April, 2007

April 25, 2007
April 23, 2007

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin has died at the age of 76.Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, but gave no further details.Yeltsin had been rarely seen in public since resigning from office on December 31, 1999. He became the first democratically elected president of Russia in 1991.One of the images most associated with Yeltsin is that of him sitting on a tank during the raucous street rallies that marked the coup attempt. "I think that is the image that he would like people to have forever," former Yeltsin adviser Alexander Nekrassov told CNN Monday.But just two years later, he ordered tanks to storm the Russian White House to oust barricaded deputies who dug in after Yeltsin dissolved parliament, accusing it of blocking reforms...Yeltsin was both loved and hated by fellow Russians, said Matthew Chance, CNN's senior international correspondent in Moscow."[Many] Russians who lived under his power didn't think much of him," Chance said. Yeltsin had promoted democratic reform in Russia. While he was an ideological man who took positive steps to reform his country, Chance said Yeltsin was an inconsistent reformer. "He was a totally imperfect statesman and certainly hadmany failings," Chance said.Yeltsin favored privatization but sweeping corruption put the vast majority of wealth in the hands of a few individuals who "wielded enormous political power." Chance said this upset and angered many Russians who were left with nothing. Yeltsin's image on the international stage was verydifferent, former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty, now CNN's U.S. affairs editor in Washington, said. Dougherty said everything about Yeltsin was larger than life. "He was oversized, he was huge, everything about him -- hewas physically a giant, a big-barrel chest of complete charisma... When you met him or were around him he was absolutely charismatic. ... He was an intensely sophisticated politician."

April 22, 2007
Russian Billionaire B. Berezovsky helped groom Russian President Vladimir Putin for power. Now, six years after Putin's "totalitarian tendencies" pushed him into self-imposed exile. Beresovsky is calling for the 'violent over-throw'of the regime. "Authoritarian regimes only collapse by force," Berezovsky told told to American publications. Democratic pressure will not work". He said he was funding members of the "Russian elite" in Moscow - whom he refused to name - to bring about a "revolution"...

April 18, 2007
One of the video-game industry's biggest and most surprising recent hits has been Guitar Hero. Since its release in November 2005, nearly 3,000 000 copies of Guitar Hero and its sequel have been sold in USA alone, according to the market research firm NPD Group. However, the joy of strum had been limited to PlayStation 2 owners. So when the Xbox 360 version shipped last week, would-be rock stars rushed to stores for the brand-new white guitar, crisper graphics and online rankings. The biggest hook was that gamers would be able to download additional songs for a fee, rather than being limited to the tracks on the disc. Then the publisher Activision announced its retail strategy - songs would be sold only in packs of three at a cost $6.25 - infuriating legions of Hendrix wanna-bes...

April 16, 2007
Russian writer V. Sorokin offers to English-language readers his new book “Ice.” It's the first of a trilogy that has already been published in Russia. It also revolves around a symbolic and essential substance. “Ice” opens like a crime thriller. This new book of Russian writer Mr. Vladimir Sorokin is "much less a satire than a single monstrous vision: human beings are no more than “meat machines,” a race unable to communicate on a truly intimate scale and unworthy of continued existence. Purity lies in a universe without thought or language. In his frigid antihumanism, Sorokin parts company with Russian satirists like Gogol, Bulgakov, Yuri Olesha and, more recently, Viktor Pelevin. Jamey Gamrell transforms Sorokin’s staccato cadences into a hard-boiled English that suits the novel’s brutality, especially in its violent early chapters. But even American readers taking a whack at the novel with their own ice hammers may have trouble finding its heart, and even more trouble getting it to speak..."NY Times said.
April 13, 2007

Frequent Long Flights Lead to Health Problems

Researchers warn that airplane crew and passengers who frequently fly between several time zones face a number of health problems including disruptions in a woman's menstrual cycle and even short-term psychiatric disturbances. Jet lag is worse for older travelers, and its severity increases with the number of time zones crossed. The direction of travel also matters, with flights to the east bringing more jet lag than flights to the west.


April 11, 2007

Drawings by Nadia Russ "Luxury Cars" (series of 4), ink/lipstick/nail polish/paper, 11"x17" now on view at New York City's Manhattan Motorcars showroom, located at 270 Eleven Ave. (Between 27 & 28 Street), Monday-Friday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

News Archives. May-April 2007...