KZBlog is going down (2)
After some thought, I have decided not to renew KZBLog’s lease. As you may have noticed, I don’t do a lot of posting here anymore. I don’t have time to blog regularly. Thus I am taking the site down–it does generate some ad revenue but not as much as it costs to keep it up. […]
Culture
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - Apples, Sure. But THC is from Kazakhstan too?
2011-10-05 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
Resources
- Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Books for Kazakh Students
2011-11-06
- Oh, CNN
Politics
- Image
2011-07-28 - Sub Rosa Endorsement
2011-07-26 - The Naked Truth
2011-06-12
- Image
News
- KZBlog is going down
2013-09-10 - Oh, CNN
2012-07-21 - Repentence
2012-07-15
- KZBlog is going down
Fun
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
2012-07-19 - Yurts Are High Fashion and Slum Fashion Too
2011-12-05 - House Hunters Bishkek
2011-12-02
- What Do You Know About Kazakhstan?
Tourism
- Asian Games Torch
2011-01-12 - Wikitravel
2010-08-07 - ALZHIR, the Soviets and Democracy
2010-07-30
- Asian Games Torch
Life in KZ
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
2011-12-07 - Healthcare and the Private Sector
2011-11-30 - Naked Man Pot
2011-09-23
- Photo Gallery: Almaty Subway
Redbubble
Guess Who’s Back? Back Again? (4)
Believe it or not, there’s going to be another film about Borat. Without the participation of Sascha Baron Cohen however. Kazakh director, Erkin Rakishev is planning a movie called My Brother, Borat which is apparently about what happens when an American fan of Borat’s comes to Kazakhstan and finds out that it is a developed and modern country.
All in all, it sounds suspiciously like Borat’s Repentance, a film made by some Americans in 2008 about the president of Borat’s fan club also making a journey to Almaty to discover the modern marvel of Kazakhstan. One hopes that My Brother, Borat will also have a sense of humor about itself and come off as either straight propaganda for Kazakhstan (Everything here is perfect, all the children are smiling and even pensioners are eating filet mignon while surfing high speed wireless Internet on their iPhone 4.0s) or too mean-spirited against Sascha Baron Cohen or Western culture.
Some have wondered why the film will apparently be about an American tourist when Sascha Baron Cohen is British. Other’s have wondered if when the film comes out next year, people in Kazakhstan will still care about Borat.
Does anyone know what else Erkin Rakishev has done? I can’t seem to find any projects he has worked on thanks to the popularity of the news on Borat film.
Wikitravel (Comments Off on Wikitravel)
In yet another effort to learn more about things to do in Astana, I’ve been editing the Astana on Wikitravel. Would be great to see more people join in and give out some information that only locals know.
Lightning Kills Woman (4)
Two days ago during a flash thunderstorm, a woman was killed by lightning when she was swimming in the river. Lightning hit the water and injured another 5 to 10 people, depending on which news source you read.
By the way, the emergency call was responded to very quickly. I was home when the rain began, and left about 10 minutes later for an appointment near the park. The ambulance came by about 15 minutes after the beginning of the rain. That’s good response time!
Interestingly, the police also were very strict about letting film cameras anywhere near the site of the injury, harassing a cameraman on the other end of the footbridge. I can see why it might be upsetting to the family to see images of the injured or dead, but I’m not sure that it’s either illegal or that the police had to be so forceful about it.
Tweet (Comments Off on Tweet)
RT @adamkesher: Сними социальный ролик и Contest social video “Open your eyes” first prize 150 000 tenge http://bit.ly/8XojcJ
Where the Flamingos Roam (2)
I’ve had this draft post for a while and never managed to find time to fill it out. This is another great place to not too far from Astana: Korgalzhyn Nature Reserve. It’s a few hours west of Astana out the Kurgalzhino Highway. Getting there is a bit difficult because you have to go to Akmola Tourist Agency in Astana (in the Abay Hotel on the corner of Respublika and Seifulin) and either set up a tour with them or get a permit to go independently. You then have to go out to the village of Korgalzhyn and have your permit stamped by the regional officials before you can enter the Nature Reserve itself. If you go with your own car, you must stop at the main gate and a guide will get into the car with you and take you around.
Korgalzhyn is the northernmost point of migration for flamingos and you should definitely ask your guide to try to find some for you. But as you drive around, you’ll see hawks and eagles sitting on the ground or perched on electric wires. Swan and ducks swim in beautiful and picturesque lakes. Last time we were there we saw a dust cloud behind us that slowly but surely overtook our car, then suddenly swerved and passed us going the other way. The driver told us it was saigak, a native species of elk that can run over 80 km/h. The reserve really feels like being on safari, since you are in among the animals.
You can also see Kunayev’s guesthouse from when he was head of the Kazakh SSR and there’s some guesthouses and a small cafe as well. It’s definitely worth staying overnight to try to see as much of the reserve as you can.
GPS of Main Gate: 50.5259N, 69.6965E
GPS of Flamingo Lake: 50.6047N, 69.5388E
GPS of Hotel: 50.477N, 69.5429E
GPS of turn off the main road to get there: 50.6381N, 70.0475E
Second Grader’s Case Thrown Out (3)
An update on my post, Second Grader Sues Ministry. Apparently, the filing was rejected although I can’t find news of this online.
However in searching, I found a report on Khabar news and this follow up Book publisher at fault [RU]. Apparently the Ministry of Education never approved this book. The publisher has admitted that he illegally indicated the book was approved by the Ministry and has agreed to take on all expenses for reprinting the textbook without errors. An investigation is under way of all textbooks on road rules now.
Now, if this is the case, we have another question. How did a book that was not approved by the Ministry of Education end up in the schools? Can anyone claim to have approval and sell their books to schools? It seems hard to believe in a land where bureaucracy is widespread that there is no process of checking the list of approved books with the Ministry itself!
Contador Is Leaving. Menchov is Coming? (2)
On the 29th of July, Contador is leaving Team Astana citing problems with equipment. Can’t find the article now, but his agent claims that among other things the TV in the Astana car was broken on the day Schlek broke his chain, meaning Contador didn’t know what was going on. This might have led him to ungraciously pass Schlek, which some are claiming is the only reason Contador won. As of yet, the three time Tour de France champion hasn’t named any teams he is looking at. But with Andy and Frank Schlek leaving Saxo-Bank, it’s possible Contador will end up there in 2011. Meanwhile rumor has it Contador won’t race in the blue and yellow jersey for the rest of 2010 even.
While Team Astana is still hoping to negotiate with Contador, apparently they are weighing other options too. According to Velo Nation, Team Astana is in talks with Menchov. The general secretary of the Kazakhstan Cycling Federation, Valentin Rejert, says he is quite upset with the way he was informed of Contador’s decision and while he would love to keep the Spainard, “…we cannot wait forever.” One piece of good news for Kazakhstan sports fans: Rejet said that the team will emphasize the promotion of young Kazakh cyclists.” meaning sometime in the future we might actually get a Kazakhstan Team Astana champion!
Also, check out Kazakh Nomad’s take on the Tour and a strange quote from well-respected linguist Olzhas Suleimenov who is apparently disappointed that the Kazakh national anthem wasn’t played in Paris.
Astana Water to Be Shut Off (4)
This is a Public Service Announcement. Just got this email from the US Embassy:
The Astana city water authority has announced that the water supply for the entire city will be shut off for maintenance from 10pm tonight until 4pm tomorrow (Wednesday, August 4th). The actual outage may be shorter, however it would be prudent to prepare for a whole day without water.
This water outage will not affect the Embassy Compound as there is enough water stored on compound to last for this period of time.
To prepare for this outage at your residence consider:
1. Storing additional drinking water.
2. Fill your bathtub with water for flushing.
Kazakhstan Widget (1)
Wolfram Alpha, the statistician’s Google, has a new feature. You can build widgets that basically take Wolfram Alpha searches and allow users to change selected variables. I was playing around with it and came up with this simple example. Enter the information you want and the year. Clicking the x at on the upper right side of the widget closes the results frame.
By the way, I tried “Olympic medals” and that worked, so don’t be limited by socio-economic data.
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