"Writing is an exploration. You start with nothing and learn as you go."
E.L. Doctorow
In a statement to the House of Commons that triggered a furious response from Moscow, the prime minister said the evidence had shown that Skripal had been targeted by a "military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia". Describing the incident as an "indiscriminate and reckless act", she said that the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, had summoned the Russian ambassador to Whitehall and demanded an explanation by the end of Tuesday. Russian officials immediately hit back, with Maria Zakharova, the spokeswoman for the Russian foreign minister, calling the remarks "a provocation" and describing the event as a "circus show in the British parliament".
Earlier this week, as police combed the streets of Salisbury piecing together clues of an alleged Russian hit on British soil, former hedge fund manager Bill Browder sat in front of the Commons culture select committee and made a startling admission. "I believe they want to kill me," the crisply suited 53-year-old businessman told MPs. "'If they kill me in a very brazen way and don't get away with it there will be big repercussions. They haven't figured out a way yet where they can kill me and get away with it." We meet a few days later in the central London offices of Browder's firm Hermitage Capital Management. US-born but a British citizen for the past two decades, in the Nineties he ran the most successful investment fund in Russia. But in 2005 he was deported and his fund expropriated by a cabal of corrupt officials Bill Browder - @Billbrowder on Twitter - Trendsmap
Let’s Get Real About Russiagate Katha Pollitt, The Nation
U.S. Media Long Carried Putin’s Water From Cold River – Odd, Given Facebook Uproar RealClear Investigations
Putin's Russia: From basket case to resurgent superpower
Putin: UK should 'get to bottom' of spy attack then we'll talk
British Prime Minister Theresa May has said it was highly likely that Russia was responsible for a “reckless and despicable” attack on a former double agent in Britain, an accusation rejected by Moscow as a “provocation”.
Putin: Russia's post-Soviet tsar
It’s planting seeds in a garden you never get to see
Let me tell you what I wish I’d known
When I was young and dreamed of glory
You have no control:
Who lives
Who dies
Who tells your story?
~Our Place In The World
The art of writing is to explain the complications of the human soul with the simplicity that can be universally understood.
— Alan Sillitoe, born In 1928 - Nanny June was born in June 1924
Russian state TV warns 'traitors' not to settle in England
Skripal attack: Why the use of a Novichok nerve agent suggests ...
Sergei Skripal and the long history of assassination attempts abroad
Slovak Coalition Huddles After Biggest Protests Since Communism
As many as 50,000 people gathered in Bratislava, with up to 20,000 protesting in Slovakia's second-largest city Kosice, according to Slovak media. People also rallied in dozens of smaller cities and towns. Fico pushed back against the outrage earlier on Friday, refusing to sign a declaration proposed by ...
WELL, GOOD: Research: Saliva protects body from traveler’s diarrhea. “A protein found in saliva helps protects the body from traveler’s diarrhea, which may lead to the development of new preventive therapies for the disorder and others, according to a study. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine and collaborators found the protein histatin-5 in human saliva helps the body defend itself from gut infections, according to findings published Thursday in the Journal of Infectious Diseases.”
“The Colonel has always believed that fortune swims, not with the main stream of letters, but in the shallows where the suckers moon.”
Anecdotal Evidence: `A Clean Strike Every Time'
Biography is a thoroughly reprehensible genre Spectator. IMHO this is silly, or at most says maybe bios of writers are a bad idea. The movie Patton was great and apparently very accurate (save due to Vietnam War, it depicted him as reckless with his men’s lives when he wasn’t; US soldiers wanted to serve in the Third Army because their odds of survival were higher).
Charles Bukowski’s Posthumous Poetry: As the Spirit Wanes, Shit Happens - Los Angeles Review of Books
Biography is a thoroughly reprehensible genre Spectator. IMHO this is silly, or at most says maybe bios of writers are a bad idea. The movie Patton was great and apparently very accurate (save due to Vietnam War, it depicted him as reckless with his men’s lives when he wasn’t; US soldiers wanted to serve in the Third Army because their odds of survival were higher).
New Giant Viruses Further Blur the Definition of Life Quanta Magazine
He’s not just saying he feels her pain—he really is ars technica
How to Write a Memoir While Grieving
Nicole Chung contemplates loss, adoption, and working on a book her late father won’t get to see.
Charles Bukowski’s Posthumous Poetry: As the Spirit Wanes, Shit Happens - Los Angeles Review of Books
Bob Dylan – “Masters Of War (The Avener Rework)”
ANDREW KLAVAN: Two Op-Eds Draw A Stark Portrait of Left vs. Right.
On the left: self-serious, self-righteous, angry-faced harridans who want to destroy you for disagreeing with them. They call you names, they shout you down, they riot if you try to speak, they try to get you fired or run you out of business. On the right, we laugh a lot and argue constantly.Brooks says progressives are winning because they have managed to silence dissenting opinion. In his speech at CPAC, Shapiro declared the right is winning precisely because: “The era of political correctness is over.”Suppression of opinion, or free discussion? Which way forward do you think Americans will ultimately choose?
James Davis Nicoll: “One of my little projects last year was something I modestly called “Twenty Core [Subgenre] Speculative Fiction Works Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves.” Reading is a huge part of my life. Thanks to my freakish cognitive architecture, I read quickly, and thanks to the fact I am as gregarious as a stylite, I have the time to read prodigiously. Putting together the core lists was an amusing application of my resources and yet in amongst all the lists, readers found Twenty Core Speculative Fiction Works It May Surprise You To Learn I Have Not Yet Read Every True SF Fan Should Have On Their Shelves. It’s worse than that list may at first appear. Not only have I not read any of the books on the list, despite the fact that I’ve owned copies of a number of the books in question since their first publication, but that list is only the tip of the iceberg—only the first twenty examples that came to mind. I am not engaging in a highly inefficient attempt to better insulate my library. I always intend to read books when I buy them. At the same time, I do have a faint, primordial consciousness that time is finite and that I am limited to about 180,000 words of fiction a day[1] and sufficient rudimentary math skills to work out that if I acquire more than 180,000 words of prose a day, then some of those words won’t get read that day. They might not ever get read. Poor sad, unread words…”