Windows to Russia

Rehden, is the largest underground gas storage site in Western Europe. Planning ahead for the NEL pipeline, Gazprom acquired co-ownership of Rehden through WINGAS, a Wintershall-Gazprom parity joint company. In 2012, operational control of Rehden passed from the jointly-owned WINGAS to Gazprom’s own subsidiary, Astora. By late 2013, Astora had fully taken over Rehden. The site is located in northwestern Germany, and Gazprom plans use this location for targeting the Netherlands’ gas market in addition to the German market…

The storage facility in Rehden covers eight square kilometers, storing some gas at depths of 2,000 meters. It can hold 4.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas, or about 7 percent of Germany’s 60 billion cubic meters of annual consumption…

Gazprom and the Wintersall subsidiary of German chemical company BASF are putting the final touches to the asset swap, which will see Gazprom getting the facility in the small German town of Rehden, Deutsche Welle reported Wednesday…

This with China just taking the the lead of world economy from the U.S…

China has surpassed the US in terms of GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP), becoming the largest in the world by this measure, International Monetary Fund estimates show.

In 2014 China reached $17.6 trillion or 16.48 percent of the world’s purchasing-power-adjusted GDP, while the US made slightly less, 16.28 percent or $17.4 trillion, the FT reported citing IMF data.

PPP is recognized as the best way to compare the size of economies rather than using volatile exchange rates, which rarely reflect the true cost of goods and services. Thus a trillion US dollars are worth a lot more in China than in the US.

You should now be able to see why America is acting the way it is. Kinda childish, but par for the course with the U.S…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

This morning stepping outside was frozen. It went to -5 degrees Celsius last night. That is 23 degrees Fahrenheit  for those who refuse to use the world standard metric system and it is also just the beginning of October. This is looking like a cold winter, so get ready folks. It is going to be frozen…

Oh, and do not bother to look up what frozen means anymore. I did looking for images to use and found nothing but pages and pages of what you see above. The new image definition is Disney “Frozen” Movie and nothing else matters, not even the truth…

That is the kind of stuff that pisses me off, the control of the internet by Google and others…

So take my word on the fact that Frozen means damn cold and it is starting to get damn cold in Moscow. The word frozen also has nothing to do with the movie and I resent people stealing our words for trivial things…

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Grumbling Time:
This summer I did a lot of thinking and came to the conclusion that I was wrong about something; yes me wrong and I admit it. I use to think that 75 to 80 percent of the worlds populace (especially the U.S.,) was just plain stupid and extremely self-centered! I was wrong; 90 plus percent of the populace of the whole world is just plain worthless and in America that percent reaches near 100%. 100% of sheer stupidity, so once again the world is definitely smarter than the U.S…

Why are we that stupid? I do not understand, but I do know that we allow a very small percent of the population in the world to run the world and that percent we allow to run the world, is actually the stupidest percent on the planet. They are the most narcissist, but that means nothing when it comes to brains. bad combination in my book…

To see example of what I mean; see photo above! That answers all questions…

* * * * * * * * * *

More Grumbling:
I sipped a great cup of coffee and finished it before I started this. I did not want to ruin a cup of coffee with world stupidity…

Ukraine is still killing her people and the west is still covering up for her. The UN refuses to acknowledge in their report about Ukraine, the huge numbers of mass graves being found. Graves of civilians killed by the Kiev Army… Sad…

Ebola is for the other guy to worry about…

Afghan War turns 13 and since we are a warmonger, we restarted a war in Iraq and now are bombing Syrian infrastructure (I call that war and if Syria bombed us, so would you!) in the name of world peace…

4 to 6 trillion dollars spent on war during that 13 years of exceptional American history… 🙁

Ever noticed how pathetic movies made by Hollywood are? A good movie is really hard to find anymore. They either are remakes or remakes or well some more remakes…

I guess I will quit talking about the world right now. It upsets my stomach to see how stupid we are…

* * * * * * * * * *

Final Grumbling:
Oh, the U.S. is going to buy Polish apples, that makes sense? for we only have too damn many apples now in America and waste them by the tons constantly. Price we pay for sanctioning the Polish largest buyer of apples… (Russia for those lost as to who I meant!)

Also I’m sure you know that Walmart just dropped health care for people working less than 30 hours a week. Now that hurts and you thought health insurance is free in America. Think again…

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P.S. Grumbling:
Did I say we are stupid?

Have a nice day! For now that I have expressed all the above, I feel really good…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

It works for me and actually is a better way to look at countries finances. Better than the lies from the west…

LONDON, October 9. /TASS/.  A new G7 emerges, the Financial Times said on Wednesday.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday released its latest World Economic Outlook. A striking new finding emerges: the seven largest emerging markets are now bigger, in gross domestic product terms, than the long established G7 group of industrialized nations, when measured at purchasing power parity (PPP), the British daily said.

A hypothetical new G7, comprising the BRICS’ Brazil, Russia, India and China and three of the so-called MINT economies Mexico, Indonesia and Turkey — has a combined GDP of $37.8 trillion (at purchasing power parity) compared to $34.5 trillion for the old G7 Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.

The new attempts to measure GDP also confirm that, in PPP terms, China is now the world’s largest economy, overtaking the US (as revealed by the FT in April). At market exchange rates, the US economy is worth $17.4 trillion and the Chinese stands at $10.4 trillion. With an adjustment for relative prices, China’s economy moves up to first place, with a GDP of $17.6 trillion.

Russia is the sixth among the new top 10, ahead of France and the UK. “The new estimates point to a dramatically changed world: half of the twenty largest economies are now emerging markets and half are from the established rich world,” the Financial Times said.

Everyday you realize more and more what the west is about. Debt, corruption and immorality are starting to show in the financial part of the west…

Time to shut her down and let the east rise…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Ebola in Spain now! Ebola is air born! Ebola is spreading across the planet, besides Africa it is in America, Middle East, Thailand and several other places now. There is a cure, there is not a cure and the inventor of the virus proclaims doomsday is coming…

It is mutating and it is not mutating…

Fact is, we are being lied to and we do not know the real truth. This is sad for we have to have real information and not games being played upon us. This is serious stuff and I am really disappointed that our governments are lying about such a possible world destruction situation…

The test used to detect Ebola are flawed and so on and so on…

Ebola, we better start thinking about what we will do when the neighbor gets Ebola… (Or maybe family?)

Ebola is a bad thing…

Have a good day and do some real thinking about something other than your iPhone…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Just some photos and a single thought with a cup of delicious coffee…

Driving home I noticed new factories and new warehouses everywhere. Very new and mostly Germany and France. But one American company stood out as I have talked for many posts about, John Deere and we saw the gigantic new factory and I mean gigantic! The image is an aerial photo, but if you drive by it as we did, you will be implanted with the impressionism of its shear size and coverage…

It is operating and it is only one of the American companies that is located in the city of Domodedovo, south of Moscow…

Others no less than a humongous Mars bar plant and then dozens of other name brand companies from all over the world. I know as a fact that  the Russian government has supported a light tax industrial area at Domodedovo and it has paid off. The town is growing and it is nothing but factories and warehouses for 20 kilometers…

Now a few photos…

Above; The lake is gone…

Above; Frozen Car…

I will let you find why I took this picture!

That is all for today and of course my sweetie at the top needs mentioning. The most wonderful girl in the world…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Boza and I got up early in the morning and found ourselves lost as we tried to get organized to go out and walk. It took me several seconds to understand that I had to find my way around new obstacles and get dressed with clothes that I have not seen or wore for a long time. I found a wardrobe full of things to wear and I found my favorite shoes that slip on and Boza jumped for joy at the sound of me grabbing the leash. We walked over an hour and looked at all the changes and non changes that had happened over the summer and after a few minutes we got our rhythm back and found life okay…

But the world that we entered last night late yesterday, is a huge contrast to the one we left yesterday morning. Boza and I went from the perfect world to an okay good world. For nothing is as perfect as a village, where you step back in time and nothing is comparable to a big city, that just feels safe and good…

I realized that I have the best of both worlds and I have a small quaint Russian village to live in (Called Sunrise to Freedom) and one of the largest cities in the world to traipse in (Called Moscow.) I discovered that I am blessed by all this and Boza and I came home to Sveta, the best girl in the world…

I am not going to write long today and I will get back in the groove over the next few days. Sveta and I have a trip to plan, plus I have to figure out how to work the contrasts that I have discovered and make a better life in the long-term for the whole family. I also am planning on next years time in the village and trying to finish some major projects to allow us to live there if need be…

Therefore I am back in Moscow and it really is a beautiful city…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Suhari is basically any type of bread dried. I am using this word to describe what I love to buy and travel on the road. It is tough, crunchy and delicious. It can be bought in many different flavors, with raisins and with nuts at about any store in Russia. But we are talking about a from scratch recipe, that is the cats meow after you make it…

This can be made from any bread and I usually slice it and create from white or black bread. Though a real Russian will frown at what I just said, for you must make from scratch to enjoy the real product…

Lets make Suhari…

Ingredients:

2.5 lbs of sifted wheat flour
1 cup whole milk
1.5 cups of sugar
5 eggs – separated
¾ tsp salt
Real butter 200 grams
Dry yeast 30 grams
Vanilla extract to taste
Ginger ground sprinkle to taste

Lets Make:

1. In a mixing bowl add the warm milk and dissolve the yeast, add half of the flour and cover. Put the solution in a warm dry corner and when the yeast has grown the solution to twice the volume, put in salt and egg yolks only, while still warm to touch add sugar, stir, add the remaining flour and mix to a dough. Then knead the dough until smooth. Then add melted butter (or margarine if you desire,) knead the dough again, sprinkling flour as needed, so that it quits sticking to the walls of the mixing bowl. After that, lightly sprinkle with flour again and cover and put in a warm place to rise…

2. When it doubled in volume, put it on the board and make two separate loafs, put them on a sheet that is lightly oiled or waxed papered, and let them rise covered, in a warm place…

3. The finished risen dough is laid out onto a floured board, then cut the loaf along the length of it and put it on the sheet pan that is lightly greased. You want wide flat part on bottom and rounded part on top. On top of the loaves with the blunt side of the knife to make a shallow transverse strips (impacts to release excess air bubbles) and put in a warm place to rise, and then brush with the beaten egg whites. Then bake for 15-20 minutes in the oven…

{To be honest at part three as done in part four; I raise the bread dough and then chill it at this point in the fridge: Then I can cut the dough better, to create the four loaves to bake. The dough still rises and still produces the desired effect and my finished product looks a whole bunch better…}

4. Chill the four loaves in a refrigerator and once chilled cut into slices, spread on a sheet, sprinkle with milk, sprinkle with sugar, ginger and vanilla and put to dry in the not, very hot oven. Heat to dry not really bake…

5. Watch closely and when golden brown and hard as a rock they are done…

You are actually making bread and if you desire this bread is so good fresh from the oven and slather some butter on it and enjoy for all your hard work. Then finish the hard, crunchy and easy for a kid to run out the door eating treat…

That is it and you just made a popular treat in Russia called; Suhari – Сухари…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

A few weeks ago I told you all that autumn was here. The tree leaves were turning and pumpkins were everywhere. Frost was on the ground every morning and the weather was perfect, but two days ago, Old Man Winter woke from his summer siesta and decided enough is enough and winter is ready to come back…

We hear of tales of snow in Moscow and I have seen a few flakes here in the village. The fish village is working overtime and trying to get all the fish in for the season. We saw that the fingerling lakes are full and the hatchery is full, So that means another crop of fish has already been started. I have no idea how they care for the fish all winter long. There is a part of the farm that we never get to travel to and I suspect that there are winter lakes that they keep ice free and warmer for all  the babies. Though heaven forbid how in the Russian Winters they could do that?

Therefore today as I walked the dog and noticed the trees are leaf bare, the fish guys are freezing and the wind is blowing 20 kilometers per hour. I realized that it is time to go home and I will have the village home ready for full time living after next summer. We have been using the fireplace I rebuilt and it is doing good and the house stays very warm, I rebuilt several doors and they are weather tight now, so it is up to me to finish next year and then we can start living here year around if we desire…

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The process that they use to get the fish out of the lakes is basically man power, with some cranes and such. The trucks are just small tankers, par normal, with an occasional huge tanker truck thrown in. These are trucks number in the hundreds and they are all old Soviet style trucks. They run day and night as weather permits and deliver Carp all over Russia…

The image above is of the fisher guys in their process of emptying our lake. The men are fed three meals a day, a huge fire is going to keep warm and they work hard for their money. This is what all their work all summer long has been for and they now spend the next few weeks earning their pay. Before this they basically watch the lakes for sneak fisher men and feed the fish to get them fat…

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Therefore all this gibberish is about us getting ready to leave the village. Around five months in the village this time and I had a dream last night of taking a long hot shower. I have not had a hot shower for five months and have used cold water 99% of the time to clean up. I am looking forward to a long hot shower… 🙂

We will leave Saturday morning early…

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I am saddened at the thought of leaving and I know that Boza will be the same after he realizes that we are gone from freedom to run as all dogs should be allowed to run. Sveta and I have talked and we are looking at five years till she retires and then we will be able to live in the village full time. Since I have been living in Russia eight years, what is another five years?

So I have to get going, we have a lot to do and a short time to do it in…

Have a nice day, for I sure will…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Hares hop turnstiles – but not for long?
Things are turning in great style in Moscow. But do you know what? They’re thinking of getting rid of the turnstile on public transport.Read More >>>

This is a great article above and I had to laugh when I read it. In fact I ended up reading it to Sveta and she laughed. I myself was thinking of Sveta and how she is with these turnstiles…

Sveta is a proud hard core Soviet in mind and heart. She loved her life during the Soviet era and wishes most times that things had never changed. Life was good and fun and free then…

Enough of that and now lets get into the present time…

One thing that Russians are prone toward, is not obeying the rules and laws. It is something that I have grown to admire of them…

The article is about one little item and it makes light of that item. But I am here to tell you that the attitude in the article is applicable to everything in Russia. {The article is also giving a message to the new Moscow Mayor and his putting his nose into everything. (Russians like to give warning shots)} In the Soviet era they did not have things like turnstiles on the Buses…

Sveta is an expert at the Russian Public Transport system. Be it from the buses to the Metro and everything in between that they call Public Transport. It helps that she grew up here all her life and that she is nimble and tiny. Sveta is a Train Hare! I listen everyday to the new story of how she got around the system at the train station and saved 30 rubles! I say in return everyday, “I don’t want to have to come and visit you in jail. :)” That is my Sveta and I love her dearly. “The train Hare…”

She dislikes curtailment on her freedom of movements (That is why she disliked America so much.) and like many Russians, ignore the laws and rules that pertain to those curtailments. Sveta is a Hare as the article portrays and she is proud of it just like millions of others are proud of it…

Now she does not do it when I am around. I am too slow and large (a bear not a hare) and American. She knows that I will grumble and rumble at any attempt to circumvent said turnstiles. I being raised as a law abiding citizen have been programed that we never do turnstile wrong… 🙂

But when I am not around…

Soviet mentality is without a doubt much different than American mentality and the residues of that mentality are still very ingrained in Russia…

The Hares will keep hopping the turnstiles or what ever they put in front of the Russians to corral the Hares. My sweetie will be right there with them…

Freedom comes to mind as I walk around Russia…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…

Windows to Russia!

• Coffee and Russian Patience… (windowstorussia.com)
• Coffee and Russian Smile Realizations… (windowstorussia.com)
• Don’t Come to Russia and Coffee Thoughts… (windowstorussia.com)
• Coffee and Teaching in Russia… (windowstorussia.com)
• Windows to Russia is experiencing Server Overload… (windowstorussia.com)
• Russians Are Wanting To Come Home or Grass is not Always Greener? (windowstorussia.com)
• Coffee and Our Volga… (windowstorussia.com)
• Snow Snow Snow and more Snow… (windowstorussia.com)
• Indian Coffee and Russian Ramblings… (windowstorussia.com)
• Back Home in Russia – Safe and Sound… (windowstorussia.com)

“Soon there will be no one who remembers when spaceflight was still a dream, the reverie of reclusive boys and the vision of a handful of men. Most of those who met in ardent little groups in small cafe between the world wars, planning voyages to the moon and planets that they never hoped to witness, are no longer living. And the last lonely boy to lie in a cricket-pulsing, honeysuckle night and gaze at a virgin moon is now in the latter years of his life. On the yellowed pages of boyhood books, the silver ships still poise sleek and needle-nosed on the craggy wastes of other worlds — on alien moonscape, bathed in the stark and eerie light of some monster planet whose ring-shadowed hemisphere fills the whole horizon, bulging into the black sky like a great golden bubble, looming behind spacesuited specks who wander ant-like across the incandescent night…. It was a dream of visible planets impossibly distant, of fantastic alien surfaces, of a Tom Sawyer’s island or an Emerald City of Oz, awaiting for eons the beaching of man’s boats. It was a vision of steaming Venusian jungles, and fine soft days on the green hills of Mars, cooled by coastal breezes from the Great Canal, looking over a far desert where ruins stood half in sand….” – Wyn Wachhorst – The Dream of Spaceflight: Essays on the Near Edge of Infinity…

For more than eight years I have lived among the Russian people full-time and they have never had half of what the American people have had in material items. I live among Russian people who really think America is the land of rich and paved in gold. These people hold an awe about America that seems strange to me. This and other thoughts were crossing my mind this morning as thinking’s. But yet as I was thinking, I realized that the American people should be at awe with the Russian people…

This simple quote from a news article tells it all: “Russia is preparing to unveil a new generation spacecraft which can transport up to 2 tons of cargo from the ISS. Now that the US has closed its space shuttle program, Russia’s Soyuz spacecrafts can return no more than 50 kg of cargo.”

This article was several years ago and now they are testing and getting ready their new craft. They are seeing their dream come true…

You see Russia still has dreams that will and can be fulfilled. Instead of saying:  “Oh well!”

They say, “Lets build a better craft to carry cargo to and from the ISS…”

Every week you see article after article on the news about the space exploration. They range from Russia putting American satellite into orbit, Russian space program is innovative and Russia is going to Mars…

Russia has and is still dreaming of space. I see a daily influx on the issue of space exploration and see no let down by the Russians. It seems that even the collapse of the Soviet Union could not deter the Russians from “Space the Final Frontier.”

I wrote several articles on our blogs about how it seems wrong that America is a country that spends trillions on death and destruction by killing and developing weapons of mass destruction but seems  to have lost her ability and desire to reach for space. The space program in America is in the minor side of billions of dollars for a budget. It is stated in Wikipedia that 15 billion dollars a year average is allocated to the space program since 1958. That seems like a small price to pay for such a wonderful dream. Just quit blowing up one country and the money is there to pay for searching the stars…

Dreams are important and space is an important direction to center those dreams. Russia realizes this and has seen the light at the end of the tunnel. America has relinquished her crown when it comes to space exploration. Russia has several issues going for her and those issues will become assets as time goes on. Just like the Russian system of satellite navigation “GLONASS” is broadening its market. The UK Space Agency is now viewing the possibility of using its services. Not very long ago GLONASS seemed a farfetched dream. Not any more, now it is a contender for the world market alongside GPS…

So to cut a long thinking short. Russia still dreams of space aliens, going to mars, going to the moon and saving the world from a giant asteroid…

To dream anything that you want to dream. That’s the beauty of the human mind. To do anything that you want to do. That is the strength of the human will. To trust yourself to test your limits. That is the courage to succeed… Bernard Edmonds >>>

I am saddened by the demise of the space program in America. For those of us who remember the 60’s and the Apollo Moon program, should be very saddened by the loss of our dreams…

I can promise you that Russia still has those dreams and they are working to fulfill these dreams…

Post by Kyle Keeton
Windows to Russia…