Photo of the Week: Center of Focus

 

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 46: Routes 19, 20, & 21

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 45: Saffron Gym & Sabrina

Photo of the Week: Sidesaddle

 

Hard to tell but I'm guessing Tatiana and either Maria or Olga.

Photo of the Week: On the Pier

 

Photo of the Week: Empress Alexandra

 

Pokemon Blue Playthrough part 44: Silph Co

Nepal riot police rout protesters seeking restoration of monarchy

From Reuters:

KATHMANDU, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Police in Nepal on Thursday used rattan sticks, tear gas and water cannon to scatter thousands of protesters demanding the restoration of the monarchy abolished 15 years ago.

The "Citizens' Campaign" protesters say governments in place since the monarchy was scrapped, as part of a deal ending a Maoist insurgency, have failed to live up to commitments to develop one of the world’s poorest countries.

Protesters tried to dismantle a police barricade on the outskirts of Kathmandu and march into the centre of the capital, prompting riot police to intervene and repel the crowd, witnesses said.

"Police only tried to contain a huge anarchic crowd of protesters," said Jitendra Basnet, the top official in the city administration of Kathmandu, in whose downtown area public protests are banned.

Some police officers were injured by stones thrown by protesters, said Basnet.

Durga Prasai, coordinator of the Citizens’ Campaign, said about 10 protesters were injured in the melee, two of them critically.

"We want the republican system abolished and the monarchy to be restored," he said, vowing to continue agitating for that objective and calling for a general strike in Kathmandu, home to about four million people, on Friday.

A specially elected assembly abolished the 239-year-old monarchy in 2008 under terms of an accord that ended a Maoist insurgency, which killed 17,000 people between 1996 and 2006, and established a federal republic.

But political instability has afflicted Nepal since the end of the monarchy with over 10 changes of government, hobbling economic development and forcing millions of young people to seek work mainly in Malaysia, South Korea and the Middle East.

Former Maoist rebel chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who still goes by his nom de guerre of Prachanda ("Fierce"), is now Nepal's prime minister heading a coalition with the centrist Nepali Congress party.

Gyanendra, the last king of the Himalayan mountain country wedged between India and China, lives as a commoner with his family in Kathmandu.

Reporting by Gopal Sharma; editing by Mark Heinrich

Photo of the Week: Inspecting the Grapes

 

In the world of breaking news...

 ...no shit Sherlock!

Using marijuana during pregnancy may heighten risk for baby

Photo of the Week: On Deck

 

Photo of the Week: Spyglass

 

Photo of the Week: Cliffside Cathedral

 

Photo of the Week: Tsarevich

 

Photo of the Week: Standart

 

Monarchy and Elections part 4: Poland

Poland is holding elections for both the Sejm and Senate today, October 15, 2023. The monarchist political party Confederation of the Polish Crown will be running in the coalition Confederation Liberty and Independence.

Photo of the Week: Smile

 

Photo of the Week: Favorite Officer

 

Photo of the Week: NOT on Deck

 

Photo of the Week: Iowa Street Cred

It ain't much but it's honest work.

 

Updated book list #9

 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
• 1453: The Holy War for Constantinople and the Clash of Islam and the West by Roger Crowley
• Creature by John Saul
• The Civil War: A Visual History
• The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff
• War and Peace (abridged) by Leo Tolstoy
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• Crazy Horse and Custer by Stephen E. Ambrose
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• Bleachers by John Grisham
• The American Revolution: A Visual History
• A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

In progress:

• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• The Vietnam War: An Intimate History by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns

On the docket:

• 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
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
• Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
• Wilderness Tales: Forty Stories of the North American Wild edited by Diana Fuss

Photo of the Week: Candid

 

Photo of the Week: Canvas Slide

 

Photo of the Week: Important Document

Look at my report card!

 

Photo(s) of the Week: Riverwalk, circa 2013

 

Photo of the Week: Shelf Cloud

 

Americans are stupid: Smoke is smoke

Many Americans wrongly believe exposure to marijuana smoke is safer than tobacco, study finds 

Photo of the Week: Thunderheads

Wider shot

Closer shot

 July 6, 2014

Photo of the Week: Mantid

 

Nightfall and Distant Lightning in Iowa - July 28, 2023

Photo of the Week: Alexandra and OTMA

 

Photo of the Week: Nicholas and OTMAA

 

Photo of the Week: Tea Time

 

Photo of the Week: Fixing her hair

 

Photo of the Week: First pea harvest

They were delicious

 

A brief thought about suicide and the internet

First off I am fine and not considering anything, this was just a thought that popped into my head while reading something today.

The internet increases suicidal thoughts and action. A common belief among suicidal people is that they are a burden on their friends and family. If you go on to any online forum and ask for advice about your problems people will tell you that having a heart-to-heart with your spouse or parents about your problems is "burdening them" and it is better to shell out thousands of dollars for therapy or do nothing at all. For that reason I don't think it's farfetched to draw a line connecting the increase in suicide with the increased usage of these forums.

Just a thought.

Photo of the Week: Alexei's shanty

 

Photo(s) of the Week: Monarchs

Monarch caterpillars feeding on butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

 

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 43: Safari Zone

Photo(s) of the Week: Backyard orchard

 Both have grown a bit since these photos were taken.

Apple

Pecan

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 42: Fuchsia Gym & Koga

Photo of the Week: Story Structure in three photos with Maria Nikolaevna

 

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 41: Gone Fishin'

Photo of the Week: Milkweed

 

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 40: Fuchsia City to Silence Bridge

Summertime in Iowa, 2012

Photo of the Week: Life Finds a Way

In this case, a blade of grass grows through a hole in the leaf. Right-click, open image in new tab to zoom in.

Photo(s) of the Week: Bilevel Before and After

 

Before

After

Somewhere in Iowa

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 39: Cycling Road

Thunderstorm in Iowa - May 7, 2023

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 38: Fighting Dojo

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 37: Snorlax can't miss

Photo of the Week: Forest Canopy

On a rainy day in 2013, somewhere in Iowa

 

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 36: Pokémon Tower

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 35: Celadon Gym & Erika

Pokémon Blue Playthrough part 34: Flareon Training

Photo(s) of the Week: Down in the River