Portrait of Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna

 

A miniature portrait of Grand Duchesses Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna. Google tells me this was part of a Faberge egg but I can't find any solid confirmation of this. I also thought the Maria portion of the portrait was based off this pic:

Source: Klimbim on Flickr

but that assumption appears to be wrong.

Alcohol consumption linked to nearly 750,000 cancer cases in 2020, new study says

 

"Alcohol is an irritant. It irritates the lining of our mouth, of our throat, of our stomach." Even moderate consumption opens the door to cancer.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alcohol-cancer-cases-2020-study/

Eastern red cedar seedlings

    As promised in my last post here are some pictures of my chosen Juniperus virginiana. Absent are two more that have started turning yellow, one the got uprooted during a strong storm Friday night, and one that appears to have been snipped by a rabbit.

Backyard tree

Front yard #1

Front yard #2

North side windbreak #1

North side windbreak #2

North side windbreak #3

Plenty of backup seedlings

Growing cedar, cherry, and apple trees

    Recently I have taken up an interest in growing trees. My house currently has only one crabapple tree, located in the backyard. I have tried in years before to grow trees but this year is my first major undertaking. To this end I have transplanted ten cedar saplings that were growing round one of my downspouts. I planted six in the front yard, three on the north side of the driveway (with the explicit intent of preventing snowdrifts during winter), and one in the backyard garden. My transplant method was little more than scooping them out with a garden trowel and depositing them in the selected location where I simply slammed the trowel into the ground and opened a small hole.

    The last time I was able to check them (thank you 12-hour work shifts) only one was turning yellow, perhaps not a coincidence that it was also the smallest of the bunch. I also possess seven apple seeds and eighteen cherry pits. I plan on planting the apples in the backyard and the cherries in the front yard, with three cherries to be planted in the verge (the area between the sidewalk and the street).

    I'll take pictures of them this weekend and post them here, assuming more haven't begun to die since I was last able to water them on Tuesday.

    I've also considered letting one or more of the mulberries that the birds "leave" everywhere grow although I'm not sure what my neighbors will think.

2021-2022 Iowa State women's basketball non-conference schedule

Nov 4 (Thursday) vs Wisconsin-River Falls (EXH.)

Nov 9 (Tuesday) vs Omaha

Nov 15 (Monday) vs South Dakota State

Nov 18 (Thursday) @ Drake

Nov 21 (Sunday) vs Southern

Gulf Coast Showcase

Nov 26 (Friday) vs Charlotte

Nov 27 (Saturday) vs Penn State/St. John's

Nov 28 (Sunday) vs South Dakota State/UMass/UCLA/Kent State

Big 12/SEC Challenge

Dec 2 (Thursday) @ LSU

Dec 5 (Sunday) vs Longwood

Dec 8 (Wednesday) vs Iowa

Dec 12 (Sunday) vs UNI

Dec 19 (Sunday) vs Prairie View A&M

Source: 2021-2022 Women's Basketball Schedule

The Role of Monarchy as a Stabilizing Force

    On August 15, 2021 the nation of Afghanistan fell to Taliban forces unopposed, nearly twenty years after being deposed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Modern Afghanistan's problems can be traced back to the 1973 coup d'état that saw Mohammed Daoud Khan overthrow his cousin King Mohammed Zahir Shah and the Kingdom of Afghanistan. In five short years Khan himself would be overthrown and killed during the communist Saur Revolution. The following year communist Afghanistan, along with the Soviet Union, would find themselves embroiled in a nine-ear long war against rural, Islamist insurgents that saw the Soviets withdraw by 1989 and the communist Afghan government collapse in 1992. After a civil war throughout the 1990's the Taliban established themselves as the new government before being overthrown by U.S. forces in 2001.

American helicopter evacuating embassy personnel in August 2021

    From the Cromwellian atrocities in Ireland during the Commonwealth period to the Reign of Terror in 1790's France. From the Russian Civil War and the Red Terror of the Soviet Union to the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany. And finally the fall of the Afghan monarchy was the beginning of 50 years of unending chaos and violence for the country. It's clear that the replacement of monarchy with the inherent instability of republicanism leads to violence and political extremism. I leave you with this quote by Winston Churchill:

"This war would never have come unless, under American and modernizing pressure, we had driven the Habsburgs out of Austria and Hungary and the Hohenzollerns out of Germany. By making these vacuums we gave the opening for the Hitlerite monster to crawl out of its sewer on to the vacant thrones."

Reject republicanism, return to monarchy.

Happy birthday Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia August 12, 1904 - July 17, 1918

 

Proposal for a New American Government

    I voted for the first time in 2016 despite being eligible since 2008 and to say I quickly became disillusioned with the whole thing is an understatement. A majority of Americans want a third party yet they refuse to vote for them. In 2016, 2018, and 2020 I voted for third parties whenever possible even though I didn't always agree with their platforms.

    I submit a short list of proposals to fundamentally change the American government. Some are related to voting and some are not (and none are set in stone as written here nor will it be limited to these items).

1. The replacement of the President with an unelected, hereditary monarch, titled as Emperor/Empress of the United States.

2. Puerto Rico becoming a state (with the Virgin Islands merged into it) and Washington D.C. being retroceded to Maryland.

3. Restore the Hawaiian monarchy as a sub-national monarchy.

4. Expansion of the House of Representatives to 695 members using the Cube Root Rule with states gaining seats by the current apportionment method.

5. Parties running for the House must meet a national threshold of .14%=(1/695)*100 to gain at least one seat. Parties meeting the threshold will be apportioned as (vote%/100)*# of seats for state = # of seats for party.

6. Each state becoming one multi-member electoral district (California=82 members, Texas=60 members, etc.)

Two Romanov icons that I own.

 

Updated book list #6

 Completed:

• The 9/11 Commission Report
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Caught in the Revolution: Witnesses to the Fall of Imperial Russia by Helen Rappaport
• World War I: The Definitive Visual History
• World War II: The Definitive Visual History
• The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History
• The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
• The Race to Save the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport
• What If? and What If? 2 - A series of essays by historians on what might have been.
• Citizen Soldiers by Stephen Ambrose
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
• America Before by Graham Hancock
• All the Gallant Men by Donald Stratton
• Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O'Reilly & Martin Dugard
• The Cay by Theodore Taylor
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling
• Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen
• When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt

In progress:

• 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley
• The Civil War: A Visual History

On the docket:

• The American Revolution: A Visual History
• The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot (A book I bought between 8th and 9th grades in July 2003 but never actually read.)
• Dark History of Russia by Michael Kerrigan
• Creature by John Saul
• The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
• War and Peace (abridged) by Leo Tolstoy