Global Voices Online

Last weeks' posts on the flu epidemic: Tetyana Vysotska of What's up, Ukraine? falls ill (doctor tells her it's “impossible to have a test on whether it may be a swine flu”) and recovers; Foreign Notes writes that “there is no reason to expect the medical profession in [Ukraine] to be any less corrupt or uphold ethical standards better than other members of Ukrainian society”; MoldovAnn hopes the quarantine does end on Nov. 22 as scheduled; Ukrainiana reports on flu-related “roadshows” of Victor Yanukovych and Yulia Tymoshenko; Greetings from Kyiv writes on day 11 and day 16 of the epidemic; Chernobyl and Eastern Europe reports that medical certificates and masks are now required for Chernobyl trips.

Recent Links also in Eastern & Central Europe

English Russia writes about the phenomenon of “social network graffiti” [ENG] that became very popular among the users of the leading Russian social network Vkontakte.ru.

There are 15 million Web sites in the Russian segment of the Internet. They account for 6,5 percent of all Web sites available online. An average Russian Web site contains 255 pages, 159 thousand words, and 204 images. These facts were revealed in the latest research “The Runet Content” by Yandex [RUS].

Fifty one percent of young Russians (ages 16 - 24) consider the Internet a reliable source of information. This makes the Internet the second most trustworthy source after TV among the youth. This and other findings are available in a newly published report [RUS] by the Public Opinion Foundation.