April 27, 2017

Floods of water, juice, and trendy ostrich photos


Floods of water, juice, and trendy ostrich photos

Juice, Juice, Baby

1. If your town has to be flooded with something, why not fruit juice? It may not have been quite as deliberate a decision as that, but that’s what’s flowing in the town of Lebedyan. The roof of a factory owned by Pepsico collapsed, injuring two workers (fortunately, not seriously) and releasing several tons of juice into the streets and toward the river Don. This week, it’s Juicy Flows the Don.

2. In a flood that’s not quite as sugary, a playground in Yakutsk is nearly a foot deep in muddy water. The groundless playground was highlighted by opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who quipped on Twitter that Russia’s military engagement abroad is hindering childcare at home. According to a city official, a local management company was supposed to pump out the water. If the kids get lucky, they’ll fill it with fruit juice instead.

3. The Russian government’s newly vacant post of Human Rights Commissioner will remain vacant. Former Commissioner Konstantin Dolgov has transferred to the presidential administration, and his functions will be transferred to the Department for Humanitarian Cooperation and Human Rights. The latter department, however, generally focuses on Russian citizens imprisoned abroad. Human rights, as understood by European law, will no longer fall under anyone’s purview.

In Odder News

  • Looking for an edgy new haircut? For a ‘do that’s really on the edge, try the barber who cuts hair with an axe.

Quote of the Week

“I would like my photos to tell about the peace and interaction with the world [...] There is always a place of kindness and love!”
—Photographer Olga Barentseva on her choice to create fairytale-like photography featuring animals with human companions in nature. 

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Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Fish: A History of One Migration

Fish: A History of One Migration

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.

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