Same destruction, less lasting pollution. Now spot the non sequitir:

"The defense ministry stresses this military invention does not contradict a single international treaty. Russia is not unleashing a new arms race."

Quoted: Russia has tested the world's most powerful vacuum bomb, which unleashes a destructive shockwave with the power of a nuclear blast, the military said on Tuesday, dubbing it the "father of all bombs."

click to play

The bear that taught me about hospitality. This Russian cartoon of Winnie the Pooh is infinitely superior to the saccharine Disney version. Especially the Pooh character himself.

Quoted: Chapter 2 of the Soviet version of Winnie the Pooh (1971), now with English subtitles by Artem, Lesha & Co.

Amazing cakes. The mushroom is a cake.

Quoted: All you see below are cakes that can be eaten without any part of it left. No plastics or any other artificial stuff is being used - everything is eatable. All this cakes by Zhanna from St. Petersburg.

Bottoms up.

Quoted: As the Russian Civil War became a reality, the Bolshevik hierarchy saw the need to replace the provisional Red Guards with a permanent force. The Council of People's Commissars set up the Red Army by decree on January 28, 1918, basing it initially on the Red Guards. The official Red Army Day of February 23, 1918 marked the day of the first mass draft of the Red Army in Petrograd and Moscow, and of the first combat action against the occupying Imperial German Army.

Cool pictures of cranberry farms.

He is standing in a lake of cranberries.

I used to play this card game with my grandparents - I think I learned it when I was 5. Lately I've been teaching it to my friends, and they've gotten a kick out of it. This Wikipedia article reminded me of some rules I'd forgotten.

Colorful buildings with lots of woodcarvings.

Funky Soviet buildings. I suspect some of these were built just to freak out the CIA.

Quoted: Interesting news from Russia in English language.

I got to wear one of those red ties too. These are pictures of the USSR from the late 80s, when I was a kid.

Quoted: Now, the collection of photos from the 80s, the period of time when the Soviet Union was near to collapse. The famous “Perestroika” or “Rebuilding” started in 1986 or so. These photos are from a collection that is targeted on the pre-Democratic period of Soviet Union, taken from different public sources like magazines, newspapers and internet, from both sides - from Soviet and Western.