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:
4-YEAR-OLD WHO WASN’T VACCINATED AGAINST FLU GOES BLIND FROM VIRUS
Amanda Phillips said she took her daughter, Jade DeLucia, to the hospital Christmas Eve with a dangerously high fever, according to NBC News. “I looked down at her and her eyes were in the back of her head,” Phillips told the network. Phillips said she got her daughter vaccinated last March but did not get her vaccinated again this season, hoping the earlier vaccination would be sufficient. DeLucia was hospitalized for more than two weeks, during which time she developed encephalopathy and lost her vision, according to NBC. The swelling of the brain is an extremely rare condition, affecting about 1 in 5 million people.
[SOURCE: thehill.com]
IHEARTMEDIA STAFFERS HIT WITH MASSIVE LAYOFFS ACROSS MULTIPLE MARKETS
iHeartMedia operates over 850 traditional radio stations. In recent years, though, it has struggled, which led to it declaring bankruptcy. At the same time, it has been trying to adapt to today’s digital music world by introducing a streaming service that currently has 128 million users. Unfortunately, this service generates much less revenue than their terrestrial radio stations.
[SOURCE: digitalmusicnews.com]
THE NEW ‘BURGER KING’? PRINCE HARRY OFFERED FAST-FOOD JOB AFTER STEPPING BACK FROM ROYAL DUTIES
Burger King branches in both the U.S. and Argentina have jokingly offered to give Prince Harry a position at their restaurants after he and Duchess Meghan announced their intentions to “step back” as senior members of the royal family last week. However, both Burger King branches stopped just short of outright offering Harry the title of “Burger King,” which, let’s be honest, is probably the only way he’d even consider taking the gig.
[SOURCE: foxnews.com]
YAMAHA WARNS MUSICIANS NOT TO CLIMB IN INSTRUMENT CASES AFTER GHOSN ESCAPE
The former auto executive and fugitive has declined to reveal how he slipped past Japanese airport security, or confirm media reports accomplices smuggled him through a private jet lounge in Kansai Airport in western Japan hidden in large speaker box that was too large to fit through the facility’s X-ray scanner. Earlier reports, which Ghosn has dismissed, said he was carried out of his home in Tokyo in a double bass case. Yamaha, which makes instruments and equipment ranging from pianos and double basses to drums and heavy duty speakers, thanked people in second tweet for liking its first post, which was retweeted more than 50,000 times. It also reminded followers again that instrument cases are designed for instruments and not people.
[SOURCE: reuters.com]
OUTRAGE AFTER JEOPARDY! HOST RULES BETHLEHEM NOT IN PALESTINE
The incident took place in round one of the game broadcast on Friday, when contestant Katie Needle was given the clue: “Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity”, under the category “Where’s that Church?”. Needle, a retail supervisor from Brooklyn, responded it was in Palestine but was told her answer was wrong. One of the other two contestants, Jack McGuire, then buzzed in with the reply “Israel”, which host Alex Trebek accepted as correct.
[SOURCE: aljazeera.com]
JET RETURNING TO LAX DUMPS FUEL ON SCHOOL PLAYGROUND; PARAMEDICS TREAT 17 CHILDREN
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that Delta Air Lines Flight 89 headed to Shanghai, China, declared an emergency after leaving Los Angeles International Airport, returned and landed without incident. News footage at the scene showed numerous police and emergency vehicles at the school. It is located about 13 miles miles east of Los Angeles. Delta Air Lines said in a statement that Flight 89 “experienced an engine issue requiring the aircraft to return to LAX. The aircraft landed safely after an emergency fuel release to reduce landing weight.”
[SOURCE: latimes.com]
LESS COMMON FLU STRAIN HITS KIDS ESPECIALLY HARD THIS YEAR
Influenza B popped up unusually early across the U.S. in 2019 and may be the cause of the severe infections and deaths in children that have happened so far during the current flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Of 27 children who died from the flu in the U.S. between Sept. 29 and Dec. 28, 18 were related to Influenza B. At least five more children have died since, according to the CDC’s most recent flu update released on Jan. 4. That’s twice the number of children who had died by the same point in the flu season last year. Influenza B is less common than the more prolific Influenza A but is more likely to affect children, according to a recent report from the CDC.
[SOURCE: weather.com]
SCIENTISTS DISCOVER THE REASON WHY ANXIOUS PEOPLE SMOKE MARIJUANA
In a study published this week in the journal Neuron, scientists describe a powerful molecule called 2-AG, which appears to disrupt the production and transfer of neurochemicals linked to anxiety across this neural highway — effectively halting an anxiety attack in its tracks. Cannabis works in much the same way, the researchers find. The new study, conducted in mice, shows 2-AG and cannabis act on the same receptors in the brain, the endocannabinoid system, which modulates anxiety. The super-highway connects two parts of the brain: the amygdala, the brain’s emotional processor, and the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s decision-maker. When exposed to stress, the two areas glue together, producing excitatory neurochemicals and making anxiety skyrocket.
[SOURCE: inverse.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.
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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