“I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding, they learn by some other way—by rote or something,” physicist Richard Feynman once said. “Their knowledge is so fragile!”

Maybe Feynman’s brain was big enough to simply “learn by understanding”—sucking in and comprehending complex realities in a single glance. But what I think he actually meant was that people should learn by exploringand investigating, rather than just memorizing. Only then would their knowledge be useful and durable.

From July 17 to July 19, in Gorno-Altaisk, in Elanda, the Festival of World Music “Altai” took place. It was organized by the ensemble “Altai-Kai” and the administration of Gorno-Altausk with the support of the ministry of culture of Republic Altai. It was the first attempt to have this kind of an event on the territory of the city, which brought together musicians and performers not just from the Siberian region, but even from far beyond the borders of the republic. Among the participants were guests from Kalmykia, Tyva, Khakassia, Sakha Yakutia, Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, France and America

In August, 100 reindeer of the Evenk breed will go fromEvenkia to Tuva. During the visit of ministers of agriculture and animal breeding of Republic Tuva and Krasnoyarsk region to Evenkia, an agreement was reached about sending reindeer to Tuva.

According to the head of the reindeer-breeding firm “Surindinskiy”, Viktor Gayulski, a herd of 100 heads will be transported to the taiga zone of the republic for the purpose of improvement of the breed of Tuvan reindeer and to increase their population.

As the minister of animal breeding of Tuva Valentin Endan announced, Evenkia will receive 20 Tuvan bulls in exchange for the reindeer.

In Tuva, the official program and symbol of Naadym-2009, the holiday of Tuvan animal herders, have now been confirmed. The festival will take place on July 30-31 in Sut-Khol district, which won the honor to host the final and most spectacular part of the chief holiday of Tuva, for the successes in the socio-economic development.

The re-established chicken plant “Yeniseiskaya” started the sales of chicken meat in Tuva. In the 90’s, this enterprise went out of business, among other reasons also because it could not successfully withstand the competition from inexpensive “Bush legs” in the market conditions. After the reconstruction, into which about 150 million rubles were invested, it will supply a significant proportion of the needs of the population in chicken meat.

Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of Russia approved a formation of a Nature Park in the Pii-Khem kozhuun of Tuva. Now the government of the republic should confirm the formation of the park by a corresponding decree.

A new internet site, created by the Microsoft empire, is Project Tuva. It contains a series of lectures in physics by the legendary scientist, Nobel Prize Laureate, Richard Feynman. Bill Gates had long felt sympathies towards the eccentric physicist, one of the founders of the computer era, who was closely involved with the atomic projects of the Pentagon, and had a remarkable sense of humor.

Igor Pomerantzev, radio “Liberty”: “From the time that I discovered the language of radio, I have been working mostly wit it, and not with events, themes, and people. I have the greatest feeling of freedom in the genre of radio play. It is a worthy, dignified genre. Internationally famous playwrights and writers of many countries work in it. Their radio plays are willingly published by literary journals and publishing houses. But the last provokes some doubts in me.

Alexandr Baranmaa, graduate of Russian Academy of Arts, lecturer in the art department of Kyzyl School of Arts, is now the head of the Artists’ Union of Tuva. This decision was implemented at the extraordinary meeting of the Union. The union currently counts 56 members. As the new leader notes, there are problems with the young generation.

The Russian edition of the book of the legendary researcher of the republic, Sevyan Vainshtein (1926-2008), “Mysterious Tuva”, was distributed to the libraries of Tuva.

The German version of the book “Mysterious Tuva – Expeditions into the Heart of Asia” was first published in 2002 by the German publisher “Alouette Verlag” (Hamburg, Germany). For a whole month, Juergen Boden, the head of the publishing house, lived in the Moscow apartment of Sevyan Vainshtein while they both worked on the book, deciphering the field notes of the researcher, taken in the 50-60’s of the last century.

In 2006, the book was re-formed, and was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the new version.