Fragments of a blog
Fragments of a blog
John Gray’s piece in the New Statesman is prefaced with an image of Isaac Newton demonstrating the diffraction of daylight to an awestruck colleague. This image, and a similar one showing Newton projecting diffracted white light onto the backrest of…
Earlier this week, Mikhail Tamm, a Russian physicist and statistician, explained (in Russian) why the number of deaths in Moscow in April is a far better estimate of coronavirus mortality than the official rate: Ten days ago [the number of…
Covid-19 data from Russia is a mixed bag: the number of new cases identified per day seems to have plateaued – well, almost – but the death count remains so suspiciously low that it’s impossible not to doubt the top…
When Eduard Limonov died, five days ago, obituaries appeared the world over. The New York Times, The Los Angeles TImes, Le Monde, La Repubblica, El País, O Público. Limonov was a uniquely talented, original poet, a gifted fiction writer, and…
There have only been 45 COVID-19 cases in Russia so far – a rather low number considering that Russia does lots of business with China and the EU. Inevitably, one suspects undertesting and/or underreporting. The true number of infected persons?…
La Fontaine’s fox, the connoisseur of grapes, was all-French, as it were – “Gascon, some say Norman” – and in keeping with his roots, he preferred wisecracking to whining, which his creator appreciated. American shale oil, sweet as a rule,…
There’s more in the Guardian piece on Brazilian flat earthers that I quoted in the previous post: …Olavo de Carvalho – a former astrologer who is considered the intellectual guru of Bolsonaro and his inner circle – prompted outrage and…
Sam Cowie reports from São Paolo for The Guardian: Siddhartha Chaibub’s suspicions that the Earth wasn’t really round were first aroused when he stumbled across a YouTube video while living in Brazil’s capital, Brasília… “The model that is imposed on…
Russians haven’t gotten politically smarter in the past decade, according to the latest Pew report (as compared with these polls from 2009). Only 38% believe that free media are important, a negligible increase from 37% in 2009. Only 40% believe…
Russians are still pretty apolitical animals but they are gradually realizing that their passivity is contributing to the country’s stagnation and general hopelessness. When they quit the “quiet desperation” mode, they look to others who have made it farther into…
It is often said that, lately, the Kremlin has been successfully punching above Russia’s economic weight in the global arena. Surprisingly, Russia has positioned itself as a reliable partner, an actor that would never betray its allies or clients. Not…
I wrote this two and a half years ago: If President Trump is truly an aging Narcissus, few things would please him more than toppling a powerful leader whom he, Trump, has previously considered close to a peer… If the…