Russian Self Made Hummer

From: http://englishrussia.com/

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:

Visions of the Decade: Koudelka’s Invasion 68: Prague [PICS]

All Photographs © Josef Koudelka. Behind the CKD Praha factory, looking towards the Hloubetin district.

pdnphotooftheday.com — Readers voted Josef Koudelka’s Invasion 68: Prague (Aperture, 2008) one of the most influential books of the decade. The book (which has been published in in ten countries, most recently in Russia) gathers more than 250 of the photographs Koudelka took in August 1968 during the Prague Spring, when Warsaw Pact tanks invaded Prague...

click here: Visions of the Decade: Koudelka’s Invasion 68: Prague [PICS]

Pedal-powered submarine to go on the market

A pedal-powered submarine capable of diving up to 30 metres has been developed by a Russian company.

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Peda-powered submarine the alternative to the traditional holiday pedalo ride Photo: SOLENT NEWS

The craft can be powered by two people with no specialist training and moves at about walking pace.

The pedallers sit side by side in the craft, most of which is made from a special acrylic glass.

Its designers say this will give occupants "spectacular underwater views".

Apart from two sets of pedals, controls are limited to a steering wheel and a few buttons to make operating the submarine as simple as possible.

The sub was developed by Russian company called Marine Innovative Technologies Ltd (MIT) and is expected to cost £50,000 pounds although prices could drop to around £15,000 for bulk buyers.

MIT expect to sell to private buyers as well as companies hiring out the subs to tourists in popular resorts.

At 11ft long and 6ft 6in wide it is possible to transport the craft on the back of a car trailer. MIT will also offer a model with a low-power electric drive unit as well.

Safety features include an automatic system to release ballast for surfacing in an emergency.

MIT, based in St Petersburg, says the vehicle boasts a high degree of manoeuvrability and can go forwards, backwards, up and down, hover and rotate about its vertical axis.

Scientists at MIT say that no one has previously built an enclosed, pedal-powered submarine for tourists because they could not generate the required power.

However, MIT has patented an innovative design - utilising a phenomenon called the Coanda effect - which enables two people to create enough thrust.

Whale Penis Leather Option Dumped by Russian Luxury Armored Car Company

From: http://www.treehugger.com/
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada

Photo: Dartz

A New Kind of Penis Car For Billionaire Oligarchs with No Taste
Some companies specialize in excess. Nobody really needs a Rolls Royce, but some people feel a need for exclusivity. Other companies go ever further and attempt excessive excess, like Dartz with its Prombron Monaco Red Diamond Edition armoured car (price tag: £1 million, or $1.65 million). It comes with tons of bling, such as ridiculously hyper-expensive vodka in a flask made out of pure gold, gold-plated windows, pure tungsten exhausts, and diamond-encrusted white gold speed gauges. Totally ridiculous, but I guess if you're some billionaire oligarch with no taste, it can work. Dartz seems to have gone a bit too far with the seats, though: They wanted to make them from whale penis leather (apparently it's very soft), and this drew protest from many environmental groups.

I suppose it's more about the principle than anything else. How many of these monstrosities will Dartz really make? Still, one is too many if a whale has to die just so rich people can sit on marginally softer seats.

After getting lots of angry emails from Greenpeace, the WWF, and PETA's Pamela Anderson, the company decided to drop the whale penis leather seats option. Their press release is quite something (and seems very unprofessional for a company that wants you to pay an insane amount of cash for its products).

Be sure not to miss the shout out to whales at the end

We have no any ideas to kill the whale or something like that. All we want - to make just luxury car. Real luxury car which will be world number one car. [...] All we want to unite luxury and armoring traditions of RussoBalt factory in one car, which brand celebrated 100 years now. At 1922 RussoBalt was renamed to PROMBRON' (ex.RussoBalt).

We just looking for most expensive products for this car - and that's why we choosed whale penis leathure when we checked it is most of most. After wave of protest we realised our mistake and make a decision not to use natural leathure at all. We will focus on world most advanced nanotechnologies to achieve interior highest quality using artificial materials which also was never used for cars. We want to tell our hello to all whales: "Our Sea Brothers! We all know that earth are stand on three whales - we will keep You live! We don't Earth fall down to Ocean!

Photo: Daily Mail

Photo: Daily Mail

In the end, Dartz is probably happy about all this. It's great publicity for their product, and they won't have to find a supplier that carries whale penises.

Trivia: This is the same company that built armored vehicles for Vladimir Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Tsar Nicolas.

Via Wired, Daily Mail

The Napalm Caverns of Russia

This abandoned Russian fortress is probably one of the creepiest places I have seen.

The reason for it to have such a strange look is because it was used later by Russian army to test the influence of Russian alternative to napalm inside of the brick houses.

Due to very high temperature of napalm the bricks started melting just like ice melts in the spring forming the icicles, but those icicles are of red brick.