Factoid #1

Well as promised, here is the first in the series of quite interesting facts.

HOW TALL WAS NAPOLEON??

Well it is quite widely believed that Napoleon was a short little man. Wrong, this believe comes from a combination of mistranslation and propaganda.
The autopsy, carried out in 1821 by his personal physician, Francesco Antommarchi, recorded his height as '5/2'. which is now believed that this represents the french measurement of '5 pieds 2 pouces', which converts to modern measurements as 5 feet and 6.5 inches (1.69 meters).

The average height of Frenchmen in that era was 5 feet and 4.5 inches anyway, so that means Napoleon was probably taller than most people he came in contact to anyway.
In fact he was taller than the average englishmen, who was 5 feet and 6 inches.

After Napoleon gained power, he imposed eight requirements on all french troops. In the elite imperial Guard, Grenadiers had to be at least 5 feet 10 inches tall, and his personal guard, the elite Mounted Chasseurs, had to be a minimum of 5 feet 7 inches. So most of the time the soldiers around him were taller than him, creating the illusion the he is in fact short.












The British caricaturist, James Gillray was responsible for the first damaging image of the "little" Napoleon, in "the King of Brobdingang and Gulliver", inspired by by Gulliver's Travels.

In the picture to the left, George III is pictured holding Napoleon in his hand, inspecting him with an eye-glass saying,  "I cannot but conclude you to be one of the most pernicious little odious reptiles that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the Earth.'















One of the reasons for the survival of this myth is by the wide used term, 'Napoleon Complex', used to describe short people who make up for their lack of stature by being overly aggressive. There isn't actually any scientific evidence to support for this commonly held theory, neither is it an officially recognised psychiatric syndrome, and doesn't seem to occur in the animal kingdom.


I hope you all found this to be of an interesting flavour, and this made your mouths water for more.
Adios for now folks, until next time.

It's been a while

Wow so it has been quite a while since I have scribbled something on the walls of the internet...

Quite a few things have changed. working my ass off, going back to varsity next year, and riding as much as i can.
Yes thats right, I got my silly ass back into UJ. woohoo. Going to be a Lawyer one day. hell yeah

And riding yes, I ride mountain bikes now. Probably one of the most relaxing, exhilarating, exciting, hardest things I have ever done! I love it.

So this is just to say, that from now on, I am going to try my best to post twice a week. ONe random post like usual, and the second post for the week will be something with a bit more substance. Once a week I am going to give a quite interesting fact, a little something dug out of the the deep pools of knowledge, to remove the plague of general ignorance.


Just remember, if you're feeling down, do what stalin did.

OMG!! DREAM COME TRUE!!

Oh good Christ!! My wildest dreams have come true! And guess what the Japanese have done it again, wow i love those little guys!!

Yes your eyes do not deceive you, this is a human piloted mech robot.

The time has come for the age mechs, and all I can think is HOLY CRAP!!
And this thing is brilliant, utterly brilliant!! I mean even without looking at the features, just look at it!!

Now the Kuratas is being built by Suidobashi Heavy Industry, it is the vision of artist Kogoro Kurata and robotics expert Wataru Yoshizaki.

Now this thing is big, it stands about 4 meters high, 3 meters wide and almost 4 meters long, and puts in a hefty weight of 4.5 tons, thats big man.
Its controlled by a system that they have dubbed "V-Sido", they are claiming this is one of the most watched robotic control systems in the world.

Now this system allows you to control the mech with a touchscreen UI, and a Kinect based user interface. And the best thing I have ever heard, not even screen writers in movies have thought about this, a smile trigger. Yes folks a smile trigger, the guns fire when you smile!!! You can take out your enemies by smiling at them, why yes I do like that!!!

You can even control your Kuratas from your 3G smartphone, how dope is that?

Now the company lets you customise your mech, from different arm attachments, to different types of armour to even having a cup holder inside your mech, oh and faux leather interior!

Now the basic price for this bad boy is 1,353,500 US Dollars, and with the more fun things you add, the more the price increases.
And as things work in the world today, you can order this bad boy online!!!!

Heres a video the company made, of how to operate the Kuratas.

I believe that is the start of something big, I think Mr. Hideo Kojima (creator of the Metal Gear Solid series), is thinking to himself now, "Metal Gear is coming!"


Here is a link to their website, check it out, its awesome!!!
http://suidobashijuko.jp

BREAKING NEWS- DARKNESS WITHIN

BREAKING NEWS everybody!! Machine Head has released a brand spanking new video for the song Darkness Within from their monolithic 7th studio album, The Locust.

I just watched the video myself, and I must say, wow, what a great video. It really represents the song, and what the song is about, something that i find is lost in a lot of heavy metal videos today.

http://loudwire.com/machine-head-darkness-within-exclusive-video-premiere/

Theres the link to where you can watch the vid. I can honestly say check it out even if you're just a lil bit of a Machine Head fan.

olympic shit?

well it is olympic time again, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one that doesn't really give to shites about it...

Now with the insane amounts of media coverage that it is getting (it is the biggest sports event in the world, given), one can't really escape watching an event or two.
But lets be honest, some of the events are bit shit.

Yes I am talking about events like, gymnastics, synchronized swimming and diving, equestrian cross country.

Now I am taking anything away from the athletes, they are amazing in what they do, I do have a lot of respect for what they do and how they do it.

But lets be honest, any sport where no matter what you do, or how well you do it, the outcome is decided by a panel of judges (old fossils from bygone  ages and times), who give you a score based on grace, style, and looks, where technicality is a small fraction of your score and not the whole score. I'm sorry but screw that.
some of those athletes do amazing things, really, but the fat fuck decides, no you're not graceful enough you loose. And I ask myself hey fatty can you do that, no I think not, now go back and eat you muffins again fatty...

I have the same problem with the synchronized diving and swimming as the gymnastics, bunch of tits sitting behind a desk deciding your performance for you, total shite i believe...








Now lets see whats left, ah yes, equestrian cross country.
The most obnoxious, snobby, up thighs "sport" I have ever witnessed in my entire life.
Now I put the word sport in inverted commas, because I cannot see this as a sport, it is a mode of transport people, goddamn, people rode horses for years, to get from point A to point B. But now it is a sport, but not a sport for everyone, to be able to partake in this sport, one needs to be one of the pseudo rich to afford this sport, spending millions of dollars on a horse, feeding, and taking care of the horse.
And then not the race this cash cow, or should I say cash horse, but to parade it up and down in front of judges once again, and then jump a few fences. oh please really, get a real job...

Now there are another two sport equally as stupid, but I'm not gonna write as much about them as well, cause it grinds me... firstly handball, looks like a sport made up by school kids during recess...
It's stupid, go play basketball or netball...
Fencing, really long ass needles, and you poke each other with them, really now, get real swords and fight it out, I would watch that actually...

Thats about it, I don't have much more to say about it.
Keep well folks, enjoy

big festivals on the horizon

So Download went off with a bang (no I wasn't there), and it's almost time for Bloodstock Open Air, and the biggest of the big, WACKEN (wish I was going to those 2)

Now I have unfortunately not been to one of these festivals, but goddman I would love to go.

One of my best mates, went to germany last year, the lucky son of a gun attended Wacken and Partysan, and the bastard is going again this year.

After he came back from his trip last year, after he told me all the stories, and chatting to a few other folks online about the festivals in mainland europe and in the UK, i have come to the realization that we as South Africans are just not used to shows of that magnitude.

Now what I mean by this, the folks from over the pond I chatted to, had no problem with the sheer size of these festivals, its what they're used to and what they know.

Now it's not that I'm saying we as South Africans don't know or to enjoy a good ol' festival, it's just that we aren't used to size of it.







When comparing our biggest festival which is Oppikoppi to Wacken. Last year Oppikoppi pulled about 13 thousand people (I stand corrected), where as Wacken pulled over 70 thousand.
Like my mate told me, at Wacken, if you don't get there 5 hours before your fav band starts you are barely going to make them out on top of the stage over the sea of people.
But at Partysan (which pulls about the same amount as oppi, i think a bit less), it was a lot better, everyone could see the band playing an so on...

Now this finally brings me to my point, South Africans, being as full of shit as we are. We like the smaller more personal shows, where the band can interact more with the crowd.
 Its strange we all here dream of going to these massive festivals, and we enjoy some aspects of it, but we still long for our smaller more homey fests.

Only thing I'm hoping for is that more of the bands playing these massive festivals, will come and visit our beautiful country, and see how we do a festivals...

The official 2012 Wacken trailer.

new music

Ok, so its been a while since i posted anything, or even checked my blog, and low and behold to my surprise,  I've got a 1400 views, hot damn.

But back to the chase, the thing i want to talk about is, 3 new bands that i have discovered in the last week.

let me start with Dutch symphonic metal band, Delain. Formed in 2001 by Martijn Westerholt (formerly of Within Temptation), at the time the band was just seen as a project featuring guest musicians and not as a live band.

The Band Has released 3 albums to date, and We Are The Others being the most recent.

Ok the second band is Halstorm. The American rock band, started by brother and sister Arejay and Lzzy Hale. Having toured with many rock and metal acts and being featured at quite a few big festivals, they are really making a name for themselves.

So far they have released 2 albums, with their latest being, The Strange Case Of...

Ok now the last band I want to mention is, Kobra And The Lotus. Them being the newest out of the 3 bands, and every1 is still waiting for the release of their new album.
Having played and going to play some of the biggest festivals in Europe, this band is really making waves in the metal world. The Band has been described by critics as NWOBHM, and compared to Iron Maiden and Iced Earth.

The Band is currently signed with Gene Simmons's record label, after struggling to get a signing after recording their second album.

Their second album is due for release in August of this year.

Now you may have realized, all of these bands are fronted by chicks, yes. Well i really like it, now I know there are a lot of metal fans out there that don't like style, but when you think of it, its pretty fucking awesome actually. A woman's voice over guitars and drums, has a total different sound than a man's. 

well hats off to the ladies for a great job!