Public data, GDP and Google

There is interesting information source of public data, created by google. It is quite useful 'cause now you don't have to waste time for downloading data and creation of a graph - google already did it. You just have to customize visualisation for your goals.

GDP per capita (current US$) - World Bank

While in Finland I'm trying to find out interesting facts about country that was too small for me to pay attention to it when I was in Russia. One such fact is that economy of Finland had a serious impact with USSR collapse. You can see it on the graph above. Thanks to trade with Soviet Union GDP per capita in Finland grown fast and was higher than in US in 1990 and then was a sharpen fell for 3 years. Only in 2007 Finland managed to overcome US with this parameter again - it took 17 years.

Now let's look at graph below. There is GDP per capita too, but from another source - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Graph for US is pretty much the same, but for Finland and Russia it is quite different. Finland does not best US and impact from USSR destroying is less significant, and numbers for recent years for Russia looks more promising than on previous graph. Looks like OECD failed (or didn't wanted to) to recalculate numbers properly. So you should pay attention to sources and units for data you use.

GDP per capita - OECD Factbook 2009

Hope Google will add more public data soon and develop additional export, import and visualization options like in FactBook eXplorer for example;-)

Are you a Muslim in some notrhern country? Then you're so screwed...

...because of Ramadan, when Muslims can't eat, drink and have a sex during daylight. Suppose it is not easy time even in Arabic countries. But if  one lives for example in Finland, where the day lasts a heeeeell looooonger... In the beginning of august in Lahti, Finland sunset occurs at approximately 23:00 and dawn at 5:00 - it's only 6 hours to eat, drink and (if one would feel the might) have a sex, and don't forget about sleeping - one still have to go to work in the morning. Ramadan will pass easier in a random settlement in Iran - night lasts approximately 11 - 12 hours.

Thanks God, I'm an atheist!

Call out for solidarity!

Call for Solidarity actions with the accused COP15 activists
On the 18th of August there will be a solidarity demonstration in Copenhagen to mark the trial of the first two people accused of 'organizing' the protests around the COP 15. We
urge everyone to spend the day or the following days on demonstrations and statements of support and solidarity – demonstration and manifestations outside Danish embassies,
press work and articles - all are welcome and appreciated.
During the climate summit in Copenhagen, around 2000 people were arrested preventively and held in custody while they were trying to get their voices heard. These people along with thousands of other activists from around the world were trying to set a different and
more just political agenda in the climate debate.
Approximately 20 people were detained for up to a month, out of which four people are faced with trials this autumn.* These people are accused of charges including planning violence against police, systematic vandalism and serious disturbance of public peace and
order. Some of these charges are drawn from the Danish terror package and the penalties are strenghtened by the new Danish anti-protester laws introduced just prior to the COP 15. The charges they face are unfounded, but can still potentially result in years in prison. During COP15 thousands of people from around the world gathered in Copenhagen to challenge the farcical political negotiations at the Bella Center and demand just solutions to the climate crises. We demonstrated for solutions that are not only favouring the rich western world. We protested for real solutions which are challenging the capitalist system, because this system has a constant focus on growth and profit that is obviously not able to solve the climate problems.
This dawning climate justice movement was met with antipathy and arrogance of power from the Danish government, which was reflected in the form of a massive police repression. During 2009 the Danish government and the Danish police carried out an intense scare campaign in the media to demonize protesters and activists. Police were given extra power and economic resources for the COP 15. This led to thousands of preventive arrests, month-long surveillance of telephone and raids of private homes and accommodations, and
grotesque and unnecessary detentions.
The police actions were completely out of proportion and a clear violation of our democratic rights. Their actions attempted criminalization of our right to organize ourselves politically. It was made clear that any movement that dares to challenge existing power
structures and demand political changes are not welcome in Denmark today. Instead of listening to the massive criticism of the negotiations, the Danish government revealed a hypocritical lack of interest in solving the climate problems. And now the Danish state is trying to make four individuals responsible for a whole movement's collective decision-making and collective protests.
In our view - the right to protest and everyone's right to be heard, is an essential element in a democracy - even if you are speaking against the existing capitalist system. We therefore call on everyone to show solidarity with the accused and make the criticism of the ongoing
processes visible.
We would like to receive information and documentation of any actions you take to collect on our website.
The coming trials is not just about the fact that innocent people might be convicted, but about everybody's fundamental right to demonstrate, protest, take action and organize politically. It is important that we do not sign away these rights, but continue the fight.

In Solidarity – The Climate Collective
www.cop15repression.info or www.climatecollective.org
email: cop15repression@climatecollective.org
* The four accused are: Natasha Verco, Noah Weiss, Stine Gry Jonassen and Tannie
Nyboe. Natasha and Noah's trials are on the 24th, 25th and 31th of August, and Stine and
Tannie's trials are on the 6th, 27th and 28th of October. The prosecution case against the
Danish state about the preventive arrests are on the 23th and 30th of August and the 1st of
September.

Waste amount progress in St.Petersburg

I'm writing an article about waste management situation in St.Petersburg and Lenindrad region. Found some interesting sharpen decreasing of municipal solid waste collected in city in 2005 (original data provided to government by waste transporters). Amount of collected waste decreased by over 1.4 mil cubic meters. You can see it at fig. below. The question is why?

MSW collection, St.Petersburg

There are a lot of publications that points out dependence between amount of

Civil war presentment

There is a news story - interview with a leader of antifascists which made a mess with the building of Himki administration.  For better understanding of causes of this mess you should read digest of events for Himkinsky forest rescuing (you may read only red colored text) - the conflict between common people and the capitalistic Power (government, local administration, criminals and even church).

Not the interview with the Antifa leader is interesting by itself but the following video-interview with the correspondent of the paper. In the end of the video he said that he has a civil war presentment... 

I have that presentment too... And what about you?

Idea 2017

Recently I thought on a subject "how to create a better life in Russia". I was riding on my bicycle at that moment. Riding at the beautiful Lahti town in Southeastern part of Finland - one of the Northern Europe counties as Sweden, Norway and Danemark for example. And for a long time Finland was a part of Sweden. This 4 countries are well known for its high quality level of life and economic development as for environmental preservation and strong social support system. On the picture below we'll compare the most important social and economic aspects of development for Russia (red), Norway (green) and Finland (blue).

Finland, Norway and Russia comparison (click to enlarge) - Nuff said / facepalm
(source: Legatum Prosperity Index)

Actually we can see from this picture, that Russian government do not give a fuck about the population - only about the money (no, it is not about wellbeing of common people - it's about wellbeing of corporations and bureaucrats).

So I thought what if we can place some smart people from Norway for example ('couse they know how to use natural resources in the wright way) in charge in Russia to let them develop the country in the way it should be?! Sounds crazy, isn't it?

But I'm even not original! This idea is like 12 hundreds years old! And the most unbelievable is that it was realized with Nordic guy named Rurik! And even the name "Russia" is after Nordic people.

So let MedvePut (yes Medvedev and Putin are one being with Gazprom as holy spirit) to have a rest. And we'll invite some people who knows how to create a better world.


It is hard to take public control over government, so let's not get hurry but state the deadline to change Russia for good. To my mind 2017 is a reasonable deadline. Which month? October is a wright month for such things, isn't it?

Where are oligarchs?

marker.ru (site that I mentioned in the previous post) provide us with incredible opportunity to watch over trails of yachts of Russian oligarchs. Here you can find a name, owner, cost, image, location and speed of yachts that belongs to robbers of the ex-great country.

Comments are so friendly:

"Does these coordinates precise enough for rocket launchers?"

P.S. Spatial source for the service is here (it is interesting to see too - you can find information about lot of ships).

P.P.S. I assume that marker.ru specialized in economical corruption-revealing news. This is uncommon and strange... but cool!

Africa exploitation

I like maps and GIS. But I want to show you something that is neither one nor another, but quite similar. It is very nice flash animation for information about export from Africa to developed countries - exploitation in other words. You can play with it here and I will just provide a couple of screen-shots.

Here you can chose country of your interest and click to see stats

Example of the stats

The Yes Men Fix The World

"If we let the free-market cult  keep running the world, there wouldn't be a world left to fix."  ["The Yes Men Fix The World"]

 I strongly recommend you to see "TheYesMenFixTheWorld" p2p edition movie. It's a very funny documentary film: you will laugh a lot watching it even if revealed subjects are not funny at all. 

"THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks. This peer-to-peer special edition of the film is unique: it is preceded by an EXCLUSIVE VIDEO of the Yes Men impersonating the United States Chamber of Commerce. Because the Yes Men are being sued for this stunt, p2p is the only way that this film will get seen. Please spread the word!"

You can find official site of the project here.

Special thanks (from me of course) to thepiratebay.org which puts info about this film on its home page!

BP rebranding

It is hard to find some one who is not aware about one of th biggest crime against environment that was done by infamous British Petroleum. They loosing so much money with that oil spill every day that no one of us would be able to gain even in ten honest lives. The stain on the company name is irremovable. But... it's face is rebrandable! I bet in a three years they will re-brand the enterprise. But some good fellows already did this hard job for BP... for free! Rebranding competition organized by Greenpeace is almost over and I want to put here the works which are on the top of my list.

Here we go:

Best rebranded logo:

That's it!

Best illustration:

1-st place

2-nd place

Best wildlife:

It's leading anyway

Best slogan:

1-st place

2-nd place

3-rd place

Best "WTF?!":

Double hit

But is it satisfying enough? NO! Until the lust BP's toilet seat will be sold from auction to remediate (if it only would be possible!) destroyed environment, until every last motherfuker director and owner of the company will be drowned in the oil - there won't be any satisfaction >:(