Nuclear fusion at NIF!! Are you excited??
Well, you shouldn't.
😥⚛️A disappointing thread⚛️😥 First thing first: energy breakeven at NIF is amazing, of course.
*Scientifically*.
It might also lead to usable energy technology, *one day*.
But in the next, say, 20 years, could this help reducing emissions?
The answer is a flat no.

Our understanding of the past is fragmentary.
Most of *everything* is lost, and we're left with great, fascinating mysteries.
But today let's talk about a small, weird mystery.

🍆🪙A THREAD ABOUT ROMAN SEX TOKENS🪙🍆
(very mildly NSFW) (note: those in the pic above are modern replicas, since I couldn't find as good a picture of the originals, but they give you the right idea)

Nuclear physicist here: there's a lot to be worried about, but one thing you SHOULDN'T worry about, is Russia bombing Ukrainian nuclear power plants.
It's literally, physically impossible to make those explode. As for causing a meltdown, it's technically possible, but it's INCREDIBLY difficult, and in the very worst case... they'd cause waaaaaaaay more deaths just shelling a city, to be blunt.

A lot of people had a very naive understanding of Russia's actions in the last years, and were shocked at the invasion.
It's ok to change your mind - maybe be more wary about that kind of rethoric in the future, because Putin's always been a literal bloody dictator. That said - no, this was not a surprise, Putin was *even more ruthless and unjustified* in his intervention in Syria, it's just that media packaged that one VERY differently (and it started as a civil war, so international reaction was muddier).

Ravenna isn't famous abroad (it should be), but you might have read of its beautiful mosaics.
You know what's cool about those mosaics? Empires kept collapsing around them.
🪦👑A THREAD ABOUT RAVENNA, WHERE ROME ENDED TWICE, AND THE STORY OF ITS MOSAICS 👑🪦 The golden mosaics of Ravenna are from the fifth and sixth century - almost 1000 years before the italian Renaissance.
It was the end of the Western Roman Empire, and the beginning of what would later be called the Byzantine Empire.
Plus a nice gothic interlude.

So, the ancient world wasn't the pristine white hollywood likes to picture. They loved colors.
(incidentally, this thread is about ancient art\clothes, but the sentence works with people too)
But some colors WERE better than others.
💰🎨A THREAD ABOUT THE REALLY FANCY COLORS🎨💰 I already did a thread about red and yellow. It's not like you need it to enjoy this one, but in any case, link here:

https://twitter.com/MalvagioMarco/status/1358519196309741571

Hollywood taught us: the greek-roman world was all white marble.
The middle ages were muddy brown.
Colors were invented in the renaissance, then the XXth century was back to black and white.
🌈A THREAD ABOUT COLORS IN THE ACTUAL ANCIENT WORLD🎨 GUYS I WENT INTO LIKE A MONTH LONG RESEARCH RABBIT HOLE FOR THIS THREAD AND NOW I SEE DEBATES ABOUT HUES IN MY DREAMS.
(OKAY IT WAS SO LONG I SPLIT IT IN TWO)
CW: wow, for once I don't have to put some horrific CW. Except, uh, poison. SO MUCH poison.

Ok, holidays and coups are mostly over, so back to threads.
There was some recent talk about pompeii because they dug out some more of it.
🍆A TERRIBLE PERSON'S GUIDE TO POMPEII🏛️
Including, but not limited to, SO MANY STONE DICKS. Like, seriously: CW for *very old* porn.
Also, I will speak of the casts of dead bodies in pompeii. That can be disturbing.
(also, I've already posted some stuff on pompeii recently, but I'll repeat it because I'm deeply unoriginal, sorry)

Byzantium was a christian empire, and Christians Are Not Gay.
Therefore, their ritual union of two men in church to become lifelong companions was Not A Gay Thing.
🌈🌈A THREAD ABOUT THE TOTALLY-NOT-GAY-MARRIAGE IN THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE🌈🌈 So, let's say you're the emperor of Constantinople. As any good roman emperor, you're of course gay.
But, you're also pretty much a cross between a president and a pope.
So, very christian, and very public.
What do you do?

Italy's coronavirus response is a frankestein monster of wanting to keep up christmas spending at any human cost, refusing to enact impopular policies, and trying to blame the catastrophic handling of the pandemic on people "not following the rules". All at the same time. So the result is basically "you can work and go shopping but if you make eye contact with any human being in the process you'll be jailed forever"

Did too many serious-ish history post.
So...
TAG YOURSELF - ANCIENT ROMAN EMPERORS EDITION
(I'm 115% Julian) I WON'T FOLLOW UP EXPLAINING THE JOKES BUT I SO WANT TO

Due to the christian dominance in the West, the persecution of Christians in early Rome has a massive presence in popular imagination.
Time for an entirely unbiased thread about the roman persecution of early christians.
🔥✝️DIOCLETIAN DID NOTHING WRONG✝️🔥 (CW: violence, persecution, making fun of christianism)

Even if I post about history because that's the current obsession for my brain squirrels, I'm a nuclear physicist.
My field and roman history don't really overlap much.
Except sometimes.
⚛️A THREAD ABOUT ROMAN SHIPWRECKS AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS⚛️
(I'm science I swear it's legit) This story begins a real, real long time ago. About two minutes after the birth of the universe.
The newborn universe was cooling from "so hot numbers make no sense" to "Much hotter than you could ever understand".
So, cool enough for matter to form.
Pic: a helpful timeline.

When I hit 666 followers I promised a thread about the Devil.
That was kind of stupid, turns out it's a mess to research.
But well, Satan must have his due.
FUN FACTS ABOUT THE DEVIL (in Christianity) (fair warning: I really don't have much knowledge about religions. So I researched this but I'M EVEN LESS RELIABLE THAN USUAL. But well, if I wrote bullshit, I'll blame the devil for whispering it into my ear.
CW: I make a lot of fun of religions)

Something that happened recently and keeps bugging me, about sexims and videogaming.
Recently I was playing a silly co-op game with friends, one where you have to talk a lot.
We were down one member, so we left the slot open and a random player joined. They had a nickname that means "not speaking", and didn't join the conversation, so we assumed their mic was off (and said that aloud).
After about a minute she joined the conversation - she was a girl, sounding young-ish, and said she hadn't played much.

"Roman Emperor" seems as high a title as you can imagine in western history.
But even during the empire, for a long time there was no such thing as a roman emperor.
Or so the emperor would claim.
👑A THREAD ABOUT THE ROMAN ABSOLUTELY-NOT-EMPEROR.👑 Popular immagination: the roman emperor is a guy dressed in gold and purple on some throne that might or not be of human bones, ordering more christians fed to the lions and possibly strumming his lira while burning the city.

Since some people enjoy random fact about italian history, I'm starting a series of threads about venice, byzantium and other old stuff I like.
I'm starting with Venice, and specifically with the Doge. Buckle up for some #Dogeposting and #Italianhistory. So, let's talk about the Doge, aka the supposed ruler of the Republic of Venice, aka a man with a surprising sucky job, but a cool hat.
Here an entirely accurate portrait (1253, colorized).
2/19