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rohirwine

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Posts posted by rohirwine

  8. Venus over Sol

    in Introductions & Off-Topic Discussion

    Posted

    Nice picture. :muaha: Yeah one really sees how big the sun REALLY is..

    Wel, it's also a matter of perspective, of course: Venus is between us and the sun, hence we see it a bit "bigger" than it should be if placed right aside Sol.

    BTW Sol is the latin word for Sun. Many stars are named in Latin for historical reasons (Apha Procionis, Beta Orionis, Alpha Centauri, Cappella) and some with Arab Names (Antares, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, Shirah...), since we have a great debt with arab astronomers from the medieval times (think of the technical terms: azimuth, zenith, nadir).

    :lol:

    60 years since D-Day...

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    @Matteo:

    Well I didn't hear about that report until now, thanks for clearing that up :muaha:

    But would it be possible only the 'higher' circles knew about it, because I thought it was quite a surprise for the Americans who found some of the camps.

    Well maybe I was confusing with the German people who didn't (?) know about what was done in the camps.

    Gerstein was a german officer responsible for the building of the plants in extermination camps (he was an engineer). He didn't know what was really going on untill he went on site to oversee the organization of the constructions. Since he was a member of a antinazi catholic organization (not a big thing) he reported what he had found to the Vatican gerarchy through church channels he was in contact with. After the war he was imprisoned by allies and accused of being one of the responsibles of the holocaust and no credit was given to him about being the only one who reported precise informations of what was going on. He committed suicide in his cell.

    Anyway, after 1944 common people knew quite well that jews being imprisoned were going to the camps with little hope to survive. Even if not officially confirmed (how could this be?) rumors spread over Germany and occupied countries. In Soviet Union this thing has been strongly backed by the govern to strengthen the population will to fight (also because they knew very well that slavs were among the subhumans in nazist weltanschaung, just above jews, gypsies and blacks).

    60 years since D-Day...

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Also remember the Allies did not know about the Holocaust until the first camps were discovered. And the Nazis weren't the only ones killing Jews, the Sovjets under Stalin did it too. But nowhere in the Allied camp you heared severe critics on that, the Sovjets were an ally after all in that period.

    AFAIK, this is not true. The (western) allies had plenty of evidence of what was going on (arial photos, spies reports and the rest), and needed no more since in 1942 the "Gerstein report" was avaible to allied agents in Switzerland and Vatican. As for the Stalinist persecutions, there is still much to know, but, generally speaking, were of a different "quality" from Nazi's ones. Less organized (in the sense that there was no special schedule or system devoted to handle them), and oftently "naturaly" arisen out of the much spread antisemitism (Ukraine being the worst place for a soviet jew to live in). This issue is still much debated among historians (not that anyone denies the soviet persecutions any more, but focusing on causes, mechanisms and so on).

    :muaha:

    Matteo

    Ronald Reagan has Died

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Everyone should rest in peace. But i'll not mourn him too much. Under his rule, the USA entered some of the worst international politics ever. A part from the already recalled interventions in Asia and So. America, the US began to talk of the Star Wars program, wich would have nullified soviet nuclear "deterrent" power, making the US one the only one effective. This has brought us to the brink of a total nuclear war (i remember a hot debate going on on the Scientific American in the '80ies), since the soviets had no advantage in letting the americans build their "space" program, a preemptive attack (does not remind you anything? :muaha:) seemed a freasible option to soviet rulers.

    An american friend of mind remembers also that his presidency was the worst period for american workers, with hosts of them being fired and the rest seeing their wages cut (if you have plenty of unemployed people ready to take your job, you have little contractual strength). This was not only a result of world economy, but a direct consequence of the reganian work politics (this my friend says).

    In any case. R.I.P.

    What is beauty?

    in Hall of Intellectuals

    Posted

    Augh even though I can agree with alot you're saying up there everyone knows that if you put an extremely hot babe with a bad attitude and an ugly girl with a great personality right next to each other, the guy would jump on the hot one.

    So, beauty is really more related to physical attraction rather than inner feelings and all that stuff.

    You could be right in this case, Guardian, but in real life you have to experience and infinite number of intermediate mixes (pretty w/ not so good temper, almost ugly w/nice temper ecc.). Moreover, as we can see from this discussion, everyone has his concept of beauty and feels attracted from very different people. Imho we cannot bet that only phisical attraction is involved.

    :muaha:

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