Volume LXVII, Number 13

That is to say the latest number of the NYRB, the people at reference 1, which despite the inevitable tilt towards matters north American, still represents better value for me than either of our offerings - the LRB or the TLS, both of which I have subscribed to at various times over the years.

So I was reminded that climate change ought to be higher up our agendas than it is. The outlook is not good.

I glanced at a piece about a Raphael exhibition in Rome, coming to an end at the end of this month, in which I was interested to read that the picture 'La Fornarina', normally to be found at reference 2 and from whom I have lifted the reproduction above, was not by the man himself, rather something knocked out in his workshop to feed the demand for such stuff from the nominally celibate churchmen who dominated the Rome of his day.

Almost as bad as climate change was an article about the US obsession with having ten times as many nukes as anyone else. So at the time of the Cuban crisis, the US had 5,000 warheads to the Soviets 300, but they still worked themselves into a lather about a few missiles arriving in Cuba. And while their stockpile was, some decades later, massively reduced as a result of a deal with the Russians, things are on the up again, with a massive and massively expensive upgrade underway, in part because Trump loves a good nuke. Maybe he really loves having that special suitcase with the codes following him about, night and day. Gets off on it, as it were. And not only does the US like to have lots of warheads, it also believes in having no less than three delivery systems: land based missiles in silos, air launched bombs and submarine launched missiles. With the first of these being very vulnerable to attack, so they are apt to be used sooner in a crisis rather than later. 

While I believe the Russians are also keen on mobile launchers, forever trundling around the Asiatic wastes. Also that the Chinese, although lagging well behind the Russians in numbers just presently, can much better afford an arms race than the Russians, only a tier II economic power these days. They might even end up winning it. And given the present unpredictability of US personnel, pronouncements, policy and action, would it be any surprise if they thought that joining in was a good plan? Could one really blame them?

More dismal reading about the world of hackers, disinformation and lies.

Some better news about the new Supreme Court Justices appointed (for life) by Trump signalling that they are jurists first and poodles second.

Winding up with some entertainment around one Eva Meijer, a hard-core animal rightist who seems to harbour hopes of founding a commune involving lobsters, pikas and humans. Equal rights for all. For the link to Everest see reference 4. While the good Eva is to be found at reference 4 and her big book at reference 5.

Reference 1: https://www.nybooks.com/.

Reference 2: https://www.barberinicorsini.org/.

Reference 3: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2017/01/more-burton.html.

Reference 4: https://www.evameijer.nl/.

Reference 5: When animals speak: towards an interspecies democracy - Eva Meijer - 2019.