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 Will Now Call Out ‘Mean Tweets’ – Before They Are Even Sent

To combat toxicity on the platform, social media website Twitter is reportedly developing a feature to makes users reconsider sending messages that its system detects as “mean” or offensive. Initial tests show that 34 percent of users who received the warning chose to revise their message or not send it at all.

NPR reports that Twitter is attempting to make its users more conscientious about the language they use on the platform and is encouraging positivity by implementing a new feature that will detect “mean” replies on its service before a user presses send.

When Twitter detects that a user is about to post something that could be seen as offensive, an automatic prompt will be displayed that states: “Want to review this before tweeting?” The user is then offered three choices: tweet, edit, or delete.

Keep reading

The New York Times Now States that Covid is Forever: Why You Should be Concerned

An article in The New York Times, published on May 3, reveals a dramatic shift in the narrative concerning coronavirus and the future.

Gone are the declarations that Covid is a temporary phenomenon, to be defeated by masks, lockdowns and herd immunity. Quoting Rustom Antia, who is a virologist with Emory University, the article promotes the hypothesis that Covid is now forever.

Dr. Antia stated that “The virus is unlikely to go away.”

The article goes on to quote Dr. Anthony Fauci, a previously strong prior promoter of the herd immunity thesis as saying:

“People were getting confused and thinking you’re never going to get the infections down until you reach this mystical level of herd immunity, whatever that number is.”

In a paragraph that might send chills down the spine of those yearning to be free from the yoke of virus restrictions, the Times article reports that “Polls show that about 30 percent of the U.S. population is still reluctant to be vaccinated. That number is expected to improve but probably not enough. ‘It is theoretically possible that we could get to about 90 percent vaccination coverage, but not super likely, I would say,’ said Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.”

In a dramatic reversal from the promises that we would sooner or later return to normal, the article goes on to explore the apparently novel conclusions that viruses spread persistently, and that a vaccination skeptical populace is aiding and abetting the persistence of this spread. The article states “…experts now calculate the herd immunity threshold to be at least 80 percent. If even more contagious variants develop, or if scientists find that immunized people can still transmit the virus, the calculation will have to be revised upward again.”

Keep reading

Canadian Survey on Conspiracy Theories Reveals Array of Coronavirus Suspicions

A fascinating survey on the conspiracy beliefs of Canadians found an array of suspicions surrounding the coronavirus receiving support among a rather long list of theories featured in the poll. Conducted by the research firm Insights West, the study asked 1,603 adult residents of the country to weigh in on a whopping 17 different concepts which could be classified as conspiratorial or, in some cases, paranormal in nature. While it’s not altogether surprising that the ‘winning’ theory was that “UFOs do exist” with 53% of all respondents expressing some belief in the concept, eyebrows will undoubtedly be raised by how popular and widespread various ideas regarding COVID-19 fared in the survey.

To that end, a sizeable 37% of the people polled expressed some belief that the virus had been created in a lab and then accidentally escaped from the facility. That remarkably high number placed the concept second on the list ahead of such ‘classic’ conspiracy theories such as questions surrounding the deaths of Princess Diana (36%) and JFK (33%) as well as that 9/11 was an ‘inside job’ (17%) and that global warming is a hoax (16%). In what may either be the result of recency bias or an indication that a whole new genre of conspiracy thinking has been born out of the pandemic, the ‘accidental escape hypothesis’ was actually just one of a whopping five theories which wound up making the list.

Keep reading

USDA will operate new lab for most dangerous biological agents

The USDA will operate the new $1.25 billion biosafety level-4 laboratories the federal government is building in Manhattan, KS. A biosafety level 4 laboratory provides the highest level of containment facilities to isolate the most dangerous biological agents, meaning those with high fatality rates and no known treatments, such as the Ebola virus.

The new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) will replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC), which since 1954 has defended against the accidental or intentional introduction of foreign animal diseases.

The mysterious Plum Island, which has been off-limits to the public for more than a century, will have a new future most likely as a nature preserve and historical site.

Keep reading