Things you learn

[LCHIEN]

Well I read with considerable interest the stories coming out of Russia about the very large meteorite that struck in Russia yesterday. Estimated at 10 tons, travelling at 50,000 mph, it exploded from the reentry heat and the resulting shock wav blew out windows for miles around, the flying glass resulting in 1100 reported injuries. I imagine there were more injuries that were slight and not reported.

This was more or less a remarkable, rare event, but the intersting thing is yet to come. For a rare event there are a lot of videos of the meteor track and explosion in the sky. I'm sure the track didn't last so long so I was amazed that it was caught on video. Turns out that many videos were actually made of this fleeting event. According to an article I read, the fact that is was captured so many times is a result of Russian driving habits. Yes. Seems like Russian drivers are horrible. And the cops and the courts are so bad that its hard to get any justice unless you can prove without a doubt that the other guy caused it. So there's a huge market for Dashcams in Russia. Its the only way you can get convincing evidence that the other guy was at fault. So people have these dashcams mounted on their cars and running all the time. Some people had the luck for the cars to be pointed in the right direction to capture the meteor. But As a side result there's a huge posting on U-tube of crazy driving, fighting, one-car crashes from both viewpoints, etc that's wildy entertaining for some reason. Here's a sample of one such file. For more, go to Youtube and enter russian dashcam



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlxHPJAONpE

[TB Roye]

Those videos are scary especially the ones in the snow and ice. The remind me of California drivers going over Donner Sumit in the Sierras.

Tom

[cabinetman]

I get this message from that link...

This video contains content from BMG_Rights_Management, UMG, NATOarts, EMI, The Harry Fox Agency, Inc. (HFA), Sony ATV Publishing, IODA and EMI Music Publishing, one or more of whom have blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

.

[LCHIEN]

try this new link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlxHPJAONpE

[cabinetman]

try this new link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlxHPJAONpE

That one works. Dash cams makes having an accident worthwhile.

.

[cwsmith]

I have a very good Russian friend. We met years ago when he came to our plant and I was the acting training coordinator, in addition to my other responsibilities. Many great stories of Roman's stay here and I learned as much from him as I'm sure he learned in his six month training session here.

The whole "difference" between our two peoples was found to be really not so different at all, but the pre-conceptions were quite funny. Many great stories we both got out of our friendship. Things in both places are significantly different, but more in the way of facilities like banks, shopping, utilities, buying cars, housing, etc. One thing quite unique, he found was how most of us were really into doing a lot of our own maintenance, having hobbies like woodworking, etc. Not so much on his end, but a lot of that perhaps was that he lived in a big city and we were more rural.

This was in the late 90's so things may very well have changed some, but actually his driving skills (he was 25 at the time, a couple of years younger than my son) were quite good. He lived in Moscow, but had lived in a few other places, as his parents had been medical specialists in the Russian Air Force.

We still keep in touch and he paid us a visit just a few years ago on one of his engineering trips. I believe he works for Siemans (sp?) now.

He did tell me that the traffic police there is really quite corrupt. You get stopped and a few $$ will easily get you off, right there on the street... though he admitted, you have to know the "signs" to look for with the particular cop. He told me that things like speed limits and stop lights are very often ignored, as are turn signals, parking, etc. It's sort of "every man for himself" in some regions I guess.

But things like "Insurance" and "banking" are far more problematic than police matters and rules of the road. Most of so-called insurance companies and many banks are privately owned. At the time, and before, one simply did NOT bank their money. When it came to buying a car, you saved up, kept it stashed somewhere, and when the time came, you hired a person to protect you while you took your suitcase full of money to the dealer and got the car you wanted. He said that he knew many people who had lost thier money in banks, as their friendly local bank would often just disappear with your savings. There was no such thing as FDIC, or other government insurances of your account.

With car insurance, it's a very similar thing. You have an accident, the insurance company will battle you to great extent to avoid making any kind of payment. The law will protect you, but if you have nothing more than your word, you will most likely loose... as again, a few $$ placed in the right hands may well find YOU at fault. Hence the need for the dash camera's! It's a CYA thing.

The one thing that I took note of in many of yesterday's images were that the roads had no markings on them... no center lines, lane grading, etc. In the one shot of the traffic coming into that curve, seemed like three lanes, but there were no markings to define that. Likewise with the turning radius', no markings other than the traffic wear on the road surface. The traffic did seem quite orderly, in spite of that. I also noticed that you didn't see any "clunkers" or overly large vehicles either. But then this area is probably somewhat remote, but I don't know that for sure (I didn't look it up).

CWS