Da, Windows Phone outsells the iPhone in seven countries...or does it?

Microsoft, always looking for any way to tout good news about Windows Phone, claims that it outsells the iPhone in seven countries. But is that really the case? It's not as clear as it first appears. Da, Windows Phone outsells the iPhone in seven countries...or does it?

World's 'Most Beautiful Politician' Gets 7 Years In Ukrainian Jail

Naked protest raises temperature outside Tymoshenko court

Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Spreading Rapidly In Europe

Respirator or face mask? Best H1N1 protection still debated

Youths wearing protective masks share a bottle of vodka in Lviv.

"(Health.com) -- A preliminary report suggesting that N95 respirators -- filtering devices worn over the mouth and nose -- protect against swine flu better than surgical face masks seems to be incorrect, researchers revealed during a meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

In fact, surgical face masks, which are cheaper and easier to wear, may be just as good as N95 respirators. At the very least, researchers can't prove that one is better than the other. It's the latest wrinkle in a continuing debate over how to protect health-care workers from the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu."

Read the full story at CNN

Cherkassy, Ukraine War Monument updated

Years ago when a monument was erected in Cherkassy, Ukraine to commemorate the ultimate sacrifice that was made by Russian soldiers during World War II. The huge statue and expansive plaza were capped off by an eternal flame. Unfortunately, when the Soviet Block broke up, the natural gas that had been provided by the government became a luxury so the flame was extinguished.

So the eternal flame sat unlit, a sad commentary to the remembrance of the dead. But how to fix this issue? As cell phone companies came into the area, a need for cell phone towers arose. At some point a solution was reached; a cell phone tower was built in the bowl of the eternal flame and then wrapped with an LED marquee. The marquee now displays the image of a flame in perpetuity.

Read the full story at hackaday

Results of the International Type Design Competition “Modern Cyrillic 2009″ announced

The results of the International Type Design Competition “Modern Cyrillic 2009″ were announced last week. The competition took place in Moscow and was held by ParaType with support by the Federal Agency for Press and Mass Communications of Russia. It was dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Peter the Great’s reform of Russian typography. This event follows the success of “Kirillitsa‘99” which took place ten years ago. The competition judges included well-known Russian designers and font specialists representing leading Russian type foundries and schools of type design. Cyrillic typeface projects and completed typefaces created and/or released after January 1, 2006 were eligible.

Read the full story

Russia selects Nuclear Beauties 2009

Yekaterina Kuts, 22, Atomic Human Resources, rated 5th,
on her knees / Photo: miss2009.nuclear.ru

Miss Atom 2009 beauty pageant has announced the winners on its official website. As usual, all the 350 contestants that competed for the title had one more thing in common, apart from being beautiful: they all work for the Russian nuclear industry.

The beauty contest, held this year for the sixth time, only features employees of nuclear energy agencies and research institutions. This year's participants came from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Lithuania.

Read the full story at http://www.mosnews.com

Help Your PC Friends Through The Conficker Virus/Worm Tomorrow

"Millions of PCs the world over are infected with Conficker. Yes, your Mac is safe. No, that guy who continues give you such insights as "Macs suck" since 1994 is not safe. So let's do our best not to snicker."

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Sexual Harassment Still Thrives in Russia!

Yes Sexual Harassment Still Thrives in Russia, much to the chagrin of the normal Russian woman.

In 1994 Alessandra Stanley wrote in an article for the New York Times that "The advertisement for a secretary in a Moscow newspaper listed computer skills, typing, English and German as necessary qualifications. It also specified that applicants should be 18 to 25, 5 foot 7 and have long hair. "There will be a contest," it said.

The advertisement was just one of scores placed every day that list youth and sex appeal as job requirements. It was also among the more courtly. Some Russian employers include another prerequisite in their advertisements: "bez kompleksov," or "without inhibitions." Everyone in Russia knows what that means.

In Moscow's bustling new business community, it is usually not frowned upon to grope the secretary, to require that the new office manager be single, long-legged and blond, or to offer to discuss a filing clerk's raise after work in a hotel room -- and dismiss her if she refuses.

Sexual harassment in the workplace is rampant in today's Russia, and the sexism that thrived under the Communists is growing worse, aggravated, feminists say, by the new lawlessness that rules the business world."

Dr. Zoya Khotkina wrote that sexual harassment was a real issue for Russia back in 1997 and yet even today we see that not much has changed. "In the Criminal Code, Russian Federation, (CC RF), there exists a law which prohibits utilization of an office position and material dependence for coersion of sexual interactions (Article 118, current CC RF). However, in practice, the courts do not examine these issues. Until 1990, there were annually 20-25 legal cases regarding this article; in the beginning of 1990, there were no more than 2-3 cases; and in 1994 there was not one case. Finally, the problem of sexual harassment in the workplace, in spite of its sharpness and widespreading, proves to be a social, invisible, ''transparent problem"."

So here we are today in 2008 have things gotten better for the wonderful Russian women? Not so much it would seem as related by Adrian Blomfield's article in the UK Telegraph. "The unnamed executive, a 22-year-old from St Petersburg, had been hoping to become only the third woman in Russia's history to bring a successful sexual harassment action against a male employer.

She alleged she had been locked out of her office after she refused to have intimate relations with her 47-year-old boss.

"He always demanded that female workers signalled to him with their eyes that they desperately wanted to be laid on the boardroom table as soon as he gave the word," she earlier told the court. "I didn't realise at first that he wasn't speaking metaphorically."

I for one find this judges ruling to shocking and reflecting a lack of respect and honor for the Russian women. He seems to confuse sexual harassment,

The judge said he threw out the case not through lack of evidence but because the employer had acted gallantly rather than criminally.

"If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children," the judge ruled. Since Soviet times, sexual harassment in Russia has become an accepted part of life in the office, work place and university lecture room.

According to a recent survey, 100 per cent of female professionals said they had been subjected to sexual harassment by their bosses, 32 per cent said they had had intercourse with them at least once and another seven per cent claimed to have been raped.

Eighty per cent of those who participated in the survey said they did not believe it possible to win promotion without engaging in sexual relations with their male superiors.

Women also report that it is common to be browbeaten into sex during job interviews, while female students regularly complain that university professors trade high marks for sexual favours.

Only two women have won sexual harassment cases since the collapse of the Soviet Union, one in 1993 and the other in 1997. Human rights activists say that Russian women remain second-class citizens and are subjected to some of the highest levels of domestic abuse in the world."

I for one am horrified by this judges ruling as he show a lack of education on his part and a total disregard for respect the Russian women deserve. This jude also confuses flirting, sexual harassment and possible rape with having a loving family with children whom are loved and cherished. I wonder if he would approve of his daughter or sister being treated in such a manner? 

Unlocked iPhones a problem for Apple?

How many times in the past few days have you heard that unlocked iPhones are a problem for Apple it's all doom and it's the end of the world? Well time for a reality check folks here are the facts:

1. Apple is not selling iPhones at a discount so they are making a profit on the iPhone (no matter how small).
   
2. Don't underestimate the halo effect! Once you have an iPhone or any other Apple product your more likely to buy another Apple product.
   
3. Apple could never guarantee that all iPhone purchases would not unlock their phone. Get over the revenue sharing it's a nice extra but it can never be a guarantee in the real world.
   
4. Happy users most iPhone owners LOVE their iPhone! Not many other phones can boast about their happy users.
   
5. Where are all those missing iPhones many are without a doubt in Hong Kong while other have met other fates.

Good news from the other side of the pond as well as O2 is said to be increasing their users iPhone data plans. Now if only AT&T would do the same in the USA!

There have been a number of rumors that soon you may be able to order your cup of joe (coffee) from Starbucks directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch. You can even checkout some of the QuickOrder artwork.

Check out a Russian woman attempting to use and iPhone.

OS X Russian support

If you were running Tiger 10.4 and you speak running you probably found your way to Apple's site in Russia and downloaded the Russian fonts and localized applications. The problem with this method of adding Russian support to your OS was that you could not use software update in the future. However I am happy to say that in Leopard 10.5 Russian is fully supported. Apple is also working slowly to increase it's presence in Russia as reported in the Moscow Times. But it's still a labor of love to buy a Macintosh in Russia let alone find a store that sells this wonderful computer. I look forward to the day when Apple will open corporate stores in major malls and shopping areas just like they do in Europe and the USA. I also wish Apple would pay more attention those who don't speak English I want to be able to go to the Apple online store and buy a keyboard in Russian (or any other language) without having to actually go to that country! I still remember spending a day trying to find an store that sold Apple computers and buying a keyboard.