These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 84-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past weekend.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
TYPHOON HAGIBIS MAKES LANDFALL ON JAPAN’S MAIN ISLAND
Japan ramped up rescue efforts on Sunday for survivors of a typhoon that brought record-breaking amounts of rain, flooding huge swaths of residential districts and leaving at least 35 dead and nearly 20 others missing. A day after Typhoon Hagibis lashed Tokyo and other areas in central, eastern and northeastern regions, 17 people are still missing, according to a Kyodo News tally based on information provided by rescuers and other authorities. Some 27,000 members of the Self-Defense Forces have been dispatched to those regions, including Nagano, where they tried to rescue about 360 people who were stranded after an embankment of the Chikuma River collapsed, with the land ministry warning of the possibility of floodwaters up to 5 meters deep.
[SOURCE: kyodonews.net]
FORTNITE SEASON 11 EVENT ENDS WITH A COSMIC EXPLOSION AND IS NOW GONE
Like in season 4, the event started off with a rocket launching into the sky and exploding to create rifts. Like in the earlier event, the rocket went out of one rift into another. This time, however, there were several more rockets. The spacecrafts then flew around into multiple rifts again and again until they all entered one final rift. After a moment of calmness, the rockets appeared above the meteor over Dusty Depot. One by one they entered another rift below the meteor. Dozens of more rockets than previously seen appeared only to slam into this final rift, which caused the rift to grow. The meteor that was frozen over Dusty Depot throughout season 10 began to move, and then it, too, disappeared into the now large rift. For a moment, the meteor and rockets were gone. Then the music of the event began to swell and far above the island was one giant rift. Players were then sent into the air, floating uncontrollably. Finally, out of the rift, six rockets and the meteor reappeared. The rockets changed directions to fly off in different directions while the meteor crashed into the singularity located at Loot Lake. The dome surrounding the area attempted to shield the island, but it failed as the meteor finally smash into the island as it did at the end of season 4 but with much more of an impact. An explosion occurred when then began sucking in everything. The island, the Battle Bus and even the players were soon gone in a blink. All that was left was a black hole. The official Fortnite Twitter account and website only show the black hole. The game’s Instagram account shows the same.
[SOURCE: cnet.com]
OSCAR-NOMINATED ACTOR ROBERT FORSTER DIES AT 78
Robert Forster, the handsome and omnipresent character actor who got a career resurgence and Oscar nomination for playing bail bondsman Max Cherry in “Jackie Brown,” died Friday. He was 78. Publicist Kathie Berlin said Forster died of brain cancer following a brief illness. He was at home in Los Angeles, surrounded by family, including his four children and partner Denise Grayson. A native of Rochester, New York, Forster quite literally stumbled into acting when in college, intending to be a lawyer, he followed a fellow female student he was trying to talk to into an auditorium where “Bye Bye Birdie” auditions were being held. He would be cast in that show, that fellow student would become his wife with whom he had three daughters, and it would start him on a new trajectory as an actor. A fortuitous role in the 1965 Broadway production “Mrs. Dally Has a Lover” put him on the radar of Darryl Zanuck, who signed him to a studio contract. He would soon make his film debut in the 1967 John Huston film “Reflections in a Golden Eye,” which starred Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor. Forster would go on to star in Haskell Wexler’s documentary-style Chicago classic “Medium Cool” and the detective television series “Banyon.” It was an early high point that he would later say was the beginning of a “27-year slump.”
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
ERROL SPENCE JR. IN ‘SERIOUS CONDITION’ AFTER CRASHING FERRARI IN DALLAS
World welterweight champion boxer Errol Spence Junior remains hospitalized after being ejected from a Ferrari near downtown Dallas, police say. Spence, 29, was driving the Ferrari at a “high rate of speed” along South Riverfront Boulevard when he lost control of the vehicle and crashed shortly before 3 a.m., police said. The Ferrari veered left over the median and onto the southbound lanes, which sent the vehicle flipping multiple times, police said. He was not wearing a seat belt, according to police. Spence was taken by paramedics to Methodist Dallas Medical Center with injuries that were considered serious, but not life-threatening, police said. On Thursday night, Spence’s PR Team released a statement saying “Spence is awake and responding and his condition is listed as stable. He did not sustain any broken bones or fractures, but has some facial lacerations. He is expected to make a full recovery.”
[SOURCE: nbcdfw.com]
CHICAGO SHOOTING: A NEIGHBOR KILLS 4 PEOPLE EATING DINNER IN AN APARTMENT, POLICE SAY
The shooting happened Saturday night and a weapon has been recovered from the scene, according to Tom Ahern, a spokesman for the Chicago Police Department. The suspect — a 67-year-old retired construction worker — allegedly shot the victims as they were eating inside a residence, CNN affiliate WGN reported, citing police. “When he walked into that neighbor’s apartment, there were four people at the table eating dinner,” First Deputy Superintendent Anthony Riccio said. “For reasons we don’t yet know, he opened fire and killed them.” After the shooting at the dinner table, the man allegedly went upstairs and shot a woman, who was hospitalized in critical condition, the affiliate reported. The suspect is a neighbor who is known to the victims, Ahern said. Police did not release additional information.
[SOURCE: cnn.com]
L.A. ANGELS EMPLOYEE TELLS DEA HE SUPPLIED TYLER SKAGGS WITH DRUGS PRIOR TO OVERDOSE
A public relations employee for the Los Angeles Angels told federal investigators that he provided oxycodone to Tyler Skaggs and abused it with him for years, and that two team officials were told about Skaggs’ drug use long before his death, according to two sources familiar with the investigation. Eric Kay, the Angels’ director of communications, also gave U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents the names of five other players who he believed were using opiates while they were Angels, the sources said. Kay’s attorney, Michael Molfetta, reached late Friday, confirmed the details of Kay’s statements, given in separate meetings with DEA agents in Dallas and Los Angeles in late September. Skaggs died in a Southlake, Texas, hotel room on July 1 from choking on his own vomit, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was 27. Skaggs’ autopsy, released Aug. 30, found evidence of fentanyl, oxycodone and alcohol in his system. Outside the Lines reported on Sept. 18 that the DEA had begun an investigation into the source of the fentanyl. Kay told investigators he illegally obtained six oxycodone pills and gave three to Skaggs a day or two before the team left California for the road trip to Texas, according to the two sources. Kay told DEA agents he does not think the pills he obtained for Skaggs were the same ones the pitcher took the day he died because Skaggs typically would ingest the pills immediately after receiving them from Kay, the sources said. Skaggs also texted Kay the day the team left for Texas seeking more oxycodone, a request Kay told investigators he was unable to fulfill, the sources said.
[SOURCE: espn.com]
WEWORK TO CLOSE ITS WEGROW ELEMENTARY SCHOOL IN NEW YORK NEXT YEAR
WeWork said on Friday it will shut down its WeGrow private school in New York City after the current school year, as the company focuses on its main office-sharing business. The company is cutting back, including laying off some employees and closing or selling entities that are not essential to its core operations as it seeks to avoid running out of cash. WeWork, which had to abandon an initial public offering on September 30 because of investor concerns about how it was valued and its business model, is currently seeking new financing from its major shareholder SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), sources have told Reuters. WeWork said in a statement it will continue to operate WeGrow through the 2019/2020 school year, and that “WeWork and the families of WeGrow students are engaging in discussions with interested parties regarding plans for WeGrow for the following school year.”
[SOURCE: reuters.com]
KEN FISHER’S LEWD COMMENTS TURN SPOTLIGHT ON CONFERENCE CULTURE
As Wall Street tries to stamp out its longstanding reputation for bawdy misbehavior, some denizens fond of the old culture have been finding periodic refuge at industry conferences. After dark, many events are known for lewd comments and other interactions that would never fly back at the office. Then on Tuesday, billionaire Ken Fisher took the stage at a summit for wealth and investment industry leaders in California and stunned the crowd by comparing the process of gaining a client’s trust to “trying to get into a girl’s pants” and also talking about genitalia. He has been trying to explain his remarks ever since, apologizing repeatedly. Among many who regularly attend industry gatherings, the surprise in Fisher’s remarks was that he spoke them into a microphone. In interviews, financial professionals, including more than a half-dozen women, said they hear such comments at many events — but it’s usually after the formal presentations are done and crowds regroup in networking sessions, restaurants and bars. “The sad truth is, I’m not shocked by what was said,” said Gail Graham, a 37-year veteran of the financial industry who held senior posts at Fidelity Investments and United Capital Financial Advisers and has run her own consulting business for wealth advisers. She hopes Fisher’s comments will prompt the industry to finally change.
[SOURCE: financial-planning.com]
Eight Things To Talk About uses the raw engagement data from the social media engagement from The Conversation Project to generate the top-ranking headlines over the course of a weekend.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Wrap-Up Show with J Cleveland Payne, published every Saturday as a podcast available at ThisIsTheConversation.com or wherever your favorite podcasts are found.
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