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THE POET AS SCIENTIST

THE POET AS SCIENTIST, THE POET AS SCIENTIST

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The Geek's Raven
[An excerpt, with thanks to Marcus Bales]

Once upon a midnight dreary,
fingers cramped and vision bleary,
System manuals piled high and wasted paper on the floor,
Longing for the warmth of bedsheets,
Still I sat there, doing spreadsheets:
Having reached the bottom line,
I took a floppy from the drawer.
Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command
But got instead a reprimand: it read "Abort, Retry, Ignore".

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Form input - by Günter Born

Friday, November 10, 2023

What if Napoleon had never invaded Russia?

Sure, it was in Napoleon's nature to be aggressive and continuously confrontational with anyone who opposed him, and, sure, Tsar Alexander I was certainly opposing Napoleon by 1812, although they'd been good friends a few years before. Still, Napoleon's generals all advised against the invasion of Russia in 1812, and persistently encouraged him to make peace after the invasion, and during the course of it. So, I think despite the increasing friction between Napoleon and Alexander I, it is conceivable and quite possible that Napoleon might not have invaded Russia. But, what happens then? Well, the first thing that's going to happen, is that the United States is certainly going to do rather better in the War of 1812, against Great Britain. The War of 1812 began just twelve days before Napoleon invaded Russia. I don't believe there was any particular connection between these two events, but, certainly, Napoleon's disastrous failure in Russia subsequently was the primary reason that the United States failed to take much of Canada from Great Britain. Napoleon's disaster in Russia freed up much of the huge British wartime military machine to operate in the North American theater, and the Americans suffered a great deal for that! Otherwise, the Americans likely take the great lakes, in particular, Kingston Ontario, at the junction of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario, which was largely the object of the War of 1812. The future of Canada will be very different, with much less British control and much more American control, in general. This will affect the British Empire as a whole, since Canada was the major source of timber for British ships, and the British navy. What about Napoleon's Empire as a whole? How stable is it? I'd say, other than Spain and Portugal which are fighting an effective guerrilla campaign against Napoleon, with British support, it is actually fairly stable, and might actually last for some time. Poland will no doubt be quite happy to have Napoleon backing them up against Russia, the German and Italian territories are too divided to oppose him, and, all things considered, Prussia and Austria might find it easier to continue as Napoleon's ally, than to oppose him. So, Napoleon will continue to prosper, and American success in the War of 1812 promises to undermine Britain's power to the point that Napoleon may be able to rebuild his navy to the point of once more attempting an invasion, perhaps by 1820 or so. And, this time, it might actually be a successful invasion of Britain. Thoughts?

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