Saiga's Notes

I've got a call from Greenpeace asking to donate money on the rescue of orcas and belugas imprisoned in the Russian Far East . I transferred a moderate amount although I wasn't sure I was right. Why? I was feeling completely right when making similar donations to the AdBlock and the Guardian. I recall one of my days in school. Once another boy came to me between lessons and offered a newt. I paid, got the newt and ran home to put it in water. I was late for the next lesson and the director caught me in a hallway. I honestly told her why I was out of school. She said: "Don't you realize that this boy makes money catching animals and selling them to naive kids like you?" Thus I faced poaching for the first time in my life. The boy made buziness on freshmen and sophomores. Almost all the animals he sold eventually died in the children's hands. The pond was loosing amphibias. That's how it goes. We sympathy to animals. We buy them from poachers, to give...

Maybe you have already heard about „The Keys To The White House“, a system invented by Allan Lichtman that fantastically predicted the  nine last  presidential election results. In 2016 the author himself didn’t believe that Donald Trump would win. But the system said „yes“ ... and he won. (c) CharismaNews.com In other words, Lichtman's forecasting system overcame the author’s own subjectivity, the hardest quest for any system. So it really is a system. And I think that politics and publishing have much in common. Readers do vote too with their wallets. Then a crazy idea came to transform Lichtman’s system so that it would predict success for a new book. So I did. Check out. My system consists of a fourteen-questions poll (original one had thirteen). If ’yes’ answers dominate, the book wins. If ’no’ – drop your plot to a bucket. Contest. There were no bestseller books in the category recently. Sector Mandate. The book gets good promotions from respected persons i...

I'm trying to find a writing tool more convenient than a usual text processor for a writer. A wide choice of software is offered in the market, but many writers had attempted and got back to Microsoft Word and its alternatives. My case with ApolloPad is one of the kind. After an initial brief study of about 15 programs and online tools, I had sorted out four of them to give a try in real work. Apollo was one of these four. After two hours of using it, I decided to quit. So, what is ApolloPad, why it tempted me, and what had gone wrong? Its developer Dave Child describes ApolloPad as a „distraction-free writing environment for budding authors“. I can add that it works online, with well-known pros and cons of online tools. ApolloPad is not a finished piece of work, it runs as a beta version. Else, it is free to use – the main advantage before Scrivener. The developer promises that „you will be able to extract your work quickly and without a fee after the beta“. The „after“ is a...

 British delegation estimated the readiness of Nizhny Novgorod for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The delegation visited the construction site of the stadium at Strelka; some of the hotels and restaurants in which the FIFA delegation and soccer fans will live. "This is my first time in Nizhny Novgorod. Surely, it's a very beautiful city with a growing and developing economy. The best impressions are related to the preparations for the World Cup next year. Professionalism, competence and, most importantly, enthusiasm can be felt. A lot depends on the draw and on the games, of course, but we will be very pleased if at least one of the British teams - Scotland, England, or Wales, or Northern Ireland - will play here," the head of the delegation, Minister Counsellor at the British Embassy in Moscow Jonathan Brenton said. He said that Nizhny Novgorod reminded him Edinburgh, and had opportunities for tourism, recreation, and sports. The Consul of Her Majesty Thomas Regan note...

Spanish documentary films director Fernando González Molina was penaltied in Nizhny Novgorod for violating the migration law, says news agency NIA Nizhny Novgorod. Molina is known for Three Steps Above Heaven (2010), Palmeras en la nieve (2015) and Tengo ganas de ti (2012). Like if you want to know more.

A restaurateur calls on President of Russia for step back on a law that slashes restaurants’ menu. Distinguished businessman Alexander Kotyusov who runs several establishments askes Vladimir Putin to soften safety standard that restricts serving of some popular traditional Russian dishes during the days of FIFA matches. He warns that international guests will be disappointed if they’re offered burgers with Pepsi instead of ethnic foods. An NPO supports the restaurateur. Opora Rossii, an association of 400,000 entrepreneurs, says that governmental ruling is not clear and needs to be improved. The organization is exploring ways to prevent reputational and financial losses of catering industry. Two Mr Kotyusov’s colleagues say that Russian sanitary norms are outdated. They find that Russian food’s safety is much higher than that of some famous European dishes. A watching dog Rospotrebnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights) argues that the norm is necessary du...

I know a very smart woman who is now considering withdrawing her saving accounts from banks to keep money in cash in stable foreign currency, because a collapse of Russian bank system has become a probable reality in 2017. She adviced me to do the same. At first I had perceived it to be a bad news. It meant that future would be worse than present, and present in Russia is not so bright, the crisis is obvious. It meant realization of the most gloomy scenario, fatal necessity to postpone many plans, dreams, hopes for quick return of growth. We kept money at home in cash in the 1990s, during the times of the worst economic situation. Do we have to go through this again? How can one feel good knowing this? That’s it: how can one feel good? I tried to answer the question, and I had found something that made me feel good again. Taking money from banks, I take them from the economy of the country. My money isn’t a part of the machine that supports the unwanted political regime. If the gove...