MansfromDaVinci

MansfromDaVinci t1_iw31atw wrote

Alfred was not the first to hold the position of a sort of English high king, at the very least Egbert, Offa and Penda held similar power and there were other Bretwalda. Æthelstan was certainly the first to unite the kingdoms of England but it's possible Vortigern, Riothamus, or Ambrosius Aurelianus held the lands that became England and Wales earlier

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MansfromDaVinci t1_iv51r1w wrote

You don't understand, sometimes companies make things that improve life say insulin, sometimes they make DDT, and they don't care either way, they care about what makes a profit. Charities also make houses, food and medicine and do care about the human effect.

Every single thing that makes my life unbearable, from social media echo-chambers, through processed food, to global warming comes from for profit companies. In my country the idiot right-wing sold off the public services to companies for a song and now we are trillions poorer in lost profits, pay through the nose for them at point of access, pay again from taxes and get a worse service.

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MansfromDaVinci t1_iugtth5 wrote

Tournaments were dangerous, though the equipment limited this, however there was a lot to be gained from them in terms of honour, reputation, status and hard cash. William Marshall became wealthy from his success in tournaments and attracted the attention of the royal family, he went from penniless second son and knight-errant to the right hand man to 5 kings, regent of England and Earl of Pembroke.

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MansfromDaVinci t1_iubiyr5 wrote

The corruption world cup has started and Qatar pull into an early lead with a quarter of a million 'gifts' to British MPs. Qatar were already the favourites, racking up a score of somewhere over 5 million in bribes to fifa in qualifying and with the gains they made in build up by not paying their slaves it's hard to see how anyone can touch them at this stage. But it's always all to play for in the beautiful game and with an estimated minimum of 150 million in the back of a swiss bank vault by the end of the tournament there's still room for the other contenders to have a dig.

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