John Brown's Notes and Essays

Excerpt f rom Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search "Ski mask" redirects here. For other uses, see  Ski Mask (disambiguation) . Not to be confused with  Baklava . Different ways of wearing a simple balaclava that was suggested as fashion piece for winter 2018/2019  [1]   [2]   [3] A  balaclava , also known as a  balaclava helmet  or  Bally  (UK slang) or  ski mask , is a form of cloth headgear designed to expose only part of the face, usually the eyes and mouth. Depending on style and how it is worn, only the eyes, mouth and nose, or just the front of the face are unprotected. Versions with a full face opening may be rolled into a hat to cover the  crown of the head  or folded down as a collar around the neck. ... History [ edit ] Similar styles of headgear were known in the 19th century as the  Uhlan  cap  worn by Polish and Prussian soldiers, and the  Templar  cap ...

"I cannot be like other politicians who are grateful to the United States  just for being the United States.” -- Quotation : Ukraine's President  Volodymyr Zelensky image (not from cited article),  which notes:  10 ways to express your gratitude in Ukrainian  --President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine; quotation from: Michael Schwirtz and Andrew E. Kramer, "White House Warnings Over Russia Strain Ukraine-U.S. Partnership,"  The New York Times , Jan. 28, 2022 

When the young empress came suddenly to power, European rivals prepared for her quick defeat. They were mistaken.  image from article:  Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (1744), by Martin van Meytens. UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES    On Dec. 13, 1740, the Prussian king Frederick II slipped out of a masquerade ball and mounted his horse at the head of 27,000 well-drilled troops. Three days later, he crossed the frontier into neighboring Silesia, northernmost province of the Habsburg Monarchy, then at peace with Prussia. Frederick had chosen his moment wisely. In late October, the emperor Charles VI had died without a male heir, leaving the chaotic jumble of territories that made up the Habsburg patrimony to his 23-year-old daughter, Maria Theresa. The realm that she inherited was in a pitiable state: its army demoralized following a recent defeat by the Turks; its treasury depleted by Charles’s long campaign of bribery to secure the sanction of Europe’s other ...

Russian leader has long argued that the two countries are inseparable, but Ukrainians have other ideas, increasingly speaking their own language and celebrating their independence from Moscow image from article:  People sing the Ukrainian anthem in Kyiv’s Sophia Square this month. By James Marson, The Wall Street Journal , Photographs by Anastasia Vlasova for The Wall Street Journal Jan. 28, 2022 10:53 am ET [original article contains additional illustrations] KYIV, Ukraine—In December, the local edition of lifestyle magazine Elle announced a new fashion on its cover: It would publish only in Ukrainian, not Russian. The switch in languages for a publication that is hardly a hotbed of nationalist ferment goes some way toward explaining why Russian President  Vladimir Putin  is forcing the issue of Ukraine now. Since Russia first invaded portions of the country in 2014, Ukraine has been severing cultural ties with its old imperial ruler and developing a keener sense of wh...

image (not from article) from BY FORMER AMBASSADOR RICHARD E. HOAGLAND, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR —  01/26/22 04:30 PM EST,  THE HILL   THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY CONTRIBUTORS ARE THEIR OWN AND NOT THE VIEW OF THE HILL One of the most essential elements of any country’s statecraft abroad is public diplomacy, often described as people-to-people diplomacy. Public diplomacy, essentially soft power, includes a broad spectrum of media/information work and cultural/educational programs and exchanges. At one time, it included American Centers abroad that were open to the public and physically separate from U.S. embassies. The bright and shining moment of U.S. public diplomacy was the 1950s and 1960s .  It was actually a Cold War creation implemented by an independent U.S.-government organization known as the United States Information Agency (USIA) in coordination with broadcasting overseas from Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Essentially, USIA was created ...