Friday, October 28, 2011

Great Financial Collapses in History

What’s more, early modern and feudal economies are not based on money transactions as we think of them today, and less than 5% of the population would have any money. The first promissory notes used in Medieval Italy would have been entirely used by merchants to transfer money long distances, and were not used by ordinary people until very recently.

Apparently we’ve been living in some horrific financial crisis for over a year now, and the news simply won’t let you forget about it. You would almost think it was the end of the world, as if this kind of thing is unique to our times and to modern economies, and that it’s a problem nobody has had to deal with before.

British Empire
1945-1997


Then: £21 billion
Now: $872 billion

At the end of World War 2 most of Europe was in financial, and literal, ruins. The cost of maintaining the army, navy and newly burgeoning air force left the United Kingdom in economic peril, with the American Lend-Lease act supplying ten billion dollar’s worth of vital equipment. When Lend-Lease was terminated the equipment, still sorely needed for the recovery effort, was loaned at the cost of £1 billion, but this was just a drop in the ocean. The financial situation was dire, and resulted in vast and rapid socio-political changes in the Empire. The Royal Navy was the first major target, and by 1960 1100 of its 1300 ships were dismantled and sold for scrap, and the shipyards that had built two thirds of the world’s ships were closed or limited in capacity.

At home wartime rationing continued years into the peace, and housing shortages were endemic for decades, breeding cultural and economic stagnation, unemployment and homelessness. Later decades were characterized by constant strikes, riots, power shortages and reading by candlelight, economic booms followed by economic busts, and repeated nationalizations and privatizations by opposing parties with different ideas about how to save the economy.

Abroad, the Empire, now a crippling burden, was quickly taken apart. Almost nobody in the modern age would say the end of colonialism was a bad thing, however the rapid pace of decolonization unwittingly created some of the most volatile political conflicts of the modern age. Lines were hastily drawn on maps, countries split and ushered awkwardly into self-governance, and countries painfully partitioned. Israel was carved out of Palestine. India and Pakistan were partitioned with immediate sectarian violence around the new border, culminating in a modern day Asian Cold War over Kashmir between the two nuclear powers.

Many African colonies fell into ethnic warfare and sadistic dictatorships under the likes of Robert Mugabe and Idi Amin, while in the Middle East Iraq and Iran both saw their British supported monarchs overthrown by repressive dictatorships. If you could salvage any good thing from the mess of imperialism it might be the ironic legacy of democratic parliamentary systems in most of the former colonies.

The war loan was finally paid off in 2006.

Weimar republic
1919-1933


Then: 269 billion gold marks
Now: $420 billion

In 1919, the Treaty of Versailles stated that Germany and its allies were responsible for all damage done to allied countries, and in 1921 it was decided that Germany owed 269 billion gold marks, or 23 billion pounds, in monetary and material reparations. Germany began defaulting on its payments by 1922, stalling shipments of coal and wood to France, prompting the French to occupy the valuable Ruhr valley in order to take the raw materials themselves. This in turn led to sabotage and strikes, and weakened the Versailles Treaty with both sides claiming the other was dishonoring one or more clauses.

In 1924, the Dawes plan reduced Germany’s payments to 112 billion marks, following widespread criticism that the sums were impossible for a heavily destabilized economy to manage. The government printed more and more money to try and cover the economic downturn and pay the debt, but the flood of money caused prices to rise and required more money. Economists hurriedly tried to stabilize the mark by buying it in foreign markets with valuable gold and materials, but this only caused the its value to plummet further, along with the loss of stable currency. The effects on the poor and middle classes was devastating: pensions were destroyed, savings vanished, and, in 1923, the cost of a loaf of bread was 200 million marks, and even if you had that much (carried in a wheelbarrow, usually) its value might have depreciated by the time you reached the baker’s.

All of this created in ordinary Germans the feeling that they were being persecuted, starved and impoverished, for something that was not their fault. It was already commonly thought that the army had not lost the war, but that it was Weimar politicians, bolsheviks, socialists and Jews who had caused defeat, as well as the idea that the Triple Entente had begun the war in the first place. When Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933 he exploited the ‘Stab in the Back’ myth to its fullest, and thus the Nazi party stormed into power on a new wave of nationalism.

Russian Revolution
1917


Then: 50 billion rubles
Now: $270 billion

Following Imperial Russia’s disastrous defeat in World War One, the government faced debts of up to 50 billion rubles and near bankruptcy. Industries collapsed, and the chaotic disruption of the transportation network caused many industrial closures and resulted in huge unemployment, while the wages of those who kept their jobs fell drastically. Facing starvation from poverty, the disrupted food supply and rampant inflation due to the overprinting of money to cover the war deficit, people abandoned their jobs and cities to look for food. Soldiers lacked adequate equipment, and thousands froze in the streets.

Mass strikes and riots began in Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg, and spread across the country. The Bolsheviks, who had seized a portion of political power after the February Revolution’s institution of a limited constitutional government, organized strikers into militias. It was easy to convince people that their suffering was due to the greed and ineptitude of the rich and the corrupt, oppressive monarchy.

In July 1917, the Provisional Government ordered that a demonstration in Petrograd be quelled, and violence broke out as soldiers opened fire on the crowds. The following month a rogue general led his troops in an attack against the Bolsheviks in the city, and was beaten back by militia, sailors and strikers. Uprisings began two months later, taking over the Winter Palace and government facilities, and in 1922 the USSR formally began.

7 Years’ War
1756 – 1763


Then: £133 milion
Now: $18 billion

When the French started building a ring of forts along the Ohio river to box the English colonies against the sea, it was quite evident that something big was brewing. That something would turn out to be the Seven Years’ War, a truly global conflict primarily between the United Kingdom and France for domination of the colonies in North America, the West Indies and India, while a continental war between Prussia, Austria and their allies raged in Europe.

The cost of such a vast war on states with a still fledgling understanding of mercantile economics was great, but the difference between Britain and France was the Bank of England and the possibilities of government borrowing, which prime minister William Pitt seized upon, and which his French counterparts, under Louis XV, could not. Louis’ war cabinet was divided over focusing their efforts in the colonies, or focusing on the war in Europe. The French decided to focus on Europe, and planned an invasion of England through Scotland that would force a peace treaty giving colonial dominance to France.

Pitt’s evaluation was the opposite, and he determined that complete victory in every theatre was worth paying any price, and that failure anywhere was complete failure. A vast amount of money was poured into the colonial war effort, and paid off handsomely with James Wolfe’s victory at Quebec, at Pondicherry in India, and at Minden in Germany. To finally scupper the French plans, Admiral Hawke destroyed the French fleet intended to escort the invasion barges to Scotland at the Battle of Quiberon bay. The cost of the war resulted in unpopular measures such as the very first income tax and a tax on windows which may have coined the phrase ‘daylight robbery’.

Ottoman Empire
1853 – 1923


Then: £200 million
Now: $14 billion

When Tsar Nicholas I described the Ottoman Empire as the ‘sick man of Europe’, he described a nation incapable of keeping up with the advances of European powers, and in the late 19th century it was still administered in an almost medieval fashion. Rail transport was virtually non existent, industry was still based on small scale manual manufacturing, and the economy was based mostly on taxation of the poor, largely agrarian population. Up until 1853 the Empire had slowly begun to develop its infrastructure, but was unable to advance very far on its limited finances, and was wary of going into debt with European nations.

The Crimean War changed that stance, however, and the Ottoman Imperial Bank was established by British and French financiers to provide a line of credit to the government. The government began defaulting on its interest payments in 1875, however, and the province of Egypt, nominally part of the Empire but partially autonomous, was occupied by the British in 1883 to take control of the Public Debt. The Ottoman government was now firmly dependent on Britain and France for its finances, and much of the new infrastructure was owned by their investors.

The end came with World War One. With the Empire still underdeveloped and its satellites picked off by its creditors, the British invasion took Mesopotamia (Iraq), Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, and the Sykes-Picoult agreement divided these former holdings between the French and British Empires. Finally, in 1923, after occupation by the Allied powers, the Empire was dissolved and the Republic of Turkey formed in its place.

Philip II of Spain
1554 – 1598


Then: 86 million ducats
Now: $11 billion

Philip II ruled Spain during the ‘Golden Age’ of its superpower global empire, yet in his lifetime also saw the beginning of its long decline. Already burdened with a 36 million ducat debt by his predecessor, the poorness of Spain itself meant low tax revenues, so Philip relied heavily on gold shipped from the Americas to supplement his treasury. Along with the tax burden and increased state spending this caused high inflation, which devalued the currency and harmed Spanish industries.

The unreliability of New World gold during war time caused the first bankruptcy of a nation in modern history, in 1557. To cover the costs of multiple wars Philip began borrowing from Italian bankers, who kept financing his wars despite repeated failure to keep up interest payments, sending Spanish debt payments up to 40% of the country’s yearly income and resulting in further bankruptcies in 1560, 1576 and 1596.

Eventually the debt was 85 million ducats, when the state’s yearly income was only 9 million. Repeated military disasters resulted in the casual squandering of millions. When Philip lost control of England after his wife, Queen Mary, died, leaving England in the control of Protestant Queen Elizabeth I, he financed an armada to eliminate protestantism before it could spread to Europe.

When the armada sank, over 10 million ducats sank with it, while privateers like Francis Drake captured Spanish Gold Galleons. The Dutch Revolt was particularly damaging as the wages of soldiers ended up going into the emergent Dutch economy instead of Spain’s, and the value of Spanish exports and imports were damaged.

Spain’s economic woes meant that it could not maintain its stranglehold on New World colonialism, and following Philip’s reign it was overtaken by the Dutch, the French and then the English. The Spanish navy lost its position to the emerging power of the Royal Navy, and Spanish holdings in Europe were soon lost.

French Revolution
1789 – 1799


Then: 2 billion livres-tournois
Now: $6 billion

When Louis XV died he left his historically maligned successor Louis XVI with a handbag full of troubles, having been engaged in four catastrophic wars in the 18th century. While the first War of the Austrian Succession and the American War of Independence technically weren’t losses, France came away with less than she put in. The first failed to restore the previous balance of power in central Europe, while after the latter war the Americans repaid French assistance by going straight back to trading with Britain instead of favoring French trade. Meanwhile the Seven Years’ War (see below) shore away almost all of France’s overseas empire.

Louis XVI was not a complete dithering fool, as he is sometimes portrayed – he did try to do something about the imminent financial meltdown – he was largely a weak, impotent man who lacked the gumption to force the necessary changes through. The prospect of imposing taxes on the tax exempt nobility and clergy to offset the debt failed outright, being scorned and virtually ignored. France lacked an equivalent to the Bank of England, which allowed the UK to manage a considerably larger debt in the same period, to help manage the problem.

The strains on ordinary people mounted. Food prices rose, squalor spread disease through the cities and widespread famine broke out. Soldiers were unpaid, unemployment was rife, and all the while the nobility paid no tax and enjoyed a lifestyle of excess and power, and in 1789 the Revolution broke out.

Welsh conquest
1277-1283


Then: £240,000
Now: $193 million

Many people will be familiar with the English King Edward I from Braveheart, which we all now know to be a historically dubious, if entertaining, movie. Well, one thing was true about Edward: he was definitely a brutal, megalomaniacal tyrant, and before he turned his malefic gaze to Scotland he was concerned with Wales. Following the Norman invasion, the osmosis of Norman nobility across the Welsh border had opened up feudal debates over lordship between the nobility of the two countries.

In 1277, Edward I, who had ascended the throne 5 years earlier, led an army 15,000 strong into Wales after the Welsh leader Llywelyn ap Gruffud refused to acknowledge Edward’s sovereignty. Llywelyn had previously been confirmed as the sole authority in Wales by the Treaty of Worcester, having allied with Simon de Montfort, the baron whose civil war against King Henry III resulted in the convening of the very first parliament. The first invasion forced Llywelyn to accept a peace treaty limiting his control to the land west of Conway Castle. In 1282, the Welsh rose in rebellion and Edward led an even larger army into the country. Llywelyn was killed in a minor skirmish in the centre of the country.

The cost of the invasions, and the building of a massive network of castles to cow the local population and subsume their culture, was around £240,000, more than 10 times the annual income of the kingdom, and a great deal of the sum was borrowed from Jewish bankers in London. Very soon, no doubt in a fit of conscience, Edward outlawed money-lending and forced the Jews to wear yellow identity badges. Within a year of the conquest he had the heads of their households arrested, and hanged over 300 in the Tower of London, expelling the rest of the population, handily erasing a good portion of his debt, even receiving a tax bonus from the Catholic Church for the immensely popular act.

One positive effect of the invasion (always look on the bright side, I suppose) was that a large part of the cost had to be paid by tax grants which were acquired by summoning a parliament, the necessity of which added to the long process whereby a (somewhat) democratic institution took more and more power away from the monarch.

The Darien Scheme
1695-1700


Then: £400,000
Now: $56 million

In 1695 the Kingdom of Scotland chartered the Company of Scotland in an attempt to bolster its limited finances by joining the other major trading empires of the world in Africa and the Indies. William Paterson, a successful Scottish entrepreneur who had been a founder of the Bank of England, convinced Scottish investors they could dominate East Asian trade by establishing a colony on the Isthmus of Panama, transporting goods by land from the Pacific coast to the Atlantic so that ships could avoid the long and treacherous voyage around South America. The plan, which he had unsuccessfully tried to market to the English government under James II, is known as the Darién Scheme.

Investors from all social strata gave £400,000 to the scheme, and the first ships set sail in 1698, arriving at the Bay of Darién in November, where they began building the colony of New Caledonia. Paterson’s plans were far fetched, however, and the difficulties of life in Central America were not something he had witnessed or researched. His own wife was dead before the colonists even arrived in the mosquito plagued bay, and within 7 months hundreds more were dead from starvation, fever and skirmishes with the Spanish, who considered the area part of their colony of New Granada. Supplies were limited as the English colonies had been ordered not to assist the Scots for fear of angering the Spanish. Even had the colony been properly established, the logistics of hauling cargo across densely forested and rugged terrain would surely have been impossible.

After a second expedition had set sail, without knowing of the already interminable situation, the colony was abandoned, only a single ship returning from the disaster. With almost half of all Scotland’s money sunk into the scheme, only the most die hard Jacobites were against it when the English parliament offered to bail them out as incentive to agree to the 1707 Act of Union, combining the two nations into the United Kingdom.

The Fourth Crusade
1202-1204


Then: 86,000 silver marks
Now: $41 million

The plan for the Fourth Crusade was to launch an invasion of Cairo, and from there attack Saracen controlled Jerusalem through Egypt. The Crusading movement had lost steam after the failure of the Third Crusade to keep Jerusalem, but nonetheless an army was assembled and the greater part of it gathered at Venice, where Doge Enrico Dandolo had agreed that the Venetian navy would transport them to Egypt. The Venetians had suspended their economy for the better part of a year to construct the transport ships and train almost a third of the population as sailors, and the Doge would not agree to transport the Crusade unless they paid the entire agreed sum of 86,000 silver marks. The Crusaders could only pay 51,000.

Dandolo suggested that, as an alternative form of payment, the Crusade could help recapture the Christian city of Zara on the Dalmatian coast, an act for which the Pope sent a letter excommunicating the Crusaders, but which was luckily misplaced.

Emperor Isaac II of the Byzantine Empire had been forced into exile by his brother Alexius in 1195, who had then gone on a populist rampage, killing the mistrusted Latin population of Constantinople, an act which did not endear the Byzantines to the Venetians. Isaac’s son offered the Crusaders 200,000 marks to help him capture Constantinople and reclaim the throne, and the debt crippled Crusade was easy to convince.

When the Crusader’s fee was not met – due to the ransacking of the treasury by the fleeing usurper – the Crusaders sacked the city, pillaging up to 900,000 marks worth of valuables, burning much of the city. The Venetians and other leaders of the Crusade took direct control of the city, forming a corrupt and decadent regime that squandered what was left of Constantinople’s grandeur. The Byzantine Empire, last remnant of the Roman Empire split into several separate kingdoms, and never recovered.

How To Make $100,000 On YouTube

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Here is some advice on how to take advantage of your 15 minutes of Internet fame from people who did just that.

Make an outstanding video


There is no recipe for creating a viral video, but there are a few common traits.

Take the time to identify the video by writing a detailed title and description so people and search engines can find it easily, said Kevin Allocca, manager of YouTube Trends. "Surprised Kitty" (55 million viewings and counting) is far better than "Video of Tigger."

Share it widely on social networks, he said, and let people embed the video on other Web sites. It helps if a celebrity links to it. "Double Rainbow," a sensation last year, had only 200 views between its debut in January and July — when Jimmy Kimmel posted a link on Twitter and it took off. Current count: 31 million viewings.

It's not as easy as it looks, Mr. Allocca said. "Make really good content," he said. "That's the one nobody wants to hear, but it's the truth."

It seems to help if the videos include funny people (especially old people and babies), animals (especially babies) and dancing (again, especially when the dancers are babies). Make a video that is universal yet original to you, recommends Randy McEntee, who posted an iPhone video, "Talking Twin Babies," showing his twin baby boys having an animated conversation in gibberish.

"I think the reason it's caught on around the world is there's no language," Mr. McEntee said.

Another common piece of advice: don't set out to make a viral video. "We didn't try," said Ms. Clem, who shot her video on a Flip camera and had never posted on YouTube. "I don't have any advice because I literally went to bed that night and woke up and our lives were completely different."

Get money from YouTube ads


If your video is on the road to viral success, YouTube, a part of Google, is eager to make money from you. It will send you an e-mail asking if you want to become a partner. If you give your permission, the site will run ads alongside your video and share more than half the revenue with you, sending you a check each month.

Some of the people behind viral videos, like the father of the boy coming down from dental anesthesia in "David After Dentist," have made more than $100,000 from YouTube ads. Ms. Clem has made $3,000 in three weeks and stands to make much more because Disney wants to use her video in a TV ad.

Early on, YouTube would sign people up as partners after videos had been watched more than a million times. But it has since developed an algorithm, which it calls reference rank, to predict whether a video will go viral when it has had as few as 10,000 views.

The most important element is whether influential Web sites post the video. When Reddit posted Mr. McEntee's video, for instance, its views jumped from 1,000 to six million in three days. YouTube also analyzes other data, like the number of viewers, how many times a video is shared on social networking sites and the rate at which people comment on the video.

Protect the video with a YouTube program called Content ID, which gives video owners the right to block others from using their videos or to be paid when they do. That helps to prevent people from creating copies that might be watched instead of yours. Parodies, translations or autotuned song versions, however, tend to add to the original's traffic.

YouTube does not offer live customer service for viral video creators. YouTube said it would be impossible to talk to millions of video creators but it has help forums for people to ask questions.

Appear on television

YouTube may turn us all into TV producers, but one of the best ways to get people to watch your online video is to appear on old-fashioned TV.

Ms. Clem's video spiked after she appeared on Fox News and Mr. McEntee's after he was on "Good Morning America." It rarely helps to try to contact TV shows directly — instead, wait for producers to call you, which they will in spades if your video is popular and touches a nerve, viral video veterans say.

Remember that a dip in views does not mean your 15 minutes are over. The talking twins video had almost five million viewers on its best day, dropped to 50,000 and now gets a couple hundred thousand a day.

Sell merchandise. When the boy in "David After Dentist" asked the camera, "Is this real life?" more than 101 million viewers could relate. David's father took swift advantage of that, opening an online store selling T-shirts and stickers with the tagline.

"All the top creators do that," said Shenaz Zack, product manager for YouTube partnerships.

Tracking who watches your video can suggest markets. At YouTube Insight, video creators can see detailed data about their audience, like where viewers come from and which Web sites have linked to the video.

They can also read YouTube Trends, a blog YouTube started in December to analyze what makes videos popular, whether they are about babies using iPads or scenes from the earthquake in Turkey.

Make a game plan for fame

The celebrity and money that come with viral YouTube videos are not always fun, say people who have lived through it.

The phone rings constantly with TV producers who want to show the video. Do not sign any contracts without consulting a lawyer, said Ms. Clem, because some of the contracts ask you to sign away your rights to the video.

"It's so exciting and you want it out there, but it's dangerous because people want to take advantage," she said.

Set up rules early on, said Mr. McEntee. For his family, that meant no travel to be on TV, no other videos of the children and "to behave in a way that our children would be proud of," including letting them remove the video when they are old enough to understand.

Talk to other people who have become YouTube celebrities about what they went through — the father of David wrote on his blog that at first he had worried that people were watching the video because they were making fun of his son, for instance.

"It's actually a really lonely place because there's no one out there that really has all the answers," Mr. McEntee said. "It's just such a rare thing."

Source: Yahoo.com

Things The Nazis Got Right

This list is NOT an endorsement of the Nazi regime which is, clearly, one of the most evil in history – second only to Stalinist Russia. This list hopefully shows that even amidst great evil, the good of man is still able to shine through.

Medical Advances


The death of ethics from medicine in Nazi Germany was a sinful, reckless, and dangerous decision, leading to untold atrocities; it has created one of the most extensive ethical controversies in history. Through the Nazi use of torture they discovered information that is discretely used by doctors and medical scientists today. For example, the Nazis extensively studied and monitored hypothermia, at Dachau concentration camp, by subjecting victims to severe torture.

The Nazis immersed victims in vats of freezing water or left them out in the winter cold, all the while monitoring changes in body temperature, heart rate, muscle responses and urine. These tests were initially performed on volunteer soldiers, but the Nazis were not satisfied that they had all the information they could get and began to test on concentration camp victims.

They attempted to formulate methods to bring the bodies back to a safe temperature, including the “Rapid Active Rewarming” technique that seemed to be the most effective method of revival – and is used today in the west. This research could potentially fill a gap in other researchers studying hypothermia.

Contributions to Fashion


The Nazi style of uniform was as bold as their style of government. Thick-soled leather boots, slouch hats, cowhide coats, and peak hats were some of the staples in Nazi fashion, as well as muted color tones often in gray, tan and black. The SS Panzer military organization struck fear into the hearts of their adversaries, with black forage caps and leather coats which were later adopted by American rockers. Doc Martens closely resemble the jump boots that many Schutzstaffel officers wore. Look around at any rock, industrial or otherwise ‘edgy’ group and you see small traces of Nazi fashion sense. The American novelist Kurt Vonnegut once described the style as ‘mildly theatrical’.

Additionally, the founder of Adidas, Adolf Dassler (whose nickname was Adi), was a Nazi. He produced shoes for the Wehrmacht during the war, as well was providing American and Nazi athletes with his footwear during the Berlin Olympics. This created national acclaim when Jesse Owens won the sprinting event at the Berlin Olympics wearing Adolf Dassler’s shoes. Adidas is now a multinational company, supplying athletes all over the world with a supply of footwear and sports accessories.

His brother, Rudolf Dassler, was the more ardent Nazi of the two brothers and went on to found another proficient sports company…Puma. Oh – and Hugo Boss was a Nazi who, from 1934, was an official supplier of uniforms to the SA, SS, Hitler Youth, NSKK and other Party organizations (as evidenced in the advertisement above).

Innovations in Film


The Nazis were very interested in both film and music as propaganda techniques and essential cultural pillars. The first known magnetic tape recording was of a speech made by Hitler, and Joseph Goebbels pushed for more complicated methods of filming.

For example, the propaganda film ‘Triumph of the Will’, the sequel to the former propaganda film ‘Triumph of the Faith’, is regarded as one of the most important pieces of cinematographic history. The director, Leini Riefenstahl (pictured above) used an astounding thirty film cameras and over one hundred technicians to produce the two hour film. Since Triumph of the Will had an unlimited budget, the latest technologies were used. Cranes and track-rail filming were used, techniques still used today to make a smooth ‘traveling’ effect.

Ultimately, the propaganda films are dead, but the techniques developed at the time are seen regularly in the latest great Hollywood blockbusters.

Father of Modern Rocketry


The man who invented rockets as we know them today, Wernher Von Braun, was a member of the Nazi party and commissioned Schutzstaffel Officer. He aided both Germany and the United States in the use of rockets during and after WW2, and eventually became a naturalized U.S. Citizen.

Although he pioneered many areas, including the installation of liquid-fueled rockets in aircraft and orbit to ground missiles, he is best known for his achievements in NASA.

His best achievement there was undoubtedly the development of the Saturn V booster rocket, that helped man to finally touch the moon, in July 1969. Von Braun officially opened the gate to space travel through his innovative inventions…as well as creating one of the most destructive methods of war known to mankind.

Autobahn


While not originally conceived by the Nazis, Hitler was an enthusiastic supporter of the idea and pushed for the largest network of roads to be built across Germany. Established as the first freeway system in the world, the autobahn was a revolutionary feat of engineering that forever changed the way humans travel. Thousands of countries have emulated the system Hitler put in place, including America and Britain. It is single handedly the largest network of roadways in the world, with roads stretching all across the country, even to other countries such as Austria.

The construction of this roadway wasn’t only revolutionary in itself, it provided over 100,000 workers with jobs necessary for the economic recovery efforts. It was a goal of the Nazi party to try and bring the country into a sense of unity through the roadway system, and for the most part it was successful. Aircraft was tested on the long, smooth, straight sections of road and Grand Prix racing teams are known to practice on them.

The Volkswagen


Literally meaning “People’s Car”, this vehicle was presented as a car that every German citizen could afford to buy. It was based on the advice of Hitler to the designer, saying that it should resemble a beetle. The car was a huge success (it was made available to citizens of the Third Reich through a savings scheme at 990 Reichsmark, about the price of a small motorcycle), but toward the end of the war resources were low and public availability declined. The Volkswagen emerged more as a military vehicle toward the end of the Third Reich.

However this has not stopped it from being one of the most popular vehicles in the world, known for reliability, stylish design (though some might question that!) and ease of use.

Welfare Programs


Nazi Germany had one of the largest public welfare programs in history, based on the philosophy that all Germans should share a standard of living.

One of the most famous of these was the Winter Relief program, where high ranking Nazis and common citizens both took to the streets to collect charity for the unfortunate. This was not only an extremely intelligent propaganda move, but also a ritual to generate general good public feeling toward those in need. Posters urged people to donate rather than give directly to beggars. Joseph Goebbels, himself a high ranking Nazi in control of Radio, Television and Propaganda, often participated in these events.

But how was the cost of this met? Largely from the stealing of belongings from those people considered enemies of the regime. The Nazi government stole immense amounts of money from their population and used it to fund a social welfare scheme that favored select members of society. Modern schemes modeled on this system are funded by taxes that steal from everyone.

Anti-Tobacco Movement


It is rumored that Adolf Hitler was so opposed to smoking in his later life that he couldn’t stand someone lighting up in the same room, and often felt obligated to object to it as a waste of money. Thus, he began one of the most expensive and effective tobacco movements throughout history. While during the 1930s and 1940s, other anti-tobacco movements failed fantastically in other countries, it was taken seriously in Nazi Germany.

The Nazis banned smoking in restaurants and public transportation systems, citing public health, and severely regulated the advertising of smoking and cigarettes. There was also a high tobacco tax, and the supplies of cigarettes to the Wehrmacht were rationed. Several health organizations in Nazi Germany even began claiming that smoking heightened the risks of miscarriages by pregnant women, now a commonly known fact.

The statistics of annual cigarette consumption per capita as of 1940 had Germany at only 749, while Americans smoked over 3,000.

Animal Conservation


When the Nazis came to power in 1933, their concerns not only laid with the people, but with the animals native to Germany. In 1934, a national hunting law was passed to regulate how many animals could be killed per year, and to establish proper ‘hunting seasons’. These hunting laws have now been applied in most western countries.

This law was known as Das Reichsjagdgesetz, the Reich Hunting Law. The Reichstag also footed the bill for education on animal conservation at Primary, Secondary and College levels. Additionally, in 1935, another law was passed, the Reichsnaturschutzgesetz (Reich Nature Protection Act). This law placed several native species on a protection list including the wolf and Eurasian lynx. Additions were added later as to afforestation and the humane slaughter of living fish.

Without this law it is likely some species would have completely disappeared from Germany’s forests.

Banning of Vivisection


Nazi Germany was the first country to ban vivisection in the world, enacting a total ban in April 1933. The measure to ban vivisection was a huge concern and was put forth to the Reichstag as early as 1927. High ranking Nazis such as Hermann Goring, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Hitler were very concerned about animal conservation, particularly pertaining as to how animals were butchered. Most current laws in Germany, and indeed the world, are derived from the laws put forth by the Nazi Party. This is, obviously, incredibly ironic as while on the one hand they defended the lives of brute animals, whilst on the other hand cruelly slaughtered Catholics, homosexuals, gypsies, and jews.

Hermann Goring, who was established as the Prime Minister of Prussia, had this to say:

“An absolute and permanent ban on vivisection is not only a necessary law to protect animals and to show sympathy with their pain, but it is also a law for humanity itself…. I have therefore announced the immediate prohibition of vivisection and have made the practice a punishable offense in Prussia.

Until such time as punishment is pronounced the culprit shall be lodged in a concentration camp.”

Top Young Killers

Would you believe the accusations made of someone so young? Could a child really commit such crimes? These are not your typical childish crimes of stealing toys from a friend, or bullying a schoolmate.

There is a small amount of overlap from the list of evil children, for the sake of including people that really do deserve to be on this list.

Mary Bell
May 26, 1957


“Murder isn’t that bad; we all die sometime anyway.”

Brian Howe was found dead and covered with purple weeds and grass, days after the death of Martin Brown who died of asphyxiation. His hair was cut away, puncture marks were found on his thighs, and his genitals were partially skinned. Apart from these marks and injuries, a letter “M” had been imprinted on his stomach. This was originally an “N,” but Mary added a line to make it look like an “M.” The three-year-old boy had been strangled to death. When the investigation narrowed down to Mary Bell, she implicated herself by describing in detail a pair of broken scissors—which was confidential evidence—that had been played with by an 8-year-old boy whom Brian was allegedly with, according to Bell.

Mary’s family background may be responsible for her unusual behavior. She thought for a long time that her father was Billy Bell, a habitual criminal who had been arrested for armed robbery, but her biological father is unknown to this day. Mary claimed that her mother, Betty, who was a prostitute, had forced her to engage in sexual acts with men—particularly her mother’s clients—at the age of four. Mary ended up at an all-boys facility after her trial; she was too young to be held in prison and too dangerous to be kept in an unequipped mental hospital or an institution that housed troubled children. Her mother repeatedly sold Mary’s story to the press at the time of her daughter’s conviction. Mary was only 11 at that time. She was released after 23 years and fought and won the case for both her own anonymity and that of her daughter. This order is consequently known as a Mary Bell Order.

Jon Venables and Robert Thompson
August 13, 1982, August 23, 1982


“All little boys are nice until they get older.” – Robert Thompson

James Bulger’s mother left her two-year-old son at the butcher shop’s door thinking that it would not take her long to return, since there was no queue in the store. Little did she know that it would be her last time she would see her son alive.

Jon and Robert, who were at the same mall as the Bulgers, were participating in their usual activities: skipping class, browsing the stores, pocketing things when the salespeople turned their backs, and climbing chairs in the restaurants until they were chased out. The boys came up with an idea to have a little boy get lost outside so that he would get knocked over by a vehicle. It was reported that the boys had a similar previous attempt on a boy before James, which failed because the mother had become aware of her missing child and found him before they could take him outside.

During their two-mile walk, the 10-year-old boys had punched, kicked, picked up and dropped James on his head. Some of the acts were seen by passersby who ignored them, thinking that they were just two older brothers who didn’t know how to take care of their younger brother. Jon and Robert brought James onto the local railway, where they flung paint in his left eye, threw stones at him, beat him with bricks, and hit him with an iron bar. They also sexually assaulted him and laid his body on the railroad track, covering his bleeding head with bricks when they thought he was dead. It was reported that James died sometime before the train hit him.

Jesse Pomeroy
November 29, 1859–September 29, 1932


“I might have done it.”

Jesse Pomeroy, born on November 29, 1959, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, was referred to as the youngest person convicted of murder, in the first degree, in the history of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Pomeroy started his cruel acts against other children when he was 11. He had taken and trapped seven children in a hidden spot where he would strip, tie and torture them, by using a knife or by poking pins into their flesh. He was caught and sent to a reform school, where he was supposed to stay until he was 21, but was released after a year and a half for good behavior.

After three years, he had changed from bad to worse. He kidnapped and killed a 10 year old girl, named Katie Curran, and was also accused of the murder of a four year old boy, whose mutilated body was found in Dorchester Bay. Although there is a lack of evidence that can conclusively link Pomeroy to the little boy’s death, he was convicted for the death of Katie when the police found her body in the basement of Pomeroy’s mother’s dress shop, where it was carelessly left in an ash heap. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which he served in solitary confinement; he died of natural causes at the age of 72.

Graham Young
September 7, 1947 – August 22, 1990


“It grew on me like a drug habit, except it was not me who was taking the drugs.”

At an early age, Graham Young had been fascinated with chemistry, particularly types of poison and their effects on people. His other great interest was idolizing murderers such as Dr. Hawley Crippen, William Palmer, Adolf Hitler and others. Young started experimenting with poisons when he was 14. He usually lied about his age, and explained that a given poison was for a school experiment so he could buy the chemicals he needed.

His family and friends were his victims. His father, upon becoming ill, originally thought he just had a virus of some sort. Then the apparent illness struck his wife and daughter. All suffered from continuous vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pains. In 1962, the mother of Young’s stepmother died from poisoning.

At 14, Young already had the expertise of a postgraduate chemistry student, all self-learned through library books. He sometimes became a victim of his own poisoning when he forgot on which foods he had placed his toxic chemicals. Young was caught when his teacher inspected his desk one evening after school, suspicious about the odd experiments Young was suggesting to the class. The teacher found poisons, essays about famous prisoners, and sketches of dying men. These revelations led him to call the police.

Young was sent to a maximum security hospital, but this did not stop him from poisoning hospital staff and fellow inmates (one of whom died). His knowledge was so broad that he could extract cyanide from laurel bush leaves. Young was released when he was 23 and went to live with his sister. His poisoning spree continued—his victims most often were coworkers. Young was sent back to prison and eventually died there.

Craig Price


“As far as the girls go, it was my utmost intention to let them live.”

Joan Heaton (39), along with her two daughters, Jennifer (10) and Melissa (8), were found lifeless, blood-soaked and brutally murdered in their home on September 4, 1989. They were stabbed so fiercely that the knife broke off in Melissa’s neck. Police reported that Joan had approximately 60 stab wounds, while the young girls had approximately 30. The authorities believed that burglary was the suspect’s main motive; the knife used was from the Heaton’s kitchen and the women had possibly caught the suspect and fought against him. It was also believed that the burglar must have been someone from the Heaton’s neighborhood, who would have obtained a cut or wound in the hand, due to the force and number of times the victims were stabbed.

Craig was spotted by the police with a bandage on his hand, but said that he had smashed a car’s window. The police did not believe his story. They investigated him and charged him after finding the knife, gloves and other bloody items when they searched Craig’s room. He admitted to the crime and to another murder that had taken place in the neighborhood two years earlier. The authorities already suspected him as the murderer in that case, which was similar to Heaton’s and had started as burglary. Craig was tried and convicted before his 16th birthday, and is still in jail.

Barry Dale Loukaitis


“This sure beats algebra, doesn’t it?”

On February 2, 1996, the Frontier Middle School was devastated by a hostage-taking incident and shooting spree that occurred in an algebra class. It took the lives of three people (two students and a teacher) and resulted in the critical injury of one student. The person accused was a 14-year-old boy named Barry Dale Loukaitis, who was experiencing delusional and messianic thoughts before the shooting. Barry was dressed to look like a gunslinger from the Wild West in a black duster, and armed with a .30-30 caliber rifle, a .357 caliber pistol and a .25 caliber pistol that belonged to his father. The students were held hostage for 10 minutes before a gym coach tricked and outwitted the boy.

It was believed that, aside from a history of mental illness and dysfunctional issues in his family, Barry was influenced by Pearl Jam’s song and video “Jeremy.” The video shows a troubled youth committing suicide in front of his classmates and teacher. It was also reported that he said “This sure beats algebra, doesn’t it?” when he saw his classmates panic. This is a quote from a Stephen King novel, Rage, in which the protagonist kills two teachers and takes his algebra class hostage. Barry is currently serving two life sentences, with an additional 205 years in prison.

Lionel Tate
January 30, 1987


“I was imitating the professional wrestlers”

What might be thought of as a regular TV wrestling match led to the death of a six-year-old girl named Tiffany Eunick. Kathleen Grossett-Tate was trusted to babysit Tiffany and brought her over to her house one evening. She left Tiffany with her son Lionel, age 14, to watch the television when she went upstairs. Around 10 p.m., she yelled at the children to be quiet, but didn’t check what the noise was about, thinking that they were just playing. Forty-five minutes later, Lionel called to his mother and told her that the girl was not breathing. He explained that they had been wrestling and he had her in a headlock as he slammed her on the table.

Authorities were called and a medical examiner reported that the cause of death was due to forceful stomping that lacerated Tiffany’s liver. Aside from that, experts testified that the girl suffered a fractured skull and rib, swelling in the brain from a beating that lasted from one to five minutes, and 35 other injuries. Tate changed his statement later and said that he jumped on her from the staircase. Tate was sentenced to a lifetime of imprisonment without parole in 2001, but his sentence was overturned on the basis that he was not given a mental competency hearing before, or during, the trial. He was released in 2004 with 10 years’ probation.

George Stinney
October 21, 1929–June 16, 1944


“only when asked to arise and be sentenced, did he appear nervous and slightly excited” (Rowe, p.1)

On June 16, 1944, the United States set a record when they executed George Stinney (14 years old), the youngest person to be legally executed in the US during the twentieth century. George was convicted of the murder of two girls named Betty June Binnicker (11) and Mary Emma Thames (8) who were both found in a muddy hole. The girls suffered severe fractures to their skulls, inflicted by a railroad spike found some distance from the town. George confessed to the crime and said that he wanted to have sex with Betty but ended up killing the girls. He was tried and sentenced to death in the electric chair; the case was not appealed because his family had no money to pay for a continuation.

Joshua Phillips
March 17, 1984


“There should be a sensitivity to the fact that a 14-year-old is not a little adult.” – Florida Governor Jeb Bush

What started as a regular room cleaning ended with the conviction of a 14-year-old boy named Joshua Phillips. His mother went to clean up his room one morning after Phillips left for school. Mrs. Phillips noticed a wet spot under her son’s bed and thought it was a leak from his waterbed. As she was investigating the bed to see if it needed to be drained, she found electrical tape holding the frame together. She thought her son had known the about leak but didn’t want to get into trouble. She removed enough tape to discover her son’s sock underneath, but she was surprised to feel something cold. The beam of her flashlight showed her the dead body of Maddie Clifton, an 8-year-old neighbor who had been missing for seven days.

People in the community, especially the boy’s parents, could hardly believe he could have killed Clifton. Phillips was one of the neighbors who had volunteered to search for the missing girl. Because he was under 16, Phillips did not qualify for the death penalty. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment, with no possibility of being freed. To this day, Phillips has not stated his motives for killing Clifton. He said he accidentally hit her in the eye with a baseball bat, and then dragged her to his room where he hit and stabbed her, but the jury did not believe his story.

Eric Smith
January 22, 1980


“You may think I’m a threat to the well-being of society. And I can understand why you would feel that way. The fact is that I’m not. I’d be an asset to society.”

At 13, Eric Smith was bullied because of his thick glasses, freckles, long red hair and one other quality: He had protruding, elongated ears. These were believed to be a side effect of medicine his mother had taken for her epilepsy when she was pregnant. Police charged Smith with the murder of a four-year-old boy named Derrick Robie. The younger child had been strangled, had large rocks dropped on his head, and had been sodomized with a small stick. When asked why he did it, Smith cannot give a definite answer. A psychiatrist diagnosed Smith with intermittent explosive disorder, a condition in which a person cannot control inner rage. Smith was convicted and went to prison. As of today, he’s been in prison for six years and has been denied parole five times.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Scientists Killed or Injured by Their Experiments

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All of them died or were injured in their pursuit of knowledge. The advances they have all made to science are extraordinary and many of them paved the way for some of man’s greatest discoveries and inventions.


Galileo Galilei
Blinded himself


Galileo’s work on the refinement of the telescope opened up the dark recesses of the universe for future generations, but it also ruined his eyesight. He was fascinated with the sun and spent many hours staring at it – leading to extreme damage to his retinas. This was the most likely cause of his near blindness in the last four years of his life. Because of his life’s work, he is sometimes referred to as the “father of modern physics”.

Marie Curie
Died of radiation exposure


In 1898, Curie and her husband, Pierre, discovered radium. She spent the remainder of her life performing radiation research and studying radiation therapy. Her constant exposure to radiation led to her contracting leukemia and she died in 1934. Curie is the first and only person to receive two Nobel prizes in science in two different fields: chemistry and physics. She was also the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Michael Faraday
Suffered chronic poisoning


Thanks to the injury to Sir Humphrey Davy’s eyes, Faraday became an apprentice to him. He went on to improve on Davy’s methods of electrolysis and to make important discoveries in the field of electro-magnetics. Unfortunately for him, some of Davy’s misfortune rubbed off and Faraday also suffered damage to his eyes in a nitrogen chloride explosion. He spent the remainder of his life suffering chronic chemical poisoning.

Sir Humphrey Davy
A catalog of disasters


Sir Humphrey Davy, the brilliant British chemist and inventor, got a very bumpy start to his science career. As a young apprentice he was fired from his job at an apothecary because he caused too many explosions! When he eventually took up the field of chemistry, he had a habit of inhaling the various gasses he was dealing with. Fortunately this bad habit led to his discovery of the anesthetic properties of nitrous oxide. But, unfortunately, this same habit led to him nearly killing himself on many occasions. The frequent poisonings left him an invalid for the remaining two decades of his life. During this time he also permanently damaged his eyes in a nitrogen trichloride explosion.

Robert Bunsen
Blinded himself in one eye


Robert Bunsen is probably best known for having given his name to the bunsen burner which he helped to popularize. He started out his scientific career in organic chemistry but nearly died twice of arsenic poisoning. Shortly after his near-death experiences, he lost the sight in his right eye after an explosion of cacodyl cyanide. These being excellent reasons to change fields, he moved in to inorganic chemistry and went on to develop the field of spectroscopy.

Alexander Bogdanov
Killed himself with blood


Bogdanov was a Russian physician, philosopher, economist, science fiction writer, and revolutionary. In 1924, he began experiments with blood transfusion – most likely in a search for eternal youth. After 11 transfusions (which he performed on himself), he declared that he had suspended his balding, and improved his eyesight. Unfortunately for Bogdanov, the science of transfusion was a young one and Bogdanov was not one to test the health of the blood he was using or the donor. In 1928, Bogdanov took a transfusion of blood infected with malaria and tuberculosis. Consequently he died shortly after.

Elizabeth Ascheim
Killed by X-Rays


Elizabeth Fleischman Ascheim married her doctor, Dr Woolf, shortly after her mother died. Because of his medical position, Woolf was very interested in the new discovery of Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen – x-rays. His new wife became equally interested and she gave up her job as a bookkeeper to undertake studies in electrical science. Eventually she bought an x-ray machine which she moved in to her husbands office – this was the first x-ray lab in San Francisco. She and her husband spent some years experimenting with the machine – using themselves as subjects. Unfortunately they did not realize the consequences of their lack of protection and Elizabeth died of an extremely widespread and violent cancer.

Sir David Brewster
Nearly blinded


Sir David was a Scottish inventor, scientist, and writer. His field of interest was optics and light polarization – a field requiring excellent vision. Unfortunately for Sir David, he performed a chemical experiment in 1831 which nearly blinded him. While his vision did return, he was plagued with eye troubles until his death. Brewster is well known for having been the inventor of the kaleidoscope – a toy that has brought joy to millions of children over the years.

Jean-Francois De Rozier
First victim of an air crash


Jean-Francois was a teacher of physics and chemistry. In 1783 he witnessed the world’s first balloon flight which created in him a passion for flight. After assisting in the untethered flight of a sheep, a chicken, and a duck, he took the first manned free flight in a balloon. He travelled at an altitude of 3,000 feet using a hot air balloon. Not stopping there, De Rozier planned a crossing of the English Channel from France to England. Unfortunately it was his last flight; after reaching 1,500 feet in a combined hot air and gas balloon, the balloon deflated, causing him to fall to his death. His fiancee died 8 days later – possibly from suicide.

Karl Scheele
Died from tasting his discoveries


Scheele was a brilliant pharmaceutical chemist who discovered many chemical elements – the most notable of which were oxygen (though Joseph Priestley published his findings first), molybdenum, tungsten, manganese, and chlorine. He also discovered a process very similar to pasteurization. Scheele had the habit of taste testing his discoveries and, fortunately, managed to survive his taste-test of hydrogen cyanide. But alas, his luck was to run out: he died of symptoms strongly resembling mercury poisoning.

Notable People Who Disappeared

Some were simply accidental. Some have attracted conspiracy theories. One was definitely foul play.

Joshua Slocum
1909


Joshua Slocum, Canadian/American sailor and author. Disappeared in the West Indies some time after 14 November 1909 aboard his boat Spray. No trace ever found.

Ambrose Bierce
1914


Ambrose Bierce, American journalist and author. Disappeared in Mexico some time after 26 December 1913 while travelling with rebel troops to gain a first-hand perspective of the Mexican Revolution. No trace ever found.

Roald Amundsen
1928


Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer. Disappeared on 18 June 1928 with 5 others in a plane crash in the Barents Sea while searching for the team of a fellow-explorer Umberto Nobile. A pontoon improvised into a life raft was found, suggesting that at least some of the group had survived the crash.

Amelia Earhart
1937


Amelia Earhart, American aviator and author. Disappeared on 2 July 1937 (along with her navigator) in the South Pacific, while attempting to circumnavigate the earth. No trace ever found.

Antoine de Saint Exupéry
1944


Antoine de Saint Exupéry, French aviator and author. Disappeared on the evening of 31 July 1944 over the Mediterranean Sea, while on a reconnaissance flight. An unidentifiable body wearing French colors was found soon after. In 1998 his identity bracelet was found. In 2000 the remains of the aeroplane were found. In March 2008 a former Luftwaffe pilot told a Marseille newspaper that he had engaged and downed a plane in the area where Saint Exupéry\’s plane was found. His story is unverifiable, and has met with criticism from some German and French investigators.

Glenn Miller
1944


Glenn Miller, American jazz musician and bandleader. Disappeared on 15 December 1944 over the English Channel while en route from England to France to play for troops in recently liberated Paris. No trace ever found.

Harold Holt
1967


Harold Holt, Australian Prime Minister. Disappeared on 17 December 1967 while swimming at a surf beach near Portsea, Victoria. Holt was controversial for expanding Australia’s role in the Vietnam War. No trace ever found.

Jimmy Hoffa
1975


Jimmy Hoffa, US trade union leader. Disappeared on 30 July 1975 while on his way to meet two Mafia leaders. Many conspiracies abound about his disappearance and final resting place, with the most popular claiming that he is buried beneath the Giants stadium. No confirmed trace ever found.

Richey Edwards
1995


Richey Edwards, member of the Welsh rock band the Manic Street Preachers. Disappeared on 1 February 1995, the day that he and fellow MSP James Dean Bradfield were due to fly to the USA on a promotional tour. His car was found abandoned near the the Severn Bridge (a renowned suicide location), but there was evidence that the car had been lived in, and there have been unconfirmed sightings.

Steve Fossett
2007


Steve Fossett, American businessman, aviator and sailor. Disappeared on 3 September 2007 while flying over the Nevada desert. Fossett was the first man to fly solo around the world non-stop in an airballoon. No trace found yet.