It’s official people, the world’s biggest geek has been located in Russia. Sporting a collection of over 1,000 computer processors, this dude has no competition.

If someone actually made a top of the geekiest things a man can collect, I’m positive computer processors would be somewhere in the top three. So it feels only natural that this guy be awarded the title of biggest geek of all, for his collection of over 1,000 computer processors. Some are from the time of the Soviet Union (those might actually be worth something), while others are a more modern.

But the oddest thing about this “high-tech” collection, is the setting of the photos, with that carpet on the wall that reminds me of my grandmother’s old home. Not really the right place for such a collection, don’t you think?

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Cucumbers may be just every day vegetables to you, but in the Russian town of Suzdal they are of such importance that they have their own yearly festival.

The first cucumbers were cultivated in the Suzdal area, around 500 years ago, and some locals even consider the popular vegetable inherently Russian. The people here consider cucumbers the most nutritious vegetable in the world, and they use them in thousands of different dishes, from cucumber soups, to cucumber cakes and rolls, and even cucumber drinks. This being of the biggest cucumber producing centers of Russia, you’ll have a hard time finding a household that doesn’t make a living growing cucumbers.

The Suzdal Cucumber Festival takes place every year, in the month of July, during the vegetable harvest. During this event tourists will learn everything there is to know about cucumbers, from hot to grow them to the many different varieties. The region’s most famous entertainers perform different plays relating to cucumbers, and tourists can try the various cucumber delicacies of Suzdal, as well as buy cucumber souvenirs made of clay, wood and other materials.

One of the most important events of the Suzdal Cucumber Festival is the cucumber eating contest, where competitors try to beat the competition by eating as many cucumbers in the set time limit. Judging by the whole atmosphere of the festival, the winner probably receives some cucumbers as the prize.

This year, the Suzdal Cucumber Festival took place on July 24.

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I’m sure we can all agree Gadget Hackwrench is an adorable character, but do you like her enough to worship her like a goddess?

If you’ve never heard of the cute Gadget Hackwrench, she is a Disney character from the Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers cartoon series. This female mouse was the team’s pilot, mechanic and inventor. That’s all pretty impressive, but she’s hardly worthy of her very own cult, don’t you think?

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Vitalich and Jirka are a young couple who decided to have their very own special wedding, as zombies. I guess not even death can split-up these two.

Believe it or not, this is the couple’s third wedding so far. Every time they married each other. It sounds strange, I know, but they have reasonably good explanation. Their very first wedding was pretty much what you’d expect a normal wedding to be like. They did it to please their families, but felt they needed to have a new ceremony just for them

The problem was in order to legally get married again, they had to divorce each other. And so they did. Thei second wedding was Goth-themed and their most recent one was all about zombies. They got some real cool make-up on, dyed their clothes and asked the same thing of their friends. They consider themselves normal people who just love getting married in the most unique ways. Read More »

In order to better familiarize the people of Chelyabinsk (the city that brought us the human smiley face) with the tragedies and heroes of World War II, local authorities have created a giant Hero Book.

6 meters long, 3 meters wide and weighing around 600 kilograms, the Hero Book of Chelyabinsk contains photos of the people who were killed here, during World War 2, and stories about how they fought for the freedom of Mother Russia.

Photos by CFP via Cri Online

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I guess it’s true what they say, guns really don’t kill people, they can actually be used to create original works of art.

Come May 21, The Rusian city of Perm will be hosting an important exhibition of modern Ukrainian art, called YAKSCHO. It aims to reflect the situation in this country: productively unstable, full of contradictions, promises, hopes and disappointments, bursts of protest and creative energy.

One of the most interesting displays at YAKSCHO will definitely be the shot-up BMW. A local shooters group was asked by the Museum of Modern Art, in Perm, to take part in an unusual, but fun shooting session. Participants were promised a BMW X5 to shoot at, but in the end they were happy to empty their guns into an older model.

Volodymyr Kuznetzov, the man behind this unusual art project, decorated the car with flowers and other ornaments, marked with nail polish crosses, but the shooters, weren’t really able to follow the pattern. Still he was pleased with the final result and believes his shot-up BMW will be a hit when the exhibition opens.

via ilipin

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Ever since I started this blog I’ve been amazed at what amazing things ordinary people can achieve, if they put their minds to it. And this old Russian craftsman is just another perfect example.

Vladimir Filippovich must have really wanted to be a king, and live in a palace. His desire was so strong that he used his exceptional craftsmanship to transform his home into a breathtaking castle, worthy of being compared to actual royal residences. But human subjects are often traitors who stab you in the back, when you least expect it, so Mr. Filippovich chose to rule over 13 subjects, from the animal kingdom, 11 dogs, and two cats.

His amazing-looking palace is rather noisy, with all his courtiers barking most of the time, but their loyalty and selflessness more than makes up for that. This goes to show you that, with the right skills and a lot of patience, pretty much anyone can be a king and even build their own little kingdom.

via PhotoPolygon

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Presented at the beginning of 2009, Marussia has finally hit the streets of Russia, and we have the pics to prove it.

You’re probably wondering what a car has to do with an oddities blog, but i figured it’s not every day you see a super car that’s made in Russia. We first reported on the Marussia, in January of 2009, but if any of you had any doubts this futuristic looking beast would ever hit the streets, you were wrong. Livejournal user, quantum, took some awesome pics of the Russian super car, and it looks a lot better than I expected.

Marussia is the brain child of Russian GT driver, Nikolai Fomenko, and it’s the first GT model built in Mother Russia. Most of the parts, are however imported. Marussia features an ingenious light body that can be changed whenever you’re sick of the colors.

If you’re wondering if there’s more to this super car, than the aerodynamic look, you should know it’s got a 3.5 liter engine, and 300 bhp, under the hood. Marussia reaches 100 km/h in 4.2 seconds.

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If this thing was for real, you’d need a lot more than a can of Raid, to hold on to your blood.

Back in 2007, Biologists from the Tyumen Regional Museum, who were examining the Noyabrsk area, for creating an eco-tourism route, for kids, stumbled across what they considered the most bizarre find, in their careers, in Lata village. A giant mosquito, as tall as an average person, was staring them in the face.

Luckily for them, this particular blood-sucker was just a sculpture, made from scrap metal. Local artist, Valery Chaliy built this strange monument, using old car and truck parts. It’s not exactly a monument, since we’re talking about a pest that no one would really miss, but the artist admits he was inspired by the millions of mosquitoes inhabiting the neighboring swamps.

Photos via svintuss

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Russia’s blow-up weapons might seem funny, but they play a crucial role in the country’s strategy to keep their real arsenal hidden from prying eyes.

The inflatable decoys were commissioned by the Russian government, to protect their real military capabilities from surveillance satellites. The company making them, Rusbal, says they imitate the heat signature of real military vehicles and look so realistic that’s it’s easy to mistake them for the real thing, even from short distances.

These blow-up weapons are only around 100 kg heavy and can be easily transported and set up by small teams, in a matter of minutes. They’ll also stay intact in case of gunfire or small explosions.

Even though this type of inflatable decoys have been very popular in World War II and the Cold War, they are just as important and useful now as they were then. Rusbal says they are now creating inflatable decoys for Russia and several other Western countries.

Photos via CCTV

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They’re probably going to end up in someone’s burger, but at least these guys can say they’ve lived a happy life.

A Russian farmer learned that happy cows are more productive, so he decided to buy some state of the art LED TVs (not sure if they’re HD) so the cows can have something to watch. The TV’s play an endless loop of images taken in the Swiss Alps, showing green pastures, lakes and trees, stretching as far as the eye can see.

The reaction of the cows wasn’t as spectacular as you might expect. These are high quality displays, a human would have probably jumped for joy, but the cows simply ignored their expensive gifts. Now the farmer is measuring the results of his investment, by comparing the productivity of these television-watching cows, to a group deprived of television.

I tell you, these cows better step up their game, or they might end up with a hole in their stomachs. And that’s no joke.

via EnglishRussia

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Located on the thin Curonian Spit that splits the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea, lies one of the strangest natural phenomena on Earth.

Known as the Dancing Forest by caretakers of Curonian Spit National Park and as the Drunken Forest, by locals, this unusual pine forest is made of trees of various shapes, most of them twisted in circles and spirals, along the ground.

According to tourists, the Dancing Forest looks more like a site near Chernobyl, with 20-year-old pines tied into natural knots and loops, like lumpy contortionists. A few years ago, the park manager invited students from local universities to conduct studies, and get to the bottom of the mystery.

Since then, several theories emerged, including one suggested by a psychic who said the forest is located on a spot where massive amounts of positive and negative energies collide. Others say the causes are geological, that it must have something to do with the unstable sandy soil. But the most widely accepted theory is that the Dancing Forest was manipulated by the powerful winds blowing in the area.

Whatever the reason, the Dancing Forest of Kaliningrad is definitely an interesting site, especially if you’re into strange natural phenomena.

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It’s nice to see people coming up with original ways of earning a buck or two, and it doesn’t get much more original that Sergei’s mobile sauna business.

In Sergei’s Russian village, saunas (traditionally called “banya”) were a must in every villager’s backyard. However, many locals still don’t have their own banyas, so our Russian businessman decided to bring the steamy fun to them.

Using an old “Belarus” tractor, Sergei carries a wooden sauna wherever it’s needed. Customers can either use the banya in their yards or have Sergei drive them around the village and jump out of the sauna and into the cold snow, on the outskirts of the village.

via EnglishRussia

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Say what you will about Russian mobsters, but you can’t say they lack artistic sense. Too bad it only shows on their tombstones.

These photos were taken in the cemetery of Dnepropetrovsk, in the Ukraine, a place much like the mafia-infested Yekaterinburg, in Mother Russia. Although the two cities are 2,000 km apart, mafia fashion is very much the same.

During the Russian Mafia Wars of the ’90s bosses started commissioning these lavish tombstones for them and their loyal subjects. A macabre masterpiece like this costs betwee $8,000 and $250,000, but I can bet that was never a problem.

via Trinixy.ru

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One of the most beautiful natural wonders of Russia, Lena’s Stone Forest is also one of the most difficult to reach, by tourists.

Known also as Lena’s Stone Pillars, this incredible rock formation is not only beautiful to look at, it’s also holds important information on the formation of the organic world. Fossils from various organisms dating back to the Cambrian era could supply invaluable insight on life evolved on planet Earth.

Lena’s Stone Forest offers tourists a unique sight. Colossal stone statues rise up from the earth and pierce the sky, like giants frozen in time. The pillars are grouped together and stretch for tens of kilometers, along the river banks.

Unfortunately reaching this wondrous place is no easy feat. It lies in a part of Siberia not yet touched by civilization and it will take you roughly four days to reach it, from Moscow. After a long flight, you’ll encounter armed locals more than glad to take you to Lena’s Stone Pillars, in their boats, for a “small” $500 fee. The boat ride lasts about 3 days, but once/if you reach your destination, it will all have been worth it.

via English Russia

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