Windows to Russia

It seems that Windows to Russia has a gremlin in the comment section. We are now back to original comments and being spammed like no tomorrow. This happened because the Google Friend Connect system completely invaded our system and even took over our profile section. I at one point had to completely reinstall the blog because it locked me out of my admin. At first I thought Virus but that was quickly removed from the equation and every time I tried to use Friend Connect, I would find code in my email section, comments full of Friend Connect code and about half a dozen other issues…

So a sorry is in order and I am doing some study on it, but that means I can not use it (Friend Connect) until I figure out what the heck is going on. So I rewrote the comment code and took out Friend Connect and all is working great except for I have 523 spam since yesterday and the number is climbing at a fast pace. But to be truthful I have had two dozen legit comments amongst the bad and also discovered that I was missing any and all mobile phone comments… (That I will also apology for and will correct it.)

So I guess I know what I will be doing this weekend and will be spending time coding the blog again. It has been a never ending battle with comments…

Another issues against Friend Connect is that I can not move the comments from it to WordPress so maybe this is on purpose to make me reconsider the comment system on Windows to Russia…

The WordPress system is wonderful for comments but it also is a spam magnet and makes life a living hell with comments. If I block them with a spam plugin like Askismet. I still have to go through each and everyone to check and verify so it means nothing to have it in effect. It just adds more work to checking comments. If I allow Askismet to delete comments that it calls spam then I never see the good comments and believe me, it calls more than a few good comments spam. I get spammed all the time at other sites that use spam control and it seems to be an automatic thing with ip’s from Russia. In fact I gave up on many blogs to comment because they never posted my comment after it was caught in the spam filter…

As far as aftermarket comments: Intense Debate, Disqus and other similar systems are spam magnets. You must moderate and check any and all comments. I can do that with the original WordPress comment system because I can set it to hold all comments until I say OK…

Someday I will have a system that allows us to comment and be posted then and there. The nearest thing was Google Friend Connect and now it went crazy…

Windows to Russia!

I grew up in a world much like Russia is today. As I have said before that is what makes me comfortable here. It is a world that you know and is safe. It is a world that still allows you to make decisions based on your own thoughts and desires…

The world that I grew up in is gone but I discovered Russia and her idiosyncrasies that make life good. So what am I talking about over that morning cup of coffee?

Glad you asked…

The other day I talked about milk and where to get it in Russia…

Milk in Russia: It Does The Body Good…

Today we will talk about meat…

In the picture to the left you will see an example of how people will and can purchase meat in Russia. Sometimes it is from a van, sometimes they set up a table outside, sometimes they carry it around, go door to door in the flats and ask you if you would like to buy some meat…

Now I will not be picky about what kind of meat. Russians are not picky and meat is meat. I feel the same way…

(Exception is: Ground meat don’t buy meat all ready ground. Grind it yourself…)

But for those who are worried! No! We do not use rat, cat, dog, or any other meat like that. We like chicken, turkey, beef, pork and lamb… 🙂 (I have been asked by e-mails several times…)

Before I got the picture I had to wait for everyone to clear out. There was about 20 people surrounding the van and I could not get a picture of the meat. I call it “Cash and Carry…”

It reminds me of the old days in America. We use to sell meat of the back of a tractor as well as we sold milk, sour cream, cottage cheese and other delights. I remember them well, the government trucks that had some of the best butter and cheese in the whole world. It all came from the back of a truck…

It is life as I know it in Russia. Whether I am in a village or in Moscow. Or somewhere in between…

I know a half dozen farmers that have been to Russia and Ukraine. They have the same feelings that I do and they would like to figure out how to come to Russia and farm. In fact one of them should be trying to get things together to come to Russia soon and I hope he does…

I watched for a short while and of course Boza was wanting to pay a visit and get some meat. But we stayed back and observed. That is what Boza and I do best in this interesting country…

This is what makes me so endeared to Russia. The way that life is so much like my past and it creates a nice comfort barrier to the world. I am worried though about Russia because she seems to be wanting to become Westernized. Well at least Moscow does. I do know that as vast as Russia is that trying to Westernize all of her would be a thousand year project…

So if Moscow becomes to Western oriented, we will just move a little farther away. We have a little village that is so far back into the wilderness that it will take a few hundred years for modernization to reach it with any gusto…

Russia: Sunrise to Freedom, leaving us one person at a time!

So now you know a little more about Russia…

Windows to Russia!

It is well known that Russia has made it clear that they are going to increase their Gold holdings by at least – 100 metric tons a year. Last year alone, the Central Bank of Russia expanded its gold holdings by 23.9 percent to 790 tons. (Link)

What is not well known and thought of is that the main reason they are doing this is to set the ground work for the Ruble to be a Global Reserve Currency…

Whether that will happen or not time will tell but the fact is that Russia is trying to make the Ruble a “Gold Ruble”. Backed 100% by gold just as the dollar was until it was decoupled by Nixon in August of 1971…

The start of this process was instigated recently when the Customs Union treaty was signed between Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan and it established a free-trade zone between these countries…

The Ruble it seems is in line to be the main currency for this situation. So as I have been watching the news in Russia. I see that gold is being mined at a furious pace and I see that rules regarding gold holdings and production have changed to the better. I would say that gold will increase faster than stated. Just as the holdings of American dollars has dropped faster than stated…

Read: Coffee and Chinese Bailouts and Russian Gold…

Windows to Russia!

GORKI, April 7 (Itar-Tass) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev urged regional ombudspersons for children’s rights to step up their work without waiting for instructions from Moscow. At a meeting with ombudsman under the Russian president for children’s rights Pavel Astakhov on Thursday, the head of state underlined that this institution had justified itself.

“It is important that those who take the post (of ombudsperson for children’s rights in Russian regions) are resolute and vigorous people, so that they awaken the officials responsible for children’s rights,” Medvedev said, there should be no vertical in these relations: they should seek out what they have to do by themselves (regrettably, there’s plenty of work), without waiting for instructions, and find solutions on their own.

Astakhov informed the head of state that in December 2009, when he was appointed to the post, there were just 18 ombudspersons for children’s rights in regions, while at present, 70 constituent territories of the federation have set up this institution. “Thirteen constituent territories of the federation keep making excuses and are stalling. Among them are the most problematic regions from the point of view of protecting children’s rights – Tuva, the Baikal region and Khakassia.

The president underlined that he was largely pleased with the ombudsman’s performance. “When I was making the decision to set up this institution, I had misgivings regarding its effectiveness, but practice showed that it was important to have someone to set guidelines by his own example for regional leaders, and directors of federal agencies and the services concerned. I hope you will continue this work.

“You try nor to leave alone civil servants, governors, and heads of municipalities, create necessary conditions for protecting childhood and I believe you are successful, by and large,” Medvedev said.

Astakhov presented a report on his work to the president. Since his appointment, 50 regions have been checked for violations of children’s rights. Ombudspersons have reviewed some 5,000 complaints, most of these problems have been settled.

More than 60 criminal cases were opened over violations of children’s rights, and some 50 officials were fired.

“This institution formed as an independent government legal institution, and coordination of work involving 19 federal children’s rights protection agencies allow for achieving results,” he noted.

Statistics says the number of cases involving loss of parental rights decreased in 2010.

“It would be incorrect to claim we are taking children from parents en mass; we’ve begun to use such measure as restriction of parental rights, more often,” the ombudsman said.

Windows to Russia!

I was drinking my morning cup of coffee here in Russia and wondering about what it is with people. Why is it when you try to help people they turn on you and make a mess of theirs and yours life?

I learned early in my life that you never get involved with people personally or impersonally. I mean everyone and as far as the rest of the world is concerned, I will help and I always will and always do and always have. But I always expect to be made an enemy out of before it is over…

This is brought up because someone who needed Sveta’s and my help recently and was given help. Then after things looked good to us. We just came to the realization that all was not good on the receiving end…

That brought back so many memories of my past, a good example is: Once many years ago, I came upon a car that had just been wrecked. It had a woman in the drivers seat and a child in the seat in the back. The car was on fire and the woman was not able to get out…

To make a long story short: I got the woman out and her kid. She was OK and had no lasting physical effects. I thought everything was good until I got a summons to appear in court. I was being sued because I had moved her and could have caused serious issues due to the fact that I was not a medical doctor who knew what I was doing by moving her and her child…

I guess my option was to let her burn because by the time emergency had gotten there, her car was in total flames and she would have died with her child. The fact is that no one else was around because it was around 3 am in the morning. I had one of those huge bulky car phones (1992) in a bag that was so popular and was able to make a emergency call from that…

I was toast in the eyes of the law. Except for one thing and only one thing that got it tossed out of court after I had to spend several hundred dollars with a lawyer… (remember this was many years ago and lawyers were much cheaper then…)

The woman was drunk as a skunk and by that fact it was concluded that she could not have removed herself from the car on her own accord and have saved her child. She also by being very drunk caused her own wreck which could have taken her and her child’s life. So that I was correct in this situation to save the life of said woman and child…

This was also back in the days that being drunk was not the issue that is is now. So she was not in trouble for getting drunk…

Well as I sipping my coffee this morning. I once again get to reconstruct in my mind, where I went wrong and why it went wrong, when I helped someone solve a problem and offer any and all help needed for said issue…

So I guess that I will just have to pay for the idea, that when people need help we help them and not leave them in what ever predicament (ex:burning car) they are in at the moment…

Helping when needed is what life should be about. I just do not know why it has to have excess baggage always dragging behind it… 🙂

Hummm…

Windows to Russia!

When a revolution takes place in a country – it is the business of the people in that country to conduct the revolution, believes anti-war activist John Reese from Stop the War Coalition.

­“My point about the western intervention would be this: I do not think that they did intervene in order to assist a revolutionary process, I think they intervened in order to get control of the revolutionary process.”

The people coming to the fore of the Libyan opposition “were trained in the west, have links with the west and western security services and would not have come to the top had the west not intervened,” evaluated Reese.

Reese says The Transitional National Council that was formed in Benghazi was a democratic structure representing local people, but when the western powers intervened, the leadership of the council became selected from among the people who have the ear of the west, “therefore the whole democratic process of representing the Libyan people became distorted… the whole principle of popular democratic revolution becomes corroded, corrupted and demeaned by the intervention of the western powers.”

The no-fly zone imposed on Libya is very similar to the one once imposed on Iraq, and as Saddam Hussein’s helicopters were allowed to put down popular uprisings in the south of the country, the same applies to Libya. If some sort of settlement and ceasefire is reached, it will allow Gaddafi to put down the remnants of the rebellion in Libya as well.

The coalition forces are obviously very much concerned about full scale military intervention, because you cannot win a war simply with air strikes. The stalemate situation in Libya is already very hard to resolve without the deployment of ground troops, but if that does happen – it would be a “massive deterioration of the situation.”

“But if it does not happen – then we are looking at a very messy situation which may lead to a partition of Libya, a prolonged civil war actually.”

“If the west were kept off long enough – it might be over sooner,” Reese stated.

“The public opinion in Britain and Europe, and the opinion polls are definitely reflecting it, is against the military operation in Libya, but as far as there is no ground operation the Europeans do not see it on the same scale as the Iraq war, which indeed it is not – yet,” the anti-war activist pointed out, saying that “if there were any sign that there was going to be a serious deployment of ground troops in Libya – you would have an absolutely massive response.”

“A majority is against the intervention but there is a very large number of “don’t knows” that would turn very quickly if there were talk of a ground war,” Reese predicted.

John Reese believes the stalemate situation in Libya will not change much and the help of the west has only caused more civilian casualties and “has not decisively altered the balance against Gaddafi”.

“The western intervention has made an incredible mess which will last for a long time in Libya,” John Reese concluded.

Hummm very good video and information. I like what John Reese has to say…

Windows to Russia!

Russia views an unrest in the Middle East, particularly in major oil exporting countries, as a threat to its interests, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said on Wednesday.

“We would like the situation to stabilize, because otherwise it will affect our interests, including those in the oil sphere,” Ivanov told Russian journalists in Washington after talks with high-ranking U.S. officials.

“I think such conflicts, which result in instability and an inevitable sharp increase in energy prices, are not beneficial for Russia. Stable prices would be more beneficial for us,” he said.

Global oil prices have seen a sharp increase since a wave of unrest hit the Middle East several months ago, toppling authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt and sparking a civil war in Libya.

Oil prices rose to two and a half year highs on Tuesday, with Brent crude exceeding $122 a barrel. Some experts have predicted that oil prices may skyrocket to over $200 per barrel if political chaos in the Middle East continues.

Ivanov said the U.S. side had touched upon the Libya issue during the talks in Washington in order to learn Russia’s opinion on possible scenarios of the unrest in the North African country. Among the worst scenarios he named the “Somalization” of Libya, which means it would split into several states with weak governments unable to prevent the spread in criminality and maritime piracy.

The unrest in Libya has already claimed thousands of lives, and clashes continue between rebels and loyalists of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, being interrupted by NATO airstrikes. The UN Security Council passed a resolution imposing a no-fly zone over Libya and authorizing a military action against Gaddafi in mid-March.

Windows to Russia!

Windows to Russia!

I see the name Elena. It seems that she has enough connections (Her dad.) to allow her to travel unattended through the radiation zone around Chernobyl.  I know very little more except what I have read in her website called…

Kiddofspeed – GHOST TOWN – Chernobyl Pictures –
Elena’s Motorcyle Ride through Chernobyl:

I found this site by pure accident and set it aside for a day before I looked at it. I found myself on the 6th chapter to start with and realized that this was a large multiple of works by Elena. I guess I could have looked intensively about who she is, but I found that unnecessary and needless for the enjoyment of the website…

Most pictures were taken by Elena and you will find a story that will stir your soul. She has ventured where few have gone and recorded some very good information and pictures of a disaster that affected the world…

(It made me stop and feel for the Japanese right now because what Elena shows in her trip to Ghost Town is what Japan has in store for their own Ghost Town…)

She revisited Chernobyl again in…

Land of the Wolves:

So as I enter deeper into all her sites. It looks like she travels regularly to Chernobyl (Sometimes with a friend and sometimes with her dad…) and it seems that something in her soul drivers her toward the area. Elena lives in Ukraine and also has several other sites that are well worth looking at also…

The Serpents Wall: Will take you on a ride into World War 2…

Stolen Election: About the Orange Revolution in Ukraine…

She even has stories from the Gulag…

Gulag Tales:

Just look at her sites and you will find several themes that she has devoted energy towards. But alas she seems to have changed directions in her life. It looks like 2006 was the end of the main body of information…

In her words: “Writing is just a hobby of mine. I don’t have any commercial interest with this site, neither I sell a war relics.”

It seems that she had a passion and tried to fulfill that passion. On a motorcycle…

I enjoyed my trip on her website today and I hope you do also. Who ever she is I am glad she chose to record her travels in a world that few of us have ever been to…

Windows to Russia!

Today while I am drinking my morning cup of coffee. I decided to post a picture that I took early this morning. This is how you buy the best milk in Moscow…

Actually, they sell milk, cottage cheese and sour cream. All home made and “really really really” yummy…

You can not miss the yellow tank because that is what all milk seems to be transported in. If you buy a liter of this type of milk you will find 2 to 3 inches of real cream on top after it sits awhile. That makes a cup of coffee or that cereal, delicious…

You bring your own container and the price is worked out according  to both the buyer and the seller, if container size is questionable…

This milk was 22 rubles a liter and it will not be long and that tank will be empty. The queue stretches around about 200+ people. Not everyone will get milk because, In Russia “the early bird gets the worm…”

Now remember we have milk in cartons that is sold at the stores but if you want “Milk” you gotta get up and run to the local milk spot and don’t forget your container… 🙂

Now you know a little more about Russia…

Windows to Russia!