Monday, October 27, 2014

Twitter: October 2014

I have purposely not written about Gamergate, but I'm afraid it crept into my Twitter favorites for October. If you don't know what it is, consider yourself lucky. If you do, here are just a few tweets that aren't about the details of the ridiculous situation, but more about the larger story:

I think part of the harassment problem might be that we-as-a-culture use baby words (trolls, haters) instead of real words (sociopaths).
By Kyle neath

"Creeping misandry" = "war on cars" = "war on coal" = "war on Christmas." The hypersensitivity of declining hegemons is something to see.
By David Roberts

2014: the year of destabilized privilege punching down. Because it’s not feminists or black people who are the real threat to the privilege of gamers or cops or whatever cishetwhitemale class. But the forces pushing those people down into the precariat with us are too huge to confront and too smoke-like to punch.
By Keith Bolland
I also liked multiple tweets about the coverage of the Keene, New Hampshire, pumpkin riot (as it compared with the coverage of protests in Ferguson, Missouri):
White privilege is destroying tons of property, turning over cars and laughing at police and having CNN call it "unruly" vs. "riots."
By Beyonce Nawles

Reasons white people riot:
1. their sports team wins
2. their sports team loses
3. no more tickle me elmos
4. tea
5. pumpkins
By b.mc.p

Your media guide to the differences between #Ferguson and #pumpkinfest:


By Matt Weinecke

Read that the Keene Pumpkin Fest is just "kids being kids." Unfortunately when black kids are being kids they get murdered. #blacklivesmatter
By Nelini Stamp
And then there's ebola, of course. So many tweets about ebola.
Why is anyone surprised a black foreign national with no U.S. health insurance was sent home from a Texas hospital? This is how U.S. health works. Or doesn't work. A proper health care system will always be a societal good, and this just shows that. The employed and insured can still get sick and die from the uninsured. Pathogens don't know your insurance status.
By KevinFox

This disturbing André Carrilho illustration on Ebola, and how the world sees it, is both powerful and accurate:


By Barry Malone

Love hearing folks who oppose all government spending and all health care reform bitching that government can't handle Ebola.
By Frank Conniff

Hey U.S. media! I refuse to be afraid of Ebola... unless of course Ebola is a new chokehold that cops are using in black neighborhoods.
By W. Kamau Bell

If this is how America reacts to Ebola I would hate to be around when climate change starts to kill us all. Anyway, Good morning!
By jamiekilstein

1. Scary brown guys,
2. violating your national border,
3. to corrupt your bodily fluids.
It’s a panic custom-made for conservatives.
By David Roberts

People shocked by the era of mass incarceration should watch the responses of politicians to ebola. This is exactly how it happens. If you look back on any historical policy wondering "How could they do this?", you should just read any ebola story right now. Past ain't past.
By Ta-Nehisi Coates

I agree with Ted Cruz that there should be a travel ban, so let's start by restricting all travel from Texas to America.
By Frank Conniff

Things more likely to kill Americans than Ebola:
Obama's drones
George Zimmerman
Prescription drugs
Working 3 jobs
Toddler with a gun
Poverty
By Arun Gupta

Won't it be nice when they develop an Ebola vaccine so antivaxxers can hysterically insists it's more dangerous than Ebola?
By Suzanne Munshower

GOP strategy:
1. Demonize & degrade government;
2. panic at new threat;
3. demand active, competent government response;
4. repeat.
By David Roberts

Spending Columbus Day worried about foreigners with diseases is a cruel irony.
By pourmecoffee

Humans are notoriously terrible at estimating risk, which is the reason we are having an Ebola hearing rather than a climate change hearing.
By Danny Concannon

The CDC showed incompetence at its core mission. It's still stupid to overreact about Ebola. Both of these things can be true.
By radleybalko

Fascinating how quickly the libertarian wing of the GOP is throwing out its hatred of Big Government to demand basically Ebola police state.
By Monika Bauerlein

The right hates government until some scary threat makes it pee its pants and then it wonders where all the government is.
By David Roberts

Every year, John McCain ignorantly mocks silly-sounding but absolutely essential basic science funding and now he is opining on Ebola.
By pourmecoffee
And finally, the general run of tweets about interesting animals, education, climate change, and my other pet topics:
Love this from Banksy:


By stevesilberman

Journalism was once a working class profession. Now it is white-collar profession with poverty pay. Breaking in often requires unpaid labor.
By Sarah Kendzior

Food Stamp fraud costs $750 million. Tax fraud by top 1% costs $300 billion -- 400X more. Guess which one the GOP is willing to let slide.
By Everybody Needs It

The Giraffe Weevil of Madagascar. The neck of the male is up to 3x longer to assist with fighting & nest-building:


By Strange Animals

There'd be way more healthy relationships if, instead of diamonds, we reminded people that babies are forever.
By Janine Brito

Signs you may be a terrorist or narcotics courier: (1) Unusual nervousness. (2) Unusual calmness.
By Julian Sanchez

This is how hate is created:


By banksy

I wish people advocating plans & programs that imply abandoning the 2°C climate target would be explicit about it & what it means. It’s harder to say "I oppose this plan because it has costs" if you have to follow with "therefore I’m willing to accept widespread immiseration."
By David Roberts

Watching this "How We Got to Now" episode & remembering as I occasionally do that in the years before eye glasses I'd have been the village idiot.
By jeff deeney

Hypocritical of Barack Obama to praise Ben Bradlee for telling "stories that need to be told" while pursuing journalist James Risen for doing the same.
By AndrewBuncombe

Not cool of The Atlantic to use this Reuters picture of Muslim women watching an eclipse and suggesting they're ISIS fan girls:


By Andy Carvin

I'm not a scientist, but I do know that politicians who dodge questions by saying "I'm not a scientist" are full of shit.
By Frank Conniff

Stroll through a thicket + birds start warbling Game of Thrones theme song. Bigfoot back out of there slowly. Bad shit was about to go down.
By Bigfoot TheBigfoot

Every time I see investment returns called "earnings," I am reminded of the amusing fact that the government calls them "unearned income."
By Matt Bruenig

I've had a 3D printer in my kitchen for about 15 years, but it only makes waffles.
By 2existential

This is what happens when you take a picture of a kitten going through a dollhouse:


By Ruth Ann Crystal, MD

My hope is that public school grows towards the Sudbury Model philosophy. Until then we can discuss how to do the wrong thing better.
By Sisyphus38

Disney stuffs the minds of children with unrealistic expectations.
By ParentsAgainstDisney

"Please describe your writing skills and developing editorial skills." Wait, how did you know my editorial skills are still developing?
By Chris Steller

George Orwell: "It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but by using one's intelligence."
By Charles


By Xeni Jardin

Newest form of white privilege: converting to Islam, committing heinous act, dying, letting all the brown/black people take the heat for it.
By Murtaza Hussain

Republicans seem terminally unable to connect their policy choices (cut, slash, block) with policy outcomes. As though the former = a game.
By David Roberts

Detroit’s water shutoffs raise serious questions about what living in a civilized democracy means.
By Demos_Org

A hearty round of applause for Starbucks, please:


By Lee Roberts

I simply will not concede the argument that affirmation of Black life by itself constitutes an erasure of any other marginalized group.
By Brittney Cooper

You know what no one says anymore? "I like the cut of your jib."
By Chris Steller

Just talked with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. I told him he should stop closing schools and support progressive education.
By Nikhil Goyal

"The threats we face are much, much, much more likely to come from homegrown boorish stupidity than bad guys overseas."-@chrislhayes #inners
By All In w/Chris Hayes

Soda and lawns: two ubiquitous features of U.S. life that, once you leave them behind for a while, begin looking absolutely insane.
By David Roberts

Say what you mean, Texas. The only people you want voting are white men who think the word "Mexican" should only be used to describe food.
By W. Kamau Bell

Here's what a city of ~5 million looks like in the U.S. vs in Spain. Infrastructure decisions matter. -- Bruce Katz:


By Yves Behar

And the suggestion that if these damn teachers would just TRY a little harder, all is solved - well, that's rather insulting.
By Blue Cereal Educ

The asynchronousness of texting is its killer feature.
By Joseph Saia

so many tv shows & movies about genius serial killers who treat killing as art. what about a genius cool person who treats being nice as art.
By Shrill Cosby

70% of adult raccoons carry a parasite that can consume your brains and eyeballs.
By What The F**k!

17 year old child facing prison until age 52, for credit card fraud. The world has gone insane.
By Alan Mills

Want to know what oysters do for the environment? The water in both tanks is the same. The one on the right has oysters:


By Steve Vilnit

Why do we act like schools are natural but learning isn't? It's the reverse. Kids don't need the current model of schools. Schools need kids!
By Sisyphus38

We need some way to break the connection between fear and more revenue for the media. Fearmongering should lower earnings, not raise them.
By mez

The people who refuse to be included in Venn diagrams are the same people who ... Oh wait.
By Chris Steller

The Banded Piglet squid has a transparent body & its pigmentation makes it look like it has a smiley face.


By Strange Animals

Every description of a dress you can buy online needs to include whether or not it has pockets.
By evelyn pollins

Next person who says "do what you love" has to post their tax returns online.
By Austin Kleon

Quickest way to a man's heart is through his stomach, that's why I brought this machete.
By Janine Brito

This photo came up in a Getty search for Christian Bale and I cannot stop laughing:


By kateyrich

The Bible is the most intimidating chain letter in history.
By Hemant Mehta

We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.
By Kurt Vonnegut

Results from the CIA's meticulously researched 67-year longitudinal study are in:


By Patrick Collison
Sprawl vs. density is not just a simple lifestyle choice or preference, it is about economic competitiveness. Density is a key factor if not the key factor in innovation & economic growth. Sprawl inhibits competitiveness. So over time, more sprawling, less dense places & the nations that house them will see their economic advantage erode. The U.S. was in an particularly advantaged (hegemonic) position in the post-war years, which enabled its economy to absorb the costs of sprawl. Sprawl was also a spur to the old industrial economy. Buying houses, cars, durable goods created a "geographic Keynesianism." Today's knowledge economy REQUIRES density, so economic logic ultimately favors clustering & density over sprawl.
By Richard Florida

The $3 billion spent in dividends to the Walmart heirs could give their 825,000 low-wage workers a $2.38/hour raise.
By Demos_Org

There will be no "singularity" because we can't even make this printer work.
By Jeffrey Weston

Healthcare is a class marker here. Middle class wants to know they're getting better healthcare than the poor.
By RedwoodGirl

I was wondering what the robot maid has been up to since "The Jetsons"...


By Chris Steller

Mashed cauliflower's great for diets cause it's low in carbs & kills your appetite by making your entire home smell like farts.
By Janine Brito

Once again, a post on RACISM = fewer retweets, less blog traffic + worst of all, comments that offer "Yes, but X is the real problem." *sigh*
By Paul Thomas

If we ask kids to bring their passion to the classroom, should we be grading it? Don't kill their passion with a grade.
By Heidi Washington

No one ever believes this, but it remains true: Kids are not getting dumber, and schools are not failing.
By Monika Bauerlein

Boys get chemistry, engineering, and astronomy. The girls get "science with a sparkle." It's shit like this, people:


By absolutspacegrl

Weird to think
a) humans are horrible at long-time-horizon decisionmaking, but
b) markets, i.e., aggregates of humans, will be great at it.
By David Roberts

Per-capita CO2 emissions. Yay American exceptionalism!


By David Roberts

It's tough to learn much of anything if you're the one that does all the talking.
By Steve Keating CSE

The Appalachian mountains being blown up for coal are the oldest in the U.S. & some of the oldest in the world.
By David Roberts

Let's be clear, the press loves to cover gaffes because they provide the pretense of accountability without having to weigh in on actual policy.
By Reed F. Richardson

Don't use "females" as a noun to refer to people. You sound creepy.
By Josh Barro

Claiming to have discovered a place after wiping out its residents is pretty much the ur-#stuffwhitepeoplelike.
By David Roberts

Can’t be said enough: the GOP has no plan to help dispossessed coal miners. Delaying or defeating climate regulations is not a plan.
By David Roberts

If you think about it, Wikipedia is entirely spoilers.
By Chris Steller

“In general, sociology has considered cars as a neutral technology, engendering forms of life that would have happened anyway” -- J. Urry
By William Lindeke

There is a big difference between mandating every student to do the same thing and inspiring every student to do the right things.
By Joe Bower

I believe the self-help industrial complex is largely a response to Americans' cognitive dissonance on economic inequality.
By Helaine Olen

Why do all conservative pundits with handles like "Wichita_Hangman" look like they eat gluesticks & sleep in bread?


By لا أعرف

Charles Dickens taught us that old white rich men will only care about others if people literally rise from the dead.
By Lucas Neff

Disturbing when white folk are more outraged over the desecration of the American flag than the desecration and destruction of Black bodies.
By zellie

MPR just spent a good 40 seconds reporting on CEO Volunteer Day for Habitat for Humanity. I'm sure hands-on is great, and the publicity is wonderful all around, but donating a day's pay would probably be more effective.
By Chris Steller

While [UK] benefit fraud is 6% of tax fraud, the media talks about benefit fraud 600% more.
By Eadaoin O'Sullivan

The most important message of a crucifix was how cruel supposedly sane human beings can be when under orders from a superior authority.
By Kurt Vonnegut

Cook County jail is the country's largest mental health institution. This is wrong.
By Alan Mills

Who will be accountable if the entire approach of making schools pressure cookers turns out to be destructive?
By Yong Zhao

Imagine if Greens took all that money spent reaching out to sportsmen & evangelicals & spent it mobilizing people who actually support them.
By David Roberts

What % of kids that have received a disciplinary consequence at my school are poor? Hint: about the same % of rich kids on honor roll.
By Sisyphus38

Monkey orchids:


By Halloween Costumes

"Human" is not an apolitical label. In Western thought, it traditionally meant white, male, straight, property-owning, & able-bodied. That one has to assert one's "humanity" attests precisely to that term's long history of excerpting out Black people, women, & LGBTQ people.
By Brittney Cooper

When schools use the words 'performance,' 'targets' & 'work' rather than the word 'thinking' we have a problem.
By Tait Coles

Not sure what that barely audible beeping noise is, but swear to god Bigfoot will totally burn this forest down to stop it.
By Bigfoot TheBigfoot

"I said no pictures!"


By Halloween Costumes

The top 10 weapon manufacturers in the world have made a profit of $2.8 trillion from the 'war' on terror.
By Injustice Facts

I'm unconvinced by recent defenses of football. All the virtues claimed could be achieved through other sports that don’t damage brains.
By David Roberts

People yearning for suburban life is what powers U.S. bombing. Let's offer car-free cities instead.
By Free Public Transit

The first printing press in North America was used in Mexico City in 1539.
By Cassandra Peca

"Officer Safety" is tyrant-speak. Translates to "Submit To My Glorious And Irrefutable Hegemony Or Be Helpfully Corrected."
By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Markets are always and already rigged. Rejecting changes in the name of the "free market" = "we like the way it’s rigged now, thanks."
By David Roberts

California Red Sided Garter Snake:


By Maria Boedeker

I love that Sinclair has gas stations because the dinosaur is the perfect symbol for filling up your tank.
By William Lindeke

Good day to mention that same-day voter registration boosts participation at minimal cost.
By Alex Rowell

Appears it's deadline day in a number of states to vote in the November election. Proud to be in Minnesota where we have no deadline.
By Erik Hansen

Chapstick, $195 per pound at Rite Aid:


By Josh Barro

Sunday morning! Time to watch white guys who have never been to war salivate over sending poor people to fight more wars.
By jamiekilstein

If you believe in School Choice how about creating public schools that are completely exempt from testing? I'll bet parents will love them.
By Mark Naison

The same people who will talk about how deranged you have to be to accept stoning women, will accept street executions of Black people by police.
By Chris Chinn

Bam:


By Becky Hawkins

Want to know the absolute worst place to stand at any party? Follow me!
By Julieanne Smolinski

Anyone that says software is 'expertly crafted' is lying to you. Eventually it is all duct tape and glue.
By Justin Williams

Scientists named a newly discovered species of velvet worm the Eoperipatus totoro! (from My Neighbor Totoro):


By Sofía Gabriela

When unpaid labor and expensive credentials are prerequisites to employment, a job is not a job but a purchased social position.
By Sarah Kendzior

There is nothing edgy about going after oppressed people. Stop pretending you are a shock comic. You are the boring status quo.
By jamiekilstein

"[B]ad luck for the young poet would be a rich father, an early marriage, an early success or the ability to do anything very well." - Buk
By Bukowski Quotes

Chickens have gotten ridiculously large since the 1950s:


By Vox

I never understand Russian complaints that the U.S. is "decadent." As in, not a hellhole?
By Josh Barro
A single big box store in a neighborhood results in a 14% rise in obesity.
By Greg Fowler

Hey, new rule. If you call something that doesn't have two coherently argued sides a "debate" we get to shoot you into the sun.
By Leena

"It always seems impossible until it's done." - Nelson Mandela
By Zephyr Teachout

Takahe:


By Strange Animals

"What history actually shows is that nothing works out as planned, & that everything has unintentional consequences."
By Helaine Olen

Any law put in place to combat 'terrorism' will eventually be used against minorities and dissidents. Show me where this isn't true.
By Laurie Penny

[Former New York Times editor Jill] Abramson: What went wrong with Iraq war coverage? A big group of reporters became too dependent on specific Iraqi defector sources.
By Maggie Koerth-Baker

I -- no, you know what, that's a perfect metaphor for education, keep it like that:


By GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUH

Are we over how creepy the word "homeland" is? I don't think I'm over it yet.
By David Roberts

Blue footed boobies:


By Strange Animals

The prison system in the U.S. is so morally monstrous on so many dimensions. Hard to fit the scale of it in your head.
By David Roberts

I just misspelled 'transit' and it auto-corrected to 'transient.'
By William Lindeke

Question: is there a point in history, in any civilization, when conservatives were NOT convinced of moral rot, things falling apart, etc.?
By David Roberts
And finally, this couplet:
Is there a word for the seemingly uncontrollable urge in 99% of humans that causes them to crowd chaotically while waiting to board a plane?
By Nick Sherman

Implanetience?
By Jaco Burger

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