Political humor has conquered American television. Comedy shows are crowding out the news because they operate on the same principles, but in a bolder way. The scenery on the stage is a snide fantasy on a jingoistic theme: eagles, stars and stripes adorn every conceivable surface. It all looks as if the contents of a conditional ultra-conservative brain were taken out and scattered on the walls. This is the Steven Kober show.

In the US, financial reform is about to begin. It will help if the next crisis is similar to the current one. In the distant past, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid was a boxer. When senators began discussing a new system of financial regulation in late April, the 70-year-old politician showed his fighting spirit. As soon as the Republicans hinted at the intention to postpone the debate, Reid threatened to leave the senators in the hall all night.

Russian sport will return to the Soviet system of management. It will not work democratically to win the 2014 Olympics Alexander Zhukov was elected president of the ROC by secret ballot. There was no doubt that he would be elected. The only competitor, 73-year-old self-nominated pensioner Andrei Kislov, was rejected long before the final vote. He had no recommendations from the IOC members, no support from the federations, not to mention state guarantees.

The investigation into the Lame Horse case is coming to an end. Main version: fireworks are to blame for everything. Victims don't believe The ruling of Ruslan Ibiev, an investigator who is investigating the Lame Horse case, states that since 2001, nightclub managers have acted “as part of an organized, stable group of people who had previously united to commit a crime.” Like they were planning an arson.

Colombian Phenomenon: How an Eccentric Lithuanian Immigrant Became a Real Presidential Candidate The full name of the person who has every chance of becoming the new president of Colombia is reminiscent of characters from the Harry Potter books: Aurelius Rutenis Antanas Mokkus Shivickas. Magic has nothing to do with it: shortly before the birth of Mokkus, his parents fled to Latin America from Soviet Lithuania, hence the atypical name for a Colombian.

The security system at Russian mines should have been reformed three years ago Miners from Germany come and ask the Russian miner: “How long have you been working in the mine?” “About 30 years, probably,” the Russian replies. “What, you want to buy this mine?!” the Germans are surprised. This sad story was told to Newsweek at the Raspadskaya mine in Mezhdurechensk, where 66 people recently died and 24 went missing.

In an interview with Polina Eremenko, Antanas Mokkus explained why he took off his pants in front of students and promised not to do this at international summits. How to explain the Mokkus phenomenon? Three months ago, such a rating was out of the question. Mokkus is not an isolated phenomenon, success lies in the well-coordinated work of the team. The alliance with members of the Green Party launched the process of social mobilization.

How the most famous Russian prison Internet diary changed the life of a convict, his wife and their colony The acting head of correctional colony No. 3 in the Tambov region, Vladimir Torbov, calls the inhabitants of the correctional colony not a contingent, not clients, not convicts, and not even convicts, as required by the norms of “colonial” slang. He calls them, as an ordinary native speaker of the Russian language, - convicts.

The President wants to drive a domestic car. It could cost the government $1 billion. In the personal fleets of First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov and presidential envoy to the Southern District Vladimir Ustinov, there are Soviet ZIL limousines - this follows from the income declarations of officials for 2009. The Russian leadership is characterized by a love for the Soviet retro: Dmitry Medvedev has a Pobeda, Vladimir Putin has an old Volga.

A budget of $150 million made it possible to recreate the East of the VI century, but could not revive the "Prince of Persia" It was necessary for one of ours to screen "Prince of Persia" - Balabanov, for example, or Serebrennikov.

Europeans are almost ready to let Russians in without visas. But they fear an influx of guest workers from the CIS countries In April, as part of preparations for the Russia-EU summit, Hugues Mingarelli, deputy head of the European Commission's department for external relations, flew to Moscow. When his meeting with Deputy Minister of Economic Development Andrey Slepnev began to drag on, the European official apologized and said that it was time for him to go to the airport.

Last week in Moscow was shown the top lots of the London auction Sotheby's, which will be held in June. The auction will include Russian art, impressionists and art of the 20th century. At the exhibition in Moscow one could see the “Portrait of Z.I. Grzhebin" by Yuri Annenkov, "Titi and Narange, daughters of the leader Eka Bondo" by Alexander Yakovlev, "Clown" by Maria Vasilyeva, "Trees in Collioure" by Andre Derain, "Seated woman with a cat" by Pablo Picasso and other works.

Virtual reality can be made quite convincing. It needs a simple trick Before starting work, American psychologist Kathleen Armel from the University of California asked students not to make sudden movements. At first it was not difficult: having seated another volunteer at the table, the woman began to tap her fingers on his hand. Several minutes passed like this - the young man calmed down and stopped paying attention to these actions.

Neo-Nazis and anti-fascists found a common enemy Not much is known about the "career" of 17-year-old Ilya Petrov from Penza. At first he was an anti-fascist punk, and then he abruptly went over to the other camp. He pinned brass knuckles on his chest surrounded by oak leaves (symbols of radical nationalists), quit smoking and began to study explosives manuals.