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Old 10-31-2015, 08:48 PM   #31
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

warellis,

Primary differences to Americans at least were;

1) Coffee is coffee, what's this nonsense about different beans?

2), Storage was indifferent, roasted beans come in a barrel or 50# burlap sack, customer throws what they want in a brown paper bag, takes it home and leaves it on the shelf. Old coffee, or coffee contaminated with insects was not uncommon. Upside, it was often freshly ground when brewed. Canned pre-ground coffee existed, but was a pricey luxury that was hard to find in wartime.

3) Coffee was expensive, and often cut with something. In occupied Europe it was rarely coffee, and was whatever they cut it with instead.
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Old 11-01-2015, 09:51 AM   #32
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

You may want to shake up their assumptions about information as well.
People who are used to relying on Google may be uncomfortable in an era where the first experimental computers are national secrets.
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Old 11-01-2015, 11:24 AM   #33
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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You may want to shake up their assumptions about information as well.
People who are used to relying on Google may be uncomfortable in an era where the first experimental computers are national secrets.
This would be huge, for a lot of people born since 1990. For news, you read newspaper (a physical thing that's not always available) or listened to the radio. In WWII, radio news was highly propagandized, and there were few sources -- ABC, NBC, CBS, BBC, and Radio Free (wherever), plus whatever the stations might be in the local language (more or less controlled by those in power, in those countries).

One thing that made CBS so significant was its ability to broadcast Edward R. Murrow's and William Shirer's live reports from the early days of Germany's expansion, and then Murrow's sublime, London After Dark. That's the closest anybody could get to "real-time" news and information, unless they had large, expensive and absolutely non-portable ham radio setups.

For history and background information, one went to a library or a book store. Full stop.

That means very few had access to any sort of mass media, and the viewpoints presented came only from those who did -- and they tended to be what we'd consider, today, to be very "pro-establishment" sources. Wing-nuts and conspiracy theorists never had access to mass media, unless they could cobble together enough money to set up their own printing presses, and even then they were subject to the occasional raid by the FBI, or Gestapo, or even the local police.
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Old 11-01-2015, 12:34 PM   #34
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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For history and background information, one went to a library or a book store. Full stop.
A further note on this: Most libraries were SMALL and most bookshops have very limited number of books available.

Thus the only way to know some more obscure fact that you can today get with a 5 minute search would require looking it up in something like a specialized university library by physically going there, it was not available anywhere else!!
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Old 11-01-2015, 04:51 PM   #35
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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A further note on this: Most libraries were SMALL and most bookshops have very limited number of books available.

Thus the only way to know some more obscure fact that you can today get with a 5 minute search would require looking it up in something like a specialized university library by physically going there, it was not available anywhere else!!
Aren't most local libraries still kinda small and such today, along with bookshops?
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Old 11-01-2015, 06:11 PM   #36
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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Originally Posted by adm View Post
warellis,

Primary differences to Americans at least were;

1) Coffee is coffee, what's this nonsense about different beans?

2), Storage was indifferent, roasted beans come in a barrel or 50# burlap sack, customer throws what they want in a brown paper bag, takes it home and leaves it on the shelf. Old coffee, or coffee contaminated with insects was not uncommon. Upside, it was often freshly ground when brewed. Canned pre-ground coffee existed, but was a pricey luxury that was hard to find in wartime.

3) Coffee was expensive, and often cut with something. In occupied Europe it was rarely coffee, and was whatever they cut it with instead.
Two more things untouched by adm:

Paper filters weren't invented until 1908, and didn't reach market saturation (outside of Europe) until after WWII. These filters removed certian (beneficial) oils which change the flavor slightly.

More importantly, drip coffee makers came into being in the 1970's replaced french presses, percolators, and single cup drip setups. Percolators are the tools of evil things and result in burned, bitter coffee. French Presses often result in similarly over-expressed, bitter (but unburned so not quite as nasty) coffee.
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Old 11-01-2015, 06:14 PM   #37
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Aren't most local libraries still kinda small and such today, along with bookshops?
Yes, but; even in a small town you can get inter-library loans. In period this may only happen in cities with several branches.

One issue on newsreels, radio, and newspapers. They will look/sound rather amateur by our standards.

Newsreels will resemble the network pre-cable broadcast news. Few sources to see, relatively uniform presentation, particularly with wartime censorship.

Radio will be a mishmash of network and local providers.

News papers will most resemble the current cable news systems, any city large enough to have stop lights will have at least two papers, one leftish, one rightish, the range based on local politics, many will have morning and evening editions. Also there will be a number of ethnic and issues based news papers, i.e. Jewish, German, Negro for ethnic, and Labor/Union or KKK papers for issues.
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Old 11-01-2015, 06:21 PM   #38
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
Two more things untouched by adm:

Paper filters weren't invented until 1908, and didn't reach market saturation (outside of Europe) until after WWII. These filters removed certian (beneficial) oils which change the flavor slightly.

More importantly, drip coffee makers came into being in the 1970's replaced french presses, percolators, and single cup drip setups. Percolators are the tools of evil things and result in burned, bitter coffee. French Presses often result in similarly over-expressed, bitter (but unburned so not quite as nasty) coffee.
Are most coffee makers in homes today drip coffee makers?
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Old 11-01-2015, 06:55 PM   #39
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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Are most coffee makers in homes today drip coffee makers?
Today, yes. Virtually all coffee makers are today, other than espresso type machines, with the above mentioned paper filters.
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Old 11-01-2015, 06:58 PM   #40
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Default Re: [GURPS Lite] TL8 Time Travelers Go to WW2

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Originally Posted by warellis View Post
Aren't most local libraries still kinda small and such today, along with bookshops?
Yes, but in societies where libraries are deemed important the local library today is actually a lot larger than anything from that era and today they will likely have other sources of information available too. As example our library allows access to a lot of things like information database searches and such that were just not possible back then.

Further today you do not need to go to a library to get basic information.
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