'I never knew...'

11 March 2022
Statue of David

The plaster cast of David at the Victoria and Albert Museum has a detachable plaster fig leaf which is displayed nearby. Legend claims that the fig leaf was created in response to Queen Victoria's shock upon first viewing the statue's nudity and was hung on the figure prior to royal visits, using two strategically placed hooks / Public domain. Wikimedia Commons

Two things of significance for me today:

1. Russia called an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council claiming that the United States was funding research to create biological weapons in Ukraine.

2. YouTube blocked access to the biggest Russian media channels including Russia Today and Sputnik.

I'm not going to dwell too much on these other than to point out a couple of things.

First, I find it strange that when Russia got to these 30 or biolabs in Ukraine, all the biological materials had been destroyed but paperwork purportedly linking the United States to the labs had not been destroyed.

Second, I find it quite Orwellian that when I am searching for information on exactly how Russia intends explain all these glaring inconsistencies, all Russian news sources are being systematically censored. This to my mind means (a) the Russians are lying or (b) the Russians did find bioweapons but the news has been censored.

Here's a few things I've been doing in the meanwhile to keep myself as informed as I can on both sides of this conflict.

I've begun the Tor Browser more frequently to routinely access websites.

I've begun using Russia's Yandex as a search engine to see what Russia's propaganda machine is saying about the war.

I've been signing up for Telegram groups talking about the war. This includes people from the Nato side of the tracks who are being actively censored on big tech platforms.

Very simply, I don't want to say in a few years' time, "I never knew…".

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