{"id":13677,"date":"2010-03-31T14:24:03","date_gmt":"2010-03-31T14:24:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/bulgarian-politician-punished-for-playing-farmville-during-budget-meetings-discoblog\/"},"modified":"2010-03-31T14:24:03","modified_gmt":"2010-03-31T14:24:03","slug":"bulgarian-politician-punished-for-playing-farmville-during-budget-meetings-discoblog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/bulgarian-politician-punished-for-playing-farmville-during-budget-meetings-discoblog.php","title":{"rendered":"Bulgarian Politician Punished for Playing Farmville During Budget Meetings | Discoblog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-8112\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/4c54e_Zynga-Farmville-Facebook.jpg\" alt=\"Zynga-Farmville-Facebook\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" align=\"left\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/span>On Facebook, the Farmville updates are impossible to avoid&ndash;someone is looking for a cow, someone else is watering their crops. People who have never played the game may not understand how addictive it is, but here&rsquo;s some proof. The game can not only suck away large portions of your day, it can also, as one councilmember in Bulgaria&rsquo;s second largest city found out, get you demoted.<\/p><p>While many distracted politicians twiddle their thumbs during meetings or frantically jab at their Blackberries, city councilors in Plovdiv were apparently playing Farmville during budgetary debates.<\/p><p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.escapistmagazine.com\/news\/view\/99456-Bulgarian-City-Councilor-Fired-Over-FarmVille\">The Escapist<\/a> writes:<\/p><blockquote><p>Council Chair Ilko Iliev &ldquo;strongly scolded the eager internet farmers,&rdquo; who nonetheless continued to spend time on their farms while attending council meetings.<\/p><\/blockquote><p>Finally, during a meeting last Thursday, in order to send a message to the rest of the Farmville-playing community, one councilmember was given the boot. Councilor Dimitar Kerin was voted off the budget committee, said fellow councilor Todot Hristov, because &ldquo;he needed more time for his virtual farm.&rdquo;<\/p><p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.escapistmagazine.com\/news\/view\/99456-Bulgarian-City-Councilor-Fired-Over-FarmVille\">The Escapist<\/a> added:<\/p><blockquote><p>But he&rsquo;s not leaving without a fight. &ldquo;The troubled councilor has defended himself by saying he was not the only one in the City Hall watering virtual egg plants,&rdquo; according to a report by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.novinite.com\/view_news.php?id=114390\">Novinte.com<\/a>. &ldquo;He said he had reached only Level 40, whereas Daniela Zhelyazkova, a councilor from the rightist Democrats for Strong Bulgaria party, was already at Level 46.&rdquo;<\/p><\/blockquote><p><span>Related Content:<\/span><br>Discoblog: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/discoblog\/2009\/11\/24\/are-happy-facebook-pics-proof-that-you-arent-depressed\/\">Are Happy Facebook Pics Proof That You Aren&rsquo;t Depressed?<\/a><br>Discoblog: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/discoblog\/2009\/09\/04\/desperate-for-facebook-friends-buy-some\/\">Desperate For Facebook Friends? Buy Some!<\/a><br>Discoblog: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/discoblog\/2009\/09\/22\/computer-program-can-out-gay-facebook-users\/\">Computer Program Can &ldquo;Out&rdquo; Gay Facebook Users<\/a><br>DISCOVER: <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/discovermagazine.com\/2009\/nov\/08-your-digital-privacy-may-already-be-an-illusion\/?searchterm=facebook%20privacy\"><span>Your Digital Privacy? It May Already Be an Illusion<\/span><\/a><\/p><p><span><em>Image: Farmville<\/em><br><\/span><\/p><p><span><br><\/span><\/p><p><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/LqZC6lhWO0Nfx7mOC3ixOIJiONA\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/4c54e_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><br><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~a\/LqZC6lhWO0Nfx7mOC3ixOIJiONA\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/f2606_di\" border=\"0\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/a><\/p><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-o-matic\/cache\/f2606_x6qBQz5EWTg\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" style=\"padding-left:10px; padding-right: 10px;\"><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Facebook, the Farmville updates are impossible to avoid&ndash;someone is looking for a cow, someone else is watering their crops. People who have never played the game may not understand how addictive it is, but here&rsquo;s some proof. The game &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/astronomy\/bulgarian-politician-punished-for-playing-farmville-during-budget-meetings-discoblog.php\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astronomy"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13677"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13677\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.euvolution.com\/futurist-transhuman-news-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}