Links - 31st March 2023 (US Election 2020)

The Polling Catastrophe - The Atlantic - "the failure of the polls leaves Americans with no reliable way to understand what we as a people think outside of elections—which in turn threatens our ability to make choices, or to cohere as a nation... Pollsters closely examined their methods and promised to try to fix problems in 2020, though they noted that polls are never perfect. (Again, the only poll that matters … ) FiveThirtyEight, which smugly boasted that it had given Trump a better chance (roughly 30 percent) than most analysts did in 2016, gave him just a 10 percent chance in 2020. The Economist was even more bullish on Biden. Then came the vote. In every swing state but Arizona, Trump outperformed the FiveThirtyEight polling average... Much of American democracy depends on being able to understand what our fellow citizens think. That has become a more challenging task as Americans sort themselves into ideological bubbles—geographically, romantically, professionally, and in the media they consume. Parties are now mostly ideologically homogeneous. We no longer spend much time around people who disagree with us. Public-opinion polling was one of the last ways we had to understand what other Americans actually believe.  If polling doesn’t work, then we are flying blind"

Meme - "Gee, Wally - If most Republicans believe Antifa, BLM and violent left-wing activists stormed the Capitol building on January then why do they oppose a Commission to investigate it?"
If most Democrats believe there was no fraud in the election, why do they oppose audits?

Twitter censors journalist Jack Posobiec for repeating Amazon's stated position on mail-in voting - "Journalist and conservative influencer Jack Posobiec has been censored by Twitter over a tweet in which he repeated Amazon's claim that mail-in ballot elections "have serious and systemic flaws." Reports on Friday highlighted Amazon’s push for in-person voting, appealing a decision to hold mail-in voting to establish a union for workers in the company’s Bessemer facility in Alabama... Posobiec highlighted the hypocrisy of Jeff Bezos, who owns both Amazon and The Washington Post. The paper has repeatedly argued that mail-in ballots are safe and secure."

Former professor calls for government to be overthrown if Trump reelected - "Walsh, who was once a part-time adjunct professor for George Mason University, posted on Twitter his call to overthrow the government if President Donald Trump is re-elected.  He tweeted:  “Here’s the thing: if the worst-case scenario happens next week, Americans don’t need to just “protest.”  They need to actively try to topple the government.” He later claimed the American military would not move to support a duly elected President of the United States if Trump wins.  He added:  “Also, worth noting that the military has already made it clear that in such a scenario, they’re not going to back Trump.”   It is unknown what Walsh has based his claims on that the military would not intervene if a duly-elected president was overthrown. It is doubtful that any member of the United States military, who are bound by oath to support and defend the constitution of the United States, would participate in a coup.   In order for anything like Walsh’s idea to work, the vast majority of the military would have to be in agreement to overthrow a duly elected President... Walsh’s call for revolt may have been a violation of 18 US Code 2385, advocating the overthrow of the United States Government."
"Insurrection" is only bad if the right does it

Facebook - [On Hunter Biden's laptop] "Yes, both media and social media straight up lied and suppressed something that would have affected the 2020 election result. Yes, the 2020 election was "rigged", but not the way most people led to think (i.e fraud etc). It was just "pushed" in that direction by controlling what information gets to voters. It's pretty much the kind of thing that some opposition folks in Singapore constantly accuse the ruling party of. Control of media etc. But because its for the "correct side", it was ignored."

Stephen L. Miller on Twitter - "“You can run the best campaign, you can even become the nominee, and you can have the election stolen from you.” — Hillary Clinton"
"Dangerous anti-democratic rhetoric."

Glenn Greenwald on Twitter - "In 2018, 2/3 of Democrats -- 2/3! -- believed that the Russians hacked into voting machine in the 2016 election and changed Hillary votes to Trump votes, which is what enabled Trump to win. Sadly, mass propaganda isn't confined to Hungary."

 Project Veritas Exposes Ilhan Omar Allies in Alleged Ballot Harvesting Operation in Minnesota - "  Video footage captured by Project Veritas shows an operative, Liban Mohamed, bragging about collecting hundreds of ballots."

CBS2 Investigation Uncovers Votes Being Cast From Grave Year After Year - "A comparison of records by David Goldstein, investigative reporter for CBS2/KCAL9, has revealed hundreds of so-called dead voters in Southern California, a vast majority of them in Los Angeles County."

Democratic senators warned of potential 'vote switching' by Dominion voting machines prior to 2020 election - "Four congressional Democrats sent a letter to the owners of Dominion Voting Systems and cited several problems that “threaten the integrity of our elections,” including “vote switching.”  In a December 2019 letter to Dominion Voting Systems, which has been mired in controversy after a human error involving its machines in Antrim County, Michigan, resulted in incorrect counts, Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, and Amy Klobuchar and congressman Mark Pocan warned about reports of machines “switching votes,” “undisclosed vulnerabilities,” and “improbable” results that “threaten the integrity of our elections.”"
Is it dangerous if Democrats do it?

Meme - "Yes, just spent an hour walking around DC writing "Biden Won" in the snow. Always have to remind the GOP."

Pennsylvania Court Rules State’s Mail-In-Voting Law Is ‘Unconstitutional’ - "A Pennsylvania court ruled on Friday that the commonwealth’s 2019 voting law, which allowed anybody to apply for and receive a mail-in ballot to vote at least 50 days in advance, was “unconstitutional” because the legislature did not have permission to alter voting laws without amending the constitution, according to a five-judge panel.  Act 77, as the voting law is officially known, “allowed voters to submit a ballot by mail up to 50 days before an election and placed voters on a list to permanently receive a ballot application by mail. It also established 15 more days to register to vote and extended mail-in and absentee submission deadlines”"
This is the subtle election about legitimacy

Months after Trump complaints, some courts are finding irregularities in 2020 elections - "Long after former President Donald Trump dropped his legal challenges to the 2020 election, some courts in battleground states are beginning to declare the way widespread absentee ballots were implemented or counted violated state laws. The latest ruling came this month in Michigan, where the State Court of Claims concluded that Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's instructions on signature verification for absentee ballots violated state law...   In neighboring Wisconsin, the state Supreme Court handed down a significant ruling in December when the justices concluded that state and local election officials erred when they gave blanket permission allowing voters to declare themselves homebound and skip voter ID requirements in the 2020 elections... in Virginia, a judge in January approved a consent decree permanently banning the acceptance of ballots without postmarks after Election Day, concluding that instructions from the Virginia Department of Elections to the contrary in 2020 had violated state law"

Ian Miles Cheong on Twitter - "Twitter has banned an account that has been documenting election irregularities. What’s going on?"

Mollie on Twitter - "Trump team: we want every legal vote counted
Biden team: we want every vote counted Distinction between these two approaches is interesting."

Michael Tracey on Twitter - "Most claims of election fraud are straightforwardly insane, but Dems do a bad job of diffusing the issue when they arrogantly insist that all fraud claims are invariably baseless. "Ballot harvesting" manifestly breaks the chain of custody and has been abused by both Dem and GOP"

Arizona Vote Audit Raises Civil Rights Concerns, Partisan Tensions - "Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs sharply criticized the recount, including for reports that ballots and laptops had been left unattended. The same day, a Justice Department official warned that the audit could be violating the 1960 Civil Rights Act by giving election materials to Florida-based contractor CyberNinjas"
"Recounting is illegal, refuse to hand over data is legal. What a time to be alive"

Stephen L. Miller on Twitter - ".@HillaryClinton and Louise Penny are doing a book event tonight on Zoom about their new political thriller, with Stacey Abrams as moderator.  Clinton just said she feels "strongly" that Stacey Abrams "actually won" her 2018 race, before pivoting quickly back to the book"
"Is this a threat to democracy? This feels like a threat to democracy. Has the coalition of the very concerned spoken up about this? Guys..."

Escape The Echo Chamber - Posts | Facebook - "You would think that if a foreign nation had hacked a political party’s server, where confidential political documents and conversations were held, that the Department of Justice would pull out all stops to find evidence of the culprit and their methods. Instead they allowed the alleged victim to conduct the physical investigation under the control of a partisan law firm allowing them to hide any illegal activity found under lawyer/client privilege.  That’s what the FBI did with the DNC “hack”. Further, the report provided to the FBI didn’t contain any proof of Russian hacking and parts of the report were redacted from the FBI. Then DOJ officials claimed that Russia did hack the DNC server and political operatives spread the narrative that Russia did this to support Trump’s election.  Meanwhile we have compelling third party analysis that the “hack” was committed by a DNC insider."

Joe Biden pledged to not declare victory until election is certified - YouTube - "Joe Biden promised he would NOT declare victory until all the votes were counted and the election was independently certified.
Biden lied. He has not been certified as the winner, and yet he has prematurely declared victory. His word is useless."

Biden won places that are thriving. Trump won ones that are hurting. - "The parts of America that have seen strong job, population and economic growth in the past four years voted for Joe Biden, economic researchers found. In contrast, President Trump garnered his highest vote shares in counties that had some of the most sluggish job, population and economic growth during his term."
The subaltern cannot speak, since liberals don't like what he has to say

Michael Tracey on Twitter - "Did anyone notice that nobody brought up Trump's impeachment at the Dem Convention. Frantically portrayed as of earth-shattering, world-historical importance at the time, but apparently didn't even warrant a mention 🤔"

Meme - "It's all a setup. The quarantine, the riots. All of it is just to unseat Trump as President."
"Wouldn't a way easier plan by the "Deep State" have been to find someone other than a senile establishment Dem who sniffs kids, to run against Trump?"

Raheem J. Kassam on Twitter - "Obama says mail-in ballots can only be trusted if the signatures are verified. Go figure!"
What a racist conspiracy theorist

Chris Krebs: 95% of 2020 Ballots Were Paper - "Krebs explained that 82% of the ballots used in the 2016 presidential election had a paper record associated with them. In 2020, that figure increased to 95%.  “And with a paper record, you can go back and verify what the machine is saying by physically counting the paper?”...   “That tells you that there was no manipulation of the vote on the machine count side”"

Jordan Peterson's Neverneverland Ranch for High IQ Lost Boys - Posts | Facebook - (Fake quote): "Election night. After catching the coronavirus, Trump's re-campaign collapsed, leading to a decisive Biden win... Mr Trump, sir, you deserve to lose - but not *somrthing* be defeated by a fair election, not by the coronavirus. I therefore call for a run[-off] *something* from now"
"Scratch a liberal, find a fascist."
To Communists, anything they don't like (including Democracy) is fascist

The Alt-Centrist - Posts | Facebook - "The next Presidential Debate 'moderator'
Steve Scully: "No, Not Trump, Not Ever""

Donald Trump Will 'Somehow' Try To Delay Election, Joe Biden Warns - "Biden also suggested that Trump is doing “all he can to make it very hard for people to vote” in the ballot with his attempts to use an emergency federal loan as leverage over the Postal Service to bring it further under his administration’s control... To be clear, Trump himself cannot cancel or delay the election. The power to change the election date falls on Congress. And should the vote be postponed, Trump’s term in office would automatically end on Jan. 20, 2021, anyway... Actor Robert De Niro last year floated a theory that if Trump, who has repeatedly joked about being president for life, won the 2020 election, then he could declare war to remain in office for a third term. The 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, however, prevents a president from serving more than two terms."
Blue Anon struck again, but of course liberals and the media didn't care

Democrats reaping the whirlwind of their 2016 election 'Resistance' - "“My sense is that if Trump wins, Hillary supporters will be sad,” left-wing writer Sally Kohn tweeted the day of the 2016 election. “If Hillary wins, Trump supporters will be angry. Important difference.” Kohn turned out to be wrong about her own side that year, which angrily set about delegitimizing Donald Trump’s victory. She was wrong, too, in her apparent assumption — shared by shop owners who boarded up their windows — that Trump supporters would react as violently to his defeat as the Black Lives Matter movement reacted to a death in Minneapolis... we have — or had — a norm against delegitimizing election results. In 1960, Richard Nixon chose to observe that norm and not challenge results in multiple states. In 2000, Al Gore contested the results in Florida but conceded after the final court ruling and segued to issue advocacy. Not so in 2016. In violation of longstanding norms, Obama administration intel and law-enforcement agencies spied on the opposition party campaign. Officials proffered the dodgy Steele dossier before the FISA court without revealing it was paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign.  In violation of longstanding norms, Democrats refused to accept the result as legitimate. “I will not accede to this. I will resist,” tweeted liberal think tank head Neera Tanden (President-elect Joe Biden’s choice to head the Office of Management and Budget) five days after the election. Democrats took to calling themselves “the Resistance,” suggesting the Trump administration was morally equivalent to the pro-Hitler Vichy regime in France.  Again and again, leading Democrats — Hillary Clinton, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the late Rep. John Lewis, Joe Biden, Jimmy Carter — called Trump an “illegitimate” president. For three years, Democrats advanced the Russia-collusion hoax without finding or producing any evidence except for the discredited Steele dossier.  Joe McCarthy had the limp excuse that at some point, there were some communists in the State Department. Democrats and their many allies in the news media lacked a similar excuse for propagating the Russia-collusion hoax. So you can find polls that say most Democrats believe Trump is an “illegitimate” president and that Russians hacked election websites and polls that say most Republicans believe Biden stole the election with the connivance of election officials in multiple states...   The conservative National Review is right to denounce Trump’s “disgraceful endgame.” But its liberal counterparts have done little or nothing to denounce Democrats’ disgraceful flouting of longstanding norms. The few left writers — Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi — have taken flak and separated themselves from institutional affiliations.  Democrats who are dismayed that many Americans aren’t meekly accepting the legitimacy of the Biden presidency are in the process of learning a lesson taught a very long time ago. You reap what you sow"
One key difference - Trump supporters are saying the results are illegitimate because of fraud. But Trump haters spent 4 years denouncing Trump just because they don't like him

Dave Wasserman on Twitter - "The story is pretty clear in NYC: Biden gained ground among whites, Trump gained ground among minorities. Pro-Trump swing by borough, '16-'20: 1. Bronx +11.8 2. Queens +8.6 3. Brooklyn +7.6 4. Manhattan +3.0 5. Staten Island -0.2"

ARIZONA: White Powder Sent to Senate President Fann, Who Organized The Forensic Audit - "A letter filled with suspicious “white powder” was sent to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann’s office"

The Meme Policeman - Posts | Facebook - "Most of you following this page understand the importance of diversifying your fact check sources. This post will highlight that by looking at some of NBC’s analysis from last night’s debate.
▪️Fact checking Trump’s claim that windmills “kill all the birds.”
🔹No one took this statement literally, even the NBC fact checkers, but they admit that windmills do kill birds. Which was Trump’s point. So the fact check then adds in that they kill less birds than cats or high rises, like Trump used to live in. This is not a fact check, just a writer taking jabs at Trump.
🔹Pointing out that cats and buildings kill more birds than windmills is true, but fails to distinguish that they kill different TYPES of birds. Windmills tend to kill larger, rarer and more threatened birds. Like golden eagles, red-tailed hawks, kestrels, burrowing owls and peregrine falcons. Cats and buildings mostly kill smaller, more common and less threatened types of birds, particularly passerines. Your house cat isn’t out killing eagles.
🔹Furthermore, the larger birds windmills kill have far less offspring. For example, a golden eagle has just 1-2 chicks in a brood, usually less than once a year. Whereas a songbird like a robin could have up to 2 broods of 3-7 chicks a year. Some bird species are far more resilient than others, making number comparisons misleading.
🔹Windmills also kill bats, particularly migratory bats. Scientists are worried that their populations could drastically decline because of windmills, the hoary bat up to 90% in the next 50 years. In fact, scientists consider windmills, especially a huge increase in windmills across the country, to be the single greatest threat to bats.
🔹This is some of the missing context from a “fact check” that insisted on adding context solely to take a jab at Trump, but ended up telling you little.
▪️The check on Trump’s claim about carbon emissions is even worse.
🔹NBC brings up points about cutting EPA funding and reducing regulations, but this is unrelated to Trump’s claim, which was emissions. He’s equivocating emissions with “climate protections.” Why couldn’t both emissions and the EPA be cut?! Again, this is just a writer trying to take jabs at Trump.
🔹The actual fact check about Trump’s emissions claim cites a spike of emissions from 2018, not revealing that emissions fell 2.8% in 2019! And projections for this year are for it to plummet another 11%. Obviously, this year’s numbers are impacted by COVID, but they’re falling and many emissions categories are the lowest on record. And petroleum/coal emissions are at record lows, largely offset by lower-emitting natural gas, which was a Trump’s claim in the debate.
▪️Highlighting his comments about China, India and Russia’s environment being “filthy” is just absurd. It admits he was referring to pollution, but that the word has “a connotation far beyond that.” This gigantic stretch allows them to dredge up the “shithole countries” remark, again only to take a jab, not to inform.
▪️Fact checking Trump’s claim that the stock market would crash if Biden wins is useless. It’s a prediction by Trump, not a factual claim. All politicians make predictions, most of which are wrong. You either believe them or not. Biden in the same debate predicted a “dark winter” with COVID. It’s only worth examining in hindsight, or arguing with in the present. The stock market might very well crash under a Biden presidency, or it could go up. The only “evidence” for either claim is the opinion of other investors, which are notoriously unreliable. How many financial experts would have predicted stock markets at this level back in March?"

Judge rules Michigan's Democratic secretary of state broke law with absentee ballot rule - "A Michigan judge ruled last week that Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson violated state law by unilaterally altering absentee voting rules ahead of the 2020 presidential election."

Meme - "David Atkins @ @DavidOAtkins: No seriously...nhow *do* you deprogram 75 million people? Where do you start? Fox? Facebook? We have to start thinking in terms of post- WWII Germany or Japan. Or the failures of Reconstruction in the South.
Biglittlebilly2 @biglittiebilly2: First we need to disarm them. Then we can put them in reeducation camps that can be established all across the country. Reeducation should only take 2 to 4 weeks. After that they can reenter society"
"Unity" is achieved when you've crushed all your political enemies

What progressives should know about Trump voters - "1. Voters appreciate that the economy is currently experiencing near record-low peacetime unemployment, record-low minority unemployment, and virtual 3% annualized GDP growth. Interest and inflation rates remain low. Workers' wages increased after years of stagnation. The US is now the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas. And gasoline prices remain affordable. The President continues to redress asymmetrical trade with China, as well as with former NAFTA partners and Europe. He jawbones companies to curb offshoring and outsourcing...
2. Trump does not exist in a vacuum. Many supporters turned off by some of his antics are still far more appalled by an emerging radical neo-socialist Democratic agenda. If the alternative to Trump is a disturbing tolerance among some Democrats for anti-Semitism, the Green New Deal, reparations, a permissive approach to abortion even very late in pregnancy, a wealth tax, a 70-90% top income tax rate, the abolition of ICE, open borders, and Medicare for all, Trump's record between 2017-20 will seem moderate and preferable. Progressives do not fully appreciate how the hysterics and media coverage of the Kavanaugh hearings, the Covington teenagers and the Jussie Smollett psychodrama turned off half the country. Such incidents and their reportage confirmed suspicions of cultural bias, media distortions, and an absence of fair play and reciprocity.
3.Trump can be uncouth and crass. But he has shown an empathy for the hollowed-out interior, lacking from prior Republican and Democratic candidates. His populist agenda explains why millions of once traditional Democratic voters defected... Some polls counterintuitively suggest that Trump may well win more minority voters than prior Republican presidential candidates.
4. Trump may come across as callous to some, but to others at least genuine. He does not modulate his accent to fit regional crowds, as did Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden...
5. Even when Trump has hit an impasse, his supporters mostly continue to believe that he at least keeps trying to meet his promises... Trump has not suffered a "Read my lips" or "You can keep your doctor" moment.
6. Voters are angry over the sustained effort to remove or delegitimize a sitting president. Many of the controversies over Trump result from the inability of Hillary Clinton supporters to accept his shocking victory. Instead they try any means possible to abort his presidency in a way not seen in recent history... All this comes in addition to a disturbing assassination "chic," as Madonna, Johnny Depp, Kathy Griffin, Robert DeNiro and dozens of others express openly thoughts of killing, blowing up, or beating up an elected president. The Shorenstein Center at Harvard University has found that mainstream media coverage of Trump's first 100 days in office ranged from 70-90% negative of Trump, depending on the week, an asymmetry never quite seen before seen but one that erodes confidence in the media. Voters are developing a grudging respect for the 72-year-old, less-than-fit Trump who each day weathers unprecedented vitriol and yet does not give up, in the Nietzschean sense of whatever does not kill him, seems to make him stronger.
7. Progressives seemingly do not appreciate historical contexts. By past presidential standards, Trump's behavior while in the White House has not been characterized by the personal indiscretions of a John F. Kennedy or Bill Clinton. His language has been blunt, but then so was Harry Truman's. He can be gross, but perhaps not so much as was Lyndon Johnson... the present media climate and the electronic age of the Internet and social media, along with general historical ignorance about prior presidencies, have warped objective analysis of Trump...
8. Globalization enriched the two coasts, while America's interior was hollowed out... half the country feels that elites, a deep state, or just "they"... are both condemnatory and yet ignorant of so-called fly-over country. Trump is seen as their payback.
9. For a thrice-married former raconteur, the Trump first family appears remarkably stable, and loyal. The first lady is winsome and gracious. Despite the negative publicity, daughter Ivanka remains poised and conciliatory. The appearance of stability suggests that if Trump may have often been a poor husband, he was nonetheless a good father.
10. Trump is a masterful impromptu speaker. Increasingly he can be self-deprecatory, and his performances are improving."

Twitter didn’t just suspend Arizona, they just suspended the election audit accounts of ALL the contested Battleground states.
Apparently audits are bad
I'm sure this convinced the conspiracy theorists that the election wasn't stolen

USA TODAY on Twitter - "The claim: Trump campaign shirts feature imperial eagle, a Nazi symbol
Our ruling: True
Clarification: The claim that Trump 2020 has put out a T-shirt with a symbol similar to a Nazi eagle and is being criticized for it is true. Worth noting, the eagle is a longtime US symbol, too."
We're still told liberals don't hate their countries

USA Today fact-check slammed after claiming picture of Biden press secretary with communist imagery is 'missing context' - "“Fact check: The claim: A photo shows Jen Psaki, Joe Biden's pick for press secretary, wearing a hammer and sickle hat while posing with officials from Russia,” USA Today tweeted on Tuesday in response to a photo that resurfaced of Obama administration alum Jen Psaki posing with Russian officials donning a hat emblazoned with the communist hammer and sickle"
How convenient. "Context" is how you can defame your political opponents while shilling for your side

Meme - "Regardless of the outcome, one thing I know is that a latino will never see remorse or care from me again. Whatever shit y'all got going on (and I mean WHATEVER) that is on YOU as of today. Don't mention black people. Do not ask for our help. I view y'all the same as white people"

Facebook - "Imagine being part of a "resistance" movement that wants to install a man who has been in elite political power for over 40 years. Imagine feeling like a revolutionary as all major corporations, TV, newspapers, academia, music, social media, film, streaming, ads, textbooks, unions, NGO's, global agencies, and bureaucracies echo your every feeling and passion."

Links - 29th March 2023 (2)

Meme - "MOTHER, WHEN I GROW UP, WHAT WILL I BE?"
"I'M AFRAID YOU WILL END UP LIKE ME. I WISH YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO GROW UP." - Female pig in cage feeding piglets
"DON'T WORRY, MOTHER! I'LL DRINK LESS MILK TO STAY SMALL. I'LL BE MOTHER'S FOREVER!"
TWO WEEKS LATER... *suckling pig*"

Cow dung protects from radiation, claims Indian court - "Houses made of cow dung are protected from atomic radiation such as nuclear blast fallout, an Indian court has claimed...   Presiding judge Samir Vinodchandra Vyas said the 22-year-old’s actions were “very disappointing” and sentenced him to life in prison after concluding that cow slaughter was the source of countless global problems.  “Every problem in the world will be solved on the day not a single drop of cow’s blood falls on the ground,” said a copy of his ruling. “It has been proved by science that even atomic radiation cannot affect houses made out of cow dung. Drinking cow urine can cure many incurable diseases.”"

Meme - "Naughty Cat Cafe. Not a strip club"

Meme - Isaac Wilks @wilks_isaac: "When I was about 12 I became a Foreman on a Minecraft server that was building a 1-to-1 scale replica of Middle Earth. They gave me a team of corvee laborers and I'd have them dig ditches, redirect canals etc. This was something you did in the Qing Dynasty in like 1895"

Meme - "Fair Esmerelda. She'll never love one such as me. Curse this world that sees beauty only in what it sees! My body is bent, but upright. My voice is obscene, but my words are pure. My form is wretched, but-" - Hunchback
"It's but casing for a most worthy soul. Bravo, sir!" - Ugly woman
"Ew!" - Hunchback
This works even more the other way though, with female hygergamy

Japanese artist creates erasers that slowly turn into an old bald man as you use them - "These unique erasers were designed by Ishikawa Kazuya"

Meme - "No thank you! We don't want any funny posts, transphobic or racist comments, Or any distant relations!"
"What about a blatant violation of your community guidelines?"
"30 day Bandalf!"

Meme - "BEFORE NETFLIX N CHILL THERE WAS CINEMA N' FINGERING"

怎样打飞机 - 维基百科，自由的百科全书 - "《怎样打飞机》是中国人民解放军广州军区司令部编印的一本作战手册，封面标示出版日期为1965年2月15日，内容主要介绍使用轻武器击落敌军战机的方法要诀。  2006年初，该小册子封面被中国大陆网民张贴在讨论区上；由于“打飞机”一词在近年代的粤语与俚语中是男性自慰之意，图片引起热烈讨论与该手册内容之臆测。"

Japanese masturbatory aid maker Tenga unloads its “biggest gift ever” - "Japanese masturbatory aid manufacturer Tenga keeps coming out with marketing campaigns that are just as innovative and memorable as their lineup of self-pleasuring devices.  Their latest campaign is said to be the “biggest gift ever” in the history of the company, as they’re now offering customers the chance to win a product that looks like one of their Vacuum Cups, only it’s made out of 99.99-percent gold and valued at a whopping 10 million yen (US$96,547.50).  The new golden Tenga is actually a cleverly designed tissue case, so you can enjoy “a premium time even after enjoying a Premium Tenga”"

Meme - SAY CHEESE! @Saycheese...: "Mississippi police shoot and kill woman who held a Walmart employee at gunpoint"
Wonda @cfe_wondaG: "What if the gun wasn't loaded,? What if. She was threatened? What if they were playing?? Reckless from the officer"
Many Americans love criminals

Meme - "DOCTOR: *seeing scratches all over my back* well, I can see you're sexually active.
ME: *remembering drunkenly mistaking a raccoon for Yoda and putting him in my backpack to train me as a Jedi*"

Leah 🏳️‍🌈 on Twitter - "The term ‘obese’ is a slur because it is used to dehumanize us and harass us. It’s not because our feelings are hurt by an ‘accurate description’, it is an outdated term that does more harm than good. And as such, it should be eradicated. That’s it."
When you don't know how the euphemism treadmill works

Priest Says It's Ok To Shoplift From Big Stores - "“Jesus said ‘Love your neighbor,’ he didn’t say ‘Love Marks and Spencers,”’ the Rev. John Papworth said, referring to the big British retailer.  Papworth drew a distinction between stealing from individuals or small merchants - which he says is wrong - and stealing from giant retailing corporations. Those, he says, have run little stores out of business and harmed local communities."

U.K. Priest Says Sometimes It's OK To Shoplift - "Rev. Tim Jones created an international uproar on Sunday when he told his congregation that it is sometimes justifiable for desperately needy people to steal from stores"

There’s nothing Victorian about times tables - "The ability to recall any multiple up to 12 times 12 has been an immensely valuable skill over the years. It has given me the confidence to learn more complex maths, a useful aid in my early career as a chartered accountant, and the wherewithal to calculate the best multi-pack supermarket bargains. Alongside being able to read and add up, knowing the multiplication tables is a basic building block for success in life.  But for many people of my generation and those at school since the 1970s, times tables were not part of the curriculum. Chanting the six times tables as a class, or rote learning each multiple of numbers up to 12, was regarded by the education establishment as the worst of Gradgrindian Victorian teaching...   The evidence from cognitive science is that instant recall of important knowledge such as times tables is vital to enable the working memory to carry out more complex tasks.  The American psychologist, Daniel Willingham, in his book, Why Don’t Students Like School?, explains that the brain’s working memory can only hold half a dozen or so pieces of new information at one time and therefore, in any intellectual activity, such as problem solving or critical thinking, the brain needs instant access to a store of information in its retained memory. This is why a knowledge-rich school curriculum is so important: the more knowledge there is in the information store, the easier it is to solve problems or think critically."

What's Wrong With the New Australian Curriculum? - "In education, we have lots of wars. There are the math wars, the reading wars, and the ongoing culture wars. What is less common is for all of these wars to ignite at once along with the declaration of a new war or two, just for the heck of it. That happened in Australia last week when the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority released its draft version of a new Australian Curriculum... the ideal curriculum should satisfy no-one in its entirety... The Australian Curriculum is based on the outdated model of an “expanding horizons” approach to social studies where children must begin by learning about their family, their local area and perhaps complete a project on an old object from the home, with actual history put off as long as possible because this is seen as “developmentally inappropriate” for young children. Popularized by the philosopher John Dewey over a hundred years ago, the expanding horizons model was debunked by Kieran Egan, a more recent philosopher of education, as far back as 1980 and the concept of developmental appropriateness fails the test of modern cognitive science. Couple this approach with a swollen literacy block focusing on decontextualized skills such as reading comprehension that probably don’t need as much time as they are allocated, and you are left with the invidious choice between ancient Egypt and ancient Australia... there are two main approaches to teaching mathematics and they each have their advocates. The first is to explicitly teach students mathematical content and how to solve specific kinds of problems, with lots of practice. Over time, the teacher introduces new classes of problem, more complexity and new contexts as students become more independent. The alternative is to focus on problem-solving and investigations, with the idea that exposing students to non-routine problems will help them develop mathematical problem-solving skills of some kind. In this case, the teacher’s role is to be a guide-at-the-side (rather than the sage-on-the-stage). The empirical evidence is overwhelming—novices benefit far more from explicit teaching, with learning through problem-solving tending to overwhelm them... the draft math curriculum document backs the problem-solving approach... [For Science] Pretty much every content objective in Kindergarten to Year 3 begins with “explore” and for Years 4–10, the verb is “investigate.” This kind of science teaching confuses the practices of professional scientists with the best method for teaching science novices who lack scientific knowledge to draw upon... In 2015, PISA asked students about the different science teaching methods they were exposed to and found that, “After accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic profile, in 56 countries and economies, greater exposure to enquiry-based instruction is associated with lower scores in science,” a finding that triangulates with all the other evidence we have for guide-at-the-side teaching methods"

Meme - "Working the dream and cries lol. Required lunches are the biggest industry scams... Its one thing if u work hard manual labor in construction or offshore... Its another if u work a baby job. Get paid go home vs loitering on a job site unable to really go anywhere"
"Woman Says She Quit Her Job On Her First Day After She Was Refused A Lunch Break"
Presumably only in the US do people get upset when employees demand lunch breaks, and claim that if you don't do manual labour you don't deserve a lunch break

Meme - "The Successor to Rome Alignment Chart
STRUCTURE PURIST
A state is the successor to Rome if its territory is primarily situated around Rome
STRUCTURE NEUTRAL
A state is the successor to Rome if its territory is primarily situated within the original Roman Empire's boundaries
STRUCTURE RADICAL
A state can be the successor to Rome regardless of where it is situated
DOCTRINE PURIST
A state is the successor to Rome if it directly inherited institutions and state symbols from the Roman Empire
DOCTRINE NEUTRAL
A state is the successor to Rome if it revives and expressly claims the legacy of the Roman Empire
DOCTRINE RADICAL
A state is the successor to Rome if it continues cultural practices and traditions originating within the Roman Empire
Doctrine Purist, Structure Purist: Vatican City is the successor to Rome
Doctrine Neutral, Structure Purist: Fascist Italy was the successor to Rome
Doctrine Radical, Structure Purist: Modern Italy is the successor to Rome
Doctrine Purist, Structure Neutral: The Ottoman Empire was the successor to Rome
Doctrine Neutral, Structure Neutral: Napoleonic France was the successor to Rome
Doctrine Radical, Structure Neutral: The European Union is the successor to Rome
Doctrine Purist, Structure Radical: Tsarist Russia was the successor to Rome
Doctrine Neutral, Structure Radical: The Holy Roman Empire was the successor to Rome
Doctrine Radical, Structure Radical: America is the successor to Rome"

Cracking the formula: how should Australia be teaching maths under the national curriculum? - "A November analysis paper from the Centre for Independent Studies found that Australian maths classrooms were much more likely to use an inquiry-led approach compared to PISA high-performers such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Taiwan.  The analysis found that “a lack of teacher-led instruction in Australia has contributed to declining student achievement”. “It’s estimated that the average 15-year-old would be about 10 months ahead of where they currently are if they received mostly teacher-led instruction, with only occasional student-led practice,” the report said.  “Effective teaching doesn’t employ explicit instruction alone, but a great deal of explicit instruction is often necessary before students have sufficient expertise for constructivist approaches to be introduced.”"

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, The power of food emojis - "'The arepa may be available all over the world, but there wasn't an emoji for it. Now that sentence may not fill you with horror. Until a few days ago, I'd never given much thought to which food images are available when I look for an emoji on my phone. But maybe I should have done.'...
‘I was growing up in Asia, so I kind of had a very affectional relationship with boba tea. And it was initiated in from Taiwan, I believe, and it was basically milk and black tea, and with the tapioca bars. And what's really interesting is in most of the Asia countries, we call them pearl milk tea, which in Chinese is 珍珠奶茶. But it's funny that one of the tea shop owner decided to use larger tapioca balls with a more provocative name, which is boba. And to make his tea stand out. In Cantonese slang boba actually means big boobs. There's an extra information I found out in the research’"
Once you buy in to the rhetoric of "inclusion", you end up needing to include everything - a fool's errand that will never end

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Why the whale hunt continues - "‘Whaling is felt by politicians to be very much a part of Norway's national identity, although hardly anyone eats whale meat. Even Norway's own Minister of Fisheries Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, admits that’
‘Today, it's not that important because we don't hunt so much whales anymore. And also, strangely enough, especially young people in Norway don't eat too much seafood either’...
‘A survey last year commissioned by anti whaling NGOs found only 4% of Norwegians said they ate whale meat often, two thirds said they had even never eaten it or had done so a long time ago... It now kills four to 500 minke whales every year, more than any other country... conservationists are concerned. They say research shows whales struck by less experienced harpooners take longer to die’...
'If we look at International Whaling Commission, the organisation, they wrote many more resolutions against Japanese whaling than they did against Norway, for instance, I think was like 10 resolutions against Japan and one resolution against against Norway, it seemed to me like there was a much more inclination to believe that the Norwegian science is better than Japanese science. And I, well, it might be the case that then some form of like cultural sort of, I wouldn't, I wouldn't go as far as to as to call it racism. But there was definitely like, more cultural affinity between those main way anti whaling nations, which is, for instance, Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, and the United States, and and Norway.'...
‘In Japan, international opposition to its whaling industry may have strengthened local support for it. And it was a similar story in the third of the world's commercial whaling nations, Iceland.’...
‘Why does all of this matter so much, in your view? Why is killing a whale different to killing any other animal for human consumption?’
‘This is the exactly the question that I asked when I start. You know, what is it different to kill a cow or a whale? I think, I mean, let's face it, there are a lot of other dangers to whales that are even more serious. You know, we have entanglement in fishing gear, we have pollution and other things, ship collisions. But the whaling, I think, is so important because it is so completely unnecessary, we can demonstrate how they are so much more worth alive than that. Not only for whalewatching and for tourism, because for sure they are more worth alive, you know, for that industry, you can feel the same way again and again and again, you kill it only once. But you know, all the ecosystems that live from those whales. This is also so important. But what fascinated me in the beginning, was the peaceful existence of those huge creatures that are at the top of the food chain of the sea. For me, whales are symbolic for free, unspoiled nature. But I think they are also a symbol for hope. It's not about whether whales are more important than other animals. I just want to look at whales, particularly, as a simple for so many things that we have to do better in this world.’"
Preserving traditional culture is not important - it is more important to protect charismatic megafauna even if they are classified as of Least Concern, so "conservationists" must raise objections based on "animal cruelty" instead
Given that Minke whales are not even Threatened, killing a few is not going to prevent eco-tourism or wreck food chains. It's telling that his main argument about not killing whales is basically "whales are magical beings"

BBC World Service - The Food Chain, Sleep, eat, repeat? - "‘Why are our brains and bodies pushing us to eat more when we've not slept enough? Matthew says it's the animal in us. Or it could be. There are very few times when animals deliberately deprive themselves of sleep’
‘But one of those times is when an animal is under conditions of starvation, the brain must keep the animal awake for a little bit longer, so that the animal can forage for food in a larger perimeter than is normally required. In other words, when we don't give our brain the signal of sufficient sleep, from an evolutionary perspective, your brain thinks that we may be in a state of starvation. And as a consequence, it will increase your food desire and food cravings, to drive you to eat more. That's one of the plausible theories that we have.’
‘I'm afraid there's more bad news to come for the sleep deprived among us, because Matthew says a lack of sleep affects not only the quantity of food you eat, but also the quality.’...
‘When we compared the patterns of brain activity between the two different sleep conditions, when they'd had a full night of sleep or when they were sleep deprived, there were very striking and very clear differences. The part of the brain that performs impulse control and prevents rash decisions, an area that we call the prefrontal cortex. That had been shut down by a lack of sleep. And in contrast, the very primitive deep brain regions that drive excessive appetite, and that are associated with overeating as well as binge eating, they became hyperactive and hyper responsive.’...
‘Maxine is one of the lead researchers in a study trialing weight loss interventions in nightshift workers known as swift.’
‘From the work we've done, what we've seen is there's perhaps a tendency to eat more frequently, we've worked with other shift workers who would say they would crave perhaps more discretionary type foods. So you know, chocolate, crisps, sugar sweetened beverages, but also there's that process of eating to stay awake, eating because they're bored. And the other thing is, is that there is no access to food at night. Some workplaces don't even have facilities to heat food up. You may have to rely on what's available from a vending machine or you may go out to whatever's outside on the streets, which is quite often I guess, take away food’...
‘Inherently our bodies follow circadian rhythms. So we expect to work and eat and exercise during the day. And we expect to sleep at night. And our body is sort of geared to do that. So when you work, night shift, you're doing everything in opposition to what your body is expecting.’
‘And that means it struggles when you eat nighttime meals.’
‘Your body is less well able to break down and metabolize your nutrients’
‘Like glucose, the type of sugar your body gets from food and uses for energy.’...
‘As we go through the day, our body becomes more insulin resistant. So our ability to deal with glucose if we eat is just a bit reduced. So if you are eating frequently at night, you're having your main meal at night, your body just cannot metabolize glucose, as well. So in a couple of small studies we've done where we fed people a meal in the morning and the exact same meal at nighttime, their glucose levels are higher, and stay higher for longer and haven't gone back to the starting level up to three hours later. Whereas in the morning, we will see these levels return to baseline after 45 minutes.’
‘And what happens then if glucose isn't being processed in the same way? What can that lead to?’
‘So what these higher and extended glucose excursions lead to is diabetes.’
‘Maxine says studies have shown that fatty substances in the blood known as lipids also reach higher levels when a meal is eaten at night. And to compound these issues, she says there could be something specific about the body's energy balance at night, that might further push nighttime eaters towards obesity.’
‘When you eat a meal, although you're taking energy in to break down the meal, your body actually expends energy. Not very much, but it does work to break down that food. And there has been some small studies that have shown that you will burn more energy eating in the morning than you will at nighttime.’...
'We found that those individuals who followed more closely a Mediterranean style diet had lower risk of insomnia'"
This doesn't stop people chanting 'calories in, calories out'

Meme - "*Japanese* Please urinate with precision and eIegance."

Meme - "Oh no that poor turtle! *turtle with straw in nose with beer cans on flipper*
*Turtles drinking beer and sniffing cocaine with straw*

Seth Rogen Explains How Surprise Paul Rudd Massage in Vegas Happened - "“Once I was in the spa in a hotel in Vegas getting a massage,” Kroll said. “When I finished I turned over and to my shock, Paul Rudd was massaging me. He saw me go in and convinced the masseuse to let him take over, thinking I’d notice immediately. I didn’t, and Paul did the entire rest of it.”

Urine Deflectors of Fleet Street – London, England - "In a time when sewage still filled the streets and the Thames itself ran with death, urination in a secluded alley was certainly not surprising. Over time, however, the persistent pummel of piddle began to take a toll, corroding the brick walls that made up these alleyways. To prevent further damage, urine deflectors were installed along the length of Cliffords Inn Passage. There are long strips of metal, angled to drain the urine into the gutter (or onto the shoes of its source).   Although this effectively combatted the unsanitary practices of the time, many “gentlemen” were miffed at the urine deflectors introduction"

Brazilian mechanic creates light bulb using water, bleach and a bottle - "A Brazilian mechanic is bringing light to the masses.  With just a plastic bottle, water, and bleach, Alfredo Moser has found a way to produce a light that is up to 40 or 60 watts — stronger than some light bulbs"

Intimacy, Sex and Doctor: Medico issues - FML - "Today, a guy on Bumble sent me a dick pic to me. I opened it, stared at it for a good few minutes, and replied, “I don’t see anything unusual. What are your complaints?” And then it hit me: It’s what they call “the life of a medical student.” I’m ruined! FML"

Facebook, Social Media, Liar and Kids: Saved - FML - "Today, my daughter posted a poem on Facebook about how her father and I abused her for years. It's a complete lie and an obvious attempt to impress her boyfriend, whom she thanked for "rescuing" her. I've received several hateful messages already, along with threats to report me to CPS. FML"
Clearly children never lie about their relationship with their parents, so it's their fault

Sex, Disappointment and Love: Brutally honest - FML - "Today, I went out on a date with a guy significantly older than myself. I told him I really liked him because I can have an intelligent conversation with him, unlike most guys my age. He told me he just wanted to get into my pants. FML"

Health, Gross and Kids: Fine, let her catch something - FML - "Today, while at McDonald's, I saw an 8 year-old girl licking a life-size Ronald McDonald sitting on a bench. Being concerned, I told her mother, who then yelled at me for 10 minutes for being a "paedophile" and "being turned on by an 8 year-old girl." FML"

Intimacy, Sex and Kids: Uptight girl, she's been living in her uptight world… - FML - "Today, my teenage daughter asked me how old I was when I lost my virginity. I sarcastically replied that I'm still a virgin. She looked at me blankly and said, "Jeez, no wonder you're so uptight. You need to get laid, mom." FML"

Money, Capitalism and Miscellaneous: Thick as thieves - FML - "Today, I was at the mall shoplifting when a girl who looked my age pointed to a shirt I had in my bag. "Stole that, huh?" she asked smiling. She looked pretty cool, so I nodded and asked if she stole the jeans she was wearing, which were from the same store. Turns out she didn't, she's the manager. FML"

Love, Sex and Cheating: Time to move - FML - "Today, I found out the guy I consider my best friend has had a girlfriend for the past year, and they have been living together for the past 7 months. He and I have been having unprotected sex for the past 4 and a half years, and have even talked about having kids together. I only found out because I'll be their new roommate. FML"

Are M.B.A.s to Blame for Wage Stagnation? - Freakonomics - "ACEMOGLU: As soon as you have a business-school manager, you see a relative decline in wages and labor share. So, within five years, the wages of business-school-manager-operated firms is about 6 percent lower than comparable firms in the U.S. and about 3 percent lower in Denmark than comparable firms... if you’re a shareholder, you will, of course, like to get more profits, and if the pie remains constant and the slice that you get gets bigger, that’s more profits for you. But the question is, are they also making the pie bigger?... we look at all sorts of ways in which they could be increasing quote-unquote “economic efficiency” or other aspects of efficiency. We look at investment, sales, productivity, exports, and you see none of that...
Acemoglu says we can only attribute 15 to 20 percent of wage stagnation and declining labor share to the rise of the M.B.A. boss. Still, that’s a significant share, especially since setting employee wages is a choice that a firm can directly control — unlike the effects of globalization and automation. And firms that are run by business-school managers are choosing to pay less. The next question you might ask is: what, exactly, is being taught in those business schools?
ACEMOGLU: Many of the courses such as finance and economics and accounting — they are both positive and prescriptive. They are teaching business-school students how the world works and how they should behave, and in almost all of these courses, you’re told, “the objective of the firm is to maximize shareholder value.”"

Meme - "If you did this for 2 years.. *mask*
You can do this for 48 seconds *condom*"

Italian Mobster, 16 Years on the Lam, Found Working at a Pizzeria - The New York Times - "After the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, 60, the police found that, while on the run, Italy’s most wanted mobster had expensive tastes, dressing in designer duds and favoring expensive perfumes. When he was taken into custody at a clinic in Palermo, Sicily, he was wearing a watch estimated to cost about $35,000, prosecutors later said.  Life on the lam was less glamorous for Edgardo Greco, 63, a lesser-known mobster linked to the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta crime syndicate, who was arrested on Thursday. The French police captured him in the early hours in St.-Étienne, a city in east-central France, as he was going to work for his night shift in a pizzeria, where he prepared dough, tomato sauces and pastas.  Mr. Greco had been living in a small apartment in the center of the city. “A modest lifestyle, not glitzy at all,” said Lt. Col. Dario Pini, the commander of the Italian carabinieri unit whose investigation led to his arrest... Tracking down Mr. Greco was not easy, Colonel Pini said. Often fugitives give themselves away when they contact close relatives, but Mr. Greco was not in touch with his wife and two sons, who live in Austria, or with relatives in Calabria... Investigators got a break late last year when, plumbing the internet for images of people who looked like Mr. Greco, they came across two articles. One, from 2014, showed a man whom they matched with Mr. Greco “to 95 percent” accuracy. They also came across a July 2021 interview in a St.-Étienne newspaper announcing the opening of an Italian restaurant, Caffè Rossini. Its owner, Paolo Dimitrio, said in the interview that his goal was to “create an elaborate Italian cuisine, only with fresh and homemade products.”  Comparing photographs they had of Mr. Greco, investigators determined that Mr. Dimitrio was in fact the fugitive mobster"

Seasoning

Woman under fire after calling out critics: ‘Seasoning police just sounds a little racist’

"A woman on TikTok is under fire after calling out the critics of her most recent food video. Zoe Barrie (@zoebarrie) is a food creator who posted a video of her making dinner for her family, which included chicken, beer bread and a vegetable-packed marinara sauce. She showed the step-by-step process, but some people weren’t happy with some of her choices... “This is a PSA to the seasoning police on this app,” she started. “If, in your brain, you only use seasonings as things like garlic powder, onion powder or something like rosemary … If this is what you view as seasoning and seasoning only, let me pose you a question: Where does this come from?” Barrie continued defending her tactics in the kitchen. “What is so funny to me is that if I had just doused my chicken in this rub and this rub alone, the seasoning police would be out of my comments.”... Barrie is now facing criticism, as some users believe the term “seasoning police” was a euphemism for Black people."
Fact-checking black people is racist
Video transcript:

"This is a PSA to the seasoning police on this app. If in your brain you only view seasoning as things like: garlic powder, onion powder, or maybe something like Rosemary - if this is what you view as seasoning and seasoning only, let me pose you a question: what does this come from? Granulated garlic - what is that? Garlic? Onion powder - where does that come from? Dehydrated onion? Let's take a look at this spice rub: dehydrated garlic, onion and bell pepper.

*Quote from her previous video*: 'I sauteed those bell peppers along with my onion and garlic'

Hmm. What is so funny to me is if I had just doused my chicken in this rub in this rub alone, the seasoning police would be out of my comments. They wouldn't even be in there. But the second it's fresh garlic or fresh onion or fresh bell pepper, it's automatically not seasoning?

And let me just say one last thing. If you're one of those people that loves to watch cooking competitions, and a judge says something is under seasoned, they're talking about salt. Under seasoning your food means there's not enough salt in it. Salt is gonna bring out the flavor of onion, the flavor of garlic, the flavor of whatever random spice rub that you have.

And let me just say that if your food tastes a little off, it's not because you need to add more powder. It's most of the time because you need to add more salt or some sort of acid like lemon juice or vinegar. Okay?"

Your OG @LRNROSE: "day in the life of a private chef in the hamptons"
AC @WordyWidowMaker: "Not a single seasoning in sight."
prinskipper @prinskipper: "I ... do you know what seasoning is? It's more than just salt which appears to be the only thing you have *prawns with herbs, pesto*"

Supreme Cancer Energy @fxcknxggafree_: "Folks just want to sound cultured. Seasoning is herbs and spices. She aint use no spices!!!"
Afrodite 🦋💫 @yung_afr0dite: "her list had calabrian chili and harissa"
Supreme Cancer Energy @fxcknxggafree_: "still not normal in african american culture. We use both herbs and spices and way more than harissa and chilli."

Apparently if you're not cooking the African American way, you're not cooking properly. 

🦋LONGLIVEJU @theprettyaries: "She used a lot of veggies & herbs maybe spices not seasoning …. Lol but go off"
Afrodite @yung_afr0dite: "WHAT. babe that’s what seasoning is..herbs and spices 😭 y’all make us look ignant please stop this nonsense"
🦋LONGLIVEJU @theprettyaries: "Girl not making US look nothing I’m saying pepper , onion powder, garlic powder, seasoning salt, salt, the NORM shit like that I’m not stupid at all 😭🥱 lol just look like use rosemary , veggies that’s it 🤷🏽‍♀️"

 

"I'm going to let all of you anons in here in on a little secret. Did you know that when niggers talk about "seasoning" they are exclusively referring to "Lawry's Seasoned Salt?" I'm not joking, it's an honest to God fact. Next time you get on the subject of cooking while chatting with a nigger ask him what his favorite seasonings are to use while cooking. He'll stare at you mouth agape before mumbling out some incoherent nigger speak like

"mufuggah ion no not mufuggin gorton ramsay nigga nah mean I'm just usin seasoning nigga"

Niggers really have no concept of seasoning, they honestly think all flavor is derived from Lawry's seasoning salt. One time l was invited to my nigger neighbor's 4th of July bbq. I could hardly contain my excitement because I was finally about to be enlightened by the fabled nigger BBQ, or so i thought.

imagine my disappointment when l arrived and was greeted with the following
>chicken rubbed with lawry‘s seasoned salt
>ribs with dry rub of lawry's seasoned salt
>mashed potatoes loaded with lawry's seasoned salt
>salad garnished with lawry's seasoned salt
>asparagus coated in so much lawry's seasoned salt that it was entirely crystallized by the time it was done grilling
>every table had a bottle of lawry's seasoned salt on it "to add some extra seasoning"
It was absolutely unreal. Do you know how many times I was asked to "pass the seasoning" that night? It can't be counted on both hands. Describing the situation as Lynchian is too kind.

If you ever find yourself dating a nigger and want to impress her grill up some chicken and rub it with enough lawry's seasoned salt to cure an entire calf. You will be amazed at her eyes light up as she takes her first bite and she showers you with compliments for "cookin' with soul" 

 

Black Woman: "You people don't season food *Dash seasoning, Dawn detergent, raw chicken*"
"Sorry, we've been busy *Car, plane, rocket, running water, Colosseum, The Creation of Adam, Sailing Ship, Early Computer, Marble Statue*"

Also:

Kaffiåte🧱 on Twitter - "About a year ago there was a video that went viral on black twitter called “she ain’t use not one spice” It was a private chef cooking a large meal, using fresh ingredients like thyme, garlic, peppers and parsley. That’s when I realized, black people don’t know what spices are."
Dubs on Twitter - "They really don't. I've noticed most will smother everything with BBQ or hot sauce. Which is what I did when I was 9"
Slavoj Zyzz3k on Twitter - "there’s a great thread somewhere about how when blacks say “seasoning” or “spice” they mean Lowery’s Seasoned Salt—the only seasoning they know."
Kaffiåte🧱 on Twitter - "They have this phrase where they pretend “yts” only use salt because they don’t know salt enhances every flavor it’s added to"

Why Do Black People Wash Chicken? - blackpeoplesrecipes.com - "I didn’t realize Black folks and other minorities and people are color are typically the only people who are adamant about washing off their chicken until I was an adult. I noticed it because every time the “chicken washing debate” would circulate on social media whites/Caucasians would always appear astounded and shocked there was even a debate about the topic. Is washing chicken bad? Like most Blacks, I grew up washing chicken... I’ve also seen stories of people washing their meat with soap."
black people washing chicken soap｜TikTok Search

Links - 29th March 2023 (1 - History Extra Quoting)

Queens in the Age of Chivalry | HistoryExtra - "In 1347, for the Six Burghers of Calais, Edward had besieged Calais for a year. The citizes had offered to surrender and he said yes as long as you send me Six Burghers with halters around their necks as if they were going to their execution and they went there with keys of the town and he ordered that they be beheaded. And Philippa had just arrived at his camp there. She famously knelt at his feet and begged and pleaded with him. He was in a towering rage and he said I wish you were anywhere else but here, but I cannot deny you. And he let her have their lives. Of course, it could all have been stage managed. It could have been arranged beforehand, but it enabled him to concede without loss of face"

Victorian visions of the future | HistoryExtra - "Everything else is different, but the humans are the same. They're all dressed in late 19th century middle class fashion. So it's literally, it's them in the future. That's what's being portrayed in these sorts of images. And that's how the Victorians I think imagined the future. It's going to be a future that was technologically different and exciting and innovative in all sorts of ways, but it was going to be people like them in it"

World Cup history: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "In Amsterdam... there's 2 matches take place. There's a replay that happened quite often, the second match between Uruguay and Argentina. Apparently something like a quarter of the male population of the Netherlands applied for tickets...
There were some conflicts over definitions of amateurism, and the British Football Associations stepped outside FIFA and weren't interested in the Olympic tournaments, because they thought lots of the teams that were competing were kind of professionals, and so FiFA just decided let's just create our own tournament which is independent of the Olympics"

Spiritualism, fairies, and Arthur Conan-Doyle | HistoryExtra - "'Conan Doyle I think is remembered by most people as the creator of literature's most rational figure, which doesn't seem intially to tally with the idea of the supernatural and contacting the dead. How did he reconcile these two ideas on his life?'
'Sherlock Holmes is a rational searcher of evidence, one might say. But to a  certain extent, so was Arthur Conan Doyle when it came to spiritualism. He left his Christian faith because he didn't feel that it presented tangible evidence in any way, shape or form. Whereas, to him, over the course of his later life, spiritualism did. You can track tangible evidence in tables that tilt, or slates that are written on by unseen hands and by ectoplasm later in the century. So to him, it was very much a case of there is evidence here, just as Holmes might look for evidence'"

The Crimean War: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "Florence Nightingale ends up inventing the modern nursing profession... but she's not doing that in the Crimea. Florence Nightingale in the Crimean War is a hosptial manager. She understands the principles of what's being done, and she's able to oversee the work on the wards, but much of the work is being done by male orderies as had always been the case: bandsmen, bugelrs, people like that who are non-combatants but are part of the regimental strength. Women of her class would not have dreamt of putting their hands on the dirty, damaged bodies of working class men. That simply was a no-no. So any  female nursing that was done was not done by her or her immediate circle, it was done by women of lower status, many of them coming through Holy Orders, so there're quite a lot of Catholic nuns involved. Florence Nightingale's great feat really is to take command of a fairly disparate group of organisations that are sending out nursing people into the theatre and to stop it becoming chaos. She imposes chaos and gets control of the funds and the story and she's able to use that to shape a process which was much more effective than it would've been. So it's her managerial skills that really matter. Her ability to connect with government and to get government support that's absolutely important. She's in the Crimea  very briefly and falls very ill while she's there, so she's not front line Crimea, she's in a hospital on the other side of the Bosphorus from Istanbul where the casualty rates are no different from the other hospitals... which led her to have an obsession with sanitation, which feeds into a Victorian obsession with sanitation...
Crimea isn't ethnically Russian until Stalin removes all the Crimean tartars after the Second World War. And it becomes Ukrainian when Khruschev hands it over because his mother is Ukrainian, so there's a way in which the Russians see the world and this war fits the pattern. This is a war in which the bad guys attack Russia. They always forget the bit where the Russians start it, they just remember the sad bit at the end when they lose. The Russians started this war, they attacked first, they crossed the Turkish borer, they seized Turkish territory, they refused to back down when given ample opportunity, and then they complain about losing the war. You can't have it both ways guys. Either you were the innocent victims or you started the war and you lost, and the second one is true. So it does matter to Russia but the Russians don't tell the story of the war in quite the way that we ought to. The problem is we have told as a story in Britain of our own failure and we've completely fogotten the role of everybody else. Who knows what the Russians are doing in the Crimean War? Nobody. We know the Charge of the Light Brigade inside out. Does anybody know who's in charge of the Russians that day? We don't know any of these things. We've forgotten who our allies were, the Turks and the Second Empire. We've forgotten that there was fighting in the Baltic which is usually important. We've forgotten economic war that destroyed the Russian economy. We've forgotten all of that and as a result we have this cardboard cutout version. And the best way of approaching that is through that great 1960s film, the Charge of the Light Brigade which absolutely tells all of those stories which are either not true or not significant. So we've confused the window dressing with strategic power'"

The Irish across the globe | HistoryExtra - "What you think of as the traditional Irish identity, Catholic, Nationalist, Working Class, has been eroded. But what's also taken place has been the rise of a new type of Irishness, which is marketed as an international brand. And most specacularly in the institution of the Irish Pub, which is now pretty much ubiquitous. It can be found in major cities all over the world... Irishness has been redefined as a brand to be marketed. Now why has that happened? A lot I think to do with the English language. If we're looking at the post-war world there is a growing hunger for what people think of as more authentic folk cultures and a reaction against bland consumerism, and if you're looking for that, the perfect place to deliver it. Because it delivers a, a colourful history, it delivers cultural forms which are distinctive but not too distinctive, not too different, it's accessible and of course it's all available through the English language. And the paradox is that the Irishness that is now marketed as an international commodity is massively differently to the Irishness  of the actual diaspora. If you were to look at the Irish population scattered throughout the world in 1900, it was socially conservative, mainly Catholic and certainly the bits that were insistent on their Irishness were mainly Catholic. Whereas what's now marketed as Irishness is a sort of genial, convivial, gregarious sort of hedonism. If you had told the founders of the Irish state... that the symbol of the island that they were trying to create was going to be a pub, they would have been horrified. And that is emblematic of the distance between International Irishness and the real world of the diaspora. It's an astonishing process of reinvention'"

British spies in WW2: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "The exploding rat. And this was actually made for SOE, so the Special Operations Executive, and they would actually get a dead rat... and they would hollow, just the carcass, and that would be filled with plastic explosives, and the rats would be put near boilers, and explode and cause more damage. But unfortunately, the Germans found the first shipment of this stuff. And you might think that was a  failure, but do you know what it actually did? And I think this is why it was so clever and part of the deception. The Germans thereafter thought we were going to keep sending these dead rats in with explosives and as a result they spent more of the war looking for these dead rats which we had stopped putting together. And so intelligence services deemed that to be quite a success because it was wasting German resources. They weren't fighting us. They were busy looking for dead rats"

Tattoos: a 5,000 year history | HistoryExtra - "I had a tattooist tell me this years ago, you know, stop telling people like aristocrats were tattooed, because I make my living tattooing 18 year olds who think it's edgy"

Royal rivals? Medieval England and France’s tempestuous relationship | HistoryExtra - "Henry gets this letter from France purporting to be from Philip I the King of France, saying my son Louis is with you and by the way could you imprison him and keep him imprisoned for the rest of his life, becauseI don't want him back. Which is a really, a slightly surprising way for a relationship between two dynasties to start. As it turns out, the letter didn't come from the King of France at all. It came from his wife, who was Louis's stepmother, who wanted her own sons to succeed to the throne...
We've got Henry III on the throne in England and Louis IX in France, they got on absolutely brilliantly. They loved each other. They were married to two sisters, which made them brothers in law which actually helped. But there was an awful lot of this, oh well, why don't you come over to Paris and we'll have a lovely family gathering sort of thing...
There were an awful lot of intermarriages between the two dynasties, and I think at one point, I was looking and going, well, alright, Edward I and Philip III are first cousins to each other, because their mothers were sisters, but they're also second cousins to each other because of their fathers both being descended from somebody else and they're also both descended from Henry I and both descended from Louis VI. And you start, I mean, please, I didn't try and draw family tree at the beginning of this book...
There were an awful lot of marriages because if you'd been at war with somebody and then you sealed a peace treaty. It was very very common to seal that peace treaty, to seal the deal by arranging a marriage. And sometimes it might have been the King himself or sometimes it might have been the King's son or the King's daughter. And just marrying each other. And so there were so many intermarriages that even though we count them as two separate dynasties, they were very very interlaced... How a King got on with his in-laws could have a great influence on millions of people lower down the scale because it might have a great influence on whether he went to war or whether there was peace...
They were constantly being asked to be intercessors. They would be told that they needed to marry as part of a peace treaty and then 5 years later, their father and their husband would be at war with each other, and they got stuck in the middle. This couple of hundred years did offer plenty of opportunities for women. It's important to remember, they had to exercise power differently to men. The rules of the game, if you like, were different for them. But that doesn't mean they weren't playing that game. They were playing it differently...
It's a common kind of misconception actually that because women or young girls didn't generally have much say in the choice of whom they would marry, particularly for their first marriage, that they were completely powerless. But they weren't. The job was, you were given your husband almost by fate. You were given your husband the same way you were given rank in life. The job of that woman was to see what she could make of her position after that had happened. So these women were not powerless just because they were being told who they had to marry. They were just going about exerting power in a different way to men...
I could make quite a good case that Eleanor of Aquitaine only became the Queen of England because a teenager was killed by a pig in the streets of Paris. Louis VI, the King of France, had several sons. His oldest son was called Philip, his second son was called Louis. This is a really bad habit of French kings by the way. Every single French King is called either Louis or Philip and I just wish they would stop it. Philip is the oldest. He's been trained and brought up since his earliest youth that he is gonna be the next king, and he frankly is a bit of a lad actually. And second son Louis has been told his whole life that he's gonna be the helpmeet and the support and that probably he's going to enter the Church. Now when Philip was 16, he was riding his horse through the streets of Paris with some of his friends when a pig suddenly shot out of an alleyway  in front of him, frightened his horse, his horse threw him and then fell on top of him, and he was crushed and he died of his injuries the same day, which is just horrific and tragic and shocking. But in terms of the succession to the French throne, it was not as much of a disaster as the White Ship had been in England because Louis VI had several other sons. So what happens is his second son Louis gets told, right, now you're the heir to the throne now, you're gonna be the King. Now, 5 years later, Louis, who then about 17, gets sent south to marry Eleanor of Aquitaine. Right, now I think we're fairly familiar with what happened next. He was married to Elanor of Aquitaine for some well. They had 2 daughters, he divorced her, or technically it was annulled, but he divorced her. She went on to marry Henry II of England, became Queen of England. My hypothesis here is that if Philip had not been killed by that pig, one of two things would've happened. Either Eleanor would still have married Louis, who would've been a second son, because then Louis would be the Duke of Aquitaine and even though they didn't have any sons, he would not have been allowed to divorce her, because it would've meant the French crown would have lost Aquitaine, so she would've stayed Duchess of Aquitaine, never married Henry II. If Philip had not been killed, it's possible that Eleanor might have married Philip, the eldest son and as we know, the problems that Louis and Eleanor had in conceiving children and in bearing sons were not Eleanor's problem. Because we know that because she went on to have loads of children with her second husband. And Philip, being the sort of lad that he was, rather than a shy boy  brought up to the Church, possibly wouldn't have so much squeamishness about marital relations as Louis did and he and Eleanor might have had a load of children.'"

The Holocaust: a 21st-century view | HistoryExtra - "'As we lose the last direct eyewitnesses to the Holocaust we will lose and gain at the same time. As Richard said there is an enormous existing collection of firsthand survivor and oral history and memoir material and some of it um, you know, it's been it's been recorded over a very long period of time, it changes over time in historical context as the world around survivors changes. We can dip back into that now taking that bird's eye view, taking a critical view that is sometimes hard when you've got the living person in front of you, digging around in the past to see what could be said in 1980 that could not be said in 2022 and vice versa and putting that all together I think actually in some ways might serve to give us a richer picture certainly both of the individual life and of the collective experience'...
'Children who survived the Holocaust who ended up spending the rest of their childhoods in an orphanage often felt they had had a better experience than children returned to a surviving parent. Now actually it's not that hard to understand why that would be the case. The parents who survived the Holocaust, we see them in 1945 46 47, destitute, often homeless, without any sort of social network to to help them get back on their feet,  traumatized. Not in a very good position to be a good parent and we can fully understand then why they might have felt that their children would be better off in an orphanage and indeed we see many many children in orphanages in that period who had a surviving parent who didn't feel capable of looking after them. But this is challenging to accept because we in our 21st century position have a certain perspective on the family'"
So much for the primacy of personal experience

Who were the Celts? | HistoryExtra - "'People complained... I hadn't dealt with the Celts. I then investigated the matter further, being half-Celt myself, although that word is a word I object to very strongly, and realised the Celts never existed, they don't exist as a group, it is a nonsense, it's a mythical legend, not a historical reality... it's actually a damaging concept to leave in general circulation... since the 1960s, people have challenged it... there was no such people, there was no such land, there was no such language really. There was a Celtic series of languages. There was nothing that united the Celts at all... it's now politically highly charged in this country, what are the Celts or what were the Celts and what was their relatonship with the Anglo-Saxons, who also never existed...
there were no Celts, there was no Saxon invasion. All these things are now quite common in specialist academic circles. I still find the British Museum holding exhibitons of The Celts. The BBC runs series on The Celts. They come up all the time as the Celtic Fringe. They infuse themselves into British politics. So the Celtic politics is distinct from the Saxon politics... there's never anything in common between the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh. Let's face it... there's never been anything in common between the Scots the Irish and the Welsh. Let's face it they've never banded together, they've never been one nation, they've never formed one football team, they don't speak one language. What is it they got in common? The word Celtic, and it doesn't exist...
[Neither did the Anglo-Saxons.] It is now becoming apparent that and there's this great conundrum in British history: what did the English speak when the Romans landed? Did they all speak Celtic? Britonic Celtic which is a version of Welsh? The general view, not the general view but a widespread view now is either that we simply don't know or that they probably spoke an early form of Germanic which became English and and the theory that they were invaded and massacred in the fifth century by invading Saxons, Frisians, Jutes, people from from Central Europe is just not the case and that's now been comprehensively debunked… I'm not the only person to say that I have to say...
The theory that they all spoke Celtic and then they all in a matter of 100 years spoke a  completely different language, no trace of which has, there’s very little Celtic in English. It's it's almost unknown to find a Celtic word cropping up in English now…  there must have been a preceding language on the east coast of England… the normal surviving linguistic marker is geographical. Places, mountains, rivers, lands and so on, they're very few Celtic geographic markers down east side of Britain... it's highly possible that the east side of Britain spoke a Germanic language way back in history... the Celtic languages and they're plural they're not singular uh it's like romance I mean there's not a romance language. It's not even a Germanic language...
No one has ever said I am a Celt. I ask I ask I ask Welsh people and Irish people and Scottish people, say do you say you're a Celt? There's always a silence… the Celts never themselves call themselves one people. They never did. They never have. They are the creation of academics, of of scholars, of antiquarians, of Druids and goodness knows who since the 19th century'"

Russia’s national past: unpicking history from propaganda | HistoryExtra - "The idea of of the of the the Tsar being effectively or the ruler being effectively not just a sacred figure in the Byzantine sentence so the representative of God on Earth but also more than that a human God whose cult venerates his power as something sacralized that's a very strong tradition in Russia. Then the other element of of of this mythology which has come into play uh um throughout Russian history I think would be the idea of Russia a rational autocracy is patrimonial in nature. So in other words the Tsar doesn't just rule over a state, he is the literal owner of Russia. Indeed Nicholas back in the last saw in the National census, the first Russian census of 1897 registered himself as literally the owner of Russia… Hideous palace that he's built at vast expense, um this isn't his own own palace but it's his insofar as he is equated with Russia and can use whatever Russian resources he likes just like the patrimonial ruler of medieval times. So the sacralization of power, this patrimonial nature of power, these are are just two of the of the many sort of ideas and indeed institutions of Russian history I've tried to trace through the book and they're they're still very much alive today"

The end of Roman Britain | 3. a militarised state? | History Extra podcast on Acast - "‘We're so used to thinking of Britain as one unit or maybe we think of it as the United Kingdom, in the combination of Scotland and Wales Northern Ireland and England. Um, but for Roman Britain it's it's not actually a province anymore in the Roman government and the structure of Roman government. It's a diocese um you know it's it's kind of one entity but at the next level up from province there's actually four and maybe even five provinces that make up Roman Britain. And each province has its own Governor, um has its own Governor's offices, its own tax collectors, you know, um, its own separate government and so you you can't really think of Roman Britain as one unit. It's it's at least four different political units and on top that you then have this really interesting situation where the late Roman Empire has separated it's civilian or Civic offices of Governors for example or or town counselors, from its military uh branch. You know, from the generals in the Army. And if you embark on a military career path you will not fulfill a civilian governmental career path and vice versa. If you're in the civil government then you won't be part of the army and it's it's actually meant to be a separation of powers in that sense"

The CIA: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "The one that really stands out in my view if you're looking for strangeness is the plot to make his beard fall out on the premise that in Latin America machismo counts for a great deal and strongly associated with machismo especially in those days was having a large bushy beard and if Castro's beard were to fall out then he would lose his appeal, the Cuban people would turn against him and democracy would be well, not restored because Cuba never was a democracy but America would have its way in Cuba... The CIA had a um an organization called the Health Alteration Bureau. And they were developing various um potions. And one of them was a thallium concoction which to be, was to be placed in the sandals of Fido Castro, making its way into his bloodstream and making his hair fall out. Well, like many of the plots associated with either killing Castro or altering his health it failed. But I think it gets top marks for strangeness."

Roman women: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "'In marriage, Roman women, for the period of the Roman empire, women actually had more power in many ways than women in England or the US did in the 19th century. Women, even though they couldn't vote, they had property, they had legal independence from their husbands. They weren't just subsumed into the household of their husbands in the way that you see in 19th century novels. So in that sense there is an independence that Roman women of property had in controlling their property'... ‘I think our stereotype of Roman women focuses on the idea that they should be pure and chaste, that they should cultivate modesty and a sense of untouchability uh particularly uh sort of sexual purity for example and that certainly was a crucial ideal in the Roman world but I think if you were going to pick one value it would be the value of Honor understood not only in the sense of of modesty and Purity but also in the sense of of strength and strength of character so in that sense I think we aren't looking at a society that asked women to be wallflowers. The critical thing that is different between ancient Rome and a modern society is almost certainly the centrality of bearing children in Roman ideas and ideals and that is something that was valued very highly. It was seen as literally the the sort of starting point of the whole system, because Rome was a society that was struggling to grow demographically'"

Berlin’s turbulent 20th century | HistoryExtra - "‘The wall itself wasn't always completely unchanging there's kind of fascinatings of architectural quirk about it. They were continually kind of rebuilding it in various different styles with different sorts of improved concrete or different ways of making it incredibly difficult for people to scramble over the top. And there’s a  brilliant account from a man who was a guard on the East Berlin side, basically to ensure that no one got across the death strip. It was a famous you know the famous image is of uh this terrible zone in between walls where people tried to get across and they're shot and that it's it's it's it's basically a zone of death. There was one East German guard who watched the the rebuilding of the wall in the 1970s that they they were giving it a new architectural style which meant that not only could people not get across but people couldn’t ram it with cars or sort of or go at it with heavy vehicles and that. And he looked at it and he looked at it and suddenly he realized, his world turned upside down. He realized that that this wall wasn't keeping the rapacious Americans out. This was keeping him in. And the reason he knew this was because he knew that on the other side or the western side on the free side, people could walk up to the wall and touch it but he knew it on his side if anyone did that uh there would be in terrible danger and suddenly he, the the way he looked at the wall completely flipped on its head'"

The Bank of England: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "‘To understand why the bank of England is feminized though we have to go back a little bit. So Britannia is the symbol of the Bank of England and has been the symbol of the Bank of England uh right from the start. And she ties in nicely with other feminized symbols of the financial system uh in the late 17th and early 18th century. So we have Lady Credit who represents credit. And she's Lady Credit because credit is fickle. Um you know when there are times when she'll sort of dance around you and she'll flirt with you and she will, you know, she will be your your friend. And and there were times when she will she will cast you away. The South Sea Company was also feminized particularly in the wake of the South Sea Bubble and she was feminized in quite problematic ways. So she was characterized as a whore.  Um you know as as a fallen woman after the collapse of the South Sea Bubble. She’d behaved badly. She had deliberately sold her virtue for money. The Bank of England's Britannia tends to avoid all of those connotations, the Bank of England's Britannia kind of stays pure throughout the 18th century and becomes very much embedded in its image.’"

Clash of cultures: how interpreters bridged the gap between Britain and China | HistoryExtra - "‘These messages could be warped if that's the right way of putting it?’...
‘Quite often people have thought about it in terms of mistakes but I think that's probably not not quite right I think. The more I think about it and the more you understand it you see that basically you always you've always got to make choices. So for example the Chinese had the word for foreigners and this is the word yi. And this term yi is a term which has been translated subsequently as Barbarian. And when the British found they were being described as Barbarian, they were furious. However that word yi is used up in North China for the Mongols who are very much, and the Mongols are part of the Qing Empire, they're one of its major peoples, their culture is respected, it's widely used. And I think to translate this word yi as Barbarian is to try and fit a Roman, a set of ideas from the Roman Empire onto China that just don't quite fit and there's a similar issue with tribute. So the Chinese term gong um which means a gift that is given to someone, usually someone above you, and that got translated into English um at the time of the Opium Wars as tribute. And the British said they were refused to pay tribute to the um Chinese emperor. However that word does also just mean a gift. And although it has a slight directional tone to it, that it's generally a gift upwards, uh it's not always a gift upwards. It can sometimes be a presentation by someone downwards…  When Li Zhibiao translated,  because he was Chinese and he was, what he wanted was a good outcome for the negotiations, he used those relatively positive. So he was translating actually into Latin or Italian… later on as the British Empire becomes very active in China, when people become quite aggressive, they don't want to use those terms. They use these very strong terms which are very angering to, if they want to to motivate the British to engage in warfare they will use these much stronger terms to translate'...
‘If you were immersed in two cultures how you were never entirely trusted by both’...
‘So this is something that people in translation studies talk a lot about. The the translator is a traitor. In order to to really know a language well enough to interpret you have to be very deeply immersed and you have to have friends’"

The Knights Templar: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "'Quite a few people during the trial of the Templars indicated that they had a relative in the order already who encouraged them to join. And that probably helps you get past the initial getting in level because they will speak up for you and say I know my nephew, he's a very good person. The regulation that says don't think you're necessarily going to get sent to Jerusalem, you could get sent anywhere suggests that some people actually wanted to travel and see the holy places. There do seem to be a lot of pious brothers in the order. They joined, they joined to serve God and if you can serve god with your sword you can still be a knight but you can still serve God. You don't have to go into a monastery and pray. This is all to the good. And so yes you can go off and become God's knight. And you might be able to come home sometime and impress your family. Other reasons to join might be because one of your friends is joining and you're joining with them and of course if your employer is joining you probably be very very well fired you have to join, you're not given any choice of the matter… if you had a religious vocation, you wanted to serve God in any order and Templars happen to be your closest order, you might just go and knock on the door and say can I join you here and if you were going to stay wherever you were you might decide that actually it didn't matter you weren't going to go to Jerusalem because you just have the same religious life there as you would have in any other order. The Templars didn't take members from the Crusader States, generally there are a few people who join the order who were as it were from their locality in the Kingdom of Jerusalem but generally they're recruiting from the West. Maybe that some people joined because it was a way for to get social status because if you had nothing, if you came from a very poor family and you joined a military order they will provide everything you needed. So the bishop of Acre was complaining…  some people who'd never had a pillow in real life, in normal life joined the Templars and now they expect to have a pillow all the time and one Brother whose pillow was taken away from him because a pillowcase was being washed spent the whole night complaining and kept everyone else awake'"

Surgical history: everything you wanted to know | HistoryExtra - "One of the most famous blood transfusions in 1667 was between a lamb and a madman, and the idea was that you would transfuse blood, but not to replace lost blood, rather to transplant what was inside of the blood into the person. So a lamb is known for being calm and pure and full of you know, the purity of God, Christ, all of that sort of symbolism and it was thought, or certain transfusion pioneers thought that you can transfuse a lamb's blood into a madman and make the madman automatically calmer, which you'd think would be a hindrance because it's quite dangerous to transfuse animal blood into humans but it looked liked it was helping. Because you can take a little bit of blood that's not compatible with your body and live. And what would happen is you'd get very very tired, you'd have a fit, a massive fever, but it'd look like you weren't mad anymore. So it looked like it helps but it actually hinders because that ends up wearing off and you need a topup and you end up dying eventually. But it's relative what help and hindrance mean historically...

Back then, people all over the world, they thought that toothache was down to  a little worm called a toothworm, and when I say all over the world, I mean all over the world. So there are references to this little worm in  Madagascar, in Ancient Egypt, in  Borneo, in Babylonia, in  Medieval Germany and Early Modern France, there're these little lockets you can find every now and then with depictions of these worms from Early Modern France. The Cherokee, even they have a toothworm. And all kinds of folk remedies promised to get rid of them. So my favourite is that you have to kiss a donkey... Another one is that you had to spit salt on a fresh grave"