I'm really not sure what to make of this one. Having only been alive for the closing years of the Cold War, I can't draw too many conclusions about the nature of government policy back then. However, if these papers from the British government circa 1955 are any indication, our leaders back then had priorities just as bizarre as our leaders now. Here's a quick breakdown from the BBC article:
The threat of a nuclear attack on the UK in the 1950s caused concern over the supply of tea, top-secret documents which have now been released reveal.
Government officials planning food supplies said the tea situation would be "very serious" after a nuclear war.
"It would be wrong to consider that even 1oz per head per week could be ensured," they stated.
The documents said a nuclear conflict would result in the loss of three-quarters of tea stocks.
Tea? I understand that British folk like their tea, probably because they can't make a cup of coffee worth a damn, but let's be serious. TEA?! At a time in history when countries were developing their first ICBMs, Winston Churchill was leaving the office of Prime Minister, the Warsaw Pact was enacted, and Britain was dealing with two colonial crises in Kenya and Malaya, some government eggheads were tasked with worrying about tea supplies? At least I don't feel like America is the only country with idiotic bureaucrats anymore.
Archaeologists working at a site in east Kenthave unearthed the remains of a 4,000-year-old skeleton who was buried with a beer mug. Looks to me like it's the remains of the town drunk, but scientists who supposedly know more than I on the topic instead believe the remains are those of someone with a high status.
Possibly ceremonial objects were found buried with the individual, who could have been a high-status male.
No clues are given as to what those ceremonial objects are, but they probably found a fake I.D., rolling papers and a bag of Bronze Age weed. This pushes back the evolution of the slackerby several thousand years.
HowStuffWorks has posted an excellent article today that covers every aspect of what life was like for medieval knights. I know I've often fantasized about being a knight, but given my body shape, I would have been lucky getting a job as a court jester.
It's a well researched article, written by Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D., and covers such topics as Knights and Feudal Society, How to Become a Knight, The Knighting Ceremony, Tournaments, Armor and Weapons and lots of other goodies.
Most of what I know of knights either comes from movies, which is never a good source of reality, and fantasy books, which is less so.
While I'm on the topic, which movie is your favorite swords and armor spectacle? My pick is Excalibur, which you'll find on page 2 as a video montage. That movie ruled.
Discovery News reports that the pad where Gaius Octavius chilled before eventually being crowned Emperor has finally opened to the public for the first time since its discovery over 50 years ago.
Who was Gaius? Didn't you see the HBO series Rome? Shame on you.
Born Gaius Octavius in 63 B.C., the future emperor was named adoptive son and heir of his great-uncle Julius Caesar when he was 18 years old. After the civil wars that followed Caesar's assassination, Gaius Octavius was made emperor in 29 B.C., taking the name Augustus.
