April 3, 2022

CBC*: 'Rare Indigenous eyewitness account of Battle of the Little Bighorn found in Ontario.

Lakota leader's letter, illustration about historic U.S. battle was recently repatriated to his community.'

*Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/battle-little-bighorn-letter-brampton-1.6404159

[When Samantha Thompson read the first line of a long-lost letter, she knew that her work to authenticate and transcribe the mysterious set of rolled-up documents, packed away for some future archivist, was worth it.

"I remember where I was sitting at my desk and I started reading: 'I was born in Montana, my father died when I was four years old and so I lived with my mother and sister and my grandparents and my uncle,' and my heart started beating faster," said Thompson, an archivist at the Peel Art Gallery Museum and Archives in Brampton, Ont.

A few months earlier, Thompson had been going through one of 60 boxes donated to the museum. She came across several pages of thick paper — on one was a detailed watercolour painting, and the others were made up of what looked like two letters, one lengthy and the other short.

While there were some English names like "Reno," "Custer" and "Montana,"
the letter was written in Old German, a rare dialect that fell out of use around
the Second World War. "Right away we had this mystery. Why is somebody
writing in Old German about what seems to relate to a possibly significant event
in U.S. history?" Thompson told Rosanna Deerchild in an interview for Unreserved.]

As a history buff this article immediately drew my interest. As a child I visited the
Little Bighorn battlefield with my parents and for many years had a book that my Dad
had purchased at that time. I've studied various sources of the battle and am aware
of modern analysis of troop movements based on the recovery of cartridges found
there.

This article is a long and interesting/informative read that covers many aspects of
the people and places involved. There is a painting and many photos also, and I
have already bookmarked this article to save as a future reference. I have edited the
article text to meet our 4-paragraph rule.

April 1, 2022

Reuters Pictures: Battle for Kyiv: On the frontlines around Ukraine's capital, March 31, 2022

https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/battle-for-kyiv-on-the-frontlines-around-idUSRTS6OZLM

This gallery of news photos displays the destruction going on in Ukraine.
Be warned that some photos show injured and dead persons.

April 1, 2022

BBC: Your pictures of Scotland: 25 March - 1 April, 2022

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-60900384

It's no joke this April 1 that this is another fine gallery of photos. I would consider
myself a fool if I had missed this!

Note: In the photo captioned "V&A and Discovery" the reference is to the Victoria & Albert Museum of Design building and the ship Discovery.

April 1, 2022

BBC: 'Africa's week in pictures: 25-31 March 2022

A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond:'

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-60939581

This weekly gallery always pleases me with it's photos portraying the diversity of the
people and places of Africa.

March 30, 2022

"The Sky Is Crying" is a good song for this rainy Albuquerque day. Of course rain can be

a blessing. It provides us drinking water and helps plants grow. And in Ukraine it
creates Ukraine mud that literally fouls up Putin's war machines.

Rain also brings floods and landslides so there is that. It can be a mixed blessing.

The Sky Is Crying, lyrics and performance by Elmore James

https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/29380397/Elmore+James/The+Sky+Is+Crying

The sky is crying, look at the tears roll down the street
The sky is crying, look at the tears roll down the street
I'm waiting in tears looking for my baby, and I wonder where can she be?

I saw my baby one morning, and she was walking on down the street
I saw my baby one morning, yes she was walking on down the street
Made me feel so good until my poor heart would skip a beat

I got a bad feeling, my baby, my baby don't love me no more
I got a bad feeling, my baby don't love me no more

March 30, 2022

BBC: 'Wild shots: Scottish Nature Photography Awards March 30, 2022.

The winners of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2021 have been announced.'

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-60912679

This gallery puts the critters and places of Scotland on display.

March 29, 2022

I just got done watching The Last Waltz (again), the documentary of the last concert

performed by The Band back in 1976. The documentary was released in 1978 and I
always enjoy how it takes me back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Waltz#The_Band

PART 1

PART 2


PART 3

March 28, 2022

CBC* Your Pictures: Sheila's Brush** is in full swing, March 28, 2022.

* Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/cbcnl-gallery-march-28-22-1.6399179

[This past week might have been the first full week of spring in Newfoundland and Labrador, but what is March without Sheila's Brush**?

A lot of photos shared with us this week showed the (hopefully!) last bout of winter weather for the season, so here are some of our favourites.]

This is a pleasing gallery showing ice, snow, places and the critters of Canada.
See below for access to an explanation of "Sheila's Brush".

**'Who's Sheila, and what's with her brush? Here's the folklore behind the term...'

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/sheilas-brush-explainer-1.5965924

[Newfoundland is hunkering down for a vicious spring storm this weekend, as an incoming weather system promises to ignore the calendar and dump freezing rain and snow across the island.

Following days of balmy temperatures hitting the teens, some regions are anticipating the incoming weather system with contempt and disappointment.

But a late-March storm is far from unprecedented in the North Atlantic: in fact, it's so familiar, it even has its own special name.

Enter "Sheila's Brush," a moniker for the unseasonal blast of snow and wind suffered by Newfoundlanders and Labradorians after St. Patrick's Day.]

There's more text and a graphic at the second link here. I came to enjoy the photos
and stayed to become educated on regional language.

March 28, 2022

Al Jazeera: 'El Salvador declares state of emergency after gang killings.

The measures come after 62 homicides were reported on Saturday, making it the most violent day in nearly 30 years.'

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/28/el-salvador-invokes-state-of-emergency-after-62-killings-in-a-day

[El Salvador’s parliament has approved the state of emergency that temporarily suspended some constitutional protections in the Central American country following a wave of killings attributed to criminal gangs.

snip

“We approve the exceptional regime, which will allow our government to protect the lives of Salvadorans and confront criminality head-on,” said Ernesto Castro, the congress’s president, said after an extraordinary session early on Sunday.

The country registered 1,140 murders in 2021 – an average of 18 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, but still considerably lower since the end of the civil war in 1992.

In 2015, El Salvador, home to some 6.5 million people, recorded a rate of 103 homicides for every 100,000 people, one of the highest in the world.]

There's more text and photos at the link.

March 27, 2022

BBC: Your pictures on the theme of 'into the blue', March 27, 2022.

https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-60873404

The color blue, like savoir faire, is here, there and everywhere!