I’ll also go on another Orwell tangent: Conservatives love calling any new “woke” word that enters common usage as “Orwellian”, because they don’t want to be “forced” by social pressure to learn new terminology important to people whose humanity they refuse to acknowledge anyway

But Newspeak is a version of English where descriptive words have been removed, not added. 1984 is written with a deeply limited vocabulary set.......so in fact, conservatives share an ideology with *the villains* of 1984.

Newspeak is not called that because the words are new. It’s called that because that’s *exactly* what authoritarian fascists would call a restrictive language set, it’s propaganda. The state in the book came up with the name, and that context is important

It’s “Newspeak” for the same reason they’re “National Socialists”, an intentional misnomer intended to obscure reality, to wear down your defences. Fascists don’t call a spade a spade, they point at a cloudy sky and say “it is sunny”, until you’re tired of arguing with them.

Fascists may claim to value free speech, but they jump at the chance to censor specific words, and it’s not the words they themselves would use. That’s why they hate obscenities and any kind of terminology related to social justice, but not slurs.

For what it's worth, a THREAD on Gary Player, my dad, and redemption.

My father was politicized by sport. His experiences as a young, sport-obsessed Indian boy gave him his first real sense of the inequities of apartheid...

...seeing white kids playing cricket on perfect greens, in their crisp whites - a world away from what he had.

And because he developed such a strong sense of how sport and politics were intertwined, he loathed sportsmen who used their platform to support apartheid...

...who played a fair and gentlemanly game on the pitch, but off the pitch were cheerleaders for such extreme unfairness and injustice. None drew the ire of my dad more than Player.

It infuriated him that Player could thrive, despite being so publicly unrepentant, "in a democracy that he once did all he could to thwart".

I'd like to briefly discuss something I think is really important. Possibly the most important thing to consider this new year. When I worked in law I was taught to research and analyze all info & possibilities/arguments. We were taught to remove our emotions from this process..

The reason we were taught not to become too emotionally invested in a particular client or case was because it creates a situation in which you can be blindsided and/or manipulated. It can cause you to miss important information or facts that your client didn't want you to see...

This can then in turn implode your entire case & can damage the firm and/or attorneys reputation & credibility. In law, your reputation/credibility is everything. We were taught to remove emotion from the fact finding due diligence process. We were taught to seek out counter

Evidence; we were taught to analyze a case or legal argument from all sides and perspectives. We were taught how to understand the other side & attorneys argument. This is a vigorous process of picking apart your theory, trying to poke holes in it, questioning your own clients

Story, trying to independently validate or disprove it. This is so when you take the case to trial, you are prepared for everything and all possibilities. You must know the other sides legal theory/argument better than they do. You must have a solid foundation of prior case law..

I've got some great news on how to get #clout with #MatthewTabor and #JohnSwan

Please take note....

It's a really a very simply process.

1.

This is what you need to do....

a. Appear on my TimeLine. make sure you are gamer and you are using an anon Twitter account with an avatar that is pretty wet.

2.

b. Than be as rude to me as you can possibly muster.

And I mean really, really rude...

So you need to use some reallu, really nasty put downs.

I will give you some examples...

3.

These are techniques worth trying...
i/ use misogynistic slurs. These must allude to sex. So use sexual references and put downs.

ii/ Move onto addressing my age. You know the sort of thing...mention my looks and how I'm not very attractive etc.

4.

And then build up to the third and most revolting cr*p you can think of...

iii/ Target mental health. So call me 'crazy,' unhinged' etc.

Those three techniques should be adequate.

But this is race to the bottom so...it may not quite be enough.

5.

Parag Agrawal
Technology Lead

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Product Lead

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Head of Design and Research

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Head of Legal, Policy and Trust

The following four scenarios will be discussed at the continued session of the 13th #OPEC & Non-OPEC meeting today:
1-Given the expected growth of demand by 5.9million bpd in 2021 and the expected growth of supply by non-OPEC countries by 1.1million bpd, as agreed in Dec... #OOTT

.... the 23 countries will increase production by 500 thousand bpd for the month of February - similar to January.

2- Given the expected growth of demand by 3.9 million bpd in 2021 , and the expected growth of supply by non-#OPEC countries by 800 (or 900) thousand bpd,...#OOTT

... as agreed in December, the production by the 23 countries will increase by 500 thousand for the month of February - similar to January. This scenario is practically the same as scenario number one, expect for lower forecasts for demand and supply. #OOTT

3- No increase (of 500 thousand bpd) for the months of February and March, and an increase of 500 thousand bpd for the moths of April, May and June each. In this scenario as well the ministers will hold monthly meetings to appraise the market and decide. #OOTT

4-The 500 thousand bpd increased in January to be decreased for the month of February. No increase for the month of March, and instead an increase of 500 thousand bpd for the months of April, May, June, and July. The probability for this scenario is considered to be low. #OOTT

@beccalamjig You don’t have even the beginning of a facility for critical thought, do you? Can you read images in a thinking mode, i.e. through a critical semiotic lens?

Let’s begin (it won’t take long, I promise; this is quite straightforward).

You identified the title and the type of person in the picture correctly, well done. This indeed looks to be a book about women, more specifically quite young women.

Now, what is unusual about the photo?

Correct; the blindfold. The young woman, who indeed looks fairly stereotypical, is blindfolded.

What are the semiotics of blindfolding, Becca?

That’s right; being deprived of one’s sight by something that can be put on - and taken off.

In pictures, still or moving, we might associate blindfolding with kidnapping or bedroom play. This sets up what’s called a juxtaposition; two contrasting meanings that together form additional possibilities for interpretation. Let’s settle for a simple one; sex AND kidnapping.

This blindfold isn’t the type used in ordinary kidnapping though, is it?

No; it is made of deep pink satin roses.

What might deep pink satin roses symbolise? What are the associations?

"I had learned too much history not to know that the great masses always and at once respond to the force of gravity in the direction of the powers that be. I knew that the same voices which yelled “Heil Schuschnigg” today would thunder “Heil Hitler” tomorrow."
- Stefan Zweig

“The herd instinct of the mob was not yet as offensively powerful in public life as it is today; freedom in what you did or did not do in private life was taken for granted...toleration was not deplored as a weakness & debility, but was praised as an ethical force”
- Stefan Zweig

“It remains an irrefragable law of history that contemporaries are denied a recognition of the early beginnings of the great movements which determine their times.”
- Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday

“How Lilliputian all those anxieties were, how serene that time!”
- Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday

“For a society is always most cruel to those who disclose and reveal its secrets, when through dishonesty society itself has outraged Nature.”
- Stefan Zweig, The World of Yesterday

Thread: A look back at the top 10 most-read @undarkmag stories published in 2020, starting with…

#10: I had not personally heard of the Voynich manuscript — a cryptic, centuries old “text” that still baffles researchers — until super-smart @jillianefoley brought this story idea to us. If you don’t know about this puzzle, prepare to be fascinated:

#9: A riveting review by @Svobodster of @jameshamblin's book "Clean" and our collective obsession with "surface notions of cleanliness."

#8: My personal favorite headline of the year, which I continue to argue contains a gift to any budding garage band looking for a name. (You’re welcome). Story by the always excellent

#7: Written all the way back on April 16th, @kategammon’s smart look at the anti-vaxx community’s then-percolating suspicions around the hunt for a Covid-19 vaccine seems eerily prescient as vaccine roll-outs get underway now.

An important part of growing as a researcher is developing research taste. But it can be hard to explicitly work on. So I wanted to share some concrete exercises for developing research taste.

(Take my advice with a grain of salt! Note version: https://t.co/2BhyxOKy3q )

Exercise 1: Write down a list of research ideas. Have a mentor you respect rate each idea 1-10. Discuss ideas where you disagree with them after reflection.

It often takes several months of work to truly test an idea. Asking a mentor is a cheap proxy.

Exercise 2: Pay attention when other people try ideas you’ve had. How did the results compare with your expectations?

If you’re investing in brainstorming, you’ll have tens or hundreds of research ideas for each one you try. It can be emotionally uncomfortable when someone publishes an idea you had, but it’s an opportunity to get precious feedback for free.

Exercise 3: Interview researchers around you on their taste. Why do they work on the problems they do? How do they pick problems? What’s their “big picture” of research?

Bonus: If you have a great interview, you might consider writing it up with their permission.

Very interesting.

👆🏻

Mood, snake, savage on one side, a diamond on the other, and what is that — apple sliced in half and pizza? Is Elon confirming the rumour about what NASA did on Mars? If Mars was on our planet - where would that be?

The red car is Mars in the Parkade in the background goes underground. The Cybertruck is often shown on Mars, in fact I have an amazing CGI video clip of it that I posted once. So this little kid compacts into a cyber truck and then vanishes out of sight...

Cybertruck... and the Parkade goes down into the basement… Think about Cyberpunk77 and how it’s linked to Keanu Reeves who has played the character John in approximately 30 movies. Think of Christopher Reeves and Elon Reeve Musk...

@samtorode @eliehonig @maggieNYT Tell me Why Nancy Pelosi is talking to CCP antifa and fake news during on Jan 6 while PENCE was approving the election count. That little insurgency was a sting. WHILE CONGRESS WAS rushed to safety the undercover Marines (infiltrated antifa) took their laptops in the

POV: Midoriya is confronted about being a villain and goes on defense.

~~~

They’re in Izuku’s hideout. It’s just his; he doesn’t want it to have any connections with the League so he can keep them safe. They were his family, after all.

Izuku’s cornered, his heart surprisingly calm, with Kacchan and Shouto having herded him into the hallway’s corner.

he can’t help but laugh.

What faulty thinking on their part.

He’s always had the upper hand. Always a hidden ace up his sleeve, that which only he knew of. He ruled over them, and probably always will. They were smart: but were they intelligent? Were they genius? Surely not. And Izuku was right.

The collar of his shirt brushed against his neck enough to snap him out of his thoughts. Kacchan was trying to interrogate him on why he became a villain.

As it seems that everyone right of centre will be purged from this platform in due course, whilst acknowledging that my lowly position means it’ll be a while before they get around to me I thought I’d go for broke whilst I’m still here.

Here goes.

Parody accounts aren’t funny.

Men & women are different.

Tax cuts are good. They stimulate economic growth & let people spend more of their own money.

Alcohol is enjoyable. So is sugar.

Judge people on merit, not gender or ethnicity.

There is such a thing as the canon in the arts. Good, better, best.

I don’t care what box sets you’ve watched.

Cycling enthusiasts are weirdly culty and self-righteous. Which is unfair on a perfectly good form of transport.

America is a force for good in the world.

Capitalism has lifted billions out of poverty.

There is little worse or more dull than the desperation amongst so many on Twitter to (pretend to) be offended.

Party politics - a good thing.

It’s possible to question whether government has the right response to something without being a conspiracy theorist.

Real friendships exist in real life; the virtual world can mean that the real is neglected. OTOH, in enabling people to be in touch with others they might otherwise never have found, social media is a good thing.

It’s possible to like both dogs AND cats.

Columbo is the best TV.

The Purleighan Realms: Dragonfall

Darsyx held him, but only just. Part of the God of Protection understood exactly what his friend was going through, and refused to bring his full strength to bear, but he worried that might have to.

Vrayl was not himself.

"WHO FUCKING DID THIS, NERMAL?! WHO!?" Vrayl lunged, and Darsyx slammed him to the tiled floor of Nermal's throne room. Vrayl let loose a strangled roar as Darsyx expertly wrapped one arm around his neck, locking it in.

The throne room shook as a pulse of Vrayl's power sent tiles flickering away like leaves in the wind. Even with Darsyx's arm around his throat, Vrayl still dragged himself back to his feet, another step closer. "SHE'S DEAD, NERMAL. MY TENLEE IS DEAD!"

"Vrayl," interjected Darsyx, trying not to snarl. "You need to calm down. Dont make me end you. Please."

Darsyx moved to tighten the choke, but Vrayl spun and dropped, neatly slipping free of the choke.

He whirled, claws alight with divine energy, the spectral form of his true self crackling around him. "WHO KILLED HER, NERMAL?! WHO FUCKING KILLED HER?! I TRIED TO BRING HER BACK, NERMAL. I TRIED TO BRING HER BACK.

1) *IMPORTANT LINK AT END OF THIS THREAD*
(and no, I've never posted a tweet like this before.)

What times we are in. And how few understand or grasp the utter profundity of the moment.

2) Yet despite how it's looking from this current perspective, and after some turbulent months ahead (likely an understatement), the dawning of a true planetary renaissance WILL become apparent to even the most at-present comatose sleeper.

3) The evil is being uprooted and is being defeated.

That is my conviction as has been since April 2020.

About eight months ago I took a whole new look at Présídent Ťrůmp and what he has been doing – and re-orientated what I thought my opinion of him was.

4) When he first entered the pŕesidency, I had looked at and heard about his tweets, and thought, “Gosh. Can you believe it. This is the Pŕĕsidenţ of the Uníted Státés. How very unstatesmanlike to be tweeting stuff like this”.

5) But about eight months ago, I thought, "Why has every single article that has been written about him in the British media since he started running for office been – without exception – negative, negative, negative?".

So much cultural criticism boils down to chewing on the strange result of popular genre chum--guilty pleasure stuff--being taken more seriously than it was really designed for or capable of sustaining.

Im thinking about the furors around American Dirt, Bridgerton, and WW84, which, in different ways, are all objects meant to be consumed for pleasure without thinking too much about why and how. And then you think about them and you're like "wow, this sucks."

Scads of thrillers as bad or worse than American Dirt are published constantly, and no one but their readers notices, but THIS one got lots of "serious" attention, so it was held to real literary standards and eviscerated.

Bridgerton is an adaptation of romance novels--not serious alt-history--but when claims for the progressive work it was doing were made, lots of folks were like "wow, this seems pretty silly and kinda careless?"

And the conversation around WW84 is fascinating because of the strange way "comic book movie" is simultaneously "stupid goofy fun, not supposed to make sense" and "this is an allegory for America under Trump" (doubly vexed by the "saving cinema!" role WW84 was slotted into)