I have a love of eccentric history because it usually is better and more unique than any fiction out there. I have not had many converts that have learned to love history as I do but here is just a sample of what they/you are missing.
From Wired Magazine... Wired Link
FYI one of the Mozart Cannons is Leck mich im Arsch and Difficile lectu
From Wired Magazine... Wired Link
FYI one of the Mozart Cannons is Leck mich im Arsch and Difficile lectu
Prototype: Gotz of the Iron Hand—Fierce Knight, Fearsome Prosthetic
- By Chris Baker
- June 28, 2011 |
- 12:00 pm |
- Wired July 2011
Photo: Gemeinde Jagsthausen
The Six Million Dollar Man, Darth Vader, Robocop—we have a passion for badasses who restore their mortal bodies with machinery. One of the earliest and most badassy cyborg action heroes was born 500 years ago in Württemberg, Germany. Gottfried “Götz” von Berlichingen grew up to become a knight of the Holy Roman Empire who robbed nobles and merchants in his free time. In 1504, he was struck by a cannonball during the Siege of Landshut. The impact ripped off his right hand and blew shrapnel from his sword and armor clean through his arm. It’s a miracle he survived. A normal man would’ve retired to a farmhouse on the Danube. Not Götz. He had an armorer fashion an iron limb with articulated fingers controlled by gears inside the prosthetic. With the appendage, he was able to grip anything from a sword to a quill pen. The handicapable warrior went on to cut an unholy swath across the continent for another 40 years, pillaging, murdering, and basically flipping the metal bird to authority. Götz became a Robin Hood-like figure in Germany, and his pioneering prosthetic was a symbol of the nation’s mechanical ingenuity. Goethe wrote a play about his exploits, and his famous battle cry, “Leck mich im Arsch!” (Lick my ass!), was celebrated by Mozart in not one but two canons. (True fact, look it up.)
PS:Wired magazine a great magazine...was reading it in the wire room between calls.
