Alex Antscherl

Pablo and Splash: Frozen in Time is out in the world as of yesterday! Thanks to the mega team at @KidsBloomsbury! I'll be celebrating from @Birdland_ this weekend, excitingly. Details below. @sallyanne_s @FictionFanatic1 @KidsBloomsbury

All very interesting about the sinking of a naval ship in 1917 but time to wind it up now @EvanHD ! Interview took longer than it took to sink the ship. #PM @BBCRadio4

Catching up on tonight’s #Americast on @BBCSounds Never mind the election, truly shocked that @BBCsarahsmith has never had #Marmite. @JustinOnWeb please sort this out at once! #snacks

So proud of @WelshDragonParr for the #Carnegie nomination for this brilliant book. Please #teachers #parents #librarians share this moving funny clever story of a boy with divided loyalties, with kids aged 10-14+ and all who love a real-world page turner.

Thank you to @Soc_of_Authors & @PhilipPullman @wmarybeard @MichaelRosenYes & many more for understanding how @guardian’s hasty & shortsighted plans to offload @ObserverUK to a financially struggling start-up will impoverish us all thebookseller.com/news/authors-i…

Well said, Yossi Beilin

Wise words from @Lifschitz_sha, daughter of 84-yr-old hostage Oded Lifschitz. This is now the moment for a negotiated ceasefire for sake of the hostages and the people of Gaza. I hope, wish, pray those in control listen to her. Play back @bbcradio2 at 08.00.59 today to hear her.

Unbearably moving eyewitness testimony and live phone video footage give this #Storyville @BBCTwo such impact. PLEASE watch it if you care at all about understanding Israel Palestine and what happened on #October7th bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episod…

How many people on here even know that there’s a young British woman still being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza? PLEASE don’t forget her - her name is Emily Damari. #BringThemHome UK-Israeli hostage has been forgotten, says mum bbc.com/news/articles/…

UK-Israeli hostage has been forgotten, says mum #BringThemHome bbc.com/news/articles/…

Making a very brief return here to say how excellent the scriptwriting is in this week’s omnibus of #TheArchers @BBCTheArchers

Excellent #ThoughtfortheDay on @BBCr4today by @RabbiWittenberg on the shared hopes and prayers of mothers on all sides of the conflict

@joshxhowie 😆The best response to this miserable post tonight.

Get Jews out of Finchley? You should’ve heard the kvetching when I organised my son’s Bar Mitzvah party in Archway.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. Whether it’s the far right or far left there can be zero tolerance for antisemitism, Islamophobia or racism in any form. There is no place for such hate in our community. 2/2

@edwinhayward Great advice here. My sense is that using the ‘Following’ filter, rather than the ‘For You’ option does a lot to cleanse the time line too (assuming of course you’re not following anyone vile!).

THREAD: How to make Twitter tolerable in 2024 SUMMARY 1. Decide why you're on Twitter. 2. Block problematic high profile accounts. 3. Curate private Lists reflecting your interests. 4. Block trolls and racists. Never mute them. This is a long tweet. Strap in. == 1. Why are you on Twitter? == Twitter has a lot of problems. Given the hot mess Elon Musk is making, it must be sorely tempting to quit the platform entirely. But it also does some things extremely well. And when things look grim, it's always good to remind yourself of that. For example: - It's a great source of breaking news, fresher than mainstream media sites, so long as you follow accounts you trust. Why? Because many journalists and citizen reporters turn to Twitter first to report what's going on, long before they type up an article or film a piece to camera. - It provides a means of keeping track of ongoing news topics, in depth, long after the media have grown tired of them. (For example, I follow about 50 accounts reporting on developments in Russia's war on Ukraine, meaning I know exactly what's happening there day by day to a degree I would never be able to if I relied on the press). - It offers unparalleled access to expertise, assuming you can distinguish experts from quacks. The quality of information in many threads is genuinely astonishing. All that knowledge, for free. Amazing. - It is a great way to interact with like-minded people who share your interests and passions. (If you use Twitter Lists, which we'll cover later, it's even better.) - It's a nice way to exchange banter or serious discussions with people who very broadly share your worldview. - It's a venue to combat disinformation, up to a point. (It's also an amplifier of disinformation, one of the main reasons being here can feel so toxic.) - It connects you with actors and singers and artists and poets and chefs and brain surgeons and people in so many, many walks of life who have interesting, amusing or humorous insights to share. Or maybe you're just curious about what they had for breakfast, or what they're doing today. That's fine too. - Above all, it keeps you connected with people you have never met, and may never meet, but have nevertheless become your friends. The above only scratches the surface of what's available on Twitter, so long as you are prepared to put in the effort to look for it. What you're probably not here for, though, is the racism and hate. (Unless you're one of the heroic, brave souls determined to win a virtual staring contest with every troll and troublemaker. We thank you for your courage and your effort. But we don't envy you that Sisyphean task. And most of us, if we're honest, aren't up for it. Not every day. Not for the long term.) That leads us neatly to point 2... == 2. Why you should proactively block problematic high-profile accounts == Before giving up on Twitter, why not see what it's like without obvious troublemakers polluting your timeline? Twitter's algorithm is tailored to put provocative tweets in front of you. Outrage means more clicks. Net result? Your mental health suffers. Your blood pressure skyrockets. And Elon gets more ad impressions. You can fight back by going on a blocking spree. It will only take a couple of minutes or so to block the accounts below. (The list is just a suggestion. You may wish to block some but not others.) REFORM MP @Nigel_Farage @ticerichard @LeeAndersonMP_ @RupertLowe10 @JamesReform @reformparty_uk EX TORY MPs @andreajenkyns @Jacob_Rees_Mogg @Bren4Bassetlaw @GullisJonathan @GregHands @markjenk @miriam_cates MEDIA (INDIVIDUALS) @IsabelOakeshott @CamillaTominey @AllisonPearson @JuliaHB1 @darrengrimes @danwootton @GoodwinMJ @THEJamesWhale @toryboypierce @thecoastguy @ThatAlexWoman @thecarolemalone @beverleyturner @tomhfh @alexarmstrong @MelanieLatest @PatrickChristys @DouglasKMurray OTHER @TRobinsonNewEra @LozzaFox @Cobratate @Miss_Snuffy @elonmusk @CatharineHoey @Fox_Claire @georgegalloway @benhabib6 @calvinrobinson @KTHopkins @EssexPR @Councillorsuzie @Arron_banks @toadmeister @BelindadeLucy @NileGardiner @RafHM @ABridgen IMPORTANT: You may find that you get "Temporarily Unavailable" errors if you try to block a large number of accounts at once. If so, pace yourself and do half a dozen or so at a time, leaving gaps in between. Blocking done? You will definitely start to feel better soon, if you haven't already. And don't worry, you won't miss anything important. If any of the above say something so outrageous that it breaks out of their narrow silo and gets more widely circulated, someone you follow is certain to retweet it. You will be able to choose to reveal that specific tweet if you want to. But you'll always be in control, not Elon. Besides, here's the real question: how is reading what any of them have to say going to enhance your life? If you're brutally honest, you already know that it won't. They will never ever ever change their minds based on any argument you can put to them. So it's a folorn hope to expect that to happen either. == 3. Curate private Twitter Lists that match your interests == You can set up a Twitter List that will track just the accounts you're interested in. (It's an alternative to following them.) Let's say your interest is knitting, and there are 100 interesting knitting accounts you come across from time to time. If you progressively add them to a dedicated Twitter List about knitting, you'll be able to see just the tweets from those accounts every time you load the List. You can make multiple lists for different purposes - you're not just limited to having one. I've got over 20, covering all sorts of topics. NOTE: Make the List private. If you make it public, people may object to being on it, or may piggy-back on it to cause trouble for the members of the List. How to add a Twitter account to a list: 1. Visit the profile page of the Twitter account you want to add to the List. 2. Click the 3 dots ("...") to the left of the envelope symbol. 3. Choose the "Add/remove from Lists" option. 4. Either pick an existing list to add the account to, or create a new list. If you're making a new list, don't forget to set it to private. Have fun curating! == 4. Block trolls and racists. Never mute them. == When dealing with trolls and racists, always use "block" not "mute". Why? Because they might have you on private Twitter Lists without you being aware of it. And that could help them orchestrate pile-ons you're unaware of, because your tweets keep coming up on their radar. Blocking removes you from all their Lists. It also means that they can't see what you tweet any more. If you mute them, they can still quote-tweet your tweets to their followers. Cue more pile-ons. Blocking puts a stop to that. == Conclusion == Phew! That was long, wasn't it? Sorry about that. Still, hopefully you'll have had a chance to focus on the good stuff Twitter still has to offer, even in its binfire state. And you have some idea of how to get the best out of Twitter, while blocking the worst of it. Hope you will make the decision to stay. It will be boring here with nothing but tumbleweed for company.

What a headline. There is hope.

As if there wasn’t already enough ignorance in the USA and the world 🙄: Utah outlaws books by Judy Blume and Sarah J Maas in first statewide ban ⁦⁦@guardian⁩ theguardian.com/books/article/…

Sarah Sackman: "This is not our Finchley" Finchley and Golders Green MP condemns far right demonstration planned for North Finchley this evening while warning of risks of counter-protest barnetpost.co.uk/2024/08/07/sar…

#RefugeesWelcome means ALL refugees and those descended from them, including Jewish families and Muslim ones, all part of our diverse and peaceful suburb.

@Ibrahimsmum Agree. No one should have to feel threatened. One of the beauties of our locality is its diversity and suburban peace and quiet.

Huge police presence in North Finchley. Shops with shutters down. Poundland closing early. Fruit stall guy packing up. We’ve told carers to get evening calls in much earlier. The UK right now is frightening. Fuck you racist scum! We won’t be intimated by a few piss heads.