Ben Hays

I'll Keep My Eyes Fixed on the Sun/
Conservative 🇺🇲/Business Teacher at Dixie County High School

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

The unreinforced concrete dome of Rome's Pantheon - a miracle of ancient architecture that survived the fall of an empire. Nearly 2,000 years later, nobody has ever built a bigger one.

The mighty dome, built by the Emperor Hadrian between 119-128 AD, measures 142 feet in diameter - still the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built. Its most striking feature is a 27-foot wide oculus, completely open to the elements and acting as the building's only light source.

Many believe the oculus once functioned as a giant sundial. Every year at noon on 21 April, traditionally the birthday of Rome, the sun’s rays light up the entrance - the Emperor entering the building on such occasions would have been bathed in sunlight in dramatic fashion.

Most remarkable is the secret to the structure's longevity, itself a fascinating recent discovery. Roman concrete includes calcium carbonate lumps called "lime clasts" - these were previously thought to be the result of poorly mixed concrete, but are now understood to provide "self-healing" properties. Water seeping in through cracks in the concrete has been shown to dissolve the calcium carbonate, creating a solution which then recrystallizes to plug the gaps.

It also boasts several other architectural innovations. The coffered ceiling was intended to reduce the weight of the dome (as did the oculus itself), and the mix of concrete used was exceptionally light by design. It also decreases in density moving from bottom to top, making greater use of lighter volcanic material.

The result is one of ancient Rome's best preserved monuments that will likely stand for several more millennia. It inspired countless architectural feats over the ages since, notably Brunelleschi's dome of Florence Cathedral (1436), although that was built from brick - the ancient formula for concrete being long since forgotten.

It stands today as a testament to the ancient Romans' unparalleled mastery of engineering. It even won the resounding endorsement of Michelangelo, architect of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, for which he undoubtedly took cues from the Pantheon. Seeing it for the first time in the early 1500s, he called it "an angelic and not a human design".

[InAllKindsOfWeather.com @AllKindsWeather]

#1: “Jump Pass!” (2006)

With the LSU defense expecting a run, #Gators freshman QB Tim Tebow instead took the entire college football world by storm by leaping into the air and lifting a pass over the Tiger defense to an open @TateCasey84 for the score.

[FLORIDA @UF]

#GatorNation, thank you for making Florida one of the #BestColleges in America. 🐊 💪 5️⃣

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

They want your kids masked for 8 hours at school.

[FLORIDA @UF]

More record-setting @FloridaGators gold 🥇 from Caeleb Dressel at the #TokyoOlympics. 🐟

[Tim Pool @Timcast]

Trump should not run in 2024

DeSantis should

[Justin Lund @Jlund82]

Alright y’all I need some help!
@MichelobULTRA

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

Redditers are going to get reporters working for corporate media outlets to defend the hedge funds and they are going to get Biden and Dems to put a bail out for them in the next stimulus.

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

Let's gooooooo

[Robert Barnes @barnes_law]

Remember when they said executive orders were the sign of "dictatorship"?

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

"Call it an emergency and then he can do what he wants" seems to be uhh, saying the extremely quiet part out loud

[Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog]

Today I will be filing articles of impeachment against Ben Shapiro. He is charged with sullying the hallowed ground of Politico, and engaging in acts of general and unspecified meanness.

[Ben Hays @Benhays41]

Not defending any of these rioters, but leftists sure started defending police quickly when their political adversaries are rioting.

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

Yeah weird right.

[AG @AGHamilton29]

Two of the worst Dem Senate candidates I have ever seen running in a reddish state. Really takes some effort to lose to that.

Lucky for Democrats, Trump and crew were willing to put in the work.

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

Give it to me immediately.

[Ted Cruz @tedcruz]

Mike Rowe is exactly right.

If you want to get a degree in underwater basket weaving, fine. Your choice.

But we shouldn’t make truck drivers, waiters & waitresses pay for your personal journey of intellectual exploration.

[Stephen L. Miller @redsteeze]

They are to the people who own them and the employees who work there. Illustrating the point perfectly.

[Ben Hays @Benhays41]

Republicans don't understand hard work is an excellent take coming from the party of socialists and gender studies majors.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

Republicans like to make fun of the fact that I used to be a waitress, but we all know if they ever had to do a double they’d be the ones found crying in the walk-in fridge halfway through their first shift bc someone yelled at them for bringing seltzer when they wanted sparkling