The Northstar Journal

ALIVE AND THANKFUL IN AMERICA

Posted on November 18, 2018 by minstrel312

Pacem, Libertatem, Justitiam
November 18, 2018 Volume 11 Number 12

Reader Supported: All Contributions Appreciated and Accepted Here

INSIDE: Alive and Thankful In America;; World Headlines At A Glance; The Blood of Martyrs Created A Seed; Rusty’s Uncle Seamus; Our Science Section, Unabridged; Praise; Censure; Travel; The Green Beat; Health; Community, Home & Lifestyle; Best of the Net; Masha & the Bear; Northstar General Store; All Creatures Great & Small; You Guys Think We Make This Stuff Up; About Us

Norman Rockwell – Freedom From Want, from his Four Freedoms essay

ALIVE AND THANKFUL IN AMERICA

By Merritt Scott (Rusty) Miller: Editor

As American Thanksgiving approaches, I find that I am grateful to my fellow citizens for turning out in such numbers for America’s mid-term elections. Our form of government – a democratic republic – belongs to all of us and is only as strong, as honest, as compassionate, brave, free, etc. as we make it. The “voice of the people” has spoken and it is as truly American as it ever has been.

In California, because of a combination of prolonged droughts and dramatic overpopulation in high risk areas, wildfires have destroyed much of what I knew before I left that state in 1979. I mourn for the victims and pray for the survivors. I also devoutly hope that those where I live now have learned from the tragic lessons of a state which had the same opportunity but chose not to endorse it.

As alarmed as I am about the rise of hate crimes in America and that they have doubled in the last year in Seattle; that the primary targets are Jews and Muslims and where it seems like at least one person a day is victimized by violence here, I am thankful that it is not happening as much now to other minorities and that they are, in fact, standing up against hate.

Considering the fate of so much of the others on this planet, I am very grateful to be alive and thankful in America.

Merritt Scott “Rusty” Miller is a journalist, author, editor and photographer who lives in Seattle, Washington. For comments, please go here

THE PAST WEEK’S WORLD HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

Photo courtesy of Divine Intervention magazine

THE BLOOD OF MARTYRS CREATED A SEED

By Olya Bereza: Associate Editor

Last week was not easy for the Prosecutor General of Ukraine as civil society of Ukraine strived to find answers from him to the question of why the majority of crimes against journalists and civil activists are not investigated, indicating that civic activism in Ukraine is now at perhaps its most dangerous.

According to the Kyiv Post article Martyrs for Truth with reference to Human Rights Watch, there were about 93 violent attacks including at least 6 murders since the Revolution of Dignity in February 2014, 31 activists were involved in exposing corruption, 23 protected the environment, 15 defended human rights.

One of the more brutal cases of corruption pushing back happened when Ukraine civil rights activist Katerina Gandzyuk, tried to clean up Kherson. She was, as you know, attacked with sulphuric acid. The words she said during three months of fighting for life after became iconic

“I look bad now, but at least I’m being treated by good Ukrainian doctors. And I know for sure I look better than justice and the rule of law in Ukraine, because they’re not being treated by anyone”.

There is a list of fatal cases prepared by Kyiv Post Getting away with murder: Law enforcement fails to identify, prosecute murderers of activists, journalists in Ukraine.

Definitely there is the rise of awareness and civil society in Ukraine. More and more journalists and activists are daring to speak up and their voices are being heard. The hardest is to fight the “corruption of man’s heart” and maybe only God can deal with it.

But the blood of the martyrs of truth created a seed of change, that will grow, countless men and women have changed and renewed. “Blessed are you that hunger now: for you shall be filled. Blessed are you that weep now:”

Northstar columnist and associate editor Olya Bereza was born in the former Soviet Union and now lives in Ukraine. Fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, and English, she is a degreed psychologist with a background in international marketing and personnel management. For comments, please go here.

According to Rusty’s infamous Uncle Seamus, God gifted some men with small feet and a mouth large enough to accommodate both.

OUR WORLD, UNABRIDGED

This may seem familiar but it’s because we ran one of these during the previous events this depicts. Here’s What Smoke From The Deadly California Wildfires Looks Like From Space

This is good news. Researchers Walk Back Major Ocean Warming Result

This is a perennial favorite of ours. The 50 Best Inventions Of 2018

EARTH

How Did Earth Get Its Water?

Some Arctic Ground No Longer Freezing—Even In Winter

Today In Science: An Island Is Born

Greenland Ice Hides Huge ‘Impact Crater’

SPACE

New Study Reveals How Humans Could Accidentally Murder Life On Mars

What Is Space Weather?

Planet Found Circling Neighbouring Star

TECHNOLOGY

Google gives up on rescue robots

Hi-tech watches let children be spied on

Japan’s cyber-minister ‘never used computers’

Pine Island Glacier Drops Another Massive Iceberg

THE GREEN BEAT

EPA To Weigh Tougher Pollution Standards For Trucks

What’s Next For The Kids’ Climate Change Lawsuit?

US Judge Rules Government ‘Jumped The Gun’ And Orders Keystone XL Pipeline To Halt

HEALTH

‘Cut Lamb And Beef’ To Fight Climate Change

You Asked: Is Seasonal Affective Disorder Real?

Here’s Why You Get More Acne In The Winter — And How To Fix It

New Physical Activity Guidelines: Move More, Sit Less

Does Taking Meat Off The Menu Add Up?

Burning Health Questions? Email TIME’s Health Editors

COMMUNITY, FAMILY, HOME AND LIFESTYLE

How Greece’s Millennials Pay The Bills

A Deadly Wildfire Engulfed Her Hometown. Here’s How One Woman Narrowly Escaped

Here’s How To Help The Victims As Wildfires Rage Across California

The Insides Of Veterans’ Cars Shed Light On Their Fight For Normalcy

American Millennials Unhappily Stuck In Their Parents’ Transportation System

FUN ZONE

BEST OF THE NET

What Life Is Like For Troops At The Border Who Are Waiting With No Enemy To Fight

Michelle Obama Busts Out Her Barack Obama Impression For Ellen

Victoriabuzz.Com — US Mayor Brings Terminally Ill Dog On Road Trip To Her Birthplace In Victoria

DAILY 10 QUESTION TRIVIA QUIZ: This one is from Daily Email Trivia and delivered to me in mine. There is also an opportunity, the site, to take more quizzes on a wide range of subjects and to engage interactively and competitively.

THE NORTHSTAR JOURNAL GENERAL STORE is a page full of links to mostly free stuff and several unique gifts for under $5.00//4.5 EUROS, including Olya’s novel “Rocket Man” and mine, “Wrath of the USS Testament”. The ‘shelves’ also offer films, television episodes, gadgets and apps to make our lives easier and more enjoyable. Now, here’s the really cool part. Load up your cart and instead of getting your plastic out, just drop in the jar on your way out whatever it’s worth to you. You can even try it now and use the back browser to return to the rest of the magazine.

ALL CREATURES, GREAT AND SMALL

Fin Whale. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace

This is certainly good news. Hope For Mountain Gorilla And Fin Whale

We endorse the recommendations of this report in their entirety. Today, instead of buying salmon, I bought tuna instead. Orca Recovery Task Force Urges Partial Ban On Whale Watching, Study Of Dam Removal

This is fascinating. Mystery Monkey: History Of Unique Xenothrix Fossil Revealed

SHORTS

Largest US Indoor Ocean Exhibit Has Good News

Orcas Thrive In A Land To The North. Why Are Puget Sound’s Dying?

Facing Global Outcry, China Decides Not To Legalize Rhino Horn And Tiger Bone

YOU GUYS THINK WE MAKE THIS STUFF UP

Hockney Painting Breaks Auction Record For Living Artist

Chinese Singles’ Day Shopper Buys Live Pig, Peacock And Salamander

Gaia Spots A Ghost Galaxy Near Next Door

ABOUT US: The Northstar Journal reaches an international readership of strong, intelligent, proactively compassionate people like you, who are out there helping make this a better world. We are proud to serve them as an information resource in that regard. If you would like to help us help them, please go here. No contribution too large or too small. If you would like to sponsor an edition or contribute in some other way, please contact us at minstrel312@aol.com Thank you and see you next week. RM/OB

IF YOU MAKE IT BACK, MAKE IT COUNT

Posted on November 11, 2018 by minstrel312

TO VIEW IN YOUR NATIVE LANGUAGE

Pacem, Libertatem, Justitiam
November 11, 2018 Volume 11 Number 11

Reader Supported: All Contributions Appreciated and Accepted Here

INSIDE: If You Make It Back, Make It Count; World Headlines At A Glance; Forgotten And Abandoned, Here They Stay; Rusty’s Uncle Seamus; For Your Consideration; Our Science Section, Unabridged; Praise; Censure; Travel; The Green Beat; Health; Community, Home & Lifestyle; Best of the Net; Masha & the Bear; Northstar General Store; All Creatures Great & Small; You Guys Think We Make This Stuff Up; About Us

Vietnam Memorial Wall, Washington, DC

IF YOU MAKE IT BACK, MAKE IT COUNT

By Merritt Scott (Rusty) Miller: Editor

It is Veterans Day in America and in other parts of the world. Since I am one and since I know others, this is a very personal, albeit profoundly reflective, holiday for me. I recently watched, for the first time full through, Saving Private Ryan.

Before he died, Captain John Miller (played by Tom Hanks) whispered something into the ear of the sole surviving son he had been ordered to rescue and bring home. Miller was dying and the words were hard to hear. I have, however, my own words to remember.

“If you make it back, make it count.”

The man who said that did not make it back. But because he made it count where we were then, I did. We were friends and what he wanted most – his ‘make it count’ – was that, as hard as it would be to say and to hear, there was a very important truth he wanted to share with you.

Mishka, if you make it back, tell them there would be no veterans if there were no wars. In programming our sons and daughters for war, we make them killers. We take a natural and healthy regard for human life and convolute it by sanctioning the taking of some lives and not some others. Then, as history so ably demonstrates, we further distort it more when a former enemy becomes an ally until they become an enemy again.

Exactly how does one deprogram a killer? Is it done with memorials, parades and national concerts? What about by visits to places where – two meters or so into the ground — are coffins bearing the ageless remains of the sons and daughters we prepared for war? Is it done by thanking them for a service that destroyed so many of them and crippled so many others?

With all due respect, none of that seems to have accomplished very much.

Perhaps it would work better if we did not apparently love war more than we love our sons and daughters.”

Merritt Scott “Rusty” Miller is a journalist, author, editor and photographer who lives in Seattle, Washington. For comments, please go here

THE PAST WEEK’S WORLD HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

Nature reclaims dacha. Photo by Olya Bereza, Associate Editor

FORGOTTEN AND ABANDONED, HERE THEY STAY

By Olya Bereza: Associate Editor

Forgotten. Abandoned. Here they stay, miserable and alone while once so desirable in the past. So what happened? Why did people abandon these so-called “dachas,” these summer dwellings with gardens on the outskirts of town?

Once they were the dream of every citizen of the USSR. For the upwardly mobile, a dacha was a sign of prosperity and mark of position in society. Even small dachas would attest to and reaffirm one’s good citizenship, trustworthiness and hardworking nature as they were usually built by those who owned them, with their own hands and available materials. People cherished their dachas and appreciated even what a poor harvest would provide.

So again, I wonder why so many are now not in use but instead are being reclaimed by nature?

The answer lies in economics and. modern style of living. With utilities that cost virtually nothing, on one stage it was so easy to enjoy conveniences out of town. Once upon a time, the Ukrainian Republic’s economy ranked among the top five of the in the world due, primarily, to steelmaking, coal mining, and wheat harvesting. It compared favorable to Germany, the locomotive of the entire European Union. Its space program was unique and rivaled only by the US.

Then a change happened that brought freedom as well as a chaos. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, the transition to a capitalist democratic republic was inevitable. Those most directly involved sought to see that it was done the right way and in the best interests of the entire nation – every citizen – not just special interests in both the private and government sectors.

It was the inability of the top leaders to stimulate continued economic growth under this new system of government that accounted for the abandonment of luxuries like summer homes.

The end result was a catastrophic decrease in the standard of living and millions of Ukranians fleeing the poverty that resulted. Millions moved to neighboring countries in search of a better life. They left everything behind including these little dachas that now keep in silence the stories of their owners.

From time to time, you could see some homeless people using them as shelters. Like the dachas themselves, they are just trying to survive the present.

With Ukraine’s economy doing very well, the modern way of living suggests easy comfort in life in cities, with shiny things to buy in shops by day and nights full of entertainment. A “summer house” is quaint but not really a dream of modern urbanists. People still build private homes outside the city but they are for all year round, not just for summer.

As for the little dachas, they will return to nature’s domain. One day, all that will remain will be secret gardens and tiny orchards and strangers who, out hiking, discover them. And perhaps wonder how, in the wilderness, they came to be.

According to Rusty’s infamous Uncle Seamus, there is a conspiracy between outer and under shirt makers. The former put labels in the collars so you have to buy the latter to avoid the itch.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION : E.T., We’re Home! — A new study from MIT suggests that existing laser technology could be used to signal alien astronomers on a distant world. But should it be used? Tell earth/sky magazine what you think.