Have you noticed every time you get on a plane, it’s more cramped, with more people in seats, and the aisles are getting narrower? It has been for past 50 years.

A look back at the history, conditions, airports, regulations, experience, and future of air (and space) travel.
🧵 In the early days of flight, airfare, like ocean liners was meant to be something enjoyable, not necessarily something for the extraordinarily wealthy but something that was to be an experience.

Sacked: A Completely Integrated Operation.

A dark journey into kingpins of the opioid crisis, the Sacklers, and their contribution to arts world, scientific research, high fashion, ritual practices, cosmos MagIC, and monopoly on marketing of life-altering drugs.

A Dendur🧵 This is the thirteenth installment of this Dendur Series.

If you're interested in reading more, here is the previous story, about OSS man turned Ambassador, turned Met President.. William Macomber.

Within that post is a link to the subsequent version, each post's second post.

https://twitter.com/massexpedition/status/1779931635661856875

Space Debris

The Debris Question is a timely, metastasizing issue, both in orbit and on Terra.. a blizzard of direct and second-order effects that can and will impact everyone and Earth.

🧵 on status, history, capital, layman's observations, Ballistic Missiles, and ways forward Kessler Effect

The first realization of the DQ can be traced to 1980s, when a NASA scientist, Donald J. Kessler, estimated proliferation of satellites and debris would exponential reach a climax and collision point

This theory has been proven, even beyond Kessler's predictions

https://twitter.com/longnow/status/1519141487568515072

Do you have the TIME?

Just looked through the past forty years of TIME.

Here are some of the greatest aesthetic, poignant, and prescient covers (chronologically), and some thoughts on refinement culture, psywar, creativity, and general aptitude decline.

⏳🧵 Be fruitful.

Computer Graphic generated covers in mid-80s really coming to fruition is a great starting point for this four-decade retrospective.

It is also always refreshing to see a TIME cover featuring making babies, rather than exterminating them, as in more recent years.

Final Destination: Tinian

The story of 'The Perfect Amphibious Operation', deception, sunk ships, and deployment of B-29 heavy bombers and nuclear warheads aboard a small Pacific island, and it's strategic value in the growing age of geopolitical conflict.

A 🏝🧵🥥 First, background.

Tinian (and Saipan) first sighted by Europeans, via 1521 Spanish expedition of Ferdinand Magellan.
Occupied in 1669, it was little more than a logistics stopping point for Spanish galleons en route to Mexico, and remained as such for the next three centuries.

https://twitter.com/0xalaric/status/1755086828405682528

Rare footage of J.D. "Joker" Vance and fellow recruits at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island receiving their Military Occupational Specialities.

All "joking" aside (this is scene from Full Metal Jacket), here is a thread of some real photos @JDVance1 took in the Corps.

🧵 Vance was, like Joker, a Combat Correspondent... leaving a legacy of images covering the life and times of the 2nd Marine Air Wing, a few images he shot and many articles he wrote are still available online.

I have selected a few to share with you here, along with their stories.

The enemy is not a computer. The enemy is human; other Battle Mech commanders, like you!

History of the first virtual sport: THE BATTLETECH CENTER

A look at the brainchild of a USMMA drop out with the right timing, tech, & pods, DARPA, Simulation History, AI, M&A, VR, & Net

🧵 King's Point, US Merchant Marine Academy, 1979—a group of midshipmen sat through a Naval Research demo of a new state-of-the-art $50MM ship's bridge pilot simulator, groundbreaking technology for 1979.

Jordan Weisman and L. Ross Babcock sat through the demo, and saw opportunity.

A story that changed my life, never gets old to revisit, and should be standard reading for every man, young and old.
Take five minutes and read this, you will not regret it.

IRON AND THE SOUL
by Henry Rollins
🧵 I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.

Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me “garbage can” and telling me I’d be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn’t run home crying, wondering why.

Technically Speaking: from Vedic Chariots to War Toyotas

Improvised, non-standard, and expeditiously modified light mobility tactical vehicles in battle across history; The Technical.

A thread.🧵 Since man invented wheel, we have been using it to find more effective ways to wage war.

Shortly afterwards, we fixed wheels to an axle andcart. Not long after, an animal train was yoked...

Naturally this lead to the development of a mobile projectile launching platform.
🐎⚙️

661 Blocks

The transporting, storing, and rebuilding of the Temple of Dendur, blockbuster tactics, an architectural megafirm, and dirty money.

A brief 🧵 on temple logistics. The previous installment of this series on Dendur explored the lobbying efforts of the world to save ancient Egyptian monuments, the gift of one of them to America, and the peculiar connections of it all to Jackie-O (QT).

This is a brief description of its Transatlantic voyage.

https://twitter.com/massexpedition/status/1749142182076768579

Deadlines, Dams, Drones, Detention Centers, the Derby, and a Debutante

How the Temple of Dendur ended up on the island of Manhattan, with a focus on Jacqueline Kennedy

A continuation of the Dendur series..
🧵 Previously we discussed damming of Nile at Aswan; not only a modern marvel of engineering but also a humanitarian crisis, due to large amounts of villages, antiquities, ruins, and cultural resources that would be lost underwater forever.

Now we discuss origins of their rescue..

https://twitter.com/massexpedition/status/1738402409678872707

Re-Imagining Sherwood

Pulling a memory out of the quiver to send a nostalgia arrow of the most underrated children's action figure playset of the 1991 Kenner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

A quest for max profits, cultural revision, and a glimpse inside a 90's toy aisle.
🏹
🧵 In 1991 a star-studded cast brought a new iteration to the beloved tale of Robin Hood to the silver screen.

The movie has sustained mixed critical reviews (absolute gem) and is still worth viewing

However, this is not about the film; this is about the toys.

2023 - 𝙼𝙰𝚂𝚂' 𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝙷𝚒𝚝𝚜

Cars, conflict, & chronicles

A 🧵of year's most well-received posts, with a few honorable mentions, thrown in

Mostly doing this for future reference, but also earnestly hope you find something you may enjoy reading/haven't seen, yet.. January:

"Social Imagineering" thought experiment and history revolving around concept of Disney replacing Franklin on the $100 bill
💵

https://twitter.com/massexpedition/status/1617653015812636672

Nile Be Dammed

Hydro-terraforming, the lost Labyrinth of Egypt, extreme engineering, Cold War Geopolitics, the Ziggurat of Ur, and the flooding of tens of thousands of years of history.

A thread about the Aswan Dams.🧵

Part of the #DendurNovember series. For thousands of years, man attempted to harness the Nile near Aswan

It's geographic location makes it not only a critical node on the renowned waterway, but a hub for holy sites and unparalleled structures from human history, and of course the Temple of Dendur.

Coptics and Spread of Christ in Rome

What inscriptions and the historical record suggests about Dendur, Coptic Christianity, Martyrs, the Nicene Creed, King Charles, ISIS and the Trinity

A slightly more theological 🧵for #DendurNovember series; still contextually significant. Resurrection of the Body

While different, the resurrection aspects of Isis/Osiris and other mystery cults vaguely resemble the fundamental element of Christianity..

It is noteworthy, then, that Dendur was a Coptic Christian Church for majority of first millennium, erecting crosses, and modifying the structure to suit the worship of Christ

"Civil War"

Why make this film? What is the story about? What is the underlying theme? Who are the "sides"?

A rough analysis of the recently released trailer.

What do you think?

https://twitter.com/A24/status/1734936219711394284

First of all, here is the trailer if you have not seen it. Much to unpack. Here are some things that stood out, to me while I sipped my coffee and contemplated

Two Pillars

Dendur, Freemasonry, 9/11, Architecture, Duality, Disneyland, and Judas Priest

A study of the symbolism of the history and architectural design of the temple of Dendur, focusing primarily on the two pillars of the entry way.

🧵🧵

When reading about Dendur, the texts describe approaching from Nile through a great pylon, or bekken, a gate called “the Luminous Mountain Horizon,” and represented in hieroglyphs as two mountain peaks between which the sun is seen rising

Lost to time was also a walled courtyard

Death Cults

Fire / Water + Ritual Sacrifice across time

In addition to more well-known deities, Temple of Dendur was dedicated to two brothers

The only dedication of its kind makes Dendur stand alone as an atypical monument in this regard

Who were they? And what did it mean? Divine Drowning

The brothers Pediese, “whom-goddess-Isis-gave” and Pahor, “The Horus/Falcon” drowned in Nile River

Little is mentioned of how they drowned, but drowning itself was considered a divine death.. the dead had been singled out by Hapy, god of Nile, to join his realm

Pax Romana

Contrary to intuition, The Temple of Dendur (and many other temples in Egypt) was actually a Roman Temple

Many overlook the breadth of the Roman Empire, spanning across and Egypt, Africa, and the known world for centuries

A contemplation on Roman and Ptolemaic Egypt ανταλλαγή

Prior to Roman occupation, Egypt also experienced significant cultural exchange from Alexander's conquest, founding of Alexandria, and subsequent establishment of the Greco-Ptolemaic empire in 330's BC

Alexandria was intended to be link between Greece and Nile valley

Nile South, and Below Dunes

By the nineteenth century, any areas near Memphis and Giza had been well documented. Extremity, prospect of uncovering wondrous ruins & wild riches, and fame beckoned many South, into Nubia.

These travelers up the Nile navigated several cataracts: This will be a journey South on the nineteenth century Nile, towards Aswan, as depicted by François Gau in his "Antiquités de la Nubie, ou, Monumens inédits des bords du Nil," and John Lews Burckhardt's 'Travels in Nubia' (Burckhardt is pictured, no picture available for Gau)

I find it incredibly fascinating that a year before embarking on this journey, Burckhardt was part of the expedition that uncovered the rock city of Petra, in the nearby Levant.

Obelisks & Jesuits

For the past two millennia, the sand swept dunes of the Nubian desert have beckoned archaeologists, Egyptologists, cartographers, and mystic adventurers to explore the far reaches of the Nile.

Buried under the sand lay undiscovered mysteries... While Heliopolis (now Cairo/Giza) has always been at the core of Egypt's prominence — especially after discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamen — Southern destinations of Nubia and Memphis were premiere destinations for those seeking to uncover the mysteries of Egypt.