Bringing down planes with balloons

March 22, 2008

Like all great armed conflicts, the Second World War brought an industrial and technological revolution to all warring nations. Oddly enough, despite the military innovation of that period, to fight bombings over cities and other strategic targets, armies turned to an 18th century invention: aerostats. Moored balloons played a key role in the defense of London, the Invasion of Normandy and the Battle of Moscow, where this system was employed in its most massive and sophisticated way.

Soviet barrage balloon being lowered in 1945

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Russia, a country of contrasts

March 11, 2008

To say that the Russian Federation is a country of contrasts is quite an obvious statement, since: it’s the world’s largest country, its population exceeds 140 million, it has tens of ethnic groups, more than 100 languages are spoken in it, it includes 11 time zones, it has moved from communism to the wildest capitalism in just a few years, and so on.

Although all these features predispose to the most diverse and amazing situations, las week we were able to see some images that may even defy the spacetime continuum. I refer to the fact of seeing a cosmonaut on board the International Space Station, the ultimate example of human technological development at the dawn of 21st century, and Nenets indigenous, who live in the Arctic Circle like their ancestors did, doing something in common. Probably the following pictures will show better such contrast:

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Stalin’s golden cage

March 2, 2008

In 1931 was opened in the very center of Moscow the biggest and most modern residential complex in Europe. Fully equipped with a wealth of facilities and services, one may say it was a city within the city. Its exclusive apartments were addressed to the most outstanding members of the soviet elite. But what began as a dream turned into a nightmare: in just a few years a third of its residents came to a bad end because of Stalin’s purges, so the building became a symbol of that dark period of repression.

Current view of the building