Water war

Right now it's an interesting war going on in East China Sea. At the heart of the conflict are some small islands that Japan argue about. Recently Taiwan entered the scene too.

The islands themselves are not important. The reason for this conflict is the United Nation's Law of the Sea Convention.  A coastal state is given exclusive economic zone as far out as the continental shelf goes, and at least 200 nautical miles from shore. Huge areas of oceans are associated with the smallest piece of dry land raising above sea level.

(These issues are very important for offshore petroleum exploration; that's why I know it.)

Most interesting and innovative is that the war is being fought with water weapons. Ships from the Japan, China and Taiwan are shooting at each other with water cannons.

From a warfare point of view this conflict is a great step forward. Finally, the armed forces are taking HSE (that is, health, safety and environment) seriously. Zero damage to people nor environment.

This is the way all wars should be in the future. Nobody's killed. Nobody's injured. Still the message gets through, no doubt: "I don't like you. I'm angry with you"

The same principles should be applied to the 2nd Amendment of the US constitution.  Just add one word to it: water.

"... the right of the people to keep and bear water arms ..." 

This would solve many problems. The gun-guys can carry their water pistols wherever they want, and sleep with them under the pillow. Some of the water guns look quite macho.

People would just get wet instead of getting killed. The gunner would get a fine instead of life time in jail.  Great idea, isn't it >:)

(I found the picture above on the internet. It's probably from one of the international news agencies that cover the on-going water war in the East China Sea.)

Dubinin's out of Dubinin Dark

The traffic jam in Moscow is bad. The metro is good, but crowded. I read somewhere that the Moscow metro transports 9 million people every day. 

When working in Moscow, we often stay in a 4-star Marriott hotel just a five minute walk from the office. Then we avoid both the traffic jam and the metro-crowds.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, we meet the rush outside of the railway station. Everybody appear to be going the opposite way. Then we cross under the street, through a tunnel with small underground shops, offering newspapers and tooth paste and matryoshkas (the Russian nested wooden dolls).

Every morning the same guy is advertising cheep hostels, the same man sitting on a chair playing accordion, and the same old peg-legged woman is begging for money.

Fashion-flashing women and designer-suit men are hurrying to the law firms and merchant banks.

Moscow has become a modern city in good and bad. The middle-class is growing. The rich are richer and the poor are poorer than they used to be in the Soviet days.

We work long days, and then walk the same way back to the hotel at night.

We often stop by at Dubinin Restaurant to get some food. Up the stairs to the 2nd floor, smokers to the left, non -smokers to the right. TV screens on the walls show soccer games or hockey from KHL (the Russian equivalent of NHL)

Dubinin has become like our regular place. They serve some really good sausages; Dubinin's Meter if you're really hungry, and Munich sausage with sauerkraut. To drink, we order Dubinin's Dark Beer, served in a 1.5 liter jug or a 0.5 liter mug. Very good.

Last week they were out of Dubinin Dark. Sold out. Waiting for the next batch from the brewery. Fortunately there are alternatives, such as Cernovar (dark of course). The Checks know how to make beer too >:)

(I took the picture above on a sunny morning on the way to the office last week. Dubinin Restaurant is the opposite way; behind my back)

Genre Favorites Blogfest

Today Alex J. Cavanaugh is hosting the Genre Favorites Blogfest. That's a fun blogfest, too fun to miss. 

But let's get to the point. Here are my favorite genres:

Favorite movie genre: 
I don't really have any favorite movie genre, but I have some favorite movies. From the top of my head I mention Night on Earth; great movie by Jim Jarmush. Five episodes from taxi trips in various cities. The best part is the last one, from Helsinki, made in co-operation with the Kaurusmaki brothers, Pink Floyd The Wall: Great music, cool movie,  and Dr Zhivago, based on the book by Boris Pasternak.

Favorite music genre:
Black metal and death metal and Italian opera. Verdi was heavy metal of his time.

Favorite books: 
That's easy. Ever since high-school days, I've been a big fan of Russian Classics; Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Turgenev and Lermontov.

Guilty pleasure genre: 
I still enjoy the good old Zorro movies. Except from that, I'm probably a little bit nerdy; too interested in science to keep work and leisure time separate. And I love reading maps, which means I'm pretty good in geography.

(A Hero of Our Time is a thin but great book by Nicolai Lermontov, one of my very favorites. The picture above is the cover of my copy, Penguin Classics.)

The Moscow Times

Every morning, when waking up in a Moscow business hotel, you get The Moscow Times at the door. It’s Russia’s only English newspaper, and it’s a good paper.

The Moscow Times print some critical articles about the Russian government, and apparently Putin doesn’t care. The paper probably has relatively few readers among the Russian people, and stays under the radar of the regime.

Here are some highlights from the last Friday’s issue, the last one I received during my recent trip to Moscow:

'White Steam' Rally Ends in Trickle
The cross-country auto rally leading up to Saturday’s March of Millions arrives in Kaluga as just one car. 

One car only; does that make a rally? Maybe it does in Kaluga.

Pilot Error Blamed for Kamshatka Crash
The crash of an An-28 propeller plane in Kamchatka this week was likely caused by a pilot error in difficult weather conditions, a crash investigator said Thursday. 

Blame it on the dead. That’s easy, and the dead don’t argue about it. I’ve been flying many times on the An-24. No crashes yet. Good pilots, I guess. No vodka before take off.

Gessen Rebuffs Putin at a Kremlin Meeting
President Vladimir Putin invited Masha Gessen, fired as editor of the Vokrug Sveta magazine for refusing to cover his hang-gliding stunt with crane, to the Kremlin and tried to help her get her job back, but she refused.  

Putin’s macho-man show goes on. Obviously, it doesn’t impress everybody.

Investigator Killed in Likely Contract Hit
Alexander Leonov, 38, had just arrived at his house on Ulitsa Krylatskiye Kholmy about 11 pm Wednesday with his common-law wife when an unindentified assailant shot him in the head and chest, killing him.

Don't mess with the big guys. They might send a contract killer.

(Picture of the front page of The Moscow Times, taken by me. By the way, the paper can be read online as well; www.themoscowtimes.com/)

Bad guys and good guys

I haven’t been to Russia since May, but next week I’m off to Moscow again. I plan to work all week in our Moscow office.

In the evenings I’ll be running around on Red Square shouting “Free Pussy Riot”. You know, that punk band which broke into the Cathedral of Christ in Moscow, and played a song criticizing Putin and the Orthodox Church that supports him. They were sentenced to two years in prison for so-called religious hatred. 

Running around in the streets isn’t my style anymore.

In Moscow, I will just work long hours and relax in an Uzbek restaurant with a dark beer at night. I’m working for BigOil, and we’re co-operating with the bad guys (as seen from Pussy Riot’s point of view). We’re not supposed to show any political views. Get the job done, and keep quiet.

In fact, we’re co-operating with bad guys all over the world; in Africa, South America and Asia. Historically, the oil industry has a bad reputation when it comes to environment, corruption, and exploitation of poor countries (the top three are weapons, mining and oil). No good.

Officially, my company has high standards. I hope that’s the way we do it around the world, though it’s not easy, with all the weird regimes around.

But we keep your cars going. We're the good guys >:)

(I took the picture above in Moscow three years ago. I have no idea who the girl is. She's probably not a member of Pussy Riot. I just thought she had a cool outfit.)

Out of the silence

I’ve been silent for a while, for various reasons. It’s a long time since I was writing anything at all, except technical stuff at work of course.

Before the summer, I filled the last page of my notebook. Like Hemmingway, I buy these small Moleskine notebooks. I immediately bought a new one, because I always want to have one in my bag or in my pocket.

I must admit the I haven’t written a single word in it yet. I didn’t feel like writing, and summer has been busy doing all kind of things:

Vacation in Greece. When summers in the north are cold and rainy, we escape to the south for a while.
Vacation in the mountains. Gone fishing for about a week.

Painting the house. That’s a Hell of a job when you live in a 100 year old house. Hours and days scraping off old paint (of various vintages), before we even get to start the painting. Actually, we hired the kids to do most of the heavy work, in particular the highest parts. I don’t like climbing high anymore, so I sent the kids to the top. That’s what kids are for.

Summer Olympics. Spent too much time watching TV.

Working a lot. July is a great time to work, because everybody else is on vacation. No bosses around, not much mail to reply to. Time to do some science. Great fun.

Reorganization at work. Very good boss replaced by not-so-good boss. Fortunately the next reorganization will come in only 1-2 years (according to statistics).

Now the bosses are back bossing, and I’m writing e-mails and status reports rather than doing science. 

Anyway, I’m out of the silence. Time to find my new notebook

(I took the picture above some time ago when we were painting the house. It’s older boy and one of his buddies working on the uppermost level of the scaffold. Fortunately, they enjoy climbing, because I don’t)