"I was born in 1921. There have been some incredible moments in the past century, but some years will always be etched in my heart. When I was 22 years old I was sent to Auschwitz. I survived the Holocaust."

Freddie Knoller writes for @TimesRedBox on #HolocaustMemorialDay

Taj Mahal is Hindu Monument: Prof Marvin Mills, Reputed New York Architect.
@LostTemple7 @DivineElement

1.Professor Marvin H. Mills, a leading New York architect and professor of architecture at the Pratt Institute had studied the Taj Mahal in detail. Here is part of his letter published in The New York Times. 👇👇

2.“New information and analysis have come forth to constitute a compelling argument that the Taj was actually a former Hindu palace occupied and converted to a tomb by the Moguls…There are many other inconsistencies in the Taj legend. The building to its left is now a mosque.

3.Had it been built originally as a mosque it would almost certainly have been oriented directly to Mecca,instead of due west.The four“minarets”that surround Taj mausoleum r inappropriate,for they logically should have been in front of the“mosque”for convenient calls to prayer.”

4.Through the letter, he had appealed thus, “The origin of the Taj can best be determined through scientific dating by carbon-14 and thermoluminescence, which the Archeological Survey of India should be urged to undertake.”
According to Prof Mills,

Charles Ponzi and the Postal Service

The story of the man who put the 'Ponzi' in 'Ponzi scheme'

/THREAD/

1/ Carlo Pietro Giovanni Guglielmo Tebaldo Ponzi, a.k.a. Charles Ponzi, was an italian swindler and con-artist.

Born in 1882 in Italy, he became notorious for his money-making fraudulent schemes in North America in the 1920s.

2/ He arrived in Boston in late 1903 with $2.50 in his pocket.

After many professional failures, he moved to Montreal in 1907 and started working as a bank teller at Banco Zarossi, where he rose to the position of bank manager.

3/ This is where he first witnessed the bank's scheme, where Zarossi was funding interest payments using deposits from newly opened accounts instead of investment profits.

4/ Ponzi served 3 years in jail for check forgery and returned to the US after his release.

However, he got involved in smuggling illegal immigrants into the country landing in prison for another 2 years, moving back to Boston after that.

This is Camille du Gast (1868-1942). She was a balloonist, parachutist, fencer, tobogganist, skier, horse trainer, concert pianist & singer. She was the second woman to compete in an international motor race & was embroiled in the scandal of La Femme au Masque.

Thread!

To India! We go together with one of the most original minds of the late antique and early medieval world: Cosmas Indicopleustes. Cosmas thought that the world was a box. He thought that god resided in its lid. But he also travelled a large part of that box! 1/ #medievaltwitter

Cosmas was born at the end of the fifth or the beginning of the sixth century probably in Alexandria, the great city of Roman Egypt. We actually don’t know his real name, Cosmas the India-Sailor is a monicker he got around 9th century. 2/

We know though that he became a merchant in Constantinople. From there he traveled south to Egypt and then to the kingdom of Aksum, modern day Ethiopia. He is best informed about the topography of the region and there is little doubt that he visited it in person. 3/

He is called the India-Sailor because of his description of the current-day Malabar coast and Sri Lanka. But has he made it that far? Was it even viable in the sixth century? 4/

Cosmas does mention detailed descriptions of the South Asian fauna and flora like the hog-deer which he has “seen and eaten”. He also knows coconuts and pepper and seems to have understood if not witnessed how they were harvested. 5/

1) A generation of students were ruined by communist propaganda in the 1960s and 1970s. They went on to become naxals, and communist ideologues. Most of their lives were ruined, and with little support system in place, most of their families were also ruined completely.

2) Now, a few naxals/ideologues did manage to go abroad, secure nice, cushy positions for themselves, and become anti-India/anti-Hindu bigots from their overseas sinecures. But these were the exception, not the norm. Most naxals faced police ruthlessness and were ruined.

3) Is this a career to recommend to kids? That they can be the lucky 1 in a thousand who will catch the eye of some politically powerful figure in the west, who can/will sponsor their entry into the western system? Western humanities graduates are themselves without jobs now!

4) It is like claiming that someone should drop out of college and become Bill Gates! Sure, there have been Bill Gateses who became multi-billionaires after dropping out of college. But most college drop outs went on to become ruined, or are working low paying jobs today!

5) For those dreaming that they will find a western sponsor who will facilitate their entry into the western system, wake up, please! There isn't a lot of hope for you getting lucky, when western humanities graduates themselves have few skills and fewer jobs.