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.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE EMAIL NEWSLETTER | BECOME A SUPPORTER ON PATREON
The 8 topics that our followers ranked as the most conversational are:
VIRGINIA TEEN GETS STUCK IN WASHING MACHINE DURING GAME OF HIDE-AND-SEEK
A Virginia teen is having a good laugh after a poor decision during a family game of hide-and-seek required a fire department rescue. Amari Dancy, 18, was playing with younger relatives Sunday when she got stuck in a washing machine. A cousin found her and alerted other adults, who then called for help. The Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue arrived to Woodbridge, Virginia, home about 11 p.m. April 19. First responders were able to remove the top of the washing machine and make enough space to pull Amari out without injury, according to her aunt.
COMMENTARY: Barring something close to divine intervention, this story will be the top story this week, and it was almost cut for more ‘serious breaking news.’ Since no one was hurt, this story taking over makes me very happy.
[SOURCE: nbcnews.com]
AUTOPSIES FIND FIRST U.S. CORONAVIRUS DEATH OCCURRED IN EARLY FEBRUARY, WEEKS EARLIER THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT
At least two people who died in early and mid-February had contracted the novel coronavirus, health officials in California said Tuesday, signaling the virus may have spread — and been fatal — in the United States weeks earlier than previously thought. Tissue samples taken during autopsies of two people who died at home in Santa Clara County, Calif., tested positive for the virus, local health officials said in a statement. The victims died on Feb. 6 and Feb. 17, respectively. Initially, the nation’s earliest coronavirus fatality was thought to have occurred on Feb. 29, in Kirkland, Wash., a suburb of Seattle that rapidly became a hot spot. In March, health officials there linked two Feb. 26 deaths to covid-19, the disease caused by the new virus. The Santa Clara County fatalities push back the earliest coronavirus-related fatality by weeks, with the new findings potentially altering the timeline of the U.S. outbreak. It is not yet known exactly how the two people became infected, but Sara Cody, the county’s public health officer, told The Post that the cases are thought to be community transmissions.
COMMENTARY: 24 hours later, we are getting more information on the identities and backgrounds of the two previously unknown COVID-19 deaths. And many states are starting to expand their investigations into exact when their first cases of this coronavirus came inside its borders.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
STARBUCKS CHINA ADDS BEYOND MEAT, OMNIPORK AND OATLY OPTIONS TO THE MENU
Fans of Starbucks in China are about to get a whole lot more oat milk lattes and meatless pastas. Starbucks is teaming up with oat milk maker Oatly and plant-based protein companies Beyond Meat (BYND) and Omnipork in mainland China, offering more options free of meat or animal products at a time when a growing number of Chinese consumers are seeking choices they perceive to be healthier. Starting Tuesday, 4,200 Starbucks stores in China will be serving vegetarian-friendly items such as oat milk matcha lattes, lasagne made with Beyond Meat’s beef product and Asian noodle salads with Omnipork. Starbucks is trying to cash in on changing habits in the world’s second largest economy.
COMMENTARY: Fake meat is becoming big business. But you have to remember that these alternatives are not necessarily the healthier option, but a prototype of a different alternative to the butchering of live animals. But I do personally love how tasty live animals are.
[SOURCE: cnn.com]
MARRIOTT PLANS TO SPRAY-DISINFECT GUEST ROOMS
From spraying guest rooms with disinfectant to sanitizing room keys, hotel giant Marriott International became one of the first major hotel groups Tuesday to outline how it plans to reassure guests of cleanliness in the age of the coronavirus. Guests may notice some of the changes from the moment they step into a Marriott property: Furniture in public areas will be rearranged to promote social distancing. Marriott’s promise of a new level of cleanliness may be an early sign of changes that will sweep the hotel industry as chains and individual properties compete to lure guests by offering the most coronavirus-resistant environment. The strategy could be critical to trying to create a rebound for hotels as stay-at-home orders are lifted and travel resumes.
COMMENTARY: This is part practicality, part press release. It is obvious that extended cleaning is now needed for safety and peace of mind of guests, and the sooner you get the word out of these measures, the better for the company.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
CORONAVIRUS DEATHS GREATER AMONG FOX NEWS VIEWERS THAT PREFER HANNITY OVER TUCKER CARLSON, STUDY SAYS
Fox News disputes the findings of a new study that suggests regular viewers of the show Hannity were more likely to die from coronavirus than those who preferred Tucker Carlson Tonight. The study, titled “Misinformation During a Pandemic,” was first published Sunday by the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute for Economics. Researchers asserted that reduced incidences of Covid-19 and lower death rates among Fox News viewers were associated a more serious view of the health crisis taken early on by host Tucker Carlson. Although Sean Hannity did compare Covid-19 favorably to the flu on multiple occasions, he was not the only media figure to do so. In the early days of the health crisis, the comparison was made often, with CNN’s Anderson Cooper making the comparison as late as March 4. Viewership of Hannity relative to Carlson’s show was associated with around 30 percent more cases of Covid-19 on March 14 and 21 percent more deaths due to the virus on March 28, according to the study. The effect is said to have trailed off after that, which the researchers suggest happened because there was a “gradual convergence in scripts” for the shows that started in late February.
COMMENTARY: It is hard to not be snarky about the results of this study. Unless you want to rebuff the results of this story. We are so hyper-partisan that living withing our personal information silos makes it hard for real conversations with people on opposing sides. I am not sure by reaction if the popularity of this headline was based on love or hate, but it is an important fact that should be noted.
[SOURCE: newsweek.com]
CHIPOTLE MEXICAN GRILL TO PAY $25M FINE IN FOOD SAFETY CASE
Chipotle Mexican Grill has agreed to pay a record $25 million fine to resolve criminal charges involving food-safety violations, the Justice Department said. The charges related to “adulterated food that sickened more than 1,100 people across the United States from 2015 to 2018,” the department said in a release. The fine is the largest “ever imposed in a food-safety case,” the department said. The restaurant chain also agreed to put in place a “comprehensive food safety compliance program,” the department said. Chipotle said it has “introduced specific food safety policies and procedures to enhance its existing practices.” The Justice Department said the charges stemmed from cases of norovirus, a “highly contagious pathogen that can be easily transmitted by infected food workers handling ready-to-eat foods and their ingredients.” There were at least five food-safety incidents at Chipotle restaurants around the country between 2015 and 2018, the department said, describing cases where employees continued to work at various locations, even though they were sick.
COMMENTARY: This was a food safety issue that was brewing well before we got to quarantined life. It takes time for trials like these to work out in real-time. You can view this as a business to big to keep up with itself properly, or a business to busy counting its money to care.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
TIGER WOODS, PHIL MICKELSON TO BE JOINED BY PEYTON MANNING, TOM BRADY FOR SECOND EDITION OF ‘THE MATCH’
Two of the world’s greatest golfers will pair up with two of the NFL’s greatest quarterbacks in a live made-for-TV golf event next month. Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady will form a star-studded foursome for “The Match: Champions for Charity,” in which all donations and fundraising will go toward coronavirus relief efforts. Turner Sports confirmed Wednesday that the event will air live on TNT, with the date, course and other details to be revealed later. Mickelson won the inaugural version, played in November 2018 at the exclusive Shadow Creek Golf Course in Las Vegas, after he and Woods needed four playoff holes to decide the match. The addition of Manning and Brady will only add to the star power of the competition. The two quarterbacks, with eight Super Bowl wins between them, had a rivalry on the gridiron similar to the one Woods and Mickelson enjoyed on the golf course.
COMMENTARY: The world needs live sports right now, but the television networks need live sports even more. Golf is the only sport that can support the concept of social distancing, and this made-for-tv event means lots of control of the elements involved.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
CORONAVIRUS: HARVARD REJECTS TRUMP DEMAND TO PAY BACK AID
Harvard University has pushed back against US President Donald Trump after he demanded it pay back nearly $9m in coronavirus relief aid. The president said he was unhappy that the ultra-wealthy Ivy League college had received stimulus money. But the university said the funds would help students facing “urgent financial needs” because of the pandemic. Harvard is rated the world’s wealthiest university with an endowment fund valued at $40bn. At Tuesday’s coronavirus briefing, Mr Trump told a journalist: “I want Harvard to pay that money back, OK? If they won’t do that, we won’t do something else. They have to pay it back, I don’t like it. This is meant for workers, this isn’t meant for one of the richest institutions, not only, far beyond schools in the world. They got to pay it back.” In a statement that followed, Harvard acknowledged receiving its $8.6m through the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (Cares) Act that Mr Trump signed last month. But Harvard did not say it would pay the money back. The university said it had already provided financial assistance to students with travel, living expenses and online education amid the pandemic.
COMMENTARY: As crazy as this story is, there are other schools across the country that have even larger endowments that received monies as well. But before we light our torches and sharpen our pitchforks, the use of endowment money is overly compacted, and the schools were within their rights to apply. The percentage of the monies they received is still suspect.
[SOURCE: bbc.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 the past day.
A full weeks’ data (from Friday to Friday) is compiled, weighed, and sorted to produce the content for the Weekly Wrap-Up 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.
Connect with us directly by emailing us at theconversationinbox@gmail.com or by simply visiting thisistheconversation.com.
