Tuesday, December 6

What is Russia Famous For?


Not sure what Russia is famous for? Then you’re certainly in the right place because this guide covers all the things that the Russian Republic, the largest country in the world, is known for internationally!

Russia is famous for the cities of Moscow and Saint Petersburg as well its leader, Vladimir Putin. Of course, people also know Russia for its Vodka, Russian Dolls, and many other things.

They’re featured on this list, but we’ve also got lots of other things that are popular about the country, for a total of 21 things that make Russia famous all over the world!

Russia is best known for Moscow, its stunning capital city on the Moskva River in Western Russia. The city is home to many of Russia’s famous landmarks, including the Red Square, the Bolshoi Theater, St. Basil’s Cathedral, Kremlin, Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, and many others.

The stunning city is both the largest and the most populated city in Russia, as well as the fourth city in the world by the number of billionaires who reside there. The Moscow metro system is also an impressive engineering feat and is huge at 325.4 km. in total length. Moscow metro is also famous worldwide because of the stunning architecture of many of the metro stations.

Russia is famous for Vladimir Putin, the president who has been in office for what seems like an eternity. He’s been the president of the country since 1999, only stepping down for one term in 2008 because the law required him to do so. Recently he signed legislation that would allow him to stay in office until 2036, so it’s unlikely that he’ll be stepping down again any time soon.  READ MORE...

Best Places in Russia to Visit

MOSCOW

Russia, once the largest and most powerful member of the former USSR, nonetheless remains a fascinating country to visit. It is a country of contrasts, from great subtropical beaches to bitterly cold winter regions in the north. The east may have fewer people, but its lovely cities are among the most popular places to visit in Russia and can hold their own against the west.

Russia is steeped in history everywhere a traveler goes, from vicious battles to great classical music and literature. And almost everywhere visitors can see examples of magnificent art, not only in museums but also in its churches.

10. Yekaterinburg

9. Sochi

8. Veliky Novgorod

7. Vladivostok

6. Nizhny Novgorod

5. Irkutsk

4. Kazan

3. Golden Ring

2. Saint Petersburg

1. Moscow

All About Russia


Russia, country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. Once the preeminent republic of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.; commonly known as the Soviet Union), Russia became an independent country after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991.

Russia

Russia is a land of superlatives. By far the world’s largest country, it covers nearly twice the territory of Canada, the second largest. It extends across the whole of northern Asia and the eastern third of Europe, spanning 11 time zones and incorporating a great range of environments and landforms, from deserts to semiarid steppes to deep forests and Arctic tundra. Russia contains Europe’s longest river, the Volga, and its largest lake, Ladoga. Russia also is home to the world’s deepest lake, Baikal, and the country recorded the world’s lowest temperature outside the North and South poles.

St. Petersburg

Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, St. Petersburg, Russia

The inhabitants of Russia are quite diverse. Most are ethnic Russians, but there also are more than 120 other ethnic groups present, speaking many languages and following disparate religious and cultural traditions. Most of the Russian population is concentrated in the European portion of the country, especially in the fertile region surrounding Moscow, the capital. Moscow and St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad) are the two most important cultural and financial centres in Russia and are among the most picturesque cities in the world. Russians are also populous in Asia, however; beginning in the 17th century, and particularly pronounced throughout much of the 20th century, a steady flow of ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking people moved eastward into Siberia, where cities such as Vladivostok and Irkutsk now flourish.  SOURCE:  Britannica

Bowl Design

 


Monday, December 5

Money Drives Everything

Maybe it's just the way it is...  but, politics in the US of A sucks donkey dicks in that I don't believe anything any politician ever says whether that politician is a liberal or a conservative or an independent or a variation of any of these depending upon the clever words they are now using.

Politicians also remind me of Plant Managers, CEOs, and others who may be in charge of something...  and I make this association because LEADERS tend to withhold information away from the workforce, especially if it is bad news...  Bad news is always delivered to the workforce on a Friday afternoon right before they go home for the weekend or right before a holiday begins.

This issue should also be focused on the lawyers who advise the leaders to behave in this manner in order to prevent of mitigate legal action being taken against the company.

The final area of the problem rests with the shareholders who DEMAND that they be paid a dividend of a specific amount every 90 days.  As a result of this demand, companies no longer take action regarding what is in the best interest of the company or its employees or even the customer, but what is in the best interest of the stockholders...   and PROFITS.

  • Money drives politicians
  • Money drives business leaders
  • Money drives the economy
  • Money drives the legal system
  • Money drives societies

And, it is not just money that drives...  but how much money you actually have...

If you are just a millionaire you have less influence than a multimillionaire would have and a multimillionaire would have less influence than a billionaire would have and a billionaire would have less influence than a multibillionaire would have.

This reminds me of the shit that goes on in education at our colleges and universities...   No one believes you or has confidence in your opinion unless you have a PhD...  And, those who have PhDs are ranked in order of when they got their damn PhD...  in other words, if I got my PhD before you did, then my opinion is and will always be more valuable than your opinion.

How long do you think societies will last if their society is based or predicated upon bullshit like this???

Strictly Political



 

Building the Pyramids


 

Canada: More Nurses Needed


Quebec Health Minister Christian Dubé tells reporters the province could use thousands more nurses to answer its tele-health line, which is supposed to free up emergency rooms. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)





The province's health minister is pleading with qualified nurses, asking them to sign up and lend a hand to the 811 service, saying the province's telehealth staff are overwhelmed with an increase in calls.

On Thursday, Christian Dubé said the province is looking for retired nurses, those working in the private sector and nursing students. He said they can sign up on the province's recruitment website called Je contribue — French for "I pitch in" — that was launched at the start of the pandemic.

Dubé said the province needs 3,000 qualified people to step up but added Quebec "could take up to 5,000 nurses to answer the phones."

"If there are nurses that want to help us over the coming weeks, there are good schedules. It's work that can be done part time."

When Quebecers call 811, the first option on the menu is for Info-Santé, where nurses assess a caller's symptoms and offer medical advice. The second option is for parents of sick children, under the age of 18.

Those two services received 5,000 calls each on Wednesday, according to the health minister, and it's a volume of calls that's too high for current staff levels.

The service now lets callers know how long the waiting times are, Dubé said. He said the province wants to create a virtual waiting room, allowing callers to leave their number and have 811 staff call them back instead of waiting on the line.

"But to do that, I have to be certain that a nurse will be able to call back the patient," Dubé said, implying that without more staff, it would be difficult for nurses to take care of callbacks.

The health minister, who formed a crisis task force in late October to tackle the issue of overcrowded emergency rooms, said the issue is far from resolved, but there has been progress.  READ MORE...

Canada: Soldiers and the Freedom Convoy

  Members of the Canadian Armed Forces march at a parade in Calgary on July 8, 2016. An email from the Minister of Defence's press secretary suggests the military knew of seven to eight CAF members' involvement in the self-styled 'Freedom Convoy' protest.(Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)


Emails released through a public inquiry suggest federal Liberal political aides were scrambling earlier this year to figure out the extent to which members of the Canadian Armed Forces were supporting the self-described "Freedom Convoy" protests that had gridlocked downtown Ottawa.

The internal communications are among thousands of documents submitted to the Public Order Emergency Commission, which is looking at the Liberal government's decision to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the demonstrations in February.

On Feb. 15, one day after the Emergencies Act was invoked, Defence Minister Anita Anand's press secretary, Daniel Minden, emailed fellow political staff in the offices of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino.

"Please see this internal list of CAF members allegedly involved in the convoy so far," Minden wrote.

The email goes on to provide a "list of known members connected to protests," including five who are specifically named and two who are not. Those not named include a special forces soldier based in Ottawa and a civilian Defence Department employee.

All names are redacted in copies of the emails provided to the commission as "Personal Info."

The list also includes the individuals' location, the action the military was taking at the moment and the results of any actions that had already been taken.

The list appears to have sparked a strong reaction from Mendicino's director of communications, Alexander Cohen, who used an expletive in his response to Minden, saying: "How the f--- many soldiers are in the convoy?"  

"7-8 that we know of," Minden replied.

Minden and Cohen did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

The email does not provide specifics about what those on the list were accused of doing or what rules they are alleged to have broken.  READ MORE...

Canada: Hard to Catch Diary Cows


Montreal, Canada – Marie-Andree Cadorette was getting desperate.

After being punted between government, police and animal welfare agencies, each saying they couldn’t do anything to help, the general manager of the tiny Canadian village of Saint-Severe, Quebec – population 320 – needed reinforcements.

Eight cowboys on horseback answered her call, equipped with a drone and fencing. Their target? A group of young runaway cows that has been on the lam since the summer, wreaking havoc and causing tens of thousands of dollars in damages in the largely rural area.

“They succeeded in encircling them,” Cadorette said in an interview with Radio-Canada’s widely watched Sunday evening programme, Tout le monde en parle. “But unfortunately, the heifers passed by a field of corn that hadn’t been harvested yet, and they fled into the cornfield.

“And then there was nothing left to do.”

The tale of the approximately two dozen missing farm animals has captured media and public attention across the French-speaking province of Quebec, with the agricultural ministry calling the situation “complex and unprecedented”.

It even reached Canada’s Senate last week, as Senator Julie Miville-Dechene expressed her “amused admiration” for the young bovines, which she said had “recovered their freedom”.  READ MORE...

Top 15 Places to Visit in Canada


Canada is a country chock-full of natural sites and urban delights, where visitors are equally as wowed by the wildlife and wilderness, as they are by the cultural and culinary offerings found in the cities that speckle the sprawling nation.

Peruse for polar bears on the open arctic tundra of Churchill or cruise Vancouver’s curvy coastline in a canoe while gawking at the city skyline. Feast on five-star fusion cuisine in Toronto, or take in a street-side jazz jam session in Montreal.

Whether you’re a first-time visitor or returning to experience something new, these are the 15 best places to see in Canada. But be sure to plan ahead, because as the world’s second-largest country, you just won’t be able to do it all in one trip.
Explore the planet's most surprising adventures with our weekly newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Get your thrills with outdoor adventures in the mountains © iStock / Getty Images


1. The Canadian Rockies
Best for mountain views

The sawtooth, white-topped mountains straddling the British ColumbiaAlberta border inspire both awe and action. Five national parks – Banff, Yoho, Kootenay, Waterton Lakes and Jasper – offer countless opportunities to delve into the lush wilderness, with ribbons of hiking trails, rushing white water and powdery ski slopes to satisfy travelers looking for mountain thrills.

This is one of the best places to visit in Canada in the winter, but outdoor adventures are aplenty during the summer months too.


2. Vancouver
Best for combining city and nature

3. Niagara Falls
Best for an iconic travel experience

4. Whistler
Best place to ski in Canada

5. Montréal Jazz Festival
Best place for music lovers

6. Old Québec City
Best place to visit in Canada for couples

7. Toronto
Best for multicultural experiences

8. Vancouver Island
Best for nature lovers

9. Rideau Canal
Best for ice skating

10. Manitoulin Island
Best place in Canada to celebrate First Nations culture

11. The Prairies
Best place for road trips

12. Bay of Fundy
Best place to spot whales

13. Drumheller
Best for dinosaur lovers

14. Churchill
The best place for polar bear encounters

15. Baffin
Best for Inuit art and incredible landscapes

All About Canada


Canada, the second largest country in the world in area (after Russia), occupying roughly the northern two-fifths of the continent of North America.

Despite Canada’s great size, it is one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries. This fact, coupled with the grandeur of the landscape, has been central to the sense of Canadian national identity, as expressed by the Dublin-born writer Anna Brownell Jameson, who explored central Ontario in 1837 and remarked exultantly on “the seemingly interminable line of trees before you; the boundless wilderness around you; the mysterious depths amid the multitudinous foliage, where foot of man hath never penetrated…the solitude in which we proceeded mile after mile, no human being, no human dwelling within sight.” 

Although Canadians are comparatively few in number, they have crafted what many observers consider to be a model multicultural society, welcoming immigrant populations from every other continent. In addition, Canada harbours and exports a wealth of natural resources and intellectual capital equaled by few other countries.

Canada

Château Frontenac, Quebec city

Canada is officially bilingual in English and French, reflecting the country’s history as ground once contested by two of Europe’s great powers. The word Canada is derived from the Huron-Iroquois kanata, meaning a village or settlement. In the 16th century, French explorer Jacques Cartier used the name Canada to refer to the area around the settlement that is now Quebec city. Later, Canada was used as a synonym for New France, which, from 1534 to 1763, included all the French possessions along the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes. After the British conquest of New France, the name Quebec was sometimes used instead of Canada. 

The name Canada was fully restored after 1791, when Britain divided old Quebec into the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada (renamed in 1841 Canada West and Canada East, respectively, and collectively called Canada). In 1867 the British North America Act created a confederation from three colonies (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada) called the Dominion of Canada. The act also divided the old colony of Canada into the separate provinces of Ontario and Quebec. 

Dominion status allowed Canada a large measure of self-rule, but matters pertaining to international diplomacy and military alliances were reserved to the British crown. Canada became entirely self-governing within the British Empire in 1931, though full legislative independence was not achieved until 1982, when Canada obtained the right to amend its own constitution.  SOURCE:  Britannica

Dog In Snow


 

Sunday, December 4

Sunday in the Valley

 East Tennessee is the place to be in December as the temperature is ideal for the most of the month...  especially, if you are a golfer...  but, if you like being outside, this area is perfect for outside activities...


I remember just a few years ago that my wife and I were putting our kayaks in at Cherokee Lake on the weekends in December and spending a couple of hours paddling around...  that was prior to 2015 when we retired...


Age 67 to Age 75 has created changes from which it is going to be difficult to rebound but within those changes, I am still able to walk over a mile each day...


Today, after my walk, I will fire up the riding lawn mower and mulch up the leaves that have blown into the back yard from our neighbor's trees...  If I don't mulch, it will kill the grass, and if I rake, then I will be on my back for several days...  the riding mower can complete the job in 30 minutes as opposed to a couple of hours or more...


Being outside on cool days allows me to maintain my health but it also allows me to defuse my mind from all the bullshit politics I listen to in .the morning news...


Storms from the south and the southwest have blown in and created rain during the early morning hours but by the time I awake at 8:30 am, the sun is out and the skies are what I used to call a Carolina Blue when I lived in NC...  but discovered 32 years ago, that my preference was East TN rather than the Piedmont of NC....


The Valley has less traffic, less polution, less crime, and less standing in lines when you want to go out to dinner.  There is no state income tax and the overall cost of living is about 12% less than most other places...  The temps are just icing on the cake...

Classic Sunday Morning Newspaper Cartoons

 











Rose in the News Again


LAS VEGAS, NV - DECEMBER 15: Former Major League Baseball player and manager Pete Rose speaks during a news conference at Pete Rose Bar & Grill to respond to his lifetime ban from MLB for gambling being upheld on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred on Monday announced that he was rejecting Rose's application for reinstatement. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)




It's been decades since Major League Baseball banned all-time hits leader Pete Rose from the league for life. Unfortunately, that ban isn't being removed this year - or anytime soon - much to the disgust of fans.


Speaking to the media this week, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred stated that he believes betting on baseball should keep Rose permanently on the league's ineligible list. However, he does not feel that should necessary exclude him from the Hall of Fame.


"I believe that when you bet on baseball from Major League Baseball’s perspective, you belong on the permanently ineligible list," Manfred said.


Baseball fans are furious at Manfred for taking the position, not just because Rose is baseball's all-time leading hitter, but out of a sense of hypocrisy for the league inviting sports books and gambling into the league now.  READ MORE...

Across the Sky


 

Saturday, December 3

First Snow


 

Life Is Good When You Have Money

BUT...

that does not mean you have to be wealthy...

Most people who are able to generate more money than they need, typically buy a larger house or a house in a more expensive neighborhood.

Most people who are able to generate more money than they need, typically buy a more expensive car, multiple cars, multiple homes, take more vacations, take more expensive vacations, fly first class, eat out more in restaurants, and stay in more expensive hotels rooms.

Most people who are able to generate more money than they need, typically throw away their money...  that is not to say that they should save money...  just that they should not spend money foolishly.

Foolish is not the same as being FRUGAL...

My wife and I are living good without a lot of money and on a fixed income of social security and a savings account.
  • We have been debt free for over 15 years
  • We saved money every month
  • We purchased what we needed not what we wanted
  • We spent our money frugally
  • We are living retired just like we lived when we both worked

For example:
  1. We buy cars that are a year old, that have been leased, with low mileage and save about $10-$12,000 each time we need to purchase
  2. We go on vacation at Myrtle Beach, SC from Sunday to Saturday when the rates are cheaper
  3. We eat Salmon at Cheddars rather than Red Lobster where the meals are just as good and $6/$7 cheaper
  4. We buy in bulk whenever we can which is always cheaper
  5. We save frequent flyer points by using a Delta/American Express credit card for all our purchases
  6. We pay credit cards off at the end of the month to avoid paying interest

While my wife and I were both working, we spent money (after saving) on handicapping our home when we eventually retired.  We took down walls and created one great room joining our kitchen, living room and dining room.  Put hardwood floors down in our house to improve internal warmth.  

Outside, we installed an above ground 24 foot round pool and had a deck built around it that includes enough space to have a rather large gazebo built.  We also purchased a hot tub.  The pool, hot tub, and deck were installed over 12 years ago.  We maintained them properly and will last until we are both over 80 years of age.

We no longer pay for cable or telelphones outside of cell phones.  Our entertainment is provided by a ROKU device and a HULU subscription saving over $100 each month.

I cook meals that I put in containers and eat over the next 3-4 days which saves money.  This Thanksgiving, like every Thanksgiving, we buy an 8 pound Turkey breast and then eat turkey for the next 5 days...  again, saving money.

Our money is not invested in the stock market or other investment accounts other than CDs...  we have money because we saved money, paid off our debt, and spent money frugally during our 30 years of marriage.  My salary never exceeded $50,000 and my wife's salary never exceeded $35,000....   so, neither one of us made a lot of money during our careers.
  • We have been to Hawaii 3 times
  • We have been on 12 week long cruises (Caribbean, Med, Alaska, Hawaii)
  • We have vacationed in Europe 3 times
  • We have vacationed in Mexico 6 times
  • We have vacationed in Florida 6 times
  • We have vacationed in Myrtle Beach twice each summer for the last 20 years
  • We have vacationed at The Outer Banks 10 times
  • We have vacationed in Los Vegas 3 timess
  • We have vacationed in Texas, Louisana, Georgia, Gulf Coast, Colorado, New York City, and Canada.

We have not sacrificed on clothes or shoes or jackets or coats...  as we have more than we ever needed and are in the process of giving away what we don't need.

The last 10 years of my career, I worked as an overpaid consultant in the areas of:  quality management, team problem solving, process re-engineering, strategic planning, and ISO 9000/2000.  I saved or wisely spent that money.


Strictly Political