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:
MANHUNT UNDERWAY FOR ARMED-TO-TEETH UCONN STUDENT WANTED IN DEADLY RAMPAGE
The FBI and police in three states are hunting for a University of Connecticut student suspected in a terrifying three-day crime spree that included two murders, a home-invasion robbery, and a kidnapping. Peter Manfredonia, 23, was last spotted on foot in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, carrying a large duffel bag that may contain weapons stolen from one of the victims. Manfredonia, 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, is a former high school football player from the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, Connecticut, the community devastated by a 2012 school massacre. His Facebook page contained posts about the need to reduce gun violence and fundraisers for Sandy Hook Promise, a nonprofit created after the mass shooting. But the page had not been updated since last year. Authorities have been looking for Manfredonia since Friday, when he was seen leaving the scene of a brutal assault on two older men in Willington, Connecticut.
COMMENTARY: We have had a difficult time getting our newsletter out over the past week, and this is not the type of story we would likt to celebrate making the top of a conversation.
[SOURCE: thedailybeast.com]
FIRE TRUCK ADORNED WITH FLAG TIPS OVER IN PLUMSTEAD TOWNSHIP, PHILADELPHIA
A fire truck, adorned with a large American flag, tipped over shortly before 11:30 a.m. Monday in Plumstead Township, Bucks County. The view from Chopper 6 showed the truck on its side in a parking lot. The extended ladder was on the ground, stretched across the roadway in the area 4040 Ferry Road. The flag was attached to the ladder. Officials say the truck was placed outside the fire company to display a flag over Route 611. When the crew went to reposition the truck the vehicle tipped over. The ladder struck a car on Route 611. “Unfortunately a vehicle was traveling southbound on the road at that time underneath the tower, the tower hit the roof of the vehicle. There were two occupants in that vehicle that had minor injuries that were taken to the hospital and should be getting released shortly,” said Lt. Richard Frederick of the Plumstead Township.
COMMENTARY: Luckily, there we no serious injuries from this incident, other than the pride of a few firefighters who will have to live with tis gaff for the rest of their careers.
[SOURCE: 6abc.com]
THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA AFTER ONCE IN A DECADE STORM
Wild weather downed trees and left tens of thousands of people without power in Western Australia, as emergency services began cleaning up in Perth on Monday after some of the worst weather in a decade. Wind speeds of up to 132 km/hour (82 mph) were registered at Cape Leeuwin, one of the state’s most south-westerly points early on Monday, the strongest May gusts in 15 years, according to the Australia Broadcasting Corp. Around 50,000 customers were without power on Monday due to storm-related outages, utility Western Power said, as the remnants of Cyclone Mangga hit a cold front and brought squalling rain and emergency level storm warnings to the south of the state. More than 390 calls for assistance were made to the state’s emergency services since Sunday, mostly from the Perth metropolitan area, the Department of Fire and Emergency Services Chief Superintendent Danny Mosconi told ABC Radio. Pilbara Ports Authority said port operations in the Pilbara had not been affected, but elevated swell led to some minor shipping schedule changes at the Port of Dampier, which is used by Rio Tinto. The biggest oil and gas operators in WA, Chevron Corp, Woodside Petroleum and Santos, said there was no impact on their operations in the minerals-rich state.
COMMENTARY: As if COVID-19 was not already a problem with disrupting life as we know it, Mother Nature also wants us to know she will not be forgotten. As seasons change around the world, the natural disaster dangers change, and it doesn’t seem like we will be as prepared this season.
[SOURCE: reuters.com]
GRIMES SAYS SHE AND ELON MUSK HAVE CHANGED THEIR BABY’S NAME
When Elon Musk and Grimes announced their baby boy’s name in early May, the internet went ballistic. The little one is called “X Æ A-12”, Musk tweeted, and everyone had questions, one of the most important ones being whether the name was even legal under California law (the answer is no). There were also questions on whether the celebrity couple is even serious about the highly unusual name, but it appears that they are. On Sunday, a fan asked Grimes on her Instagram whether she changed the baby’s name due to the California laws. “What is the baby’s new name,” the fan asked. “X Æ A-Xii,” Grimes replied. The new name is slightly more in accordance with California laws, which states that official names can only be spelled using the 26 letters of the English alphabet, hyphens, and apostrophes. Spelling out number twelve in Roman lettering satisfies the condition of not using a number, even though it arguably makes the name even more unusual. However, the character “Æ” still isn’t permitted — we can only venture a guess that, officially, it’ll be spelled as “AE”.
COMMENTARY: This is not the most ridiculous celebrity-being-a-jerk story, but it is the most ridiculous baby naming story that I can ever remember. Elon Musk is not going away and has cash issues, so I hope this kid, whatever his name will end up, will have enough banked for therapy as an adult.
[SOURCE: mashable.com]
TAIWAN CONSIDERS REVOKING HONG KONG’S SPECIAL STATUS ON LAW FEARS
China’s planned national security law may prompt Taiwan to revoke the special status it extends to Hong Kong, President Tsai Ing-wen said, a move that could anger Beijing and make it harder for Hong Kongers to visit and invest. China is proposing the new legislation for the Chinese-ruled city after months of anti-government protests, and the decision has already ignited renewed unrest in Hong Kong and prompted condemnation from Western capitals. The demonstrators have won widespread sympathy in democratic Taiwan, and the support for the protesters by Tsai and her administration has worsened already poor ties between Taipei and Beijing. China has repeatedly denounced Taiwan’s government for supporting the protesters, and accused activists in both places of colluding to plot independence. Writing on her Facebook page late on Sunday, Tsai said the proposed legislation was a serious threat to Hong Kong’s freedoms and judicial independence and that Taiwan would provide the people of Hong Kong with “necessary assistance”. Taiwan deals with Hong Kong and neighbouring Macau under rules that, for example, allow residents of the two Chinese cities to visit and invest in Taiwan much more easily than mainland Chinese. Tsai said if there were a “change in the situation” in Hong Kong, the act laying out those rules could be revoked.
COMMENTARY: We have not had a story on Hong Kong protesters ranking for conversation in a while, after going all summer with an almost guaranteed article in the top ten every week. The protest have not subsided, even if they are not as populated as early in the moment because of coronavirus fears.
[SOURCE: reuters.com]
ZOOM HAS TEMPORARILY REMOVED GIPHY FROM ITS CHAT FEATURE
Zoom has temporarily disabled the integration of GIF platform Giphy in its chat feature, the company said in a blog post. “Once additional technical and security measures have been deployed, we will re-enable the feature.” Zoom didn’t offer any specifics beyond that on Giphy’s removal. The company mentioned the change as part of its latest list of security updates to the platform, which also includes limits on screen sharing, changes to muting and unmuting functions, and restrictions on logging in to meetings from multiple devices (for meetings that require registration). The move comes a few days after Facebook acquired Giphy for over $300 million, with plans to integrate it into Instagram. How that acquisition will affect Giphy integrations with other platforms like Twitter, TikTok, and iMessage — all competitors to Facebook— remains unclear, but Facebook has had well-documented issues with privacy and security. At the time of the Facebook acquisition, Giphy’s GIFs did not use any embedded tracking, and its API did not have access to users’ data, according to the company. Zoom likewise has seen its share of security problems as demand for its service has soared during the coronavirus pandemic, with people working and schooling remotely. Zoom and Giphy did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
COMMENTARY: If you are using animated GIFs in your chat inside Zoom…I have no words. Zoom has plenty of reasons to worry about security and the Facebook acquisition of Giphy should go to the top of the list.
[SOURCE: theverge.com]
TRUMP VISITS ARLINGTON CEMETERY, FORT MCHENRY FOR MEMORIAL DAY AS BALTIMORE MAYOR CRITICIZES TRIP
President Trump was marking Memorial Day with appearances at Arlington National Cemetery and Baltimore’s historic Fort McHenry, honoring fallen military members while also sending a clear signal to the country that his agenda will be business-as-almost-usual amid the coronavirus pandemic. A 21-gun salute greeted Trump as he arrived at the solemn ceremony by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on Monday morning. Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Vice President Pence and second lady Karen Pence attended to pay tribute to those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of America’s freedoms. Trump saluted as members of the military played the National Anthem and Taps while Pence and Defense Secretary Mark Esper stood next to him with their hands on their hearts. Trump paused before the tomb with his hands clasped in front of him, touched the wreath — adorned with a red, white and blue ribbon — and then saluted again. The military personnel and some VIPs in attendance had been wearing masks on the steps of the monument prior to the arrival of the Trumps and the Pences. But an unknown woman approached the dignitaries and asked everyone to take them off. Much of the group stood socially distanced on the outdoor stairs. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was spotted putting on a mask decorated with stars and stripes as he left the ceremony. The ceremony, while customary for Memorial Day, along with the rest of the day’s itinerary also sent a signal that the administration is looking to bring a return to normalcy. After two months of lockdowns in many states, Trump has sought to put a priority on reopening the economy while continuing to abide by CDC guidelines. Unofficially, the Memorial Day weekend has marked the start, or at least an acceleration, of that experiment in parts of the country – with many families heading to the beach and states pressing forward with loosening restrictions. Coinciding with this, the president played golf at his private Virginia club on Saturday and Sunday and kept a packed Memorial Day schedule – despite criticism from Baltimore’s mayor.
COMMENTARY: President Trump has every right to attend the Memorial Day ceremonies and even to take some time to golf. He also has a responsibility to show just how we should all be handling this crisis, and that is a serious point of failure (in J Cleveland Payne’s personal opinion).
[SOURCE: foxnews.com]
CORONAVIRUS SHUT DOWN LIVE MUSIC CONCERTS AND FANS WANT THEIR MONEY BACK
When Jess Noé logged on early one February morning to buy tickets to a highly anticipated My Chemical Romance reunion show, she was prepared to pay up. My Chemical Romance, a band deified by lovers of 2000s emo, hadn’t played live since its breakup in 2013, and there was no promise that the band would play any more shows after the select dates it announced as part of its short 2020 reunion tour. Jess had to see MCR, and she had to see them from the best seats possible. What Jess hadn’t prepared for was just how much she’d end up paying for those tickets: around $700, after taxes and fees. She dropped all that money on a pair of tickets that, she said, weren’t even the best of the best — all because of Ticketmaster’s notoriously byzantine dynamic pricing system and unpredictable online ticketing queues. As a recent college graduate, Jess chose not to pay upfront but instead in monthly installments Ticketmaster offered through the online financial service Klarna. She would now be adding $126 to her monthly budget to pay off her MCR tickets. In February, this experience was unexpected and frustrating and not ideal. At least she still had the show to look forward to in September. And then March happened. Stay-at-home orders shut down live music venues and any chance that performances could happen soon. Artists abruptly stopped touring, forced to postpone their shows to some unspecified later dates. Meanwhile, the economy took a huge hit as business-as-usual stopped being so usual, or even stopped being business. Jess had been job hunting since December without much luck. Now, prospects were much more limited than they had been pre-Covid-19. Jess pivoted away from what felt like a futile search and instead, like more than 33 million Americans nationwide, subjected herself to the whims of a suddenly overwhelmed unemployment office. Cash was even more of a luxury than before, and now was the time to prune any extraneous bills and costs. But those MCR ticket payments? Those had sunk their hooks in deep, and they weren’t coming out that easily.
COMMENTARY: Musicians are making little money on the sale of music and most of their livelihood in concert tours and house shows. No concert tours and house shows mean no money being made, and since most of this money is made in securing tickets well in advance, those people are getting frustrated with money down that they have no idea will ever deliver a show.
[SOURCE: vox.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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