I_Damian

I_Damian

12p

7 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

13 years ago @ Listverse - Top 10 Greatest Empire... · 0 replies · +2 points

I'm sure they filtered the USA because of the following 2 reasons:

1. It isn't an empire, it never has been an empire, despite what some may want to believe, And
2. History has not yet judged the USA, because it is the current world superpower, as yet unchallenged, and as yet still enjoying its 15 minutes of fame. Only when it all comes tumbling down (see 1 or 2 centuries from now) can history judge it based on the golden years.

Empires aren't judged great based on their military power. Make a great nation/empire unchallenged military power does not. One has to take all into account. There are acts of good and acts of bad, and acts of attrocities to take into account. The USA was born as an independent nation on acts of genocide of millions of natives, followed by a period of peace, and there is a lot to be said about dubious foreign policy resulting in horrific wars in Latin America, the sponsoring of dictators which killed hundreds of thousands, until more currently war in Iraq based on lies, and years of maybe decades from now war with nuclear nations like Korea and the bullying of Iran, which is one of the most peaceful nations on earth.

How will history judge that? I don't know, probably the same it judges the British empire. Some good, some bad, depending on the nationality and the bias of whoever is doing the judging, but it cannot be judged as yet, because it isn't all over yet.

As for having a hard time deciding between the HRE and the Spanish/Portugese, think of it like this. The HRE merely existed, in a fragmented clusterfluff of warring mini-states, and exerted little to no influence over its immediate neighbours, and none whatsoever anywhere else in the world.

The Spanish and Portugese empires speak for themselves. There's a reason a whole other continent than Europe is saturated with Spanish/Portugese culture and people, and, same as the Caliphate, why so much of the world is Catholic. Spain was to the new world what the Caliphate was to the middle-east.

13 years ago @ Listverse - 10 Fascinating Sealed ... · 0 replies · 0 points

Regarding #1 on this list, the sinking of the cap arcona, there is a full story published on the web called "The Dentist of Auschwitz", written by a Polish Jew who actually survived the sinking of the Arcona. Just do a google for "Dentist of Auschwitz" if you're interested. It details his survival of a great many forced labour camps, including Auschwitz, the forced march from Auschwitz days before Soviet liberation, and the second to last chapter details the Cap Arcona incident.

Good stuff.

13 years ago @ Listverse - Top 10 Biggest Travest... · 0 replies · +2 points

Looks like the Oscars are just like politics. Not about whoever deserves/ought to win based on merit, but rather who has the most money and can buy the most influential votes needed.

13 years ago @ Listverse - Top 10 Bizarre Modern ... · 0 replies · +1 points

The shadow people is merely a sleep paralysis thing. I've been suffering from sleep paralysis, at least once a week, for about 3 years now. The dream that preceeds me partially waking up is consistent. I stand up from my bed and walk over to the door. When I put my hand on the handle I am lifted through the air back in to my bed by an unknown force, where I awake, but only partially. I can open and move my eyes, but speech and movement are utterly paralyzed.

This is where I see these so called "Shadow people". They stand motionless, staring at me, just 3 or 4 blotchy shadows. This can go on for 10 seconds, or as long as 3 or 4 minutes, before I regain speech and movement and they disappear.

I know it's a figment of the imagination because it has happened several times when I have been asleep on the sofa and other people have been in the room, and I have tried desperately to talk to them to tell them to shake me awake or something, because I hate sleep paralysis, but my mouth won't move, and words won't come out, and if they were actually there, the other people would see them, obviously.

It doesn't bother me like it used to, meaning, it doesn't scare me witless like it did the first few times, now that I've accepted that it's just my imagination projecting my dreams into the real world when half of my brain awakes. But yeah, that's my explanation for shadow people, at least when they stare at sleeping people, only to disappear when they awake.

My uncle has sleep paralysis too, except he sees, what he calls, a "gremlin", which runs up his bed and sits on his chest, and the little guy is extremely heavy for its small size, impeding his breathing. Guess it runs in the family. =P

13 years ago @ Listverse - Top 10 Utterly Useless... · 0 replies · +2 points

Why is Varus on the list? He wasn't necessarily a useless military commander, he mobilized his legions and marched to where trouble was brewing, and got ambushed on the way.

You said yourself in the article that in the Teutoberg forest in Germania the Roman legions were useless. Varus couldn't exactly gallop along a 6 mile long line of his soldiers, whilst under relentless missile fire, in the rain and mud, giving orders to 3 legions which were in marching formation, could he?

If you really wanted to put a Roman on this list, there are a great many who were useless military leaders, especially since in Rome men weren't given command of an army based on merit, but based on who they knew and how much money they could give in "gifts" to the right people. How about Crassus? Marched a Roman army, which was famously reliant on heavy infantry as its core, into the Parthian desert, and got massacred by a number of horse archers and armoured lancers a quarter of the size of his own army, then tried to flee, got captured and had molten gold poured down his throat.

13 years ago @ Listverse - 10 Heroic Last Stands ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Fantastic list. Very happy to see Rorkes Drift and Bastogne on there. Only thing missing was one of the many Polish last stands against the Nazi's in 1939. There were a great many, and I'd have to do some research to decide which was the "best", but, contrary to what people believed, the Polish fought hard against the Nazis, in some battles taking German POW's (1,500 being the most that I know of), and never charged German tanks with cavalry and lances, despite what the history channel will tell you, it was mere propaganda at the time.

There was even a Polish cavalry attack into East Prussia, which met with absolutely no success whatsoever, but still.

13 years ago @ Listverse - Top 10 Greatest Empire... · 4 replies · +2 points

I had to sign up just to post a comment about this list, as only anybody ignorant of history could think it good, or even let it slip through, for that matter. Although some nations are in the right places, most are in the wrong place, and some shouldn't even be there.

First of all, the Ottoman empire has absolutely no right being on any list of great empires. The Ottoman empire dismantled the Byzantine empire, then did nothing except mooch off its wealth for 450 years before collapsing, leaving behind it conditions on the Greek peninsula and in the Balkans of poverty and near constant genocide that really only ended in the early 1990's. The Greek/Makedonian empire of Alexander the Great should occupy this space, even if it lasted for only a grand total of less than a decade, the subsequent fragmentation of Alexander's conquered lands between his Greek and Makedonian generals had an absolutely colossal impact on the culture of all his empire encompassed.

Numbers 9 and 8 ought to be switched, with the Caliphate occupying number 9 (which is highly debatable at best) and the Persian empire at number 8. The Persian Empire definitely deserves a place on the list.

While there is no doubt the Han dynasty contributed much in terms of science, China had almost no impact on the world, in terms of science, until the 16th or 17th centuries, and has never actually had an empire, only been part of one, conquered by others. Number 6 here could be occupied by so many other empires that contributed so much.

The British empire, obviously, should have made the list, but not at number 5. The British empire ought to have been number 2, being beaten only by ancient Rome, which is one of the very few things you got right.

Your biggest mistake, and one which shows you don't have knowledge enough to write a list like this, is placing the "Holy Roman Empire" not only on the list at all, but AHEAD of the British empire! Have you never heard the phrase: "The Holy Roman Empire is neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire"? The HRE, even at the height of its unification, was never ruled by a single man or government, and for practically all of its history existed in the form of HUNDREDS of independent city-states, some literally smaller than a small town that weren't even on any maps of the world, and were constantly at war with each other. The Austro-Hungarian would have been a better addition, and that's saying something, considering they did absolutely nothing but expand, then implode, leaving behind horrific conditions in the once-occupied territories.

Again, the Russian empire has no right of place on this list. Not when one considered the other empires that were formed and existed around the same time-frame as the Russian empire.

Following the same suit, the Mongol empire, while massive, didn't last very long after the death of its founder, and contributed little to nothing to the world, except the partial unification of practically all of Europe at the time, which is, admittedly, an astounding feat, due to their absolute fear of the Mongol barbarians. This one would have been better left numberless, as a bonus perhaps.

Notable empires you decided not to include, for some bizarre reason: Spanish, French, Dutch (which at certain times in its existence destroyed both the Spanish AND the British navies, (albeit whilst they were anchored at home ports), Carthage, Egypt, and possibly even the Parthian empire, which inflicted such a great defeat on the Roman empire when Rome was at the height of its power, that Augustus, the first true emperor, sought to make amends, apologize and establish friendly relations and trade with the Parthians.