The way that technology is tied into tactics is something that is never discussed in history classes at the K-12 level, and probably should be. Otherwise, you end up thinking (like I did) that the British line, the Civil War bayonet charge, and the trench warfare of WWI were just stupid, but viewed in combination with what they had on hand, they either make sense or explain why the death rates were so high.
Yeah, one of my pet peeves as a black powder-era geek is when people seem to think the British were too dumb to realize that red is a highly visible color! Which is not to say that armies don't get in trouble by fighting the last war. One of the reasons Civil War battles were so lethal is that the officers had grown up learning about Revolutionary and Napoleonic-era tactics, and in the intervening decades it *did* become practical to arm your entire army with rifles--and those rifles were firing modern-shaped bullets as opposed to round shot, which IIRC gave them three times the range of earlier rifles. So instead of having mostly muskets with ~100 yards' range and a small number of riflemen with ~300 yards' range, you suddenly had a whole army of men carrying guns that were lethal at 1000 yards. (All ranges are pulled from memory of a book I read over a year ago, so don't quote me on exact numbers!)
Such a strange thing to be expert on, I know, though it's entirely practical for the kind of writing I do! And if I'm every flung back in time 200 years and given command of an infantry division, well, I'll know how to fight it!
Giant Revolving Door of Death at the Hyatt
That thing was evil. The revolving doors might as well have been blades. Woosh! Woosh! Thunk! "Only the penitent geek shall pass!"
ita, did you get my e about the cranial sachral thingy?
Such a strange thing to be expert on, I know, though it's entirely practical for the kind of writing I do!
I would point and laugh, except that I recently spent several days reading up on how and why one might manufacture wrought iron rounds, and if one did, how one would do so in the context of modern (cartridge) weapons.
As Ple likes to say, thank you fandom for turning me into Rainman.
Okay, strangest thing you've researched for a story, fanfic or otherwise. Go!
I think my examples are pretty mundane. The easterly route of I-10 from Los Angeles. Baseball stats. Information about shih-tzus. Canada.
I did, but haven't organised myself, Paperdol. I will...soon. But soon will be after this migraine. Which may need ER. Bleargh.
If you're not in great shape, you really shouldn't wear a bra and panties to perform.
Shots of Britney at the VMAs. I haven't seen her in motion--her body looks good here, though.
How to make fire without matches and the history of dirigibles. (Not simultaneously, though it turns out that the
Hindenburg
did have a airlock-sealed smoking lounge.)
Okay, strangest thing you've researched for a story, fanfic or otherwise.
I needed to know the exact year British enlisted soldiers stopped being made to flour their hair. Also, the deployment of the British army in the year my alternate history WIP goes alternate (so I know where my chess pieces are before I start moving them around on the board). I ended up asking Bernard Cornwell for help on the latter when I saw him at a writers conference this summer, and he was able to point me toward a source (very obscure and out-of-print, but fortunately not to expensive on abebooks). My next step was going to be seeing if the UK war office had some kind of staff historian, which felt a lot more daunting than chatting to a famous author after a workshop.
Over the weekend I read a little about what's coming up in fashion this season. They used the term "clash" to describe the combination of navy and black. Do y'all see that as a clash? They might not be worn together much, but I think they look okay.
