Windows to Russia

I have been here nine years and when I first came to Russia, I thought that we were the same. I thought Americans and Russians, basically the same people. We look the same, we act the same on the surface, we smile the same, we walk the same, we talk the same, we laugh the same, we are the same in many things. Superficially we are the same, deep inside we are not the same…

There is something that we in America lack, we do not realize it, but if you think about it and look all the people you meet, see, and talk to everyday, you will see it. You will see it in your family and you will really see it during a holiday like Christmas…

I am talking about a very basic, but the most important part of any human; the soul…

What, a soul? What are you babbling about now?

Take it how you want, but I have studied and read up on this and then I have done much thought and debating on souls. Humans have souls or some of us do, but we do not need a soul to live and function. The soul is a part of us that is actually not of our origin. You earn a soul and the soul is eternal. This is why not many of us actually have one and I am not sure many of us are capable of utilizing a soul to the benefit it gives us humans…

I look at the soul simply this way; the soul is like the catalyst within us that allows us to really understand what is right and wrong…

By that definition, you will realize that not many people have souls, you can gain a soul and or awaken a soul at anytime. A soul is something you earn or you lose due to your actions, desires, morals, and humility…

While on the surface, Russians and Americans look the same, underneath it all, many Russians have an old soul, That is what sets a Russian apart from an American, an old soul as described in folklore in Russia is akin to these next statements; Russians like to suffer; Russians are tough; Russians have humanity; Russians are compassionate towards suffering; Russians are generally passive, accept their fate, and humbly accept the suffering doled out to them. Russians also accept that things will always get better, even if they get worse in the meantime…

I know very few Americans in the modern era, that are old soul, but I know a whole bunch of Russians that meet that criteria in a nutshell. This is not because of physical issues, it is because of mental issues that have changed what we are. For I remember well my grandparents who came from Germany and Sweden, had old soul and were tough…

You can not look at the world as all the same and that is a fallacy that we in America akin to. We try to mold the world in our vision and desires. The world is not one thought, one thinking, one want, the world is billions of thoughts and desires, but there is a limited number of real souls to go around. Then that is a serious issue, for I truly believe that it takes a soul to see what we are able to become and what we need to do to make a better world. It seems to me that people with souls are just walking a different path than the rest of us…

I found a bunch of Souls in Russia and they are passive and expect to suffer as they grow old. Therefore, they have endurance and are extreme intellects, as I have never seen before. It has been very refreshing for me to absorb the spiritualism of Russia…

Deep inside Russians and Americans are not the same and I hope I earn a soul one day…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 70.8 in the Flesch Reading Ease test considered fairly easy to read..

The Russians are arguably decades in front of us in rocket development since the 1970’s. Actually when they duplicated our shuttle program, it was years in front of anything we had considered. They are proficient and are eager to put resources into incremental change on existing innovation. That is a critical distinction from our (U.S.) space program…

This is the reason that we have used Russian rocket engines for almost everything we send in space and or use Russia herself to send it to space. This was the demise of our space shuttle program, we rode on our laurels and lost our prize…

Consider this, despite the fact that we (U.S.) have plans for a few Russian rocket motors and we have lots of working engines to reverse engineer, we are not fit for building them on the grounds that we don’t know how to do the progressed metallurgy, included in those outlines and blueprints. Russian motors do things that American specialists had thought unimaginable until they saw the motor working and performing . We are still trying to match the capabilities of these rockets and we still have not mastered the metal compounds that make these rockets so unique and durable… (Space X is not in the same league! Yet!)

If you think that only their rockets are superior, then you are ignoring the fact that Russia has this same technology through out its country and we should think about that as they develop weapons…

The Angara rocket family
Function	Launch vehicle
Manufacturer	Khrunichev
Country of origin	Russia
Size
Height	42.7 m (140 ft)-64 m (210 ft)
Width	Angara A1.2 2.9 m (9 ft 6 in) Angara A5 8.86 m (29.1 ft)
Mass	171,500 kg (378,100 lb)-790,000 kg (1,740,000 lb)
Stages	2-3
Capacity
Payload to LEO (Plesetsk)	3,800 kg (8,400 lb)-24,500 kg (54,000 lb)
Payload to GTO (Plesetsk)	5,400 kg (11,900 lb)-7,500 kg (16,500 lb)
Associated rockets
Comparable	Naro-1 used a modified URM-1 first stage
Launch history
Status	Active
Launch sites	Plesetsk Site 35 Vostochny
Total launches	1 (A1.2PP: 1)
Successes	1 (A1.2PP: 1)
First flight	A1.2PP: July 9, 2014
Boosters (A5) – URM-1
No boosters	4 (see text)
Engines	1 RD-191
Thrust	1,920 kN (430,000 lbf) (Sea level)
Total thrust	7,680 kN (1,730,000 lbf) (Sea level)
Specific impulse	310.7 s (3.047 km/s) (Sea level)
Burn time	214 seconds
Fuel	RP-1/LOX
First Stage – URM-1
Engines	1 RD-191
Thrust	1,920 kN (430,000 lbf) (Sea level)
Specific impulse	310.7 s (3.047 km/s) (Sea level)
Burn time	Angara 1.2: 214 seconds Angara A5: 325 seconds
Fuel	RP-1/LOX
Second Stage – URM-2
Engines	1 RD-0124A
Thrust	294.3 kN (66,200 lbf)
Specific impulse	359 s (3.52 km/s)
Burn time	Angara A5: 424 seconds
Fuel	RP-1/LOX
Third Stage (Optional, Angara A5) – Briz-M
Engines	1 S5.98M
Thrust	19.6 kN (4,400 lbf)
Specific impulse	326 s (3.20 km/s)
Burn time	3,000 seconds
Fuel	N2O4/UDMH
Third Stage (Optional, Angara A5) – KVTK, under development
Engines	1 RD-0146D
Thrust	68.6 kN (15,400 lbf)
Specific impulse	463 s (4.54 km/s)
Burn time	1,350 seconds
Fuel	LH2/LOX

Russia’s space agency has launched a heavy version of the newly developed ecologically clean rocket family Angara. The booster is to take its mock payload right to the geostationary orbit – over 35,000 kilometers from the Equator.

“At 08:57 Moscow time, the heavy-class rocket Angara-A5 was launched by a Space Forces crew of the Arkhangelsk Region from the universal launch site of the state test facility of the Russian Defense Ministry [the Plesetsk Cosmodrome],” the ministry said in a statement.

The success was reported by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to President Vladimir Putin, who was monitoring the launch form Moscow via a video link.

The major peculiarity of this test launch has become its main goal: the rocket is to deliver its mock two-ton payload directly to geostationary orbit – the orbit right above the Equator that has a period of one sidereal day, or 23 hours 56 minutes and 4 seconds; objects rotating around the earth in this orbit can fly as far away as 35,700 kilometers from the planet’s surface.

Launching right into geostationary orbit has never been practiced before by any heavy booster prototype – usually trials are performed to a low orbit with altitudes of up to 2,000km before moving on to higher altitudes.

The first stage of the Angara-5 rocket, capable of delivering up to 25 tons to a low orbit, is powered by RD-191, arguably the world’s best “clean” engine that uses kerosene and oxygen as fuel.

Russia said at the beginning of 2014 that they would send a test rocket in December of 2014. They did and it was very successful…

Congrats Russia…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The copy scores 59.2 in the Flesch Reading Ease test, which is considered fairly difficult to read…

Across the street literally from our old McDonald’s is an even newer and I would say busier, Burger King. Two months ago, Sveta and I spied a sign that said hiring for Burger King. Then we found the building as we walked and then I said, “Burger King will open within months and not years like our McDonald’s did.”

(Our nearby McDonald’s took almost two years to open and that seems to be the norm for them in Russia. Never in a hurry…)

Then sure enough, less than two months later, Burger King opened its doors… (I opened restaurants in America (including many McDonald’s) for many years, it was my expertise, so I have an issue with the speed at which McDonald’s opens restaurants in Russia…)

I talked a few months back about how McDonald’s and Coke were under attack by not Russia, but Pepsi and Burger king. Pepsi will deal with Russians from the old days and Burger King is not held down by the stigma of a United States crony operation. Burger king accounts for more than half its revenues come from out of the USA. This and deciding to merge with a Canadian company and moving headquarters to Canada, allows Burger King to run as a real company should and Pepsi has been a long-term Russian/Soviet icon, way before Coke and that is good enough for Russians to support Pepsi…

Sveta and I went to Burger King last night and it was really good. Sveta had a chicken filet sandwich, Onion rings and hot tea, I had a double Whooper with cheese, onion rings and diet Pepsi…

Now here is the McDonald’s killer in Russia:

Fill your own drinks and I had a blast watching Russians who have never had the pleasure of refilling drinks, go at this machine…

Whole families were investigating the refill situation and I am here to tell you that Burger King is going to sink McDonald’s if McDonald’s does not change some ways here…

The food was great, it was hot, they have onion rings, and they allow unlimited refills on drinks…

Pepsi is destroying Coke now; With 33 ruble two liters compared to 65 ruble two liters, there is no choice at what you pick and it shows in the store now. The shelves are full of almost out of date Coke and Pepsi flies off the shelves…

I have made it clear that it is war in many ways in Russia and Pepsi/Burger king are at the front line in offensive position. Coke and McDonald’s got caught off guard and I guess we will see who comes out ahead in the end…

Just remember, McDonald’s is struggling with huge sanitation issues in both China and Russia, plus Coke has been losing shares product sales against Pepsi for years now. Coke has given up trying to make Russian products such as Kvass and real juices. Now Coke a USA crony is suffering…

As Sveta says, “That is just right!”

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

PS: I will take Burger King and Pepsi any day over McDonald’s and Coke…

DNS Office 0802870 (Pentium N3530 2160 Mhz/17.3″/1600×900/4.0Gb/500Gb/DVD-RW/Intel GMA HD/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/Без ОС)

Laptop screen – 17.3 “
2160 MHz – Pentium 4 core processor
Memory – 4 GB DDR3
Integrated Graphics
Drive (HDD) – 500 GB
Optical drive – DVD-RW
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi

I asked Santa for this wonderful Russian made computer. Actually I asked Ded Moroz (the Russian Santa,) and hope to get this beast of a device…

It runs 25,000 rubles and it is Russian made. Okay, I know you all believe that Russia does not make anything but oil and gas! Sorry, you are wrong and I hope Santa brings me this laptop…

DNS is a fantastic company and they make phones, tablets, desktop computers, laptops, and a dozen other types of devices…

Yes Santa, I have been a good boy this year…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Loaf white of bread, uncut – 4.5 rubles… (down 50% – to 8 cents a loaf)

100 grams coffee – 89 rubles… (down from 106 rubles to $1.57 a can)

Red beets – 5 rubles a kilo… (9 cents a kilo)

Whole Russian chicken – 78 rubles per kilo… ($1.38 a kilo)

1 big fat yellow onion – 3 rubles…

Boza’s Pedigree dog food in a pack – 100 grams, 13.9 rubles…

Stores are fully stocked and fully employed, there is the yearly New Years shopping going on, so stores are busy like they always are at this time of the year…

I am going to make some Borscht tonight…

Yummy…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

PS: The photo above is my frozen sub 5 ruble bread and I am also still stocking coffee. Four more cans today… 🙂

Oh, and a Big Mac is 94 rubles – $1.66 each…

Piglet is a traditional Russian Christmas dish. Its tender, delicious taste goes perfectly with any garnish and dressing. This dish may make some of you unhappy, but it is a real dish that is served in many a Russian home. In America Hogs are roasted in the ground and most people who eat it never see the whole pig. This is a little pig and it is delicious…

Be a Russian this holiday, have a piglet for Christmas…

Ingredients:
1 piglet – you can buy them cleaned and ready to cook
1/4 cup water
rock salt
melted butter
sour cream

Method:
Scald the piglet in boiling water and dry with paper towels (seals the juices in), rub the inside with salt and put on the baking sheet, belly down and backside up. Brush the sides with sour cream, pour over melted butter, pour water on the sheet and bake in a preheated oven with a average temperature (250 to 300 F.) for 1.5 to 2 hours or until done. To have golden skin, pour over the piglet the au ju sauce from the sheet pan within regular intervals (Like you would do a turkey.) Serve on a large dish, with plenty of garnishment… (Kale. lettuce, cabbage leaves, flowers, grasses, berries, and or anything!)

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

If you see yourself in this video, which many of you should. Then you need to think about what is being shown. It may not be totally accurate (But hey, we act this way with our smartphones!), but it is accurate in the prototypical aspect of it to humans and the future…

** Remember it is 1947 **

I found it interesting and while the imagination back then had trouble envisioning what the future devices would look like and they struggled with simple video manipulation aspects. The video still has a point to be made and we have ignored the emulation of its message on the future…

I enjoyed it…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

PS: Dear, I know we are in love, but look the TV is showing something really cool…

Main Stream Media News (MSM) in its “fair and balanced reporting (~sarc~);” Is reporting that in the previous weeks has concentrated just on the monetary death of Russia, as it reels from the drop in oil price. There has been nothing said, literally, about the other oil exporters like Britain, Canada, Norway, Venezuela, Indonesia, Libya, Iraq, and/or Saudi Arabia, which can’t in any way, shape or form keep up their nearby economies over the long haul at current value levels. There is some internal news in those countries telling of the woes and death throes, but for the general situation, the MSM from the west has ignored the trillions of dollars in debt from fracking trouble and other oil debt trouble, all over the world. This is just so that they can demonize Russia…

This is while even western countries are sinking faster and faster everyday…

This information, actions, and priorities alone, lets me know that the oil business sector is as politically affected and organized (i.e. fixed and controlled) as the monetary markets and being used as a weapon against Russia, even as this weapon is killing the so-called ally countries in the west…

Now that is a perfect example of, “With friends like that who the hell needs enemies!”

Besides the ruble is back to 60 as you read this…

The attacked failed and all it did was to create more enemies for the west and some of those new enemies are, previous allies…

Time to stop demonization of Russia. Seriously, we do not eat babies in Russia, but my Russian friends are starting to learn to hate America…

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

The President’s news conference was broadcast live by Channel One, Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-24 TV channels, and by the Radio Rossii, Mayak and Vesti FM radio stations. 1259 Russian and foreign journalists have been accredited to cover the news conference.

News conference of Vladimir Putin December 18, 2014 Moscow

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Good afternoon, colleagues.

I am very happy to see you in high spirits. As we did last time, I will begin by briefing you on the work done during the year and then I will try to answer your questions.

First the most important thing: the economic performance. In the first 10 months of this year, the gross domestic product grew by 0.7 percent, and the final figure may be around 0.6 percent. My colleagues and I met yesterday to finalise the figures. The trade surplus grew by $13.3 billion to reach $148.4 billion.

Industrial production picked up some speed after last year’s lull. In the first 10 months of the year, it went up by 1.7 percent. Unemployment is also low: at times, it dropped to below 5 percent, and now it is around 5 percent, possibly 5.1 percent.

The agroindustrial complex is developing. I believe that by the end of the year growth there will amount to 3.3 percent. As you may know, this year we had a record crop of 104 million tonnes.

Not one in thirty thousand, no, make that one in a hundred thousand, are even awake enough to see the rape, molestation, and pillaging happening all around them, on a scale never seen by people, at anytime in history. This extreme stripping of world’s wealth and resources has taken place at an unprecedented accelerated pace since 2008….

When the plug becomes unstoppered on this fantasy is unknown, but till it is, each day is a gift to cherish. For what lies ahead, uncharted territory and we are stumbling head long unto our future, with iPhone’s in hand and politicians/bankers/corporations cheering us on…

The Bible says, “Matt 5 (v.5) Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”

J. Paul Getty said, “The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights.”

As I have said before, “Greed is King on our planet!”

Posted by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…