1/ Russian warbloggers are mystified and angry at a recruitment advert for the Russian army posted on the Facebook-like social network VK. Unlike the usual ads, which show Russian soldiers as muscular supermen, it's attracting attention for being a lot more realistic. ⬇️
2/ Sergei Moskalkov, who spotted the advert, declares angrily:
"This isn't a fake, not a disinformation-like collage, but a genuine advertisement for contract service in the Russian Armed Forces.
This is a VK ad.
#fifthcolumn
#lawlessness"
3/ Lev Vershinin suggests a return to the classics:
"Since Sergei Moskalkov never lies and isn't particularly prone to jokes, I'll take it on faith."
Taiwan is more vulnerable now than before the summit began -- and more than in decades
America’s power is declining since the Iran war — and world leaders are adjusting fast
-- Iran humiliated Trump’s envoys
-- Merz openly spoke of U.S. weakness
-- Now Xi pressing harder on Taiwan
US alliances are fragmenting and rivals are taking full advantage
For 30 years, the post–Cold War order rested on one assumption:
the United States could ultimately dominate escalation anywhere on earth
The Iran war shattered that belief
Not because Iran defeated America militarily.
Because it survived, gaines power, and exposed limits of US power the world has not seen since Vietnam.
The new bomb damage assessments are a geopolitical earthquake
Satellite imagery shows more damage to US bases in Gulf than Washington admitted
Leaked intelligence says Iran retains vast missile/ drone capabilities despite six weeks of bombing.
I just launched a free tool that connects federal education datasets that have never been linked together visually before.
Every public school district in America. Spending, test scores, staffing, civil rights data, referendums — all in one place.
🧵
Education data in the US is scattered across a dozen federal agencies in incompatible formats.
Census F-33 for finances. NAEP for test scores. EdFacts for state assessments. CRDC for civil rights. CCD for staffing. IDEA for special ed.
No one has put them together — until now.
What's included:
• District finance from Census Bureau (per-pupil spending, revenue sources, property taxes)
• Demographics from ACS 2022 (income, poverty, home values)
• NAEP scores (math & reading, grades 4 & 8)
• EdFacts proficiency trends (2009-2021)
• Staffing from Common Core of Data
• Civil rights discipline, absenteeism, restraint data from CRDC
• Special education rates from IDEA
• School referendum election results (WI, CO, WA, MN, IN)
La alianza militar más letal y poderosa de la historia no la crearon temibles generales condecorados. Fue forjada por un diplomático que odiaba las armas y un país sin ejército. Así nació la OTAN. ira del hilo 🧵👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
Europa estaba reducida a escombros tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial y, mientras los aliados occidentales desmovilizaban a sus cansadas tropas y las enviaban a casa, la temible Unión Soviética de Stalin mantenía a millones de soldados armados.
¿Qué pasaría si el dictador soviético decidía seguir avanzando hacia el oeste? Las democracias europeas estaban en bancarrota absoluta y completamente indefensas. No tenían ninguna capacidad real para frenar una invasión comunista a gran escala.
Roger Froikin @rlefraim wrote, "THE SWASTIKA CANDIDATE
Graham Platner (U.S. Senate, Maine): A Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate who faced intense backlash in October 2025 after a photograph surfaced of a tattoo on his chest depicting the Totenkopf
1)
(a skull and crossbones emblem widely recognized as a Nazi symbol used by the SS). Platner—a Marine veteran—claimed he got the tattoo while drunk in Croatia in 2007, was unaware of its extremist associations, and later had the tattoo covered up.
2)
One might imagine that the people of Maine would want a Senator with a history of sober good judgment, yet here is a guy running for the office, wanting to be a US Senator for a minimum of 6 years, who got drunk and somehow unconsciously got a NAZI tattoo...
3)
Yes, what you are seeing here is a tiny unarmed observation plane with six bazookas strapped to its wings.
The pilot was a 32 year old history teacher from Illinois.
He destroyed at least six German tanks.
This is the story of Bazooka Charlie..🧵1/5
🧵 2/5
Charles M. Carpenter was born on August 29 1912 in Edgington, Illinois. He grew up in the small farming towns of the Mississippi River valley. He became a high school teacher in Moline, Illinois. He taught history. He coached the football team.
He was 30 years old when the United States entered World War II. He did not have to enlist. He had a stable career and a wife and a young daughter named Carol. He volunteered anyway.
The Army sent him to flight school. They saw his quiet steady personality and decided he had the temperament for one of the most dangerous jobs in the military. Observation pilot.
By the spring of 1944 he had been promoted to Major and assigned to the 4th Armored Division of General George Patton's Third Army. He was given a fabric covered Piper L-4H Grasshopper. The military version of the J-3 Cub. The aircraft weighed 1,220 pounds at gross weight. It cruised at 80 miles per hour. It had no armor. It had no weapons.
His job was to fly low and slow over the front line, find German positions, and call in artillery on them.
He decided that was not enough.
🧵 3/5
Carpenter painted his Piper Cub yellow with a black lightning bolt running down the fuselage. He named it Rosie the Rocketer in honor of the women who built American warplanes back home.
Then he started strapping bazookas to it.
He began with two M1 rocket launchers under the wing struts. He flew over the front line, dove on a German vehicle, and fired. The bazooka worked. He added two more. Then two more. He finally settled on six bazookas. Three under each wing, mounted just outboard of the jury struts. He later upgraded them to the newer M9 bazookas firing M6A3 HEAT rounds capable of penetrating nearly four inches of armor.
His aircraft became one of the most unusual improvised anti-tank platforms of the war.
The other pilots called him the Mad Major.
His routine was simple. He would find a German tank or armored vehicle from the air. He would corkscrew down to attack altitude. He would dive at the enemy and fire his bazookas one at a time or in volleys. He would climb away and circle back to a friendly airfield to reload.
He flew almost always alone. Any additional weight in the cockpit affected the Cub's already marginal performance.
He wrote home to his wife Elda in August 1944:
"Lately I have been taking quite a few chances but my luck has been marvelous. Yesterday I got a bullet hole through the wing and hit a church steeple with one wheel."
“Indeed, ruqyah (when it involves shirk), amulets, and at-tiwalah are shirk.”
Scholars explain it as:
Tawlah (التِّوَلَة) is a form of magic or forbidden practice used to create or increase love between people, such as between spouses, through unlawful means.
It was known in pre-Islamic times, where people would use charms, knots, talismans, and spells, believing they could influence hearts and emotions.
The US-China relationship is a zero-sum contest. Their meetings and negotiations do not change that — even after Xi and Trump’s summit in Beijing on May 14th, writes The Economist. 1/
Xi greeted Trump with a ceremony on Tiananmen Square, talks in the Great Hall of the People and an escorted tour of the Temple of Heaven — the first American president to visit it since 1975. 2/
Trump called Xi a “great leader” and said they would have “a fantastic future together.” The main goal: extend the year-long trade truce agreed in South Korea last October. At their peak, Trump’s tariffs on some Chinese goods reached 145%. 3/
If you thought “Ozempic face” was bad, wait till you hear what it’s doing inside the body.
A massive study involving 16 million people found GLP-1 users had a 9.09 times greater risk of pancreatitis, 4.22 times greater risk of bowel obstruction, and a 3.67 times greater risk of stomach paralysis.
And if you’ve ever had pancreatitis, it is “quite a painful experience.”
What you’re hearing on the news about Ozempic is still too little, too late.
Here’s the story you’re not getting about Ozempic, the business model behind it, and why a growing number of researchers believe another pharmaceutical disaster is already unfolding in real time. 🧵
In early 2023, JP Morgan hosted its annual healthcare conference—a private, invitation-only event it describes as “the industry’s biggest gathering.”
The keynote speakers included the chairman of JPMorgan Chase, the CEO of Eli Lilly, and several managing directors of major healthcare venture capital firms.
The fourth keynote was Dr. Robert Califf.
His day job at the time: Commissioner of Food and Drugs for the United States Food and Drug Administration.
Hmm…
This wasn’t a public health symposium. It wasn’t an academic conference.
It was specifically designed for large investors, and its explicit purpose was to set the pharmaceutical industry’s financial priorities for the year ahead.
A pharmaceutical safety advocate named Kim Witczak obtained what she could from the conference’s public-facing website.
1/ Ukraine is reportedly using large 'drone carrier' unmanned surface vessels (USVs), each carrying between six to eight FPV drones as well as themobaric rockets, to attack multiple targets on the strategic Kinburn Peninsula in Crimea. ⬇️
2/ The Russian Telegram channel 'Archangel of Special Forces' posts footage apparently taken by a Russian UAV of what it says is a Ukrainian USV off Kinburn. According to the channel, the Ukrainians have been launching an increasing number of attacks against Russian positions:
3/ "The footage shows one of two unmanned Ukrainian Armed Forces boats launched today from the Southern Bug River basin. The port of Mykolaiv was likely the launch site, given the size of the USV. The waters of the Southern Bug have not been used for a long time.
Los péptidos inyectables se han convertido en la nueva tendencia antienvejecimiento que está arrasando en algunas redes sociales y también en la industria de la belleza.
¿Son peligrosos o sólo embellecen a quién los usa?
PÉPTIDOS PELIGROSOS
Estos compuestos se promocionan en redes sociales como herramientas para la reparación de la piel , la producción de colágeno y el "rejuvenecimiento celular". Se pueden adquirir online, a pesar de que muchos péptidos no están regulados.
A principios de este año, tres personas en Estados Unidos fueron multadas por su participación en la administración de inyecciones de péptidos, en un festival antienvejecimiento en Las Vegas, dos mujeres que posteriormente enfermaron gravemente.
❝Today we saw first-hand one of the sites struck by Russia’s massive and brutal missile and drone strike on Ukraine over the last 2 days. 🇷🇺 launched a total of over 1400 drones & 50 missiles – perhaps the largest such attack over a 24-hour period since the war began. (1/4) ⤵️
We saw the remains of an apartment building in Kyiv hit by a Russian missile and reduced to rubble. At least 24 people, including children, were killed there, and at least 48 others were injured. (2/4) ⤵️
As many times as we’ve seen Russia's indiscriminate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure, it remains shocking each and every time. (3/4) ⤵️
This afternoon's session is predicted to begin at 2pm.
We are reporting from Day 5 of the Employment Tribunal case brought by Lorna Young against her former employer Manchester City Council.
Ms Young is gender critical and Catholic and was formerly Equality Team Manager at MCC. She was dismissed from this role due to her social media content.
1945, Britain declares a desire to end its mandate, due to its continuous bungling of the situation, and an understandable waning desire to remain in that particular region. The mandate was effectively turned over to the UN.
Western mandatory Palestine (remember Eastern mandatory Palestine is Jordan, another detrimental aspect of history purposefully hidden) was set to be partitioned into Jewish and Arab states on November 29, 1947, to go into effect with the expiration of the mandate May 14, 1948
Obviously, Arabs never approved of Jews having rights in or even existing in the region over centuries after their caliphate conquests, so clearly the idea of a self-governed Jewish state was a bit too much to handle.
1/ Well, I've skimmed Giggle v Tickle and my conclusion is that the judgment is firmly in the category of being "a bit bloody silly". It is not normal to have Judges using activist language, but this judgment talks about cisgender and sex assigned at birth and the rest of it....
2/ What this case shows is that once you put "gender identity" into legislation you make it unlawful for people not to believe everyone has magic gender souls. That is a pretty extreme outcome and it's clear the case Forstater would have failed in Australia.
3/ This is a frankly Orwellian position for the law to be in, here we have Judges ruling that everyone has a magic gender soul and drafting judgments on the basis such a contested fiction is a verifiable fact. That is extremely close to a religious blasphemy ruling.
All those politicians blabbering about eradicating Santhana Dharma; when challenged; provide an explanation that they spoke not of belief of a sect of people rather eradicating casteism in society!
To all those, be clear that Caste distinction is the spine of Sanathana Dharma.
+
Caste distinction as decreed by Sanathana Dharma is based on function - activities - duties - responsibilities; not birth.
In Sanathana Dharma, actions determined one's caste; not birth; which precisely is the reason that
+
Raja Kowsika, a Kshatriya by birth could become a Bhahmna by virtue - Brahmarishi Viswamitra, via actions.
Note, once set out to become a Brahmana, Kowsika cut off his entire roots with his Kshatriya identity.
Is it possible for those aspiring a presumably better caste today?
+
Hoy cumple años nuestro querido FC St. Pauli. Y como cada 15 de mayo, llega una nueva historia vinculada al mejor club del mundo. Esta vez: el origen de la calavera que se convirtió en símbolo oficial.
Destapá una birra 🍻, que esto va mucho más allá de los resultados ☠️🤎🧵
La historia de la calavera del FC St. Pauli no nació en una oficina ni como una estrategia de marketing. Arrancó desde la tribuna, el barrio y toda la movida alternativa que rodeaba al club en los años 80.
Aunque hoy parece imposible separar al St. Pauli de la calavera, durante gran parte del siglo XX el club se identificaba únicamente con su escudo tradicional. El famoso símbolo pirata todavía no existía dentro del universo marrón y blanco.