Author Archives: Robert Basil

Twitter

I’m keeping in abeyance any decision I might make on maintaining my presence on Twitter. I’ve been tweeting away since 2008, though I have never been especially prolific. (That said, this platform completely redefined “prolific”!) The place had a few … Continue reading

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Better

When I finally consented, two decades ago, to using the necessary phrase “passive aggressive,” I felt awful, and beaten, like I had fallen off the wagon. But I am clean again! A dear friend employed the phrase defensive envenomater this … Continue reading

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It’s actually easy

… not to do this.

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Not included.

Sometimes you have to read a story two or three times to make sure you’re reading it right. As in: A PhD candidate is hoping the University of Alberta changes its practice on publishing theses after hers was rejected for spelling her [Urdu] … Continue reading

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Information warfare

Chester Wisniewski, longtime friend of this blog and principal research scientist at Sophos, has been studying Russian cyber aggression for a very long time. In a new piece he describes the kind of threats we can expect from Russia as … Continue reading

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The other Spotify scandal

Esteemed recording engineer Steve Albini explains in a recent twitter thread that there’s “an important thread of continuity over time about the exploitation of bands by record labels that deserves a closer look, re the current Spotify debate.” It is … Continue reading

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It’s wild out there.

The 2022 Social Media Map from Overdrive is here – this is a happy day! – and it includes live links to 675 sites, apps, and tools, broken down into 25 categories.  Click on the image above to download the … Continue reading

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Alas

“Critical thinking isn’t contagious.”

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English Bay logs, gathered after wind storm.

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You complete the world.

It seems staggering that the brand new mayor of NYC, Eric Adams, could use the words “low skilled workers” to describe anyone who works in his city. I could walk for hours through Manhattan before seeing *anyone* whose work I … Continue reading

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