Since you're all about sea shanties these days, WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT GAY MARRIAGE IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY?

Now, a lot of what we're about to tell you is the subject of debate, because history, when written down, tends to elide homosexuality. Therefore, there's nothing in history which outright says "these pirates were hella gay and marrying each other all across the high seas".
So, among pirate communities during the golden age of piracy, there was an arrangement called "matelotage". Crew members could form a bond together where one would inherit the other's wealth - rather like a marriage.
Now, some say that matelotage was a strictly economic arrangement for division of assets, but tbh, that's what a conventional marriage is, so.
There was definitely passion involved in some matelotages - for example, when Captain Bartholomew Roberts stabbed a crewman for being rude to him, the dead man's matelot got VERY angry, confronted his captain furiously... and Roberts stabbed him, too. Then had him beaten.
One of the more famous matelotages was between Robert Culliford and John Swann. They lived together openly, with Swann being referred to as "a great consort"... these guys properly shared a life together.
As we said, there's no hard evidence that any of these men were in romantic or sexual relationships with their matelots, but on balance of probability, it's statistically unlikely no men were jolly rogering each other when spending a long time at sea in one another's company.
In the Royal Navy, it was definitely acknowledged that men often shagged each other at sea, and they made that very illegal, punishable by whipping and even death. Pirate ships, though, didn't have these restrictions, separating themselves from rules of empires
Then there's Tortuga. The French governer of Tortuga was a little concerned by the gender balance on the island - it was, frankly, a sausage fest, and it's likely some pirates were living openly in same sex relationships. So Le Vasseur decided to try to solve it.
1650 women were brought to Tortuga, a mix of prostitutes and criminals, to try to civilise these horny, horny gay pirates. It was a nasty and misogynistic arrangement as women were sold off at auctions.
And it also didn't exactly curb the same sex relationships among pirates; some of them formed three-way relationships between their matelot and a woman. So now we have POLYAMOROUS BI PIRATES
We'd be remiss in this thread if we didn't also do a quick shout-out to Ann Bonny and Mary Read, about whom there's a cool story that each fell for the other's disguise as a man, and then fell for each other and formed a cross-dressing wlw pirate relationship.
(but that story probably isn't true, sadly. At some point we WILL do a thread on Bonny and Read though because they have some amazing stories we'd like to tell you about that aren't really relevant here)
Ultimately, there is no concrete proof of any homosexual relationships between pirates, because same sex love is scrubbed away by those who write and collate histories. But from where we're sitting, it looks a lot like they had gay marriage.
goodness, this blew up, here is the obligatory soundcloud: https://t.co/Hv6AVMiTXd

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So, as the #MegaMillions jackpot reaches a record $1.6B and #Powerball reaches $620M, here's my advice about how to spend the money in a way that will truly set you, your children and their kids up for life.

Ready?

Create a private foundation and give it all away. 1/

Let's stipulate first that lottery winners often have a hard time. Being publicly identified makes you a target for "friends" and "family" who want your money, as well as for non-family grifters and con men. 2/

The stress can be damaging, even deadly, and Uncle Sam takes his huge cut. Plus, having a big pool of disposable income can be irresistible to people not accustomed to managing wealth.
https://t.co/fiHsuJyZwz 3/

Meanwhile, the private foundation is as close as we come to Downton Abbey and the landed aristocracy in this country. It's a largely untaxed pot of money that grows significantly over time, and those who control them tend to entrench their own privileges and those of their kin. 4

Here's how it works for a big lotto winner:

1. Win the prize.
2. Announce that you are donating it to the YOUR NAME HERE Family Foundation.
3. Receive massive plaudits in the press. You will be a folk hero for this decision.
4. Appoint only trusted friends/family to board. 5/
I've seen many news articles cite that "the UK variant could be the dominant strain by March". This is emphasized by @CDCDirector.

While this will likely to be the case, this should not be an automatic cause for concern. Cases could still remain contained.

Here's how: 🧵

One of @CDCgov's own models has tracked the true decline in cases quite accurately thus far.

Their projection shows that the B.1.1.7 variant will become the dominant variant in March. But interestingly... there's no fourth wave. Cases simply level out:

https://t.co/tDce0MwO61


Just because a variant becomes the dominant strain does not automatically mean we will see a repeat of Fall 2020.

Let's look at UK and South Africa, where cases have been falling for the past month, in unison with the US (albeit with tougher restrictions):


Furthermore, the claim that the "variant is doubling every 10 days" is false. It's the *proportion of the variant* that is doubling every 10 days.

If overall prevalence drops during the studied time period, the true doubling time of the variant is actually much longer 10 days.

Simple example:

Day 0: 10 variant / 100 cases -> 10% variant
Day 10: 15 variant / 75 cases -> 20% variant
Day 20: 20 variant / 50 cases -> 40% variant

1) Proportion of variant doubles every 10 days
2) Doubling time of variant is actually 20 days
3) Total cases still drop by 50%

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“We don’t negotiate salaries” is a negotiation tactic.

Always. No, your company is not an exception.

A tactic I don’t appreciate at all because of how unfairly it penalizes low-leverage, junior employees, and those loyal enough not to question it, but that’s negotiation for you after all. Weaponized information asymmetry.

Listen to Aditya


And by the way, you should never be worried that an offer would be withdrawn if you politely negotiate.

I have seen this happen *extremely* rarely, mostly to women, and anyway is a giant red flag. It suggests you probably didn’t want to work there.

You wish there was no negotiating so it would all be more fair? I feel you, but it’s not happening.

Instead, negotiate hard, use your privilege, and then go and share numbers with your underrepresented and underpaid colleagues. […]