Pirate, Prostitute, Badass.

Ching Shih’s, born Shil Xiang Gu, early life in china remains a mystery. We do know that she was born in the Guangdong province of china in 1775. She became a prostitute who worked in a floating brothel in Canton. In 1801 pirate captain Zheng Yi, leader of the Red Flag Fleet, was at her brothel and noticed her beauty and the two went on to get married.

The Red Flag Fleet was a very, very powerful group of ships. Starting at around 200 ships , it eventually grew to a whopping 1800 ships with 50,000-70,000 pirates all together. in 1807, only 8 years of being married, Zheng Yi died and passed the flet on to his wife: Ching Shih.

Ching Shih stepped up to the plate to lead the Red Flag Fleet. She was a great leader for a pirate. She attempted to set up a form of government for her fleet even. Some of the rules that she made were that all the ships in the fleet must pool their money together for the better of the fleet as a whole. If a sip plundered something they were entitled to 20% of the loot and the rest of it was used put in the community fund.

Other rules she enacted were that women prisoners should remain safe and unharmed by their captures. However, If a pirate wished to marry a captive, they were allowed to but were bound to the code that they remain faithful to their spouse. Ching Shih became so powerful that she eventually began to rule over coastal towns and cities. Levying taxes from them among other things.

Ching Shih eventually gave up the life of privateer by striking a deal with the Chinese government for amnesty. She was eventually allowed to keep all her riches so long as she stopped being a pirate and so she did. She lived happily ever after running a brothel in Canton where she started.

Now don’t get me wrong, although Ching Shih was not a good person. Perhaps she was even a bad person. But one thing is for sure, If you can be a prostitute one year and not even a decade later you are running the largest pirate fleet in history you are a damn badass.

Ching Shih

http://www.thewayofthepirates.com/famous-pirates/ching-shih/

No secret is safe

The father of modern day computing, the man who cracked the Nazi enigma code,the pioneer of artificial intelligence, and the hero who was rejected by his country. Alan Turing was a genius in every sense of the word. He was a brilliant logician, mathematician and computer scientist.

Born June 23, 1912 to a middle class family in England, Alan Turing always showed promise in the field of mathematics. He reportedly was always working on rudimentary chemistry projects and studying mathematics.

After attending college in the field of science Alan would go on to work for the British government in the 1940’s. Now if you aren’t familiar with this time period in Britain, let’s just say it was less than enjoyable. During WW2 the German military was able to send encrypted messages to each other that the allies would not be able to understand. The “Enigma Code” was, at the time, known as the “unbreakable code”. It was a way where German officers could type a regular message, and then using many algorithms could hide the message in plain sight.

Alan created a machine that could crack this “Unbreakable” code and normal decryption began in 1941. Many people believe that Turing was one of the key people responsible for winning WW2 due to this revolutionary machine he created. He was celebrated as a genius in England and by the allies as he may have turned the war in their favor.

Explaining how the Enigma Code works can be a challenge so check out this link if you would like to learn how complicated the encryption was and to understand how awesome it was that our boy Alan cracked it. We use similar methods that Alan used today when cracking the encryption within messages on our computers but he did it in 1941!

The Enigma Code: https://privacycanada.net/history/the-enigma-machine/

Alan Turing was also the first person to theorize about a computer using electrical power rather than mechanical. He dreamed of utilizing the speed of electricity in his machines (This turned out to be a great idea if you are reading this right now.)

He also was the first to really think about artificial intelligence. He reasoned that computers think and learn as people do. He would be very involved in debates on the topic and sometimes he spoke of the future as if he lived in 2020.

“I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”

Alan Turing speaking on AI

Looking at you Siri.

The great Alan Turing, no matter how much of his life he gave for humanity and his country, soon was met with a gloomy ending in 1952. You see, Alan Turing was an openly gay man in England in the first half of the 1900’s. Even though he was a hero, he was arrested for “Gross Indecency” when he was found to have a relationship with a 19 year old man. At the trial he never defended nor denied his actions, only saying he did nothing wrong.

The British government decided to strip him of his access to government sites as gay people were not allowed access. This means that all his research he was working on was locked behind the walls of a facility that he would never be able to go to again.

Alan Turing took his own life in 1952 by ingesting cyanide.

Alan is a man that saved his country and then was rejected by them. Who created the concept of digital computers and artificial intelligence. He was a gay icon that lived knowing he could be murdered or imprisoned but decided not to change. Alan Turing was a damn badass.

The Battle of Bastogne was a small part of the larger battle also known as the Battle of the Bulge. General McAuliffe was on the front lines with his troops during a major attack against their headquarters. The Germans were attacking with everything they had and it seemed that General McAuliffe was losing the battle fast.

As the situation got worse a radio communication was sent to the American headquarters. It was from the Germans! They demanded for McAuliffe to surrender as the battle was not favoring the Americans. The issue with surrendering was that McAuliffe and his men had to defend a strategic position where they were so surrender was out of the question. The general was so offended by the demand it is reported that he was screaming after the message was received saying the Germans should perform anatomical impossibilities on themselves.

He knew that the rainy weather that they were fighting in was going to clear eventually to allow American air support to help out and they reportedly had a lot of reinforcements coming if they could hold out just a little longer. He just did not know how to respond back to the Germans in a way that was professional (as he was a professional soldier after all.)

He asked the men he was with at the time how he should respond to them. The overall consensus is that “Your original reaction is the best reaction.” He then returned a message that was one word only. The one word that makes me laugh a little bit every time i think about this event.

“Nuts”.

He replied back with “nuts”. Now this might seem lame to us today. However, in the 1940’s that is a straight up swear. He just straight up swore at the German army through an official message from the U.S. Army. The kicker here is that when the Germans received the message they didn’t understand it. They had to ask a translator what the word meant and the German translator said the closest thing it means in German is “Up yours”.

General McAliffe, you are a true American badass

https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/101st-screaming-eagles-siege-bastogne

http://www.lonestar.edu/library/kin_Peniche.htm

In honor of Coronavirus, lets review the world’s most lethal plague.

With the death toll ranging from 75 to 200 million people, the Black Death is known to the world as the deadliest pandemic in human history. Not only did it kill a large portion of Europe in 1347 – 1351 (30 – 60%), many religions and economic upheavals stemmed from it. It also changed European history forever.

The disease was mostly carried by flees. Flees tend to latch on to other animals and drink their blood so obviously that caused the disease to eventually spread to humans. The disease started in mainland Asia. Due to the climate at the time being extremely dry for wildlife in Asia many animals decided to migrate west for better food and water sources, taking the disease with them.

The disease traveled via the Silk Road to Europe along with the animals and many Mongolian soldiers. It swept through countries along the way. It was reported at the time that India was empty due to the illness. Syria, Armenia, and Mesopotamia were all covered in bodies (Yikes). It eventually reached Europe and went on to wipe out a 3rd of all Europeans at the time.

Common signs that you were infected include: Buboes, which were essentially tumors that grew to about the size of an apple or orange and then started to ooze pus. following symptoms tend to be extreme fever, gangrene which causes the skin to turn black and fall off, vomiting of blood and other fun things you would expect from a Middle Age plague. It was common for the infected to die within a week of infection.

The Black Plague was unfortunately the worst disease humanity has ever faced. So let’s just be glad we aren’t Europeans in the Middle Ages.