Wild Russia - The secret forest (National Geographic)

National Geographic - "Wild Russia". LINK: Youtube

Awesome Street Art: Chalk Drawings by Rustam Valeev (Picture Gallery)

Rustam Valeev is a 20-year-old artist from the city of Sterlitamak in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia. He used chalk to create these wonderful street portraits:

Avalanche on Cheget 2011 HD

Russia, Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Terskol. LINK: Youtube

I could not read the full story as it was not in English.

BEST DNB BEATBOX

MASTA MIC from Russia. LINK: Youtube

Russia's new secret weapon

No information was given at the LINK, Via: Youtube

12.5-MILE LONG DRAWING

“This spectacular artwork is the world’s largest drawing and at 12.5 square miles it would be able to find room for 4,469 Wembley soccer fields. Etched onto the surface of Lake Baikal, in Russia’s windswept and frozen Siberia, it was created by land artist extraordinaire Jim Denevan and his team in March of this year. Commissioned by clothing firm Anthropologie to create the work for their advertising tie-in series The Anthropologist, Jim, 49, spent 15 days on the surface of Lake Baikal completing the drawing.” LINK

Floating Tanks

English Russia reports that during the 1950s, the Soviet Union developed floating tanks. Engineers attached pontoons to T-54 tanks and drove them into the water:

PST-U consisted of five pontoons that were filled with plastic foam. Total weight of the device was 10 tonnes. Buoyancy reserve (with T-54 tank) was 40%. Maximum speed of tank with the floating device was 19 km/h ashore and 12 km/h afloat. The floating device was equipped with its own fuel tanks with a capacity of 500 litres; equal to coverage of 60-80 kilometers distance without any tank’s fuel consumption.

At the link, you can find more pictures and diagrams.

Link | Photo: English Russia, Via: Neatorama

Backflip over Red Bull KAMAZ truck in Russia

Russian FMX rider Alexey Kolesnikov and Dakar 2010 winner, pilot of KAMAZ-master team Vladimir Chagin accomplished a unique joint project -- 1st ever jump of a motorcyclist over a truck. The jump was taken at Kolesniokov`s home training base in Kolomna with 2 perpendicular ramps for a cross jump of the both vehicles.

It took 10 days to get prepared to the project. The ramp for the 8,5 tons KAMAZ truck was formed out of 500 tons of dirt. The height of the ramp was 2.5 meters, the gap from the separation point to the landing - 12 meters, which corresponds to a height of four-store house, and KAMAZ speed right before the jump was 60 km/hour. LINK: Youtube

The Dancing Forest

The Dancing Forest is an unusual natural wonder in the Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. Its trees have grown into twisted shapes, as though they were dancing. More images at English Russia.

Link | Photo: Vaplakal.com, Via: Neatorama

Abandoned Russian Churches

Photographer Victor Borisov presents the abandoned churches of the Tula region of Russia. In the sad remains, you can see how magnificent these buildings were at one time.

Link, Via: Neatorama

Vintage photos of "The Empire That Was Russia"

Boing Boing entry on panoramic photos of power-plant control rooms.

"The Empire That Was Russia," showcasing the color(!) photography of Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, taken in the years immediately preceding WWI.

Prokudin-Gorskii used a camera of his own design that took three photographs in rapid succession on a 9x3" glass plate; the images were shot through a red, green, and blue filter, respectively. After developing, a full-color image could be projected from the plate using a custom, three-part projection system.

The Empire That Was Russia, Via: Boingboing

Frozen Estonia

“An Estonian waterfall has frozen creating a world of imagination.” LINK, Via: Youtube

Russian 5th Gen PAK FA T-50 fighter makes first ever flight

A new era for Russia's airforce has begun with the successful flight of a state-of-the art fighter jet. Prime Minister Putin said the first T-50s which is now at its final stage of testing will enter service in three years. And within a decade, as the manufacturer says, one in three fighter jets in the world could be this new aircraft. LINK: Youtube

Young Men of Our Country: Mass Calisthenics

[KOREAN] ARC Identifier 44132 / Local Identifier 242-MID-5166. This Russian film shows athletic representatives from all sections of Russia as they performed mass calisthenics. War Department. Military Intelligence Division. (08/26/1918 - 04/19/1947) Made possible by a donation from John and Paige Curran. LINK: Youtube

Sorry this is not in English.

Fastest Aircraft – Sky’s No Limit For Them

"Mig 31 FoxHound"
The Mikoyan MiG-31 FoxHound is a supersonic interceptor aircraft developed by Russia. It was designed to replace the MiG-25 FoxBat which though an outstanding performer, lacked the maneuverability at interception speeds. The Foxhound breathes through a large twin-engine, which provides an aspect ratio of 2.94 with a shoulder-mounted wing, side-mounted air intakes and twin vertical tail-fins. These specs render it one agile flying machine. The passive array radar for terrain ranging and the four R-33 air-to-air missiles under its belly make it a deadly fighting machine. The twin Soloviev D-30F6 afterburning turbofans produce a thrust of 34,172 lbf which propels the aircraft to a top flying speed of 1,860 mph! That’s 2.83 times the speed of sound. LINK, Via: Youtube

Stagecoach Made From 1.5m Toothpicks

“A real-life stagecoach built in Warsaw could soon be seen on display in a museum, not because of its historic nature, but because of what it’s made with. It may look like a typical stagecoach just waiting for a horse to come pull it along, but that’s far from the case. The stagecoach is made exclusively out of toothpicks — and an awful lot of glue! Terry Woodling, 72, has been making things from toothpicks since 1981 and got his latest idea after seeing a miniature replica for sale. “I started with the wheels first,” Woodling said. That, he says, was the easy part. “It’s a little more than a toothpick in length,” he said when describing the width of part of the wheel. It’s taken a lot of those little guys: 1.5 million toothpicks to be exact. It hasn’t been cheap, either. That’s because Woodling estimates he’s spent more than $1,200 in toothpicks alone.” LINK

Zodiac Sign Playground

Amusing playground in Russia that uses the 12 zodiac signs for different installments such as lamps, statues and displays. A wonderful display of public art that reminds of the strange characters in Russian fairy tales. Check out the rest of the zodiac signs with 11 more pics at this LINK.

A Certain State of the World? art show in Russia

A ground-breaking exhibition of works selected from the Franois Pinault Foundation's art collection, one of the world's most prestigious private collections, has opened at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow called A Certain State of the World? LINK

The Kuril Islands

Russia borders Japan at it’s far east end, but a few know that those two countries don’t have a peace treaty signed for already 60 years since the World War II has ended.

The reason for that a group of volcanic islands located North from Japan and called Kuril islands. Those territories were recaptured by Russian army at the end of WW2 and now are under Russian administration, though Japan considers them their own lost territories.

There were a lot of offers from Japan in order to return the islands. During the 1990s, when the Soviet government resigned and the new Russian authorities have been forming Japan offered billions dollars for those territories hoping to get the islands back, but patriotic motive was stronger that the profit one.

Those islands could be vital for Japan, which is suffering from over-population. Its lands are tens or even hundreds time more densely populated than the nearby lying Kuril islands, which stay almost untouched by civilization. Well, it’s hard to say what would be better - to let people live and destroy nature or to preserve nature at its virgin state but deprive hundreds thousands of people from the land. LINK

Cute Kamchatka Bears

English Russia has some adorable photographs of bears interacting with people in Russia's Kamchatka region. These bears must be treated pretty well to have no fear of humans! LINK

Some people say bears wander around the Russian cities begging for food, especially during winter. Of course that’s not true, bears don’t walk in the cities, but in some Russian areas one can wander around and don’t touch people. LINK