@jnisly-goretzki
Postdoc Agrarian History Uni Kassel. Interested in early modern Germany, cattle breeding, race, gender and rural inequality & the Oeconomic Enlightenment. Also Brown Swiss cows, Baroque choirs & prairies. He/him.
A very large part of mythology about Germanic deities and religious practices can be traced back to wild speculation by the Grimm brothers (fairy tales of course being only one part of their broader project for national unity)
That statue, which was cast back in 1961, was modeled on 1950s Texas Rangers β as in the law enforcement Texas Rangers β Captain Jay Banks. Since it's unveiling 65 years ago it has spent most of its life at Love Field in Dallas. But then in 2020 it was removed and placed in storage. Why? Because Captain Jay Banks was a racist cop who made it his mission to stop schools from integrating. This is an excerpt from the 2020 book, Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers by Doug Swanson, which describes' Banks' role in efforts to keep schools in Texas racially segregated in defiance of the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education: Then there is the form and face of the statue itself. This dates to 1956, when the NAACP, backed with a court order, attempted to integrate the high school in Mansfield, about 30 miles southwest of Dallas. White residents erupted in fury, so Gov. Allan Shivers dispatched the Rangers. But unlike state police in other Southern racial hotspots, the Rangers in Mansfield did not escort black students past howling mobs of white supremacists. They had been sent instead to keep the black children out of a white school.
The commanding Ranger on the scene was Sgt. E.J. βJayβ Banks. A wire service photo showed him casually leaning against a tree outside Mansfield High. To his left, above the schoolβs entrance, was a dummy in blackface, hanging from a noose. Nearby a white mob had assembled. Some carried signs that threatened death for anyone attempting to integrate the school. Banks saw no need to remove the effigy or disperse the mob. βThey were just βsalt of the earthβ citizens,β he later wrote. βThey were concerned because they were convinced that someone was trying to interfere with their way of life.β Blacks were so intimidated that none attempted to enroll at Mansfield. Several days later, Gov. Shivers ordered Banks and a few other Rangers to Northeast Texas, because African-Americans wished to take classes at all-white Texarkana Junior College, a public institution. Again the Rangersβ job was to stop black students from enrolling. As at Mansfield, a mob of white men gathered outside the school. An 18-year-old woman and a 17-year-old boy, both black, arrived by cab and began to walk toward the college. The mob blocked their path. Some surrounded the 17-year-old and kicked him, while others threw gravel. The Rangers watched it happen and did nothing except threaten to arrest the two students. That wire service photo of Banks in front of the school with the Black person hung in effigy can be seen at the top of today's newsletter.
The statue was removed from public view in 2020 in the wake of that book about the Rangers being published. This occurred at the same time that statues of Confederates, Klansmen, racists, and segregationists were removed all over the country following the murder of George Floyd. But now the Texas Rangers Baseball Club, knowing full well the history of the statue, its subject, and its removal, and knowing that multiple municipal institutions decided it was inappropriate for public display, is happy to put that statue up in a public concourse at a major league baseball stadium. When I learned of this yesterday afternoon I contacted Major League Baseball and asked the following questions: Is Major League Baseball aware of the history of the "One Riot, One Ranger" statue and its subject, Jay Banks? Is Major League Baseball aware that Love Field and the City of Dallas removed the statue and put it in storage in 2020 after Banks' involvement in attempting to keep schools segregated in the 1950s came to light? Does Major League Baseball condone one of its Clubs erecting a previously-removed statue of a staunch segregationist at its ballpark?; and Does Major League Baseball have any comment regarding the discomfort that will be felt by Black fans when confronted with the statue of a segregationist at Globe Life Field? I did not receive a response. I'm going to assume that the league's silence on this means that it wholly condones the Rangers putting up the "One Riot, One Ranger" statue despite its sordid and extraordinarily well-reported history.
Yesterday the Texas Rangers erected a statue of a segregationist cop at Globe Life Field. A statue that was removed from public property in 2020 because of its racist history. @mlb.com has refused to comment. www.cupofcoffeenews.com/cup-of-coffe...
a scribe sitting at a writing desk, in a setting of around 1400 Europe. he is writing with a quill in one book, while another book is opened, and two more books are present on and in the writing desk.
Tab hoarding is leading to stress and information overload, and distraction, since the Middle Ages. #tabhoarding
The sheer cynicism and/or ignorance: a local politician here quoted Rosa Luxemburg and Martin Luther to defend himself against being called far right (for his party suggesting unconstitutional treatment of refugees) www.fraenkischertag.de/lokales/bamb...
Bookplate of daffodils by Anne Pratt
πΌ Dydd GΕ΅yl Dewi Hapus!πΌHappy St. David's Day!πΌ
Daffodils have been a national symbol of Wales since the 19th century.
This bookplate of daffodils is from βFlowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges and Ferns of Great Britainβ by the botanical illustrator Anne Pratt (1806-1893).
Reagan on the My Lai Massacre
Today's find in the (online) archives: The Times, Trenton, N.J., Dec 3, 1969.
Pete Hegseth reposted Sam Altman & @sama X.com Tonight, we reached an agreement with the Department of War to deploy our models in their classified network. In all of our interactions, the DoW displayed a deep respect for safety and a desire to partner to achieve the best possible outcome. Al safety and wide distribution of benefits are the core of our mission. Two of our most important safety principles are prohibitions on domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including for autonomous weapon systems. The DoW agrees with these principles, reflects them in law and policy, and we put them into our agreement.
We also will build technical safeguards to ensure our models behave as they should, which the Dow also wanted. We will deploy FDEs to help with our models and to ensure their safety, we will deploy on cloud networks only. We are asking the DoW to offer these same terms to all Al companies, which in our opinion we think everyone should be willing to accept. We have expressed our strong desire to see things de-escalate away from legal and governmental actions and towards reasonable agreements. We remain committed to serve all of humanity as best we can. The world is a complicated, messy, and sometimes dangerous place. 6:56 PM β’ 2/27/26 β’ 155K Views
Itβs looking more and more like Trump squeezing Anthropic was just in service of the other tech oligarchs Sam Altman and Elon Musk
It is a large language model, it is not an artificial intelligence. It is a large language model, it is not an artificial intelligence. It is a large language model, it is not an artificial intelligence. It is a large language model, it is not an artificial intelligence. It is a large la-
Please also support the LGBTQ Foundation of Kansas lgbtqks.org
Iβm transgender, I live in Kansas, if you want to help rn donate to either the ACLU of Kansas or the ACE foundation in Wichita - the ACE foundation especially is the organization that will help people with money for groceries, rent, etc. More orgs also included in attached img
acefoundationict.org
can I please piggyback off you as a Bigger Account that responses like "lol it's Kansas what did you expect" or "Kansas deserves to be hit by more tornadoes" are actually not helpful or comforting to the people being harmed most right now? Because no one bothers listening to me
My new Strange Horizons essay is up! With a deliberately provocative title!
WHY ALL SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY WRITERS ARE HISTORIANS
Yes, *all*
And, no, it isn't just for the reason you think...
I've been working toward this one for a while, very excited to share it!
Truly horrifying stuff from my home state. Clearly states have lists of trans folks to target. And for anyone saying, well of course Kansas, this is a state that often elects Democrats as governor and long had more or less a three party system with a "moderate" GOP wing.
Kansas Sends Letters To Trans People Demanding The Immediate Surrender Of Drivers Licenses "The legislature did not include a grace period." ERIN REED FEB 25, 2026 88 5 21 Share Kansas Sate Capitol // farzinvousoughian
1. Numerous transgender people in Kansas are reporting that the state has sent them a letter demanding the immediate surrender of drivers licenses.
Those driving could be arrested, charged, and see privileges revoked.
Subscribe to support our journalism.
www.erininthemorning.com/p/kansas-sen...
If you're researching queer history in England, farm records might be one of the last places you'd check.
Yet for #LGBTQHistoryMonth, @timjerrome.bsky.social shares how he's tracing queer histories within our farm archives, and gives tips for future research.
merl.reading.ac.uk/news-and-vie...
Yeah, I noticed that context after replying. Verbal communication on expert subject matter is very relevant to my students as well, who often go on to be agronomy advisors. We agree the exam is extra distorting for some. Indeed no easy answers.
Much the same trend in testing here, and I definitely struggle with the question of accessibility of oral exams for, among others, those who would be more comfortable taking time to think things over without a lecturer sitting across from them.
A black tomcat nestles on top of an open book inside a light box
A black cat yawns widely, showing his teeth and outstretched tongue while laying on top of an open book inside a lightbox
The hazards of digitalizing while working from home...clearly my fault for having a light box that fits him perfectly.
17th century painting of a barn or stable interior, sheaves of straw at the left, an older man with a hat chopping straw with a wooden strawcutter, an older woman sitting in a chair, and a young boy. Vegetables lay on the ground.
Here is a Dutch painting of a strawcutter from 1659 linked at Wikipedia, with a similar long wooden chute to hold the sheaf in place. rkd.nl/images/259014
Hohberg 1682, 2. Band, S. 157: "In unsern LΓ€ndern ist Habern mit geschnittenem Stroh und Heu das gebrΓ€uchlichste und beste Futter"
Unten rechts sieht fΓΌr mich aus wie Strohschneiden. Hohberg sagt im 2. Band, S. 139, man solle Hafer nur mit "etwas wenig geschnittnem Stroh vermischt" futtern.
@isabelleschuerch.bsky.social is also an expert on premodern horses. 17th century might be too modern though?!
Kat Boniface would know, but I don't think she has been active on here recently. Could certainly be anything of a range of things like beans, vetch, bran flour and of course oats. I can give you HausvΓ€ter references for almost anything cattle related, but I thought others had horses covered.
Yeah, German publishing was so decentralized (at least until Brill/De Gruyter bought everybody), that you could usually tell what press it was by the city or combination of cities. Which would work for Minneapolis, Philadelphia or Durham, but yeah, definitely not for the private publishers.
Honest question from someone who has not been in US academia since undergrad, why would that make more sense? Only the city is standard in history in Germany, and it generally saves space relative to publisher. I assume that is the case in the Netherlands as well (Brill)
As many others have noted of their own experience, my youthful impression of Jackson was sadly very dominated by the apparently successful campaign by the media/white culture at large to try to discredit his commitment to equality for all by making him a figure of ridicule.
i think jesse jackson was one of the most important american political figures of the post-war era and i think that his 1984 and 1988 campaigns for the democratic nomination still have a great deal to teach about forging a path to a more egalitarian world. RIP.
Screenshot of the first two pages of Harris, Tim. βThe Bawdy House Riots of 1668.β The Historical Journal 29, no. 3 (1986): 537β56. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2639047.
Happy Shrove Tuesday!
Just be careful if you decide to join the traditional bawdy house riots, because it might be construed as high treason.
#EarlyModern problems. ποΈ
www.jstor.org/stable/2639047
Final push on this CfP...4 days left to submit your abstracts to our 'More-than-human Seas' conference session at @rgs.org annual conference. We've already received some fantastic abstracts and would love to include more :)
