[QUOTE=kaine123;46962904]I always thought it was interesting how the level of horror that took place in the holocaust was being discovered by soviet troops, whose own nation had committed similar atrocities only a few years before during Stalin's purges.[/QUOTE]
I'm sure if your average Red Army conscript saw what the Soviets did at Katyn, they'd be pretty horrified. And I'm sure if your average Wehrmacht conscript saw how high a pile of ash got after one day in Auschwitz, he'd have a nervous breakdown.
Majdanek was a small camp, only managed to murder around 80,000 Jews and other prisoners. Aushwitz was reported to kill between 10,000 and 30,000 every single [i]day[/i]. People see the number of 6-25 million murdered, but it's hard to fathom and actually put that number of people in perspective. Killing that many people in a 4 year span is absolutely insane; the Nazis took the concept of mass murder and made it more efficient than any other group in history. Around 20,000 jews were killed every single [i]day[/i] for 4 years.
[QUOTE=kaine123;46962904]I always thought it was interesting how the level of horror that took place in the holocaust was being discovered by soviet troops, whose own nation had committed similar atrocities only a few years before during Stalin's purges.[/QUOTE]
As with both the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, the majority of the slaughter happened behind the front lines or in the remoteness of the gulags and concentration camps. Most of the dirty work was conducted by the governments' more ruthless corps such as the SS or the NKVD. Many soldiers on both sides would have heard rumors of such atrocities, but propaganda and fear caused most not to investigate, and those curious or just witnesses were always under the vigilant eyes of the many political officers and the like among their ranks.
[QUOTE=BackwardSpy;46963093]When this stream was created a while back, I set up an HTML screensaver program linked to the fullscreen version of that stream. I'm still using it to this day; it's the best screensaver I've ever had.[/QUOTE]
Can you think of any way one could pipe it through to Windows as an automatic screensaver? I always wanted a PS3-style Earthscape screensaver, but this would be so much cooler
[editline]19th January 2015[/editline]
aw shit
[url]http://david.steadson.com/2014/05/07/live-stream-the-world-as-your-screensaver/[/url]
[QUOTE=StickyWicket;46964862]As with both the Bolsheviks and the Nazis, the majority of the slaughter happened behind the front lines or in the remoteness of the gulags and concentration camps. Most of the dirty work was conducted by the governments' more ruthless corps such as the SS or the NKVD. Many soldiers on both sides would have heard rumors of such atrocities, but propaganda and fear caused most not to investigate, and those curious or just witnesses were always under the vigilant eyes of the many political officers and the like among their ranks.[/QUOTE]
And that is exactly what I find horrifying about these totalitarian regimes. People often just [I]disappeared[/I] after they were arrested and many never came back. Most evidence just vanished in secret archives as well, so people just ceased to exist.
I'm sure these two pictures have been posted before, but I still think they are important enough to be posted again:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/JbTrIOD.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/XDgMWnR.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]Stalin and Nikolai Yezhov, head of the NKVD. After Yezhov was executed, he was edited out of the image.[/QUOTE]
Stalin committed unimaginable atrocities against many of the peoples of the Soviet Union, because of his personal paranoia. He starved Ukrainians and Russian peasants to death by the millions, deported Crimean Tatars, Gypsies and Jews, arrested and executed hundreds of thousands of Russians, Belorussians and other "political dissidents". It is believed by some historians that he was the cause of as many as [I]10-11 million deaths[/I] in the Soviet Union [I]before[/I] World War Two began.
If some of you have plenty of time on your hands, I would recommend reading the book "Life and Fate" by Vasily Grossman, a Soviet Russian/Ukrainian Jewish journalist that covered the entirety of the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Moscow"]Battle of Moscow[/URL], the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad"]Battle of Stalingrad[/URL], the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kursk"]Battle of Kursk[/URL] and the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Berlin"]Battle of Berlin[/URL]. It it very critical of Stalinism and was even partly written while Stalin himself was alive. The book was arrested by Soviet authorities and only published by defectors in the west 21 years after it was written. Grossman himself did not see it published, he died of cancer in 1964 after being reduced to nothing by the Soviet authorities.
[img]http://assets.vancitybuzz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/woodwards-sign-1938.jpg?f91710[/img]
[i]The Woodward's Spotlight, circa 1938. After the war it was replaced with the now iconic rotating neon[/i] [highlight]W[/highlight][i] sign. It was taken down when the Woodward's Building was demolished in 2006. It was replaced with a modern version and installed in 2010 in the new Woodward's Plaza.[/i]
[img]http://thevisiblecity.ca/upload/enseignes-signs/9/photos/120/large/installation_of_woodwards_new_sign_2010.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Trunk Monkay;46964294]I'm sure if your average Red Army conscript saw what the Soviets did at Katyn, they'd be pretty horrified. And I'm sure if your average Wehrmacht conscript saw how high a pile of ash got after one day in Auschwitz, he'd have a nervous breakdown.
Majdanek was a small camp, only managed to murder around 80,000 Jews and other prisoners. Aushwitz was reported to kill between 10,000 and 30,000 every single [i]day[/i]. People see the number of 6-25 million murdered, but it's hard to fathom and actually put that number of people in perspective. Killing that many people in a 4 year span is absolutely insane; the Nazis took the concept of mass murder and made it more efficient than any other group in history. Around 20,000 jews were killed every single [i]day[/i] for 4 years.[/QUOTE]
I've never seen 25 million claimed murders at Nazi concentration camps. 6 million Jews died, a couple of million non-Jews did as well iirc. Extermination of Jews didn't start systematically until after the Wahnsee conference in 1942, and the rate definitely varied a lot.
By your numbers a total of 30 million Jews died during WWII, which would be half the total number of casualties in WWII. Doesn't really make sense.
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;46966839]I've never seen 25 million claimed murders at Nazi concentration camps. 6 million Jews died, a couple of million non-Jews did as well iirc. Extermination of Jews didn't start systematically until after the Wahnsee conference in 1942, and the rate definitely varied a lot.
By your numbers a total of 30 million Jews died during WWII, which would be half the total number of casualties in WWII. Doesn't really make sense.[/QUOTE]
The estimated numbers vary between 6 and 25 depending on who's definition you go by, it also depends whose studies you prefer, and my numbers include anyone killed in a camp or otherwise (events like Babi Yar and occupied Poland), not just Jews alone. You also have to remember that around 60% of Russian POW's were sent to death camps as well.
IIRC the US Holocaust Memorial Museum put an article out about 2 or 3 years ago stating the death tole was around 20-25.
[QUOTE=GoDong-DK;46966839]I've never seen 25 million claimed murders at Nazi concentration camps. 6 million Jews died, a couple of million non-Jews did as well iirc. Extermination of Jews didn't start systematically until after the Wahnsee conference in 1942, and the rate definitely varied a lot.
By your numbers a total of 30 million Jews died during WWII, which would be half the total number of casualties in WWII. Doesn't really make sense.[/QUOTE]
Well he did say 6-25. Many hundreds of thousands of Red Army prisoners of war died of disease, cold and starvation in forced labor work camps because they were literally worked to death, as the Germans saw them as subhumans and never planned to feed them in any case.
[img]http://sumptuousart.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Misc_20110930_007_HDR-Edit-1024x677.jpg[/img]
Underground Seattle WA.
Seattle burned down on June 6, 1889.
They built modern day Seattle ontop of the remains of the underground. They offer ghost tours and shit of the underground, I've been on one it's pretty awesome.
Cramped up apartments in Hong Kong from above:
[t]http://i.imgur.com/mFkJa82.jpg[/t]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/WYFhTe1.jpg[/t]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/BpiND1w.jpg[/t]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/xo62lmb.jpg[/t]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/ELaDjLi.jpg[/t]
[URL="http://petapixel.com/2013/02/19/cramped-apartments-in-hong-kong-shot-from-directly-above/#more-102222"]sauce[/URL]
[QUOTE]According to the SoCO, over 100,000 people live in tiny “cubicle apartments” in the city. These are 40-square-foot living spaces created by dividing already-small apartments into multiple units.
Residents go about their lives in these confined spaces, sleeping on one corner, eating in another, storing their belongings in a third, and perhaps watching a TV that’s found in a fourth.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Daylight;46971083][img]http://sumptuousart.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Misc_20110930_007_HDR-Edit-1024x677.jpg[/img]
Underground Seattle WA.
Seattle burned down on June 6, 1889.
They built modern day Seattle ontop of the remains of the underground. They offer ghost tours and shit of the underground, I've been on one it's pretty awesome.[/QUOTE]
I've been there and it's really cool in person and according to the tour guide parts of it are haunted.
Probably late but it's still a fantastic visual treat.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv1ZN8c4_Gs&feature=youtu.be[/media]
[QUOTE=MadBomber;46977927]Probably late but it's still a fantastic visual treat.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jv1ZN8c4_Gs&feature=youtu.be[/media][/QUOTE]
It's all from this, btw. If you want the original.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjXr9Nj5ZbI[/media]
Well shit, I did not know this.
Neat song though. Seems like you've introduced me to a new band.
[editline]sdfg[/editline]
My automerge.
[QUOTE=booster;46971827][img]http://th07.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/234/4/6/autumn_by_fear_sas-d6j7nm8.jpg[/img]
[img]http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2012/009/8/8/kingdom_of_the_clouds_by_syntetyc-d4lty48.jpg[/img]
[img]http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/088/1/e/the_storm_by_syntetyc-d5zo64z.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Looking at these while listening to this was so relaxing. As well as other art posted in this thread.
[video=youtube;dYCW7i2OiKk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYCW7i2OiKk[/video]
[QUOTE=timenotwellspen;46976438]I've been there and it's really cool in person and according to the tour guide parts of it are haunted.[/QUOTE]
Would be a pretty boring ghost tour is the guide said "yeah it's pretty old but there are definitely no ghosts down here", wouldn't it?
[QUOTE=Bonde;46965216]The book was arrested by Soviet authorities[/QUOTE]
You can arrest books?
[QUOTE=Pilotguy97;46978055]It's all from this, btw. If you want the original.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjXr9Nj5ZbI[/media][/QUOTE]
Most fictional or stylized portrayals of WWII air combat make me frown upon how flat and empty the writers think about the subject, as if it was all about determined warriors in the sky. It all makes me think of my grandfather. He was a fighter pilot in the German Luftwaffe and in the last years before his death, he wrote down a detailed account of his experiences. On the front page it says we grandkids should only read his stories when we were mature enough not to expect awesome tales of heroism and violence. Because there were no heroes and warriors in the air during WWII. Just pilots.
He describes an unimaginable world of strange values that hardly fits in with peoples common perception of the people, the soldiers or even the nations of that time.
Most fighter pilots were just that. Pilots. People that flew planes, even before the war had started. Aviation is a thing in our family, my great-grandfather had been a pilot and my grandfather followed in his footsteps. When the war broke out he stood before the choice of leaving the country or joining the Luftwaffe. Like many other pilots, he wasn't oblivious to the fact that his country was going to war under the rulership of a fanatical dictator and that getting drafted into the Wehrmacht meant certain death. So a lot of strangely similar minded people were trained to fly fighter planes, people that didn't join out of political motivation but because they figured their chances of survival in the air were greater than survival on the ground, rifle in hand, against all the rest of the world. There was even somewhat of an anti-authoritarian mindset present. That is not to say that there weren't absolute scum in the luftwaffe, in fact, most were. But it also seemed to attract surprisingly many people who had different ideals.
On his first day, he picked up the body parts of crashed training pilots in a shoe box. Death was a reoccurring subject and nobody was oblivious to that. Of the people you befriended in the barracks, many would just not come back after a mission and when you came back alive it was a reason to celebrate, so much that my grandfather ruined his liver and almost killed himself with drinking rather than in combat.
They all just wanted to do the required task and return safely. Everyone, not just the Germans.
Thats why noone would go through great lengths to finish off a damaged plane with daring maneuvers, nobody would risk their lives just to make sure the other guy went down in flames. They shot up each others planes, yes, the machines belonged to different nations at war but the pilots themselves were of one breed. Going after pilots or parachutes was considered hateful and disgusting and if you yielded in areal combat you had a good chance of bringing your damaged machine down on the next best spot without having to worry about someone murdering you as you retreat.
He himself got shot down over England and received a visit from the pilot who got him. He brought a bottle of liquor that they enjoyed together while my grandfather was recovering and such gestures were a common thing. It wasn't about the flags, they were all just people in planes.
There sure were exceptions, one especially cruel character famed himself with his many kills when all he did was mercilessly shoot Russian pilots in vastly inferior machines for the sake of glory and fame, such people did exist of course. But most of them died because they took stupid risks.
I miss that human element when people try to portrayal WWII areal combat. They always show the violent, bloodthirsty, destructive aspect, weather they glorify or criticize it, as if 'violence is bad' was a lesson that still needed driving home after being told so many times. I think there is also something to be learned from that other, more human side.
[QUOTE=H4ngman;46983264]Most fictional or stylized portrayals of WWII air combat make me frown upon how flat and empty the writers think about the subject, as if it was all about determined warriors in the sky. It all makes me think of my grandfather. He was a fighter pilot in the German Luftwaffe and in the last years before his death, he wrote down a detailed account of his experiences. On the front page it says we grandkids should only read his stories when we were mature enough not to expect awesome tales of heroism and violence. Because there were no heroes and warriors in the air during WWII. Just pilots.
He describes an unimaginable world of strange values that hardly fits in with peoples common perception of the people, the soldiers or even the nations of that time.
Most fighter pilots were just that. Pilots. People that flew planes, even before the war had started. Aviation is a thing in our family, my great-grandfather had been a pilot and my grandfather followed in his footsteps. When the war broke out he stood before the choice of leaving the country or joining the Luftwaffe. Like many other pilots, he wasn't oblivious to the fact that his country was going to war under the rulership of a fanatical dictator and that getting drafted into the Wehrmacht meant certain death. So a lot of strangely similar minded people were trained to fly fighter planes, people that didn't join out of political motivation but because they figured their chances of survival in the air were greater than survival on the ground, rifle in hand, against all the rest of the world. There was even somewhat of an anti-authoritarian mindset present. That is not to say that there weren't absolute scum in the luftwaffe, in fact, most were. But it also seemed to attract surprisingly many people who had different ideals.
On his first day, he picked up the body parts of crashed training pilots in a shoe box. Death was a reoccurring subject and nobody was oblivious to that. Of the people you befriended in the barracks, many would just not come back after a mission and when you came back alive it was a reason to celebrate, so much that my grandfather ruined his liver and almost killed himself with drinking rather than in combat.
They all just wanted to do the required task and return safely. Everyone, not just the Germans.
Thats why noone would go through great lengths to finish off a damaged plane with daring maneuvers, nobody would risk their lives just to make sure the other guy went down in flames. They shot up each others planes, yes, the machines belonged to different nations at war but the pilots themselves were of one breed. Going after pilots or parachutes was considered hateful and disgusting and if you yielded in areal combat you had a good chance of bringing your damaged machine down on the next best spot without having to worry about someone murdering you as you retreat.
He himself got shot down over England and received a visit from the pilot who got him. He brought a bottle of liquor that they enjoyed together while my grandfather was recovering and such gestures were a common thing. It wasn't about the flags, they were all just people in planes.
There sure were exceptions, one especially cruel character famed himself with his many kills when all he did was mercilessly shoot Russian pilots in vastly inferior machines for the sake of glory and fame, such people did exist of course. But most of them died because they took stupid risks.
I miss that human element when people try to portrayal WWII areal combat. They always show the violent, bloodthirsty, destructive aspect, weather they glorify or criticize it, as if 'violence is bad' was a lesson that still needed driving home after being told so many times. I think there is also something to be learned from that other, more human side.[/QUOTE]
I remember reading and or watching something about an RAF pilot who started chasing a german plane in the skies of britain just as the Battle of Britain was coming to a close, he was wondering exactly why the plane was alone so he chased after it and saw that the pilot was rather young, and looks "fresh" so he decided to just let him go instead of shoot him down, Its rather understandable really that many pilots have that mindset. Its not a job for everyone and most people that take on the role of a fighter pilot were often of the same background.
[editline]21st January 2015[/editline]
There is also this if you are interesting in reading about certain scenarios. Its honestly extremely fascniating.
[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Brown_and_Franz_Stigler_incident[/url]
[QUOTE]Through the damaged bomber's airframe Stigler was clearly able to see the injured and incapacitated crew. To the American pilot's surprise, Stigler did not open fire on the crippled bomber. Remembering the words of one of his commanding officers from Jagdgeschwader 27, Gustav Rödel, during his time fighting in North Africa, “You are fighter pilots first, last, always. If I ever hear of any of you shooting at someone in a parachute, I'll shoot you myself." Stigler later commented, "To me, it was just like they were in a parachute. I saw them and I couldn't shoot them down."[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=booster;46982695]
[img]http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/253/8/7/don_t_look_at_it__don_t_look__by_drombyb-d6lnepw.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
I can't help but think of kracko from kirby.
[IMG]http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110417163738/kirby/en/images/thumb/6/65/Kracko.png/500px-Kracko.png[/IMG]
[t]http://www.esa.int/var/esa/storage/images/esa_multimedia/images/2012/09/laser_from_optical_ground_station_on_tenerife/11655172-7-eng-GB/Laser_from_Optical_Ground_Station_on_Tenerife.jpg[/t]
[t]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0902/20090223mmjm2000px_MikeSalway.jpg[/t]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/7gdhWca.jpg[/t]
[t]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1002/shuttleapproaching_nasa_big.jpg[/t]
[t]http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2003-23-c-full_jpg.jpg[/t]
[t]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3744/9449352803_fa51670274_o.jpg[/t]
[t]https://ppcdn.500px.org/82387683/b7c7a25fea0eb4ae3c5a57e8bb5c44827134f5c7/2048.jpg[/t]
[t]https://ppcdn.500px.org/95110903/728db8223b63b9dd2c29e025919f2e1f49863950/2048.jpg[/t]
[t]http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-9_49zCxr65M/VKWNF4WR07I/AAAAAAAAAPA/PF9VxmiqIsw/w858-h572-no/Starry-Nights-3-web.jpg[/t]
[editline]22nd January 2015[/editline]
[t]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1407/m106_lg2048.jpg[/t]
[t]https://ppcdn.500px.org/93721113/0c5459b4a76cc4a99f70139f054ffa510513a514/2048.jpg[/t]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/cXvI5Qe.jpg[/t]
[editline]22nd January 2015[/editline]
[t]http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2014/091/c/d/ocean_of_clouds_by_janpusdrowski-d7cjltf.png[/t]
[editline]22nd January 2015[/editline]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/5ha5dy8.jpg[/t]
[editline]22nd January 2015[/editline]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/7GvErBh.jpg[/t]
[t]http://aboutkazakhstan.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/astana-city-kazakhstan-14.jpg[/t]
[editline]22nd January 2015[/editline]
[t]http://i.imgur.com/L8q5h2S.jpg[/t]
Donetsk Airport.
From this
[url]http://i.imgur.com/e1wQGu9.jpg[/url]
[url]http://i.imgur.com/9Y1JWJC.jpg[/url]
To this
[url]http://imgur.com/a/7arJg[/url]
I've seen reports of it on the local news that that airport was renovated in 2012, and costed 500 million.
It's insane how they trashed the fucking place.
[QUOTE=godfatherk;46988338][IMG]http://i.imgur.com/7gdhWca.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
More info on this here
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2SFlAA1TgI[/media]
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