Past Passport

Left: 1990s Russia. My face was so frozen I could barely fake that smile—miles in -20°F, ice in my eyelashes. Right: last year, running the first Olympic stadium in Greece. Same legs, different empires and decades. I write gritty, ground‑level history from 32 countries — snow and dust.

@JoshPhillipsPhD These were the people who destroyed the US economy during COVID. All of them well paid and never worried about losing a paycheck.

Animal Farm predicted this.

@jwsherrod We saw it in the theater. I thought it was scary in the way The Shining is scary. It's all psychological.

I watched “The Blair Witch Project” on a whim last night. Never saw it when it came out in 1999. Surprisingly not scary, despite its reputation. And because you never actually see the witch, I kept bracing myself for a jump scare that never came. Still, impressive that a couple of film students from the University of Central Florida made an inexpensive film that became a huge blockbuster hit and one of the most well-known titles in horror cinema.

@creation247 You can, but there will be Consequences, eventually.

Richard Dawkins deserves to be ridiculed. He spent his entire career leading people away from God. Now he’s having an existential crisis over AI. You cannot ignore what lies behind everything forever.

@MadmanDotMoney @europemaxxed We would totally do that if Lake Como was in TX.

@europemaxxed This would be a great location for a data center

Americans see this and want coworking spaces and gyms

@europemaxxed America and Europe have their pluses and minuses

@blackgirlinmain I flew maybe twice as a child in 70s. Only flew more after flying got cheaper in 80s

A lot of folks don't remember when flying wasn't that common because it was cost prohibitive. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, only folks with $$$ regularly flew. I didn't take my first flight until I was about 20. That would have been in 1993. Back then, they still served meals.

@BenjaminOmer3 @Astro_ChrisW Take a iPhone shot of the full moon in focus and properly exposed, and stars in the same frame. Good luck

@Astro_ChrisW I can take my old iPhone 12 go outside my house take it out of my pocket press record & move accross the sky & record all The bright stars but to this day NASA Astronauts have not Recorded 1 VIDEO not photo of even One damn star. ZERO. 0️⃣. SINCE Apollo to Artemis 0 STARS IN VIDEO

One question I get a lot is can you see the stars differently from up in space. When we orbit on the night side of the planet, we get a view of the stars very much like being in a very dark place on Earth. And because of our orbital inclination, we get to see the stars of both the northern and southern hemisphere. I captured this shot of our galactic plane from one of the windows of the Crew Dragon Freedom that is docked to the zenith docking port.

@BenjaminOmer3 @Astro_ChrisW The fact that so many dont understand camera exposures when bright and dim objects are involved is fine. But making the leap that its all fake from that is really strange

@BenjaminOmer3 @GarciaJones8000 @Astro_ChrisW Wrong. See the eclipse below . Stars.

@GarciaJones8000 @Astro_ChrisW WTF🤣I said while they are in space take the freaking camera or phone and go to the window and start recording & show us the bright stars not this edited cartoon. There is ZERO VIDEOS. ZERO. They can record themselves eating food 10hrs on artemis not once bring the 📱to window

@b00giZm @recouso Humble bragging is so gay

Whenever I go to Spain, I only first class resorts. > 24/7 gym w/ personal trainer > Work from my suite’s private balcony; co-work is for peasants > High speed internet everywhere Maybe you’re just too cheap for proper euromaxxing. Also: you‘re very welcome to leave our continent.

Okay guys, had a few cultural shocks in Spain: > Go to the gym, opens 10am on a Sunday > Go to work from a coworking, closed > Go to a coffee shop, no wifi Absolutely unthinkable in a barely productive economy like the US, yet alone UAE. Europe is a daylight museum.

There are recordings of it. Old men. 1930s. Demonstrating the Rebel Yell from memory. It's not a yeehaw. Not a cowboy whoop. It's a bark. A chirp. Something that doesn't sound human. Now multiply it by thousands of men running at you in the dark. Essay on Monday.

@creation247 Raised Methodist but attend a Bible church in tx now. Full immersion baptism. So I dunno. Christ is king tho

Which one are you?

@TheKatieFlair I feel for her and im a conservative. Lets not be so negative 😇

Soon there will be an entire demographic of women who wanted children but didn't have them, and now can't have them, because they fell into this cultural vibe. They'll be hated by the left for not being content without children. They'll be hated by the right for not having them.

@SpoonyBard34 @anishmoonka I know. Roman speciality so good

@Pastpassport @anishmoonka Oh man, I still dream about the carbonara I had at a little spot right beside the coliseum. Ruined carbonara for life for me, probably, cuz I've been chasing something that freaking delicious ever since

That cacio e pepe in Italy is about 80 grams of pasta, served as a first course. The American version is several times the pasta as the whole meal, with bread and a Coke beside it. The portion gap is the easy half. The harder half is what's inside the food. In Italy, around 10% of an adult's daily calories come from ultra-processed food, the kind manufactured in factories with ingredients you wouldn't keep in your kitchen. In the US, the number is 58%. The American grocery aisle is mostly chemistry that calls itself food. Wheat Thins, Stove Top stuffing, and Rice Krispies all contain preservatives, like BHA and BHT, that EU food has banned. The US's own National Toxicology Program has classified BHA as likely to cause cancer in humans since 1991. The US still allows both. The FDA lets companies declare their own additives "Generally Recognized as Safe" without sending them to a regulator first. More than 10,000 chemicals are now legally allowed in American food. About 99% of the ones added since 2000 were cleared by the manufacturer instead of the FDA, according to the Environmental Working Group. That same loophole keeps potassium bromate in American flour. The EU banned that dough strengthener decades ago after rat studies showed it caused tumors. Titanium dioxide, banned by the EU in 2022 over DNA damage concerns, still colors American candy and salad dressing. Even the wheat is grown differently. In December 2023, the EU banned spraying glyphosate weed killer directly on a crop right before harvest, a practice used to dry it out faster. The US still allows it, and trace residues end up in the flour your bread comes from. Italy's adult obesity rate is around 20%. America's, at 42%, is more than double. The US calorie supply per person hit roughly 3,900 a day in 2025 per the USDA, near the top of every developed country. An Italian eats a smaller plate, and the food on it is cleaner. Both differences show up on the scale.

@MasterpiecesArc The other starry night i saw in Paris.

Vincent van Gogh The Starry Night (1889)

@medieval_bops When I see 20s and 30s saying no kids....cool but im old enough to know how much your mind can change when its too late

@medieval_bops Sorry to hear it. I understand.

I am 51 and deeply regret not having kids. I was stringently brainwashed into believing that I should never have children. I’ve never even been pregnant as far as I know. I was on birth control from age 16 through age 49.

@Uniquekatie02 These days you have to pay extra for a decent economy seat. Im not giving up my aisle seat in most circumstances. I will not say never but usually no

Boarded my flight this morning, found my seat, put my headphones on, ready for a peaceful trip. Then a family of like 6 people started hovering around my row like they were planning a military operation. I’m in aisle seat C. One woman leans over me so close I could smell the airport coffee on her breath and goes, “Can you switch with my husband? He’s in 27A.” WINDOW??? AT THE BACK???? Ma’am I specifically paid extra for this aisle seat because I enjoy freedom, leg movement, and surviving long flights without climbing over strangers every 40 minutes. When I politely said no, the entire family looked at me like I personally cancelled Christmas. Now the little boy beside me spent the whole flight sighing dramatically every 10 minutes like he pays the aircraft lease.

@SabritasXfa @JoshuaJLS83 @BODY_W0_WHORGAN Everything is racist. Americans are hilarious.

@JoshuaJLS83 @BODY_W0_WHORGAN Lots of inaccuracies in the movie actually (like the nature and frequency of sacrifices for ex)….This movie meshed in so many other cultures and time periods together, just to glamorize and push the “savage” image, while ignoring other feats of this civilization at the time.

Insane for Mel Gibson to make like this INCREDIBLY racist movie for like 99% of it only to sort of pull the rug and be like 'yeah what comes immediately after this is so much fucking worse' with one shot

@JoshDaws Breaking away.

What’s the most emotionally honest movie you’ve ever watched?