Now hiring: Garden Hermit

Compensation:
> If and only if the hermit fulfilled the terms of his contract, living in solitary contemplation without stepping foot outside of the estate for seven years, he would be rewarded with £500 to £700 (around $95,000 to $130,000 today).*

Was reminded of the role via the always-excellent, pro-labor history podcast for kids, “Forever Ago” (still interesting and listenable for adults, imo)

Episode title: "Jobs that don’t exist anymore"

https://www.brainson.org/episode/2024/12/04/jobs-that-dont-exist-anymore

* https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/ornamental-hermits-were-18th-century-englands-must-have-garden-accessory-180982469/

#parenting #history #BrainsOn #recommended #podcast

“When you consider the reduction in the capitol staff of most of the big dailies, who else will write and provide the sort of critical coverage that the Observer does if it disappears? So I really do see a more essential role now. And if there is a change, I think the Observer will have a place in bringing that change about.”
https://www.texasobserver.org/the-phones-are-still-ringing/

#journalism #history #politics #USpol #Texas #TXlege #news #nonprofit #media

Carved wooden pews with a figure of a dragon 🐉

📷 Zenit- E 🔎 Mir-1b 37mm
Film: #fppwolfman #35mm

England; October 2023

#believeinfilm #filmphotography #zenite #fppwolfman35 #blackandwhite #bw #photography #abandonedchurch #woodwork #dragon #myth #history

[em]In a 2014 lecture at Harvard Kennedy School on US foreign policy, then Vice President Joe Biden explained how US allies including #SaudiArabia, #UAE, #Qatar, and #Turkey - financed and armed terrorist groups Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra, and others to fight against the Assad government in Syria. Biden stated, "They were so determined to take down #Assad, and essentially have a proxy Sunni-Shia war, they poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of #weapons into anyone who fight against Assad." Biden adds, "The people who were being supplied were Al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda, and extremist elements of #Jihadists coming from other parts of the world."[/em]

Video available on telegram channel: t.me/newsvideofa/3040

#Syria #AlQaeda #AlNusra #ISIS #Israel #Terrorism #Sunni #Shia #GenocideJoe #USpol #Politics #History
@lebanon group @palestine group @israel group

https://t.me/newsvideofa/3040

#philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker signed a law making civil rights trailblazer Caroline LeCount the first Black woman to have a city street named after her. Better yet, the street had previously been named after Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Taney, the author of the Dred Scott decision in 1857. The city is currently renaming all of the streets named after him. #ushistory #Heroes #sheroes #civilrights #history https://www.phillytrib.com/news/local_news/philly-mayor-signs-into-law-making-caroline-lecount-first-black-woman-with-city-streets-in/article_ca1d0d8d-a119-535a-afd6-8c01774ed10f.html

How a Syrian Rebel Went From an American Jail to Seizing Aleppo

Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani boarded a bus in Damascus in March 2003, heading across the desert to Baghdad with fellow volunteers eager to repel the looming American invasion of Iraq.

When he returned home in 2011, after a five-year stint in an American-run prison camp in Iraq, it was as the emissary of Islamic State founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Jawlani arrived in Syria with bags full of cash, and a mission to take the extremist movement global.

Last week, 42-year-old Jawlani triumphantly entered Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city, as the leading commander of the Turkish-backed rebel force dominated by his group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Unexpected and swift, his victory marks one of the most dramatic moments in a Middle East that has had no shortage of drama.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/who-is-syrian-rebel-leader-hts-jawlani-9b157eff

https://archive.ph/ricb4

#Syria #Iraq #ISIS #Politics #History #Invasion #Hyppcrisy

#USpol #Biden #Israel #Turkey

@palestine group
@israel group
@lebanon group

"You can ask me questions later, but this is what makes me sad: the most probable outcome is what I call “soft fascism.”

By soft, I don’t mean Nazi-style fascism or outright extermination campaigns. Rather, what I mean is this: the best definition of fascism for me is a conservative revolution.

That means participating in the dynamic of capitalist development, while recognising that unrestrained capitalism and liberalism can lead to social disintegration. Intelligent fascists understood this. So, they envisioned an economy based on capitalism, but controlled by a strong state that legitimises itself by appealing to invented traditions—often religious, but not necessarily so.

Now, I may upset some of you, but do you know who serves as an example of this? China. I’ve been closely following what happens there. Two months ago, their leader gave a speech. He began with: “Our youth is not educated enough; we must train them ideologically.” I expected the usual rhetoric about reading more Marx or Mao.

But no. He emphasised Confucian traditions, saying they were essential for holding society together. Modi is doing something similar in India—brutal capitalism coupled with a narrative of tradition.

This, I think, is the most probable direction for much of the world.

History, I’m afraid, is not on our side."

https://slguardian.org/zizek-on-soft-fascism-ai-and-the-collapse-of-shame/#google_vignette

#SoftFascism #Capitalism #AI #History

#history #histodon #histodons #50s #Pic #pictures #picture #pics

#photos #photo #foto #fotograf #fotograph #fotos

#OnThisDay, 8 Dec 1972, Whetu Tirikātene-Sullivan is sworn in as Minister of Tourism in Aotearoa / New Zealand. She's the first Māori woman to be a Cabinet minister.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #NZHistory #Histodons

Cats that sailed on ships to catch rodents had passports signed with their paw prints, until the mid-20th century

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/comments/14pb1iq/cats_that_sailed_on_ships_until_the_mid20th/

#Cats #Caturday #History

"Oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represent the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge."

#OnThisDay, 7 Dec 1993, Toni Morrison gives her Nobel lecture, part of her acceptance of the Nobel prize in literature.

Watch her speech here: https://nobel-videocdn01.azureedge.net/video/lecture_1993_lit_morrison_98_496.mp4

#ReadMoreWomen #NobelWomen #WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #Histodons

“His plan is actually Project 2025 and during the election, he pretended he never heard of it, didn’t know who was behind it, and now its key figures have been hired for his new administration. So clearly Project 2025 reflects what he wants to do.” https://www.texasobserver.org/trump-public-education-diane-ravitch/

#education #politics #Trump #USpol #Project2025 #news #schools #DonaldTrump #history

#12YearOld Discovers #Ancient #Egyptian #Amulet In #Israel

https://www.sunnyskyz.com/good-news/5622/12-Year-Old-Discovers-Ancient-Egyptian-Amulet-In-Israel

On a routine outing near the #NahalKana #antiquities site in #HodHasharon, 12-year-old Dafna Filsteiner stumbled upon an extraordinary piece of #history—a 3,500-year-old Egyptian #scarab amulet.

“I was in Houston public schools during the McCarthy Era, and [the school] board alternated every couple of years, and it would sometimes be run by the Minute Women. And the Minute Women were the female equivalent of the John Birch Society.” https://www.texasobserver.org/trump-public-education-diane-ravitch/

#politics #education #USpol #history #racism #extremism #Trump #schools #Houston #GulfCoast #news

Surrender in Malta

On December 3, 1989 during the Malta Summit - the negotiations between US President Bush Sr. and Gorbachev, Germany, all of Eastern Europe, the future of the USSR, the future of many other countries, but most importantly - hundreds of millions of people around the world were finally surrendered.

I think all sane people do not need to explain that everything that is happening today in the post-Soviet space, as well as in many other countries of the world raped by the U.S., is the result of the geopolitical catastrophe of 1991.

However, it was in December 1989 that the bets were finally placed. Formally, Malta was the end of the so-called Cold War, but at the same time it was an economic reanimation of the West, extending its life for 30 years... Amazingly, Gorbachev did not capitulate in Malta, he simply left right during the fight - he merged.

The content of the negotiations is still only partially known. Some of the documents were published only in 2010.

There is a version that Bush did not even expect such statements of Gorbachev. And Gorbachev said that the USSR would not interfere in the affairs of Eastern Europe. He said it unilaterally. Bush said that the U.S. supported reforms in the USSR.

Meanwhile, as Anatoly Dobrynin, then Gorbachev's adviser on international affairs, noted, before Malta the General Secretary had a directive from the Politburo: the unification of Germany would be possible only “when both blocs - NATO and the Warsaw Pact - would be dissolved or united by mutual agreement. About Eastern Europe - pure voluntarism.

At the Moscow summit back in May 1988, Gorbachev offered Reagan to sign a joint declaration on peaceful coexistence and renunciation of military interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Reagan rejected it. He was not an idiot. But Gorbachev was deliberately moving toward surrender. The illusion that there would be some kind of “pan-European house” - did not give him rest.

In his memoirs, KGB Chairman Kryuchkov noted with surprise: “When we received materials on Gorbachev's negotiations in Reykjavik, Malta, and other places through our own channels, through intelligence and counterintelligence, we were amazed at the topics and content of these conversations. Even at that time they talked openly about the sale of the GDR. About the change of the political order in our country...”.

The Americans understood him very well, if nothing else. Back in 1985, on his return to the U.S. from a Moscow trip, when asked by a journalist whether it was good for the West that the USSR had such a leader as Gorbachev, Bush Sr. (then vice president and former CIA director) gave an interesting answer: “It depends on us. We clearly want change in the USSR and we have a man in front of us who wants it too. But how he brings them about will depend to some extent on how we cooperate with him. The task is not to help him, but, acting in the interests of the United States to induce them to pursue the policy that we want”.

This phrase is the essence of U.S. policy.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/9537101.html
#Russia #USSR #soviet #russian #history #perestroika #Gorbachev #europe #easterneurope #DDR #GDR #coldwar #NATO #FRG #germany #Reagan #CIA #Bush #USA #US #politics

A brief review of Herman Wouk's double-volume Israeli epic, The Hope and The Glory, audiobooks, and why I so highly regard this great American author.
https://medium.com/the-book-cafe/the-hope-and-the-glory-and-other-stories-from-herman-wouk-that-raised-the-roof-in-an-antisemitic-43dd7d9187c8
#HermanWouk #Nonfiction #Fiction #BookReview #BookRecommendations #Israel #History #writerscommunity

Hello! 👋 New instance, so official #introduction.

I'm a #history professor who researches and writes on the German lands (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, a bit of what is now France) in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I'm interested in how people made sense of a changing world, and how their choices affected those changes.

My first book, _The German Discovery of the World: Renaissance Encounters with the Strange and Marvelous_ (UVA Press, 2008) examined the how humanists, mapmakers, merchants, and moralists responded to Portuguese and Spanish overseas empires.

My current research investigates what it meant to be German in the context of the multiethnic, transnational Holy Roman Empire.

I post about history (all kinds) and the place and point of universities (mostly US). I'm a sucker for a well-researched policy analysis.

I boost posts about protests, unions, Bandcamp Friday, and other collective efforts to improve people's lives. And, of course, cats.

19. Before the theocracy of the twelve tribes of Israel, there was an agglomeration of independent Canaanite city-kingdoms, not a Palestinian state.
20. Actually, in this piece of land there has been everything, EXCEPT A PALESTINIAN STATE.

#Israel, #Palestine #October7, #October7thMassacre, #October7Massacre, #Arab, #Arabs, #IsraelPalestineConflict, #PalestineIsraelConflict, #History.

Here is a fascinating article about Orson Welles and HG Wells meeting.

The broadcast is embedded (YT link).

/2

#random #history #TIL

https://www.openculture.com/2013/02/orson_welles_meets_hg_wells_in_1940_the_legends_discuss_iwar_of_the_worldsi_icitizen_kanei_and_wwii.html

When Orson Welles dramatized The War of the Worlds in a 1938 radio broadcast, many American listeners thought there was a real alien invasion emergency.

Panic ensued.

#random #history #TIL

https://www.history.com/news/inside-the-war-of-the-worlds-broadcast

The Observer's 70th anniversary celebration on Tuesday night was really something special, y'all. 🤠

It was a great turnout that included multiple generations of those who devoted big parts of their lives to making this magazine, and this community, possible. Our deepest thanks to all. 🎉

#Texas #journalism #nonprofit #history

“Nothing’s more important than stopping fascism, because fascism will stop us all.” — Fred Hampton

On December 4, 1969—21 year old Fred Hampton was assassinated by the FBI and Chicago PD as part of COINTELPRO. FBI head J. Edgar Hoover was intent on wiping out all “charismatic black leaders.”

The struggle for justice continues.

#fredhampton #history

"We don’t think you fight fire with fire best; we think you fight fire with water best. We’re going to fight racism not with racism, but we’re going to fight with solidarity. We say we’re not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we’re going to fight it with socialism." - Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton was killed by Chicago Police on this day in 1969. The world needs more Fred Hamptons.

#history #socialism #BlackPanthers #solidarity #racism #ACAB

At the end of his Apollo 14 moon exploration in 1971, Alan Shepard played golf in a lunar sand trap on the moon’s surface, in a world-famous demonstration of the moon’s low gravity. Upon his return to earth, Shepard’s first stop was Carlos’ barber shop. https://www.texasobserver.org/book-excerpt-moon-golf-ball/

#books #bookstodon #history #space #Texas #GulfCoast

It's a sad story.

A long battle pitting dedicated climate scientists on one side versus billionaire capitalists and neoliberal politicians on the other side.

Guess who won.

➡️ https://grist.org/economics/how-the-world-gave-up-on-1-5-degrees-overshoot/

And this is not Hollywood. There will be no "happy ending" to the story.

#Politics #History #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #Capitalism #BusinessAsUsual

Let's face it, 1.5 is dead. And unless a miracle happens, we'll shoot past 2 degrees in the next ten or fifteen years. After that, with climate feedbacks, tipping points, and cascading effects, 3 degrees of warming or even higher is probable by the end of this century.

That can mean only one thing. A collapse of our fragile, tenuous, global industrial civilization. It might happen gradually, it might happen suddenly, but it will happen and it will be catastrophic.

Our rulers know about this. And yet they've chosen to do nothing. Or, actually, they've chosen to go all in, pushing for increased consumption, stronger economic growth, and even more fossil fuel use — because it's incredibly profitable. 💵 💵 💵

So, what can you and I do?

Jem Bendell says our best choice is to accept what is happening to our world, embrace the collapse, and turn our efforts toward what comes next. He says: "We’re going to collapse into community, and what we can play for is what we find there when it’s all we have."

➡️ https://archive.ph/gOMp6

#History #Economics #Science #Environment #Climate #ClimateChange

#Blog KW49: Wie schlugen sich die gesamtstudentische #Aufarbeitung des #NS und der #Reformgeist von „1968“ in Tübinger #Verbindungen nieder? Zwei Beiträge und ein #Ausstellungsplakat bieten Einblicke. Teil 1 – Luginsland:

▶️ https://www.historischer-augenblick.de/ns-diskurse-verbindungen/

#Tübingen #Projekt #histodons #history #Geschichte #lokal #Historiker #Studierende

Turn your eyes to the East this Advent! As The Church of the Nativity is one of the oldest working churches in existence today.

The first Church was built by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD, over the grotto where Mary gave birth to Jesus.

Constantine and his mother, Helena, built a magnificent and majestic church adorned with beautiful marble and mosaics.

https://youtu.be/Y5RuEbgj9zM

#christmas #uk #usa #history #advent #news #media #education #europe #art

REQUEST

Good book on the successes, challenges of the Chilean student uprisings, 2011-13 +/- 2019-20.

Anyone got anything?

Its only one of the most successful modern sustained civil disobedience movements, yet i can't find shit about it.

But i can find over a thousand books on Allende's downfall.

#books #bookstodon #history

Some context for last boost (https://bird.makeup/users/whyyoutouzhele/statuses/1863983048867586453), which says

韩国电影《首尔之春》冲上微博文娱热搜榜第一。
The Korean film "Seoul Spring" has risen to the number one spot in Weibo's Entertainment Trending Topics.

The film "Seoul Spring" has the English title "12.12: The Day". It is about the military coup in South Korea which took place on December 12, 1979, led by Chun Doo Hwan. It was followed by another coup on May 17, 1980. This was followed by the Gwangju pro-democracy student protests and Gwangju Massacre in May 1980. This was the start of the establishment of Chun Doo Hwan's military dictatorship (not to be confused with the previous Park Chung Hee military dictatorship). The term Seoul Spring refers to this time period: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seoul_Spring

All of this happened within living memory for many South Koreans. People in their 50s and 60s now were students at the time of the Gwangju Massacre. These events are covered extensively in South Korean popular culture as well, such as the "Seoul Spring" / "12.12: The Day" film, which is one of the most popular films in South Korean film history. The director Kim Sung Soo himself was a student at that time, too:

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/korea-oscars-12-12-the-day-director-interview-1236208671/

“That night left a very clear memory. I was getting ready to apply for colleges that winter night when I saw in my own neighborhood an armored military vehicle passing down the street,” Kim tells Variety. “I climbed to the rooftop of my friend’s house and watched the shootout happen for next 30 minutes. I remember listening to the sound of the gunshots running through the night sky. I could not shake the question of why this was happening in my town, in my neighborhood.”

This trending post is on the Chinese social media platform, Weibo, and the screenshot was posted by the overseas dissident "Teacher Li is Not Your Teacher" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teacher_Li_Is_Not_Your_Teacher). His Twitter account has become a de facto hub for distributing uncensored information and news from China over the past few years. For an idea of real social issues in China now, I encourage following his account (replicated at @whyyoutouzhele here on the Fediverse). The posts are all in Chinese but Google Translate is pretty good for getting an idea. Note that there will be disturbing content (for example, images and videos of the random knife / car attacks that have been happening in China recently, such as the attacks in Zhuhai on November 11, 2024).

There are of course many sensitive political events that happened in China in the 1980s as well, the most significant of which is the June 4, 1989 Massacre at Tiananmen Square. That is part of why it is significant that a film about military repression of pro-democracy movements is trending on Weibo, and why Teacher Li is posting about it.

#korea #southkorea #rok #china #prc #history

Ok but a 3rd party has never won an election because Republicans "get in line" behind a candidate.

#Democrats can't ignore racist voters. You have to fool them enough to get their votes.

#Biden understood this #truth about the #UnitedStates electorate.

It's THE REASON Biden has won the most elections of any candidates in modern #history.

“I was elected by the women of Ireland, who instead of rocking the cradle, rocked the system.”

#OnThisDay, 3 Dec 1990, Mary Robinson was inaugurated as the first woman to be President of the Republic of Ireland.

"In a society where the rights and potential of women are constrained, no man can be truly free. He may have power, but he will not have freedom."

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomensHistory #IrishHistory #Histodons

Brave Israeli Historian Lectures Netanyahu on the formation of Israel - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtFSbhhvD0s

#IlanPappè
#Palestine #Israel #History
@palestine

Burning Cedars: Lebanon's Perpetual Crisis

#Anarchy #Anarchism #Socialist #Socialism #Lebanon #Palestine #Hezbollah #History #Politics #Economics #Philosophy

https://youtu.be/7kHPPdryb9g?si=lNmUxYEPremEBWt5

"Today, Bauer’s work is immediately relevant to our thinking on multiculturalism, of which it can be seen as a precursor. To be clear, Bauer’s central argument is to reject any essentialist principle in the conceptualization of the national question. For Bauer, we cannot think of modern nations in terms of “metaphysical theories” (such as notions of national spiritualism) or “voluntaristic theories” (as in Ernest Renan’s theory of the nation as a “daily plebiscite”). National identities are not “naturally given” and invariable but are rather culturally changeable.

However, Bauer’s approach to the nation-state is very different from the dominant liberal one today. In the liberal nation-state, it is the cultural practice of the dominant national group that prevails. Multiculturalism is thus always limited by this hegemony and multicultural states cannot easily be constructed. Any commitment to cultural pluralism can amount to little more than a token commitment to diversity within overwhelmingly assimilationist structures.

Bauer criticized the attitude of the early 1900s “German Austrian” workers’ movement as a “naïve cosmopolitanism” which rejected national struggles as diversionary and advocated a humanistic world citizenship as its alternative. There were clear echoes of this attitude in the promotion of “global cosmopolitanism” during the early 2000s. In that sense, we very much need a Bauer 2.0 to move beyond such naïve and complacent indifference to the national question today.

Bauer fundamentally disagreed with the idea that the national movements were simply an obstacle for the class struggle and that internationalism was the only way forward. He was convinced that it was only the working class that could create the conditions for the development of a nation, proclaiming that “the international struggle is the means that we must use to realize our national ideal.”"

https://jacobin.com/2023/11/otto-bauer-austro-marxism-nationalism-theory-history

#Nationalism #History #Marxism #Multiculturalism #Socialism

Hoard of Roman coins found during building work in Worcestershire #uk 🇬🇧

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gxnjq3ye0o

@histodons @archaeodons @historikerinnen @antiquidons #numismatics #EconomicHistory #geschichte #histodons #history #histoire #archaeology #heritage #Archaeologie #archaeodons #Altertumswissenschaften #RomanArchaeology #RomanEmpire
#antiquity #AncientHistory #antike

📷 Old Hammam, Lebanon

This Old Hamma was built around the middle of the 14th century, but fell out of use in the 1970s after the Lebanese Civil War broke out.

Read more: www.obsidianurbexphotography.com/leisure/old-hammam-lebanon/

#Photography #Urbex #UrbanExploration #AbandonedPlaces #Lebanon #History