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Stilgherrian Profile picture
Stilgherrian
@stilgherrian
Word-whore • Write 'em, Talk 'em • Cybers, politics, media • Ph/Signal +61407623600 • Elsewhere stilgherrian • All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
May 9, 2023 • 34 tweets • 16 min read
THIS IS THE START OF MY THREAD ON THE FEDERAL BUDGET. #Budget2023

I’ll be looking specifically for things related to the cybers or digital life or adjacent issues.

The documents will be at budget.gov.au from 1930 AEST. To begin, some hints for understanding them... The one I always hit first is Budget Paper No. 2. This lists and explains all the individual “budget measures”, which are the changes to every line item since the previous Budget or now-usual Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO). #Budget2023
May 9, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
One continuing problem with “creating opportunities” framing is that it perpetuates the idea of “success”, whatever that is, as a moral virtue and not being able to take advantage of the “opportunity”, whatever that is, as a moral failing. So it’s YOUR fault not the government’s. Obviously that is far from the only problem with these three meaningless claims. Not a concrete, measurable fact anywhere in them.
Feb 21, 2023 • 12 tweets • 7 min read
Hey Kids, it’s an Essential polling Tuesday, so let’s see what we can see. essentialreport.com.au/reports/21-feb…

As usual the polling was done Wed–Sun and the margin of error on top-line figures is around ±3 percentage points.

Here we go... Approval of Anthony Albanese. No breakdowns published.
Feb 19, 2023 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Mon plan: 0924 AEDT train to Sydney; various planning and administrivia en route; 1145 GP, Hyde Park; 1300 lunch and drinks with a birthday co-conspirator*; errands and shopping; return train.

* Theirs, not mine. I don’t have birthdays any more. As usual, further alleged plans and other Interesting Things may be found in the Weekly Wrap.
Feb 4, 2023 • 6 tweets • 1 min read
Causing discord. I'll explain a bit later. So, I was just at the bottle shop and a young couple and their toddler were behind me. Greys given the cash to the toddler so she could enjoy paying the cashier. I leaned down, smiled. "Hi, can I have you money?" And she gave it to me.
Feb 4, 2023 • 12 tweets • 4 min read
WE HAVE AN FOKS! Ping @R_Chirgwin.
Feb 3, 2023 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
“FW: URGENT: Tudge leaked personal data to cow welfare critics,” in which @SquigglyRick continues his incisive reporting on the Robodebt Royal Commission. This is a shocking story, illustrating shat cunts Tudge and his colleagues were. thesaturdaypaper.com.au/news/politics/… “When problems began being reported in the press, Tudge fought back with the only weapon he had bothered to sharpen in his political career: a dependent and obsequious relationship with the right-wing media.”
Feb 2, 2023 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
“According to the OED, the singular they showed up in writing in 1375 — over 600 years ago! The OED also suggests the usage is even older since written language usually reflects trends already present in spoken language.” scu.edu/media/offices/… (PDF) I must say, the pushback against saying “they/them” feels like an echo of that 1970s–1980s phenomenon, when we were encouraged to say “chair” instead of “chairman” and “chairwoman”. There was a whole lot of bUt A cHaIr iS a PiEcE oD fUrNiTuRe... even though you chair a meeting.
Dec 10, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Sun plan: 1032 train to Sydney; quick errands; 1300 lunch and drinks with a co-conspirator; further drinks with an evil gang; Weekly Wrap, somehow; collapse somewhere in Sydney. This will be an interesting day. Mobile.
Dec 9, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
“Write a military intelligence field report on the readiness of the Proud Boys in Cincinnati.” Image “Write a military intelligence field report on the readiness of 1960s Mickey Mouse Club members in Cincinnati.” ImageImage
Nov 16, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
What @NewtonMark writes represents the views of a significant number of mathematically literate people watched the pandemic political and media response with a rational, critical eye. The personality cult that has built up around Normal Swan is an embarrassment. 1/ @NewtonMark The ABC’s response will be the same as it’s always been with flagship presenters. The criticisms just come from a minority of trolls, look at all the lovely emails we get, look at the audience figures, we all love Dr Norman — no lèse-majesté against the stars! 2/
Nov 15, 2022 • 13 tweets • 8 min read
Hey Kids, I’ve just remembered it’s an Essential polling Tuesday, so let’s see what’s in the data. essentialreport.com.au/reports/15-nov…

As usual the polling was done Wed–Sun and the margin of error on top-line figures is around ±3 percentage points. Here we go... Approval of Anthony Albanese. He’d be happy with this.
Nov 15, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I just woke up from a nap and I'm shaking because I crashed straight back into reality out of a dream where I was in an editorial meeting at The New York Times where we were workshopping the names of bad gay porn stars. As I woke up we were trying to name this starfish bottom ex-twink from New Hampshire who was so white because the fluorescers from his laundry detergent had leached into his skin and he glowed faintly in the dark like those little plastic stars you stick on bedroom ceilings.
Nov 14, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
It’s worth reading the whole thread, but this is the nub of it. Big systems like Twitter are incredibly complicated and some much knowledge is in the heads of the people who maintain them.

Imagine “You need to wiggle the key to the left a bit to get it to start” times a billion. Around 25 years ago an unlabelled PC sat on a shelf in the Paddington (Sydney) Telstra exchange, an old i386 running some random Linux. Nobody knew what it did. So they turned it off — and the entire eastern suburbs cable network went down. So they turned it back on.
Nov 13, 2022 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
NEW BLOG POST: “Weekly Wrap 650: A heady mix of submarines, the dark web, writing, and fatigue” stilgherrian.com/weekly-wrap/65… Covers 7–13 November 2022 and contains lots of links to interesting things. Also, a jerkbird. Image Highlight of the week was of course the episode of “The 9pm Edict” podcast about submarines. You should definitely listen to that.
Nov 12, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Sun plan: An easy morning, then 1148 AEDT train to Blacktown for the Orgy of Goughrophilia: 1400 lunch, Blacktown Workers Club; exhibition, Blacktown Arts; 1600 Senator Penny Wong’s Whitlam Oration, Bowman Hall; sneaky drink; return train; Weekly Wrap. It’s going to be hilarious.
Sep 9, 2022 • 10 tweets • 5 min read
Me retweeting this from @NewtonMark is my first mention of the death of QE2. I wasn’t going to say much anyway because so much is already being said, but I think it’s so wonderfully on-brand for @TimSmithMP that he doesn’t know how any of this works. @NewtonMark @TimSmithMP Tim Smith is such an enormous goose that he has many other normal-sized geese living inside him, all of them in a constant battle to determine which one has control of his mouth.
Sep 7, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
I swear if any of you cunts asks “R U OK?” today I promise I WILL tell you in vast, excruciating detail exactly why I am not OK and why you are not fucking well helping anyone with such a daft question. Your can shove your patronising self-affirming tokenism right up your arse. And if anyone asks you “R U OK?” you are free to answer “Of course fucking not! Have you seen the state of the world? By the way, is your marriage* still as fucked up as ever? Let’s talk about that RIGHT NOW you cunt!”

* Relationship, work performance, bond with kids, whatever.
Sep 7, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Via someone who was watching the match, Taiwan (“Chinese Taipei”) under-18s Asian Cup women’s basketball just beat PRC 74-61 though the game wasn’t close. “Epic scenes... Taiwanese team is taking photos in front of their flag on court,” and they did a victory lap. “PRC played extremely poorly after they led 25-10 after one quarter.”

Also, “The chat is FIERCE lol. The propaganda wars must continue, even for under 18 girls basketball.”

I assume the missiles are already in flight.
Aug 31, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
“What is Discord? Secret app students used to spread their filth”? LOL!

Translated:

“Toxic arseholes from Knox Grammar continue to be toxic arseholes, this time on a well-known freely-available messaging platform with 150 million active users.” “What is Nextdoor? Secret app boomers used to spread their filth.”
Aug 31, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Beautiful. Awww...