Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Twitter ‘Frog’ Account Successfully Negotiates With Taliban To Secure Safety Of Spanish Diplomats After Government Fails

A Spanish Twitter account with an Apu Apustaja frog avatar has successfully negotiated with the Taliban for fair and humane treatment of Spanish citizens at the nation’s embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Spanish government had seemingly failed to establish a clear and open line of communication with the Taliban, inspiring the owner of the frog-avatar account to take action.

“Nangarhar’s sweet district was completely conquered,” Taliban spokesperson Mansoor Afghan announced on August 14, to which the account @panamach2 reached out to respond using Google translate, “Hello brother, please don’t hurt the Spanish people at the embassy, we were forces in your country by America. We don’t like them either.”

Mansoor Afghan responded in English, “We are human beings, we all respect each other, we don’t say anything to any foreign troops.” The exchange was viewed as somewhat humorous by many Twitter users, with one pointing out that “a guy with a picture of pepe has done more for the spanish people in afghanistan than the spanish government.”

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Weekly fees, Wi-Fi access loss: Quinnipiac lays out penalties for unvaccinated students

As Quinnipiac University requires students to be vaccinated against COVID-19 for the fall 2021 semester, students who did not request an exemption nor submit proof of vaccination will face consequences, according to Associate Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan’s email to The Chronicle.

Students who don’t comply with the mandate will face a weekly fee starting at $100 per week during the first two weeks. It will increase by $25 every two weeks up to a maximum of $200 a week. The fee can reach up to $2,275 for the entire semester.

The university will stop billing when students submit their proof of their first vaccination shot. If students become fully vaccinated by Sept. 14, they will not be charged.

Morgan said the university sent the email to around 600 students who have not yet uploaded any vaccination information.

Junior psychology major Danyella Kaplan said it is important for Quinnipiac to take vaccinations and protection against the virus seriously. While she said consequences for non-compliance are necessary, she questioned this move.

“Financial consequences do not seem to be the right answer that will actually have long-term benefits,” Kaplan said. “If students choose to be unvaccinated, having them take a class on the importance of practicing safety measures would be a more beneficial measure to take.”

The email states that students will lose access to Wi-Fi and the campus network if they fail to complete the vaccination mandate by Sept. 14.

As unvaccinated students are required to participate in weekly COVID-19 testing, there will be a $100 fee each time they miss a week.

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Biden State Dept Moved to Abolish Crisis Response Bureau Months Before Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan

The Biden State Department moved in June to cancel a program overseeing the protection and evacuation of American citizens stationed overseas in the case of an emergency, just as the Taliban was taking over Afghanistan, according to an internal State Department memo obtained by the Washington Free Beacon and multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The Biden State Department moved to dissolve the Trump-era crisis response program, according to an internal State Department memo and sources familiar with the matter. That memo, which was marked sensitive but unclassified and was signed by Deputy Secretary Brian McKeon, approved the “discontinuation of the establishment, and termination of, the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR),” a new State Department entity created during the Trump administration to coordinate emergency response services overseas.

The CCR bureau was established late last year by then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo. In a notification sent to Congress in October and also obtained by the Free Beacon, the Trump administration said the new bureau would provide “aviation, logistics, and medical support capabilities for the Department’s operational bureaus, thereby enhancing the secretary’s ability to protect American citizens overseas in connection with overseas evacuations in the aftermath of a natural or man-made disaster.”

The decision to dissolve the CCR was handed down just months before the Taliban overtook the Afghan capital of Kabul, leaving the Biden administration scrambling to evacuate more than 15,000 Americans still trapped in the country. It is unclear if the Biden State Department has an alternative plan or a similar bureau that could coordinate emergency services alongside other government agencies, according to sources familiar with the situation.

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Facebook “fact checker” worked to bankrupt conservative and indy news sites by convincing advertisers to drop them

Facebook and other social media behemoths have consistently said they’re not biased against conservatives and independent publishers, and just as often as they deny it they are proven to be liars.

That happened again this past week and in a big way.

The National Pulse managed to unearth new evidence indicating that a so-called “fact checker” Facebook and TikTok, among other platforms, “attempted to coerce advertisers into dropping conservative media outlets as clients in social media posts,” the outlet reported.

The site said that it discovered Twitter posts from Lead Stories copy editor Leslie Lapides “follow the outlet’s founder and Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke repeatedly denying allegations of left-wing bias.”

But in fact, despite those denials, Lapides has posted at least four tweets showing support for Sleeping Giants, a left-wing internet activist organization whose members target advertisers seen on conservative sites like Breitbart News.

The activist group, which says it was formed to “make bigotry and sexism less profitable,” is well-known for convincing advertisers to drop listings on right-leaning sites through bullying campaigns, many of which have successfully bankrupted conservative media outlets.

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AP Exam Requires Students To Choose Answers Indicating Voting Laws Are Racially Biased

The College Board has been accused of indoctrinating students in ‘woke’ politics by requiring them to choose an answer on an AP Government exam indicating voter ID discourages black people from voting. 

“Nothing to see here, just an official AP Government practice exam forcing students to falsely say voter ID is racist and urging them to overturn voter ID laws in order to pass the test,” tweeted Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist.

The multiple-choice question asks, “Based on the infographic, which of the following claims would an opponent of state voter-ID laws most likely make?”

Students’ options for an answer are as follows:

  • (A) Voter-ID laws are likely to decrease turnout among African American voters because they are less likely to have government-issued IDs.
  • (B) Voter turnout will likely decrease by 10% if voters are required to present a government-issued ID to vote.
  • (C) Voter-ID laws will likely decrease election fraud, which will increase voter confidence in institutions and thereby increase turnout.
  • (D) African American voters who do not have government-issued IDs are likely to participate at the grassroots level and exert influence through channels other than turning out to vote.

Answer A is correct per the test rubric.

The following question on the test asks: “Based on the infographic, which of the following strategies would a group seeking to increase turnout likely pursue?”

Students are expected to select “Lobby state legislatures to overturn voter-ID legislation” in order to be marked with a correct answer.

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Scientists Grew Stem Cell ‘Mini Brains’. Then, The Brains Sort-of Developed Eyes

Mini brains grown in a lab from stem cells have spontaneously developed rudimentary eye structures, scientists report in a fascinating new paper.

On tiny, human-derived brain organoids grown in dishes, two bilaterally symmetrical optic cups were seen to grow, mirroring the development of eye structures in human embryos. This incredible result will help us to better understand the process of eye differentiation and development, as well as eye diseases.

“Our work highlights the remarkable ability of brain organoids to generate primitive sensory structures that are light sensitive and harbor cell types similar to those found in the body,” said neuroscientist Jay Gopalakrishnan of University Hospital Düsseldorf in Germany.

“These organoids can help to study brain-eye interactions during embryo development, model congenital retinal disorders, and generate patient-specific retinal cell types for personalized drug testing and transplantation therapies.”

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