These are the top maybe-not headlines from the past 36-hours presented by The Conversation Project from raw engagement data from our social media to the headlines posted over the past day.
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The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
WHITE HOUSE LIFTS LOCKDOWN AFTER AIRSPACE VIOLATION WAS REPORTED
The White House on Tuesday was briefly put on lockdown, as fighter jets were scrambled in Washington following an airspace violation, law enforcement officials told NBC News. The lockdown was lifted less than 30 minutes after it was first reported by White House reporters. A small aircraft violated airspace rules in a restricted area, officials told the Associated Press. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said the plane was not considered hostile. NBC also reported that a security alert was raised at the Capitol building.
[SOURCE: cnbc.com]
FORD VP CHALLENGES TESLA TO A FAIR F-150 VS CYBERTRUCK TOW BATTLE
Elon Musk took a big swipe at Ford during the unveiling of the Cybertruck. Mid-presentation, he played a video of a Cybertruck pulling an F-150 in what was pitched as a head-to-head contest. Many have questioned if it was a fair fight (I don’t think it was)… including Sundeep Madra, VP of Ford X, the automaker’s venture incubator. Madra tweeted to Elon Musk today, calling for Tesla’s CEO to send Ford a Cybertruck to do an “apples to apples” test. The test showed by Tesla is questionable on several levels. First, the Cybertruck is dramatically heavier, particularly in the rear-end. The Ford used in the test appears to be in 2-wheel drive mode running on older tires. Without weight on the rear wheels, and the front axle spinning freely, the Ford is at the mercy of the heavier all-wheel drive Cybertruck. The Ford appears to be a mid-level XLT trim and it’s impossible to identify the engine used. However, the truck lacks the badging used with Ford’s top-of-the-line 3.5L Ecoboost, which seems to indicate the truck sports a lower-end V8 or Ford’s smaller 2.7L Ecoboost. Either way, it’s not a fair fight under the hood.
[SOURCE: techcrunch.com]
KOALA RESCUED IN AUSTRALIAN BUSH FIRE DIES
A koala who captured the hearts of thousands of people around the world after it was saved during the Australian bushfires has sadly died, the hospital where the animal was being treated announced on Monday. “Today we made the decision to put Ellenborough Lewis to sleep,” the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital said in a statement on Facebook. The hospital said that their “number one goal is animal welfare, so it was on those grounds that this decision was made.” The koala, known as Lewis (the Ellenborough in front of his name signifies the area of New South Wales he was from), was saved by Toni Doherty in a dramatic rescue caught on video last week. In the footage, Doherty ran into the burning bushland from her car, immediately wrapping the koala in the shirt off her own back. After getting the marsupial to safety, she poured water all over the koala to cool its burns before taking him to the Koala Hospital.
[SOURCE: people.com]
‘CBD HAS THE POTENTIAL TO HARM YOU,’ FDA WARNS CONSUMERS
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its stance on CBD late Monday, saying that the cannabis derivative may have the potential to harm users. Cannabidiol, or CBD, is a compound derived from the cannabis plant that is believed to be nonintoxicating. It has proliferated in drinks, cosmetics, foods and many other consumer products, even in states where marijuana is not recreationally or medically legal, including being sold in major retail chains such as CVS Health Corp, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., and Rite Aid Corp. Over the summer, the FDA warned that it was looking into CBD and was concerned about its spread as the agency had approved one drug utilizing the compound — Epidiolex from GW Pharmaceuticals PLC GWPH, +0.85%, a treatment for severe forms of childhood epilepsy. The regulator updated its summer warning to consumers on Monday evening with stronger language, including a warning to Americans that “CBD has the potential to harm you, and harm can happen even before you become aware of it.” The FDA said that based on a lack of scientific information, the regulator cannot conclude that CBD is “generally recognized as safe among qualified experts for use in human and animal food.” The announcement also disclosed that 15 companies around the U.S. had been warned that they were illegally selling products containing CBD.
[SOURCE: marketwatch.com]
KIT KAT IS REPORTEDLY RELEASING 5 NEW FLAVORS IN 2020, INCLUDING APPLE PIE AND COTTON CANDY
Because we started talking about Halloween foods in like, July, and holiday foods in October, mentally, I’m already on next year. 2020 is a new year in a new decade which means we have a ton of new things to be excited about…apparently including at least four new Kit Kat flavors. To be clear, I should say this is all shrouded in *mystery* but we noticed some serious activity surrounding new Kit Kat flavors over the weekend. For one, Instagrammer @Markie_devo posted an Instagram of four Kit Kat flavors that could be coming in 2020. He says flavors like Cotton Candy, Chocolate Cream Pie, Cherry Cola, and Orange Creamsicle could be coming to Walmart in 2020. To be fair, Markie calls them “possible” flavors, but I choose to believe they’re real…except maybe cotton candy. I can do without that one.
[SOURCE: delish.com]
MICHIGAN WOMAN FILMED BOYFRIEND PREPPING GUN BEFORE HE KILLED HER
A Michigan woman recorded video footage of her boyfriend prepping a gun, including cleaning the bullet of fingerprints, mere moments before he shot and killed her, prosecutors say. India Mackey, 20, was killed the day after her birthday in Warren. And now her boyfriend, 18-year-old Kevin Dixon, is facing charges of first-degree murder, carrying a concealed weapon, and felony firearm, WXYZ reports. “You think I’m f–king playing, huh?” Dixon could be heard telling Mackey as he is seen prepping the weapon. “Gonna hit you with these big hollow tip 45s, gonna eat your [expletive] up.” After allegedly killing Mackey, Dixon started driving around in the vehicle that they were in. Her body was found in the passenger seat of the white van when Dixon was pulled over due to his erratic driving, the report notes.
[SOURCE: essence.com]
VIDEO CAPTURES SCHOOL BUS DRIVER DRINKING BEER WHILE TRANSPORTING STUDENTS
An Illinois school bus driver was fired and charged with allegedly drinking beer while transporting more than two dozen young children. Michelle Passley, 44, was terminated and arrested on Monday after video appeared to show her drinking from two cans of beer while behind the wheel of a school bus full of elementary student, police said. “When we put our children on the school bus in the morning, the idea is that we have placed our kids in the safe keeping of someone who is going to is going to take good care of them,” Aurora Police Department Chief Kristen Ziman said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, before releasing the disturbing footage. “It’s infuriating to believe that someone who is trusted with these children on a daily basis could potentially put them in this kind of danger.”
[SOURCE: abcnews.go.com]
ALLBIRDS CALLS OUT AMAZON FOR MIMICKING $95 WOOL SNEAKER
Tech-bro shoemaker Allbirds is calling out Amazon.com for copying a pair of its US$95 (NZ$148) sneakers made from fine merino wool and selling them for one-third the price, the latest brand backlash against the world’s biggest online retailer. Allbirds co-founder Joseph Zwillinger says Amazon should mimic its eco-friendly materials as well if it’s going to mimic the look of its trendy sneaker. “We are flattered at the similarities that your private label shoe shares with ours, but hoped the commonalities would include these environmentally-friendly materials as well,” Zwillinger wrote in a Medium post on Monday, offering help in securing the materials. Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
[SOURCE: stuff.co.nz]
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.
To ‘participate’ in the rankings of the headlines for this newsletter or the podcast, follow the Conversation Project on social media and engage with the posts to give them more ‘votes.’ The Conversation Project can be found on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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