WordPress 5.0 broke this web site
The Wordpress 5.0 release was a mega disaster for many people, including breaking this web site. Update: I think I have made some fixes that work, including rolling back to version 4.9.8.
Facebook to buy back shares to prop up share price
FB is increasing its share buy back program to address this years sharp drop in their share price.
Facebook might be in trouble – it’s domestic spying operation is out in the open
For a company built on “friends”, Facebook is not a nice company. They’ve operated the largest invasive spying operation in history scooping up everything from users and then re-selling their insights to whoever would pay.
Social media brings out the idiocy in people
Did you know the 7.0 magnitude quake in Alaska today was caused by climate change? Me neither, but according to a journalist, it was! Human induced plate tectonic drifting.
The headline: “Over half of Americans delay or don’t get health care because they can’t afford it”
The survey appears to have found that over half of Americans postpone preventative checkups when they are not experiencing any health problems which is different than avoiding seeking care for an active health care problem.
The distinction is that in many health care visits, a patient is experiencing something wrong and visits a provider to hopefully find a solution.
In a preventative check up, a patient goes to a provider and asks the provider to find something wrong with them.
School issued computing devices are used to spy on students
School-issued computing devices such as tablets and notebook-like computers are used to collect personal information, especially by corporate vendors, which can be used to create a dossier or enhance an existing dossier on students, for use in marketing.
Is Twitter becoming irrelevant?
“Today, Twitter is mostly dumb people yelling at each other and self-appointed hall monitors trying to shut down accounts they don’t follow.”
1984: Google patents massive home spying system
Google patents product concepts to use cameras to scan every room and person in your home, to identify the types of clothing you wear, to associate that with potential products, and to understand the types of furniture you own, and using that to estimate your income. Google also patents a system to monitor your children, and which would detect the use of foul language or engaged in other inappropriate behavior in your own home.
It’s 1984 in America and the world.
Washington State University Marching Band won the Internet, sorry about the media coverage
We do not understand why the media is so careless with facts that are easily verifiable. Keep this in mind when you read any news report – chances are, much of it is not correct.
Did someone really say that meat bought in stores does not harm animals?
Some one really did say this, in 2009, but not in San Francisco, and possibly intended as satire: “To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed.”
“People on social media love to be offended”
Well put, from Lindsey Stirling: LS: Here’s the thing: People often shy away from speaking about faith because they’re afraid they’re going to offend someone. But I’ve realized, I offend people all the time by just living. People on social media love to be offended and they love to get upset over things, and I’ve had people throw fits on social media over something as silly as the fact that I changed my hair. … No matter what you do,…
Fake headline: “Someone just made a floating hovercraft Delorean”
Here’s the fake headline: Someone just made a floating hovercraft Delorean – Esquire Middle East.
Matt built his Delorean look-alike hovercraft between 2010 and 2012 which is hardly “just made”. He has, however, put it up for sale. We both have hovercraft and we both flew them at solar eclipse viewing events in Oregon in 2017.
How marketing propaganda persuades us to buy stuff we often do not need
We are surrounded by marketing propaganda that has enlisted networks of individuals posting online reviews. These ecosystems seem like organic grass roots “from the people” reviews. But most are marketing “astro turf” operations. That is, they are corporate sponsored activities designed to look like they are “from the people”.