Melanie

Knitting, drinking tea and cycling.

[Mr PitBull Stories @MrPitbull07]

In 1943, an American pilot crashed into one of the most dangerous jungles in the world.

For 31 days, Fred Hargesheimer wandered alone through the rainforests of New Britain after his plane was shot down over Japanese-controlled territory during World War II.

He was starving.
Delirious.
Barely alive.

He survived on roots and stream water while hiding from Japanese patrols searching the island.

By the time voices finally emerged from the jungle, Fred thought he had been found by enemy soldiers.

Instead, it was a group of Nakanai villagers.

They carried the exhausted American pilot back to their village and hid him from Japanese forces fully aware they could be executed for helping him.

The villagers protected him anyway.

Fred was so weak he could barely eat.

Then a nursing mother named Ida began feeding him her own breast milk for days to keep him alive while also caring for her infant son.

Fred never forgot her name.

Whenever Japanese patrols approached, villagers blew a hidden conch shell warning so Fred could escape into the jungle.

Children even followed behind him sweeping away his bootprints in the sand with palm-frond brooms to hide evidence he had been there.

If the Japanese had discovered him, the entire village could have been massacred.

Nobody betrayed him.

The children called him “Mastah Preddi.”

Master Freddie.

He lived among them for seven months before Allied forces finally rescued him by submarine in 1944.

But Fred never forgot the people who saved his life.

Especially Ida.
Especially the children with the tiny brooms.

Years later, one thought still haunted him:

“How could I ever repay them?”

So in 1960, he returned to New Britain.

As his boat approached the shore, villagers stood waiting for him and began singing the only English song they knew:

“God Save the Queen.”

Fred stepped onto the beach and cried.

After returning home to Minnesota, he began raising money through churches and local donations to help the village.

Over the following decades, he helped build:
• schools
• libraries
• a medical clinic

At one point, Fred and his wife even moved there for several years to teach children themselves.

In 2000, the Nakanai people officially named him a tribal chief and gave him the title:

“Suara Auru” Chief Warrior.

Then, at age 90, Fred made one final trip into the jungle to visit the wreckage of the plane that had crashed there in 1943.

Villagers carried the elderly pilot through the rainforest on their shoulders so he could see it one last time.

Fred Hargesheimer died in 2010 at age 94.

The schools and clinic he helped build still serve the community today.

When people asked why he spent nearly 70 years repaying strangers he could have simply forgotten after the war, Fred always gave the same answer:

“They saved my life. How could I ever repay it?”

So he spent the rest of his life trying.

[This Is My Glasgow @is_glasgow]

One of Scotland's more unusual memorials, which I came across on a hillwalking trip today. It's dedicated to Barry from Eastenders and is near the Rest and Be Thankful in the Arrochar Alps, about an hour's drive from Glasgow.

Cont./

#glasgow #memorial #scotland
#eastenders

[Maeve Halligan @MaeveHalligan]

"No, I don't subscribe to this 'kindness' - I'll tell the truth instead."

I spoke at the Cambridge Union last night about LGBs, children's safety and women's rights. Full video here:

[RedAlways @PATRIOT2117]

A man came home from work one evening and instantly knew something was very wrong.

All five kids were outside —
still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers scattered across the yard.

The front door was wide open.
His wife’s car door was open, too. No sign of the dog. Inside the house, the chaos continued.

The living room looked like a tornado hit it — a lamp knocked over, rug shoved against the wall,
toys and clothes everywhere, TV blasting cartoons.

In the kitchen…the sink was overflowing with dishes,
food spilled on the counters,
fridge door hanging open, dog food all over the floor, a broken glass under the table, and sand tracked in by the back door.

He rushed upstairs, stepping over toys and laundry, calling for his wife. Then he saw water seeping out from under the bathroom door.

Inside the bathroom, he saw —wet towels, toys everywhere,
toilet paper shredded across the floor, toothpaste smeared on the mirror and walls.

Panicking now, he ran to the bedroom. There he found his wife. Still in her pajamas. Curled up in bed. Calmly reading a novel.

She looked up, smiled, and asked, “How was your day?”

Stunned, he asked, “What on earth happened here today?”

She smiled again and answered, "You know how every day when you come home from work, you ask me what in the world do I do all day?"

"Yes," was his incredulous reply.

She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."

[Sama Hoole @SamaHoole]

A wool jumper, made in 1985, washed in cold water once a month, worn through three decades of British winters, would currently be sitting in someone's wardrobe doing fine.

A polyester fleece, made in 2026, machine-washed weekly, will start to lose its structural integrity within three to five years, shed an estimated 700,000 microfibres per wash into the water system, and end its life in landfill where it will persist for approximately 200 years.

The wool jumper:

- Came from a sheep
- Required grass and rain
- Will biodegrade entirely within three years of being buried
- Will keep you warm when wet
- Will not melt if exposed to a flame
- Will probably outlive you
- Cost £80 in 1985, which is £230 today, and represents the entire jumper budget for the next forty years

The polyester fleece:

- Came from an oil refinery in Texas
- Required hexane extraction, polymerisation and dyeing in three different factories on three different continents
- Will not biodegrade in any human timeframe
- Will get cold and clammy when wet
- Will melt against your skin if exposed to a flame
- Will be in landfill within five years
- Cost £40 in 2026, which means you'll buy ten of them across the next forty years for a total of £400, and the planet will still be eating the residue in the year 2226

But yes. The sheep is the problem.

The sheep, standing in a field in mid-Wales, growing a renewable fibre from grass and rain.

The sheep is the problem.

[Roy Rogers Happy Trails Music Shop  @RoyRogers_HTMS]

Even the flûte was like “bro… I didn’t know I could do this either” 😭🎵

This absolute legend took the plastic recorder we all suffered through in 6th grade and turned it into Dire Straits’ “Sultans of Swing.”

Zero shame. Maximum talent. The flute is now in therapy.

#SultansOfSwing

[Guardian Opinion @theguardianfeed]

The IOC’s decision to protect the female category is a victory for fairness | Tanya Aldred

https://t.co/rYctAPtt21

[Emma Hilton @FondOfBeetles]

Tanya is wonderful, and this is a miraculous article.

https://t.co/CPEVPWnCdc

[M.A. Rothman @MichaelARothman]

𝐍𝐎, 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀𝐈. 𝐈𝐓'𝐒 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐏𝐔𝐍𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.

I see it constantly now. Someone reads a post or an article and spots an em dash — that long horizontal line — and immediately declares it was written by AI. 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐬 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐚𝐬𝐡, 𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐆𝐏𝐓. You know who else uses em dashes? People who actually learned how English punctuation works.

I don't normally step on this particular soapbox — and I commit authorial malpractice by never trying to sell you my books — but I've authored over 30 of them. Many have been international bestsellers. Well over 𝟏,𝟎𝟎𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐬 in print, translated into 7+ languages, sold around the world. I am, amongst many other things, an actual author. So let me give you a quick education your grammar teachers apparently skipped.

The em dash — this thing right here — is one of the most versatile punctuation marks in the English language. It's called an "em dash" because in traditional typesetting, it was the width of the capital letter M in whatever typeface you were using. It serves three primary functions. First, it sets off a parenthetical statement within a sentence — like this one — when you want more emphasis than commas provide but less formality than parentheses. Second, it signals an abrupt break in thought or a dramatic pivot. Third, it introduces an explanation or amplification of what came before it. Writers have been using it for centuries. Emily Dickinson used em dashes so obsessively her manuscripts look like they were attacked by a horizontal line. Mark Twain used them constantly in dialogue. So did F. Scott Fitzgerald. None of them had access to ChatGPT.

Now for a bit of trivia most people never learn. There's also an 𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐚𝐬𝐡 — slightly shorter, the width of the letter N. The en dash has a narrower purpose: it connects ranges. Pages 12–44. The years 1941–1945. The New York–London flight. It's the dash between two things that are connected but distinct. Most people have never heard of it, and most fonts render it just barely shorter than an em dash, which is why almost nobody notices the difference.

Both have been part of formal typography since the invention of movable type in the 15th century. Gutenberg's typesetters used varying dash lengths to organize text. By the 18th century, printers had standardized the em and en dash as distinct glyphs with distinct grammatical functions. This isn't some modern AI invention — it's older than the United States.

And if you use Microsoft Word, they're trivially easy to type. An en dash is Ctrl + Minus on the numeric keypad. An em dash is Ctrl + Alt + Minus on the numeric keypad. Word also auto-converts two hyphens (--) into an em dash if you have autocorrect enabled. That's why you see me use them in my books and in my posts — because I know they exist and I know the keyboard shortcut.

The reason AI chatbots use em dashes frequently is because they were trained on well-written text — books, journalism, academic papers — written by people who knew the rules. The AI learned proper punctuation from proper writers. That doesn't make proper punctuation a sign of AI. It makes it a sign of 𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐲.

For the record, the only things I use AI for are conjuring up a quick graphic — like the image on this post — or as a shortcut for preliminary research. Think of it as a Google accelerator. The writing? That's all me. It has been for 30+ books and countless social media posts such as this one.

If you've reached the end of this post, you now know more about dashes than most people who graduated with an English degree. And the next time you see an em dash and your first instinct is to scream "AI" — maybe consider that what you're actually looking at is someone who paid attention in class. Or someone whose grammar teachers didn't fail them quite as badly as yours failed you.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐦 𝐝𝐚𝐬𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝟓𝟎𝟎 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐥𝐝. 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐛𝐥𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐬.

[Emma Hilton @FondOfBeetles]

I wholeheartedly welcome the new IOC guidelines that secure a safe and fair female category that excludes male athletes.

SRY screening is a simple, non-invasive, once-in-a-lifetime check that returns female sport to female athletes.

Laurel Hubbard should not have been allowed to lift weights against women.

Caster Semenya should not have been allowed to run against women.

Imane Khelif should not have been allowed to punch women in the face.

This is a vindication for all the brilliant women who have fought for fairness and safety for all women in sport.

Thank you to Kirsty Coventry, Jane Thornton and all those in the working group for a clear, evidence based policy.

@iocmedia

[Crazy Vibes @CrazyVibes_1]

In 1939, Britain realized it could starve in weeks if the ships stopped coming—so they handed 80,000 women pitchforks and told them to save the nation.

When war broke out, the math was brutal: Britain imported two-thirds of its food. With German U-boats hunting convoys across the Atlantic and men leaving farms for battlefields, the country faced a simple, terrifying truth—grow more food, or starve.

The government's answer? The Women's Land Army.

They came from everywhere. Shop girls from London. Office workers from Manchester. Teachers, secretaries, hairdressers—thousands of women who'd never touched a plough or milked a cow in their lives. They swapped heels for rubber boots, silk stockings for wool breeches, and city lights for muddy fields at dawn.

Their uniform was practical: green jumpers, brown breeches, thick socks, wide-brimmed felt hats. They called themselves "Land Girls," and farmers didn’t know what to make of them. Could city girls really do farm work? Could women handle heavy machinery, twelve-hour days, brutal winters?

The Land Girls answered with their backs, not their words.

They learned to plough frozen fields, their hands blistering around wooden handles. They milked cows at 4 a.m., mucked out stables, stacked hay, harvested wheat, picked potatoes, and repaired tractors when they broke down. Rain soaked them, frost numbed their fingers, exhaustion made them collapse into bed without washing the mud off.

It wasn’t glamorous. It was hard, dirty, lonely work.

They lived in drafty hostels and converted barns, far from home. Village locals were sometimes suspicious. Farmers who’d doubted them slowly, grudgingly, began to respect them. Among themselves, the Land Girls formed bonds that would last lifetimes—friendships forged in shared struggle, laughter over burnt porridge, pride in knowing they were keeping the country alive.

Under Lady Gertrude Denman, the Women's Land Army grew to over 80,000 strong by 1944. While U-boats sank merchant ships, these women made sure the nation could still eat. They planted. They harvested. They endured.

When the war ended, there were no victory parades, no medals, no veterans’ benefits. They returned to lives that no longer fit quite the same way. Many had discovered strength, independence, and capability they hadn’t known they possessed.

For decades, their story was barely told. But their legacy endured in every field they saved, every harvest they brought in, every life they sustained.

The Land Girls proved strength has nothing to do with gender, and patriotism isn’t only measured in battles fought. They didn’t carry guns. They fought with grit, determination, blistered hands, and refusal to let their country fall. Eighty thousand women kept a nation alive. Their service was quiet. Their impact was everything.

[Stellar @StellarArtoisGB]

Did you know 😏

He rubbed lemon juice on his face. Robbed two banks. Smiled at the cameras. Got caught in an hour. And changed psychology forever.

In 1995, McArthur Wheeler walked into two banks in Pittsburgh and robbed them with no mask, no disguise, and lemon juice on his face. He believed that because lemon juice works as invisible ink on paper, it would make his face invisible to cameras. He smiled directly into the security cameras. Police aired the footage on the evening news and arrested him within an hour.

When shown the tape, Wheeler stared at the screen and said, "But I wore the juice." He had tested the theory with a Polaroid selfie and didn't appear in the photo — because lemon juice got in his eyes and he aimed the camera at the ceiling.

His case inspired Cornell psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger to publish their 1999 paper defining the Dunning-Kruger Effect — the cognitive bias where people with low ability drastically overestimate their own competence.

[Cian McCarthy @arealmofwonder]

Please Repost 🌿

An influential Scottish literary magazine has removed their 'Book of the Month' review for Polly Clark's poetry collection Afterlife, and all simply due to the sensible views she holds on what a woman is.

Let's stand with her.

Support & Follow @MsPollyClark

[Dinah Brand🦖 🟥 🇨🇦 KPSS @dinahbrand2]

'Trans women' in women's prisons is an example of special treatment, not "equal treatment", of "trans people".
Men who say they're women have a choice of remaining in a men's prison or requesting to be moved to a women's prison.
Other men who are in danger in men's prisons don't have that choice.
Women don't get a choice at all.

[Steve Magness @stevemagness]

Alysa Liu just won Olympic gold.

She retired at 16. Was traumatized by the sport. Wouldn't go near an ice rink.

And just delivered a career-best on the biggest stage on earth. It's the most compelling comeback story in sports right now.

At 13, Liu was the youngest US national champion ever. At 16, she finished 6th at the Olympics.

She was a prodigy being told what to eat, what to wear, what music to skate to, and when to train. She lived in a dorm alone at the Olympic Training Center.

And she was miserable.

"The rink was my home for far too long... And I didn't have a choice,"

So she quit.

She'd lost something essential: the feeling that any of it was hers. She had no autonomy.

So she went the other direction. She went to Nepal. Trekked to Everest Base Camp. Got her driver's license. Dyed her hair. Attended college. She lived life.

As Liu put it: “Quitting was definitely, and still to this day, one of my best decisions ever.”

She built an identity that wasn't tied solely to the ice. She figured out who she was as a human being.

Then in early 2024, she went skiing and felt something she hadn't felt in two years: an adrenaline rush.

If skiing feels like this, what would skating feel like? She went to a public session. Landed a double axel and triple salchow on the spot.

Two weeks later, she was back, but this time on her own terms.

She came back because she wanted to.

"I choose to be here. I loved that I was able to come back and choose my own destiny."

That shift from external obligation to internal choice is the point.

A mountain of research tells us autonomy is one of the most powerful driver of sustained motivation.

Self-Determination Theory is one of the most established theories in psychology.

When people feel ownership over their pursuits, performance goes up, burnout goes down, and creativity skyrockets.

Her coach, Phillip DiGuglielmo, nailed it: "For many years she was dropped off at the rink. She was told what to do. Now she comes in, and it is all collaborative."

She picks her own music. Designs her own costumes. Controls her training load.

"No one's gonna starve me or tell me what I can and can't eat."

We often get performance wrong.

We think the path to greatness is more control, more structure, more sacrifice. We push young phenoms to "grind", to be disciplined...

Not realizing we're often extinguishing the flame that makes them great. It's what psychologist Ellen Winner found when studying prodigies.

They have the "rage to master," but over controlling environments suck the passion and joy out of them, snugging out that rage. Those who make it to adult staff have support, but their drive is more intrinsic than extrinsic.

Liu's career-best came AFTER she walked away, lived her life, and came back with agency.

Tonight she skated to Donna Summer's MacArthur Park with platinum blonde streaks, a lip piercing, and the biggest smile in the building. Career-best 226.79.

First American woman to win Olympic gold in figure skating in 24 years.

It was pure joy.

Her message to the camera: "That's what I'm f---ing talking about."

Everyone wants to know the secret to elite performance. It's not complicated.

Give people ownership.

Let them bring themselves to the performance, instead of squashing the joy and authenticity out of them.

Alysa Liu retired at 16 because skating wasn't hers anymore.

She won Olympic gold at 20 because it finally was.

Be yourself. Go all the way.

[Emma Hilton @FondOfBeetles]

In news that will surprise only the wilfully blind, Imane Khelif has admitted having the SRY “make male” gene.

In pursuit of their ideology, the International Olympic Committee not only allowed a male boxer into a ring with women, but also demanded we all STFU about it.

No.

[Le_Sorelle_Arduino KPSS @Sorelle_Arduino]

Calling all train companies, please spend your DEI budgets fixing things like this instead of covering your trains in progress flags…

[Roshana 🦴 @RoshanaMN]

@Heccles94 As a liberal & an Iranian, please just stop this rhetoric. You either stand with a nations desire for freedom & self governance and freedom from murderous oppression or you don’t

And if you do, stop making it about who you like or don’t like & just support Iranians. Full stop.

[James Blunt @JamesBlunt]

Hi @grok, I COMPLETELY authorise you to take, modify or edit ANY photo or video of mine, whether published in the past or the future… as long as you always include a Freddie Mercury style moustache and bright red lipstick.