Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to others*
Health:
A Conversation writer tells us why we often get nasal congestion when we're sick, and about the functions of snot.
Politics: (or something) A Conversation writer tells us that young black men are more likely to die in certain small areas of large cities than as if they were engaged in battle as part of the US military.
Russia has withdrawn support for the nuclear test ban treaty, according to Reuters.
A Conversation article tells us that Democrats and Republicans differ widely on whether or not to remove misinformation from social platforms.
Science: Gizmodo reports on how the Yucatán asteroid may have wiped out the dinosaurs.
Gizmodo also reports that scientists have found that an asteroid, less than a kilometer in size, has an even smaller asteroid orbiting it. A later report shows that the smaller asteroid is actually two rocks.
Phys.Org reports that studies of DNA from many species of crabs indicates that crabs took up residence out of the ocean about 17 different times.
A Conversation writer tells us how we come up with the word we want, fast.
*I try not to include items that require a password or fee to view
Thanks for reading.
1 comment:
I read the article at The Conversation about misinformation and censorship. While I don't identify with a party (so some of their framing doesn't apply to me), I think they missed some key points about why conservatives are more likely to see "misinformation" labels -- and removal of content -- as censorship. You'll know that I'm hardly a controversialist, but I've personally been de-platformed twice in the last few years in what I suspect is guilt-by-association during various purges on certain platforms. I've seen a major libertarian news site de-platformed over a view now more accepted about where a certain virus might have originated, and posts removed or hidden that discuss how involved various nation-states were in the destruction of a certain pipeline. I've seen world-leading scientists shut out of the conversation for suggesting that lock-downs weren't the optimal approach. The number of other views not allowed daylight is staggering, and it works out to no effective pushback against many concrete examples officially-promoted disinformation. In short, we've been deplatformed by the tens of thousands (if not more), and affected by censorship by the tens of millions. Censorship is a form of oppression, and there has been systematic oppression, which still continues on many platforms. We know from the release of internal emails that government actors are involved in causing opposition political views to be silenced. Someone who has never been de-platformed may not "get it". But if you ever try to sign onto an account and they tell you you're banned, it's not something you forget. You know me; I'm hardly a rabble-rouser. When they're deplatforming people like me, then the threshold is ridiculously low. I'm surprised that Team Blue goes along with banning people en masse; isn't banning people worse than banning books?
Sorry. Frustrated. At least one of the sites where I lost my account has now allowed me back on, even told me it was a 'mistake' that I lost my account. Something about bridges in Arizona ... Tens of millions of us are systematically affected. That's hardly a mistake. No conversation about "disinformation" is complete with acknowledging the rampant, continuing abuse of the process and the harm it has had on people and on public discourse. I expect if we could get honest news, we'd all be shocked at how much is disinformation -- and where the disinformation is coming from.
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