Russia in a vehicle The Good The Bad and The Scary

[lenny flank]

I remember back in 80's before the wall came down, you would sometimes see news stories or documentaries about how bleak it was in the USSR.  Nothing to buy in the stores, falling down vodka fans everywhere,SNL skits poking fun,etc.

Today, I wonder if Russians experience video and commentary exposing all the societal ills in the US?

Overdose deaths, racial & religious intolerance,gun violence, rampant greed, corruption, unequal healthcare access....a long list of possibles.

I wonder which they prefer: standing in line for two hours in a corrupt undemocratic system to get bread, or not having money to buy bread in a corrupt undemocratic system.

I too also wonder how much they knew about the US during the Cold War, and what they thought of the way we pictured them.  I find it amusingly ironic that back in the Reagan Years we always pictured Russian women as old fat babushkas--and now all the porn and mail-order bride sites are filled with Russian women.

 

[TrainChaser]

Do they really drive as badly as they show in the YouTube videos? A friend said that when you see the people driving, all the cars look good because when they DO have an accident, they total the vehicle. That's why you don't see dented cars on the road!

 

[lenny flank]

Do they really drive as badly as they show in the YouTube videos?  A friend said that when you see the people driving, all the cars look good because when they DO have an accident, they total the vehicle.  That's why you don't see dented cars on the road!

A friend of mine from Germany once told me that there's little need for ambulances on the autobahn---whenever there is an accident, everybody's dead.

 

[user 423]

At least they are 'free' from all the auto safety equipment, traffic control signage, drunk driving enforcement,etc. that we have to deal with.

 

[Ballenxj]

At least they are 'free' from all the auto safety equipment, traffic control signage, drunk driving enforcement,etc. that we have to deal with.

Do you seriously want drunks with no insurance cruising our streets and highways?
 As far as the safety equipment goes, Darwin had a way of straightening that out in the end without safety equipment. We as adults should be responsible for our own safety.

 

[user 423]

'Free' is in quotes and I hoped that would indicate that I was being sarcastic. I'm definitely for all those controls that may be, for the most part, lacking in Russia...

 

[Gary68]

i have found that the salt of the earth people are just that no matter which part of the world they are at/from

i would like to take my rig across the pacific and then up to n.w. europe where it all began and complete the 2000+ year journey around the world

 

[lenny flank]

i have found that the salt of the earth people are just that no matter which part of the world they are at/from

i would like to take my rig across the pacific and then up to n.w. europe where it all began and complete the 2000+ year journey around the world

I found the people in South Africa wonderful---always cheery, always eager to help out strangers and each other, quick with a story (and eager to listen to one). I had a great time there. Ditto for Nicaragua and Costa Rica--the Ticos are wonderful people. Norway and England were of course much more America-like (at least in some ways--they were enormously different in other ways). 

Not sure what you mean by "where it all began":  the human species began in Africa (most likely in southern Africa). Agriculture began in the Middle East (and, independently, in Central America and Asia). Cities and urban society began in the Near East (and, independently, in India and Central America). Writing began in the Middle East (and independently in China and South America).

I can't think offhand of anything particularly important that began in NW Europe......Perhaps the printing press (though that had been established in Asia centuries before Gutenburg).

 

[Cammalu]

i would like to take my rig across the pacific and then up to n.w. europe where it all began and complete the 2000+ year journey around the world

Gary? Can you clarify this? I believe where it all began for humans was Africa, the mother land of us all?

 

[Ballenxj]

'Free' is in quotes and I hoped that would indicate that I was being sarcastic. I'm definitely for all those controls that may be, for the most part, lacking in Russia...

In that case, my apologies. I always thought for joking or sarcasm that was what these were for?    
What do I know?

 

[user 423]

I always thought for joking or sarcasm that was what these were for?    

No worries. For some reason smilies don't show up on my screen. All I see is a "Disable Smiles" checkbox. I need to figure out how to insert them.

 

[Gary68]

Gary?  Can you clarify this?  I believe where it all began for humans was Africa, the mother land of us all?

theory=thinking which is not fact

my records only go to 500 a.d./a little b.c. something scandinavia/germania/rus,so n.w europe is close enough for me

 

[lenny flank]

Gary?  Can you clarify this?  I believe where it all began for humans was Africa, the mother land of us all?

Yep. The fossil record shows that Homo sapiens first appeared in Africa around 200,000 years ago. And that is seconded by DNA fingerprinting, which shows that the oldest H sapiens genomes are found in southern Africa.  We are, at root, all Africans. All of us.

EDIT: Neandertals are also African in origin, and migrated into Europe from there before we did. Then when H sapiens migrated out of Africa into EDurope, we ran into the already-established Neandertals in the Middle East and, according to DNA fingerprinting, interbred with them to at least some extent. So today about 7-8% of the human genome is Neandertal in origin.

There is also the Denisovan species, known so far only from locations in Russia but perhaps more widespread than that, which is another source of H sapiens DNA, only a few percent. And a fourth source, another few percent, is completely unidentified, but is probably Asian in origin.

 

[John61CT]

Yes that is the theory that fits the known facts best.

In science "theory" does not imply uncertainty.

 

[lenny flank]

Yes that is the theory that fits the known facts best.

There are only a handful of alternative theories. Most of them come from the racist goobers, who can't stomach the idea that humans are all Africans.

None of the alternative theories have much in the way of scientific evidence, though.

 

[John61CT]

God planting "fossils" to expose the foolish and blasphemous unbelievers.

 

[lenny flank]

God planting "fossils" to expose the foolish and blasphemous unbelievers.

Ahhhh, I see you have dealt with creation "scientists" too.........    

I wrote a book about them. My very favorite creationist "theory"---flying saucers are time machines that are used by atheist scientists to go back in the past and plant fake fossils as evidence for evolution.

Serious.  No joke.  

But I fear this is now getting wayyyy far afield from the original topic, so I'll drop it there.

 

[GotSmart]

theory=thinking which is not fact

my records only go to 500 a.d./a little b.c. something scandinavia/germania/rus,so n.w europe is close enough for me

Just..........

I am at a loss for words.  Even the bible goes back a lot further, and does not include anything north of the Mediterranean.  

This is not the YARC thread. No badge for you.

 

[lenny flank]

Just..........

I am at a loss for words.  Even the bible goes back a lot further, and does not include anything north of the Mediterranean.  

This is not the YARC thread. No badge for you.

I'm skeptical as well.  Even the Japanese Emperor (who claims descent from Amaterasu Omikami, the Sun Goddess) has a traceable geneology only back to 600 BC--and that was a lineage people actually cared about and took a lot of effort to maintain and record. (And of course all of the early part of that lineage is mythological and never really happened.)

I can't think offhand of any source of geneology documents that can trace a European lineage back that far. Particularly Germanic, since the German tribes at that time were mostly illiterate and didn't keep geneologies for anyone but their chieftains--who only ruled for short periods of time.

 

[lenny flank]

It might also be pointed out that simply because of the mathematics of geneology it is enormously likely that any schmoo from the 10 or 15th century BC probably has millions of living descendants today. Nearly everyone in Europe, for example, is a descendent of Charlemagne, and virtually everyone in Mongolia is a descendent of Genghis Khan. So one can pick at random any historical figure from whatever area one likes, and the odds are pretty good he or she was at least a distant relative.

And of course ALL humans alive today are descended from Mitochondrial Eve, who lived in Africa. So we are all "related" in some way or another.