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Medieval computer
This is a volvelle, a medieval device that allowed you to calculate the phases of the moon and the latter’s position in relation...
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Favorite Food
This week’s blog is from Martha De Laurentiis, one of Hannibal’s executive producers.
Two cannibals are having dinner. “I hate my...
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Hello tumblr allow me to present you the swedish vallhund
i´m VERY...
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The Naïve Art of Truth Chasing
Yesterday’s events outside the National Security Bureau in Sana’a that spread into the neighbouring districts,...
Speaking of Russia…
Photographer Marat Ahmetvaleev was taking landscape photographs near his house in the Chelyabinsk, Russia area on February 15 when something appeared in the sky.
(Souce.)
(H/T The Bad Astronomer.)
St. Basil’s Cathedral. Moscow, Russia. Completed 1560.
Officially named for the Virgin Mary, St. Basil’s Cathedral (after Vasili, the ‘Holy Fool’) commemorates the victory of Russian forces over the former Golden Horde (Mongol) Khanate of Kazan in 1552. Although the original cathedral is much different from the one at present (they just kept adding domes, stairs, etc.) it is one of the most iconic and recognizable buildings in Russian history.
The onion-shaped domes resemble Indian and Islamic architecture (much like the domes at Britain’s Brighton Palace), although many believe that the church was meant to imitate the buildings of the holy city of Jerusalem. The idea of Russia as the ‘new Israel’ was a very popular idea, as many Russians believed that they were the last true Christians on earth (keep in mind that Russia’s mentor, Byzantium, had fallen hardly a century earlier to the Ottoman Empire, no doubt a sign of God’s wrath). In medieval Russia—really, up until the reigns of Tsar Alexei and then Peter the Great- the Orthodox Church was a central force in politics as well as daily life.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken part in a project to save a rare bird species, flying in a specially outfitted motorized hang glider with a flock of migrating Siberian white cranes who took him for their leader. (SOURCE)
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(via fuckyeahrussianpolitics)
I’ve been reading the transcript of Surkov’s news conference after the 2006 St. Petersburg G8 conference.
If you don’t want to bother reading it yourself, let this image sum up 99.99999% of Surkov’s responses.
Take some of our partners, who tend to understand energy security as full control of our pipeline system and our natural resources. We understand it a little differently, and I think we have a right to such an understanding. Furthermore, I have a feeling that even if Moscow was run by a gang of cannibals, these cannibals would very quickly be called a democratic government if they took pains to give away the right things to the right people.
<3 This is even better than the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Twitter account.
(via fuckyeahrussianpolitics)
Today, May 9, Russia celebrates the victory over Nazi Germany, while remembering those who died in order to achieve it. Victory Day (День Победы Den Pobedy) is by far one of the biggest Russian holidays. It commemorates those who died in WWII (we call “The Great Patriotic War”) and pays tribute to survivors and veterans. The Soviet Union lost more soldiers and civilians during the war than any other country. With 30 million dead (THIRTY MILLION), cities in ruins, its economy wrecked, the day the war ended has a special meaning for Russia. This is the most sacred public holiday.
Мы не должны забывать, какой ценой была достигнута наша победа, какой ценой был сохранен мир.
(via sovietico)
