Slaves at sea

A horror story:  an investigation of chartered commercial fishing vessels.  Shame on the government of New Zealand.  Shame on the chartered commercial fishing vessels.  Shame on the slave runners. Read the story by clicking on the highlighted sentence above.

How Rome almost succeeded in burying Lucretius

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt

Such a great romp through the classics: history and literature; complete with scheming and corrupt churchmen, book hunters, purges, and discovery.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dislocation

Shards by Ismet Prcic

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The crazy-making that is war.  The warping that is the result of growing up in war.  The living in the present-past, past-present.  The misshapen soul that results from all the above when children have to invent themselves over and over and try to survive.  This book describes it well.

Truth is better than fiction!

Perusing today's New York Times, I found an amazing selection of news items in the category of Wonders Never Cease.

1.Russia Plans to Prosecute Dead Lawyer in Tax Case

2.Myanmar's Guerrilla Golfers Take Time for a Few Rounds

3.Putin to Cut List of Officials Who Can Flout Traffic Rules

4. Letter: Tar Sands and the Pipeline  (aah, those Republicans)

5. Iran's Achilles' Heel  (the best commentary out of Israel in a looong time)

Syria: Beauty and Pain

A great story on PRI's The World today  about Syrian composer Malek Jandali

And here is another video of a different type from PRI