Tag: Society

Surreal Daydreams: Cooking Up a Fantastical Adventure | February 08 2026, 15:36

Just a normal day

So I decided to fry some eggs. I grab the frying pan, and it asks me, “Which floor?”. Unfazed, I pull a piano out of my pocket and press the brake pedal. Suddenly, a flight attendant pops out of the oven and politely asks: “Tea, coffee, or hold a brick?”. I chose the brick, because it was checkered blue and smelled of spring.

I step out onto the balcony and see — instead of a courtyard, there’s an ocean of kefir. I get into a submarine, start the chainsaw, and then a traffic cop on a dolphin stops me. He whistles into a cucumber and says:

— Why are you without a panama hat in a public place?

I show him my passport, but instead of a photo, there’s a dressed herring. He bursts into tears of joy, gifts me a cactus, and flies away on an umbrella towards Syzran.

I go back inside, wanting to put the cactus in a vase, but the vase has married a vacuum cleaner and left on a honeymoon to the mezzanine. Well, I spit, wiped the sweat away with a towel, but it turned out to be the neighbor’s cat. The cat meowed, turned into 18 rubles in a single coin, and rolled under the sofa.

I approach it, get in the elevator, sit down on a bicycle, start a motorcycle, then bang, a conductor comes up to me and says, “Sir, give up your seat”. And I say I don’t smoke. Then this kid starts crying! But I didn’t lose my cool, and hit him on the face, and he grabs his knee and screams: “My back! My back!”

I exit this electric train,

and see, there’s a minibus standing there. Well, I approach and say: “Winston Blue and 0.5 vodka”. But it gives me Bond and beer. I take this prima and moonshine, and run away from those cops! Then these firefighters caught up with me in an ambulance! Caught up and say: “You forgot your change!”. So, I take a kilogram of apples and head to the market to trade.

I bring them, haven’t even set out these bananas, right then an old lady runs up and buys all the peaches, and tells me to put them in a small bag! And I think, she’s totally insane, how am I supposed to put 20 watermelons into her bag?! I took the money and went home! Never went to the forest again… didn’t touch mushrooms… even quit smoking.

US Visa Freeze for 75 Countries Amid Public Charge Concerns | January 14 2026, 15:23

If Fox News is to be believed, the US State Department is indefinitely suspending the processing of all types of visas for citizens of 75 countries, including Russia. Supposedly these measures will come into effect on January 21, 2026, and will remain in force until the department completes a full reassessment of verification procedures. It is stated that exceptions to this rule will be extremely rare and possible only after a thorough completion of all checks.

The reason is the aim to tighten the fight against “potential burdens on the American social security system”. Consular officers must deny visas to those who may become a “public charge”. Age, health status, English language proficiency, and financial situation are among the criteria.

P.S. Curious why there are so many chairs. Ten minutes ago, I sent Nadya a message on iMessage (!) “let’s buy a chair for mom on Ozone” after discussing chairs with mom on Signal. It seems like iMessage has not been known for leaking topics. Before this, I had no interest in chairs at all for many many years. Either advertising networks adapted quickly or it’s such a coincidence, I don’t know.

Federal Reserve Under Pressure: Jerome Powell’s Video Address on Presidential Influence | January 12 2026, 21:43

In the Russian-speaking segment, this news is somehow not visible at all, none of the media outlets are writing about it. Yesterday, Jerome Powell, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, released a video message on the official Federal Reserve website’s homepage, stating that the president’s administration is putting pressure on him and his system, and part of this pressure involves trying to charge him for the building’s facade repairs.

The Federal Reserve System is the “bank of banks” and the main printing press of the world. Since the 1950s in the USA, there has been an unwritten rule: the president does not interfere with the Federal Reserve’s operations. If the Federal Reserve starts printing money or lowering rates just because the president needs to “boost” the economy before elections, the dollar will depreciate, and inflation will become uncontrollable.

Quote:

“I deeply respect the rule of law and accountability in our democracy. Of course, no one, including the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, is above the law, but this unprecedented action should be viewed in the broader context of threats from the administration and ongoing pressure.”

“The threat of criminal prosecution is a result of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best judgment of what serves the public interest, rather than according to the President’s preferences. The issue is whether the Federal Reserve can continue to set interest rates based on data and economic conditions — or whether monetary policy will be determined by political pressure or intimidation.”

If the pressure continues or if Powell is removed/arrested, there is a high chance that the loss of the Federal Reserve’s independence could lead to a sharp drop in the dollar’s value and an increase in the prices of gold and other assets.

As Nikolai Chapaev said in the textbook “Introduction to the Course ‘Philosophy and History of Education'”, “God forbid you live in an era of changes”…

Cinema Meets Culture: The Indian Diaspora and Their Movie Rituals | January 09 2026, 06:09

I noticed that there is a huge gathering of Indians in our cinema, and it turns out it’s because the cinemas and the local Indian diaspora have found common ground. Today there were 13 showings of The Raja Saab in three languages – Tamil (in which the film was originally made), Telugu, and Hindi. The genre is fantasy horror comedy. There were also two showings today of Parasakthi in Tamil and two of Sarvam Maya in Malayalam.

And it was men only. I googled why. Superstars like Prabhas (The Raja Saab) have huge organized fan clubs. In Indian culture, “premiere night” and the first morning sessions are the territory of hardcore fans – and they are predominantly young men. They come to make noise, whistle, dance in front of the screen, and shout various things during the show. Many Indian families and women prefer to avoid this “crazy” atmosphere of the first sessions, opting for calmer showings on Saturday or Sunday.

Exploring the Delights of Origin Thai Spa: More Than Just Massage | January 08 2026, 23:48

We bought all this at our Thai massage salon Origin Thai Spa today for $20 — slices of matum tea, Bael Fruit Tea. To the left of it — pandan tea. Also, before buying we tried some hand-made cakes (delicious!).

The salon is staffed by Thai women, all of them elderly, many speak English poorly, but they all know their massage craft very well. We are regular customers there with a membership, and I highly recommend the salon to locals. Thai massage is not for everyone, though, because when done correctly, it is quite painful during the process (but beneficial, and feels like it recharges all your internal batteries).

Exploring Identity and Survival in “Avatar 3: A Journey of Relocation” | January 06 2026, 17:34

After watching Avatar 3, we decided to rewatch the first and second movies. Watched it like it was the first time, but here’s what I thought.

For the family, relocation was an urgent rescue from physical annihilation or forced participation in a war. Moving, they encountered the necessity to “learn to swim” in a new legal, linguistic, and social environment, starting from scratch and losing their former social weight. The feeling of “we are strangers here” is the central emotion. Severance of ties with friends and colleagues, only the “nuclear family” remains as the sole island of identity. Essentially, Jake’s decision to flee to save his children is the fundamental dilemma of any parent in a conflict zone: fight to the end on their own land or leave to preserve the life of the next generation.

Upon arrival, they hardly receive a visa, and permanent residency isn’t promised. But eventually, it becomes clear that it’s impossible to hide from a global conflict geographically. Sooner or later one has to participate in protecting their new “reef.”

Jake’s children and he himself have five fingers, whereas purebred Na’vi have four. Plus, the accent. This is a constant visual reminder of their origin. Even if you are fully integrated, there is always a detail that marks you as an outsider. Your children may become “one of them” faster, but they still carry the mark of “hybridity.”

By the way, in the third part, all the blues already speak English. The Na’vi language was completely displaced by them.

P. S. By the way, it’s interesting that Jake didn’t bring any of humanity’s achievements to the new culture of Pandora at all. I don’t know, the wheel, fire, medicine, some mechanical stuff. Nothing.

Arbitrage Adventures: A Glimpse into Venezuela’s Currency Chaos | January 04 2026, 17:10

I first looked at a map of Venezuela around 15 years ago when you could fly there from Russia for a couple hundred dollars. I studied the map but never used it (though perhaps I should have).

At that time, it was the era of wild currency arbitrage, where the difference between the official bolivar rate “from the TV” and the real price on the black market reached astronomical proportions.

The scheme was simply brilliant: within the country, all airlines were required to sell tickets for local currency at the government rate. If an international flight cost a thousand dollars, it was converted into bolivars at the “pretty” official rate. But if you came off the street with a stack of real dollars and exchanged them at a money changer, the sum in bolivars needed to purchase the same ticket cost just a real hundred dollars, and sometimes even fifty.

The real fun began when intermediaries or acquaintances within the country got involved. You could book a ticket online through a local office, pay for it in bolivars through someone in Caracas, and then simply give them cash dollars when meeting, or transfer to a foreign account. The savings were so absurd that people flew business class simply because it was cheaper than lunch at Miami airport.

But cheap tickets were just the tip of the iceberg, because there was also something known as “raspao”. The state gave every traveler the right to buy a couple of thousand dollars at the cheap official rate on a credit card for spending abroad. Eventually, people bought cheap tickets, flew to the nearest islands, cashed in their currency quota, and returned home virtually rich, having sold these dollars on the black market for many times more.

Of course, this bonanza could not last forever and very quickly ended with a loud crash. Airlines quickly realized that their accounts were filled with millions of worthless-bolivars, which the government flatly refused to exchange for real currency. Planes flew half-empty, although all seats were officially bought out for currency quotas, and the government’s debts to carriers grew to billions of dollars, after which global giants simply began to massively leave the market.

But it worked for a while. I don’t remember exactly, somewhere between 2011 and 2014.

How such a breakdown between the official and unofficial rates lasted so long is beyond comprehension. The government could not quickly abolish the official rate because it supported imports of food and medicine. As soon as they acknowledged the real dollar rate, prices in stores would have skyrocketed immediately (which later happened). Flight tickets merely became a “collateral hole” in the system that everyone used while it was possible.