taxloopholes:

the whole “I can’t believe CHINA is telling AMERICA to act on climate change!” narrative in western media is tiring considering we are second in world’s biggest polluters and our current administration wants to obstruct what we’ve already started doing to combat climate change. like of fucking course other major contributors of CO2 will urge america to take action. not to mention other countries in question have ALREADY been progressing as far as reducing fossil fuel consumption and innovating alternative energy, while we’ve hit roadblocks because the fossil fuel industry has bought out congress. 

want to know who benefits from this narrative? climate change deniers like our current head of the EPA, scott pruitt.

this is not a ~progressive~ way to approach global action against climate change.

suricattus:

suricattus:

digitaldiscipline:

suricattus:

majesticduxk:

Hey there other LJ users… what’s the go with the new user agreement? I had noticed that lj is no longer https last week… man. time to actually move over to dreamwidth maybe

I just saw that today.  I’ve already set up at Dreamwidth but I’ve been resisting the final move because 80% of my people are still at LJ.

I haven’t read the full agreement yet, but we can’t read or post until we do agree, so I should mosey on over and see what BS they’ve got in their ToS….

I believe I have found the giant “fuck you” clause:

Section 7.4 of the new ToS: “Article 10.2 of the Federal Act of the Russian Federation No. 149

“ references this un-lovely tidbit of Russian legal malarkey:

Article 10.2.
The Details of Dissemination of Generally Accessible Information by a Blogger

1. The owner of a website and/or a website page on the
Internet on which generally accessible information is placed and to which
access exceeds 3,000 users of the Internet per day (hereinafter referred to as
“blogger”) when said information is placed and used, for instance
when said information is placed on the given website or website page by other
users of the Internet shall ensure the observance of the legislation of the
Russian Federation, for instance:

1) shall not allow the website or
website page on the Internet to be used for the purpose of committing the acts
punishable under a criminal law, disclosing the information classified as state
or another specifically law-protected secret, disseminating the materials
containing public appeals for carrying out terrorist activities or publicly
justifying terrorism, other extremist materials and also the materials
propagating pornography, the cult of violence and cruelty and the materials
containing obscene language;

2) shall verify the reliability of
placed generally accessible information before it is placed and shall
immediately delete unreliable information that has been placed;

3) shall not allow the dissemination of
information about the private life of a citizen in breach of the civil
legislation;

4) shall observe the bans and
restrictions envisaged by the legislation of the Russian Federation the
referendum and the legislation of the Russian Federation on elections;

5) shall observe the provisions of the
legislation of the Russian Federation that regulate the procedure for
disseminating mass information;

6) shall observe the rights and lawful
interests of citizens and organisations, for instance the honour, dignity and
business reputation of citizens as well as the business reputation of
organisations.

2. The following is hereby prohibited when information
is placed on a website or website page on the Internet:

1) the use of the website or website
page on the Internet for the purpose of concealing or falsifying information of
public significance, disseminating knowingly unreliable information under the
disguise of reliable messages;

2) the dissemination of information for
the purpose of discrediting a citizen or some categories of citizens on the
basis of sex, age, race or ethnicity, language, religion, trade, place of
residence and work and also in connection with their political convictions.

3. The blogger is entitled to:

1) freely search, receive, transmit
and disseminate information by any method in accordance with the legislation of
the Russian Federation;

2) set out on his website or website
page on the Internet his personal judgements and assessment with an indication
of his name or pseudonym;

3) place or allow the placement on his
website or website page on the Internet texts and/or other materials of other
users of the Internet, unless the placement of such texts and/or other
materials contravenes the legislation of the Russian Federation;

4) disseminate advertisements on an
onerous basis in keeping with the civil legislation, Federal
Law No. 38-FZ of March 13, 2006 on Advertisement on his website
or website page on the Internet.

4. An abuse of the right of disseminating
generally accessible information that has manifested itself as breach of the
provisions of Parts 1, 2 and 3 of the
present article shall entail criminal, administrative or another liability in
accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

5. On his website or website page on the
Internet the blogger shall place his name and initials and an e-mail address
for sending legal-significance messages to him.

6. On his website or website page on the
Internet the blogger shall place immediately after receiving a court’s decision
that has become final and contains demand for its being published on the
website or website page.

7. The owners of websites on the Internet
who have registered as network editions in accordance with Law of the
Russian Federation No. 2124-I of December 27, 1991 on Mass Media are not
bloggers.

8. The federal executive governmental
body carrying out the functions of control and supervision in the field of mass
media, mass communications, information technologies and telecom shall keep a
register of the websites and/or website pages on the Internet on which
generally accessible information is placed and to which access exceeds 3,000
users of the Internet per day. For the purpose of ensuring the formation of the
register of websites and/or website pages on the Internet the federal executive
governmental body carrying out the functions of control and supervision in the
field of mass media, mass communications, information technologies and telecom:

1) shall organise the monitoring of
websites and website pages on the Internet;

2) shall endorse a methodology for
assessing the number of users of a website or website page on the Internet per
day;

3) has the right of requesting from
organisers of dissemination of information on the Internet, bloggers and other
persons the information required for keeping such register. Within 10 days
after receiving a request from the federal executive governmental body carrying
out the functions of control and supervision in the field of mass media, mass
communications, information technologies and telecom said persons shall provide
the information so requested.

9. In the event of detection in
information-telecommunication networks, for instance on the Internet, of a
website or website page which contain generally accessible information and to
which access exceeds 3,000 users of the Internet per day, including the
consideration of relevant applications of citizens or organisations, the
federal executive governmental body carrying out the functions of control and
supervision in the field of mass media, mass communications, information
technologies and telecom:

1) shall include said website or
website page on the Internet in the register of the websites and/or website
pages on the Internet on which generally accessible information is placed and
to which access exceeds 3,000 users of the Internet per day;

2) shall identify the hosting provider
or the other person which ensures the placement of the website or website page
on the Internet;

3) shall send to the hosting provider
or the person mentioned in Item 2 of the present part a notice in electronic
form in Russian and English concerning the need for provision of details
allowing to identify the blogger;

4) shall record the date and time of
dispatch of the notice to the hosting provider or the person mentioned in Item 2
of the present part in the relevant information system.

10. Within three working days after
receiving the notice mentioned in Item 3 of Part 9 of the present
article the hosting provider or the person mentioned in Item 2 of Part 9
of the present article shall provide the information allowing to identify the
blogger.

11. Having received the information
specified in Item 3 of Part 9 of the present article, the federal
executive governmental body carrying out the functions of control and
supervision in the field of mass media, mass communications, information
technologies and telecom shall send a notice to the blogger informing that his
website or website page has been included in the register of the websites
and/or website pages on the Internet on which generally accessible information
is placed and to which access exceeds 3,000 users of the Internet per day, with
reference to the provisions of the legislation of the Russian Federation
applicable to said website or website page on the Internet.

12. If during three months access to the
website or website page on the Internet is below 3,000 users of the Internet
per day that website or that website page on the Internet shall be removed on
the blogger’s application from the register of the websites and/or website
pages on the Internet on which generally accessible information is placed and
to which access exceeds 3,000 users of the Internet per day, with a notice to
this effect being sent to the blogger. The given website or website page on the
Internet may be removed from that register when no application is filed by the
blogger if access to the given website or website page on the Internet during
six months is below 3,000 users of the Internet per day.

Sweet baby spaghetti monster.  Even allowing for shitty translations, I’ve spent the past few decades reading 20-page publishing contracts, and dealt with a handful of real estate contracts, and I’ve never seen such a dense block of legal excrement.  Well-played, Russian lawyers, and by well-played I mean Crowley would be impressed. 

Short version, as I see it: nothing obscene by Russian legal standards (in Putin’s Russia, LGBTA discussions could fall within that, much less actual smut), and even if you’re squeaky clean and hetero-vanilla, any and everything you say is subject to their (legal) judgement.  So yeah, for’ex, prohibiting “the dissemination of information for the purpose of discrediting a citizen or some categories of citizens on the basis of sex, age, race or ethnicity, language, religion, trade, place of residence and work and also in connection with their political convictions.” could be seen as protecting someone from abuse or libel, and that’s great – but it also means that if the Russian government decides they don’t like your political activism, they have the right to use that post as “abuse” that “shall entail criminal, administrative or another liability in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation.”  And then “the hosting provider or the person mentioned in Item 2 of Part 9 of the present article shall provide the information allowing to identify the blogger.”  

Shorter version as I understand it: Livejournal no longer pretends to adhere to the concept of Freedom of Speech and/or privacy as (still) practiced in the USA.  If any practicing (or perfect) legal beagles want to elaborate on how I’m right/where I’m wrong, I welcome the instruction.

I’m not surprised by any of this, I’m just sad that I’m not surprised.  

follow-up: even if I were willing to sign, holy shit this is a red flag, pun intentional:

ATTENTION: this translation of the User Agreement is
not a legally binding document. The original User Agreement, which is
valid, is located at the following address: http://www.livejournal.com/legal/tos-ru.bml.

so, what you’re agreeing to isn’t the translation given, but the original user document.  Which is in Russian.  And might be exactly the same context as the translation… and might not.

Um.  Children, this is the point at which I say “get in the damn car and drive in the direction of Away Very Fast.”

scientia-rex:

sandovers:

prokopetz:

prokopetz:

I am 100% convinced that “exit, pursued by a bear” is a reference to some popular 1590s meme that we’ll never be able to understand because that one play is the only surviving example of it.

Seriously, we’ll never figure it out. I’ll wager trying to understand “exit, pursued by a bear” with the text of The Winter’s Tale as our primary source is like trying to understand loss.jpg when all you have access to is a single overcompressed JPEG of a third-generation memetic mutation that mashes it up with YMCA and “gun” – there’s this whole twitching Frankensteinian mass of cultural context we just don’t have any way of getting at.

no, but this is why people do the boring archival work! because we think we do know why “exit, pursued by a bear” exists, now, and we figured it out by looking at ships manifests of the era –

it’s also why there was a revival of the unattributed and at the time probably rather out of fashion mucedorus at the globe in 1610 (the same year as the winter’s tale), and why ben jonson wrote a chariot pulled by bears into his court masque oberon, performed on new year’s day of 1611.

we think the answer is polar bears.

no, seriously!  in late 1609 the explorer jonas poole captured two polar bear cubs in greenland and brought them home to england, where they were purchased by the beargarden, the go-to place in elizabethan london for bear-baiting and other ‘animal sports.’  it was at the time run by edward alleyn (yes, the actor) and his father-in-law philip henslowe (him of the admiral’s men and that diary we are all so very grateful for), and would have been very close, if not next to, the globe theatre.

of course, polar bear cubs are too little and adorable for baiting, even to the bloodthirsty tudor audience, aren’t they?  so, what to do with the little bundles of fur until they’re too big to be harmless?  well, if there’s anything we know about the playwrights and theatre professionals of the time, it’s that they knew how to make money and draw in audiences.  and the spectacle of a too-small-to-be-dangerous-yet-but-still-real-live-and-totally-WHITE-bear?  what good entertainment businessman is going to turn down that opportunity? 

and, voila, we have a death-by-bear for the unfortunate antigonus, thereby freeing up paulina to be coupled off with camillo in the final scene, just as the comedic conventions of the time would expect.

you’re telling me it was an ACTUAL BEAR

every time I think to myself “history can’t possibly get any more bananas” I realize or am made to realize that I am badly mistaken

glampersand:

claidilady:

claidilady:

okay but what if angels are black holes and halos are just the light warping around them being pulled in by gravity 

1. paronomaniac said: Then receiving a visit from one is extra terrifying.
2. pugletto said: oooh… story fodder
3. elaienar said: That’s terrifying and I approve 100%.

WELL HERE IS THE THING, RIGHT? black holes you basically literally have to be in their gravity like pretty much on top of them to be sucked in. so that’s not really an issue. it’s TERRIFYING sure, but explains a few things which I will list:

• my astronomy teacher said if you were somehow able to survive entering a black hole and reached the bottom or singularity, the way time works is that you would be able to see the entire universe laid out – like you’d know when the universe ended if you looked back outwards
• which falls into line with the idea that the angels know all of time and everything except when it will all end precisely (or scientifically, the collapse of this universe is unknown, but supposing angels were black holes they would see until this unknown point)
• matter falling into a black hole creates a disc of light which is probably among the literal BRIGHTEST things in the universe 
• there are angels which are supposed to be the wheels of God’s Chariot, so it would make sense if, according to theories, that there ARE massive blackholes at the center of all galaxies which is what cause them to rotate, and those black holes are angels which make the galaxy spin. 
• black holes were formed sometime after the big bang, which lines into the story of creation, that the angels came after the universe. 
• angels can choose to physically manifest like humans, but aren’t actually. it’s said that you cannot survive looking at them or hearing them directly. NASA says that the “note” a black hole emits is the deepest sound found in the universe. i am just guessing here but you would probably die if you heard it up close instead of a bazillion light years away. ALSO side note cool fact apparently that “note”: “…It’s worth pointing out that the “sound” in question is 57 octaves (and one semitone) below middle C, which makes it 247×2−57≈1.71×10−15Hz, or one whole cycle every 18.5 million years.” CRAZY RIGHT although apparently some sing other notes and basically if there’s anything people know about angels it is that they DEFINITELY SING. anyways you can’t see black holes but you can see the things around them and the soundwaves surrounding them. 
• also apparently scientists picked up a death “scream” of a star falling into a black hole but like…
• anyways literally every angel is terrifying BE NOT AFRAID “haha okay but i’m crying though is that cool” 
• black holes are probably angels. i’m just saying. 

this is exactly the kind of weird christian gnostic-empiricist apologia i like to see on my dash

raptorific:

lornacrowley:

history is fucked up and it sucks because all the people in it who had great viable werewolf names weren’t werewolves. like what the shit. if you knew nothing about history or literature i guess or whatever you’d see names like “virginia woolf” and “oscar wilde” and be like. ah yes. these are definitely some prime secret werewolf poorly masquerading as human intellectual situations? but neither of those people were real live werewolves, factually speaking? they did not take advantage of that opportunity. and i think we are all worse off for it actually 

I have a degree in history and I can say with some degree of scholarly confidence that you cannot definitively prove either of these people were not secret werewolves

systlin:

Something I find incredibly cool is that they’ve found neandertal bone tools made from polished rib bones, and they couldn’t figure out what they were for for the life of them. 

Until, of course, they showed it to a traditional leatherworker and she took one look at it and said “Oh yeah sure that’s a leather burnisher, you use it to close the pores of leather and work oil into the hide to make it waterproof. Mine looks just the same.” 

“Wait you’re still using the exact same fucking thing 50,000 years later???”

“Well, yeah. We’ve tried other things. Metal scratches up and damages the hide. Wood splinters and wears out. Bone lasts forever and gives the best polish. There are new, cheaper plastic ones, but they crack and break after a couple years. A bone polisher is nearly indestructible, and only gets better with age. The more you use a bone polisher the better it works.”

It’s just. 

50,000 years. 50,000. And over that huge arc of time, we’ve been quietly using the exact same thing, unchanged, because we simply haven’t found anything better to do the job.