Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Correlation between number of tweets and followers?

This post also available in:
македонски на Блогспот · Корелација меѓу број на твитови и читатели?
македонски на Блогерај · Корелација меѓу број на твитови и читатели?


Few days ago I used the hashtag #kvantitet [quantity] to initiate a little survey among Macedonian Twitter users about how many tweets they've published so far. The results of all who took part in the conversation are presented in the graph bellow. The number of tweets is on the X-axis, while the Y-axis represents the number of followers, i.e. readers.

Click on the graph for a bigger version.

Some statistics about this post by Bit.ly.

Monday, November 01, 2010

Angelina Jolie and Lustration in Macedonia

This post is also available in
македонски на Блогспот: Анџелина Џоли и лустрацијата во Македонија
македонски на Блогерај: Анџелина Џоли и лустрацијата во Македонија

Considering the maelstrom of vagueness, speculations and "movies" that came about the lustration in Macedonia, I expect one more element that would enable enlarging the circle of suspects, i.e. persons who unnamed sources would be able to accuse as collaborators of communist secret services.

A Skopje cinema started showing the the film "Salt" with Angelina Jolie. Her role is an American secret service employee who was in fact planted as a sleeper agent by the Soviet secret service during the Cold War, after being trained in spy-craft since she was a baby in the 1970s.

If we consider the fact that Communism was an international movement with ample opportunities for exchange of experiences between Tito and Breznev, as well as the Janissary tradition in the Balkans (taking small children from their families in order to make them work as slaves of the state), it turns out that if something like that happened in the USSR, it could as well happen in the SFRY.

With this assumption in place, Macedonian lustrators could point as secret service collaborators people who were underage before the breakup of Yugoslavia (and are currently in their prime). It would be enough for them to be born before 1991 to suspect that appropriate "programming" took place.

This would expand the possibilities to discredit or blackmail to yet another generation, regardless if they are self-proclaimed leftists or rightists who nevertheless use Communist methods in organizing their parties and the way they rule. This would also provide an excuse to mention Ms Jolie in a context related to Macedonia (co-branding).

Therefore, I expect something of this sort to be revealed on some of the fear-mongering TV shows, which already spread much hatred and conspiracy theories - after some of the great intellects of the Macedonian rebirth watches the movie. Of course, it would continue to serve the purpose of a smokescreen diverting attention from the facts about which current big shots also ruled in the former system - and why should anyone care.

The movie itself is an attempt to create a new franchise using James Bond as basis--a kind of female Jason Bourne, with using automotive elements from the Matrix, but without as good an explanation about how the protagonists remain alive through deadly stunts.