In ""

FROM : INTEROCEAN SHIPPING (INDIA) PVT LTD — NEW DELHI 30TH DECEMBER'04 : OUR REF: IA/YSA/12/04/1150 THE PORT AUTHORITIES AT CHENNAI HAVE VERBALLY INFORMED ALL PORT USERS THAT THERE IS A LIKELIHOOD OF ANOTHER TSUNAMI WAVE HITTING THE COAST NEAR CHENNAI SHORTLY (MAY BE WITHIN ONE HOUR).THE PORT BERTHING MEETING WAS ENDED ABRUPTLY AND UNDERSTAND THAT ALL VESSELS IN PORT HAVE BEEN ASKED TO STANDBY WITH THEIR ENGINES AND BE READY FOR ALL EMERGENCIES AND ALSO BE READY FOR IMMEDIATE SHIFTING TO THE SEA. SHALL REVERT WITH ANY FURTHER INFORMATION REGARDS AGENCY DIVISION INTEROCEAN

In "News from unofficial V.V.Putin fanclub."

Criminal's slang; "Bro" is the best translation.

In "Dali's "Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate, A Second Before Waking Up" is interactive now."

Hmmm... Everything works fine for me: rotating, resizing, etc.

In "German toilets."

Interesting. Because of its very hard motivation to hold balance, ancient japanese toilet perfectly fit for studying ki-power managing issues.

In "Man Shoots Wife, Mistakes Her for Monkey"

As ancient asian saying goes: "A man in his life ought to plant a tree, build a house and grow a son". Well, at least we can be sure that he didn't fail to plant a tree.

In "The Likudization of the world"

> there are Russians who would think that 'the Jews' were behind this insanity So what?

Well, i think you should study facts well, drjimmy. Chechen terrorism IS threat to the national security of Russia, because a few years ago Russia gave Chechnya freedom and possibility to build own state from the very beginning. But instead of it, they tried to invade Dagestan, another part of Russian Federation. Their attempt triggered Second Chechen War. And if you study resolutions of chechen leaders, you'd find, that bringing "freedom" to Chechnya is not their's exclusive goal. They intent to unite all North-Caucasian republics under Chechen government, and to establish Islamic repuplic with strict shari'ah law. But, even if one could think, that Chechnya is rebellious republic that wants freedom from Russia, other republics of Russian Federaton doesn't want to share Chechnya's political way.

Some additional information on Chechnya problem, with some kind of analysis, for those who is interested in it: First, a reasonable good article on Winds of Change, pretty comprehensive view, written in English by non-russian. Second, if somebody overlooked last two my posts to the old thread on Beslan tragedy, one of this posts contain link on site of chechen refugee, now citizen of Canada. It is a kind of memoires, written in English, by Slavic, former citizen of Russian Federation.

In "An indescribable horror. Direct, deliberate cruelty."

So, here is a link to the whole film.

Here is direct links to pictures: http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685648_20040907234441.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685649_20040907234441.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685650_20040907234442.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685651_20040907234442.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685652_20040907234442.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685653_20040907234442.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685654_20040908001927.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685655_20040907234442.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685656_20040907234957.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685657_20040907234957.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685658_20040907234957.gif http://images.newsru.com/pict/id/large/685663_20040908001927.gif

Well, although discussion wandered to slightly another direction, i'd like to post some links here, concerning particular Chechen case. I boggled about whether I should post it on main page, or here, and decided to post here. First - link on works of Roy Conrad, publicist. In his previous life, before emigration to Canada, he was Yurij Kondratiev, habitant of Grozny, capital city of Chechnya. His most famous text on this topic is "Grozny. A Few Days...", a tale about his personal experience of being Slavic in Chechnya during last decade of 20th century. Russian version of this text was granted russian internet literature premium "Teneta". It was translated in Engish by author himself and his canadian friends, so language is OK (much better than mine, i mean :) ). Just a few citations: What is really going on in Chechnya? How many faces does this tragedy have? In fact, even for an experienced political scientist it is very hard to offer a full account of the events and of their roots. The life of the Caucases region is a tapestry of many strands, some of which have for centuries been stained with blood, vengeance and unrest. The present conflict is a result of many political, cultural, religious and economic reasons and its complexity cannot be reduced to a small set of pivotal matters. This war has a strong smell of oil, but it would be extremely naive to state that this is merely a fight for oil-rich terrain. This war has a very distinct smell of heroin, but it would be utterly wrong to think that the Russian Government is simply trying to cut the old drug-trafficking roots. The past decade has been marked by revival of the ancient craft of ransom kidnapping and slave trade in Chechnya, however, this military operation cannot be defined as another attempt to reduce crime. This is a war for political independence and for the tribal pride, but at the same time it is a tragic sibling feud, because the Chechen society itself is dramatically split on this issue. This is a war for the unity of Russia, but at the same time there are circles in the Russian society which benefit from this warfare through shady arms deals. Finally, this war is largely about militant fundamentalist Islam, and still this struggle is not merely an anti-terrorist action similar to that carried out by the US in Afganistan. There is still more to it... I want to tell you this story as seen by the eyes of a simple citizen who happened to become a cog of the state machine in an hour when that machine started to badly falter. In my story you will not find a scientific analysis of that tragedy, but you will find an account of the everyday events, an honest sketch of that life. Possibly, some future historian will want to use it as food for thought. The second link is on site of Russian TV-channel NTV. NTV first of all channels was managed to get videotape, made in Beslan by therorrists themselves. Videotape was demonstrated by TV. And here and here is the link on photos taken from that videotape (click on inverted triangular to the right). If i would be able to get link on videofile, i'll post it here.

In "Curious George: "

BTW, small amount of graphite builds up human body temperature, and in school times we used to use it for not going to school sometimes. May be somebody just get used and can't get rid of that pernicious habit :)

In "Alexey Titarenko: a crowd of ghosts"

The Internationale British version Arise ye workers from your slumbers Arise ye prisoners of want For reason in revolt now thunders And at last ends the age of cant. Away with all your superstitions Servile masses arise, arise We'll change henceforth the old tradition And spurn the dust to win the prize. So comrades, come rally And the last fight let us face The Internationale unites the human race! No more deluded by reaction On tyrants only we'll make war The soldiers too will take strike action They'll break ranks and fight no more And if those cannibals keep trying To sacrifice us to their pride They soon shall hear the bullets flying We'll shoot the generals on our own side. Internatsional Russian version (translit) Vstavaj, prokljat'em zaklejmennyj Ves' mir golodnyx i rabov Kipit nash razum vozmushhjonnyj I v smertnyj boj vesti gotov. Ves' mir nasil'ja my razroem Do osnovan'ja, a zatem My nash my novyj mir postroim, Kto byl nikem, tot stanet vsem! JEto est' nash poslednij I reshitel'nyj boj. S Internacionalom Vosprjanet rod ljudskoj Nikto ne dast nam izbavlen'ja: Ni bog, ni car' i ne geroj Dob'emsja my osvobozhden'ja Svoeju sobstvennoj rukoj. CHtob svergnut' gnet rukoj umeloj, Otvoevat' svoe dobro - Vzduvajte gorn i kujte smelo, Poka zhelezo gorjacho! Dovol'no krov' sosat', vampiry, Tjur'moj, nalogom, nishhetoj! U vas - vsja vlast', vse blaga mira, A nashe pravo - zvuk pustoj! My zhizn' postroim po inomu - I vot nash lozung boevoj: VSJA VLAST'' NARODU TRUDOVOMU! A darmoedov vsex doloj! I flatter myself, that I am completely internatsional, comrade Wolof! Proletarii vseh stran, SOEDINYAYTES'! :)

"those FROM Nostrildamus", sorry :)

Some more photos, but those on Nostriladamus links are the best. Thank you.

In "October is next month"

You forgot to add "Curious George asks", IMO :)

In "An indescribable horror. Direct, deliberate cruelty."

Western help never comes free of charge, hikikomori.

Hikikomori, there was many casualities, but not on both sides, but on whole 3 sides: chechen bandits, federal forces, and civillians from Chechnya, Ossetia, Ingushetia, Dagestan - even from Moscow. And of this 3 sides only casualities from 2 sides i am disappointed with: federal forces and civillians. Those, who killed childrens in Ossetia are not chechens. Not to say, that therrorists have no nationality at all, approximately half of combatants in Ossetia was from arabian countries; moreover, one of them was black. So, this conflict is not a conflict between rebellious Chechnya and imperial Russia - this is conflict between legal and illegal; and of all sides civillians are suffering most in this conflict. All heads of chechen teips condemned this conflict. Do you really think, that if chechens want freedom for its country, they would be involved in actions like those in Ossetia? Today they are feared most of all in Russia - because they think revenge will be directed on their's side. How do you think: will chechens attack its nearest neighbor to bring freedom to its country? Well, all right: Nord-Ost act could be interpreted as revenge from chechen "rebels" to Russian imperial citizens. But small farmland town in Ossetia? Ossetins are caucasians also, much more vulnerable to violence, than more "civilised" russians, due to its national character and existence of vendetta as one of social norm, latent hitherto. Best way to destabilise situation in North Caucasus is start a conflict between local nations. Chechen civillians want peace most of all - they are tired from war. But there are forces interested in locus of tension in North Caucasus. And there are forces, interested in place without any rules and any governance near borders of Russia. It's their business: kidnapping, drugdealing, bootlegging, and so on. Civillians could get only more casualities from such a business. But they need such a place, where no legar governance take place. For 3 years they had such a marvellous place - Chechnya. Now they don't. And they want to take it back. Again: there is NO conflict between population of Chechnya and Russia government. There is conflict between local gangsters and federal forces; but scale of this conflict is pretty large, and this is very sad.

Unfortunately, Robert Young Pelton "forgot" one important thing: Second Chechen War has began after Chechen bandits tried to invade Dagestan. What weights more: Lebed's words about three years timeout, or 300 chechen "guerrillamans", trying to bring holy words of Allah to its nearest neigbors? After signing Hasav-Yurt ceasefire, chechen chiefs had 3 years-long possibility to enjoy complete freedom to build any state they wanted to build. Chechnya has its own oil stockpiles, but instead rasing economy for their motherland, they preferred to establish Shari'ah rules (BTW, where was Human Rights Watсh, when they stoned people to death for such "crimes" as adultery, or not going to masjid?), kidnap people from Russia and turn them into slaves, and at the end - they tried to invade another part of Russia. May be, after years of such bright governance they just lacked followership of their policy*? Only after their attempt to invade Dagestan, Russian "bear", in romantic Pelton's rhetoric, woked and again "ivaded" Chechnya. And BTW, that was not "occupation" - Chechnya was part of Russia during 300 years, approximately from times of signing Declaration of Independence in US. After all, I don't want to be involved in long flamewars concerning political and war situation in my homeland, as i am neither fluent enough in English, nor instinct with inspiration to throw "high words" in my "opponents". I just wanted give local community some additional facts from incide. -------- *Now, when people of Checnya voted for being together with Russia on nation-wide referendum, that sounds pretty much more likely.

In "MIT's OpenCourseWare:"

Bartleby.com - great (well, and also not so great) books online.

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