Actually, the formal name of the country is The Russian Federation. A federation, by definition, is a union of partially self-governing states or regions that are united by a central (or federal) government. The United States is a federation.

But, Russia being Russia, they implement the system in their own way.

The Russian Federation is made up of the following regions, called Federal Subjects:

• 21 Republics – semi autonomous regions with their own constitution, president, and parliament.
• 46 Oblasts (Provinces) – Kind of like a US state, but the Governor is appointed by the Federal Government. The legislature is locally elected.
• 9 krais (Territories) – Mostly in the less populated frontiers.
• 1 Autonomous Oblast – The Jewish Autonomous Oblast, created by Joseph Stalin (this will need more research)
• 4 Autonomous Okrugs – More autonomous than Oblasts, but less than Republics
• 2 Federal Cities – Moscow and St. Petersberg. These are under the direct control of the Federal Government (kind of like Washington D.C.)

Russia has a President, who is the Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, and a Prime Minister, who is the Head of Government. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President. The President is elected by direct popular vote.

They have a bicameral legislature, called the Federal Assembly of Russia. There is an Upper House, called the Federation Council of Russia. The members of the Upper House are appointed by the heads of the Federal Subjects. Each Subject gets 2 “senators”. The Lower House is called the State Duma. It’s kind of unclear how they are elected. They are called “deputies”.

Each of the Federal Subjects has a flag. Many of the flags are awesome. The flag of The Russian Federation is less awesome. But the Coat of Arms is Awesome. I’ve put together a graphic to explain.

Source: wiki, CIA World Factbook, and Secretary of State. I tried to use some official Russian websites, but it turns out I can’t read Russian.

BTW, I strongly encourage independent research on the awesomeness of Russian Flags. Click the wiki link above to get the whole list.

Although I learned this a few months ago (in the pre-blog days), I thought it fitting considering the previous post.

The division (how we count to 10) is where the variances are most obvious. For the most part, the text is the same, though there are some critical differences. For instance, Lutherans use “murder” and Catholics use “kill” for their Commandment 5. Pretty much everyone has removed the reference to oxen and slaves in numbers 9/10, and slaves again in 4/3. And some Jews feel that the reference to steal in their 8 is really a reference to kidnapping.

Obviously the interpretation/orthodoxy surrounding the commandments varies as well, but far too much to summarize here.

This chart from Wikipedia illustrates the division part quite nicely.

The word profane originally had a different meaning. It simply referred to anything that was not conducted inside a Jewish Temple. It was a way to delineate between things that were sacred (like worship, conducted in the temple) and secular (like shopping or basically everything else).

In ancient Jewish tradition, you were not supposed to speak the name of God unless you were in the Temple. (Here’s how we get to not taking the Lord’s name in vain)

So, literally, to avoid taking the Lord’s name in vain you weren’t supposed to speak the name of God outside the Temple. To do so would be profane.

Through many different interpretations and translations, this original meaning has become quite confused.

King Henry VIII put his own spin on things, and the mere act of translating from Hebrew to English caused problems.

But the Puritans win the award. They were the ones who decided to morph profane into profanity, and became the language police.

So while good religious people should probably keep their language in check, you really aren’t violating that particular Commandment when you call the guy who cut you off in traffic a $#% @#$@ @%#$@#$^@#^^@#^#^$#.

Source: The History Channel

At least, this guy did. Um, I guess I’ll stick with the mild sauce at Taco Bell. But the Volcano Taco is so good…

This whole naked calendars for charities trend is out of control.

Source: Fox News

Salt is an essential device that is used to help blood carry nutrients around.

Multiply 1/2 lb. by the number of people in the world, and that’s a lot of salt.

Source: The Science Channel

It’s like shammy, it’s like a towel, it’s like a sponge. Wine, Coffee, Cola, Pet Stains.

There is a weird quality to Vince from ShamWow! If you haven’t seen the spot- start here.

I can’t seem to decide if I like him or hate him. But I do have to stop myself from running to the phone with my credit card every time I see the commercial. (They can’t make this offer all day)

But it turns out that Vince has kind of a crazy past.

He released a movie in 1999 that was universally despised and sued Anna Nicole Smith after she allegedly backed out of the movie at the last minute. Though Ms. Smith had the sense to back out, the movie did star Joey Buttafuoco (yes, that Joey Buttafuoco), Ant (GSN Regular and Celebrity Fit Club Host), Michael Clark Duncan (huge black dude, super deep voice- was in Sin City), and Slash (yes, that Slash).

Vince himself was in the movie, playing the parts of Batman / Fetus Salesman / JJ Cool / Flirty Harry / Vincenzo Bulafungu. Sounds hilarious.

He also sued The Farrelly Brothers claiming they ripped off 14 scenes from There’s Something About Mary from him, and sued the Church of Scientology claiming they persecuted him after he quit the cult.

I’ll leave you with these words of wisdom: You’re going to spend $3,000 per month on paper towels anyway… this thing sells itself.

Source: imdb, wiki

This was the first privately developed rocket to reach orbit. It’s a cool milestone toward the development of commercial space flight.

Source: SpaceX

6/10ths of a gram of mass = leveling a town the size of Memphis, Tennessee.

In related news, Albert Einstein did not work on The Manhattan Project. He also did not appear in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

He did, however write a letter to President Roosevelt urging him to develop the Atomic Bomb.

Source: The Science Channel

Woot! 100 Posts (and counting) in the month of September alone. Go useless knowledge!

And for the record, 6% (including this one) involved Muppets.

FYI, I’ve started using the label function and rearranged the layout a little bit. Make those Google ads a little more prominent so when someone finally clicks one I’ll make .0002 cents.