Benjamin Godfrey

Coventry St Michael’s Cathedral is symbol of hope and resilience. One of the first of many in my travel series #Travel #History #Coventry

China took one look at VR goggles and said, nah, we can do much better than that

Everyone knows about the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. Almost nothing they know is the full story. Start with the number. There weren't 300 Greeks at that pass. There were around 7,000. Spartans, Thespians, Thebans, Phocians, Locrians, Arcadians, Corinthians. Citizen-soldiers from across Greece who marched north knowing they'd be facing the largest army the ancient world had ever assembled. The 300 is just the headline. The ones who stayed to the end. Now the men themselves. King Leonidas wasn't some chiseled 30-year-old. He was roughly 60 years old when he led that march. And the 300 he picked weren't his strongest warriors. They were specifically men who already had living sons. Spartan law demanded it. Leonidas wasn't choosing an army. He was choosing men whose bloodlines could survive their deaths. Every one of them knew what that meant before they ever saw a Persian. They marched anyway. And they didn't march alone in the way movies suggest. Each Spartan citizen-soldier was accompanied by helots, the enslaved underclass that propped up the entire Spartan economy, outnumbering their masters roughly seven to one. Hundreds of helots fought and died at Thermopylae too. They get no statues. No films. No name on the monument. The pass itself was barely 15 meters wide in 480 BC (it's silted up now and looks nothing like it did then). That bottleneck is the only reason a few thousand men could hold off a Persian force modern historians estimate at 70,000 to 300,000. Herodotus said 1.7 million. He was lying, or possibly counting cooks, slaves, and camp followers, but even the conservative number is staggering. For two days, they held. Wave after wave broken against bronze and discipline. Xerxes reportedly leapt from his throne three times in fury watching his men die. He sent in the Immortals, his elite personal guard, supposedly invincible. They weren't. Not in that pass. Then the Greeks were betrayed. A local man named Ephialtes, whose name still means "nightmare" in modern Greek, sold the Persians a goat path through the mountains that flanked the pass. The Phocians assigned to guard it scattered when the Immortals appeared in the dawn fog. Leonidas knew by morning he was surrounded. He dismissed most of the allied Greek forces. Saved their lives. But here's what almost nobody talks about: roughly 700 Thespians, led by a man named Demophilus, refused to leave. They were citizen-farmers from a small town that knew Persia was coming for them next no matter what. They chose to die beside the Spartans rather than run. About 400 Thebans stayed too, though their motives were murkier and many surrendered when the end came. So the "last stand of the 300" was actually closer to 1,500 men. The Thespians died to the last. Their town was burned to the ground by the Persians weeks later anyway. They're a footnote in a story that should bear their name. The final fight happened on a small hill called Kolonos. Spears shattered. Swords broken. Herodotus says they fought with hands and teeth at the end. Leonidas fell early, and the Spartans fought four times over his body to keep the Persians from taking it. They lost. Xerxes had Leonidas decapitated and his body crucified, a violation of Persian custom so extreme it tells you exactly how badly that old man had humiliated the king of kings. Forty years later, Sparta sent a delegation to recover his bones and bring him home. Two Spartans survived the battle. One, Aristodemus, had been sent away with an eye infection. He returned to Sparta and was treated as a coward, shunned, refused fire, refused conversation, until he threw himself into the front line at Plataea a year later and died seeking redemption. The other survivor, Pantites, was sent on a diplomatic errand and missed the fight. He hanged himself from the shame. That's the world they lived in. The epitaph carved at the site doesn't brag. It doesn't even mention victory, because there wasn't one. Roughly translated, it just asks the traveler to tell Sparta that her sons died here, obedient to her laws. A small group of farmers, an old king, an enslaved underclass written out of history, and a town that vanished from the map. Together, for three days in August of 480 BC, they did the math on freedom and decided the price was worth it. We remember 300 of them. There were always more.

Nobody told you airlines have two prices for every flight. The price they show you. And the price they hope you never find. $1,190 flight. Paid $141. $1,049 difference. Same seat. Same day. Here are the 7 prompts that found it: (Save this before disappearing).

Whenever Nigerian car dealers or mechanics advice you to pick a Toyota or Lexus over a Chinese car kindly show them this video.

Wow CREATIVITY at it BEST

I have no caption, I am unmotivated, discouraged, sad, scared, slipping into depression. I cannot continue to suffer in silence because I am ashamed of what people will say or where this video might reach. At this stage, I NEED HELP because I am HOPELESS Please help me , you shall not lack. I don’t have a kobo in my account, and before I start entering DMs to beg for money and food, I have a business that just seem to be stagnant, I have literally tried everything, if I had money maybe I will do more , but at this stage I am left with nothing. Even if it’s just a product, support me by buying, if you don’t need it, you can buy and we give someone in need, if you cannot buy at all, tell someone about my business who can buy, help me to share this video, who knows I can hit my luck via you. Please I am begging, it’s that bad, please for Gods sake

The invisible Glass experiment Scientists once placed a transparent glass barrier inside an aquarium. On one side was a fierce pike, and on the other side were several smaller fish swimming freely. When the hungry pike saw the smaller fish, it immediately rushed forward to attack. Bang. It slammed straight into the glass and bounced back. Confused, the pike kept trying again and again, but every attempt ended the same way. The repeated collisions injured its head and knocked off some of its scales. Eventually, the pike became frightened and retreated to a corner of the tank. After some time, the scientists quietly removed the glass barrier. The smaller fish now swam freely throughout the aquarium, even brushing against the pike’s mouth. But the pike never tried to eat them again. Even though it was hungry, it refused to attack. In its mind, the invisible wall was still there. A few days later, the pike reportedly died of starvation, surrounded by food. This phenomenon is often referred to as the Pike Effect or Pike Syndrome. It’s often used as a metaphor for how repeated failure can create invisible limits in the mind.

Binance top traders are quietly buying $XRP long positions.

Paul Onuachu becomes the first Trabzonspor player to score in 10 consecutive league games since 1992. You won't see this on major Nigerian new outlets and blogs because it's not Victor Osimhen

Pastor Bolaji said “Opeyemi, we want 150,000 people at the Next Level Prayer Conference. Can we make it happen?” I said “Absolutely, of course”. But I lied. To my ordinary mind, 150,000 was a crazy number. Last night, I climbed to the top of the bleachers and took videos of the people that came out to attend the Next Level Prayer Conference and I shed a tear. I saw miracles, I received a word I knew was specifically for me. I had no idea people could turn up to Jesus like that o. Shout out to the NLP marketing team mehn. Marketing for Jesus>>> #NLPC

@arush So are we saying SBF is not the criminal that everyone made him to be?

For those of you that follow me for FTX inconvenient truths, I was on the UCC and can corroborate everything Dan says here in his statement under oath. The mastermind behind this was not John “Anthropic is vaporware”. Andrew Dieterich, the lead lawyer for Sullcrom that structured the vehicle to hide the source of funds for the purchase of $HOOD and lied by omission (later corrected) to Judge Dorsey to escape disqualification of taking control of the bk in 2022, designed this bankruptcy from the get-go, was the one who pulled all entities illegally into bankruptcy, intentionally delayed the formation of the UCC until a full 1.5 months after petition date meanwhile already attempted to resell LedgerX and FTX EU, JP to wipe the evidence, collaborated with Paul Hastings and Judge Dorsey to deny the appointment of an Examiner which the knew full well would be overturned (and was) in appeal but by the time the Examiner was forced appointed it was too late- assets sold rapidly and irreversibly to cash, erasing everyone’s possibility of returns for the benefit of Sullcrom and their cronies to feed off the estate with zero creditor oversight and zero accountability. - John got his $42M bonus - Andrew Dieterich got his generational pay day while remaining mostly anonymous - @novogratz (Sullcrom client) got the SOL - Mysten got their SUI back - Binance (Quinn and Paul Hastings clients) escaped their $2.2B clawback - Genesis got their $1.5B loan returned, - Silicon Valley got Anthropic - Zach Dexter & Mark Wetjen got LedgerX and Mark’s $1.9M bonus post petition while all funds were frozen - @vladtenev (Sullcrom clients) got his 7.5% or $HOOD back and creditors got 15% of our corn. These are unusual but completely predictable outcomes because the incentive system is broken. US Bankruptcy law needs urgent reform, the industry is utter filth and Dan’s statement exposes it from the inside. @aosipovich @Yueqi_Yang @Timccopeland

@Shibizens How long will this transition take? It's been weeks already. Journalists like me rely on the data for accurate reporting on the ecosystem

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@dori_coin @Simply_Compl3x3 I wrote the piece, I've been following you for a while. Cheers

@Simply_Compl3x3 Oh, I didn’t realize I was quoted, appreciate it 🙏

📰 "Cardano Over Ethereum, Insider Shares Crucial Security Difference" 🗞️ 🌐🔏 $ADA vs. $ETH @dori_coin Quoted in article u.today/cardano-over-e…

Dream big. Work hard. Stay humble.

The Glasgow Riverside Museum is a good way to start your 2026 sightseeing. As a free to access museum, you will see the British shipbuilding evolution in all of its glory. The Museum showcased boats, ships, engines, and different automobiles that have helped shape the UK

First and last place to celebrate new year

@MbarkCherguia The White is the THE GOAT here 😂

What kind of misunderstanding is this? 😂

One of the greatest lecture in the world.

This is the best explanation i have ever seen, i know a million people have been wanting to ask this question too 😂😂

Japan has just rendered an entire generation of conventional submarines obsolete, and the world hasn’t fully realized it yet. With the Taigei class and its lithium-ion batteries, Tokyo already set a new benchmark: up to three weeks submerged without ever raising a snorkel. That, however, was merely the opening act. Today, Toyota and Panasonic are leading the global race in solid-state batteries, with prototypes arriving in 2027–2028, mass production after 2030, and Japan’s next submarine class will be the first to use them, either in pure battery form or as a hybrid with a small reactor for onboard recharging. This hybrid would be similar to what the Chineses are developing. The leap is staggering. A 4,000 ton conventional submarine will patrol for 40 to 60 days without surfacing, sprint well above 20 knots for hours on end, and do it all more quietly than many nuclear subs, thanks to being significantly lighter and running solely on battery power. Solid-state cells weigh roughly one-third as much, generate 40 % less heat, and eliminate half the cooling systems. The result is a faster, stealthier hull that can travel thousands of kilometers without ever breaking the surface. Those hundreds of saved tons translate directly into more powerful electric motors, extra torpedoes and missiles, cutting-edge sensors, or greater crew comfort. The same hull now carries twice the energy or twice the weapons. It means that by 2035–2040, Japan will field conventional submarines with the endurance and sprint performance of today’s 8,000-ton nuclear boats, at one-third the cost and without the political baggage of uranium.