Russian Officials To Investigate Regional President's Alien Abduction Claims 184
wdef writes "The BBC reports that a Russian MP has asked President Dmitry Medvedev to investigate claims by a regional president that he has met aliens on board a spaceship. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the leader of the southern region of Kalymkia, made his claim in a television interview. Mr Ilyumzhinov said in an interview on primetime television that he had been taken on board an alien spaceship which had come to planet Earth to take samples — and claims to have several witnesses. He has been president of Kalmykia, a small Buddhist region of Russia which lies on the shores of the Caspian Sea, for 17 years. As president of the World Chess Federation, he has spent tens of millions of dollars turning the impoverished republic into a mecca for chess players — building an entire village to host international tournaments. MP Andre Lebedev is not just asking whether Mr Ilyumzhinov is fit to govern. He is also concerned that, if he was abducted, he may have revealed details about his job and state secrets."
Re:It's Always the Chess Players (Score:3, Insightful)
Why do high profile chess players always have to go completely batshit crazy?
So, wait... two examples, and you indict an entire group of people?
Wow, well done. Well done indeed.
Re:It's Always the Chess Players (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's Always the Chess Players (Score:3, Insightful)
Congrats, that's the dumbest thing I've read this week.
So you're saying this is the only thing you've read on Slashdot this week.
Re:Dear Aliens (Score:2, Insightful)
I propose we take our most popular specimens like Tom Cruise, Ke$ha, Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr. and chain them down in a random field for sampling by aliens.
Would you really want those four people to be the alien's first direct being-to-being contact with the human race?
I know I certainly wouldn't ...
Re:Well, it worked when Mr. Smith got caught (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think it works that way, though (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it works that way, though. There isn't evidence that using one's brain too much can cause the same kind of damage as pulling a muscle or twisting a knee does in more physical sports. On the contrary, there is a ton of evidence by now that it can actually delay the onset of the various forms of neuro-degeneration in the old age.
But it may be that you already have to be not entirely normal up there in the first place to make it that far in chess.
Re:Two words for you: crazy dictator (Score:5, Insightful)
My measure of democracy is not whether someone is elected into office, but elected out of office. So far Russia has yet to strip a President of their power via an election, so I'm still withholding my opinion on whether it's a democracy.
I find Slashdot far more tolerable with Funny set to -5 as well.
Re:Two words for you: crazy dictator (Score:3, Insightful)
"While he was appointed for his current term as Head of Kalmykia, he was previously its President without any appointment, simply by being elected. Despite the occasional controversy, he's quite popular, I believe, not in the least due to his position in FIDE."
And for nothing else. Kalmykia is extremely poor and Ilumzhinov really rules there like a dictator (i.e. suppressing press, using police to beat up people, etc.). Basically, Putin and Medveded do not care about it since Ilumzhinov keeps everything inside 'his' republic.
A simple calendar check... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's Always the Chess Players (Score:2, Insightful)
Congrats, that's the dumbest thing I've read this week.
So you're saying this is the only thing you've read on Slashdot this week.
Maybe he reads at +5 and doesn't enjoy the privilege of reading the gay niggers association of america as often as the rest of us?
Re:Two words for you: crazy dictator (Score:4, Insightful)