My Picks for Top Tweets: 16 September 2017

by | Sep 16, 2017 | International Politics, Tweets | 25 comments

With the way the world and social media work today, there are all sorts of major events dominating the tweets.

Hundreds of thousands of people in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico are still suffering the effects of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. The devastation left in their wake means it will be years before many recover. Of course, it will be those that were already at the lower end of the socio-economic scale who will take the longest to get back to where they were before. Many never will.

North Korea sent another ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to live with that threat. Worse, to hear the siren go off and have to seek shelter from a bomb! It flew about 3,700 kilometres – a little more than the distance from North Korea to Guam.

The terror threat level from international terrorism has been put up to “Critical” in the UK following a bombing on the London Underground. According to MI5 (British Secret Service), “CRITICAL means an attack is expected imminently.” Until yesterday’s gutless attack, the level was “Severe” meaning, “an attack is highly likely.” Thankfully there were no deaths, but 29 have injuries. DAESH (ISIS) is claiming responsibility, but authorities are not agreeing with them yet.

DAESH were more “successful” in Iraq, where dozens of mostly Shi’a Muslims lost their lives as the result of a bomb in a restaurant. As always, it’s Muslims that suffer most at the hands of Muslim extremists and terrorists.

The attack on the Rohingya in Myanmar is ongoing. Aung San Suu Kyi has chickened out of attending next week’s UN General Assembly. The Washington Post reports “… 370,000 Rohingya have fled into Bangladesh, according to United Nations estimates.” They go on to say:

The U.N. rights chief calls the campaign in Rakhine a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.” NPR noted that “reports of unbridled murder and arson, rape and persecution have followed [Rohingya] out of Myanmar’s western state of Rakhine, sketching a stark portrait of government violence.”

All these new disasters come along and we forget about the ongoing crises. Just a couple:

After six years of civil war in Syria, there are five million refugees who need help.

DAESH is on the verge of defeat in the Middle East, but their ally, Boko Haram, is not. They continue to wreak havoc in northern Nigeria and surrounding areas. Remember the Bring Back Our Girls campaign following the Chibok kidnapping of 276 in April 2014? Well, 113 are still missing along with hundreds of other women and girls, such as those from Damasak.

Damask didn’t get as much attention as Chibok and the government never publicly acknowledged it. (Remember it took international pressure to get them to admit Chibok.) In November 2014, 300 children aged from two (yes, two) to seventeen were abducted from Zanna Mobarti primary school. Another two hundred children are missing from the same region. These aren’t the only ones. There are hundreds more.

We can all come up with a whole lot more to add to the list. You can see why people who are steeped in religion could imagine all this means the end of the world is nigh. It’s an irrational response, but religion is already an irrational response to life.

What we really need is more cats on Twitter! They were harder to find today. I had to tweet some myself to make up the numbers!

Cat Tweets

This is what we need after all that ghastly stuff …

 

And this …

 

I said it in the tweet …


They feel safe in the enclosed space but can still see what’s going on – good invention humans!

 

Cat Face palm!

 

Cat trap …


 

Beautiful! Look at those paws! And this is great news re its status, though more work must be done.
(Via Ann German.)

Dog Tweets

And you thought is was only cats who got in the sink!

 

Other Animals Tweets

I’ve heard that guides in Africa are more scared of hippos than any other animal. They won’t take their boats anywhere near them because they’re extremely territorial and so dangerous. This tweet shows how right they are. WOW!
(Via Ann German.)

 

As a Kiwi, I’m NOT a fan of possums. The ones we have here are pests that destroy our native birds, especially the flightless ones, and damage our flora, both native and exotic. They also carry TB which they spread to cattle. However, this little guy is undeniably cute.

 

Reptile Tweets

Awww, what a cutie.

Entertainment Tweets

Jamie Lee Curtis is coming back as Laurie Strode in a new ‘Halloween’ movie.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Surely they knew what they were doing here?
(Via Ann German.)

 

So, of course, I had to reply with this one …

 

Art Tweets

Very cool.

Political Tweets

I loved this movie, so this tweet had to go in!
(Via Ann German.)

 

If Mayweather likes Trump, that’s a reason not to in my book. It’s shocking that Mayweather says this, but it’s even more shocking that he doesn’t see anything wrong with what he’s saying. Where were all the people who should have been telling Trump and Mayweather the right way to treat and speak about others when they were boys?

Scenic Tweets

I’m not sure how the votes for this got some. There are some beautiful countries missing from the list. What about France, for example? Still, I’m happy New Zealand is right up there.

Rough Guide Readers – top 10 most beautiful countries:

1. Scotland
2. Canada
3. New Zealand
4. Italy
5. South Africa
6. Indonesia
7. England
8. Iceland
9. USA
10. Wales

 

Gorgeous. I could lie back on the grass and look at this for hours.

 

Science Tweets

You can rely on science to come up with new ways to improve our lives.

 

I can’t wait for self-driving cars. These days the state of my body limits me to about two hours driving, and I’m a wreck after that. The increase in freedom of a self-driving car would be great.

Very cool!

History Tweets

This is very cool! “We do not beg for freedom, we fight for it.” Go Poland!
(Via Ann German.)

 

Wow! Fantastic pic!

 

I remember my mother having a bra just like this. She looked a bit like this too, though I don’t recall her striking that pose!

 

It shocks me that this was ever acceptable. No wonder race relations are still so fraught in the US when this sort of thing was part of society. We certainly aren’t, and never were, perfect in NZ, but we also never had this sort of appalling scenario. I retweeted this pic with this comment: “Good ole white Jesus in the window overlooking this example Christian brotherly love.”

 

Why fingerprints are important (and now DNA).

Religion Tweets

Someone else with an irrational response to reality.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Space Tweets

The Cassini Mission is over, which I think is sad. I don’t like the idea of it burning up – I wish there was a way it could come back to earth. It’s an amazing and important project and I’m sure there’s more we will learn from it still.

Funny Tweets

Not sure this is real, but it’s fun all the same.
(Via Ann German.)

 

Human Rights Tweets

I find the bail system in the US shocking and disgusting. There is no money in NZ’s bail system. Whether a person is granted bail depends on factors like the alleged crime, flight risk, criminal history etc. I don’t claim we’re ideal, because we’re not, but we’re better than the US imho. (See here.)


So this is the sort of person Fox Sports employs, and then they wonder why they have to keep firing their male hosts for sexually harassing women? Of course, they’ve worked out they can’t get away with blatant racism anymore, but it’s still okay to speak like this about women.
(Via Ann German.)

 

And so I need to post one of my favourite Jesus and Mo cartoons here.

Jesus and Mo - Women's Rights Don't Matter

 

 

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25 Comments

  1. j.a.m.
    j.a.m. on 16th September 2017 at 5:48 pm

    Belief in nothing is the most irrational religion, the least worthy of man’s dignity and intellect.

    Reply
    • jimbo
      jimbo on 17th September 2017 at 12:52 am

      Yup, so much better to believe something that’s wrong.

      Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 17th September 2017 at 9:43 am

      Atheism is not a religion. Atheists do not believe in nothing, we believe in things that are real.

      Loving other people is far more important than loving an imaginary friend.

      One of the most horrifying stories in the Bible is an old man believing he had to murder his son to prove his love for God. What kind of vile creature would ask such a thing, and why would people worship Him for any reason other than fear? Mixing up fear and love like that is sick.

      There are multiple other examples of what a repellent monster this “God” people have dreamed up is. Even if he’s real, he’s not worthy of worship, especially not unquestioning worship.

      Stick to reality. You’ll be happier for it. Try doing what’s right simply because it’s right, not because of the fear of supernatural retribution or the hope of eternal reward. All that does is show you up to be a selfish and craven individual.

      Reply
      • j.a.m.
        j.a.m. on 17th September 2017 at 10:07 am

        Once again, I find that we’re in sublime agreement.

        Stick to reality: Agreed. God is the source of reality. Without God, there is no reality.

        Loving other people is far more important than loving an imaginary friend: Agreed. That’s the heart of the Gospel.

        What a repellent monster this “God” people have dreamed up is: Agreed. The atheist version of God is false.

        Try doing what’s right simply because it’s right, not because of the fear of supernatural retribution or the hope of eternal reward: Well, duh. It’s not right if you’re doing it for wrong reasons. On the other hand, there is no way to know what’s right if you deny or ignore the truth.

        You’ll be happier for it: Agreed. “Doing the truth in love” is the highest good and greatest happiness.

        Reply
  2. Diane G.
    Diane G. on 16th September 2017 at 6:10 pm

    I’m so glad you’re doing these tweet posts, Heather! Just the right amount and a delightfully diverse round-up. Were I to plunge into Twitter myself I’m not sure I’d emerge for a day or two… 😉 Just what we needed–a Tweet curator.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 17th September 2017 at 9:09 am

      Thanks Diane. Doing this has lost me followers though. I suspect they don’t like the increase in emails. I delete about a hundred emails a day without reading them – things like ads, posts where the topic doesn’t appeal etc. It’s a survival mechanism! But there are probably people who don’t feel able to do that.

      Reply
  3. nicky
    nicky on 16th September 2017 at 6:14 pm

    Curious as the Will and William West is, it’s importance in adapting fingerprinting in the US is moot.
    http://www.scafo.org/library/110105.html

    Although fingerprints were used on clay tablets by the Babylonians, we are not 100% sure they realised they are unique and unchanging during one’s lifetime. They were also used in China, Persia and India.
    It is said that William Herschel (in the mid 19th Century in India), was the first to realise that no 2 fingerprints were identical. There are several others involved in developing it as an identification method, but a special mention for Francis Galton (yes, that Galton) who calculated that the propability of 2 prints being identical were 1 in 64 billion. He also showed they remain identical during one’s lifetime.

    Reply
  4. j.a.m.
    j.a.m. on 16th September 2017 at 6:26 pm

    Jim Crow was real enough and shameful, but that photo is totally fake. No surprise it’s marked “date and place unknown.”

    Reply
      • jimbo
        jimbo on 17th September 2017 at 2:06 am

        In fact, turns out Mr. Williams is still alive, still a working photographer, and has a website. See page 3 here:

        http://www.cecilwilliams.com/historical-images

        Photo was indeed taken in Sandy Run, Calhoun County, South Carolina, dated 1961.

        Reply
    • Jenny Haniver
      Jenny Haniver on 17th September 2017 at 3:34 am

      What makes you think that photo is counterfeit? Because no racist would express himself in such a crude and blatant manner? Maybe photos of lynchings are also fake. Please explain.

      Reply
      • j.a.m.
        j.a.m. on 17th September 2017 at 7:28 am

        I don’t take anything on blind faith (do you?), least of all the detritus that washes up on the wild shores of the Twitterverse. Skepticism is especially prudent when an oddity appears without any information about its provenance.

        Apparently the photo was taken in 1959 near Sandy Run, Calhoun County, South Carolina by Cecil J. Williams, an African-American freelance photographer whose oral history was recorded for the Library Of Congress’s Civil Rights History Project. So I’ll grant that the image is likely authentic (although it does not seem to have appeared in print anywhere before the mid-1990s).

        Here’s the uncropped image of this tumbledown pit stop in the middle of nowhere:
        http://www.crmvet.org/crmpics/williams/59wms-jimcrow.jpg

        Reply
        • nicky
          nicky on 17th September 2017 at 8:58 am

          Thanks j.a.m., for that info. If correct, it makes that photograph so much more interesting. I guess it would not have been out of the ordinary here in SA a few decades ago….

          Reply
          • nicky
            nicky on 17th September 2017 at 9:11 am

            Oops, that was Jimbo.

  5. Diane G.
    Diane G. on 16th September 2017 at 10:01 pm

    I keep thinking about this one:

    Rough Guide Readers – top 10 most beautiful countries:
    1. Scotland
    2. Canada
    3. New Zealand
    4. Italy
    5. South Africa
    6. Indonesia
    7. England
    8. Iceland
    9. USA
    10. Wales

    And, though I like to think the last thing I am is a chauvinist–given the fact that the US comprises somewhere between a third and a half of an entire continent, I kinda wonder about the criteria considered for determining the “most beautiful countries” list. I mean, what with Alaska & Hawaii, we’ve got the arctic, the tropics, and everything in between–mountains, deserts, rain forests, prairie, the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, yada yada.

    Just sayin’… 😉

    (In what calculus are the US and Wales in the same category?)

    Reply
    • nicky
      nicky on 17th September 2017 at 3:56 am

      Had about the same idea.
      Moreover, where is Norway?

      Reply
      • nicky
        nicky on 17th September 2017 at 8:48 am

        These lists are meaningless. If you are interested in architecture, Italy would come tops, I’d say, and India and Nepal? If you like tropical beaches, what about Mozambique or some Pacific island? If you like a mountainous kind of scenery, I guess NZ or Norway, not to mention Peru, Buthan or Nepal (again). I mean Scotland is great, but nr 1?
        Indeed -as Diane pointed out- countries like the USA, China, Russia or even Argentina, are so large, they cover quite a bit of ‘beauty’.
        I think in many ways, say, Turkey is quite beautiful too.

        Reply
      • Heather Hastie
        Heather Hastie on 17th September 2017 at 9:25 am

        They’re an English company. Maybe the survey was limited to their mostly British subscribers? Many of them would automatically put their own country.

        Reply
    • nwalsh
      nwalsh on 17th September 2017 at 8:38 am

      Really have to agree with Diane G. on this, as a Canadian we have travelled extensively on Hawaii’s main islands, and if that scenery doesn’t move the U.S. up from ninth place then disregard the whole tweet.

      Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 17th September 2017 at 9:19 am

      I always think that the problem with all the beautiful things in the US is they’re so far apart. We have all the same stuff in NZ (excluding the huge utterly magnificent things like the Grand Canyon, the Tetons etc) and they’re close together. You can visit several on one day if you want.

      I agree about somewhere like Wales. It undoubtedly has some beautiful scenery, but there’s not a lot of variety.

      Lonely Planet came up with a quite different list.

      Reply
  6. Lee Knuth
    Lee Knuth on 17th September 2017 at 4:08 am

    Good choices again. Have to differ with you on possums. Here in the US they are a different species and one that eats ticks. With the prevalence of these little monsters now we need all the help we can get.

    Reply
    • nicky
      nicky on 17th September 2017 at 9:07 am

      Some species endangered in their home range may become ‘pests’ elsewhere. Those possums in NZ may be an example (I’m not sure they are endangered in their home range). The ‘threatened status’ Thar goats were considered an invasive alien on Table Mountain (they have been eradicated now). There are also several plants in that category, but I can’t recall the specific ones right now.

      Reply
  7. nicky
    nicky on 17th September 2017 at 9:17 am

    Re that photograph of NY at night. It is said many or most of the construction workers on these sky scrapers were Mohawk(?) Indians: they are reputed to have no fear of hights or vertigo.

    Reply
    • nwalsh
      nwalsh on 17th September 2017 at 3:15 pm

      Google says they were from the Montreal area too.

      Reply

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