Afternoon Links: An Airport Conspiracy, a Sailing Conspiracy, and a Twitter Conspiracy

Airport conspiracy. One of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, actress Rose McGowan, was recently served with an arrest warrant for cocaine posession. McGowan was earlier locked out of her Twitter account related to her allegations, saying: “TWITTER HAS SUSPENDED ME. THERE ARE POWERFUL FORCES AT WORK. BE MY VOICE. #whywomendontreport” It was odd that McGowan would suggest that Twitter locking her out of her account for violating the site’s rules (she posted a private phone number) was one of the many reasons women don’t report sexual harrassment. Even stranger was her response to the arrest warrant: “Are they trying to silence me … There is a warrant out for my arrest in Virginia. What a load of HORSES**T.”

That the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is a cog in some giant hidden machine meant to silence Rose McGowan is quite the tale. I’d see that movie.

Speaking of hard-to-believe tales, did you hear the story about the two women stranded at sea for five months? Along with their two dogs, who survived, they appear perfectly healthy. Which is odd, right? Well, here’s your definitive takedown as to why their story is likely a bunch of malarkey. There’s a lot to savor, but here’s my favorite bit:

Appel claims that they couldn’t turn back to Hawaii after the first (made-up) storm because there were no harbors deep enough for a boat the size of theirs. Ignoring the fact that they had just left Hawaii, the islands are also home to several enormous marinas, a Coast Guard base, and PEARL F**KING HARBOR. If it can hold the Navy, it can hold your 50-footer.

Marvel v. Apple Orchard. The comic movie giant is taking on a Minnesota apple orchard that wants to name an apple cider beverage Thor’s Hard Cider, after their grandfather who founded the place. Do they have a case?

To block the trademark, Marvel would have to convince a review board that Thor’s Hard Cider will confuse customers, or that its existence is “diluting” their product. “It’s a Scandinavian name, and in Minnesota probably a not terribly uncommon one,” says Tom Cotter, a University of Minnesota law professor. “It’s an interesting case. On one hand, Marvel cannot claim a monopoly on the name ‘Thor.’ On the other, their character is very well known nationally.” On its face, Cotter doesn’t see a compelling argument for Marvel, adding that it’s “fairly common” for corporations to fight any proposed patent that even remotely resembles theirs. “Sometimes, it’s a legitimate claim. Other times, it looks like bullying.”

Let’s hope Marvel loses or, better, relents.

Twitter traffic… disappears? Mike Morrison, director of communications at American Majority, noticed something odd about his Twitter analytics data recently: it was revised downward, by a lot.

Every single month was adjusted downwards, to the tune of millions of impressions. I haven’t yet checked closely, but follower counts seem unaffected and I was unable to check on engagement numbers, but impressions seem to tell an interesting tale. Either Twitter’s algorithm broke, they completely changes what an “impression” is and didn’t tell anyone, or it was all the Russians.

What say you, Twitter?

Bull Mountain! Don’t go changing! One of my favorite bad movies is the 2001 cult classic Out Cold. It’s how a small, quirky ski town responds when a major resort company comes in and buys the mountain. (Spoiler: it does not go well.) Red Mountain, a Canadian resort, is fending off consolidation in the skiing industry by crowdsourcing investment.

The Out Cold parallels are sort of freaky, at least in this one video. Red Mountain says they “could use the help of the people at this juncture to stay fierce, independent, proud, and a little bit odd.” I like it. Red Mountain, don’t go changing!

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