mythologyandhistory

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 emperor, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, declared the Poles "NOIR" (black) after Haiti's independence. He had been inspired to the move by Haitian historian Louis Boisrond-Tonnerre, who had called the Poles "the white negroes of Europe". #history

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 * An alehouse, as the name suggests, sells ale - originally made by alewives.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 or mead, their purpose is rest. *In the later middle ages all establishments diversified. Alehouses became the precursor to pubs. Taverns started offering more options in both drink & food, & inns became hostels & motels markedly nicer than their earlier communal bedrooms. #history

@jackie@deadinsi.de Legend says, Ethiopia. Emphasis on 'legend', though.

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

@HGourlayUCL@mastodon.education 😔

@michael@westergaard.social Fair enough. Thanks for the polite explanation! 🌻

@weekend_editor@mathstodon.xyz Thank you for pointing this out!

@michael@westergaard.social I post about the Nobel prize this week, so this is what the story is about. Also, I'm a woman & would most decidedly not ignore another woman's achievements - if it was what this post was about. Thirdly, word limit.

@magsamond@mastodon.ie Don't get me started on AI & its bias ..

@dermotryanie@mastodon.ie Yes. He and Ryle also excluded her from their meetings on the topic 🙄 Not all male scientists of the time were assholes, though. A few criticised the decision.

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 excluded from the #Nobel Prize of #Physics.