June 20, 2019

Trolls, Moles, Musk Lol's


Trolls, Moles, Musk Lol's
Is the new space race a… drag race? Tosky Project

Rap battles for the cosmos, sweeping up piles of flies. No, we aren’t trolling. 

1. Alphabet (i.e., Google) subsidiary Jigsaw proved you can buy off a Russian troll, and not just for the purpose of crossing a bridge, but to write nasty stuff about your enemies on the internet. And it only cost $250 for two weeks of 730 tweets and 100 blog and forum comments, directed against a Jigsaw-created anti-Stalin website. The Russian “marketing” company, SEO-Tweet, doesn’t even hide in the dark web; anyone can google its website. Some are worried that this will give Russia the opportunity to return-troll Google for interfering in its politics. (Although the directions were to be pro-Stalin, SEO-Tweet decided to interpret that broadly as pro-Putin). However, Jigsaw CEO stands by the research as a low-risk way to inform anti-disinformation campaigns and warn the public about the risk of trolls. 

2. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk threatened to challenge Roscosmos head Dmitry Rozogin to a rap battle. Earlier this month, in a mocking response to Musk sending a red Tesla into space, Roscosmos launched their own red toy car with a paper cutout of Rozogin. Both sides have exchanged pleasantries in the past, but given Russia’s (and the US’s) history of challenges to duels, who knows? Throwing down the rap glove could be a serious affair. That’s not a (w)rap yet; we still think it would be hilarious to see these space men get down.

3. Residents of two villages in the Urals really, really hope that this year summer flies by, if only to stop the biblical swarm of flies that has descended upon them. The accused sinner? A farmer that may have illegally used chicken poop as fertilizer, giving the insects ample breeding grounds. Neither the stool-supplier nor the fertilizing farmer say they are to blame, the former pointing fingers at the weather, and the latter seems to have been bitten by the good old fashioned Russian fatalism bug: “Flies have existed for millions of years, and they are everywhere… But no one can tell me what the acceptable or cut-off number of flies is.”

Flies Russia
We really hope that someone can come up with a solution on the fly
to stop these pests from bugging people. / 1tv.ru / Twitter

 

In odder news

Russian man nail in head
If you are squeamish, don’t click the link,
because there is a video that will make you a little green. / Guberniya Online 
  • A man in the Far East got a nail stuck in his head, and decided to treat it for two years with the Russian cure-all that behaves like green food dye, zelyonka (from the word zelyony, green) rather than get it removed by a doctor.
  • Want to buy a mole house to get out of the summer heat? The late Vladimir Reshin’s underground house, which he built after his former one burned down, is now for sale in a Ural village, on the open – not underground – market. 
  • Even bees now need a visa (of sorts) to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border. Russian authorities caught 800 undocumented bees that a Russian tried to buzz through migration control. 

 

Quote of the week

“Most often people buy ice cream in hot weather outside, wishing to cool off. And, as a rule, they try to eat it quickly, before it melts in the sun – herein lies the risk of catching a cold.” 

– Surprisingly, not your friendly nearby babushka, worried as ever about you catching a cold; actually, a representative of Moscow’s Health Department. 

 

Want more where this comes from? Give your inbox the gift of TWERF, our Thursday newsletter on the quirkiest, obscurest, and Russianest of Russian happenings of the week.

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955