IgorRogov

It would be interesting to trace the source of "litigiousness of Americans". It seems to be very catchy trend, increasing our overall reliance on lawyers and courts to sort out all sorts of trifles and magnify them on world media at the same time to make an "issue" out of smallest of personal problem, with underlying urgency to classify all the people as either "victims" or "perpetrators" of one crime or another. The Roman Law which served as a model for all European state laws in the near past, had a principle limiting the application of the law. Namely, the Roman Law did not deal with trifles, and "laughable" accusation is nothing but trifle. This principle is totally lost within the American system, where every banality could be a source of litigation. But how this was made possible? It's a mystery.

by " collapse of the state theater" I was referring to the Guy Debord "Society of the Spectacle" book, which I read years after migrating to Australia, and which made me very excited and regretful at the same time - it was certainly a work of a genius describing without having a direct experience how the things were run in the USSR, exactly, not as a state, but as a state-wide theatrical show. Debord was writing more about the disturbing way the western society was developing into a representation of a society, without a person's direct involvement into social life; life experience is largely replaced with the participation in the state-run show. But what would be an exaggeration of the trend in a mind of a genius, for the Soviet Union was a hardcore reality for quite a while. As far as I know, Debord was inspired with the revelation of show-trials of 1930's in Soviet Union. Well, good for him, because my grandfather was put through one of the shows and ended up in concentration camp. In any case, I was lucky to escape the show, and the story is partially reflected in my essay on the First Woman in space. http://tinyurl.com/jgnp8sm If Debord is right and the western society drifts towards the same showy model, we all need to be worried a lot. The trends with SJWs, feminst brainwashing in schools and via Duluth program are extremely alarming indeed.

Do you read Russian? Some of the most reliable sources are linked at the end of my essay, the other to research are the diaries of Chertock http://militera.lib.ru/explo/chertok_be/index.html not sure what was properly translated though, but you may try Google translator, this would give you some ideas. Sure someone has yet to write a thorough research about Russian space programme, noting all the technical and political complexities around it.

Born in a secret city in the middle of Siberian nowhere (Check Tomsk-7), went living in Pripyat, studied in Moscow Uni, became Chernobyl survivor, showed middle finger to the Russian state and went living in Australia thanks to the skilled migration program. Currently happy father and husband, unsuccessful pig hunter, metal detectorist, weekend philosopher and red wine lover. What else do I tell? Bits of my life story are quite unbelievable. I saw a ghost city of Pripyat the day after it was evacuated, I inhaled and carried on my close so much radioactive dust the detectors in the University back in Moscow went overload, I was studied as an insect by the medics, I had a lovely encounter with a KGB officer, and I witnessed the collapse of the Soviet state theater and managed to escape before the new ugly theater was built by Mr. Putin. Freedom domain radio is just another rich source of information I learned to appreciate recently. Thanks to all who made it happen, and special thanks to Stefan, although I don't approve of his way of thinking entirely. Too much of a monologue for my liking But it is a quality monologue indeed. Cheers all IR

Thanks, Jake and AccuTron. This was my first attempt to write something cohesive in English beyond short letters and notes; so the text is inevitably hideous with many grammatical errors and awkward phrasing. But it is truthful, albeit incomplete account of my personal life experiences as well a research on the fascinating figure of the First Woman in space. Cheers all IR

Hi Torero I could perhaps understand where you are coming from, and of course you may have gathered that I am convinced that the space flight was real, - for Chaika as well as for many other people; the orbital flight is now pretty much a boring routine and should be treated as such. Moon flights of the Americans were real as well, and Russians were about to perform human walk on the moon, it is just they lost the race to be there first, so the politicians lost an interest in this part of the program altogether and forced its closure. The irony is that the state propaganda machine that trumpeted about the achievements in space made it so loud and obnoxious, that the non-believers appeared all over the globe. Sort of natural behavior for a smart individual not to believe all the bullshit he is fed through the TV or radio, especially if it state-owned channel. This is natural, and I share that sort of intellectual dissent, but I don't share the extremely unsophisticated view that the space travel is impossible altogether, just because the state propaganda made it so unbelievably great. Same fate somehow affected American moon program, and Russians actually were only happy to spread the malicious rumors about their competitors, so there is a lots of counter-propaganda or smear campaign still going on, from mister Putin agencies. Every bad photo is interpreted in a conspirological way, which of course doesn't add anything to overall credibility to anyone. And in the current political climate, when governments lost interest in space almost altogether it is just so easy to find holes in once so rich tapestry of space research. -------- But apart from all this bullshit - no, space flight for the human is very real, but it is also true that it is miserable experience, usually not particularly heroic, nor very intellectually stimulating, with a lots of indignities of crammed environment, bad smells, lousy food, isolation, loss of freedom etc etc etc. - much opposite of what the bright pictures would make you believe. Again, I touched many of the things that actually flew in space, sat in the various space capsules and climbed into the stations etc. It is hugely disappointing experience to start with, but the major disappointment was when I found out that most of us, students, will be serving one or another military program, not scientific discoveries of the mysteries of the universe. So I firmly believe that the future belongs to the private companies, and bright individuals who are interested in true discovery and perhaps some commercial exploits of the entire space theme. Governments just blew it and a lots of public resources were wasted. Cheers IR

This is an essay I wrote recently, watching the world celebrating the birthday of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, one of the most powerful feminist figures in history. My personal twist on her story is that I studied space flight in the university in Moscow and heard many stories about what actually happened during the first women's flight in space, and had a chance to visit a semi-secret museum and to study the first female toilet designed just to put women in space. The other personal twist is that my father was born the same year and the same month as that woman. So the tale begins back in the USSR and back in March 1937 http://tinyurl.com/jgnp8sm Enjoy Igor Rogov Melbourne Australia