Posts Tagged ‘fuck putin’

Russian Lie of the Week: Putin T-shirt Business in NYC

Thursday, October 9th, 2014

There’s a guy from New Jersey with Lithuanian roots selling Putin t-shirts on East 20th Street in New York City, who came up with the idea and financing himself.

So how does an office manager for Goetz Firzpatrick LLP come up with the financing to pay rent, print shirts and still have enough left over to pay for two bodyguards?

Retail space in that neighborhood goes for $400 per square foot. You can buy plain shirts for $6 each, then print them yourself. Selling them at $25 each, he probably needs to sell 2,000 shirts per month for any hope of breaking even.

Besides one piece in The Atlantic, the only media reporting this bullshit is RT, RIA Novosti and ITAR-TASS. All direct outlets for Putin and chief liar Kisilev.

However, the best Putin T-shirt ever seen in New York was ФАК ПУТІН (transliterated cyrillic for “fuck putin”), at a demonstration at the Russian Consulate in September, which was notably commented upon by the diplomatic guards (Russian FSB).


Russian Lie of the Week: We Build Base on Moon

Friday, October 3rd, 2014

You will go and plant Russian flag. Rename it “Mootin.”

With all the sanctions in place against major industries in Putin’s Russian Empire, it’s become increasingly difficult to sell $65 million Proton launches. Add that to illusion of “Russian quality” in manufacturing, and you’ve got a direct route to failure.

So what’s psycho dickhead’s master plan for his space industry? Plan a manned mission to the Moon! Via ITAR-TASS, the drunk derelicts who can’t get a decent translator for their site…

Russia’s Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) plans to begin full-scale exploration of the Moon in late 2020s-early 2030s, Roscosmos chief Oleg Ostapenko said on Tuesday.

“At the end of the next decade, we plan to complete tests of a super-heavy-class carries rocket and begin full-scale exploration of the Moon,” he said at a government meeting chaired by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. “By that time, based on the results of lunar surface exploration by unmanned space probes, we will designate most promising places for lunar expeditions and lunar bases,” Ostapenko added.

Let’s hope it’s not another Foton-M 1 launch. That was “bloody hell.”

It’s probably a reaction to plug holes in the Russian brain bucket, which is leaking journalists and middle-class professionals. Pussy Riot confirmed this while visiting Harvard.


Lost in Space: Fruit Flies, Mushrooms and Geckos

Friday, July 25th, 2014

Too bad Geico doesn’t offer spacecraft insurance. The Russians could use some help, as they hold a large share of both launch and in-orbit failures.

I feel bad for the researchers suffering the latest Russian space program setback, the in-orbit loss-of-control for the Foton M-4 spacecraft, carrying a payload of geckos, fruit flies and mushrooms.

Russia’s Progress space firm confirmed Thursday that the Foton-M4 satellite was not responding to commands from the ground to start its onboard engine and lift it to a higher orbit.

However the company said in a statement that all other systems on the satellite, which was launched on July 19, were operating normally and information from the scientific experiments was being transmitted to the ground.

“The equipment which is working in automatic mode, and in particular the experiment with the geckos is working according to the programme,” said Oleg Voloshin, a spokesman of Russia’s Institute of Medico-Biological Problems, which is running the experiment.

The two-month mission is monitoring by video how well the geckos sexually reproduce in space, according to the Institute’s website.

Progress said the design of the Foton-M4 “allows for the functioning of the satellite in automatic mode for a long time.”

A space expert cited by Interfax said that in its current orbit the satellite could stay up in space as long as three or four months.

OK, so maybe they can’t control the thrusters, but all else is working.

Perhaps the resulting “Russian lizard sex in space” video will compete with the popularity of Russian dash cam videos.


No Free Speech or Paids Ads in Russia

Wednesday, July 16th, 2014

The remnants of totalitarian communism in Russia refuses to go away. Putin’s mafia-style government first tried to take down the satellite TV signal of Dozhd, one of the few remaining independent channels. The channel is available via Yamal 300K, Eutelsat 36B, Astra 4A, and Dish Network in the U.S. (via Anik F3).

Now the government wants to ban advertising on any channel beside FTA television, most of which is state-owned or controlled. Removing one of the main sources of revenue is their way of putting them out of business.

Dozens of small and independent Russian television stations could face closure after lawmakers approved a controversial bill banning advertising on cable and satellite channels.

The proposal would also consolidate state-controlled channels’ dominance of the advertisement market.

The surprise bill raced through Russia’s State Duma, the lower house of parliament, last week, sailing through its three compulsory readings in just two sessions.

Excluded from the ban are “national, compulsory, universally accessible” channels and those conveyed by terrestrial broadcasting — meaning all the state-controlled channels that currently dominate Russian television.

Advocates say the new law aims to end unfair competition on the television market, where pay channels supposedly benefit from mixed funding schemes — subscription fees and advertising — while free broadcast channels are limited to commercials.

But the heads of 15 pay channels, including Natalya Sindeyeva of opposition-leaning Dozhd TV, have written a letter to the government warning that the ban will sound the death knell for more than half of Russia’s cable and satellite channels.

“Excluding the advertising model could place about 150 thematic pay channels on the brink of survival,” the letter says. “Raising payments for television services may lead to understandable customer dissatisfaction.”

The signatories also warn that the new law will hurt small and medium-sized businesses currently advertising on pay channels since “only big-business representatives can afford advertising on federal channels.”

Read the letter in Russian here. Behold the quick translation into English…

From an article in the newspaper “Kommersant” from 26/06/14, we were surprised to learn that in the State Duma in an expedited manner planned to adopt a package of amendments to the “Law on Advertising.” Our keen interest aroused amendment prohibiting advertising on pay channels. We believe that consideration of this amendment, the State Duma of the Russian Federation should take into account the following circumstances:

1. Absolutely no obvious reason why television channels necessary in law to impose a particular model in the market. We believe that any TV channel can select or advertising model, or paid, or mixed. The choice of a model should be determined solely by market mechanisms rather than the provisions of the legislation. According to our information the absence of such legislative restrictions characteristic of the vast majority of countries around the world.

2. Most pay-TV channels now uses both models of monetization of their business – and advertising and paid. Exception advertising model will deliver about 150 paid thematic channels on the brink of survival. It is possible, the financial burden will be shifted to the subscribers. Services of the largest Russian operators used by tens of millions of Russian citizens. Increased pay for TV service can lead to understandable frustration consumers.

3. Please note that the central channels of essential federal campaigns can afford only representatives of big business. For medium and small business advertising on such channels is not available due to its high cost. But representatives of small and medium businesses can promote on the Russian market their products and services by means of pay-TV channels. They can appeal to the audience of thematic channels, which are most likely to consume their product or service at feasible prices for their business. Ban such advertising can lead to a significant delay in the development of small and medium-sized businesses in our country. We believe that this provision of the legislation is contrary to public policy to support small and medium-sized businesses.

Appeal with the proposal to postpone consideration of this amendment in the spring session of the State Duma. Propose to discuss the amendment with the business community, and nominate it for discussion by the State Duma in view of his opinions.

This is ridiculous, yet typical of Putin’s stupidity. Gutting the Russian economy is obviously not a consideration.

People will find want they want from other sources: the truth.


Putin as Dr. Evil

Monday, June 30th, 2014

Great analysis by Buzzfeed, portraying Putin as a real-world Dr. Evil, watching the inaugural Angara rocket launch from swank video suite, alone.

It was postponed by 24 hours on Friday, which then got postponed by at least a month — now “indefinitely.”

Given the importance of the Angara program, Putin is not happy.


RD-180 Engines Suck

Friday, May 16th, 2014

Elon Musk is standing up to Russian imperialism: “It’s very questionable in light of international events. It seems like the wrong time to send hundreds of millions of dollars to the Kremlin.”

Not only is he standing up for doing the right thing, he’s standing up to two 800-lb. gorillas in the military-industrial-complex: Boeing and Lockheed Martin. They’re co-owners of United Launch Alliance, launch service providers to the U.S. Air Force. ULA buys RD-180 engines from NPO Energomash in Russia. Like most important businesses in Russia, it’s controlled by Putin’s Mafia State.

So the pussy lawyers had this to say…

“ULA and the U.S. Department of Justice filed motions to dissolve the preliminary injunction supporting ULA’s earlier statements that the purchase of the RD-180 engines from our suppliers and partners, RD AMROSS and NPO Energomash, does not violate the Ukraine sanctions.

“Unfortunately, SpaceX has made many public but unfounded speculations to create negative perceptions of a competitor solely for purposes of its own self-interest. This frivolous lawsuit caused unnecessary distraction of our executive branch leaders during a sensitive national security crisis.

“The letters from U.S. Departments of State, Treasury and Commerce clearly state that NPO Energomash is not subject to any of the current sanctions and that ULA’s continued purchase of the RD-180 does not directly or indirectly contravene the Ukraine sanctions.

“As a result, both ULA and the Department of Justice have requested that the injunction be immediately lifted.”

As he’s been doing to honest business people in Russia, Putin is now fucking with international business.

Take this business away from entities controlled by Russian mafia and give it to an honest, smart, hard-working American company: SpaceX.

Who would you rather do business with: innovative leaders or murderous managers?

And which launch system is more reliable? The American one, naturally. Atlas launches cost 40-50% more than Russian launches (86% success rate since December, 2010). It’s worth it to keep the engineering talent and expertise here in the U.S.

Here’s another Proton failure, an anomaly at T+9:00 with the third stage. With a beast of a bird onboard (Express-4R/«Экспресс-АМ4Р» — a Eurostar 3000 bus built by Astrium), its payload had 30 C-band, 28 Ku-band, 2 Ka-band, and 3 L-band transponders — so this has to hurt.

When Russian contractors work for American or European customers, everything they do has to be diligently verified. With only Russian customers, nobody really cares that much. This is a remnant of the Soviet system and must be changed. You can’t complete as a world-class company with this attitude.

Here’s the video (warning: there’s no dramatic explosion)…

The detail given comes to us courtesy of SpaceFlightNow.com

The Express AM4R spacecraft, worth approximately $200 million, was supposed to begin a 15-year mission beaming radio, television, broadband Internet and telephone services across Russia and neighboring countries.

But a few minutes after the 12,720-pound (5,770-kilogram) Express AM4R satellite launched from Baikonur, Russia’s primary space base, its Proton rocket ran into a problem.

The failure occurred during the third stage of the Proton’s ascent into orbit, according to a statement by the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, the Moscow-based manufacturer of the Proton launcher.

An announcer declared an emergency during a live webcast of the launch, and Khrunichev’s statement also described the incident as an “emergency situation.”

Khrunichev said experts were analyzing telemetry to determine the cause of the failure.

A report by Interfax said debris from the rocket may have fallen the Altai or Amur regions of Russia’s Far East.

Spewing a brilliant flame of blue exhaust, the 19-story Proton rocket lifted off at 2142 GMT (5:42 p.m. EDT) to start a nine-hour flight to deploy the powerful European-built Express AM4R telecommunications satellite for Russian government and commercial customers.

The launch was at 3:42 a.m. local time at Baikonur.

The hydrazine-fueled rocket disappeared from the view of a ground-based tracking camera a few minutes later, with no visible signs of any trouble.

But a problem occurred about 545 seconds, or about 9 minutes, after liftoff, according to a report by the semi-official Itar-Tass news agency.

Another report by the Interfax media service said the time of the failure was about 500 seconds after launch.

Both of the times reported for the anomaly occurred during the firing of the Proton rocket’s third stage, which is powered by an RD-0213 main engine generating 131,000 pounds of thrust. A four-nozzle vernier steering engine is also mounted on the third stage to keep the rocket pointed in the right direction.

The rocket’s guidance, navigation and control system is a triple-redundant digital avionics package on the third stage.

Thursday’s mishap marks the fifth launch failure of the Proton rocket or its Breeze M upper stage in 36 flights since December 2010. Another Proton/Breeze M mission put the Russian Yamal 402 communications satellite in the wrong orbit, but the spacecraft was able to boot itself to the correct location.

The string of mishaps has brought focus on the quality control procedures of Khrunichev and its suppliers, with the Russian space contrator announcing expanded inspections, video monitoring in its factories and other measures to bolster the Proton’s reliability.

I suspect commercial payload customer on the Proton manifest are scrambling: Express AM6, Inmarsat 5 F2, ASTRA 2G and Turksat 4B.