Photo of the Week: Grand duchesses Olga and Anastasia at Tsarskoye Selo, 1917

 

How much is a life (or three) worth?

On January 18th Spencer Bultman was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a drunk driving crash that killed three people and critically injured a fourth. On August 23, 2020 Bultman was driving eastbound in the westbound lanes of Highway 20 near Alden in Hardin County, Iowa when he struck a vehicle carrying Cristy Gutierres, her boyfriend Mario Zubia, and her 10-year-old son Jesse Gutierres. Her 6-year-old daughter was airlifted to Des Moines and survived.

The truly enraging part of the story is farther down the article:

Bultman had previously pleaded guilty in 2015 to charges that included driving while under the influence and in 2017 to public intoxication.

They always have priors. Instead of being locked up he was free to kill. Don't worry though, Bultman told the court he was "sorry" and that his actions were "selfish and stupid". I have little doubt that he'll be released early and I have no doubt that he'll drink and drive again, because that's the way these people are.

Photo(s) of the Week: Exile.

    If you hadn't noticed I was M.I.A. for a week, the reason being my internet and cable provider suffered "equipment failure" sometime on January 7th and the issue wasn't resolved until January 13/14. Obviously it was annoying (the internet more so than the cable) but I probably read more than in the previous month and wrote more than the previous six months. It was kind of nice to be shut out from the world for a week. I had a similar experience on August 10, 2020 when a derecho swept across Iowa and knocked out power to my town for 10 hours. The weather was extremely mild for summer in Iowa and I got to see the night sky unpolluted by city lights without having to go to the boondocks.

    That brings me to this week's subject: the Romanovs in Tobolsk. While it's definitely an idealized image, I've long had a vision in my head of Tobolsk as a smallish city in the wilds of Siberia with the Milky Way Galaxy glittering overhead and a noted absence of corporate advertising disrupting the skyline. Anyway, I present to you photos of the Romanovs in Tobolsk. Be wary, the photos aren't the greatest quality so I'm mostly guessing as to who's who.

Anastasia, Maria, Olga. This is thought to be the last photograph of Maria.

Anastasia, Alexandra, Maria, Olga

Olga and unknown man(possibly Nicholas?)

Olga and Anastasia

Olga, Alexei, Anastasia

Alexei

Photo(s) of the week: Cousins in Sevastopol

A few more photos of the Romanovs in Crimea, this time featuring Grand Duchess Olga, Grand Duchess Tatiana, and their cousin Princess Irina.

I'm also posting photos of Alexei with a mystery girl I originally thought was either Olga or Tatiana but now I'm thinking may be Irina though I'm not sure.

Photo(s) of the Week: On the rocks

 Photos of the three youngest Romanov children playing on the beach at I think Sevastopol.

Kind of surprised that Alexei was allowed to play on slippery boulders, especially when his sister Anastasia later shows up with a bandage on her leg.

Photo(s) of the Week: At long last, joy.

    I mentioned a week-and-a-half ago that the Iowa State Cyclones women's basketball team had ended a 5 year losing streak to their hated rivals the Iowa Hawkeyes. What I did not mention is that a former Cyclone would be playing against the Hawkeyes today. Madison Wise played 4 years at Iowa State before taking advantage of the COVID bonus year to transfer closer to home in Indiana. That brought her to the IUPUI Jaguars out of the Horizon League. During her time in Ames, Maddie would go 0-4 against the Hawkeyes so it's a bit funny that, in the same year the Cyclones would get the black and gold monkey off their back, Maddie would do the same. Perhaps even more ironic is the manner in which it happened. During her senior year at Iowa State, the Cyclones would blow a 17-point lead in the final ten minutes of the game and lose to the Hawkeyes 82-80.

    This year?

    It was the Hawkeyes blowing a 15-point 4th quarter lead, losing 74-73. I'm truly happy for Maddie (and the IUPUI Jaguars).

    Here are some pics of the immediate postgame celebration:

Source: Michael Jones on Twitter

Source: IUPUI Jaguars

Photo of the Week: Times change but people stay the same

    This week's photo sees Grand Duchesses Maria & Anastasia Nikolaevna leaning in to plant a kiss on each cheek of Countess Anastasia 'Nastenka' Hendrikova's face. Hereditary titles aside, it's a scene that wouldn't be out of place in 2021. Hendrikova was a lady-in-waiting for their mother, Empress Alexandra, and acted as an unofficial governess for the grand duchesses. Like the Romanovs she was murdered by the Bolsheviks in the summer of 1918.

God is great

    I've had a pretty good week. First, on Wednesday, the Iowa State women's basketball team took on the Iowa Hawkeyes in Hilton Coliseum in Ames, Iowa. The game was fast, the crowd was loud, and the Cyclones won by a score of 77-70, ending a 5-game losing streak in the series.

    Next, on Thursday, it was the Iowa State men's basketball team's turn at Iowa. And they blew the doors off the Hawkeyes, winning 73-53 and breaking a 3-game skid to Iowa. Apparently this was the largest margin of victory over the Hawks in series history. The Cyclones are now 9-0 after finishing last year 2-22, a remarkable turnaround.

    Lastly, and on a more personal note, my employer 'paused' it's vaccine mandate Friday. This comes after a federal judge issued a halt to Biden's federal contractor mandate on Tuesday, December 7th. I'll leave it at that.

    Keep faith in God and He will pull through for you.

Photo of the Week: Anastasia Nikolaevna

I'm not sure where this photo was taken or under what context as my Google-fu is failing me but using my best guess I'm estimating it was taken sometime around 1916.

Source: Romanov daughters

FDA adds strict safety warnings on arthritis drugs from Pfizer, AbbVie and Lilly (9 years after approval)

FDA adds strict safety warnings on arthritis drugs from Pfizer, AbbVie and Lilly

"The U.S. health regulator has added its strictest warning to the labels of drugs from Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and AbbVie belonging to a class of anti-inflammatory treatments called JAK inhibitors, citing risk of serious health issues and death in patients 50 and over, the drugmakers said on Friday.

The addition of the warning on the labels follows the agency's review of Pfizer's Xeljanz after initial results from a February trial showed an increased risk of serious heart-related problems and cancer in some patients being treated with the drug.

Xeljanz, which brought in worldwide sales of $2.44 billion for Pfizer in 2020, is approved in the United States for the treatment of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ulcerative colitis - an inflammatory bowel disease.

AbbVie's rheumatoid arthritis drug Rinvoq and Pfizer's Xeljanz are now recommended for use only in patients, who have had inadequate response or intolerance to one or more TNF blockers, which are another class of drugs used against inflammatory conditions.

The Food and Drug Administration's boxed warnings on the labels of Rinvoq , Xeljanz and Lilly's Olumiant flags the risk of cardiovascular death and stroke in high-risk patients who are aged 50 and above, and are current or past smokers.

Additional information about the risk of some types of cancer and death was also added to their labels.

The marketing applications for Rinvoq's expanded use in atopic dermatitis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and ulcerative colitis remain under review by the FDA, AbbVie said."

Xeljanz received FDA approval in November 2012.