Blog Blender

Life in Russia isn’t all that great

Two American families moved to Russia, and are finding out it’s really not all that good of a place.

But things weren’t hunky dory. In videos since deleted but viewed by NBC News, the family was distraught when Huffman, instead of being able to use his welding skills in a special engineering division of the Russian army, was sent to the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war. At one point, a rumor spread online that Huffman had been killed. Last month, DeAnna Huffman, who took over the family’s YouTube channel while her husband was in the army, revealed that he had survived and returned from the frontlines. Derek Huffman uploaded a video of himself celebrating his daughter’s birthday and claimed he was on “vacation” from the Russian Army. 

Right wing media is poison.

PJH Studios artwork, Portrait of a sun

PJH Studios

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  • Life in Russia isn’t all that great

    Two American families moved to Russia, and are finding out it’s really not all that good of a place. But things weren’t hunky dory. In videos since deleted but viewed by NBC News, the family was distraught when Huffman, instead of being able to use his welding skills in a special engineering division of the…

  • Inside the Great British Bake Off

    An insightful essay about the behind-the-scenes of what it takes to get into the Great British Bake Off. During the next couple of months, I inched closer to the show. I cleared interviews with home economists who quizzed me on the finer points of baking technique—how to tell when a meringue was done cooking, or…

  • 2025 Dark Sky photography winners

    2025 Dark Sky photography winners. The cool thing about this collection are the technical details in the locations about the photos.

  • The logistics of feeding Alaska

    Feeding the population of Alaska is a logistical endeavor, only made harder by all of the tariffs. Getting fresh food to Alaska has been a challenge since the first settlers began scratching in the creek beds for gold. It was just too far from the continent’s more populated areas, separated from the contiguous United States…

  • The perfect grocery store shopping list app does not exist

    Planning a grocery shopping list seems like a thing technology could solve. But the complex the needs of meal ingredients, family budgets, how grocery stores are set up differently everywhere… It’s a recipe for insanity.

  • Setlist.FM changing concerts

    Setlist.FM has been around quite a while. For music in concert nerds, it’s an awesome way to follow an artist as they tour. And it’s changing how artist put together their setlists. For musicians who regularly change their set list, it allows them to check what they last played the last time they were in…

  • 21 tips to host a party

    21 tips to host a party. 18) To leave a group conversation, just slowly step back and then step away. Don’t draw attention to your leaving or you’ll be pulled back in. It feels mildly weird to do this but it’s worth it. 19) Throughout the party, prioritize introducing people to each other and hosting…

  • Axolotls are nifty

    Axoltls are weird, alien and fascinating creatures that can regrow limbs. Biologists have long been fascinated by the ability of salamanders to regrow entire limbs. Now Harvard researchers have solved part of the mystery of how they accomplish this feat—by activating stem cells throughout the body, not just at the injury site. In a paper…

  • Father Pete leads the masses at Notre Dame

    Thirty seconds into the video, the camera shows Father Pete — to call him anything else is to barely know him — striding into the Basilica. He’s as identifiable by his buzz cut and black-rimmed glasses as he is by his perpetual smile. Sunlight follows him through the doors. That’s when the student section loses…

  • Teens start banned book club

    After books were banned, what better way for teenagers to rebel than to start a banned book club? “It was really difficult for our first year,” Gooblar-Perovic added. “We couldn’t be like an official club with our school, because it would be, legally, iffy.” The group persisted. After the part of the law that affects…