ebook sales in a copyright free environment

Just got one of the eBook Reader here in Russia into my hands.

Nice thing. But not as fancy and cool as the amazon kindl I played
with last week.
The difference is that the kindl offers this great service were you
can everywhere download books and newspaper.
Much like the iPod with iTunes. Currently the service is just
available in the US.

However, the distribution of this particular ebook reader found a
unique solution. He just delivers it pre-loaded 3 500 books.
It's like buying a iPod pre-filled with Music.
(compare this with the US where a woman just was fined $2 Mill for 24
songs in the US)

cheers

life

Spent my night with 40 Russian downtown prague (guess the ruins are still burning). Instead of sleeping I rushed at 4:30 am to the airport to buy a last minute ticket to Munich (600 € for a 40 min flight). Had to make it to a private appointment at 8 am.
After boarding they announced a 120 min delay and my carefully orchestrated plan completly blew up.
--> Life can be such a bitch :)

Media Review

I love faked media:)

No matter if the US Fox, German Spiegel or some Russian news.

You have so much to smile about.

E.g. The shown info graphic, stating 'clearly' that the good times from 2007/2008 will come back driven by the oil price. Just this time they will last. (I never forgot how in summer 2008 an employee suggested that the oil driven rubel till 2010 will replace the Euro and all German will have rubel in their wallets)

also in this particular newspaper

- China buys high level export good from the US, from Russia they buy raw material. The reason is NOT the quality, it is just better financing options from US banks

- a speech from President Medvedev about a possible 'virtual' currency to replace the USD immediately led to a crash of the US dollar on the international currency exchange

:)

Good Morning

I found the pictured product in a supermarket.

You need to know two things to understand
- cyrillic
- German

It's written 'Guten Morgen' what has no meaning in Russian, but means 'Good Morning' in German.

It's supposed to help against hangover :)

tree fluff

You see the white stuff on the picutres?

It isn't snow. It's some stuff coming from the trees every summer (I call it tree sperm).
And without merci it fills up your appartemnt, car and ENT cavaties.

Fortunatelly I don't have issues, but I also don't expect it to be hypoallergicm.
It even burns like hell.

So, no fun at all.

I just was in the country side and forests around moscow is no trace of it. It doesn't seem to be a specific russian kind of tree.

What leads me to the question why the the only tree they plant in they grey city is one that makes the biggest possible mess?!

the society reflects in the water

so, it's on again.
the once in a year "no hot water season". As usually NOT in summer, now, since beginning of May.

Once a year they switch off in Russia the hot water to clean the water pipes. Why?! nobody knows. They will tell you, "to clean", what is not an explenation.
As it always was like this people take it for granted (and are usually very surprised if you tell them it was never like this in western europe).
This year the administration was proud of themselves because the cold water period is just 2 weeks, instead of three.

At this time air temperature hoovers around 6 - 9 degrees outside your apartment becomes very cold when though every water pipe runs cold water.
As you can imagine this is very uncomfortable, you can work around the worst by buying a small boiler for you shower or by going to the fitness club to have a shower. But this doesn't solve the overall problem.

In my eyes it has a huge impact on hygiene and immunity.

- You have a city of 17 Million people crowded on a circle of 40 km. Then you switch of cold water, people shower less, you can't clean dishes and clothes any more that well (amazing, how much detergents depend on hot water).
Of course a sharp decline of hygiene is the result.

- At the same time people are constantly cold. So of course they have a reduced immunity.

FOr me this is on of the reasons, that child mortality is here five times higher than in Germany and the average age of men is just 57 years.
Of course, about this nobody speaks here in official media.

Instead of providing in the 21st all year hot water we hat from the Moscow officials in the last weeks the following actions:

- to show off, that the NY budget is lower than the budget of Moscow (which fades into corruption)
- make an huge opening of the eurovision song contest for 30 Million Euro
- celebrate victory day with an million dollar parade

not understandable for western. But ok, in Russia it's the country which matters, not the citizen. And they are fine with, it seems.

cheers

F*** Moscow

Moscow, you shock us again and again.

3 small amounts of fruits.. almost 100 Dollar in a Restaurant

700g Melon- 30 $
3x Peaches- 20 $
200 g Cherries- 50 $

And this basically in a 3rd world land.
This his is just possible in the the city of show offs and squander
P.S. I bought 300 g cherries a month later in Germany, 1.70 Euro (approx. 60 rbls)