House of Legends

Thoughts and Ideas

  • Smell of soviet culture

    Smell of soviet culture

    Reblog via Nexta

    The Russian Consulate General in Dubai does not even hide its contempt for Russians

    “Extreme case. If you are an orphan and sociophobe without friends and acquaintances, just do not have the financial ability to pay for further accommodation in any hotel, and the hotel does not agree to provide a room for free, write to our mail. We will look for options from volunteers for accommodation in spartan conditions”, – reported in the instruction.

    So them, these beggars!

    This is fascinating!

    Spock's Fascinating! face
    Fascinating!
  • No to Russian propaganda channels!

    No to Russian propaganda channels!

    The weekly protest march of 28 February 2026 in Tbilisi went under slogan “No to Russian propaganda channels!”, referring widespread support of UK decision to impose sanctions against “Georgian Dream” party pet channels “Imedi” and “PosTV”.

    Both of these channels spread Kremlin propaganda against Ukraine. And when it going to internal Georgia events and affairs, they both spread Kremlin-smelling disinformation against EU & NATO, they lying for years and spread disinfo against NGO, cicvil society activists, and pro-EU & pro-NATO political parties and inidividual politicians.

    For while POSTV was even more radical version of Imedi in their policy of lies and disinformation, but now they are same.

    I personally faced this in end of Mikheil Saakashvili presidency when he gave one of best speeches at UN General Assembly. We went to greet Saakashvili in the airport on return, and there was a huge crowd there, supporting him.

    When we returned home, we seen in social media how people get angry (or some – laughing) at Imedi news report where anchor, without a single blink, lied that all these people (including me!) gathered to protest against Mikheil Saakashvili.

    Hope this small example will give you some taste of why Imedi propaganda smells like old putin’s socks. And why so many people support UK sanctions against Imedi and PosTV.

    Fediverse reactions
  • How Kremlin use AI

    How Kremlin use AI

    Reblog via MAKS 25 πŸ‘€πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦

    πŸ‘ OpenAI has exposed and shut down network β€œRybar,” which used ChatGPT for mass propaganda production.

    The adversary employed AI as a content factory to generate materials published under the β€œRybar” brand, as well as through dozens of anonymous accounts on X and Telegram

    Automated disinformation is the main thing Kremlin uses AI for.

    The second such thing is the automation of censorship (AI-features of DPI censorship tech).

    And of course, as soon as they find a way to use AI for automating the political repressions and the processes of their Gulag of today, often referred as “Digital Gulag”, they would use it for that too.

    Somehow vibe in the world changed that AI companies, at least some of them, have to prevent dirty usage of AI. And other notable thing is justified usage of adversary word.

  • Djembro, RO, supports πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦πŸ‡¬πŸ‡ͺ

    @magical_cat
    Fascinating. I imagine there’s a lot of symbolism in the painting. The staff he’s holding seems to be topped with a goat’s head and wrapped with the coils of a snake. What do you make of the horned figure in the background?
    @koteisaev

    February 26, 2026, 13:37 0 boosts 0 favorites

    On this painting it seems Shishkin bring into focus aspects of Veles – protector of nature and wilderness.

    In this capacity, Veles often counter-posted to Perun as source of “order” and human as antithesis of wild nature. But I don’t think Perun and Veles relations much more interesting than just “endless fighting”.

    Snakes are often seen as Veles symbols as keeper of wisdom & magic. Cattle animal head or skull may be seen as reference to Veles as “cattle god”, as protector of cattle animals as well.

    As cattle seen as direct representation of prosperity and richness (sort of “movable property” of that times), and this gives hint on gold hidden in the earth, in the underworld. And this often allows people to say that Veles know where gold and other treasuries of earth/underworld can be found.

    Famous story when during signing treaty with The Byzantine Empire of that time, Kyivian prince and his druzhina give oath calling Perun to witness their oath (may Perun turn our weapons against us if we break this auth) while people from peasantry calling Veles to witness their oath (may Veles make us yellow if we break this oath) (what seems to refers the scrofula).

    It gives hints that for ordinary folk, most of whom were peasants, Veles were much more important than Perun.

    Fediverse reactions
  • A theory about ancient Slavs view about world of dead

    A theory about ancient Slavs view about world of dead

    I find this article (thanks normalhumanlibrarian of Tumblr) very fascinating, because it touches one of core aspects of Slavic paganism, and basically points out that we do not have a reliable info on whether Slavs paganism had special ruler of the Underworld. And this can be interesting question.

    What if Veles is not so creepy as some authors (especially Chistianized ones) depict him? What if Slavs did not had such figure as ruler of world of dead, Underworld? What if Slavs paganism did not had such concept of Underworld as creepy kingdom of dead, but what if instead Slavs assumed that world of dead (Nav’, Навь) was something that was not a completely separated from world of alive (Yav, Явь), that explain the intense worship of ancestors as someone who can help and protect, and the name of home spirit (“domovoy”, Π΄ΠΎΠΌΠΎΠ²ΠΎΠΉ) is not from home word (hut, ΠΈΠ·Π±Π°) but from coffin word (domovina, Π΄ΠΎΠΌΠΎΠ²ΠΈΠ½Π°).

    Sounds like ancient Slavs considered Ancestors not as someone who live in a special kingdom for dead but here and now with us, and seen them as someone who can help us and protect us, those who are alive, living here in Yav.

    Painting of Veles by Andrey Shishkin
    Painting of Veles by Andrey Shishkin

    And this worldview does not have some creepy place like hell, and creepy or super-evil god-like figure who would be ruler of that creepy place, like Christian devil, or even Hades ruler Pluto.

    Fediverse reactions
  • Quite deep explanation of high grocery prices in Georgia country

    Quite deep explanation of high grocery prices in Georgia country

    Economy of No Tomorrow: What Keeps Food Prices Up in Georgia
    Georgia’s food prices have a dozen explanations. The actual problem is what happens when nobody trusts tomorrow.

    Economy of No Tomorrow: What Keeps Food Prices Up in Georgia
    Golden bread loaf
    Golden bread loaf which has been presented to Yanukovich and it found in the Mezhyhirya residence in 2014 after he fled from Ukraine to Russia

    The main problem is that with current fascist occupation administration leaded by Kremlin operative and fake billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili the tomorrow just can not come tomorrow and we can wake up again is the Soviet yesterday of Gulag, Gosplan, and unrealistic prices dictated by “revolutionary expediency”.

    But anyway, here in Georgia we can not trust to Today, as we already live in some hybrid dictatorship where you can wake up in the prison just because your competitor is a relative of State Security Service (today’s KGB) employee and you declared an enemy of the state for daring to critique of some banalities of dictatorship like dead courts or corruption and bureaucracy.

    It may take decades of peaceful life in democracy after ruzzian genocidal empire will collapse, before people would get used to trust to tomorrow.

    PS: I added to this post the photo of famous artifact of Yanukovich era, the golden bread loaf, as visualization of how expensive groceries are becoming in Georgia for many households.

    Fediverse reactions
  • 453rd day of protest in Tbilisi

    453rd day of protest in Tbilisi

    These 3 photos from 453 day of daily protest in across Georgia, taken in Tbilisi during protest. These photos capture the spirit of burning rage of people who are robbed of their european future, freedom, and chance for democratic development of their home country.

    Burning photo of ivanishvili and putin
    Burning photo of ivanishvili and putin
    Protesters burning photo of Kremlin and photo of russian tank
    Protesters burning photo of Kremlin and photo of russian tank
    Burning photo of lavrov
    Burning photo of lavrov, rusisan minister of foreign affairs and famous liar

    The images were taken from a bluesky post written by Mariam Nikuradze.

    I find this act of burning down photos of a war criminal putin, a billionaire and wannabe dictator ivanishvili, and putin pet “liar horse” Lavrov an example of people magic as well.

    Ritual of burining down an image of enemy (and yes, putin, ivaniishvili and lavrov, are enemies of Georgian, Ukrainian and many other peoples), so these rituals of burining down an image of enemy, it is a widely known form protest, and in many magical traditions it is not taken lightly. I would suggest all these three buy tickets to Hague as a lifelong term in the European comfortable prison is lot better for them compared to what can happen as they will continue to organize crimes against people and against humanity.

    Fediverse reactions

  • Reblog of Ars Technica:

    Reblog via Ars Technica

    Wikipedia bans Archive.today after site executed DDoS and altered web captures
    If DDoSing a blog wasn’t bad enough, archive site also tampered with web snapshots.
    arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20

    I found it quite symbolic the correlation between using domain name (at tld today) and some behavior I would associate with Russia Today.

  • Got rid of Medium account

    Got rid of Medium account

    Got rid of Medium account.

    Now when I have this place to write long (and may be short statuses like this one), I don’t need it.

    Also, I don’t have time anymore to read Medium articles written by other people.

    So these two pieces of puzzle are fitting together well enough.

    Fediverse reactions
  • Can you imagine 444 days of protests in a row?

    Can you imagine 444 days of protests in a row?

    Here is a video from the 444 day of uninterrupted daily protests in Georgia!

    A big turnout on day 444 of daily, uninterrupted protests in Georgia. πŸŽ₯ Levan Zazadze

    — Rusudan Djakeli (@rusudandjakeli.bsky.social) 2026-02-14T17:39:29.208Z

    Not sure whether the video embed will be federated, but at least I can spread the word across Fediverse.

    Fediverse reactions