At the Winter Café...

... you can talk about whatever you want.

"The FBI and other law enforcement organizations treated Twitter as a 'subsidiary,' flagging numerous accounts for purportedly harmful 'misinformation'..."

"... since January of 2020, according to the sixth installment of the 'Twitter Files' released Friday. Independent journalist Matt Taibbi described the FBI’s relationship with Twitter as having a 'master-canine quality' with 'constant and pervasive' contact between the bureau and the social media giant.... Friday’s Twitter Files also revealed that the company participated in monthly meetings with not only the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, but also with the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.... Instead of chasing child sex predators or terrorists,' Taibbi summed up in a tweet following the file drop, 'the FBI has agents — lots of them — analyzing and mass-flagging social media posts. Not as part of any criminal investigation, but as a permanent, end-in-itself surveillance operation. People should not be okay with this.' The FBI told the Post on Friday that it... 'regularly engages with private sector entities... [which] independently make decisions about what, if any, action they take on their platforms and for their customers after the FBI has notified them'...."

The NY Post reports.

ALSO: There's this other article in the NY Post: "Twitter’s top ranks riddled with ex-FBI employees" ("More than a dozen former feds flocked to the company in the months and years prior to Elon Musk’s purchase of the social network in October").

"[T]he Trump cards will feature... the former president’s face grafted onto reasonably fit male bodies, clad in various costumes of masculine bravado..."

"... including sporting garb, a sheriff’s duster and lots of blue suits.... We can look to some of the darker trends in the contemporary art market... when seemingly trivial or worthless objects... are repurposed as art and treated as both intellectually substantial and commercially valuable.... What matters here is... how closely Trump’s attempt to market amateurish iconography parallels the way artists, critics and collectors have used laughter to establish the boundaries of the art world. Simply put, if you can’t take Duchamp or conceptual art seriously, you are a philistine, by the definition of the art world. It proves that you are unwilling or incapable of a basic set of thought exercises and mental calisthenics that are essential to the appreciation of contemporary art. One of the hallmarks of Trump’s art, and the work of other artists who have attempted to market Trump imagery as art, is the expectation that elites will laugh at it. Those who laugh are immediately outsiders to Trump world, where a taste for the tawdry is established as a fundamental shibboleth of loyalty and belonging. Call it inverse philistinism: the use of intentionally bad imagery, perhaps with a wink, to create an 'us-them' dynamic...." 

Writes Philip Kennicott in "Trump NFTs are not art. Unless you consider grifting an art form. These $99 trading cards are laughably bad. That’s the whole point" (WaPo).

Hey, that got surprisingly intellectual!

"It’s a bit like having sex with yourself. If you don’t have fun, it’s your own damn fault."

Said Robin Miles, quoted in "How a Great Audiobook Narrator Finds Her Voices/Robin Miles was looking for stage and screen roles when she began reading books for the blind. She’s become one of the country’s most celebrated narrators" (The New Yorker).

One of the things discussed in the article is the likelihood that AI voices will take over the work. I don't think AI can convey the right expression — not that human readers always get the narration right. I listen to a lot of audiobooks (and articles) and I can, from time to time, tell that the reader has misunderstood the text. But AI obviously does not understand. There is no mind to understand. And the human ear repels the voice that has no mind behind the words. The AI cannot "have sex with itself" and experience pleasure in the reading of the words. There is no pleasure to be had.

"Putin, having been shaped by a Cold War-era K.G.B. that specialized in manipulating U.S. racial tensions, was almost certainly aware ..."

"... that a perception that [Brittney] Griner might receive insufficient attention could be used to his advantage. The activism that resulted from that perception no doubt helped push the Biden Administration to make a deal rather than to risk repeating the miscalculations of the Reagan Administration. Still, the Griner affair may yet reiterate a crucial lesson of December, 1983—that inequality, or even the appearance of inequality, is not only a liability at home but an impediment in foreign affairs. The irony is that Putin, in the most cynical way possible, has demonstrated that Black lives really do matter, by highlighting just how much you can achieve by placing one in jeopardy."

Writes Jelani Cobb in "Brittney Griner and the Role of Race in Diplomacy/Griner’s release recalls the lessons of the effort to free Robert Goodman, an African American Navy navigator, from Syria" (The New Yorker).

"Cat eyes, like leopard print and red lipstick, always seem to cycle in and out of fashion. But, this year, the cat eye—a sinuous black line..."

"... drawn across the top of the lid which flicks up at the corner—left the confines of a makeup trend and became ubiquitous, boomeranging from runways in Paris to red carpets in Venice and across the cultural landscape... on television and in film, trending on TikTok and Instagram.... Usually, a cat eye feels nostalgic, even a bit cliché, evoking... Edie Sedgwick, or... Sophia Loren.... In the past year, though, the style evolved into something much more dynamic and confrontational. Suddenly, there were spiky cat eyes, reverse cat eyes, double-winged cat eyes, bejewelled cat eyes, smoky cat eyes, and more—the bolder the line, the better... Why this year? Our body is a battleground, as Barbara Kruger famously warned us, thirty-three years ago. The cat eye might be an attempt, however superficial, to draw a line...."

Writes Thessaly La Force in "The Year in Cat Eyes How a retro beauty trend left its mark on 2022’s TV shows, TikTok videos, and Taylor Swift lyrics" (The New Yorker). 

We're told the 2022 "cat eyes" — the  "much more dynamic and confrontational" kind — are "Less Jean Patchett on the cover of Vogue in 1950, more Dua Lipa in bustier minidress, fishnets, and rhinestones." There a lot of photos at the link, but not of that particular contrast. So, here, I've dug out the 2 images:

Try to understand the difference. To me, the 1950 woman seems mysterious, sophisticated, and haughty, and the 2022 woman looks looks weary and about to barf.

"People are awful; these beautiful creatures have a right to thrive in their habitats. Seriously, the planet didn’t need 8 billion people."

"It’s not like a high percentage of them especially in the US are smart, compassionate and empathetic."

That's one of the most recommended comments at "What Should You Do When the Bear Is Cinnamon? Scientists have uncovered a genetic mutation that makes it dangerously difficult to distinguish a black bear from a grizzly" (NYT).

Let me — without compassion or empathy — point out that the commenter is herself lacking in compassion and empathy. I presume she regards herself as compassionate and empathetic because she only withholds compassion and empathy from those who are not compassionate and empathetic.

Lake Mendota — late morning.

Write about anything you want in the comments.

"But as I’ve called around to C-suite executives and influential investors in Silicon Valley over the past few weeks, I’ve been surprised by how many are rooting for Mr. Musk ..."

"... even if they won’t admit to it publicly.... They see his harsh management style as a necessary corrective, and they believe he will ultimately be rewarded for cutting costs and laying down the law.... Tech elites don’t simply support Mr. Musk because they like him personally or because they agree with his anti-woke political crusades.... Rather, they view him as the standard-bearer of an emergent worldview they hope catches on more broadly in Silicon Valley."

Writes Kevin Roose in "Elon Musk, Management Guru? Why the Twitter owner’s ruthless, unsparing style has made him a hero to many bosses in Silicon Valley" (NYT).

"I was trying to be respectful.... They made it in front of us, squeezing the juice out of these massive tree roots... I was OK for 10 to 15 minutes and then I thought, 'ooooh, OK.' ... I went cross-eyed."

Said Michael McCormack, quoted in "'I went cross-eyed': Australia’s former deputy PM taken to hospital after drinking entire bowl of kava/Michael McCormack paid a high price for downing, not sipping, the sakau during a Pacific tour, later stating: 'I was trying to be respectful'" (The Guardian).

In Pohnpeian folklore, sakau was a gift from the gods... [I]t is usually served in a coconut shell, the state symbol of Pohnpei. It is made by pounding on the root of the kava plant and then straining it through the bark of the sea hibiscus tree. It’s known for being one of the stronger kavas – hence the sipping recommendation – as there is very little water added to the roots when making the drink.... McCormack said next time he would 'absolutely' sip and not down the drink in one go.

There are different ways of making kava, and McCormack had just had "five shells of kava in Vanuatu the day before" he arrived in Pohnpei.

I wonder how funny it was to the people he was "trying to be respectful" to.

"[S]everal key Senate Democrats... say they’re at least open to a blanket ban on TikTok in the U.S. which keeps lawmakers up at night worrying about..."

"... Chinese agents scraping data and their children up at night watching lava fail to melt ice.... [W]hile Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa. wanted more time to review the bill, he suggested lawmakers should be prepared to get out of their comfort zone with more aggressive legislation.... The idea of banning TikTok, which is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, was born during the Trump administration, when the former president tried to muzzle the social media app by executive order. A court halted it and Biden ultimately revoked the executive order when he took office, instead conducting talks with TikTok about a potential deal to address their concerns.... You can hold off on breaking the sad news to the Gen Zers in your life, a full TikTok ban is still unlikely, in part because it would spur substantial pushback from Americans among whom the app is very popular....."

Writes Liz Hoffman in "Democrats are dancing around a TikTok ban" (Semafor).

Not banning social media is considered a Democratic Party "comfort zone"? Well, at least there's that, but they're taunting each other into being "more aggressive."

An effort at — I think! — self-deprecation went horribly wrong.

Biden to African leaders: "I may show up. The poor relatives always show up. The wealthy ones never show up. The poor come and they eat your food — stay longer than they should.”pic.twitter.com/8iRVCl4dbd

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) December 15, 2022

"A freestanding cylindrical aquarium housing about 1,500 exotic fish has burst in Berlin.... 1m litres of water poured out of the 14-metre-high tank...."

"There was speculation that freezing temperatures of as low as -10C (14F) overnight had caused a crack in the tank, which then exploded under the weight of the water.... Operators say the aquarium has the biggest cylindrical tank in the world... The aquarium, which was last upgraded in 2020, is a big tourist attraction in Berlin. A 10-minute elevator ride through the tank was one of the highlights of the attraction."

The Guardian reports.

Has the biggest cylindrical tank in the world? Had the biggest cylindrical tank in the world.

I suspect there is good reason for not building large cylindrical glass water tanks and would love to hear expert opinion on water pressure inside a cylinder.

Twitter's problem with real-time location doxxing.

People had been posting an address they thought I was at, photos of houses, and death threats.

If something tracked my real time location then they'd know where I actually was at.

— Tim Pool (@Timcast) December 16, 2022

SEE ALSO:

Jake Tapper's "14-year-old daughter, Alice, almost died as a result of a misdiagnosis."

And if you missed it, here's Alice's experience, in her own words:https://t.co/D7qbOctgjd

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) December 16, 2022

"Twitter has suspended the account of prominent liberal journalist Aaron Rupar as well as reporters from CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post."

"Rupar, who has more than 788,000 followers, had his account suspended the day after Twitter suspended then restored an account that followed the movements of the billionaire’s private jet. 'I never posted anything Elon Jet related or that could violate the policy about disclosing locations. Unless the policy is that you criticize Elon and you get banned,' Rupar told CNN’s Oliver Darcy. And it came on the same day that Twitter suspended the account of social media rival platform Mastodon."

The Independent reports.