Звёздные войны!!

10 Days to the world premiere!

here is a cool video to get you hyped!

Recycling in Russia

Every year, Moscow produces about 9 million tonnes of rubbish - a fifth of all the waste produced in Russia - which goes to 38 landfill sites on the edges of the city. In Dyakovo, a town next to the Dmitrovsky dump, the soil is so contaminated that vegetables will not grow there.

With 24 dumps scheduled to shut this year, the situation is so urgent that local authorities are pledging to recycle or incinerate as much as 65% of the city's waste - up from just 10% at present.

In the Soviet era, citizens sorted their own rubbish, earning a small amount of money for scrap metal, paper and glass handed in at local collection points. But mountains of rubbish have piled up ever since the system collapsed.

Recycling companies are starting to pop up in the region, sensing opportunity. But one firm says until local laws change, burying rubbish in a landfill is the cheapest option.

During the Sochi Olympics, a lot of controversy surrounded the event. Here is a selection of some less serious situations that athletes and journalists faced! Enjoy

1) Ridiculous Signage:

Do: Sit and use the toilet.

Don't: Stand and use the toilet. 

Don't: Vomit into the toilet. 

Don’t: Do an upper decker into the toilet’s tank.

Don't: Go fishing in the toilet. 

Don't: Um…do your business on the floor while holding a bottle?

2) Malfunctioning Olympic Rings

                                     

3) Unfinished Hotels... And still unfinished today...

4) The "Twin Toilet" phenomenon..??

5) Unsettling and creepy mascots

VIKING INFLUENCE IN RUSSIA!

The beginning of the Russian - Scandinavian relationship dated from the 9th century is described in the Russian Primary Chronicle written by Orthodox monks. At that time, different Slav tribes lived in the North - West of Russia along the Neva and the Volkhov rivers as well as around the lakes Ladoga and Ilmen. The great Russian plain covered with forest and grassland was ideal for hunting, fishery and agriculture. Also it represented real trade crossroads between Northern Europe and Byzantine Empire. That was one of the reasons to build there the town of Novgorod which was a capital of the Old Northern Russia and an important commercial centre.

In 862 the Slavs, exhausted by uninterrupted inter-tribal wars, made the following proposal to the Rus (a name borrowed from the Finns to designate the Swedes): "Our country is rich and immense, but it is rent by disorder. Come and govern us and reign over us".

Three Swedish Vikings responded and came to Russia. Rurik became governor of Novgorod, Sineus settled down in Beloozerg and Truvor in Izborsk. Two years later Sineus and Truvor both died and Rurik extended his rule over the whole country. Later two of his lieutenants went down to Kiev, nearly six hundred miles away, and conquered it. In 882 Oleg, Rurik's successor, came to Kiev in his turn. Having established his own leadership over numerous towns and tribes Oleg strengthened considerably the new Russian State and became its master. The new capital, Kiev, little by little became one of the richest towns in Europe.

Rurik's successors became a ruling dynasty in Russia for more than 700 years.

Aleksandr Pushkin

(Born 1799, Died 1837)

Aleksandr Pushkin is, by common agreement -- at least among his own compatriots -- the greatest of all Russian writers. The major part of his lyrical poetry was written between 1820 and 1830, but some of his poetical masterpieces were composed in the last seven years of his life, when he was turning his attention to prose. He cleverly crafted a masterful blend of the three main ingredients of the Russian literary idiom -- the Church Slovanic, the Western European borrowings, and the spoken vernacular. Pushkin created the language of modern Russian poetry. His personal life was made difficult by his conflicts with the authorities who disapproved of his liberal views.

Not surprisingly, he was killed in a duel.