Like a drunk uses a lamppost...

Number of deaths by horse kicks in the Prussian Army from 1880-1889:

1880: 15; 1881: 5; 1882: 8; 1883: 11; 1884: 4; 1885: 4; 1886: 6; 1887: 12; 1888: 5; 1889: 9.

from the Internet, 2000 possibly apocryphical

An early demonstration of [Game Theory] power ... was its success in accounting for the distribution of deaths in the Prussian Army Corps due to kicks from horses ... the method is just as applicable to the distribution of horses kicked to death by Prussians. Actual & predicted deaths per army corps per year (for ten army corps over the 20-year period 1875 to 1894): no deaths: 109 & 109; one death: 65 & 66; two deaths: 22 & 20; three deaths: 3 & 4; four deaths: 1 & 1.

from the Compleat Strategist, 1954

But the auction starts at $400

This description was taken from eBay auction number 240343916: “Are you interested in purchasing a copy of SPI’s Dawn of the Dead in the original shrink-wrap?"

Then here are a few facts about the game that perhaps you didn’t know:

1. The game is neither ‘rare’ nor ‘hard to find’. In 1999, at least 47 copies of this game were auctioned on eBay, including 12 copies still in the shrinkwrap;

2. The game is a dog. It’s overly simplistic. It’s boring. It fails to capture the thrills of the movie. That’s why so many copies remain in an unpunched state. If it were a fantastic game, then it stands to reason that there would be numerous punched copies of the game floating around. In fact, of the roughly 10,000 copies that SPI printed, more than half remain unpunched;

3. SPI never pulled the game from the shelves. It was never banned. Angry mothers never fomented a public outcry over the game. It languished quietly on store shelves for years. Anxious shopkeepers reduced the price, hoping that someone - anyone - would take this dud off their hands. Copies sat in store windows for so long that they grew sunfaded and dusty.

Just thought you might like to know.

from eBay on the Internet

There will always be an England

Sir, In this village yesterday a man remarked, “Oh well, if the Germans win, at any rate I have my pension, and they can’t touch that.” Can nothing be done by the Press, the BBC, or the Ministry of Information to bring home to people some of the implications of a German victory? Yours obediently, H.A. Smith, Broadwell Manor, Lechdale, Glos.

from the July 6, 1940 London Times

Always

Sir, It was with much pleasure and amusement that I observed this morning that you have seen fit to publish the news of Sir Oswald Mosley’s arrest in the fifth column of today’s issue. Yours, &c., J.M. Darroch, 39 Cornhill, EC3. (Mosley was the leader of the British Union of Fascists during WW2.)

from the May 27, 1940 London Times

And your point is?

When the United Nations was formed in 1945, 51 countries became members and signed the convention (Poland missed the original meeting but signed a few months later). In 2000 the UN had 188 member countries. There are only four countries that are not now members of the UN: Tuvalu is a small member of the British Commonwealth; Taiwan was replaced as Chinese representative by the People’s Republic of China; and both the Vatican City and Switzerland have maintained their neutrality and never joined.

NATO Symbology

There really is nothing new under the sun if this pictogram is any indication. It was found in China, is thought to be almost two thousand years old, and supposedly represents a chariot. A closer inspection of the appended artillery piece, however, suggests that perhaps this was the predecessor of the tatchanka used so effectively by Nestor Makhno during the anarchist uprising in the Ukraine in the Russian Civil War.

Scotch Mint?

T. Shrum posted this on eBay recently:

“I’m clearing out my game collection. I’ve used these games as research material for my old Fresno Gaming Association titles that I released back in 1991- 1993 and my current Aide De Camp 2 computer game modules. Iliad, The Siege of Troy (GDW 1978). Very rare (in this condition) and mint, the box is slightly scuffed, one corner partially torn and one corner slightly crushed, but components are complete and in excellent (not mint? -ed) condition. As a bonus I’m including Liberty Games’ first release, Battle for the Bayous. I did the artwork and layout for this project. Again, this game is very rare. This game has sold at conventions for as much as $100.