It's been absolutely fascinating -- though not at all surprising -- to watch a ton of Trumpists mentally struggling with the process of understanding the nature, importance, and necessity of content moderation online over the last few months via Parler. As you may recall, after whining about being moderated on sites like Twitter and Facebook, a bunch of Trump fans started using Parler, a site that was only recently revealed to have been cofounded by Rebekah Mercer (Parler fans like to claim that their users are migrating from Twitter to Parler, but most of them are still using Twitter, because Parler is mostly them preaching to the converted).
Parler's founders (including Mercer) and its biggest fans have been insisting that Parler stands for "free speech" and that unlike Twitter, it won't moderate content. Indeed, despite claiming that it would only moderate "based off the FCC and the Supreme court" (whatever the fuck that means), we knew that the site would end up doing much more moderation, just like every other social media site.
In fact, we highlighted how Parler seemed to be doing a speedrun through the content moderation lessons of every previous social media network that comes on the scene, promising to do no moderation at all, and then quickly discovering that that's impossible. First, you have to moderate some content under law (such as child sexual abuse material). Second, there is plenty of content that you have strong legal reasons to moderate (such as copyright infringement, to avoid massive liability). Third, every site recognizes they need to deal with straight up spam. And lots of sites insist that they can just do that and nothing else. But then they discover that they have people on their platform trolling, harassing, and abusing others.
Last summer, we highlighted how Parler was banning trolls who were joining the platform just to make fun of Parler and its users. Hilariously, that post keeps getting comments every few days from Parler users saying things like "of course Parler has to ban you leftist trolls." Just a few examples from our comments. This guy says that he needs Parler as a sort of "safe space."
So, how does censorship feel to you? Parlor provides a place where people can escape the insults, bullying, Mental/emotional assaults. Try presenting a point of view without name calling, with facts and data, with an open mind and with a little thought toward strangers and how the vitriolic hates speech affects them. Then perhaps the lefties will be welcome.
This is pretty hilarious, given how frequently Trumpists mock others for wanting "safe spaces" and insisting that "hate speech" is not a thing. And then there's this one from someone who thinks its obvious that the users trolling Parler should get banned:
Every last one of those crybabies up there just self-explained why they were banned. Lol
"I created an account just to mess with conservatives." Yeah dude, I can see why you were banned.
If you create an account just to screw with people, you're a troll and you SHOULD be banned regardless of the web site.
If you create an account to debate and give general respect to everyone, then no, you're fine.
The people above got exactly what they deserved. NO WEB SITE is going to allow harassment of any kind. Period.
Um. Yes, that was the very point of that post. That every site discovers it needs to deal with harassment. And that's a big part of the reason why people get kicked off of Twitter.
I find it hilarious that the same crew who insists that Twitter/Facebook are "censoring" them, immediately spins around and insists that it's totally obvious that Parler must remove "trolls, hate speech and harassment" without recognizing their own hypocrisy.
Anyway, sooner or later we were going to have a controversy in which Parler moderation impacted their Trumpist-style supporters, rather than just the folks jumping in to troll. And that day is today.
The Daily Beast has an article giving some of the important background. A SuperPAC connected to convicted political scammer Roger Stone is trying to get people to write in Trump's name in the two Georgia Senate runoff elections:
The most aggressive call to boycott or cast protest ballots in the two runoff races has, so far, come from a dormant pro-Trump super PAC with ties to Stone that unveiled a new initiative to retaliate against the Republican Party’s supposed turncoats by handing Democrats control of the U.S. Senate.
The group, dubbed the Committee for American Sovereignty, unveiled a new website encouraging Georgia Republicans to write in Trump’s name in both of the upcoming Senate runoff elections, which could determine the party that controls the upper chamber during President-elect Joe Biden’s first two years in office. The PAC argued that doing so will show support for the president in addition to forcing Republicans to address the wild election-fraud conspiracy theories floated by Trump supporters and members of his own legal team.
This entire campaign is somewhat bewildering, since (1) there is no way to write-in names during the run-offs and (2) it would seem to go against Trumpist interests to sink the support of the two Republican candidates. So it was somewhat amusing to suddenly find out that Parler is apparently blocking hashtags related to this campaign:
For what it's worth, Parler's recently hired policy executive says that the accusation may have been "a glitch" according to Newsweek. And I'd totally buy that is a possibility.
There seems to be no way to link directly to that Parler post, but it says:
This is false, as evidenced by the fact that this post showed up when I searched for the tag.
There may be a glitch, or a delay of some kind, because the initial screen summarizing the results showed “1 post,” and then when you click on that, you see a whole bunch.
Please people, don’t jump to conclusions. I know you’re accustomed to biased content curation, but we don’t do that here. Ask before jumping to conclusions.
However, I will note that when Twitter admitted that it had a glitch that filtered some people out of auto-complete and latest results in search, the same folks rushing to Parler now (such as Ted Cruz) insisted that it was obviously deliberate and to this day continue to falsely accuse Twitter of shadowbanning them. So it's pretty rich for Parler people to say "please people, don't jump to conclusions." The only reason Parler has any audience at all is because its insanely gullible userbase jumped to a bunch of false conclusions about Twitter moderation.
Again, Parler has every right to moderate however it sees fit. And getting rid of trolls and assholes is a perfectly legitimate thing to do. Also, glitches happen all the time. However, I find it amusing that once again, Parler is learning all the same lessons that Twitter learned over time -- and Parler's users (and employees) are demanding we give Parler the benefit of the doubt they never gave Twitter. So before Parler's fervent supporters rush into our comments to defend Parler, let me be clear: Parler has every right to do this. No one is mocking them for that. We're mocking them for (1) insisting that Parler wouldn't do this and (2) for the fact that you give Parler the benefit of the doubt that you refuse to give Twitter.
Harry Chapin’s 1974 classic “Cats in the Cradle” is a timeless meditation on the tragedy of growing older and growing apart. But you can’t just repeat the lyrics from the classic song to your parents to explain why you’re choosing not to travel home for the holidays this year — even though it perfectly encapsulates the modern condition and capitalist run-around of the American Dream that ultimately alienates us from our loved ones.
1. Stick to the facts. If you live in an area where cases are surging, if you have family members with underlying conditions, or if you just can’t afford that ticket — let everyone know from the get-go. No need to sugarcoat it. If you want to leave everyone hopeful, you can commit to traveling after a vaccine comes out, and then you’ll have a good time then. Oh, damn, caught myself slipping. It just flows so naturally.
2. Make a Zoom plan. Or Facetime, Skype, whichever your preferred video chat is. That way there’s no missed calls or phone tag. You won’t have to worry about finding the time, and it’ll be sure nice talking to everyone. I mean, but it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad. It’s sure been nice talking to you. Damnit! OK, it’s just… like… well… ugh. Moving on!
3. Let them know this isn’t a big deal. Doing our part to protect our communities and avoid further spreading COVID is a small thing we can all do. We won’t miss the holidays every year! And besides, we all have to make sacrifices sometimes. We miss a holiday now and then, we reschedule events, he learned to walk while I was away — shit! No! That’s… ha! That’s the song. Nope. Oof.
4. Figure out something special to do that isn’t just travel. Part of spending time at the holidays isn’t simply being together, but delighting in each other’s individuality and your special relationships. Think about things you can say or send to your family that are unique and reflect how you love them. Perhaps you can watch your favorite movie together, or there’s a recipe you can share, or thanks for the ball, Dad, come on, let’s play. Can you teach me to throw?
5. I said not today.
6. Fuck.
7. Let them know there are planes to catch and bills to pay… This is why you can’t afford to travel…
8. And the cat’s in the cradle and the silver spoon, little boy blue and the man on the moon…
9. Be brutally honest. You’re not sure when you’re coming home next since we don’t know when we’ll have a vaccine. Happy? When you comin’ home, Dad? I don’t know when!
OK, yes, it’s pretty tough to tell your family you’re not going to see them for the holidays (even with common sense and science on your side). So, sure, I guess sharing the Spotify link to “Cat’s in the Cradle” in your family group chat is really the only option to properly convey your devastation and mourning for how time is slipping away.
Ohhhhkayyyyy, who made this Hand Turkey? Seriously, who did this? Not to be a freak, but this Hand Turkey looks like he would treat me BAD. In a GOOD way. I’m not even being horny right now; this Hand Turkey just gives off a vibe that I like. It’s not even a weird thing. It’s just that this Hand Turkey looks like he would be cool too, you know? Like, this Hand Turkey gets mad ass but doesn’t brag about it. This Hand Turkey fucks.
We could even make it work, like, long term. It might start out purely physical, but eventually, we’d become friends after spending so much time together. It wouldn’t be like a “meet my parents” type of thing unless that’s what the Hand Turkey wanted. I don’t want to rush anything. Ha. I guess I do want Hand Turkey to meet my mom. Not my dad because he’s kind of a dick, but my mom for sure. I think we could just chill around my mom’s kitchen island and talk shit, you know? Have a glass of wine and reminisce. My mom and I do that a lot. Hand Turkey would be able to hang.
Look, I don’t want to put any pressure on what might or might not happen, but I think there’s something bigger here. I don’t know. Maybe this Hand Turkey doesn’t see me that way. That would be cool too. I think I could be friends with Hand Turkey. I KNOW I could be friends with Hand Turkey. I feel like Hand Turkey would value friendship first and everything else second. That’s what I’m talking about with the vibe! Hand Turkey gets it and gets me.
I want to take a trip with Hand Turkey. He seems like he’d be cool to travel with. The key to traveling with someone is to not get on each other’s nerves. I think Hand Turkey’s travel style is laid back. He wants to experience the culture and food. Hand Turkey is just like me in that way. Plus, it’d be rad to have someone to get drunk with in a foreign country. Maybe go to Belgium? Drink too much beer? Eat too much chocolate? Make some mistakes? Some mistakes that we both want? Sexually?
I don’t want to make it weird between us! I just want to be honest. Hand Turkey seems like he values honesty. I want to make it easy for Hand Turkey to get to know me. I feel like I already know Hand Turkey, though. Hand Turkey knows me. He never lies or tries to tell me what I want to hear. Hand Turkey wants the best for me and would never put his own needs above my growth. And that’s what makes Hand Turkey so sexy to me.
I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. It’s only been a few minutes. But how much time do we even have? Anything can happen in an instant. We can be erased in a moment, and after a while, there’s no one to even remember our memory. It’s like, “Ahhh, live in the moment!”
But that’s scary. Everyone is scared of that. Everyone except Hand Turkey. What the heck? I need to at least try. If I don’t try, I’ll always regret it. But maybe… Hand Turkey and I were meant to be like this. Maybe we weren’t meant to be anything other than a girl and her craft. Maybe we can continue existing like we are in this very moment; nothing closer, nothing further apart. We can remember the time we had. And maybe, that’s enough.
Keys to Mortgage Financing and Refinancing
Barron’s Business Keys
Friedman and Harris
1993
Okay, I admit I picked this one just for the cover. Then I sent it to Holly and she came up with a brilliant title. See above. Although Holly and I are professionals with more than 20 years of experience each, we still have the sense of humor of your average 12 year old boy. Seriously, Barron’s did you not take this to a focus group? Maybe they were hoping some subtle design would make mortgage information sexy.
Now time for some library science:
1993 is way too old to be floating out there in a finance collection. Technology, tax laws, housing markets, as well as the mortgage industry itself have all changed in the last 25 years or so. Barron’s is well respected and produces many of these types of financial handbooks. I would imagine that Barron’s wants you to update too.
Since its launch in 2016 Pokémon GO has attracted a wealth of academic studies – covering the social, psychological, medical, security and legal aspects of the game.
[ For those not familiar with the subject, here is some background : Pokémon GO is an augmented reality (AR) mobile game for iOS and Android devices. It was developed and published by Niantic in collaboration with The Pokémon Company ]
Here are some examples of scholarly studies (no particular order)
Harris County election workers wheeled in polling materials at Houston's NRG Arena on Nov. 3.
Credit: Pu Ying Huang for The Texas Tribune
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If you don’t trust the election results at the top of the ballot, there’s no reason to trust any of the rest of it, all the way down to justices of the peace, school trustees and seats on the city council.
And there’s no reason, at least officially, to pay any mind to any of the others who won in the November elections and who are now singing in harmony with the sore loser in the White House.
If those candidates won in a fraudulent election, as the president claims, they might not really be our chosen leaders. Why give them the time of day? Or the attention they seek?
That’s all ridiculous, of course, until it isn’t. And the way the questions are flying from the losing side of the presidential race, our system of choosing our leaders is under siege.
The logic is straightforward. If this election was rigged, and Donald Trump was actually the choice of the majority of the voters to be president for another four years, then maybe someone should get MJ Hegar on the phone to see if the Texas Democrat thinks she might have won the U.S. Senate race against Republican John Cornyn. She lost by more than a million votes, but how are we to know that wasn’t because some brainy teenager didn’t use an iPhone to flip the results?
Amy Clark Meachum might have some questions about her loss to Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht if the election system that put him ahead of her has been corrupted.
Trump himself beat Joe Biden by 5.8 percentage points. Are we supposed to just take that at face value?
That’s before you sort out the winners and losers in the state’s 36 U.S. House races, the 160-plus legislative races that were on the ballot, and so on.
Heck, Texas Democrats, still stinging from an across-the-board thumping Nov. 3, might be as eager for a do-over as the president seems to be.
U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Fort Worth, told CNN on Friday that she’s worried about the show the president and his lawyers are putting on in the wake of Trump’s election loss. “I have great concerns about it. I think that it’s time to move on,” she said.
There’s plenty of good reason to work up a sweat here, but it’s not because the elections are crooked. It’s because the losers are trying to reverse the results by claiming that the process in place in one of the world’s biggest democracies is untrustworthy. Trump questioned the results four years ago, too, saying he had won the popular vote when the tally showed he lost it by almost 2.9 million votes. Yet during his four years in office, he suggested no repairs to the system.
If the processes we use to count votes are unreliable — as the president’s lawyers are arguing — anyone might have won. It would be like having a busted scale or speedometer: You don’t know what you weigh, how fast you’re going or who everyone else voted for in the general election.
The evidence against the people claiming results-changing fraud is overwhelmingly strong. Small-time cheats are as old as elections. But wholesale tampering is virtually nonexistent, as you can see in studies from NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice or a map of recent election fraud cases put together by the Heritage Foundation. And the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency recently concluded that the 2020 general election was “the most secure in American history.”
This is a time-tested democracy that nevertheless depends on our faith in its reliability. We vote. The winners take office. Time passes and we vote again — keeping some, replacing some — in a cycle that has been going for more than 200 years. It’s got flaws, but safeguards are there to catch them. We have an inventory of people who tried to cheat because they were caught, just like bank robbers.
The system works, and the people screaming loudest about that are the ones who came up short. Voters couldn’t have turned them out, right? It must be a miscount.
If they’re able to tear down Americans’ confidence in the elections, in who won and who lost, they’ll create questions about whether the people who are supposed to be representing us are really the ones we wanted — from the top of the ballot to the bottom of it.
We hold elections to settle our fights over ideas and candidates, to end a cycle of political competition and give the winners the chance to govern — to impose some order on a chaotic world. If you can’t abide by the results, you’re stuck with the chaos.
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks about the GOP's unwillingness to contradict President Trump, who still refuses to accept the results of the presidential election.
Sure, Apple is supposedly working on an augmented- or mixed-reality headset that’s been rumored repeatedly, but the company is flexing its AR muscle with a device you already have. CNET explains why Apple is focused on perfecting its AR technology on iPhone and iPad to ensure success.
By now, you’ve like heard rumblings about how the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are tapping into phone location data to find people. Motherboard reports that a branch of the military tasked with counterterrorism (among other things), the US Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), has also been using apps to gather location data. One of those, Muslim Pro, is software designed to appear to be a prayer reminder.
Streaming services have turned the music industry on its head, but the murky waters of record deals are still there for aspiring artists to navigate. Pitchfork takes a look at the Record Deal Simulator, an online tool that takes terms like cash advances, royalty split and more to show musicians how many streams they would need to break even. It also gives them an idea how much the label would make at that point. And the info is available without have to pay a lawyer for a few hours of their time to do the math.
Children’s Birthday Party Book
Wilton Enterprises
1986
Wilton is the king of all things cake decorating. I will admit I never would think of decorating a cake for my kid. I would order one from my local bakery instead. I can appreciate the techniques used to make these cakes, but honestly, that bear looks possessed. The bear is staring into the eyes of the kid, transmitting the message “Happy birthday! Now I will eat your soul.”
Color me not impressed with the ideas. Speaking of eating someone’s soul, I am going to give a hard NO to clowns on a cake. The other ideas were dated-looking, and if I were a kid, I wouldn’t be that impressed. Maybe we have all seen so many cool cake sculptures thanks to shows like Cake Boss or the Great British Bake Off. This quaint little gem from the 1980s is just not cut out for modern baking.
Medical tents are set up at University Medical Center of El Paso during a rapid rise in COVID-19 cases.
Credit: Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The Texas Tribune
After El Paso resorted to using county jail inmates to move bodies for nearly two weeks, the Texas Army National Guard is sending a 36-person team to assist with mortuary services in the area starting Saturday morning, according to multiple state lawmakers in the region.
The border city has been devastated by the coronavirus for more than a month, with limited beds at its hospitals and makeshift health centers, and refrigerated trucks used as temporary morgues.
“This is very much needed in our community, and we’re really thankful for [the Texas Division of Emergency Management] and the governor’s action on this,” Democratic state Rep. and Sen.-elect César Blanco said Friday.
After county volunteers quickly backed away from the grueling work of moving bodies, El Paso officials turned to jail inmates Nov. 9. The inmates, serving low-level sentences, were paid $2 an hour in what was hoped to be a temporary job. The county asked for help from the National Guard to take over the work from inmates last week, said El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego.
Earlier this week, there was no word from the state. Gov. Greg Abbott, who serves as commander-in-chief of Texas military forces, previously said the guard was available but first directed Samaniego to use county resources. On Thursday, El Paso County officials sent out a public notice asking for applicants to work at the county medical examiner’s office as the number of fatalities caused by COVID-19 continues to rise.
Blanco said he didn’t fault the state for the delay. He said state emergency officials needed to evaluate what was needed before the National Guard was mobilized. On Friday, Samaniego sent a letter to Abbott asking for more help on top of the initial National Guard deployment.
“With the upcoming Holiday season I am concerned that without some additional measures, we will continue in a downward spiral, therefore, I am once again seeking your assistance in this emergency situation,” Samaniego wrote.
El Paso County has seen more than 79,000 cases of the coronavirus, and 910 related deaths, since the pandemic began, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. The case total is the third-highest in the state.
Now in its seventh season, MODERN BILLINGS has been launched by the Education Department of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. The program, initiated in the fall of 2018 and supported by Clear Channel Outdoor, invites artists to place works into under-served communities along the periphery of downtown Fort Worth via billboards. The current installment of MODERN BILLINGS will be on view November 20–December 20, 2020.
Led by the Modern’s Assistant Curators of Education Jesse Morgan Barnett and Tiffany Wolf Smith, the initiative asks artists to program billboard spaces which are traditionally used for commercial advertisements along Jacksboro Highway and the Lancaster corridor on the northwest and southeast sections of Fort Worth.
This season of MODERN BILLINGS is in collaboration with the Modern’s Teen/Artist Project (TAP) participants, who have designed nine billboards for the project. TAP collaborates with regional and national artists to “expand the knowledge of art, analysis, and techniques for young, aspiring artists.” The 2020–2021 season of TAP began with students working remotely with visiting artists Carol Zou, Riso Bar, Gerald Cyrus, Raul Rodriguez and Deep Red Press, Jessi Jones, and others. The students include Sarah Carter, Anthony Hosch, Nadia Karjadi, Elliott Kinney, Grace Larsen, Ana Parker, El Niño Romero, Madeline O. Smith, and Paul Yu, all of whose works appear below.
Sarah Carter, “Memory of a Kid” at 1198 S Sylvania Ave., 76111.
Nadia Karjadi, “Talking Without Speaking” at 2391 Riverside Dr., 76104.
Grace Larsen, “We Are All Monsters” at 1316 Jacksboro Hwy., 76114.
Madeline O. Smith, “X Ray” at 1727 E Hattie St., 76104.
Anthony Hosch, Untitled at 2810 E Lancaster Ave., 76103.
Paul Yu, Untitled at 2391 Riverside Dr., 76104.
Elliott Kinney, “Twister Cat” at 908 Forest Park Blvd., 76110.
El Niño Romero, “Oblivion” at 2810 E Lancaster Ave., 76103.
For more information on MODERN BILLINGS, please visit the Modern’s website here.
Since its launch in 2016 Pokémon GO has attracted a wealth of academic studies – covering the social, psychological, medical, security and legal aspects of the game.
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![[scrolling through a giant spreadsheet of transcribed data] 'Wow, a surprising number of users grew up at 420 69th St.' 'Yeah, must be a high-rise or something.'](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/viral_quiz_identity_theft.png "[scrolling through a giant spreadsheet of transcribed data] 'Wow, a surprising number of users grew up at 420 69th St.' 'Yeah, must be a high-rise or something.'")