The Legend of Bigfoot roadside attraction outside Richardson Grove State Park in California
Getty Images
Scientists and yeti enthusiasts believe there may finally be solid evidence that the apelike creature roams the vast Siberian tundra, reports the Guardian.
A team of a dozen-plus experts from as far afield as Canada and Sweden have proclaimed themselves 95% certain of the mythical animal's existence after a daylong conference in the town of Tashtagol in the Kemerovo region, some 2,000 miles east of Moscow. In recent years, locals there have reported sightings of the yeti, also known as the abominable snowman.
The Kemerovo government announced on Oct. 10 that a two-day expedition the previous weekend to the region's Azassky cave and Karatag peak "collected irrefutable evidence" of yetis' existence on the wintry plateau.
"Conference participants came to the conclusion that the artifacts found give 95% evidence of the habitation of the 'snow man' on Kemerovo region territory," read a statement. "In one of the detected tracks, Russian scientist Anatoly Fokin noted several hairs that might belong to the yeti," it added. The group also discovered footprints, a presumed bed and various other markers.
The scientific community has historically disputed the existence of the yeti given scant conclusive evidence. But numerous sightings of such creatures have been reported in Himalayan countries and in North America, where it is known as Sasquatch, or bigfoot.
The Russian government has given the go-ahead on an ambitious new tunnel project that could connect Siberia with Alaska via an underground rail line. If completed, the $65 billion project will be the longest underwater tunnel in the world, besting the Chunnel between England and France by twice the distance. The planned course would stretch over 65 miles and would snake beneath the Big and Little Diomede Islands. According to Inhabitat, the project will be funded by a private and public partnership. So why build it?
Aside from being a civil engineering marvel, the tunnel would also provide an efficient way to move 100 million tons of freight per year. In addition, the tunnel could provide an easy transmission route for electricity developed by tidal energy stations and wind plants in Russia to Alaska and Canada. In addition, the rail system would complete a high-speed network that could stretch from London to New York City. Unfortunately, the project doesn't seem to be geared toward passenger travel. At least, not for now. Thanks for the tip, Chad!
Russian designers are hoping to give tired airline passengers a chance to rest in more comfort with their new ''Sleep Box'' which has opened its doors at a Moscow airport.
On the occasion of this apparently new series of photographs of a mock-up of Russia’s Buran spacecraft – an ambitious unmanned clone of the U.S. Space Shuttle orbiter – we’re dusting off this piece from last spring – when the U.S. finally launched its own unmanned, and secret, shuttle clone.
But it’s not the first unmanned space plane. As with a few other space milestones, the Soviet Union beat the US to the punch back in 1988. And the Russians did it with what was essentially a knock-off of the Space Shuttle. As if the embarrassing symbolism weren’t strong enough, there was also the fact of the Buran’s eventual intended purpose: to attack the U.S. from space.
Space Blizzard
Called Buran (Russian for blizzard or snowstorm), the program was launched by the Kremlin as a reaction to NASA’s space shuttle and an attempt to gain an edge in space against the backdrop of Ronald Reagan’s “Star Wars” Strategic Defense Initiative. It was also an attempt to fulfill the Soviet Union’s dream of reusable spacecraft and payloads, ideas that predated the American space program.
A massive effort began. Over a million and a half people worked on the multi-billion dollar project, while researchers developed new, elaborate schemes for Russian space exploration. Among other tasks, Russian scientists hoped that the Buran would be able to carry the space station back to Earth, and – the reported reason for its inception – to allow the USSR to carry out military attacks from space.
The shuttle even had its own transport aircraft. The Antonov An-225 was designed specifically to carry the Buran shuttles between landing and launch sites, much like the NASA shuttles and their custom 747 transport. The An-225 remains the longest aircraft in the world.
Lift Off
On November 15, 1988, Buran launched from the Baïkonour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard an Energia rocket, and made a successful orbital flight, circling the Earth twice. Because the lift support system had not been fully inspected, the flight was unmanned.
Besides its built-in robotic flight controls, the Buran had other notable differences from the US’s space transportation system:
Lacking main rocket engines, the Buran was lighter and offered more room than the shuttle
Buran’s launcher, Energia, was designed to carry up to 80 metric tons into orbit on its own
Energa was also being designed to carry payloads to the moon without Buran
Buran could lift 30 metric tons of payload into orbit, vs. the shuttle’s 25 metric tons
Buran’s thermodynamic tiles, protecting it from re-entry burn-up, were thought to be superior to the shuttle’s
Most remarkably, the Buran was able to fly and land itself, a feature that the United States is only now exploring.
Grounded
While Buran landed intact, the shuttle suffered such significant heat damage during reentry that it was deemed too costly to repair. In 1989, it was projected that Buran would have a second unmanned flight in 1993, with a duration of 15–20 days. But the craft never flew again, and after the collapse of the USSR, the Russian shuttle program was quietly shuttered in 1993.
In addition to the orbiter that flew in space, the Soviets had completed or were building four other orbiting models and six test versions. Some were kept at Baïkonour, while others were placed on exhibition or turned to scraps. One turned up in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 2004, before being purchased by a German museum. One, left outside Moscow’s Tushkino factory, was ripped apart by collectors; another ended up in a parking lot.
When Space Shuttle Columbia burned up during reentry in 2003, casting doubt over the future of NASA’s space shuttle, some speculated that a renovation of a Russian shuttle could become a cheaper replacement. But the idea, described in this video piece waned. (Lessons from the re-entry damage of the Buran have been applied to research into shuttle safety at NASA.)
Thus Buran, perhaps the most expensive and complicated space program in Soviet history, ended up an expensive failure. A renewed space race put significant strain on the USSR’s already fragile economy. Within a year, the empire would crumble. In some ways, the Buran wasn’t just a symbol for the Soviet Union’s collapse, but one of the catalysts for it too.
Collapse
After the program was canceled, all the Buran shuttles and mock-ups, with one exception, were sold off to become amusement park rides and hot dog stands. The remaining vehicle was kept at the Cosmodrome. In 2002, a catastrophic roof collapse at the plane’s hanger killed eight workers and destroyed the remaining Buran as well as a mock-up of one of its Energia rockets.
Of course for now, Russia may get the last laugh: while officials and lawmakers debate the future of NASA’s manned space program, NASA will be paying upwards of $10 million per ride to the Space Station aboard tiny capsules hitched to older Soyuz rockets.
If things had turned out differently, they might have been flying in space shuttle clones.
thebizzare.com —From a Sea Fortress, to a Brutal Prison, to a Museum!
Posted by rappin
The Patarei Prison Museum in Tallinn, Russia was built in the 19th century. The prison was originally a sea fortress in 1840 and was turned into a prison in around 1919. This prison housed inmates until 2002 and was then turned into a museum. This museum is now an ideal location to experience the Soviet-era prison life in all its gloom. The prison has been left untouched since 2002 to give visitors a real-life feel of the dreariness of prison life.
The museum shows off cotton swabs in the prison operating rooms. The cells still have books and magazines that belonged to the inmates. The museum offers a range of long tours and guides. There is reportedly also a guided tour that is in fact a “prison adventure” and tourists who successfully escape get to have a picnic as a reward.
Recently we had a Russian guy from Kazakhstan who has built a Rolls Royce Phantom at home out of old Mercedes car. Seems that this trend is getting stronger. Now meet a Hummer car clone.
It can’t be called full replica as it is more likely a Russian approach for the Big Agressive Car that can be used to climb mountains, to sow and plough thru the fields, to clean snow and mud and even to… drive underwater.
“I have only one oxygen mask that can be used while you are driving by the bottom of the lake/river. Once we were crossing some lake and the car got stuck in the bottom mud. My passenger didn’t have a mask so he had to swim out to the surface to get some air and get back down to me to help releasing it.”, says the owner.
And yes, it can drive through the fire too! And now the pictures:
.
All you art collectors out there. Here is a chance to get a Giclee copy of some of Ian M Sherwin work. Ian is planning on doing a whole series of Marblehead, Massachusetts paintings. His work is amazing.
![0119 []](http://zuzutop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/0119-.jpg "0119 []")
![0319 []](http://zuzutop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/0319-.jpg "0319 []")
![0418 []](http://zuzutop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/0418-.jpg "0418 []")
![0516 []](http://zuzutop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/0516-.jpg "0516 []")
![0615 []](http://zuzutop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/0615-.jpg "0615 []")
![0220 []](http://zuzutop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/0220-.jpg "0220 []")
.
Posts
