Cultological Culture

Smugglers from eastern Europe almost sold the FBI all of Russia's uranium.
Armenian special services detained several people in a case involving an attempt to import arms into the USA, reported RIA "Novosti." This was announced on Thursday by deputy chief Grachya Arutyunyan of the Armenian National Security Service. He did say, in any case, that there was no evidence the weapons under discussion could have been exported to the USA from Armenia.
This is in reference to the arrest of Armenian citizen Artur Solomonyan and the South African Christian Devett Spies on Monday evening in a New York hotel. Another 16 were charged in the sale of eight infantry weapons. This arrest follows a year-long investigation by the FBI. It began after several Americans of South African descent (according to the Associated Press version, demolition experts) told the special services that they had been contacted by some immigrants from eastern Europe who were looking for buyers of arms manufactured in Russia.
During the investigation, according to the FBI representative, the "smugglers" were told that members of Al Qaida wanted to buy Russian weapons.
Over the course of several months negotiations were conducted with members of the group, who showed pictures of arms: automatic weapons, machine guns, anti-tank weapons and grenade-throwers that were alleged to have been manufactured in one of the former USSR republics. They said the best they could do was provide a one-time shipment of weapons-grade uranium to the USA.
According to American media, the weaspons could be obtained from Russia, Chechnia or CIS countries.
As Arutyunyan said, among the Armenian citizens arrested in the USA was Solomonyan's brother, Levon. According to the deputy chief of the National Security Service, both have been sought since 2001 by Armenian police for dodging military service. According to the Armenian special services, the brothers were students at the Selskokhozyaistvennaya Academy and left Armenia in 1998 and 2000 as part of a student exchange program, said Arutyunyan. Meanwhile, as was reported earilier by the New York Times, Artur Solomonyan represented himself as an adept of the Scientology sect in a cultural exchange to get into the USA.
Those arrested also included citizens of Georgia. As US Ambassador to Georgia Richard Miles communicated on Wednesday at a press conference, together with citizens of Armenia and a number of other eastern European countries, people charged with exporting Russian weaspon to the USA included Nikoloz Nadirashvili, Vato Machitadze, Iosif Kharabadze and Levan Shvelidze."
The country's minister of foreign affairs Salome Zurabishvili had stated that the weaspons under discussion could have reached the USA from Russia through the Rokskiy tunnel, and then across Georgian and Armenian territory. "Georgia has stated repeatedly that the central powers of Georgia needed to exert more control over the Rokskiy tunnel and other border areas. This is yet another case that shows the necessity of that. Control is necessary not only for the security of Georgia, but also for the many other countries these weapons can reach," underscored the internal intelligence chief. The minister did not present any evidence for this version of the story.
Lenta.Ru, 18.3.05

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Khakass gives cultural property to municipality.
A memorial to the soldiers of the Khakass who died in local armed conflict in Abakan and the Ankhakovsky "Ulug Khurtuyakh Tas" museum will be given to municipal formations. Such was the March 23rd resolution passed at a presidium session of the Supreme Council of the Republic of the Khakass.
While several memorials made their appearance in the republic in 2004 on the avenue of the Heroes of Socialist Labor in the Victory Park, the memorial to those fallen in local armed conflict is situated on the Provokzalnaya Square of Abakan, and the municipal museum of one exhibit "Khurtuyakh Tas" in the Askizsky district. In 2004 a special commission recognized srtuctures completed as memorials and in accordance with active legislation now needed to determine their ownership. According to a proposal by the government of the Republic of the Khakass they will go to municipal authorities.
As the Regnum Information Agency was told in the press offices of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Khakass, in the scope of preparations to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Victory, city and Republic authorities are implementing reconstruction of the memorial area in Victory Park. A new wall has been produced with the names of the Heroes of the Soviet Union, recipients of Medals of Honor and Heroes of Socialist Labor. Now as elements of a single memorial complex they are included in the register of city property, and so their care and maintenance are to be entrusted to city agencies. The residual value of the properties is nearly four million rubles. Part of the property of the Abakansky municipality will include the memorial to those fallen in local armed conflicts, which is located on the city's Provokzalnaya Square.
In 2003,the administration of the Republic of Khakass agreed with a proposal from the council on the Khakass people about moving the cult wall Ulug Khurturyakh Tas (Great stone old woman) from the hall of the Regional Studies Museum to a site of historical location not far from the Ulus (ulus [of Mongolian origin]: a stopping point for ancient nomads) of the Ankhak Askizsky district. One of the conditions for the return of the monument to the historical site was the construction of a museum for the wall. In September 2004 the festive opening of the "Ulug Khurtuyakh Tas" Ankahkovsky Municipal Museum occurred in a solemn setting and in the presence of honored guests. A building was specially erected for the exhibit in the style of a yurt. This was covered in broadcasts and press reports throughout the territory. The value of the museum's infrastructure has been estimated at one million rubles.
It was resolved to convey ownership of this to the Askizsky district. Continued apprehension about the further fate of the Khurtuyakh Tas wall itself was dispelled by Vladislav Torosov, representative of the council. At the presidum of the Khakass Republic's Supreme Council he said that the Khurtuyakh Tas belonged to the state, besides which it was on the federal register of protected historical memorials.
In recollection, the cost of the "Ulug Khurturyakh Tas" wall was assessed by a number of experts in the amount of five million dollars, and its age was said to be comparable with that of the Egyptian pyramids. In the traditional beliefs of the Khakassi and other peoples in in ancient times populated the territory of the Minusinsky Basin, Khurtuyakh Tas played a fundamental role in treating barren women. Discovered in the 1950s while tilling and ploughing soil, it was moved to the regional museum at Abakan, where it was maintained until 2003.
Regnum.Ru, 23.3.05

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On this day, March 18.
in 1797 a decree was issued in Russia on freedom of cults.
For-Ua.Com, 18.3.05

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Wireless Internet in Krasnaya Polyana ski resort.
In the very center of the mountain ski resort of Krasnaya Polyana, in the "Muenchhausen" cult bar, a new service for Internet users has appeared - "WiFi"! This is a type of access developed by modern computer geniuses to enable anyone who wants, from the common user to the professional, log on to the Internet without dialing in and without delay. This needs a hook-up with a "WiFi" option or a specially attached device that supports this service.
The service is offered absolutely free. The most stable signal and steady reception is supported in the Muenchhausen bar. In the near future, all the lower areas of the mountain resort will be covered by wireless Internet. Due to the modern outlook of the Krasnaya Polyana resort management on these things, you will easily be able to send your friends the latest photographs of yourself on the snow, to relate the joy of a sunny day to acquaintances, to find out the latest news, stock reports, weather forecasts and be on top of things while relaxing!
Source: Alpika-Servis.
Rostov.Ru, 11.3.05

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Leading Rabbi of Russia calls upon government to stop signs of religious intolerance.
On March 9, 2005, the leading rabbi of Russia, Adolf Shaevich, came forward with a statement in connection with the March 8 defacing of a synagogue in Samara. A. Shaevich backed the initiative of the leading rabbi of the Federation of Jewish Organizations of Russia (FJOR) Berl Lazar to turn to the central government with an appeal "to principally resolve the issue of crime against cult objects."
The statement says, in part, "The increase of dynamic acts of vandalism in connection with synagogues, mosques and cemeteries is approaching a dangerous limit. One of the reasons is that disruptive groups do this with impunity."
Besides that, A. Shaevich urgently appealed to include in the schedule of educational establishments a "program that combines the teaching of tolerance and toleration" and expressed a willingness "to directly participate in working out the necessary materials."
Xeno.Sova-Center.Ru, 10.3.05

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"Restorer-M" work on exhibit in Moscow architectural museum.
Today an exhibit of the work done by the "Restorer-M" scientific restoration center over the last 10 years opened in the A.V. Shchusev Architectural Museum. As a Regions.Ru correspondent was told in the museum, "Restorer-M" is a well-known scientific design organization whose staff accomplished a significant number of jobs for the research and restoration of architectural monuments. For instance, a great amount of design documentation on the restoration of the Alexandrovsky hall of the Great Kremlin palace was accomplished from 1996 to 1999. Over the course of 10 years, "Restorer-M" specialists have conducted work for the restoration of other parts of Moscow's Kremlin - the bell tower of Ivan the Great, the Kremlin Armory, the Annunciation and Mother of God memorial church.
The center's staff has complete design restoration on many cult and public buildings in Moscow: the Nikolai Church in Golutvin, the Church of the Ascension on Gorokhvoe field, the Christmas Church at Our Lady's Christmas monastery, the villa of Prince Gagarina on Armaynsky Lane, the villa of Prince Dolgoruk on Pokrovk, the Opekunsky Council building on Solyank, the facade of the Malo Manezh on Georgievsky Lane, the facade of state warehouse small building and many others.
The design center created the cupola for the Moscow choral synagogue, carrying out the restoration of the facade and the interior of the building. The center has provided restoration designs for many historical theatrical buildings of Moscow, in particular the Theater Operetta, the Young People's Theater on Teatralnaya Square, Pushkin Theater. At the present time center specialists are conducting restoration-research and design work in the framework of a program of restoration and reconstruction of the Bolshoi Theater of Russia.
The center uses new technologies for restoration it created in conjunction with the Russian Academy of Science. Using methods and algorithms developed for restoration of architectural structures, in 2002 center specialists reproduced in color a historical collection of color photographs from the 20th center, which were produced by the famous Russian photographer S.M. Prokudiny-Gorsky.
The exhibit will present aspects of restoration and design documentation, including drawings, models and photographs which give onlookers the chance to see the "internal" process of restorative research and resolution of restorative problems.
Regions.Ru, 09.3.05

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Grabovoi's totalitarian sect.
A Regnum Information Agency interview with Alexander Dvorkin.
In view of the fact of the great concern that the activities of Grabovoi's sect has aroused among the Russian public, IA Regnum called for commentary upon Professor Alexander Dvorkin, Ph.D.. M.Div, chair of the sectology department at the Orthodox St. Tikhon University of the humanities.
IA Regnum: Alexander Leonidovich, after the scandal relating to the "resurrection" of the children killed in Beslan, many questions arise. What kind of person is Grigoriy Grabovoi?
- I don't know him personally, but when he is put in context with the leaders of other sects, Grigoriy Grabovoi does not have any special secrets. Grigoriy Grabovoi creates his totalitarian sect and does this actively enough. The leader of any sect needs to come out with some basic offering: something that sets him off from all the others. According to the definition of totalitarian sect adopted in France, a totalitarian sect is an organization, the basic meaning of whose existence is power and money for management and for their immediate environment, during which time this goal is concealed under guise of religion, culture, politics, health or pseudopsychology, and which is characterized by a number of features: a deified leader or organization, deceit during recruitment, regulation of all aspects of the sect members' lives, and exploitation of adepts. All these indicators we can see in Grabovoi's sect.
We see that this person is undoubtedly striving for power and money and very aggressive about this. We see that in pursuit of unrestricted power he uses various guises. There are also religious elements in Grabovoi's system. He proclaims himself to be a new manifestation of Jesus Christ. He uses pseudo-medical elements, which include rejuvenation, improvement of health and resurrection of the dead. He also uses pseudo-psychological elements. He promises living success as a result of taking his courses and also the corresponding political elements, relating to his announcing his candidacy for president. We also see the basic signs: a deified leader of an organization, deceit during recruitment, regulation of all aspects of adepts' lives and exploitation of adepts. According to all the parameters, this is a totalitarian sect, and Grabovoi is the leader of a totalitarian sect.
Grabovoi promises improved health, rejuvenation and finally, resurrection from the dead. This is his distinguishing product that he puts on the market of religious (and pseudo-religious) services. Although there are other sects that have promised resurrection from the dead in the history of sectology, those came to an end, because proof that their promises had been fulfilled was required. Grabovoi really did this in such a cunning way. He said that those living illegally in Moscow are the same ones he resurrected, and he says it is not acknowledged that they have been revivified, so they are sent to psychiatric hospitals. And so the more some poor illegal is convinced that he has not been resurrected, the stronger the Grabovoists believe their sect leader's assertions.
Grabovoi's presidential campaign is calculated to recruit new sect supporters. I think that Grigoriy Grabovoi understands perfectly well that his chances of becoming president are practically null, but he is conducting the campaign to attract new supporters. I don't know whether or not Grabovoi has been psychiatrically evaluated, since that information is closed to us. It is obvious that many leaders of totalitarian sects have serious mental problems.
[...]
Regnum.Ru, 11.3.05

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Mark Knopfler to sing about 1960s Malibu in the Kremlin.
Mark Knopfler's only concert in Russia is being held 27 April in the Kremlin. Moscow is one of a number of cities on a world tour backing his new "Shangril-La" album.
The fourth disk of the former leader of the cult group is named after his famous studio in Malibu, where in their day Bob Dillan, Neal Young, the Band and others performed. "Shangri-La" has fourteen songs that were written and arranged by the musician in the spirit of the 1960s, noted Intermedia. These are basically ballads mixed with blues, country and rock. Mark Knopfler is scheduled to sing all 14 songs from his new album at the capital city concert with, of course, the musician's best known hits.
MusicKM.Ru, 15.3.05

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Moscow Duma to examine banning religion-motivated badgering of pedestrians.
In the near future, the Moscow City Duma plans to examine a legislature proposal about the Administrative codes of the city of Moscow, reported a "Portal-Credo.Ru" correspondent.
The document provides for a fine of from 100 to 300 rubles for attempting to badger people on the street for religious purposes or for fortune-telling. Besides that, people are going to be prohibiting from walking their dogs in cemeteries.
The law provides punitive sanctions for insistent conduct with religious motivation toward pedestrians, which to day is in force in the Belgorodsky region. However, nothing has been reported about the possibility of levying a fine for this sort of activity in Belgorodsky region.
Portal-Credo.Ru, 01.3.05

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Korn guitarist baptized in the River Jordan.
The guitarist of the cult rock group "Korn," Brian "Head" Welch was baptized on Saturday in the "Kineret" kibbutz. Head made a special trip to Israel to undergo the ritual of Baptism in the waters of the River Jordan, which is conducted annually for several thousand Christian pilgrims.
After having spent many years creating for himself the image of a "free rocker," which included a pointed use of drugs, several weeks ago Head told his fans that he was leaving "Korn" in order to enter the bosom of the Baptist Church.
Brian Welch, one of the founders of the legendary group that sold several platinum albums, has now found himself at the head of a group of 20 pilgrims who were baptized the day before yesterday by Pastor Ron Vietti.
After the ritual of Baptism, Head said that the waters of the Jordan washed away his anger. "You know, when you get angry and it builds up? I felt like hurting someone before. Now I feel like hugging people."
Pastor Vietti also said that there was already a group of young people who had been inspired by Head's story who came to his church in Bakersfield, California with a request to help them devote their lives to Christianity.
Currently the famous rocker is planning to start writing thanksgiving hymns.
cursorinfo.co.il, 07.3.05

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Unknown people burst into the offices of the National Bolshevist Party in Moscow today.
As NBP press secretary Alexander Averin reported to ECHO, the incident took place about two o'clock, when persons unknown used gas to occupy part of the office spaces. The National Bosheviks barricaded themselves into one room and called the police. Since then one of the participants in the takeover of the offices, named Roman, gave his version of events to "Echo" in an interview.
"Our friend Sergei Goncharov landed in this sect some time ago," he said. "We decided to clear up his fate, especially since the authorities did not react to the incident."
And now, as NBP press secretary Alexander Averin stated to ECHO, their headquarters had been freed, and the assailants detained.
Echo.Msk.Ru, 05.3.05

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Sect chief running for President.
Passing himself off as Jesus Christ, "academy graduate" Grigoriy Grabovoi, the sect chief who promised residents of Beslan who had lost their children in the terrorist act to "resurrect" them for 39,000 rubles apiece (!), has decided to become president of Russia in 2004. In a special February edition of the "Prognoz" newspaper he publishes G. Grabovoi specifically wrote that one of the items on his "presidential program" would be "passing a law that in any case would be enacted. This is the law on prohibiting death."
According the sect, the "Prognoz" newspaper was distributed in the State Duma, the Council of the Federation and to the administration of the President of Russia. This was met with protest.
From: Regnum.Ru, 05.3.05

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Hitler had an atom bomb, though quite a poor one.
The Soviet spy Maxim Maximovich Isaev, more widely known as Standardtenfuehrer Stierlitz, did not save the world from the Nazi atomic bomb. The cult Soviet serial "Seventeen Minutes of Spring" refutes Rainer Karlsch's book, which the German DVA publishing company is supposed to release on March 14. The author asserts that at the very end of the Second World War, Germany had the opportunity to produce a nuclear weapon. The book unpretentiously announces: "Sensational results. In 1944-45, under SS supervision, German scientists conducted tests of atomic bombs on the island of Ruegen. During this time hundreds of convicts and prisoners of war perished."
The announcement also said that "from the documentation that verifies the execution of nuclear tests, Karlsch also discovered a 1941 project for plutonium bombs, along with the first industrial German atomic reactor in the outskirts of Berlin."
In the meantime, the Germany mass media expressed serious doubts as to the authenticity of the upcoming "sensation." The German newspaper, "Suddeutsche Zeitung," was upset with the words of Mark Walker, who consented to lift the veil of secrecy from the yet-to-be-released book. It asserted that in the last months of the war, scientists of the Third Reich supposedly made desperate attempts to finalize the work on the atomic bomb. "Physicists took pre-enriched uranium (a small part of the material that was used to produce the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima), enclosed it with ordinary explosive material and detonated it. That's not how you make an atomic bomb. So the explosive material exploded and scattered particles of uranium," the newspaper wrote.
American scientists assert that after the war Kurt Dibner and Walter Gerlach preferred to keep silent about the experiments they performed at the time. In the opinion of the German publication, if the tests were done exactly as Walker described, then it was plain why the physicians were not ready to provide the details of their past. The story there did not lie in the unwillingness to talk about the fact of collaboration with the Nazis, as much as it did in similar stories, told with permission, that said experts would ridicule the "nuclear tests."
A feeling was created that the "sensational" book would be very similar to the Soviet blockbuster about Stierlitz. It's unlikely to have as artistic merit as it does authenticity.
Utro.Ru, 05.3.05, Dmitriy Kartsev

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Belorusian Eurovision participant already in Kiev.
The Belorusians have already selected their candidate for Eurovision 2005. She is Angelika Agurbash. She is visiting Kiev today. The mother of three children, former singer for the "Verasy" group, holder of the Miss Russia title and the first winner in the history of Belorusian beauty competition, Angelika Agurbash plans to sing "Boys and Girls" for the competition jury. She says the main thing in her appearance in not the show, but serious social support for song. However, Kievians can expect a surprise from the Belorusian woman.
Novy.tv/ru, 27.2.05

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Russia to save the world from Matrix and postmodernism.
On February 24, the Institute of National Strategy, led by renowned political scientist Stanislav Belkovsky, offered a lecture "The New Middle Ages. Doctrine of Russia in the 21st century." The lecture defined the basic strategy of RF development in the new millennium. Interestingly, earlier theoretical computations of S. Belkovsky and his colleagues have repeatedly found a direct course into the altogether practical actions of the Russian authorities.
The new strategy is based on the main threat to the existence of civilization at the present time being postmodernism. A large part of the 69-page INS work describes how the virus of this "cynical philosophy," which denies not only the presence of God, but of truth, ethics and even the most objective reality, over the period of the last half of the 20th century, penetrated the minds of people in western countries, was blended with esoteric teachings and Buddhism exported from the East, and how this mixture infected everything, from art to politics.
In the opinion of the lecture's authors, in sum, people infected with postmodernism and eastern philosophy, whose ancestors at some point believed in one God and the possibility of salvation, began to deny the existence of universal values and acquiesced to "everything's the same as everything else."
Such a view of the world is the best possible approach to justify total pragmatism and a faith in the supremacy of technology, which is typical for contemporary western consciousness. "Now the empty movement need only surmount the last barrier and become a legitimate ideology, supported by a political power," the INS noted in its work.
The main outpost of this cynical interpretation of the world in the new Russian strategy is the USA, which endeavors to spread the virus of postmodernism far and wide. "Neopragmatism and the American version of postmodernism gradually begin to blend quite well with the unwritten state ideology of the USA, the theoretical refinement of cult economic effectiveness and success (for which "anything goes"), and an uncomprehending indifference to the question about truth," says the speech.
The quintessence of American ideology is like the postmodernist superstate in the religion in "Matrix." The "Matrix Religion" is the doctrine, aggravated by the crude products of the American culture industry, about man's dissolving in an all-embracing technosphere, creating a new (virtual) illusory world controlled by a new god, an anthropomorphous creature, reminiscent of the average US citizen (plural agent Smiths from the movie), but with unlimited intellectual development, capable of influencing any field of world events," says the speech.
The INS considers the second pole of the world's postmodernist conspiracy to be China. "Imitating a new era of crusade, the USA is endeavoring to split the triple unit of abrahamistic tradition (Christianity, Judaism and Islam), while traditional China attempts, in so far as this is possible, to maximally consolidate, preserve and broaden the region of non-monotheistic religiosity (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism). Thus "finding themselves in symmetrical points of the process of Babylonian confusion they also represent superstates," suggest institute analysts.
As a result, the authors deem, in the near future the world is bound to run into with American or Chinese expansion. In the opinion of Belkovsky and his colleagues, 21st century world civilization may expect a battle between postmodernism and the return to one God and universal values for civilization in the New Middle Ages. Russia should become a leader in the world religious Renaissance. The basic idea includes the concept that the development of the Russian state can be reasonable only if a sense of the basic mission of our country emerges for people and state. For this all government activity should get a religious assessment, assert the INS analysts, who emphasize that the topic is not about any particular denomination, but monotheism on the whole, as well as about a medium of universal values.
The authors further suggest that Russia begin the 21st century with the conception of "Moscow - the Third Rome." According to that conception our country has the same legacy as Rome and Byzantium and therefore we have the mission of "maintaining" political order and control, with which the armed forces hold the advance of anarchy of the world in check.
Besides that, the authors recall that the government can appeal to Orthodoxy to spur on economics, because the Orthodox faith presumes the construction of an apparatus of collective salvation; there is the liberation of the people from the struggle for survival and providing them access to churches and holy sites. In this way, economics does not develop so easily in an Orthodox civilization, as it turns into a service of spirituality.
Source: Lenta.Ru
Yuga.Ru, 27.2.05

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Pandas fell victim to ancient Chinese cult.
An ancient Chinese cult offered pandas in sacrifice, reports the Sinhua agency. The story about the tragic fate of the ancient bamboo bear was told by the bone of the animal discovered in 2001 during excavation of a cemetery lot of the Neolithic era in central China.
Then archeologists mistakenly thought the bone was part of a pig skeleton. In 2003, doubts emerged among scholars about how accurate that interpretation of the find was. Further research yielded that the bone belonged to a great panda. As Chinese archeologists assert, the bamboo bears were offered in sacrifice nearly 4,000 years ago, during the late Neolthic era.
The burial ritual, in which the sacrificial animals were buried along with the dead, originated about 8,000 years ago. According to the information from the archeologists, pigs and dogs were originally offered in sacrifice. The discovery proves the hypothesis that the great panda was an object of the hunt for the ancient Chinese.
At present in China there are nearly a thousand great pandas in the wild. Their basic natural dwelling habitat is the southwest province of Sychuan, where several reserves had been created. In the Khubai province, where the panda bones were found, the bamboo bear can no longer be found.
RIA "Novosti"
MigNews.Com.Ua, 25.2.05

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Cube: popular cult game on Pocket PC platform.
If you have a Dell Axim X50v, then you can quickly load the newly offered version, which comes with start-up text.
As the pocketgamer.org page reported for Guizmox, the Intel company completed the porting of the well-known, one might say, cult game of Cube to the Pocket PC platform. In particular, it can successfully be used on the Dell Axim X50v machine due to its having the proper 3D acceleration.
The game's throughput runs at 10FPS on the X50v, although this simply carries the code without any kind of optimization. So if you have an X50v, then you quickly load the ported version, even with the start-up text, from its official page. You can play the game everyday!
Pocketgames.Ru, 02.3.05

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Earth, Wind & Fire press conference.
At noon, March 3, club Jazz Town club is hosting a press conference - music of our city, to celebrate the launch of the Storm International BV program at the club. The 1970s cult jazz rock group Earth, Wind & Fire will participate in the press conference. They are opening the concert series, at which world performers will play various types of jazz, for Storm International BV and club Jazz Town. Attending the conference will be: Storm International BV president Michael Bottcher, and Ralph Johnson, Verdin White and Phillip Bailey of Earth, Wind and Fire. Club Jazz Town is on Taganskaya Square.
MosInform.Ru, 02.3.05

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Cultu.Ru project launched in Russia
The best performances of Russian theater will now be able to be viewed on the Internet. As planned, each recording of a theatrical performance broadcast on land and satellite channels will be broadcast on the Internet.
The project is a continuation of the "Theatrical Web" festival successfully held in fall 2004. Seven theaters took part in the festival, including the Masters of Peter Fomenko, the Ten theater, the Theater of Music and Poetry led by Elena Kamburova and the Helikon Opera. Back then the theatrical productions could be seen by nearly 2,000 people in 52 countries of the world.
The primary mission of the new project is to provide all interested viewers the possibility to use the current technology of the Internet to familiarize themselves with the history of the domestic Russian arts. Cultu.Ru! was planned as an informational channel for all domestic cultural life, but it opens with broadcasts and coverage of theatrical events. The first performance will be in March. This will be "Meshchane," a performance by Georgiy Tovstonogov in St. Petersburg's Large Theater of Drama.
The "Golden Fund" series by domestic producers of the second half of the 20th century continues with performances of Oleg Efremov, Anatoliy Efros, Mark Zakharov and Peter Fomenko. The shows will deal with children's theater on the project's web site, ITAR-TASS reported. Some of the performances will have English sub-texts. Kultu.Ru! is supported by the Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography and the RF Theatrical Actors Union. (See http://www.cultu.ru/)
(E1.Ru)
DvinaInform.Ru, 24.2.05

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Goblin will be in Orenburg.
This week Orenburg's charitable "Evraziya" foundation and the Orenburg section of the Translators Union of Russia will have an unusual meeting. The name of the person, who goes by the pseudonym of Goblin, is known only to a close circle of the initiated. Practically no one knows him in person. At the same time, the mark "V perevode Goblina" ("In translation of Goblin") on the cassettes or disks of American movies is a brand known to all foreign movie fans.
Dmitriy Luchkov - and that is the name of the translator who makes the sound tracks for American movies under the pseudonym of Goblin - will be in Orenburg all day Friday, February 25. According to the invitations from the "Kosmos" movie theater, he made the sound track "live" to the movie premiering there that day. The Russian audience is familiar with the "in one voice" translations of Goblin in "Thirteenth warrior," "Matrix," and a number of other pictures.
The "Evraziya" foundation managed to arrange one public meeting for the cult figure of the Russian movie industry. Students and teachers who study the English language and translation, members of the Translators Union of Russia and journalists have been invited to the encounter with the translator, which is taking place at 3 p.m. on February 25 in the big reading room at the Krupskaya regional library. There they will be able to get first-hand information about Goblin's "correct" and "funny" translation, about why there is constant criticism for his use of a non-standard vocabulary, and about what prompted him to create the sensational "Antiboomer" and the parody of "Lord of the Rings." The "Orenburg Avialinin" state aircraft company supported the "Evraziya" foundation and the Orenburg section of the Translators Union of Russia in this non-commercial project.
Oren.Ru, 22.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110953105761762116

40 years ago Malcolm X, the leader of the "Nation of Islam," was killed.
On February 21, 1965, Malcolm X, the leader of the "Nation of Islam," an influential organization of Afro-Americans, was killed in Harlem. He was 39 years old at the time.
In 1946, Malcolm Little, (his family name) found himself in prison - he had been sentenced to six years for robbery. After being released he assumed a different name and began propagating his ideology.
In 1952 the ranks of the "Nation of Islam" contained a total of 500 members. After 11 years, the small sect had turned into a religious and political organization of 30,000. Malcolm X called upon blacks to trust each other and asserted that the community could exist of and through itself. This view quickly gained popularity among Afro-Americans, as well as among the leaders of African states.
He quit the "Nation of Islam" in 1964. Having made a pilgrimage to Mecca, Malcolm X changed his views of the racial problem. Upon returning to the USA, X began to change the tone of his lectures, so that they found resonance among Americans against blacks. Presumably, it was Malcolm X's change of position that led to his death.
40 years later the Malcolm X and Doctor Betty Shabaz educational and memorial center, dedicated to the legacy of the founder of the Nation of Islam, opened in New York.
Nrs.Com, 21.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110953102491452764

"Agatha Christie" celebrates birthday on StarChat.Ru.
On February 17, the Starchat.ru project and the Cafemax Internet centers network will play host to the legendary Russian group, "Agatha Christie."
The Internet conference will be devoted to the group's birthday (17 years old), which by tradition "Agatha Christie" will celebrate in the the capital city SDK MAI on 20 February 2005.
The group has performed in Sverdlovsk for the 17 years it has been in operation. During this period it attained cult status, and several generations of fans have grown up on its songs.
Nestor.Minsk.By, 14.2.05, Elena Yachmennikova

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110953099486029117

Arkhangel Region’s Kenizero Park added to UNESCO list.
Kenozero National Park, which is located in Arkhangel Region, is being granted a certificate for inclusion on UNESCO's World Foundation of biospheric reserves list. The world organization will send the corresponding document to park director Elena Shatkovskaya, reported the Arkhangel region's administration. According to Shatkovskaya, this award to Kenozero Park was conferred in the realm of its work in the "People & Biosphere" program, the goal of which is preservation of diversity in the natural world and the harmonious relationship between people and nature. Presently the world network of biospheric reserves encompasses over 420 protected sites in 94 countries. Its goal is the conservation of a variety of plant life, animals and microorganisms. With regard to the Sevilskiy strategy, which was accepted in 1995, biospheric land needs to fulfill the conservation function, the function of diversity and the function of scientific-technical protection. In Russia, 31 sites are included in the network of biospheric reserves with the Kenozero National Park - 3 national parks and 28 preserves. The Kenozero National Park was formed on December 28, 1991. On a small site within the confines of the park are more than 100 unique architectural monuments of world significance. Among them are 64 cult buildings of the traditional ancient architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries, architectural ensembles, churches and chapels. Their artistic value is increased by the well-preserved paintings in the interiors: icons, church implements, along with a painting of 'heaven," a monumental mural of a biblical theme in the dome of the church. Kenozero is of tectonic origin, the lake has an area of 100 sq. km., a depth of 90 meters, but the length of the shore line is 350 km.
source: IA "Interfax"
Rsia.Ru, 17.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110885042246735180

Release of the global on-line role game "The Matrix" begins March 22 in the States.
The Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment company officially announced the exact date of the release of "The Matrix Online" game, which had been postponed from the middle of January to spring. According to the new report, the first mass multi-user test of Monolith Productions will occur March 22 - that is the day for release in the USA. Users from Europe can connect to "Matrix" in April. That and other amusements are found in the world famous movie trilogy by the Vachovsky brothers for those who see fit to pay the 15 bucks a month traditional for the genre, not counting the 50 bucks for the game box.
Dtf.Ru, 14.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110885039522967713

Poets of Russian Rock festival held in St. Petersburg.
A music festival is being held February 18 in the Yubileyniy center in St. Petersburg, with the groups "DDT," "Kalinov Bridge," "Civil Defense," and "Kukryniksy." The occasion is the release of the 10-volume anthology "Poets of Russian Rock." The idea of making this sort of "anthology of works" was hatched long ago by a group of Petersburg producers in active support of the rock poets themselves. The latter readily provided their lyrics and copyrights. One of the initiators of the project was Yuriy Shevchuk. Now the publication of the anthology is led by Anton Soya along with his partner in many projects, Igor Gudkov, reported "MK in Petersburg."
The anthology of domestic rock poetry in ten volumes is the first large-scale attempt to publish the texts of all the significant authors of Russian rock. Each of them is accompanied by a short biography of the rock heroes. The publication permits review of the evolution of domestic rock texts and will undoubtedly be of interest to admirers of rock music as well as to fans of contemporary poetry. Different schools of contemporary rock poetry will be represented at the festival.
In 2005 the cult Russian rock group "DDT" celebrates a quarter century of existence.
NewsRu.Com, 07.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110829515669741677

"Psikheya" performs in Moscow with "LTIP" on February 5 in the capital's "Tochka" club. This well-known group from St. Petersburg plays highly energetic cyber-punk and is generally considered one of the most powerful concert groups in Russia. Two years ago, the group was privileged to perform as a warm-up act for "Soulfly" in the Gorbunov cultural center. "Psikheya" is now busy releasing its own concert DVD.
The Vyborg cult punk group "Last Tango in Paris" will be supporting the group from St. Petersburg in the "Tochka" club. It has seldom been seen in Moscow, but its last concert there was in November, for the release of its new album "2084."
KM.Ru, 06.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110829512640401128

Jewish architecture exhibit opens in Berlin.
Jewish national self-realization is reflected in the mirror of an architecture exhibit that opens in the Berlin Jewish Museum. On display will be models, sketches and photographs of 17 forms of modern Jewish architecture throughout the world. Those attending the exhibit can also view photographs of tradition cult and educational structures of Jewish architects. The Jewish museum itself was built as a project of the famous architect, Daniel Liebeskind.
Jewish.Ru, 06.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110829509425109661

Scottish cult punk rockers perform in Krasnodar.
The exact date the Scottish punk group "The Exploited" was to appear in Krasnodar was well known. The legendary punkers were to perform in the Kubansky capital after Moscow and Saint Petersburg, February 21. The first time these Scots played in Russia was in a punk festival in both capitals back in 1998; then in 2001 they paid a second visit. In 2005 "The Exploited" are on tour to celebrate 25 years of existence in 2005. In connection the occasion, the group produced "Twenty Five Years of Anarchy Chaos" (their last studio release "Fuck The System" came out in 2003). The exact location "The Exploited" will be playing in Krasnodar is not yet available, but tickets are already going for from 400 to 600 rubles. The organizers have given notice that the security at the concert will be abundant to ward of gate-crashers. Security will also be strict in that concert-goers may be escorted out and have their money refunded for no reason.
Source: "Muz-zone Yuga"
Yuga.Ru, 05.2.05

archive url: http://cultology.blogspot.com/2005/02/#110829502410829990

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