Monday, January 31, 2022
The Mörkö gun is an early Swedish firearm discovered by a fisherman in the Baltic Sea at the coast of Södermansland near Nynäs in 1828. It has been given a date of ca. 1390.
The gun was excavated from the Baltic Sea near Nynäs, on the coast of Södermansland, by a fishing boat before 1828. After being in a couple of private collections, it finally found its home in the Swedish Royal Collections. It measures 19.3 cm overall, with a steady caliber of 21 mm smoothbore, weight 945 g, of hexagonal shape, which is characteristic of guns around or shortly after 1400, and the rear socket for the tiller stock is 6.9 cm long. As the first hooks on barrels do not seem to have appeared before ca. 1430, this feature gives a good reason for attributing this small gun (German Faustrohr) to about that date.
Depicting a bearded face in high relief is quite usual for artisans of the High Gothic period around 1400 and is also found e.g. on contemporary stoneware It certainly has nothing to do with the portrait of Jesus Christ but simply reflects the taste of fashion of that period and, of course, has an apotropaic (warding off disaster) function in those superstitious times as well.
This head of course blocks the sight when the gun is aimed but on the other hand acts as a fire guard.
The Gothic minuscule script mentions the word maria several times; the rest is, as I said, illegible and mere decoration. This religious invocation of Holy Mary is sometimes found on helmets and swords.
Sunday, January 30, 2022
Hope Cooke, an American, was the last Queen of Sikkim. (1960s)
Hope Cooke is an American who was the "Gyalmo" of the 12th Chogyal of Sikkim, Palden Thondup Namgyal. Their wedding took place in March 1963. She was termed Her Highness The Crown Princess of Sikkim and became the Gyalmo of Sikkim at Palden Thondup Namgyal's coronation in 1965
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Russians back off after Irish fishermen vow to disrupt war games
The Russian military, which had announced naval drills off the coast of Ireland, agreed to move them further away after fishermen vowed to disrupt them.
Friday, January 28, 2022
Top Chinese scientist working in Hypersonic program flees China with critical secrets
Biden will probably send him back.
And all because the Reds didn't promote him like he felt he deserved. Well, he showed them now!
Sources were quoted by Daily Express as saying that the Chinese technician was able to smuggle out crucial technical data related to China’s hypersonic program, along with the intelligence that he carried in his head.
He collected important data and established communication with a British intelligence asset in Hong Kong at the end of September last year. He claimed that he was possessing crucial information related to China’s hypersonic glide vehicle. He also demanded asylum for himself and his wife and Child.
The UK’s top-secret intelligence agency, MI6, urgently deployed a three-person team in Hong Kong and the CIA was also informed about the operation. A plan was made according to which the Scientist and his family would travel to Hong Kong via a specially developed route. Eventually, the family met the MI6 team in Hong Kong, which was taken to a US military base in Germany and then into the US via the UK.
