My bee balm

The bees like the bee balm. 

I got to think about critical mineral mining in Africa today and I’m nerdy enough to have found it interesting. 

Leonid Marushchak, a historian, has been saving Ukrainian collections of art from the Russians. He began with a small town museum that had pottery by Natalya Maksymchenko. “There were vessels covered with bold abstract glazes in purple, scarlet and yellow; exuberant figurines of musicians and dancers with swirling skirts; dishes painted with birds in flight.” He pushed through official authorization to get them out, gave instruction on how to pack them, and traveled over 350 miles including walking the last bit and riding in a Soviet era armored personnel carrier. He has since organized the rescue of items from dozens of towns along the front lines.