Czechmatediary

A house-arrest sentence is a very new thing in the Czech Republic. It used to be that you go to jail or you don’t go to jail and house arrest was left for the disobedient kids. Petr Boruvka informs us about the very first felon who was given such an ‘awful’ punishment. Read about him right here.

CZ: Domaci vezeni byvalo v Cechach aplikovano jen na zlobive deti. Nedavno se z neho ale stal oficialni pojem, kterym se trestaji lehci kriminalnici. Petr Boruvka nas informuje o prvnim takovem cloveku, ktery musi ‘trpet’ 6 mesicu doma….ale zas tak hrozne to pro nej nebude. Proc? Duvod si prectete zde.

Remember we had that heated discussion in one of my posts about  Americans and their poor knowledge of geography? You guys ended up leaving 102 (!!) comments! Jamie was one of those involved commentators who kept pursuing the idea that there is NO difference between us and the Americans as far as general knowledge goes. He also promised to send me a research paper on exactly this issue and he kept his word! Here is most of the article, although I could not fit in all of the questions. But you get the idea..

CZ: Pamatujete si , jak jsem jednou psala clanek o Americanech a o jejich spatnych znalostech zemepisu? Vyvolal takovou diskuzi, ze jsme skoncili se 102 komenty!!! Jednim z komentatoru byl Jamie, ktery tvrdil, ze vseobecne znalosti Cechu a Americanu jsou na stejne urovni. Take nam slibil odborny clanek, ktery jeho hypotezu pry potvrzuje. Jamie dodrzel slovo a clanek poslal. Zde je ho vetsina, ale vsechny otazky se mi tam bohuzel vmestnat nepovedlo.

OK, WHO IS SMARTER, WE OR THEY?

Author: Vladimír Kajlík

Periodically, readers are showered with newspapers articles decrying progressive decline if not outright abysmal state of American public education. The conclusion, usually supported by various sorts of statistical “knowledge surveys”, provides presumably ample evidence for such a decline. There would be not much to report if we just assembled such articles from Europe and America to state the facts and to confirm assumed trends. [continue reading…]

The Czech Republic is famous again! The world’s biggest panoramic photo happens to  portray the beauty of Prague. This is what the 360cities.net says about it:

‘This image a super high resolution photo. Use your mouse to zoom in and see a startling level of detail. This image is currently (as of 12/2009) the largest spherical panoramic photo in the world. It is 192,000 pixels wide and 96,000 pixels tall. That’s 18.4 billion pixels, or 18.4 gigapixels! When it’s printed, it will be 16 meters (53 feet) long at regular photographic quality (300dpi). It was shot in early October 2009 from the top of the Zizkov TV Tower in Prague, Czech Republic in collaboration with Prague 3 town hall. A digital SLR camera and a 200mm lens were used. Hundreds of shots were shot over a few hours; these shots were then stitched together on a computer over the following few weeks. [continue reading…]

The 2010 Olympic Games start next week in Vancover. How is the Czech Republic going to do this time? Four years ago the Czechs won 4 medals: gold for cross country skier Katerina Neumannova, silver for cross country skier Lukas Bauer, and bronze for men’s ice hockey team. athleets

This year the Czech Republic Olympic team is bigger than ever, mounting to the total of 93 members! The Czech Olympic committee says that even athletes who have little chance of succeeding should be allowed to take part, budget permitting. “”For the Summer Olympic Games in Athens we took with us a very young athlete, a javelin thrower called Barbora Špotáková. She was in seventh or eighth place there [actually she finished 23rd]…It was her first Olympic Games. In her second Olympic Games in Beijing she was Olympic champion. And we think if she hadn’t taken part in Athens, she couldn’t have made it in Beijing, to win gold at her first Olympics….So we don’t take everyone, but we take those who we feel have achieved a very good effort, very good results. And we wish the best for them.” [continue reading…]

OK, here is yet another addition to our photo-gallery of Prague-under-snow. The My Czech Republic blog took some awesome pictures of the Czech capital (and other places) just a few hours after it stopped snowing earlier this past month. Click here to view all of the images – it really looks like it’s from some kind of a fairy-tale.

CZ: Jestlize jste ve snehove nalade, My Czech Republic blog zverejnil nekolik naaaadhernych, pohadkovych fotek zasnezene Prahy a okoli! Kliknete zde.

You know how much they all talk about how much snow is in the Czech Republic now? I got a proof! These wonderful Prague pictures (taken by a generous donor – Peter) were taken just a few days ago. And if Prague is snowed-in, you know that the rest of the Czech Republic is REALLY snowed in.

CZ: Vite, jak se vsude stebeta o tom, kolik v Cechach napadlo snehu. No, a ja mam dukaz! Fotky (velkodusne darovane panem Petrem) zasnezene Prahy! A vime preci, ze jestlize je Praha zasnezena, tak zbytek cele Ceske republiky je opravdu zapadly pod horami snehu.

Kampa

I was thinking about making post about Czech jokes the other day, about how funny and yet so cruel they can be! The first google result brought me to the My Czech Republic forum where participants talk just about this particular topic. One of the participant’s response (Petr B) was especially helpful in forming these following ideas. He says: “About Czech jokes. I don’t think we have those “how many … takes to exchange a bulb”, “knock-knock” or “lawyer” jokes…”. He is right, I did not even realize that! Here are some of the categories that me and the forum guy came up with:

CZ: Chtela jsem napsat post o ceskych vtipech a pri svem googlovani jsem natrefila na forum My Czech Republic, kde se lide bavili prave o tomto tematu. Jedna osoba (Petr B) byla velmi dulezita pri formovani techto skupin:

1. Chauvinist/Feminist jokes

1. Feminists from all over the world are having a huge meeting. On the stage appears an English feminist and says: “I came home, I hit the table with my wrist and said to my husband:”I am not cooking from now on”. I see nothing the first week or the second week, but the first week I see my husband cooking dinner.” The hall vibrates with a great applause. The second guest speaker is a German feminist and says: “I came home, hit the table with my fist and said to my husband: ” I am not doing laundry from now on!”. I see nothing the first week or the second week. The third week, I see my husband doing the laundry.” Even greater applause came from the audience. Then the Czech feminist goes on stage and says: “I came home, hit the table with my fist and said to my husband: “From now on, I am not cooking or doing the laundry.” The first week I see nothing; the second week I see nothing; when third week rolls around I am starting to see with one eye.” [continue reading…]

Hi all,

Guess what Czech singer is touring the US this month? Lenka Filipova (see the attached foto)! For those who are not familiar with her, she is kind of like the Czech-style Joni Mitchell :0).

CZ: Ahoj, tak nas za tu velkou louzi pristi mesic prijede navstivit Lenka Filipova! Dalibor Janda jede zase za sluncem do Australie, kde ted maji leto :0)

1. Washington, DC (Czech Embassy)

A. What: Lenka Filipova concert

When: Feb. 9

B. Lions of Czech Film Series: “Fighter” (Bojovnik)

When: Feb. 10

2.  New York, NY (Czech Center)

A. What: Classical Music concert (Panocha Qurartet)

When: Feb. 6 [continue reading…]

You can get this miniature pot-bellied pig  (also called a “Tea-cup pig“) for 500 to 5,000 Czech Crowns, depending on their size. The smaller they are, the more expensive they get. Yet the price did not stop them to be one of the new favorite pets in the Czech households. They are supposed to be smart, affectionate and very clean! Watch the video below:

CZ: V Cechach se tyto miniaturni prasatka prodavaji za 500 az 5,000 Kc s tim, ze mensi prasatka jsou drazsi. Chrochtajici milacci tam jdou jako na dracku, stali se totiz novym oblibenym zvirecim mazlickem v ceskych domacnostech. Divite se? Maji pry byt velmi chytri, pritulni a take cistotni! Podivejte se na nize uvedene video: [continue reading…]