January 22, 2013
Estonia: Bookshelf This is the last piano from the first half of last century built in Riga Pianofactory. The piano is coated with cherry wood veneer. The body of this piano was damaged, also the key’s were broken. As work progresses, the strings and hammers where removed from the body. The body was made deeper that we could build there bookshelf. The keypad was restored. Piano lacquer casing was removed, damaged veneer patterns where repaired and to the edges we made new moldings from mahogany and we lacquered it with glossy varnish. The bookshelf was made from mahogany veneer, and the contents were prepared with matt lacquer. (via Entero)

Estonia: Bookshelf

This is the last piano from the first half of last century built in Riga Pianofactory. The piano is coated with cherry wood veneer. The body of this piano was damaged, also the key’s were broken.

As work progresses, the strings and hammers where removed from the body. The body was made deeper that we could build there bookshelf. The keypad was restored. Piano lacquer casing was removed, damaged veneer patterns where repaired and to the edges we made new moldings from mahogany and we lacquered it with glossy varnish. The bookshelf was made from mahogany veneer, and the contents were prepared with matt lacquer. (via Entero)

2:40am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcLTYSx
(Notes: 36)
  
Filed under: Estonia Riga Riga Pianofactory Musical Instruments Piano Pianos Furniture Repurposing Recycling Boookshelf 
January 21, 2013
Italian tax dodgers uncovered by the Redditometro

The Italian authorities have been accused of resorting to police state-style tactics with the introduction of a new weapon to hunt down the nation’s many tax dodgers.

The new procedure makes it possible to scrutinise any family’s spending pattern, and compare this with what it says it earns.

Tax evasion in Italy has been a chronic problem for generations.

The authorities say the equivalent of nearly 120bn euros (£100bn, $160bn) worth of revenue is lost every year.

And the nation’s army of tax inspectors desperately needs more firepower.

But some commentators have been outraged by this month’s launch of what is called the Redditometro - the Income Meter.

It has been described as unacceptably intrusive, the sort of thing that East Germany’s secret police might have dreamt up.

9:20pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcJoHuX
Filed under: Italy Tax Tax Evasion Spending Redditometro 
January 21, 2013
Russia Underworld Gathers for Aslan Usoyan’s Burial Aslan Usoyan, a Russian underworld boss who was killed by a sniper on Wednesday as he walked out of a restaurant in downtown Moscow, was buried in a snowy plot of land under a wooden cross on Sunday in a cemetery just beyond the Moscow city limits. The scene at Khovanskoye Cemetery — where black-clad toughs formed a procession in their Mercedes Geländewagens, and security officers told journalists to avoid the area for their own safety — was a modest one for a mobster of Mr. Usoyan’s status, perhaps in part because of the government’s efforts to avoid the pageantry that has unfolded around the funerals of Russian mob bosses in the past. Mr. Usoyan, a Kurd born in 1937 in Tbilisi, Georgia, rose through the ranks of the Vory v Zakone, or Thieves-in-Law, a shadowy criminal organization that emerged in the Soviet prisons, to become boss of the Moscow underworld. Mr. Usoyan survived four stints in prison, the gang wars of the 1990s and two assassination attempts, including one in 2010. Many of Mr. Usoyan’s contemporaries are interred at the best cemeteries in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but Mr. Usoyan’s relatives wanted him to be laid to rest in his birthplace. But a plane carrying Mr. Usoyan’s body was reportedly turned away from Georgia, fueling rumors that the country had refused to allow Mr. Usoyan to be buried there. (Membership in Thieves-in-Law carries a criminal sentence of more than five years in Georgia.) And then all the cemeteries inside the Moscow beltway turned away his relatives as they sought a burial place. (via NYTimes.com)

Russia Underworld Gathers for Aslan Usoyan’s Burial

Aslan Usoyan, a Russian underworld boss who was killed by a sniper on Wednesday as he walked out of a restaurant in downtown Moscow, was buried in a snowy plot of land under a wooden cross on Sunday in a cemetery just beyond the Moscow city limits.

The scene at Khovanskoye Cemetery — where black-clad toughs formed a procession in their Mercedes Geländewagens, and security officers told journalists to avoid the area for their own safety — was a modest one for a mobster of Mr. Usoyan’s status, perhaps in part because of the government’s efforts to avoid the pageantry that has unfolded around the funerals of Russian mob bosses in the past.

Mr. Usoyan, a Kurd born in 1937 in Tbilisi, Georgia, rose through the ranks of the Vory v Zakone, or Thieves-in-Law, a shadowy criminal organization that emerged in the Soviet prisons, to become boss of the Moscow underworld. Mr. Usoyan survived four stints in prison, the gang wars of the 1990s and two assassination attempts, including one in 2010.

Many of Mr. Usoyan’s contemporaries are interred at the best cemeteries in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but Mr. Usoyan’s relatives wanted him to be laid to rest in his birthplace. But a plane carrying Mr. Usoyan’s body was reportedly turned away from Georgia, fueling rumors that the country had refused to allow Mr. Usoyan to be buried there. (Membership in Thieves-in-Law carries a criminal sentence of more than five years in Georgia.) And then all the cemeteries inside the Moscow beltway turned away his relatives as they sought a burial place. (via NYTimes.com)

6:40pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcIypUf
(Notes: 42)
  
Filed under: Russia Moscow Mafia Crime Aslan Usoyan Funeral Assassination Khovanskoye Cemetery Vory v Zakone Thieves-in-Law 
January 21, 2013

Russia: Homophobes Beat LGBT Activists in Voronezh

On January 20 2013, at the central square of Voronezh a crowd of LGBT opponents beat the gay activists who came to protest against the homophobic laws.

About 50 people planned to participate in the rally, which was approved by the municipal authorities. But in the end, only 6 activists gathered in the center of Voronezh. They were met by 150 opponents of the LGBT community, who blocked their entrance to the square and, after pelting the activists with snowballs, started beating them. (via Red Hot Russia)

4:00pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcIDyBU
(Notes: 18)
  
Filed under: Russia Voronezh Protest Demonstration LGBT LGBTQ Gay Rights Homophobia Violence Video 
January 21, 2013
Istanbul, Turkey Thousands of Turks gather in front of the offices of Agos, an Armenian newspaper, during a commemoration ceremony for journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed in 2007 (via guardian.co.uk)

Istanbul, Turkey

Thousands of Turks gather in front of the offices of Agos, an Armenian newspaper, during a commemoration ceremony for journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed in 2007 (via guardian.co.uk)

1:20pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcHlc2b
(Notes: 3)
  
Filed under: Turkey Istanbul Agos Hrant Dink Commemoration Photography 
January 21, 2013

Can graffiti revive a French townscape?

Graffiti is still a relatively new art form, with its modern-day origins in New York’s counterculture and hip hop music. In Seine Saint Denis, just outside of Paris, authorities are hoping graffiti tours and a mural project will breathe new life into some of its rundown neighbourhoods. (via RFI)

10:40am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcHU56a
(Notes: 1)
  
Filed under: France Seine Saint Denis Art Street Art Graffiti Audio MP3 
January 21, 2013
Snow in Russia Moscow got a snowstorm that left a ten-inch-thick blanket of snow. They have 12,000 snow removal trucks, but they couldn’t keep up with the tons of snow in the big city. Meanwhile, Norilsk, the northernmost city in the world (of at least 100,000 people), is digging out from under ten feet of snow! (via Neatorama)

Snow in Russia

Moscow got a snowstorm that left a ten-inch-thick blanket of snow. They have 12,000 snow removal trucks, but they couldn’t keep up with the tons of snow in the big city. Meanwhile, Norilsk, the northernmost city in the world (of at least 100,000 people), is digging out from under ten feet of snow! (via Neatorama)

8:00am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcHB19Q
(Notes: 7)
  
Filed under: Russia Winter Snow Norilsk Photography 
January 21, 2013

Here Comes the Sun flashmob cheers Spanish unemployment office

A flashmob of musicians has cheered up the long queue in a busy Spanish unemployment office by playing the Beatles’ Here Comes the Sun.

During the stunt organised by Carne Cruda 2.0, a programme on the leading Cadena SER network, a small orchestra emerged instrument by instrument from the waiting room in a Madrid unemployment office. All work in the office came to a standstill and many people sang along in English.

Spain is enduring an unprecedented economic crisis caused by a property crash and public debt crisis. Unemployment, already at 26%, is expected to grow. Spain lost around 800,000 jobs last year and more than half of under-25s are unemployed. The Spanish government has resorted to severe budget cuts to reduce its deficit but austerity measures have also depressed the economy. (via guardian.co.uk)

5:20am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcGdC3-
(Notes: 4)
  
Filed under: Spain Madrid Unemployment Unemployment Office Carne Cruda 2.0 Flashmob Music Video 
January 21, 2013
Skopje, Macedonia A man fills a bottle with a wooden cross inside with water from the Vardar river during an Epiphany ceremony when the waters are blessed (via guardian.co.uk)

Skopje, Macedonia

A man fills a bottle with a wooden cross inside with water from the Vardar river during an Epiphany ceremony when the waters are blessed (via guardian.co.uk)

2:40am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcFrjzL
(Notes: 19)
  
Filed under: FYROM Macedonia Skopje Religion Orthodox Christianity Epiphany Photography 
January 20, 2013
Spanish Moms Pose for Semi-Nude Calendar to Pay for School Bus Service Spain, as much of the world, isn’t doing too well economically. After the country’s construction bubble popped the government instituted sizable budget cuts, including to schools, many of which now charge way too much for lunches and have had to cut bus services. Dozens of kids at Evaristo Calayatud in Valencia now have to walk nearly four miles over unpaved roads to get to school. But a group of mothers aren’t having it. If the government can’t afford school buses, well, they’re just going to raise the money themselves. By posing for a semi-nude calendar. The calendar features the mothers posing along what was once (and hopefully will be again) a school bus route. Their goal is to raise 43,000 euros, or approximately 56,700 US dollars; the calendars have sold well enough so far that they already have enough to pay for three months of daily bus service for the 83 kids affected. (via The Mary Sue)

Spanish Moms Pose for Semi-Nude Calendar to Pay for School Bus Service

Spain, as much of the world, isn’t doing too well economically. After the country’s construction bubble popped the government instituted sizable budget cuts, including to schools, many of which now charge way too much for lunches and have had to cut bus services. Dozens of kids at Evaristo Calayatud in Valencia now have to walk nearly four miles over unpaved roads to get to school.

But a group of mothers aren’t having it. If the government can’t afford school buses, well, they’re just going to raise the money themselves. By posing for a semi-nude calendar.

The calendar features the mothers posing along what was once (and hopefully will be again) a school bus route. Their goal is to raise 43,000 euros, or approximately 56,700 US dollars; the calendars have sold well enough so far that they already have enough to pay for three months of daily bus service for the 83 kids affected. (via The Mary Sue)

8:18pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZuyxWxcDykJ3
(Notes: 2)
  
Filed under: Spain Valencia Evaristo Calayatud Austerity School School Bus Transport Calendars Eurozone Crisis Eurozone Financial Crisis 
Liked posts on Tumblr: More liked posts »