Aloha, pirates.
Fans of free miles in the Aeroflot Bonus program. Promotion dedicated to the 15th anniversary of the Aeroflot Bonus program.
1500 free miles guaranteed, you can win big prizes :)
Instruction
It's enough for you:2. Register (enter e-mail, password, name, and Aeroflot Bonus member number)
3. Play a fairly simple game:
For each task you will receive points. If you collect more than 500 in one and a half minutes, then you are guaranteed 1,500 miles. (it's not difficult, believe me. we did it the first time).
The winner of the promotion will receive 150 thousand miles, places 2-4 for 10,000 miles.
You will come across simple tasks and strange questions, so that it is not easy to guess even from 3 possible answers!
Hints
For instance:- "What is forbidden in Washington?" - lollipops.
- "Why do they break dishes in Crete?" - dance.
Go ahead, freebie lovers!
Thanks to our reader Vladislav Tarasov for the tip
#Aeroflot_Bonus, #bonuses, #miles, #other, #Special offer
In Moscow, they handed over a baby stroller as luggage on the Moscow-New York flight. The stroller was left at the entrance to the plane, as expected.
In New York, the stroller was returned to us in this form. Attention to the wheels.
All other parts of the stroller are not touched, only the rear wheels. All four wheels were damaged, evenly, symmetrically, neatly. 
Fantasy! What they did with the wheels of the stroller, then I tried to find out for a long time.
We went the other way
In the luggage compartment, I specified the location of the Aeroflot representative office at New York JFK Airport. I had to look for debts, because I could not believe that the largest air carrier in Russia (which wins many, many international prizes) has such a representation in one of the most popular airports in the world.
These guys (Indians and black guys) at the general counter are the representative office of Aeroflot. By the way, they are also representatives of some other airlines (as they told me).
What they did - they filled out such a form and said to wait for an answer from Aeroflot itself. Everything! That was the end of their function. Then there was a long queue of Aeroflot passengers. 
I was just really wondering what happened to the stroller? How did they do it? If you want, it would be difficult to cut so clearly and symmetrically. As if laser-cut smooth embossed semicircles. It seems that these rear wheels were involved in the landing of the aircraft. 
To be short, I won't drag it out, I'll just say that there were long negotiations and correspondence both with the office in the center of New York and with Moscow.
As a result, nothing was compensated, only nerves, time and traffic were wasted in roaming.
P.S. By the way, in the form that they gave me, there was an address where the “representatives of Aeroflot” insistently asked me to write the New York address. I say, why do you need an address in NY? They say - maybe they will bring a new stroller to you.
Naive right?
What do you think they did with the wheels? In different services of Aeroflot (at different stages of the development of negotiations), this question was answered - "It's hard to say ...".
Saved
In May, the Russian premiere of the fifth tape from the series "Pirates of the Caribbean" - "Dead Men Tell No Tales" will take place. Gold, treasures, doubloons and piastres have always occupied an important place in pirate life. Imagine the world of Captain Jack Sparrow and his fellow criminals from a financial and economic point of view.
ALEXEY ALEKSEEV
Cursed Gold of Cortez
In the first film of the epic, "The Curse of the Black Pearl", gold is one of the main springs of the plot.
"This is Aztec gold. One of the 882 identical plaques that the Indians brought in a stone chest personally to Cortes. Blood money, a payment for stopping the massacre unleashed by his army. But Cortes' greed was insatiable. Then the gods of the pagans cast a terrible spell on the gold. Any mortal who takes even one plaque from the chest will be damned forever."
The creators of "Pirates of the Caribbean" greatly overestimated the "dead man's chest" - by the standards of the ancient pirates, there was not enough gold in it
Strange, but in the Russian dubbing of the first film of the epic plaques for some reason, 663. Where did 219 plaques go on the way between the Caribbean Sea and Russia is a mystery shrouded in darkness. Let's assume that there are still 882 plaques, as in the original. 881 in the chest, and the medallion of Elizabeth Swann was made from the latter. Pirates from the Black Pearl ship are chasing after the medallion in order to remove the curse of the ancient gods. In addition, to get rid of it, you need to perform a symbolic ritual. It is necessary to return to the gods of the Aztecs a bloody debt - all 882 plaques stained with the blood of a descendant of the pirate Bill Bootstrap.
881 gold plaques from the Aztec hoard lay in the chest of Cortes, and one was used to make Elizabeth Swann's medallion
And now a small reproach to the film company Walt Disney Pictures. 882 gold medallions with a skull are very, very few by the standards of the ancient Aztecs and conquistadors. In 1521, the warriors of the historical Cortes captured and sacked the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan. The Spaniards got gold in the amount equivalent to 130 thousand Spanish gold coins. Apparently, this amount seemed to them extremely insignificant. The conquistadors tortured the ruler of the Aztec state Cuautemoca, hoping in vain to find out where the Indians were hiding the main treasures.
Having sacked the capital of the Aztecs in 1521, the warriors of Cortes captured only 130 thousand Spanish gold coins - an amount, in their opinion, not too large
Let's try to roughly estimate the cost of a stone chest. One plaque is approximately equal in size to the largest Spanish coin of the 16th century. This is an eight escudo coin. It contained 27.468 grams of 916.7 gold (22 carats). The chest thus contains 24 kg 227 g of gold. The price of one gram of 916.7 gold today is $37.05. Thus, in April 2017, a full chest of cursed gold could cost about $900,000. Even if one of the pirates had grabbed it alone, he would not have reached the title of a dollar millionaire.
Now let's see how rich the pirates got when they divided the Aztec gold among themselves. The exact size of the Black Pearl team is unknown. Actor Geoffrey Rush, who played the role of Captain Hector Barbossa, named a number from 20 to 50. Suppose there were 22. Roughly speaking, when dividing the treasure, there were 40 plaques per brother. Gold cost 16 times more than silver. The silver coin of eight reales (half an escudo) was known as the peso, the dollar, or "a piece of eight reales", pieces of eight. In the Russian translation of Treasure Island, the parrot calls such coins piastres. So, the members of the damned team got rich on 640 (16x40) similar silver coins.
What did they spend their money on? We know this from Captain Barbossa's complaint to Elizabeth Swann-Turner "for drink, food and pleasant company." "But drink did not quench our thirst, food turned to ashes in our mouths, and the most pleasant company in the world could not satisfy our lust. We are damned people, Miss Turner."
The creators of "Pirates of the Caribbean" attributed the time of the epic to about 1720-1750. Then the exchange rate of the peso-dollar-piastre to the pound sterling, established by decree of Queen Anne in 1704, was in effect. One peso was equal to six shillings. £1 is 20 shillings, one shilling is 12 pence, and one pence is 4 farthings. Therefore, 640 pesos is 3840 shillings, that is, £192.
According to the calculations of the British statistician of the 17th-18th centuries, Gregory King, in 1688 (the situation did not change much over the next half century), a laborer earned £7 per year. The income of soldiers and sailors was £14-20 per year. Officers of the army and navy received £5-7 not a year, but a month.
After the division of gold from the "dead man's chest", each pirate could get the amount that was only enough for "food and drink"
If we assume that there were not 22 sailors on the Black Pearl, but 44, then each of them would be entitled to £96. And if we take the figure from the historian of piracy Mark Rediker, according to which the average pirate crew had 80 people, then the income of each would have decreased by almost half.
So, the money received by the pirates could live for quite a long time. Although without pleasure, as Captain Barbossa rightly noted.
Eat and drink for a shilling
In "Pirates of the Caribbean" we hear the word "shilling" at the very beginning of the first film. It is the shilling that is demanded from Jack Sparrow for the parking of the ship in the bay. He offers three, raising for not giving his name.
Unfortunately, not all information about the prices of food, alcohol and escort services in the ports of the Caribbean Sea in the golden era of piracy has survived to this day. The prices in the metropolis, in England, are much better known.
However, the cost of rum is not a secret, "the most disgusting drink that turns even the most well-mannered people into animals." In Philadelphia in 1740, local rum sold for 1 shilling 8d a gallon, and higher-quality Caribbean rum sold for 2 shillings 5d. It is logical to assume that in the Caribbean, at the place of production, Caribbean swill was cheaper than on the continent. If we assume that the same 1 shilling 8 pence paid for Caribbean rum where it was considered local, and not imported, then in the measurement systems more familiar to us, the price of the product will be 4.4 pence per liter. If we assume that a self-respecting pirate needs to drink a liter of rum daily to function normally, then every 54 days he would spend £1 on a drink.
Another bad habit very popular with pirates, smoking, was also inexpensive. 45 kilos of Virginia tobacco in 1750 cost £1 wholesale.
Now about food. What could one buy at that time with a shilling in England (prices in the colonies could not have been very different)?
Let's return to the statistics of Gregory King. In 1695, the average Englishman spent £3.85 a year on food and drink. Of this amount, £0.79 was for bread and flour products, £0.61 for meat, £0.42 for dairy products, £0.31 for fish, game and eggs, £0.22 for fruits and vegetables, £0.2 for pickles, £1.06 for beer and ale, £0.24 for hard liquor. In the middle of the 18th century, a 200-gram product made from wheat flour was called a "bun for a penny."
The food basket of a pirate of the Caribbean and the average Englishman probably differed in composition, but the level of prices shows that the crew of the Black Pearl did not face starvation for quite a long time. Even if we take into account that the average Englishman was often cooked by his wife, and the pirate probably ate in catering establishments. On the North American continent in the second half of the 18th century, one could dine in a tavern on the principle of "eat as much as you like from a common cauldron" for one or two shillings.
The most expensive was the favor of girls of easy virtue in London - about £ 2, in ports the prices were much lower - the girls were called twopenny
But the cost of a pleasant company in the metropolis and in the Caribbean could differ dramatically. In London, a rich client could pay £2 for a meeting, and if the counter was a virgin, much more. In ports, the price level was comparable to the lowest price category in the metropolis. The girls were traditionally called twopenny, but in fact the standard rate sounded like this: "shilling and booze."
Piracy as an advanced business model
If pirates were content with such modest entertainment, how to explain the popularity of this profession in the Caribbean region in the first half of the 18th century? The number of active sea robbers in the golden age of piracy is estimated at 2,400 people. True, in 1716-1726, approximately 400-600 people from this number were executed by the authorities of different states.
So why did people become pirates?
With a good combination of circumstances, the pirates could "earn" a lot: for example, in 1695, Henry Avery's pirate ships captured booty worth £600,000.
Let's start with the fact that when hiring "pirates" there were no many restrictions on rights traditional for that time.
The black crew members of the Black Pearl are not a tribute to American political correctness (or not only it).
Already at the beginning of the 18th century, among the crew members of pirate ships were Africans, while the "civilized world" was still very far from the abolition of slavery. On ordinary ships in that era, dark-skinned sailors also sailed, often sold or given "for rent" by the owners. They did not receive payment for their work and did not have the right to vote in solving ship problems. On a pirate ship, the crew members were equal. The pirate captain Edward England on the ship had only one in five had a white skin color.
The captain of a pirate ship was made democratically - through elections, and was also deprived of this position - by the decision of the majority of the crew members (which happened quite often). So the story of Jack Sparrow, who was removed from the captain's post and landed on a desert island, is quite plausible.
William Snelgrave, a slave trader and ivory merchant who was captured by pirates in 1719, recalled in his book the story of the pirate captain Christopher Moody: he, along with 12 sailors, was forced by the rest of the crew to board a boat, which was sent to free navigation. "And no one ever heard of them again."
On an ordinary merchant ship, the captain's power was enormous. He determined which of the sailors should do what, decided what to feed the crew, how much money to pay crew members, had the right to subject any sailor to corporal punishment. Such an atmosphere in the workplace became the basis for someone to move from the merchant marine to the pirate business.
On a pirate ship, a quartermaster shared power with a democratically elected captain (in Treasure Island, John Silver was captain Flint's quartermaster). The captain was primarily to deal with military operations, and the quartermaster - economic issues. On some ships, the quartermaster had more real power than the captain.
The cardinal difference between pirate ships, on the one hand, and military and merchant ships, on the other, was in the level of income. On pirate ships, booty was divided equally among all sailors. Only the captain received two shares instead of one, the quartermaster - one and a half, sometimes a share and a quarter went to "leading specialists" - the boatswain, ship's doctor, gunner, first mate. Anyone who tried to deceive his comrades by hiding part of the booty was threatened with punishment - "such as the captain and the majority of the crew consider appropriate."
On merchant ships, the income of the "commanders" was five or more times higher than the earnings of ordinary sailors.
It is striking (especially from the point of view of a law-abiding sailor) that the pirates care about their disabled comrades. Anyone who lost an arm or leg in combat received compensation of £1,500.
The downside to the pirate wage system was that no loot meant no income. Generally. Whereas on a merchant ship the sailor was guaranteed his miserable earnings.
A big plus of the pirate system is that with good production, incomes could be very high. In 1695, several pirate ships led by Henry Avery captured booty worth £600,000. Each of the sailors got at least £1,000. At the beginning of the next century, they earned £1,200 per brother as a result of one robbery, after which they went out of business.
In 1721, the people of John Taylor and Oliver La Bouche set a record: £4,000 each for one attack. Unfortunately for the pirates, such luck was rare. Many sea robbers were content with more modest incomes. But a free life of crime with the opportunity to hit the jackpot seemed to many more attractive than law-abiding poverty and lawlessness.
Movie premiere
"Pirates of the Caribbean" returns to the screens six years after the release of the previous film. Julia Shagelman sadly convinced that the spirit of the crazy sea adventure from the popular franchise has departed.
Young Henry (Brenton Thwaites), the son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann in the first three films, is obsessed with saving his father, who is forever doomed to be the captain of the ghostly Flying Dutchman. To do this, he needs to find an ancient artifact - the Trident of Poseidon, which removes all curses at once. And for this, in turn, you need a ship and a captain - and who, if not the legendary captain Jack Sparrow (the unchanged Johnny Depp), who has already completely sunk to the bottom of a bottle of rum, but is ready for anything to regain his former glory. In search of the Trident, these two are joined by a brisk and very advanced girl for her time, Karina Smith (Kaya Scodelario), passionate about astronomy and mathematics, which is why others, who were not used to strong independent women in their 18th century, consider her a witch at best. . The search for the Trident, however, is complicated by the fact that Jack Sparrow is pursued, each in his own interests, by an old acquaintance of Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and a new antagonist - the merciless captain of another cursed ship Salazar (Javier Bardem), once sent by Sparrow to the hellish abyss of the Triangle Devil.
If all this seems familiar, it is not in vain. The creators of the new Pirates, without further ado, took the plot of the very first film, replaced Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley with a couple of even more vague young talents, Davy Jones with another infernal zombie sailor crew leader, and Jack Sparrow, his crew and captain Barbossa was instructed to perform all the same tricks that the audience loved 14 years ago.
Young Norwegian directors Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, who attracted the attention of Hollywood with the film "Kon-Tiki", which was nominated for an Oscar in 2013 as the best foreign language film, were either unable or afraid to contribute to the first film entrusted to them. blockbuster at least something new and non-standard. Their "Pirates" sail in tested waters, not for a moment deviating from the course set by the first Gore Verbinski trilogy, but, alas, without his ingenuity (the fourth film, directed by Rob Marshall, now seems like a strange fantasy, standing quite apart from the general line) .
And if the first two films about the pirates of the Caribbean at one time really became a breath of fresh sea air among the same type of "summer blockbusters", again reminding viewers who had forgotten the adolescent book joys what a real adventure with sword duels, boardings and piastres is, then already starting since the third issue, the franchise has become more and more like the notorious fake Christmas tree toy - it shines the same, but it doesn’t please at all.
The new "Pirates" seems to have all the elements that, in theory, should have formed into a fascinating story: a really spectacular scene of a bank robbery and the subsequent chase (which unexpectedly makes you remember not a pirate movie classic, but even one of the "Fast and the Furious" ); a failed execution, turning into a fight of all against all with the participation of a guillotine rotating in the air; large-scale naval battles; island "edema" of the tropics; Javier Bardem, who, unlike other heavyweight stars, even bothers to act in those rare moments when he is not covered from head to toe in CGI; after all, zombie sharks and a Paul McCartney cameo. However, in the end, the film is a collection of tediously rumbling episodes (some, like the forced "wedding" of Jack Sparrow, you want to completely erase from memory altogether) and, being in fact the shortest in the entire franchise, seems endless, and most importantly and most unpleasant for an adventure movie. - just plain boring.
A colorless young couple, in general, does not spoil the picture much - after all, these films have always been watched not for the sake of a romantic line, but primarily for the sake of Jack Sparrow. However, the dashing, armor-piercing charm and charisma that Johnny Depp once invested in this role have gone to the bottom, and it seems that even such a powerful artifact as a fee from the Disney studio cannot rescue them from there. It turns out that Jack Sparrow can be too much, and this is not good news at all, especially when the hero has become much drunker and dumber than he remembered from past films, and his jokes have finally ceased to rise above the belt. A flashback from the captain's youth, telling how he got his nickname, is already completely superfluous - it is unlikely that at least anyone is interested now.
When Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann finally reunite in the finale - hardly a spoiler - Jack Sparrow, looking at them through a spyglass, grimaces, comments: "What a disgusting sight!" A rare case when the last phrase perfectly sums up the previous two hours. However, the post-credits scene hints that the curse of the multi-million dollar franchise has not been lifted from the "Pirates" and they will remain restless until the last dollar that the viewer is willing to bring to the box office of the cinema.
