1949 - 'an inflection point in China's national history' - @SOAS_CI - Some historical significance in action here.

The key protagonists in this story.

Chiang Kai Shek playing for time in 1949 - to save his regime, to build a coalition if the Communists would play ball, to protect his assets, etc.

Mao - ‘a revolutionary man, somewhat impetuous.’ Yeah I would say so.

🧐Some videos of Ali Alexander from a recent interview published on January 12th, 2021.

Some interesting history and confessions from the man himself.

Thread

In 1907, Duncan MacDougall of Haverhill, Massachusetts decided to try and prove the existence of the soul.

All he needed was a set of scales, some people willing to die under his supervision, and some dogs.

(Thread, sources here: https://t.co/eAjnXjI4Rj)

The doctor, for reasons he didn't take time to note down, believed that the soul had physical mass and thus it should be possible to weigh it.

He had the imagination to believe that a piece of soul magically departs your body when you die, possibly to live in a heaven-like place for eternity, but thought it unrealistic that this couldn't be weighed like a bag of flour.

He decided the best way to prove his theory would be to weigh somebody at the precise moment they snuffed it, and then immediately after. The weight disparity would be the weight of the departed soul.

MacDougall looked for volunteers that would be up for the job of dying, and, shortly before that, having their last act on Earth be a fucking weigh-in.

Everything is appalling, so here are some stories about the Navy's Coastal Forces (Motor Gun Boats and Motor Torpedo Boats) in WW2.

These small vessels had very powerful engines which were complex and hard to maintain.

As a result, base engineering staff sometimes had to remain on board to continue their work during operations.

On one occasion, an Engineering Officer was labouring in the machinery space when the boat went into battle.

Not having seen one before, he opened the hatch to look around. Every gun was in action, and enemy tracer zipped past his head. The noise was appalling.

The officer (unnamed in the story, but perhaps a nautical Wooster) took in the scene for a moment, then turned to the CO and remarked, 'Oh I say! Madly *war*, isn't it?', before returning to his tinkering.

During the raid on Dieppe an MGB picked up a German airman, who was sent below under armed guard.

This week’s #SundayScientistShoutout is Betty Reid Soskin (born 1921)!

Soskin is a ranger with the @NationalParkService and at the age of 99, she is still serving as a ranger.

The oldest ranger to ever work as a National Park Ranger!

(1/n)
#DiversityinSTEM
#WomeninWildlife

Soskin was born in Detroit to Lousisanna Natives with Creole and Cajun backgrounds.

She spent her early childhood in New Orleans, LA until a hurricane/flood caused them to move to Oakland, CA.

(2/n)
#DiversityinSTEM
#WomeninWildlife
#SundayScientistShoutout

During WWII, Soskin worked as a clerk for Boilermakers Union A-36, a Jim Crow all-black union auxiliary where she assisted Black American workers who had to move frequently.

(3/n)
#DiversityinSTEM
#SundayScientistShoutout
#WomeninWildlife

After this, Soskin and her husband (Mel Reid) started a small black-owned business (Reid's Records) specializing in Gospel music before moving to Walnut Creek, CA, in the 1950s so their children could attend better schools.

(4/n)
#DiversityinSTEM
#SundayScientistShoutout

In Walnut Creek, they were faced with racism after moving into a white suburb

This lead Soskin to became an active member of the Black Caucus of the Unitarian Universalist Assoc. - becoming a songwriter in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s

(5/n)
#SundayScientistShoutout

The 90's called and it would like it's sneering depictions of "pathetic right wing rubes" back. I know it makes a certain segment of the educated classes (of which I'm a member) feel good about themselves to read paragraphs like this, but it's lazy political analysis.

That crowd was comprised of scores (if not hundreds) of well off business owners as well as highly skilled paramilitary warriors (many of whom were trained by our own government) who came very close to achieving their goal. Their gauche affection for Olive Garden is irrelevant.

This is the article. I share the author's revulsion at what this mob did. But this is not a time for ribald humor at the expense of people who erected a gallows upon which it appears they intended to hang the Vice President and probably

Every violent political upheaval is messy and chaotic and disorganized and comprised of people who are far from paragons of wisdom and rational thought. Wednesday's uprising was not uniquely pathetic...to think it was is just to invert a celebratory American exceptionalism.

I can guarantee you, none of the people of color in the Capitol building, especially the officers who bravely fended off this mob, mistook them for a second as bumbling rubes.

Honeybee historians - track changes in the UK floral landscape over the last 65 years, showing key changes in nectar resources. New paper in @CommsBio by the Science Team @walesbotanic @Zwickynova @abigailjayne26

We analysed 441 honey samples from throughout the UK using DNA metabarcoding to find out which plants honeybees use to make honey. We compared this to a survey of honey samples carried out in 1952.

In 1952 the most important plant for honeybees was white clover (Trifolium repens). This used to be abundant in grazed pastures but increases in silage production and use of inorganic fertilisers and herbicides means that there is less flowering white clover available in 2017.

With less white clover available, honeybees most important plant in 2017 was bramble (Rubus fruticosus). Commonly found on the edges of hedgerows and woodlands and other wild spaces.

The honeybees have also made use of a new crop, oil seed rape. Oil seed rape was first grown in the 1960s and now bright yellow fields of oil seed rape are common in spring. It is now an important honeybee plant and a source of honey (which I think tastes of cabbages).

Radio silence for 1 hour, binge-watching cartoons for over an hour and other #Christmas memories from my childhood – a thread to the past in Iceland and Christmas there in the countriside #isolation in the 1970’s where Radio and TV played a key role.

I grew up on a farm just outside the village of Vopnafjörður northeast-Iceland. The village with ca 600 people is surrounded by a few farms like ours but the next living soul is more than 40 km away! It is one of the most isolated places in Iceland (8 hours from Reykjavik).

Back in the 1970´s the roads out of Vopnafjörður were frequently closed for weeks, even months. So apart from flying in or out (not cheap!) via the airport, our only connection to the outside world was the radio and the TV. But until the mid 1980´s Iceland had one radio station!

This sole station is still known as RUV @RUVohf an abbreviation which stands for the State Radio! And there was only one TV station – you guessed it, the State TV, established 1966 (available in colour from 1977).

The radio and TV were operated by the State to provide news and useful information and to promote culture (particularly Icelandic) to the public. The idea of “fun” was pretty low on the priority list. Being State owned meant also the State Employee Rep. Union had a strong say.

1/ It really is heartbreaking that so many people are blinded by hate they cannot see the precipice we are careening over. How many times must history repeat itself before humanity truly learns to recognize blind unmitigated hate?

How has being an American patriot become...

2/ ...a “radicalism” or defect that must be snuffed out?

Everyday hostility towards Patriots or MAGA grows. People who love America, freedom, truth, liberty, & being GOOD are increasingly demonized.

How much history has to repeat before we find ourselves on similar trains?

3/ Everyone picks a side of history to be on. What side will you choose?

4/ There is no sugar coating the truth. Mark my words “Cancel culture” is what started the Jewish Holocaust in the 1930’s. Of the slices of history that we know, we know this for a FACT.

5/ “...Kristallnacht marked the transition of the Nazi policy vis-a-vis Jews from social ostracism, abrogation of legal rights and economic boycotts, to organized physical violence including murder.

This is the hillfort of Castromao (Celanova, #Galicia), the former Coeliobriga (celt., 'The fort of the Bold'). An object found here is key to understanding the politics of the hillforts. Other... is just the cutest thing you will see today on twitter. Go!👇 #HillfortsWednesday

Coelibriga was inhabited from the end of the Bronze Age until the height of Roman times. Outstanding examples of Gallaecian Iron Age art have been found there. #HillfortsWednesday

And even unique technological objects. This is a portable oven, possibly used for melting metals. Raw gold pieces have been found in the hillfort. #HillfortsWednesday

But let's stop at the 'tabula district', a singular group of buildings next to the rampart. Here, exceptional objects were found. One of them in that building with the elevated door. #HillfortsWednesday

This is the amazing Tabula de Castromao. A pact of hospitality between the Coelerni people and G. N. Aquilinus Novaugustanus, the prefectus of the first cohort of Celtiberians in the Roman army. It was signed en el 132 AD. #HillfortsWednesday

one simple photograph can tell u much more about historical figures or events than any book you might read or any charter you might analyze.
These 30 Intriguing Pictures Are Some of the Rarest Photographs Ever Captured in India
1. Rabindranath Tagore with Albert Einstein in 1920s

1) A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!🇺🇲 🇩🇪 In 1944, Fritz Vincken was a 12 year-old German boy who lived with his mother Elisabeth in a small cottage in the Ardennes Forest.

The whole so called Farmers Protest is To divide Hindus and Sikhs Just like they did in 1984. Congress created Bhindrandwale and they themselves never expected him to become a "Frankenstein"

Using Brute Force against the Farm Unions is playing in the hands of the left loonies. The moment Delhi Police used brute force, articles will ne ready about how

"A Hindu Govt Attacked poor, unarmed Annadata Punjabi Farmers"

Something on the Lights of Dyer also

This is will help the lobbyists to create and widen the gap between Hindus and Sikhs. One must never forget that Sikhs have sacrificed and fought against the Tyranny of the Desert Cult. It is a Sin to brand all Sikhs and Punjabis as Khalistanis.

Using Brute Force against the Alleged Farmers is Tempting in the short run having grave and dangerous long run circumstances. Even the Congress Govt in 1984 was facing similar protest on the issue to lower Electricity Rates, Subsidy in Fodder, subsidy for compost etc.

So to Divert the attention, Sanjay Gandhi and Kamalnath came up with this idea of Sponsoring an extremist and to destabilize the then Akali and Janta Party Govt. So they made "Sant" Bhindrandwale.