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August Curse
The August curse has been perceived as a phenomenon in Russia, where from 1991 to 2001, the worst disasters and adverse events seem to have occurred in August. Many possible explanations have been presented for this observation, ranging from fact-based to supernatural. Overview In the early 21st century, journalists and observers noted that, since 1991, an unusual number of severe and fatal events in Russia had occurred in the month of August. Examples included deadly accidents and incidents, terrorist attacks, and the outbreak of two major wars. Explanation attempts Russian media has speculated about possible explanations for such clustering. Seasonal influence on human activities, as opposed to the relative shutdown in winter, for instance, are among them. For instance, many people take vacations in August: this leaves a kind of power-vacuum at some levels which terrorists and criminals can exploit. Evgeny Nadorshin, chief economist at Trust Bank, has said that, for many event ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eighth of Earth's inhabitable landmass. Russia extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones and shares Borders of Russia, land boundaries with fourteen countries, more than List of countries and territories by land borders, any other country but China. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, world's ninth-most populous country and List of European countries by population, Europe's most populous country, with a population of 146 million people. The country's capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city is Moscow, the List of European cities by population within city limits, largest city entirely within E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Chechen War
The First Chechen War, also known as the First Chechen Campaign,, [Armed conflict in the Chechen Republic and on bordering territories of the Russian Federation] Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 1995 (в редакции от 27 ноября 2002) "О ветеранах" or the First Russian-Chechen war, was a war of independence which the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria waged against the Russia, Russian Federation from December 1994 to August 1996. The first war was preceded by the Russian Intervention in Ichkeria, in which Russia tried to covertly overthrow the Ichkerian government. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle of Grozny (1994–1995), Battle of Grozny, Russian federal forces attempted to seize control of the mountainous area of Chechnya, but they faced heavy resistance from Chechen guerrilla warfare, guerrillas and raids on the flatlands. Despite Russia's overwhelming advantages in firepower, manp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tisha B'Av
Tisha B'Av ( he, תִּשְׁעָה בְּאָב ''Tīšʿā Bəʾāv''; , ) is an annual fast day in Judaism, on which a number of disasters in Jewish history occurred, primarily the destruction of both Solomon's Temple by the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Second Temple by the Roman Empire in Jerusalem. Tisha B'Av marks the end of the three weeks between dire straits and is regarded as the saddest day in the Jewish calendar, and it is thus believed to be a day which is destined for tragedy. ''Tisha B'Av'' falls in July or August in the Gregorian calendar. The observance of the day includes five prohibitions, most notable of which is a 25-hour fast. The Book of Lamentations, which mourns the destruction of Jerusalem, is read in the synagogue, followed by the recitation of ''kinnot'', liturgical dirges that lament the loss of the Temples and Jerusalem. As the day has become associated with remembrance of other major calamities which have befallen the Jewish people, some ''kin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated, but it can be managed, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills. Biased search for information, biased interpretation of this information, and biased memory recall, have been invoked to explain four specific effects: # ''attitude polarization'' (when a disagreement becomes more extreme even though the different parties are exposed to the same evidence) # ''belief perseverance'' (when beliefs persist after the evidence for them is shown to be false) # the ''irr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apophenia
Apophenia () is the tendency to perceive meaningful connections between unrelated things. The term (German: ' from the Greek verb ''ἀποφαίνειν'' (apophaínein)) was coined by psychiatrist Klaus Conrad in his 1958 publication on the beginning stages of schizophrenia. He defined it as "unmotivated seeing of connections ccompanied bya specific feeling of abnormal meaningfulness". He described the early stages of delusional thought as self-referential over-interpretations of actual sensory perceptions, as opposed to hallucinations. Apophenia has also come to describe a human propensity to unreasonably seek patterns in random information, such as can occur while gambling. Introduction Apophenia can be considered a commonplace effect of brain function. Taken to an extreme, however, it can be a symptom of psychiatric dysfunction, for example, as a symptom in paranoid schizophrenia, where a patient sees hostile patterns (for example, a conspiracy to persecute them) in ordin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Station Accident
On 17 August 2009, a turbine at the hydroelectric power station of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam near Sayanogorsk in Russia failed catastrophically, flooding the turbine hall and killing 75 people. A section of the roof of the turbine hall collapsed; all but one of the ten turbines were damaged or destroyed. The entire plant output, totalling 6,400 megawatts (MW) – a significant portion of the supply to the local area – was lost, leading to widespread power outages. An official report on the accident was released in October 2009. Background The Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam is located on the Yenisey River in south-central Siberia, Russia, about south of Sayanogorsk, Khakassia. Before the accident, it was the largest hydroelectric power station in Russia and the sixth-largest in the world by average power generation. On 2 July 2009, RusHydro, the power station's operator, announced the station's all-time highest electricity output in 24 hours. Turbine 2 Turbines of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russo-Georgian War
The 2008 Russo-Georgian WarThe war is known by a variety of other names, including Five-Day War, August War and Russian invasion of Georgia. was a war between Georgia, on one side, and Russia and the Russian-backed self-proclaimed republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, on the other. The war took place in August following a period of worsening relations between Russia and Georgia, both formerly constituent republics of the Soviet Union. The fighting took place in the strategically important South Caucasus region. It is regarded as the first European war of the 21st century. The Republic of Georgia declared its independence in early 1991 as the Soviet Union began to fall apart. Amid this backdrop, fighting between Georgia and separatists left parts of the former South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast under the ''de facto'' control of Russian-backed but internationally unrecognised separatists. Following the war, a joint peacekeeping force of Georgian, Russian, and Ossetian troops wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612
Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 was a scheduled passenger flight operated by Saint Petersburg-based airline Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise, flying from Anapa Airport to Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg. The aircraft crashed in Donetsk Oblast in eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border, on 22 August 2006. All 170 people on board were killed. The crash was the deadliest aviation accident in 2006. At the time it was the deadliest crash in modern Ukrainian history and the second deadliest in Ukraine SSR, after the 1979 Dniprodzerzhynsk mid-air collision. The death toll was eventually surpassed in 2014 when Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down east of where Flight 612 had crashed, also located in Donetsk Oblast, killing all 298 people on board. Aircraft Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise Flight 612 was served by a Russian Tupolev Tu-154M airliner (registration: RA-85185). The aircraft did not refuel in Anapa and departed on time. "The Pulkovo Airlines flight departed Anapa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2004 Russian Aircraft Bombings
On the night of 24 August 2004, explosive devices were detonated on board two domestic passenger flights that had taken off from Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, causing the destruction of both aircraft and the loss of all 90 people on board them. Subsequent investigations concluded that two Chechen female suicide bombers were responsible for the bombings, which were also later claimed by the leader of the Chechen insurgency. Flights Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303 The first to crash was Volga-AviaExpress Flight 1303, a Tu-134 aircraft, registered RA-65080, which had been in service since 1977. The plane was flying from Moscow to Volgograd. It left Domodedovo International Airport at 22:30 on 24 August 2004. Communication with the plane was lost at 22:56 while it was flying over Tula Oblast, south-east of Moscow. The remains of the aircraft were found on the ground several hours later. Thirty-four passengers and 9 crew members were on board the plane. Al ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2002 Khankala Mi-26 Crash
On 19 August 2002, a group of Chechen separatists armed with a man-portable air-defense system brought down a Russian Mil Mi-26 helicopter in a minefield, which resulted in the death of 127 Russian soldiers in the greatest loss of life in the history of helicopter aviation. It was also the most deadly aviation disaster ever suffered by the Russian Armed Forces, as well as its worst loss of life in a single day since the 1999 start of the Second Chechen War. Attack On 19 August 2002, Chechen separatist fighters launched a Russian-made 9K38 Igla shoulder-fired, heat-seeking surface-to-air missile which hit an overloaded Mil Mi-26 heavy transport helicopter of the 487th Separate Helicopter Regiment, causing it to crash-land and burn at Khankala military air base near Chechnya's capital city of Grozny. The helicopter was ferrying 142 soldiers and officers belonging to various units, mostly from the 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division, from the Russian Air Force base at Mozdok, Rep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kursk Submarine Disaster
The nuclear-powered Project 949A ''Antey'' (''Oscar II'' class) submarine '' APL Kursk'' (Russian: ) sank in an accident on 12 August 2000 in the Barents Sea, during the first major Russian naval exercise in more than 10 years, and all 118 personnel on board were killed. The crews of nearby ships felt the initial explosion and a second, much larger explosion, but the Russian Navy did not realise that an accident had occurred and did not initiate a search for the sub for over six hours. The submarine's emergency rescue buoy had been intentionally disabled during an earlier mission and it took more than 16 hours to locate the sunken boat. Over four days, the Russian Navy repeatedly failed in its attempts to attach four different diving bells and submersibles to the escape hatch of the submarine. Its response was criticised as slow and inept. Officials misled and manipulated the public and news media, and refused help from other countries' ships nearby. President Vladimir Putin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Apartment Bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing more than 300, injuring more than 1,000, and spreading a wave of fear across the country. The bombings, together with the Invasion of Dagestan, triggered the Second Chechen War. The handling of the crisis by Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, boosted his popularity greatly and helped him attain the presidency within a few months. The blasts hit Buynaksk on 4 September and in Moscow on 9 and 13 September. On 13 September, Russian Duma speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov made an announcement in the Duma about receiving a report that another bombing had just happened in the city of Volgodonsk. A bombing did indeed happen in Volgodonsk, but only three days later, on 16 September. Chechen militants were blamed for the bombings, but denied responsibility, along with Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov. A susp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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