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:
“I WONDER WHAT’S INSIDE YOUR BUTTHOLE” IS THE SONG OF THE SUMMER
For all its despairing, apocalyptic faults, 2020’s been a pretty good year for music—we’ve heard killer albums from Fiona Apple, Pearl Jam, and Kesha, not to mention all the good tunes we’ve chronicled in A-Sides. That said, 2020’s musical legacy might belong not to the hitmakers, but to their children. First, the 4-year old daughter of English songwriter Tom Rosenthal gutted us with a tune about doomed, lovestruck dinosaurs, and now Jolee, the daughter of Lisa Rieffel, a member of L.A.’s H. Kink, is here with a song that, while much lighter in tone, is every bit as imaginative. It’s called “I Wonder What’s Inside Your Butthole,” and it is perfect. So compelling are the song’s intergalactic themes—astronauts and aliens are, in this imagining, possible residents of the anal cavity—and driving melodies—you believe it when she declares she “always wants to know”—that a number of fans have shared their own covers and remixes.
COMMENTARY: If you have not stumbled across this song on the internet, first click the link and watch the original performance. Then you can join in the glory that is covers of the song by various adults that put unique spins on the song but can never capture the epicness of the original.
[SOURCE: news.avclub.com]
HOW TO PRONOUNCE ‘X Æ A-12,’ THE NAME ELON MUSK TWEETED HE AND GRIMES GAVE THEIR NEW BABY
Tech billionaire Elon Musk and musician Grimes have had their first baby together, and the world is a bit confused by his name. When a follower asked Musk on Monday night what they’d named their new son, Musk replied simply: “X Æ A-12 Musk.” He hasn’t tweeted since, or supplied any additional information on what the name means. Musk is a known Twitter prankster, frequently posting jokes and memes for his 33.6 million followers. He’s also gotten into hot water in the past for his reckless tweeting about things like taking Tesla private or calling a British cave diver who helped rescue a trapped Thai soccer team a “pedo guy.” If the name he tweeted is a joke, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise. Others are speculating that the string of characters Musk tweeted is a riddle or an equation that adds up to the actual name. One person guessed that the name is actually “X Ash Archangel,” which Musk liked on Twitter.
COMMENTARY: I do not know Elon Musk, so my opinion of him being an insufferable jerk is based purely on speculation and bad press. It doesn’t help my opinion that he is a genius billionaire whose wealth if determined by stockholders and a niche product. Rich kids seem to get by with horrible names all the time, so X Æ A-12 Musk will probably manage with lots of toys and even more therapy.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
ESPN TO TELEVISE KOREA BASEBALL ORGANIZATION GAMES LIVE
ESPN announced plans to televise games from South Korea’s top baseball league on Monday, as American professional sports remain shut down during the coronavirus pandemic. The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) has its 2020 opening day Tuesday and ESPN will begin its coverage by carrying six games a week. The deal is a partnership with Eclat Media Group. ESPN will be the only English-language network to cover the games, using its play-by-play voices, analysts and reporters for color commentary at their home quarantined studios. KBO commissioner Un-Chan Chung said in a statement: “During this unprecedented and difficult time, I hope the KBO League can bring consolation to the communities and provide guidelines to the world of sports. I am pleased that the KBO League can be introduced globally and hope this can be an opportunity for the development of our league and the sport.” Most games will air on ESPN2 at 5:30 a.m. ET from Tuesdays through Fridays, 4 a.m. on Saturdays and 1 a.m. on Sundays. The season-opening game between the NC Dinos and Samsung Lions begins at 1 a.m. Tuesday on ESPN. Games will also be recapped on SportsCenter. The ESPN talent to cover the games includes Karl Ravech, Jon Sciambi, Eduardo Perez, Jessica Mendoza and Kyle Peterson.
COMMENTARY: It is live sports and ESPN is happy to have live sports to air, even if the vast starving audience has no idea who they are rooting for.
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, CREATOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES’ 1619 PROJECT, WINS 2020 PULITZER PRIZE
Nikole Hannah-Jones, the investigative journalist who was the brainchild of the groundbreaking 1619 project, is an embodiment of unity. Today, the Pulitzer Prize Board recognized it too by awarding Hannah-Jones the 2020 Pulitzer for Commentary. The 2017 MacArthur Foundation “genius” winner (and The Root 100 honoree for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019—whew!) spoke to her colleagues at the New York Times via webcam after learning she received a Pulitzer Prize for her essay America wasn’t a Democracy, Until America Made it One, which led the 1619 project. Celebrated novelist Colson Whitehead was also awarded the coveted Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel The Nickel Boys, which tells the two boys at horrifying reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. African-American artists were also recognized in the categories for poetry, drama, and music, with prizes going to playwright Michael R. Jackson, poet Jericho Brown, and composer Anthony Davis respectively.
COMMENTARY: The 1619 project wasn’t so much controversial, but it was a way to open up a discussion that was difficult to have in our current environment. In fact, the discussion often got pushed aside for other insane issues that caught our attention through 2019. If you haven’t gone deep into the study of the first Africans brought forcefully to America, and you’ve still got some quarantine time to kill, check it out.
[SOURCE: theroot.com]
AIRBNB TO LAY OFF NEARLY 1,900 PEOPLE, A FOURTH OF THE COMPANY
Airbnb plans to lay off nearly 1,900 employees, or about 25% of the company, a person familiar with the plans confirmed to CNBC. The layoffs were first reported by The Information, which reported the news would be broken to employees by CEO Brian Chesky. Prior to the layoffs, Airbnb had 7,500 employees, Chesky said. Airbnb will halt projects related to hotels, a transportation division and luxury stays, Chesky said. For Airbnb, these layoffs are the latest obstacle in 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic has devastated the entire travel industry. Last month, Airbnb told its employees that it would institute a hiring freeze, suspend its marketing, cut executives’ salary and that it did not expect to give out bonuses for 2020.
COMMENTARY: Obviously no one is traveling and that market is taking a beating. Not only with the people who manage the business side, as seen in the recent round of layoffs but for the people who set up luxurious homes and rooms to rent, many joining in more for the lifestyle and less as a business expense.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
CORONAVIRUS: TRUMP DOES NOT WEAR COVID-19 MASK AT HONEYWELL TOUR
President Donald Trump did not wear a mask as a coronavirus precaution during a visit Tuesday to a Honeywell factory in Phoenix that is producing millions of N95 masks for the federal government. Other official visitors with Trump, who did put on safety glasses for his tour, also were not wearing masks. But Honeywell employees working on the production line were wearing masks. And a sign in the factory said that everyone there is required to wear a mask. Trump, who has consistently refused to wear a mask while interacting with others despite federal guidance urging all Americans to do so, earlier Tuesday had said that he would put on a mask if it was required at the Honeywell facility. A White House official said that Honeywell had told the White House that Trump and other visitors did not need to wear masks.
COMMENTARY: If you put money on Donald Trump wearing a mask for this appearance hoping to make a windfall, you are a sucker. While the opportunities to show basic leadership and empathy keep showing up, Trump’s inability to process anything other than his weird-warped image of himself is also showing up. Guess which one gets to work earlier?
[SOURCE: cnbc.com]
CALIFORNIA SUES UBER, LYFT OVER MISCLASSIFYING DRIVERS AS CONTRACTORS
California’s attorney general on Tuesday sued Uber Technologies and Lyft for classifying its drivers improperly as independent contractors instead of employees, evading workplace protections and withholding worker benefits. Several California cities joined the state in its lawsuit, saying the companies’ misclassification harms workers, law-abiding businesses, taxpayers, and society more broadly. Shares in Uber and Lyft dropped briefly but recovered shortly after the lawsuit was announced during a virtual news conference by the attorneys general. The companies in the past have said their drivers were properly classified as independent contractors, adding that the majority of them would not want to be considered employees, cherishing the flexibility of on-demand work. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said Uber and Lyft drivers lacked basic worker protections, including sick leave and overtime payment.
COMMENTARY: Uber and Lyft became popular by filling a need and profitable by skirting the rules. The old baseball adage comes to mind that, ‘If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.’ The troubles with operating these businesses in a world where nothing is open and there is nowhere to go is one problem these companies have. Becoming respectable after years of being anything but is just one more problem to solve.
[SOURCE: msn.com]
UTAH 5-YEAR-OLD STEALS PARENTS’ CAR AFTER MOM REFUSES TO BUY HIM LAMBORGHIN
Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Rick Morgan he was pulling over an impaired driver and was shocked to realize the person behind the wheel was a 5-year-old boy. The Utah Highway Patrol said the child took his parents’ car after getting mad when his mom said she would not buy him a Lamborghini. While his parents were at work, he slipped away from his sibling, grabbed the car keys and set out for California to buy one for himself. He only had $3 in his pocket, but made it two miles from his home before getting pulled over. Fortunately the boy was not injured.
COMMENTARY: The trooper on the scene said the boy ‘was upset and on the verge of tears,’ and his parents told him ‘he had not driven before, this was the first time that he did anything like this.’ There has been a rash of stories of children getting in their parent’s cars and driving to get what they want, and there is no reason for this, other than the randomness of life, and our need for news that is not coronavirus related. The good news is that the young man was uninjured, and his parents will have one wild story to tell at his wedding.
[SOURCE: abc7news.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.
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