history
**20 Lessons on Tyranny ** (by Timothy Snyder, read by John Lithgow)
Today’s mail
Man Alone (John Mulgan)
A Queer History of the United States (Michael Bronski)
Faithbreaker (Hannah Kaner)
At Swim, Two Boys (Jamie O’Neill)
I was this many days old when I realised that this was the origin of the saying “a day without Lesbians is like a day without sunshine”.
Anita Bryant, singer and anti-gay rights crusader, dies aged 84
“Breakfast without orange juice is like a day without sunshine.”
Book of the Day - “The Future is History” (Masha Gessen, 2017)
Subtitled “How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia”. A warning we need to heed.
#books #history #booksky #totalitarianism
Glorious day in Pōneke the day before the hikoi mō Te Tiriti hits town.
It’s going to be a fascinating day tomorrow.
Long weekend reading collection. Connected and contrasting themes - history, philosophy, cross-cultural exchange, reflection, and ancient thought.
Larco Museum , Lima Perú - www.museolarco.org/en/
First archaeological site in Perú - Huaca Pullcana adobe-brick pyramid of the Lima culture (cAD200-700).
Successful book haul from Abbeys Bookshop in central Sydney 📚🛍️😜😳
So many great history books!
(Some pre-planning may have been involved…)
Today’s book purchase: “Procopius: The Secret History” (Folio Society, 1990) from the excellent Ferret Bookshop on Cuba St, Pōneke. 📚#Books #SecondHand #History #Roman #Byzantine #FolioSociety
End of a long saga in Kiribati
It has been a very long year for my partner, Judge Bill Hastings, as a serious constitutional crisis has unfolded in the Pacific island state of Kiribati.
I am extremely proud of the work he did in Kiribati before and during this crisis, and of the integrity and measured judicial approach he has demonstrated throughout.
It is deeply sad that what started as a wonderful opportunity to help the further development of an independent and increasingly indigenous judiciary in Kiribati has ended the way it has.
The article below provides a good account of this week’s developments:
New Zealand judge resigns from top-ranking Kiribati judicial position
A Wikipedia article provides the full background to the constitutional crisis:
Lies are the path to totalitarianism
“Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.” – Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism 💬
The Ness of Brodgar
The Ness of Brodgar Excavation continues to uncover fascinating information about Neolithic Orkney:
At its zenith, in the main phase that we are currently exploring (dating from c 3100BC), the Ness was dominated by huge freestanding buildings flanked by a pair massive stone walls.
The best book on the Ness at present is The Ness of Brodgar: As It Stands (Orcadian, 2020)
I am very keen to visit this and other sites in Orkney at some point!
Finished reading: The Adventures of Ibn Battuta 📚- accounts of the 14thC travels of Ibn Battuta.
Long term trends fascinate me; fads don’t. It’s working out which is which that is the problem. #mbnov
I absolutely love following along as the ongoing excavations at the Ness of Brodgar reveal new insights into this fascinating Neolithic site in the Orkney islands.
The latest update shares new findings about Structure Twenty-Seven and the ‘exquisite’ stonework involved.