Russian Mother Gives Birth to Enormous 17.5 lb Baby Girl!!

by Matthew Firestone on

A Russian woman has given birth to a baby girl weighing 17.5 pounds, more than twice the average newborn weight.

“We were all simply in shock,” reported the baby’s mother, Tatyana Barabanova. “My husband couldn’t say a thing – he just stood there blinking.”

The baby girl, Nadia, was by delivered by Caesarean section at a hospital in the Altai region of Siberia, and will be joining her eight sisters and three brothers.

All of Tatyana’s previous babies weighed more than 11 pounds.

“We don’t have the money for special foods so I just ate potatoes, noodles and tomatoes,” added Tatyana.

Russian Kid Survives Ride on the Wing of a Boeing 737?

by Justin Glow on

Several news agencies are reporting on the story of a 15-year-old Russian boy who climbed onto the wing of a Boeing 737 and hung on for two hours as the plane flew 800 miles to Moscow.

Is it even physically possible to hold onto something when traveling at over 500 miles per hour especially when the temperature routinely drops down to -58 Fahrenheit at cruising altitude? “His arms and legs were so severely frozen that rescuers were at first unable to remove his coat and shoes,” according to the Russian News and Information Agency.

I have a hard time believing it, and so does the Moscow Times. Its report reads a bit differently:

“A 15-year-old boy is recovering with severe frostbite after hiding in the wheel well of a plane flying from Perm to Moscow, Tvoi Den reported Monday.”

That sounds a little more likely. Even so, the wheel well can be a very dangerous place to hide, and many people have been found dead while attempting to stow away. He’s a lucky kid.

Party in the Subway, Russian Style

by Neil Woodburn on

The subway, like most modes of transport, is designed to get people from point A to point B. And that’s about it.

For the most part, the subway is the most anti-social place on our planet; commuters disappear into their own little world when they sit down and almost never talk to anyone. It’s the unwritten law.

Some partygoers in Moscow, however, recently decided to deviate from the norm and turn their subway train into a party train. As you can see from the above photo, they’ve managed to set up a bunch of tables and even prepare a feast to commemorate the passing of a favorite local poet.

Can you imagine stepping into the subway and coming across this party? Hilarious. I’ll bet no one even bothered to come up with a law preventing such an activity.

Thanks go out to English Russia for spotlighting such a great idea. Let’s spread the word and make subway parties a regular part of commuting around the world.

Museum or Subway? Moscow’s Phenomenal Metro

by Neil Woodburn on


There is no better subway in the entire world than the Moscow Metro. I’ve said this many times in various posts here on Gadling, but this time I have something to back up my statement: a YouTube video.

Well, actually, it’s more of a slide show set to classical music, but it’s still one of the best visual examples of what the metro is like.

Before you scoff and ask yourself why anyone would spend five minutes watching a slide show of subway trains come and go, realize that the Soviets created the subway system as an enormous propaganda piece, showcasing that art and culture of the USSR. What the slide show depicts is not trains, but rather stations–exquisite stations made of fine marble and populated with statues, mosaics, paintings, artwork, and a slew of other fine craftsmanship that one would expect to find in a museum and not buried deep underground in a subway station.

So, take five minutes out of your life to amaze yourself over the one thing that the Soviets did right; if only we in the West could emulate this today, I think a lot more of us might consider taking public transport on a daily basis.

Top 10 “Worst Polluted Places” of 2007

by Justin Glow on

The Blacksmith Institute yesterday released a new list of the “Worst Polluted Places” in the world. This year the places spread out over 7 countries and effect over 12-million people. In Vapi, India, for instance, “Local produce has been found to contain up to 60 times more heavy metals (copper, chromium, cadmium, zinc, nickel, lead, iron) than non-contaminated produce in control groups,” according to the Blacksmith Institute. Appetizing. Here’s a list of the top 10 sites, along with a map containing the “dirty thirty.”

  • Sumgayit, Azerbaijan
  • Linfen, China
  • Tianying, China
  • Sukinda, India
  • Vapi, India
  • La Oroya, Peru
  • Dzerzhinsk, Russia
  • Norilsk, Russia
  • Chernobyl, Ukraine
  • Kabwe, Zambia.


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