The Real History Behind 'The Shadow King' | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra - "One of the ways that Mussolini recruited hundreds of thousands of young men to come into this war was by passing around across Italy, photographs of women and girls, often in different states of undress. And what he said to them was, this is what you get. You take the land, and you get the women. This is not even going to be a war, it's going to be really easy"
Aussie woman wakes up from tonsil surgery with Irish accent - "Brisbane resident Angie Yen noted she no longer had an Australian accent two days after having the surgery... Yen said she believes she has Foreign Accent Syndrome — normally caused by a brain injury that leads to people losing their natural accent."
Meme
US vs UK: Coca Cola company, McDonald's & Starbucks products. Comparing calorie counts
Meme - "I am NOT obese! cute and wholesome chubby femboy looking for a dom bf hmu here's a pic of me~ uwu -
*takes up whole hallway*"
Chillicothe woman refused pedicure due to weight - "The review reads:
“Went to this salon waited to hours to ve told they can’t do my pedicure because of my weight!” [sic] —
Review posted onto Real Nails on April 24.
Within three hours, the store commented on the woman’s review and said that their “$3,000 chairs” could not support the woman’s weight.
“Hi …. Am so sorry about today. We ask you to come outside so we could tell you quietly and no body can hear and judge you about your weight. We told your friend jen about it too and we feel bad. However, we can’t just take your 35-50$ and fix $3000 plus chair when we know it won’t hold your weight. Because you don’t understand us of how we feel if the chair break than please no need to come back. Thanks” [sic]...
“We aren’t judging based on her size or weight or anything, and we asked her to come outside, and the chair would not hold her, and I don’t know how to explain to you, but she could not sit on the chair. We kindly took her outside and explained to her,” Lee said. “A lot of our customers are pretty big, we take all sizes and all colors. I just want to clarify my side. I don’t want people to think we discriminate.”... He said he apologizes to the woman, but that past experiences with a previous woman of size cost the store thousands of dollars to replace equipment. Since then, he said, the spa is cautious about who they service. “I am a big guy myself. I am 200 pounds, you know? We do not have a weight limit. If she can sit on the chair, we gladly will take her. If you can sit on the chair, yes, we will take care of you, we love everybody. We don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”"
Review was from Brittany Hester
Chen Sheng Wu Guang uprising - Wikipedia - "Led by Chen Sheng and Wu Guang, the uprising helped overthrow the Qin and pave the way for the Han dynasty, one of China's greatest golden ages... Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were both army officers who were ordered to lead their bands of commoner soldiers north to participate in the defense of Yuyang (simplified Chinese: 渔阳; traditional Chinese: 漁陽). However, they were stopped halfway in present-day Anhui province by flooding from a severe rainstorm. The harsh Qin laws mandated execution for those who showed up late for government jobs, regardless of the nature of the delay. Figuring that they would rather fight than accept execution, Chen and Wu organized a band of 900 villagers to rebel against the government."
How harsh punishments can be counterproductive
Meme - "Vaush: The way I see it, the age of consent exists out of respect for the numerous power imbalances older people have over younger people. As those imbalances (or at least some of them) are redressed though the advent of socialism, the age of consent should therefor be lowered."
Cutting down on sodium, not taste - "In the food industry, the most frequently used flavour enhancer is derived from glutamate and called monosodium glutamate or MSG. By weight, MSG contains two thirds less sodium than salt, and as there’s no chemical difference between the glutamate found in foods and commercially manufactured MSG, the body processes them in the same way. Kojima says that this makes MSG a perfect candidate for enhancing the taste of low-salt dishes."
Entire building of restaurants/bars staffed by Japanese adult film actresses to open in Tokyo - "Soft on Demand says its five-floor complex will be “a theme park for adults.”... A couple years ago, Soft on Demand decided to try something different. They rented out a small shop space in Akihabara, converted it into a casual bar, and staffed it with a rotating roster of (fully clothed) adult film actresses who had appeared in SOD productions. The bar turned out to be a hit, inspiring a second location in the Nakano neighborhood"
We visit a new Tokyo bar where nobody speaks and writing is the only way to communicate - "Called “Decameron“, this new establishment shares its name with a collection of novellas by 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio and bills itself as a “Book Cafe & Bar“.
Patient dies after ransomware attack reroutes her to remote hospital - "A woman seeking emergency treatment for a life-threatening condition died after a ransomware attack crippled a nearby hospital in Duesseldorf, Germany, and forced her to obtain services from a more distant facility"
‘Viking’ was a job description, not a matter of heredity, massive ancient DNA study shows - "Viking Age Scandinavians were more likely to have black hair than people living there today... Viking-style graves excavated on the United Kingdom’s Orkney islands contained individuals with no Scandinavian DNA, whereas some people buried in Scandinavia had Irish and Scottish parents. And several individuals in Norway were buried as Vikings, but their genes identified them as Saami, an Indigenous group genetically closer to East Asians and Siberians than to Europeans. “These identities aren’t genetic or ethnic, they’re social,” Jarman says. “To have backup for that from DNA is powerful.”... The DNA has raised new questions, too. Study co-author and National Museum of Denmark archaeologist Jette Arneborg says DNA recovered from burials in Greenland shows a mix of Scandinavian men from what is now Norway and women from the British Isles. Yet the artifacts and burials look completely Scandinavian. The women “have British genes but we can’t see them in the archaeology,” she says. “The DNA is going to make us think more about what’s happening here.”"
Meme - ""Men will fuck anything" - the gender who uses cucumbers, carrots, tv remotes, water bottles, knives, corn, 17 different toys and a water faucet to masturbate"
Second Happy Time - Wikipedia - "The "Second Happy Time" (German: Zweite glückliche Zeit), also known among German submarine commanders as the "American Shooting Season", was the informal name for the Operation Paukenschlag ("Operation Drumbeat"), a phase in the Battle of the Atlantic during which Axis submarines attacked merchant shipping and Allied naval vessels along the east coast of North America... For several months, none of the recommendations were followed. Coastal shipping continued to sail along marked routes and burn normal navigation lights. Boardwalk communities ashore were only 'requested' to 'consider' turning their illuminations off on 18 December 1941, but not in the cities; they did not want to offend the tourism, recreation and business sectors"
Freedom!
The Weird Wide Web - "In 1930, Helene Adelaide Shelby patented an apparatus for obtaining criminal confessions. The police put the suspect into a darkened chamber where they are confronted by a human skeleton with glowing red eyes that questions them with a voice transmitted from the interrogator behind it, through a megaphone in its mouth. A camera concealed in the skull was to record the confessions"
Man charged with insulting modesty of two people, among first to be charged under revised penal code - "Under 377BA, anyone who utters any word, makes any sound or gesture or exhibits any object intending to insult the modesty of any person will face a maximum jail term of one year, a fine, or both. Previously, only women could have their modesty insulted, under Section 509, which has been repealed"
It's gender neutral now, but still ridiculously phraed
The Yaboiposting - Posts | Facebook - "A dude killed himself so let me make this all about me!"
"In the wake of streamer @Byron taking his own life, Alinity speaks up about contemplating suicide herself due to the cyber bullying she claims to receive daily."
The Incredible Hulk Is Marvel's Most Underrated Movie
Watch: The Incredible Hulk actor just summed up the Gospel of Wokism in less than 3 minutes - ""It's my humble belief that what will give all the sadness and loss that we all live through meaning is our common humanity. What connects us is greater than what keeps us apart. And the more we include each other, and see each other and hear each other, the faster we will heal our broken hearts and minds. We have a dying mother, just like the mother in our story. She is Mother Earth. And we must come to balance with her and honor her. And she will heal too. So let's be courageous together. Let's turn the page on the cruel past of this nation. The good news is inclusion and justice and care for Mother Earth is breaking out everywhere. The godly light of decency is breaking through the hideous, dark storm we've been living through."... If you're wondering, these are deeply religious statements, and it highlights something important: the Woke Left is not secular. Far from it, actually. This is a statement consistent with pantheistic and animist beliefs: "We are one with the universe, and the universe is one with us."... If you're still one of those people who think Christian doctrine can exist side by side with the ideology of Black Lives Matter and Critical Race Theory, you might want to consider why all the Wokies keep linking these things together. This brings us to the crème de la crème of Ruffalo's speech. In the following sentence, he best expresses the entire Gospel of Wokism in one fell swoop:
"The good news is inclusion and justice and care for Mother Earth is breaking out everywhere. The godly light of decency is breaking through the hideous, dark storm we've been living through."
Facebook - "Turns out the real reason MRIs during pregnancy are discouraged is because then everyone would know the secret filming locations of the long awaited Mars Attacks sequel"
Pretty Ammina on Twitter - "We Rejected Men Who Were Going To Make Us Wives For Guys Who Made Us Single Mothers, Men Are Not Trash But Our Taste For Men Is Trash Dear Men, We Are Sorry."
Sainsbury’s apologises for cream tea faux pas in Cornwall | News | The Times - "Sainsbury’s has promised to change a picture in one of its Cornish stores because it showed the wrong sort of tea. The image at a branch in Truro depicted a fruit scone — itself an error for purists who say it must be a plain Cornish split — with clotted cream on the bottom and the jam uppermost. The done thing in Cornwall is to put the jam on first, while in Devon they start with the cream... The Queen’s bakers courted controversy last year when the recipe for scones used for the garden parties was posted on the royal Instagram page along with a video demonstration for each stage. The final element showed the cooks putting the clotted cream on first. One Instagram user asked: “I don’t think it can get any more official than that, can it?”"
Peaceful Death Threats by Bosch Fawstin - "Fawstin is an Eisner Award-nominated cartoonist and ex-Muslim. Raised a Muslim, he now utterly rejects Islam, arguing that the creed represents nothing more than brute force and tyranny. In May 2015, two ISIL-inspired Muslim terrorists attempted to murder Fawstin and other critics of Islam. A participant at anti-Islam firebrand Pamela Geller’s “First Annual Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest” in Garland, Texas, Fawstin was present to receive a $10,000 prize for his best-in-show pen-and-ink drawing of Muhammad. As the evening wound down, two gunmen opened fire on police guarding the event. An off-duty officer fought back and successfully killed both gunmen... Fawstin became the target of thousands of death threats made by Muslims enraged by his drawings of Muhammad and apparently disappointed that he wasn’t slain in the Garland attack. The Muslim threats against Fawstin only trebled three years later in 2018 when Dutch politician Geert Wilders invited Fawstin to the Netherlands to judge a new Muhammad cartoon contest. The Pakistani government responded by blocking Pakistani access to Fawstin’s social media accounts under the aegis of an anti-blasphemy law that imposes the death penalty for speech that “defiles the sacred name of the Holy Prophet Muhammad.” Presumably, were Fawstin ever to enter Pakistan, he could count on his state-sanctioned murder. Undeterred, Fawstin sifted through the numerous threats he received and compiled them into a (as of now) two-volume series titled Peaceful Death Threats. The series—a compilation of Fawstin’s various Muhammad drawings alongside image after image of the threats he received against his life—serves as a trenchant reminder of the violent nature of Islam. Some of these threats, which he received primarily on social media, graphically depict Fawstin’s murder and the murder of his family. Others express admiration for Hitler and his slaughter of Jews... Fawstin includes few wild-eyed ISIL soldiers; most are seemingly normal people—doctors, engineers, students, one individual who worked for Facebook—whose words nevertheless drip with venom against Fawstin’s right to live and speak... He observes that nothing in Islam qua Islam protects him as an Islamic apostate and blasphemer. He argues that the Koran itself calls for loyal Muslims to kill him. He recognizes that when Islamic scripture is taken seriously and upheld, murder and mayhem quickly follow. Everyday life for Fawstin is a game of what he terms “Muslim roulette,” a game of never knowing if a person he encounters will attempt to murder him for daring to draw a cartoon... As long as the creators and intellectuals of the West fail to defend free speech on moral grounds (however “offensive” the speech may be to the sensibilities of some) and as long as Western governments abdicate their responsibility to protect the innocent from threats of violence and death, we can count on enemies, whatever their ideology, to keep silencing those who dare to speak. Considering its context, Fawstin’s Peaceful Death Threats represents a bold act of continued defiance on the part of one courageous man—a man standing firm against both Islamic brutality and the tepid indifference of those who fail to properly defend free speech."
Islamophobia!
Meme - "Overheard a lady saying she won't let her kid watch Peppa Pig because it encourages bad behaviour like "jumping in puddles". I watched Road Runner as a kid and haven't blown anyone up with dynamite - yet"
So much for the liberal monkey see monkey do theory of human behavior
Body of missing man found in Spanish dinosaur statue - "Authorities were alerted on Saturday after a father and his son noticed a smell emanating from the papier-mâché figure in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, a suburb of Barcelona. The father then saw the corpse through a crack in the Stegosaurus' hollow leg. Police said the man had been reported missing by his family, and no foul play is suspected... the man - who has not been named - was trying to retrieve a mobile phone he dropped inside the statue. He then fell inside the decorative figure and was left trapped upside down, unable to call for help."
Boulders block road in Boulder Canyon near Boulder according to Boulder County Sheriff’s Office
The Deep Roots of an Italian Song That Sounds Like English—But Is Just Nonsense - "There’s a long tradition of songs that “sound” like another language without actually meaning anything. In Italy, for example, beginning in the 1950s, American songs, films, and jingles inspired a diverse range of “American sounding” cultural products. The most famous is probably “Prisencolinensinainciusol,” a 1972 song composed by legendary Italian entertainer Adriano Celentano and performed by him and his wife, Claudia Mori. The song’s lyrics sound phonetically like American English—or at least what many Italians hear when an American speaks—but are clearly total, utter, delightful nonsense. You really have to hear it to appreciate it... By the time Celentano’s song came out, the sound of American English had been “contaminating” Italian culture for decades. Linguist Giuseppe Antonelli analyzed Italian pop songs produced between 1958 and 2007, and revealed the ways in which Italian singers have incorporated American sounds into their music... Similarly, in the 1960s there was a trend of bands in England singing in Italian—with strong English accents. Both phenomena resulted in a similar hybrid sound, one that Italians responded to. According to Francesco Ciabattoni, who teaches Italian culture and literature at Georgetown University, this Anglo-Italian pop genre grew from Italy’s collective interest in America, as well as the British Invasion of the 1960s. “I am not sure how much thinking they put in it, but producers must have realized that imitating English and American sounds would sell more,” he says. Linguistics may have played a role, too. “The phonetic structure of English makes it more suited to rock or pop songs compared with Italian,” he adds. “Rock or pop music is often arranged in ‘common time,’ a rhythmic pattern made of four beats with an emphasis on the second and fourth beat,” says Simone Lenzi, an Italian writer and frontman of Tuscan rock band Virginiana Miller. “That pattern goes very well with the English language, which is mostly made of short and monosyllabic words that can easily be arranged on four beats.” Italian, on the other hand, is mostly made of longer words—only about 2 percent of the most-used words are monosyllabic—making it more suited to arias than rock or pop. For example, Tracy Chapman’s “You got a fast car” translates as “Tu hai una macchina veloce.”... “What Celentano is doing, inventing a nonsense language, was already done by Dante and by medieval comedians before him,” says Simone Marchesi, who teaches French and Italian medieval literature at Princeton University. And that practice, Marchesi explains, goes back even further, to the Old Testament."
The right look: Conservative politicians look better and voters reward it - "Since good-looking politicians win more votes, a beauty advantage for politicians on the left or on the right is bound to have political consequences. We show that politicians on the right look more beautiful in Europe, the United States and Australia. Our explanation is that beautiful people earn more, which makes them less inclined to support redistribution. Our model of within-party competition predicts that voters use beauty as a cue for conservatism when they do not know much about candidates and that politicians on the right benefit more from beauty in low-information elections. Evidence from real and experimental elections confirms both predictions."
More evidence that conservatives look better than liberals
Did the Obama Administration Place Immigrant Children With Human Traffickers? - "the administration of former United States President Barack Obama had handed immigrant children over to human traffickers."
Snopes isn't totally shit
Italian skiver draws salary for 15 years for job he never performed - "Public health worker Salvatore Scumace allegedly managed to draw a salary and social security payments for 15 years without putting in a single day’s work, costing the Italian state no less than €538,000 (£464,410)... He was spotted in the hospital just once – the day he went in to sign his work contract, back in 2005. Italy has for years had a chronic problem with “ghost” public officials who either never turn up for work or clock on and then promptly disappear for the day, sometimes holding down jobs in the private sector. Mr Scumace allegedly maintained the ruse by threatening the directors of the hospital, saying they and their relatives would be hurt if they revealed the fraud... Mr Scumace was not the only skiver on the hospital’s books. Another 57 employees of the hospital were recently denounced for absenteeism and are under investigation. On the days when they bunked off work, they were allegedly seen playing slot machines, drinking in bars or shopping at the supermarket... A months-long covert investigation by police found that up to 75 per cent of council employees in San Remo, which is famed for its annual music festival and lies just across the border from Monaco and Nice, failed to show up for work. In one particularly brazen case, a security guard regularly turned up in his underpants, punched his time card and then promptly went back to bed. The guard lived on the premises of Palazzo Bellevue, the council’s main office, enabling him to clock in and then return to his flat."
