Epic Video: In Russia, tank drive you!

A lot of Russians have dashboard cams in their car because apparently their police are corrupt and their insurance companies are shady. It's good for us in the ol' US, however, because now we get these crazy YouTube clips of what life is like in the former USSR. For example, a tank rolling across the highway...

 

Still a better experience than driving in Spokane...

Vladimir Putin wants to control your mind

This is some truly crazy and wild stuff. While Russia has said a lot of things, maybe we should take notice that they're a zombie ray that could affect all of our minds. While those funny guys wearing the tin foil hats have been telling us for years that the government is controlling out minds, that swell guy Vladimir Putin may actually do it.

Mind-bending ‘psychotronic’ guns that can effectively turn people into zombies have been given the go-ahead by Russian president Vladimir Putin. 


The futuristic weapons – which will attack the central nervous system of their victims – are being developed by the country’s scientists. They could be used against Russia’s enemies and, perhaps, its own dissidents by the end of the decade. 
...
Research into electromagnetic weapons has been secretly carried out in the US and Russia since the Fifties. But now it appears Mr Putin has stolen a march on the Americans. Precise details of the Russian gun have not been revealed. However, previous research has shown that low-frequency waves or beams can affect brain cells, alter psychological states and make it possible to transmit suggestions and commands directly into someone’s thought processes. High doses of microwaves can damage the functioning of internal organs, control behaviour or even drive victims to suicide. Anatoly Tsyganok, head of the Military Forecasting Centre in Moscow, said: ‘This is a highly serious weapon.

Now I'm wondering how much of this is complete fluff and how much science there is behind this. Sounds more than a little hokey. It feels like something taken from "Command and Conquer: Red Alert" when we were still fighting the Russians in a fictional continued WW2. But I'm not taking any chances, I will be wearing a metal helmet when I visit Russia.

Russia's 2014 Olympic mascot

The mascots for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

And the winners after a countrywide voting contest have been announced. They are a snowboarding snow leopard, a little bunny and a chubby polar bear in a scarf.

These mascots might be super cute and not very tough. But at least they are better than the "one-eyed monsters" that London decided to use.




What do you think of the 2014 Russia Olympic mascots?

Russians changing time zones because they can

Russia is a pretty big country, and they think of themselves as a big deal. Hence, the country has decided to shed a few unnecessary time zones.

Moscow (CNN) -- The world's largest country by land mass is challenging time: This weekend, Russia is cutting the number of its time zones from 11 to 9.

"The less fractional division of the country will enable us to resolve a number of transport and communications issues, will increase its manageability and strengthen the position of Russia as an important chain in the world's global infrastructure," President Dmitry Medvedev said at a special Kremlin meeting devoted to the issues of time change.

Technically speaking, five Russian regions -- two in European Russia and three in Siberia -- will not join the rest of the country in moving the clock one hour forward to daylight saving time at 2 a.m. Sunday, thus coming a little closer to Moscow.

Aman Tuleyev, governor of the Siberian coal-mining region of Kemerovo, which will undergo a time zone change, said at the Kremlin meeting that the existing time zone span doesn't make a lot of sense.

"You travel just a 100 miles to any neighboring city in our area and need to switch your watch one hour back, then move it one hour forward again upon return. This has been creating needless confusion for both businesses and regular people," he said.

Watch out Central Time, you're next.

Russia plans to save the Earth from an asteroid that actually wont hit the Earth

Russia comes to the rescue! Kind of...

MOSCOW – Russia's space chief said Wednesday his agency will consider sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth.

Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, telling Golos Rossii radio that it would invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project once it is finalized.

When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth in its first flyby in 2029 were as high as 1-in-37.

There is almost no chance that this Asteroid will hit Earth now, or when it returns back into the area 20 years from now. Or 20 years after that.

However, Russia is going to send a space craft up there. One thing that concerns me though if that if you throw the asteroid off course now, the trajectory might change to the point where in the return trip 20-40-60 years from now might have it bearing down directly on the planet.

Now I'm sure they've crunched all the numbers... but really, if it isn't broke, why are you messing with it?

Apparently Aliens are invading Russia

Better them than us. A mysterious "halo cloud" has appeared over Moscow, prompting many people to naturally assume that the world is ending.

"This is being discussed on forums, blogs and email lists all around the world. Some people say it's a bizarre meteorological effect.

"Theories range from it being an alien mothership, proof of Russian weather modification technology - a weather weapon - or even a sign of the end of the world. The video has appeared on YouTube and been viewed more than 100,000 times. The bizarre light was spotted last Wednesday But meteorologists rejected theories of the supernatural calling it an optical effect.

The Moscow's weather bureau said several weather fronts had passed through Moscow as the sun shined from the west to cause the effect. A spokesman for the bureau said: "This is purely an optical effect, although it does look impressive. "If you look closer, you can see sun rays coming through that cloud. Most likely, the sun was setting when the video was being made."

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2677449/Mystery-halo-in-cloud-over-Moscow.html#ixzz0Tg8OYpQ6

Sure... it's just a cloud.

Apparently Ichiro Suzuki will play baseball until he's 80

With Casey and I getting up in years, I mean lets face facts - we can't wait to order off of the 55 and older menu at Denny's, we've been thinking about life expectancy...

And apparently Japan has the highest life expectancy.

A girl born in Japan today will likely live to celebrate her 86th birthday, the longest life expectancy anywhere in the world. Men fare best in the tiny European nation of San Marino, where the average boy will live to 81, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

The West African country of Sierra Leone has the shortest life expectancy for men — just 39 — while Afghanistan fares badly for both sexes, with men and women living on average to 41 and 42 years respectively.

How did the United States fare? Despite us all being fat and owning guns, we actually rated pretty well.

In the United States, the life expectancy for men rose to 76 from 72 years, and for women to 81 from 79 years.

In Russia, the average life expectancy for men dropped to 60 from 64 years since the time of the Soviet Union. For women the drop was less marked, to 73 from 74 years.

... Although I better lay off the vodka.