Measuring stuff is hard. “Microwave ovens run at roughly one horsepower. This sounds like nonsense unless you’re familiar with math, energy, work, dimensional analysis, electromagnetism, radiation, dielectric heating, magnetron design, and thermodynamics.Well, it sounds like nonsense until you microwave your… Read More »100,000,000 CROWPOWER and no horses on the moon
Let’s get weird. “Science requires deviant thinking. So it’s no wonder that, as we see a decline in deviance everywhere else, we’re also seeing a decline in the rate of scientific progress. New ideas are less and less likely to… Read More »The Decline of Deviance
Every war is different. “Consequently, the idea that ‘war builds character’ is a lot easier to sustain if the sort of warfare a society (or in this case, a class within a society) engages in produces relatively low casualty rates… Read More »Collections: A Trip Through Bertran de Born (Martial Values in the 12th Century Occitan Nobility)
And it is time we start act accordingly. “The Deluge shows that power and independence are not permanent. If you are surrounded by hostile powers, and if you don’t have the ability to guard yourself against those powers, no amount… Read More »Europe is under siege
It happened only later on.
Do not make shit up if it already exists. “this has been a theme of these posts but please, showrunners: when you are doing the visual design for a fantasy-historical society, you are not going to outsmart centuries of professional… Read More »Collections: The Nitpicks of Power, Part III: That Númenórean Charge
You are probably thinking wrong about Middle Ages.
Organization matters. “All of those tasks, in turn, require hundreds of literate, expensive bureaucrats to administer.These are not compatible systems. You can have your bannermen call up their retinues, or you can hire long-service professionals, but you cannot have your… Read More »New Acquisitions: Lannister Infantry Kit Review
Castles were important in the middle ages. And not just because of foreign threat. “Castles – in the absence of castle-breaking cannon – shift power downward in this system, because they allow vassals to effectively resist their lieges. That may… Read More »New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part III
This also goes for people today. E.g. terrorist. They believe the shit they talk about. “What I think this show has fallen into is the assumption – almost always made by someone outside a society looking in – that the… Read More »New Acquisitions: How It Wasn’t: Game of Thrones and the Middle Ages, Part II – A Collection of Unmitigated Pedantry