rigorousintuition.ca

RT

Olympic torch blasted into space (PHOTOS, VIDEOS)

November 07, 2013

A Soyuz spacecraft has blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, carrying the Olympic torch for the first time in history. In just a few minutes, the spacecraft will reach space on a shortcut trip to the International Space Station.

This launch has been dedicated to Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, so both the Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft and Soyuz-FG rocket booster were decorated in Sochi Winter Olympics colors to mark the unusual cargo.


The crew for the historic 38/39 mission on the International Space Station consist of commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, Rick Mastracchio of NASA and Koichi Wakata of Japan’s JAXA.

The veteran astronauts, who spent two-and-a-half years preparing for the flight, took part in the torch relay on Earth, taking the Sochi Olympic flame from their hotel to the bus which delivered them to the launch pad to transfer the torch to the ISS and bring it back to Earth.

Although the flame will not be burning aboard the ISS for safety reasons, the torch will be carried through all the station’s modules and taken for a spacewalk.


JAXA astronaut Koichi Wakata, RSA cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin and NASA astronaut Richard Mastracchio (bottom to top) boarding the spacecraft. (RIA Novosti/Anton Denisov)

The torch will spend only five days in orbit and will return back to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-09M along with the current ISS crew - Fyodor Yurchikhin, Karen Nyberg and Luca Parmitano. (more)

Link

RT

Olympic torch visits North Pole (AMAZING PHOTOS, VIDEO)
October 25, 2013

A Russian nuclear-propelled icebreaker has brought the Olympic torch relay to the North Pole in a first-ever trip to the top of the world during the polar night.

The cold-defying ship also broke an Arctic speed record. The trip to the pole, which started in the port of Murmansk, took just 91 hours, 12 minutes. Over less than four days the ship covered 1,395 nautical miles, at an average of 15.3 miles per hour. For half the distance, the icebreaker had to traverse ice sheets.

“This sailing was unique for two reasons. It was the first time an Olympic torch was brought to the North Pole, and it was the first time a surface vessel made the trip in autumn,” said Artur Chilingarov, Russia’s veteran Arctic explorer who headed a 2008 expedition that planted a Russian flag on the seabed at the pole.

RT's James Brown witnessed the torch's epic journey to the top of the world.

Once the ship was in place, expedition members performed a torch relay both aboard the icebreaker and on the 1.3-meter thick polar ice sheet. Torch bearers were selected from the eight member countries of the Arctic Council – Russia, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Canada, the US, Iceland and Denmark – to symbolize international unity in the region.

Canadian downhill ski racer Steve Podborski was the one to bring the Olympic fire from the ship to the ice. Down on the ice sheet the torch bearers, one for each Arctic nation, circled a symbolic polar marker, which organizers put in place prior to the ceremony. The marker pointed directions and distances to capitals of the eight countries, as well as the 2014 Olympic host city, Sochi.

The relay ended with the lighting of an Olympic cauldron and a breathtaking light show, which was projected onto ice around the fire.

The next section of the torch relay will bring the fire to the bottom of Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest freshwater lake, the peak of Mount Elbrus – Europe’s highest mountain – and even to the International Space Station.

DrVolin wrote:

82_28 » Thu Nov 07, 2013 6:18 am wrote:I wonder if there is a Russian equivalent of RI (or something along those lines). . .

Russia is an equivalent to RI.

I think you just delete an obnoxious post that just wasted a lot of time for me scrolling through it.)

Elihu » Thu Nov 07, 2013 1:31 pm wrote:it is intended to provide useful information. those are the current facts. i thought puttin it under the russian thread was a pun! get it? besides as your financial advisor you will have to reveal the source of your healthcare or opt for the penalty which can now be calculated, starting in a little over a year, reaching 2.5% off the top within three years as i read it. $400 B in taxes. that's half the document. will post the other half upon request.

The Olympic Torch Relay arrives in the historic city of Vologda.
October 21, 2013


Torchbearer Father Frost, Russia’s version of Santa Claus, passes through Vologda as part of the celebratory procession.
October 21, 2013

" i thought puttin it under the russian thread was a pun! get it?"

Not really. It just seems rude to me.

Will you please take it somewhere else?

Back in the U.S. of Was
Sung to the tune of The Beatles' "Back in the USSR"

(sound of airplane - intro)

*Ooooooh...*
Flew in from the EU on an armored flight
The Marshal wouldn't let me pee
His interrogation took me half the night
But the plastic flag was free.

I'm back in the U.S. of Was -
Evil is as evil DOES, boy -
Back in the U.S. of Was!

Been away a MONTH - I hardly know the place
Was this really freedom's home?
Leave it to John Ashcroft to unpack my case
Honey disconnect the phone -

(music stops abruptly, monologue)

and don't forget to take out the batteries, like last time... yeah, I'm pulling the plug on the modem and the satellite cable, let's draw the shades here, where is that music coming from? is the TV still on? can they hear you through the microwave? where is the play station? what do you think, should I raise or lower my meds? what about the baby phone? kill the lights, no just kill the fusebox... is it off yet? can they hear us? Can we talk? etc.

...I'm back in the U.S. of nine-one-one
When will "they" blow up another one?
Back in the U.S. - back in the U.S. - back in the land on the run!

Well, the Homeland girls really knock me out
They've left The West behind
DC girls know to duck and shout
And Florida's always on my muh muh muh muh muh muh muh muh mind.

(over instrumental - carnival barker)

"Poindexter! Kissinger! Papa Bush! Rumsfeld! Cheney! The Wolfowitz Cabal! The Iran-Contra Killers! Halliburton Bechtel UNOCAL Enron! The Carlyle Group! And their Special Guests, the Saudi Binladin Family, are Proud to Present: An American Junta! To Prevent Peace in Our Time."

I'm back in the U.S. of W (pronounced: double-you)
Ya never thought it would happen to YOU?
Back in the Land of the Coup!

*dum dum dum*
Oh, the Master's Voice it will strike you dead
He'll sort out ours from yours
*dum dum dum*
Teevee's gonna fix up everything He said
The year is always nineteen-nineteen-nineteen-nineteen eighty-four

Point me to your camera way up in the sky!
Seed me with your magic chip!
I wanna hear the evil-doer's dying cry!
Shrug and let those missiles rip!

I'm back in the U.S. of Was -
Evil is as evil DOES, boy -
Back in the U.S.S.R.!

(over outro - carnival barker)
"That's the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! Your old nightmare, back today for a repeat performance - in the former United States of America!"
(airplane landing - boom)

http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/3998? ... kIXxYyx0sI

We demand the truth about Nadya Tolokonnikova!

Nadya Tolokonnikova is gone.

On October 21, the jailed Pussy Riot member was taken from her prison colony in Mordovia for protesting the jail’s “slave-like” conditions by Russian authorities. While en route to a new prison, the 23-year-old disappeared — and Nadya’s family still has no proof she’s even alive.

At best, Nadya has been cut off from the outside world, the only legal way Putin has left to torture Pussy Riot and their families. At best, Nadya is mutilated or dead — and the least we’re willing to demand is answers.

Don’t let Nadya become another one of Vladimir Putin’s victims. If she’s still alive, raising our voices will help keep her that way, forcing him to reveal her whereabouts and comfort her loved ones. Don’t wait — write Putin’s government today!

PETITION TO VLADIMIR PUTIN: Tell us the truth about what's happened to Nadya Tolokonnikova, and let her family know where she is and if she's alright.

its actual sins (that it's not a universal, socialist or single-payer health care program as found in more civilized nations, unfortunately, but a bailout for capitalist insurance companies)

Make sure to emphasize its imagined sins

Olympic Talk

Sochi Olympic torch relay dives into world’s deepest freshwater lake (video, photos)

Nick Zaccardi
Nov 23, 2013, 8:19 AM EST

The Olympic flame plunged into Lake Baikal on Saturday. A man with a jetpack then carried it above the lake to shore.

>snip<