World history quiz thread

Started by milkanannan, Sat 07/10/2017 05:13:52

Previous topic - Next topic

heltenjon

Quote from: bx83 on Sun 18/04/2021 11:11:21
"On September 29, 1913, Rudolf Diesel, inventor of the engine that bears his name, disappears from the steamship Dresden while travelling from Antwerp, Belgium to Harwich, England. On October 10, a Belgian sailor aboard a North Sea steamer spotted a body floating in the water; upon further investigation, it turned out that the body was Diesel’s. There was, and remains, a great deal of mystery surrounding his death: It was officially judged a suicide, but many people believed (and still believe) that Diesel was murdered."

You got it :)

I smell a good plot for a sci-fi game involving a time machine and a desperate environmentalist...

Ian Aloser

#661
Rudolf Diesel is CORRECT !!! Very good, Sinitrena !!!!
While many people may have read about his mysterious demise, he is less known for one of his works
called "Solidarismus. Natürliche wirtschaftliche Erlösung des Menschen"
loosely translated into " Solidarism. The Rational Economic Redemption of Humankind",
a publication which, imho, would have deserved more attention.
Really worth reading it !
EDIT: Sinitrena, it's up to you !

bx83

Do you have a link to that publication?

Ian Aloser

#663
I will try to find a link. If I can't find one, I will try to post the essence of the theory here.
EDIT : Here's a link to the original work, it's written in Old German :-)
https://diglib.uibk.ac.at/ulbtirol/content/structure/3785404

Also, I copied an essay on his work and crunched it through the Google translator - The result is not too bad, I think :-)
Here's the link to the essay :
https://www.ingenieur.de/technik/fachbereiche/rekorde/die-utopie-solidarismus-rudolf-diesel/
Here it is (Sorry for the formatting) :
Rudolf Diesel's utopia of solidarism
The idea of the cooperative is at the center of Rudolf Diesel's utopia of solidarism.
In so-called Volkskassen, capital is collected for loans to joint operations.
These companies should cover all important needs.
In solidarism, Diesel's utopia says, the interests of the individual coincide with the interests of the general public.

100 years ago, in 1911, the diesel engine factory in Augsburg, which had been founded in 1898, came to an end.
The name Rudolf Diesel is inextricably linked with millions of engines and one fuel.
Little is known, however, that Diesel turned to not only technical, but also social issues. "Solidarism.
Natural economic salvation of man "was the title of a book published by" Rudolf Diesel, engineer in Munich "in 1903.
In it he presents the concept of an economy based on solidarity, in which the formerly dependent employees take the financing,
production and distribution of goods into their own hands.

"You are 50 million people in Germany who depend on salary, wages and salaries," writes Diesel, and further calculates:
If everyone were to pay an amount of just one penny per week into a "Volkskasse", this would result in a capital of half a million marks a week.
If a penny were put aside every day, "you have 182 million marks a year and in ten years already two billion marks available for your economic increase"
Rudolf Diesel's solidarism equates individual interests with collective interests
This savings procedure is the basis for the principle of solidarism, which Diesel understands as the "complete equation of the individual interest with the overall interest", "the free agreement of people to mutual justice through work, unity and love": "Solidarism is the sun, which shining evenly over all, through its mild warmth and its shining light, will awaken humanity from its hibernation to economic redemption. "

The linchpin of this sunrise is the founding of a "Volkskasse", in which the millions of pfennigs are brought together.
This Volkskasse with its accumulated capital serves as a lender and surety for joint operations of the treasury members, which Diesel describes as “beehives”:
“Just as for shoes, under the protection of the liability of the whole - the Volkskasse - you build other beehives for clothes and linen , Furniture, household appliances, etc. ”, which can ultimately satisfy the most important needs of the employees, the“ bees ”and others.
Rudolf Diesel's solidarism relies on cooperative self-help
It is not difficult to recognize the idea of ​​cooperative self-help here.
Diesel, however, expanded the idea of ​​cooperative financing and production by adding cooperative consumption:
“So your beehives exchange their goods; In this way, a swap warehouse is created in each of them, the goods of which are available to the bees and their family members ... at the cheapest prices imaginable, as there are no interim expenses ".

Diesel thus designs a closed cycle of financing, production and consumption of cooperative goods that neither compete with other producers nor appear in markets: “The true cooperative does not even enter general competition, neither for production nor for consumption , it only works for its own needs. ”So it is not about profit, but about the satisfaction of needs, a kind of industrial subsistence economy.
Diesel criticized the production cooperatives that existed at the time, such as the Albi glassworks, for being inconceivable as a general form of an economy.
This is for the simple reason "because, because of their mostly inadequate means, they cannot hold their own against the overpowering competition of the various forms of large-scale capitalist production or capitalist unification". They are cooperative internally, but capitalist externally.

Rudolf Diesel: Social institutions complement the cooperative principle
Rudolf Diesel supplements his model of cooperative work with social institutions. So every “beehive”, i.e. every cooperative enterprise, has to build a “spacious, bright, well ventilated and heated dining establishment” in which tasty dishes are offered at “bee prices”, and they also have “healthy, light, airy, spacious apartments” " to care. In addition, hospitals, schools, apprentice workshops and community houses should be built “with a restaurant and, if possible, with a garden”.
The idea of ​​the company as the center of life is imposed here, as is known from real socialist countries, but also from large companies in the early days of capitalism. But the crucial difference to both is the voluntariness. In contrast to socialism, solidarism can be achieved “within the framework of existing laws, in peaceful development with complete individual freedom”; in contrast to capitalism, it is not based on the game of market forces, but “on the natural game of solidarity forces”.





Sinitrena

Let's go back a long time from Mr. Diesel for the next question.

It is a weird irony of time that every historian becomes part of history sooner or later. The historian we are looking for was supposedly the first to systematically collect his material and putting it into a historiographic narrative (thanks wikipedia for this phrasing). In fact, another writer who has long since become a subject of study called him "pater historiae" some 300 years later. His histories might also contain legends and myths, but they are nonetheless rich in information. Who was this "Father of History"?

lorenzo

Herodotus of Halicarnassus?

Sinitrena

#666
That was quick. Correct, your turn.
And Cicero was the one who called him pater historiae, just to complete this.

lorenzo

#667
I guess that having to translate him from ancient Greek at school left me scarred for life. (laugh)

I'll try to think of a new question and update the post later. In the meantime, if someone has a good one, feel free to take my turn and post it!

New question:

How is called that period in the history of London where the smell of the river Thames, filled with human and industrial waste, was so terrible that the river was defined as "a Stygian pool reeking with ineffable and unbearable horror"?

bx83

1858
The "shit we have to build a sewage system, they've got flushing toilets now" period.

heltenjon


lorenzo

Quote from: heltenjon on Mon 19/04/2021 07:43:38
February.  :-D
(laugh)

Quote from: bx83 on Sun 18/04/2021 23:57:13
1858
The "shit we have to build a sewage system, they've got flushing toilets now" period.
This!
The Great Stink in July/August 1858. During the hot summer, the river full of all kinds of shit (literal or not) was so stinky it became part of the history of the city.

Your turn, bx83!

bx83

Um....
"What is Jesus Christ's real name?"

(not a joke)

Stupot

Quote from: bx83 on Mon 19/04/2021 14:22:25
Um....
"What is Jesus Christ's real name?"

(not a joke)
Our Lord and Saviour, Baby Jesus H. Christ Almighty the Third (The Other Two Thirds Being The Father and The Holy Ghost) of Nazareth, Son of Carpenter, Doer of Right and Righter of Wrongs, And Overall Decent Bloke, Ex Plus Alpha Turbo Ultra Superman Shave-and-a-Haircut Five Bob.

milkanannan

However you say ‘Jesus’ in Hebrew? Maybe it’s like the Arabic ‘Issa’?

heltenjon

Iesu Nazarea? Or perhaps that's a bit too Latin.

bx83

His name, from his perspective as an ancient Jew, was Yeshua Ben Jusef / "God". (Joshua, son of Joseph/God)

Galen

"Jesus? I wonder if he means old Ben Jusef?"

Stupot

His mates called him Ben Dover.

milkanannan

 (laugh) oh man we're just getting rude now


Jesus: The Last Air Benjusef

milkanannan

Alright, hope nobody minds if I jump in. This might be a bit contentious, but after the British (35.5 million km2) and Mongol (24 million km2) what is the next largest empire by territorial size?

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk