Women Who Are Dating Peacocks In Western Art History

“Perhaps it’s best if you go after all, Jeremy. Maybe we can talk later, if you’re able to stop saying such hurtful things.”

“I don’t think there’s any reason we can’t be civil, Clarkson. Jeremy here has been very much looking forward to meeting you.”

“Jeremeth. Paulson – Oh. Trimothy. You’re – what are all of you doing here? What…what is this? Have you three been getting together and talking about me when I’m not around? Because I don’t have to take this. Least of all from you, Paulson. And we never said we were exclusive.”

“The flowers are nice. But you’re still in trouble.”

“We don’t have to go, honestly. I’d much rather just stay in and nest. Heh. Nest.”

“This is hard for me, Clarence. But you’re worth being vulnerable for.”

 “Well, I thought it was funny.”

[cooing]

“It doesn’t mean anything. It just means I thought it was funny. There doesn’t always have to be some sinister dark meaning to everything, you know. Some things are just funny. You don’t have to think about what it “means.” It’s just a joke.”

“It’s none of your business ‘which one’ I left you for, and frankly even asking me that question shows how much you never understood me.”

“You just get stronger”: How Powerlifting Saved My Life

The free weights were in back of the gym, which meant I had to walk a gauntlet of giant, muscular men all grunting and yelling and slamming weights to reach the empty squat racks. Thankfully they were all empty or I might’ve walked out, unwilling to wait, unwilling to loiter near the intimidating men. I struggled to move the 45-pound bar to a height that could work for me, panicking momentarily when it felt so heavy being hefted by my scrawny noodle arms, but after stepping into the rack you can’t leave without squatting; that would be ridiculous. I stepped under the bar, and the moment my hands gripped the knurling, the knurling gripped my traps — there was nothing but me and the iron. I took a deep breath and I squatted. I stood back up without falling over and I grinned.

---

I started lifting in May of 2013. I was 23, just starting a pre-med post-bac program that was going to lead to medical school. I had quit my job as a preschool teacher, where I’d spent the past seven months overeating out of anxiety and boredom because there’s not much else you can do when you’re watching two-year-olds all day. When none of my clothes fit comfortably I decided to change my body instead of buying new ones, because I loathe shopping for clothes.

Running-loathing millennial that I am, I started to Google. Somehow I found this Nerd Fitness post about a powerlifter named Staci. The idea you could change your body composition without running was news to me, and Staci was close enough to my height and weight that her progress seemed attainable. So I kept reading. I bought Starting Strength. I watched form videos until I realized all I was really doing was procrastinating.

Starting Strength is (on the internet) the Beginner’s Bible for powerlifting. I’ve since gotten different advice and cues from other programs and more importantly from my coach, but it was an excellent starting resource for someone with social anxiety who didn’t have anyone to ask at the time. The most important thing I took from it was the importance of checking your ego at the door. Start with “just the bar.” Add weight every week; keep progressing until you can’t.

World War I: One day of war cost our family three brothers

EVERY year on July 1 Graham Walker's father would solemnly draw three crosses on the calendar.

Each simple cross was a memorial to Fred, Charles and Ernest Walker—three brothers scythed down in a firestorm of bullets and shells on the first day of the bloody Battle of the Somme 90 years ago.

More than 60,000 British servicemen fell dead or injured on just day one of that four-month World War I battle.

CARNAGE: The battleground

Many of those were in Pals battalions—volunteers from the same towns, the same families, the same mines or factories.

Brothers died in a single shellburst, fathers fell with sons, the young male population of whole communities was wiped out in a split second.

"These men kept going over the top despite the terror, despite the carnage, despite the hell on earth all around them," said Graham, 43, whose father Bryan was Fred's grandson.

Shelling

Graham added: "When my father told me the full story I was devastated. I promised I'd never forget."

Fred Walker

Fred, Charles and Ernest Walker had signed up for the York and Lancaster Regiment along with friends and neighbours in Barnsley.

"The Barnsley Pals had all worked down the mines together," said Graham.

The three brothers and their Pals were soon dispatched to France to prepare for the coming offensive on the Somme.

German trenches had been subjected to relentless shelling the week before the attack and British commanders were so sure resistance would be weak they ordered men like Fred, Charles and Ernest to walk slowly, in formation, towards enemy lines.

But the shelling bombardment had made little impact on the heavily fortified German trenches and the Barnsley pals and thousands more walked slowly, in formationacross no man's land...into a slaughter.

Ernest Walker

It was to be the bloodiest day in the history of the British army. Within hours of the battle beginning—90 years ago yesterday—Fred, 35, Charles, 31, and Ernest, 33, were dead. By the next morning almost 20,000 British soldiers had perished.

When news of the brothers' tragic end reached Barnsley, their sister Fanny described the family's sense of loss in a simple, poignant poem:

For many years our family chain,

Was closely linked together;

But O that chain is broken now,

Three links have gone forever

"The regiments were all local," said Graham, who has dedicated a website to the brothers. "You joined with your friends, families and neighbours. But entire streets were cut down in a single burst of machine gun fire.

Charles Walker

The whole young, male population of a village disappeared in one shellburst. No one had ever experienced death on that scale."

Honour

The Walkers were left with grim but proud tokens of their sacrifice. Graham said: "Families received an inscribed circular bronze plaque, known as a Death Penny."

His great-grandfather's Death Penny inscription reads ‘Fred Walker — he died for freedom and honour'.

"They also received a scroll of honour, like the treasured heirlooms handed down to me, along with Fred's prayer book and a cap badge," said Graham, who has made the pilgrimage to the brothers' final resting place in France. What was once hell on earth is now a well-tended farm field, down an idyllic lane near the village of Serre.

The only signs of war are the rusty shells at the side of the field and the lovingly maintained war cemeteries, which mark the battlefield.

Graham, who visited the site with his sons Joshua and Harry, said: "Fred and Ernest do not have graves. Their names are carved on the Thiepval Memorial, commemorating the 72,085 men who died.

"It wasn't difficult to imagine Fred, Ernest and Charles looking down on us.

"They would be smiling too, knowing that their ultimate sacrifice for a better tomorrow would never be forgotten. God rest their souls."

Truth about Britain's bloodiest battle

KILLING FIELDS: Graham on the battle site where Fred, Ernest and Charles perished

1.8MILLION shells were fired at German lines before the batle, but enemy troops survived by sheltering 30ft underground.

1,500 guns were used to fire the barrage, which went on for eight days.

247 INFANTRY battalions, around 200,000 men, attacked on July 1, along an 18-mile front.

800 MEN from the Newfoundland Regiment went "over the top" that day—only 69 returned.

NINE Victoria Crosses were awarded on the first day of the battle.

FIFTEEN sets of British brothers died on the same day.

1.2 MILLION British, French and German soldiers were killed or wounded during the five months of fighting

36 BRITISH tanks went into action on September 16, the first time they had been used in the war.

72,000 BRITISH troops listed as missing on the Somme are named on the battlefield's huge Thiepval memorial.

150,000 BRITISH soldiers are buried in more than 250 military and 150 civilian cemeteries in the Somme.

FIVE MILES of ground was all that had been gained by the time the battle ended in November, 1916.

History of April Fools Day

“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” 
–Mark Twain

April 1st, April Fools Day, All fools day, Poisson d’Avril, or by any other name, is the day that we play practical jokes, pranks, and basically, act like fools. The origins of it, however, are not as widely known, unlike the crazy happenings of the day.

Although, there really is no “first April Fool’s Day”, it is widely believed that April Fools Day originated in France when Pope Gregory XIII, changed the calendar, and moved New Years to the first of January as it is now.

Before then, New Years was celebrated in or around April first. During the late 16th century word traveled slowly across the country about the calendar change, but even after word of the new start of the year reached some, they refused to accept it, and were considered fools by the more common place folk and sent on a “fool’s errand” or tricked to believe false truths.

Many cultures around the world, and throughout time, have had similar days around the same time of year. The Romans had the festival Hilaria, the Hindu calendar has Holi, and the Jewish calendar has Purim.

No matter the origin, April Fools Day remains one of the most widely spread celebrations in the world. And in my opinion, with the right crowd, one of the most entertaining of them all.

The Mapping of Cholera by John Snow, London 1854

Cholera struck fast and killed within 24 hours. There was no cure, and no way of knowing how the disease spread, until a quiet but determined man drew a map
London, 1832. A cholera outbreak killed about 5,000 people, some dying within eight hours of reporting illness. John Snow was apprenticed to a colliery surgeon, providing unqualified help during the outbreak of cholera in Newcastle. After witnessing the spread and effect of the disease he went to medical school, and then the Royal College of Surgeons, finally qualifying as a physician in 1844.

Cholera is in the Air
In 1849 Snow published a paper that went against the thinking of the time, stating that cholera was waterborne. More experienced physicians refuted these claims, asserting that cholera was transmitted by bad air. With open sewers in the poorer parts of  London this was not an unreasonable assumption.

Cholera is Back
Five years later cholera struck London again. In late August of 1854 people were falling sick in Golden Square and the streets around it, with some dying 12 hours after symptoms appeared. Medical treatment was scarce, and some hospitals would not accept patients with infectious diseases. As cholera was still believed to be transmitted through bad air, healthy people avoided the sick. Families were lying, and dying, helpless and crowded in their small airless rooms.

The Map
Convinced that he knew the route of contagion, Dr. Snow set out to prove his theory. He created a map and added a mark for the people who had died. The cholera cases were all centered around a water pump on Broad Street, which provided free water for locals from a well below ground. Snow also looked at water samples under a microscope, but did not know what he was looking for and didn’t find anything. He took his map to the Board of Governors.

The Authorities
Snow wanted the Board to order the pump handle to be removed. At first the Board refused to do this, because the belief that the infection was miasmal, or caused by evil vapors, was so prevalent. Snow insisted, using his map to demonstrate the spread of the disease, and the Board allowed him to remove the pump handle. The result was obvious in couple of days; there were no new cases.

While Snow was pressing his case with the Board of Governors and having to convince physicians too, other people were putting pieces of the jigsaw together. A curate, who knew the local people well, remembered a sick child whose diapers had been rinsed at the pump. This was the source of the infection in the Broad Street Pump.

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In the same year of 1854 Filippo Pacini, an Italian physician with a powerful microscope (for the time) was performing autopsies on patients who died of cholera. He found a comma shaped bacillus in the intestines of the bodies.

Vibrio Cholerae

Pacini called the bacillus a Vibrio and published a paper describing his findings and implications. The paper was unknown to Snow, who died in 1858, his theory unproved. Pacini died in 1883 and in 1884 Robert Koch, a German physician, celebrated his own discovery of the Vibrio. It is unlikely that he had seen Pacini’s paper. Koch had isolated the tuberculosis bacillus in 1882 and was a founder of the science of bacteriology, receiving the Nobel Prize in 1905.

Each of these men defied the prevailing opinions of the time, but it took improvements in microscopy for the question of cholera infection to finally be answered. John Snow is famous for being the first epidemiologist and the first medical geographer. It is through the efforts of men like him that we have greater longevity than our forebears of two centuries ago.

Bill Clinton's Questionable Use of Cruise Missiles

During his tenure the former U.S. President controversially used cruise missiles against Iraq and Sudan under questionable motives.

A brief look at two incidents in his presidency that the former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton undertook under the pretext of combating terrorism.

The June '93 Cruise Missile Attack on Baghdad

A day before former President George H.W. Bush was scheduled to visit Kuwait to commemorate its liberation in the Persian Gulf War in 1991 by a U.S. led coalition, a suspected plot to assassinate him was uncovered by the Kuwaiti authorities. The 17 plotters appeared to have been planning to blow up the president using explosives which were recovered in their Toyota Lancruiser.

After two months investigation into the seemingly foiled assassination attempt Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on the Iraqi Intelligence Service building in downtown Baghdad. Carried out in midnight the attack killed some eight Iraqis, including a famous Iraqi artist named Layla Al-Attar.

Clinton and Iraqi President Saddam Hussain traded accusations, Clinton asserting that Hussein's attempt of revenge "against the leader of the world coalition that defeated him in war is particularly loathsome and cowardly," whilst Hussein called the strike "cowardly aggression" and called the assassination attempt a fabrication made up by the Kuwaiti authorities.

Clinton tried to illustrate the attack as one made in self defence, dubbing the conspiracy to assassinate the former president as an "attack against our country and against all Americans."

The Destruction of Sudan's only Pharmaceutical Plant

On August 20th 1998, claiming that the Al-Shifa plant in Khartoum, Sudan was developing chemical weapons, Clinton had the facility destroyed by cruise missiles.

 This strike was also launched under a second pretext of retaliation for a truck bomb 13 days earlier on embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi. The Clinton administration claimed that the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory, the only such factory in all of Sudan, was engaged in the clandestine manufacture of chemical weapons.

The raid, which involved cruise missiles launched from U.S. navy vessels, killed one and injured 10. However claims that the plant was engaged in the construction of chemical weaponry later proved to be very hollow.

What Clinton did do by taking this action was destroy Sudan's only source of medicine. In the long term this resulted indirectly in the deaths of tens of thousands in rural Sudan who relied on the factory as a source of production for the medical necessities. Their deaths were caused by very treatable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis.

The bombing also resulted in Americans present in Sudan supplying food to the impoverished who were suffering from famine as a result of the war having to leave as they feared retaliation as a result of their governments unilateral action against Sudan.

August 20 1998 was also the same day the U.S. military simultaneously launched 75 cruise missiles at four training camps in Afghanistan in an attempt to kill Osama Bin Laden and other high ranking al-Qaeda leaders. It also happened to be the same day Monica Lewinsky testified before the grand jury for a second time against the President. The minister of information of Sudan fittingly condemned Clinton by calling him a "proven liar" with "100 girlfriends."

The owner of the plant, a wealthy businessman named Saleh Adris, sued the U.S. for this attack and for claiming he had ties to Osama Bin Laden.

Since the attack the Sudanese have invited the U.S. to come to the ruins of the factory to test it for any traces of chemicals that they claimed the factory was producing. The U.S. has refused to do so and has also refused to apologize for this attack.

 

Blitzkrieg: Inside the German Panzer Tank

The Panzer tank divisions of Nazi Germany in WWII were a terrifying force. Fortunately for the Allies their greatest strengths were also bitter weaknesses.

There are two discrepancies regarding the fierce tank divisions of Germany's Wehrmacht used in World War II that the casual reader of military history may find surprising.

The first is that the word "panzer" does not mean "panther" like many believe. There was a panther tank and its capabilities in combat are largely where the rumors of German massive hulking machines of destruction prowling the battleground for their next meal come from. The word panzer actually means "armor" in German and is short for the full word Panzerkampfwagen or Armored Fighting Vehicle.

The second realization and one that may shock fans of military history is that Germany's panzer divisions were not always the best tanks in WWII. In fact they suffered many losses and with the exception of the panther tank might be an underestimated factor in what cost Hitler the war.

Panzer tanks in WWII Leading up to the Panther

For one thing not all of the Wehrmacht's armor was as large and powerful as the Tiger, which appeared very late in the war. Nor the infamous, however, ironically mechanically flawed Panzerjager Tiger aka Elefant tank designed by Porsche. The most common tank to be used by the German forces in the beginning of the war was the much lighter in both armor and armament Panzer II.

Replacing the Panzer I even before the war begin in the mid 1930s, the Panzer II weighed around ten tons, boasted a small 20mm turret, and one 7.92mm machine gun to protect it from infantry forces. Despite its limitations for fighting enemy tanks, the Panzer II would serve as the German workhorse making up half of their armored divisions at the start of the war.

Even in the short conquests of France and Poland this tank was easily dealt with by opposing forces. Its thin armor made it both susceptible to any French or polish tank it met in combat as well as the polish anti-tank rifle, which would also be employed by the Russians for the same purpose.

In 1940, an extra 20mm of armor would be added to the Panzer II for its protection. By 1942, the Panzer II was a notch in military history, of the nearly twelve hundred that were built only fourteen were left. Neither its counterparts, the Panzer III or IV would fair much better in the war leading Germany to build a greater tank resulting in the Panther.

Germany's Answer to Russia's T-34 Tank

It was barely even a month into Operation Barbarossa, June 1941 when Germany realized that they had attacked Russia unprepared. The Soviet T-34 tank would dominate the battlefield devastating their panzer divisions. Faster, built for bad weather and rough terrain, heavily armored, and boasting a 76.2 mm gun the T-34 was the beginning of a plague that would bedevil Germany throughout the rest of the war. They needed a better tank and fast.

The Panzerkampfwagen V Panther tank was their solution to their Russian opponents. It was built with the sole purpose of being better than a T-34. The plans were developed after the Russian tank's capture and by 1942 the Panther was put into production.

Built with a large turret, 75mm high velocity gun, thick armor, a powerful engine, and wide body the original Panther was almost a complete disaster. As their hand was forced due to completely underestimating their opponent the production of the Panthers was rushed. The result was in their first year of the war many were simply put out of commission because of mechanical failures.

However, by 1944, the Panther would be perfected. When the Allies executed D-day they landed believing the Panther to be a rare sight. When they discovered that half of Germany's armor was the Panther tank they quickly faced the same nightmare the Wehrmacht had before. Their tank, the Sherman M4, was no match for the Panther.

The Biggest Tank of World War II

Throughout the war, nothing would strike sheer terror among the ranks of allied troops as the German's iconic and unforgettable Tiger tank. A super heavy tank the Tiger was still only slightly slower than the Panther and carried a 88mm gun. Most of its sixty-two tons were placed in its armor making it virtually impervious to any infantry anti-tank device or enemy tank.

Facing a Tiger on the battlefield was a death sentence. Horrified allied troops would run before them as even one lone Tiger could tear through twenty-five Sherman's if given the chance. The ability to outflank the Tiger in hopes of piercing weaker side armor as was done with the Panther still did not improve a Sherman's chances of destroying one either.

Several times Allied and Russian forces would simply just retreat at the sight of the Tiger tank. A condition nicknamed "Tigerphobia" spread in the Allied camps during their campaign in North Africa lowering morale so badly that General Montgomery prohibited all reports from detailing how well the Tiger fought. Fortunately for the Allies as was often the case with Germany's military, the Tiger would be its own worst enemy.

The Real Reason Why Germany Lost World War II

Like its predecessor the Panther the production of the first Tigers was so rushed that very quickly most of the originals fell apart mechanically. It became apparent that their uses were limited. As support units, symbols of power, and stationary guns that could be moved without being towed the Tigers were indestructible. However, they were not designed for those purposes they just wound up serving them for practicality. ThePanzerkampfwagen VI was built to destroy enemy tanks and give Germany an advantage in the attack and this they did not do.

The Tiger was so heavy that if one broke down the hopes of pulling this tank back behind friendly lines for repair was almost a bridge too far by itself. It could take several vehicles to tow a single Tiger tank. Because its wheels often threw their tread or became frozen in icy mud the Tiger could not press ahead without a secure path first being scouted for it. Neither was it an acceptable vehicle to have on roads, as the sheer weight of the vehicle would destroy pavement.

Also losing one of these large vehicles was extremely costly. The Tiger was the most expensive tank to be built in the war, but with its mechanical failures and the amount of fuel it consumed the cost of keeping a division of them operational was also astronomical. Germany was running out of resources and fast.

Yet they continued to attempt to build bigger and more impractical tanks that even if they had been deployed would have been more of a problem than a help to their war effort. Such as the aforementioned heavy tank destroyer nicknamed the Elefant, which practically fell off its own wheels as soon as it was out of the factory. Nevertheless they did not stop there.

There were four more designs for heavy tanks that never saw action. The E-100 Tiger Maus was a smaller counterpart to the largest tank ever actually built the Panzer VIII Maus. Both weighed about three times that of the King Tiger tank or Tiger II.

The other two designs were even more ludicrous and were scraped within a year of their conception in 1942. The first, called the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte was supposed to be a tank with two 280mm guns, a plethora of smaller armaments, and weigh over 1,000 tons. The second had fewer guns, but was even more extreme. The Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster was meant to weigh 1,500 tons, be 42 meters in length, 18 meters in width, and use a 800mm Krupp cannon as its main turret, the largest artillery gun ever built firing shells that weighed seven tons each.

What makes all of this interesting is that while the idea for the Panther came along as a necessity the original plans for the Tiger tank had been around since 1937. If Germany had waited till the Tigers had been perfected or had cut their losses and mass-produced Panthers as the Allies did with Shermans the outcome of World War II may have ended very differently. The fact that they did not is a true testament to Hitler's exaggerated prowess as a military dictator. In fact almost all of his decisions followed an exact pattern of egotistical impatience and delusional grandiose.