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Just posted online: http://videolectures.net/cikm08_blank_tshosv/
So what he's saying is that startup mentality won world war two.
I think it would be more accurate to say that what won WWII (in Europe, at least) was the Red Army. The best thing that happened to occupied Western Europe was the Nazi invasion of the USSR. Let us show some respect for the millions of Russians who died fighting the Nazis...
The USSR lost 23 million people, ~13% of its 1939 population. The US lost 1 million people, ~0.3% of its 1939 population.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
Those figures do put things in perspective, indeed. I'd just like to point out that the U.S. actually lost approx. 400,000 people "only" (50x less than what the Russians lost).
The Lithuanians lost 13% of their population, too. However, in relative terms, the Poles were the ones who suffered the most: 16% of their population. And I am not talking about Auschwitz and other concentration camps only. I remember visiting the Warsaw Uprising Museum ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising ) a couple of years ago, and it was a disturbing experience.
The US lost 1 million people, ~0.3% of its 1939 population.
I see the quoted statement, which doesn't make mathematical sense, misquotes Wikipedia. I knew the United States population at that time was too low for one million deaths to be that small a percentage. The Wikipedia page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
shows a lower death total, and shows for each country what assumed number of deaths and estimated national population went into the calculation.
You are absolutely correct. I clearly misread that table. It is ~400,000, still considerably less than Soviet casualties.
Stalingrad was just pure hell on earth, to a mind-boggling degree that matches any horror of trench warfare from WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad
Disease, constant stress and fear of instant death, numbing cold, malfunctioning machinery, starvation... That so much dehumanizing cruelty could be concentrated on a place for so long is mind boggling.
"One out of two gets a rifle. The one without follows him! When the one with the rifle gets killed, the one who is following picks up the rifle and shoots!"
from "Enemy at the Gates"
To be fair, all three major allies were essential:
1. The US kept Britain and Russia going with aid throughout the war, including food. Khrushchev's memoirs supposedly credited SPAM (the processed canned pork) with keeping the Soviet army alive in WWII.
2. Russia absorbed most of Germany's military might and destroyed it, at great cost to themselves. Their contribution was not that they suffered more than the others (though they did), but that they killed more Germans than the others (though by the time they turned around and invaded Germany,
3. Britain brought much of the Empire's forces to bear on the western front, kept the northern sea lanes open for American supply convoys, and halted German expansion on the Western front by denying them entry to Britain itself. It's quite remarkable--Russia defended its territory with costly, genocidal scorched earth policies and millions of deaths, while Britain was protected from the first German bootstep by the English Channel, radar, and the Royal Air Force.
Oh, I forgot to mention--Britain also broke Enigma.
Furthermore, Russia and Britain only gave salutary support in the Pacific War, for entirely understandable reasons.
It should also be noted that while all the allies engaged in some degree of war crimes, the Soviets were the worst offenders in that category as well. I am loath to show respect for Red Army pilots who strafed columns of evacuating German civilians, or Red Army soldiers who raped and murdered whatever Germans they could find. Likewise, many of the Soviets' own civilian losses were their own fault (through scorched earth policies).
You're absolutely correct. I was too lazy to write an in-depth response, but if I were to write one, I would have written pretty much what you wrote.
And, indeed, the Red Army's greatest contribution was to kill millions of German soldiers on the eastern front, particularly during the sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad, and during the barbaric battle for Berlin. The Red Army forced the Nazis to allocate most of their resources on the eastern front, thus making thing easier for the Allies in Italy and the Normandy.
Last but not least, I have no admiration for the Red Army. They invaded Finland and Poland. They were known for being brutal. But, truth be told, their brutality was Western Europe's gain.
Oh, I forgot to mention--Britain also broke Enigma.
Polish 1930's Cipher Bureau would beg to disagree, having working deciphering procedures as early as in middle 30's. Turing's "Bombe" design closely followed Polish prototype cryptologic bomb and was named after it. You may want to read up about "Polish gift" Brits received after the war broke.
Heh, I knew that but you are right to accuse me of forgetting Poland.
Actually, a subtext of what he's saying is, "Beware the Military Industrial Complex!"
I'd say that hackers helped win WWII. Jamming radar, breaking codes, etc.
These articles are fascinating - does anyone know of a good book that goes into more depth?
Reading list for the Secret History series is here: http://steveblank.com/secret-history/
No mention of Turing and Bletchley park cracking the Enigma code?
My understanding was the original Enigma code was cracked because we received photographs of it's inner workings from 2 polish mathematicians. Who showed up in England having worked out how to decode the messages. Alan Turing refined their work, designed a system to do the math, and helped keep up with the Germans who changed the Enigma's design, but I don't think he really deserves the credit for "cracking the code."
There wouldn't be, since that relates to submarines and not air defense, and he is talking about the allied bombing campaigns and microwave device manufacturing as a catalyst to silicon valley's development.
Enigma was a naval code and is unrelated to silicon valley's history.
So it took more than just a first rate university and rich people to create Silicon Valley.