To understand how seriously the British take the NHS we did a thing in Scouts where we went around the circle asking the children (aged 10-14) what the liked most and least about Britain. Out of around 20 of the kids, 5-6 said the NHS for what they liked most. The first child to mention the NHS was 11 years old.
The weather was by and far the least liked thing about Britain.
Holy shit you’re wrong, now with references
https://gunbai-militaryhistory.blogspot.com/2018/02/iron-and-steel-technology-in-japanese.html
Ants evolved from stinging wasps, so if wasps are orcs, ants would be something that evolved from orcs. Uruk-Hai aren’t really an evolution of orc, but they are an advanced breed, so maybe they can suffice?
The truth is that the steel made from Iron Sand was not lower quality than the Steel made from other sources of Iron.
There was nothing inherently low quality about using iron sand anyway. Impurities were carried away by slag and the iron in the sand was easily recovered using washing and later electromagnetism. Imports were used as demand increased.
Impurities are melted into slag. Not the iron. That’s what slag is.
What century of katana are you speaking about? Many katana were used with modern metallurgy technology and imported steel. Do you think modern Japanese created cars are also made from steel refined from sand? Do you think the guns Japanese Samurai used were made from steel refined from sand?
The Japanese used western imported iron a lot, as well as western imported guns.
It’s difficult to get historic figures for this, but in the early 20th century anywhere between 70-90 percent of iron ore used in Japan was imported, and even almost 100% in some years. There’s highly likely to be history to this importing going back a long while. https://d-arch.ide.go.jp/je_archive/english/society/wp_je_unu33.html
Tamahagane steel, the stuff produced from sand, was likely much more popular for ceremonial blades whereas imported steel for blades meant for actual combat. This means the historic examples we have left are more likely to be Tamahagane steel, but if a western swordsman and a Japanese swordsmen were in a position to fight, both would likely be using steel of a similar quality as they would both be using steel from similar places.
One thing to remember is that the empires at the time were very competitive and if Japan was fighting with one of the imperial powers, you can be damn well sure a rival imperial power is supplying Japan with the best equipment to fight back.
Both Europe and Japan had lots of different types of sword, ranging from short to long and light to heavy. You should compare like for like.
Both Europe and Japan used weapons both in warfare and ceremonially.
Yeah they’re a bit better at slashing whilst a straight sword is slightly better at thrusting. Typically a curved sword is a bit better whilst on horseback or whilst fighting unarmoured or lightly armoured opponents and straight blades are a bit better whilst fighting one-on-one and against somewhat more armoured opponents.
But these are slight differences and sword styles are also varied in each region, so the Japanese did develop swords which were more adapted to thrusting with reinforced tips and Europeans did develop swords which were more effective at slashing.
I think some people obsess over what swords are the best and the worst. In reality the style of sword was unlikely to be the major deciding factor in a one on one fight. The amount and quality of armour and the skill and capacity (Size and strength) of the fighters themselves are much bigger factors.
The whole “Japanese steel was really weak” thing is as much of a myth as the whole “katanas are super powerful superior weapons” thing.
They’re all just swords, and don’t make that much of a difference either way.
Pretty sure that’s Europa Universalis 4, but it could be another Paradox grand strategy game. I’m just pretty sure that’s EU4’s user interface. If the humour is that it’s supposed to be Nazi Germany, it would have to be hearts of Iron, and the German Empire would be named the “German Reich”. EU4 takes place before the second world war.
Edit: Nevermind, it’s Victoria 2, still before WW2, though.
I definitely remember the girl who walked out of her house and down her garden path, stepped on to the street footpath which is on a hill and icy, immediately started sliding down the hill, grabbed the metal railing fence and shouted, terrified, back towards her house “MUM! MUM HELP! MUMMMMM!”
So there’s at least one other cringey person.
Yep, just seems disingenuous to act like the history of the spice trade hasn’t affected our food culture when it clearly has massively. Hell, even curry in Japan is popular not because of India but because of British influence. The reason “Katsu Curry” is called Katsu is because of the English word “Cuts” referring to the cuts of meat in the curry, which is Japanese sounds like ‘katsu’.
I’m British and I see it’s wrong because it simply isn’t true… We have a ton of spicy foods. The stereotype that we only eat comfort foods like in the meme is old and worn out. Maybe that’s all you eat, but that’s on you.
I guess one upside of living in a country that uses both metric and imperial frequently is that these things tend to click pretty quickly. The lack of consistency is annoying, though.
Yes. It does. We have a national curriculum that includes the negative aspects of the British Empire. National curriculums are awesome, you should try it one day.
I would suggest that the camera man moves.
My least favourite was my company motto of “Personal, Simple, Brilliant.” It was supposed to be an ethos that ran through the whole company. It was actually just what management expected front line workers to be towards customers, regardless of whether the business leaders were making decisions to screw over the customer and the front line staff or not.
The amount of times I asked for support only to be shot down and laughed at when I told them “Well, that doesn’t sound very personal, simple or brilliant to me.” when speaking of their management culture.
We do live in a world where simply mentioning the bad shit people do can get you in trouble.
Over on another forum site I mentioned that border security in Egypt made a British 15 year old girl strip in an airport and I received a 3 day ban off admins for “Inciting hatred based on identity or religion”.
I never mentioned religion or any identity. I just said “Egypt made a 15 year old girl strip naked in an airport and that was a pretty shitty thing to do.”