Kuremari wrote:Boris Gordon, the Looduskalender Russian interpreter wrote:
On the 20th of February, Moscow Central TV showed at it`s prime-time, quite a long clip about Looduskalender and Wild Boar camera.
There was told about the volunteers/cam watchers gathering acorns and bringing food for boars.The number of watchers of pig cam, 3 millions, was also mentioned.
Nothing that appears below is intended to hurt anyone's feelings. This is a fruit of my simple mind, an unfortunate desire to keep figures straight, my life-long curse that time doesn't seem to cure. I still think "Men han har jo ikke noget paa! - But he has nothing on!" to be a great phrase though inconvenient at times. I do respect the team of looduskalendar and their efforts and think that their activities to spread environmental knowledge are laudable and the award/s they have received is/are well deserved. My point is that not all media reports can be trusted. The following quotations are intended to illustrate that point.
The story as presented by Russia's Channel One (sorry, it's in Russian; summed up in the quoted post though) -
http://www.1tv.ru/news/world/138475
From
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov, English translation by Michael Glenny
'And what to say while you're eating. Yes, my dear sir. If you care about your digestion, my advice is - don't talk about bolshevism or medicine at table. And, God forbid - never read Soviet newspapers before dinner.'
'M'mm... But there are no other newspapers.'
'In that case don't read any at all. Do you know I once made thirty tests in my clinic. And what do you think? The patients who never read newspapers felt excellent. Those whom I specially made read Pravda all lost weight.'
'H'm...' rejoined Bormenthal with interest, turning gently pink from the soup and the wine.
'And not only did they lose weight. Their knee reflexes were retarded, they lost appetite and exhibited general depression.'
'Good heavens...'
'Yes, my dear sir. But listen to me - I'm talking about medicine!'
A report by a respected press agency -
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... fBFG7SPXvA
"Estonia's fake shoe ban catches out Russian media
Jan 12, 2009
TALLINN (AFP) — Estonians had a laugh at their neighbour's expense Monday, as Russian media reported as true a fake ban on journalists' footwear after the Iraqi shoe-throwing aimed at US President George W. Bush.
"It seems we are living in an era of total humour deficit," said the Estonian magazine Eesti Ekspress, which last week had carried the spurious tale.
The parody report on the purported shoe ban at press conferences in Estonia had by Monday found its way onto lenta.ru, a leading Russian news portal, as well as into other media there.
According to the fake story, which had been published in Eesti Ekspress' regular comic section, Tallinn planned to impose the new rules from February 1.
Eesti Ekspress quoted a supposed government expert with the surname Needus -- "curse" in Estonian -- as saying reporters would have to go barefoot but would be allowed to rent woolen socks if temperatures fell.
Estonia broke free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, and its relations with Moscow have been rocky ever since. Many Estonians complain about unfriendly coverage of their country in the Russian media.
The fake ban was a reference to an incident on December 14 in Iraq, where a local journalist hurled his shoes -- and abuse -- at Bush during the outgoing US president's farewell visit to Baghdad.
"
I think the figure of 3 million watchers can be attributed to some peculiarities of server statistics, it's a common problem that advertisers know well. However, to put the matter into proper perspective I have to remind myself that I'm writing from a country that has no environmental ministry since 2000 and where you can read reports that birds in an area have not been counted because of the lack of 'appropriate specialists'. This makes me more sure than ever that it's not for me to opine about what others are doing.
Of course, having just got mobile Internet connection - which bothers my security programs each connect time: 'new connection path, do you really ...' - raises the question of whether I am also a new IP in the statistics each time? But after all, there can't be all that much mobility around, yet. 
