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A pamphlet written by Blaise Pascal's sister Jacqueline after she escaped from the nunnery of Port-Royal where his brother had by force confined her. At first only a few hand copies circulated, until an obscure English printer (descendant of the one who had printed John Dee's translation of the...

For the period of the Seven Years Wars the rich 'Not By Appointment' blog, but of course you already know it.

The Puckle was not a volley gun like the Nordenfelt : indeed since it used pre-loaded cylinders the single-barrelled Puckle was not different on this account from modern machine guns fed from belts, drums or box magazines. The real difference with 'true' machine guns was that it was not fully...

Spiritism taken far more seriously? People such as Victor Hugo and Conan Doyle were its strong advocates, and for sure many other believed in it if not so openly; and it was generally not seen as incompatible with the Christian faith (to-day only 'divination' / 'foreseeing' is condemned by the...

With a drastic and early enough POD anything can work: no Hebraic monotheistic reformation, and the world some 2,400 years later would be very, very different...

No, 'theory' is vague and non-committal. You're probably meaning 'scientific theory' but then, according to Popperian orthodoxy, the 'scientific' status of a theory has nothing to do with the possibility to 'prove' it, since no theory, scientific or otherwise, can ever be 'proved': theories can...

Does not a redeemer / redemptor / savior require a form of 'original sin'? Sounds very specific to me (far more so than mere dualism).

Don't forget how fiercely patriarchal and sexist the Judaic society was at the time (the veil, the stoning to death of an adulterous wife while an adulterous husband is at worst fined, &c. are rooted in Judaism). God was *male* and Eve, at the origin of the 'original sin' since dooming entire...

Catalonia was indeed turned into four French départements from January 1812 to March 1814. Indeed the historical relationships between Catalonia and France have a long standing of attraction / repulsion, for a part because traditionally Catalonia perceived Castile even more foreign than France...

Maybe anecdotal with regard to the subject, but Catherine had a 100-strong ceremonial 'Amazon Guard' raised by Potemkin in march 1787 from wives and daughters of soldiers of the Balaklava Greek Settled Battalion to escort her during her tour of Crimea with Joseph II.

Did not an early Czar fearing assassination sleep among tamed bears because human bodyguards can be tamed but bears cannot? But it's in the same category as Ramses II's pet lion and the traditional bears dancing to pipe and tabor. Bears can certainly be tamed -I saw impressive videos of a man...

Is someone interested in doing, just for the fun of it, good drawings (incl. partly 'exploded views?) of this 18th C. steam tank (well, self-propelled gun, at least)? [Basically a 'reversed' enlarged -lengthened, mostly- Cugnot Fardier (with the engine and the steering axle -yes, an axle with 2...

@ Oscar Paris: great to see a 18th C. uniform here for a change! And a very pleasant one -good use of David's SYW uniforms templates. Is this regiment part of the army of an "Imagi-Nation" , so often used by wargamers in their Lace Wars campaigns since they were popularized by Peter Young's...

Cugnot's Chariot à Feu if 'revresed' (with the engine at the rear) indeed suggests exciting (if unrealistic?) possibilities. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xfuwyt_le-fardier-de-cugnot-dans-les-rues-de-paris_tech http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ul8RHwBpM4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4A5ZNjisRM

War wagons, more generally 'wagon rings (laagers)' were quite efficient against enemies lacking artillery, were they horse archers of the 'nomad culture' type (including in the Plains of North America) or foot warriors favoring hand to hand combat such as the Zulus (Battle of the Blood River)...

There was an earlier British project: but the steam engine seemingly turned too weak to move it if with any form of armor; and even so the guns had to be removed to obtain a satisfying mobility...:o

Luciferism, from an alternate reading of Genesis (I know a minor Abrahamanic religion follows quite a similar creed, but can't remember its name at the moment). Based on the idea that, since Humans differ from animals by their intelligence and their soul, intelligence is the manifestation of the...

Not all biological POD belong to ASB: Jared's 'Lands of Red and Gold' lay on biological POD, the fortuitous hybridization of two plant species. Besides, a taboo on OTL biology would logically imply that it is itself determined by an ASB. The point is Alternate History (as opposed to historical...

In 1745 Acadia was still full of Catholics (the Grand Dérangement, the Acadian 'Trail of Tears', started in 1749) subject of the English crown since 1713. Could the Young Pretender try to base a 'Legitimate Kingdom in Exile' there? Prone to be unpopular in the other colonies, yet the '45 was...

The pilum was indeed a (short but heavy) thrown spear, but was used differently from javelins: basically it was a mêlée rather than a shooting weapon. The idea being 'Instead of trying to fence with his spear the hoplite throws it just before impact to provide the initial shock, then follows...