#didyouknow

[didyouknowgaming]

Looking for something to watch while you wind down? We got you. Here's 6 hours of Video Game Rumors & Myths: [watch here]

[afriblaq]

Did you know Black Germans were also persecuted during the Holocaust?

Gert Schramm was just 15 years old when the Nazis arrested him and imprisoned him in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Born in Germany in 1928 to a Black American father and a white German mother, Schramm was targeted under Nazi racial ideology that labeled Afro-Germans as “non-Aryan” and racially inferior.

Although Afro-Germans were a small community, they were still subjected to discrimination, harassment, and state violence. Black children were pushed out of schools, families lost jobs, and hundreds of Afro-German youth were forcibly sterilized as part of the Nazi effort to erase so-called “undesirable” populations.

Unlike the genocide carried out against Europe’s Jewish population, the Nazis did not implement a single, systematic extermination program specifically targeting Black Germans, and because of that, there is no exact historical record of how many Black people were killed in camps. But historians confirm Afro-Germans were imprisoned, abused, and in some cases murdered under the Nazi regime.

And although Black people still face widespread racism across the world today, the number of researchers and historians who have explored the persecution of Black people under the Nazis in any meaningful depth remains relatively small.

Schramm survived Buchenwald..and after the war, he refused silence. In his memoir, My Father Was a Negro: Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann, he documented what it meant to be a Black teenager living under Nazi rule, ensuring Afro-German voices would not be erased from Holocaust remembrance.

His story is a reminder: Black history is global. Holocaust history is broader than many are taught. And remembrance must include every life they tried to erase.

✍🏾 @angeladenniswrites

[amnhnyc]

Have you ever heard of the lesser blind mole rat (Nannospalax leucodon)? Growing up to 10.6 in (27 cm) long, this rodent can be found in parts of Eastern Europe. A nocturnal animal, it spends the majority of its life underground, digging long tunnels beneath the surface. Though you might think that this species is completely blind, it actually isn’t. This critter’s tiny .04-in- (1-mm-) eyes, which are hidden beneath its fur, help it sense light and navigate its underground habitat. 

Photo: Максим Яковлєв, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

[poldobs]

Ever wonder what it's like to command the genesis of a legend? The McLaren W1 wasn't just a car; it was the first heartbeat of a supercar revolution. Where would you take it first?

[luxeartisanship]

7 Secrets of Lord Shiva That Most People Don’t Know

Silent. Still. Yet unbelievably powerful.

Lord Shiva is not just a god but the most powerful presence in the universe.

Many people say “Destroyer” to Shiva but the truth is beyond this. In this post we will reveal 7 secrets of Lord Shiva, which most people do not know.

1. He Was Never Born… and Will Never Die

Do you know he was never born and will never die?

No birth. No death. Just existence.

Shiva never follows the rule of time. This is the reason people call him Mahadev which means the god beyond all gods.

2. His Third Eye Sees What You Can’t

Third eye of Madadev represents the ultimate truth the ability to see beyond lies, ego and delusion. When it opens it does not just destroy but it reveals reality.

This is not only about destruction always.

3. The Ash on His Body Has a Dark Meaning

You always see ash on Mahadev’s body. Do you know what that is?

It has deep meaning.

Everything like beauty, wealth, and life turns into ash one day. Shiva wears it to remind us: nothing is permanent.

4. He Chose the Mountains Over Heaven

Unlike other gods Mahadev lives on a mountain called Kailash Parvat.

No golden palace. No royal throne.

Shiva lives in the cold & isolated Himalayas. Why? Because true power doesn’t need comfort. It comes from detachment.

5. The Snake Around His Neck Isn’t Random

Snake around Lord Shiva is not just a symbol but it carries deep spiritual meaning.

In Hindu belief the snake embodies time (Kaal), death and hidden energy.

Shiva doesn’t remove it but he controls it.

That is the difference between fear and mastery.

6. He Absorbed the Force That Could Destroy Everything

When the powerful river Ganga came crashing down, it could’ve destroyed everything. Shiva did not stop it. He soaked it. He let it flow through his hair, softening its force.

That’s real power: Not stopping chaos but controlling it without panic.

7. His Silence Is His Greatest Power          

Lord Shiva is often seen in deep meditation but this silence is not empty. It is believed that both creation and destruction arise from this stillness.

His silence is not absence. It is the origin of all energy & power.

Final Thought    

Shiva is not just someone you pray to. He is someone you understand slowly and deeply. 

And once you do, one truth (Shiva teachings) hits hard: The real battle is not outside. It’s inside your mind.

Share this if it gave you a new perspective on Lord Shiva.

[sanewshimachal]

Did you know?

[grumpyseaman]

In 1777, the American Revolution was dying. The soldiers at Valley Forge were starving, barefoot, and lived in their own filth. They were less an army and more a desperate gathering of men waiting for the end.

Washington knew his troops were brave, but they were not professionals. They couldn't march. They couldn't use their bayonets. They didn't even know how to set up a camp that didn't breed disease.

Then, a man named Baron von Steuben arrived in camp. He was a Prussian officer who claimed to be a Lieutenant General. In reality, he was a Captain who had been cast out of his own country and was nearly broke.

But the Baron was a magician of the battlefield. He didn't speak a word of English when he arrived. He had to rely on a young aide to translate his instructions into shouts the men could understand.

He didn't stay in a warm tent like other high-ranking officers. He got down in the mud with the farm boys and the tailors. He barked orders until his voice was raw.

He saw their hunger. He saw their rags. He saw their resolve. But he knew resolve alone wouldn't win a war against the most powerful empire on earth.

He changed how they slept. He changed how they marched. He changed how they fought.

Baron von Steuben focused on the basics. He taught them that a bayonet wasn't just for cooking meat over a fire. It was a weapon of war.

He drilled them from dawn until dusk. He was loud and he was demanding, but the men began to love him. They saw that a professional was finally treating them like professionals.

By the time spring arrived, the men who had been huddled in shivering heaps were a machine. They had a new manual of arms and a new sense of pride.

When they finally met the British at the Battle of Monmouth, the world was shocked. The Americans didn't run. They held their ground and fought the redcoats to a standstill.

This transformation changed the course of world history. Without this training, the American experiment likely would have died in those snowy woods of Pennsylvania.

We owe our freedom today to a man who was an exile with nothing left to lose. He gave everything to a country that wasn't even his own.

He saw their struggle. He saw their potential. He saw their victory.

His legacy lives on in every American soldier who stands at attention today.

Sources: National Park Service / Smithsonian Institution / Britannica

[illuminerance]

#2: bacon

Bacon! America's favorite breakfast protein...right?

Believe it or not, our breakfasts used to be "light," -- like that of the French -- people would have juice, toast, and coffee, and that would be it. It wasn't fashionable to eat a heavy breakfast.

Then, in the 1920s, the Beech-Nut Packing Company hired a man named Edward Bernays to help with bacon sales.

Bernays' solution was to ask a doctor to write 5,000 other physicians, to see if they agreed that people's bodies lost a lot of calories during sleep and so it would be better if they had "hearty" breakfasts instead of "light" breakfasts. 4,500 out of the 5,000 physicians agreed.

The subsequent PR campaign helpfully suggested that there was no heartier breakfast to be had than bacon and eggs.

The combination was popularized in diners across the country and became a routine part of home consumption as well, thereby entering the realm of "realer than real."

Today, it outperforms all other breakfast proteins, including breakfast sausage, chorizo, and ham, with bacon sales topping out at $6.6 billion, more than triple that of sausage sales which total $2.2 billion.