Saturday, August 30, 2014

August 2014: a Hard Month of Tweets

Wow, looking at my July Twitter post, it seems so long ago. Is it still August today? I guess so. What a long month of heavy topics.

First a few about Ebola:

Scientists: Don't freak out about Ebola.
Everyone: *Panic!*
Scientists: Freak out about climate change.
Everyone: LOL! Pass me some coal.
By Maram Kaff

Ebola has killed fewer than 5,000 people...ever. Measles (which some folks refuse to vaccinate kids for) killed 122,000 in 2012 alone.
By Matt Shipman

If you're worried about Ebola, which 100‰ of scientists say don't, but not climate change, which 97% say do, reflect on your choices.
By pourmecoffee
And then a torrent related to the killing of Mike Brown, protests in Ferguson, and militarized policing. First, on the killing of an unarmed black young man:
The media has distorted the story to be blurry, but reality was simple: an unarmed teen was shot 6 times by an angry cop for talking back.
By Marco Arment

Hands up, don't shoot:


By Chicago Ced.

White privilege is being able to shoot a man 10 times in the back or run him down with your car and get a paid month off as punishment.
By Chris Espinosa

You know who else is “no angel”? ALL OF US. EVERYONE. THIS IS, BY DEFINITION, THE EXISTENTIAL NATURE OF CORPOREAL EXISTENCE.
By John Moltz

"No angel" — a term used exclusively to refer to rape victims and people of color killed by the police
By mollycrabapple

You don't think you have privilege? Did your parents tell you as a kid if you needed help look for a cop? Ok then.
By jamiekilstein

“Do what the officer tells you to and it will end safely for both of you.” How many deaths does it take for this lie to stop?
By Erin Kissane

"The law is meant to be my servant and not my master, still less my torturer and my murderer." -- James Baldwin. The Nation. July 11, 1966.
By Paul Thomas

Lifehack: Be white.
By Janine Brito
On the militarization of the police and infringement of citizens' right to assemble:
Everyone who was livid when a bigot got suspended from a duck show, this is what it actually looks like when the 1st amendment is violated.
By Justin Megahan

That moment when "the right to peacefully assemble" meets "failure to disperse":


By Antonio French

A cop in SWAT gear braying YOUR RIGHT TO ASSEMBLE IS NOT BEING VIOLATED from atop a tank is ludicrous in a way Terry Gilliam couldn't touch.
By BBolander

The Ferguson police have this gear because we were afraid of "domestic terror." Well, it's here. Wearing the outfit we bought it.
By Ben Moser

Why do Ferguson police look like US troops in Iraq? Handy graphic from the New York Times tells the story best:


By Lydia Polgreen

Ferguson is what happens when you let fear get the best of you. Afraid of the "bad guys" so we militarize police, now we see the impacts.
By TS

Welcome to America. Your local police have tanks, full body armor and can order the media to "leave." Not alarming at all.
By Steve Huff

Did law enforcement in Ferguson receive its escalation training from Internet comments section trolls?
By hodgman
How long was this planned for that they had a nice ready made sign? RT @eldifusor: This says it all:


By Ivan Calderon

The technical term for a country in which citizens are not allowed to question police would be "police state."
By Tom Tomorrow
On looting in Ferguson:
"Will Black America speak out against the looting?" — Umm, will white America speak out against their systematic oppression?
By Tristan Sloughter

"Why do black people always protest by destroying goods?" — White people who literally named a political party after throwing tea in the ocean.
By Ben Collins

When Black people are accused of being #SuspectedLooters, you should point out that BLACK PEOPLE ARE IN AMERICA BECAUSE THEY WERE LOOTED.
By Hari Kondabolu

#SuspectedLuter:


By darth smallberries
In the midst of all the coverage and Twitter outrage, Ta-Nehisi Coates tweeted a series of thoughts about how sad it is that black boys get only tough love, given the world they grow up in. Here are just a couple from that series and one response:
Lotta "tough love" for young black boys — like the streets ain't tough enough. Rarely acknowledge the tenderness in these kids.
By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Good reasons for this of course, but it shows how even the tools of resistance can hurt. Even our armor serves to dehumanize us.
By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Growing up as a black male means a lot of voices lecturing you from their perspective with little concern for yours.
By Chris Mergerson
During the many Ferguson-related tweets, I noticed someone named Alan Mills being retweeted by others I follow. He's a lawyer at Chicago's Uptown People's Law Center, representing abused prisoners, tenants, and the disabled. He recently tweeted about losing a case where he represents an 83-year-old prisoner who is applying for parole:
Is there a reason to keep an 83 year old model prisoner w/failing health locked up? His crime was horrible, but does that matter?
By Alan Mills

I think that is the fundamental question we need to answer in this country if we are ever going to reform our criminal justice system.
By Alan Mills

But if it is about protecting society, and reinforcing morals, then there is no justification for the extremely long sentences we hand out.
By Alan Mills

If it is all about vengeance, then why should we ever let anyone out?
By Alan Mills
And now for the usual array of silliness and seriousness on other topics.
norver frogget:


By K. Thor Jensen

My dream app is Introvert Helper: show me who at this party I share uncommon experiences with & I should talk to, with name/picture.
By Matt Haughey

Non-driverless cars kill 1,240,000 humans per year.
By Erik Brynjolfsson

It's time for the high-pressure hand-drier experiment in bathrooms to end. Especially the Dyson Airblade, which is crap.
By Kevin Watterson

Oh weird! Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. LeGuin were in the same high school at the same time. They didn't know each other.
By Tiffany Reisz

More whites think they've touched a ghost than believe there's a lot of discrimination against black people. Really:


By DanteAtkins

I'm a little unclear on how you have to be 16 to drive, 18 to vote, 21 to buy alcohol, but can legally handle an Uzi at the age of 9.
By Neera Tanden

White guy in public with a real gun? Open-carry patriot. Black guy in public with a toy gun? A dead man.
By Jamelle Bouie (referring to the case of John Crawford, shot in an Ohio Walmart)


The Internet is not making humanity worse. It's exposing how very ugly it has been all along.
By Benjamin Thompson

"Avoid stress" is the most useless advice. Typical of American society to ask you to bear responsibility for what the world does to you.
By a.a. siddiqi

I'm going to open a boutique called Noun.
By Chris Steller

When I ask for a water [in a restaurant] I guess I have to start saying "no straw." #somuchwaste
By Jason

Employees must applaud the planets:


By Tyler Schmall

"No matter how many 4th graders pass the test it won't raise the minimum wage." — Richard Rothstein, research associate, Economic Policy Institute
By Susan Ohanian

I've deleted enough tweets to know that I should never get a tattoo.
By Abby Heugel

If you regularly criticize the poor and stand up for the rich, don't bother claiming to be a follower of Jesus. He did the opposite.
By almightygod

I like train stations, I really do. Everyone's on an equal footing, a bit disoriented and with somewhere they'd rather be.
By Lauren G

Here's a picture of a baby wombat:


By Ali Arikan

"In fact, fully three-quarters (75%) of whites have entirely white social networks without any minority presence." (Quoting The Atlantic.)
By Anil Dash

"Skills" is the new content. It's no longer cool to dispense content, but we must still feel valuable, so let's dispense "skills."
By Sisyphys38

Overheard: "Cute store." "Yeah ... Comic Sans though."


By Chris Steller

"Poverty does not produce unhappiness, it produces degradation, that is why it is dangerous to society." — George Bernard Shaw
By #OCCUPYWALLSTREET

My idea for a sustainable, practical funding model for an ad-free web: a $500 fine for misuse of an apostrophe.
By Pinboard

Fox and Friends is trashing Obama for being on vacation. All three are guest hosts because the main ones are on vacation.
By Evan McMurry

This is a city [Houston]. This is what happens when your city is overdependent on cars. All parking, no city:


By jennifer keesmaat

Burning Man is next week, and if the U.S. really insists the War on Drugs isn't an institutional race war, it will end in thousands of arrests.
By Timothy Faust

As a person who never gets past the opening clause of a sentence in which I identify the kind of person that I am,
By Chris Steller

Estimating web design projects in a nutshell:


By Chris ODonnell

When someone starts their "I came from nothing" story 2+ generations ago, it always turns out they came from money.
By Matt Bruenig

I nominate you for the "give quietly to charity every month via direct debit from your bank account" challenge.
By Chris Greene

States are not just the Lavatories of Democracy, but also the Restrooms of the Republic and the Toilets of Traditional Values.
By Jeet Heer

The tech world would be such a better place if American venture capitalists had had access to decent sci fi when they were 12.
By Pinboard

What do you get when you cross a spineless politician, a hanging judge, and a community organizer?


By Chris Steller

If the same percentage of people who wrote about being a mom wrote about racism, sexism, and power, we'd have a much better world.
By Molly Priesmeyer

Standardized testing never closed any gaps except the one between private interests and public monies.
By John Kuhn

Reasons why patients were admitted to a U.S. lunatic asylum in 1800s. Includes "menstrual deranged," "novel reading":


By Benjamin Law
Surprise, 99% of America! You're just as working-class as the people you think you're stopping from stealing your imaginary future fortunes!
By Aaminah Khan

"Justice requires those who suffer the least to do the most": 


By Bill Boyle

A good thing about being published is you have something to look at when you're pretty sure it's impossible to ever finish anything.
By Rainbow Rowell

That male adolescence lingers into 20s, 30s and 40s is never more vivid than behavior on Twitter. As a male, I must admit it is sad.
By Paul Thomas


These two tweets from Senator Dick Durbin are priceless:


By Jimmy Princeton

Journalists don't need editors? That's true only if their chosen form is the long rant.
By Mark Harris

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." — Plato
By Philosophy Tweets

I charted law enforcement fatality data since 1791. Police haven't been this safe since 1875:


By Chuck DeVore

Just realized how incredibly morbid the game "Hangman" is.
By Josh Barro
Cheap oil has peaked. Now for the rise of cheap labor.
By Free Public Transit

"The idea that intelligence is linked to English pronunciation is a legacy from colonial thinking." — Delalorm Semabia
By Selin Makaveli

Public relations people earn 54% more than journalists and outnumber them nearly 5 to 1.
By Conrad Hackett

What the hell was the question?


By Mark Holland

We tell young teens not to get a tattoo because their interests will change and they will regret it. But we expect young kids to pick a career?
By Sisyphys38

I love the change in music when an attack-ad switches over to praise for the candidate who paid for it.
By Chris Steller

Reporter: "They think your haircuts are un-American."
John: "Well, it was very observant of them because we aren't American, actually."
By The Beatles Lyrics

Everybody who ever designed fabric seat covers for public transport was out of their gourd:


By Jez Burrows

You can learn a lot about someone by how much fish they eat. For example, if they eat 90 pounds per day they're a North American Grizzly.
By Gavin Speiller

The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away soundeth suspiciously like shit just happening.
By adrian briggs

Why do people treat programs that will only give great opportunities to already-privileged students as cure-alls?
By Nikhil Goyal

"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book." – Marcus Tullius Cicero
By Alain de Botton

Get over it, she's NEVER coming back, you wouldn't move out to sea, your choice. It's over. Move on:


By sasha

"Diversity in fantasy is hard because white writers write from personal experience." Yes. Their extensive experience with dragons and elves.
By Saladin Ahmed

Funny how people think there is a correct way to live a day. Usually based on how they were raised... Same as running a classroom.
By Sisyphys38

ALWAYS keep this is in mind. The “good old days” were only good for those inside the club. Applies to a whole lot of things.
By Benjamin Thompson

Easier to say "shortage of skilled workers” than “We aren’t paying our workers enough.”
By Motoko Rich

I’m not usually fussy about this sort of thing but if you call me a “consumer” of books I’m going to assume the worst of your argument.
By Erin Kissane

30 years of cell phones:


By Historical Pictures

Next time someone prattles on to you about what's "natural," remember, there's nothing more natural than dysentery.
By Josh Barro

Kids at less prestigious colleges are "apt to be more interesting, curious, open, and far less entitled and competitive." (Quoting the New Republic.)
By Alfie Kohn

A brave World Bank study shows that 87% of World Bank reports are never cited & 31% are not even downloaded once.
By Hans Rosling

I find it amusing that schools try to tackle "peer pressure" while coercing kids to do what they say for a formative decade of their lives.
By Louis Anslow

Harassing women online to prove that we don't get harassed on the street is a dumb tactic.
By Nathalie Baptiste

Man, I do love to see people with the luxury of time and resources telling people without those things to calm down and not be so emotional.
By KillerMartinis

Tiny frogs snoozing in my day lilies. I feel like the Ann Geddes of amphibians!


By Julie Blaha

Low-wage Walmart workers could get over $5/hour more from what the company spent on buying its own stock in 2012.
By Demos_Org

Just-in-time scheduling for workers is a classic failure of markets to provide stability and material security.
By Matt Bruenig

Pete Saunders argues that when neighborhoods become black they are erased from white people's mental map of the city.
By Aaron M. Renn

Protip for writers: any time you see the word "interesting," delete it.
By William Lindeke

As others have said, I'm glad to be surprised by some measure of justice, and hate that I have to be surprised by some measure of justice.
By jay smooth

What if they made a service like Uber or Lyft but it was a really big car with lots of seats that just drove around on a set route/schedule.
By Left and Right

Sometimes I think I should repost daily: The U.S. murder rate has never been lower. Teen pregnancy has never been lower. Don't buy the lies.
By Anil Dash

All of my tabs just closed and at first I wanted to cry and now all i can think is "I'M FREE."
By jamiekilstein

So simple your mother could use it:


By Karen McGrane

The thing I'm most excited for this school year is to see what new words or phrases we use to describe something old.
By Sisyphys38

It's fine for journos to be moralists. Orwell was. But it helps if your morality is more sophisticated than a 2nd grader's.
By corey robin

Uber and Airbnb, sold as ways to be entrepreneurs. Really, we drive gypsy cabs, take boarders. It just feels futuristic.
By Quentin Hardy

How long can you have a headache before it becomes a legal person?
By Erin Kissane

If Jesus came back he would harass women on twitter for their sexual choices. I'm sure of it.
By jamiekilstein

Free money is good for the character of rich people's kids but bad for people that are hungry or homeless. Makes sense.
By David Kaib

Elsevier profit 36% and Wiley 42%. How? By paying authors nothing and charging taxpayers to read work they funded:


By Alex Holcombe

Big Data is good and all. But I'd rather look for some Big Wisdom.
By Jonathan Foley

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