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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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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Driving Down Russia's Spine

The story of the epic Spine of Russia trip, intertwining fascinating subject profiles with digressions into historical and cultural themes relevant to understanding modern Russia. 

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Life Stories

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.

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The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.

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