A short history of Japan and Korea

Is here... highly recommended.

Wait for me...

Yours truly has been stuck sick at home for the last 2 days. Used the time to watch 26 episodes of "The World at War" non-stop for 13 hours each day... One of the best historical documentary series on WW2...

The most moving moment occurred in the episode - "The Red Star" - that narrates the war in Russia, where Hitler was broken, but with 20 million Russian dead. Sir Laurence Olivier narrates this poignant poem that was written by a Russian soldier to his wife in the dark winter of 1941, when everything seemed lost and the fall of Moscow seemed imminent...

"Wait for me and I'll return, only wait very hard.
Wait when you are filled with sorrow as you watch the yellow rain.
Wait when the wind sweeps the snowdrifts.
Wait in the sweltering heat.
Wait when others have stopped waiting, forgetting their yesterdays.
Wait even when from afar no letters come for you.
Wait even when others are tired of waiting.

Wait for me and I'll return, but wait patiently.
Wait even when you are told that you should forget.
Wait even when my mother and son think I am no more.
And when friends sit around the fire drinking to my memory
Wait and do not hurry to drink to my memory too.

Wait for me and I'll return, defying every death.
And let those who do not wait say that I was lucky.
They will never understand that in the midst of death
You with your waiting saved me.
Only you and I will know how I survived:
It was because you waited as no one else did."


The poem was written by Konstantin Simonov. It was published in Pravda, the Soviet communist mouthpiece. Almost every soldier had torn out the page with the poem and had it in his breastpocket.

Barbarossa

I have always had a keen interest in history. This is coming from a guy who scored 94% in history/geography in the public school exams, and that was achieved by not mugging up the texts but actually reading up even more on the events. Yes, I am the guy who can pinpoint Smolensk on the map and tell you about the Caucasus and the history behind "And Quiet Flows the Don".

Regarding WW2, most people are under the impression that the D-Day landings on Normandy where the turning point in the war. Natural to think that way since that is the most publicized and celebrated event by the western media.

But Hitler was broken in the east, in the -40 degree cold of the Russian winter and the disorienting never-ending melancholic horizon of the land in the winter of 1941 and 1942. These defeats offered a glimmer of hope for the first time that the German army was not invincible. After those defeats it was a retreat all the way to the last stand at Berlin.

To know the full history, you can watch the following 3 free episodes... The full episodes can be seen after downloading the software from Veoh.com. The below clips are excerpts.

Btw Barbarossa was Hitler's codename for the Russian invasion.

The concept remains the same, the materials have evolved

The world's first condom, dating back to 1640, and displayed at a museum in Austria currently.

via this site...
"The reusable condom dates back to 1640 and is completely intact, as is its orginal users’ manual, written in Latin. The manual suggests that users immerse the condom in warm milk prior to its use to avoid diseases. The antique, found in Lund in Sweden, is made of pig intestine and is one of 250 ancient objects related to sex on display at the Tirolean County Museum in Austria this summer."

What did she see?

Found this on Digg...