MetaFilter posts tagged with latvia

The Latvian Crisis

HP LaserJet P10006 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:07:15 -0800

Latvia's Tiger Economy Loses Its Bite: Less than a year after Latvia joined the E.U. in 2004, its growth rate topped all of Europe. As global stock markets overheated and competition for investment opportunities intensified, Scandinavian banks showered Latvia with cheap credit. Now, with the highest unemployment in Europe, and propped up by $10 billion in IMF loans, Latvia's economy struggles to stay afloat.

1989, revolution in Eastern Europe

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:49:20 -0800

The BBC World Service has put together a special report on the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe (they also have a simpler portal). There is a wealth of material, including TV reports on key events from the BBC archives, interviews, a map timeline, a report on Catholicism's role in the 1989 revolutions, a first-hand report of what it was like to gather news in East Germany during that time and much more.

The Magician from Riga

Joe Beese — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:11:05 -0800

To play for a draw, at any rate with White, is to some degree a crime against chess. A Latvian Jew with ectrodactyly and lifelong kidney ailments, Mikhail Tal is considered one of the most audacious attacking players in the game's history. For a quarter century, he held the record of being the youngest man to win the World Championship. And his streak of 95 consecutive games without a loss is unmatched to this day. Tal first came to international attention at age 19 with this jaw-dropping (Google cache) performance in his first USSR Championship - which he would win the following year. This post is dedicated to one of Tal's legions of admirers - Father Beese, who would have been 75 today.

The renaissance of Latvia's ethnographic mittens

bewilderbeast — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:15:29 -0800

Knitting colourful and intricate wool mittens is a Latvian tradition. To welcome guests to a NATO summit in Riga in 2006, hundreds of knitters from around the country made 4500 pairs of mittens. The mittens were photographed individually before they were given away and arranged into galleries according to the region they came from. No two pairs are the same.

The West Coast connection/U.S.-Latvia Axis of Hate

daninnj — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:59:07 -0800

On July 1st, 26 year old Fiji-native Satender Singh was gay-bashed to death by several Slavic immigrants in Sacramento.

Vlad Kusakin, the host of a Russian-language anti-gay radio show in Sacramento and the publisher of a Russian-language newspaper in Seattle, told The Seattle Times in January that God has "made an injection" of high numbers of anti-gay Slavic evangelicals into traditionally liberal West Coast cities. "In those places where the disease is progressing, God made a divine penicillin," Kusakin said.

While in 2002, TIME Magazine deemed the capital city the most diverse and least racially problematic in the states, the city proper is home to at least 80,000 Slavic immigrants and 80 Slavic churches, many who bring the Soviet-era ideas about homosexuality with them as they cross the Pacific. Even though the Soviet Union has dissolved, the ideas about the immorality of homosexuals have not; seen previously when proud Russians have tried to march.

Gaida! Gaida! Gaida!

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 07:00:33 -0800

The gaida is a bagpipe from Southeastern Europe. Gaida mp3s? Lots of 'em here. Gaida on the YouTubes? Why, yes. Yes, of course. Certainly. There's a bunch. Really. A lot. And electric ones? Yup. And here's a deflated one. But do any hippies play this thing? And dance to it? Sure! But the real question is: What is the problem with this gaida?

Mortal Kombat proves it is still an influential classic.

Kleptophoria! — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 21:16:25 -0800

Boys performs ultimate Mortal Kombat fatality on friend. In related news, some would like videogame creators to be accountable for influencing the tender young minds of our children.

The 25 Member EU

MidasMulligan — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 17:26:39 -0800

The European Union welcomes 10 new members! As I write this, the celebrations have started as Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia become members of the EU today. While some folks are gonna party like crazy, others are warning of doom and gloom. What do you think? Will this have significant effects on global culture, politics, and economics - or will it merely represent a paper change within the rarefied world of European diplomats, with little other than localized effects on day to day life?

Forest Brothers

alms — Mon, 25 Aug 2003 21:42:11 -0800

The Forest Brothers spent years hiding in the woods of Estonia and Latvia. They lived alone, carefully covering their tracks, sleeping in clammy bunkers, no bigger than walk-in closets. Then things got less comfortable. (warning: nytimesfilter.)

riffola — Fri, 11 Jan 2002 12:41:41 -0800

acoustic.space.lab a project 25 media artists and activists, who converted a Soviet-era 32meter dish antenna in Irbene, in the forests of western Latvia, which also happens to be a top 5 most precise radiotelescopes in the world, into one of the coolest art projects ever. [via milov]