World of Scrap

All the same...

2007-01-06T18:12:00.000+02:00

"No matter what men do, no matter how old they are, no matter what country they're from, they are all the same," 'Tonight Show' host Jay Leno declared one evening. Look at the man checking out Latvian President as she walks by... Source here.

Latvian Highway: You call this progress?

2007-01-06T17:34:00.000+02:00

There’s a well-known Russian anecdote about a police officer with a wife and new baby. The young officer can’t make ends meet on his paltry government salary, and he explains his worries to his chief. The chief relents, ordering his secretary to give the officer “a 30 kilometer-per-hour speed limit sign for one month only.” To readers who have not personally dealt with Baltic policemen, some of them will readily take bribes. The joke’s intended audience would understand that the policeman would use the 30 kph sign to issue fines which he would personally pocket. A practice which many suspect is still going on in Latvia. An entire summer of Latvian road construction was recently followed by the placement of 70 kph signs on the new roads. Whatever explanation the state wishes to provide—indeed, there is a bump—most aren’t buying it. Local drivers are convinced it is simply another way for the Latvian police to fill their pockets.

Car Plates from Latvia

2007-01-06T16:43:00.000+02:00

Latvia sells the right to write ANY word on car plates to people who can pay for this.
Usually as you can see on the pictures only guys with expensive cars buy this. You can find more successful photos here.

Latvians laugh about Microsoft Windows Vista

2007-01-06T16:14:00.000+02:00

Microsoft had some problems convincing the world that the software company’s newest operating system will arrive on time and is an improvement of XP. In Latvia Microsoft is facing another challenge, when they have to convince the population. In Latvia the name Vista have a completely different meaning.
In Latvian Vista means “hen” or a “not so cool woman”. "The name of the new operating system is well known in international communication and means a vision, a view, a perspective," said public relations manager for Microsoft Latvia, Ilze Nagla. Fortunately for Microsoft there is only about 1.3 million people in the world who speak Latvian. It is therefore doubtful that Microsoft will change the name, as Honda did with their "fitta-model" based on the Norwegian meaning of the word (A rather vulgar expression for the female genitalia).

The definition of "Urlas" from Wikipedia

2007-01-06T15:50:00.000+02:00

Urla is derogatory Latvian slang term, referring to all men and women aged 17 to 30 who are believed to be criminals or possess agressive habits.
The term is mainly used by Latvian middle class teenagers, and the meaning is similar to the British slang word Chav.
Typical urla fashion items include sport shoes or vinyl shoes, athletic wear, and leather jackets. A shaved head is believed to be essential for urlas. Also very common atributes are old BMW and other ~15-20 years old automobiles which usually become spots for gathering together. Urla`s musical taste can be described as a passion for anonymous electronic dance music with very monotonous rhythm, but popular MTV stars are quite popular among them too. Most popular alcohol in this comunity is cheap beer in 1.0l or 2.0l plastic bottles with high [9%] ethanol percentage or cheapest beer from 0,5 glass bottle packages.

Be aware of them!

What we can find in Uncyclopedia About Latvia

2007-01-04T22:51:00.000+02:00

Latvia or The Land of The Setting Sun is probably the biggest and most powerful country in the world, being only insignificantly smaller than the Galactic Empire. It's the strongest contentor to Honduras when it comes to the definition of BANANA Republic.
Geographically, Latvia is located on the planet Earth. The extensive northern coasts of Latvia are washed by the Baltic Ocean, and it has terrestial boundaries with some small satellite countries, like the Republic of Afracans (an important supplier of toilet paper), Russia (a rich source of vodka) and others.
Latvians can be easily recognised by their names, which always end with an ending. This also applies to the Latvian language, which is second oldest language in the world (nobody remembers the oldest one). Latvians like to sing, drink beer, eat ridiculous amounts of hard-boiled eggs, grow long hair and dominate the world. They also tend to have 6 toes on one or both feet.
This and a lot more of really really serious and important information about Latvia you can find here! Check it out!

From Riga to rivets

2007-01-04T20:45:00.000+02:00

Take a good look at those Levi’s brand jeans you’re wearing. See those rivets that help prevent the pockets from ripping off? If you’re amazed by the genius of those rivets, you have a Jewish tailor from Riga to thank.
Levi Strauss, an immigrant from Bavaria, founded Levi Strauss & Co. in 1853 in San Francisco. Among his customers for fabric was a Jewish tailor named Jacob W. Davis (1834-1908), who had immigrated to the United States from Riga, now the capital of Latvia. Born Jacob Youphes, he changed his surname to Davis when he arrived in America. Davis ran a shop in Reno, Nevada. Davis, according to a history of the first blue jeans posted on the Levi’s Web site, had a customer whose pockets frequently ripped. The tailor hit upon an idea: reinforce the pockets with rivets.
The reinforced pockets worked and soon many in Reno wanted work pants made by Davis. To protect his idea, Davis teamed up with Strauss to obtain a patent.
Strauss hired Davis to oversee production in his company’s San Francisco facility, a position Davis held until his death in 1908. The Davis family still is involved in the garment business.

Minox was made in Latvia

2007-01-04T20:00:00.000+02:00

The famous Minox miniature “spy” camera was developed and manufactured by Latvian engineer Walter Zapp in Riga, Latvia. The first production model was even named for the city.
Zapp created the camera in 1936, but the first commercial model—the “Riga”—was made in 1938 and carried a “Made in Latvia” marking.
Walter Zapp wanted to create a portable camera that would fit easily into the palm of the hand and yet take high quality, spontaneous pictures. The Minox subminiature camera, in its various models, was for years the world’s most widely used spy camera . Considered a marvel of technology when it first became available, the camera was originally produced from 1937 - 1944 in Riga. It used film one quarter the size of standard 35 mm film, with 50 frames loaded in a cassette.

We pay pay pay...

2007-01-04T18:45:00.000+02:00

After joinig EU in May 2004, Latvia faced EU fines over sugar surplus. Latvia had to eliminate its excess stocks or pay a fine into the EU budget, under the Commission regulation.

“As is usual before every enlargement, the new Member States were required to ensure that there was no speculative stockpiling of agricultural products, which would upset the balance of the entire EU market,” said the Commission.
Producers had to prove to national government that stocks had been destroyed and the government had to provide evidence of elimination to the EU until March 31, 2006. This statement faced discussions and up to this moment the situation has reached the point, where Latvia has to pay fine, unluckily, because we had more than 10,000 tonnes of sugar surplus. This fine is approximately 3,1 million Lats. More over, just recently European Commision came up with new calculations of approximately 880 156 Lats, which will have to be paid as fine for meat, vine and garlic surplus in Latvia before joining EU.

Probably EU will come up with more fines...and Latvians just pay pay pay...

Recordsman in Latvia

2007-01-04T18:03:00.000+02:00

Latvia has the dubious honour of holding the record for the world’s drunkest person. A few years ago an unnamed vagrant was found unconscious by the police and rushed to hospital where his blood test revealed an astounding 7.22 parts per million of alcohol. Before this man was saved by law enforcement, the medical community had agreed that 4 parts per million was a lethal dose for any human.

Flying Latvians Known Worldwide

2007-01-04T17:28:00.000+02:00

Company Aerodium became known after the 2006 Torino XX Winter Olympic Games closing ceremonies, because Aerodium Latvia helped to produce the part of the show that featured flying acrobats. Aerodium Latvia is a company based in Sigulda, Latvia, which owns and runs the first vertical wind tunnel in Eastern Europe. The vertical wind tunnel (VWT) is located near Sigulda, the most visited tourist area in Latvia. The company built the biggest mobile vertical wind tunnel in the world especially for the Torino show. The tunnel blows a wind stream of 200 km/h within a diameter of 3.7 meters. See what they are doing here.

Latvian discovery in Egypt

2007-01-04T17:03:00.000+02:00

Latvian scientists in Egypt have discovered the original entrance of Djoser’s Pyramid, which could provide the answer to how the pyramid was built. The entrance to the 5,000-year-old pyramid was discovered using a 3D scanner. Historians said the entrance was walled up when rebuilding mastaba into a pyramid, but the Latvian scientists discovered that the original entry was only partly covered. The discovery carries great importance, as it knocks out current theories and allows us to restore Djoser’s Pyramid, built by Egyptian architect Imhotep. Besides Latvian expedition had managed to discover three new galleries with human bones and numerous ceramic objects. There were also discovered eleven other galleries with the bodies of governor Jossers family in sarcophagus.

Christmas Knavery

2007-01-04T13:17:00.000+02:00

Christmas time is harvest time for supermarkets and different other shops. This is not only because of approaching Christmas and New Year. This is not only because everyone need to buy presents and food for their festive boards. It is true that flow of people at this time in supermarkets is "huge", and it is one of the reasons why supermarkets have this great profit. One other reason why profit is so great, is that supermarkets cheat on their clients.
We have got used to different campaigns like "Buy two, pay for one" or just ordinary discounts for different products. Good cheating example is supermarket chain "Maxima", which is known in all Baltic countries for sure. Before the New Year's celebration, when people buy champagne and small dressings like those sweet, colourful champagne cherries, there was a campaign in "Maxima"; one cherry pot costs Ls 1,29, but if you buy two sweet colourful cherry pots-then each of them should cost Ls 1,19. But cashier's check does not show any discounts and people at this time have so many things to buy that they do not follow on numbers that are punched out on these checks. To tell the truth, this is not the only knavery case-those who understand latvian and russian languages can have a small anti-advertisement and commentary tour here

Sour Milk

2007-01-04T12:55:00.000+02:00

Milk “Lāse” is a high-quality milk. Latvia’s best raw milk is used for the production of “Lāse”. Thanks to contemporary production and packaging technologies, a sealed carton of “Lāse” can be kept at room temperature for up to 6 months. No preservatives are used. Milk “Lāse” is produced with various flavours; it contains natural vitamins. A pack of “Lāse” is environment-friendly and convenient to use.
Really? Interesting what is that thing they put in that milk so that it can be kept at room temperature for up to 6 months??? Doesn't this already demonstrate that this is not a purely healthy product? Ok, maybe it can be kept unopened at room temperature, but evidently it is weird when just bought in a shop on one of the first days of 2007, this "fresh" milk with expiration of validity marked May 17, 2007 spoiled coffee, because it was sour.

Generation gap

2006-12-18T18:37:00.000+02:00

Discourse about the new generation's politeness, morals and behavior has always taken place between older people. We often hear: "Those were different times, when we grew up..."

Well, yeah, it is because this "old generation" when at age of 20, experienced Soviet times with different rules and regulations. More over, things that seemed unacceptable in those times, are fashionable and reasonable in nowadays world. Therefore, older people cannot accept that, for example, young people, aged 20, already have children, have divorced at least once and wear earrings in nose, navel and eyebrows. There is amount of older people that have "stuck" in previous century and think that all youngsters are all the same.

But is it really true? Some cases proove that things, the "old generation" did in their times are not acceptable in modern world.

Latvian embassies in foreign countries usually make receptions in honour of state's commemoration days like November 11 and November 18. Latvian students and pensioners are often among the invited people. So it is also in Tallinn, Estonia.

After one such reception, the representative of Latvian students in Tallinn received objurgatory e-mail, that Latvian students do not know how to behave properly, because someone had smoked in the toilets of embassy.

But this was the hot discussion topic for Latvian students the next day after the reception in embassy, because they had seen that pensioners were smoking in toilets of the embassy, although a special room for smokers was provided. So, maybe "old generation" are the ones that should reassess their behavior and only then criticize the "young generation"?

Observation

2006-12-11T21:34:00.000+02:00

Already some time ago, the law related to the time until which alcoholic drinks can be sold and bought had been adopted. In Latvia one can buy alcohol until 22.00 p.m. and in Estonia this time margin is 23.00 p.m. However, these limitations make people think about providing themselves with alcoholic drinks duly. This fact makes people act really funny, at least the observations in Latvia approve this.
As one might possibly know-in Latvia there are conductors in public transport. They gather money for the tickets from the passengers. How is this related to the alcohol law? Pretty simple, actually...while the particular public transport stops at the bus/trolleybus stop, the conductor runs out of it right into the shop of alcoholic beverages. Meanwhile bus/trolleybus just waits for him at the stop with all the passengers inside waiting for the conductor as well.
Hey, common! It was quarter to 22.00 p.m., so this guy just had to manage to buy some alco for the evening!!!

For Latvian millionaire fans

2006-12-11T19:41:00.000+02:00

"Polite" British people in Riga

2006-12-11T19:22:00.000+02:00

Already some month ago, a seriously drunk British male, aged 30, decided to relieve himself. Unfortunately he chose to do it on the National freedom monument of Latvia. Now to say that Latvians hold this statue in high regard, it would be an understatement. However, the really good news were that he was spotted by the local police, and duly banged up. Unfortunately under Latvian law the maximum sentence is likely to be a fine of Ls 250.00, (approximately 5600EEK) To tell the truth, if it was left to majority of latvian people, then he would be locked up in one of Latvia's "finest prisons" for a lengthy period of time. This incident, whilst in the great scheme of things, is no major misdemeanour, and once again indicates the quality of British (in this case English) "polite" people that Ryan Air flies into Riga.

Some facts about NATO summit...

2006-12-11T19:05:00.000+02:00

We all knew it was going to happen, but it was still a shock that on Tuesday morning, when the better part of Riga was partitioned off, behind miles of Steel barriers. Not sure if this was to keep the NATO participants in , or keep the citizens out.The city was almost surreal in its appearance. It was almost totally deserted, with only a few people on the streets, and absolutely no cars, and even if there were some, then those were the official ones. Clearly the citizens of Riga had taken the advise of the government to heart and stayed away. Only limited access into the old town - in fact only three ways you could get in, but strangest of all was Livu square, complete with the wooden huts so familiar when a fair is one, the trees were decorated with Christmas lights, all very twee - no people of course, as presumably all the 5000+ NATO attendees were otherwise engaged serving their masters, be they political or media type.

Speaking of security, the interview was given by Mr Blair outside the Hall where the meeting was taking place. He simply walked out of the building, over to the waiting press, spoke his few words, answered some question and strolled back into the building. All on his own - no minders - nothing - wonder what would happen if George did the same thing ?

Finally a thought for all the various guests as they leave Riga, aren't you wondering what their memories of Riga will be ? Well, each of them has been given a special gift - Mittens !

UFO in Latvia

2006-12-03T13:40:00.000+02:00

We have seen lots of movies like "The X-Files", where people try to find out as much information as possible about UFO and alike paranormal issues. In real life there are also different organizations that are related to UFO things.
What is interesting-there are some UFO investigators in Latvia as well! You can find out about their projects here and here.

Earlier I thought that things like pictograms in cornfields, strange bedsores in aerophotographies and really observed unknown flying objects are only in USA or other places, not Latvia. I guess I was wrong. Our investigators have discovered some pictograms in cornfields of Malpils.

Flowers in Winter

2006-12-03T12:54:00.000+02:00

This November in Latvia has been unusually warm. In surroundings and centre of Riga full blown flowers can be observed. More over, we can find mushrooms in the forests again!
In the parks of centre of Riga you can find daisies and in forests of Latvia it is now again possible to gather chanterelles and even russulas.
Some botanists claim that if there is such a warm autumn, it's no wonder that mushrooms and flowers grow out again. Moreover, they mentioned that there have even been cases when lilacs, cherry-trees and strawberries bloom.

Tomato Combat

2006-12-02T23:03:00.000+02:00

There are lots of portals in Latvia, that offer creating your profile there, upload your photogallery, find other users (make friends), chat, send letters, send virtual kisses, presents, flowers etc.
Some of them are very popular like frype.com (in latvian-draugiem.lv) and one.lv.

One might say that there is rivalry between those. In order to develop their portals, they are presenting really droll new features.

For example, if you send sms with certain prewritten codes to a certain service phone number, which, of course, is not for free, you can see in the display all your profile visitors. You can also give grades/evaluations to the other users' photos, send them presents and flowers if you like them and by now-you can throw virtual tomato at them, if you don't like them!

Electronic Signatures

2006-12-02T22:11:00.000+02:00

Starting from October 4th, latvians have a possibility to have an access to long awaited electronic signatures. Latvia's Post is now the only one certification service provider in Latvia. For the service presentation a new service web page is made. However, at the section named USPS politics and regulations of this web page, all information is in english, although isn't that true that this information should be in State language, as the majority of those people who will be using electronic signature are latvians?

More over, lots of links don't work.

And the greatest news for all spamers and other pranksters-the information about certificate owners, such as first name, last name, personal ID code and e-mail addresses can be easily found on internet! If we consider that all the cerificate numbers are squently arranged, no wonder that computer freaks can easilly make programs, which they need for completing their little evil deeds, and... cheers! It's all for free!

Things are getting easier!

2006-12-02T16:13:00.000+02:00

The little old lady from the KGB

2006-11-22T19:51:00.000+02:00

Over 40 years, Melita Norwood systematically passed detailed information about Britain’s nuclear weapons programme to the KGB spymasters who gave her the codename Hola.

What seemed interesting to me here, is that this spy lady was of latvian parentage. Mrs Norwood was born Melita Sirnis in Bournemouth in March the daughter of a Latvian father, at whose knee she learned revolutionary politics - he had founded the Southern Worker And Labour And Socialist Journal, a weekly paper inspired by the Russian revolution; her mother, who was English joined the Co-operative party.

Mrs Norwood’s secret life was revealed by The Times in 1999 after resarch by Christopher Andrew, the Cambridge historian, into the files of Vasili Mitrokhin, a former KGB archivist. She was “extraordinarily motivated Soviet agent right to the end of her life”. The research revealed that Mrs Norwood had been recruited as an agent in the NKVD, the forerunner of the KGB, in 1937.

As far as is known, she was “the longest-serving Soviet agent in British history”.

Wanna bet?

2006-11-22T00:04:00.000+02:00

For the first time in the history of medicine of Latvia, doctors had to sew on back the privy part of a guy who had cut it off fully. He had done it by himself being drunk. And the underlying reason for that was...desire to win Ls 1000 in bets with his friends.
The latvian guy is not the only one of that kind in the world.
A Wales rugby fan challenged his friends to bet with him that Wales team would win England in the february game, 2005. He was sure it would not happen as Wales had not managed it for 12 years. In case of the victory of Wales' team he would have to cut off his genitals. And the "miracle" happened-that evening Wales' team won England and rugby fan did what he had promised...

Use imagination to attract customers

2006-11-20T00:23:00.000+02:00

Nowadays business people in Latvia want to make big money. Well, everybody does. This is becoming more difficult and in order to gain particular market share, they have to carefully decide on strategies and tactics they are going to use.
In order to gain interest of the potential customers of the company, founders sometimes choose interesting, funny names for the company.
For example, in the Register of Enterprises of the Republic of Latvia, you can find enlisted such companies as:

"Flat tomcat"
Ltd. "Poor Jorik"
"Reversion to God"
Ltd. "So what?"
Ltd. "Warmth of Rooster"
Ltd. "The day before Midsummer night"
Ltd. "Freak"
Ltd. "New horizonts of Republic of Chechnya"
Ltd. "Coma&Co"
N/O for cat fanciers "Magic Cat"
N/O hunters club "Grey Rabbit"
N/O "Ladies' side"
Ltd. "Mosquito Tool"
"Support foundation for shooting of children and youth of Latvia" Inc.

Anything can be bought

2006-11-19T01:51:00.000+02:00

Everyone knows that battles between different competitors can sometimes go too far. And the other thing is that people often think that everything can be bought. Evidently, the owner of the guest-house "Pedase" in distric of Harju, Estonia thinks that he might have some ambitious visitors, who will be ready to pay for everything they desire or want to do, so he decided how to earn extra money in such cases. For 550EEK (approximately 25Ls) you can go and gather mushrooms in the surroundings of that place.
This autumn in Latvia there wasn't a rich harvest of mushrooms, so maybe next year let's go and gather mushrooms in Estonia! And don't forget to take 550EEK with you!

Latvia is still a part of the Soviet Union

2006-11-19T01:12:00.000+02:00

Recently the world championship in powerlifting took place in Brussels, which is considered the capital city of the European Union. The old established order requires that during the opening ceremony the hymns of participating countries of the world championship should be played.
When it was a turn to play the hymn of Latvia, the melody and the words the participants heard were not those of accustomed "God, bless Latvia..", but "Soviet Latvia, live forever...", which was the hymn of Soviet Latvia when it was a part of Soviet Union.
If the capital city of the European Union, which Latvia joined already 2 years ago still thinks that Latvia's hymn is that of Soviet Union times, then the question is whether a kind of global village exists, or maybe there is possibility that some of us still live in a cave?