Nutty In NYC

13: Garchs Ain't Good

I call then Garchs - types who have unconscionable wealth, wiling to subvert democracy to accumulate more. The word oligarch is used by academics, but that doesn't sound sinister enough to me for those whose only purpose is to accumulate immense wealth and power at the expense of the other 99.9%

13: Why Journalists Should Leave Twitter

The fact that Twitter is a mess is not news or a surprise. The transition to a new "X" logo and the elimination of the blue bird is just another exercise in Elon Musk's narcissism. Join me as talk about the pros and cons for migrating towards a decentralized social media and avoid the ever increasing madness that is now X

TUF 01: The Untilled Field: In The Clay

The Untilled Field (1903) is a volume of short stories by George Moore. Chapter one, In The Clay, features the story of a Dublin sculptor whose work has been destroyed. Who is to blame and what has caused this unprovoked destruction? About The Author - from the Dictionary of Irish Biography George Augustus Moore (1852 - 1933), novelist, critic, memoirist, and cultural activist, was born 24 February 1852 at Moore Hall, Ballyglass, in Co. Mayo, a ‘big house’ in the Anglo-Irish style, built by his grandfather (another George Moore) in 1792 with money accumulated in the Spanish wine trade. However, unlike most such houses, Moore Hall was a catholic residence, the Moores having preserved their wealth and their confessional allegiance over the generations. George Moore was the eldest son of George Henry Moore – a founder of the Catholic Defence Association, a leading figure in the independent Irish party, and a successful breeder and trainer of thoroughbred horses – and Mary Moore (née Blake). Moore's great-uncle, John Moore was president for a few days of the short-lived republic of Connacht during the 1798 rebellion. Moore's background and upbringing were unusual: though catholic, the Moores lived very much in the style of the protestant ascendancy, whose houses they frequented in Mayo; and yet the family had strong nationalist and even republican leanings: George Henry Moore, the novelist's father, appears to have taken the Fenian oath. These contradictory tendencies are to be seen in the complexities of Moore's mature narrative art. Cover Art Portrait of George Moore by Edouard Manet, 1879

12: Big Media - Knuckle Under Or Revolt?

Yesterday, Twitter suspended the accounts of several high-profile journalists [https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/technology/twitter-private-jet-accounts-suspended.html]. In Twitter’s understaffed and diminished state, no immediate reason was given for the actions.  Apparently, Twitter’s decision relates to the journalists reporting on the suspension of a Twitter account named ElonJet, which tracked the movements of Elon Musk’s private plane. It seems Mr. Musk believes that tracking the movement of his jet put both him and members of his family at risk and, in his view, constitutes doxxing. For those unfamiliar with the term, doxxing is “the action or process of searching for and publishing private or identifying information about a particular individual on the internet, typically with malicious intent.”   Whether that is a fair description of the jet tracking Twitter account, which uses publicly available information, is certainly something open to debate. Much as I’m loathe to agree with Mr. Musk, I think the publication of real-time tracking information is a security threat.  That said, it seems Twitter, at the direction of Mr. Musk, has opted to suspend journalists who have reported in a critical way on the controversy. For a champion of anything-goes, unregulated freedom of speech, Mr. Musk is proving to have diaphanously thin skin. It seems Mr. Musk believes freedom of speech only applies to reporting, which is congruent with his views. With this controversy, major media companies now have a decision to make. Do they continue encouraging their employees to post content on a platform whose owner can best be described as erratically inconsistent? Or withdrawing from the platform, cutting off access to a large audience, estimated at 237 million active users. Remaining, however, amounts to knuckling under to Mr. Musk, kissing his ring, and being subjected to more arbitrary content and account management decisions. Looking at the decision from another angle, however, reveals that Mr. Musk is not the sole owner of the whip. Twitter thrives on the publication, participation, and availability of journalists on its platform. Withdrawal by a major media company from the service would diminish its power and relevance. Withdrawal by multiple companies would be devastating.  There are alternatives that make sense. I’d suggest that the major media companies should opt to establish a more formal presence on the decentralized Mastodon network. Why? Well, no one individual owns the platform, and each media company can create its own server or instance that can be controlled and regulated at minimal cost. As each media company migrates to Mastodon, thoughtful consumers of social media will follow, leaving Twitter an empty wasteland of aggrieved Elon Musk fanboys.  So what say you, CNN, New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, CBS, NBC, BBC? Is it time to shut the door on an once valuable service now run by a narcissistic egomaniac or are you going to continue to knuckle under? I’m Martin Nutty, and you’ve been listening to Nutty In NYC

11: Time To Twexit

Five reasons behind why I'm leaving Twitter and why I think you should too