Modern viewers may be horrified by medieval images of people hunting unicorns, but--to judge by medieval images of unicorns--medieval people may have seen unicorns as a little....murdery.

(BL, MS Sloane 3544, f. 4) #MedievalTwitter

When not being hunted, medieval unicorns mostly seem to be attacking other creatures, like this poor elephant.

(BL, MS Royal 2 B VII, f. 100v)

Or these bears.

(BL, MS Royal 10 E IV, f. 157)

Or this lion.

(BL, MS Royal 2 B VII, f. 190v)

Here's a whole troop of them fighting Alexander the Great.

(BL, MS Royal 15 E VI, f. 21)

So: by popular demand (my mum) a quick guide.

The 25th amendment was ratified- i.e. became part of the US constitution in 1967. The amendment is basically about clarifying the presidential and vice presidential succession.

You see, Article 2 of the Constitution says "In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or Inability to discharge the Powers and Duties of the said Office, the Same shall devolve on the Vice President"

But this is quite vague.

So when W.H. Harrison was the first president to die in office in 1841, it wasn't really clear what powers his VP, John Tyler, would have, nor what he would be called (president? acting president?)

Tyler took the oath and became president. This set a precedent.

Until the 1960s, convention dictated that if a president died in office, then their VP became president, was called the president, and had the powers of the president. Fine.

But this was not spelled out in law. And there were some outstanding questions:

1. If a VP becomes President, then how is the VP replaced?

2. What if the president is unwell, or unable to perform his role for some other reason? How can that be managed?

217 years ago today, on January 1, 1804, Haiti became became the first independent Black republic in the world following a 12 year revolution. It changed the trajectory of world history.

In 1893, Frederick Douglass gave a speech outlining why Haiti's revolution was so important:

"Speaking for the Negro, I can say, we owe much to Walker for his appeal; to John Brown for the blow struck at Harper's Ferry...but we owe incomparably more to Haiti than to them all. I regard her as the original pioneer emancipator of the nineteenth century."

"It was her one brave example that first of all started the Christian world into a sense of the Negro's manhood. I was she who first awoke the Christian world to a sense of 'the danger of goading too far the energy that slumbers in a black man's arm.'"

"Until Haiti struck for freedom, the conscience of the Christian world slept profoundly over slavery. It was scarcely troubled even by a dream of this crime against justice and liberty."

"The Negro was in its estimation a sheep like creature, having no rights which white men were bound to respect, a docile animal, a kind of ass, capable of bearing burdens, and receiving strips from a white master without resentment, and without resistance."

Arbitration was created to allow giant companies with equal bargaining power to settle disputes without incurring expensive court battles. So, when IBM and AT&T struck a deal, they'd agree that instead of going to court, they'd hire a neutral person to decide who was right.

1/

But in the 21st Century, a string of Supreme Court rulings have paved the way for "forced arbitration" - when a company tells its customers or workers that as a condition of doing business, they must give up all the legal protections that come with the right to sue.

2/

Once you've been bound over to arbitration, a company can maim, cheat or murder you and your only recourse is to ask a corporate judge, on the company's payroll, to decide whether you are entitled to compensation.

3/

You will not be surprised to learn that arbitrators overwhelmingly find in favor of the companies that pay their invoices.

4/

We've experienced a quiet epidemic of binding arbitration. Your dentist or physiotherapist probably expects you to sign one. So does your kid's piano teacher. Your ISP. And, of course, your boss.

5/

The Greek civilization was the most influential civilization in the history of the world. All of today’s thoughts and ideas can be traced back to the Greeks. They gave us democracy, mathematics, drama, philosophy, Olympics and a whole bunch of Gods.

A THREAD

Here are some interesting facts revolving around Greek mythology.

Hercules gave us the saying “Taking the bull by its horns”:

The saying, “Taking the bull by its horns”, comes from Greek mythology. It was one of the 12 labors of Hercules that he had to perform to repent for..

..killing his own wife and children in a fit of madness caused by Hera. He saved the city of Crete from a raging bull by seizing its horns.

Athena defeated Poseidon to become the guardian of Athens:
Athena and Poseidon both wanted to become the guardian of a certain city so they decided to give a gift each to please the residents of the city. Poseidon gave them water in the form of a spring but the water was salty..

... and of no use. Athena gave them an olive tree which was much more useful as it gave food, oil and wood and so she won and since then that city has been known as Athens.

A thread of Republican dirtbag history to enlighten those who don't know-
Richard Nixon's administration included:
H.W. Bush- who became director of the CIA for one year in 1976
He later became VP and POTUS
Invaded Panama and started the Gulf War

Dick Cheney
Donald Rumsfeld

Dick Cheney was Nixon's chief of staff, WY Rep. in House of Representatives 1978-1989 when he became HW Bush's Sec. of Def. during the invasion of Panama and Gulf War. He was on the board of Halliburton from 1995-2000 and went on to be VP for GW Bush leading the war on Iraq.

Donald Rumsfeld was a special advisor to President Nixon and became Pres. Ford's chief of staff when Dick Cheney became Sec. of Defense.
When Ford lost he became CEO of Searle pharma and later 1997-2001 Gilead pharma. He was then Sec. of Defense of GW Bush.

It was Rumsfeld's claims of a chemical weapons cache that led to another war, which was headed by his friend and the VP Dick Cheney. He was also a fan of torture and partially responsible for the hiring of mercenaries from Blackwater.

Privatizing prisons started in 1980 and was largely Republican policy. Blackwater didn't just train mercenaries, they also train prison guards and other law enforcement personnel. They do not train deescalation.
John Ashcroft, the former AG for GW Bush is now on the board...

In 1615, historian Richard M. Eaton quoted, "one observer estimated the Mughal's annual revenue at 120 million silver coins, compared to 45 million for the Ottoman Empire and just 15 million for the neighbouring Iran (Safavid)."

- India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765, p. 371

Remember here the historian is talking about year of 1615 but by the year of 1700 the Mughal wealth had been increased even more.

In year of 1700 during the era of Aurangzeb, Mughal economy was more than to the combined wealth of Western Asia, Central Asia, North Asia, Southeast Europe, Western Europe and North Africa.

(Legendary Peacock Throne)

Yeah it is right that Mughal wealth was mostly held by nobles but the point is Mughal Empire was prosperous state not the welfare state.

We have to study the conditions of Mughal citizens from the perspective of middle ages instead of modern era

and their comparsion with other empires of that era.

As far concerns of living conditions of common man, the living standrads of Mughal citizens were higher than Eureopens.

Not a slippery slope or sudden subversion: German medicine and National Socialism in 1933.
https://t.co/S5FqTYKG78

"On 29 July Deutsches Arzteblatt reprints the entire Sterilisation Act and comments:"

#vaccinatieplicht

“Since sterilisation is the only safe method to prevent the inheritance of mental diseases and serious genetic disorders, the law must be looked upon as an expression of loving care for the coming generations, and as an act of altruism."

"The elimination of defective genes is not of itself sufficient to keep our nation healthy and energetic, for this purging of the common gene pool must be complemented by positive population measures."

"On 14 July the new administration proclaims the Sterilisation Act, entitled “Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Descendants.”

"Paragraph 12 instructs that the mutilating operation “must be performed even against the will of the person to be sterilised. The attending surgeon must request any necessary assistance from the police authority."

Not sure if people want a historical comparison thread, but here’s one on insurrection and a violent attempt at a coup in 1874 New Orleans, often called the Battle of Liberty Place. Thread includes a white supremacist monument. 1/

During Reconstruction, there was a lot of white supremacist violence in the South, as former confederates and whites in general wanted to reclaim full political power. Image from Harper's after the New Orleans Massacre in the summer of 1866.

In the summer of 1874, the White League in New Orleans was galvanized by false stories spread by former confederate officer Frederick N. Ogden. Those false stories were that groups of Black men were going to incite violence. This was all false.

Political tension was high in New Orleans in 1874. Rather than concede the 1872 gubernatorial election, Democratic candidate John McEnery set up his own dueling government. (Remember that this was before the parties changed, as @KevinMKruse has detailed on here before.)

On Sept 12, 1874, a steamer came into the port of New Orleans with guns and ammunition for the White League. When the ship was seized, Ogden and others claimed their 2nd Amendment rights were being trampled.

📌Start the year with a LONG READ!

✅ The scene...

▶️ Nelson Mandela, conducting his own defence in his 1962 trial.

▶️ Presiding, is a 'white' magistrate

▶️ Mandela starts with an application asking magistrate to recuse himself....

https://t.co/p7z9q6ArgT

#GreatReads2021🎆

MANDELA: A judiciary controlled entirely by whites and enforcing laws enacted by a white parliament in which we have no representation, cannot be regarded as an impartial tribunal in a political trial where an African stands as an accused

#GreatReads2021🎆

MAGISTRATE: After all is said and done, there is only one court today and that is the White Man's court. There is no other court. What purpose does it serve you to make an application when there is only one court. What court do you wish to be tried by?

#GreatReads2021🎆

MANDELA: I feel oppressed.
It reminds me that I am voteless because there is a parliament in this country that is white-controlled. I am without land because the white minority has taken a lion's share. We are ravaged by starvation and disease....

#GreatReads2021🎆

MAGISTRATE: I fully realise your position, Mr Mandela, but you must confine yourself to the application and not go beyond it. I don't want to know about starvation. That in my view has got nothing to do with the case at the present moment.

#GreatReads2021🎆

1. Yes Northern Nigeria had upper hand (not of their making btw), but they were first in the pecking order of things, had better interactions with the West (Britain in this context). But did all of that “western influence” penetrate into Northern society?

2. I understand history is a very delicate subject in Nigeria. It arouses sentiments & biases. Understandably so, Nigeria history is not GOOD, no matter how you look at it, it doesn’t favor the people of Nigeria. So the government would rather not allow it in Nigeria schools.

3. Like it or not, the North have LITTLE to show, for a people whom Britain favored. Much of Eastern Nigeria societies, resisted the colonial conquests. Benin Kingdom put up a resistance. But today, western ideals & influence has penetrated much of the East, even its hinterlands

4. In terms of growth & advancement (western influence altogether) SW societies tops all of that. One would think Northern Oligarchy had a plan for their people, had their people in mind during those early interactions with Britain.

5. But all they did with ALL the powers Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth vested on them, was control their people, to this day even. They control the information flow, the religious beliefs, they are still the gatekeepers of their culture.

Kary Mullis won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1993.

His most famous achievement was the invention of PCR, the method being used around the world to test for Covid-19.

I've been asking myself: what would he think of current events?

It's time for a thread. 👇👇

Please retweet.

In one of life's strange coincidences, Mullis died in August 2019 - just months before the first cases of Covid were allegedly discovered in China.

Since I can't ask him for his latest thoughts, I've read his book, "Dancing Naked in the Mind Field".

Here are the six best bits.

1. The invention of PCR.

The idea for "polymerase chain reaction" came to Mullis while driving at night through the Californian countryside.

With PCR, he could make "as many copies as I wanted of any DNA sequence I chose".

He predicted he would win the Nobel prize for this.

2. Battling with the safety officer.

Mullis invented PCR while working at a biotechnology company called Cetus.

He enjoyed working there, but he hated its embrace of safety culture. He hated the "safety officer" who was given power over him.

He called this man the "danger officer", because "all he ever did was put up DANGER signs".

This man covered up his glass cabinets with warning stickers, making it impossible to see the chemicals inside.

"Overnight, my lab had become a very dangerous place".

The 12 Life Learnings of Carlos Gracie Sr.
(And my thoughts)

//THREAD//

1.) Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

Mental strength is possibly the greatest strength you could have.

While physical strength is a great supplementation, the power of the mind is essential to any great achievement.

2.) Speak to every one of happiness, health, and prosperity.

This is self-explanatory.

However, it is equally important to speak of these things to yourself.

Perfect your health,
Pursue your happiness,
Think of your prosperity.

I have been on this earth since 1951 and have to say that 2020 was the worst year I ever experienced. Not personally; being retired and a misanthrope with a loving wife made the lockdown fairly easy. I got covid but it was a mild case. So compared to others, I had it easy.

But I cannot think of a worse year than 2020 for most other people. I remember the polio epidemic of the 1950s, but I also remember competent public health officials who kept it under control.

I remember the Kennedy assassination and the awful year of 1968 when we lost Bobby and Dr. King, and the cities burned. (I lived not far from Newark and grew up in Detroit.) But those events left no serious, lasting scars on society. Neither did Watergate in 1974.

Probably the most personally painful events of my adulthood were the gas lines of the 1970s. But at least they didn't kill anyone, just caused a lot of inconvenience. The years since the 1970s were mostly okay as far as the nation and society were concerned except for 9/11,

which tuned out to be more of triumph over adversity than a tragedy. I could not have imagined that less than 20 years later we would kill as many as died on that day every day and the president would do absolutely nothing about it. Even more shockingly,

Thread: Hinduphobic origins of the word ‘juggernaut’

“Juggernaut” is the Anglicized name for the Hindu god Jagannath, the “Lord of the Universe.”
“Juggernaut” entered English in the early 19th c. to mean “a powerful, dominant, unstoppable force”, as colonial Brits encountered

the massive chariot of Jagannatha being pulled through the streets devotees during the Rath Yatra.

Rev. Claudius Buchanan was the first to popularize “the Juggernaut” in both Britain and the United States in the early 1800s. Buchanan was an Anglican chaplain stationed in India,

and a staunch supporter of Christian missions to India. In his letters sent back home from India, Buchanan described ‘“Juggernaut” as a dangerous, violent, and bloody religious cult. These letters were reprinted in Christian missionary magazines on both sides of the Atlantic.

In 1811, Buchanan published Christian Researches in Asia, his broad examination of the religious state of India and its need for Christian missions. He described devotees throwing themselves under the wheels of Juggernaut’s chariots.

He used a biblical reference to the Old Testament’s description of the heathen god Moloch (to whom people sacrificed their children) to explain Juggernaut to his Christian audience: