Two weeks in and I’m still wallowing in the ongoing soap opera that is Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. My week of Monday 14 to Sunday 20 November 2022 saw me waste so much time on that, but I also managed to push some commentary and other media objects.
I also made a decision about The 8pm Quiz, the livestreamed video quiz show which hasn’t been seen since the beginning of the year. I’ve pencilled in a few episodes across holiday season. I’ll confirm these plans by 1 December.
The 8pm Quiz of the Year 2022 Part 1, 22 December 2022, 8pm AEDT (TBC).The 8pm Quiz of the Year 2022 Part 2, 29 December 2022, 8pm AEDT. I’ll definitely do this second one, which will then not be numbered.The 8pm Quiz of the Everything 2023, 5 January 2023, 8pm AEDT.
[Update 27 November 2022: I thought I’d better double-check that these dates are good. Please let me know your preferred dates by 8pm AEDT on Thursday 1 December.]
On the Twitter dramas
Like so many others right now, I’m mainlining on the schadenfreude of watching Twitter implode, although whether it will survive this chaos, and what it might look like if it does, remain to be seen.
If you follow me on Twitter and you’d like to stay in touch if I should move somewhere else, please leave me your email address at stilgherrian.com/twitterrecovery. I won’t use your address for anything else.
You can find my interim Mastodon presence at the URL eigenmagic.net/@stilgherrian or by searching on the platform for @stilgherrian@eigenmagic.net.
There isn’t much there yet, but starting tonight I’ll start to replicate some of my Twitter content. If I do migrate fully, it will probably be done in stages, gradually shifting over more of the purely social content until the Twitter feed is just the more mechanical stuff like links to my work, before finally shutting that down too. But right now it’s really hard to say.
Articles
- Digital developments from Canberra 14, 19 November 2022. Parliament wasn’t sitting this week, but some interesting reports hit the table — including a couple of Commonwealth Ombudsman reports on electronic surveillance activities.
- Not by me, but edited by me: My client Steve Wilson has updated one of his conference handouts, Trust in the post-identity world.
- Not really an article, but after reading Mark Newton’s thread about the ABC’s Dr Norman Swan I was inspired to write my own critical thread about Swan’s covid-19 commentary.
You can read my previous writing at Authory, where you can also subscribe to an email compilation of any new stories each Sunday morning.
Podcasts, Media Appearance, Photos, Videos, Corporate Largesse
None of any of these things. You can subscribe to my YouTube channel to be notified when new videos appear.
Recommendations
First, a whole bunch of updates on the Musk-Twitter drama.
- Trump Used Twitter to Lie and Bully. That’s Unlikely to Change If He Returns, reports TIME.
- And of course he has returned. Elon Musk reinstates Donald Trump’s Twitter account after 15 million accounts respond to poll. Or rather, his Twitter account has been reinstated but as that TIME piece says, “According to filings made by Truth Social with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Trump is “generally obligated†to post on Truth Social, and cannot post a message to another site for 6 hours after first posting on Truth Social.” And as we all know, Trump would never breach a contract.
- “So here’s my hypothesis on the whole Musk twitter deal,” begins this Twitter thread. It’s an interesting and well-argued hypothesis.
- This week On the Media did a fantastic interview about both Twitter and Mastodon, Mastodon: The Platform Taking Twitter’s Worn and Weary.
- And finally something that’s tangentially related, Tornetta v. Musk: The Tesla Compensation Case. This week Elon Musk himself gave evidence, and this Twitter thread is entertaining coverage of his evidence. That Twitter account calls itself “parodic” but it appears that The Chancery Daily is legitimate coverage of corporate cases in Delaware.
And in other news:
- Ukrainian film director Volodymyr Demchenko is currently a soldier and is posting some remarkable observations: Like this one: “I have been sitting in the forest for a month now, waiting for further orders…”.
- This episode of TimeGhost TV’s World War 2 series, The Pornstars of World War Two – Pin-Ups, has some fascinating commentary about the role of objectified women in morale-boosting in an essentially all-male army.
- Tokyo’s Iconic Capsule Tower Cubes Get a New Lease on Life.
- A paper from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which I haven’t read yet: The future of digital identity in Australia. I know that my client Steve Wilson already strong disagrees that this is the way to go. Stay tunes for more on that.
- I’d been plugging TwoSet Violin’s concert with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and now here’s the recording. TwoSet Violin & SSO: Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. That link takes you directly to the moment the conductor walks onto the stage.
- I didn’t go to the Orgy of Goughrophilia last Sunday because I had the snuffles , which is disappointing, but here’s the text of Senator Penny Wong’s Whitlam Oration.
- And finally, some important technical thoughts: I Quit my Programmer Job to Become a Chicken.
The Week Ahead
Parliament is sitting this week, Monday to Thursday, and the same next week. I don’t know whether I’ll end up doing any journalism. I’m mainly focusing on my consulting clients.
On Saturday it’s the Victorian state election, so I’ll probably do something special. Watch this space.
Somewhere in there I’ll probably record the final special guest episode of The 9pm Edict podcast’s spring series — although there’s still three more days of November the following week. If not, I’ll record a solo episode. So much to talk about!
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Further Ahead
[Update 24 November 2022: I’ve had to cancel the two parties because I’m just too busy to take this amount of time out of my schedule.]
Annual Industry Boat Cruise, Networking Event & After Party 2022, which is an invitation-only event for the communications and internet industry, Sydney Harbour, 1 December 2022.Watterson Christmas Party, Sydney, 2 December 2022. This is another invitation-only event, this time by one of the better tech public relations firms. Also, this is traditionally a very long Friday afternoon and a huge amount of fun.- The 8pm Quiz of the Year 2022 Part 1, 22 December 2022, 8pm AEDT (TBC).
- The 8pm Quiz of the Year 2022 Part 2, 29 December 2022, 8pm AEDT. I’ll definitely do a livestreamed video quiz in the week between Christmas and New Year. I may or may not do the one before Christmas. I’ll decide by 1 December.
- The 8pm Quiz of the Everything 2023, 5 January 2023, 8pm AEDT (TBC).
- Everything Open, Melbourne, 14–16 March 2023 (TBA).
- NSW state election, 25 March 2023. I’ll definitely do something special for this one.
- The Sydney Dialogue, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, online, 4–5 April 2023.
- Coronation of Charles III, 6 May 2023, although I have no idea what I’ll actually do about it.
[Photo: A laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae) hanging around waiting to be fed at Bunjaree Cottages on 15 November 2022.]