Paralympics this week

Impressive life story of a Ukrainian-American paralympian.

Russian TV staff walk out after saying "No to war"

As reported in The Guardian:

Two Sundays ago I wrote in the Observer about the last remaining Russian independent TV station, Dozhd (“TV Rain”), and the irrepressible spirit of Natalya Sindeyeva, the woman who pioneered and ran it. Keeping the station alive had cost Sindeyeva her home and her marriage and her health and her security. A dozen years ago when she launched Dozhd she had been a vivid Russian celebrity, a “dancing queen” of Moscow’s elite party circuit, now her mugshot is posted on street corners as a “foreign agent”. The defiant struggles of Dozhd to stay on air and to continue to report the truth in Russia despite years of intimidation and sanction from the Kremlin were the subject of an inspiring documentary, “F@ck This Job (Tango with Putin)”, made by London-based Vera Krichevskaya, which was released in the UK last week and broadcast on the BBC.

A few days after “F@ck this Job” came out, on Friday, the decade-long defiance of Dozhd was silenced, at least for a while, by a brutal new law, passed unanimously in the Russian parliament, which bans news organisations from reporting anything except state approved press releases (it is now illegal for any broadcaster to call events in Ukraine, for example, “a war”). The new legislation, which has also caused the BBC and most other news organisations to suspend its reporting in Russia, will see journalists and media owners who contravene it jailed for up to 15 years. BBC director general Tim Davie said the law “appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism”. Its most chilling effects have been felt among the few surviving liberal Russian media outlets like Dozhd and Novaya Gazeta, whose editor, Dmitry Muratov, winner of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, announced that the paper’s website had been forced to remove all of its material on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying “there is no doubt that the threat [of prosecution] will be realised”...

For their last broadcast Sindeyeva joined the entire news team in front of the camera to say goodbye to viewers. “No to war,” she said, as a farewell, with a bleak smile. The station then cut to some old footage from the ballet Swan Lake, an ironic gesture to the films that Soviet state television had once routinely broadcast when news was censored...

All the talk between journalists, Elovsky said, was how to effectively erase media histories from phones and computers in light of the new law. “It feels like an iron curtain is returning,” he said.

Much more at The Guardian.  Shame on Donald Trump and all U.S. politicians who support the autocratic rule in Russia.

Support for Ukraine in Boston

This morning Trinity Church in the City of Boston offered special support to the people of Ukraine:

This Sunday, March 6, we are honored to welcome the Ukrainian Cultural Center of New England (UCCN) and all those Ukrainians, Ukrainian-Americans, and friends of Ukraine from greater Boston and beyond that they have invited to join them and to join us for our 10 am worship. When our liturgy concludes, a Peace March will start from Copley Square and move down Boylston to the Boston Common. At 12:30, a rally will begin at the Parkman Bandstand. The day’s program intends to show support for the independence of Ukraine and its territorial integrity; to provide opportunity for speaking out against the war in Ukraine; to ask for donations for the people of Ukraine and for humanitarian aid; and to express thanks for all the countries, organizations, and people around the world for their support of Ukraine.

We have coordinated with organizers to offer special prayers for Ukraine and for our world, and our loose offering at all services this Sunday will go toward Sunflower of Peace, an organization delivering medical and humanitarian aid to Ukrainians. Following the Dismissal, we will offer support for guests, and invite all those in our congregation who would like to participate to join the Trinity clergy in the Peace March.

At the conclusion of the Holy Eucharist, the Ukrainian participants were invited to come forward to be recognized as the combined communities sang the Ukranian national anthem:

It was quite a touching moment.  A recording of the livestream is available here.

Why not the first Tuesday?

Newspaper clipping from the inimitable Bad Newspaper.   I can understand that some events have to be held X weeks before other events, but why not on the first Tuesday of the month?  Why a first Tuesday after a first Monday?  Clearly they don't want the activity held if the Tuesday is the first day of the month.  Does this have something to do with federal holidays?

The plural of "talisman" is "talismans"

I've always known what a talisman is, but I'd never thought about the plural until I encountered it in today's Los Angeles Times Sunday crossword, where a 9-letter answer was required.

Had to look up the etymology, which obviously is not related to "man/men" -

From French talisman, partly from Arabic طِلَّسْم‎ (ṭillasm), from Ancient Greek τέλεσμα (télesma, “payment”); and partly directly from Byzantine Greek τέλεσμα (télesma, “talisman, religious rite, completion”), from τελέω (teléō, “to perform religious rites, to complete”), from τέλος (télos, “end, fulfillment, accomplishment, consummation, completion”). Doublet of telesm.

Embedded photo from a NYT article on the comfort of wearing talismans in stressful times.  Related: words ending in -man.

This may be a great time to book a vacation stay in Ukraine

Seriously.  Learned about this today from an article at NPR:

Some people have found a novel way to get money to Ukrainians as their country is under attack from Russia: booking immediate Airbnb stays they don't intend to use.

Airbnb hosts are paid 24 hours after a guest checks in, so people abroad are booking stays and letting hosts know that it's a gesture of solidarity, and they don't plan to appear.

The idea spread over the last few days, and Airbnb is waiving all host and guest fees in Ukraine for now. On Wednesday and Thursday, more than 61,000 nights were booked in Ukraine from around the world — bookings that grossed nearly $2 million, Airbnb tells NPR.

While this phenomenon appears to have developed in a grassroots manner, Airbnb also has its own initiative to provide housing to those in need. The company will offer short-term housing for free for up to 100,000 of those fleeing Ukraine. People can go to Airbnb.org and sign up to host refugees or donate to the cause.

I'm going to look into this this weekend.  Certainly if a Ukrainian family depended on renting rooms to supplement their income, that source of support must have vanished during the war.  I much prefer to assist people as directly as possible rather than through large aid organizations.  I've never personally used Airbnb, so I'd appreciate any suggestions from readers re avoiding scams. 

Addendum:  One of my friends has already "booked" a week's stay and received this reply from the host -

Followup: My friend received this message from Airbnb several days later:

It looks like you might have booked a reservation in Ukraine to support a Host. We’re reaching out because at least one of your reservations has been canceled, and we want to share more about what’s happening. 

Why your reservation was canceled.  Your reservation was canceled because it was booked with a listing that is no longer able to receive payments. 

That could reflect something as prosaic as an inability to access a financial account - or it could be more ominous.

Barbie clothes hangers

Presumably crafted in the aftermarket from discarded dolls rather than being a primary product.  Via Awful Taste but Great Execution.

"Bicycling with Butterflies"

This book will be of interest to butterfly enthusiasts and to bicycle enthusiasts.  The author describes her adventure of bicycle camping alone while riding from the Mexican winter monarch reserve north during the spring/summer to Minnesota, then east to Boston/NYC, then back down to Mexico again in the autumn - a journey of over 10,000 miles.  

The narration is split about evenly between monarch and milkweed biology and the pragmatics of an extended bike trip (camping in churchyards, staying with friends to present lectures to local students, coping with errant drivers).

Herewith a few interesting tidbits and things I learned:

[in the mountains of Mexico] A winter storm on January 11-16, 2002 started with 48 hours of rain followed by a prolonged freeze.  

"An estimated 200 to 275 million monarchs, or 75 percent of the population at El Rosario and Sierra Chincua, were killed.  On the ground, dead butterflies formed a mass grave.  At some places the monarchs measured thirteen inches thick, and survivors insulated by the dead, were unable to crawl out."

Female monarchs taste milkweed leaves with their feet.  

Their "... brushfeet (the first pair of legs which, unlike the other two pairs, are typically tucked beneath the body and are difficult to see) cut the milkweed and trigger the release of more plant chemicals..."

The average female lays 300-500 eggs in her lifetime, typically one per plant.  

"By the time fifth instars finish eating and form their chrysalis, the full-grown caterpillar could be as much as 2000 times bigger than when it emerged from its egg."  (Ponder a human growing from 150# to 300,000# in two weeks and how much food intake that would require.)

The U.S. has a National Wildlife Refuge System.  

The butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) is especially hairy.  Monarchs prefer laying their eggs on the flowers instead of the leaves.  

The timing of monarch migration is linked to the elevation of the sun above the horizon.  Because the height changes during the day, the monarchs calibrate its position using circadian clocks in their antennae.  Navigation is even more interesting.  On cloudy days monarchs can monitor the sun's polarized UV light.

"They can detect the pattern of UV light scattered across the sky... It seems that monarchs have a backup magnetic compass.  Light sensitive cryptochrome proteins in their antennae react with even a limited amount of light in such a way as to trigger signals that allow monarchs to sense the magnetic field... The angle of the field, in relation to the surface of the earth, changes predictably from the equator to the poles; the monarchs can sense this angle and navigate accordingly."

I believe there are other organisms capable of detecting and navigating by magnetic fields (?whales), but how they do that is totally a mystery to me.

Cremated ash tatoos: "I've got you under my skin"

The prevalence of ash tattoos is increasing as a way for those mourning a loved one to cherish that person’s life and legacy. Some are even doing it with an animal who has died...

Your Angel’s Ink uses a three-step thermal sterilization process to mechanically infuse the ashes. Those who purchase ink on his website receive a collection kit in the mail that they can use to extract just a teaspoon of ash, which they then send back to the company...

When people ask how many children he has, Ventimiglia says he still has two: one physical and one spiritual. While watching TV, he sits with his arms crossed and his hands touching his ash tattoos, he said, so he can give his youngest son a hug.

The image is a screencap from the video embedded at the NPR station's website.  The song lyrics are here.

Scummy

Legal, of course.  But still scum, IMNVHO. 

Complex theology simplified

One of the most vexing questions for a theist to ponder is the coexistence of evil deeds and an omnipotent beneficent god.  This is the answer offered by Pearls Before Swine.

Best-selling children's paperbacks in 1990

Found this smudged photocopied list in my files.  Saved at the time because of the odd (though perhaps not surprising) distribution of title names.   Source unknown - maybe Harper's magazine.

I wonder what a comparable listing would look like today.  Perhaps some reader/librarian can come up with ideas or a link.

Good name for a dog

"Karen sandwich"

Context.

How to help the people of Ukraine

There is currently a massive worldwide effort to help the people of Ukraine in their resistance to Putin's aggression.  Countries are contributing weaponry, companies are shutting off commerce, and the world's financial institutions are aggressively imperiling the Russian economy.  

For the individual wishing to do more than stand on the street with a blue and yellow sign, the easiest way to provide tangible assistance is through a financial contribution, but that means navigating a minefield of spurious organizations trying to find ones that are legitimate.  

Charity Navigator now has a page devoted to the Humanitarian Response to the Ukrainian-Russian Crisis.  One of my cousins searched Charity Navigator and decided to donate to World Central Kitchen, which is providing food to the fleeing refugees [noninteractive screencap above].  World Central Kitchen's Charity Navigator score is a perfect 100.

I forwarded that suggestion to an old high school friend living in Washington D.C., who works with NGOs; he responded that he had just donated to World Central Ktichen.  That convinced me, and I made my contribution to them this morning.