On Monday a burst water conduit that leads to the turbines at the Russian Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant in Siberia has left 12 confirmed dead with an additional 64 people still missing. Vitaly Zubakin, an executive for RusHydro the owner of the plant, said that while finding survivors in the flood zone is unlikely the search continues.

In addition to the dead and missing the accident has caused an ecological disaster as well by creating a vast oil slick on the Yenisei River. According to officials restoring the plant could take years.

“There was a large explosion, and the power went out,” said Irina Perepelitsina, a worker at the plant interviewed by NTV television. “The alarm went off, and we all ran to the exits.”

Sergei Shoigu, the emergency situations minister, suggested that a hydraulic pressure surge could have caused water to burst through the walls and ceiling in the engine room of Turbine No. 2, causing it to rapidly fill with water, a statement on the ministry’s Web site said. Investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office earlier said the accident could have occurred when a transformer exploded during repairs.

Source: New York Times :: Dozens Presumed Drowned at Siberian Plant

image courtesy of Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

A Russian Navy ship fired a shell at an apartment block in Vladivostok Friday, the second friendly fire incident for the Russian Navy this year.

The shell landed just feet from a 9 story building in a residential area of Vladivostok, breaking windows and leaving a 1.5-meter crater local media reported. No one was believed to be injured, although a bomb disposal team was sent in to remove the shell, despite claims that the shell itself was only a dummy.

A Russian naval spokesman said that the shell was supposed to land in the ocean, and it was not clear how it ended up where it did.

In May, a Russian ship shelled a village in the Leningrad region by accident.

A Russian woman has set a new world record for vagina lifting….and yes, before you ask, we’re not making this up, and yes, the Guinness Book of Records keeps a tally on the record.

42 year old Tatiata Kozhevnikova broke the record by lifting a 31 pound (14 kg) glass ball. According to local media, Tatiata has been exercising her vagina for fifteen years. “After I had a child, my intimate muscles got unbelievably weak. I read books on Dao and learned that ancient women used to deal with this problem using wooden balls,” she said. “I looked around, saw a Murano glass ball and inserted it in my vagina. It took me ages to get it out!”

Just in case you haven’t tried lifting weights with your vagina before, Tatiata recommends it to all women who want to improve their sex life. “It’s enough to exercise your vagina five minutes a day, ladies, and in just one week you’ll be able to give yourself and your man unforgettable pleasure in bed,” she said.

Russia has produced some interesting things over the years, and bears playing ice hockey would be fairly high up on the list.

This footage of bears ice hockey match shows how…well….bears play ice hockey. I’m not really sure how else to describe it. I also thought that maybe it was fake at first, but it would appear to be real. Remember: in Soviet Russia, bears play team sports.

The popularity of the show Britain’s Got Talent has spawned a range of licensed local versions and knock offs, and Russia is no different.

Like its western counterparts, Russia’s Got Talent involves a large variety of contestants trying out for the show before a panel of judges. In this clip, the two contestants dance and spin before one tries to shoot an apple off the head of the other contestant.

Spinning around then shooting straight would be a challenge for most people, and there’s no exception here. But it’s where the arrow lands that gives it that special touch. You won’t see something like this on American television

Steampunk can be fun, renovating a bathroom can be an enjoyable challenge but all this type of do-it-yourself projects pales in comparison to this psychotic Russian who built his own electric chair. Not only that but he then preceded to test it out by killing 5 people.

The man has pled guilty to killing one man, after being arrested recently, who he had lured to his garage slash death chamber by claiming on the Internet that he wanted to buy some computer parts. Once in the garage the victim was tied and electrocuted the Russian took the body to the outskirts of Yekaterinburg and burned the body in a fire made of old tires.

Amazingly some of the murders were witnessed by friends the case was only solved when the police found and identified the burnt body. Investigators believe that in 2008 and 2009 the sociopath had killed at least 5 people using the computer parts for sale ruse. when his home was searched the police found a small power plant installed in the garage and linked to a computer.

The detained killer said that he had designed a device with which he planned to kill people who passed by in their cars – one part of the machine would remotely stop the car engine and the other part, resembling a door mat – would electrocute and kill the exiting driver.

While staying in the pre-trial detention center, the criminal said that he also planned to make a device that would erase people’s memory with an electro-magnetic ray.

Source: http://www.mosnews.com/weird/2009/05/29/chair/Mosnews

Just about everyone these days has some idea of what the term FAIL whale means when it comes up in conversation. It is one of those rare terms that while meant for something specific, in the case Twitter crashing, but has gone on to mean a whole new nomenclature when it comes to things that have failed in one fashion or another.

In Russia however the FAIL whale is being supplanted by a new movement called Whale Tailing and it is spreading like wildfire among the Russian social networks. The basic idea as you can see from the picture is when a woman lying down thrusts her ass up in the air and then takes a picture. I’m not sure exactly what is driving this along considering it is women doing this, which consider the term ‘plumber crack’ maybe it’s a good thing only women are behind this newest meme.

hat tip to Geekologie

The above chart is said to be an entry level test for the Russian army. According to English Russia, the instructions read:

Six questions that help to identify any hidden psychological diseases young soldier might. If the soldier can’t see the number in one of the 6 circles on the test picture, the he likely might having:

Can’t see circle 1: High agression, proneness to conflict, the recommendation is to add more physical excercise and cold showers.

Can’t see circle 2: Possible low than average intellectual abilities, can’t serve with sophisticated equipment.

Can’t see circle 3: Possible debauchery, soldier should get increased daily ration, should get more physical activity tasks, should not be connected to food supplies, etc.

Can’t see circle 4: Possible inclination to violence, can be assigend as a leader to his unit, as he can preserve discipline.

Can’t see circle 5: Possible latent homosexuality. Can be light uncontrolled accesses of attraction to the same sex.

Can’t see circle 6: Possible schizophreanic tendency. Required additional inspection.

Every soldier should be tested before assignment, according to the order #2299.”

Which one couldn’t you read?

This Russian ad for a chocolate and vanilla icecream flavor has a few people upset, like Alex Leo at the Huffpost:

This, of course, is an ad for an ice cream bar that swirls chocolate inside of vanilla. The only way this could be more offensive would have involved some cartoon nudity and a cartoon white lady. Not to be outdone, the ice cream packaging itself does hint at that with a a female white head with a pink bow atop it next to a slick looking cartoon black head with sunglasses.

I am told that the ice cream is a nice treat after your meal of fried “Obama fingers” chicken.

A Russian man had choked to death on a pancake shortly after winning a pancake eating competition.

The 48-year old Boris Isayev won the competition as part of celebrations for pancake week (Maslenitsa.) The festival celebrates the end of winter and beginning of spring.

According to local media, Isayev won the competition by eating his serve of pancakes the quickesst, but subsequently collapsed when he came on stage to get his prize. The diagnosis: pancakes blocked the man’s airways.

“I guess, you shouldn’t eat that much even for Maslenitsa,” a witness dryly told of The Komsomolskaya Pravda. Still, I can think of worse ways to die.

It is always a good idea when trying to give someone who speaks a different language a cute little gift that has a saying in their language on it that you get the translation correct. It is especially important when you are dealing with international politics and how touchy politicians can be over something said incorrectly.

However it seems that someone in the U.S. State Department forgot to double check a recently translation that was used to engrave a special little gift Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave to her Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

"I would like to present you with a little gift that represents what President Obama and Vice President Biden and I have been saying and that is: ‘We want to reset our relationship and so we will do it together,’" Clinton said, presenting Lavrov with the red button.

What the foreign minister got, however, was a button that said "peregruzka," which translates into Russian as "overcharge" or "overload" (depending on the context). Oops…

"You got it wrong," Lavrov teased Clinton, but said he would put it on his desk anyway.

Source: ABC News – Political Radar Blog

As Zoli Erdos suggested on his blog maybe next time instead of using a human translator they just farm it out to Google Translate

[Clinton/Lavrov picture courtesy of ABC News / Google Translate graphic courtesy of Zoli Erdos]

Canadian fighter jets intercepted two Russian bombers near Canadian air space last week, only hours prior to a visit from US President Barack Obama.

The Canadian F-18’s intercepted two Russian TU-95 Bear bomber aircraft 118 miles (190 kms) northeast of Tuktoyuktuk.

The Russian aircraft were over international waters, and did not enter Canadian airspace, although Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper isn’t very happy none the less

“I have expressed at various times the deep concern our government has with increasingly aggressive Russian actions around the globe and Russian intrusions into our airspace,” Harper said at a news conference. “This government has responded every time the Russians have done that,” he said. “We will continue to respond, we will defend our airspace.”

The Russians claim that the flights were on a routine patrol mission and were doing nothing wrong.

Still, flying planes towards Canadian airspace on the day the US President was visiting couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. Are the Russians trying to send a message, and if so, what?

No country is fully immune from the global economic crisis, but some places react differently to others.

In Russia, the economic crisis has meant that less people are drinking Vodka, the national drop. Stockpiles of Vodka in Russia are now 6 times higher at the start of the month than the same time a year ago because factories are producing vodka faster than they can sell it, according to reports.

“People are having to save money, including on drinks, and this is connected to the impact of the financial crisis on people’s disposable incomes,” Pavel Shapkin, president of the National Alcohol Association (NAA), told Reuters.

Although the news may be great for Western Vodka drinkers who like their Vodka from Russia, it’s not great for local drinkers, who are dying in record numbers as they turn to cheaper, and more dangerous Vodka substitutes. 1,458 people died in Russia from alcohol poisoning in September, up significantly from previous months

Reports in Russia are suggesting that Russian giant Onexim Group is in talks to acquire Forbes.

Yakov Sadchikov of Quintura who translated the reports notes that Onexim Group is one of Russia’s largest private investment funds with investments in the mining industry, energy, nanotechnology, real estate and other industries and has under $25 billion in funds under management. Onemix Group recently financed the launch of the Snob magazine in Russia.

Matt Marshall at VentureBeat notes that Forbes is in private hands, and any acquisition would be complicated.

Although some may find the idea of a Russian company acquiring one of the most famous names in American publishing surprising, it’s likely the first of many such acquisitions to come as the economic crisis worsens and heritage media assets flounder. Foreign acquisition may be the only path to keep companies like the New York Times publishing given the current state of the industry.

In what is being reported as the worst submarine accident in nearly a decade 20 people died on the Nerpa, an Akula-class attack sub, during sea trials in the Pacific.

According to the report from BBC News the deaths occurred when the fire extinguishing system was activated by accident. The dead, 14 civilians and 6 sailors, where killed when they where suffocated by freon gas; which is used to put out on board fires because it removes any available oxygen from the air. The Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo has stated that the submarine wasn’t damaged as a result of the accident nor was there any radiation leak.

An additional twentry-one people were injured with varing degrees of posioning. They were transferred from the submarine to the destroyer Admiral Tributs and taken to hosibitals near Vladivostok.

[graphic courtesy of Wikimedia]