quorumtalks

[quorumtalks]

the question, though, is why is any of this necessary?

at no normal university with functioning operations should university presidents be resigning over political issues?

at no normal university with functioning operations should the university administration have to call in a police department in order to arrest more than a hundred students?

it seems apparent to everyone that this is an issue. as president of columbia university alluded to in her announcement cancelling most in-person classes for today, rather than call in the NYPD,

"We should be able to do this ourselves."

and yet despite this statement the current state of columbia is anything but that. pure chaos! and i can't for the life of me explain why half the nation's elite universities have all descended into the a similar mess. what is driving them into this hole?

a thread on universities

so the last few months have seen an insane wave of toxic political challenges at elite universities in the U.S.

first there was the bombshell resignation of harvard president claudine gay under heavy attack by the left and right and with Harvard rapidly losing donors while being smelted nationally.

the same mess over at UPenn, with not just the president but also the board of trustees resigning under heavy attack, condemned by wide swathes of the US political spectrum

both of those were massive disasters for each university, with raucous debate on whether each president should stay.

but i think it's clear to all of us that the last week at columbia university has far surpassed that. correct me if i'm wrong, but to the best of my understanding

pro-Palestine student protests spiraled out of control at Columbia University when protestors began shouting antisemitic slogans, aggressively harassing people on campus and turned the entire place into a 24/7 protest encampment, stopping students from attending classes

⁠Columbia President Minouche Shafik, freshly out of testimony before Congress, authorized the NYPD to arrest 108 students

⁠this did not stop the situation from spiraling further as protestors have now called for straight-up violence against Jewish students on campus

⁠which drew in the White House, who has gone out of their way to condemn the antisemitism and violent threats

and yet that is not POLITICO's front page! their front page, instead, is this piece, on the turmoil at UC Berkeley

and as one poignant quote put it

The tense confrontations, doxing of student activists and interfaculty disputes — including a viral incident with a student activist during a graduation celebration in the backyard of Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s home — are emblematic of tensions that continue to tear apart American campuses. Christ acknowledged that there is an “enormous sense of just physical precarity that our students feel, whether they are supporters of Israel or supporters of Palestine.” Social media has stoked that fear, she said, through the spread of videos of tense confrontations on college campuses as well as news of Israel’s ground invasion in Gaza.

the point is, no matter which elite university you're at, you're in some kind of massive political crisis, with intense toxicity

[quorumtalks]

a thread on universities

so the last few months have seen an insane wave of toxic political challenges at elite universities in the U.S.

first there was the bombshell resignation of harvard president claudine gay under heavy attack by the left and right and with Harvard rapidly losing donors while being smelted nationally.

the same mess over at UPenn, with not just the president but also the board of trustees resigning under heavy attack, condemned by wide swathes of the US political spectrum

both of those were massive disasters for each university, with raucous debate on whether each president should stay.

but i think it's clear to all of us that the last week at columbia university has far surpassed that. correct me if i'm wrong, but to the best of my understanding

pro-Palestine student protests spiraled out of control at Columbia University when protestors began shouting antisemitic slogans, aggressively harassing people on campus and turned the entire place into a 24/7 protest encampment, stopping students from attending classes

⁠Columbia President Minouche Shafik, freshly out of testimony before Congress, authorized the NYPD to arrest 108 students

⁠this did not stop the situation from spiraling further as protestors have now called for straight-up violence against Jewish students on campus

⁠which drew in the White House, who has gone out of their way to condemn the antisemitism and violent threats

and yet that is not POLITICO's front page! their front page, instead, is this piece, on the turmoil at UC Berkeley

and as one poignant quote put it

The tense confrontations, doxing of student activists and interfaculty disputes — including a viral incident with a student activist during a graduation celebration in the backyard of Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky’s home — are emblematic of tensions that continue to tear apart American campuses. Christ acknowledged that there is an “enormous sense of just physical precarity that our students feel, whether they are supporters of Israel or supporters of Palestine.” Social media has stoked that fear, she said, through the spread of videos of tense confrontations on college campuses as well as news of Israel’s ground invasion in Gaza.

the point is, no matter which elite university you're at, you're in some kind of massive political crisis, with intense toxicity

#thoughts #universities

[quorumtalks]

i think the Silver snoopy is really really nice too, but the blue SHINES through in a way that the silver snoopy can't EXACTLY do

watch time

okay so i just got an ad for a Sotheby’s auction tomorrow morning on watches in Hong Kong. time to investigate their watch collection and see what i like

[quorumtalks]

if i had to go for anything, though, HANDS DOWN it would be this silver snoopy omega speedmaster. she's so beautiful and the BLUE IS SO PRETTY ON HER TOO??? bro i actually like this one sm like LOVE HER SMM. here you go, view her:

watch time

okay so i just got an ad for a Sotheby’s auction tomorrow morning on watches in Hong Kong. time to investigate their watch collection and see what i like

[quorumtalks]

out of all the common shapes for watch dials, this is my favorite, i think. i like the way it's like a slightly blocky circle, with 5 points in the shake of a pentagon, that really appeals to me on some innate level i didn't know existed.

watch time

okay so i just got an ad for a Sotheby’s auction tomorrow morning on watches in Hong Kong. time to investigate their watch collection and see what i like

[quorumtalks]

this unique 3-sided cartier is really interesting to me. no idea how it works, but i think it would fit very well with a 1980s-pop-design fit

watch time

okay so i just got an ad for a Sotheby’s auction tomorrow morning on watches in Hong Kong. time to investigate their watch collection and see what i like

[quorumtalks]

ever since my bestfriend showed me the reverso watches i've thought they're really cool. not the most fun one, but i like the slim design of the dial

watch time

okay so i just got an ad for a Sotheby’s auction tomorrow morning on watches in Hong Kong. time to investigate their watch collection and see what i like

[quorumtalks]

first of all, we can immediately rule out all watches made by Rolex, because they are so snobby and require you buy other watches from them which you might not even like before they give you anything

watch time

okay so i just got an ad for a Sotheby’s auction tomorrow morning on watches in Hong Kong. time to investigate their watch collection and see what i like

[quorumtalks]

watch time

okay so i just got an ad for a Sotheby’s auction tomorrow morning on watches in Hong Kong. time to investigate their watch collection and see what i like

#watchposting

[quorumtalks]

like would trying out poetry be one way of solving that? i honestly have no idea because poems CAN be even deeper which could make this even worse. but who knows it's worth a shot i guess

If you're lamenting the fact that you used to be able to shoot through a 500-page novel in like a day when you were in middle school and now you can't, it's worth bearing in mind that a big part of that is because when you were in middle school, your reading comprehension sucked. Yes, mental health and the stresses of adult life can definitely be factors, but it's also the case that reading is typically more effortful as an adult because you've learned to Ponder The Implications. The material isn't just skimming over the surface of your brain anymore, and some of the spoons you used to spend on maximising your daily page count are now spent on actually thinking about what you're reading!

[quorumtalks]

i wonder what i can do to enjoy reading as i get older. because i used to really love them but as i do more and more and more literary analysis the implications are weighing me down and i can't enjoy nothing no more

If you're lamenting the fact that you used to be able to shoot through a 500-page novel in like a day when you were in middle school and now you can't, it's worth bearing in mind that a big part of that is because when you were in middle school, your reading comprehension sucked. Yes, mental health and the stresses of adult life can definitely be factors, but it's also the case that reading is typically more effortful as an adult because you've learned to Ponder The Implications. The material isn't just skimming over the surface of your brain anymore, and some of the spoons you used to spend on maximising your daily page count are now spent on actually thinking about what you're reading!

[quorumtalks]

given all the other, more severe problems that most illegal immigrants are facing that i think we all recognize a policy fight over what to call them is as irrelevant as can be. it's not like we're going to fight over what to call people who need abortion -- fight to protect abortion

side note

also okay a surprising amount of energy is spent by leftists trying to stop calling illegal immigrants illegal and instead referring to them as undocumented or unauthorized or whatever. the CIA once said that the most effective way to disrupt an organization is to spend as much time discussing and placing importance on as trivial a thing as possible, thereby slowing the organization down as everyone is stuck resolving a miniscule problem with no progress towards the actual target. this is exactly that. literally whether you call the group ‘illegal’ or ‘unauthorized’ has no bearing on whether they can enter the US or are protected or literally anything else of substance. yet left-wing activism has spent the better part of two decades creating “words matter” campaigns to get people to say ‘undocumented,’ on the basis that there is some kind of mindset change benefit by using different words to say the same thing. so much energy and so much money has been spent on this to achieve virtually zero progress for actual illegal immgirants. it feels almost like a carbon copy of being ineffective as per the CIA guide to disruption — constantly debate something that is meaningless and thereby achieve nothing.

[quorumtalks]

side note

also okay a surprising amount of energy is spent by leftists trying to stop calling illegal immigrants illegal and instead referring to them as undocumented or unauthorized or whatever. the CIA once said that the most effective way to disrupt an organization is to spend as much time discussing and placing importance on as trivial a thing as possible, thereby slowing the organization down as everyone is stuck resolving a miniscule problem with no progress towards the actual target. this is exactly that. literally whether you call the group ‘illegal’ or ‘unauthorized’ has no bearing on whether they can enter the US or are protected or literally anything else of substance. yet left-wing activism has spent the better part of two decades creating “words matter” campaigns to get people to say ‘undocumented,’ on the basis that there is some kind of mindset change benefit by using different words to say the same thing. so much energy and so much money has been spent on this to achieve virtually zero progress for actual illegal immgirants. it feels almost like a carbon copy of being ineffective as per the CIA guide to disruption — constantly debate something that is meaningless and thereby achieve nothing.

[quorumtalks]

🧵 3/3 On top of that, movies take all of your time. Those 2 hours and 46 minutes aren't time you can spend also doing something else, or time you can fit in as 'rest time' while doing something else. Soaps are great to have in the background, but when you watch a slow movie, you have no choice but to sit there in the darkness. If you're going to spend 2h46m watching something slow, is it not better you have the choice to pause and do other things and use it as a rest break or do other things simultaneously? Movies don't give you that option.

hearing from other people about dune

🧵 1/3 Dune Part Two's runtime is 2 hours and 46 minutes -- with ads, that puts it slightly over 3 hours. now by all means the movie has been commercially successful and a ton of people I know both online and off have gone to watch it. The thing, though, is that quite a few have said that it's a "slow" movie, which makes me think: are movies even meant to be slow?

[quorumtalks]

🧵 2/3 Fast movies have their own niche. Tons of people love seeing action, but the budgets you need to produce content like that often just does not fit into the TV space. The exact opposite is true for slow movies, though -- that's exactly where TV can fit the bill anyway. Soap operas, filler episodes, everything else -- TV and Netflix are great at making slow-moving content.

hearing from other people about dune

🧵 1/3 Dune Part Two's runtime is 2 hours and 46 minutes -- with ads, that puts it slightly over 3 hours. now by all means the movie has been commercially successful and a ton of people I know both online and off have gone to watch it. The thing, though, is that quite a few have said that it's a "slow" movie, which makes me think: are movies even meant to be slow?

#movies #dune

[quorumtalks]

hearing from other people about dune

🧵 1/3 Dune Part Two's runtime is 2 hours and 46 minutes -- with ads, that puts it slightly over 3 hours. now by all means the movie has been commercially successful and a ton of people I know both online and off have gone to watch it. The thing, though, is that quite a few have said that it's a "slow" movie, which makes me think: are movies even meant to be slow?

#movies #dune

[quorumtalks]

they often lean into antisemitic stereotypes as part of a portrayal of the US as 'in cahoots' with Israel to destroy the Middle East

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/11/11/tehran-iran-anti-american-murals-united-states-weaker-laughable/ i thought this was a great look into the thinking and ideology behind this

i trawl wikipedia on diplomacy and end up doing transportation, megathread

🧵 1/ first i learned what a protecting power is. apparently this is when one country (e.g. Venezuela) doesn't have diplomatic relations with another (e.g. the U.S.), but they're represented instead by a third country's embassy (e.g. the Turkish Embassy Washington D.C.) where a designated member of that third country's staff represents the first country (i.e., a Turkish diplomat represents Venezuela) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protecting_power#Current_mandates