This essay was first published in January 2017. It seems even more prescient 8 and a half years later. At that time I could not have imagined that Trump would bring in psychopathic cronies like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel to destroy US AID and potentially kill 14 million people, more than died in World […]
Scientists prove Extensive Viking Silver Trade with Abbasid Empire from British Silver Hoard
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Northeastern England fell to the Vikings in 865, and they held it for several decades. They not only had what is now Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Durham but points south to the town of Bedale on the way to York. In 2012 archeologists found a silver and gold treasure hoard in Bedale […]
Trump to Xi: ‘Hold our Beer’ – EVs majority of Chinese New Car Sales, as Exports rocket 74%
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Car News China reports that in the first half of 2025, consumers in that country bought 10,891,000 passenger vehicles. But here’s the catch. They bought 5,458,000 EVs and 5,433,000 gasoline cars. Look carefully at those numbers. They bought more EVs than internal combustion engine cars. To be precise, 50.1% of […]
Cowardly Israeli Murder of 5 Journalists, including Anas al-Sharif, Smearing them as Hamas
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The Israeli state by now has a long and sanguinary history of murdering writers and journalists in cold blood. In 1972, Israeli commandos murdered novelist, painter and short story writer Ghassan Kanafani in Beirut with a car bomb — the weapon of choice for terrorists ever since — killing his […]
Protesting Gaza War, Massive Crowds Shut down Tel Aviv, Storm TV Station, Call for General Strike
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Rubaie Sawaid, writing for the Israeli newspaper Arab 48, reports that on Saturday enormous crowds demonstrated in Israel against the government’s plan to take over all of Gaza, demanding that the release of the remaining over two dozen Israeli hostages in the Strip be prioritized. He writes that the families […]
“Those who Stood before the Tavern” – FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:3
The third quatrain attributed to Omar Khayyám in FitzGerald’s first edition of the Rubáiyát is from the manuscript dated 1460 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, which I translated in full (see below). III. And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Tavern shouted — “Open then the Door! “You know how little while […]
“Awake my little ones and fill the Cup!” FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:2
Edward FitzGerald, who published the first edition of his translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám in 1859, arranged the poems to unfold over a day in the life of the protagonist, beginning with a rowdy morning, as explained earlier. The second quatrain in his first edition is this: II. Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand […]
FitzGerald’s Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám 1:1
British man of letters Edward FitzGerald translated the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám from two Persian manuscripts and published it in 1859. He had substantial help from young Orientalist Edward Cowell, who discovered a manuscript of the Rubáiyát dated 1460 CE in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Rubáiyát means “quatrains,” and in Persian poetry they consist […]
US Green Beret: Israeli “Hunger Games in Gaza” (h/t Sen. Chris Van Hollen)
Senator Chris Van Hollen interviews Anthony Aguilar, former Green Beret and former contractor in Gaza, on what Aguilar witnessed there. Warning: Graphic language, Images. Transcript: This is the YouTube auto-generated transcript but cleaned up by Google Gemini. Caveat Emptor. Senator Van Hollen: Well, thank you for getting together. Let me start by thanking you for […]
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