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:
A YOUTUBER WITH ALMOST 1 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS SOLD MICROWAVE MEALS FROM HIS APARTMENT ON FOOD DELIVERY APP DELIVEROO PRETENDING TO BE A RESTAURANT CALLED ‘THE ITALIAN STALLION’
Pieters told Insider he didn’t set out to do an exposé on Deliveroo but was just interested in whether it was possible to take advantage of the loopholes in the system. Pieters and his friend Archie Manners, a magician, decided to call their fake restaurant “The Italian Stallion” and set up a website, featuring a picture of the reality-TV star Gemma Collins as the “head chef.” They also gathered all the relevant paperwork and set up a company called Italian Stallion Ltd. Armed with some social-media accounts and a list of recipes from Waitrose ready-meal packets, the duo were ready to see if their plan would work.
[SOURCE: businessinsider.com]
BA STRIKE: BRITISH AIRWAYS CANCELS NEARLY ALL FLIGHTS AS PILOTS GO ON STRIKE
The strike was called by the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) amid a heated dispute over pay with the airline that shows no sign of abating. BALPA is planning another strike for September 27 and told CNN Business on Monday that further strike dates may be announced. Nearly 200,000 passengers were due to travel on September 9 and 10, a British Airways (BA) spokesperson said. Why the strike? Pilots are unhappy with BA’s offer of an 11.5% salary increase over three years. They want a greater share of the airline’s burgeoning profits. BA posted operating profit of nearly £2 billion ($2.5 billion) for 2018, an 11.6% increase over the previous year.
[SOURCE: cnn.com]
SOUTH KOREA MILITARY SAYS NORTH LAUNCHES 2 PROJECTILES
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the North Korean projectiles fired from its South Pyongan province on Tuesday morning flew toward the waters off its east coast. It gave no further details. The reported launches came hours after North Korea said it is willing to resume nuclear diplomacy with the United States in late September but that Washington must come to the negotiating table with acceptable new proposals.
[SOURCE: apnews.com]
MULTIPLE DOLPHINS REPORTEDLY EXPLORING TRADE DEMANDS AFTER WEEK 1 AS ‘MUTINY’ BEGINS
According to Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk, multiple Dolphins players have contacted their agents in order to find a trade off the team…already. Florio elaborated further, saying those players weren’t buying what head coach Brian Flores is selling, knowing there isn’t a skeleton of a competitive football team here. On top of that, said players believe the team is looking to lose now, in order to accumulate high draft picks in the very near future. The Dolphins told ProFootballTalk they have not heard from any agents or received any trade request.
[SOURCE: 12up.com]
PHILADELPHIA NEWS ANCHOR FILES $10 MILLION LAWSUIT AGAINST MULTIPLE SOCIAL MEDIA AND PORN SITES
Fox 29 anchor Karen Hepp filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Reddit, Imgur, Giphy, WCGZ, the porn site S.R.O., and other unnamed individuals on Wednesday seeking damages of $10 million. Hepp is suing the companies for the “usurpation and unlawful use of her image” and the “unlawful dissemination and publication of her image on various commercial website[s].” Two years ago, some of Hepp’s coworkers told her that an image of her had begun appearing on websites and in erectile dysfunction advertisements. The image was apparently taken by a convenience store camera in New York, according to the lawsuit. Facebook hosted an ad that used the image for a dating website to “meet and chat with single women.” Imgur, a photo-sharing website, put the image in a category labeled “MILF,” a lewd acronym. The photo appeared on Reddit, another social media platform, in a section titled OBSF, another lewd acronym. On the GIF website Giphy, a user altered the photo of Hepp to include a man appearing to masturbate behind her.
[SOURCE: washingtonexaminer.com]
LIBERTY UNIVERSITY OFFICIAL SAYS COLLEGE ISN€™T ‘EDUCATING,’ JUST ‘BUYING REAL ESTATE’ WITH STUDENTS’ MONEY
The employees described a culture of fear at the conservative, evangelical university that reportedly manifests itself even among residents of Lynchburg, Virginia — where the school is located — that have no direct ties to Liberty. “It’s a dictatorship,” one current high-level employee said. But the thing that really seems to rankle folks at the school is how Falwell reportedly directs the nonprofit university’s resources into projects and real estate deals that have allegedly led to personal gains for his family and friends. “We’re not a school; we’re a real estate hedge fund,” a senior university official with inside knowledge of Liberty’s finances told Politico. “We’re not educating; we’re buying real estate every year and taking students’ money to do it.”
[SOURCE: theweek.com]
ALASKA AIR EMPLOYEE ACCUSED OF RACIAL PROFILING
The airport evacuated in a panic Monday night after an Alaska Airlines employee hit an alarm following an encounter with two men, officials said at the time. David Lombardi, a sportswriter for TheAthletic.com who was at the airport, described a scene of “confusion and chaos” as travelers fled the terminal, fearing an active shooter or bomb threat. Speaking to BuzzFeed News, Han Han Xue, 29, a product designer for Lyft returning home to San Francisco after visiting friends in New York City over the long weekend, said he was “minding (his) own business” when an Alaska Airlines employee walked into him, then repeatedly asked Chunyi Luo, 20, a student who was standing near Xue but did not know him, if he was nervous. Luo told the employee he was nervous because his flight back to college in San Francisco was late. She asked Xue if he knew Luo and wondered why he was “acting suspiciously,” both men noted. Xue added that she asked more questions, like “How much are they paying you?” and “Did they give you a visa?”
[SOURCE: usatoday.com]
NADAL WINS 19TH SLAM IN EPIC US OPEN FINAL
When it was all done, Rafael Nadal had won his fourth Open title and 19th major title, prevailing 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4, barely surviving an epic comeback from a 23-year-old Russian, Daniil Medvedev, who rallied from two sets down to push one of the greatest players in history to the limit. Nadal, who was overcome in his chair while watching a video montage of his 19 Slam titles, was quick to congratulate Medvedev, who he said surely would have many more opportunities to win on this stage. Medvedev broke Nadal when he was serving for the set at 5-2 in the fifth, staving off two championship points, and had a break point to square the match at 5-5 in the 10th game, before Nadal, serenaded often with “Rafa, Rafa” chants, escaped and finally won it when Medvedev socked a forehand return long.
[SOURCE: usatoday.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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