Thing I knew before today: The Swedish army of Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War was an international mercenary army in which only around 13% were actually Swedes. While the largest contingent was obviously made up of Germans, the second largest national group within that Swedish army were the Scots.

Thing I learned today: Roughly 10% of the male population of Scotland served at some point in some army fighting on some side during the Thirty Years' War.

Does anyone on here either know a lot systematically about the history of English mercenaries or else know of any comprehensive books written on the subject? I know just random tidbits. For example, most of the Byzantine Varangian Guard at the time of the First Crusade (or for that matter the Sicilo-Norman invasion of Albania) were actually English. The leader of the Jamestown colony, John Smith was sold into slavery by the Crimean Tatars after being captured as a mercenary during the Moldavian Magnates' War fighting for the Transylvanians, I believe. (He escapes from Caffa and made his way back to England through Muscovy and Poland) At almost the exact some time (~1600), two English brothers were hired as experienced mercenaries to organize the training of the new "professional" army of Safavid Shah Abbas the Great to counter the Ottoman armies built around the Janissaries.

The only stuff if read on the subject has been tangential, if you find a good book on the subject I'd be keen to know.

Now if only we'd interviewed someone on the podcast who wrote a book about the 30 Year War...

Albania's relatively long time UN ambassador is named Hoxha.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferit_Hoxha

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enver_Hoxha

Is this a common Albanian surname? Like Keïta in Mali or Nguyễn in Viet Nam?

Apparently so, according to an unsourced claim on Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoxha_(surname)

Yep, it is literally the most common Albanian surname:
https://www.netcredit.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/09/01_The-most-common-last-name-in-every-country_FullMap-2.png

A group of otters is called a raft.

A group of pigs is a swine.

What do you call a group of Diplomacy players?

A „nerd“ of Dippy players?

A "sausage party" of Diplomacy players?

A Negotiation of Diplomacy players.

A "fruity" of diplomacy players

A Congress of Diplomats?

Your second idea is much better, gopher27.

A group of diplomats is a mission.

Therefore a group of Diplomacy players is a Missy play.

The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow thrives in conditions with frequent fires, and thus, tend to do well at a (somewhat) nearby military installation where aircraft practice bombing.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was actually born Michael King, Jr. The elder King visited sites in Germany associated with Martin Luther in the early 1930s, and upon returning to the US changed his name as a personal protest against the then new Nazi regime in Germany. His 5 year old son's name was changed in accordance with the elder King's name change.

I think the Protest part is somewhat untrue, there was no correlation between protesting Nazis and adhering to Martin Luther, to my knowledge. Still interesting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2019/01/15/story-how-michael-king-jr-became-martin-luther-king-jr/

For further reading.

I was just told this verbally by an academic, who said that the elder King had helped organized a public statement protesting the Nazi regime right before changing his name.

Australia's greatest Diplomat died late yesterday our time (still today for most of you). I'm sure if he was not paralytically drunk all the time he would've played or game. Here's an interview with him (Sir Les Patterson): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v67JB7kPVWk

Upstaged by Dame Edna in the end.

Today, I learned that Chip Taylor, who wrote the songs "Wild Thing" and "Angel of the Morning", is the younger brother of the actor Jon Voight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSWInYFVksg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTzGMEfbnAw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CguIomEf2pE

Chip Taylor sounds like a writer for Home Improvement.

Thanks to gopher I found out yesterday that all US federal judges are appointed for life, not just those of the Supreme Court. Which must be handy when everyone is planning their retirement and for you it’s just keep working

Over the last week, I re-watched the movies Se7en and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: two movies I had not seen since I was a kid. That is Shaft playing the District Attorney in Se7en and Emperor Palpatine playing the butler in DRS. <insert geeky fanboy noises>

The city of Houston, Texas was incorporated three months after the city of Chicago, Illinois in June and March of 1837, respectively. These are the third and fourth largest cities in the US.