#twecon 2010

Call for Papers: 1st Episto Tweet Conference – December 3rd, 2010

The author of the blog “All-Embracing But Underwhelming,” HORansome, invites paper titles and abstracts for the 1st Episto Tweet Conference, to be held on December 3rd, 2010.

The brief for this tweet-based conference is open; I am accepting papers on any topic.

Please tweet your paper title and short abstract (you may want to use a tweet for each) with the following tag: #twecon

Submissions closed November 19th.

Rules:

Papers may be no longer than 6 tweets in length (with one of those tweets being the title/byline).

Each tweet must be numbered.

Tweets may link to images, short video clips (less than thirty seconds in length), but cannot link to written material unless it is a link to a quote, further readings, et cetera.

You cannot use a link in a tweet to get around the 140 character limit.

Each tweet must have the following tag: #twecon

The Conference

You may start posting your papers at any time on the 3rd of December. Make sure you are following the #twecon tag on the day.

All papers will be archived and placed online here.

The Papers:

Inaugural Episto Tweet Conference Opening Address http://bit.ly/9WHPzZ@HORansome

1. Haere mai haere mai and welcome to the 1st Episto Tweet Conference  http://twitpic.com/3c9puc  #twecon

2 I can’t be sure that there have been no earlier tweet-based conferences, still, good idea, eh?  http://twitpic.com/3c9qa1  #twecon

  1. To those of you who are presenting, I thank you for taking the time and the opportunity to try this novel way of giving papers. #twecon
  2. To those of you following #twecon, please feel free to ask questions by replying to tweets with the tag.  http://twitpic.com/3c9qw8

  3. Let the games begin. Presenters; number those tweets. Followers; keep checking up on the #twecon hashtag.  http://twitpic.com/3c9r3v

Substance trumps artistry in pursuit of an awesome headline@monkeyfluids

1. Substance Trumps Artistry in Pursuit of an Awesome Headline #twecon

  1. Headline writing has long been seen as an artform, yet most attempts at creativity end in bad puns, overused cliches or both. #twecon

  • Puns are the standard device for most headline attempts, yet they are usually forced and often contentious. http://bit.ly/guau4C #twecon

  • Still, the best pun (“Pork-loving couple say ‘pie do'”) http://bbc.in/i7DGky can’t top the bare description of an awesome event. #twecon

  • Examples follow: “American tourist stabbed in head” http://bit.ly/g8ZMVQ; “Woman injured in chainsaw fire” http://bit.ly/gqXlDN. #twecon

  • Ultimately: “Man eats his own beard at knifepoint over botched lawnmower sale” http://bit.ly/fVZFMd. Oh my, yes. Oh my. Thank you #twecon

  • The truth about kea: correcting ahistorical misconceptions about the habits & habitat of _Nestor notabilis_@adzebill

    1. The truth about kea: correcting ahistorical misconceptions about the habits & habitat of Nestor notabilis. http://bit.ly/e2vbYW #twecon

    1. Before humans/rats arrived, kea also lived in the bush: as common as kaka (N. meridionalis) in lowland Eastern forests. #twecon
  • Pelvis damage in fossil swamp-mired moa & geese is kea eating their kidney fat. So sheep attacks are a real evolved behaviour. #twecon

  • Kea excavate burrows & kill chicks of Hutton’s Shearwater in the Kaikouras; the same instinct that makes them wreck your car. #twecon

  • So one hazard in prehuman NZ was flocks of marauding carnivorous parrots, like flying demonic monkeys (cue Wizard of Oz ref). #twecon

  • Who needs ants and honey? You could have staked out your enemy and left them to the keas. #ghoulish_ending Thank you. #twecon

  • The Tweeting of the Harvest Bird: Robin Hyde in China@harvestbird

    A tweet-summary of a forthcoming article on the New Zealand writer and her experiences in China in 1938.

    1. The Tweeting of the Harvest Bird: Robin Hyde in China #twecon

    1. Travelling from NZ-UK in 1938, Robin Hyde changed her itinerary & entered the Chinese mainland during the 2nd Sino-Japanese war. #twecon

  • Poems she wrote on her travels consolidated her aesthetic via the influence of Arthur Waley’s modernist/Orientalist translations. #twecon

  • This was tempered by Hyde’s engagement with local people, esp. women and children, shown in her 1939 prose volume Dragon Rampant. #twecon

  • Hyde’s China notebook also reveals the impact of wartime traumatic stress on her writing, as early as her initial landfall in HK. #twecon

  • All this can be seen in Dragon Rampant’s “Harvest Bird” (http://bit.ly/geihMX): “Ground is written on 1side & Sky on the other”.  #twecon

  • Walter Benjamin Visits NOOD: the aura of the original at the Supa Centa@CherylBernstein

    1 “Walter Benjamin Visits NOOD: the aura of the original at the Supa Centa.” #twecon

    2 In 1955 George Nelson designed the Coconut Chair, inspired by a cracked coconut shell. It’s a modernist icon. http://is.gd/i74Tk #twecon

    3 I found the ‘Shell Chair’ at a shop called NOOD. It looks quite a lot like Nelson’s coconut,but costs $649.50. http://is.gd/i6XyQ  #twecon

    4 Walter Benjamin theorised in 1936 that mass reproduction destroyed the aura of the original work of art by “cracking its shell”. #twecon

    5 It was as if the original was being worn out by millions of eyes looking at thousands of copies. http://is.gd/i72tp #twecon

    6 Standing in NOOD thinking about Walter Benjamin makes me a bit of a tosser, but it did save me $649.50. #twecon

    Why “Down and Out” ? “underclass and poor” – @siobhanmking

    George Orwell’s elective poverty.

    1. Why “Down and Out” ? “underclass and poor” George Orwell’s elective poverty. #twecon

    1. “Down and Out in Paris and London” a loosely fictional account by Orwell of the dishwasher/tramp phase of his life #twecon

  • Orwell made little reference to the Etonian/Writer phase of his life, the connections he had, the favours he asked #twecon

  • Orwell:”The man who really merits [pity is he] who has been down from the start, and faces poverty with a blank resourceless mind #twecon

  • Down & out wherever we were, revelling in it, neither Orwell, nor I, could live like Common People, never fail like common people #twecon

  • Penniless but never poor. Isolated but never excluded. My blog’s name is a fraud. At least Orwell starved (4 lulz). I never did. #twecon

  • Vague Conspiracy theories can still be warranted: Why being vague isn’t, you know, all that much of, what do you call it, a problem!@HORansome

    Many conspiracy theories are criticised for consisting of a series of vague claims. I will argue this criticism is often misplaced.

    1. Vague Conspiracy theories can still be warranted: Why being vague isn’t, you know, all that much of, what’s it called, a problem! #twecon

    1. To show that a conspiracy has occurred requires that we have evidence of conspirators who work in secret to some intended end. #twecon

    3 Secrecy is an accepted part of conspiratorial activity. Such secrecy can make the particular claims in conspiracy theories vague. #twecon

    4 If we can show that there are conspirators or that they want something, no matter how vague the claims are, then that’s sufficient #twecon

    1. Vagueness is usually a problem but if you can show that a cabal exists, you have satisfied the necessary evidential requirements. #twecon

  • Satisfying such requirements, even when vague, discharges the burden of proof. If you satisfy them, then your belief is warranted #twecon

  • Hanging out : Preserving an ephemeral print culture in Dunedin@SarahLibrarina

    Students have been naming their flats since the 1930s. Find out why.

    1 “Hanging out : preserving an ephemeral print culture in Dunedin”. Signs made to mark student habitation http://tinyurl.com/2cgx9ug #twecon

    2 In the 1930s flatting was a no-no. Options for ‘digs’ were few: stay home, live in Halls or board. http://tinyurl.com/25etw3w #twecon

    3 Liberal divinities students set up the first flat, The Bach, on Leith St. It existed for nearly 10 yrs. http://tinyurl.com/29j35ye #twecon

    4 Naming is about creating community in a unique campus environment. Facebook provided a space to connect http://tinyurl.com/26fce88 #twecon

    5 Creating of a sense of place and identity by naming a flat can have a lasting effect – creating an icon http://tinyurl.com/238tazf #twecon

    6 Some names endure, some are ephemeral. Hyde Street has a high turnover. They are all worth preserving http://tinyurl.com/24rpnzz #twecon

    The hypoxic regulation of angiogenesis in endometrial carcinoma can be inhibited by extracts from food compounds, such as red wine@edmuzik

    1 The hypoxic regulation of angiogenesis in endometrial carcinoma can be inhibited by extracts from food compounds, such as red wine #twecon

    2 Angiogenesis is the process by which the body makes new blood vessels; cancers harness this to supply nutrients to growing tumours #twecon

    3 when tumours get to a certain size, cells at the tumour core are no longer able to access oxygen; they go from normoxic to hypoxic #twecon

    4 if the cell becomes hypoxic, a cell signaling cascade is activated that leads to new angiogenesis. the hypoxic trigger is critical #twecon

    5 HIF (hypoxia inducible factor) is a key molecule in the hypoxic response; it can activate genes that promote angiogenesis #twecon

    6 my research shows that compounds found in red wine and green tea can inhibit HIF expression in cultured endometrial cancer cells #twecon

    Dear Weird-Sounding-Annabll-Lngb*in, Broad Beans Are Not in Fucking Season: Ethics and Twitter.@kittenypentland

    Does Twitter create new ethical issues? Conservatives scaremonger, liberals ignore risks. The truth about tweeting lies in between.

    1 Dear Weird Sounding Annabll Lagbe*n: Broad Beans are Not Fucking in Season: Offence on Twitter. #twecon

    2 On Twitter I am offended by bores, bigoted nitwits, poor argument, and the silent gutless abstainer. How best to understand this? #twecon

    3 The offence principle helps. It is cousin of the harm principle which says we can only interfere in behaviour that harms others. #twecon

    4 Talking racist nonsense to me is offensive, inciting a race riot is harmful. Yet we often wrongly characterise offense as harm. #twecon

    5 An image of Madonna screwing someone will offend depending on who you ask and which Madonna it is. We are offence pluralists. #twecon

    6 Offence is about sensibilities. It is highly unlikely that offence is meaningfully harmful: it just feels like it is. Offend away! #twecon

    “Retweeting” is just plagiarising others original ideas to improve the quality of one’s own stream at the expense of others@socialspace

    1. “Retweeting” is just plagiarising others original ideas to improve the quality of one’s own stream at the expense of others.   #twecon

    RT @Adzebill: 2. Before humans/rats arrived, kea also lived in the bush: as common as kaka (N. meridionalis) in lowland Eastern forests. #twecon

    RT @HORansome: 3 Secrecy is an accepted part of conspiratorial activity. Such secrecy can make the particular claims in conspiracy theories vague. #twecon

    RT @harvestbird: 4. This was tempered by Hyde’s engagement with local people, esp. women and children, shown in her 1939 prose volume Dragon Rampant. #twecon

    RT @SarahLibrarina: 5 Creating of a sense of place and identity by naming a flat can have a lasting effect – creating an icon http://tinyurl.com/238tazf #twecon

    RT @siobhanmking: 6. Penniless but never poor. Isolated but never excluded. My blog’s name is a fraud. At least Orwell starved (4 lulz). I never did. #twecon

    This Photo Proves How Happy I Was@robyngallagher

    1. This Photo Proves How Happy I Was. Since cameras became small and portable, people have taken them on holiday. #twecon

    1. This led to photo companies setting up “photo opportunities” for tourists to take guaranteed amusing photos. http://j.mp/fZ0TTl #twecon

  • But along came digital photography, restricted only by battery life and card size. The fear of “wasting” film vanished. #twecon

  • Today’s tourist takes photos of things previously considered a waste of film. A cup of coffee instead of the Eiffel Tower. #twecon

  • It’s even possible to forget about photographing the typical tourist spots. They’ll already be on Flickr in better quality. #twecon

  • But digital cameras will never stop taking photos that capture a slice of time that says “Here I am and I am happy.” Smile. #twecon

  • PThe Inherent Melancholy of the Photograph: A Ghost in the Machine?@artandmylife

    A brief exploration of emotional response to photography.

    1. The Inherent Melancholy of the Photograph: A Ghost in the Machine? A brief exploration of emotional response to photography. #twecon

    1. Barthes wrote of ‘the melancholy of photography itself’. Photos have an innate aura of absence, a moment past. #twecon

    3 This aura is present in all photos. Some provoke it with technique & content http://tinyurl.com/2a62mkl http://tinyurl.com/2b2lau7 #twecon

    4 Modern technologies invite us to imbue images with nostalgia http://tinyurl.com/ydj575g like the earlier use of faux sepia tones #twecon

    5 But I propose it is the unnatural stillness of the image that triggers an atavistic part of the brain, suggesting rigour of death #twecon

    6 From momento mori http://tinyurl.com/lxxa93 to the family snap there’s a ghost waiting in the machine. http://tinyurl.com/2a4drha #twecon

    1st Episto Tweet Conference Closing Address@HORansome

    1. 1st Episto Tweet Conference Closing Address #twecon

    1. Well, I think we can all agree that went swimmingly. This was a much better experience than I had ever hoped for. #twecon

    2. Still, wrriting that paper; much harder than expected. 140 characters is a harsh word limit. Well done us. #twecon

    3. So, a very big thank you to all the presenters; you brought your A game, as the kids probably don’t say anymore. #twecon

    4. Thanks to all of you who followed the #twecon hashtag. I may never know who you were, but, in cases like these, the thought does count.

    5. There will be another #twecon. I hope to see you all there.

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