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There is a Human Face to Suffering

on February 25, 2022

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There is a Human Face to Suffering

This has been very hard for me to write, and I've been debating on whether or not to post it. None of this is about me and I don't want to turn it into something about me. I do, however, want to say a bit about Ukraine and a bit of why this conflict feels personal. About six years ago, I was wandering around the library. I wanted to read something, but I didn't know what. Nothing sounded right. I ended up taking a detour out of my usual fantasy section, and into historical nonfiction. I ran across a book called Bloodlands by Timothy Snyder. On a complete lark, I checked it out. Before this point, I'd read nothing at all about that part of the world. I knew Ukraine was near Russia, but that's about it. Then, I got this book and in some ways, it's completely changed my life. Bloodlands opens up with the Holodomor, something most people in the West have never heard about. I certainly never had, but I read that book and I was absolutely floored. Here was this f

Deep Dive: Frigg Fjord - The World's Northernmost Ruins

Well, my trip and fall down this particular rabbit hole started going in one direction, and ended up here. You see, I woke up this morning and realized it was Winter Solstice. You know, that time of year when the days are shortest and the nights are longest. So, realizing this, I thought to myself, "Self, I wonder what it's like on this day in some of the most northern reaches of the world." Of course, this led me to Norilsk, Russia, and Longyearbyen, Norway. Norilsk, Russia started out as a Gulag, and is now one of the most polluted cities on earth. Longyearbyen started out as a whaling outpost, and then became a small coal mining town, and now, from what I understand, is a sort of Arctic tourism hub. Anyway, I looked up these places, and then I came across this list of "northernmost settlements in the world" and Frigg's Fjord was at the top of that list. I thought to myself, "Self, what the hell is that?" and here we are.

Cannibal Island: The Nazino Island Tragedy

Last night, I was wandering around YouTube looking for some specific videos about some World War II stuff for research. One thing led to another, and I ended up wandering down this weird rabbit hole, which ended at a video called "Stalin's Cannibal Island." I clicked on it, because who wouldn't click on that, and here we are. So, here's a brief overview of Nazino Island, what happened there and why, and the longer ramifications of this event. Trigger/content warning , dear reader, this is graphic, and it involves cannibalism. If you're squeamish, you might want to skip over this deep dive. As always, a list for further reading will be at the end of this post. Alright, here we go. In 1933, some of Stalin's cronies got the big idea to start "special settlements" up in Siberia. His plan was to send two million people up there to start these new settlements. The big idea was to send people up the river on these barges until they ultimately ended up

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