Marina Hyde did recently make a very droll observation about how it was surprising that of all the famous British Campbells, it was Naomi rather than Alastair who’s had to testify at The Hague. You could hear the stifled laughter in the studio.
I suspect she closes her eyes and thinks of the money (as with all advert reads everywhere!). Plus not being able to have a pop at Alastair Campbell isn’t the highest price to pay - I suspect that is actually not being able to point out what a dolt Rory Stewart has made himself look at not one but two elections in a matter of just a few months. I still shudder at him confidently pronouncing on what ChatGPT had to say about early results from the UK election.
I recommend an excellent, if harrowing, podcast Who Killed Emma?, to anyone still using the term “sex work”. It shows the grim reality of prostitution - it’s telling the journalist who made the podcast chose not to use the phrase.
Can't say I thought very much of the recommended Aaronovitch article. Consistently using the word 'Landowners' rather than 'Farmers' (average salary about £ 27500) and highlighting Dyson as the main example. To be fair, he does talk about Farmers in the last paragraph, but it simply reads something like 'some of my best friends are Farmers, but...'
20/24 in the Tolkien quiz. Some of the questions were a little more difficult than, 'is Bilbo the name of a character or of a Drug?'
I don't mean this as a dig, but there really is nothing wrong with a social media culture that encourages the use of alt text, quite the reverse. It makes a world of difference for people like me. AI image descriptions certainly have been going from strength to strength, but AI can't give you the context behind an image, nor can it identify people or landmarks unless they are particularly well known, and sometimes not even then. I know it's probably annoying to be scolded for not using it, and as a rule I tend to scroll past images without alt text and unfollow people who routinely post images without it, because frankly I have better things to do with my time, but don't dismiss it. It Took Twitter ages to introduce alt text, and even longer to make it promenent enough for people to actually know about it.
Encouragement is absolutely fine, but there’s a reason we’ve developed elaborate circumlocutions around correcting people — because it can sound very rude and end up being counter-productive. I’ve seen too much gleeful chiding when the tone should be “can I tell you about this helpful thing for the visually impaired?” (Or better yet, lobby the engineers to prompt people to enter it)
Oh yeah I absolutely agree, and for what it's worth I think the vast majority of the chiding comes from people who are not themselves visually impaired. I can say this with a fair amount of confidence in the case of Bluesky in particular because various accessibility issues mean that the vast majority of us are not there, we're mainly on Mastodon. I do hope that changes though because Mastodon not really being plugged into the mainstream world definitely has its drawbacks.
4. Could you articulate what the attraction for erudite folk such as yourself the attraction of Twitter and it's equivalents please?
I've been resisting the smug urge to say I've glad I never signed up for it and the loathsome Musk, yet clearly there is an innate appeal to express ourselves succinctly..at any moment.
However for one who routinely places both feet in mouth, I veer away from any opportunity to demonstrate this annoying talent.
The piece on Biden relaxing the border restrictions and the Texas Governor bussing the immigrants to New York was probably happening all over the marginal States before the election of Trump. It is also possible, if unlikely, that Kamala Harris had known of this problem but decided to ignore it. Noah Smith talked about the lack of concern by the Biden Team for the effect on immigrant populations of additional immigration. There will be a lot of analysis on why Trump won so easily despite all the polling saying it was neck and neck and well within the margin of error.
Marina Hyde did recently make a very droll observation about how it was surprising that of all the famous British Campbells, it was Naomi rather than Alastair who’s had to testify at The Hague. You could hear the stifled laughter in the studio.
I literally came here to make this point. Glad some else had the same thought
Never mind Alastair Campbell, I always wonder how Marina Hyde feels about having to unironically do advert reads on The Rest is Entertainment.
I suspect she closes her eyes and thinks of the money (as with all advert reads everywhere!). Plus not being able to have a pop at Alastair Campbell isn’t the highest price to pay - I suspect that is actually not being able to point out what a dolt Rory Stewart has made himself look at not one but two elections in a matter of just a few months. I still shudder at him confidently pronouncing on what ChatGPT had to say about early results from the UK election.
She’s had at least one drive-by at Rory post election.
Holding herself back then..
She got to have a massive rant about cocaine killing the nightclub industry the other day. I wouldn't worry about her being unable to vent...
I recommend an excellent, if harrowing, podcast Who Killed Emma?, to anyone still using the term “sex work”. It shows the grim reality of prostitution - it’s telling the journalist who made the podcast chose not to use the phrase.
Can't say I thought very much of the recommended Aaronovitch article. Consistently using the word 'Landowners' rather than 'Farmers' (average salary about £ 27500) and highlighting Dyson as the main example. To be fair, he does talk about Farmers in the last paragraph, but it simply reads something like 'some of my best friends are Farmers, but...'
20/24 in the Tolkien quiz. Some of the questions were a little more difficult than, 'is Bilbo the name of a character or of a Drug?'
16/24 on the quiz. Fool of a Took!
18/24 here. I knew a few on both sides, but had a tough time on the ones I had to guess.
I don't mean this as a dig, but there really is nothing wrong with a social media culture that encourages the use of alt text, quite the reverse. It makes a world of difference for people like me. AI image descriptions certainly have been going from strength to strength, but AI can't give you the context behind an image, nor can it identify people or landmarks unless they are particularly well known, and sometimes not even then. I know it's probably annoying to be scolded for not using it, and as a rule I tend to scroll past images without alt text and unfollow people who routinely post images without it, because frankly I have better things to do with my time, but don't dismiss it. It Took Twitter ages to introduce alt text, and even longer to make it promenent enough for people to actually know about it.
Encouragement is absolutely fine, but there’s a reason we’ve developed elaborate circumlocutions around correcting people — because it can sound very rude and end up being counter-productive. I’ve seen too much gleeful chiding when the tone should be “can I tell you about this helpful thing for the visually impaired?” (Or better yet, lobby the engineers to prompt people to enter it)
Oh yeah I absolutely agree, and for what it's worth I think the vast majority of the chiding comes from people who are not themselves visually impaired. I can say this with a fair amount of confidence in the case of Bluesky in particular because various accessibility issues mean that the vast majority of us are not there, we're mainly on Mastodon. I do hope that changes though because Mastodon not really being plugged into the mainstream world definitely has its drawbacks.
Thanks for linking that Sarah Ditum piece.
No Dean Kissick?
Curious about the Bluestocking editorial policy.
I had so much already this week that Kissick has been held for next week…
Ah excellent. Highly recommend reading the Tom Wolfe essay as well if you have time.
4. Could you articulate what the attraction for erudite folk such as yourself the attraction of Twitter and it's equivalents please?
I've been resisting the smug urge to say I've glad I never signed up for it and the loathsome Musk, yet clearly there is an innate appeal to express ourselves succinctly..at any moment.
However for one who routinely places both feet in mouth, I veer away from any opportunity to demonstrate this annoying talent.
The piece on Biden relaxing the border restrictions and the Texas Governor bussing the immigrants to New York was probably happening all over the marginal States before the election of Trump. It is also possible, if unlikely, that Kamala Harris had known of this problem but decided to ignore it. Noah Smith talked about the lack of concern by the Biden Team for the effect on immigrant populations of additional immigration. There will be a lot of analysis on why Trump won so easily despite all the polling saying it was neck and neck and well within the margin of error.