SarahMcCloughry 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇬🇪FBPE #StandwithUkraine

Woman of the Day physicist and academic Laura Bassi born OTD 1711 in Bologna, the first woman to have a doctorate in science and the first woman to be a salaried professor in a university. There was a restriction though. Of course there was. She wasn’t allowed to teach male students. At no stage of her stellar career was she treated in the same way as her male peers. Laura was a child prodigy. From the age of five, she was taught Latin, French and maths by her cousin. Latin was considered an unusual subject for her to learn. Of course it was. It was the key to knowledge as well a career in science so it was clearly wasted on a mere girl, but she subsequently put it to good use by lecturing and publishing in Latin. From the age of thirteen, the professor of medicine at the University of Bologna tutored her in philosophy, metaphysics, logic, and natural philosophy. On 17 April 1732, 20 year old Laura took part in a public debate at the Palazzo Pubblico (the seat of the local government) with four professors in which she defended no fewer than 49 philosophical theses; providing written answers in Latin to questions posed by the panel and defending them verbally. It was a very unusual kind of exam, far more intensive than the kind experienced by male students. Of course it was. She impressed them. Less than four weeks later, the University of Bologna awarded her a doctorate in philosophy, making the second woman in the world to earn one after Elena Cornaro Piscopia 54 years before. On 27 June that year, Laura went through the same intense and very public grilling and was awarded an honorary post at the University of Bologna as a professor in physics. The same year, she became the first woman to be admitted to any scientific establishment when she was elected to the Academy of Sciences of the Institute of Bologna. Laura’s rapid progress through the world of academia hit a snag when she married in 1738 aged 26. Her husband might have been a university lecturer in science with a degree in medicine in his own right but she was undoubtedly the better scientist and worse, as a married woman, she came in for a great deal of criticism. Of course she did. Women couldn’t possibly expect to marry AND continue to hold their fellowships. It went against every expectation and many in Bologna said so. Laura was only allowed to lecture on special occasions if the event was held in public so that women might conceivably attend. She could not lecture regular classes at the University because that meant her being alone with male students. Of course not, etc etc. Ironically, marriage meant she could conduct lectures without such restrictions as long as she did it in her own home. “It is six years since I began giving private physics classes in my house daily, for eight months of the year. I support these myself, paying for all the necessary equipment apart from that which my husband had made when he was lecturing in philosophy. The classes have gathered such momentum that they are now attended by people of considerable education, including foreigners, rather than by youths.” The Academy of Sciences was reorganised by Pope Benedict XIV in 1745 to create a group of 25 Benedettini (leading scientists) who would be expected to present their research regularly. He was a great admirer of Laura’s ability and she was an obvious choice for the 25th post but to confer such an honour on a woman was highly controversial. His compromise? Laura became a Benedettini but without the same voting privileges as the 24 men. Of course…oh, you know the script. Somehow, Laura found the time to combine academic studies and caring for her and her husband’s children: at least eight of them (there may have been more) of whom only five survived to adulthood. She was appointed to the Chair of Experimental Physics at Bologna in 1776 but obviously, it demanded a lengthy debate quite unlike the process applied to male candidates (I feel another “of course” comment coming on…) but it was approved as long as Laura’s husband officially became her assistant. (Add as many “of courses” here as you like). Laura didn’t have long in the prestigious post though. She died just over a year later in 1778 quite suddenly as the result of “an attack in the chest”. Silver laurels were placed on her head and the Benedettini paid tribute to her at her funeral.

An oldie but a goodie. In 1968 a bunch of entitled hippy bastards sent a letter detailing their specious demands to the Warden and Fellows of Wadham College, Oxford. This was their letter of reply, which speaks to how far the academy has since fallen.

Quando un cinese capisce la situazione russa meglio di tutti i cosiddetti esperti dei talk show: «Guardando la situazione attuale, questa operazione della Russia è come avere in mano una mano di partenza perfetta e riuscire a giocarsela fino a mandare tutto a puttane. Se non avesse invaso l’Ucraina, oggi, nel grande poker globale dell’intelligenza artificiale, oltre agli Stati Uniti e alla Cina, con ogni probabilità ci sarebbe stata anche la Russia. Per sviluppare l’IA e addestrare modelli di grandi dimensioni, la logica di fondo è: consumare una quantità enorme di elettricità, raffreddare tutto e mettere insieme tonnellate di hardware. Negli ultimi due anni, i responsabili dei data center di tutto il mondo si lamentano delle bollette della luce e dei costi dei sistemi di raffreddamento. E la Russia? È come se Dio stesso le avesse servito tutto su un piatto d’argento: in Siberia basta aprire la finestra per avere un condizionatore naturale di prima classe. Nel Paese ci sono acqua, energia nucleare e gas a basso costo. Non a caso, quando si faceva mining di criptovalute, tutti sceglievano la Siberia. Inoltre, i russi sono forti in matematica e negli algoritmi. Nelle competizioni internazionali di programmazione e su Kaggle, nel campo del machine learning, i russi fanno regolarmente a pezzi la concorrenza. E, al di fuori degli Stati Uniti e della Cina, la Russia è uno dei pochi Paesi ad aver sviluppato un proprio ecosistema digitale completo: per le ricerche c’è Yandex, per i social network VK, oltre a Telegram. E adesso c’è Nebius, la nuova stella emergente nel settore della potenza di calcolo, le cui azioni sono schizzate alle stelle sulla borsa americana. Il suo nucleo è costituito proprio dagli stessi russi che lavoravano in Yandex. Se, dopo la pandemia, la Russia avesse messo a disposizione terreni, aria fredda ed elettricità a basso costo, per poi invitare la Cina — quella macchina da guerra delle infrastrutture — a contribuire alla costruzione di linee ad alta tensione, stabilimenti e reti in fibra ottica, attirando anche capitali europei per costruire fabbriche di server, i russi avrebbero potuto trasformarsi nella più grande «fabbrica di supercalcolo» dell’Eurasia. Mentre Stati Uniti e Cina si affrontavano come divinità, la Russia avrebbe potuto stare in mezzo e riscuotere pedaggi da entrambe le parti. E invece com’è andata a finire? Putin si è dato una pacca sulla coscia e ha deciso: no, io devo conquistare quei due pezzetti di terra. La mente di Putin è rimasta definitivamente intrappolata nel vecchio sogno zarista ottocentesco dell’«espansione dei confini». Che importanza ha avere uno sbocco sul mare o una zona cuscinetto militare? Anche se fossero davvero necessari, esistono mille modi per ottenerli. Ma siamo nel XXI secolo! La lotta per il dominio mondiale oggi si gioca sulle catene di approvvigionamento dei semiconduttori, sugli algoritmi più avanzati e sulla conquista dei migliori talenti nel settore high-tech. E tu vai a impantanarti nel Donbass per un paio di pezzi di terra fangosa e qualche acciaieria abbandonata, ipotecando in cambio il futuro dell’intero Paese. Non appena sono risuonati i primi spari, tutto è crollato. I programmatori e gli ingegneri più brillanti sono scappati in una sola notte. Il nucleo tecnologico di Yandex ha dovuto sottoporsi a una brutale amputazione per non affondare: ha reciso i legami con la madrepatria per potersi ricostruire in Europa sotto il nome di Nebius. Putin ha terrorizzato le persone più lungimiranti del Paese, trasformandole in rifugiati e fondatori di startup all’estero. Alla vigilia dell’esplosione dell’intelligenza artificiale, il mondo intero corre freneticamente per aumentare la propria capacità di calcolo e cerca disperatamente un biglietto per la nuova rivoluzione industriale. E il capo della Russia trascina decine di migliaia di persone a sprofondare nel fango, combattendo una guerra di posizione nello stile della Prima guerra mondiale, cento anni dopo».

«Вирва, здавайся!» — кричали росіяни біля зруйнованого українського бліндажа. Вони вже знали її позивний. Після кількох атак, отруйного газу та потужних вибухів окупанти сподівалися, що українські воїни більше не чинитимуть опору. Але контужена Олександра Давиденко відмовилася здаватися. Поруч лежали двоє поранених побратимів. І вона вирішила витягнути їх звідти живими. 12 березня 2025 року. Донеччина, поблизу Спірного. Троє нацгвардійців — Олександра «Вирва», українець «Шустрий» та колумбієць Піньйо — тримають оборону проти групи російських штурмовиків. Окупанти закидають їх гранатами. Олександра веде вогонь і допомагає пораненим. Тоді росіяни скидають із дрона гранату з хімічною речовиною. Жінка встигає частково зупинити поширення газу, але сама вдихає отруту. Попри запаморочення й нудоту, продовжує бій. Наступний скид руйнує бліндаж. Олександру відкидає вибуховою хвилею. До тями вона приходить лише через 2 години. Обидва побратими непритомні. Колумбієць лежить під завалами із сильно травмованою ногою. Олександра насилу витягує його з-під колод, фіксує ногу, дає знеболювальне. Близько опівночі росіяни повертаються. Вимагають здатися, але самі наблизитися до бліндажа не наважуються. Вирва відмовляється. Тоді окупанти скидають на укриття протитанкову міну. Новий вибух. Нова контузія. Олександра знову непритомніє. Але, прийшовши до тями, перевіряє стан побратимів, зброю та боєприпаси. Дві доби вони залишаються під завалами. Без зв'язку, майже без води. У ніч на 14 березня Вирва разом із Шустрим починають розкопувати вихід. Щойно Олександра вибирається назовні, по ній відкривають вогонь двоє росіян. Вона миттєво відповідає автоматною чергою. Обох окупантів знищено. Олександрі вдається відновити зв'язок зі штабом. З останніх сил вона виводить поранених побратимів до сусідньої української позиції. Обидва вижили. А ще кілька років тому Олександра Давиденко працювала журналісткою в рідному Запоріжжі. Розповідала на радіо про українську культуру, письменників і митців. Її виховувала бабуся в селі на Запоріжжі. Змалку Олександра звикла до важкої праці, доглядала худобу, працювала на городі. Любила читати, особливо книжки з історії України. «Кожен вибір, тобто дія або бездіяльність, мають свої наслідки. Мене викувала непроста доля, тяжка праця і виживання, яке стало моєю зоною комфорту. Для мене нічого святішого за піхоту не існує! Вижити на фронті – це вже досягнення, особливо на Покровському напрямку. Допомагають досвід та інтуїція, віра і впертість, а головне – небажання здаватися», — розповідала Олександра. У 2020 році Олександра пішла до Нацгвардії. А після початку повномасштабного вторгнення майже 2 роки домагалася переведення в бойовий підрозділ. У 2024-му нарешті стала піхотинцем батальйону «Свобода» бригади «Рубіж». Перша ж ротація на позиції тривала 41 день. Свій незвичайний позивний отримала після одного з російських обстрілів. Побачивши величезну вирву, Олександра вигукнула: «Оце вирва!». Побратими вирішили, що саме так її й називатимуть. Згодом вона стала старшим кулеметником. За даними Нацгвардії, протягом бойових виходів у 2024–2025 роках знешкодила близько взводу російських військових. 24 березня 2026 року Олександрі Давиденко присвоїли звання Героя України з врученням ордена «Золота Зірка». Вона стала першою жінкою в історії Національної гвардії України, удостоєною цього найвищого державного звання. Та особливо вражають слова, якими Олександра пояснила своє рішення не здаватися навіть тоді, коли сама була контужена, отруєна газом і ледве трималася на ногах. «Я їх завела на позицію і мала їх звідти вивести».

Volodymyr Zelenskyy was greeted with applause on Downing Street — Sky News.

Ottilie "Ottla" Kafka (1892–1943) was the youngest and favorite sister of writer Franz Kafka, remembered for her fierce independence, deep bond with her brother, and extraordinary act of selflessness during the Holocaust. She defied bourgeois family expectations by studying at an agricultural school and managing an estate in Zürau. In 1920, she married Josef David. In 1942, she divorced him to protect her Christian husband and their two daughters (Vera and Helene) from Nazi anti-Jewish persecution. Ottla was deported to the Terezín ghetto in 1942, where she worked as a children's counselor caring for traumatized and orphaned children. She looked at the frightened faces of the orphans and volunteered to go with them. "I will not leave these children," she told the officials. At that time, 1,200 children were about to be sent to Auschwitz. She arrived at Auschwitz and was murdered in the gas chambers alongside the children on October 7, 1943, at the age of 51... Ottla Kafka was never someone who wanted to live in the shadow of her famous brother. Ottla was independent, hardworking, and possessed a spirit that was entirely her own. While Franz was a man of words and complex thoughts, Ottla was a woman of action. She broke away from family expectations to study agriculture and work the land with her own hands. She loved the simplicity of nature and the honesty of hard labor. Franz admired her deeply for this unbending will, often calling her his "anchor" in a world that felt chaotic. Their bond was the strongest thread in the Kafka family. They were confidantes who shared a deep, mutual understanding. Franz once wrote about her, "She is my most beloved sister, and my most reliable friend." She was the person he trusted with his deepest fears. But as the darkness of World War II fell over Europe, Ottla proved that her strength went far beyond just being a supportive sister. Because she was Jewish, Ottla was eventually sent to the Terezín concentration camp. Even in a place defined by starvation and misery, she did not focus on herself. She spent her time working as a nurse and caring for the hundreds of children who were trapped there. She became a source of light for those who had lost their parents and their hope. She was the calm voice in the middle of a nightmare. On October 7, 1943, a group of about 1,200 orphaned children was rounded up to be sent to the gas chambers of Auschwitz. These children were alone and terrified. Ottla actually had a chance to save herself. Because she had once been married to a non-Jewish man, she had a legal protection that many others did not have. She could have stayed behind in Terezín and waited for the war to end. Instead, she chose to stay by the side of the children. She could not imagine those innocent souls boarding a train into the unknown without a single person to comfort them. She chose to be the tender touch in the suffocating darkness and the protector of the vulnerable. She walked onto that train of her own free will. She arrived at Auschwitz just a short time later. Records show she was killed in the gas chambers almost immediately, dying alongside the very children she refused to abandon. She didn't leave behind any world-famous books or grand paintings, but she left behind an indelible gesture of what it means to be truly human. Ottla Kafka’s life is a reminder that we are more than just the people we are related to. We are the choices we make when things are at their worst. She was a woman who could have chosen safety, but she chose love instead. Her story is a silent, eternal embrace that speaks more clearly than a thousand words. #archaeohistories

❗️I want to sincerely thank the people of Great Britain for everything you have done for Ukraine. Even before the full-scale invasion began, Britain was among the first to provide us with NLAW anti-tank systems — weapons that helped stop Russian columns on the approaches to Kyiv and in other directions. This support only grew afterward: thousands of NLAWs, Challenger 2 tanks (Britain became the first Western country to transfer main battle tanks to Ukraine), Storm Shadow cruise missiles, and other equipment. I would especially like to highlight the large-scale training of Ukrainian soldiers. Through Operation Interflex, more than 60,000 of our troops have already received training on British soil — from basic training for recruits to courses for commanders and instructors. This is one of the largest programmes of its kind since the Second World War. Great Britain continues to provide significant military, financial, and humanitarian assistance, and this means a great deal to us. Thank you, Britain. 🇺🇦❤️🇬🇧

New Jersey, the 1970s. A girl is checking a long multiplication problem with a trick called casting out nines. Karen Smith loves it. Math feels like a puzzle. Then her class switches to base 8. The trick fails. Most students move on. Karen cannot. She keeps at it until she finds that in base 8 you cast out sevens, not nines. She still wants to know why. That question stays with her for years. In high school she meets modular arithmetic, the tool that explains it, and writes a proof that the method works in any base. On her own she starts imagining a geometry where parallel lines meet at infinity. She does not know mathematicians have studied it for centuries. It is called the projective plane. A teacher, Mr. Drinfeld, sees what she is doing and opens an extra class for a few seniors. One of the books is number theory. Years later she says, “I loved it. It definitely made me a mathematician.” At Princeton, her freshman calculus professor is Charles Fefferman, who will win the Fields Medal in 1978. He tells her something she has never considered. She could make mathematics her career. She graduates in 1987, teaches high school for a year, then learns a math PhD can come with full support. In 1988 she moves to Ann Arbor. Her mentor, Mel Hochster, introduces her to tight closure, a new idea that becomes the center of her work. That fall she meets Finnish mathematician Juha Heinonen. They marry in 1991. She earns her PhD in 1993. The thesis is published the next year in Inventiones Mathematicae. She goes to Purdue, then MIT, then back to Michigan as a professor. A 20-hour lecture course she gives in Finland in 1996 becomes a textbook in 2000. In 2001, at 35, the American Mathematical Society gives her the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize and calls her a world leader in tight closure. She and Juha raise three children, including twins. In October 2007 Juha dies of kidney cancer. The twins are four. Karen is a single mother of three with a research career still in front of her. She does not quit. The children keep speaking Finnish. Every summer they go to Finland. Every week they bake Finnish rye bread. She keeps teaching, proving theorems, and training students. By 2017 she has written with 32 coauthors and guided 20 students through their PhDs. In 2019 she is elected to the National Academy of Sciences. In 2021 she is elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Today she chairs the mathematics department at the University of Michigan. It started with a trick that stopped working in middle school. She did not accept the failure. She asked why until she had the answer. Then someone told her mathematics could be her life’s work.

Absolutely unreal dilemma on European security is now unfolding in Latvia. Russia, through its puppet Belarus, is applying more active measures by breaking Latvian border with unidentified armed forces. They raid into Latvia, pillage and go back to Belarus What to do with them?

I love the Japanese intro to Postman Pat. It's so relaxing. For research purposes, I've painstakingly translated the Japanese lyrics...

It's all about the Green Party at the moment-but not in the way they'd like. After their party conference made headlines for a motion that now has them compared to 1980's BNP, the timing couldn't be worse for Polanski. Can MP Hannah Spencer save him? #parody

Woman of the Day Barbara Betts born OTD in 1910 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, one of the longest serving Members of Parliament and the first woman in the UK to be appointed First Secretary of State. Barbara was the Labour MP for Blackburn from 1945 to 1979. From 1965 until 1968, she was the Minister of Transport and never one to sit still, she called for "a profound change in public attitudes" to halt the gallop of road fatalities, saying: “Hitler did not manage to kill as many civilians in Britain as have been killed on our roads since the war". Barbara also introduced legislation permitting use of breathalysers. A BBC journalist told her it was a “rotten idea” and said, "You're only a woman, you don't drive, what do you know about it?". Quite a lot, as it happened. In the first twelve months, road deaths dropped by 16.5%. She didn’t stop there. She made the national speed limit of 70mph a permanent one and motorway casualties fell by 20%. Seat belts? Yes, Barbara introduced those too, making the roads safer for all of us. As Employment Secretary, she proposed reducing the power of the trade unions with her 1969 White Paper In Place Of Strife. It caused uproar, a major cabinet split, resignations, and alienated her from her colleagues on the Left. In fact, it is still blamed by some for Labour’s GE result in 1970 but Barbara made history when she intervened in the Dagenham Ford sewing machinists’ strike of 1968. She helped resolve the strike, thus securing a pay rise for Ford’s women workers that gave them 92% of men’s pay, but she cemented this win and took it to its logical conclusion by ushering through the Equal Pay Act 1970. The UK led the world by being the first country in the world to legislate for equal pay for women, all thanks to Barbara. By now you’ve probably guessed the name by which Barbara was better known. She married a bloke called Ted Castle along the way. That’s right: Barbara Castle, later Baroness Castle of Blackburn. I should also mention that Barbara’s secretary during the mid- to late 1950s was former Tiller girl Betty Boothroyd, later the first woman Speaker and Baroness Boothroyd. Office accommodation in the House of Commons was so scarce and so restricted that for a while in 1959, Barbara shared her office with Betty and also with the newly elected MP for Finchley, one Margaret Roberts, later the first woman Prime Minister and Baroness Thatcher. Three women of principle, three forces of nature in one small space. Wouldn’t you like to have been a fly on that particular wall? (Wonder what they’d have made of the Green Party today? They wouldn’t have held back. Oh how I wish they were around now). Barbara Castle died in 2002, aged 91, at her home at Hell Corner Farm. A political giant.

On this day in 1930: virologist June Almeida was born in Glasgow. Raised in Dennistoun, she left school at 16 to work as a lab technician at Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Despite not having a university degree, her genius in electron microscopy revolutionised the field of science 1/2

Meet the Bletchley Park genius who cracked one of Nazi Germany’s most secure codes. Helene Aldwinckle’s breakthrough on the ultra-secret Pink Luftwaffenführungsschlüssel gave the Allies the power to read critical Luftwaffe messages in real time. Let's explore: (🧵)

The free bottle of milk on every British school desk was put there by a 4ft 10 redhead from a Manchester slum, who was dead within 6 months of doing it. Ellen Wilkinson grew up in Ardwick in the 1890s, in a house with no bath, and caught every illness going. She got out on scholarships. By 1935 she was MP for Jarrow, a shipbuilding town where the yard had shut and 7 men in 10 had no work. She had seen what that did to the children. They were small, bow-legged and grey. In 1936 she walked with 200 of their fathers from Jarrow to London, nearly 300 miles, to hand in a petition. The Prime Minister would not see them. In 1945 she was made Minister of Education. She had one thing she wanted above the rest. The Treasury told her the country was bankrupt and it could not be afforded. In August 1946 a third of a pint of full cream milk became free for every schoolchild in Britain, every day, whatever their parents earned. That winter was the worst of the century. Her ministry had no coal. She worked in her overcoat with bronchitis, and on 6 February 1947 she was found dead in her flat, aged 55. She never saw a single class of those children grow up. They turned out the tallest and straightest generation the country had ever produced. If you drank it, warm, through a paper straw, you were her life's work.