This is the 19th instalment of #deanehistory.

Die Hard is the best Christmas film. This truism is well known.

But the phrase “Die Hard” actually has a much longer history.

In the early 1800s, Spain & Portugal fought the Peninsular War against the invading / occupying French. As usual, in any given scrap in the last millennia or so, the British were on board, against the French.

At the Battle of Albuera, quite near the Spanish/Portuguese border, in 1811, a British/ES/PT force fought Napoleon’s Armée du Midi (included some Poles from the Duchy of Warsaw). In sum: heavy losses on both sides, result a score draw. Such conclusions belie the human stories.

Major-General Houghton was a British national hero. Two thirds of his brigade died in the line at Albuera, including Houghton himself. The French were able to enfilade (fire along their longest axis) with a devastating hail of grapeshot & canister (like huge shotguns).

Colonel William Inglis, one of the many Scots to have flourished during Empire, commanded the 57th Regiment of Foot, part of Houghton’s Brigade. He’d joined it as an Ensign & served with it since the American Revolutionary War in 1781.

JAMES
BOND:

50
YEARS
OF
MAIN
TITLE
DESIGN

Iconic main titles, 23 Bond films...
...each one packed with amazing visuals.

Let them autoplay... linger over them...
...and appreciate the production value.

ENJOY!

— @LoudCitizen

[Show your favorites with Likes, RTs & comments.]

2/

3/

DEMOLISHING THE FARCE OF REBEL CARDINALS

by Br. Alexis Bugnolo ➡️📌
THREAD

In 2013, the College of Cardinals gravely betrayed His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI.

Their excuse for their betrayal is simple. They simply think that THEY rule the Church and that the Pope is the figurehead of their club.

The ignore the divine constitution of the Church.

A pope must serve Christ, not rule over him. To hold otherwise leads to the most outrageous daily blasphemies and heresies.

ALL OPTIONS LEAD TO CIVIL WAR WITHOUT A TRANSPARENT RUN-OFF

"We fail, everyone eats dirt. We rise – man, those elites on the other side of the pond gonna be in some serious trouble."

https://t.co/4WzqyZcjkE

There are those who claim that rock music is blessed and dedicated to the devil, so we should not listen to it. The reality is that even a lot of Christian music and all other types are as well. The recording industry has leaders in it that are bad.

So what to do with it?

The movie and television industry is plagued as well with such problems.

So what can we do about that?

The reality is that not all music or media need be avoided. Honestly someone may dedicate a Mozart recording to the devil, but this does not mean we then are tricked into

inviting in bad spirits because we listen to Mozart. We cannot control or know for sure what music is or is not blessed with dark rituals with certainty. We can know the content of the music or movies though.

What emotions do they convey? What type of spirit do we feel?

Take rap music for the most part. Do you feel that the Eternal society is pleased with is as a genre, not talking about any one song?

Not in the least. The genre as a whole has been used to intentionally divide and conquer. It is meant for bad purposes.

So what will happen is those in the industry who are the problems will go. The industry will have a lot of people cleared out. There will be big changes to it.

There is no way you can avoind everything that has had rites, rituals and dark blessings put on it

Last night I watched a video where boog bois in gun-themed Aloha shirts show off their weapon stash in a late night tv "Top X" list format -- so that you don't have to.

Observations…

#USradicals

1) If shit gets weird & they ditch the loud shirts, they'll be somewhat identifiable by their distinct choice in guns & gear. They like FNs, short AR-style carbines & pistols, & glocks. Everything uses the most common ammo types & clips.

#nsag #vnsa

2) Why those guns? Because these guys are like analytical engineer-type gamers with a serious survivalist bent in their thinking. Everything is optimized for weight & interchangeability with their own & hypothetical enemy weapons.
#inaugurationthreats

3) Basically, they're NERDS applying zombie apocalypse logic to a hypothetical civil war. They even use the word "combos" (gamer slang) when talking about which guns to include in your kit.
#domesticarmedactors #gamer

4) Other crossovers with gamer culture abound. Goofy cartoon unicorn patches, thick glasses, and pop culture tats. They're potentially violent non-state actors, but they also clearly watch Adventure Time or something.
#geek

🧵 12/24/2020 🧵
@DanScavino FB Posts
Dan has been busy today.

TS 5:13 pmE

360° pic reshared from WH
I did my best to capture it, but I apologize in advance. There’s a very good reason I’m not a brain surgeon😅

🌟🌟 Celebrities riding bikes: a thread 🌟🌟

Justin Theroux

Sarah Jessica Parker (bonus points for a hire bike!)

Pippa Middleton

Kendall Jenner

Still in the new-year vibes. You probably have found an article about "2021 design trends" someplace else. 🤔Then, you may find it very inspiring and just want to revamp your old design/branding with those trends right-away. 🤭
Read more: https://t.co/v6zAHGJbqH

You must consider the so-called “3B”:
1. It would be best to prepare some accounts to keep up with the trends that always change. The funding means you may need to update old-software, invest in research, or hire new talents.

2. If brands are keeping up with trends, they certainly can uplift more awareness. Remember that some brands don’t benefit from using trends, such as banking or security brands, which users may expect more usability and stability.

3. What motivates a person? What do they truly value? Are there any factors that play out in their lives and impact their experience? You have to answer so that your decision to follow the trends will not be biased, but it's fundamental to putting your user’s behavior.

Why do you have to follow those presentation design trends 2021? you will stand out, you will stay relevant, and you will be remembered

FYRE FESTIVAL FOR KIDS

Strap in folks for I have story about a festival I ALMOST worked at many years ago that essentially turned out to be a massive scam akin to Fyre Fest only it was aimed at families.

And believe me when I say this tale has a killer twist ending.

THREAD

I say 'almost' worked at because I backed out a few days before. My suspicions were already on alert due to the natural wariness a balding man like myself has towards any full grown adult who uses loads of hair gel, like the Event Organiser (EO) in question. Also he was horrible.

I looked after a STEAM workshop for Science Gallery for a few years and in 2014 we were asked to do a new family friendly festival in Malahide called Wonderfest.

I met with the EO to discuss details & from the off he seemed a bit off. Not my kind of

He promised everything under the sun but wouldn't just give me a fixed budget. The way he talked about the festival sounded great but also far too good to be true. Anyway, we agreed to do the festival, I put a programme together and he approved.

And then it started to get weird.

This was 3 months before the festival & I didn't hear from him again until 3 weeks out. I sent him numerous emails to discuss info we would need for the festival. We did soldering workshops with kids & on a weekend like this you'd get through around 200 workshops, details matter!

1/ Found on FB; excellent essay!

“This post is not open for debate. I have listened to everyone else’s hatred, rhetoric and outright lies for the last four years, so now I am having my say. If you don’t like it, you know where the delete button is.

Zanele Muholi is a South African visual activist and photographer. For over a decade they have documented black lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people’s lives.
Zanele Muholi, Qiniso II, Durban (2019)

I've lately seen folks on here say they've felt guilty for getting books (mine and other authors) from the library, or people insinuating some authors might be against libraries. This is nonsense, and here's a thread on how using your local library supports authors.

It's easy to see why people would think, at first glance, that getting books from the library is depriving a writer of their dues. It's free, after all! You're not paying anything, so how would the author be getting paid anything for your reading? This is a misconception.

While it IS true that, in the US, authors are not directly paid each time someone checks out a book, they DO benefit, in multiple concrete ways.

The first, and most direct, being that libraries and library systems BUY the books for their collection. If a book looks to be popular, they buy in bulk! If a book *becomes* popular (i.e. lots of people checking it out), they will continue to buy more copies of that book.

If the library subscribes to a curation service (like the Junior Library Guild), a book is bought for a library system in large quantities before the book is even released. This is a big deal, especially for new and unknown authors (it's why we get excited when we're JLG picks)

I had never heard of a man named Ferdinand Pecora before I had met the likes of the legendary William K Black who is the foremost expert in bank control fraud. But Bill was adamant that we learn about Ferdinand Pecora who had apparently brought the banksters to their knees 1/x

I was then introduced to @PatrickLovell1 and his brilliant partner Eric Vaughan who reemphasized the need for a modern day Pecora hearing.

I started to dig in. These guys Eric, @PatrickLovell1 and Bill had created a docuseries called "The Con" and it broke the story of the housing collapse and the fraud that fueled it from the GFC in 2007-2009 and beyond.

Our financial system is a backstop for elite control fraud. Elite bail outs while the same wretches predate on the poor and minorities, these rich cons live off of their misery foreclosing on homes people spent their lives securing.

The Con is about every person. Regular you and I. But it centered on an elderly black woman named Addie Polk who committed suicide as her home was being taken from her. Millions of Addie Polks exist today. Many of us experienced the fall out of Countrywide and subprime mortgages.

https://t.co/8LfEjakFw6

Soul ( AThread)
Life's biggest questions | Meaning, purpose, living

(1/n)
Soul is a story about Joe Gardner, a middle school band teacher, whose life hasn't necessarily gone the way he thought it would. He dreams of one day becoming a professional Jazz musician. It is what he always wanted in his whole life.

(2/n)
And just when he gets the break of a life time to finally fulfill his dream, an untimely accident separates his soul from his body.

(3/n)
As he begins to preced to 'The great beyond' Gardner skips to 'The great before' a world where souls develop personalities and traits before being sent off to earth. There, Gardner must work with 'soul 22' a soul with a dim concept of life.

(4/n)
To help '22' find passion, and in the process discover what it means to have a soul. Passion and obsession are two sides of the same spectrum. It is very easy for one to titre from one end to the other. Their ability to take in the beauty is the greatest inspiration.