http://tspwiki.com/index.php?title=1569
Here are some one liners...
Mercator Projections Made Perfect for Nautical Navigation -- The shortest distance between two points is a straight line... unless you are on a globe. Mercator flattens out the globe so that you can draw a straight line on the global map.
Good God! The Saint Paul Lottery! -- Another first for England. I talk about Ben Franklin, cannons and the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
The Protestant vs Catholic Churn -- Lots of churn as the Protestants and Catholics fight it out.
How do you sail a compass line course over the curvature of the Earth when all you have is a flat map to plot it? Answer... a Mercator projection. It is the globe of the world projected onto a flat surface. The features at the equator are exactly proportional but as the map goes north and south the land masses become distorted while the lines of longitude and latitude remain straight. This allows a navigator to plot a straight line course on a flat map rather than a curved-looking course on any other map. In the movies, whenever you see a navigator with a grease pencil and a straight edge marking the course of his ship, you know now that he is using some view of a Mercator map. [1] [2]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Unfortunately the Mercator projection does poorly at the north and south poles. This may explain why in the early years of commercial flight the airlines failed to realize that a polar route to certain destinations was a lot closer than flying over the Atlantic. Pilots of the past tended to think of sea navigation using the Mercator map. Once they viewed a polar projection, their error was obvious to see. The Mercator map is also the reason why people think that Greenland is so freakishly bigger than it actually is. [3]
Unfortunately the Mercator projection does poorly at the north and south poles. This may explain why in the early years of commercial flight the airlines failed to realize that a polar route to certain destinations was a lot closer than flying over the Atlantic. Pilots of the past tended to think of sea navigation using the Mercator map. Once they viewed a polar projection, their error was obvious to see. The Mercator map is also the reason why people think that Greenland is so freakishly bigger than it actually is. [3]
Good God! The Saint Paul Lottery!
It's all for the public good, says Queen Elizabeth the 1st, as England's first lottery sells up to 400,000 tickets. It is held at Saint Paul's Cathedral and the Queen offers fine china and cash prizes. This is an experiment in raising money for the general fund and certain pet projects. It is advertised as being for the public good. It is probably doing someone some good. During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin will use a lottery to finance the purchase of cannons. The first public lotteries began in the Netherlands so the English word "lottery" comes from the Dutch word meaning "fate". [4] [5] [6] [7]
My Take by Alex Shrugged
Lest anyone think that Christians have cornered the market on gambling, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah uses gambling directly. The driedle (DRAY-dill) is a spinning top with four sides. You put money in the pot, spin the top and depending on how it falls, you collect the money or put more in. WHY GAMBLE? In 175 BCE, the study of the Bible was outlawed by the Greek king. Nevertheless, Jews continued to study the Bible but they would also put out a gambling top and money so that if the authorities broke down the door, they would think that the Jews were gambling. Gambling was OK, but studying the Bible was not! After the Greek king was thrown out of Israel, part of remembering the holiday is to light candles, and play with that little gambling top. [8] [9]
Lest anyone think that Christians have cornered the market on gambling, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah uses gambling directly. The driedle (DRAY-dill) is a spinning top with four sides. You put money in the pot, spin the top and depending on how it falls, you collect the money or put more in. WHY GAMBLE? In 175 BCE, the study of the Bible was outlawed by the Greek king. Nevertheless, Jews continued to study the Bible but they would also put out a gambling top and money so that if the authorities broke down the door, they would think that the Jews were gambling. Gambling was OK, but studying the Bible was not! After the Greek king was thrown out of Israel, part of remembering the holiday is to light candles, and play with that little gambling top. [8] [9]
The Protestant vs Catholic Churn
A lot is happening this year as the Protestants and Catholics fight for power.- The French Catholics beat the Huguenot Calvinists at the battle of Jarnac. Most of the Huguenots will live to fight another day. [10]
- At the Battle of Orthez, the Catholics surrender to the Huguenots on condition that their lives be spared. Then the Catholics are massacred. [11]
- The Rising of the Northern Earls against Queen Elizabeth the 1st (Protestant) attempt to place Mary, Queen of Scots (a Catholic) on the throne. It doesn't work. [12]
- And other battles too numerous to list here.
My Take by Alex Shrugged
It really didn't matter who was the dominant religion in a particular country. The nations craved stability. Unfortunately, the rule was that people of a country had to take on the religion of the ruler... generally speaking. It is not a strict rule yet, but it is becoming more and more the norm. Naturally, if you are the opposite religion to your ruler, you either leave or you go to war to change your leader. The rule on religion was supposed to homogenize the population and bring stability to the region but all it is causing is churn, churn, churn.
It really didn't matter who was the dominant religion in a particular country. The nations craved stability. Unfortunately, the rule was that people of a country had to take on the religion of the ruler... generally speaking. It is not a strict rule yet, but it is becoming more and more the norm. Naturally, if you are the opposite religion to your ruler, you either leave or you go to war to change your leader. The rule on religion was supposed to homogenize the population and bring stability to the region but all it is causing is churn, churn, churn.
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