Watched most or Sochi’s presentation, passed out right before Salzburg presentation and woke up to see second half of the PyeongChang presentation. I’ve never seen final Olympic bid presentations before, but it looks to me like they mostly focus not on Olympics, but on the effect of the Games and what it will leave behind. Sochi’s focus is region’s development for the future, as well as legacy (mostly material, venues and such) it leaves for the children for sports, and for Winter Sports to have another great place to held competitions.

The PyeongChang focused on unification of Koreas. I wonder what Salzburg’s team was focusing on? The Korean point of peace between 2 Koreas is awesome, I agree. But I don’t see any reason this will significantly improve relationship between two Koreas, and it‘s not just competitor’s talk. Yes, I know that South Korea is always trying to take steps toward improving relationship with North, if I remember correctly they even had US military base moved away from the border with North Korea. And they also agreed with North to march as single Korea during opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics – but that’s it! South Korea recently hosted Soccer World Cup (together with Japan), which some argue even greater event then Olympics itself! (I’d disagree on this, though) How did that change the relationship with North? Unfortunately, it didn’t. And looking on their recent reaction on North Korean missile tests, I can’t say I believe the borders can open in seven years, even under pressure (and there’s really no pressure. The only pressure is on South Korean government which takes this promise upon itself).

As far as presentations, I liked Sochi’s presentation better than PyeongChang’s, more pictures and maps of what it will be like, and they even made a nice “one day at the Olympics” tour, showing how it may look for a family who came to Sochi for the Olympics, showing distances and travel times, and how it would look. Unfortunately I missed Putin’s speech, but I liked all Russian speeches that I saw – most of them are Olympic winners, and everyone had a personal story on how the Olympics had affected their lives, it was really great. The Koreans didn’t have anything like that (which, of course, doesn’t mean they don’t have Olympians whose lives were changed by their achievements in sports).

The bottom line is I don’t believe these presentations will change much, I think most IOC members already know who they’ll vote for. And of course you all know where my vote goes :)
Meanwhile, according to the news reports 30 000 “sochincev” (Sochi residents) are right now on the streets awaiting for the elections and the decision. Today was official day off work in Sochi…

Wednesday, 4 July 2007: A live webcast of the 2014 Candidate Cities’ presentations to the 119th IOC Session, as well as the announcement ceremony of the Host City for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, will be available at the official IOC website!

The short opening ceremony following by Sochi’s presentation will start at 9am local Guatemala time, that is 10 am US ST time.

Links to the live feeds of the events »

Download blank buttons for phpBB2 NoseBleed skin »

This is a set of blank buttons for phpBB2 NoseBleed skin I re-created from existing English buttons . Now you can use these blanks to create buttons for this theme in the language you need. Enjoy!

These are transparent GIFs, no PSDs, sorry.

The ccna certification is an important exam when talking in the context of Cisco products. The mcse has 104 products but is less in use. Likewise the examination of mcdst is also not so much popular. The ccda is a bit more famous comparatively. To start a high post job, one needs to have some of these microsoft certification especially mcp training. However the training which is needed the most and require a lot of practice is it training.

Ten days left to the day when the 2014 Winter Olympics host city will official be selected. Sochi is one of three official candidate cities, and Sochi delegation will be the first one to have 45 minutes presentation. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend and take part in presentation.

Sochi-2014 delegation left on Friday for Guatemala, where the voting will take place on July 4th. The official host city will be announced at 17:00 local time – that is 6pm US EST time, 23:00/11pm in London and 3:00 July 25th in Moscow.

Root for Sochi! :)

The information in this article is still in effect, however according to recent news reports the registration of foreigners will not be required in the near future, as the point of new migrations law is not registration of foreigners, but monitoring of how many foreigners are in Russia at any given time.

One of the biggest pains about traveling to Russia for foreigners is a required registration in the city of stay within three business days of arrival. When you stay in the hotels, most hotels will take care of it for you, but if you come to visit (and stay with) your friends and family, you have to get registered.

Read on for the registration procedure guide. Read the rest of this entry »

According to the article published in «Rossiyskaya Gazeta» newspaper, the police in Russian resort cities will patrol streets and beaches on bicycles, patrol boat, and light flying vehicle (whatever that is) during summer season.

The police force will increase by 20% on the resorts to counter average 18% crime hike during summer tourism season. Increased security measures in trains, airports, seaports and surrounding buildings, mandatory emergency police button in all big hotels and spas, more road police posts are among other ways making people’s travel and stay safer. Every bus with children will be escorted by police car. Video surveillance and direct phones to police will be installed in places with large number of people.

Investment agreement about the construction of tourist recreation complex in the Black Sea was signed by the Krasnodar Kray administration with St.-Petersburg based “M-Industry” construction company during XI Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum couple of weeks ago.

The artificial island, named Federation Island, will have residential area, hotels, restaurants, malls, year-round yacht parking, various sea attractions – aquarium, oceanarium, and many other. Planned location is Khosta district – my home area. No dates are set yet.

Sounds good? Not to me, and for so many reasons I don’t know where to start. And, unlike developments in Adler (in the planned “Olympics” area), which will improve district’s infrastructure and people’s lives, this one will improve nothing. I want more information on this, but right now I don’t see how it possibly can be a good idea.

«Kinotavr» is Russia’s biggest open film festival. It takes place in Sochi annually, this year its 18th time.

The opening ceremony took place evening June 3rd. There are fourteen moves in the competition program; they’ve been selected from over 100 films. Most of the participating movies are Russian (only one foreign move is Ukrainian), you can find the complete list of the titles at the official website’s program page.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sea water in Russia’s Black Sea cities has warmed up enough to swim in. In Gelendzhyk area it is already 20 degrees C (68 F), and in Sochi it will reach 20C in the next couple of days. 18 degrees C is a good temperature to start swimming season.

Growing up in Sochi we’d always compete who will start swimming season earliest. My record was somewhere in March, at 11 degrees C :)

Based in Netherlands, European Technology and Investment Research Center (ETIRC) will help convert all Sochi’s busses to use hydrogen fuel. Contract with all the details will be signed by the end of this month, reports Max Media Group. The Dutch specialists will provide the technology to convert diesel and gasoline powered engines to use hydrogen fuel, and will build reservoirs and fuel stations around the city.

International tennis star Maria Sharapova has thrown her support behind Sochi’s bid for the 2014 Olympic Winter games.

The 20 year-old has won both Wimbledon and the US Open, and was the first Russian player to top the WTA rankings.

“I lived [in Sochi] for five years” Sharapova told GamesBids.com in an exclusive interview from Los Angeles, “Sochi is an amazing city and I don’t think a lot of people realize it will be such an incredible experience.

Sharapova said her love of tennis began when she was four years old in Sochi.

“I actually left there to go to America because I couldn’t develop my tennis skills because in winter time there wasn’t a lot of facilities.

She hopes that the Winter Olympics will leave a legacy of sports facilities for young athletes so they won’t have to leave their country and city to train for their chosen sport as she was forced to do.

“It’s a beautiful city and I’m so proud of it. I always tell my friends in America I want to take you there, I want to show you where I grew up.”

The rest of this article is at GamesBids.com »

Fast sea ships will be operating between Sochi and Anapa, smaller Black Sea resort in Russia. These ships can reach speeds of 70 km/hr (44 mi/hr) and will operate during summer-fall seasons. The will also make stops in other sea-side cities.

Until the breakup of the Soviet Union, this was one of the common ways of transportation in Sochi. Because of the overloaded roads, and common visits of high-level international guests, I wish this was returned as in-town transportation, not just for long distance rides.

• Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov assured that security will be guaranteed in the event of Olympics in Sochi, replying to western newspapers’ comments about “explosive Caucasus region”. He said that 20 000 policemen, plus border guards, and special army units in the mountains will be ensure safety of the event. He also reminded about all the high-level events that are talking in Sochi, such as President’s Putin meetings with leaders of G8 and EurAsEC (EuroAsian Economic Community).
• Virtual non-existence of Olympic objects in Krasnaya Polyana (Sochi), what head of the International Olympic Committee called “a minus”, American architects call “a plus”. Its better to make all projects to comply to all the requirements of the IOC, international sports federation, environmental groups, etc., then to modernize existing to comply to these requirements, which will definitely will be needed to be done for the Olympic Games.
• Roger McCarthy, Co-President of the Vail Resorts’ Mountain Division, and Chief Operating Officer of Breckenridge – one of North America’s best winter resorts, will join Russian “Interros” company as Chief Operating Officer overseeing the development strategy of “Rosa Khutor” resort in Krasnaya Polyana.
• Sailing Cup of Russia took place in Sochi this week.
• High speed trains will begin operating in Russia by 2012, said the president of «Russian Railways» on his trip to Japan. Right now only two routes are planned: Moscow — St. Petersburg, and Moscow — Sochi, in case of the Olympics in Krasnaya Polyana. High speed trains are trains traveling with speeds over 250-300 km/hr.

In addition to the renovations, internet club, and a new bank branch inside, new post office now includes new electronic waiting system. Now, instead waiting in line, customers will select service type they need, and a ticket will be printed out; when their number appears on the display, they can go to the operator. Nineteen operating windows are available, 17 for any type of service and two are specialised. Internet access is designed for six work places and is equipped with the broadband connection.

Ecology council “Sochi-2014” has approved additional ecological initiatives which will become part of Federal Targeted Program for Sochi.

Among approved initiatives are development of complex system for water supply and water drainage, creation of educational and scientific centers that are focused on ecology, development of program to use renewable energy sources, creation of rehabilitation center for wild animals, and development of a system for complex ecological monitoring. It also includes programs for total waste utilization and zero-carbon balance.

Program for waste utilization assumes complete utilization of solid domestic and biological waste in the whole city. For the realization of this program all current waste dumps will be closed and land restored. New plants will be built for ecological waste disposal and recycling.

Zero-carbon balance program will be realized by using energy saving technologies on all objects of the energy infrastructure, each of which will be modernized to be able to use renewable sources of energy. Quotas will be imposed on the amount of greenhouse gases produced.

Complex system of ecological monitoring will be created to monitor environment during construction of Olympic projects. It will include regular inspections of construction sites and satellite monitoring. Special attention will be focused on monitoring Sochi National Park and its surroundings.

Wow, Sochi’s going greener than ever :) Exciting stuff…