- In Bolivia, I spoke with a lawyer about feminicidios, the killing of women by their partners, which carries a higher sentence than a “regular” homicide. Out of curiosity, I looked up the figure for Germany – and was shocked: 331 women were killed by their partners in 2015.
- Speaking about statistics on criminal law, the number of wrongful convictions (probably not only) in the US is still shocking and, as elsewhere in the criminal justice system, black people are over-represented.
- Don’t forget to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution this year!
- When Jason Chaffetz told people to buy fewer I-phones to have more money for health insurance, he recycled an argument of mine. But I was talking about traveling the world, which is a nice-to-have, not about health insurance which should be a fundamental right.
- In Russia, you may get fined for pointing out the role of the Soviet Union in carving up Poland in 1939.
- One day I have to make a list of all the countries where I could get fined/arrested/hanged for what I write on my blog. I guess I will never see all the countries in the world, for that reason alone.
- The Jesuits are often applauded for the quality of their schools and universities. That some of these educational institutions were financed by slavery is less known.
- Success for the anti-vaccination folks: in Europe, more people are dying of measles again.
- This is particularly sad from my current South American perspective, because North, Central and South America are practically free of measles, thanks to vaccination campaigns. There hasn’t been any outbreak since 2002. All singular cases since then were due to visitors from overseas, usually for football tournaments.
- This woman voted for Donald Trump, ignoring her husband’s warnings. Now, her Mexican husband is being deported. I wonder what effect this has on their marriage.
- Today I will leave you with this somewhat unusual performance by a Ukrainian military band.
The Happy Hermit 
Of course someone hijacked the performance by the Ukrainian military band to create a video with a different song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FjjnWfcJ-k&ab_channel=MishaStrunin