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#clojure-uk
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2018-08-28
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guy09:08:25

Morning all!

guy09:08:38

Starting the week on a tuesday is pretty fun 😄

maleghast09:08:42

Morning Everyone 🙂

agile_geek09:08:12

Bore da pawb welsh_flag

3Jane09:08:04

it’s Tuesday and I’ve got cake, +1 to @guy 😄

🍰 20
parrot 8
otfrom09:08:47

the UK is a good example of how to put together a nation of 4 nations by accident and some wars

agile_geek09:08:40

and some marriages.

otfrom09:08:03

@U05390U2P are any of the current nations in the UK through marriage? Not sure about Wales, but Scotland is in b/c of the country going bankrupt and England negotiating well. Bits of Ulster are in b/c of war.

agile_geek09:08:50

Wales might be the only one although I think having conquered it the Normans did marry into the local tribes.

agile_geek09:08:48

Surely Scotland can be traced in part to shared monarchy? James I and VI?

agile_geek09:08:37

Altho I agree about the act of union

otfrom10:08:19

Scotland sort of moves in and out, it is only after the big bankruptcy that they are properly in the UK rather than just by accident

otfrom09:08:54

and morning

3Jane09:08:44

and vikings, don’t forget vikings

3Jane09:08:49

everything is better with vikings

jasonbell09:08:18

What did the Romans do for us?

😂 8
3Jane09:08:14

so I had to pass this test at one point, “life in the united kingdom”

3Jane09:08:52

Imagine passing a driver’s licence theory test and that’s basically it, a multi-choice with a short booklet that you have to learn by heart.

3Jane09:08:07

Some of the stuff they have you learn is very reasonable; basics of the legal system, how tax works, blah blah. Some are a bit absurd. Among other things, there’s a giant list of a crapton of things that British people invented (included: the internet) and famous sports people.

Conor09:08:54

Thanks to hundreds of years of oppression, I can live here and vote in all the elections

😂 16
Conor09:08:00

Thanks, Cromwell

3Jane09:08:20

(I mean, they were strongly reaching when they listed some of the things)

3Jane09:08:47

And the Romans thing reminds me of an extreme case of that tendency that I read in a book about experimental archaeology:

3Jane09:08:30

The author was of the strong opinion that Romans did not build roads in Britain, they merely improved them.

3Jane09:08:26

(Original “roads” being foot tracks laid across swamps and such by the indigenous population.)

3Jane09:08:00

What did the Romans ever do for us indeed!

Conor09:08:14

I'm reading The Old Ways by Robert McFarlane at the moment, it's sort of about that

3Jane09:08:58

ohh I’ve seen that in the bookstore, I wondered about it. How is it?

agile_geek09:08:25

Well there's a big difference between local tracks and paved roads that could take heavy cart traffic for hundreds of miles so I'll give the Romans that.

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3Jane09:08:31

oh definitely, to me this was a real funny attempt of a national pride to one-up Romans 🙂

Conor09:08:43

Recommended

agile_geek09:08:23

Although they appropriated a lot of engineering knowledge from the Etruscans

3Jane09:08:00

but they’ve made some progress by the time they’ve reached the British Isles, surely

agile_geek09:08:11

Some. Interestingly most of the 'Romans' in the British isles were not from Italy (except the Patrician class officers). For example, most of Hadrian's Wall was manned by Syrian and Spanish auxiliaries.

3Jane09:08:55

It must have been really inefficient to transport the troops otherwise.

3Jane09:08:06

What about the native population, did they not recruit locally?

agile_geek09:08:22

Maybe in the late empire

maleghast10:08:42

Wow, look at the things that I miss when I get focused on coding!

otfrom10:08:38

part of the plan was to have troops from somewhere else to keep the locals in line, so troops got sent away from where they were born.

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3Jane11:08:27

no fraternising with the enemy locals!

agile_geek13:08:06

oh they 'fraternised' a fair bit. Often had a wife in Britain and sometimes one at home but they were serving for 25 years before they got the option of land and citizenship either back home or in the country of their posting.

maleghast11:08:35

That explains a LOT about Romans, and Legions and whatnot - thanks @otfrom

otfrom12:08:16

and of course Thatcher took that lesson in the latter bits of the miners' strike, but anyway

alexlynham12:08:18

@otfrom it's also what the Chinese govt did when suppressing the unrest around Tianmen

alexlynham12:08:37

they moved regiments around the country so they would speak a different dialect of Madarin

thomas12:08:38

yes, I remember reading that @alex.lynham

alexlynham12:08:45

apparently a lot of accounts got lost but in cities outside Beijing (e.g. Xi'an) there was also unrest and a similar strategy was used

alexlynham12:08:00

it's just there were no foreign journalists to document/film it