People may be familiar with the incarceration of Japanese Americans in vast relocation camps during WWII. But, most are unaware that the U.S. government also detained thousands of Japanese, German and Italian immigrants living across Latin America — and their native-born spouses and children — and deported them to the U.S.

Their ultimate goal? To exchange them for U.S. citizens captured by enemy countries during the war.

and was curious what is was about, there was a prominent USA flag next to it.

Am Yisrael Chai (Hebrew: עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי, pronounced [am jisʁaˈʔel χaj]; lit. 'The People of Israel Live') is a slogan of solidarity among Jews. It is used to express strength and unity, typically in the face of adversity, but also in moments of peace and prosperity. To this end, it has historically featured in Jewish music, literature, art, and politics.

The phrase gained popular use as the solidarity anthem of the United States movement Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry in the 1960s and 1970s. According to The Forward, the slogan ranks second as an "anthem of the Jewish people" behind only Hatikvah, the national anthem of the State of Israel.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_Struggle_for_Soviet_Jewry

The Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, also known by its acronym SSSJ, was founded in 1964 by Jacob Birnbaum to be a spearhead of the U.S. movement for rights of the Jews in the Soviet Union, particularly their right to emigrate to Israel.

His parents were Russian socialists who fled the Tsarist regime. He lectured at Harvard at age 12 before graduating at 16. Then he was persecuted for being a socialist and anti-WW1 protestor, withdrew from public life, and died prematurely while working menial jobs to fund his independent research.

I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops

-Stephen Jay Gould

Carl Hagenbeck believed that animals should be housed in habitats that mimicked their natural environment. Earlier, he’d followed the same guiding philosophy when exhibiting Indigenous people in “human zoos”

At the turn of the 20th century, the great zoological gardens of Paris, London and New York City would have been hardly recognizable by today’s standards. Animals large and small—those that had evolved to sprint across plains and live half their lives submerged in water—were confined in rows of tiny, barren cages lined with metal bars. “They were often on their own and had nothing natural in their enclosures,” says Karen S. Emmerman, an expert on animal ethics at the University of Washington. At a time when it was difficult to keep exotic animals alive, let alone healthy, in such constrained conditions, giving the creatures freedom to roam outdoors was viewed as a death sentence.

But Carl Hagenbeck, a German animal trader and entertainment impresario, had a different vision of what zoos could be. These animals, he argued, should be able to engage in innate behaviors “in an environment which differed as little as possible from [their] own natural environment.” Ibexes needed mountains to climb. Lions needed grottos for bathing.

When Hagenbeck opened his Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg, Germany, in 1907, it was unlike any zoo seen before. Instead of small indoor cages, he “recreated the natural landscape of faraway places,” says Nigel Rothfels, a historian at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the author of Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo. Hagenbeck built “living habitats”: large outdoor enclosures with sturdy fake rocks and shallow artificial pools. He replaced cage bars with moats and dug deep pits that could be observed from above. He created the perception that the animals, while not exactly free, were living authentic lives that mirrored their experiences in the wild.

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Gutta Percha: The tree that shrunk the world

The little-known tree that revolutionised global communication forever.

In Singapore, 1842, Dr William Montgomerie was shown a strange latex by his gardener. This material, when placed in hot water, could be moulded to any shape you wanted, and, on cooling, would set solid. You could do this again, and again and it would happily mould to any shape desired. Unlike rubber, it didn’t crumble in salt water and stayed firm on setting.

This new wonder material was called Gutta Percha, after the tree that it came from, and it would blow Victorian minds.

We Germans are not the only ones in the sixth year of war. One may assume that the problems the war’s long duration have given us also affect the other combatant nations. Each warring nation is naturally eager to conceal this from the eyes of the enemy and present a façade that does not accurately reflect the true situation.

The war is having the same effects on all participating nations, but one can see those effects faster and more clearly in one’s own country than in the enemy’s. As we always say, the other side is no better than we are.

The German people loves the truth, indeed is fanatic about it. It therefore finds it hard to understand that in war everyone must play by the same rules to have a chance at success. Recently the U.S. military leadership admitted the loss of a 20,000-ton troop ship two years ago. That would not be possible with us.

The German people would not accept such silence on the part of its leadership. It wants to know exactly how things stand, sometimes forgetting that what is told to it is also told to the enemy. One can argue about which way in the long run is the most successful, but it is clear that our enemy knows how to stay silent better than we do, and that we as a result are inclined to think their situation is better than it in fact is.

As a result we must occasionally consider the war’s broad picture, not forgetting that it is likely that things are concealed from us by the enemy’s greater secretiveness. The fact that the enemy conceals his calamities from us does not mean they do not exist. They exist nonetheless and influence the overall state of the war, even if we do not know it.

The extent of total Soviet losses, which can be estimated at about 15 million, certainly has consequences for the Bolshevist military potential. If the Red Army continues to attack nonetheless, it does not mean that Soviet reserves are inexhaustible, but rather that the Kremlin is using everything it has to defeat us as quickly as possible in the hopes that it can carry out its planned extermination of the German people with what remains of its armed strength.

That is also true to a certain extent of the Western enemy. The resources of the military leadership grow steadily smaller because of the long duration of this gigantic war, and it is probably true that in the end the last regiment will decide the last battle.

The fact that we are still firmly on our feet and show not the least sign of collapse is sufficient proof that our enemies cannot do what they want, that they suffer from internal problems, and that they make such terrible threats only to keep us from noticing that.

In an article published on April 8, 1945, Goebbels once again suggested that the Allies were on the verge of collapse:

The general world crisis we experience is assuming ever more terrible forms, and not only for us, but also for the rest of Europe, and of course for the enemy states. As even English and American newspapers have to admit, well over half of our continent is starving.

Far-reaching political consequences result from that, which seem likely to throw the enemy camp into ever greater confusion. They have to win quickly if they are to win at all. That explains their so often repeated appeals on us to lay down our weapons and give up the battle.

But for us, that is only one more reason to ignore these cynical appeals so that the latent crisis they face, and that seems so dangerous to them, will reach its peak. It is naïve to believe that they can carry on the war as long as they want to, given their material superiority. Like us, they have strained their war potential to the utmost, and exhausted it.

Such a test of strength can only last for a certain while. It depends on who first loses his nerve and gives up. He will lose the war and bear all the fateful consequences.

(Emphasis added in all cases.)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Blake

Like how did you end up fighting in like 10 different revolutionary wars dude? How did you get any sleep?

I'm designing a garden bed for a pottery studio in a bird sanctuary. It's going to be a native plant pollinator garden based on year-round food supply for birds, but I wanted to take it up a notch and do something unique to incorporate pottery with horticulture. Garden pots were too obvious and the space is too moist for slow-release watering pots. Instead I'm going to try to work with the potters to make a dovecote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dovecote

Dovecotes are an awesome historical Eurasian/African permaculture technique. By providing a safe tower filled with nesting boxes, farmers could passively collect guano and meat throughout the year. We obviously wouldn't be eating the birds that roost there, but the guano would be used in surrounding beds and it would help to educate the public on alternative ways to use/fertilise their yards. I'd like to do a scaled down version of the Egyptian pigeon towers, maybe with some art nouveau detailing:

During the Soviet era, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania occupied a unique and often privileged position within the USSR. Functioning, in many respects, as a "showcase for socialism" aimed at the West, these republics received substantial investment and strategic attention that significantly stimulated their economic growth, advanced their infrastructure, and elevated their living standards well above the average Union level. While their contribution to the overall Soviet GDP and industrial output was proportionally modest, the benefits reaped from the concentrated development efforts were significant and enduring.

The economic landscape of the Baltic states underwent a dramatic transformation under Soviet rule, particularly through rapid industrialization. Lithuania, for instance, surpassed its pre-war industrial output by 90% just two years after reaching pre-war figures in 1948, bolstered by a non-repayable Soviet subsidy of 200 million rubles for reconstruction. Latvia witnessed the construction of 20 industrial enterprises within two decades of 1940, a figure exceeding the entire Baltic region's industrial growth in the year preceding being absorbed into USSR. Estonia's gross industrial output saw an astonishing 55-fold increase, accompanied by a 30-fold surge in capital investment.

Key industrial giants emerged, such as the large oil refinery in Mažeikiai, Lithuania, supplied by pipelines from Russia, and the significant development of oil shale deposits and peat extraction in the Estonian SSR, feeding vital industries in Kohtla-Järve and Kiviõli.

Furthermore, Latvia became renowned for its trademarks, with enterprises like VEF, a leading manufacturer of electronics and machinery, employing over 14,000 people and generating substantial annual profits, and RAF (Riga Autobus Factory) producing essential minibuses for the entire USSR. These industries boosted economic output and provided widespread employment, contributing directly to the well-being of the population.

Infrastructure development was another important aspect of Soviet investment in the Baltics. Strategically important seaports were developed, which continue to serve as key hubs for export and import trade today, further enhanced by the connection of oil pipelines in the 1970s and 1980s. The region boasted the highest quality roads in the USSR, with Lithuania benefiting from a 300-kilometer expressway considered the best in the Union, featuring modern overpasses and interchanges. Energy infrastructure saw significant expansion with the construction of major hydroelectric power plants (Pļaviņas, Kegums, Riga on the Daugava, Kaunas on the Nemunas) and thermal power plants (Baltic TPP, Estonian TPP, Lithuanian TPP). The laying of gas pipelines from other Soviet republics ensured a stable supply of natural gas, further underpinning industrial and domestic energy needs. The port of Klaipėda in Soviet Lithuania grew into one of Europe's largest fishing ports, and the Baltija shipyard, a Soviet-era construction, remains a vital employer today. These extensive infrastructure projects laid a robust foundation for continued economic activity and connectivity.

The tangible benefits of this focused development translated directly into higher living standards for the Baltic populations. Per capita consumption figures clearly illustrate this advantage: Estonia stood at 151% of the all-Union level, Latvia at 137%, and Lithuania at 127%. The massive capital investment in agriculture, particularly the six billion rubles injected into Estonian agriculture, led to a doubling of grain yields and harvests compared to 1939, improving food security and contributing to a better quality of life.

With the abandonment of central planning and the subsequent introduction of privatization under the capitalist regime following the dissolution of the USSR, many of these once-flourishing enterprises faced economic devastation, leading to widespread job losses and a severe decline in industrial output. This abrupt shift to market forces proved particularly harmful for the working majority, as previously guaranteed jobs gave way to mass unemployment, and the social safety nets of the Soviet system disintegrated, leaving many struggling to adapt to the new economic realities.

Should have doubled tapped Scalise

Hexbears. I need your help. I have a term paper that I need a topic for. Here's the rub: It's for US history, and the topic has to be US history before 1893. I wanted to write about labor unions, which took off in the US around the 1870s, but the real "history" of organized labor in the US takes place well past 1893. So the professor will very likely reject that.

I'm not a history person. I know, I know "those who don't learn from the past..." I don't want to write about the American civil war and all that shit though. It's been done to death. Any ideas on a topic I could pick that would be more interesting and more left-leaning?

Not asking for any help writing it. I just need some help picking a topic that would be interesting to research.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/29784465

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/29784311

The Theatre Museum is a small museum located in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. I have had the pleasure to work with them on organizing their collection of tent theatre records and artifacts, as well as create a few videos for them. Super neat musuem with an incredibly unique collection.