BC CULTURE
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Lizzie Collingham is one of my favorite social historians working today. I finished the latest of her books, Biscuit, on Christmas Day. #FrumReads4

 Collingham's "Biscuit" is the history of hard-baked bread from ancient times to the box of cookies in the grocery aisle. As always with her work, "Biscuit" uses the device of a foodstuff to open a wide eye upon the surrounding culture. 2/x #FrumReads4
Biscuits, in the British usage of that word, were among the very first industrial foodstuffs. They enabled the British empire - Royal Navy sailors lived upon them - and were in turn enabled by that empire to discover a global market. 3/x
Collingham self-presents in a self-effacing way. Her short biography notes that she writes "in a garden shed." She includes recipes for the foods she writes about. Do not be deceived. Collingham's theme over her career is a grand one: the interaction of cultures over time. 4/x
Collingham's "Curry," enraged Hindu chauvinists by demonstrating how Indians synthesized their cuisine from their interactions with others. The word "vindaloo" is an amalgam of the Portuguese for wine and garlo, vinho and alho. Tea-drinking was mimicked from the British. Etc. 5/x
All cultures are syncretic cultures, Collingham patiently teaches - and British culture of course most of all. Twice-baking bread to preserve it can be traced to the ancient Greeks. Medieval Muslim bakers added sugar and flavorings to make the first sweet biscuits. 6/x
The split between the UK terms biscuits scones (a soft bread made of biscuit flower) and the different US usage of cookie and biscuit reveals the influence of Dutch and German folkways in North America. 7/x
Cultures do not, however, interact always on equal terms. That's also a theme through Collingham's book, and most especially of her most ambitious: a food history of World War II. 8/x https://t.co/hPnhCQd6c3
The military historian Richard Overy wrote of Collingham's WW2 food book that it "tranforms our understanding of a subject that had previously seemed so well-worn and familiar. ... It will now be impossible to think of the war in the old way." This is no overstatement. 9/x
The second world war was started by dictators who believed that their countries - Germany, Japan, Italy - could best address their food scarcity by imposing deprivation on others. The question, "Who would eat, who would hunger, who would starve" was central to all combatants.
The Nazis and Imperial Japanese intentionally imposed starvation on conquered nations. Vietnam suffered more deaths by famine under Japanese rule than in 30 years of almost non-stop war after 1945. The Nazis planned to starve 30 million Soviets to meet their food goals. 11/x
The Allies too faced terrible choices. The Soviets allocated hunger among their own people. British subjects in Bengal starved despite food sufficiency elsewhere in India because scarce shipping was assigned to other imperial purposes. And the United States ... 12/x
The spirit of "America First" was not extinguished at Pearl Harbor. US leaders believed they must maintain high standards of living at home, even as Russians fainted in their factories and Bengalis died in their fields. 13/x
Collingham's title "Tastes of War" suggests an entertaining tour through recipes for Spam and eggs. Instead, it's among the most indispensable books you will ever read on 1939-45. And while her subsequent books have been less harrowing ... 14/x
... they have been no less illuminating, especially The Hungry Empire, Collingham's history of how 18th and 19th Britain built itself a global food supply chain - and a global export market for British processed foods. https://t.co/vxie2EYmX3 15/x
The story of the 21st century is that all of us, Americans too, live at the end of global supply chains of a complexity few of us can even begin to understand. Collingham's books teach how those chains were built - and how they have become literally matters of life and death. END

More from David Frum

David Frum
David Frum
@davidfrum
In February 1981, pro-Franco army officers attacked the Spanish Parliament hoping to halt Spain's evolution toward democracy and liberalism. 1/x

The coup was soon suppressed, in large part because of a miscalculation by the dying Franco regime. In 1975, the regime had restored the old Spanish monarchy, hoping to glamorize authoritarianism. Instead, King Juan Carlos opposed the coup - and most of the army obeyed. 2/x

Here's where the story gets interesting for our current purposes ...

The coup launched to thwart Spain's shift to democracy instead consolidated Spanish democracy. The next year, 1982, social democrats won the biggest landslide in Spanish electoral history. 3/x

The elected social democrats formed a government without a single minister connected to the old regime. State support of the Catholic church ended. Family law was modernized, minority language rights were protected. If Franco had opposed it - the new Spain wanted it. 4/x

The process was not instant. Not until 2019 would the state remove Franco's remains from the lavish tomb he built to himself. But the process was inexorable. The pro-Franco attempted coup guaranteed the total doom of Francoism in Spain. 5/x
WORLD
David Frum
David Frum
@davidfrum
On October 16 2020, a secondary school teacher named Samuel Paty was beheaded with a meat cleaver in the street of a small town 20 miles down the Seine from Paris. 1/x

Paty's murderer, a young Chechen refugee, had never met the teacher. The killer was incited to the crime by a multi-day campaign of defamation and disinformation on French social media. 2/x

For 5 years, Paty had taught his classes a unit on free speech and its limits in a democratic society. As part of the discussion, he showed his students some of the famous Charlie Hebdo cartoons - after inviting those who might be offended to leave and then rejoin the class. 3/x

One parent of one student - not the student herself - then set in motion a campaign of denunciation against Paty. And the result was a crime that shocked France and pulled tens of thousands to vigils and protests. 4/x

France has suffered terrible crimes in the name of religion before the Paty killing. We're only 5 years from the horrifying nightclub attacks that killed 130 in November 2015. But past attacks caught France by surprise. This murder announced itself in advance. 5/x
EDUCATION
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David Frum
David Frum
@davidfrum
In an early episode of "Mad Men," the young striver Peggy Olson faces a traumatic experience. The principal character, a man whose life is built upon falsehood and evasion, offers his life advice: "It never happened. It will amaze you how much it never happened." 1/x

With the Tanden nomination, we are watching congressional Republicans put Don Draper's advice into effect.

They supported a profoundly corrupt, cruel, vituperative, and generally immoral and unethical president at the head of an inept and unethical administration. They knew it!

But of course those senators never said so. They were scared and they were shamed. Maybe they stopped some bad things - or at least they tell themselves they did. But the experience had to have been profoundly humiliating for almost all of them. And these are not humble people.

So how do they cope? They follow Don Draper's advice. "It never happened."

The Tanden nomination is the opportunity to rev the pretense loud and fast.

The lady was occasionally indecorous! Even ... sometimes ... untoward. We can't have THAT in the US government!

Hypocritical is not really the word to describe this behavior. It's more a kind of post-traumatic coping mechanism, a denial of the radical abuse that they also suffered, along with US allies worldwide, people of integrity in govt service, and so many bereaved American families
ALL
David Frum
David Frum
@davidfrum
Trump tweets about his health remind me of a story my late father-in-law Peter Worthington told about covering the Six Day War in 1967 ... 1/x

Pete was in Cairo on the day the war started. He was awoken early by air raid sirens. He turned on Radio Cairo to listen for news. Time passed until an announcer delivered a bulletin. "The Zionists attacked at dawn. We shot down six of their planes and suffered no losses." 2/x

Pete shaved and prepared to go visit the air ministry for himself. The announcer returned to the air. "Update: we shot down TWELVE Zionist planes and suffered no losses ourselves."

He understood the Egyptians had suffered a bad defeat. 3/x

He finished dressing, knotted his tie, and the announcer was back.

"Update again. We shot down FIFTY Zionist planes and suffered no losses ourselves."

That's when he realized that the entire Egyptian air force had been wiped out.

4/x

(NB I may have the figures wrong in the anecdote, I'm telling the story from memory, but you get the idea.)

5/x
TRUMP
David Frum
David Frum
@davidfrum
You're hearing a lot of talk about "irregularities" in the election of 1876 that led to a "disputed" outcome. What is being referred to in this hazy terms?

Across the state of South Carolina, white conservatives had used terror and massacre to deter former slaves from voting in 1876. Here's the story of an attack upon the small town of Hamburg in July

Hundreds of black South Carolinians were killed by white conservative militias. Blacks fought back in many places, but they were out-gunned.

The killings were not spontaneous outbursts. They were part of planned campaign of anti-black voter

Some of the elements of the conservative plan to suppress black votes in South Carolina in 1876 sound queasily familiar in our own time, adjusting for the antique language and technology.


But back of it all was terror and violence, more violence than could be contained by the limited federal forces in the area - who were anyway constrained by the white conservative Democratic House majority elected in 1874.
POLITICS , HISTORY

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Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
Today in pulp I look at the scandalous history of lady jeans!

Well there's a turn-up...


The denim jean and its predecessor the dungaree have a long history, and were traditionally seen as work wear for men.

But WWII changed all that...


As women headed for the factories and shipyards they found that a sturdy denim bib-n-brace, paired with a stout headscarf, was the way to go!


Coarse heavy 'jeens' were fine for riveting work, but 1940s women didn't take a shine to them as leisure wear. For one thing they were voluminous and shapeless.


Jeans were also seen as clothing for children. No adult wanted to be seen wearing kid's dungarees in public.

Or did they?
CULTURE
Mentorshipzim
Mentorshipzim
@mentorshipzim
1. This morning we looked at wills & will writing but that is not the only component of inheritance. You can either die with a will or without one. Those who die without die intestate. And intestate comes in 3 ways.

2. a) If a person dies quiet a valid will,
b) if the person appointed to benefit from a will dies first & no substitution of heir is made
c) if the person appointed cannot take under a will.
The law focuses on the rights of the surviving spouse and the child if there is no will.

3. 2 major things affect intestate succession and these are date of death and marital status. This is because the current law ONLY affects people who died after 1 Nov 1997 & there are different laws that affect married & single people at death. The type of marriage applies too.

4. If you are married in terms of general law or what was once called ‘-Chapter 37’ & now ‘Chapter 5:11 or are married under ‘Chapter 5:07’ which is a registered customary marriage (muchato wekamudzviti) the Deceased Estates Succession Act applies. It’s only for registered 💍

5. If you are married under an unregistered customary law union (UCLU) which means having the traditional wedding without registration, the Administration of Estates Act applies. I don’t want to labour you with the technicalities but the distinction is very important.
CULTURE
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Pulp Librarian
Pulp Librarian
@PulpLibrarian
As it's #AppreciateADragonDay let's do some classic covers from Dragon magazine!


Tony DiTerlizzi's cover art for Dragon magazine #242, December 1997.


Dragon magazine issue 106, February 1986. Cover by Keith Parkinson.


Dragon Magazine #71, March 1983. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.


Dragon magazine issue 65, September 1982. Cover by Clyde Caldwell.
CULTURE
Chris Pramas
Chris Pramas
@Pramas
I have decided to take a dive into the d20 System era, so today’s game is its starting point, Dungeons & Dragons Third Edition (2000) from Wizards of the Coast. I worked at WotC from 1998 to 2002 so I was there for the development, launch, and follow-up to 3E. #CuratedQuarantine


I did no design work on the core game, but I was in roleplaying R&D, so I was involved in the internal playtesting, meetings, and discussions. Everyone involved in 3E got a Player’s Handbook with their name embossed on the front cover. The pictures show mine. #CuratedQuarantine


Now AD&D Second Edition had been published in 1989 and WotC bought the ailing TSR in 1997, so it made sense to do a new edition. The goal was to retain the core of D&D but to rationalize the rules to make them more consistent & ideally easier to learn and play. #CuratedQuarantine

In previous editions, sometimes you wanted to roll high and sometimes you wanted to roll low. Sometimes you rolled a d20 and sometimes percentile dice. A lower armor class was better than a higher one, with the result that +3 armor actually reduced your AC. #CuratedQuarantine

This is the sort of stuff that 3E addressed successfully. There was a core mechanic for everything. Roll a d20, add modifiers, and try to hit a target number (hence the d20 System). #CuratedQuarantine
CULTURE
Charles Soule
Charles Soule
@CharlesSoule
WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS, the biggest and baddest Star Wars comics crossover of the modern Marvel era... begins in May.

What is it? Pretty simple:

Boba Fett vs... everyone.

Here’s the launch interview, and some additional thoughts in the

WAR OF THE BOUNTY HUNTERS runs from May to October, kicking off with an issue from me and my longtime friend and collaborator Steve McNiven. (We did Death/Return of Wolverine together, Uncanny Inhumans etc.) He’s INCREDIBLE, and I think this is his best work in ages. I mean...


Steve inked himself (to amazing effect), and the colors there are by the staggeringly talented Laura Martin.

It’s always special whenever I get to work with Steve, and this is no exception. There’s a fight sequence in that issue that (literally) has to be seen to be believed.

The story: Boba Fett has Han Solo at the end of EpV, but we know it takes him a while to get to Jabba in EpVI (he’s not there yet when Lando and Chewie go to Tatooine just after Empire.)

What took so long? Well, someone steals Han, and Boba has to get him back. NO MATTER WHAT.

That journey, which has MANY twists and turns, puts Boba up against the galaxy’s heaviest hitters, since basically all of the big factions and players have an interest in grabbing Han Solo.

I mean, think about it...
CULTURE

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👇Thread.

Published a new essay: The red flags and magic numbers that investors look for in your startup’s metrics – 80 slide deck included!


This was a deck that I created on my (longish) interview process with @a16z. It was a long path, starting with meeting folks at the firm 10 years ago. But the purpose of the deck was to explain how I would use my superpower in an investing context

Here's what I explain in the deck. As investors (whether angel or VC) we're often confronted with an up-and-to-the-right graph. Is it going to go up? Or down?


One solution to forecast these growth curves is the Growth Accounting Framework, where you add up New+Reactivated and subtract churned users. In each time period that gives you the difference in monthly actives.


The problem with this is that it's a lagging metric, not a leading one. We need to go one level deeper and look at the underlying loops that drive these numbers, to understand the quality.
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Trading view scanner process -

1 - open trading view in your browser and select stock scanner in left corner down side .

2 - touch the percentage% gain change ( and u can see higest gainer of today)


3. Then, start with 6% gainer to 20% gainer and look charts of everyone in daily Timeframe . (For fno selection u can choose 1% to 4% )

4. Then manually select the stocks which are going to give all time high BO or 52 high BO or already given.

5. U can also select those stocks which are going to give range breakout or already given range BO

6 . If in 15 min chart📊 any stock sustaing near BO zone or after BO then select it on your watchlist

7 . Now next day if any stock show momentum u can take trade in it with RM

This looks very easy & simple but,

U will amazed to see it's result if you follow proper risk management.

I did 4x my capital by trading in only momentum stocks.

I will keep sharing such learning thread 🧵 for you 🙏💞🙏

Keep learning / keep sharing 🙏
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Andrew Chen
Andrew Chen
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👇 Thread. New deck getting published this week: "Consumer startups are awesome, and here's what I'm looking to invest in at Andreessen Horowitz." If you want to read it, subscribe to my newsletter here: https://t.co/262t8eh0wf


1/ A lot of new consumer technologies have been introduced to US households in the last 100 years. But it's taken many of them - like the telephone - more than 50 years to get to the majority of the US. Why is that?


2/ We had to literally teach people how to use phone. Which end goes to your mouth, which goes to your ear. Say "hello" when people call. The motivation of consumers to talk to their friends has always been there, but we had to teach the behavior


3/ If you compare phones to the latest technologies, there's been a huge shift. Things are being picked up much faster.


4/ Even while there's been all this innovation recently, physically speaking, we are still the same human beings from 100,000 years ago.
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Full technical analysis courses in one thread 🧵

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⏭️How elliott wave work with examples

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You must watch full video 🎥
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The Chartians
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Took me 5 years to get the best Chartink scanners for Stock Market, but you’ll get it in 5 mminutes here ⏰

Do Share the above tweet 👆

These are going to be very simple yet effective pure price action based scanners, no fancy indicators nothing - hope you liked it.

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52 Week High
One of the classic scanners very you will get strong stocks to Bet on.

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Hourly Breakout
This scanner will give you short term bet breakouts like hourly or 2Hr breakout

Volume shocker
Volume spurt in a stock with massive X times
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