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Siege warfare
#1
At this very moment, my home is under siege.

Every day at about 5.30 a.m., construction workers arrive in my backyard. First, they switch on big lamps that make it impossible to sleep, unless I blindfold myself. After the radios have been switched on, they start their activity. This involves a lot of very noisy drilling, which has now been going on for two weeks at about 25 meters from my window. The assaults are continued until none o' clock p.m.

I have my office at home. So, it is only after 2100 that I can start to work, and at the moment I sleep during the day (blindfolded) and work during the night.

The police has tried to relieve me and my neighbors but it appears that the besiegers have repelled them. Our only victory until now was the collapse of a scaffold; unfortunately, there were no injuries and the construction workers are still able to continue the siege.

I desperately need reinforcements. Is there someone over here who can lend me a catapult?
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#2
Dig a tunnel, weaken the ground, watch the scaffolding collapse again. :wink: Please film it for all of us to see.

Had exactly the same problem a few years ago also while working from home. Feeling for you.
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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#3
Jims suggestion requires hard work and you might get awwy with it. 8)
May I suggest "Greek fire" ? But you cannot blame it on others.
Yes! I write this lines with a drilling machine as a background noise :x
So I too feel for you!
Kind regards
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#4
Quote:At this very moment, my home is under siege.

Every day at about 5.30 a.m., construction workers arrive in my backyard. First, they switch on big lamps that make it impossible to sleep, unless I blindfold myself. After the radios have been switched on, they start their activity. This involves a lot of very noisy drilling, which has now been going on for two weeks at about 25 meters from my window. The assaults are continued until none o' clock p.m.

I have my office at home. So, it is only after 2100 that I can start to work, and at the moment I sleep during the day (blindfolded) and work during the night.

The police has tried to relieve me and my neighbors but it appears that the besiegers have repelled them. Our only victory until now was the collapse of a scaffold; unfortunately, there were no injuries and the construction workers are still able to continue the siege.

I desperately need reinforcements. Is there someone over here who can lend me a catapult?

Release plague-infested rats into their camp. Then infect their water supply with botulism.
AVETE OMNES
MARIVS TARQVINIVS VRSVS
PATER FAMILIAS DOMVS VRSVM
-Tom
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#5
I wonder if the Dura Europos siege tunnel collapse was a result of a conflict...

...or over-zealous Later Roman workmen?
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#6
Quote:I desperately need reinforcements. Is there someone over here who can lend me a catapult?

If you need a Roman relief force, maybe we can gather the legions and perform a surprise dawn attack? it's winter now and they probably won't expect a winter campaign..

Yes.. my workplace is also under attack by the builders, and internal moves have started, with workers migrating all over the place for the next 14 months... :x
Robert Vermaat
MODERATOR
FECTIO Late Romans
THE CAUSE OF WAR MUST BE JUST
(Maurikios-Strategikon, book VIII.2: Maxim 12)
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#7
Damn, this topic was meant as a joke. But this press notice is the latest installment:
Quote:Man steekt bouwvakker uit irritatie
3-5-2006 Een bewoner uit de Jan Pieter Heyestraat (Oud-West) is woensdagochtend gearresteerd omdat hij een bouwvakker had gestoken. De bewoner was de overlast van de renovatiewerkzaamheden aan een woning in de straat zo beu dat hij de bouwvakker rond 07.45 uur uit frustratie in zijn arm stak. De verwondingen van de bouwvakker vielen mee. De politie kon de dader aanhouden. De man zit in hechtenis wegens mishandeling.
In plain English: one of my neighbors has stabbed one of the construction workers, early this morning. A couple of minutes ago, something else appears to have happened, because there were all kinds of ambulances and police cars on a nearby bridge.

More spectacular was the presence of a helicopter about 20 meters above my house (of course, no batteries in my camera). For a moment I thought it would use my roof to land, but instead it continued. When it was gone, I realized that it was unusually quiet, and I understood that I did not hear the pneumatic drills.
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#8
Blimey...What was the weapon used to stab the man? Not a pugio or gladius, I hope? :wink:
Greets!

Jasper Oorthuys
Webmaster & Editor, Ancient Warfare magazine
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#9
Is there some international law that requires construction workers to have an I Q which is lower than their shoe-size? I remember being terrorized by an construction work just outside my bedroom window. At precisely seven o clock in the morning it was like world war III, with an enthusiastic banging of metal against metal, dropping of bundles of planks against concrete pads and rushing of engines et c. This kept on for fifteen minutes. Then it was almost dead silent until after lunch, when the morons seemed to realize that they where paid to build, an not drink coffee.

By the way - Road workers don´t seem related to Einstein either.
Titus Valerius Gallo a. k. a.
Arngrim Blodulv a. k. a.
Thomas Rehbinder
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#10
There is an explanation for the events in my neighborhood. Amsterdam is built on peat and the houses need good foundations. My quarter of the city was built in a hurry and after a century, you can see that several houses have become lower than the street level:
[Image: verzakking.JPG]
So, entire blocks need new foundations. Now, the city is not terribly rich. Therefore, the normal way to renovate is impossible: evacuate an entire block, give people temporary accomodation, and do the job in one summer. Instead, they do the job little by little. The result is that we have been experiencing noise for about three years in succession by now.

This is sadder than you can imagine. I know a man who had to close his shop for more than a year and decided to look for another job; the shop had been there for more than a century and was something like a local monument. Another shopkeeper, who sold the most delicious chocolate in the world, closed his shop, went on a holiday to Thailand, and drowned. Everybody is convinced that he committed suicide, but there is no evidence. Of course, this neighborhood needs to be renovated, but the circumstances are unnecessary harsh.

Although I don't accept the use of violence in any case, I can understand that someone loses his temper.

It's not the construction workers who are to blame. It is the government, which was democratically elected. For years, lower taxes have been a political issue here in Holland; now we get what we deserve - lower living quality and people losing their temper.
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#11
I think Robert Anson Heinlein said something like; " Everybody thinks lowering the taxes is a good idea, until they realizes what they have to be without..."

I don´t gripe about the legendary high taxes in Sweden. Only about the misuses of public spending.

My attack on construction and road workers is probably highly unfair and generalizing, but genuinely felt. According to some things i´ve read about the wikings, intentional and unnecessary waking of someone asleep was cause for a justifiable slaying.
Titus Valerius Gallo a. k. a.
Arngrim Blodulv a. k. a.
Thomas Rehbinder
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#12
Quote:According to some things i´ve read about the wikings, intentional and unnecessary waking of someone asleep was cause for a justifiable slaying.
In spite of the events of today, I wish I were a viking!
Jona Lendering
Relevance is the enemy of history
My website
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#13
Me to, sometimes. Especially when someone is trying to peddle religion to me.
"Squeal like a pig, christian f--k!"
Titus Valerius Gallo a. k. a.
Arngrim Blodulv a. k. a.
Thomas Rehbinder
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#14
Jona, I feel for you. Do you think that the respite will be only temporary, or do you have a prospect of a longer armistice?

The year I wrote my MA, the city decided my street needed new sewers. Oh, what fun to be woken every morning to the sound of drilling and hammering...
Der Kessel ist voll Bärks!

Volker Bach
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