Roseanne has been seduced by conspiracy theorists on Twitter

Update 6.20.18 Roseanne retweets today’s Qanon post:

——————–

Once Roseanne tweeted about Qanon last month, I knew she had gone  around the bend and was falling victim to the most popular conspiracy theory circulating on Twitter: Qanon: The Great Awakening.

Qanon: The Storm is Coming, The Great Awakening & Follow the White Rabbit

I am quite sure Qanon enthusiasts inundated Roseanne with info about the conspiracy. The problem with conspiracies in general, is that they rely on faith as opposed to reason–in that sense these theories are similar to religion or deeply held ideologies.

According to the political scientist Michael Barkun, conspiracy theories rely on the view that the universe is governed by design, and embody three principles:

  1. nothing happens by accident
  2. nothing is as it seems
  3. everything is connected.
  4.  Another common feature is that conspiracy theories evolve to incorporate whatever evidence exists against them, so that they become, as Barkun writes, a closed system that is unfalsifiable, and therefore “a matter of faith rather than proof.”

Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 58.

It seems this Qanon character has taken his/her/their methods right out to the conspiracy playbook. The motto is “Trust the plan.” Everything is under control and behind the scenes the globalists (Soros, Obama, etc.) are being handled (headed to prison/Gitmo).

The memes circulating purport to reveal these connections–hence, the false info that Soros is marrying off his relatives into the mainstream government.

Even Wikileaks tweeted about Qanon over the weekend, saying they assumed it is a LARP (Live Action Role Player) but more nefariously that it could be co-opted as a psyop.

To prove the unfalsifiablity–

Wikileaks is drawing attention to it because it is true??

Also, Wikileaks-related journalists are cautioning that Q is saying Assange is safely out to the embassy and in some sort of protective custody–not true, of course.

The seductive nature of this conspiracy and the sheer volume of followers (it is often the number one trending hashtag on Twitter although Twitter supresses it–only feeding confirmation bias) has spawned videos, products, books–you name it.

Sometimes I wonder if it isn’t a very clever money-making operation! If it didn’t start out that way, it could certainly become a motive to continue to promote the narrative.

As we denounce those accused of bad acts, may we still love their work?

 

 

SPAM & Other Canned Meat Products Recalled: Shelf Life Until 2021

Hormel Foods Corporation Recalls Canned Pork and Chicken Products due to Possible Foreign Matter Contamination

Class I Recall041-2018
Health Risk: HighMay 26, 2018

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2018 – Hormel Food Corp., a Fremont, NE establishment, is recalling approximately 228,614 pounds of canned pork and chicken products that may be contaminated with foreign matter, specifically pieces of metal, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The canned pork and chicken products were produced on February 8 through February 10, 2018. The following products are subject to recall:  [View Labels (PDF only)]

  • 12-oz. metal cans containing “SPAM Classic” with a “Best By” February 2021 date and production codes: F020881, F020882, F020883, F020884, F020885, F020886, F020887, F020888 and F020889. These products were shipped throughout the United States.
  • 12-oz. metal cans containing “Hormel Foods Black-Label Luncheon Loaf” with a “Best By” February 2021 date and production codes F02098 and F02108. These products were shipped to Guam only.

The products subject to recall bear establishment number “EST. 199N” on the bottom of the can. These items were shipped throughout the United States and to Guam.

The problem was discovered after the firm received four consumer complaints stating that metal objects were found in the canned products. FSIS was notified on May 25, 2018.

There have been reports of minor oral injuries associated with consumption of the products. FSIS has received no additional reports of injury or illness from consumption of these products. Anyone concerned about an injury or illness should contact a healthcare provider.

FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ food pantries. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase.

FSIS routinely conducts recall effectiveness checks to verify recalling firms notify their customers of the recall and that steps are taken to make certain that the product is no longer available to consumers. When available, the retail distribution list(s) will be posted on the FSIS website at www.fsis.usda.gov/recalls.

Consumers with questions about the recall can contact Consumer Response, Hormel Foods, at (800) 523-4635. Members of the media with questions about the recall can contact Hormel Foods Media Relations, at (507) 437-5345.

Sorry, It’s Probably Not a Werewolf: Canid Animal Shot Near Denton, Montana Draws Attention

Courtesy Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Region 4

Current speculation is that the animal is a dog/wolf hybrid.

A large wolf-like animal shot and killed May 16 by a rancher near Denton has wildlife officials and the public wondering what it was.

Here’s what is not in question: The animal came within several hundred yards of the rancher’s livestock. He shot it and reported it as required by law. The animal was a young, non-lactating female and a canid, a member of the dog family, which includes dogs, foxes, coyotes and wolves.

Those facts are not unusual in Montana’s farm and ranch county.

The animal originally was reported as a wolf, but several Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ wolf specialists looked at photos of the animal and collectively doubted it was a purebred wolf: the canine teeth were too short, the front paws too small and the claws on the front paw were too long.

Nevertheless, social media was quick to pronounce the animal as everything from a wolf to a wolf hybrid to something mythical.
Rather than guess, FWP sent the carcass to the Department’s lab in Bozeman where tissue samples will be collected, then shipped to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Laboratory in Ashland, Org.

In a laboratory, scientists extract DNA from cells, looking for markers specific to individual species. Those markers are then compared to samples of known species on hand.

While the process may take a week, just getting to that stage may take weeks or months, depending on the laboratory’s backlog of cases.

All of which means it may be awhile before the anyone really knows what the animal near Denton really was.

UPDATE

http://fwp.mt.gov/news/newsReleases/fishAndWildlife/nr_1108.html

North Korea’s Statement Prompts Summit Cancellation: “Political dummy” Pence “spat out nonsense”

Courtesy North Korea’s Central News Agency:

At an interview with Fox News on May 21, US Vice-President Pence made unbridled and impudent remarks that North Korea might end like Libya, military option for North Korea never came off the table, the US needs complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearisation, and so on.

As a person involved in the US affairs, I cannot suppress my surprise at such ignorant and stupid remarks gushing out from the mouth of the US vice-president.

If he is vice-president of “single superpower” as is in name, it will be proper for him to know even a little bit about the current state of global affairs and to sense to a certain degree the trends in dialogue and the climate of détente.

We could surmise more than enough what a political dummy he is as he is trying to compare the DPRK, a nuclear weapon state, to Libya that had simply installed a few items of equipment and fiddled around with them.

Soon after the White House National Security Adviser Bolton made the reckless remarks, Vice-President Pence has again spat out nonsense that the DPRK would follow in Libya’s footstep.

It is to be underlined, however, that in order not to follow in Libya’s footstep, we paid a heavy price to build up our powerful and reliable strength that can defend ourselves and safeguard peace and security in the Korean peninsula and the region.

In view of the remarks of the US high-ranking politicians who have not yet woken up to this stark reality and compare the DPRK to Libya that met a tragic fate, I come to think that they know too little about us.

To borrow their words, we can also make the US taste an appalling tragedy it has neither experienced nor even imagined up to now.

Before making such reckless threatening remarks without knowing exactly who he is facing, Pence should have seriously considered the terrible consequences of his words.

It is the US who has asked for dialogue, but now it is misleading the public opinion as if we have invited them to sit with us.

I only wonder what is the ulterior motive behind its move and what is it the US has calculated to gain from that.

We will neither beg the US for dialogue nor take the trouble to persuade them if they do not want to sit together with us.

Whether the US will meet us at a meeting room or encounter us at nuclear-to-nuclear showdown is entirely dependent upon the decision and behavior of the United States.

In case the US offends against our goodwill and clings to unlawful and outrageous acts, I will put forward a suggestion to our supreme leadership for reconsidering the DPRK-US summit.

Axolotl is critically endangered: “The Walking Fish” of Mexico

Photo courtesy Tech Insider, YouTube.

CONSERVATION STATUS: Critically endangered. ICUN Red List. Primary threats include pollution and tourism contributing to additional pollution.

Axolotl adults can regenerate up to 20% of their organ mass within two months, without scarring.

Recently, a team led by JAX Professor and Scientific Director Nadia Rosenthal, Ph.D., F.Med.Sci., and Research Scientist James Godwin, Ph.D., explored the role of the immune response in heart regeneration in the axolotl (salamander).

Argentinian novelist Julio Cortazar memorialized the magic of the axolotl in the following short story (1956), translated into English.

http://southerncrossreview.org/73/axolotl.html

 

Net Neutrality Action Plan: ACLU Quick Link to Contact Representative Here

Message from the ACLU:

The Senate just voted to protect net neutrality and reverse the FCC’s decision to cede control of the internet to Big Telecom. This is a truly stunning victory – and one that was only possible because we fought together. Since the FCC voted to dismantle net neutrality in December, hundreds of thousands of activists like you signed the petition, sent messages to their senators, and kept those Senate phones ringing off the hook.

Even a Senate whose leadership is in the pocket of Big Telecom was no match for us. You never gave up, and that made us victorious today.

 

Next step for net neutrality: win the House vote

The House will now face the same choice: listen to their constituents or allow a misguided, illogical decision to threaten access to content online. With the net neutrality rollback set to happen on June 11, we need the House to act swiftly – which means we need to start targeting them now.

Send a message to your representative demanding that they vote to save net neutrality. The vast majority of people in this country – regardless of political party – support net neutrality. And with the Senate now definitively voting to reverse the FCC’s ruling, the pressure on the House is real.

Ronald Newman

Ronald Newman
ACLU Director of Strategic Initiatives, fighting for the open internet

Hubble shows the local Universe in ultraviolet; Photos released

Using the unparalleled sharpness and ultraviolet observational capabilities of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers has created the most comprehensive high-resolution ultraviolet-light survey of star-forming galaxies in the local Universe. The catalogue contains about 8000 clusters and 39 million hot blue stars.

Ultraviolet light is a major tracer of the youngest and hottest stars. These stars are short-lived and intensely bright. Astronomers have now finished a survey called LEGUS (Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey) that captured the details of 50 local galaxies within 60 million light-years of Earth in both visible and ultraviolet light.

This image shows the galaxy NGC 6744, about 30 million light-years away. It is one of 50 galaxies observed as part of the Hubble Space Telescope’s Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS), the sharpest, most comprehensive ultraviolet-light survey of star-forming galaxies in the nearby Universe, offering an extensive resource for understanding the complexities of star formation and galaxy evolution. The image is a composite using both ultraviolet light and visible light, gathered with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.
UGCA 281 is a blue compact dwarf galaxy located in the constellation of Canes Venatici. Within it, two giant star clusters appear brilliant white and are swaddled by greenish hydrogen gas clouds. These clusters are responsible for most of the recent star formation in UGCA 281; the rest of the galaxy is comprised of older stars and appears redder in colour. The reddish objects in the background are background galaxies that appear through the diffuse dwarf galaxy. The image is a composite using both ultraviolet light and visible light, gathered with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys.
The spiral galaxy Messier 66 is located at a distance of about 35 million light-years in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). Together with Messier 65 and NGC 3628, Messier 66 is a member of the Leo Triplet, a trio of interacting spiral galaxies. Like all the galaxies in LEGUS, Messier 66 is undergoing vigorous star and star-cluster formation. One of the goals of LEGUS is to sample star-forming regions across each galaxy. Because the galaxies are relatively close to Earth, Hubble can resolve individual stars. An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2010 (heic1006). This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.
The dwarf galaxy DDO 68, also known as UGC 5340, lies about 40 million light-years away from Earth. Due to its proximity it became one of the 50 targets of LEGUS. In UGC 5340, a pocket of rapid star birth appears in the lower right corner. This region of star formation was probably triggered by a gravitational interaction with an unseen companion galaxy. But star formation is present across the entire body of UGC 5340, and the relatively young stars are responsible for the galaxy’s blue-white colour. An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2014 (heic1421). This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.
Messier 96, also known as NGC 3368, is a spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). It is of about the same mass and size as the Milky Way. It was first discovered by astronomer Pierre Méchain in 1781, and added to Charles Messier’s famous catalogue of astronomical objects just four days later. A wave of star formation is occurring along the dark filaments that make up the spiral arms. The fledgling stars illuminate the surrounding hydrogen gas, making the stars appear pink. Star birth begins at the inner spiral arms and moves outward. The milky white regions in the centre of these galaxies represent the glow of countless stars. An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2015 (potw1535a). This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.
Messier 106, also known as NGC 4258, is a relatively nearby spiral galaxy, a little over 20 million light-years away. This makes it one of the nearest spiral galaxies. Despite carrying his name, Messier 106 was neither discovered nor catalogued by the renowned 18th-century astronomer Charles Messier. Discovered by his assistant, Pierre Méchain, the galaxy was never added to the Messier catalogue in his lifetime. Along with six other objects discovered but not logged by the pair, Messier 106 was posthumously added to the catalogue in the 20th century. An image of this galaxy was already released back in 2013 (heic1302). This newly-processed image now also shows ultraviolet radiation Hubble captured from the galaxy.

Spotify Announces Hate Content & Hateful Conduct Public Policy; SPLC, ADL & Others to Consult

We have tens of millions of tracks on Spotify, growing by approximately 20,000 recordings a day. Nothing makes us more excited than discovering and sharing that music. One of the most amazing things about all that music is the range of genres, cultures, experiences, and stories embodied in it. We love that our platform is home to so much diversity because we believe in openness, tolerance, respect, and freedom of expression, and we want to promote those values through music on our platform.

However, we do not tolerate hate content on Spotify – content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.

Today, we are announcing our policy on Hate Content and Hateful Conduct. You can read the whole policy here, but here are the basics:

When we are alerted to content that violates our policy, we may remove it (in consultation with rights holders) or refrain from promoting or playlisting it on our service. It’s important to us that our values are reflected in all the work that we do, whether it’s distribution, promotion, or content creation.

At the same time, however, it’s important to remember that cultural standards and sensitivities vary widely. There will always be content that is acceptable in some circumstances, but is offensive in others, and we will always look at the entire context.

To help us identify hate content, we have partnered with rights advocacy groups, including The Southern Poverty Law Center, The Anti-Defamation League, Color Of Change, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), GLAAD, Muslim Advocates, and the International Network Against Cyber Hate. We also built an internal content monitoring tool, Spotify AudioWatch, which identifies content on our platform that has been flagged as hate content on specific international registers. And we listen to our users – if you think something is hate content, please let us know and we will review it carefully against our policy.

We’ve also thought long and hard about how to handle content that is nothate content itself, but is principally made by artists or other creators who have demonstrated hateful conduct personally. We work with and support artists in different ways – we make their music available on Spotify and help connect them to new and existing fans, we program and promote their music, and we collaborate with them to create content. While we don’t believe in censoring content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior, we want our editorial decisions – what we choose to program – to reflect our values. So, in some circumstances, when an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.

This is our first iteration of this new policy. These are complicated issues, and we’re going to continue to revise our Policy on Hate Content and Hateful Conduct. We’ll make some mistakes, we’ll learn from them, and we’ll always listen to you as we work to keep building the Spotify platform.

Distant galaxy reveals very early star formation

This image shows the galaxy cluster MACS J1149.5+2223 taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope; the inset image is the very distant galaxy MACS1149-JD1, seen as it was 13.3 billion years ago and observed with ALMA. Here, the oxygen distribution detected with ALMA is depicted in red.

Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, W. Zheng (JHU), M. Postman (STScI), the CLASH Team, Hashimoto et al.

Astronomers have used observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to determine that star formation in the very distant galaxy MACS1149-JD1 started at an unexpectedly early stage, only 250 million years after the Big Bang. This discovery also represents the most distant oxygen ever detected in the Universe and the most distant galaxy ever observed by ALMA or the VLT. The results will appear in the journal Nature on 17 May 2018.

An international team of astronomers used ALMA to observe a distant galaxy called MACS1149-JD1. They detected a very faint glow emitted by ionised oxygen in the galaxy. As this infrared light travelled across space, the expansion of the Universe stretched it to wavelengths more than ten times longer by the time it reached Earth and was detected by ALMA. The team inferred that the signal was emitted 13.3 billion years ago (or 500 million years after the Big Bang), making it the most distant oxygen ever detected by any telescope [1]. The presence of oxygen is a clear sign that there must have been even earlier generations of stars in this galaxy.

“I was thrilled to see the signal of the distant oxygen in the ALMA data,” says Takuya Hashimoto, the lead author of the new paper and a researcher at both Osaka Sangyo University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan“This detection pushes back the frontiers of the observable Universe.”

In addition to the glow from oxygen picked up by ALMA, a weaker signal of hydrogen emission was also detected by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The distance to the galaxy determined from this observation is consistent with the distance from the oxygen observation. This makes MACS1149-JD1 the most distant galaxy with a precise distance measurement and the most distant galaxy ever observed with ALMA or the VLT.

“This galaxy is seen at a time when the Universe was only 500 million years old and yet it already has a population of mature stars,” explains Nicolas Laporte, a researcher at University College London (UCL) in the UK and second author of the new paper. “We are therefore able to use this galaxy to probe into an earlier, completely uncharted period of cosmic history.”

For a period after the Big Bang there was no oxygen in the Universe; it was created by the fusion processes of the first stars and then released when these stars died. The detection of oxygen in MACS1149-JD1 indicates that these earlier generations of stars had been already formed and expelled oxygen by just 500 million years after the beginning of the Universe.

But when did this earlier star formation occur? To find out, the team reconstructed the earlier history of MACS1149-JD1 using infrared data taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope. They found that the observed brightness of the galaxy is well-explained by a model where the onset of star formation corresponds to only 250 million years after the Universe began [2].

The maturity of the stars seen in MACS1149-JD1 raises the question of when the very first galaxies emerged from total darkness, an epoch astronomers romantically term “cosmic dawn”. By establishing the age of MACS1149-JD1, the team has effectively demonstrated that galaxies existed earlier than those we can currently directly detect.

Richard Ellis, senior astronomer at UCL and co-author of the paper, concludes: “Determining when cosmic dawn occurred is akin to the Holy Grail of cosmology and galaxy formation. With these new observations of MACS1149-JD1 we are getting closer to directly witnessing the birth of starlight! Since we are all made of processed stellar material, this is really finding our own origins.”

Notes

[1] ALMA has set the record for detecting the most distant oxygen several times. In 2016, Akio Inoue at Osaka Sangyo University and his colleagues used ALMA to find a signal of oxygen emitted 13.1 billion years ago. Several months later, Nicolas Laporte of University College London used ALMA to detect oxygen 13.2 billion years ago. Now, the two teams combined their efforts and achieved this new record, which corresponds to a redshift of 9.1.

[2] This corresponds to a redshift of about 15.

VICE Tells Us Not to Turn Childish Gambino’s “This is America” into a Meme

If you haven’t seen the full video yet, here it is, and it’s already been viewed over 100 million times in a week. “This is America” is the work of Donald Glover, writer, actor, producer and musician who performs under the name Childish Gambino. It has provoked conversation, reaction videos, tears,  interpretations of the symbolism, and more. Glover himself has stated he will not explain his intent, but instead would like for each individual to take away his or her own meaning,

And in response to VICE telling readers to avoid memes, well here you go…