The Off Topic Topic

[Sheilbh]

So Dr (now withdrawn) Naomi Wolf has been banned from Twitter:

Naomi Wolf banned from Twitter for spreading vaccine myths
Many social media users applaud termination of author's account, but some have said move is a blow to freedom of speech
David Connett
Last modified on Sat 5 Jun 2021 22.07 BST

The author Naomi Wolf has been suspended from Twitter after using it to spread myths about the pandemic, vaccines and lockdown.

Wolf, who wrote the influential feminist work The Beauty Myth, holds staunch anti-vaccine views. Last month she told a US congressional committee that vaccine passports would "re-create a situation that is very familiar to me as a student of history. This has been the start of many, many genocides."

As the pandemic continued, the author variously claimed that vaccines were a "software platform that can receive uploads" and that "the best way to show respect for healthcare workers if you are healthy and under 65 is to socialise sensibly and expose yourself to a low viral load".

In her most recent post, she argued that "vaccinated people's urine/feces"(sic) needed to be separated from general sewage supplies/waterways until its impact on unvaccinated people via drinking water was established.

Her suspension was widely applauded on the social media platform. One tweet read: "Thanks, @Twitter, for finally suspending Naomi Wolf for spreading harmful and floridly delusional anti-vax disinformation." Others observed: "Never forget. Naomi Wolf's suspension could not have come any sooner." Another said: "Congratulations to naomi wolf who is i think the first person to be banned from here for being too stupid."

The award-winning author Steve Silberman, who is a historian of autism, said: "I've been reading vile anti-vaccine propaganda for 20 years, and Wolf's claims were as out-there and delusional as I've ever seen."

Some supporters criticised the ban, claiming it was the result of US government pressure and a blow to free speech, and called for her account to be reinstated. Twitter has said the suspension is permanent and no appeal will be allowed.

The Twitter ban is just the latest in a series of controversies in which the author and former adviser to US vice-president Al Gore has become embroiled. Claims made by Wolf in her latest book Outrages, borne of her Oxford PhD research into same-sex relationships in the Victorian era, were publicly demolished in a BBC interview which exposed the fact that she had made serious research mistakes about the punishments for homosexuality in Victorian Britain.

In other unsubstantiated claims, Wolf has said the US military was importing Ebola from Africa with the intention of spreading it at home, and that US intelligence whistleblower Edward Snowden might be a government plant.

She did have some incredible takes like this on the restful peace of 1970s Belfast:


But I am kind of fascinated by her career advisor to Bill Clinton and Al Gore, feminist author, then into a (subsequently discredited) Phd in the history of homosexuality at Oxford, Occupy Wall Street, Assange, conspiracy theories about everything. It's just an extraordinary version of fairly prominent legitimising institutions (Harvard, Oxford, serious presidentialcampaigns) and the absolutely batshit.

[viper37]

A drone crash in an icelandic volcano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18ECUhkeY0&t=61s

Before the crash, the images are beautfiul, though

[grumbler]

So Dr (now withdrawn) Naomi Wolf has been banned from Twitter:


She did have some incredible takes like this on the restful peace of 1970s Belfast:


But I am kind of fascinated by her career advisor to Bill Clinton and Al Gore, feminist author, then into a (subsequently discredited) Phd in the history of homosexuality at Oxford, Occupy Wall Street, Assange, conspiracy theories about everything. It's just an extraordinary version of fairly prominent legitimising institutions (Harvard, Oxford, serious presidentialcampaigns) and the absolutely batshit.

You can almost see Wolf's mind breaking in around 2005, when she switched from writing feminist theory to writing political diatribe.  Her Oxford PhD has not been withdrawn, insofar as i know.  Her PhD thesis, though, apparently now consists of 1/2 the original thesis and 1/2 her retractions and corrections.

Now she's fully batshit-insane, and badly needs some kind of intervention. 

[grumbler]

A drone crash in an icelandic volcano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18ECUhkeY0&t=61s

Before the crash, the images are beautfiul, though

Not really a crash, but a deliberate destruction in order to obtain the video.  That's actually a pretty cool idea.

[jimmy olsen]

I know it's cliched, but the Apollo program remains one of the most impressive feats in human history. From the drawing board to the surface of the moon in what, 8 years?

Yeah. And it's quite depressing considering what we could have accomplished if we weren't blowing so much effort on useless nonsense.

If it wasn't for the space program our modern society would not even be possible.

[Admiral Yi]

Dang Timmy, you must drink a lot of Tang.

[garbon]

So Dr (now withdrawn) Naomi Wolf has been banned from Twitter:


She did have some incredible takes like this on the restful peace of 1970s Belfast:


But I am kind of fascinated by her career advisor to Bill Clinton and Al Gore, feminist author, then into a (subsequently discredited) Phd in the history of homosexuality at Oxford, Occupy Wall Street, Assange, conspiracy theories about everything. It's just an extraordinary version of fairly prominent legitimising institutions (Harvard, Oxford, serious presidentialcampaigns) and the absolutely batshit.

You can almost see Wolf's mind breaking in around 2005, when she switched from writing feminist theory to writing political diatribe.  Her Oxford PhD has not been withdrawn, insofar as i know.  Her PhD thesis, though, apparently now consists of 1/2 the original thesis and 1/2 her retractions and corrections.

Now she's fully batshit-insane, and badly needs some kind of intervention. 

If the authors of her Wikipedia entry are correct, it sounds like her feminist works were always a bit unhinged though not fully deranged like she appears to be now.

[Josquius]

I know it's cliched, but the Apollo program remains one of the most impressive feats in human history. From the drawing board to the surface of the moon in what, 8 years?

Yeah. And it's quite depressing considering what we could have accomplished if we weren't blowing so much effort on useless nonsense.

If you are depressed about blowing so much effort on useless nonsense, then maybe you should stop doing  it.  Become the future you want to see.

I try.
But let's face it I'm not about to create a perpetual motion device in my shed.

[HVC]

Not with that attitude you won't!

[Sheilbh]

This story is crazy - and filling lots of stereotypes
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brendan-bracken-a-friend-of-churchill-posed-as-16-year-old-schoolboy-sm3n02lpn

Brendan Bracken, a friend of Churchill, posed as 16-year-old schoolboy
A new memoir claims the former wartime minister set up a bogus school to satisfy his caning fetish
Tony Allen-Mills
Sunday June 06 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

A prominent Conservative politician and close friend of Winston Churchill set up a bogus "summer school" in Scotland where he posed as a 16-year-old schoolboy and hired other teenagers to cane him, according to a new memoir.

Brendan Bracken, Churchill's wartime minister of information and one of Britain's most successful newspaper publishers, was 54 in the mid-1950s when he embarked on a secret double life as a schoolboy named "Mike" who was said to suffer from a premature ageing condition.

The man who founded the modern Financial Times — whose London headquarters is named Bracken House — hired tutors and classmates who were led to believe that "Mike" was a troubled teenager in shorts and long socks who needed to be punished regularly ...

Edit: As Iain Martin has pointed out it does now make sense why Bracken, despite being relatively important, ordered all his papers destroyed on his death

[DGuller]

I know it's cliched, but the Apollo program remains one of the most impressive feats in human history. From the drawing board to the surface of the moon in what, 8 years?

Yeah. And it's quite depressing considering what we could have accomplished if we weren't blowing so much effort on useless nonsense.

Sometimes I wonder about what is and isn't useless nonsense.  A lot of things that we spend a lot of resources on don't really leave anything lasting.  Whether someone today decides to buy a small house or a big house won't really matter 500 years from now, there will only be their skeleton left in either case. 

The Pyramids, on the other hand, are still here today, despite them being a useless nonsense public works project back when they were built.  If the resources spent on building the Pyramids were instead spent on raising the standard of living of its builders (at least up to the level where they actually would be living), there would be nothing left of their legacy.

[Josquius]

True.
But if leaving a lasting legacy is our goal then you can't go wrong with space travel. If all humans were to suddenly vanish a base on the moon would be there long after the pyramids have crumbled to dust.

It is interesting to think of useless boondngles for their time coming to be big tourist money spinners improving life for locals in the future.
One area this is particularly interesting is in how towns/neighbourhoods that the industrial revolution passed by today tending to be far wealthier thanks to tourism and people wanting to live in these older areas.

Though that is quite an Anglo bias at work there probably. I do hear in France many cute old villages are being taken over by Brits as the locals have no interest in living there.
And fuck Japan massively with their "villages are just failed cities" approach.

[Legbiter]

A drone crash in an icelandic volcano:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j18ECUhkeY0&t=61s

Before the crash, the images are beautfiul, though

Yeah not the first drone this volcano has eaten either. Although with the views he's got he should be able to buy a replacement. 

[Josquius]

Jesus, dealing with mortgage companies

I just want to ask a simple question. I'm not looking to borrow more money or anything, just find out what I have to do to request permission to build an extension.
I phoned them weeks ago to be told I have to send a letter to ask about this. I called them again to figure out what was up and they say the letter is being processed and it'll be weeks before a decision is made.
A decision about whether to tell me what I have to do to ask what I have to do?

[Maladict]

Jesus, dealing with mortgage companies

I just want to ask a simple question. I'm not looking to borrow more money or anything, just find out what I have to do to request permission to build an extension.
I phoned them weeks ago to be told I have to send a letter to ask about this. I called them again to figure out what was up and they say the letter is being processed and it'll be weeks before a decision is made.
A decision about whether to tell me what I have to do to ask what I have to do?

I've bolded your problem for you