Taking a break

The blogging will be scarce to not done at all till (approximately) mid May.
You all out there - behave!

The blogging will be light for a while

Till about mid-January. You all out there - behave yourself and don't do what your natural inclinations tell you to do. Vladimir Vladimirovich will do it for you anyway.

Blogging will be light for a while.

During the two coming months. A few interruptions of silence possible, but otherwise it will be quiet.

Meanwhile - behave, people.

Blogging is going to be light for a while

For the next three weeks or so. Especially if some lazy people don't pick up the slack.
And you all out there: behave!

Welcome SimplySabra ברוכה הבאה

This here blog needs an infusion of new blood for a long time, and here it comes, with a twist: SimplyJews is going bilingual. The reasoning is simple: besides making all kinds of "anti-Zionists" mad, there is a growing need to do the same to some local characters - be they Zionists or anti-Zionists.

Knowing as how SimplySabra is a straight shooter and doesn't tend to take prisoners, you are promised a few surprises on a regular basis.

So - expect the unexpected.

הבלוג שלנו זקוק כבר הרבה זמן ל"דם חדש". והנה זה מגיע, עם הפתעה בצידו: הבלוג הופך להיות דו לשוני. ההסבר לכך פשוט למדי: בנוסף על הכעסת כל מיני "אנטי ציונים" מעבר לים, קיים צורך גובר להכעיס גם אנשים מהקהילה המקומית. "ציונים" או "אנטי ציונים".

בהיכרותי את simplysabra כמי שיורה בצרורות ולא לוקחת שבויים, צפו להפתעות.

הבלוג הראשון בדרך....

Taking a break

Till, say, Sep. 20. Behave meanwhile and don't take no wooden nickels from no politicians.

Blogging will be light for a while

For the duration of the next two week, at least.

You all out there - behave.

Registration of Russian bloggers as an anti-terrorist measure

According to Russian RIA Novosti:

The State Duma on Friday will consider (in second reading) a package of "anti-terrorism" laws, which, in particular, limit the transfer of anonymous payments and equate popular bloggers to the mass media, told the first deputy speaker of the lower house of the "United Russia" Alexander Zhukov.

The package also expands the powers of the Federal Security Service and toughens punishment for organizing terrorist attacks and riots. Three papers (on the FSB, the duty to keep the data on the Internet for six months, an anonymous payments) were produced by deputies from all four factions, led by the head of the security committee Irina Yarovaya (United Russia) and later were updated by two amendments - on bloggers and riots.

"I would have said that anti-terrorism package consists of several bills that will be considered on second reading. First of all, the introduction of order into remittances, cessation of anonymous money transfers, restrictions on the amount, when such transfers are made without opening a bank account," Zhukov said .

He added that the law also introduces the concept of "blogger" - "if the personal page receives more than 3 thousands of hits (per day)." "In fact some registration is required, equating [the blogger] to the mass media" - explained the MP.

The cause of freedom is no doubt being strengthened by this (r)evolutionary measure...

Begging off for two weeks

Blogging will be light for the next two weeks. Practically nil. But keep watching Vladimir Vladimirovich and other shady characters, please!

The attention span shortage malady

As Francis Sedgemore correctly states in this post, blogging as we know and love it is in significant decline. No doubt that, as Francis says, "Blogging is now being taken over by news media and the PR industry, and it has virtually no remaining credibility as an online medium for independent commentary and ‘citizen journalism’".

Indeed, during the first decade of this century citizen journalism (quoted or unquoted) shook up the complacent and self-important mass media, forcing it to sit up and pay attention. As a result, more astute Internet-minding news outfits added lots of bloggers to their arsenal, some of them going as far as to allow a whole spectrum of opinions that usually didn't find their way to the newspapers' pages hitherto. So, being a loss for the blogosphere as it used to be, this is still a significant win for the bloggers.

But I don't think that mass media and its move to incorporate bloggers were the main reason for the diminishing popularity of blogs. Without having hard statistical input and based only on personal observation of people I know in the blogosphere, I dare say that the main force behind the exodus from blogging is, as Francis himself mentioned, "Twitter and other fashionable platforms". Chiefly Facebook, of course, Twitter still being somewhat too restrictive with its 140 characters.

Many bloggers were tempted by the immediacy of response and simplicity of use, coupled with much better synergy with smartphones and tablets, offered by Facebook, Twitter and other, less popular but still significantly present tools. No less important is the ease of connecting to other people, creating groups for "internal" communication much quicker than it happens in the traditional blogosphere. Whether groups created in  Facebook/Twitter are more or less cohesive than bloggers visiting, linking and commenting communities - remains to be seen. Of course, the natural suspicion that such groups are more artificial than bloggers' "karasses" has to be verified, which is not an easy task and which, besides, will be never carried out.

So what remains for the bloggers (aside of mega-blogs, hardly different from the other Internet-based media outfits)? Blogs still provide the convenience and satisfaction of being our personal diaries of a kind, allowing the relative permanence of a diary with accessibility to other people who care to read and to share.

As for the rest of us, drowning in the ocean of information provided by the Internet: yes, our attention span is being shortened more and more by the information attack, and of necessity messages longer than two or three sentences are set aside - for reading later. That later usually doesn't come.

So, Twitter, here we come, with the knowledge that what we want to say is cruelly limited to the proscribed 140 characters and that anythin

OK, you know what I mean anyhow.

Where the pro-Israel bloggers are

The Elder of Ziyon has posted part of an article that comes from here, which is actually from the Jerusalem Post, but who's counting? I just thought it worth passing on, both the Elder bit and the longer article which mentions all sorts of other blogs that you may or may not have heard of.

Just don't stop reading this one as well!

By Brian Goldfarb.

Taking a break

Be back in ten days or so, and you all out there: behave, please.

The blogging will be light

till mid-May. Behave meanwhile, you all out there.

The world domination complete

Figuratively speaking, that is. If you adhere to the Elders of Zion prophecies, the world domination is a done deal for the last 13 years (at least). The world-embracing web of the Zionism is complete, taut and slightly vibrating at all the right moments, bringing sustenance to the you know whom.

This post is about completion of the artistic side of the affair. In this case, this here blog's logo, which is now finalized, thanks to Max Amillion max.ts_productions@yahoo.com who volunteered his good services and put the finishing touch:

Many thanks, Max, and a double dose of blood is coming your way next Pesach!

Technicalities

About something I wanted to avoid: as of today, only registered guests will be allowed to comment. Obviously, this is due to a sharp increase of spam. Apparently the hailed Google filters don't do their job well.

And to those whose comments were deleted inadvertently lately: please accept my apologies.

Juegos, juegos, juegos...

Meaning games, games, games. Interesting.

Vacation notice

Blogging will be very light for the duration of November, unless some people I could mention but wouldn't pick up the slack.

Behave, all of you out there.

And now it's time for a break

Regular services will be resumed in the beginning of July. Please behave meanwhile.

Giant squid, platypus, ghost, kraken, Gwyneth Paltrow, Prometheus trailer?

Strangely, Google decided that all these search words are somehow related. What does the giant squid aka kraken have to do with Gwyneth Paltrow? Unless she was photographed in a wet t-shirt...

A badge of honor from Tehran

Sniff, sniff...