January 22, 2006
Extreme cold and Russian drinking
After several years of extremely warm winters in Europe and Russia, this cold season brough extremely low temperatures all across the continent. In Russia, combined with extemely poor management of natural resources, including gas, the extreme cold was credited with tens of deaths in the country. Several people had to have their limbs amputated because they drank so much to stay warm, they could not feel their legs and got extreme cases of frostbite. Drinking vodka has always been the natural way to stay warm during cold Russian winters, but one zoo there went as far as to give vodka to it's elephaunts to keep them warm as well. Drunk animals kept falling off their bycicles and kept singing improper songs.
Posted by Alex at 10:11 PM | Comments (0)
July 15, 2005
Bottoms Up!
I don't know how the Russian government is going to change the world opinion about Russia, which right now is basically vodka and chess after news like this:
Last year, a vodka-drinking contest in a southern Russia town ended in tragedy: the winner of the competition died, with several runners up in intensive care. The owner of the store holding the contest offered 10 liters of vodka to the competitor who could drink the most vodka in the shortest amount of time. Russian authorities charged the promoter of the contest with manslaughter.
“The competition lasted 30, perhaps 40 minutes and the winner downed three half-liter bottles. He was taken home by taxi but died within 20 minutes,” said a prosecutor investigating the case. For those of you who don’t feel like doing the math, that’s a handle of vodka in thirty minutes. Five of the survivors ended up in the hospital’s intensive care unit. Russians drink 15 liters of alcohol per annum and it has been estimated that nearly 15% of the population is alcoholic. After the death of the winner, prosecutors charged the organisers not only with involuntary homicide, but also with breaking a Russian law that forbids the staging of events promoting alcohol consumption. (via mosnews)
Quiet honestly, death of the competitors is a tragedy, but there is also a part of me that wants to give them "Hero of the USSR" medals, post mortem of course like most of Russia's top medals.
Posted by Alex at 04:05 PM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2005
IKEA in Atlanta
Well, it's official, Atlanta is now one of the lucky cities that has IKEA, the Swedish Wal-Mart of furniture, and of course Maria and I were there this Saturday. 
Posted by Alex at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)
June 22, 2005
I joined a corporate tennis team
When I was in college, the sport of choice for me and my friends was roller hockey. Fast, fun, and being of Eastern European descend I had a natural inclination to the sport. After 3-4 years of playing we became pretty good and more confident in our game. Now, it's been about 2 years since we really played and I am like 25 pounds heavier than my heaviest ever and would not be able to hit a slapshot if my life depended on it, my friends are taking up tennis and golf, which clearly must mean something. At any rate, I joined a corporate tennis team so we will see what will happen out of it. I played for about a day when I was 12, so naturally there is room for improvement. Wish us all luck, we are up against some serious guys and gals from the local businesses.
Posted by Alex at 04:31 PM | Comments (2)