Here’s our ship right now; we’re near Cape Horn and are heading due south toward the Antarctic Peninsula (to see the ship’s position at any time, go here and click on “current position”)
It’s just getting light as I write this; here’s a view from the 360-degree ship’s Panomax feed; do bookmark this site if you want to see where we are at any time.
Because I have full days and also want to show readers what I’m doing and seeing (and eating), the Hili dialogues will consist largely of just Hili’s repartée and a few tweets. But bear with me, as there are glorious things to see and do in the next month.
I will be lecturing twice today so new posting will be thin, but I have a big post already done and ready to go up at about 10 am Chicago time. Lots of photos. I will also be lecturing twice tomorrow. Giving two talks in one day is something I try to avoid, but these will be virtual talks. Since they’re filming the talks, they can’t just show the second one as a repeat of the first, but there’s also a Q&A session at the end. (They appear on cabin television, not Zoom.) I’m not sure how the Q&A will work.
Today’s Hili post consists almost entirely of things happening in Ukraine.
So welcome to Thursday, March 4, 2022, and isn’t it appropriate that it’s National Moscow Mule Day! This drink should be boycotted for the time being.
Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili is, for good reason, down on people today.
Hili: Humans are not thinking.A: You may be wrong.Hili: I may, but I know what I know.
Hili: Ludzie nie myślą.Ja: Możesz się mylić.Hili: Mogę, ale swoje wiem.
Matthew sent a photo of this mural in Paris. It’s hopeful, but probably too hopeful.
Tweets from Matthew, and they’re all about what’s happening in Ukraine.
This first one is infuriating. How many survivors of the German siege of Leningrad during WWII (which, by the way, lasted 872 days and killed over 1.5 million civilians and Russian military. After surviving that, this woman gets taken into custody for protesting the Russian siege of Ukraine, which is what is likely happening in Kyiv? If only Putin could be arrested as a war criminal!
In #StPetersburg, #Russia, the police detained a well-known survivor of the Siege of Leningrad Yelena Osipova at an anti-war #protest: pic.twitter.com/QFhPrWKcCo
— Alex Kokcharov (@AlexKokcharov) March 2, 2022
Have another, Vlad:
Ukrainian vs. Russian leadership pic.twitter.com/lOAVQKgtMi
— Gennady Rudkevich (@grudkev) February 28, 2022
The tenderest moment of an otherwise terrible day. Of everything that happened yesterday, this young woman fleeing Kyiv with her cat stays with me. pic.twitter.com/cUxYC8DvxY
— matthew cassel (@matthewcassel) February 25, 2022
The Russians are arresting primary school children for protesting war!
'When I saw reports suggesting primary school children had been arrested by police in Moscow for laying flowers at the Ukrainian embassy and holding signs saying “No to war” I refused to believe it was real. But now it has been confirmed' @ggatehouse @BBC https://t.co/DiC7Kz4QPX https://t.co/eaqQtGVXsX
— cindygallop.eth (@cindygallop) March 2, 2022
More horrors. Sound up:
“Work and sleep, that's it.”
Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he has only seen his family once since Russia invaded his country a week ago.
A Russian missile had just struck a TV tower by the Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site in Kyiv as he spoke to reporters. pic.twitter.com/gSGJgkTTh5
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) March 2, 2022
I’m adding this one: making Molotov cocktails. One commenter objected to the second tweet, saying
Styrofoam will adhere to the target. Understand what this media shows. It looks like a breach of IHL? Notice the small child there. The adults are actively participating in hostilities and are now legitimate targets. They have also made the child a target.
This takes the cake for ‘most surreal video’ out of Ukraine thus far… pic.twitter.com/TzVw52njty
— War videos. (@xalimne) March 2, 2022
This is ineffably clever! The more I see the spirit of the Ukrainian people in the face of this ghastly attack, the more I admire them.
New road signs put up to steer invaders — all roads lead to The Hague. pic.twitter.com/FJ28EqLsYx
— Kateryna Yushchenko (@KatyaYushchenko) March 2, 2022
I love that Mussorgsky piece, and I also love Kandinsky; I had no idea there was an artistic connection.
By Wassily Kandinsky: "Picture XVI, The Great Gate of Kiev. Stage set for Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in Friedrich Theater, Dessau," 1928 pic.twitter.com/QBlHPKFMrl
— Olga Tuleninova 🦋 (@olgatuleninova) March 2, 2022
Ukraine has an official Twitter account:
Still standing. And we will not fall. Ukraine will prevail 🇺🇦✊
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) March 2, 2022
Proof: 
NEW: Rare good news from Ukraine. 4-yr-old Nikita, who has leukemia & had been sheltering in basement of Kyiv children’s hospital, is on a bus out of Ukraine with mum & sisters. Such a turn around from Monday when his mum was preparing to stay with him & send her 2 daughters away pic.twitter.com/R3iFoVMtJ0
— Deborah Haynes (@haynesdeborah) March 2, 2022
According to several papers (including The Times, but which is behind a paywall), a teenage Russian soldier was captured by Ukrainians. He was given tea and food and allowed to make a video call to his mother using one of his captors’ phones (Russian mobile phones are blocked in Ukraine): https://metro.co.uk/2022/03/03/ukraine-war-russian-soldier-surrenders-to-ukrainians-who-feed-him-and-ring-his-mum-16207575/
Ukraine says that such Russian POWs will be handed over to their mothers if they come to Kyiv to collect them.
A friend told me about this and I said “good, get the babushkas involved” then realized I am the same age as the mothers!!
Since our host is busy – I hope that the lectures go well, PCC(E)) – here are a few “On this day” items:
On this day:
1918 – Russia signs the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, agreeing to withdraw from World War I, and conceding German control of the Baltic States, Belarus and Ukraine. It also conceded Turkish control of Ardahan, Kars and Batumi.
1931 – The United States adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem.
1938 – Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
1943 – World War II: In London, 173 people are killed in a crush while trying to enter an air-raid shelter at Bethnal Green tube station.
1991 – An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers.
2005 – Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling.
Those born on this day include:
1911 – Jean Harlow, American actress (d. 1937) – the “t” is both silent and invisible…
1968 – Brian Cox, English keyboard player and physicist
Those who popped their clogs on 3 March include:
1959 – Lou Costello, American actor and comedian (b. 1906)
1983 – Hergé, Belgian author and illustrator (b. 1907) – that leaves us just five more famous Belgians to name…
1987 – Danny Kaye, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1911)
2018 – Roger Bannister, English middle-distance athlete, first man to run a four-minute mile (b. 1929)
2021 – Sarah Everard (b. 1987), marketing executive, kidnapped and murdered by London Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens
The great German mathematician Georg Cantor was born OTD in 1845. (Died 1918.) When mathematicians make small talk with laypersons, they invariably discuss set theory.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Cantor
It’s also Bulgaria’s liberation day. This is the day that Bulgaria gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Also,
Born: Alexander Graham Bell (1847)
Died: Robert Hooke (1703)
In other news, Pat Robertson came out of retirement to brag about how Putin is doing God’s work. What a disgusting, contemptible ghoul. It’s hard to make Trump’s position on the war look good, but Robertson succeeds.
I haven’t the heart to link; just google ‘Robertson Putin Ukraine’ and you’ll get your choice of news agencies covering what he said.
Newsweek notes:
https://www.newsweek.com/retired-evangelist-pat-robertson-says-putin-fulfilling-biblical-prophecy-1683497
It’s standard fare and not really offensive for televangelists to say the world’s gonna end. It’s quite another thing for one of them to go on TV and show/emote joy and happiness at people dying in a war, because that televangelist is thinking they’ll get raptured if Putin just kills enough Ukrainians and Jews.
I really cannot think of a reason why I would want to see it. On better news the Jan. 6 committee is going after emails and proof of the conspiracy Trump lead. They are providing everything the justice department needs to put this creep away if they would simply get off their backsides and do it. It is amazing how long it takes lawyers to come to the same conclusions we all know.
I hear you. I’m a huge proponent of legal rigor and innocence until guilt is proven, but those certainly don’t seem to be the main impediments here.
Eastman’s emails should be something to see. I hope they get them.
I think the added issue is the corruption Trump causes. I’m sure anyone associated with anything against him is threatened.
What puzzles me is that the investigation into his finances out of New York seems to have stalled, with the DA showing no more interest in investigating further.
Lack of evidence, maybe? It is a legal principle that is supposed to temper prosecutorial zeal. Can’t be just because he was elected as a progressive prosecutor, surely.
I googled it and am amused. Robertson seems to be saying that God is compelling Putin to do something bad so that something good will come out of it in the end. But the Poot is not the Antichrist, is he?
It’s surreal how the whole pro Putin, Christian nationalism, QAnon conspiracies are wrapped up together. I have a childhood friend on FB that has been radicalized and believes that Putin is ridding Ukraine of a cabal and that all the places they have bombed are secret labs. He believes this is the time before Jesus returns to reign over peace forever.
So how many different lectures did you need to prepare for this two week voyage? I presume that you can use the same lectures for the next one but it sounds like you need a lot of material.
I’d heard this rumor before the invasion, but now the NYT seems to confirm that:
China asked Russia not to invade Ukraine until after the Beijing Olympics, Western officials said.
Wouldn’t want to ruin another autocrat’s party, would you?