11:40:56 am, Categories: Current Events and News, 748 wordsYou can say a lot of good and bad things about Russia... some good things about its people and history.. mostly bad things about its leaders. One thing that has always fascinated me is propaganda. I love looking at all sides... looking at how they craft their stories and news sources and comparing the data.
So today I am browsing pravada.ru. One of Russia`s largest online news sources. Call it their version of CNN or something. When you browse the website you instantly see the influence of the Russian government in their news media. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Right off the the bat you notice theres something different about this "news source"... firstly... its the first online newspaper that seems to advertise and be a show point for military weapons. Its a lot like reading a Military website.. infused with People magazine.
On this English translation I find three examples of Russian penis comparison :
http://english.pravda.ru/russia/kremlin/11-08-2009/108764-russia_ukraine-0
I cant ever remember reading CNN or BBC and see`ing so many examples of trying to show off its (rather carp) military weapons.
The next thing you will notice are several very beautiful mostly Russian woman in almost no clothing. Hmmm.. weapons and woman... now dont get me wrong, I as much as the next chap enjoy looking and learning about both.. but not really from my daily newspaper.
So I follow the link in the URL I mentioned earlier and I moved onto another Russian "news" website.. called "MoscowTopNews".... and guess what.. theres ever more weapons and even more scantly clad woman.
http://www.moscowtopnews.com/?area=postView&id=922
I guess missile envy does come from being small ;)
Okay, laughable content aside.. just read the news articles. They are so badly written I think someone in Moscow just pushed them through Google Translate and hoped for the best.
What I find more interesting is how the articles are worded and the general nature of the articles. They all appear to attack anyone who disagrees with the Kremlin on several different levels. They all seem extremely polarized as well! Bugger ANY kind of objective journalism or even an attempt at objective journalism. You can see they are concentrated media campaigns against whoever has their goat at the moment.
If its about Ukraine, Georgia, Estonia, America, Britain, Poland or any one of several other countries... basically just about every single article will be in some way defamatory of their targets. Theres basically no neutral news or positive news of those countries whatsoever (though I am not including the sports or weather sections).
I wont lie.. browsing through their science section is the funniest thing ever. I honestly for the light of me.. dont know if they are being serious, stupid or having fun there... but at the very least its a joke at the worst.. its still a joke.
A "science photo" http://english.pravda.ru/photo/report/muzei-966/
What I do notice is the same adverts, same stories and same spelling mistakes across several of their websites.
For instance, both pravada and moscowtopnews point (with an advert stating "Russia designs new destructive weapon") to the same "Georgian Times" websites. Which is basically a Russian made website pretending to be Georgian... and basically ragging Georgia but supporting the illegal countries of South Ossetia and Abkhazia (the parts of Georgia Russia recently conquered).
Its absolutely an amazing journey reading through Russian news. However.. even though its all very entertaining to read and follow I just cant get around at how stupid their propaganda machine is. Its so obvious and so dumb I really cant understand how Russian Intelligence could be so thick. Its like 0 thought actually when into presentation and trying to cover their dishonesty.
Anyone with half a brain can see that is government controlled hate and news speech.
Sure, we might be constantly subjected to all kinds of propaganda from different directions, but Russia takes the Crayon Cake when it comes to child like attempt at media control.
My advice to Putins rather backwards FSB.. hire someone with some kinda media intelligence folks. My personal advice to you on how to spin a story would be to hire one of the many "sell-my-ma" lawyer companies out there (like Schillings Lawyers). You clearly have no clue how to do the job so you really need to get this sorted if anyone is going to take you seriously.
Leetest form of linux there is. The primary OS I now use. Kubuntu, Dapper Drake, 6.06 LTS. I really think people should use this as their default OS
For those of you who dont know, I run Kubuntu OS as my desktop OS. With all the queerness of Microsofts Anti Piracy campaign, I have decided to completely leave the MicroSoft world. Sure, I loose windows media player and some gaming choices. However, you do get awsome games like warsow that are completely open source, and LOADS of fun to play. If you are in South Africa, there is a South African warsow server gracefully hosted by Web Africa. When in the game just type "connect warsow.webfafrica.co.za" And you will connect to the server to be able to jam with the rest of us.
I consider this a book that every South African should read to get perspective in their lives. Its honesty is most refreshing and Al Lovejoy`s ability to capture in words the essence of a culture and history of a generation of south Africans is amazing. Al Lovejoy has earned a lot of respect from a generation of youth who appretiate the truth. Thank you Al.
Other reviews:
‘Acid Alex is quite simply one of the most shocking autobiographies I have ever read. It is also well-written, addictive, excellent.’
– Sue Blaine, Business Day
‘Heartbreaking! Entertaining! Intelligent!’
– Erns Grundling, SL magazine
‘Nothing I have read has sketched the scorched social landscape of South Africa’s last half-century with such intensity and honesty. Read it.’
– Charles Thesen, Marie Claire
‘There are elements of Hunter S Thompson, Herman Charles Bosman, William Burroughs and William Wharton. But in the end it is an amazing story told in a unique voice. A voice moulded by pain, a voice honed by a government reformatory..., whetted by the SADF, and sharpened by Pretoria Central.
It is the story of a man who went to hell and came back, a morality tale, a Bildungsroman, the narrative of a f*ckup who found redemption, and the anthem of a lost generation.’– Caspar Greeff, Sunday Times
‘Truly, as Koos Kombuis says, this is “an astonishingly breathless story” … Besides being a great read, Acid Alex is an invaluable record of a type of mania that gripped a certain type of South African in the last quarter of the 20th century. It’s a book that’s going to appeal to many young South Africans who currently have to turn to the United States for their myths of pointless excess, and it’s going to inspire them. Not necessarily in a particularly savoury way.’
– Chris Roper, Mail & Guardian
This book is more than just a suggested read.
In what has to be a remarkable show of insight into the power of social networking, a British Indie band is offering their album free to download off their website. This is one band, that seems to have googled it. It looks like the older corporate models are failing and hopefully the world will not have to tolerate the insanity that is RIAA much longer.
I love artists with scope.
South Africa needs science and South Africa needs prominent scientific voices. Unfortunately, like the media in much of the rest of the world, South Africa's media is not nearly welcoming enough to the skeptical and scientific views of the world. Luckily, we have great examples from the United States and elsewhere of how self-publication through blogs can affect public discourse, promoting science and acting as a counterweight to indifference, ignorance, and gullibility. However, unlike our comrades elsewhere, South African science bloggers are unconnected and not organized. I propose to change that...Read More
Really funny flash video depicting the end of the world as the result of a nucleur fall out.
For those of you who dont know, I am South African. Im a born and bred white native african, and damb proud of it. However, I will often use words that you may not understand, local slag u wont pick up on. Click on this link to learn a little more about South African slang, aka, Safrikan!
The entire catalogue of information from 1,800 courses at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be available free online by the end of the year. Once uploaded, it will represent one of the internet’s most important resources.
MsDewey.com
I never have never used a search engine this cheeky before :) Its great fun for about 10 minutes.
Seaward.co.za for South Africa`s best coastal real estate.
In what has to be classed as bizare, a clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida's swamps.
I came across this site by Anup Shah that has a detailed look into the causes of poverty. I found some of the statistics he shows to be very embarrassing and a shameful reflection on humanity today.
* Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day.
* The GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of the poorest 48 nations (i.e. a quarter of the world’s countries) is less than the wealth of the world’s three richest people combined.
* Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names.
* Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen.
* 1 billion children live in poverty (1 in 2 children in the world). 640 million live without adequate shelter, 400 million have no access to safe water, 270 million have no access to health services. 10.6 million died in 2003 before they reached the age of 5 (or roughly 29,000 children per day).
Anup Shah shows us the institutions, policies and people behind many of today's causes of poverty.
http://www.globalissues.org/TradeRelated/Poverty.asp
Haha, these poor lil bunnies. A bunch of pictures of bunnies trying to come up with imaginitive ways to kill themselves.
The Public Library of Science is a nonprofit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource. A most excellent link for those of you wanting access to some amazing science.
A really nice Travian signature generator
Ever wondered how many babies are being pushed out every day, or how many people are dying every minute? Well this is the place for you then! This meter currently records those tpes of things, and with a population of 6.5 billion, there are lots of interesting stats for you to check out.
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