Designers Tobias Frere-Jones and Nina Stössinger created Conductor in an homage to "the delicate, blocky numerals from vintage Bulgarian lottery tickets" with "elements of vernacular shopfront lettering and mid-century type design." (via Kottke) Read the rest
In a post to the venerable NANOG list (mirrored since to Dave Farber's Interesting People list), anti-spam researcher Ronald F. Guilmette posts the results of his investigation into the IP addresses claimed by a mysterious company called host-offshore.com -- IP addresses assigned to "various parties within the nation of Columbia (including the National University thereof)" but, strangely, routed through Bulgaria. Read the rest
Elida sez, "#ДАНСwithme is the hashtag for the protests in Bulgaria that have been going on for 10 days now. The spark was the choice of the head of the State Agency for National Security, ДАНС or DANS (hence, the hashtag - if you say "ДАНС" in Bulgarian it is the same sound as in "dance"). Similar to Turkey and Brazil, it was the beginning of social awakening. The difference? There is no violence on the streets, despite the fact that there are tens of thousands people on the street every evening. In fact, the protesters bring water to the policemen and policewomen as a sign of benevolence as the temperatures hit 30°C. And we ask everyone to dance with us." Read the rest
Even though I don't speak Bulgarian, I can tell that the Bulgarian version of Married With Children is awfully faithful to the dreadful American original. It really seems like the cast spent a long time studying the mannerisms and schtick of the US actors. And though I wouldn't swear to it, I'm pretty sure that's the same laugh-track.
женени с деца България ep1:married with children Bulgaria ep1 (via Super Punch) Read the rest
Timothy sez, "This is a link to some photos I have took of Buzludzha (pronounced Buz'ol'ja) a very remote building in the Balkan Mountains. It is Bulgaria's largest monument to Communism which was left to ruin after the revolution in 1989. An incredible 70 metre tall, 1970's 'flying saucer' perched precariously in the snow on a ridge at 1500m. Full of beautiful communist mosaic frescos and an amazing central atrium complete with giant golden hammer and sickle. It took 6000 workers 7 years to build. I managed to fly over it in a microlight in mid winter to get some interesting pictures too. Such an amazing place."
(Thanks, Timothy!) Read the rest
Apparently inspired by the Polish parliamentarians who showed up for work in Guy Fawkes masks for the signing of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (a US-driven secret copyright treaty), members of Bulgaria's parliament repeated the trick.
The MPs say they support copyright laws, but oppose ACTA over its possible turning into an instrument to limit freedom of speech, to control internet use, and to turn into an obstacle for the exchange of information and knowledge online.
On January 26, the Bulgarian government signed in Tokyo the international ACTA agreement, vowing to make downloading content similar to forgery of brands.
The agreement was sealed by Bulgarian ambassador to Japan Lyubomir Todorov, based on a decision by the Bulgarian cabinet taken hastily on January 11.
Bulgarian MPs Wear Guy Fawkes Mask to Protest ACTA
(via Techdirt) Read the rest
