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President Viktor Yushchenko signed a law that makes possession of pornography a crime in the Ukraine unless it is "for medical purposes." Punishment for possession of pornography can include fines and imprisonment for up to three years. Remember, porn is not right for everyone. Only your doctor knows if porn is right for you.

A financial firm in Latvia is offering 90 day loans with no collateral except your immortal soul. Kontora doesn't require a credit check or proof of employment, only a signed document agreeing that the company owns your soul if you fail to pay and that the soul in question is a "previously unmortgaged property." The loans are also subject to a one-percent-per-day interest rate.

A Russian woman who became irate that her boyfriend did not want to marry her tied firecrackers to his penis and set them off. The evening started off pleasantly. The couple shared a nice dinner, some laughs and quite a few drinks. Exploding genitals never crossed 33-year-old Alik D's mind as he passed out. Moments later his girlfriend Kira tied the mini-explosives to his manhood and sent it to the hereafter in a shower of sparks and a bang. Alik remains in intensive care and Kira faces up to 12 years imprisonment even if he lives.

Not to be outdone by the raccoon guy, two Russian tourists decided to have a good time with a porcupine. The pair were vacationing in Florida when they got a hold of a book about weird US laws. After a few hours of reading and drinking, they found a Florida law that prohibited sex with porcupines. The two had quills removed from their manhoods the following morning and both underwent lengthy procedures upon their return home to treat the inflammation caused by their tryst.

Shamanstvo, an online shamanist magazine, reports that Russia will stage the first ever 'Top Shaman' elections this year. 188 candidates from all over the country are in the running. Most are of course enhancement or elemental because even in real life going restoration is no fun. The elections will be held in two stages, with only 12 shortlisted shamans participating in the second stage. Each of the stages will last three months to allow the most far-off regions to cast their ballots.

Readers VE3OGG and FFFFHALTFFFF write in with three pieces of a global picture that is emerging of governments and corporations moving away from Microsoft and towards open source. First, France: the French automaker Peugot Citroen has announced that over the next several years they will be integrating up to 20,000 Novell SUSE desktops as well as 2,500 SUSE servers into their facilities. (Let's hope that, in Novell, Peugeot Citroen hasn't bought a lemon.) Next, Sweden: the Swedish Armed Forces has made a decision to migrate its Windows NT servers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Finally, Russia. VE3OGG writes: "It would seem that after the recent Russian piracy debacle that could see a school headmaster jailed in a Siberian work camp for purchasing pirated copies of Windows for his school, the Ministry of Education in Russia has decided that the school boards will no longer be purchasing any commercial software."

utki writes "The Moscow Times is reporting that the chief software architect at Russian software developer Cognitive Technologies, Andrei Smirnov, recently won a boxing match organized between himself and a software pirate he caught selling bootlegged software CD's at a Moscow market. At last, a practical and entertaining model for dealing with software piracy (MPAA and RIAA take note), and perhaps a useful way to channel Steve Ballmer's aggression too."

angrysponge writes " Russia to Build World's First Floating Nuclear Power Station for $200,000. I don't know what impresses me more, the engineering chutzpah or low-ball pricetag." From the article: "The mini-station will be located in the White Sea, off the coast of the town of Severodvinsk (in the Arkhangelsk region in northern Russia). It will be moored near the Sevmash plant, which is the main facility of the State Nuclear Shipbuilding Center. The FNPP will be equipped with two power units using KLT-40S reactors. The plant will meet all of Sevmash's energy requirements for just 5 or 6 cents per kilowatt. If necessary, the plant will also be able to supply heat and desalinate seawater."

Karellen !-P writes "Vardan Kushnir, a notorious russian spammer who headed the English learning centers, the Center for American English, the New York English Centre and the Centre for Spoken English, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head."

Guppy06 writes "MosNews.com has an interesting article on the thoughts and opinions of everyday Muscovites on the rampant music (et al) piracy in their country. It seems that some of them don't have much trouble justifying it to themselves, with quotes like 'Yes, I know that some of the sellers are here with burned CDs. But they have to earn a living too, I can understand them.' The article also mentions 'In a country where the average monthly salary is about $240, buying the latest album for $15 is a grotesque luxury, let alone spending $600 on Adobe Photoshop or a similar computer program.' Apparently, catchy slogans like 'Listen up, you pirate, I choose copyright!' just aren't working."

decompiler writes "Earlier reports that cyber-terrorists would be bringing down the internet today have now been denounced as "Russian media sensationalist spin", and Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks says, "There have been no precursors to a large-scale attack.""

Kobalt writes "A few news services are reporting that Russian computer expert, Aleksandr Gostev from Kaspersky Labs, has predicted that a large chunk of the Internet will be shut down tomorrow by cyber terrorists."