around the web

livejournal update

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Science fiction author Charles Stross has a private Livejournal site he uses for testing fiction -- or did:

I started out on Livejournal because, back in the day, it inherited a bunch of folks from SFFNet when SFFNet curled up and sort-of died; SFFNet in turn inherited the users of the Delphi SF forum from bulletin board days. It's all about the people, as usual, and Livejournal for many years was a social network hub for SF/F fans and authors. But Livejournal gradually lost out to Facebook in the anglophone world, just like MySpace. Unlike MySpace, LJ survived by becoming the social network of choice in Russia: a few years ago LJ was sold to a Russian company, and has gradually become a 90% Russophone social site with a weird bag of western SF fans still lurking in the moldering wreckage of what was once a thriving social networking system. There were periodic upsets because any major Russian political event would seemingly draw distributed denial of service attacks; a lot of people left, either decamping to Facebook, or to smaller specialized social hubs—the founders of Livejournal released their software under an open source license, and some folks are successfully running small-scale LJ servers with their own distinct communities.

I probably stuck with LJ for too long, because back in the day I paid for a perpetual premium account—unlimited access and no ads: the urge to get one's money's worth out of something you've paid for is hard to resist. But the rot has finally gone too far. This Tuesday Livejournal pushed out a revision to their terms of service that emphasize the service runs under Russian law, and specifically requires compliance with Russian law on minors -- which makes any discussion of "sexual deviancy" (aka LGBT issues) illegal or at least a violation of the ToS.

So I'm currently migrating my entire Livejournal presence to Dreamwidth, a service set up by some of LJ's original founders that focuses on providing a Livejournal-like set of services for creative types (and, significantly, is not subject to Russian law because it's not based in Russia).

Curious what effect this "Russian law" will have on Thomas Disch's LJ (still extant since he died but in memorial status). Possibly Stross is being alarmist and just looking for a reason to bail -- I haven't done any research to confirm his legal interpretation.

chicken little for real

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When lab-grown meat was first announced a few years ago, science fiction fan Paul Krugman (whose economic theories in support of the Clintons have also been called science fictional) mentioned the "Chicken Little" episode in Pohl & Kornbluth's book The Space Merchants. That was P&K's name for a monstrous mound of non-sentient chicken flesh, filling a small underground cavern, flensed off in strips to feed the populace. The meat Krugman was comparing to it was pork, or perhaps nu-pork, but last week the feat was achieved in San Francisco startup-land with actual chicken, or nu-chicken. (hat tip m.po)

Since the source is Business Insider they don't call it Frankenfood, but rather a form of venture-capital-funded disruption. If brainless meat ever becomes economical, the idea is, its various purveyors will do to chicken farmers what Uber does to cab drivers. Or, as BI puts it:

They're all hoping to disrupt America's $200 billion meat industry (and $48 billion poultry industry), by offering foods that mimic meat but are more environmentally friendly.

The details are pretty disgusting, even if you aren't excited by a food that is "eerily similar" to real meat (BI's telling phrase):

...lab-grown meat still requires fetal serum, which comes from unborn calves and chicks, to start the cultivation process. Memphis Meats told The Wall Street Journal in 2016 that it expects to replace the serum with something plant-based soon.

Right, sure. It's the nu-ethics: Disrupting baby cows is bad, disrupting family farmers is OK.

around the web

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In praise of cash (Brett Scott, Aeon) reminds us of the not-so-wholesome political agendas behind a "cashless society."

Amazon warehouse workers describe the future of non-elite work in the 21st century (Outis Philalithopoulos, Naked Capitalism -- part 1 / part 2). Read before clicking "add to cart." This is techno-dystopia and it's not a fiction series from Amazon streaming video.

around the web

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The Story of ORCH5 (via Cosmic) How an orchestral stab from The Firebird Suite became a hiphop staple. Thoughtful tracing of cultural currents even if you don't buy the thesis of a "fundamental epistemological crisis that besets Western music." Was intrigued to learn about the role of White Noise's David Vorhaus (he digitized the sample in the late '70s) and the happy accident of a pricy Fairlight synth (which contained ORCH5) being in the studio when Arthur Baker and Afrika Bambaataa went in to record "Planet Rock."

FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) notes that the Washington Post Ran 16 Negative Stories on Bernie Sanders in 16 Hours. That's the same Jeff Bezos-owned news entity that's currently peddling Russian conspiracy garbage. (hat tip Lambert)

"Love Me, I'm a Liberal" [YouTube] (hat tip Lambert again). Phil Ochs song from the '60s beguilingly anticipates Hillary Clinton partisans and their bizarre infatuation with spy agencies.

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

hillary clinton mean nicknames (updated)

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This post from mid-June has been updated so here it is again. As the election nears good liberals are supposed to put aside their criticisms of the candidate, unless the candidate has this many good nicknames, and is crooked.

1. Hellery or Hitlery
...frequently used by left-leaning bloggers, ironically appropriating rightwingers who fear the Clintons for different reasons

2. Imelda Clinton
...via naked capitalism commenter "polecat"

What’s to say, after the presumed anointment of Imelda Clinton, that she doesn’t start to escalate the Ukraine clusterfuck to 11 on the dial, so as to direct scrutiny elsewhere, ... igniting the big one ??

duck n cover-----------

3. Crooked Hillary
...Trump's name for her on Twitter -- say what you will about him, he's not wrong

4. Queen of Chaos
...Pepe Escobar

5. Killary
...from roadrider. Seems harsh but Killary did say "we came, we saw, he died"

6. Hillary Clanton
...extrapolating from naked capitalism commenter JTMcPhee's reference to the "Clanton Campaign Machine." Does this make the Trump family the Earps?

[Ongoing updates]

Update, one year after the election:

7. Hildabeest
...from Jim Haygood, as in:

Quite simply, this [Uranium One scandal] is our last best chance to take down the Hildabeest and lock her up. :-)