Notes and Essays -- John Brown

 from Quora Jean-Marie Valheur  ·  Following knows a thing or two  1y Just came across a lovely painting from the year 1910. Entitled “Bicycle Race”, it was made by the French artist Albert Joseph Pénot. A voluptuous, scantily-clad lady with a shapely and plump derrière is chased by a group of men … The same things that would get a man going in the year 1910 are still every bit as effective to draw attention in the year 2024. We’re still, as a species, mere dogs running after a bone. The same deepseated biological drives control us, guide our minds, our eyes, and direct our life choices. Some of us think we’ve “evolved”, but just how foolish and naive is that? There’s even a term called “Rubenesque beauty” to describe the type of voluptuous ladies Belgian painter Peter Paul Rubens used to paint — he was notoriously into “fat bottom girls”, and this man lived in the late 1500s, early 1600… he would have dropped dead of a heart attack had he lived in today’s era and ...

Russia has increasingly hit civilian targets, but the Thursday strike, which ripped through two buses, was reminiscent of larger strikes earlier in the war. By   Francesca Ebel KYIV — At least 30 people were killed and 18 injured after a Russian glide bomb tore apart a bus stop in the eastern city of Kramatorsk on Thursday, the State Emergency Service said, as Moscow ramps up the pressure on Ukraine’s “fortress belt” — the key to Vladimir Putin’s quest to claim the whole of Donbas. Russia has gradually advanced on the region, pummeling cities like Kramatorsk with glide bombs and artillery strikes . B ut Ukraine has managed to cling on. Military analysts say a Russian breakthrough is unlikely before the end of 2026, and both sides are suffering massive casualties. Russia is intensifying attacks on civilian targets and public transportation, including bridges and trains, but the strike on the bus stop, which ripped through two buses — killing several civilians — was reminiscent of...

Middle-of-the-night evacuations and fears about death have become the norm for workers at Russian e-commerce companies targeted by Ukraine. A warehouse for a Russian e-commerce company near St. Petersburg after it was hit by Ukrainian drones in July. Credit... Agence France-Presse — Getty Image The New York Times By Paul Sonne , Anastasia Kuts and Milana Mazaeva Reporting from Berlin Oct. 8, 2026, 5:01 a.m. ET It was two days before the start of school, and David Zelensky, 16, was earning some final summer cash at an e-commerce warehouse in the Russian city of Belgorod. The oldest of nine children, David had landed the job a few weeks earlier at the online retailer Ozon, an upgrade from his former gig delivering food. He settled in for an evening shift on Aug. 30 that would put him closer to his dream of buying a motorcycle. Then came the Ukrainian missiles. First, the city air raid sirens wailed. Next, an explosion from what seemed to be the interception of a rocket rang out. As work...