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Some Interesting Military Data

And the ******** keep writing new ones!!!


Hans

True. I found that Osprey Publishing has hundreds in print... I have some of their WW2 books, and Roman Empire books. And one on French Forts in the 1600s and 1700s in North America. It was around book number 100 in the 'fortification' series. Good grief !
 
In a risk averse culture that exists nowadays within the US military (not cowardice, but building weapon systems and designing strategies to minimize risk and losses) that expected loss ratio seems horrendous. But it was the expected toll on the Western Front. It continued to be the philosophy for the Soviet Union almost to the end - flood the battlefield and expect to lose almost all of it; as long as they were the only ones left standing at the end, nothing else mattered.

I just wanted to comment on this one part.

The Soviets sent mostly unarmed prisoner battalions towards the German lines to show where the mortars and machines gun units were.

Their Stavka Reserve wasn't on any military list. Over 1000000 Stavka Reserve troops were east of Stalingrad, the city military commander didn't know they were there.

Zhukov, more than once, sent infantry ahead of tanks in the hopes the infantry would set off the anti-tank mines.

Some of the above from Martin Caidin's book 'The Tigers are Burning' and some from History channel documentaries.
 
:rofl: OK, you *have* to start a thread on Vilani recipes, now! Remember to make them as elaborate as possible, with some amount of danger thrown in if not prepared correctly!

Hmmmm, I have the terrible idea that you are only half joking. Is there anyone else that would like to see what I can come up with?
 
Hmmmm, I have the terrible idea that you are only half joking. Is there anyone else that would like to see what I can come up with?

Frankly, I am enjoying your posts. There's a view there that isn't captured in the typical historical narrative.

However, if Fritz really wants it, I can drag out my wife's medieval-period recipes. :devil:
 
Frankly, I am enjoying your posts. There's a view there that isn't captured in the typical historical narrative.

However, if Fritz really wants it, I can drag out my wife's medieval-period recipes. :devil:

I have those too. My cookbook collection goes WAAAAAYYYY BAAACCCKKKK.
 
Temporarily diverting back to the original idea of the thread, the following site has just about all of the reports of the Naval Technical Mission to Japan following World War 2 available online. There is an immense amount of useful information in the reports, as the Japanese were not as technologically backward as usually viewed. When it came to microwave technology, they were actually ahead of the Germans, having a useful microwave receiver for tracking our microwave radar by the middle of 1943, when the Germans were having trouble believing microwave radar was possible. The Japanese actually were building low-powered microwave sets by the end of 1944.

http://www.fischer-tropsch.org/primary_documents/gvt_reports/USNAVY/USNTMJ Reports/USNTMJ_toc.htm

For those who have planets that do not have petroleum deposits for some reason, like I have, the reports on alternate fuels are quite interesting. The IJN Yamato was fueled with soybean oil for its final mission to attack the shipping off of Okinawa. The Japanese were also looking at using alcohol for aircraft fuel in 1945.
 
All right, I will give it a shot. I will warn you that included in my collection are military cookbooks (chortles insanely with glee).

And please don't forget that Vland was not overly friendly to humans. Many of the basic foods were at least somewhat toxic. Chefs grew to have some real status!

Of course, chefs in any civilized culture should have real status (as opposed to mere cooks like myself).
 
And please don't forget that Vland was not overly friendly to humans. Many of the basic foods were at least somewhat toxic. Chefs grew to have some real status!

Of course, chefs in any civilized culture should have real status (as opposed to mere cooks like myself).

Hmmm, forgot about the toxic thing. And I think that it has been decided that the Vilani are descended from Neanderthals, so they may have a preference for more standard pork verses "long pig". So, to dress up what probably was pretty much a monotonous diet, lots of spices are in order.

Not sure if recipes should go here or into Random Static. Moderators, any suggestions?
 
Hmmm, forgot about the toxic thing. And I think that it has been decided that the Vilani are descended from Neanderthals, so they may have a preference for more standard pork verses "long pig". So, to dress up what probably was pretty much a monotonous diet, lots of spices are in order.

The Vilani are descended from Homo sapiens antiquus, just as the Solomani, the Zhodani, the Darrians, and a goodly number of the other human races.

Not sure if recipes should go here or into Random Static. Moderators, any suggestions?
I'm not a moderator, but for what it's worth, I think Vilani recipes would be full-fledged Traveller material. Either Contact or Scouts, or perhaps Lone Star would seem reasonable choices.


Hans
 
Homo sapiens anti-who??

The taxonomic name used by Imperial scientists for the last common ancestor of all the different human populations removed from Terra 300,000 years ago that are still interfertile after those 300,000 years of separate evolution (the name means Ancient Man). Most likely did not exist in the Real Universe, but unless you belive in convergent evolution that somehow made different hominid species evolve towards interfertility, it obviously existed in the Traveller Universe.

The subject is somewhat more complicated than that (for example, some minor human races are not interfertile with the Solomani and the others, which means that either they have evolved or been geneered away from the root stock or their ancestors were already a different hominid species 300,000 years ago), as described in Chapter 1 of GT:Humaniti, but I don't want to quote an entire page's worth of text.


Hans
 
A documentary I saw on History channel mentioned we likely had 8 common hominid ancestors at one time. Grabs of some of those distant hominid cousins would explain Homo sapiens antiquus if we encounter any such in our real world future space travels.
 
Before committing to putting together recipes for Traveller, I would like to make sure that I am correctly evaluating the various intelligent species as to probably appetites.

Solomani: standard human diet, probably the same for Sword Worlds and Darrians, not sure about Zhodani.

Vilani: more basic foods with spices, omnivores.

Aslan: more of a pure carnivore, not into fruits and vegetables, dairy products okay if not too exotic (yogurt good, Blue Cheese bad), some ground grain okay. Seafood?

K'Kree: Vegetarians, not sure about dairy products, heavy into vegetables, grains, and fruit. Assume that most vegetables will be eaten raw for roughage. Alfalfa? Spices do not seem to go with herbivore digestive system.

Vargr: Omnivores leaning more to carnivore, meat, prepared grain foods, raw vegetables, not into fruit. Dairy products and eggs are good. Easy on spices.

Droyne: Omnivores leaning to vegetarian, lots of fruits and nuts, easy on dairy products. Seafood?
 
Vilani "cuisine" is similar in many ways to certain South Pacific diets - highly processed in order to make the inedible edible. No "import" species pre-spaceflight, so only what was on their bodies... which probably means bacterial cultures can be traced to normal body flora.... (eww...) But note also: vilani have to ferment just about EVERYTHING from Vland in order to render the majority of protiens digestable. Since they don't have major metabolic disorders, all needed amino acids are present in the environment.

Zhodani - human normal for diet, but Zhdant was intentionally stocked with edible species, so not anywhere near as extreme as Vilani. Still, I'd expect somewhat more involved prep for some items in the diet, as they're precursor native life...

Vargr: noted for highly spiced foods, especially aromatic spices, and yes, meat dominant. But also note: Like the vilani, they're transplants. Expect some "native" foods on lair are inedible without bacterial culturing.

Aslan: At least one illo shows live food escaping the plate. Carnivores with some spices. Since they are xenomammalia, they probably have little issue with dairy as a basis, but may have adult intolerances of it. Use of plants as dietary additions is noted, but unlike the Vargr, they are probably not eaten as significant dietary elements. Perhaps, some as dietary supplements or medicinals (much as cats eat grass as a medicinal, and mint as a recreational).

K'Kree: No animal product at all. MILITANTLY ANTI-Dairy. Keep in mind - while warm blooded, and placental, they are not mammals. (infants are fed by regurgitation.) One of the short stories shows a K'kree killing a xenomammalian for nursing its young.
 
Vilani "cuisine" is similar in many ways to certain South Pacific diets - highly processed in order to make the inedible edible. No "import" species pre-spaceflight, so only what was on their bodies... which probably means bacterial cultures can be traced to normal body flora.... (eww...) But note also: vilani have to ferment just about EVERYTHING from Vland in order to render the majority of protiens digestable. Since they don't have major metabolic disorders, all needed amino acids are present in the environment.

Zhodani - human normal for diet, but Zhdant was intentionally stocked with edible species, so not anywhere near as extreme as Vilani. Still, I'd expect somewhat more involved prep for some items in the diet, as they're precursor native life...

Vargr: noted for highly spiced foods, especially aromatic spices, and yes, meat dominant. But also note: Like the vilani, they're transplants. Expect some "native" foods on lair are inedible without bacterial culturing.

Aslan: At least one illo shows live food escaping the plate. Carnivores with some spices. Since they are xenomammalia, they probably have little issue with dairy as a basis, but may have adult intolerances of it. Use of plants as dietary additions is noted, but unlike the Vargr, they are probably not eaten as significant dietary elements. Perhaps, some as dietary supplements or medicinals (much as cats eat grass as a medicinal, and mint as a recreational).

K'Kree: No animal product at all. MILITANTLY ANTI-Dairy. Keep in mind - while warm blooded, and placental, they are not mammals. (infants are fed by regurgitation.) One of the short stories shows a K'kree killing a xenomammalian for nursing its young.

Thanks, Aramis, that pretty much is what I needed. Just that most dogs that I have known seem to have problems with highly spiced foods, but will go with the Vargr liking spices but probably not "heat" from Capsaicin.
 
Thanks, Aramis, that pretty much is what I needed. Just that most dogs that I have known seem to have problems with highly spiced foods, but will go with the Vargr liking spices but probably not "heat" from Capsaicin.

Every dog I've owned liked salsa picante....
 
Aslan: ... Perhaps, some [vegetables] as dietary supplements or medicinals (much as cats eat grass as a medicinal, and mint as a recreational).
Do they like celery?

Every dog I've owned liked salsa picante....
I've known some dogs (though not my dingo-derivative Australian Cattle Dog so much) that would eat things that are very bad for them. They may like the salsa, but what's their next trip outside like, compared to others? :oo:
 
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