October 27, 2016

How to name your baby (and not get arrested)


How to name your baby (and not get arrested)

Babies and bankrolls

1. If you wanted to name your baby Dolphin, Lucifer,  Princess Daniella, or Ray of Happiness Summerset Ocean, you’re out of luck. A new bill proposes banning names containing numbers, ranks, abbreviations, and profanity. The reasoning: overly outlandish names could lead to bullying in school. Authorities have refused to issue birth certificates for strange names before – BOCh rVF 260602 (short for Biological Human Object born of Voronin-Frolova on June 26, 2002) has lived all 14 years of his life without identifying papers, for instance – but this would make it official.

2. How serious is “protest potential” in Russian universities? Perhaps more than before, as it’s been revealed that students and teachers across Russia were –unbeknownst to them – investigated for loyalty to the state. A think tank claimsto have found evidence of "destructive propaganda and anti-state ideas" in universities. Even with the Kremlin claiming no involvement, people are riled up enough that protest potential might get a boost.

3. Russia’s middle class has shrunk by 14 million people just since 2014 – and none of them left the middle class because they won the lottery. The decrease from about 61% to 51% of the middle-class population indicates the extent of the economic slump, with middle-income households bearing the brunt of financial stresses. And the spiral may continue, as the increase in wealth inequality could impact the central bank’s ability to steer inflation and manage the country’s finances.

In Odder News

Caption
  • If you don’t think Ivan IV (also known as “the Terrible) deserves a stone statue, Kansk has an alternate monument: a wooden stake dripping with blood-red paint.
  • Russia announces a fancy new spaceship, which may or may not be flown entirely by androids when it launches in 2021.

Quote of the Week 

“You’ve all become too civilized….You need to buy a yurt and move back to nature.”
—Dugar-Syuryun Oorzhak, a shaman and a healer, on the value of tradition in contemporary life.

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The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
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Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
How Russia Got That Way

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A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.
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.
Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

Faith & Humor: Notes from Muscovy

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.
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Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.

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