Drunken Pig Monument in Ukraine

In a story that almost seems too good to be true, a monument to a drunken pig is supposedly to be unveiled in the town of Komsomolsk in central Ukraine. It will portray a pig lying on its belly with its snout in a trough and will be located adjacent to a cafe. According to the sculptor, Oleg Ryabo, "This monument symbolizes those people who make pigs of themselves by drinking far too much." Thanks to Dave from the more-consistently posting Axis of Evel Knievel for the reference to the Russian News and Information Agency (here).

(Spurious) Soviet Pigs in Space

My local brewmaster Sean forwarded me a series of photos supposedly documenting an old Soviet effort to put pigs into space. In the sequence of stills, which you can find here (you might have to click on the image to enlarge it), a pig is given a drink, strapped into its capsule, then launched upwards via a large cannon to return to earth and root around. These images, especially that of the odd-looking mortar used to launch the pig, seemed too good to be true. After poking around a bit it seems that these are stills from a 2005 Russian mockumentary entitled Pervye na lune (First on the Moon), directed by Aleksey Fedorchenko. You can find information about the film at its official site (in Russian) here. The Soviet space program was well-known for its use of dogs in early flights. You can find a pretty good wikipedia account of that program here.