#1 Lodoicea Q: Where might we find the Coco De Mer? A: The Seychelles. #2: Mora Oleifera The “Sweet Potato of the Skies” (we just made that up). Species abstract Mora oleifera is a coastal tree of limited distribution in Panama and Colombia. An example specific area of occurrence is the Gulf of Panama mangroves […]
Category: Europe
Yesterday’s BLOTT, about the childhood of Joan of Arc and the prominence of the Fairy Tree in her childhood, led the WLBOTT historical archives team to wonder: Just how bad-ass were fairies during the middle ages? These were not Tinker Bells[1], by any means. They could be pretty mischievous and sometimes wicked. Probably one of […]
Joan of Arc (1412-1431) is one of the most fascinating historical figures. Short BiographyJeanne d’Arc was a peasant girl who became a national heroine and the patron saint of France. At a crucial period of the Hundred Years’War, she led the French resistance to English invaders and turned the tide of the war. A mystic […]
Russian Implicated in Olympic Scandal And of Course…. How Did an Alleged Russian Mobster End Up on Trump’s Red Carpet? And here’s a coincidence: The guy was indicted for being part of a global gambling ring run out of Trump Tower. [Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov] since being indicted in the United States a decade earlier for allegedly […]
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Saskatchewan Soviet
The buzz this week is about (aboot) a Saskatchewan family that moved to Russia to escape woke-ism, gays, freedom of speech, etc. Things are not going well. The universe can often speak to us in unique and mysterious ways. Other times, if answers our questions by laughing in our faces. That was the case with […]
The people of Texas, like the people of America and all freedom-loving people around the world, are behind the brave people of Ukraine. Maybe one day, we will be talking to Ukrainians who speak English with a Texas accent and wear big cowboy hats!
Texas Slang for ENGin buddies ENGin is a wonderful program that connects English speakers with Ukrainians – sort of like pen-pals on Zoom. Conversation practice, cultural exchange, recipes, jokes, stories, friendships…. Very cool, innovative, and impactful non-profit started by Katerina Manoff. Katerina has 5+ years of experience teaching English and managing online language learning programs. […]
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A WLBOTT Caper
[thanks to UC#3 for today’s rabbit hole] Fellow travelers [of both time and space] – I really like capers – both the nonpareils and the large caper berries that are the size of blueberries. I think including the Italian island of Salina to look into caper farming will flange up well with our journey from […]
Wildberries – the Amazon of Russia A fire has broken out at a warehouse in St. Petersburg, days after workers were involved in a brawl at the site, with arson a suspected cause. Despite the encroaching flames, a guard continued to inspect the workers to make sure they were not stealing anything, Baza added. Eventually, […]
Russia is having trouble keeping the lights on. I remember the optimism of the late ’90s, when we naively thought that Russia would be a grown-up country, we would all work together to make the world a more stable place, we could turn our nuclear swords into nuclear plowshares[2]. But greed and lust for power […]