#@history nerd

[blumineck]

Huge thanks to Richard of the Order of the Blade for throwing me around!

(If you’re in the UK, consider checking them out! The order are a combat school with a really fun and welcoming ethos)

And as always, more bows, swords, and nonesense on Patreon

[labelleizzy]

[weirdsociology]

hey writers we have to talk.

if you've read any romance or fanfic in the past twenty years (i know you have), you know that there are a certain number of scents associated with hot dudes. you can probably recite the list of Things Men in Fic smell like in your sleep: leather, black pepper, pine, sandalwood, "something uniquely him", clean sweat, and if the character has ever fucking been within 50 yards of a firearm, something called "cordite".

here's the thing.

NO ONE SMELLS LIKE CORDITE.

cordite was a highly specific type of smokeless gunpowder developed in the 1890s by england specifically and used mostly in wwi.

if your good-smelling guy is not (a) english (b) using a very specific type of british rifle (c) dying in a trench in flanders, he does not smell like cordite. technically even if he does meet all those conditions he still doesn't smell like cordite because he smells like trenchfoot.

the point is, cordite is so far from universal that no one but the most hardcore gun nerds give a single shit about it. making your Sexy Hero smell like cordite is like naming a cassette-only bootleg live recording from the 1970s as your favorite grateful dead album. everyone at the party hates you immediately and knows you're doing it for clout. also, it's just factually... wrong. please stop. i know everyone else is doing it, but you can do the right thing here, i believe in you.

so what do people who are using guns smell like?

well if your story is set before the late 1880s, the smell of a fired gun is black powder, which, unfortunately, smells like seventeen flatulent cows have been shoved in a tire factory. trust me, you do not want your Hot Dude to smell like black powder. it's b a d.

if your story is set after the late 1880s, guns are using some variety of modern 'smokeless' powder - which speaking broadly doesn't really have a ton of scent when used. it does have some, but it's sort of non-descript: the best way i can describe it is the sweet, ozone, hot-plate smell of popping your car hood with a warm engine.

people who use guns a lot don't smell like fired guns all the time anyway, so while those scents might work in a fight scene, they're not realistic all the time. but there are some things that your Sexy Shootist will smell like basically 24/7 and that's metal and gun oil. metal you can go and sniff (i recommend non-stainless steel), but if you want a reference, most gun oils have a sharp, organic smell that's not dissimilar to canola oil but muskier and with a tang overtop. it's not unlikely leather is in the mix as well due to routine handling of leather equipment and gear. modern gear also tends to have a certain smell although it varies by production country and storage conditions - lots of opportunities there.

in conclusion: gunslingers and hired killers and military folks can be sexy and smell great on page, but i am begging you not to say "cordite" when you mean "gunpowder" ever again. we can do this. we are writers and therefore pedants. i believe in us!

[curiouslymyown]

Nerdy loser Remus Lupin who somehow became best friends with the three most popular guys at Hogwarts, only to learn that they are also losers

[infiniteglitterfall]

People talk about how the Jewish population of the world is still smaller today than it was in 1939.

The 1948-49 American Jewish Year Book says that there were an estimated 16,633,675 Jews on earth in 1939. (Yes, "estimated!")

And that a decade later -- three years after the Holocaust killed nearly 6,000,000 Jews -- there were 11,373,350.

Today, there are (an estimated) 15,736,800.

(It can be higher, depending on how you count it. But this is the number that seems consistent with how the American Jewish Year Book was counting it.)

But it occurred to me recently that that doesn't tell the whole story.

Because today, 0.02% of the world is Jewish. (Really, 0.019%.) But I bet it was different back then.

How different? And different how?

Turns out there are 8 billion people alive today. But there were a little more than 2 billion back then.

16,633,675 divided by 2,300,000,000 is freaking 0.72%.

0.72% of the world was Jewish in 1939. That's almost 300% more than 0.19%?

Even after the Holocaust, 0.49% of the world was Jewish.

Those are still tiny percentages.

But the effect of the Holocaust, the massive ethnic cleansing of Jews across the MENA region after it, and the massive pogroms killing up to 250,000 other Jews before it, has been that the actual proportion of the world that's Jewish plummeted by 75%.

We went from 0.72% of the world to 0.19% just during the last 80 years of all that.

And because it was literally over 50 years of genocides and ethnic cleansings all over the place, we also went from vibrant Jewish communities with thousands of years of history across Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, to being almost entirely concentrated in the United States and Israel.

Little bit more in Canada and Australia, neither of whom seem to be handling that fact super-well. And smatterings in many other places.

It's just really fucking wild to me.

Not only that this is true. But that I had to put these pieces together myself, from everything I was learning by studying recent Jewish history.

It's very fucking weird, as an American, to live with the incredible contrast of knowledge and history, versus the overwhelming mainstream leftist message that Jews are a white European oppressor group.

[dingledraw]

☕️🫖

[rafey-baby]

He looks like a sexy history nerd who’s trying to tutor reader because she decided it was a good idea to take some history courses in university but now, she’s failing her tests and coming to the conclusion that maybe history is actually just not for her.

However, she’s stubborn and wants to pass the class so she gets a tutor but it’s so difficult to concentrate on what he’s saying because she keeps getting distracted by the way his strawberry mouth moves around the words and—

“Do I have somethin’ on m’face?” he suddenly scolds her with a click of his tongue; brows raised and an amused smirk tugging at his mouth when she stutters out a response, face flushed.

“N— no. Sorry.”

“Need you to focus on this, yeah? It’s important. Or would you prefer a different type of a teachin’ method?”

And her eyes round out because why does the seemingly innocent question sound so filthy when he says it with that low drawl of his…

[lyss-sketchbox]

Iudex wrio from the swap au doodles

[bennetsbonnet]

I know I turned this scene into a joke about how gorgeous Colin Firth is... but the pineapple that lurks in the background of the Netherfield ball when Mr Collins is yapping to Mr Darcy is such a subtle detail that I really appreciate!

The wealthy at this time in Britain were a little bit obsessed with pineapples. Depictions of them featured as decoration in country homes, in political cartoons, paintings and crockery (warning: Margaret Thatcher jumpscare🥴 but you can read more about that here and here).

But to have an actual pineapple on display during a large social gathering such as a ball? That was really showing off.

Especially when you consider it cost £150 (or approx. £28,000 today) to buy the initial plant, build a hothouse to grow them in and run it... with no guarantees they'd grow given the climate was not exactly suited for growing pineapples! It was a huge risk.

All this meant that pineapples were so scarce that they became incredibly sought after. Naturally, rich people did silly rich people things to acquire them and show them off... perhaps they were the NFTs of their day?

A single pineapple was valued at £60 (approx. £11,000 today). Given the cost and effort of acquiring one, you'd think people would be keen to tuck in and sample this exotic fruit? Nope. Pineapples were not eaten! Of course not! They were displayed on plates surrounded by other less prestigious fruit during dinner parties and other social occasions, usually until they rotted. They could be rented for special occasions too. Such was their value that naturally they became the target of thieves and some pineapples even had their own security guards!

In the end, colonialism (because all British history eventually returns to that) meant that pineapples could be imported cheaply and their status was devalued when the working classes could afford to buy them.

But next time you watch Pride and Prejudice (1995), pay attention the scenes in the dining room at the Netherfield ball and look out for the pineapple... which is the second prickliest thing in shot (behind Mr Darcy). 🍍

Also... just to throw in a little etymological rant... as a treat: I know most of the rest of the world calls them ananas... but in English (and other languages) all fruit used to be called an apple of some sort. We just never got around to changing pineapple.

The humble potato has some peculiar names in other languages... looking at you, French and Dutch with your pommes de terre (apples of the earth) and aardappels (earth apples)... and then there is also the Italian for tomato... pomodoro... (golden apple) when most the rest of the world call them some version of the Nahuatl 'tomatl'.

Languages are just funny like that and that's why I find them fascinating!

[quarkfancam]

favourite ds9 recurring gag/joke?

anything miles o'brien does is a recurring gag to me because he is inherently funny. However i always found the fact that reenacting the alamo is treated as this huge hilarious running joke really funny on a meta level Because Why would they do that. Neither of them are american. I'm not american. I don't know what the alamo is

[chaosgoblinhours]

jaster mereel had to die young because the moment he ever had to meet palpatine on his home turf he'd take one look at the politician's eclectic collection and immediately go 'oh !! Is that a ceremonial sacrificial dagger of darth rabies???" and immediately go off on a tangent about old republic lore while palpatine gets bodied by at least five jedi in the background

[blumineck]

My new favourite archery image!

This painting is located in the Church of the Nativity in Prague, and is dated to 1663. It is also the basis of at least 3 D&D character concepts that are stuck in my head now.

If you want more info, art references, and tutorials, check my Patreon!

[iwtv-az-hours]

Guys, do you know that after the Reign of Terror there was an edgy fashion trend among posh young girls who didn't get guillotined of wearing red ribbons around their necks as a morbid fashion statement - that they survived / to commemorate their family members who didn't ?

...which could mean nothing

[burningcheese-merchant]

Ah yes, the five Beasts

Motherfucker, Bullshit, So much, Español, and Screenshot

Did I understand the assignment yes or no

[03junkie]

‘kevin day is mean and cold!!’ not my kevin day. he is a nerd and has so much love to give. btw.