Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors will return • The Register

No, this is not a joke. I wish it were.

Glenn

https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/25/twitter_suspeded_account_amnesty/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=article

Elon Musk to abused Twitter users: Your tormentors are coming back

Promises restoration of suspended accounts, despite previous pledge to do no such thing

  Simon Sharwood

Fri 25 Nov 2022 // 05:16 UTC

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has decided to allow suspended accounts back onto the micro-blogging service.

Musk used the same process for this decision as he did when restoring access to a Florida Man who once held high elected office in the US – an utterly unscientific and easy to manipulate poll of Twitter users.

The phrase Musk uses at the end of the tweet above – "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" – translates from Latin as "Voice of the people, voice of God". It's a quote from Machiavelli, which in context is warning against listening to people who say "the voice of the people is the voice of God".

Machiavelli thought the voice of the people tends towards insanity. It's like he saw social media coming.

The amnesty comes despite Musk having previously promised to form a content moderation council before making any decision about reinstating accounts.

Musk appears to have walked back that decision earlier this week when, in a thread about freedom of speech on Twitter, he weighed in as follows:

Twitter's definition of abusive behavior includes:

• An attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else's voice;
• Threats of violence, or "wishing, hoping, or calling for serious harm";
• Unwanted sexual advances;
• Using insults, profanity, or slurs with the purpose of harassing or intimidating others;
• Encouraging or calling for others to harass an individual or group of people;
• Denying mass casualty events took place.

Account suspension is Twitter's ultimate sanction and is only used after other disciplinary actions.

Operators of suspended accounts have therefore usually already been disciplined but continued to abuse other Twitter members.

Those members who suffered abuse are now on notice that their tormentors will return. And they return to a Twitter with a greatly diminished staff to respond to any further claims of abuse, and a CEO who has demonstrated indifference to their potential suffering.

Twitter has billions of dollars of debt to service, but runs at a loss. Musk has reportedly said bankruptcy is a real possibility if the service can't improve its financial position. Users are deserting and advertisers are nervous about brand safety. Its CEO has not indicated how he thinks letting known abusers back onto the platform will help. ®

--   Sent from my Linux system.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Begin forwarded message:


 

JON CARROLL

Thursday, November 23, 2006

 

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. It is comfortably free of the strident religious and/or militaristic overtones that give the other holidays their soft emanations of uneasiness.

At Christmas, for instance, we are required to deal with the divinity of Jesus -- I know some of you folks have made up your minds about that one, but not me -- and on the Fourth of July we must wrestle with the question of whether all those simulated aerial bombardments represent the most useful form of nationalism available.

At Thanksgiving, all we have to worry about is whether we can wholeheartedly support (a) roasted turkey, (b) friends and (c) gratitude. My opinions on these matters are unambiguous; I am in favor of them all. I understand that there's another story attached to Thanksgiving, all about a meal that may not have happened at all and certainly didn't happen on the fourth Thursday of November. (Check the New England weather reports. Does it sound like a good day for alfresco dining?)

The implication of the school-pageant version of Thanksgiving is that everything was just swell between the Pilgrims and the Indians. That's not true, and things got a lot worse before they got marginally better. But Thanksgiving isn't about that -- it's a harvest festival. We can attach some dopey Squanto-give-corn narrative to it, but it's really about how once more the earth has been fruitful and all the crops are safely in the barn. Thus, for me, the thrill of Thanksgiving is undiminished by caveats, codicils or carps. That alone is something to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving provides a formal context in which to consider the instances of kindness that have enlightened our lives, the moments of grace that have gotten us through when all seemed lost. These are fine and sentimental subjects for contemplation.

First, there are the public personalities, artists and entertainers and philosophers, who have been there when they were needed, whether they knew it or not. Let us think kind thoughts about Nancy Pelosi and Helen Mirren, Barbara Lee and Frank GorFwd: Fwd: Every year I send one version of this or anothere, Al Gore and David Milch, David Simon and Mikhail Baryshnikov, Tom Stoppard and Keith Olbermann, Jennifer Egan and Peter Carey, Van Morrison and Clarence Fountain, Don Asmussen and Judith Martin, Duncan Black and Joshua Micah Marshall, Dan Savage and Masi Oka -- this is my partial list; feel free to create your own.

And the teachers, the men and women who took the time to fire a passion for the abstract, to give us each a visceral sense of the continuity of history and the adventure of the future. Our society seems determined to denigrate its teachers -- at its peril, and at ours. This is their day as well.

Even closer. Companions. We all learned about good sex from somebody, and that person deserves a moment. Somebody taught us some hard lesson of life, told us something for our own good, and that willingness to risk conflict for friendship is worth a pause this day. And somebody sat with us through one long night, and listened to our crazy talk and turned it toward sanity; that person has earned this moment too.

And a moment for old friends now estranged, victims of the flux of alliances and changing perceptions. There was something there once, and that something is worth honoring as well.

Our parents, of course, and our children; our grandparents and our grandchildren. We are caught in the dance of life with them and, however tedious that dance can sometimes seem, it is the music of our lives. To deny it is to deny our heritage and our legacy.

And thanks, too, for all the past Thanksgivings, and for all the people we shared them with. Thanks for the time the turkey fell on the floor during the carving process; for the time Uncle Benny was persuaded to sing "Peg o' My Heart"; for the time two strangers fell in love, and two lovers fell asleep, in front of the fire, even before the pumpkin pie.

And the final bead on the string is for this very Thanksgiving, this particular Thursday, and the people with whom we will be sharing it. Whoever they are and whatever the circumstances that have brought us together, we will today be celebrating with them the gift of life and the persistence of charity in a world that seems bent on ending one and denying the other.

Thanks. A lot.

 

A song of thanks;

a grat etude for teachers

and lovers,

friends and enemies,

the baby in the corner

and the aunt in the kitchen

and the stranger with gravy

on his tie.

 

No I would not give you false hope on this strange and mournful day, but the mother and child reunion is only a motion away

 jcarroll@sfchronicle.com.

Page E - 5 
URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/23/DDGLBMHPBM1.DTL

(17) Casey DeSantis on Twitter: "I love you, Ron. On behalf of millions of people, never stop fighting for freedom. https://t.co/5wcopo041U" / Twitter

So God made you, Ron? I don't think so. Whenever I hear someone say they were chosen by God, my
first thought is, no, not God, not even close. If there is a prince of darkness, you are his chosen
one.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1588539069243473924

--
Sent from my Linux system.

MAGA

Dramatic Mirrored Orb Sits in Front of the Giza Pyramids

https://mymodernmet.com/spy-giza-installation/

Pyramids Are a Dramatic Backdrop for a Mirrored Orb Inspired by Ancient Egypt

By Jessica Stewart on November 19, 2022

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

The Giza pyramids are the dramatic backdrop for a new installation by anonymous Spanish artist SpY. Inspired by Egyptian symbolism and mathematics, the piece is part of the exhibition Forever is Now II. Organized by Culturvator/Art D'Égypte, the exhibition asks artists around the world to take inspiration from Egypt's rich cultural history. In SpY's case, he looked at the logical and spiritual world of Ancient Egypt to put together his piece, ORB.

The sphere is created from a cluster of circular chrome mirrors, allowing bystanders to soak in the surrounding environment that is reflected back at them. The form is based on the number pi, which is concealed within the geometry of the pyramids. SpY, understanding the importance of geometry and mathematics in Ancient Egypt, carefully looked at the measurements of the pyramids. What he discovered is that when one divides the perimeter of a pyramid by twice its height, the result is very close to pi.

"The sphere is an invisible part of the resulting geometry since a sphere with a radius as high as the pyramid would have a circumference very close in length to the pyramid's perimeter," the artist writes in a statement.

The use of mirrors is tied to the spiritual beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians. "The Egyptians believed that life in the beyond was a reflection of life on earth and it was thought that mirrors had magical properties. They also linked mirrors to the sunlight that contributes to resurrection, the regeneration of the corpse," the artist shares. "The construction of our sculpture shows these intentions. Like those mirrors, the sun, light, the surroundings, visitors will be reflected, creating a living link with the regeneration of life."

Forever is Now II, organized in collaboration with UNESCO and the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, brings together the artwork of twelve international artists and will run until November 29, 2022.

ORB is a new installation by Spanish artist SpY that is set against Egypt's Giza pyramids.

The sculpture is inspired by Egyptian symbolism and mathematics.

At night, the mirrored sphere glows from within, adding another layer of mystery.

The piece is part of the Forever is Now II exhibition, which runs until November 29, 2022.

SpY: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by SpY.

Jessica Stewart

Jessica Stewart is a Contributing Writer and Digital Media Specialist for My Modern Met, as well as a curator and art historian. Since 2020, she is also one of the co-hosts of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. She earned her MA in Renaissance Studies from University College London and now lives in Rome, Italy. She cultivated expertise in street art which led to the purchase of her photographic archive by the Treccani Italian Encyclopedia in 2014. When she's not spending time with her three dogs, she also manages the studio of a successful street artist. In 2013, she authored the book 'Street Art Stories Roma' and most recently contributed to 'Crossroads: A Glimpse Into the Life of Alice Pasquini'. You can follow her adventures online at @romephotoblog.

Read all posts from Jessica Stewart

--   Sent from my Linux system.

Agent orange

https://theweek.com/political-satire/1018540/the-great-race

--   Sent from my Linux system.

Fwd: Fw: Nov 16, 2022

"Old age comes at a bad time." – San Banducci

"Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened." - Jennifer Yane

"Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you are aboard there is nothing you can do about it." - Golda Meir

"The older I get, the more clearly I remember things that never happened. - Mark Twain

"I'm at that age where my back goes out more than I do." - Phyllis Diller

"Nice to be here? At my age it's nice to be anywhere." – George Burns

"You spend 90 percent of your adult life hoping for a long rest and the last 10 percent trying to convince the Lord that you're actually not that tired." – Robert Brault

"Old people shouldn't eat health foods. They need all the preservatives they can get." – Robert Orben

"At age 20, we worry about what others think of us… at age 40, we don't care what they think of us… at age 60, we discover they haven't been thinking of us at all." - Ann Landers

"When I was young, I was called a rugged individualist. When I was in my fifties, I was considered eccentric. Here I am doing and saying the same things I did then, and I'm labeled senile." – GB

"The important thing to remember is that I'm probably going to forget." - Unknown

"It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone, but the idea of getting old doesn't appeal to anyone." - Andy Rooney

"The older I get, the better I used to be." – Lee Trevino

"Everything slows down with age, except the time it takes cake and ice cream to reach your hips." - John Wagner

"When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old." - Mark Twain

"You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks." - Joel Plaskett

"There's one advantage to being 102, there's no peer pressure." - Dennis Wolfberg

"Looking fifty is great—if you're sixty." - Joan Rivers

"At my age 'getting lucky' means walking into a room and remembering what I came in for." - Unknown 

 

dance to the music

A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned the task of helping the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that they are copying copies, and not the original books.

So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there was an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies. The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."

So, he goes down into the cellar with one of the copies to check it against the original. Hours later, nobody has seen him. So, one of the monks goes downstairs to look for him. He hears sobbing coming from the back of the cellar and finds the old monk leaning over one of the original books crying. He asks what's wrong.

"You idiots", he says, with anger and sadness in his eyes, "the word was celebrate!"

Tweetledum

Buh-Bye

--   Sent from my Linux system.

under fire

H-2-Oh

--   Sent from my Linux system.