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.

Are children ‘dying like dogs’ in effort to build better batteries?

“Our children are dying like dogs.”

That is the sorrowful statement of one Congolese mother whose son and cousin died while working the cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

She and other parents like her are part of a class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. federal court in Washington, D.C., in 2019 seeking to hold Apple, Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Dell Technologies, Microsoft and Tesla accountable for what they allege is profiting off the misery of child labor in their quest for cobalt.

“Cobalt is a key component of every rechargeable lithium-ion battery in all of the gadgets made by defendants and all other tech and electric car companies in the world that has brought on the latest wave of cruel exploitation fueled by greed, corruption and indifference to a population of powerless, starving Congolese people,” the suit reads.

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Masks Didn’t Slow COVID Spread: New Study

New findings reported Tuesday in a University of Louisville study challenge what has been the prevailing belief that mask mandates are necessary to slow the spread of the Wuhan coronavirus. The study notes that “80% of US states mandated masks during the COVID-19 pandemic” and while “mandates induced greater mask compliance, [they] did not predict lower growth rates when community spread was low (minima) or high (maxima).” Among other things, the study—conducted using data from the CDC covering multiple seasons—reports that “mask mandates and use are not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 spread among US states.”

“Our findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 transmission rates decrease with greater public mask use,” notes the U of L report. Researchers stated that “masks may promote social cohesion as rallying symbols during a pandemic, but risk compensation can also occur” before listing some observed risks that accompany mask wearing:

Prolonged mask use (>4 hours per day) promotes facial alkalinization and inadvertently encourages dehydration, which in turn can enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection risk. British clinicians have reported masks to increase headaches and sweating and decrease cognitive precision. Survey bias notwithstanding, these sequelae are associated with medical errors. By obscuring nonverbal communication, masks interfere with social learning in children. Likewise, masks can distort verbal speech and remove visual cues to the detriment of individuals with hearing loss; clear face-shields improve visual integration, but there is a corresponding loss of sound quality.

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BLM co-founder steps down as executive director following real-estate spending spree scandal

Last summer was when America first learned about Black Lives Matter, as an official organization, being founded by believers of Marxism.

But BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors more recently gained notoriety for her success in capitalism, as last month the public learned about her spending $3.2 million for four separate homes.

However today we’re learning Cullors is stepping down from her post. She’s the final founder of the Black Lives Matter organization to do so.

An official statement announcing Patrisse’s departure was published by the Black Lives Matter Twitter page.

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Oklahoma Bigfoot Bounty Balloons to $3 Million for First to Capture Sasquatch

The Oklahoma lawmaker who created a controversial cash prize for the first person to capture a living Sasquatch in the state announced that the proverbial Bigfoot bounty has been increased to a staggering $3 million. State Representative J.J. Humphrey made the declaration during a session of the Oklahoma legislature on Wednesday as he was providing his colleagues with an update on the audacious idea which he first suggested as a Bigfoot hunting season back in January. “Who knew that that would go international and that we would gain so much attention,” he marveled at the worldwide headlines that followed his initial proposal.

Since that time, the concept has transformed into a plan wherein applicants could get ‘tracking licenses’ from the state’s tourism department with the express knowledge that they are not to kill Bigfoot, but can capture it alive and, if they do, they win the enormous cash prize. “We have started what may be the biggest promotion in the state of Oklahoma ever,” Humphrey proclaimed to the legislature, “this is turning out to be huge.” The lawmaker also noted that the attention surrounding the state’s strange embrace of Bigfoot has already brought dividends as a documentary crew had journeyed to Oklahoma to film a series on the famed cryptid.

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Facebook to “fact-check” and suppress individual users

Personal Facebook accounts that are flagged by Facebook’s fact-checkers for repeatedly sharing “misinformation” will now have all their posts suppressed in the news feed as part of the tech giant’s latest crackdown on content that challenges the narratives of its fact-checking partners.

Facebook also announced that it will start dissuading its users from liking pages that are flagged by its fact-checkers via a pop-up that forces users to complete an additional step before they can like the page. When users attempt to like flagged pages, this pop up appears, tells users that the page has “repeatedly shared false information,” and asks them to choose whether to “Go Back” or “Follow Page Anyway.”

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