“Alcohol is the most harmless component of beer. The remaining minor components that give the beer its properties - foam, color, taste - are extremely unhealthy compounds for human health.”

- Expert in narcology, Daniil Pokrovsky

This week's Odder News features three survival stories: survival in the Russian wilderness, on the internet, and in a world filled with cell phones.

It’s that time of year: Americans are busy making — and breaking — their New Year’s resolutions. Russians are too smart to put themselves through such torture.

The All-Russia People’s Front, an organization founded by Russian President Vladimir Putin, apparently counts teenagers as part of all Russian people.

This week’s “criminals”: politicians with dead souls, chocolate Robin Hoods, kid-conductors, and a woman who just wants to go home.

A train ride, a war hero, sunflower fields, and the Loch Ness monster - just another day on the road for the Children of 1917 team.

In which we move east to Samara, on the Volga River, and meet two centenarians living alone in very different ways.

In which we are reminded of a 1924 decision about train schedules.

Given the historical and personal realities she faced, Maria Konyayeva was very unlikely to live to 100 when she was born in 1917. And yet here she is.

For all the romanticism commonly associated with world travel, the brutal reality is that it is often a very un-romantic undertaking to move the meat that is our bodies around in the world.

Meet two more of our heroes whose long lives have surely been made possible by the care of their family and community.

Any good expedition has its lighter moments. We have collected nine such scenes from recent days into a one-act play for your enjoyment.