The Lighter Side of the News

[gwillybj]

 

[gwillybj]

Model Warship Combat Brings BB-Gun-Equipped RC Boats to a Lake Near You
Ko Im at Odd News 11 days ago



Model Warship Combat — it's like real-life, remote-controlled Battleship, to a scale.

Mini warships get built and then sunk. Teams are split into Axis and Allied sides (think the World Wars). For cannons there are BB-gun shooters. Television station WCCO in Minneapolis found that the tiny vessels even have bilge pumps to help drain water.

The contest isn't over until everyone's model sinks. As organizer Brandon Smith explained to CBS Minnesota, the ships are sheeted with thin balsa wood, which allows for the tiny BBs to puncture their hulls. At the end of a battle, the ships are brought out of the water, and points are awarded based on the damage done to each vessel.

A national championship battle is taking place this week on a lake on private property near Ramsey, Minn. Folks come down from Canada for it, and those in Model Warship Combat travel around the country for events.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/model-warship-combat-brings-bb-gun-equipped-models-to-a-lake-near-you-195642478.html

[Rusty Edge]

I'd read of this hobby before.
I could see the fun factor, I used to fashion ships and throw rocks at them.
Somehow, shooting BBs at an oblique angle to water from maneuvering platforms never sounded safe. Maybe they have less power than I imagine.

There's something amusing about a battleship, ( American prefix "BB" ) being scaled down so that it fires BB size shot.

[Impaler]

Can the ships be filled with tiny man shaped fish food which floats to the surface when the ship sinks and is then devoured by Koi?

[Geo]

I wonder if some subhobbyist group will ever attempt to start with (electrically) oar-propelled galleys or galeases, and try to ram eachother. 

[gwillybj]

The Weather Channel: Health
Bad News for Coffee Lovers
By Annie Hauser; Aug 12, 2014

Climate change could make your cup of joe taste like dirt — literally.

Here's how: the globe's record-high temps and droughts are making it harder than ever to grow coffee. Fungal diseases compound the problem.

In Brazil, for example, only 45 million bags of coffee will be produced this year, instead of the usual 55 million. That's a drop of 42 billion cups of coffee, researchers from the State University of Londrina in Brazil said in a press release.

To make up for the shortage, some coffee suppliers are adding fillers, such as wheat, soy and even dirt to their beans. You can't taste a difference, and the fillers aren't typically harmful, except for in people with allergies, researchers noted.

In response to this new coffee problem, Suzana Lucy Nixdorf, Ph.D., and her team at Londrina developed a test to detect counterfeit coffee, they announced at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

"With our test, it is now possible to know with 95 percent accuracy if coffee is pure or has been tampered with, either with corn, barley, wheat, soybeans, rice, beans, acai seed, brown sugar or starch syrup," Nixdorf said in a press release. The problem, she explains, is that "after roasting and grinding the raw material, it becomes impossible to see any difference between grains of lower cost incorporated into the coffee, especially because of the dark color and oily texture of coffee."

http://www.weather.com/health/bad-news-coffee-lovers-20140812

[gwillybj]

The New York Times
Golf
Mini Golf as Career? She Gets Past the Obstacles
By SARAH LYALL
AUG. 14, 2014


Olivia Prokopova practiced at Bluegrass Mini Golf Course in Oceanport, N.J. for the U.S. Open Miniature Golf tournament. Credit Matt Rainey for The New York Times

OCEANPORT, N.J. — She looked like nothing out of the ordinary, just another platinum blonde in baggy shorts hanging out at the miniature golf course. But in the rarefied, close-knit, hypercompetitive world of professional miniature golf, Olivia Prokopova is nothing short of legendary.

“Olivia? There’s no fear in her,” said Rick Alessi, 57, a municipal heavy-equipment operator from Erie, Pa., who is to compete against her in the 2014 United States Open Miniature Golf Tournament that begins here on Friday. “She just loves the game.”

There are many unusual things about Prokopova, beyond the fact that last year she swept the sport’s three top competitions — the United States Open, the Master’s and the world championships — for an unprecedented triple crown in miniature golf.

In a sport dominated by middle-aged American men, she is foreign, 19 years old, “and she’s a gal,” said John Forbes, the manager of the Bluegrass Miniature Golf Course, the elegantly landscaped spot, free of plastic clowns and windmills, where the tournament is to take place.

While few people have heard of the top players, or indeed, any of the players at all, Prokopova is a serious celebrity back in her native Czech Republic. She has been the subject of a book and a documentary. She has corporate sponsors, her own website and her own line of light jackets.

With many tournaments awarding top prizes in the mid three-figures, no one is going to get rich playing miniature golf. Yet for Prokopova it is virtually a full-time endeavor. She practices for 8 to 12 hours a day, every day, except Wednesdays, when she does schoolwork from 3 to 8 p.m.

She is one of the few foreigners competing on the American circuit and the only one, it appears, to travel with an entourage. It consists of one or both of her parents; sometimes her brother; and Ales Vlk, 39, a buff employee of her father’s miniature golf course-building company back home, who functions as nutritionist, masseur, motivational coach, physical therapist and training partner.

In the United States, where many people think of miniature golf as something you might do after getting drunk and exhausting other entertainment options, being a world-class competitor might not seem like such a big deal. In truth, it is not hard to be a professional miniature golf player here: all you have to do is join the US ProMiniGolf Association, for $25.

“You can declare yourself a professional and pay the fee, so literally anyone can do it,” said Brad Lebo, a 53-year-old dentist from Pennsylvania, who won the United States Open in 2010.

Similarly, among the many advantages for potential entrants to the United States Open, besides the $3,500 first-place prize, is that there is no need to qualify.

“You just pay your entry fee,” said Carol Newman, the tournament director. Competitors in the top division pay a $100 entry fee. “We tell them what’s going on and who’s playing, and then they decide what they can handle.”

About half the competitors at the Open, she said, are likely to be amateurs who live nearby in New Jersey and who just happen to enjoy playing. Some talented Bluegrass employees might compete, too. “Chris, who’s blowing the course right now, shoots a 35, and it’s a 40-par course,” Newman said, pointing toward a young man using a leaf blower to blast debris off the course.

Professional miniature golf certainly suffers from a lack of respect. “I get a mixed bag of comments,” said Lebo, who reckons he has won 105 tournaments in his career, for a total of about $9,000 in prize money. “People I play golf with are either intrigued, or they mock me hysterically.”

Increasingly, competition-grade miniature golf courses differ from the kind of course that most Americans think of — fewer gnomes, dragons and pirates stalk the professional circuit than in the old days. Newer-built courses instead feature a series of AstroTurf putting greens that look sober and almost respectable. They are sculpted to be tricky, with variations in the elevation and pitch of the greens. That adds an extra degree of difficulty, making skill more important than luck.

Professional players should be able to sink their shots in either one or two strokes per hole. Players can gain an edge by mapping out, in their heads or on paper, exactly how to hit their second shot, depending on where the first shot falls. That is where Prokopova shines.

“She’s not that much better than the others; she just practices more,” said Bob Detwiler, president of the US ProMiniGolf Association.

There is another way to put that. “There’s always an infinite amount of information to learn, and Olivia’s work ethic is extremely good,” said Lebo, interviewed as he tried to come to grips with the pesky sixth hole at Bluegrass. (He had put together an elaborate set of diagrams of every conceivable shot from every conceivable position at each hole that he planned to consult during the competition.) “She sometimes goes to places seven weeks in advance and charts out the course, and that gives her a big advantage.”

Even people devoted to the sport find this behavior extreme. “It’s kind of amazing that these guys take this so seriously,” Forbes said.

Curiously enough, miniature golf is not particularly popular in the Czech Republic, Prokopova said. But her string of international successes has turned her into a bona fide national superstar.

In an interview at the course, she and her team tried to explain just how famous she is.

“She has been on television, in the newspapers,” Vlk said. “She has twice met the president of the Czech Republic. Seventeen thousand people in a square applauded her.”

Prokopova proved an elusive interviewee. She speaks only basic English, and a Russian interpreter had been provided so that Vlk, who speaks Czech and Russian, could relay the questions to her. But she tended to refer queries about things as simple as her height and her golfing philosophy to her father, Yan Prokop. That added another layer of complexity because the burly, chain-smoking Prokop, who spent much of the interview talking excitedly and banging messages into his two cellphones, speaks no English at all.

But a picture gradually emerged. Prokopova has been playing miniature golf since she was 3 years old, she said. Because there is so little money in it, she relies on fees from exhibitions and on corporate sponsors. “My mum and my dad must also give me money,” she said.

She sometimes finds it lonely. “Because I play all the time, I haven’t got many friends, but I like the players here — they are like my second family,” she said. “I’ve been coming here since I was 7 years old, and I know everyone.”

She trains so intensely that she has had operations on a wrist and on both knees. She would not reveal her training methods — “It’s our secret, how we practice,” she said — but did allow that she takes 14 vitamin and herbal supplements a day, and that “I have to eat light food before I play, or else I can’t bend down and pick up the ball.”

She was the picture of modesty. “I haven’t got any talent; I just practice every day,” she said. Explaining her approach, she punched some words into Google Translate and then read aloud what appeared on her phone. “Diligence,” she said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/sports/golf/mini-golfs-fresh-face-not-a-clowns-olivia-prokopova.html

Another Olympic sport?

[gwillybj]

Odd News
Couple Returns Home From Honeymoon to Find Home Covered in Post-It Notes
Zain Meghji
August 18, 2014

{video at site}

Meet Jamie and Emily Pharro, newlyweds from Lincolnshire, England. After their nuptials on Aug. 1, the pair handed their keys over to friends to look after their cats while they were on their honeymoon.
Upon their return from a glorious holiday in Italy, the Pharros found that their prankster pals had arranged a noteworthy welcome — in the way of 14,000 Post-it notes covering the first floor of their house. The sticky pieces of paper covered the entryway, the living room, and the kitchen.   

A hidden camera captured the reactions of the new Mr. and Mrs. Pharro.

"Our living room has got glass panels in the door, so we could see as soon as we got inside what they'd done, and then we saw the camera," Emily Pharro, 29, told the Daily Mail. "The notes were all over the living room walls and everything. I think that in a few weeks, we'll still be finding the odd one about!"



It had taken their friends eight hours to pull off the sticky act. As for what mischief-makers had to say about it: They let the notes speak for themselves, with a message left on the television that read, "so sorry." 

The couple said they expected a surprise upon arrival. After all, the same group of friends pranked another couple returning from a secret wedding by filling their home with 3,000 balloons.

It took the newlyweds 2½ hours to remove all the sticky notes.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/oddnews/couple-returns-home-from-honeymoon-to-find-home-covered-in-post-it-notes-195533477.html

[Geo]

Well, that's easier to clean up then the typical 'just married' prank here in Belgium: put the entire outside of the house in toilet paper, and confetti in the yard.

[Buster's Uncle]

How we'd cover Ferguson if it happened in another country
Vox
Updated by Max Fisher on August 15, 2014, 11:40 a.m. ET @Max_Fisher max@vox.com


How would American media cover the news from Ferguson, Missouri, if it were happening in just about any other country? How would the world respond differently? Here, to borrow a great idea from Slate's Joshua Keating, is a satirical take on the story you might be reading if Ferguson were in, say, Iraq or Pakistan.

 

Reporters surround Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson (Scott Olson/Getty Images)


FERGUSON — Chinese and Russian officials are warning of a potential humanitarian crisis in the restive American province of Missouri, where ancient communal tensions have boiled over into full-blown violence.

"We must use all means at our disposal to end the violence and restore calm to the region," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in comments to an emergency United Nations Security Council session on the America crisis.

The crisis began a week ago in Ferguson, a remote Missouri village that has been a hotbed of sectarian tension. State security forces shot and killed an unarmed man, which regional analysts say has angered the local population by surfacing deep-seated sectarian grievances. Regime security forces cracked down brutally on largely peaceful protests, worsening the crisis.


"we can and should support moderate forces who can bring stability to America"


America has been roiled by political instability and protests in recent years, which analysts warn can create fertile ground for extremists.

Missouri, far-removed from the glistening capital city of Washington, is ostensibly ruled by a charismatic but troubled official named Jay Nixon, who has appeared unable to successfully intervene and has resisted efforts at mediation from central government officials. Complicating matters, President Obama is himself a member of the minority sect protesting in Ferguson, which is ruled overwhelmingly by members of America's majority "white people" sect.

Analysts who study the opaque American political system, in which all provinces are granted semi-autonomous self-rule, warned that Nixon may seize the opportunity to move against weakened municipal rulers in Ferguson. Missouri's provincial legislature, a traditional "shura council," is dominated by the opposition faction. Though fears of a military coup remain low, it is still unknown how Nixon's allies within the capital will respond should the crisis continue.

Now, international leaders say they fear the crisis could spread. 

"The only lasting solution is reconciliation among American communities and stronger Missouri security forces," Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a speech from his vacation home in Hainan. "However, we can and should support moderate forces who can bring stability to America. So we will continue to pursue a broader strategy that empowers Americans to confront this crisis."

Xi's comments were widely taken as an indication that China would begin arming moderate factions in Missouri, in the hopes of overpowering rogue regime forces and preventing extremism from taking root. An unknown number of Kurdish peshmerga military "advisers" have traveled to the region to help provide security. Gun sales have been spiking in the US since the crisis began.

Analysts warn the violence could spread toward oil-producing regions such as Oklahoma or even disrupt the flow of American beer supplies, some of the largest in the world, and could provide a fertile breeding ground for extremists. Though al-Qaeda is not known to have yet established a foothold in Missouri, its leaders have previously hinted at assets there.

Though Missouri is infamous abroad for its simmering sectarian tensions and brutal regime crackdowns, foreign visitors here are greeted warmly and with hospitality. A lawless expanse of dogwood trees and beer breweries, Missouri is located in a central United States region that Americans refer to, curiously, as the "MidWest" though it is nearer to the country's east.

It is known among Americans as the home of Mark Twain, a provincial writer from the country's small but cherished literary culture, and as the originator of Budweiser, a traditional American alcoholic beverage. Budweiser itself is now owned by a Belgian firm, in a sign of how globalization is transforming even this remote area of the United States. Analysts say some american communities have struggled as globalization has pulled jobs into more developed countries, worsening instability here.


violence could spread to oil-producing regions such as Oklahoma or even disrupt the flow of American beer supplies


Locals here eat a regional delicacy known as barbecue, made from the rib bones of pigs, and subsist on traditional crafts such as agriculture and aerospace engineering. The regional center of commerce is known locally as Saint Louis, named for a 13th century French king, a legacy of Missouri's history as a remote and violent corner of the French Empire.

Though Ferguson's streets remained quiet on Friday, a palpable sense of tension and uncertainty hung in the air. A Chinese Embassy official here declined to comment but urged all parties to exhibit restraint and respect for the rule of law. In Moscow, Kremlin planners were said to be preparing for a possible military intervention should political instability spread to the nearby oil-producing region of Texas.

http://www.vox.com/2014/8/15/6005587/ferguson-satire-another-country-russia-china

[Buster's Uncle]

Russia Kindly Asks Bulgarians to Stop Painting Over Their Soviet Monuments
The Atlantic Wire
Polly Mosendz  Aug 20, 2014 3:44PM ET / Global



Sculptures of Soviet soldiers, part of the World War II Soviet Army monument, painted by an unknown artist in the image of Santa Claus, Superman and Ronald MacDonald are seen in central Sofia, Bulgaria, Friday, June 17, 2011. ((AP PHOTO/OLEG POPOV))



The Monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria has, once again, been vandalized. The monument, which depicts a number of USSR soldiers during the Second World War, has been vandalized several times in the past and Moscow would really like it to stop.



(AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)


In 2011, it was painted look like pop culture icons like Superman, Ronald MacDonald, and Santa Claus. In 2013, it was painted pink with graffiti letters reading, "Bulgaria apologizes," in order to "mark the anniversary of the Prague Spring," according to the Associated Press. In February, it was painted with the colors of Ukraine's flag:

Julian Popov   @julianpopov 
Follow
The controversial Monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia in the colours of the #Ukrainian flag this morning.

7:06 AM - 23 Feb 2014

12 Retweets   5 favorites   
Reply  Retweet

This week, it was painted red. (Though obviously not by the same people who repainted one of Moscow's tallest buildings yesterday.) The statue was painted overnight on August 17. Officials didn't specify how bad the damage was, only that the red paint was "in several places." Russia's Foreign Ministry issued this statement to ITAR-TASS, "In connection with the outrageous act of vandalism, a note of protest was promptly lodged with the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry with a demand for taking measures to prevent such incidents in the future, bringing those responsible for breaching the law to justice and putting the grave and the monument in order."

Considering some of the soldiers were previously painted to look like American brand mascots, a bit of red paint seems minor.

http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/russia-kindly-asks-bulgarians-to-stop-painting-over-their-soviet-monument/378844/

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[Geo]

I suggest someone takes a fairly sized brush to Mt. Rushmore.

[gwillybj]

Maryland Ban on Grain Alcohol Hurts Violin Makers
August 22, 2014 9:01 AM

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — Binge drinkers and frat boys aren't the only ones despairing over Maryland's new ban on grain alcohol: Violin makers who used the liquor to make varnish are also affected.

Silver Spring violin maker Howard Needham tells The Washington Post (http://wapo.st/1sVB1y0) that nothing works better than Everclear grain alcohol for making the varnishes he uses to repair chipped or broken musical instruments. He's been hoarding whatever grain alcohol he can get his hands on since the ban took effect last month.

Other violin makers report similar concerns.

Maryland became one of several states to ban sales of alcohol at 190 proof or higher. Leaders at Maryland's colleges and universities supported the ban, saying students abused grain alcohol as a cheap way to get drunk.

---

Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com


http://news.yahoo.com/md-ban-grain-alcohol-hurts-violin-makers-130135413.html

[gwillybj]

The Washington Post
Style
What Do College Partyers, Violin Makers and Cake Decorators Have in Common?
By Jessica Contrera
August 20

College partyers of Maryland, your lives will never the same. This school year, no longer can you and your roomies pile into the car, head to the liquor store and stock up on your favorite cheap, clear booze. Gone are the days of ignoring the “contents may ignite or explode” label and pouring freely into a jug of Hawaiian Punch. The jungle juice recipe you worked so hard to perfect is a waste. Because the sale of Everclear, and all 190-proof liquor, is now banned.

And who, in the state of Maryland, is most upset?

The people who make violins.

While the ban’s intended audience, binge-drinking college kids, has an endless variety of alcoholic substances to consume, violin makers in Maryland depend on 190-proof grain alcohol to create varnishes used in making and restoring their instruments.

It works like this: When a violin is chipped or broken, a new piece of wood often is used in the repair. When attached, the wood looks out of place because it has not been varnished. To make the violin look untouched, the new varnish must exactly match what already is on the violin.

The violin maker must dissolve a coloring substance called resin to paint onto the wood. The craftsman dissolves the resin in Everclear because, with its high alcohol content, it dries resins quickly, so the already tedious process can be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time. It looks good, too.

“There’s really nothing else that works,” said Silver Spring violin maker Howard Needham, who is hoarding the Everclear he has left.

The sale of the substance is also banned in the District, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, meaning the next closest place Needham can purchase Everclear is in Delaware. The Maryland law, which took effect June 30, does not make it illegal to own Everclear, just to sell it. So if Needham and his fellow violin makers can find it, they’ll be able to keep up work as usual.

The same quest is being taken up by another group experiencing collateral damage from the grain-alcohol ban:

Cake bakers.

Bakeries dissolve edible colored powder in Everclear, making a paste that can be painted onto fondant, the sculptable icing often seen on elaborate cakes.

“I swear, we don’t drink it!” said Bethesda bakery owner Leslie Poyourow, who noted that she has made cakes for Vice President Biden, J-Lo and even Pope Benedict XVI during his 2008 visit to Washington.

Poyourow said it is possible to substitute vodka or lemon extract for grain alcohol, but those substances smell worse and don’t work as well. Randi Brecher, owner of Creative Cakes in Silver Spring, said that after 15 years of using 190-proof grain alcohol on cakes costing up to $2,000, she’s switching to 151-proof, which works almost as well.

Violin makers don’t have that liquor luxury: 151-proof has more water in the alcohol, defeating the purpose of using it for fast drying. Some makers use denatured alcohol, but that’s essentially poison poured into alcohol, said Baltimore violin maker Laurence Anderson. Anderson previously lived in Minnesota, where grain alcohol is also banned. He would have his family bring it to him from Indiana. Now, he’s hoping his son can bring it to him from Illinois.

“I can understand why they want to outlaw it,” Anderson said. “I just wish they made an exception for people in the arts.”

In Virginia, where any alcohol higher than 101 proof is illegal to sell, an exception for non-beverage uses such as for medicine or machinery cleaning, was written into the law. In Maryland, no mention of an exception or special permit was included in the ban.

A spokesman for the Maryland comptroller’s office said an existing alcohol permit system made available to laboratories and hospitals could be used to obtain Everclear in this situation, but violin makers didn’t seem to be aware of the exemption.

“This is the second blow to our industry,” said David Truscott of the Potter Violin Co. in Bethesda. The first blow, Truscott said, came in February, when the federal government banned imports of antique elephant ivory, a product commonly found in small quantities at the tip of violin bows. Truscott’s company can no longer purchase bows in Europe, where the ivory tips are legal, and bring them to the United States to sell.

This trouble for violin makers and cake decorators is, of course, not the intention of the Maryland law. All the lawmakers wanted was to keep Everclear out of college party punch.

“What we know is that if we make it more difficult for people to drink heavily, they will drink less,” said David Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University. The law was a product of Jernigan’s work with the Maryland Collaborative, a group of universities aiming to reduce college drinking.

Jernigan said grain alcohol is the most dangerous to drinkers because it is tasteless and odorless. That was the reason that Dick’s Last Resort, a restaurant chain with a location in Baltimore, used Everclear in its “trash can punch.” The drink was a concoction of grain alcohol, 151-proof rum, black raspberry liqueur and a fruit beverage mix. Now that the bar can’t use Everclear, the punch is less alcoholic, but, according to the bar, it tastes the same.

A commercial establishment such as Dick’s has legal limits on the strength of its drinks. Rowdy fraternity parties have no such restrictions. Every shot of grain alcohol poured is almost 21 / 2 times as strong as a regular shot of vodka.

And that’s what the partyers will have to make do with now. Unless, of course, they plan a road trip to Delaware — perhaps hitching a ride with a violin maker.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/what-do-college-partyers-violin-makers-and-cake-decorators-have-in-common/2014/08/20/405ffb60-231e-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html

[Buster's Uncle]

Russia Kindly Asks Bulgarians to Stop Painting Over Their Soviet Monuments
The Atlantic Wire
Polly Mosendz  Aug 20, 2014 3:44PM ET / Global



Sculptures of Soviet soldiers, part of the World War II Soviet Army monument, painted by an unknown artist in the image of Santa Claus, Superman and Ronald MacDonald are seen in central Sofia, Bulgaria, Friday, June 17, 2011. ((AP PHOTO/OLEG POPOV))



The Monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia, Bulgaria has, once again, been vandalized. The monument, which depicts a number of USSR soldiers during the Second World War, has been vandalized several times in the past and Moscow would really like it to stop.



(AP Photo/Valentina Petrova)


In 2011, it was painted look like pop culture icons like Superman, Ronald MacDonald, and Santa Claus. In 2013, it was painted pink with graffiti letters reading, "Bulgaria apologizes," in order to "mark the anniversary of the Prague Spring," according to the Associated Press. In February, it was painted with the colors of Ukraine's flag:

Julian Popov   @julianpopov 
Follow
The controversial Monument of the Soviet Army in Sofia in the colours of the #Ukrainian flag this morning.

7:06 AM - 23 Feb 2014

12 Retweets   5 favorites   
Reply  Retweet

This week, it was painted red. (Though obviously not by the same people who repainted one of Moscow's tallest buildings yesterday.) The statue was painted overnight on August 17. Officials didn't specify how bad the damage was, only that the red paint was "in several places." Russia's Foreign Ministry issued this statement to ITAR-TASS, "In connection with the outrageous act of vandalism, a note of protest was promptly lodged with the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry with a demand for taking measures to prevent such incidents in the future, bringing those responsible for breaching the law to justice and putting the grave and the monument in order."

Considering some of the soldiers were previously painted to look like American brand mascots, a bit of red paint seems minor.

http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/08/russia-kindly-asks-bulgarians-to-stop-painting-over-their-soviet-monument/378844/

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I stumbled over a better shot of the first paint job, where you can see Wolverine, The Joker and Robin - can anyone identify any others?