Aesculus

[ArchaeoHistories @histories_arch]

Two monarchs Tsar Nicholas II of Russia on the left and King George V of the United Kingdom on the right, looked almost identical because their mothers were sisters and both were grandsons of Queen Victoria...

This remarkable photograph was taken on August 4, 1909, at Barton Manor in Cowes on the Isle of Wight by Debenham & Son.

Their resemblance was no coincidence.

Both men were grandsons of Queen Victoria, while their mothers—Dagmar of Denmark, who became Empress Marie Feodorovna, and Alexandra of Denmark were sisters.

Beyond their family connection, Nicholas and George shared a close personal relationship. They were also rulers of two of Europe's most powerful empires during an increasingly turbulent period.

Nicholas II became Emperor of Russia in 1894.

George V succeeded to the British throne in 1910.

Yet within just a few years, the world around them would change dramatically.

The First World War, revolution and political upheaval would bring down the Russian monarchy.

After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the British government considered offering the Romanov family refuge in Britain. The proposal was ultimately withdrawn, with George V's role in that decision remaining a subject of historical debate.

In July 1918, Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their five children and several members of their household were executed by the Bolsheviks.

The two cousins who had once stood together as young monarchs would end up on completely different paths.

One remained King of Britain.

The other became the last Emperor of Russia.

And this photograph preserves a moment when neither man could have known how dramatically the next decade would transform their world.

#archaeohistories

[Humans of Judaism @HumansOfJudaism]

This year, Leonard Cohen’s birthday falls on Yom Kippur. Cohen was born in Montreal on September 21, 1934. By 1973, Cohen was a poet, songwriter and international star. 🧵

[Aesculus @Florint04]

@HistorylandHQ While the rest of the Russian population starved, were 75% illiterate, he encouraged pogroms against Jews, shot cats for fun, played tennis with his British royal cousins, and had not a care in the world.

[Aesculus @Florint04]

❤️🫡

[Black Journals @blackJournals01]

American military police tried to impose a colour bar on an English village in 1943.

The village's three pubs responded by putting up signs reading: BLACK TROOPS ONLY. Bamber Bridge, Lancashire.

Black American soldiers were stationed there and the locals liked them. When the US Army asked the village to segregate its pubs, the publicans complied in the most English way available — by barring the white Americans instead.

On the night of 24 June 1943, white American MPs came to arrest a Black soldier at Ye Olde Hob Inn for a uniform infraction. British civilians and British soldiers in the pub intervened and told them to leave him alone.

It escalated into a night of shooting between Black GIs and American MPs. One Black soldier, William Crossland, was killed.

Dozens were court-martialed. British witnesses testified about the MPs' conduct, and sentences were reduced. The US Army quietly reorganised how MPs were deployed in the area.

An English village looked at American segregation, understood it immediately, and refused to host it.
The pub is still there. The sign is part of local legend.

[Aesculus @Florint04]

@TipOfTheBanana How is this poison even legal? 🫥

[Aesculus @Florint04]

@creepydotorg Not evil, but extremely crazy. Should stay in a mental hospital forever, like Andrea Yates.

[Aesculus @Florint04]

😂😂😂

[That Guy With The French Accent @BenoistPoire]

Dude… 😆

[Aesculus @Florint04]

@maxjazzz 😢😢😢

[Макс "такс такс" Джаз @maxjazzz]

Жили-были, варили кашу, закрывали на зиму банки.
Как и все, становились старше. На балконе хранили санки,
под кроватью коробки с пылью и звездой с новогодней ёлки.
В общем, в принципе - не тужили. С расстановочкой жили, с толком.

Берегли на особый случай платье бархатное с разрезом,
два флакона духов от гуччи, фетра красного пол-отреза,
шесть красивых хрустальных рюмок и бутылку китайской водки.
А в одной из спортивных сумок надувную хранили лодку.

Время шло, выцветало платье, потихоньку желтели рюмки,
и в коробочке под кроватью угасала звезда от скуки.
Фетр моль потихоньку ела,
лодка сохла и рассыпалась.
И змея, заскучав без дела,
в водке медленно растворялась.
Санки ржавились и рыжели. Испарялся закрытый гуччи.
Жили, были, и постарели, и всё ждали особый случай.

Он пришёл, как всегда, внезапно.
Мыла окна, и поскользнулась.
В тот же день, он упал с инфарктом.
В этот дом они не вернулись.

Две хрустальные рюмки с водкой,
сверху хлеб, по квартире ветер.
Полным ходом идёт уборка,
убираются в доме дети.

На помойку уходят санки,
сумка с лодкой, дырявый фетр.
Платьем, вывернув наизнанку,
протирают за метром метр

подкроватные толщи пыли.
В куче с хламом - духи от гуччи.
Вот для этого жили-были.
Вот такой вот "особый случай".

[Aesculus @Florint04]

Wake up, America! All the checks and balances are crumbling before our eyes. 😢

[Aaron Rupar @atrupar]

Trump claimed he's "banning the free press" and added "we're repressive also" when asked about China's lack of press freedoms during bonkers Oval Office event where he struggled to stay awake, demanded kids get five vaccine shots instead of one, and rambled incoherently in response to basic questions

Here's a supercut:

[Lucythegreat @lucythegreat123]

It is ironic that as we move into our holiest day of Yom Kippur I am ruminating on the Christian prayer of St. Francis, but it has always spoken to me that it is better to understand than to be understood.

Bless those of you who see us, see our pain, see our love and devotion and love us through it. In the almost 3 years since October 7th it has become abundantly clear that this is only possible for the absolute best of humanity, which, if you are reading this with an open heart, you undoubtedly are.

For my own sanity, I need to pray to accept we will never be understood by most. The only thing that truly matters now is that the land of Israel is safe and secure, the Jewish people live on, and that not a single hostage living or dead remains in Gaza. That tangible reality is far more important than the spiritual support or love of the rest of the world. It has to be.

G'mar Chatimah Tovah, may you all be sealed in the Book of Life.

[Aesculus @Florint04]

@Podslyshano 😍👍 ❤️ It sounds perfect!

[Sesame Street @sesamestreet]

Your friends on Sesame Street wish you a meaningful Yom Kippur 💛

[The Insider @the_ins_ru]

Прямое включение с избирательных участков

[Dr. Jack Wheeler @DRJWheeler27045]

WHY HOUTHIS HAVE NO FUTURE

Virtually every Houthi man is like this guy whose picture I took in the main souk of Sanaa: a golf ball-size of qat bulging in his cheek. 90% of them are so addicted to chewing qat their military victories cannot last for much longer. Here’s why.

Qat (catha edulis) is a flowering plant with leaves containing the alkaloids cathine and cathinone, that when chewed wire you up like amphetamine with a sense of heightened alertness and mild euphoria. It is grown in the highlands of northern Yemen where the Houthi terrorist movement thrives.

Qat chewing has been a Yemeni tradition for centuries, but until recently, was confined to members of the upper class as a once-weekly-only ceremony. But for the last 20+ years, with Hezbollah and Mullah Iran money flooding in, qat became something every Houthi man could afford. Houthi farmers now make several times more money growing qat than cereal grains like sorghum, millet, and wheat, the primary staples of what Yeminis eat. So food production went off a cliff.

Qat use is no longer weekly, it’s daily for some 90% of Houthi men. Since qat-chewing is a primarily male activity, and men control the family’s income, lots of men make their daily purchase of qat before they buy food for their family. Overall, Houthi family income averages less than $900 a year, and more is spent of qat than food.

Little wonder that the UN IPC Index (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) warns that Yemen – and particularly the northern highlands – is in Phase 4 famine risk and could soon be in Phase 5 catastrophic risk.

The Houthi capital of Sanaa may be the first capital city in the world to die of thirst. Between 40 to 50% of available water in the northern highlands is now being used for the irrigation of qat trees which suck water out of the ground like giant straws. The Sanaa aquifer in particular is drying up as its extraction rate is currently 400% over the replenishment rate. Other aquifers or water basins such as Taiz are the same or worse.

Add to this the brain damage sustained daily qat use causes: hyper-anxiety and irritability, paranoia, hallucinations, manic behavior and induced psychosis. And the physical damage: heart palpitations, attacks, and strokes; gastritis, severe constipation, anorexia and other maladies.

Houthi fighters now overrunning Saudi and Southern Yemen forces cannot sustain their qat-induced ferocity for much longer. One quick way to accelerate their collapse would be fleets of crop dusters spraying herbicides to wipe out the Houthi qat fields. Or simply gasoline then set the fields on fire. Deprived of qat, the Ansar Allah Houthi militias would disintegrate.

The Saudis and Emiratis – who ban qat and do not have the qat problem – might consider this. Photo ©Jack Wheeler.

[That Guy With The French Accent @BenoistPoire]

Dude… 😆

[Aesculus @Florint04]

@Creator__247 😆😅😂

[Blake Flayton @blakeflayton]

An Ashkenazi hospital as opposed to a Sephardic hospital where they smoke in the waiting room and do the culululu when the baby comes out