Apologies, folks, I've got some catching up to do. Turns out, the Internet, wired or wireless, has not arrived in the great north woods. So several things that I had brought along on my laptop to post never made it off the hard drive. I guess somebody was trying to tell me that sometimes vacation should just be vacation.

First up is a story from The New York Times last week. It seems that... more

Sakhalin Island was hit by a strong earthquake on Thursday morning, killing two people and leaving two people dead and several dozen others injured. Reports on the quake differed on its magnitude, with some accounts putting the first shock at 6.4 and others at 6.6 or 6.8. Nevelsk, on the southwestern side of the island, was closest to the epicenter, but the quake was also felt in Kholmsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. According to the Itar-Tass... more

Russia's effort to stake a larger claim to the Arctic Ocean has sent shivers through international observers.

Last week, an expedition that included a nuclear-powered ice breaker and submersible vessels left Murmansk bound for the North Pole. Their mission: To prove that a large part of the Arctic is actually connected to Russia's far northern region and, hence, fair game for Russian oil and gas exploration.

On Thursday, the submersibles dove two miles... more

It's too early to be thinking about the three "Rs" here, but four areas of Russia have revealed school curriculum plans for the fall that may surprise you.

According to a feature story on Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty last Friday, it will be mandatory for schools in four regions to teach the Russian Orthodox religion this fall. Ten other regions will have the choice of teaching about the religion or not.

The four mandatory regions are Belgorod,... more

Want a measure of how far the Russian economy has come in recent years? Russians are putting money in their banks.

If you are an American of a certain age, that statement may seem to be a bit of a head-scratcher: Why wouldn't you put your money in a bank? Ask your grandmother, or anybody old enough to remember the Great Depression. When you don't have faith in your country's economy you don't put money in a bank.

But Russians are putting money in the bank now--in droves. According to a... more

Global warming was in the news this week in Russia. The Voice of America and several other news sources are reporting that a Russian naval expedition is headed to the North Pole to secure Russia's rights to oil and natural gas under the Arctic Ocean. The VOA says that while an icebreaker is now sailing ahead of the research ship, global warming is melting the Arctic ice, which would make it easier to drill for oil in the region. The Russians apparently want to prove that a... more

As you might have guessed from my previous two posts on the work of Professors Robert McCall and Christina Groark, I find the work being done at St. Petersburg's orphanages by these University of Pittsburgh professors fascinating.

They've quantified the basic environment in many Russian orphanages and then they set out to see what changes were possible... more

Rose Alaimo has only been in Russia a few days, but her experience is already proving an eye-opener.

You might remember that, back in late May, I introduced you to a Cornell University veterinary student who decided to go to Russia for what some people call a "volunteer vacation". Rose is doing a lot of volunteering, but she clearly isn't getting a lot of time for rest. And it doesn't seem to bother her one bit.

Rose arrived in Yaroslavl on July 23... more

The other day, I told you about how two professors from the University of Pittsburgh's School of Education came to be involved with Russia's orphanages. Now, I'd like to tell you what they have achieved through their work.

Their goals were two-fold: make care more consistent and more responsive. They had found that the average child in a Russian baby home could expect to encounter as many as 100 caregivers during his or her time there. Most of... more

Only July 19, five more American adoption agencies were accredited to work in Russia. The decision by the Ministry of Education brings the total number of accredited American agencies to 12. Two agencies from France and one each from Spain and Israel have also been accredited. Let's hope that the MoE keeps working on this through the traditional August slow season and gets the rest of the waiting agencies their paperwork soon.

In political news, on... more