Well, that post about William and Kate naming their son George was pretty popular, so have some pictures!

William III.

George IV.

Kate Winslet.

What do you mean "those aren't the right ones"?

Grand Watermelon coin note

The Grand Watermelon. No relation to The Great Pumpkin.
(via Wikipedia)

In the 1890s, the United States Treasury Department issued treasury notes under the auspices of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act to individuals selling silver to the Treasury. Back in those days, one of the hot button issues was the use of gold and/or silver to back American currency. Some people favored gold, others silver. Some people even favored both, called bimetalism. The coin notes, as they were called featured the portraits of Union generals and an admiral from the American Civil War, such as George Henry Thomas, James McPherson, George Meade, Philip Sheridan, William Sherman, and U.S. Navy admiral David Farragut. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Secretary of State William Seward, and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.

The notes were issued from 1890 until 1893 when the Silver Purchase Act was repealed during the Grover Cleveland administration as a result of an economic panic that year that threatened to drain the government's gold reserves.

The thousand dollar note was called the "Grand Watermelon" because the zeroes on the reverse look like watermelons.

Tanking of you this holiday season

Centuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurioooooooooooooooooooooon!

(via Wikipedia)

Ceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen

(via Wikimedia)

tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuur

(via Wikimedia)

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooon!

(via Wikimedia)

Turn: America's First Spy Ring looks hella interesting

Saw the commercial for this new show just now and my interest is definitely piqued. I mean, how many TV shows set during the Revolutionary War are there?



From AMC's website:

Based on the book Washington’s Spies written by Alexander Rose, Turn is set in the summer of 1778 and tells the story of New York farmer Abe Woodhull, who bands together with a group of childhood friends to form The Culper Ring, an unlikely group of spies who turn the tide in America’s fight for independence. Turn, from AMC Studios, is written by showrunner Craig Silverstein (Nikita) and executive produced by Barry Josephson (Bones, Enchanted) from Josephson Entertainment. The series stars Jamie Bell as Abraham Woodhull, Kevin McNally as Judge Richard Woodhull, Burn Gorman as Major Hewlett, Angus MacFadyen as Robert Rogers, JJ Feild as Major John Andre, Seth Numrich as Ben Talmadge, Daniel Henshall as Caleb, and Heather Lind as Anna Strong.

I think the only thing I've seen Jamie Bell in was that movie Jumper with Hayden Christiansen (aka Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader), but he's been in a bunch of other movies. I've never heard of any of the other actors, but then again, how many people had heard of the casts of Mad Men or The Walking Dead before those shows came along? Here's to hoping this doesn't flop like Rubicon did. AMC has had a pretty good track record thus far, so I'm optimistic.

Tanks for the memories! (I'll just wait here for the pun police)

Tanks! Because why the hell not?

M103 heavy tank.

IS-3 heavy tank.

M551 Sheridan.

M60A3 Patton.

MBT-70.

Another WWII movie starring Brad Pitt, you say? Yes, please.

I wasn't aware of this until the other day, but Brad Pitt is starring in another World War II movie directed by David Ayer called Fury. It's about the crew of a M4 Sherman fighting against the Germans near the end of the European Theater of the war. Besides Pitt, the cast list is pretty impressive: Shia LaBeouf (the guy from the Transformers movies), Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson movies), Michael Peña (End of Watch, Gangster Squad, Shooter), Jason Isaacs (Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies and has done a couple of war movies such as Black Hawk Down and Wind Talkers), and Jon Bernthal from The Walking Dead.

The last WWII movie Brad Pitt did, The Inglorious Basterds, was pretty damn good, so there's hope that this one will at least be a good popcorn movie. I have this feeling that it probably won't be hugely accurate, but what war movie has ever been dead-on? Honestly, I don't care too much about strict accuracy in war movies. As long as a movie doesn't include anything absurd and blatantly inaccurate (aside from like comedies), I'll probably enjoy it.

On the other hand, Fury is only the fifth movie David Ayer has directed and the first war movie; all of this previous movies have been crime and cop dramas. He also wrote the script for U-751, which was based on the capture of that German u-boat and its Enigma Machine. Unfortunately, in the movie, he altered history by having an American submarine crew in place of the British crew who had actually captured the u-boat. He also wrote The Fast & The Furious, so take that as you will.

I guess we'll just have to wait until the first trailer comes out before we'll have any idea of whether it'll suck or not.

Check out this picture of the USS Constitution's original sail plan

Via Wikipedia.

So, Monday marked the 201st anniversary of the USS Constitution's (Old Ironsides) victory over the HMS Guerriere during the War of 1812. Indeed, it was during this battle that the ship earned her famous nicknamed of 'Old Ironsides' due to her hull withstanding the cannon shots of the Guerriere. Apparently, this was due to American oak trees being more dense than those grown in Europe. So, to mark this occasion, here's the original sail plan for the Constitution.

Credit: National Archives.

Probably my favorite thing about the Constitution is that 215 years after she entered service, the ship is still a commission warship today. Only the HMS Victory beats it and that's the only time a British warship has bested her.

h/t Popular Science.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge naming their son George was beyond predictable, wasn't it?

Old news for sure, but what the hell. When I heard that the future King of the Commonwealth* and his wife had named the future future King** George, I thought it was rather anti-climatic. George is one of the most common first names for princes in the UK, along with Richard, Edward, Henry, William, and James. George is the second most common, after Henry and seeing as how they already have a prince named Henry, George would've been the most obvious. I wonder if there's a reason why the Royal Family has such a limited pool of names? Other than tradition, I mean. Succession-wise, we're looking at a Charles III, a William V, and a George VII. At least we will, provided that the Queen doesn't turn out to be a Highlander and lives forever.


*We can all agree that sounds badass, right?
**Unless he ends up becoming a trans person and then a woman or something.

Iron Maiden - The Trooper

The Trooper, of course, is based on the famous Charge of the Light Brigade, which itself was forever immortalized by Alfred, Lord Tennyson in his epic poem. Amazing how an absolute clusterf*ck like that gets turned into some sort of celebrated event, yet Pickett's Charge during the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War is infamous as a huge blunder and isn't immortalized.

I just wonder if any wargamers have played this during a Victorian era game? If not, then I am terribly disappointed in all of you. :P

Sexy Tudors!

Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton.

Haha! Now some context for those who are probably a bit confused: Showtime used to have a show called The Tudors. Nominally, it was supposed to be about the reign of Henry VIII, but in actuality, it was nothing more than a faux-historical drama filled with so much nudity and sex, it left you wondering if you weren't watching late night Cinemax by mistake. It was also horribly inaccurate. On the show, Henry was played by a guy named Jonathan Rhys Meyers who many women and quite a few dudes would describe as "sexy". In other words, he was not a 300+ pound redheaded dude. They did keep the festering ulcer on his leg, however. Actually, the funniest part about The Tudors is that all of Henry's ministers were played by young hot dudes in their 20s and 30s, even if they historically weren't young hot dudes. None of them really aged either, even though the show covered Henry's entire reign, although near the end, they did act old.

Oh, and Henry's wives were all played by babes. Basically, Showtime tried to convince us that the Tudor era was full of sexy people.