Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
The Arts: (And archaeology) A 17,000 year old conch shell, apparently modified for producing sound, has been found.
Christianity: Joel Duff examines the reach of the most important young-earth creationist outlets.
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware recommends a site where you can find out about abbreviations and acronyms.
Gizmo's also pointed to HotSymbol, from which lots of symbols and emojis may be easily copied: 🙄
Education: (or something) An 8-year-old complained
to National Public Radio, saying that there weren't enough stories about dinosaurs on NPR's "All Things Considered."
Relevant has a post on black history in the US.
Finance: (or something) Amazon has a use for used cardboard boxes, according to Gizmodo.
Humor: (or something) Listverse shows us 10 kitchen gadgets that you don't need.
Politics: FiveThirtyEight on why it is unlikely that there will be a successful third (or fourth) party.
(And Christianity) Christianity Today reports on a survey that indicates that quite a few white evangelicals are believers in QAnon.
FiveThirtyEight on the power of Trump loyalists in state and local politics.
Science: Gizmodo on missions to Mars (The UAE, China, and the US are involved, separately), which are so active now, and what these missions hope to accomplish.
Gizmodo also reports on research on pigs that are able to play video games -- and win.
And Gizmodo reports on new types of living things, found under the Antarctic ice.
The graphic used in these posts is from NASA, hence, it is free to use like this.Thanks for looking!
6 comments:
After the November elections, I spent some time lurking around a few Q-Anon message hubs to see what their perspective was, since they've become a sizeable group. I found them to be just people, most of them reasonable enough, though with some who were quirky beyond my comfort zone. I didn't find Q-Anon to have exactly a centralized belief -- other than possibly the belief that there are powerful people who are up to no good and hiding their actions. (During known history that has always been a true statement, but it's questionable how much has been actually discovered about things that are hidden.)
Take care & God bless
Anne / WF
Sadly, Qanon is not belief that the powerful are up to taking more power for themselves and wanted to give power back to everyday people. The movement is largely a conspiracy theory that seeks to push power to to rich, white people and is flowing into fascism or theocracy. Not to mention their unsubstaniated claims the democrats eat and/or rape babies. As a Democrat and a Catholic -- the claims pushed by Q's are not quirky, they are dangerous to a multicultural and multiparty democracy.
Hey Chuck
After lurking on their message hubs for awhile to find out first-hand (which is just how I roll), I don't find the standard "anti-Q" narrative to be plausible. They are vocally against the over-concentration of power and don't seem to have any "world will soon be ours" thing going; neither have I stumbled into any nests of white supremacists. Their big social justice causes seem to be against human trafficking, against government corruption, and for free speech. What is common is for them to see Weinstein as the tip of the iceberg of a sexual abuse problem in Hollywood (e.g. #MeToo, or rumors of a "casting couch"), or for them to see Epstein/Maxwell as the tip of the iceberg of a sexual predator problem among the DC beltway types, with the belief that they had a significant number of clients. They're also fairly horrified at the kinds of ... material ... available on the dark web (and the odd laptop computer). They're shocked at how quickly (Joe) Biden has moved to weaken Trump's initiatives to stop human trafficking.
Reading their concerns has helped me get some perspective on who they are and what they care about.
Take care & God bless
WF
I'll leave the conspiracy theories of child sex slavery through pizza shops to others. Also, I think the storming of the Capital by a combination of Proud Boys, III%, and Qanon people tells me all I need to know about this group and those that are apologists for them.
Hey Chuck
Fwiw, some of them think that Weinstein (and Kappy), Epstein, Maxwell, and Clinton tell them "all they need to know" about Hollywood and Washington; broad brushes are fast but not accurate. After some lurking, I'd assess that the Q-Anons are the least dangerous of the groups you named, with The Proud Boys slightly more dangerous in certain limited ways, and 3%ers more so though with different interests and causes. None of them at present comes close to Antifa for that.
If you ever like to spend time simply researching (something I find enjoyable, nearly regardless of topic), the Q-Anon theories about Kappy are an interesting window into their worldview. I make no claims as to the accuracy of any of their theories about Kappy, only that it would enable a more accurate assessment (not necessarily a more positive assessment). If that's not your thing I'll understand. :)
P.S. on why I care: on the basis of, "First they came for the Q-Anon's, but I was not a Q-Anon ..." I promised myself that I would not stand by while someone got scapegoated/censored/etc, because I know how that story could end.
Take care & God bless
WF
Thank you both for your comments. It's not a simple subject.
Post a Comment