Czechmatediary

What shoe size are you? The American-size number 8? Or the European number 37? The numbers could not get more confusing. But I have got a good news! The biggest shoe-makers in the world are wanting to unite the sizing system. The measuring units should be similar to the metric system, which will include also the biomechanical proportions of the foot. (more…)

First the volcano now floods. What is going on with Europe? The Czech Republic has been plagued by extreme floods for some time now and the north-west region was warned to braise itself for even more flooding! The local authorities are prepared to pay about 5 billion Czech crowns, which is quite the unwelcomed amount in this economical situation. Read up more on Czech floods here (click here).

CZ: Nejdriv sopka ted zase zaplavy. Co se to s tou Evropou deje? Ceska Republika resi zaplavy jiz od kvetna a nove privalove deste se pry blizi n severo-vychod! Vlada se do rekonstrukce znicenych regionu chysta investovat kolem 5 milionu korun, coz je velmi nemila castka, kdyz se zamyslite nad nynejsi ekonomickou situaci…
Vice si teto krizi muzete precist zde (kliknete zde).

Slovak ladies are a hot item for Czech men. In the last 10 years there have been 6,729 marriages and those numbers are still on the rise. Czech wife material also largely consists of Ukrainian women who within the last 10 years married 5,524 Czech men. In the third place are Russian women, then Vietnamese, Polish and the list goes on (full list can be found at the end of this article).

How about Czech women? Whom do they like to pick for their life-long mate? It looks like the Slovaks are winning again, followed by Germans and men from Great Britain (the American men took 5th place by the way).

The choice of mates depends on various aspects. The Slovak language is the most similar to the Czech language so it is naturally easier to communicate with someone from that country.  The most immigrants who come to the Czech Republic on a working visa are from Ukraine and get to meet the locals via their prolonged stay. Germany, Austria and Poland, on the other hand, are  neighboring countries, hence the ‘prey’ is in a close vicinity.

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While it is a well-known fact that the Czechs and Slovaks are phenomenal hockey players, the NHL draft for this year shows otherwise:

CZ: Cesi a Slovaci jsou velmi nadani na mnohe sporty, kde hokej je definitivne jeden z nich. Letosni vybery do NHL to bohuzel ale vubec neilustruji:

‘The situation in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is sad. Virtually no prospects are playing in their leagues and only a hand full play in the Canadian League. This is an area of concern for hockey.’

Even if you are not exactly a hockey fan, the rest of the article is worth reading (click here).

Remember that scary movie called The Name of the Rose? It was based on the equally-named book written by an Italian medievalist and a philosopher Umberto Eco. After more than 30 years the author’s writing creativity has turned to Prague, specifically to the Prague cemetery ( you can hear sound of the hauling wolfs in the background).

The central figure of the novel is this cynical spy who is being sought after by the whole Europe in order to carry out various clever espionage or an assassination tasks. “Il cimitero di Praga” has 450 pages  and uncovers in detail the politics of the 19th century which also shines an uncomfortable light on today’s historical and political face of Europe. (more…)

The Czech Republic covers luscious, fertile land which produces various types of fruit and vegetables. It may seem surprising to you (as it was  to me) that most of the produce is imported! For example, 51,000 tons of last year’s crop of domestic apples were exported, while 71, 000 tons of apples consumed by the Czechs came from abroad. This quite ineffective system weakens the local economy, increases the prices of local goods and the constant semi-truck movement across the border worsens the air pollution.

The Czech Republic is a potato nation (almost every other folk song is about potatoes) but strangely most potatoes are currently being imported from Germany and also Poland. As far a garlic grown in Czech goes, it is pretty much impossible to find it in the stores. Where does it come from? Over 80% of it comes from China (!!) which is 21,000 km away. (more…)

Imagine you get invited by your acquaintance for a cup of tea and when you come to his house, there are strange paper bags hanging all over the walls. First, you realize you don’t know this person enough and you wonder if you should start slowly backing out of this very strange place and call the police. Then you decide to be brave and take a closer look at those walls and you realize they are covered with  barf bags!

We are talking here about Milos Kubista, a Czech dude from Plzen who owns  a collection of more than 1,500 air sickness bags (some framed) from all over the world. It took him close to 40 years  to collect all those ‘valuable’ items and the numbers are still growing. (more…)

The American moms affirm the trust relationship with their babies through breastfeeding on demand, while some Czech parents do it by juggling their little ones in the air. What do I mean by that? They take a parent-baby course which is called “Baby flying”.  The mother (or the dad) hold on to the baby’s arms/legs and variously twist them in the air, all to the sound of loud, dancing music. The course instructor, Blanka Kolarova-Sudikova, claims that besides affirming trust in between him and the parent, baby-flying helps with other problems such as if the baby is colicky or too hyperactive.

This unusual course has had so far about 1,500 graduates and numbers are growing. Only the doctors don’t like it one bit. They say that it can simulate the so-called “Shaken baby syndrome”, which leaves a serious health defect on a baby. (more…)

After an unnerving match this afternoon the Czechs beat the Russians 2-1. It truly is amazing since many of the key members of the Czech team live abroad and play professionally with other teams (i.e. Jaromir Jagr currently plays for Avangard Omsk in the Kontinental Hockey League) and have a very little time to practice together as a team.

As my dad said it would be  pure luck if they beat the all-powerful Russian team and it looks like they got very lucky!!! But I am sure the team’s amazing talent played a role as well ;0)

So to summon it up, the Czechs are the kings, Russians took a 2nd place, Sweden is 3rd and Germany 4th. (more…)

The local hospital in Ceska Lipa is in a big trouble. A father of a newborn child has filed charges against this institution for negligence, since his wife gave birth to their first-born right into a toilet bowl. How could this happen?  The 23-year-old expecting mother was admitted with stomach pains. After an agonizing night without any help from the hospital staff, she had decided to relieve herself in the bathroom and..uppsss…out came a baby! The poor kid has now a big bruise on its head.

CZ: Nemocnice v Ceske Lipe to v dnesni dobe nema lehke. Otec jednoho novorozenete totiz podal trestni oznameni proti teto instituci a to proto, ze mistni porodnici pry zanedbali peci. Jeho 9 mesicu tehotna zena prisla do nemocnice s hroznymi bolestmi ‘zaludku’. Nikdo ji v nemocnici nezkontroloval a nastavajici maminka trpela celou noc v krecich. Pote odesla na toaletu, aby si ulevila, a – splouch! – a na svete bylo miminko! Uhodilo se do hlavicky a na pamatku z toho utrpelo velkou bouli.

Source:

http://www.radio.cz/en/article/127490

http://www.lidovky.cz/zena-v-nemocnici-porodila-na-zachode-pribuzni-vini-personal-pq5-/ln_domov.asp?c=A100426_182924_ln_domov_ani