Media Manipulation
Responsible drinking means having a designate driver, knowing your limits, having a wingman, being aware of peer pressure, and maybe even just not drinking. Responsible consumption of media means having some awareness of how stories come to be written, how public relation firms work, how twitter bots function, and maybe even just not participating in social media. The Media Manipulation Casebook is a “digital research platform linking together theory, methods, and practice for mapping media manipulation and disinformation campaigns.” Curious as to why suddenly certain state legislatures are up in arms over critical race theory? Curious how social media is used to suppress voting? No, the “media” is not the enemy, but it does help to know a bit how influence campaigns work.
The Lab Leak Hypothesis
Case in point, what are we to make of the sudden reemergence in the media of the “lab leak hypothesis”? This is the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 originated in a lab in Wuhan, and was accidentally leaked. In weighing through information, it is important to remember that certain institutions, people, organizations, etc. have a vested interest in controlling the narrative. Here is the Media Manipulation Casebook reminding us that an exiled Chinese billionaire and Steve Bannon were pushing this narrative in early 2020, even as Donald Trump was telling us that he had already brought the case numbers to zero and that it was no worse than the flu. Here is a brief overview of Mike Pompeo’s efforts to shop the lab leak theory to conservative media outlets. Not that anyone should trust the CCP either. Here is a reminder that the CCP arrested journalists who reported on the Covid outbreak in Wuhan, and that the Chinese government silenced doctors who originally raised the alarm. The CCP also took important viral databases offline, and manipulated social media to portray the government’s response in a positive light. And, of course, like the Trump presidency back in the day, the CCP has every incentive to claim that problems are someone else’s fault…others such as the U.S. military. But we all just need more data, and getting data takes time. Nature has a good, objective rundown of the situation.
Bridges
In a different, but still catastrophic vein, do you ever wonder why bridges don’t collapse? Here is a great video explaining why 1) we need bridge inspectors and 2) why when in a crack shows up in a steel beam, bridges immediately get shut down. I’m no engineer, but the Practical Engineering’s videos make me appreciate that they are out there. Now if only there were some way to raise and spend money to fix bridges like this. Hmmm.
Chinese cooking & Fahrenheit superiority
And on a lighter level, here are two more YouTube streams for everyone. During last year’s lockdown, I was already making bread, so I decided “to learn up” on Chinese cooking. All I knew was bland, soggy stir-fry. Enter “Chinese Cooking Demystified.” This channel is great. Bite sized (ha) videos, and clear presentations from a couple that love food and how it speaks to local culture. Here is “stir frying 101” making pork and chili, and here is my now go-to way of frying eggplant. On a radically different tack, I’ve always enjoyed a good rant, and here is a video explaining in clear detail why Fahrenheit is superior to Celsius. It is, of course, as anyone who is objective and clear-headed already knows. Sure its origins are wonky, and owe more to the convenience of calibrating early thermometers. But superiority has many beginnings, and science is filled with happenstance.