LiveJournal (LJ) or in Russian Живой Журнал (Zhe Zhe) as it’s known is a blogging platform with some social media add-ons like creating forums and inviting friends (the English word is employed rather than the term droog, друг) that was created in 1999 and quietly acquired by a Moscow-based international on-line media conglomerate nearly a decade ago.
Having completed the process of relocating its servers to Russia just this month, the service is announcing that its content policies (a reminder that these hosts are private companies and not public institutions) must be aligned with the law of the land, including the protection of minors by supressing discussions or acknowledgement of sexual deviancy—that is, gay propaganda. Many who had been using the platform form for decades were caught off guard and (those with the luxury) are migrating their blogs elsewhere.
Sunday 9 April 2017
жж
catagories: 🇷🇺, 🏳️🌈, networking and blogging, ⓦ
Saturday 8 April 2017
neapoliatano or avoid the noid
Though the pedigree and provenance might not be as directly royal as this bit of apocrypha relates, there’s no reason to doubt the deliciousness of pizza, which via Mental Floss legend holds was first delivered in 1889. The king Umberto Ranieri Carlo Emanuele Giovanni Maria Fernando Eugenio di Savoia and the queen consort Margherita Maria Teresa Giovanna of a newly united Italy were on a good-will mission, touring every region of their kingdom.
The couple who represented the continuation of the Savoy dynasty were on a hearts-and-minds stint in Naples, where he had survived an assassination attempt a decade prior, when the queen expressed a loss of appetite for their usually fancy French-influenced fare and longed for some authentic, local cuisine—which has some claim to the dish as a matter of national pride. The story goes that the most renowned local chef was commissioned to deliver to the royal residence a selection of what would appear on a peasant’s menu—for which three pizza-pies were prepared. The queen found the simple combination of white mozzarella, red tomatoes topped with green basil to be by far the most delicious—arranged purposefully with the colours of the banner of the united peninsula. The basic pizza, the margherita was supposedly named in her honour.
rock-a-bye
catagories: lifestyle, transportation
Friday 7 April 2017
6x6
littoral: the Inuit use these maps carved out of driftwood to navigate the coast
библиотека: a gallery of remarkable libraries of Eastern Europe
special sauce, lettuce, cheese: stratified recipe cards from Zing Zhang, via the always fabulous Nag on the Lake
shortlist, shoreditch: a selection of the finalists for a UK Brexit passport redesign
duchenne smile: earbuds that are controlled with facial expressions
crispr: octopi and their relatives can edit their own genes at will
catagories: 🇪🇺, 🇬🇧, 🍔, 🎶, 🗺️, architecture, environment
no, i am spartacus
As Dear Leader is launching yet another disastrous and deadly public-relations stunt in order to deflect attention from his rank, unhinged incompetence, there comes news that his regime is moving to pressure his mouthpiece of choice to unmask the identities of the US civil servants behind anonymous social media accounts critical of his stewardship (or lack thereof). So far the social media network is resisting calls to reveal the names of administrators behind alt- and rogue agency web presences and has rebuffed repeated summonses but we’ve been treated multiple times to Dear Leader’s relentless bullying and hope the network has the stamina to not be browbeaten.
catagories: 🇺🇸, networking and blogging
Thursday 6 April 2017
well played, democrats or meals and incidentals
As an official inquiry into the costs of the flying circus that is Dear Leader’s insistence on receiving dignitaries at his southern White House franchise and being a geographical bachelor (apparently, but at least Number One Daughter is close at hand) is being conducted, a committee of concerned congress members have been a bit more creative in naming their legislation than what’s been trialled of late.
“Making Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness” Act forms the initialism MAR-A-LAGO. It makes me think of that anecdote that Anthony Bouvier told Suzanne Sugarbaker about the domestic helper that introduced himself to the family that he served with his name but added that they could refer to him “by my initials.” Among other things, the act would require that Dear Leader’s regime to disclose the names not only of those who have access him and his viceroy in Washington—where there’s a visitors’ log, but also at his various properties, where there’s currently no accountability. Dear Leader surely prefers it that way and would like to keep conducting official business way beyond the Beltway.