Preparedness for when

GreyQueen

Softstuff wrote: »

I would join you in the elephant pie, but it won't fit in my oven.

Off to hospital now, see you in a while.

I think it's the ultimate preparedness to remove bits now that may cause you bother later. :rotfl:

Take care, Softstuff, and come back to posting when you're able to reassure us that you're OK.

Are you going to ask for the removed bits in a pickle jar as a souvenir? Could be a conversation piece for the lounge, or possibly the raw materials for an OS craft project........there's a thread for that, prolly.

the_cake

Much love Softstuff, come back soon x

Perplexed_Pineapple

GreyQueen wrote: »

I'm reading a history book about the role of the military archer in the Hundred Years War, and it was pretty shocking how the developments in the range of the longbow and the skill of the archers swung the battles in France (and also England's battles with what are now the northern and western parts of the UK) in our favour. At the battle of Crecy, the flower of French chivalry all armoured on horseback was lined up behind a vanguard of crossbowmen, expecting to thunder past them once they'd sliced the English ranks to pieces.

Only the crossbowmen didn't understand how powerful the English longbows had become and that they thought they were outside the range, but had the longbowmen inside their own range. They were wrong about that, and suffered enormous losses until they broke and ran, then the knights were getting skewered.

There are credible reconstructions of ancient longbows with pulls well north of 100 lb, even 170 lb, over 7 ft tall and they can shoot 350 yards in skilled hands. My modern American flatbow isn't a true longbow in the classic sense, it's a modern variant made possible by lamination of various woods and fibreglass, but it has a pull of 36 lb, and is 5.5 ft tall. Some of my friends can't draw the string back, because they're not used to putting their muscles to such a use.

It's no exaggeration to say that longbows have shaped this country's history. That insulting guesture with the two raised fingers is a throwback to the wars with France, the archers taunting the enemy that they still had their fingers - you draw the bowstring with your index, middle and ring fingers only, no thumbs or pinkies, and the enemy would maim captured archers' hands so they couldn't shoot again.

I've read quite a lot about that period of history. One of the key things about the English longbow was, that it was a technological advance that the French couldn't copy quickly to retaliate. If you compare to the first world war, when the Germans copied the idea of tanks (a British invention) within weeks, it took years and years to train someone to the level of strength and skill to use a longbow so the English had the upper hand for decades.

GreyQueen wrote: »

I always serve roasted elephant with a side of cranberry sauce, myself.

I fancy some roast spuds and some horseradish with my elephant if it's all the same to you :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

Get this; a compound bow fires an arrow at one-third of the speed of light.

That can't be right.

Such an arrow would be travelling at 216 million miles per hour, which is around 30 times the speed of .303 bullet.

Are you sure it's not one-third of the speed of sound?

[Deleted User]

from a week across the channel, the primary purpose of which was, the celebrations, of the 25th Anniversary, of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Softstuff

I'm back and seemingly all well. I'm enjoying the benefits of pain relief that's on the restricted drugs list - normal people would say beware if I post any nonsense, I'll say instead that I may actually make sense right now!

It occurs to me, that if the proverbial really hit the fan, it would be sensible to have already had any outstanding surgery done. Well worth it in my mind particularly for couples who are not having kids or who have completed their family to look at permanent solutions for birth control. After all, look at the expiry dates on forms of birth control and wonder what you'd do after that if we really were in desperate times. And heck, a bit of nookie might be the best entertainment going at that point :rotfl:

GreyQueen

Glad you're back and enjoying what are presumably the opiates, Softstuff. Happy healing and take it easy.

Yes, there have been issues raised in prepping books and websites before about having elective surgeries sooner rather than later. One things for sure, people will still be people and when you have to make your own entertainment.............there's always a mini baby boom after powercuts, isn't there?

Since childbearing is the riskiest thing for women, for those who didn't intend to procreate, or had finished their families, a permanant solution could be a good idea.

Bob, that's me trusting a schoolteacher. Can you run the calc with the compound bow's rate of sending an arrow at 340 feet per second? I have to go to work in a minute and don't do big sums at this time of day.

Yup, archers were trained from age 7, progessively building up their strength until the stresses on the bones would leave a permanant legacy in the bones. If you practise like that, every day, you achieve a high standard but you have to work it to keep it.

I can pull a 45 lb longbow, but not easily, because I only shoot once a week with the occasional missed week. With 2-3 practise sessions per week, even with a woman's strength, I could be using a 50-60 lb bow, but since I mostly shoot indoors, that would be tad overkill.

Karmacat

Elective surgery ... Dian Fossey had her appendix removed before going to study gorillas in the Virunga Mountains ... Louis Leakey says it was a joke, but it made it into the film in all seriousness: http://www.unmuseum.org/fossey.htm

Softstuff

Karmacat wrote: »

Elective surgery ... Dian Fossey had her appendix removed before going to study gorillas in the Virunga Mountains ... Louis Leakey says it was a joke, but it made it into the film in all seriousness: http://www.unmuseum.org/fossey.htm

It used to be that people would undertake various surgeries prophylactically (appendix, tonsils, heck, even teeth out) as far as I know. Doctors now are certainly a bit more conservative with some of those now.

Interestingly, should there be any ladies contemplating sterilisation as a procedure (forgive me at this stage if I've said this before), tubal ligation has apparently between a 1 in 400 and 1 in 200 failure rate (depending on the study you look at). I don't like those odds. Removing the tubes themselves, whilst being a slightly larger surgery, removes the possibility entirely, whilst at the same time drastically reducing the risk of certain forms of ovarian cancer (the deadlier kinds apparently originate in the tubes, not the ovaries).

Food for thought and certainly something to discuss with a doctor if anyone is contemplating such a thing. Though I realise that this may be a little more out there for some.

armyknife

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

That can't be right.

Such an arrow would be travelling at 216 million miles per hour, which is around 30 times the speed of .303 bullet.

Are you sure it's not one-third of the speed of sound?

Indeed though the speed of light is considerable faster than that, at around 300,000 km per second.

And that bullet isn't 30 times slower, but probably something like 300,000 times slower.