RANDOM THOUGHTS #125
Steve Cole muses: Just thinking to
himself:
1. We all know the story of the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack and that the Merrimack should be called the Virginia and that while the two ships fought for hours neither one did much damage to the other. There is, however, something not many people know. The Union knew that the Monitor was the only ship able to stop the Virginia from destroying any wooden Yankee ship and breaking the blockade. For them, a tie was as good as a win and a loss would be devastating beyond all calculation. For this reason, the crew of the Monitor was told to use only "medium" charges of gunpower in their two eleven-inch guns. Back in those days, metalwork was not the science it is now, and a charge of gunpowder that would burst one cannon might work just fine a thousand times in an identical cannon. The factory making the cannon would test a few to the point they exploded and then tell the government not to use more than 2/3 of that much gunpowder. In the case of the Monitor, the used only half of the "suicide overload" charge of powder. Even so, the Monitor did crack the Virginia's armor, and (as the legend goes) maybe using the heavier 2/3 charge would have seen cannonballs going through that armor. The Union would not risk it, as the maximum 2/3 charge sometimes (one out of a hundred or so) blew up the cannon, and for a cannon to explode inside the small turret would mean that the ship was out of business and the blockade would have been broken. Something that almost nobody knows is that the Virginia challenged the Monitor to battle on two subsequent occasions. In the first, the Monitor remained docked under the protective guns of a Union fort. In the second, the Monitor ran away when the Virginia showed up. What does that tell us?
2. While he was alive, almost no one referred to Napoleon by that (his first) name. They referred to him by his last name, Bonaparte. Calling him by his first name did not become popular until decades after he died.
3. You've all seen a Swiss Army Knife with everything from scissors to a watermelon de-seeder. Have you seen the new French Army Knife? It has four corkscrews, a comb, a surrender flag, and a cheese knife.
4. Is poverty a problem in America? Of course it is, but poverty in America is not poverty in Bangladesh. The overwhelming majority of American poor have a car, air conditioning, a cable TV. The problem is that a lot of them are poor because of their own bad decisions, such as having multiple illegitimate children, or living a life of crime.
5. There are at least $8 billion of private student loans in default, representing more than 850,000 individual loans. There are $1 trillion in total student loans, more than any other kind of consumer debt, and much of it was spent for worthless degrees (and non-education expenses).
6. Dilbert's boss says he wants more "employee engagement" which means the employees work longer and harder for the same pay while management is happier.
7. William Bligh of the HMS Bounty (the mutiny and all of that) is much maligned in movies as being an incompetent petty tyrant who drove his crew to mutiny. The truth is otherwise. His crew was fairly rotten to begin with, and his discipline was no harsher than any other ship captain. After the mutiny, he managed a very impressive bit of seamanship, taking a few men in an open boat a vast distance to safety. After that, he was promoted several times, commanded a battleship in Nelson's fleet, was once given a unique honor by Admiral Nelson, and retired as a three-star admiral.
1. We all know the story of the battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack and that the Merrimack should be called the Virginia and that while the two ships fought for hours neither one did much damage to the other. There is, however, something not many people know. The Union knew that the Monitor was the only ship able to stop the Virginia from destroying any wooden Yankee ship and breaking the blockade. For them, a tie was as good as a win and a loss would be devastating beyond all calculation. For this reason, the crew of the Monitor was told to use only "medium" charges of gunpower in their two eleven-inch guns. Back in those days, metalwork was not the science it is now, and a charge of gunpowder that would burst one cannon might work just fine a thousand times in an identical cannon. The factory making the cannon would test a few to the point they exploded and then tell the government not to use more than 2/3 of that much gunpowder. In the case of the Monitor, the used only half of the "suicide overload" charge of powder. Even so, the Monitor did crack the Virginia's armor, and (as the legend goes) maybe using the heavier 2/3 charge would have seen cannonballs going through that armor. The Union would not risk it, as the maximum 2/3 charge sometimes (one out of a hundred or so) blew up the cannon, and for a cannon to explode inside the small turret would mean that the ship was out of business and the blockade would have been broken. Something that almost nobody knows is that the Virginia challenged the Monitor to battle on two subsequent occasions. In the first, the Monitor remained docked under the protective guns of a Union fort. In the second, the Monitor ran away when the Virginia showed up. What does that tell us?
2. While he was alive, almost no one referred to Napoleon by that (his first) name. They referred to him by his last name, Bonaparte. Calling him by his first name did not become popular until decades after he died.
3. You've all seen a Swiss Army Knife with everything from scissors to a watermelon de-seeder. Have you seen the new French Army Knife? It has four corkscrews, a comb, a surrender flag, and a cheese knife.
4. Is poverty a problem in America? Of course it is, but poverty in America is not poverty in Bangladesh. The overwhelming majority of American poor have a car, air conditioning, a cable TV. The problem is that a lot of them are poor because of their own bad decisions, such as having multiple illegitimate children, or living a life of crime.
5. There are at least $8 billion of private student loans in default, representing more than 850,000 individual loans. There are $1 trillion in total student loans, more than any other kind of consumer debt, and much of it was spent for worthless degrees (and non-education expenses).
6. Dilbert's boss says he wants more "employee engagement" which means the employees work longer and harder for the same pay while management is happier.
7. William Bligh of the HMS Bounty (the mutiny and all of that) is much maligned in movies as being an incompetent petty tyrant who drove his crew to mutiny. The truth is otherwise. His crew was fairly rotten to begin with, and his discipline was no harsher than any other ship captain. After the mutiny, he managed a very impressive bit of seamanship, taking a few men in an open boat a vast distance to safety. After that, he was promoted several times, commanded a battleship in Nelson's fleet, was once given a unique honor by Admiral Nelson, and retired as a three-star admiral.
posted by Federation Commander at 11:31 AM
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