A Drunken Madman

Thursday, August 25, 2011 #

@AthiestBot suspended

Yes, @AthiestBot, darling of the twitter Atheist community, has copped a suspension from Twitter.

He was a fun experiment while he lasted, managing to garner several death threats from loving, forgiving christian folk, and gathering an even larger quota of lulz via idiots who couldn't understand why it was called "AthiestBot".

There's an appeal in to twitter at the moment to reinstate the account, however there is a rule deep in twitter's documenttion about not @replying based on searches. How this is significantly different from a human or small group of humans @replying based on searches is unexplained - at least @AthiestBot has mechanisms to prevent multiple hassling and a "never talk to me again" function, which humans tend not to. And he's certainly not the only replybot out there. AthiestBot actually mentioned a couple in his guest post.

Still, I'm quite willing to work with Twitter to bring him back inside the rules and still generate some lulz.

And the database of tweets still exists, of course. Which is quite hilarious in and of itself.

posted @ Friday, August 26, 2011 2:29 PM | Feedback (2)

The scariest thing that ever happened, ever

This was the moment, in 1988, during the tenure of Sylvester McCoy, that it became clear that Daleks could climb stairs after all.

I was 14

I was actually a bit scared.

posted @ Thursday, August 25, 2011 10:50 PM | Feedback (0)

Lord Chesterfield's letter to his son, 19th Nov 1750

On the topic of orthography...

I come now to another part of your letter, which is the orthography, if I may call bad spelling ORTHOGRAPHY. You spell induce, ENDUCE; and grandeur, you spell grandURE; two faults of which few of my housemaids would have been guilty. I must tell you that orthography, in the true sense of the word, is so absolutely necessary for a man of letters; or a gentleman, that one false spelling may fix ridicule upon him for the rest of his life; and I know a man of quality, who never recovered the ridicule of having spelled WHOLESOME without the w.

Reading with care will secure everybody from false spelling; for books are always well spelled, according to the orthography of the times. Some words are indeed doubtful, being spelled differently by different authors of equal authority; but those are few; and in those cases every man has his option, because he may plead his authority either way; but where there is but one right way, as in the two words above mentioned, it is unpardonable and ridiculous for a gentleman to miss it; even a woman of a tolerable education would despise and laugh, at a lover, who should send her an ill-spelled billet-doux. I fear and suspect, that you have taken it into your head, in most cases, that the matter is all, and the manner little or nothing. If you have, undeceive yourself, and be convinced that, in everything, the manner is full as important as the matter. If you speak the sense of an angel, in bad words and with a disagreeable utterance, nobody will hear you twice, who can help it. If you write epistles as well as Cicero, but in a very bad hand, and very ill-spelled, whoever receives will laugh at them; and if you had the figure of Adonis, with an awkward air and motions, it will disgust instead of pleasing. Study manner, therefore, in everything, if you would be anything.

From Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son

posted @ Thursday, August 25, 2011 12:27 AM | Feedback (1)

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