#soviet bus shelters

[socarchlithuania]

Valakėliai. 2023

[ms-spkhd]

thinking about a Blast From the Past steddie au tonight. like, think about it for a second--steve as the sweet, well-meaning himbo raised in a fallout shelter and eddie as the cynic who shows him the world as it is:

The year was 1962, and an atomic bomb had just dropped on top of the Harrington household.

Okay, not really. It was actually a fighter jet that suffered a mechanical failure just above the little plot of land the Harringtons called their home, but Walter Harrington took it differently. Far differently.

See, the thing was that the man was living in a state of paranoid delusion over the Cold War--terrified of the possibility of an outright nuclear holocaust over the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Soviet Union. He had been carefully building a fallout shelter under his home for his wife and possible children to live in with the works--canned food, running water, and even a working television.

And one day they went in and simply never left. The explosion right when they closed the door was tangible proof that the nuclear war was happening right above them.

A few years later, around 1968, a baby boy was born in a fallout shelter with no one but his mom and dad to keep him company.

They raised Steve the best they could, even if Walter Harrington was a mad genius and Madeline Harrington was a borderline alcoholic. Even if the boy was living in a perfect little time capsule of the fifties and early sixties. Walter made sure to educate him right and teach him how to be a sociable gentleman--even if he had no idea what swear words or the concept of sex were. That was for another time. Although, twenty-four years came and went for Steve Harrington, his father still owes him 'another time'.

Steve Harrington grows twenty-four years in perfect seclusion, but that changes at the flick of a switch.

The year is 1992: supplies are dwindling Walter is growing sick, and Steve is tasked to bravely set foot in the nuclear fallout to retrieve more material. (The only reason why Walter assumes they can even get more stuff is because he observed the outside world when the shelter unlocked and mistook it as a post-apocalyptic mutant society.)

The moment Steve made it outside his little bubble, he was utterly fascinated by the world--how different the people were outside of his television and his little books, how bright the sky was outside, how the irritable man on the bus wouldn't accept the money he tried to give him, how the bus moved and didn't fling him right off his seat.

(He even saw an adult bookstore. Dad told him that those things were filled with poisonous gas. How were they even to operate if they were filled with poisonous gas? That's dangerous and totally inconsiderate of the general public's safety.)

Anyway, he tries to follow the grocery list that Mom and Dad gave him the best he can, stocking up on poultry and tissue paper and the works. But by the end of the day, he doesn't know where he came from. Not a single sign or building or person can give him a single clue where to go.

After a few hours of wandering, suitcase in hand, he comes across a store with WE BUY BASEBALL CARDS written on the window.

Golly, Steve loves baseball cards--could look at Dad's collection for hours, and with the collection he has, he could make a pretty penny selling them for supplies. Despite the little hobby store being beside an adult bookstore with poisonous gas, he scampers right in.

"I see you're looking to buy baseball cards," he says breezily to the gruff, scary-looking man behind the counter.

"That I am," he replies.

Steve pulls a few from his jacket's inner pocket. "Well, these are a bit old, you see, but I was hoping you still might be interested."

The gruff man yanks them from his hands, a spark in his eye. He looks delighted to see them, and it fills Steve with an excitement he hadn't felt at all today. Nobody has been this happy over something he's done today. "Woah," he gasps, then covers it with a cough. "Mickey Mantle rookie season...how much do you want?"

"I was hoping to sell all of my cards, actually!"

The man sputters incredulously. "All of 'em? Are you fucking with me?"

"I'm not sure what that means, but all I have are hundred-dollar bills and I need something smaller. Like, uh...ones, tens, fives..."

"Tell you what, I'll give you five hundred in small bills for all you got."

Steve smiles brightly. "Oh, that would be wonderful, sir--"

"Five hundred for a case-full of rookie season Mickey Mantles, Rick, are you fucking joking?" A deep voice cuts through Steve's thanks from the other side of the small store. He turns around to find a man leaning against a magazine rack, arms folded sternly.

The man is unlike Steve's ever seen before. Long, long limbs and big brown eyes that look traced with black and smudged around the edges. Pretty lips, too almost girl-ish, in the way they were big and plush like the women he'd see on the television. The strangest thing about him, though, was the curly hair that tumbled past his shoulders.

He looked mad, though. Madder than mad.

"Tell the poor guy you're fucking with him," long-hair-pretty-lips says to the man behind the counter, who bristles.

"Were you raised in a fucking barn, Munson? Who told you to interrupt on business?" Rick counters. Steve was really not appreciating the amount of f-words dropped in the conversation, it was uncouth.

"Sure I was!" Munson saunters towards the counter and Steve's eyes follow him like a moth to a light. "But my morals go past your business practices at this point. You remember the ninth commandment, yeah?"

"You shut your Goddamn mouth--"

"Excuse me sir, but I really don't appreciate how you're using the Lord's name in vain like that," Steve says firmly.

"See?" Munson smiles. It's like sunlight. "He gets it."

He plucks the baseball card from Rick's hand and holds it over his head when he tries to reach for it again. "See this little thing?" He says to Steve sweetly. "This guy costs six grand alone."

"Get out of town! Really?"

"Oh yeah, big guy. Selling the thing would give you a small fortune, and Rick over here is trying to con you out of it."

Steve frowns. "Is that true?" He asks Rick.

"Nothing but," Munson says in place of him. He slips the card back into Steve's hands and gives them a pat.

"The Hell is even keeping you here, Munson?" Rick sneers. "Did the gig you won't shut up about fall through like they usually do? Better to bum it out here than in your shithole apartment? Stop loitering in my damn store and make like a fucking tree. You're banned."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night," Munson says rolling his eyes. He looks at Steve, then the door, gesturing at it with a flick of his head. "I'll see you out, Beaver."

He walks them both out the door, stopping to gesture at Rick strangely--hands balled into fists with only his middle fingers up--before stepping outside onto the sidewalk.

"Well merci, Monsieur," Steve says appreciatively, because Dad taught him French was always to be used on such occasions.

"What, you're French?"

"Oh no, I'm"--he thinks back to what Dad told him if a mutant asks where he's from. Gosh, he thinks he's supposed to be--"out on business."

"And you don't even have a clue about the little business trick that Rick tried to pull?"

"No...no, I--"

"Yeah, doesn't matter." Munson shrugs. He smiles sympathetically at Steve before turning on his heel and walking off. Oh boy, what would he do without him?

He follows him like a lost puppy, that's what.

"...You going the same way?" Munson asks incredulously. Steve shakes his head.

"Well, I'm following you."

Munson stops in his tracks, blinking, and Steve almost runs into him in his state. "Me?"

"Well yes! Where are we going?"

"We?" Munson asserts. "I'm going back to my shithole apartment, and judging by that jacket you're wearing, you should be taking the next left and hop-skipping straight to the barber college."

"Oh, I'm lost, though."

"Aren't we all?"

"Say, did you just get banned from that hobby store because of me?" Steve says to change the subject.

Munson sighs. "Seems like I did, sailor. The place was shitty anyways, with that dickhead running the operation. Wayne could get better cards from a different joint."

...dickhead? Steve's never heard that leave the seams of anyone's lips before. "Dickhead?"

"Yeah, he's a real fucking loser. A walking talking penis capable of human speech."

Steve gets queasy at the image he's concocted in his head. He leans against the nearest brick wall, his suitcase tumbling to the ground as he drops into a contemplative squat.

"Dude, what is wrong with you?"

"Well, the mental image that I..."

Munson's eyebrows scrunch before he reaches out a hand to Steve. He takes it, letting the man haul him upward. "Look, man, where'd you park your car?"

"I came by bus."

"Aren't you full of surprises."

"I am?"

"Okay look." Eddie raises his hands, palms splayed in the air. "It's your first time in Los Angeles, right? Everyone wants a taste of it, I know, and you're out for business and fucking famished. You got the opportunity to see the great big world outside of your little bubble and you got excited--but you took a bus and got mixed up in the middle of San Fernando Valley without a clue in the world. Am I correct?"

Steve listens in wonderment. So far, Munson's been correct in a way. He's convinced he might be psychic. He nods slowly and seriously just to see Munson flash that lighting-strike smile.

"Great, great. Which brings us to here. Correct again?"

"Oh yeah."

"Where are you staying?"

Nowhere, at the moment. Steve opens his mouth to say so, but Munson interrupts quickly. "Holiday Inn?"

"Yes, the Holiday Inn!" Steve says totally truthfully.

"Okay, cool. Cool." Munson claps his hands together with finality and starts walking. "The nearest bus station is a couple of blocks away if you take a right--"

"Don't you have a car?"

Munson stops in his tracks again. He turns to face Steve once again. "What's your name, sweetheart?"

Something warm pools in Steve's gut at the pet name. Something about the way those pretty lips form that word sends blood rushing to his cheeks. "Steve," he says.

"Alright, Steve." Oh boy, his name sounds even better when Munson says it. "Rule number one in Los Angeles? Never let a stranger drive you anywhere."

"If it makes you feel any better," Steve says sweetly, "I don't have a gun."

Munson pales, then starts running.

"Hey!" Steve cries and makes haste to follow him. "I must've said something wrong, please forgive me!"

"Nope, nope--get the fuck away from me, man!"

He grabs Munson's wrist to pull him back, which is a bad move since the man starts writhing around in his grip. "I'm not going to hurt you, sir!"

Steve drops Munson's hand and raises his in surrender. "See?"

"...Just let me get to my car."

"I'll give you a Rogers Hornsby if you take me to my hotel," Steve reasons.

Munson stills. "...That's like four grand, don't bullshit me."

He pulls the card from his jacket and presents it as evidence. "See? I was holding it back." He wants Munson to feel safe. "I got two." He reaches for the other cards in his pockets and pulls them out. "And-and all these other ones, too!"

"Okay, okay. You'll give me four thousand dollars if I drive you to your place?"

"Uh-uh!"

"That's it?"

"Yep."

"And I don't have to give you a quickie in the backseat or anything?"

"Yes sir--wait, what?"

Munson blows past his question like it didn't even leave Steve's mouth. "Can you stop with the sir crap?"

"Well, I'm sorry, sir--"

"My name is Eddie."

Eddie...Eddie, Eddie, Eddie. Wow, what a name. It's almost like something he's heard on the television.

"Why, it's nice to meet you, Eddie."

"Tolerable to meet you too, Steve."

Steve smiles shyly, then asks, "So are you a girl?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well it's just your hair...it's so long." Steve points at his as an example. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"Dude, it's 1992, every other guy looks like this--have you been living under a rock or something?"

Something like that. Steve shrugs.

"Well guys having long hair doesn't mean that they're girls, Steve, that's a given. It's not 1962 anymore." Eddie backtracks. "Well, I mean, dudes can have long hair and be chicks and chicks can be dudes too but that's not--"

"Oh, wow, my dad told me about one of those the last time he went here!"

"Oh that's fantastic, sweetheart," Eddie says, sugary-sweet. "But how about I drive you home?"

"That'd be a pleasure, Eddie."

[catch57]

Notes from this book! I don’t necessarily think it’s a must read (is any dylan bio?) but it gave me some fun images& thoughts. spoilers ⬇️

kind of did not care so much abt this sons life, he should have just posted his dad's cassette tapes and called it a day. goes into how his dad never wanted to reveal stuff abt dylan like this but was strapped for cash, but the son kinda didnt needa do all this. says victor and bob used to joke that whoever died first should make a biography where they totally lie abt everything that the other did

the idea of having a best friend like that, much less bob dylan 😐 says bob liked victor bc he knew how to give him space, didn't take advantage of him, and knew how to riff and learn abt strangers

says greenwich village bob would never sign up for a set, would always just ask the bar owner if he could play after everyone else

bob got rlly mad at victor for meeting his mom/going inside the house after she invited him in & told him it was bobs birthday. reaal.

went to see striking coal miners in kentucky, donated clothes like (communist<3) suzie told him, then kinda left bc they felt they weren't really helping by being there

lowkey almost got crowd crushed aftr the first royal albert hall, made him kind of dazed walking out and he realized life wouldnt b the same anymore. had to seek more to keep his privacy. later says he stopped allowing cameras bc he saw the way ppl acted at a beatles shows, all the flashing.

victor would go exploring and bob would always stay inside and lock himself in a room to write. was really able to sit down and play with words until he finished it. didn't ask others for advice, only sought to see others reaction to what he had written. "bob would always write abt himself" (implies other songs like isis were more of his "fantasies" played out - i think i see this in why he got offended whn ppl not liking billy the kid movie?). songs like this as an escape from himself.

got locked in a restaurant bathroom for more than an hour loll

joan's dad would chastise him over 'the times r changing' bc he thought bob should respect his elders

would get pretty drunk, would get victor to speak for him when he didn't want to

"bob wasn't a sexual guy" went kinda into that bob didn't like women who made advances on him, he liked women who were more passive and would be around whn he wanted, not when he didn't.

talked abt how they were always reinventing their fashion, trying to even outdo the age, would pick out crazy clothes together

says motorcycle accident bob was going like 5mph and just fell over loll.

while sarah and his relationship deteriorating, she got hurt upon hearing idiot wind. (kind of terrifying for him imo to release something so vulnerable but also for her to hear that

dog named brutus. he saw it got hit by a car then be totally ok

got coffee spilled all over him when the tour bus lurched forward, when they were already going to be late to the show

still sleeping at hiltons? loll

kind of ignoring the story abt preforming in israel. kinda gross! Edit: oh also allegations against victor in the 90s that bob got him out of jail for. not much info abt this available ☹️

Show where it was thundering and everyone told him not to but victor kinda encouraged him to play in inches of water. imagine seeing shelter from the storm like that! i think in a soviet-bloc country.

"bob wasn't an activist" i think i agree with this, says even tho he was at a lot of big events and stuff he wasn't really a part of them, more an observer . bailed on david crosby's book

overall i think this just confirmed him as more of an introvert than some people would believe him to be, which is sweet in my eyes & reminds me to take a lot more time for myself & my own interests

[mariacallous]

Last week, Doctors Without Borders announced that it had to close its operations in Russia after the Justice Ministry removed its affiliate office from the country’s foreign NGO register. Also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), this international non-governmental organization was among the first humanitarian missions to start working in Russia after the Soviet Union’s collapse. For more than three decades, MSF implemented dozens of important programs, helping vulnerable people across Russia through difficult situations. Since 2022, Doctors Without Borders has also offered humanitarian aid to civilians affected by the Russo-Ukrainian War. The Russian Justice Ministry didn’t offer an explanation for the decision, which made it impossible for MSF to continue working in the country. To mark the departure of Doctors Without Borders from Russia, Meduza looks back on their 32 years of work. 

From Moscow to Chechnya

Founded in Paris by a group of doctors and journalists in 1971, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders, in English) now operates in 70 countries, providing medical assistance to people in emergency situations and those excluded from health care. The organization relies on donations from companies, private foundations, and individual donors. In 2023, MSF raised 2.37 billion euros ($2.64 billion) to support its work, most of which came from some 7.3 million private donors. 

Doctors Without Borders began working in Russia in 1992, distributing free food to children under three years old at “milk kitchens” in Moscow. Later that year, MSF began assisting the Russian capital’s homeless population, which numbered around 30,000 people — all of whom lacked access to medical and social services. 

In an interview with Moskvich Mag, Dr. Alexey Nikiforov, who later became the deputy medical coordinator of the MSF mission in Russia and Belarus, recalled the organization’s work in Moscow in those early days: 

We agreed to supply some hospitals with, say, dressings and to buy additional medications, and in return they would admit the homeless persons we would send to them from our first-aid post. In the morning, we [treated] patients with urgent problems at the first-aid post, and if some homeless person needed hospitalization, then we’d make arrangements with a hospital. And in the afternoon we’d transport patients to the hospitals in our minibus.

MSF doctors also used their minibus to make regular visits to train stations and other places in Moscow where homeless people sheltered, to provide them with emergency medical consultations. The organization also worked closely with city officials to improve municipal services for the homeless population, such as shelters. 

In addition, MSF worked to raise awareness about the problems unhoused people faced, running an ad campaign in the Moscow subway system and parking a bus outside the mayor’s office emblazoned with a running tally of the deaths from hypothermia on the city’s streets. As Nikiforov recalled:

[W]ith the help of our advertiser friends, we made a poster with a stylized snowman lying in a snowdrift; on the poster there were cutouts and you could change the numbers to how many people had frozen to death in Moscow since the start of the winter and overnight. We attached the poster [to the bus] and updated the data in the windows every day.

Battling tuberculosis

In 1995, Doctors Without Borders began tackling the spread of tuberculosis in Russian prisons. The initiative began at the Mariinsky penal colony in the Kemerovo region, after the prison hospital’s chief physician, Natalya Vezhnina, “paid her way to some international conference in Europe, where she announced that she was tired of burying her prisoners — they die every day,” Alexey Nikiforov told Moskvich magazine. 

With permission from the Federal Penitentiary Service, MSF aid workers were allowed to visit the Mariinsky prison hospital, and thus began their treatment program for drug-sensitive tuberculosis in the Russian penitentiary system. “The necessary first-line drugs cost pennies now, but back then there were problems with medical supplies,” Nikiforov recalled. 

In addition to distributing medicine, MSF organized a system for screening new prisoners, established diagnostic procedures, and managed to provide uninterrupted, months-long treatment for prisoners with TB. Its work soon extended to other prison facilities in the Kemerovo region, as well as to tuberculosis hospitals, where medical staff were taught how to administer more effective treatment, thereby preventing the spread of TB. 

In 2004, Doctors Without Borders launched a tuberculosis treatment program in Chechnya. As Nikiforov said in interviews, the two wars in Chechnya had destroyed nearly all of the infrastructure needed to treat tuberculosis patients, leaving the entire region without a dedicated TB hospital and with just 12 tuberculosis specialists. In particular, MSF’s work consisted of distributing medications that weren’t available in the region at all. According to Nikiforov, the organization ultimately treated more than 5,500 tuberculosis patients in Chechnya. 

MSF wound down its projects in Chechnya in 2017, handing over tuberculosis treatment to the Chechen Health Ministry. But the organization continued to launch shorter tuberculosis treatment programs in other parts of Russia, including in the Arkhangelsk and Ivanovo regions, most recently. 

Russia’s wars

In 1999, Doctors Without Borders won the Nobel Peace Prize, “in recognition of the organization's pioneering humanitarian work on several continents.” In his Nobel speech, then-president of the MSF International Council, Dr. James Orbinsk, made an appeal to President Boris Yeltsin condemning Russia’s violence against civilians in Chechnya: 

The people of Chechnya — and the people of Grozny — today and for more than three months, are enduring indiscriminate bombing by the Russian army. For them humanitarian assistance is virtually unknown. It is the sick, the old and the infirm who cannot escape Grozny. [...] I appeal here today to his excellency the Ambassador of Russia and through him, to President Yeltsin, to stop the bombing of defenseless civilians in Chechnya. If conflicts and wars are an affair of the state, violations of humanitarian law, war crimes, and crimes against humanity apply to all of us.

[...]

Silence has long been confused with neutrality, and has been presented as a necessary condition for humanitarian action. From its beginning, MSF was created in opposition to this assumption. We are not sure that words can always save lives, but we know that silence can certainly kill.

Doctors Without Borders worked on the ground in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Dagestan, performing consultations for residents and displaced persons, supplying hospitals and clinics with essential medicines, and providing psychological and medical assistance. 

In 2001, armed individuals kidnapped the head of the Doctors Without Borders North Caucasus mission, U.S. citizen Kenneth Gluck, holding him hostage for a month. Armed men then abducted the MSF head of mission for Dagestan, Dutch national Arjan Erkel, in 2002. The organization suspended its operations in the Russian North Caucasus following Erkel’s kidnapping. He was finally released in 2004. 

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Doctors Without Borders began providing humanitarian aid to Ukrainian refugees in Russia, as well as to displaced Russians (in addition to its extensive operations in Ukraine). “Since the start of our response in 2022, more than 52,000 refugees and displaced people were provided with humanitarian aid and more than 15,400 received free medical, mental health, and psychosocial support,” the organization said in a September press release. 

Since October 2022, Doctors Without Borders had worked in Russia’s Belgorod region alongside the non-profit organization Path to the Future (Put’ v budushchee, in Russian). MSF also planned to provide humanitarian assistance in the Kursk region, but was ultimately forced to shutter its operations.

In the press release announcing the closure of its programs, MSF said it “would like to work in Russia again should the necessary conditions be provided by authorities.” 

“We are very sad to conclude our programmes in the country as many people in need of medical and humanitarian assistance will now be left without the support we could have provided to them,” said Norman Sitali, the MSF operations manager responsible for programs in Russia. “MSF would like to still work in Russia again, if and when possible.”

[brookston]

Holidays 12.5

Holidays

AFL-CIO Day

Bathtub Party Day (a.k.a. Party in the Tub Day)

Battle of Longewaia Day (India)

Battle of Moscow Day (Russia)

Bhumibol Adulyadej Memorial Day (Thailand)

Blue Jeans Day

Boycott Day

Celebrate Shelter Pets Day

Children’s Day (Suriname)

Colorado Gives Day (Colorado)

Day of Military Honor - Battle of Moscow (Russia)

Day of the Ninja (a.k.a. International Ninja Day)

Die Like a Pirate Day

Discovery Day (Dominican Republic, Haiti)

Father’s Day (Thailand)

Female Community Health Volunteers’ Day (Nepal)

Folding Chair Day

Fraternity Day

International Leo Day

International Ninja Day (a.k.a. International Creep Like a Ninja Day)

International Volunteer Day

International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (UN)

Irrational Exuberance Day

Klozum (Netherlands)

Let's Get Organized Day

Light Up A Life Day (Ireland)

Montgomery Bus Boycott Anniversary Day

National Christmas Tree Lighting Day

National Communicate with Your Kids Day

National Commute With Your Baby Day

National Coral Reef Day (Costa Rica)

National Day of the Coral Reef (Colombia)

National DeFi (Decentralized Finance) Day

National Devon Day

National Johnny Day

National Kings of Prohibition Day

Ninjas vs. Krampus Day

Party in the Tub Day

Play Hookey Day

Roe Deer Day (French Republic)

Statistician’s Day (Ukraine)

Tinsel Day

Volunteer Day (Russia)

World Biomedical Engineering Day

World Engineers Day (Turkey)

World Geographic Atrophy Day

World Soil Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Comfort Food Day

National Pigs in a Blanket Day (UK)

National Repeal Day

Sacher Torte Day

Swap a Christmas Cookie Recipe Day

World Turkish Coffee Day

Independence & Related Days

Quito Day (Ecuador)

Soviet Constitution Day (USSR)

1st Thursday in December

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

Lover's Fair (Arlon, Belgium) [1st Thursday]

Thankful Thursday [1st Thursday of Each Month]

Therapy Thursday [1st Thursday of Each Month]

Thin Crust Thursday [1st Thursday of Each Month]

Thirsty Thursday [Every Thursday]

Three for Thursday [Every Thursday]

Thrift Store Thursday [Every Thursday]

Throwback Thursday [Every Thursday]

Weekly Holidays beginning December 5 (1st Full Week of December)

St. Nicholas Week (thru 12.15)

Festivals Beginning December 5, 2024

Chorus Inside International (Warsaw, Poland) [thru 12.9]

Christmas in Ida Festival & Parade of Lights (Ida, Michigan) [thru 12.7]

Country Living Christmas Fair (Harrogate, United Kingdom) [thru 12.8]

Festival of Ice (Lewistown, Pennsylvania) [thru 12.6]

Festival of Trees & Traditions (Hartford, Connecticut) [thru 12.15]

Havana Film Festival (Havana, Cuba) [thru 12.15]

International Book Fair for High-Quality Fiction and Non-Fiction (Moscow, Russia) [thru 12.8]

Lyon Festival of Lights (Lyon, France) [thru 12.8]

New York City Horror Film Festival (New York City, New York) [thru 12.8]

Night of the Proms (Stuttgart, Germany)

Portland Christmas Ship Parade (Portland, Oregon) [thru 12.22]

Scents & Sweets Competition and Auction (Frederick, Maryland)

Winterfest (Henderson, Nevada) [thru 12.6]

Feast Days

Abercius (Christian; Saint)

Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (Artology)

Bassus of Nice (Christian; Saint)

Bodhi Season, Day 5 (Buddhism; Secular Date) [Leading Up to 12.8] (a.k.a. ... 

Principles: Impermanence

Secular: Traditions

Eightfold Path: Awakened Livelihood

The Heart Sutra: Life Out of Complexity

Calvin Trillin (Writerism)

Christina Rossetti (Writerism)

Clement of Alexandria (Episcopal Church)

Crispina (Christian; Saint)

Dalmatius of Pavia (Christian; Saint)

David Bomberg (Artology)

Dingle-Fritter, Gooseberry Humple, Tiger-Get-By, LoneFolding, and Zimber-Quattor’s [Multiple Squashing of] Celebration (Shamanism)

Faunalia (Honoring Faunus; Ancient Rome)

Faunalia Rustica (Pagan)

Festival of Faunalia (for Old Roman God Faunus)

George Shepherd (Artology)

Gerbold (Christian; Saint)

Ghidra and Mechaghidra Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saints)

Huyghens (Positivist; Saint)

James Lee Burke (Writerism)

Joan Didion (Writerism)

John Berendt (Writerism)

Justinian of Ramsey Island (Christian; Saint)

Konstantin Korovin (Artology)

Lucina (Pagan Goddess of Light; Everyday Wicca)

Nicetius (a.k.a. Nizier; Christian; Saint)

Niels Stenson (Christian; Blessed)

St. Nicholas Eve [Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, UK] (a.k.a. ... 

Avond (Leewvarden, West Friesland, Netherlands)

Bonhomme Noel (Celebration of “Goodman Christmas”)

Klausjagen (Switzerland)

Krampus

Krampusnacht (a.k.a. Krampuslauf; Austria)

Sinterklaas (The Netherlands)

Zwarte Piete (Black Peter, companion of St. Nicholas who keeps track of good/bad kids)

Nones of December (Ancient Rome)

Pelinus of Brindisi (Christian; Saint)

Poseidea (Seaside Festival; Ancient Greece)

Remember the Spanish Inquisition Day (Pastafarian)

Sabbas the Sanctified (Christian; Saint)

Wes (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [66 of 71]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Premieres

Anne of Green Gables (TV Mini-Series; 1985)

Band on the Run (Album; 1973)

Beverly Hills Cop (Film; 1984)

Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (Film; 1962)

The Borrowers (Film; 1997)

Bucks for Boris or The Green Paper Caper (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 132; 1961)

Bye Bye Baby, by Mary Wells (Song; 1960)

Cadillac Records (Film; 2008)

Café Flesh (Adult Film; 1982)

Charade (Film; 1963)

Chef Donald (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

Come and Get It, by Badfinger (Song; 1969)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Film; 2008)

Damaged, by Black Flag (Album; 1981)

Fearo, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S1, Eps. 19 & 20 1964)

Flash Gordon (Film; 1980)

Fowled Up Falcon (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1960)

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, by Giorgio Bassani (Novel; 1962)

The Godwulf Manuscript, by Robert B. Parker (Novel; 1973)

Good Will Hunting (Film; 1997)

Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Special; 1993)

Hop Skip and Junk or Bullwinkle’s Big Tow (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 131; 1961)

Juno (Film; 2007)

Let It Bleed, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1969)

Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez (Novel; 1985)

Made in America, by The Blues Brothers (Album; 1980)

The Matchmaker, by Thornton Wilder (Broadway Play; 1954)

Ocean’s Eleven (Film; 2001)

The Pearl, by John Steinbeck (Novella; 1947)

Pioneer Days (Disney Cartoon; 1930)

Serpico (Film; 1973)

The Station Agent (Film; 2003)

Symphonie Fantastique, by Hector Berlioz (Symphony; 1830)

Tweet Dreams (WB LT Cartoon; 1959)

The Village Smithy (WB LT Cartoon; 1936)

The Wolf’s Pardon (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1947)

Today’s Name Days

Anno, Gerald, Niels, Reinhard (Austria)

Sava, Silva, Silvana, Silviya, Stanislav (Bulgaria)

Krispina, Sabina, Slavka (Croatia)

Jitka (Czech Republic)

Sabina (Denmark)

Selma, Selme (Estonia)

Selma (Finland)

Gérald, Gérard (France)

Gerald, Niels, Reinhard (Germany)

Diogenes, Savas, Savvas (Greece)

Vilma (Hungary)

Giulio, Lucia (Italy)

Klaudija, Klaudijs, Sabīne, Sarma, Sarmīte (Latvia)

Eimintas, Geisvilė, Grafas, Gratas (Lithuania)

Ståle, Stine (Norway)

Anastazy, Gerald, Geraldyna, Kryspina, Krystyna, Pęcisława, Saba (Poland)

Anastasie, Nectarie, Sava (Romania)

Oto (Slovakia)

Anastasio, Elisa, Sabas (Spain)

Sven(Sweden)

Pandora, Sabas, Savas, Wallace, Wally, Walt, Walter (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 340 of 2024; 26 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of Week 49 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ngetal (Reed) [Day 12 of 28]

Chinese: Month 11 (Bing-Zi), Day 5 (Gui-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 4 Kislev 5785

Islamic: 3 Jumada II 1446

J Cal: 10 Black; Threesday [10 of 30]

Julian: 22 November 2024

Moon: 19%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 4 Bichat (13th Month) [John Bernoulli]

Runic Half Month: Is (Stasis) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 74 of 90)

Week: 1st Full Week of December

Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 14 of 30)

[brookstonalmanac]

Holidays 12.5

Holidays

AFL-CIO Day

Bathtub Party Day (a.k.a. Party in the Tub Day)

Battle of Longewaia Day (India)

Battle of Moscow Day (Russia)

Bhumibol Adulyadej Memorial Day (Thailand)

Blue Jeans Day

Boycott Day

Celebrate Shelter Pets Day

Children’s Day (Suriname)

Colorado Gives Day (Colorado)

Day of Military Honor - Battle of Moscow (Russia)

Day of the Ninja (a.k.a. International Ninja Day)

Die Like a Pirate Day

Discovery Day (Dominican Republic, Haiti)

Father’s Day (Thailand)

Female Community Health Volunteers’ Day (Nepal)

Folding Chair Day

Fraternity Day

International Leo Day

International Ninja Day (a.k.a. International Creep Like a Ninja Day)

International Volunteer Day

International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development (UN)

Irrational Exuberance Day

Klozum (Netherlands)

Let's Get Organized Day

Light Up A Life Day (Ireland)

Montgomery Bus Boycott Anniversary Day

National Christmas Tree Lighting Day

National Communicate with Your Kids Day

National Commute With Your Baby Day

National Coral Reef Day (Costa Rica)

National Day of the Coral Reef (Colombia)

National DeFi (Decentralized Finance) Day

National Devon Day

National Johnny Day

National Kings of Prohibition Day

Ninjas vs. Krampus Day

Party in the Tub Day

Play Hookey Day

Roe Deer Day (French Republic)

Statistician’s Day (Ukraine)

Tinsel Day

Volunteer Day (Russia)

World Biomedical Engineering Day

World Engineers Day (Turkey)

World Geographic Atrophy Day

World Soil Day

Food & Drink Celebrations

National Comfort Food Day

National Pigs in a Blanket Day (UK)

National Repeal Day

Sacher Torte Day

Swap a Christmas Cookie Recipe Day

World Turkish Coffee Day

Independence & Related Days

Quito Day (Ecuador)

Soviet Constitution Day (USSR)

1st Thursday in December

Kid Lit Art Postcard Day [1st Thursday]

Lover's Fair (Arlon, Belgium) [1st Thursday]

Thankful Thursday [1st Thursday of Each Month]

Therapy Thursday [1st Thursday of Each Month]

Thin Crust Thursday [1st Thursday of Each Month]

Thirsty Thursday [Every Thursday]

Three for Thursday [Every Thursday]

Thrift Store Thursday [Every Thursday]

Throwback Thursday [Every Thursday]

Weekly Holidays beginning December 5 (1st Full Week of December)

St. Nicholas Week (thru 12.15)

Festivals Beginning December 5, 2024

Chorus Inside International (Warsaw, Poland) [thru 12.9]

Christmas in Ida Festival & Parade of Lights (Ida, Michigan) [thru 12.7]

Country Living Christmas Fair (Harrogate, United Kingdom) [thru 12.8]

Festival of Ice (Lewistown, Pennsylvania) [thru 12.6]

Festival of Trees & Traditions (Hartford, Connecticut) [thru 12.15]

Havana Film Festival (Havana, Cuba) [thru 12.15]

International Book Fair for High-Quality Fiction and Non-Fiction (Moscow, Russia) [thru 12.8]

Lyon Festival of Lights (Lyon, France) [thru 12.8]

New York City Horror Film Festival (New York City, New York) [thru 12.8]

Night of the Proms (Stuttgart, Germany)

Portland Christmas Ship Parade (Portland, Oregon) [thru 12.22]

Scents & Sweets Competition and Auction (Frederick, Maryland)

Winterfest (Henderson, Nevada) [thru 12.6]

Feast Days

Abercius (Christian; Saint)

Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (Artology)

Bassus of Nice (Christian; Saint)

Bodhi Season, Day 5 (Buddhism; Secular Date) [Leading Up to 12.8] (a.k.a. ... 

Principles: Impermanence

Secular: Traditions

Eightfold Path: Awakened Livelihood

The Heart Sutra: Life Out of Complexity

Calvin Trillin (Writerism)

Christina Rossetti (Writerism)

Clement of Alexandria (Episcopal Church)

Crispina (Christian; Saint)

Dalmatius of Pavia (Christian; Saint)

David Bomberg (Artology)

Dingle-Fritter, Gooseberry Humple, Tiger-Get-By, LoneFolding, and Zimber-Quattor’s [Multiple Squashing of] Celebration (Shamanism)

Faunalia (Honoring Faunus; Ancient Rome)

Faunalia Rustica (Pagan)

Festival of Faunalia (for Old Roman God Faunus)

George Shepherd (Artology)

Gerbold (Christian; Saint)

Ghidra and Mechaghidra Day (Church of the SubGenius; Saints)

Huyghens (Positivist; Saint)

James Lee Burke (Writerism)

Joan Didion (Writerism)

John Berendt (Writerism)

Justinian of Ramsey Island (Christian; Saint)

Konstantin Korovin (Artology)

Lucina (Pagan Goddess of Light; Everyday Wicca)

Nicetius (a.k.a. Nizier; Christian; Saint)

Niels Stenson (Christian; Blessed)

St. Nicholas Eve [Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, UK] (a.k.a. ... 

Avond (Leewvarden, West Friesland, Netherlands)

Bonhomme Noel (Celebration of “Goodman Christmas”)

Klausjagen (Switzerland)

Krampus

Krampusnacht (a.k.a. Krampuslauf; Austria)

Sinterklaas (The Netherlands)

Zwarte Piete (Black Peter, companion of St. Nicholas who keeps track of good/bad kids)

Nones of December (Ancient Rome)

Pelinus of Brindisi (Christian; Saint)

Poseidea (Seaside Festival; Ancient Greece)

Remember the Spanish Inquisition Day (Pastafarian)

Sabbas the Sanctified (Christian; Saint)

Wes (Muppetism)

Lucky & Unlucky Days

Lucky Day (Philippines) [66 of 71]

Sakimake (先負 Japan) [Bad luck in the morning, good luck in the afternoon.]

Premieres

Anne of Green Gables (TV Mini-Series; 1985)

Band on the Run (Album; 1973)

Beverly Hills Cop (Film; 1984)

Big and Little Wong Tin Bar (Film; 1962)

The Borrowers (Film; 1997)

Bucks for Boris or The Green Paper Caper (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 132; 1961)

Bye Bye Baby, by Mary Wells (Song; 1960)

Cadillac Records (Film; 2008)

Café Flesh (Adult Film; 1982)

Charade (Film; 1963)

Chef Donald (Disney Cartoon; 1941)

Come and Get It, by Badfinger (Song; 1969)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Film; 2008)

Damaged, by Black Flag (Album; 1981)

Fearo, Parts 3 & 4 (Underdog Cartoon, S1, Eps. 19 & 20 1964)

Flash Gordon (Film; 1980)

Fowled Up Falcon (Woody Woodpecker Cartoon; 1960)

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, by Giorgio Bassani (Novel; 1962)

The Godwulf Manuscript, by Robert B. Parker (Novel; 1973)

Good Will Hunting (Film; 1997)

Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby (Hanna-Barbera Animated TV Special; 1993)

Hop Skip and Junk or Bullwinkle’s Big Tow (Rocky & Bullwinkle Cartoon, S3, Ep. 131; 1961)

Juno (Film; 2007)

Let It Bleed, by The Rolling Stones (Album; 1969)

Love in the Time of Cholera, by Gabriel García Márquez (Novel; 1985)

Made in America, by The Blues Brothers (Album; 1980)

The Matchmaker, by Thornton Wilder (Broadway Play; 1954)

Ocean’s Eleven (Film; 2001)

The Pearl, by John Steinbeck (Novella; 1947)

Pioneer Days (Disney Cartoon; 1930)

Serpico (Film; 1973)

The Station Agent (Film; 2003)

Symphonie Fantastique, by Hector Berlioz (Symphony; 1830)

Tweet Dreams (WB LT Cartoon; 1959)

The Village Smithy (WB LT Cartoon; 1936)

The Wolf’s Pardon (Terrytoons Cartoon; 1947)

Today’s Name Days

Anno, Gerald, Niels, Reinhard (Austria)

Sava, Silva, Silvana, Silviya, Stanislav (Bulgaria)

Krispina, Sabina, Slavka (Croatia)

Jitka (Czech Republic)

Sabina (Denmark)

Selma, Selme (Estonia)

Selma (Finland)

Gérald, Gérard (France)

Gerald, Niels, Reinhard (Germany)

Diogenes, Savas, Savvas (Greece)

Vilma (Hungary)

Giulio, Lucia (Italy)

Klaudija, Klaudijs, Sabīne, Sarma, Sarmīte (Latvia)

Eimintas, Geisvilė, Grafas, Gratas (Lithuania)

Ståle, Stine (Norway)

Anastazy, Gerald, Geraldyna, Kryspina, Krystyna, Pęcisława, Saba (Poland)

Anastasie, Nectarie, Sava (Romania)

Oto (Slovakia)

Anastasio, Elisa, Sabas (Spain)

Sven(Sweden)

Pandora, Sabas, Savas, Wallace, Wally, Walt, Walter (USA)

Today is Also…

Day of Year: Day 340 of 2024; 26 days remaining in the year

ISO: Day 4 of Week 49 of 2024

Celtic Tree Calendar: Ngetal (Reed) [Day 12 of 28]

Chinese: Month 11 (Bing-Zi), Day 5 (Gui-Mao)

Chinese Year of the: Dragon 4722 (until January 29, 2025) [Wu-Chen]

Hebrew: 4 Kislev 5785

Islamic: 3 Jumada II 1446

J Cal: 10 Black; Threesday [10 of 30]

Julian: 22 November 2024

Moon: 19%: Waxing Crescent

Positivist: 4 Bichat (13th Month) [John Bernoulli]

Runic Half Month: Is (Stasis) [Day 14 of 15]

Season: Autumn or Fall (Day 74 of 90)

Week: 1st Full Week of December

Zodiac: Sagittarius (Day 14 of 30)

[unhingedwomandiaries]

Had one of those proper mindfuck dreams last night. You know the type - starts off innocent enough but then reality decides to go on holiday and everything gets weird as shit.

So I'm on this bus because apparently my lizard brain thought public transport would be more efficient than my usual commute. Bus driver's giving it the big one about dropping me right at my door, no worries love, piece of piss. Should've known better, shouldn't I? Public transport is about as reliable as x's promises to stop microwaving fish in the office kitchen.

Some of my colleagues are on board, having a full-blown Microsoft Teams meltdown about bloody pimple patches of all things. Like, even my subconscious can't escape workplace drama. Tragic.

Then time does that sneaky dream thing where it just fucks off without warning. Phone's telling me ninety minutes have gone missing, vanished into the void like x's dignity at last year's Christmas party. Never a good sign when time starts playing hide and seek in your dreams, is it?

Next thing I know, we're pulling into what looks like a Soviet-era bomb shelter. Proper concrete monstrosity, the type of place you'd expect to find either nuclear warheads or really shit vending machines. I'm sat there thinking this definitely isn't my stop unless my house has suddenly relocated to a military installation.

Pull up Google Maps like a proper muppet (because dream-me still believes in technology apparently), and it's having an existential crisis trying to load. When it finally gets its shit together, turns out we're in fucking Somerset. Somerset! I live nowhere near Somerset. I'm not some countryside dweller who has debates with sheep and gets excited about cheese rolling competitions.

Started proper crying then, having flashbacks to that time I actually ended up in Wales by accident. (Real life me would like to formally apologize to Wales for that incident. Still don't know how that happened.)

Thank fuck I woke up before the bus driver could announce we were taking a quick detour to Scotland.

[pumaniq]

Soviet Bus Stops

£24.95 BUY

Christopher Herwig

160x200 mm hardback 192 pages, 159 photographs ISBN 978-0-9931911-0-7 Published in 2015

10% goes to the British Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal.

Photographer Christopher Herwig has covered more than 30,000 km by car, bike, bus and taxi in 14 former Soviet countries discovering and documenting these unexpected treasures of modern art. From the shores of the Black Sea to the endless Kazakh steppe, these extraordinary bus stops show the range of public art from the Soviet era and give a rare glimpse into the creative minds of the time. The book represents the most comprehensive and diverse collection of Soviet bus stop design ever assembled from: Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Belarus. With a foreword by writer, critic and television presenter Jonathan Meades.

Soviet Bus Stops slipcase set

Soviet Bus Stops and Soviet Bus Stops Volume II in a limited edition yellow clothbound slipcase with black foil blocked type. + 3 Soviet Bus Stops postcards.

Exclusive to this website.

A3 size C Type prints in an edition of 100: £195 A2 size C Type prints in an edition of 75: £295 Shipping: £15 for tracked postage / £30 outside Europe

Prints come with an A4 certificate of authentication signed by Christopher Herwig. Prints have a blind embossed stamp in the bottom right corner: SOVIET BUS STOPS – HERWIG To order email: fuel@fuel-design.com

RELATED PUBLICATIONS

REVIEWS

Christopher Herwig’s obsessional project posthumously illumines the Soviet empire’s taste for the utterly fantastical. It restricts itself to one building type, the bus stop or shelter, which tends in Western Europe to be meanly utilitarian. There is a certain amount of that here. But it is atypical. The norm is wild going on savage. Just as follies were, in the 18th century, often try-outs for new architectural styles, so may some of these wayward roadside punctuation marks have been structural or aesthetic experiments; they certainly don’t lack grandeur and audacity.

The shelters provide an adhoc social service. Further they have granted aspirant sculptors, builders and architects opportunities to flex their creative muscles. Not least they have given a fine photographer that most precious and elusive of quarries – a truly distinctive subject, one which he celebrates with an almost tangible warmth and with a fondness for the anonymous men and women who created them. Jonathan Meades

In Kyrgyzstan there are bus stops shaped like the region's high-crowned kalpak hats, as well as round tapering structures modelled on local yurts. Coloured concrete reliefs rule in the Ukraine, as do mosaics in Moldova, while in the forests of Estonia many bus stops are simple triangular pitched-roof structures, made of the timber that was to hand. Some of the most elaborate structures occur around Pitsunda on the Black Sea, where Khrushchev had his summer dacha. Along these coastal roads, voluptuous sea shells compete with the gaping mouths of gigantic fish, writhing concrete forms heavily encrusted with mosaic tiles, like Gaudí at the seaside.  Oliver Wainwright, The Guardian

This book is an absorbing collection of high-quality photographs, handsomely laid out and designed. Anyone who delves in will find favourites. Kazakh and Kyrgyz designs draw on traditions of horsemanship and falconry. Ukrainian shelters bear vivid, folksy mosaics. Armenian examples are hard and foreboding, while Baltic inventions will please the Ikea crowd. One Moldovan creation, formed from open-fronted dodecahedrons, delivers an SF vibe. Most alien of all are the radiant Gaudí knock-offs in the disputed region of Abkhazia, where Soviet elites once took their beach holidays (inside one of these someone has written, ‘Bitches took away freedom’). Roland Elliott Brown, The Spectator

Over 150 photographs of architectural exuberance dotting the streets and highways of the vast country… Although many of these structures are falling into disrepair from age and neglect, that they still exist is a testament to how meaningful they must have been in an otherwise homogenous built environment. Herwig's tenacity and devotion to accomplishing a project of this scale is extraordinary. John Foster, Design Observer

[thinkinglookingdoingspring2023b]

Exercise and Tutorial: Photomontage

This is an exercise that brings together several ideas we've been considering through the semester.

If you take two distinct images and smash them together you are making a collage. In the old days designers used to call this technique "photomontage." Today we call it "photoshopping."

The artists who pioneered photomontage were associated with the Dada art movement and used the technique to challenge the Nazi regime or to promote the Soviet revolution. To this day we continue see the technique used to indicate radical politics or creative surrealism.

Either way, it can lead to exciting results because the juxtaposition introduces more opportunities for contrasts. That means all of your other design tricks will work with photomontage as well: gestalt principles, perceived attributes, active white space, analogous color, etc.

For an exercise this week, I want you to create a single-sheet photomontage with at least three images and some type.

I suggest one of these deliverables:

A one-page magazine ad, or: A three-image instagram series, or: A movie poster for a bus shelter.

Choose any client, like maybe a make-up brand, or a movie with an upcoming release.

First consider your image. I want to see at least one original photo collaged with at least two found images. According to US copyright law, you can use whatever you want because you're a student. If you want to use something in the public domain, check out archive.org or the smithsonian image gallery: https://library.si.edu/image-gallery.

To start, take a photo of yourself or a partner with 3-point studio light. Use that image as the primary image and follow one of these tutorials:

1. Digital Foundations Chapter 11: Non-Destructive Editing http://wiki.digital-foundations.net/index.php?title=Chapter_11_CC18

Or Digital Foundations Chapter 10: Repetition and Cloning http://wiki.digital-foundations.net/index.php?title=Chapter_10_CC18

or https://www.linkedin.com/learning/photoshop-cc-2019-essential-training-the-basics/layer-mask-essentials (Sections 8 and 9: Working with Layer Masks and Making Selections.)

[meckamecha]

Thinking of the large, robust, and beautifully designed rural soviet bus shelters and longing for a world where not just safety, but also comfort and aesthetic, are afforded to the homeless, the poor, and the unprepared

thinking about the way bus stops in america are built

Have you ever really had to be in one of those shitty bus stops in the middle of the pouring rain.

And just thought. Damn, and all this is just because the city despises homeless people so so much and refuses to reckon with them as people but rather as pests. And the only comfort you get is from sitting there desperately trying to stay warm in weather youve never been prepared for

(rain is often times not forecasted properly or sometimes. Ya just dont read it.)

I dont know where im going with this. Maybe im trying to say its just fucking miserable and dehumanizing to anyone outside of a car living in america. Nobody deserves to be left out in the rain with no shelter all because some fucking "boys in blue" had that funding to build bus shelters allocated to them instead.

Im kinda going on a tangent here but god do i hate cops. Despise them with a passion. Every so often you hear about the excessive use of force at traffic stops(!) And often times even if you do get robbed theyre literally just bueraucrat bastards who are only willing to help you if youve got more than a million dollars in the bank.

Anyways. We need better bus shelters.

[socarchlithuania]

Kruciai. 2020

[triviallytrue]

hey WADDUP cause my name is reamus, im from the roman empiorer thats my teamus, my bro romlus is also here and were delivering a rap thatll turn you queer. cuase its back in the day back in ancient times and theres discrimination in these mediteranian climes, so if we turn you gay thats conveint for us, cause then well be the top men on this roman bus (part 1/3)

and when i say top i dont mean it like that, i know what your thinking but just put on your and come DOWN, to the colloseum, where were having a fight and were all chewing gum. yeah, thats what we do here in rome, so be careful cause were so manly were hainvg a battle (2/3)

[nuclear warning beep] WE INTERRUPT THIS RAP TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE SOVIETS HAVE FIRED A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE. [nuclear warning beep] PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE AND AWAIT THE BLAST [nuclear warning beep] PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE AND AWAIT THE BLAST [nuclear warning beep] PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE AND AWAIT THE BLAST [nuclear warning beep] PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE AND AWAIT THE BLAST [nuclear warning beep] PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE AND AWAIT THE BLAST [nuclear warning beep] PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE (3/3)

[newstfionline]

Thursday, April 8, 2021

Study: Drought-breaking rains more rare, erratic in US West (AP) Rainstorms grew more erratic and droughts much longer across most of the U.S. West over the past half-century as climate change warmed the planet, according to a sweeping government study released Tuesday that concludes the situation is worsening. The most dramatic changes were recorded in the desert Southwest, where the average dry period between rainstorms grew from about 30 days in the 1970s to 45 days between storms now, said Joel Biederman, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, Arizona. The consequences of the intense dry periods that pummeled areas of the West in recent years were severe—more intense and dangerous wildfires, parched croplands and not enough vegetation to support livestock and wildlife. The study comes with almost two-thirds of the contiguous U.S. beset by abnormally dry conditions. Warm temperatures forecast for the next several months could make it the worst spring drought in almost a decade, affecting roughly 74 million people across the U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

Survey: Even as schools reopen, many students learn remotely (AP) Large numbers of students are not returning to the classroom even as more schools reopen for full-time, in-person learning, according to a survey released Wednesday by the Biden administration. The findings reflect a nation that has been locked in debate over the safety of reopening schools. Even as national COVID-19 rates continued to ebb in February, key measures around reopening schools barely budged. Nearly 46% of public schools offered five days a week of in-person to all students in February, according to the survey, but just 34% of students were learning full-time in the classroom. The gap was most pronounced among older K-12 students, with just 29% of eighth graders getting five days a week of learning at school. With the new findings, President Joe Biden came no closer to meeting his goal of having most elementary schools open five days a week in his first 100 days. Just shy of half the nation’s schools offered full-time learning in February, roughly the same share as the previous month.

Off Grid (Pew Research Center) Despite increasing access across the country, still 7 percent of U.S. adults say they do not use the internet, according to the latest survey from the Pew Research Center. This includes about 25 percent of people aged 65 and up, about 14 percent of people in households earning less than $30,000 per year and about 10 percent of rural households. In 2000, 48 percent of Americans said they didn’t use the internet, which fell to 32 percent in 2005, 24 percent in 2010 and 15 percent by 2015.

Global COVID-19 death toll surpasses 3 million amid new infections resurgence (Reuters) Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on Tuesday, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of COVID-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe. Worldwide COVID-19 deaths are rising once again, especially in Brazil and India. Health officials blame more infectious variants that were first detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa, along with public fatigue with lockdowns and other restrictions.

Devastation From Storms Fuels Migration in Honduras (NYT) Children pry at the dirt with sticks, trying to dig out parts of homes that have sunk below ground. Their parents, unable to feed them, scavenge the rubble for remnants of roofs to sell for scrap metal. They live on top of the mud that swallowed fridges, stoves, beds—their entire lives buried beneath them. “We are doomed here,” said Magdalena Flores, a mother of seven, standing on a mattress that peeked out from the dirt where her house used to be. “The desperation, the sadness, that’s what makes you migrate.” People have long left Honduras for the United States, fleeing gang violence, economic misery and the indifference of a government run by a president accused of ties to drug traffickers. Then last fall, two hurricanes hit impoverished areas of Honduras in rapid succession, striking more than four million people across the nation—nearly half the population—and leveling entire neighborhoods. “People aren’t migrating; they’re fleeing,” said César Ramos, of the Mennonite Social Action Commission, a group providing aid to people affected by the storms. “These people have lost everything, even their hope.”

Leaders of Russia and China tighten their grips (AP) They’re not leaders for life—not technically, at least. But in political reality, the powerful tenures of China’s Xi Jinping and, as of this week, Russia’s Vladimir Putin are looking as if they will extend much deeper into the 21st century—even as the two superpowers whose destinies they steer gather more clout with each passing year. What’s more, as they consolidate political control at home, sometimes with harsh measures, they’re working together more substantively than ever in a growing challenge to the West and the world’s other superpower, the United States. This week, Putin signed a law allowing him to potentially hold onto power until 2036. The 68-year-old Russian president, who has been in power for more than two decades—longer than any other Kremlin leader since Soviet dictator Josef Stalin—pushed through a constitutional vote last year allowing him to run again in 2024 when his current six-year term ends. He has overseen a systematic crackdown on dissent. In China, Xi, who came to power in 2012, has imposed even tighter controls on the already repressive political scene, emerging as one of his nation’s most powerful leaders in the seven decades of Communist Party rule that began with Mao Zedong’s often-brutal regime. Under Xi, the government has rounded up, imprisoned or silenced intellectuals, legal activists and other voices, cracked down on Hong Kong’s opposition and used security forces to suppress calls for minority rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia.

US military cites rising risk of Chinese move against Taiwan (AP) The American military is warning that China is probably accelerating its timetable for capturing control of Taiwan, the island democracy that has been the chief source of tension between Washington and Beijing for decades and is widely seen as the most likely trigger for a potentially catastrophic U.S.-China war. The worry about Taiwan comes as China wields new strength from years of military buildup. It has become more aggressive with Taiwan and more assertive in sovereignty disputes in the South China Sea. Beijing also has become more confrontational with Washington; senior Chinese officials traded sharp and unusually public barbs with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in talks in Alaska last month. A military move against Taiwan, however, would be a test of U.S. support for the island that Beijing views as a breakaway province. For the Biden administration, it could present the choice of abandoning a friendly, democratic entity or risking what could become an all-out war over a cause that is not on the radar of most Americans. The United States has long pledged to help Taiwan defend itself, but it has deliberately left unclear how far it would go in response to a Chinese attack.

Myanmar teeters toward state collapse and civil war (Washington Post) On Tuesday, protesters spilled metaphorical blood on the streets of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. They sprayed and splashed red paint on roads, pavement and bus stops across town to mark the death toll exacted by security forces on demonstrators standing against the Feb. 1 coup carried out by the country’s junta. At least 570 people, including more than 40 children, have been killed in two months of unrest. More than 2,720 politicians, activists and civil society figures have been detained by authorities. At least 25 journalists are in detention, while others covering protests have been brutalized by state forces. On Tuesday, police and soldiers in Yangon carted off Zarganar, the country’s most well-known comedian, in an army vehicle on unspecified charges.      Last week, authorities further tightened curbs on broadband access, ordering private providers to suspend wireless data services. According to one research firm, Internet shutdowns over recent months in Myanmar may have already cost the local economy close to $1 billion. That’s a price the regime appears happy to pay to deter protesters from coordinating their actions and disseminating further information. Undaunted, dissidents have taken to older forms of communication, launching rogue radio stations and spreading leaflets urging a national boycott of next week’s official state celebration of Thingyan, Myanmar’s traditional new year.      Still, the resilience and determination of the protesters “is not unambiguously good news, because the military junta also will not give up, no matter the cost, leaving little hope of salvaging Myanmar’s political liberalization, economic reform, and development progress during a decade of civilian rule,” wrote Thitinan Pongsudhirak, an esteemed political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. “Instead, the country faces the imminent threat of economic collapse, state implosion, and internal strife—perhaps even full-fledged civil war.”

A Murky, Violent Limbo in Syria (NYT) Among the millions of Syrians who fled as the government bombed their towns, destroyed their homes and killed their loved ones are 150 families squatting in a soccer stadium in the northwestern city of Idlib, sheltering in rickety tents under the stands or in the rocky courtyard. More than 1,300 similar camps dot Syria’s last bastions under rebel control, eating up farmland, stretching along irrigation canals and filling lots next to apartment buildings where refugee families squat in damaged units with no windows. On a rare visit to Idlib Province, examples abounded of shocked and impoverished people trapped in a murky and often violent limbo. Stuck between a wall to prevent them from fleeing across the nearby border with Turkey and a hostile government that could attack at any moment, they struggle to secure basic needs in a territory controlled by a militant group formerly linked to Al Qaeda. Few of them are likely to return as long as Assad remains in power, making the fate of the displaced one of the thorniest pieces of the war’s unfinished business. “The question is: What is the future for these people?” said Mark Cutts, the United Nations deputy regional humanitarian coordinator for Syria. “They can’t continue living forever in muddy fields under olive trees by the side of the road.”

Israel hits Iranian ship (Foreign Policy) An Iranian military vessel in the Red Sea was damaged by an Israeli mine on Tuesday in the latest naval confrontation involving the two countries. The incident follows a number of attacks against Iranian vessels suspected of shipping oil to Syria. Iran has responded with strikes of its own, hitting an Israeli container ship in March. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the ship struck in Tuesday’s attack had been stationed in the Red Sea to combat pirates in the area.

[residesatshamecentral]

Unfamiliar faces

Part two of the 1950s-set AU. Huth is adrift on the French Riviera where he encounters a terrorist organisation led by a very familiar face...

@sweetss80 @killclaudia @me-fish @burnt-cinnamon @rivier

“Surprised that you of all people would go commie” said Huth. He leaned back in his chair so that the front legs lifted slightly from the floor. Springer watched him with slightly raised eyebrows. His expression was familiar, weathered and tarnished by age and something darker. It was the mixture of indulgence and dry self-reproach with which he had always greeted the younger man’s antics. To Huth is was oddly shocking: Springer’s face had become strangely pouched in the last decade, swollen from underneath and smoothed with hypocrisy. Far from the steely soldier troops had trembled before, Springer looked like a soviet caricature of a corrupt priest. His girth did nothing to lessen the resemblance.

“I am not a communist” he replied eventually “nor was I ever a beefsteak Nazi, as you well know. The soviets are a means to an end, nothing more.”

“But you collect intelligence for them.”

“The org needs funding, and a way to remain undercover. It is them or the Americans – although I believe there is a faction working for the Americans -”

“The Viennese lot, I know.”

“Frankly I prefer the soviets. The Americans have that extra level of hypocrisy that makes them just slightly beyond the bounds of tolerance.”

“They are hunting you of course.”

“Of course. And if they caught me I would have two options. Place myself and the org at their disposal or be tried for war crimes, as if that absurd phrase were not a contradiction in terms.”

There was a strange pause. Huth toyed with his cigarette, avoiding Springer’s eyes. A faint smile played around his lips, like a spider seeking shelter. Springer’s hard eyes remained fixed on him for long seconds, until finally he reached out and placed his index finger deliberately on Huth’s wrist. The front legs of the chair met the floor again with a small crash.

“So that is how I get you to look at me now” said Springer evenly. “Would you care to drop the act?”

“Albrecht” said Huth. Nothing more occurred to him, so the word hung in the air. Springer studied him silently. The index finger remained where it was, like a question mark. Huth had the absurd sensation that his flesh was trying to crawl away from it.

“…Is there anything you wish to say?” said Springer’s soft tones eventually. “You know you can never hide your thoughts from me. We know each other too well. And if you work for the org you will eventually say it anyway. Get it off your chest, Oskar.”

“After ten years of comfortably bottling up my emotions? Why break a finely cultivated habit?”

“Oskar.”

There was a subtle ring of iron in the word. Beyond the closed door, a guard coughed softly and shifted on his feet.

“…It is very hard” Huth whispered. The words came out in a rasp, his face almost immobile. His eyes were on the wall again, defiantly fixed there. “And it is harder still that it should be you.”

Springer studied his face for some moments. His hand closed gently around Huth’s wrist, then released him as he sat back. “Hard” he agreed softly. “Yes, it will be hard for you that I was involved. I am glad I kept you out of it…the worst of it anyway…”

“I know how much I owe you.”

“…And I know that you will be able to see that when you have to kill others to preserve your own life, eventually the numbers make no difference.”

Huth turned his head and smiled at him. It was a strange, weak smile, with something essential boiled out of it. Springer met it with one of his own, and they sat frozen in a moment, two lone animals showing their teeth across a space.

***

Huth walked for forty minutes after leaving the cramped office building, hoping to lull his tail into a false sense of security. Then, as though it had just occurred to him, he leaped onto a bus just as its doors were shutting, getting off without warning at an ill-lit street corner. After ten minutes of brisk walking through a network of alleyways, he hailed a cab and paid the driver to give him a quick tourist’s view of the Riviera – for, as the drawling, half-drunk German announced expansively, when you have just got off a plane to conduct and ad hoc business deal, you have to make the most of a trip, and he had an hour to spare before dinner.

The tourist trip was conducted to a constant litany of slurred bilingual rambling occasionally broken by the driver’s attempts to explain the sites to his annoying fare. Finally, the relieved man deposited Huth opposite the Grand Hotel, waiting patiently as his money was ceremoniously counted out for him. He did not bother to look back as he drove away, or he might have noticed how steadily the ostensibly drunk man was walking.

On a table in a room, a phone rang. A withered hand picked up the receiver.

“Hallo?”

“I’m in” said Huth. “I spoke to him. He had me tailed but I lost them.”

“Oh good. I shall tell the cook to expect a guest for dinner.”

[dweemeister]

“Women Make Film” marathon reviews (2/?)

Sleepwalking Land (2007, Mozambique)

From 1977 to 1992, Mozambique was in a state of civil war. Mozambique, situated in Africa’s southeast corner above South Africa and separated by a channel from Madagascar, still reckons with the human, political, and social legacies of that conflict. Exacerbated by the Soviet Union and the anti-communist Apartheid South Africa (both meddling for influence in Mozambican affairs), the war quickly reached a conclusion as those foreign regimes disintegrated. In the final year of the Mozambican Civil War, author Mia Couto published an acclaimed magical realism novel, Terra Sonâmbula (Sleepwalking Land), that takes place with the war as a backdrop. Couto’s book inspired a film adaptation by Teresa Prata – Portuguese-born, Mozambican-raised, and now living in Germany.

Sleepwalking Land is Prata’s first feature film as a director. She was mesmerized by Couto’s book, saying that memories of the war rushed through her head while reading. Believing the text to be deeply cinematic, she spent seven years to complete this adaptation of Sleepwalking Land. The final print is a film difficult to categorize. Comprised of two parallel narratives, Prata has the narratives blend into the other as the film progresses. Its magical realism elements only appear in the final half-hour of the film. One scene in particular will most likely shock, if not offend, Western viewers. But the actions in that scene are considered a traditional behavior in Mozambique (something that I shall explain later in this write-up). Central to Sleepwalking Land is the idea that storytelling is integral to survival – especially as the innocent trod through their war-torn homeland.

In the Mozambican countryside, we encounter eleven-year-old Muidinga (Nick Lauro Teresa) and a much older man named Tuahir (Aladino Jasse). Their relationship is unclear, but Muidinga refers to Tuahir as “Uncle” (if the film’s dialogue is to be believed, they are probably not related). Muidinga wishes to find his mother, but the search has been fruitless. The young refugee also appears not to remember much about his life before his journeys with Tuahir; he cannot even recall how he and Tuahir met. The elderly Tuahir is a storyteller who makes clear his desire to leave the past behind – the audience learns almost nothing about that past by film’s end. This duo has been wandering the countryside, but one day stumble upon the wreckage of a torched bus. They bury the charred bodies of those who died in their seats, salvage a diary from one of the victims, and take shelter in the bus (“What is already burnt cannot burn again.”) Muidinga reads from the diary (Tuahir is illiterate), and learns that the writer is a woman searching for her missing son. He believes, however unlikely, he is that very son and that the writer is his mother.

If the viewer expects details about the Mozambican Civil War itself, just note that those details never appear. Prata elects to keep the affiliations of the roving militias as ambiguous as possible. Like Couto’s text, this film adaptation of Sleepwalking Land has not taken any sides or political stances – save the notion that war is solely a destructive force. But it is not war itself that Sleepwalking Land focuses on, but how its central characters respond to the traumas it has unleashed on their lives. Muidinga and Tuahir enter the film with unrevealed, if not unknowable, pasts. “You don’t even have a story,” Tuahir tells the young boy.

Muidinga responds by creating his own life story, however fantastical. He is reborn; the particulars of the civil war, the loss of his parents, and the famine that affected Mozambique prior to this rebirth is fully removed from his lived experiences. Muidinga’s imagination leads the film into its magical realism. Having never seen the ocean and despite being nowhere near the beach, Muidinga transports himself and Tuahir there – without ever leaving the bus. Muidinga has broken the inescapable cycle that has trapped him and Tuahir. Upon this development, Tuahir realizes that the young boy he has been accompanying has learned all that he needs to survive in desperate, nightmarish times. In each of these scenes, Paulo Rebelo’s (2000’s O Fantasma) editing does well to transition between the scenes depicting the diary entries the roundabout travels of Muidinga and Tuahir, lending a documentary-like feel to the latter.

Plot-hungry viewers will probably demand for explanations for Muidinga’s amnesia and Tuahir’s past, but the film refuses to provide any answers. To those viewers: stop resisting the film’s refusal to accommodate your expectations, and allow it to tell its story on its own terms.

And as for expectations, one shocking scene in Sleepwalking Land will undoubtedly startle Western audiences and requires explanation for anybody reading this review after viewing the film. The behavior in that scene is custom in Mozambique. In Mozambique, young boys and girls are “initiated” by elder men and women, respectively, as they reach puberty. In a secluded environment, the elders will teach the young ones about sexuality. Sexual initiation of Mozambican children was banned by the left-wing FRELIMO party after securing independence from Portugal and establishing one-party control. FRELIMO argued that initiation rites promoted female subservience; their many critics dismissed this as simplistic, saying that the rites provided women with sexual education they might not otherwise get.

The ban on initiation rites has long been lifted in Mozambique, though the practice is no longer as prominent as it used to be. In keeping with the film’s fidelity to Mozambican culture at this time, Prata includes Muidinga’s initiation in this film. The scene is filmed obliquely, in a matter-of-fact way. The audience never sees anything graphic and Tuahir’s verbal descriptions are innocuous, but the implication of what he is doing to Muidinga is clear. Prata, a child of both Africa and Europe, could not have filmed this scenario with any greater respect to her actors and the cultures she was raised in. For Western viewers like myself, it is one of more than a few teaching moments in Sleepwalking Land.

The film’s two leads in Nick Lauro Teresa and Aladino Jasse are both non-professional actors. Their acting might not be the most accomplished, but the dynamic between the two is a joy to watch. Though they probably are not related, their characters have an asymmetric emotional intimacy understandable considering their situation. In what might have been a dour, overlong experience, Teresa and Jasse inject enough charm and humor to keep Sleepwalking Land bearable. The same cannot be written for the parallel story fronted by Kindzu (Helio Fumo) and Farida (Ilda Gonzalez), which throws the film’s narrative propulsion off-balance whenever Teresa and Jasse are not on-screen. To everyone’s credit, the acting ensemble helps Sleepwalking Land feel like a vivid dream – from the silences paired with the rural landscapes, the decisional logic, and the film’s impossible conclusion (but it is one that, mind you, works).

Though Sleepwalking Land has made appearances in film festival across the world, it – and Teresa Prata’s career (this is Prata’s most recent movie, and by what is provided in Sleepwalking Land, I would like to see much more from her) – has never found much traction. I may not have read Couto’s novel prior to viewing this film (the novel is available in an English translation), but its novelistic overtures are felt throughout the film. The blending of narratives flows like something from a printed page, rather than quickly edited into yet another one of Christopher Nolan’s moviemaking mazes. From its humble, low-budget origins, Sleepwalking Land is composed in its singular artistic vision and confident about the depth of human endurance.

My rating: 8/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

NOTE #1: This is the second of an unspecified amount of film reviews on this blog relating to films that I saw as part of Turner Classic Movies’ (TCM) Women Make Film marathon.

NOTE #2: Sleepwalking Land is currently available to watch on YouTube for free. The print includes English subtitles in the closed-captioning options.

[gozel]

https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1518805391637939/?type=3

Bu gün, 3 Eylül 1946, ABD başkanı Harry Truman, Nazi bilim adamlarını ABD'ye getirmeyi amaçlayan gizli bir plan olan Paperclip Operasyonunu resmen onayladı ve genişletti. Başlangıçta Overcast Operasyonu olarak adlandırılan ABD, Sovyetler Birliği'ne rakip olmak için Alman teknolojisini kullanmaya hevesliydi. Sonunda, 1600 Nazi teknisyeni ABD'ye getirildi ve burada savaş suçları nedeniyle büyük ölçüde kovuşturmadan kaçındı. Bunun yerine onlara kimyasal ve biyolojik silahlar geliştiren, kötü şöhretli MKUltra planında "zihin kontrolü" deneyleri yapan ve uzay programı üzerinde çalışan işler verildi.

**

Wernher von Braun, daha sonra NASA tarafından benimsenen uzay programında kıdemli bir yönetici yapıldı. Toplama kamplarından köle işçileri roket yapmak için ölüme terk etmek üzere seçtiği için Holokost'a yakından dahil olan yetkililerden sadece biriydi. Baş Nazi sağlık görevlisi Walter Schreiber, toplama kamplarındaki mahkumlar üzerinde korkunç insan deneylerinde yer aldı; bunlara, kurbanlara tifüs enjekte edildiği, erkeklerin kısırlaştırıldığı, mahkumların donma suyuna daldırıldığı ve düşük basınç odalarına kilitlenerek akciğerlerini yok ettiği denetleme deneyleri de dahil. Schreiber daha sonra Boston Globe tarafından ifşa edildi, bu yüzden ABD ordusu onu, diğer birçok Nazi'yi barındıran Juan Perón hükümeti tarafından korunduğu Arjantin'e uçurdu. Başka bir Nazi doktoru, Hubertus Strughold'un da aynı deneyler hakkında bilgisi olduğu ve ABD Ordusu tarafından savaş suçları için "aranan" olarak listelendiği bildirildi. Ancak Hava Kuvvetleri tarafından "havacılık tıbbının babası" olarak tanımlanan, yüz yüze duruşmadan ziyade, onun adını Brooks Hava Kuvvetleri Üssü'nde, ancak 1995'te yeniden adlandırılan ve bir portresiyle onurlandırılan bir kütüphanesi vardı. Ohio Eyalet Üniversitesi'nde bir "tıbbi kahramanlar" duvarında.

**

On this day, 3 September 1946, US president Harry Truman officially approved and expanded Operation Paperclip, a secret plan to bring Nazi scientists to US. Originally called Operation Overcast, the US was keen to make use of German technology in order to rival the Soviet Union. Eventually, 1600 Nazi technicians were brought to the US, where they largely avoided prosecution for war crimes. Instead they were given jobs developing chemical and biological weapons, experimenting with "mind-control" in the notorious MKUltra scheme, and working on the space program. Wernher von Braun was made a senior director on the space programme, which was later absorbed by NASA. He was just one of the officials who was intimately involved in the Holocaust, as he selected slave labourers from concentration camps to work to death building rockets. Chief Nazi medical officer Walter Schreiber was involved in horrific human experiments on prisoners of concentration camps, including supervising experiments where victims were injected with typhus, men were sterilised, prisoners were submerged in freezing water and locked into low pressure chambers, destroying their lungs. Schreiber was later exposed by the Boston Globe, so the US military flew him to safety in Argentina where he was sheltered by the government of Juan Perón, which harboured many other Nazis. Another Nazi doctor, Hubertus Strughold, also reportedly had knowledge of these same experiments, and was listed as "wanted" for war crimes by the US Army. But rather than face trial he was employed by the Air Force, described as "the father of aerospace medicine", had a library named after him at the Brooks Air Force Base, which was only eventually renamed in 1995, and was honoured with a portrait in a mural of "medical heroes" at Ohio State University. Pictured: 104 German rocket scientists in the US, 1946