narcogen.com

There's been an above average amount of snow in the mountains above Almaty this year, and I've just been waiting for the effects to hit the city proper. There's already been serious flood damage and lives lost in the area, and the snow hasn't even really begun to melt.

According to the post where I saw the attached video, at a ski site, an intentional avalanche at the Chimbulak ski resort above Almaty had some unintended consequences. The ski site used the word "demolishes" it does not appear as if any of the lift's pylons were toppled; however according to the audio, two are knocked down. Certainly the cables that the chairs are suspended from definitely jangled pretty strongly, upending many of the chairs.

I haven't been skiing at Chimbulak for a number of years but from the video it looks like this is near the top, at the last of three major lifts, which was an older, single-chair lift with wooden seats the last time I was there.

China's state-run news agency Xinhua in an editorial accused Google of being a political tool to "export culture, values and ideas," a day before the world's largest search engine is expected to announce that it would leave the country.

Of course, they didn't just realize it now. They're just repeating it now so that if Google announces it is leaving China tomorrow, it will look not only like a confirmation of what Xinhua is saying, which is that Google exports Western culture, but that Google is ashamed of it.

"It is unfair for Google to impose its own value and yardsticks on Internet regulation to China, which has its own time-honored tradition, culture and value," the editorial said.

It is absolutely not unfair. It is well within the rights of any culture to influence any of the others. If China's time-honored traditions, culture and values are good they will withstand such influence. One could argue that any culture that is not actively influencing others-- while itself being influenced-- is stagnant and dying.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20100322/158270314.html

Taldykorgan. March 18. Kazakhstan Today - According to the information, death toll caused by the dam burst in the village Kyzylagash of the Almaty area has reached 40 people, the agency reports citing the press service of the Almaty area Department of Internal Affairs.

Richard Holbrooke, everyone’s favorite envoy they love to hate to love, has an almost Biden-esque talent for saying things that make people angry. His most recent comment, that “Taliban is woven into the fabric of Pashtun society on both sides of the border with Pakistan and almost every Pashtun family has someone involved with the movement,” has, naturally, sparked anger from Pashtun families who do not have Taliban amongst their ranks (and that’s most Pashtun families, to be honest).

In response, Hazrat Sebghatullah Mojaddadi, Head of Meshrano Jirga (or upper house of the Afghan parliament), issued the following statement:

Mesharano Jirgs vehemently denounces the recent statement of Richart Holbrook, who had said in a gathering on 05 March 2010, that “there is a Talib in each Pashtun family. This kind of statement is considered to be unrealistic and baseless, and it is a major obstacle for strengthening peace and reconciliation in the country.

 Click here for the complete text.

Watch closely because here comes the recap... if you aren't paying attention, you might miss it: I have to say I hate weeks like this... Narcogen played a single day... one... I feel like I am getting fat with all this sitting around. I sort of feel like we are spinning our wheels here... no gamerscore change? Oh well.

So that's it for now. It was a good week. On to the next one.

Back in January, Drew Conway, Thomas Zeitzoff, and I co-wrote a response to a high-profile study on ecologies of conflict. Our primary complaint wasn’t that quantitative study per se was wrong—after all, Thomas and Drew are primarily quantitative in their work—but that it requires a lot of context and understanding to give the numbers meaning beyond themselves.

Naturally, Andrew Exum joined the fray, calling the three of us a gang of assassins and generally going on about his opinions of the entire field of quantitative study. He eventually distilled his thoughts on the matter into a “manifesto,” which, being outright skeptical of quant studies’ value, generated severe angst in the academic blogosphere (our friend Drew wrote an engaging response).

 Click here for the complete text.

It is that time of the week. I got your weekly recap right here: I told Narcogen that 6 days of playing would be ideal... so last week there was some extra effort to get us there. Good job! Our gamerscore jumped 380 points which was nice. Getting 11 achievements has that effect. Also, according to the records, Narcogen must have been craving RPGs because Mass Effect 2 was the weekly favorite. He played it on 6 of the days.

And that's all I got. I'm not a writer... just an Xbox.

Translation of mursya’s post (RUS)

ulan writes:

Last week, I watched a segment on “Khabar” (Translator’s note: Kazakh television program) about the customs union.

Kazakhstan’s “businessmen” were actively licking boots and marveling at the idea. A manager at a factory where they make Nivas and Skodas anticipated the windfall growth in his sales: “Our market will grow to 170 million people!” Other “businessmen” had similar things to say.

 Click here for the complete text.

Translation of publicist’s post (RUS)

The Office of Statistics reports that grocery prices in January 2010 increased 3.9% over January 2009.
The greatest increase was in prices on sugar, which rose by 40.2%. Next, in descending order, come coffee, tea and cocoa (25.4%), alcohol (9.4%), baked goods (7.7%), pastry (6.3%), dairy (3.1%) and pasta (2%).
Foods that got cheaper included flour (17.6%), fruits and vegetables (6.9%), eggs (6.4%), grains (6.2%), butter and lard (3.9%) and bread (3.3%).

Prices on meat and meat products grew 6.6% over the year. Pork became more expensive (11.5%), as did cured meats (6.2%), horse meat (2.9%) and mutton (2.1%).

The lowest prices on goods mentioned above were recorded in Pavlodar, Taraz, Zhezkazgan, Kazylorda, Kokshetau, Ust’-Kamenogorsk, Petropavlovsk and Taldykorgan.

 Click here for the complete text.

I forgot to post this, but here’s video of my Skype interview with Alyona Minkovsky the other day. We talk about civilian displacement in Marjeh, embedded reporting, and other things.

I was wrong about one point, however: Angela Merkel withstood her reelection campaign before the tanker bombings, which were near Kunduz not Mazar-i Sharif. Her government, however, is still in no real danger of collapse over the incident and Germany recently increased its troop commitment.