Inventor and billionaire Elon Musk and public transit consultant Jarrett Walker keep debating over urban transit online; the latter is known for contributing to the project to reform Yekaterinburg’s public transit system. The debate first hit the spotlight when the man behind Tesla and Falcon called Jarrett Walker an idiot; but this is about more than just personal disagreements. At the heart of the dispute are two long-term urban transit development concepts: Musk believes the future belongs to ‘individualized transport’, whereas Walker and his supporters vote for public transit. As is

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 25, 2017. Sinara Group set up a licensed medical practice at its Romantic Hotel in Arkhyz, the company’s all-year-round mountain resort, the Group’s PR Center reports. The small practice will deal in prevention and rehabilitating treatment of bronchopulmonary diseases. Based on advice from a physician, visitors to the health resort can undergo rehabilitation and prevention therapy for two to fifteen days. The therapy includes breathing exercises, nebulizer inhalations, halotherapy, and oxygen cocktails. Additionally, all visitors to Arkhyz will also be offered

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 25, 2017. Employees of Beloyarskaya Nuclear Power Station received memorable badges for the construction of BN 800 Reactor Power-Generating Unit 4 on Energy Engineer’s Day, the station’s press service reports. The badges will be given to over 2,000 employees of contractor companies who focused on the design, construction, assembly, and startup of the unit, as well as to the employees of the station’s various divisions who contributed to design, construction, assembly, and startup and commissioning. Workers of Atomproyekt, Uralenergostroy, Uralenergomontazh,

UrBC, Chelyabinsk, December 25, 2017. More than twenty mayors and heads of city councils from Chelyabinsk Oblast went on a tour of Russian Copper Company Group’s Karabashmed in Karabash. The visitors also looked at the new sports facility Metallurg the company put up and talked to the plant’s long-service employees who practice at the Active Longevity Sports Club, the company’s press service reports. Metallurg looks very impressive. The gym is particularly well-equipped. Karabash used to be seen as an economically depressed town, but now we can say with confidence that you don’t find a gym

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 25, 2017. ChTPZ Group’s 15th Snezhnost Charity Theater Festival closed in the Urals and the Volga Region this week. This year, the plays were performed in Chelyabinsk, Pervouralsk, Almetyevsk, and (for the first time ever) Ozersk, the Group’s press service reports. More than 15,000 young spectators got to see the festival plays. They are children from foster homes and live-in schools, children from low-income families, children of single parents, children from multiple-children families, and students of schools the Group supports financially. Some of them are

UrBC, Yekaterinburg, December 25, 2017. Sverdlovsk Oblast imposed a temporary ban on import of tangerines from Abkhazia because of a halyomorpha halys (marmorated stink bug) contagion, Head of Sverdlovsk Oblast’s division of Rospotrebnadzor Natalya Saifulina told UrBC. ‘Tangerines are no longer imported to Sverdlovsk Oblast from Abkhazia. Once this bug has been detected, all imports had to stop, as these tangerines must be quarantined and any import is forbidden. Actually, there aren’t even enough fruits left to get exported because of this bug. Plus the quarantine and the import embargo,’