Tobacco consumption is widely known for its negative effects on health. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, just in the USA, an estimated 443,000 people die per year prematurely due to inhaling cigarette smoke. As there are 46 million smokers in the USA, it means that in any given year, the likelihood to “die prematurely” because of one’s smoking habit is almost 1% (under the admittedly strong assumption that these numbers are constant in the long run). If one smokes for 10 years, the probability that one’s life will be cut short goes up to 9%.

“Roulette until six in the evening. Lost everything”, notes Leo Tolstoy on July 14, 1857. He did not pen these words in Moscow or St Petersburg”, writes Elizabeth Neu. “It was in Baden-Baden that Tolstoy closed his diary with a sigh that night.”

The average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian Khachapuri in February 2015 was 3.29 GEL, which is 3.4% lower month-on-month (m/m, that is compared to the previous month), and 4.8% lower year-on-year (y/y, that is compared to the same month of last year).

On 20-21st of March of every year, Azerbaijan celebrates “Novruz Bayram”, the oldest family holiday in the country. Azerbaijanis from the ISET community did not miss the opportunity to celebrate this great holiday with their ISET family as well, one week prior to the main festive. In the atmosphere of Azerbaijani folk music, ISET students, faculty, and staff tasted delicious dishes from national Azerbaijani cuisine: the Sebzi Pilaf (plov), Pakhlava, and tea with herbs.

The economic slowdown of the closing months of 2014 continued in January 2015, with the growth of real GDP amounting to only 0.5%. ISET‐PI’s GDP forecast is not optimistic either, with GDP growth in the first quarter of 2015 expected to be 0.5% (see GDP Forecast). The 5% economic growth initially forecasted by the government of Georgia, the 5.5% predicted by the ADB and the 4.2% predicted by the EBRD in September 2014 each seem quite out of reach now.