Sunday Burst of Weird and Awesome (Russian edition)

Oddities and Awesome abound! This week, a trio of Russian stuff.

:: The first human to travel in space, Yuri Gagarin, died several years after his flight in a plane crash, the details of which have never really been made clear...until now. I continue to be amazed, this many years later and what with the news today, by humanity's need for secrecy.

:: Today is the 50th anniversary of the first human female space flight. I've never understood why it took the United States more than two decades to get a woman into space. (Although, in more cynical moments, I think I do understand it, but I don't like the implication.)

:: Finally, a more frivolous and non-space related item. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft is mad at Vladimir Putin. I've never been able to figure Vladimir Putin out (I always get this vague sense that he's the James Bond supervillain that Dick Cheney always wanted to be), but the fact that he has angered the Patriots makes me happy.

More next week!