This thing is pretty weird: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse_Memorial

I was a history major in college, have always read history for fun, and am always amused by what people expect other people to know about history.

If you know the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and that that brought the US into WWII, I consider you pretty much historically up to snuff.

1941? Solid. Dec 7? Solid. Date that will live in infamy? Good stuff. Spoken by FDR? Cousin to Eleanor? Cousin to Teddy? Namesake of Teddy Bear? Rough Rider? Spanish American War postdates the Mexican American War? Bear on the California Flag? California predates Kansas as a state? Bloody Kansas? John Brown killed some dudes before he killed some dudes?

That's all gravy.

Also, as a result of getting distracted while writing this post, here's your historical fact for the day: France had more military deaths in WWI than the US has had in all wars combined (including both sides of the Civil War).

those FSU guys are the most ridiculous chump idiots in Boston history. They even got a show on History Channel's Gangland. It's hilarious and absurd. There was never any prominent skinhead gang in the Boston area that I was ever aware of and I grew up in probably one of the top ten most white neighborhoods in the entire city. In my 20 years in Boston I have never met or seen one racist skinhead.

This whole "we kicked out the skinheads" thing is just a giant fantasy. I'm pretty sure they made it up or embellished it to up their value for the TV show as that appears to be where the wiki article got all it's info.

These kids were the random punk rock nerds in high school and decided that if they teamed up they could start beating people up since they were obviously very timid and afraid when alone. The only factually confirmed stories I've heard anyone have of them committing violent acts generally involved a group of like 12 of them hiding out in an alley, and beating on two or three 17-year olds brown bagging it in the park. This is how they intend to teach the community the perils of using drugs. I know they also jumped a few guys with brass knuckles for sneaking in a flask to a punk rock show and a few of them did time for it because one of the guys they jumped cracked his skull open. Awesome dudes for sure.

wow had no idea fdr was related to eleanor, that's pretty hilarious

extra wow at the france thing, holy crap

The US lost 116,000 dead in WWI, which is obviously nothing compared to French, Russian, or British losses but still pretty amazing considering we were only in the war for like 16 months.

of course, 27 years later that many people were killed in a single night in the bombing of Tokyo.

solid post. you should do an ask me in the history forum.

why?

Is it because what the general public knows about a certain subject is hard to determine; or

Is it because, as part of your education, you have learned (or have learned how to determine) the average person's expected knowledge of history?

I just think most people don't care about history much, so the stories they retain are very high level.

I mean, I tried out for jeopardy once and watch documentaries for kicks and read about 4th century christian heresies for fun when I can't sleep. It works for me, but my brain loves this ****, and my pursuit of this as an intellectual hobby over the last couple decades mean I can put things in context for myself pretty easily.

Once high school fades for people, that's just not typically the case unless you like that thing. You forget things and confuse things and that's all right, because this **** is legitimately confusing.

Stepping back even as recent as WWI is just baffling. So, Italy and Japan were on our side? And American troops fought in Russia? And Germany sent Lenin to Russia? And the Czar and the Kaiser and the King of England were all cousins? And the German armed forces surrendered on the brink of collapse, convincing a lot of Germans that they could have won if it weren't for the socialists and the jews? And no one learned any lessons about rifles and defensive fortifications from the American Civil War?

I literally knew zero of these things

I thought that was a joke then I looked over and saw there's actually a history forum.

French WWI losses would be equivalent to the present-day US losing ~9 million men.

Yeah, I understand where you are coming from. I suppose its akin to expecting people to hammer out calculus problems years after high school or college. I suppose those who do not keep up on it are going to have a difficult time.

Yeah, but how much is that in dollars?

Antikythera mechanism

http://arikjohnson.**************/app...carols-lego-re

placing commercial advertising on private and public property is not an expression of speech or art, so I'm not sure what relevance your question has.

To contribute:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_sworn_virgins

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albanian_sworn_virgins

think you got it reversed, link and naming it

here's a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6eW6M-WIUY

Here is a silly little thing most of you have probably never heard of:

Carhenge

Do you have trouble reading or something? It goes faster if you don't move your lips.

so 1) promoting something that could create profit or 2) being placed on private or public property (which i would imagine are the only two kinds of property that exist, but whatever) necessarily precludes an act from being an expression of speech/art?

Its called "Commercial Speech" and such is only provided qualified protection under the First Amendment. There is a reason why discussions on such subjects require more than one line answers.

What's your point? Nothing Tony said had anything to do with freedom of expression or "authorizing art", he just meant that advertising some movie on other people's property was dumb.

You can crap in a plastic bag and call it art if you want. Doesn't mean you're allowed to slap it all over the city.

.

Please stop arguing in this thread.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_particles