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  One of the biggest hurdles in researching #history is being objective when it comes to #indigenous practices. How does one reconcile the #cruelty of collecting kambo (frog toxin used for as a ritual drug) with the #traditional aspect of the practice? Do I say neutrally: "Indigenous people of X collect Y to help with luck in hunting." and thereby omit the fact that this is a potentially questionable practice? Or do I write: "Y is collected through inducing a forced...

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  This is a very long shot (and has nothing to do with history & co :sadness: ), but does anyone know of a database/book/compehensive list, or someone who might know one, about crop responses to deficit irrigation? Also: accessible without academic affiliation. (sorry for the length of the hashtags) #help #horticulture #agriculture #sustainability #science #irrigation #aridagriculture #crops #plants #agronomy #drought #environment #botany #watermanagement #water #rhizosphere

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  Did you know that #antiwar novel Catch-22 is based (& would not have existed) on another #book? 40 years before #Catch22, another anti-war book was published: The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. In it, #Czech everyman Švejk (pronounced "sch-waik") hears about Franz Ferdinand's assassination & immediately understands that things are going to get real, and soon. The reality of regular people is that the #systemic powers will make them do what the...

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  Breathing in, breathing out. Sorry for the #cortisol rise... #britishmuseum #tech #billionaire #peterthiel #palantir #culture #bayeux... https://youtube.com/shorts/zn7EWple_7M?si=CYTjeVmMufSzAaMS #history #billionaires #corruption #BritishMuseum

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  "If anyone [...] eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood, and will cut that person off from the people." Leviticus 17:10 This was one of the bible verses that #JehovahsWitnesses have used until recently to justify forbidden #blood transfusions. They interpreted the verse to me that taking blood is not trusting god to save them. In September 2026, however, the #doctrine has been changed to now allow all but whole blood transfusions based on the be...

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  Since everyone is talking about #recession indicators, how would we define #poverty in the (high) #middleages? First, we need to consider what a person in, say, 1290 #England actually needed to live. 1) #Bread. How much? Enough for roughly ~4 people (assuming a smallholding here). 2) some clothes (basic, rough things for all 4 people) 3) some wood to fuel the hearth (assuming our smallholders use bought wood, not dung or peat). Now we put all of this in a #basket. If the #salary of the small...

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  Choo-tai was magnificent. Large eyes, a cute nose, a white chest & a light mane of a tail. The exceptional #Pekingese had won 'Best Champion' many a times! Her owner, Miss Violet Ashton Cross, had started exhibiting her in 1912, & she cleaned up the #prize table every time. It was at the prestigious Southhampton #Dog Show in 1913, when Miss Cross got an anonymous note. "Choo-tai will be poisoned". The #show preceded as planned. Choo-tai perfor...

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  Did you know that sudden #deaths in #Chinese villagers are still a #mystery? Since 1978, the Chinese Centre for the Prevenion & Control of Diseases has recorded ~ 400 cases of villagers in Yunnan province suddenly & mysteriously dying. Both children & adults have died, & almost always during the monsoon season at an elevation of 1800m - 2400m. There are 3 working theories for the Yunnan Sudden Death Syndrome: 1) Keshan disease - an illness caused by selenium de...

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  #quotes #history #fashion

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  I really should go to bed but I can't stop thinking about how weird #medieval #jousting is. Imagine if today, the richest & most #powerful would entertain us unwashed masses by potentially goring each other to #death (or getting crushed from a fall in heavy #armour)! Should we bring it back? ⚔️ #history

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  Did you know that #Poles were considered #black for a moment in time? After #Napoleon sent some 5200 poles to #Haiti in 1802, 4000 quickly died of yellow fever, but those remaining were enthralled by their 'enemy'. To the Poles, the Haitians fought for the same things they were missing: freedom from oppression. Consequently, some 500 would join the Haitians against the French forces. Feeling like they shared the burden of tyranny with those new Polish friends, the first Haitian empero...

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  Do you know the difference between a #medieval #inn, #tavern and #alehouse? * An alehouse, as the name suggests, sells ale - originally made by alewives. They're on private property & this is where common folk go. Cheese & bread are also available. A tavern on the other hand sells wine. Merchants & the gentry go here. The worst ones sell cheap wine. The best ones show you their barrels. Inns are for the wealthy. They accommodate travellers & while they may sell some ale o...

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  It's 1967 & she's 24 years old. It had taken her 3 months to go through the chart-recorder paper manually. She had helped build the radio #telescope that picked up the waves. There was a pulsating signal, regular; it turned out to be a #pulsar. Her supervisor didn't believe her. She insisted it's real. It was. But the press would ask her about boyfriends. Her male colleagues were asked about science. 7 years later, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell would be exc...

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  Did you know #coffee was, according to #legend, discovered by accident? In 850 CE, a #goat herder noticed that his goats liked to nibble on an unknown berry. Curious about their energetic behaviour, he tried the fruit himself. Elated, he brought the fruit to the #Islamic leader of his village, who declared it evil. The berries were thrown into a fire. The fruit emitted such a lovely smell that the religious leader added the fruit to water & drank it. Coffee quickly spread. #mythology