What makes the FSU so interesting?

[ML]

and that's why the wrapping is not allowed before the search.  if you did wrap they will ask you to take the wrap off.

Olga, all the wrapping machines I saw in FSU were BEFORE  the search stations.

And, I never saw one package or suitcase being unwrapped.

That is why I am mystified by this.

[ML]

Every piece of luggage, I assume, as in the US, is Xray inspected.

For flights out of USA, some of the checked bags are hand searched, supposedly on a random basis.  Wrapped bags, of course, would hinder this process.  But I have never seen a wrapping machine used in USA either.  Not saying I have 100% knowledge of this; just have never seen myself.

I have seen wrapped bags coming into USA, but never followed one through customs to see what happened.  Did it have to be unwrapped before passing through . . . or not.  Perhaps others can tell their experiences.

I wouldn't mind wrapping mine to save some wear and tear.
But the process just seems counter-intuitive from a security control standpoint, so I figured that any cost I incurred for such would just be wasted when it was unwrapped before being loaded or worse . . . denied loading entirely.

[Muzh]

But I have never seen a wrapping machine used in USA either. 
 

Go to JFK.

[OlgaH]

Olga, all the wrapping machines I saw in FSU were BEFORE  the search stations.

And, I never saw one package or suitcase being unwrapped.

That is why I am mystified by this.

They have them before and they have them after. They also have signs advising that wrapping should be done after search as I saw and remember during my flights inside Russia )) People paid for wrapping in a separate window. But I think all the rules also depend on airports. I also saw  some people wrapped their suitcases before search. One man was asked to unwrapped his suitcase after Xray.

I never used any wrapping when I flew from Russia to the US.

[Faux Pas]

For flights out of USA, some of the checked bags are hand searched, supposedly on a random basis.  Wrapped bags, of course, would hinder this process.  But I have never seen a wrapping machine used in USA either.  Not saying I have 100% knowledge of this; just have never seen myself.

I have seen wrapped bags coming into USA, but never followed one through customs to see what happened.  Did it have to be unwrapped before passing through . . . or not.  Perhaps others can tell their experiences.

I wouldn't mind wrapping mine to save some wear and tear.
But the process just seems counter-intuitive from a security control standpoint, so I figured that any cost I incurred for such would just be wasted when it was unwrapped before being loaded or worse . . . denied loading entirely.

It's not that complicated ML. They x-ray all baggage in customs as well as canine sniffers. If there is plastic on a bag they are interested in, they simply cut it off.

[mendeleyev]

From www.MendeleyevJournal.com

Apple, which has been without a new product since 2011, has applied for trademark status on the new "iWatch" product in Russia, Japan, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey and Taiwan.



According to Voice of Russia Radio, Apple's main rivals, Google and Samsung, are reported to be developing similar devices, which rely on the miniaturization of electronic components to provide a wide range of services on a handy, wearable screen.

[mendeleyev]

It has been awhile since we've visited with our friends Sergei and Sergei. Sergei the younger not only has a new car but a brand new apartment and he is going to take you for a ride in the car, then a tour of his new flat.

[mendeleyev]

Just across the street from the Kozhukhovskaya (Кожуховская) Metro station is this Halil Market, халяль-маркет.

Halil is a Muslim approved way of butchering meat. The animal must be killed quickly without prolonged suffering, all the blood must be drained from the body, the butcher must be Muslim and invoke the name of Allah as the animal is slaughtered. It is a surprise to some that Muslims are allowed to eat Kosher when no Halil products are available.




This part of Moscow is home to hundreds of thousands of Caucasians who are majority Muslim. They are from the Caucasus regions and typically with skin tones that are neither black nor white.

We took this photo not only for the market signs but because of the variety of types and ages of cars from the old purple/plum "Lada" to more recent foreign and domestic cars and vans. The one thing you'll hardly ever see in Russia is a pickup truck, but you will encounter plenty of sedans and vans. Most vans are commercial of some sort.

Vehicle taxes are based on horsepower and in the case of vans and trucks based both on horsepower and type of use, therefore the average person would seldom drive a pickup while the average business needing a truck would go for something bigger although GM has plans for a 4 person cab pickup they hope to market in Russia.

Where you can find a few pickups: the Caucasus regions such as Chechnya and Dagestan. Pickups are also popular in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan where Islamic fighters use pickups as a cheap way to mount a machine gun and carry a load of fighters across hilly and rocky terrain.

Russia is in violation of their WTO agreement as Russia charges a "recycling" tax on cars imported from other countries.

[mendeleyev]

Hopefully you'll never find yourself in need of a tow/crane truck in Russia:

[SANDRO43]

It is a surprise to some that Muslims are allowed to eat Kosher when no Halil products are available.

Not really, it makes good sense since ‎حلال (ḥalāl='permissible') and כָּשֵׁר (kashér='fit') rules are similar, particularly as regards the draining of blood from butchered animals - blood rots very quickly in a hot climate like the Middle East, where refrigerators were unknown until comparatively recently -

[mendeleyev]

I agree, but as I wrote it is a surprise to some. 

[OlgaH]

This part of Moscow is home to hundreds of thousands of Caucasians who are majority Muslim.

a year old news, but...

a Dagestani wedding motorcade was moving towards Kremlin and shooting into the air. The wedding motocrade was stopped by OMON blocking the road. What they say in the news that the behavior of Caucasians getting more and more outrageous, and if such migration policies and protection of Caucasians by the Russian government will continue it can lead to the same situation as it happened in Karelia.

Hatred and violence flares up between Slavs and Caucasians in Russian Karelia




What they also mentioned in the news is  Lev Gumilev's work Ethnogenesis and the Biosphere

The superethnic system arising in consequence of an impulse is closely linked with the nature of its region. Each of its constituent parts and subsystems - ethnoi and subethnoi - finds an ecological niche for itself. That gives them a possibility to reduce the struggle for existence to a minimum and get a chance to co-ordinate them-selves, which in turn facilitates the moulding of social forms. Blood also flows in this situation, but not very abundantly, and it is possible to live. But if a new, foreign, ethnic entity invades this system, it is forced, not finding an ecological niche for itself, to live at the expense not of the territory but of its inhabitants. This is not simply neighbourhood, and not symbiosis, but a chimera, i.e. a combination in one entity of two different, incompatible systems. In zoology the combination of an animal and a helminth in the intestine is called a chimeral construction. The animal can exist without the parasite, but the latter will perish without the host. But living in his body the parasite takes part in his life cycle, dictating a heightened need for food and altering the organism's biochemistry by its own hormones, forcibly secreted into the blood or bile of the host or parasite carrier. That is the difference between the chimera and the symbiosis...

 

[mendeleyev]

This is the area of the Mendeleyev Journal office and while guns are outlawed in Russia (see the thread on guns), one could raise a fully equipped army here within 48 hours, that is if it were an Islamic army. The only reason they fly Chechen flags and fire automatic weapons into the air from moving cars is to remind the existing population that:

- We are here.
- Someday we will use these weapons against you.

I saw the same thing on a visit to Chicago a few years back. I had just exited Lake Shore Drive in a rental car at night and came alongside a pickup and two SUV filled with punks firing weapons into the air all the while fanning flags of Mexico.

I don't know if such uneducated morons are too simple to understand that their bullets go up into the air and rain back down on the innocents, or if they're so disrespectful that they don't care. My suspicion is the ladder and were I a dictator, I wouldn't hesitate to skip trails and order such morons executed on sight, whether in Chicago or Russia.

Perhaps that is why I'd never make a good dictator. 

[SANDRO43]

My suspicion is the ladder

"Yes Watson, it's Moriarty's latest cunning disguise"

[mendeleyev]

 

I also believe it to be the latter, so let's make it a double!

[ML]

I also believe it to be the latter, so let's make it a double!

OK, then the configuration must be changed somewhat for a double ladder; if you really were referring to the latter type of ladder.

[mendeleyev]

 

[mendeleyev]

For those with a committed lady in the FSU, 8 July is с днем семьи, любви и верности which is the official observance known as the Day of the Family, love and faithfulness.

It is not the biggest holiday in the FSU but in 2008 the obvervance was signed into law by then-President Dmitry Medvedev. The second name of the holiday is the Day of Peter and Fevronia, the Orthodox patrons of marriage and family.

If you are married or you have a steady/committed relationship it is okay to greet her with this day. In fact, copy and send her one of the photos below.

[mendeleyev]

With the understanding that it will cost you to send the SMS, and it may cost your lady to receive it, here is a link where the voice of President Vladimir Putin delivers the greeting for the Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness.

[OlgaH]

With the understanding that it will cost you to send the SMS, and it may cost your lady to receive it, here is a link where the voice of President Vladimir Putin delivers the greeting for the Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness.

... where the voice of recently divorced President Vladimir Putin delivers the greeting for the Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness. 

[mendeleyev]

Touche, Olga. 

[Faux Pas]

With the understanding that it will cost you to send the SMS, and it may cost your lady to receive it, here is a link where the voice of President Vladimir Putin delivers the greeting for the Day of Family, Love and Faithfulness[/i].

Yeah I'm thinking that would be a surefire way to piss my wife off 

[Vasilisa]

for those who loves sporting events, the opening ceremony of the 27-th Universiade in Kazan, Russia, 2 days ago.


Also the pictures:

[mendeleyev]

When it comes to technology advances, credit Russia with another cutting edge idea: floating nuclear power plants.



It seems like the Russian nuclear power plant of the future will have the ability to float. These ships re-purposed into power plants are projected to be ready for service by 2016 and will function like barges that can be towed to and from various destinations as needed.

With a crew around 70 persons and a weight of 21,500 tons, the first ship in the fleet will be named the Academic Lomonosov, in honour of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, the founder of Moscow State University an important scientist from Russia's imperial period.

Two naval propulsion reactors generating around 70 megawatts of electricity is enough to power a city of 200,000 people.

[OlgaH]

When it comes to technology advances, credit Russia with another cutting edge idea: floating nuclear power plants.

In 2000-2001, Green Cross Russia and the Centre for Russian Environmental Policy published a 1st and 2nd English edition of the book "Floating Nuclear Power Plants: A Threat to the Arctic, World Oceans and Non-Proliferation Treaty" (originally printed in Russian).

http://globalgreen.org/docs/publication-166-1.pdf


2006 article
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/danger-at-sea-russia-to-build-floating-nuclear-power-plant-a-423168.html

At a cost of €270 million, a 140 meter long by 30 meter wide ship will be fitted with two reactors on its keel.

Weapons-grade uranium

The problem is the fact that reactors of the KLT-40C variety are to be used on the ship. Plants of this type are also used to power Russia's nuclear-powered icebreakers. Sure the reactors would be modified for their use as energy suppliers, but that doesn’t change their delicate, accident-prone design. The reactors are run using fuel rods, 40 percent of which consist of the easily fissionable Uranium 235. That type of uranium is weapons-grade and could be used to construct dozens of nuclear warheads. Soldiers would be needed to protect the ship from terrorists.

The operational safety is also far from certain. Although reactor accidents on board Russian ships are kept secret, information about several serious incidents on board nuclear-powered icebreakers have reached the West. On at least two occasions, nuclear meltdowns almost occurred on ships after there reactor cooling systems failed.

Because the plant will be cooled using sea water, a reactor incident could lead to the contamination of entire maritime regions. According to the Swedish nuclear expert Oddbjörn Sandervag, the effects of a normal tanker accident would be negligible in contrast.

The concept remains unconvincing economically, too. The price per kilowatt hour would be six cents, according to the project leader. Gas power plants produce energy for 2 cents. And that doesn’t take into account the costs for insurance, security or the disposal of the nuclear ship after its estimated 40 years lifespan. Of course, cynics could easily point out that Moscow has a pretty effective system for getting rid of its rotting nuclear fleets: The disposal of the Russian nuclear submarines on the Artic Sea was paid for by neighbor Norway and the United States.