Monthly Archives: April 2022

I am a historian of the Soviet Union, a country that does not exist any more. I study the history of Soviet hippies, a phenomenon that also belongs in the past. During the Perestroika period in the 1980s, political and economic reforms led to greater freedoms of the press, speech and assembly. Irredentist national feeling swelled in the Soviet republics, including Ukraine, leading ultimately to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Putins war in Ukraine is also a war on this history: he is determined to reverse the entire Perestroika project, reestablishing the primacy and ideology of the Russian state.

At the heart of the crisis in Russia, both then and now, is a profound generational conflict. An older elite, with values rooted in the past, has been pitched against a younger demographic keen to advance a different national identity. Putins regime will not be toppled by the young, just as the Soviet Union did not collapse because of Beatlemania. But young Russians are already hollowing out the very ground on which he stands.

The Soviet Unions ideological project was in trouble long before it broke apart in 1991. Perestroika could only happen because people were fed up with the inefficiency, corruption, pomposity, empty slogans and leadership of a gerontocracy. No one exemplified this tension better than Soviet hippies young people who unashamedly loved western music, western clothing and western ideas. Hippies ran their own summer camps, created their own information channels and hitchhiked up and down the country. Their existence was itself an act of rebellion. For Soviet hippies, Perestroika meant the little corner of freedom they had carved out in their private lives grew to encompass the entire Soviet Union.

I am often asked these days what my hippy friends and correspondents make of Russias war against Ukraine. Implicit is an expectation that they must be horrified and among the most fervent of protesters. The reality is more complicated, just as the reality of Soviet hippies was in the 70s and 80s. Hippies loved and still love peace. But loving peace is different from opposing war, just as loving western music is different from opposing the Soviet Union. Soviet hippies adopted the peace sign as their symbol. But Soviet hippies, unlike their American counterparts, were not born from an anti-war movement. They were pacifists without a war. And when the Soviet Union waged war in Afghanistan in 1979, their reaction was muted.

Politics was dirty. War not always so. Had the Soviet Union not defeated fascism in 1945 and liberated the people of Europe? Were Soviet soldiers not heroes rather than aggressors? It is no coincidence that Putin, who is a contemporary of the Soviet hippies and even grew up in the same housing complex as some of their leaders, constantly invokes Nazis in his speeches. He, too, is a child of the Brezhnev-era cult of the great fatherland war, as the second world war is called in Russia. The victory of fascism is at the heart of his identity as a Russian. The opponents of Russia are Nazis by virtue of their opposition alone.

Soviet hippies were ambivalent about pacifism. They preferred to talk about music and life and spiritualism. Their silence helped gloss over their differences: it helped Russian hippies ignore the fact that the anti-Soviet feelings of their Lithuanian and Latvian counterparts were different to those of their Moscow friends. While the former were rooted in a desire for political independence, the latter expressed disdain for the Soviet system, but not a critique of its imperial nature.

Youth movements played a role in bringing down the Soviet system. But they played this role at the rearguard, not on the frontlines. They were masters at creating parallel universes without directly confronting the political order. This skill made them excellent survivors but bad revolutionaries. It allowed them to accommodate a wide variety of opinions but prevented them from adopting a unified political position. The former Soviet hippy community is now home to views from across the spectrum, ranging from opposition to the war to full support.

Most of them engage in the same escapism that characterised their existence 40 years earlier. They have migrated from Facebook, which has been banned in Russia but can be accessed with a VPN, to platforms such as VKontakte and Telegram almost without complaint. They worry more how Russians are treated abroad than about their hippy peers in Ukraine. After Putins rally on 18 March, something else crept in: Soviet-style stiob. Stiob denotes the fun people make of pompous rulers through imitation. In the late Soviet Union, stiob was one of the main ways of communicating. Russias former Soviet hippies did not initially mock Putin until the rally, where his jacket was mocked relentlessly; as were the rallys international guests, all of whom hailed from Russia.

This detached, apolitical stance became the hallmark of an entire generation. After 1991, it ultimately translated into apathy. But new generations of Russian youth have grown up since the 1970s and 1980s. During the first decade of the 2000s, young people flocked to Putin, the Orthodox Church and regime-conformist youth organisations such as Nashi in an attempt to find an alternative to the dominance of western commercial culture. Since 2011, young people have made up the backbone of protest movements that follow the strategies of Soviet dissent, relying on performances and happenings (most famous among them Pussy Riots anti-Putin prayer), art, music and media creations, and the carving out of personal pockets of freedom.

Right now, the states repressive pressure is so high that mass demonstrations have virtually ceased to take place. In official opinion polls, about half of under-30s in Russia are opposed to the war, with many others avoiding the question. The escapism of the late Soviet period has translated into an exodus of many young Russian intellectuals to the west and neighbouring countries.

Some young Russians are busy carving out alternative practices, alternative heroes, alternative channels of information, alternative topics of conversation, ways of seeing the world and relating to the west. Young feminist women have emerged as one of the driving forces of organised resistance. Young IT workers are building up new businesses in former Soviet republics. Young journalists are writing out of Riga, Tallinn and Berlin. When Putins regime eventually does end, a small alternative Russian world will already exist. And then historians will write about the kernels of change that were first detected at the height of Putins rule.

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A youthquake against Putin is unlikely. The history of Soviet hippies shows why - The Guardian

A map of the known world in the time of Herodotus, the Greek writer who is known as The Father of History. Credit: User:Bibi Saint-Pol Own work (based on the GIF by Marco Prins and Jona Lendering from http://www.livius.org, from http://www.mediterranees.net/geographie/herodote/cartes.html, http://www.henry-davis.com/MAPS/Ancientimages/109A.GIF)

Herodotus, the Greek historian known as The Father of History, passed on detailed knowledge of the world, or at least as much as was known by ancient Greeks, allowing for the creation of a map containing peoples, lands and geographical features which he himself had written about so long ago.

With Greece at the center of this universe, as per Herodotus perspective, we gain a deeper understanding of how the Ancient Greeks viewed the world and their position within it. This applies especially to the Golden Age of Athens when Athens was at the peak of its power.

Born into a family in Halicarnassus, in Asia Minor, at a time when the Persian Empire ruled the land, Herodotus had connections to the East that enabled him to travel to the borders of the contemporary Greek world.

Calling it the Oikoumene, or the inhabited world, we can see details of parts of the world well-known to Greeks of the time in contrast to shadowy lands and peoples known only as a result of travelers stories. Still, one gains a clear understanding of how Greeks viewed their civilization and others lack of civilization, as well.

Herodotus place in history and his significance is best understood by studying his creation of the methodology of history writing; not only is his work the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact but also contains popular legends of times that were far removed from experience.

These popular legends, which were sometimes melodramatic and nave, were often charming. At times, they were, in fact, complete fabrications of peoples who were seen as living beyond the boundaries of the civilized world.

These can also can be found in the work of Herodotus himself. However, a layer of reason, or gnome was added to the mix in an effort to explain the intricacies of events. This set Herodotus apart from his predecessors.

Herodotus used several different techniques in presenting history as it played out, as embodied in the concept called autopsy, or seeing for oneself. He was the first to examine the past by combining the different types of evidence collected. The first element of that technique was relating eyewitness accounts of events, or opsis. Next, he would use akoe, or hearsay, added to talegomena, legends and traditions. These would then all be synthesized with the use of Herodotus own gnome, or reason.

Sadly, Herodotus did not create any maps from his personal travels, but as far as we know, his efforts built upon the histories that had been compiled earlier by Anaximander and Hecataeus. Through his seminal work, known as The Histories, the world was given the most comprehensive understanding of all the known events, peoples, and places of the world at the time.

Beginning in more advanced parts of the world as was known at the time, Herodotus devoted much of his Histories to the recording of the cataclysmic events of the Greco-Persian Wars, which in the end granted power to Athens thus causing the center of the world to shift westward.

King Darius I of Persia founded the ceremonial city of Persepolis in about 515 BC, turning the focus of antique civilization toward Persia for some time.

The stability he fostered in his Empire would be shattered in the year 499 BC, as the Ionian Greeks revolted against his rule. Eventually, the great fighting forces of Persia defeated the Greeks, but that wasnt the end of their troubles.

Remembering how the Athenians had supported the revolt, he ordered an invasion of the Greek mainland to punish the upstart city. After the Persian Army was vanquished at the battle of Marathon in 490 BC, the emperors son Xerxes took over the campaign against the Greeks, invading Greece in 479 BC when Herodotus was only six years old.

Many believe that the great historian saw the assembled armies and naval forces as they embarked on their campaign in his native city of Halicarnassus, causing him to remember the numbers of men as perhaps even larger than they actually were. This would account for Herodotus claim that there were six million men in Xerxes invasion force.

Eventually, after successfully repulsing the Persians,Athens would emerge as one of the greatest of all Greek cities, becoming the nexus of a great naval empire of its own.

In chronicling the events and peoples of the world after the Wars concluded, Herodotus appears to have traveled to Egypt first along with the Athenians. He may have come with an Athenian force to help out in revolts against the Persians in 454 BC.

Herodotus then proceeded to the great city of Tyre and down the Euphrates River to the historic city of Babylon. These were, of course, parts of the civilized world of the time, but what about those parts and peoples who were on the periphery and whose stories were yet to be told by any historian?

Herodotus was careful to record as much information as possible on those peoples, as well, despite an inability to travel to those areas to verify accuracy.

As seen in the map above, Herodotus recorded the existence of known peoples including Ethiopians, Indians, and the far-flung Celts who lived in what is known today as France. He referred to those peoples as the Androphagi (Ancient Greek: , cannibals, literally man-eaters).

These apparently fearsome individuals lived some distance north of Scythia in an area later believed to be the forests between the upper waters of the Dnepr and the Don rivers in what is now Russia.

The historian noted that when King Darius the Great led a Persian invasion into Scythian territory in what is now Southern Russia, the Androphagi fled when the warring armies passed through their territory.

The manners of the Androphagi are more savage than those of other races. They neither observe justice nor are governed by any laws. They are nomads, and their dress is Scythian. Further, their language is specific to them. Unlike other nations in these parts, they are cannibals.

Histories, Book 4 (Melpomene)

Herodotus has much kinder words for the Agathyrsi (Greek: ) who lived north of Greece. These people were of Scythian, or mixed Dacian-Scythian origin. In the time of Herodotus, they occupied the plain of the Maris (Mure) in the mountainous part of ancient Dacia now known as Transylvania in present-day Romania.

Their ruling class, however, seems to have been of Scythian origin.

In his writing, produced in 450 BC, Herodotus claims the Agathyrsi lived in Transylvania and the outer parts of Scythia near the Neuri.

From the country of the Agathyrsoi comes down another river, the Maris (Mure), which empties itself into the same; and from the heights of Haemus descend with a northern course three mighty streams, the Atlas, the Auras, and the Tibisis, and pour their waters into it, he writes.

Herodotus also referenced a Pontic Greek myth claiming that the Agathyrsi were named after a legendary ancestor, Agathyrsus, the oldest son of Heracles and the monster Echidna. The Agathyrsi also appear in Herodotus description of the historical expedition, which occurred between 516 and 513 BC. Darius I of Persia reigned between 522and 486 BC against the Scythians in the North Pontic region.

Herodotus writes that the Scythians, meanwhile, having considered themselves that they were not able to repel the army of Dareios alone by a pitched battle, proceeded to send messengers to those who dwelt near them: and already the kings of these nations had come together and were taking counsel with one another, since so great an army was marching towards them. Now those who had come together were the kings of the Tauroi, Agathyrsoi, Neuroi, Androphagoi, Melanchlainoi, Gelonians, Budinoi and Sauromatai.

Others, referred to as the Massagetae, were a mighty nomadic tribe thought to be Scythians by Herodotus; they settled somewhere in the wide lowlands to the east of the Caspian Sea and the southeast of the Aral Sea.

Living on the Ust-Urt Plateau and the Kyzylkum Desert, most likely between the Oxus (m Dary) and Jaxartes (Syr Dary) Rivers, their existence was marked by the great historian as being on the bounds of the known world at the time.

The Argippaeans or Argippaei are another people mentioned by Herodotus in The Histories. Some scholars believe they were actually Mongolians, as they were said to be living north of the Scythians, and much of the scholarship points to them being a tribe near the Ural Mountains. There are scholars who believe that Herodotus could be referring to the Mongolians based on accounts of their physical description and culture.

Herodotus only relied on secondary sources for his account, drawing from descriptions of Greeks and Scythians. They were said to have settled in a land that is flat and deep-soiled. This was believed to be in the outliers of the Altai mountains with the Tien Shan on the other side just before an impenetrable barrier of mountains called the Eremos.

Herodotus notes, much like Mongolian nomads today, Each of them dwells under a tree, and they cover the tree in winter with a cloth of thick white felt. Of course, this brings to mind yurts with thick mats placed over frames that are used by such peoples even to this day.

The Issedones, likewise what we call Asia today, are thought to have lived in Western Siberia or Chinese Turkestan. Some scholars speculate that they are the people described in Chinese sources as the Wusun while others place them further northeast on the south-western slopes of the Altay mountains.

According to Herodotus, the Issedones practiced ritual cannibalism of their elderly males followed by a ritual feast at which the deceased patriarchs family ate his flesh, gilded his skull, and placed it in a position of honor much like a cult image.

Herodotus recorded what he knew of these various peoples however different their cultures may have been from that of the known world at the time. The ancient Greeks could then make sense of events they may in some way have been affected by and perhaps understand or predict potential external threats.

However, Herodotus also recorded river and mountain range locations with astounding accuracy considering his only sources were verbal accounts. He was undoubtedly responsible for creating a geographical map containing much greater detail and depth of the known world than had ever previously been available.

The later conquests of Alexander the Great and the great scientific discoveries of the Hellenistic Period, with Eratosthenes and others taking great pains to further geographical knowledge, would expand on contemporary knowledge of the world.

Herodotus efforts did not go unrewarded or unappreciated even by ancient peoples.In 445 B.C., he was awarded with the equivalent of approximately $200,000 in todays currency for his 10 talents. It was a way to honor him for contributions to Athens intellectual realm.

Toward the very end of his incredible life, the great historian took part in a colonization effort of what is now southern Italy in an Athenian-sponsored colony called Thurium. This is the area later known as Magna Graecia. Although his days of recording historical events and stories of far-flung peoples were over, his sense of adventure had clearly not waned.

In the end, Herodotus had certainly contributed greatly to knowledge of the world by the simple act of putting information into writing. Indeed, not all his theories could withstand scientific scrutiny, but his significant role in the circulation of knowledge pertaining to ancient peoples, places, and customs, is highly indisputable.

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Map of the World as Herodotus, The Father of History, Knew It - Greek Reporter

Image: Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1115423

Ill just focus on F1 tracks, the worst just based on historic tracks that look SUPER boring would be AVUS (Germany, 1959) and Zeltweg Airfield (Austria, 1964), looks like LONG straights and a couple of corners.

Indianapolis (USA) and Nurburging (original track, Germany) rank as the two deadliest (7 and 5 deaths, respectively).

For tracks on this years calendar, Ill go with Jeddah, Monaco and Zandvoort. Jeddah was kinda fun to watch this year, but with the high speed, close walls and limited visibility its just a matter of time before someone has a crash that makes Mick Schumachers wreck stand out as the warning it should be.

Zandvoort just looks like someone made a really big go-kart track in the sand and decided to put full size race cars on it, in certain sections of that circuit, the cars look almost comically out of place.

I love the Monaco GP, but lets be honest, its pretty much a really, really fast parade. So Monaco fits right in the middle of Jeddah and Zandvoort because it combines whats wrong with both tracks. F1 cars have grown to accommodate safety improvements but you cant just move parts of a city to make the street wider for better run off areas and to get more room for passing. This usually results in the race being a procession where no one can pass and cars are removed from various places in the procession due to driver error (clipping a wall, or pushing another driver into a barrier), equipment failure (blown motor, flat tire, etc.) or when a team decides to just throw away a win and calls their driver in for tires and everyone has their thumb firmly planted up their ass (like when Red Bull screwed Danny Ric quite hard without a nice kiss or even a little lube a few years ago).

AVUS claims four whole corners, three of which combine like Voltron to form a facsimile of Lime Rock Parks Big Bend. When plotting an ideal line, it ends up being two straights linked by two hairpins the exact track layout that NASCAR haters claim makes for boring racing. Ovals, by the way, are more interesting than this.

(Editors note from Elizabeth Blackstock: HAVE YALL SEEN AVUS BANKING??????????????????? BRO. BRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Submitted by: NegativeEd

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These Are The Worst Race Tracks In History - Jalopnik

Magazine

The saga of Nicaragua-Taiwan relations and their eventual end in December 2021 stretches back to the Cold War heyday of Taipeis anti-communist obsession.

Taiwans President Tsai Ing-wen (right) and Nicaraguas President Daniel Ortega engage in bilateral talks, Jan. 10, 2017.

We touched down in Managua, Nicaragua, shortly before 7:50 p.m. on July 18, 2014. The tickets were originally booked for a cheaper flight the following day, but Pablo Morales was having none of it.

Its Liberation Day, he said. You have to be here. It will be special.

He greeted me with a clasp befitting his ursine physique and insisted on carrying my luggage a solitary battered backpack to the car. Whispering in from the Pacific, the evening breeze had taken the heat down a notch from oppressive to somewhere just above sultry.

The previous afternoon, on a tour of Panama Citys old Chinatown with a local historian, I had mentioned my plans to attend the celebrations in Managua. My guide raised a startled eyebrow. Be careful with those Sandinistas, he said. Theyll try to convert you for sure.

Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific.

Perhaps Morales discerned a ripple of that warning in my furrowed brow as he navigated the downtown traffic enroute to his home in the suburbs. First thing to know, he said. Im a Sandinista, but I wont try to make you one.

Pablo Morales (a pseudonym) was as good as his word, but his word wasnt the problem.

Propaganda is everywhere in Nicaragua; the cult of President Daniel Ortega and his Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) is pervasive. Spray-painted images of El Comandante, fist clenched as he hollers a clarion call to the masses; constant updates from the presidents office running as banners at the bottom of the screen during daytime lifestyle programs on state TV channels; the utopian spin on almost every action or event in which the government plays a hand; and Stalinesque accusations of sabotage carried out by nebulous malefactors when things are not quite up to scratch.

The Liberation Day 2014 celebrations were a perfect example. Id been led to believe that it was Nicaraguas independence day, which its not, and that it was an event joyously celebrated by all Nicaraguans, which it isnt. The distinctly underwhelming attendance at Plaza de la Revolucin, formerly Plaza de la Repblica further demonstrating how the FSLN has bound the countrys identity to the party was explained away by the revelation that a bus from the Sandinista Youth wing had been attacked by right-wing terrorists.

Several Sandinistas insisted this was a regular occurrence, and indeed, there were two more reports of attacks against party supporters in the next few days. One of these I caught over breakfast in the Morales family home. Coincidentally considering I had come to Nicaragua to probe the countrys relations with Taiwan the banner announcing the news ran along the bottom of the screen during a segment about a Taiwanese woman who ran a KTV in Managua.

Elsewhere, other Nicaraguans poured scorn on the claims. Any time things dont turn out the way they want, its a right-wing plot, said a contact with ties to opposition groups.

Yet if Ortega and his followers saw enemies everywhere, it was not completely without reason. The causes of this paranoia lie at the heart of my decision to make that trip in 2014. I was not investigating the present-day claims of conspiracy, but skulduggery that dated back decades. Eventually, I found that the two coincided in the unlikeliest of manners.

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The Cold War History Behind Nicaragua's Break With Taiwan - The Diplomat

(WBNG) -- The Southern Tier has a rich history of paranormal activity that one local author and professor detailed in her book, Haunted Southern Tier.

Distinguished Service Professor of English at Binghamton University Elizabeth Tucker also teaches local folklore classes at the university.

This is important because its a very long tradition of belief and storytelling and it has been meaningful for people in many ways, Tucker told 12 News.

One of these locations is Christ Episcopal Church in Binghamton. Tucker said that the church welcomes the ghost stories as part of their spirituality.

One of the church historians Susan Sarzynsky told 12 News that the church sits on land sold by Joshua Whitney.

Sarzynsky said Whitney was charged by William Bingham to help develop the area of binghamton. Whitney was asked to start churches.

Some believe that Whitneys spirit still lingers within the church after a disagreement. It is believed that Whitney asked for larger pews due to his size and was denied.

Sarzynsky said stories like these are a gateway into local history.

I guess thats because it is an old church with an old history there are things that happened that are unexplained, she told 12 News.

Tucker welcomes anyone who would like to discuss their own stories with her. Her email is ltucker@binghamton.edu

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Binghamton University professor recounts haunted history in the Southern Tier - WBNG

SALT LAKE CITY The history of lynching in Utah came into focus after President Biden signed the Emmet Till Anti-Lynching Act into law this week.

Till was a 14-year-old Black teenager who was beaten and lynched by two white men in 1955, allegedly for flirting with a white woman days before he was killed.

A University of Utah historian says there are stories similar to Emmit Tills that took place when Utah was a territory. He said these are examples of violence against those who did not conform to the social standard.

The violence included forms of intimidation, including death by lynching.

I think we have three [examples of race-related violent deaths] in Utah that we can pinpoint, said Paul Reeve, a Simmons Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Utah. Robert Marshall, Sam Joe Harvey and Thomas Coleman were all African-American men.

According to Reeve, Coleman was a former slave who was a member of The Church of Jesus of Christ of Latter-day Saints. An 1886 newspaper clipping from The Daily Union Vedette said Coleman was killed for courting a white woman. Somebody slit his throat.

His body was dumped on the ground of (the) current state capitol, Reeve said. A placard was placed on Coleman that read, NOTICE TO ALL N******! TAKE WARNING! LEAVE WHITE WOMEN ALONE!!!

Sam Joe Harvey was accused of killing Salt Lake City Marshal Andrew H. Burt. Officials arrested and then released Harvey. Later, a mob lynched him according to an article on the Utah Department of Heritage and Arts website. His skeletal remains were found outside a cemetery in Salt Lake City.

Officials accused coal worker Robert Marshall of killing a guard in Carbon County, Utah. A mob later hanged him, and eleven men were arrested. However, they were released after the grand jury said they found no evidence to convict them.

These were not the only acts of violence toward people who did not fit the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant ideal in Utah, according to Reeve.

The KKK burns a cross on the lawn of a Greek man who married a white woman, he said. Theyre enforcing white Anglo-Saxon Protestantism, right? Those from southern and eastern Europe are Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Jewish, and they dont fit the KKKs understanding of what it means to be an American.

Despite their violent nature, Reeve said reflecting on these instances can bring about a change of perspective for people today.

If we understand history, it can help us to stand in places of empathy, to perhaps take a step back [and] recognize the lessons that history has for us to learn that can inform the present, he said.

Reeve is part of a group that is commemorating the lynching of Sam Joe Harvey and Thomas Coleman through the Equal Justice Initiatives Soil Collection Project. The idea is to gather the soil from places where racial lynchings took place.

There is an ongoing effort at trying to make sure that Utah lynching victims are remembered in the National Lynching Memorial, Reeve said.

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Historian reflects on Utahs history with lynching and prejudice - KSL NewsRadio

Toby Makoyawo just smashed the Terrier record for 100 meters as a freshman. Whats next for him?

In the video above, Toby Makoyawo (CAS25) demonstrates some of his training methods and talks about workouts that have helped him become an elite sprinter and set the BU 100-meter record. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Here are three words you dont expect to hear from the mouth of the 19-year-old freshman who just became the fastest runner in the history of Boston University: I hate walking.

But thats what Toby Makoyawo (CAS25) says with a big smile, just before hopping his lean, six-foot-one frame onto a Hiboy scooter and zipping off in his black tracksuit and gray knit BU Track & Field hat. Watching him disappear down Comm Ave must have been the same feeling experienced by other sprinters at the recent Texas Relays in Austin, where his competitors mostly saw only the back of his red BU shirt as he raced into the Terrier record books with shocking, world-class speed.

In his preliminary 100-meter race on March 25, Makoyawo ran 10.12 seconds, finishing second in his heat while smashing the BU record of 10.45 set by Justin Flynn (CGS16, Questrom18) in 2018. Then in the next days final, he stunned the field of runners, and even himself, by winning with a blazing 9.90 time (a tailwind, however, prevented that time from being an official record). He let out a yell of excitement after finishing and then bounded around with elation.

I knew he had the race won at 40 meters. His race model came together on that day.

It was a short race. But those 10 seconds were the culmination of a long journey for Makoyawoone that started in his parents homeland of Nigeria, moved to his birthplace in Florida, took him across the Atlantic to a childhood in London, and finally landed him in a dorm room at BU. On campus, hes just another first-year student who is managing a full schedule of introductory classes, enjoys shooting photos as a hobby, gets around on his motorized scooter, and holds down a part-time job at a fintech start-up.

But once he steps on the track, and his arms start swinging and his long legs start flying, there is no blending into the crowd.

Soccer was Makoyawos favorite sport growing up in England. All his friends played, and even when he ran away from the pack in a short sprint in primary school (the countrys elementary school equivalent), it never occurred to him that his future might be on the track rather than the soccer field. I didnt realize how fast I was, he says.

It was at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic School in South Ruislip, England (west of London), where he started competing in track meets against other schools and quickly realized something: I would win every race, he says.

He was still thinking about soccer until he was 17. He had started running with a club track team in London, and he ran the indoor 60 meters so fast that he was the fastest in the United Kingdom under 20 and number three overall. I was just shocked, he says of his sprint times. His speed earned him the chance to run the 60 meters with the senior club team, instead of the junior teamand at an international race in Austria he blazed to a victory in 6.68 seconds.

I blew people away, he remembersand all of a sudden it clicked for him. Track was his future.

There was just one problem with his success. As fast as he was at 60 meters, thats an indoor sprint distance. Makoyawo was convinced his best race was actually the outdoor equivalent: the 100 meters, and even the 200 meters. The reason? His size.

Tall sprinterslike Makoyawos idol, the worlds fastest man, Jamaicas Usain Bolt, who is six-foot-fiveexcel in the 100 and 200 more often than the 60, because their legs need a few more strides to hit top speed. So, while shorter, quicker runners might be faster at the shorter 60-meter distance, the long stride of the taller runner uses the final 40 meters in the longer race to reach top speed. (In case youre curious about how fast Makoyawo is running at his top speed, its between 20 and 22 miles per hour.)

He was just getting ready to prove that the 100 meters was his best event when the coronavirus pandemic ground the world to a stop in early 2020. Instead of getting frustrated, Makoyawo says, he found a hill behind his house, started training on it, and built up his strength. I found it therapeutic, he says of those days. I was a late bloomer to track.

Even COVID-19 could not stop the word of his sprint times from spreading, and soon Makoyawo began hearing from colleges in America, including Purdue, the University of Florida, Harvard, and BU. The clincher in his decision was Gabe Sanders.

Sanders had been an assistant track coach at BU from 2008 to 2015, working closely with the sprinters. Under his leadership, the Terriers broke 15 school records and BU sprinters and hurdlers combined for 16 Patriot League titles and 28 America East crowns. He left BU to become assistant track coach at Stanford, where the sprint relay teams shined. There, he directly coached 14 NCAA First-Team All-Americans, 3 Second-Team All-Americans, and 17 NCAA finalists. During his tenure, 11 Stanford school records were broken and Stanford qualified three relay teams to the NCAA Championships, including both the mens 4100 and 4400, for the first time in Cardinal history. And then in 2019, Sanders returned to BU as director of track and field and cross country, and again, Terrier records started to fall. Makoyawo wanted to be a part of that.

Coach Sanders was a big draw, Makoyawo says. I wanted to work hard and be competitive. Coach shaped a program that wasnt just for all sprinters, it was for me.

Sanders knows that individualizing training programs is critical for young runners.

Working with athletes in general, its about physiology, biomechanics, psychology, and understanding that its not just knowing what to do, but how to make it accessible to the student, he says of his approach. People respond to different training methodologies in different ways.

With Makoyawo, Sanders says he looked for clues through race footage and racing patterns, and what he saw was unlimited potential. I said, holy cow, why am I the only one seeing this? I saw an insanely talented young man. His 60-meter dash was world-class compared to his 100 and 200. But if you look at the footage and break down his racing, it told me this young man has very, very strong profound top speed characteristics and qualities.

While other schools may have shied away from Makoyawo based solely on his lacking a great 100-meter time, Sanders says he believed he was just raw, physically underdeveloped, and needed time in the weight room to get stronger. Speed doesnt lie. You just have to figure out what works for individualized training.

Even before he arrived at BU, Makoyawo continued to break records. In July 2021, he won the 100 meters at the 2021 European Athletics Under 20 Championships in 10.25 seconds, a European record for runners under 20. And once he got to BU a month later, he didnt slow down. In his first indoor season as a Terrier, Makoyawo saw an immediate impact, as his time in the 200 meters dropped from 21.05 to 20.73.

The Texas Relays have been his biggest stage in the United States so far. Dating back nearly 100 years, its the second-largest relay meet in the country, after only the Penn Relays, drawing roughly 1,000 teams and 7,000 athletes.

Before he ran his individual sprint, Makoyawo anchored the BU 4100 relay teama team impressively comprising two other freshmen, Matt Spicer (CAS25) and Leon Christian (CAS25), and sophomore Uchenna Nwosu (CGS22)that ran a school-record time of 39.89.

Makoyawo says that running and walking around on the track a few hours later, he felt poised for a great individual 100. I felt quick, he says.

And he was.

Sanders says that entering the meet, their goal for Makoyawo was to make the 100-meter final and to finish in the top three. In the preliminary heat to qualify for the 100-meter final, Makoyawos 10.12 time was the third fastest in all of the heats and easily advanced him to the final. His time also set a new Patriot League record, and according to BU Athletics: It is believed to be the second-fastest 100-meter time by an athlete at a Northeast region school, trailing only the 10.09 by Syracuses Mike Morris in 1985.

In the final, Makoyawo had a good start, which is not always his strength, and once he took the lead, there was no catching him. I was ecstatic, Makoyawo says. Just so happy. It was a shock, and it wasnt a shock. I had visualized it for so long.

Sanders says that everything just clicked for his young sprinter in those 10 seconds.

I knew he had the race won at 40 meters, says the coach, who was watching from the stands and could be heard screaming on the ESPN broadcast of the race. His race model came together on that day. Hes much stronger in his core, he accelerated deep into the race and reached his top speed later. The only question in my mind was how fast was it gonna be.

The race clock initially said 9.96 seconds, but it was quickly adjusted to 9.90. (For perspective, the gold medalwinning time at the 2020 Olympics was 9.80.)

I was like a damn fool, Sanders says of his reaction. In front of 20,000 people you can hear me yelling, going, Yeah! Lets go! It was pure, raw emotion. All of these positive, joyous emotions you could have all came out.

He says that for any competitive sprinter, breaking 10 seconds is the ultimate accomplishment, vaulting a runner into world-class territory (the world record for the 100 meters is 9.58, set by Jamaicas Bolt in 2009).

Every 100-meter sprinter dreams of that race when they break 10 seconds, Sanders says. I was so happy for Toby. And so happy for our program.

He hopes that the success of the team, highlighted by Makoyawos record, will help BU erase the idea that the best sprinters have to go to schools in the West or South, not the Northeast.

No, you need an environment and culture supportive of the student-athlete, Sanders says, then take care of their needs, and the rest will be history.

Read more from the original source:

Meet the Fastest Human in BU History. He's Only 19 - Boston University

TikTok is testing a new watch history feature with some users to allow them to find videos that appeared on their For You page that they didnt have a chance to save. Given the constant stream of content on TikTok, accidentally refreshing your For You page and losing a video before youve had a chance to like it is a common problem for users. It seems that TikTok is looking to solve this problem with the addition of this possible feature.

When asked if the company plans to expand the test and roll out the feature to more users, TikTok told TechCrunch in an email that it doesnt have more to share on the test at this time.

Were always thinking about new ways to bring value to our community and enrich the TikTok experience, a TikTok spokesperson told TechCrunch, when reached for comment.

Twitter user Hammod Oh, who often uncovers features that are currently being tested by social media platforms, first spotted the feature, which was then highlighted by social media consultant Matt Navarra. Screenshots posted by Hammod Oh and other users indicate that a TikTok users watch history will be accessible in the content and activity section in the apps settings.

The test comes as some TikTok users have found workarounds to help find lost videos. Earlier this year, TikTok user rachforaday posted a video that walks users through the process of uncovering a lost video on the platform. The video instructs users to go to the Discover page, click search, enter an asterisk, go to the search filters tab and toggle the watched videos button. Once you click apply, youll get a list of videos youve seen in the past seven days. The video has since gained immense traction and has been viewed more than 32 million times and has more than 5.5 million likes.

This method isnt the only way that users have uncovered lost TikTok videos. Another workaround walks users through the process of downloading their entire data from the app to access a zip file that shows their video browsing history.

TikToks watch history feature should make the process of finding lost videos a lot simpler and get rid of the need for these workarounds.

Read more here:

TikTok is testing a watch history feature to make it easier to uncover lost videos - TechCrunch

You remember when Eduardo Villacis pitched for the KC Royals, right?

And you recall his 2004 season, dont you, with the one game he pitched to help the club out in a pinch and the three days he spent in the majors?

Its forgivable if his career has slipped your mind, but lets refresh your memory of the righthanded pitcher from Venezuela.

Villacis was signed in 1998 as an amateur free agent by Colorado. After he didnt advance above A-ball in the Rockies system, they dealt him to Kansas City in May 2002 for veteran Bryan Rekar, who had made two starts with the Royals and posted a 15.43 ERA. Rekar, who started his career with the Rockies, didnt make another big league appearance and was out of baseball after that season.

Villacis was assigned to Class A Wilmington and posted a 2.25 ERA before being sidelined with a shoulder injury in July.

Back with Wilmington in 2003, Villacis made four starts among his 42 appearances and posted a 2.82 ERA.

The 2004 season appeared to be the year Villacis would start moving up the ladder when he started the season with Double-A Wichita. He pitched well enough early in the early season that when the Royals needed an emergency starter in May against the Yankees in New York, they called him up. (The Yankees won 101 games and the American League East that season, but lost the American League Championship Series despite leading Boston three games to none).

A Juan Gonzalez RBI groundout gave Kansas City a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning at Yankee Stadium. Gonzalez is one of several players who were stars with other teams and had brief stints with the Royals.

The bottom of the inning started with singles by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez to put runners at first and second with one out. In a sign of things to come, Villacis had Jeter picked off at second base with Jason Giambi at the plate, but his own throwing error sent Jeter to third. Giambi worked a walk to load the bases and an infield single by Gary Sheffield and a force-out by Hideki Matsui put the home team ahead 2-0 before Villacis settled down and escaped the inning despite surrendering another walk.

Despite a single by Jeter, Villacis was able to hold the Yankees scoreless in the second, but the Royals went down in order that inning and again in the third against New York starter Jon Lieber.

Wildness got the best of Villacis in the Yankee third. Giambi walked to lead off the inning before he was forced out on a grounder by Sheffield. A wild pitch moved Sheffield to second and Matsui followed with a walk. Ruben Sierra made Villacis pay with a home run that put the Yankees ahead 5-1 before a fly ball and a groundout ended the inning.

The Royals went down quietly in the fourth and Villacis came out to start the bottom of the inning. He retired Jeter on a fly to deep right, but after a single by Bernie Williams, Villacis was done for the day. Reliever Shawn Camp retired the Yankees in the fourth with no more damage. Villacis ended his big league debut with 3.1 innings, giving up five runs on six hits and four walks. He didnt get any strikeouts and threw 66 pitches to 20 hitters. (The bullpen didnt fare much better as Camp gave up two runs and Curtis Leskanic allowed five more. The Royals fell 12-4).

Two days later, Villacis was sent back to Wichita. He compiled a2-0 record with a 2.67 ERA in 30.1 innings with 21 strikeouts and just six walks into May. Nevertheless, Kansas City placed him on waivers and the Chicago White Sox claimed him late in the month. The Sox assigned him to Double-A Birmingham, where he went 6-4 with a 3.28 ERA.

Splitting time between Birmingham and Triple-A Charlotte, Villacis went 3-7 with a 7.96 ERA in 2005 before the White Sox organization released him in late July. After a year of independent ball, Villacis was out of baseball for good with a major league career spanning three days and one memorable start at Yankee Stadium.

Eduardo Villacis had a short but interesting career with the Royals.

Read the rest here:

KC Royals History: The short career of Eduardo Villacis - Kings of Kauffman

FESTOONED WITH patches, the varsity jacket has, for decades, announced its wearers as members of a team. But the nature of that team has changed over time. Elite male athletes at Ivy League schools wore early versions in the 1920s, said Deirdre Clemente, a fashion historian and the author of Dress Casual: How College Students Redefined American Style. The wool jacketsa love child of English rowing blazers and letterman sweatershad snap buttons, leather sleeves and patches and pins denoting your college and team. They conferred status and swagger and said Im a big man on campus quicker than a privileged glare.

Fifties and 60s high-school jocks turned varsities into emblems of youth culture, but the 80s brought a twist: Michael Jackson donned a red-and-gold one in his Thriller video, and hip-hop stars like Run-DMC wore versions of the arguably elitist jackets with bravado and a wink. These musicians instilled squeaky collegiate style with cool.

Link:

The History of the Varsity Jacket, From Harvard to Hip-Hop - The Wall Street Journal