Wednesday, February 04, 2026
From Joseph Conrad wiki--
Adam Hochschild makes a similar point:
What gave [Conrad] such a rare ability to see the arrogance and theft at the heart of imperialism?... Much of it surely had to do with the fact that he himself, as a Pole, knew what it was like to live in conquered territory.... [F]or the first few years of his life, tens of millions of peasants in the Russian empire were the equivalent of slave laborers: serfs. Conrad's poet father, Apollo Korzeniowski, was a Polish nationalist and an opponent of serfdom... [The] boy [Konrad] grew up among exiled prison veterans, talk of serfdom, and the news of relatives killed in uprisings [and he] was ready to distrust imperial conquerors who claimed they had the right to rule other peoples.[229]
Conrad's experience in the Belgian-run Congo made him one of the fiercest critics of the "white man's mission". It was also, writes Najder, Conrad's most daring and last "attempt to become a homo socialis, a cog in the mechanism of society. By accepting the job in the trading company, he joined, for once in his life, an organized, large-scale group activity on land. [...] It is not accidental that the Congo expedition remained an isolated event in Conrad's life. Until his death he remained a recluse in the social sense and never became involved with any institution or clearly defined group of people."[230]
Maggie O'Farrell books in chronological order--
https://mostrecommendedbooks.com/series/maggie-ofarrell-books-in-order
I might read I am I am--her memoir--
The Night Manager--season 2 finale is out--but rather flat--it's ep 6.
You can look for it for yourself.
CBS pulls 60 mins segment featurng Attia--hired by Bari Weiss.
Key Points
CBS is shelving a planned re-run of a 60 Minutes segment featuring wellness influencer Peter Attia, after his name appeared over 1,700 times in the latest release of documents from the Epstein files.
Attia was named a new contributor to the network's news division by controversial new leader Bari Weiss on Jan. 27.
The physician and podcaster shared a lengthy apology on social media on Monday.
https://www.aol.com/lifestyle/cbs-pulls-60-minutes-episode-235231222.html
Tuesday, February 03, 2026
From wiki--just read this--excellent--Maggie O'Farrell--
In 2022, she published The Marriage Portrait, a novel based on the short life of Lucrezia de' Medici, who may or may not have been poisoned by her husband, Alfonso II, Duke of Ferrara. O'Farrell has said that she got the idea for the novel after seeing Lucrezia's portrait, attributed to Agnolo Bronzino, and from reading Robert Browning's poem "My Last Duchess", in which Lucrezia makes a brief, silent and unnamed appearance. The novel was shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction.[14]i
Monday, February 02, 2026
Demands of Kronstadt Sailors' Revolution--1917.
In view of the fact that the present Soviets do not express the will of the workers and peasants, immediately to hold new elections by secret ballot, the pre-election campaign to have full freedom of agitation among the workers and peasants;
To establish freedom of speech and press for workers and peasants, for Anarchists and left Socialist parties;
To secure freedom of assembly for labor unions and peasant organizations;
To call a nonpartisan Conference of the workers, Red Army soldiers and sailors of Petrograd, Kronstadt, and of Petrograd Province, no later than March 10, 1921;
To liberate all political prisoners of Socialist parties, as well as all workers, peasants, soldiers, and sailors imprisoned in connection with the labor and peasant movements;
To elect a Commission to review the cases of those held in prisons and concentration camps;
To abolish all politotdeli (political bureaus) because no party should be given special privileges in the propagation of its ideas or receive the financial support of the Government for such purposes. Instead there should be established educational and cultural commissions, locally elected and financed by the Government;
To abolish immediately all zagryaditelniye otryadi (Bolshevik units armed to suppress traffic and confiscate foodstuffs);
To equalize the rations of all who work, with the exception of those employed in trades detrimental to health;
To abolish the Bolshevik fighting detachments in all branches of the Army, as well as the Bolshevik guards kept on duty in mills and factories. Should such guards or military detachments be found necessary, they are to be appointed in the Army from the ranks, and in the factories according to the judgment of the workers;
To give the peasants full freedom of action in regard to their land, and also the right to keep cattle, on condition that the peasants manage with their own means; that is, without employing hired labor;
To request all branches of the Army, as well as our comrades the military kursanti, to concur in our resolutions;
To demand that the press give the fullest publicity to our resolutions;
To appoint a Traveling Commission of Control; To permit free kustarnoye (individual small scale) production by one's own efforts.[74] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronstadt_rebellion#
Meaning--Kyrie--
text
Kýrie, eléison (Κύριε, ἐλέησον)
'Lord, have mercy'
Christe, eléison (Χριστέ, ἐλέησον)
'Christ, have mercy'
Sunday, February 01, 2026
Place names I came across in reading DGE Hall--Mainly a history of the rivalry between the French, the British and the Dutch in S and SE Asia from the 16th century onwards.
I'm only reading the reigns of Naresuan,his brother Ekathasarot and his great grandson Narai--
Narai was very progressive and sent the first mission to the W--Court of the Sun King, way before Burmese King Mindon--
However, as often happens, liberals are often followed by regressives--I saw the remains of the room where he died--or was killed, in Lopburi.
Hall is a useful book as it shows the whole region--not isolated by "nations" which did not exist then.
Read up on Toungoo Dynasty, Pegu/Bago/Hanthawaddy, Naresuan, Maha Thamaracha,
Ekathatsarot, Narai and the elephant keeper who succeeded him.
Also Arakan chapters in Hall--including exile of Shah Shuja by Aurangzeb--
the bad son of Shah Jahan--and the killer of his brother Dara Shikoh.
Also check out Philipe de Brito,Natshinnaung,Yaza Datu Kalya.
It's good to know world history.
Don't be the frog in the well.
KM Kaung
2-1-2026
I have a copy of the Hall book--it's a very thick paperback-so--hard to read in one sitting and I prefer print books.
I have an almost identically thick compendium of writings in Ceylon/Sri Lanka--called The Sri Lanka Reader.
I read a bit at a time as I need to.
It's worth it like all reading.
kmk
2-1-2026
2 Important papers--DNA of Tibeto-Burmans--+ migration period of Ancient Burma (wiki)
https://genomicatlas.org/2022/01/01/tibeto-burman-expansions-high-altitude-adaptation-and-paleolithic-legacy-in-the-tibetan-plateau/
We all came out of Africa in spite of Burmese/Myanmar ingrained prejudice about "kala"--black people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_period_of_ancient_Burma
Saturday, January 31, 2026
I would not live there--woman who renovated a lighthouse.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/31/flatiron-building-apartments-for-sale.html?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us
Then you have to get there in the summer and maintain another home on the mainland--and got back in the Fall.
I knew a gay man who was a millionaire and had a villa in Bali and a farm in Virginia. Not a working farm as far as I could tell.
He died,I read "at his home in the Phillippines."
It's for people who have money to throw around.
Greenland wiki.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland
Including decline in ice sheet (graph) and high suicide rates.
Greenland's ice sheet has a volume of ~3,000,000 cubic kilometres (700,000 cu mi). If it were all to melt, global sea level would increase by ~7.5 m (25 ft) from this cause alone.[126] However, research shows that it will take at least 1,000 years for the ice sheet to disappear even with very high rates of global warming,[121] and around 10,000 years under lower rates of warming (which still cross the threshold for the ice sheet's disappearance).[127][128] This threshold likely lies between 1.7 °C (3.1 °F) and 2.3 °C (4.1 °F). Reducing the warming back to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) or lower above preindustrial levels (such as through large-scale carbon dioxide removal) would arrest the losses but still cause greater ultimate sea level rise than if the threshold had never been exceeded.[129] Further, 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) appears to commit the Greenland ice sheet to 1.4 m (4+1⁄2 ft) of sea level rise.[130] A study published in January 2025 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports an "abrupt, coherent, climate-driven transformation" in the states of lakes in Greenland from "blue" (more transparent) to "brown" (less transparent) after a season of both record heat and rainfall drove change in these systems, which may have reached a tipping point .[131] These changes are said to alter "numerous physical, chemical, and biological lake features", and are said to be unprecedented.[131]
Like high suicide rates and Alchoholism among Native Americans.
Social issues
The rate of suicide in Greenland is very high. According to a 2010 census, Greenland holds the highest suicide rate in the world.[223][224] In 2021, a study reported that there were 45 suicides, corresponding to a rate of 81 per 100,000 inhabitants annually. This was approximately eight times higher than in Denmark.[225] Another significant social issue is a high rate of alcoholism.[226] The rate of alcohol consumption peaked in the 1980s, when it was twice as high as in Denmark; by 2010 it had fallen slightly below that of Denmark. Alcohol prices are far higher in Greenland than in Denmark, meaning that consumption has a large socio-economic impact.[227][228] The prevalence of HIV/AIDS has been high, reaching a peak in the 1990s when the number of AIDS-related deaths was also relatively high. Through a number of initiatives, the prevalence (along with the death rate, through efficient treatment) has fallen and is now low, about 0.13% in the 2010s,[229][230] below that of most other countries. In recent decades, unemployment has generally been somewhat above that of Denmark;[231] in 2017, the rate was 6.8% in Greenland,[232] compared to 5.6% in Denmark.[233]
Compulsory contraception of Inuit women
Main article: Spiral case
In the 1960s and 1970s, at a time when the population was increasing, 4,500 Greenland Inuit women and girls (roughly half of all fertile females) were fitted with intrauterine devices (IUDs) by Danish doctors. Sometimes girls (as young as 12) were taken directly from school to have these devices inserted, without their parents' permission. The procedure was also carried out on some Inuit girls at boarding schools in Denmark. In 2022 Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke announced an investigation into the decisions leading to the practice and its implementation.[234] Greenlandic doctors also carried out the same illegal procedures on several Inuit women after Greenland took control of its health care system in 1991.[235]
LGBTQ rights
LGBTQ rights in Greenland are some of the most extensive in the world, relatively similar to those in Denmark. Transgender people may change the gender designation on their official identity documents. A law passed in 2016 by decree allows legal gender changes based on self-determination.[236][237] Since 2010, Greenland has had laws prohibiting hate speech against LGBTQ+ persons. Parliament passed a Law on Equal Treatment and Anti-Discrimination in 2024, which prohibits all discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, [and] gender characteristics", among other characteristics. The law also creates an Equal Treatment Board to manage discrimination complaints and an Equality Council to promote non-discrimination.[238]
Culture
Comstylish clothes--including Monks walk for Peace--many designs, including Greenland not for sale.
https://www.comstylish.com/collections/womens-clothing?show_page=first_page&ids=788777aa-4f89-4e4b-8901-45386f9ccfaa&CS01-GDN-US-24429-BS=&gad_source=5&gad_campaignid=21241892849&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs7C-pI23kgMVypXRBB2OyAdGEAEYASAJEgKJFvD_BwE
I have no connection with this clothing outlet.
I have no plans to move to any warm place.
Chinese C-drama--at least it's interesting--the actor is from Romance of Tiger and Rose--
Beautiful costumes, interiors and landscapes and conflict starts early.
Like another hate to love rom com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FIPjsvDWDo
Old general has dementia.
Friday, January 30, 2026
Thursday, January 29, 2026
Tom Hiddleston played Richard Pine--The Night Manager--in of course, The Night Manager--
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1399664/fullcredits/
He looks better in the movie close-ups than in these stills.
Good portrayal of the stiff upper lip Englishman and really beautiful eyes and thin face, sunken blue eyes.
kmk
1-29-2026
Iranian demonstrations--from AP
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s bloody crackdown on nationwide protests has killed at least 6,221 people while many others still are feared dead, activists said Wednesday, as a U.S. aircraft carrier group arrived in the Middle East to lead any American military response to the crisis. Iran’s currency, the rial, meanwhile fell to a record low of 1.5 million to $1.
https://apnews.com/article/iran-protests-deaths-crackdown-aeaeb26493d25d86d5169f8ae455e405
Movie based on John Le Carre--The Night Manager--I used to be a real Le Carre fan--in Burma--40 years ago.
Every book has been made into a movie--maybe I shld just watch the movies.
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