BaZmO* wrote: » This post is the 10,000th post
New Home wrote: » The same day as Elvis and Bowie.
mikhail wrote: » It's Kim Jong-un's birthday. It's not clear exactly how old he is. The official date is 1982, but it's thought that it was moved to a more prestigious year: a round 70 years after his grandfather's birth, and 40 after his father's. Various sources suggest it's 1983 or even 1984.
retalivity wrote: » The presumed last remaining US civil war widow (1861-1865) died in December 2020.https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/08/last-civil-war-widow-dies-helen-viola-jackson
Wibbs wrote: » Though it seems so long ago it kinda isn't. Take the American Old West and all that stuff. John Wayne the biggest cowboy star of the silver screen as a young actor knew Wyatt Earp, he of the Gunfight of the OK corral, a seminal moment in western and cowboy lore. Earp was an advisor on Hollywood westerns and he heavily influenced Wayne's portrayal of the cowboy. I suppose one reason we feel such distance to those times was the speed of change technologically and socially and politically in the 20th century. That rapid change makes even the recent past seem so far away.
Sleepy wrote: » You really notice this when you have kids. The technological and social change in our own lifetimes has been utterly staggering.
Wibbs wrote: » I collected old watches for donkey's years and one reason was in one way because they echoed those huge changes of the 20th century in a very personal and human scale way. Hell the wristwatch for men was barely invented in 1900. It's almost entirely a 20th century thing. Take these two. Both from the same brand, one from 1916, one from 1988. Well within an average lifespan. They both tell the time, but in massively different ways. One is all clockwork that can trace itself back to the 12th century, the other is a marvel of electronic and computer miniaturisation using tech and science and manufacturing developed through the 20th century and impossible before it. One can be made accurate to under a minute per month, the other is accurate to under a minute per five years. One has a case made from silver a metal in use since antiquity, the other is made from titanium which wasn't even isolated properly until 1916 IIRC and couldn't be usefully made into anything before the 1950's.
Wibbs wrote: » Both from the same brand, one from 1916, one from 1988. Well within an average lifespan. They both tell the time, but in massively different ways. One is all clockwork that can trace itself back to the 12th century, the other is a marvel of electronic and computer miniaturisation using tech and science and manufacturing developed through the 20th century and impossible before it. One can be made accurate to under a minute per month, the other is accurate to under a minute per five years. One has a case made from silver a metal in use since antiquity, the other is made from titanium which wasn't even isolated properly until 1916 IIRC and couldn't be usefully made into anything before the 1950's.
ancapailldorcha wrote: » I don't think you even have to go that far. I just don't get Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. Twitter, properly used can be handy enough but Ian Dunt on a podcast once said that he asked his nephew what he wanted to be when he grew up and the response was an influencer.