The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as much as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
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A Barren, Godless Eternity: My favorite Woody Allen scene: http://www.griph.net/2009/11/a-barren-godless-eternity/

В Женеве я сменил Фоккер на легенду ВМВ - Republiс P-47 D-23 RA Thunderbolt, разработанный вживе американскими конструкторами российского происхождения Северским и Картвели, а виртуально студией A2A - фанатами тонкого моделирования работы поршневых моторов.

Сначала, как я сел в него, подумалось что проще не бывает, ибо в Ил-2 уже опробовано - запустил там кнопочкой моторчик, полетел повыше и все, бумзум. На деле оказалось все не так просто. Воздушный стартер, который надо подкачать ручкой под сиденьем, ворох стрелочных "будильников" справа, показывающих работу мотора, магнето, вместо одного РУДа четыре - турбокомпрессор, шаг, дроссель, смесь, четыре параметра температуры со створками - интеркулер, цилиндры, масло, карбюратор - и за всем надо следить, а чтобы успешно держаться в воздухе и не спалить силовую установку - играть на этом, как на оргАне, быстро и впопад.

Двигатель Pratt & Whitney R-2800, о 18-ти цилиндрах объемом 46 литров, мощностью 2 535 л.с. с возможностью впрыска воды в цилиндры завелся со второй попытки - в первый раз дальше проворота на пару оборотов пропеллера (Кертисс Электрик С642S-B40, диаметром 13 футов, электропривод изменяемого шага - заметьте, не масло, как в нынешних турбопропах) дело не пошло. Далее я заценил невеликую температуру окружающего воздуха около +11 градусов Цельсия и включил агрегат разжижения топлива (Dilution Oil). После этого мотор завелся отличненько, но все равно у новичка вряд ли выйдет, поскольку опытная задница должна почуять момент, когда отжать шпенек стартера для запуска.

Далее я вырулил на исполнительный старт, прогревая мотор, включил фары, выпустил закрылки на 10 градусов. Надо сказать, что там нет фиксированного положения закрылок и надо одним глазком поглядывать угол выпуска по рисочкам на закрылышке. Потом прикрывать кран и выпуск останавливается. Прикрываем юбку охлаждения двигателя на треть где-то и устанавливаем двигателю взлетный режим - ни в коем случае не открывать дроссель по-полной, типа "дать просраться", следить за двигателем. Режим: 52 дюйма рт.ст. давление во впускном коллекторе, обороты 2 700 в минуту, смесь auto-rich. Держим тормоза только до 40 д.рт.ст., дальше стальная птичка рванет, наплевав на них и разворачиваясь влево от оси, что следует поправлять левой ногой. Потом движение стабилизируется и тут уже надо ухи востро - отрыв происходит черт знает на какой скорости - засечь так и не удалось, а там уже и взлетный режим убирать пора, а то цилиндры прогорят мгновенно. Режим: 42 д.рт.ст., 2 550 об./мин., смесь auto-rich.



Взлетел, убрал закрылки, фары и шасси, не забывая перевести рычаги в нейтраль, чтобы не травила пневмосистема. Включаю прицел и начинаю хулиганить в зоне аэропорта, имитируя штурмовку аэродрома:


Прицел работает как настоящий коллиматор, особенно с трекиром. Помимо того, что руки пилотируют самолет, еще и голова подстраивается под прицел. Со стороны зрелище небось комичное.

( +++ )

 
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Are you ready for Sonic Youth meets Lydia Lunch meets Patti Smith? Because I'm bringing it.

• 11:26 @griph Nope! #
• 11:27 From a few days with little work to having to code one email and two websites in one day, plus a poster by Friday! #
• 11:27 Wait, my bad, I think there's a second email that's due really fast, too. Woo! #workworkwork #
• 11:35 I picked up Dragon Age last night. Playing an elf mage (NEEEERRRD!). Didn't get far yet, but it feels like Harry Potter vs Lord of the Rings #
• 13:53 @sassbutt Hahaha... basically that, yes. #
• 13:57 Today's coding music from #Pandora is K'naan, K-OS, Gogol Bordello, Zero 7, and Junior Senior. Well, those are certainly consistent... #
• 17:04 So the sIFR problem I had yesterday was that I was trying to pull a stylesheet from a folder called CSS instead of one called STYLE #dumbass #
• 17:26 @aissle That was nice to glance at while toiling away at web coding. #

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• 23:57 oy. #
• 10:38 @patkiernan !!!Amazing! Need video of kicking. #
• 11:25 @griph No no, I completely agree. #
• 11:35 @sarahstarlitt It's always that damned last drink. #
• 21:42 Oh boy that was some amazing hot chocolate. #

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Tuned to a Dead Channel: The Guy I Almost Was and my relationship with Cyberpunk: http://www.griph.net/2009/11/tuned-to-a-dead-channel/

Mmmmm spaghetti.

Колонка, написанная для ноябрьского номера ICONS Борисом Минаевым, писателем и заместителем главного редактора журнала "Медведь".

Сердцем моего личного города (Пресни) всегда была Трехгорка. Не ДК, не церковь, не школа, не сталинская высотка на площади Восстания, даже не мой двор, как ни странно. Сердцем была фабрика с ее дымящими трубами, с ее горящими в ночи высокими окнами, с ее рабочими, которые возвращаются домой после смены усталым потоком. Фабрика пульсировала скрыто, как и положено сердцу, она гнала человеческую кровь по жилам города.
Когда моя редакция неожиданно переехала сюда, я получил красный пластиковый квадрат – пропуск. На нем было написано сверху: «Трехгорная мануфактура». Фабрика, между прочим, до сих пор работает, хотя и вполсилы. Производит ткань. Мы производим на ней наши журналы. В принципе, я считаю, одно и то же. Людям надо на чем-то спать, что-то читать и так далее. С течением времени я это понял.

Да и вообще Минаев отличный автор (ничего, Борис Дорианович, что я так?). Обязателен к зафренживанию.

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• 12:09 I for one look forward to the "Did You Shake that Baby?!" Warioware game: bit.ly/2iAvsl #
• 13:39 So random #Pandora hopping today has me now enjoying Mark It Place by Sol.iLLaquists of Sound. #apparentlyListeningToHiphopToday #
• 16:09 Today I bought my first thing on Woot. Am I an official Internet dork +1 now? Am I higher than that already? This helps my e-cred right? #
• 16:42 @aloria oh my wife has purchased plenty of Bacon Salt-related products! She loves that poison of the gods! #
• 16:43 @sassbutt The UES has an odd mix of projects next to insanely expensive apartments. So if projects = sketchy then hrm... #
• 16:44 Why is getting sIFR to work always such an odd battle. I swear I know how to code with this thing! #iNeedAWrench #

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Flowers That Are Looked At: Why I take photos of trash: http://www.griph.net/2009/11/flowers-that-are-looked-at/

Surgery today. In just four hours, my ultra sleek and powerful bionic arm will have been completed.

Halloween. I hotglued my costume together and it turned out fantastically, went to work, went downtown with no plans. Saw the Thriller dance, which was so much fun.

Displayed my whipping skills, which resulted in A LOT of free drinks.

But I still ended up home earlier than I wanted to. I'm so proud and in love with my liontamer/ringmaster outfit that I would just love to wear it all the time, every day.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures. Yet.

But I do have fond memories of running out into the middle of the road during breaks in traffic, performing a mash up of overhead cracks and body-wraps to much applause, and then telling every stranger who commented about my firm belief that every girl should learn how to use a whip by the age of 12.

Now wouldn't that make for a wonderful world?

Chemical names, bird names, names of fire
and flight and snow, baby names, paint names,
delicate names like bones in the body,
Rumplestiltskin names that are always changing,
names that no one's ever able to figure out.
Names of spells and names of hexes, names
cursed quietly under the breath, or called out
loudly to fill the yard, calling you inside again,
calling you home. Nicknames and pet names
and Baroque French monikers, written in
shorthand, written in longhand, scrawled
ilegibly in brown ink on the backs of yellowing
photographs, or embossed on envelopes lined
with gold. Names called out across the water,
names I called you behind your back,
sour and delicious, secret and unrepetable,
the names of flowers that open only once,
shouted from balconies, shouted from rooftops,
or muffled by pillows, or whispered in sleep,
or caught in the throat like a lump of meat.
I try, I do. I try and try. A happy ending?
Sure enough - Hello darling, welcome home.
I'll call you darling, hold you tight. We are
not traitors but the lights go out. It's dark.
Sweetheart, is that you? There are no tears,
no pictures of him squarely. A seaside framed
in glass, and boats, those little boats with
sails aflutter, shining lights upon the water,
lights that splinter when they hit the pier.
His voice on tape, his name on the envelope,
the soft sound of a body falling off a bridge
behind you, the body hardly even makes
a sound. The waters of the dead, a clear road,
every lover in the form of stars, the road
blocked. All night I strechted my arms across
him, rivers of blood, the dark woods, singing
with all my skin and bone Please keep him safe.
let him lay his headon my chest and we will be
like sailors, swimming in the sound of it, dashed
to pieces. Makes a cathedral, him pressing against
me, his lips at my neck, and yes, I do believe
his mouth is heaven, his kisses falling over me
like stars. Names of heat and names of light,
names of collision in the dark, on the side of the
bus, in the bark of the tree, in ballpoint pen
on jeans and hands and backs of matchbooks
that then got lost. Names like pain cries, names
like tombstones, names forgotten and reinvented,
names forbidden or overused. Your name like
a song I sing to myself, your name like a box
where I keep my love, your name like a nest
in the tree of love, your name like a boat in the
sea of love - O now we're in the sea of love!
Your name like detergent in the washing machine.
Your name like two X's like punched-in eyes,
like a drunk cartoon passed out in the gutter,
your name with two X's to mark the spots,
to hold the place, to keep the treasure from
becoming ever lost. I'm saying your name
in the grocery store, I'm saying your name on
the bridge at dawn. Your name like an animal
covered with frost, your name like a music that's
been transposed, a suit of fur, a coat of mud,
a kick in the pants, a lungful of glass, the sails
in wind and the slap of waves on the hull
of a boat that's sinking to the sounds of mermaids
singingsongsof love, and the tug of a simple
profound sadness when it sounds so far away.
Here is a map with your name for a capital,
here is an arrow to prove a point: we laugh
and it pits the world against us, we laugh,
and we've got nothing left to lose, and our hearts
turn red, and the river rises like a barn on fire.
I came to tell you, we'll swim in the water, we'll
swim like something sparkling underneath
the waves. Our bodies shivering, and the sound
of our breathing, and the shore so far away.
I'll use my body like a ladder, climbing
to the thing behind it, saying farewell to flesh,
farewell to everything caught underfoot
and flattened. Names of poison, names of
handguns, names of places we've been
together, names of people we'd be together.
Names of endurance, names of devotion,
street names and place names and all the names
of our dark heaven crackling in their pan.
It's a bed of straw, darling. It sure as shit is.
If there was one thing I could save from the fire,
he said, the broken arms of the sycamore,
the eucalyptus still trying to climb out of the yard -
your breath on my neck like a music that holds
my hands down, kisses as they burn their way
along my spine -or rain, our bodies wet,
clothes clinging arm to elbow, clothes clinging
nipple to groin - I'll be right here. I'm waiting.
Say hallelujah, say goodnight, say it over
the canned music and your feet won't stumble,
his face getting larger, the rest blurring
on every side. And angels, about twelve angels,
angels knocking on your head right now, hello
hello, a flash in the sky, would you like to
meet him here, in Heaven? Imagine a room,
a sudden glow. Here is my hand, my heart,
my throat, my wrist. Here are the illuminated
cities at the center of me, and here is the center
of me, which is a lake, which is a well that we
can drink from, but I can't go through with it.
I just don't want to die anymore.


--from Crush

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• 02:13 @Ladypolitik no wonder you didn't arrive in a Jay Smooth thread! Get internetting! #
• 10:10 "Over-engineering [coding] is poison...like telling a lie that you then have to remember so you don't contradict it." bit.ly/1gwRbS #
• 10:11 @sassbutt What is on fire and crazy now? #
• 10:16 In which @AndrewWK provides the exact expression one should give when listening to anything on FOX — bit.ly/C0eQB — DYING OVER HERE #
• 10:18 @impeachmybush I love having quaquamoley with my fageeta. #
• 10:25 McCain strategist who pushed to move from employer to individual health insurance can't get individual coverage #gopfail bit.ly/Zrq6p #
• 10:27 @sassbutt Ack, yeah I heard the story. There's a lot about that which is nonsensical and confusing. Avoid the angry/crazy fall-over drunks! #
• 11:28 The Scott Roeder Ebay auctions have been pulled. Again. NOT A COMPLAINT MIND YOU. #
• 13:21 @sassbutt The only thing that would help is create an even more fucked up mental state that will most likely contribute to repeat offenses. #
• 13:31 Phillies win World Series... according to Macy's latest ad placements. Insert baseball-related gag here (FOUL PLAY?) — bit.ly/3sPCxm #
• 13:45 The "Everyone Poops" spoof (bit.ly/36DVUh) is still my favorite WtWTA remake, but I guess this can work too — bit.ly/1oCizR #
• 13:50 I'm sure this is some kind of sign that the economy isn't fixed yet, right? bit.ly/3X4DUL #
• 14:44 Gawker slam dunks on why to not vote for Bloomberg: bit.ly/1QGliV #
• 14:47 So I guess this means people aren't happy about Chris Farley's DirectTV spot? bit.ly/xmADh #spoof #TooSOON! #
• 16:01 @Wonderpup57 There's always a weird morning gap in the ONTD_P hopper lately. I guess colleges and jobs took over the mods! #
• 16:50 When the crap did we develop Yottabytes? How is that even a word? That doesn't sound like a word! And the NSA has it! bit.ly/dTXwQ #
• 17:00 @griph Money? Resume? Money? #
• 17:01 @sassbutt Ooooo CV instead of Resume WELL LA DE DAH MISS ACADEMIA. #
• 17:21 @griph I'd use it if I needed to pad out a resume (OR MAYBE A CV @SASSBUTT), but once you have more relevant stuff make it the first to go. #
• 19:37 Holy crap XPress Pizza on Church Ave is an awesome place with a dopey name this was a good choice. #Brooklyn #hellyeah #sofull #only$10! #

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There is Time Now: Tool-assisted speedruns and Super Mario Bros. 3: http://www.griph.net/2009/11/there-is-time-now/