Dominarion

Dominarion t1_ja1fqei wrote

Reply to comment by Dirt_E_Harry in TIL about the only double barrel cannon in the world. When it was its first tested during the American Civil War, the chain snapped immediately and one ball tore into a nearby cabin, knocking down its chimney; the other spun off erratically and struck a nearby cow, killing it instantly. by ExpertPreference8481

It did work, but they were too frightened by the results. Which, thinking of it, proves even more that they were dummies.

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Dominarion t1_ja1eh49 wrote

Reply to TIL about the only double barrel cannon in the world. When it was its first tested during the American Civil War, the chain snapped immediately and one ball tore into a nearby cabin, knocking down its chimney; the other spun off erratically and struck a nearby cow, killing it instantly. by ExpertPreference8481

"As an observer of the lone test of Gilleland’s cannon recounted, ”[The chain shot] had a kind of circular motion, plowed up an acre of ground, tore up a cornfield, and mowed down saplings. The chain broke, the two balls going in opposite directions; one of the balls killed a cow in a distant field, while the other knocked down the chimney from a log cabin.”

The chain didn't break immediately. Reading the trail of destruction, I call that a resounding success. I can't help but wonder and clench my neither sphincter at the idea of what it would have done to an Union battalion.

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Dominarion t1_j63b5of wrote

Reply to TIL Lydia Angiyou, a Canadian mother, fought off a polar bear bare handed to protect her son and other children, before a hunter shot it 4 times to bring it down by Sierra-117-

Ms. Angyiou "is about five-foot nothing and 90 pounds on a wet day," Mr. Hubert said with a laugh. "She's pretty quiet. I'm surprised she went and did this. But I guess when your back is up against the wall, I guess we come up with super-human strength."

I've seen her picture with Quebec's former president of the Assembly. The guy had to fold in two to shake her hand.

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Dominarion t1_j50jcy0 wrote

Reply to The Black Death may not have been spread by rats after all by Rear-gunner

A huge problem I feel is that communication between the several scientific fields implicated in the research on the Black Death is rickety at best.

I've listened to a virology podcast recently that spoke about Yersinia Pestis and how it propagates and they know and have known for a while that rats are just one of the vectors of the Plague. They got a lot of their History wrong though, which is really funny. Apparently, we focused way too much on rats and the bubonic, pulmonary and septicemic stages of the disease.

Now, I will try to vulgarize it, be gentle, please!

The initial propagation happens when a flea bites an infected rodent (any rodent, this is important) and then bites a human, which infects him with the bacteria. We'll call this human patient zero, P0. The flea continues its nasty job of biting and infecting humans and rodents until it dies of hunger, apparently.

P0 develops the symptoms and begans to secrete infected pus from the buboes that grows on his body. His saliva and blood also contains a lot of bacteria. So, P0 cough, bleeds and "pusses" all over the place, and then infects other humans. This is when the plague becomes an epidemic.

Now, some rodents are sporadic (once in a while, a colony becomes infected) carriers of the bacteria: marmots principally, rabbits, rats too. Steppe marmots were one of the staple food of Mongols and other Central Asian nomads. They carried them all over the place. At some point, some Mongols carried infected marmots out of Mongolia and due to unique circumstances, including the speed of the Mongol armies and post system, carried either infected rodents or an infected P0 and the Plague became a pandemic.

We focus a lot on the siege of Caffa in 1344 because it's when the first cases are known to Western sources. But evidence shows it was devastating in the Middle East, North Africa and China too.

As for the spread of the disease, an Italian galley could move from Crimea to Genoa in less than two weeks. Another galley coming out of Genoa could spread the "good news" to London in another month, stopping in several ports in Italy, Spain, Portugal and France along the way. By then, you have dozen of infectious hotspots and half of Europe's population would die in the next 7 years.

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