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[James Lucas @JamesLucasIT]

Try to name one leader alive today who would do this.

In 325 BC, in the middle of a desert that was killing his army, Alexander the Great was handed the only water his men had found for miles.

He had brought them there himself. Coming home from India there were safer roads, but he chose the Gedrosian Desert, in what is now southern Iran and Pakistan. The Greek historian Arrian is clear that he knew what he was doing. He went that way because almost nobody had ever brought an army through it alive: legend said the queen Semiramis came out the other side with twenty men, and Cyrus the Great with seven.

Alexander wanted to beat them both.

The crossing took sixty days. Arrian writes that the suffering on that march was out of all proportion to anything his troops had endured in Asia. They moved at night, and men fell asleep where they collapsed. The sick were left at the roadside, because there was nobody to carry them and no time to stop.

Somewhere in the middle of it, a few soldiers went looking for water and found a tiny trickle in a gully. They scraped up what they could, tipped it into a helmet, and carried it back to their king...

Every man watching him was dying of thirst. So was he.

Alexander, with a word of thanks for the gift, took the helmet and, in full view of his troops, poured the water on the ground.

This is the moment that inspired this magnificent painting by the American artist Tom Lovell. There was not enough water for all of them, so he would not take what he could not give. And Arrian records what that did to an army of men who could barely stand:

"So extraordinary was the effect of this action that the water wasted by Alexander was as good as a drink for every man in the army."

They got up, and they marched.

We now live in an age of leaders who ask for sacrifices they would never dream of making themselves, who start wars their sons will never fight, who are always the first to be spared and the last to pay the price. Alexander was often ruthless and deeply flawed, yes, but he was a true leader and he knew that real power has never come from standing above your people, but from going thirsty beside them…

[Andrea Stroppa 🐺 Claudius Nero's Legion 🐺 @andst7]

Sul palco di SpaceX a Starbase dove Elon ha suonato virtualmente la campanella per la borsa c’era anche un italiano.

Uno di quelli che mi rende orgoglioso del mio paese. Bravo Mauro, uno dei più grandi ingegneri aerospaziali del secolo.

[Alex Bouaziz @Bouazizalex]

I guess that’s one way to create more jobs for Americans 🦅

[lacroiz @aderemi_haruna]

Hey photographer, this is how to find the best lightning ⛈️

[Bilim Dünyası @dunyasalbilim]

Basit ve güzel bir anlatımla " tüm çokgenlerin dış açılarının toplamının neden 360 derce olduğunun ispatı. Hiç bir çocuk bu şekilde anlatıldığında bunu unutmaz.

[Mambo Italiano @mamboitaliano__]

It was 1480, when 18,000 Ottoman Turks invaded Otranto in Puglia, Italy 🇮🇹, devastating it

800 young martyrs (male, over 15 years) refused to renounce Christianity and were beheaded

Today, their bones can still be seen in the beautiful Otranto Cathedral

[𝗖𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀 @Old_But_Gold50s]

🤦 It's probably every musician's worst nightmare: imagine yourself sitting on stage ready to play a concerto and the orchestra begins to perform a completely different piece...😮 That's exactly what happened to the great Maria João Pires in 1999 when she stepped in to replace another pianist on short notice. In a formidable tour de force performance, Pires changed course and miraculously didn't miss a beat of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 (and not No. 23 like she had been expecting!) alongside Riccardo Chailly and the Concertgebouworkest. 🤦

[ANTONIO @blusewillis2]

MTV ha ufficialmente chiuso i suoi canali musicali 24 ore su 24 ieri. Hanno terminato la loro ultima trasmissione con 'Video killed the radio star' dei The Buggles, il primissimo video trasmesso da MTV il 1° agosto 1981.

[Mira Murati @miramurati]

Consider joining us https://t.co/WzNNHtd3Oa

[Cornbread Mafioso 🖕🏾 @Soulful1865]

Charlie Kirk slick tactics dont work against intellectual college kids at Cambridge. SHUT DOWN again, and with laws of the Bible.

[anarchy.build @anarchy_build]

This former Google exec just came out with a cruel prediction:

"Unless you're in the top 0.1%, you're a peasant. There is no middle class."

He says AI will make this reality by 2027.

And his reasoning will keep you up at night...

Here's what he told Steven Bartlett: 🧵

[Giulio Cavalli @giuliocavalli]

Entri al supermercato e ogni etichetta è un promemoria di sconfitta. Le pesche sfiorano i 5 euro al chilo, l’olio d’oliva viaggia verso i 10, il prosciutto crudo può costare più di una visita specialistica. In quattro anni, il carrello della spesa è aumentato del 27%. Ma non è inflazione: è un cambio di status. Non sei più un cittadino che compra: sei un povero che fa la spesa.

L’Istat misura, i governi rassicurano, le famiglie resistono. L’indice dei prezzi alimentari, dal luglio 2021 a oggi, è passato da 105 a 134. Alcuni prodotti di base – burro, patate, riso – hanno raddoppiato il loro prezzo. In compenso i salari reali in Italia sono crollati del 7,5%, peggior dato OCSE. Con 30 euro oggi compri quello che nel 2021 pagavi poco più di 23. Il carrello è sempre più leggero, le borse sempre più vuote, i conti sempre più rossi.

Nel frattempo, mentre i bonus una tantum vengono sventolati come miracoli e le accise restano intatte, il costo di casa, elettricità e gas è salito del 32%. I pacchetti vacanza nazionali segnano +74%, i voli interni +208%. E il dato forse più sincero arriva dalle vendite: crescono in valore, calano in volume. Si spende di più, si mangia di meno.

Eppure nessuno ha il coraggio di pronunciare la parola giusta: emergenza. Non energetica, non climatica. Sociale. La fame non è un problema da Terzo Mondo, è diventata una questione logistica in una delle prime potenze industriali d’Europa. Ma, nell’agenda politica, la priorità resta la crociata contro le merendine etniche a scuola.

Buon lunedì.

(il mio #buongiorno per @Left_rivista)
https://t.co/T5U3NE7Dmj

[Economia X Finanza @EconXFin]

Piero Angela spiega le pensioni.
Mostratelo al boomer che dice che la sua pensione è pagata dai contributi che ha pagato durante la sua vita lavorativa.

[Harvard Business Review @HarvardBiz]

“We want to think, write, and strategize, but because these functions require deep thinking and uninterrupted time, we stay busy with the tasks, meetings, and messages that pop up all day long rather than tackling really important projects.” https://t.co/mVSY3lJXJr

[Parker Conrad @parkerconrad]

Rippling’s amended complaint filed today alleges Deel’s founder @Bouazizalex operated a criminal syndicate that stole trade secrets from at least three other companies besides Rippling. News reports say one of them referred Deel’s conduct to U.S. law enforcement.

[Genio78 @Zziagenio78]

Sarebbe stupendo scegliere il Papa col programma 4 CARDINALI, Alessandro Borghese alla scoperta dei migliori cardinali under 80 per vincere il titolo di miglior Papa del Vaticano.
Ma non arriva mai l'annuncio con la fumata perché Borghese rompe il cazzo sulla cappa che è sporca

[Ryan Els @RyanEls4]

Coping mechanisms for various programming languages 😁👇🏻

[memes.xlsx @ExcelHumor]

switching back to Excel after using Google Sheets

[memes.xlsx @ExcelHumor]

“no need for excel, our software does it all”

[Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson]

I’m howling 🤣