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Big Scare Material

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Where Have All the Insects Gone...? I'm already having a hard time accepting that the world is losing glaciers. (Same magazine - see below) NOW I'm supposed to accept placidly and like a good little Olde Fart that we are losing insects by the giga-ton. Deserves way more discussion. But first..... * ...this REALLY worries me. Big news in Science Magazine, May 12 edition (we get ours kinda slow out here in the mountains)! NextGen entomologists in Germany present the stunning news that just since 1989 insect population - most species - are down about 80%! Think starting with 10 dogs you love, and you've got 2 left. HUGE decline, and not a one-off, a continuing, terrifying trend. [SciMag] I've been ranting about the mass extinction we are in for a while. "Moving fast enough for us to actually see" has been my evidence that this is moving really, really fast, geologically speaking. What didn't occur to me was how dramatically some extinctions...
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Rick and Morty

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A Millenial Hit Olde Folks Don't Know About Are you over 50? Have you ever heard about "Rick and Morty?" I thought not. There is a "cell" of younger people who love the show and say extravagant things about its wonderfulness. In these times when prior punditry had it we would be unified by some mysterious power in the Internet, there are more and more cells of people, unified within their cells, but isolated from most of the other cells of special interests*, tastes and proclivities.  The U.S. looks more like a pomegranate than a cantaloupe - to push the fruit/melon analogy to its extreme. I will dream up a graphic one of these days. USA, USA! society in fruit form. ANYHOO... I watched Rick and Morty at my millennial son's suggestion, and I LOVE IT. Eccentric old genius and non-genius grandson as the lead characters (faintly Back to the Future -esque) + sci-fi + Simpsons sensibilities +  intelligent satire + over-the-top imaginative creators...
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Bot Spotting - Seriously

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If you have opinions, and you have "proof," better check your sources! TWITTER IS THE BOT SWAMP Here is a detailed method of spotting bot tweets; twelve techniques: The trick in some cases is finding the non-human  number of tweets. @BlackManTrump, a hyperactive account, posted 89,944 tweets between August 28, 2016 and December 19, 2016 (see archive   here ), an average of 789 posts per day. The account  @sunneversets100 , an amplifier of pro-Kremlin messaging, was created on November 14, 2016. On August 28, 2017, it was 288 days old. In that period, it posted 203,197 tweets (again, the exact figure can be found by hovering the mouse over the “Tweets” entry). Watch for " Amplification " When a fake news story gets re-tweeted a bunch, you might think "Gee, it must be true. I see it everywhere." You are the victim of classic BIG LIE propaganda technique in the social media world. Remember, the Russians are the world leaders in weaponiz...
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