of his stores behind when he got picked up. Included in this was a couple crates of Scotch (Shackleton brought 25 cases along with him), which were just found, and they will hopefully open at some point. There’s also a nifty slideshow of the shack that they found, which has been pretty much 100% preserved. Neato stuff, but seriously, screw Antarctica:

Whiskey on (Antarctic) Ice

Japanese picture plates

Heath — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:23:05 +0000

Neato stuff here gang, some dude took some way old pictures of Japan in 3d (like for those stereoscopes) and colorized them. Well now that its the future, someone turned them into animated gifs. Alone they are awesome, in 3d, they are way awesome:

Animated Stereoviews of Old Japan

Suck it Canada

Heath — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:22:03 +0000

We in America joke about taking over Canada, but until WWII, we had a very detailed plan for taking over Canada. Why? Well at that point in time, Canada was still a protectorate of Great Britain, so if we wanted to nail GB, well then the best way to do it would be to take over Canada, and have the fight on our own turf, war of 1812 style. The basic plan was to construct some airfields, saying they were civilian airfields, and then roll over them. Because their population centers are right next to the border, this would not even be a problem. Here’s the whole thing:

War Plan Red

Food in the Middle Ages

Heath — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:11:55 +0000

I have a weird fascination with daily life in the European Middle Ages, so this page was pretty great. It talks about what you would be eating no matter what your walk of life. Anyways, enjoy:

Food in the Middle Ages

JFK Conspiracy: New Info

Heath — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:45:19 +0000

I’m really not trying to go on a conspiracy theory kick here, but there is an interesting article in the Huffington Post, about some recently declassified testimony regarding the aftermath of the assasination.

In researching his new book, The Kennedy Assasination — 24 Hours After, Steven Gillon was in the Kennedy Library when the testimony of Brigadier General Godfrey McHugh, the military aide to Kennedy for the trip was released. Basically its nuts. Here’s how the General describes LBJ’s behavior on Air Force One before takeoff:

What McHugh claimed to have witnessed next was shocking. “I walked in the toilet, in the powder room, and there he was hiding, with the curtain closed,” McHugh recalled. He claimed that LBJ was crying, “They’re going to get us all. It’s a plot. It’s a plot. It’s going to get us all.’” According to the General, Johnson “was hysterical, sitting down on the john there alone in this thing.”

In addition, in testimony given to a House committee:

“McHugh had encountered difficulty in locating Johnson but finally discovered him alone,” Flanagan wrote in his summary to the Committee. Quoting McHugh, the investigator noted that the General found Johnson “hiding in the toilet in the bedroom compartment and muttering, ‘Conspiracy, conspiracy, they’re after all of us.’”

As Gillon notes, it is really impossible to verify McHugh’s account, and is somewhat tainted seeing as it was given nearly 10 years after the assassination. Even if it proves nothing, it is still a very interesting chapter in one of our nations saddest hours.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-m-gillon/a-new-wrinkle-in-the-jfk_b_339026.html

Ottoman Empire, animated

Heath — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:38:51 +0000

Hey Gang, here is a neato .gif showing the Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire:

Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire