Adelanke Adefemi

La Vraie Affaire☝🏾

[Adelanke Adefemi @AdelankeAdefemi]

“God, grant me the serenity to accept things that I cannot change. The courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.”
Aaron Wallace

[Veloria🐬 @veloriahq]

“𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘦 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘏𝘪𝘮 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴.”

— 𝘙𝘶𝘮𝘪

[Reads with Ravi @readswithravi]

“Wasting your time doubting whether you’re going to be successful is pointless.”

— Kobe Bryant

[GeniusThinking @GeniusGTX]

I'm obsessed with cognitive biases.

A "cognitive bias" is a built-in glitch in our brain that sabotages good decisions.

These are the 11 craziest and most dangerous cognitive biases I've found: 👇

1. The Cobra Effect

[Prettypearl @TochukwuAgba]

Style isn't just about what you wear. It's how you show who you are. The best looks come from confidence, being yourself, and not being afraid to stand out. In a world full of trends, being unique is the greatest style of all.

Cruella (2021)

[Dr. M.F. Khan @Dr_TheHistories]

“The Girls in the Windows,” photographed by Ormond Gigli in 1960. Possibly the most profitable photograph ever, it's made $12 million so far...

In the spring of 1960, fashion photographer Ormond Gigli learned that a brownstone across from his Manhattan studio was scheduled for demolition. Rather than let the opportunity pass, he organized one of the most ambitious fashion photographs ever attempted. He recruited 43 professional models, dressed each in a different colorful gown, positioned them in the building's windows, and coordinated the entire shoot with assistants, stylists, and neighbors. A Rolls-Royce and two models were placed at street level to complete the composition.

The photograph was taken in just a few minutes as the afternoon light reached the building. Although it appeared effortless, weeks of planning went into arranging every pose, dress, and window. The image became one of the defining photographs of 20th century fashion and has been reproduced in books, magazines, galleries, and fine art prints around the world.

The original building at 327 East 58th Street was demolished shortly after the photograph was taken, making the image the last visual record of the structure in its iconic form.

In 2013, Ormond Gigli reunited many of the surviving models, more than 50 years after the photograph was made, recreating the gathering to celebrate one of photography's most enduring images.

#drthehistories

[Greg Nwoko 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬 @nwoko_greg62705]

That’s Adepoju Aderonmu, a Nigerian medical student who made history on American TV in the 1950s.

He was from Oyo, Nigeria.

At the time of this photo he was studying medicine in the US.

He’s Yoruba, and like many Nigerians of that era, he came abroad for higher education.

He became the first Black person to win the $64,000 top prize on CBS-TV’s hit quiz show.

The $64,000 Question. This was in the mid-1950s, when US TV was still racially segregated and Black winners on national game shows were extremely rare.

His winning category was the Bible.

This newspaper clipping says he answered a six-part Biblical question.

He’s pictured here holding a painting of part of the question that won him the prize.

$64,000 in 1956 was massive money, that’s about $750,000 today.

For a Nigerian student to win it on live US TV was a huge deal back home and abroad.

It showed the world the depth of Nigerian intellect at a time when Africa was still under colonial rule.

He’s one of those early Nigerian trailblazers who put the country on the global map before “Nollywood” or “Afrobeats” existed.

[Grok @grok]

Yes, it's based on a real Finnish study (Natural Resources Institute Finland, 2022–2024). Researchers "rewilded" urban daycare yards by adding forest floor soil, moss, plants, and natural materials instead of just asphalt, gravel, or rubber mats.

Within 28 days, kids showed more T-regulatory cells in blood tests (helping immune balance). After a year: more diverse skin/gut microbiomes and fewer potentially harmful bacteria like Streptococcus.

Not a nationwide rubber-to-mud swap, but the health benefits from everyday dirt exposure are well-supported. Ancestors weren't wrong about letting kids get dirty.

[Interesting things @awkwardgoogle]

In 2017, a British man desperate to sell his £500,000 mansion came up with a bold and unconventional plan: he raffled it off online for just £2 per ticket.

The idea took off. He sold nearly 500,000 entries, cleared his debts, and handed over the keys to a lucky factory worker who won the draw.

[Just Smile @JSmile15846]

“A soldier can stand strong for a nation… but becomes soft the moment their child runs into their arms. ❤️🇺🇸”
“No battlefield is harder than leaving your child behind for duty. These moments hit different. 🥹”
“They wear uniforms to protect millions, but to their kids… they’re simply ‘Dad’ and ‘Mom.’ ❤️”

[Gbenga Samuel-Wemimo @GbengaWemimo]

Husband has two laptops
One was given to him as a Work from home tool by the foreign bank he is working with
The other was his personal laptop with him he handles his personal business.

Wife’s father died in Nigeria
Husband was not given leave at work to travel abroad
Wife was as given compassionate leave
Wife pleads with husband to please show his face at the funeral
Husband decided to take the risk

He mirrored the office laptop to his personal laptop
Left it connected in such a way that he can work on it remotely using his personal computer and travelled with the family to Nigeria for work

Wife was aware of the risk the husband took
The plan was to travel to Nigeria on Friday and return to London on Sunday
They got to Nigeria
The husband set up his personal laptop at the hotel so that if any work call or email comes in he would attend to it immediately

It worked
He was able to work remotely and he was in the UK on Saturday morning
After this he went to the burial rites, greeted members of the family and paid his respects to all and sundry
When he got back to their room he discovered his laptop was gone

It was not stolen
He could see from all the disconnections and wires lying around that his wife took it
He rushed to the car and drove furiously to the wife’s parent’s house to ask her for his laptop

When he got there, he saw that his wife had handed it over to her older brother who had connected it to some amplifiers to play some of their father’s Fåvourite music to entertain her family

He didn’t think it would be proper to disrupt such a solemn family moment
So he went back to the hotel and waited anxiously for them to be done and for his laptop to be returned.

At almost midnight, the laptop was returned
By then the husband has gotten two messages from his team lead asking him where he was because he missed some tasks and his laptop indicated that he was in Nigeria

He reconnected his laptop and tried very hard to do some damage control.
He was livid and he didn’t fail to say so to his wife
According to the wife he said “You betrayed my trust, you took my work computer without regards for my sacrifices and well being to play music in loving memory of your father. You could have hired a DJ or bought a laptop somewhere in Lagos.
You knew the risk I took to be at this event with you and you decide to expose me this way.
You better pray I don’t lose my job over this. If I as much as get a query, this marriage is over”

Wife said she didn’t think that far.
Her brother asked her if she brought her laptop because he had carefully made a selection of their father’s Fåvourite songs on a flash drive and would like to play it at the house after the funeral while his friends and family member were still around to commiserate with their mother.

She said she went to the room to see if she could borrow her husband’s laptop and met his absence. So she just took it.

Innocent mistake.

They got back to the UK and husband’s job was terminated.
Husband is asking for a divorce
Wife is saying jobs are replaceable, a marriage is not.
How can an innocent mistake be the cause of their divorce?

Husband says the wife has always been like that
Lacking an understanding of boundaries and willing to throw anybody under the bus to get her desired result in anything she wanted to do.
He had told her he couldn’t travel because his office didn’t permit him
She prevailed on him to take the risk and then destroyed his carefully built wall of protection by removing the laptop from its connection

Wife said she didn’t intend to do any harm.
Just to play some music with the laptop
Husband said wife is deflecting and moved out of their apartment
Wife is asking what the big deal is…

[Foundational Nupe Lawyer @egi_nupe]

So many things to unpack here.

[Imakunblog @imakun122]

AWOLOWO’S LETTER TO THE RICHEST IJEBU MAN IN 1943, SEEKING AN EDUCATIONAL LOAN.

...On Ambition, Integrity, and the Audacity to Ask for the Impossible!

AWOLOWO SPEAKS:

Please read the letter below, written by Chief Obafemi Awolowo to Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola on March 25, 1943 — then the richest Ijebu man — requesting an education loan of £1,400, to be repaid by 1955. It is audacious, meticulous, and deeply revealing of the man who would later shape a nation.

---

THE REMARKABLE LETTER.

March 25, 1943

Dear Mr. Odutola,

I think it will save time, and be more businesslike, if I dispense with pleasantries and go straight to the purpose of this letter: I am writing to ask you to lend me the sum of £1,400 — One thousand and four hundred pounds — free of interest, for twelve years.

It is a staggering sum. More staggering still when you realize that I, who ask for this loan, have nothing in all the world to offer as security except my good faith and my brains — which are of value only so long as I continue to breathe the breath of life.

Nevertheless, I proceed to state, briefly, why I seek this great loan from you. I ask that you spare some time to read what follows, even if, in the end, you find yourself unable to grant me this grand favour.

Since boyhood, one great ambition has possessed me: to be a lawyer, a politician, and a journalist, rolled into one. I cherish politics and journalism as a calling; I desire advocacy as a means of livelihood. For, you will agree, a politician or journalist without the means to support himself and his family comfortably is like a blade with no razor.

There was a time I stood on the verge of earning enough to proceed to England to pursue this ambition. But fortune twisted, and I crashed. Since then, I have labored without success to recover lost ground financially. Spiritually and intellectually, however, I have made appreciable advance, despite towering difficulties — all of which have now been surmounted.

As you know, I have just passed the Intermediate Bachelor of Commerce Examination. Next year, I shall sit for the final https://t.co/lCGy4KA4d6. But a degree is not my goal. I detest the thought of being a government or mercantile employee. Opportunities exist for me to secure a suitable, well-paid post under government or a mercantile house. Yet, once I become such an employee, my career as a politician and journalist ends. I have resolved that, under no circumstances, will I take up such employment.

I am now thirty-four. After careful thought, I have concluded that if I could raise a loan, free of interest, sufficient to cover expenses, I should go to England this year. Within three years, I should qualify as a Barrister-at-Law and also obtain, with Honours, the LL.B Degree of the University of London. These degrees, apart from giving me standing as a solicitor and advocate, will fortify me immensely as a politician and journalist.

But where on earth could I get the money? Who in Nigeria today could give £1,400 free of interest to help a fellow man? J. Henry Doherty, Esq., of illustrious memory — who did the like for many successful Nigerians — is no more. But after meticulous searching and weighing, I settled upon you.

I have no doubt that, out of the bounty with which Providence has blessed your grit and enterprise as a businessman, you can well afford to advance such a sum. Nor do I doubt that, as a young and progressive man, you would be happy to fund a project so aligned with national uplift.

But then — could you take this risk?

That is the question. As I have said, I have no security for this loan. Moreover, I ask it free of interest. You stand to gain absolutely nothing in the whole transaction, except the satisfaction that by helping me achieve my ambition, you are indirectly — or even directly — helping Nigeria, or Africa itself.

The

[Archaeo - Histories @archeohistories]

The Saint Catherine Greek Orthodox Monastery at Mount Sinai in Egypt 🇪🇬 is indeed a remarkable and historic institution, holding an extraordinary record in both religious and cultural heritage. Established by Emperor Justinian I in 6th Century, (around 548 CE), the monastery has operated almost continuously for 1500 years, making it one of the oldest functioning monasteries in the world.

Since its founding by Emperor Justinian, the monastery has remained a center of Christian monasticism and worship. Its location at the foot of Mount Sinai, where Moses is said to have received the Ten Commandments, adds to its spiritual and historical importance. The monastery has survived various challenges over the centuries, including invasions, political changes, and conflicts in the region, maintaining its role as a place of devotion and learning.

The monastery houses one of the oldest and most significant libraries in the world, with a collection of ancient Christian manuscripts and texts that are invaluable to scholars. Its library contains thousands of rare texts, many of which are written in Greek, Syriac, and other early Christian languages. Among its treasures is the Codex Sinaiticus, one of oldest known manuscripts of the Christian Bible, dating back to 4th Century CE. This makes the monastery's library not only one of the oldest but also one of the most important for understanding early Christian theology and scripture.

The monastery holds a remarkable collection of early Christian icons and religious art, which are some of the oldest surviving examples of Christian iconography. These icons, some dating back to 6th Century, are of immense artistic and theological value, providing insight into the development of Christian visual culture during the Byzantine period. The monastery's art reflects the fusion of Byzantine traditions with local influences from Egypt and the broader Middle East.

Saint Catherine's Monastery is not only a living place of worship but also a UNESCO World Heritage site, recognized for its cultural and historical importance. Its significance as a pilgrimage site, particularly for those of the Eastern Orthodox faith, is profound. The monastery has been a symbol of Christian endurance in a region that has seen many shifts in power and religion over the centuries.

The monastery itself is an architectural marvel, with its well-preserved buildings, walls, and fortifications. It is one of the best-preserved examples of early Byzantine monastic architecture. The chapel of the burning bush (where Moses is said to have encountered God) is a key feature of the monastery and draws pilgrims from all over the world.

#archaeohistories