Category: News

Reading Recs, 9-20-16: Lies, fraud, bias, and more lies.

On By Ricky of KokiriIn Highlights, News, Politics, YouTubeLeave a comment

Every day I read a lot of stuff on the Internet. A lot of stuff. Below I share what I consider to be the most interesting.

Trump, Clinton, and the Media: The researchers at DataFace took 19,637 news articles written about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s campaigns between July 1, 2015 and July 31, 2016, and fed those into a computer to examine the adjectives and determine the tone of coverage. The results are quite interesting: for instance, they find that “conservative” and “liberal” media tend to agree on Donald Trump!! (HT to The Washington Post)

Trump used $258,000 from his charity to settle legal problems: David Fahrenthold at The Washington Post has spent months digging into Trump Foundation records, and he keeps coming up with evidence of misuse, abuse, and even illegal dealings. Here’s the latest.

Wells Fargo Faces the Senate Banking Committee: As a Wells Fargo customer myself, I’ve been horrified to learn of the fake accounts and fraudulent activities committed by the bank and its employees. I haven’t been personally affected, as far as I know- I pay close attention to my account (and my credit score) online, but I can’t imagine what other people must be going through, finding out there was a credit card in their name they never authorized amongst other things! The Los Angeles Times has a run-down on the scandal.

Columbia University settles a fraud case for $9.5 million: One of the few times Retraction Watch covers something not related to bad science, per se, but still corruption by money. The university was conducting research off-campus, but claimed it was on-campus so they could get a higher rate of federal funding. A whistleblower brought it to the authorities’ attention.

Stephen Colbert Tears Into Trump Over Final Birther Comment: I’ve been watching The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (well, their YouTube channel, anyway) for a couple months. Here, in my opinion, Colbert is honestly angry, though he hides it behind comedy gags… and is forced to hide it behind CBS censors. But it’s great fun anyway to watch Colbert take Trump down.

And yes, three of the links today are Trump related. Bleh. I can’t wait for this election to be over.

The Birth and Death of the Denim Defense

On By Ricky of KokiriIn Feminism, News, Politics1 Comment

Denim DayPlease note: This is an article about sexual violence. If that bothers you in some way, please move along. Nothing to see here. Thank you.

The University of California, Riverside, is observing Denim Day, an event promoted by Peace Over Violence to protest social mindsets that encourage sexual violence, rape, and victim-blaming. While the official website states the event is to be held on April 29th, UCR is holding it today, on April 22nd. Not sure why. Participants are to wear a red square pin and denim in solidarity with victims of sexual assault. Why denim in particular? Well, that dates back to Italy in 1999, which is probably why I never heard of it- I wasn’t following the news back then. My introduction to this story occurred last week, when a friend gave me the red square pin and, upon my confusion, explained the story. When I got home that night I did a Google search to find what information I could.

And wow is that story a doozy. Continue reading “The Birth and Death of the Denim Defense” →

Nintendo’s Selective Memory

On By Ricky of KokiriIn Feminism, News, Video GamesLeave a comment

Nintendo sent out a press release a few days ago celebrating Women’s History Month with homages to the “Rosie the Riveter” posters, except with their own female characters and boasting about those characters’ strengths and history. After doing some digging, I finally came across a website that seems to have posted the press release in its entirety. I would expect Nintendo to have posted this thing on their own website, but they haven’t, and most of the sites that have bothered to cover it are just summary, small notes, ridicule, or criticism.

Honestly, I agree with the criticism. I’ll give them points for trying, but I can’t believe whoever put this together honestly thought, “yes, this totally proves Nintendo is conscious of and respects the accomplishments of women.” Continue reading “Nintendo’s Selective Memory” →

Things of Interest: 01/19/15

On By Ricky of KokiriIn Audiobooks, Books, Highlights, News, Politics, SalesLeave a comment

I read and watch a lot of stuff on the Internet that I find interesting; plus, as a university student, I receive a lot of recommendations from students and teachers alike. In these posts, I share a few of the highlights I’ve come across.

  1. In celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s 90th birthday today, christianaudio.com is offering a free audiobook download of his Letter from Birmingham Jail for a couple of days only. All you need is an email address.

  2. The Washington Post has an article about Tyndale House ceasing publication of one of its heaven-tour-guide books, The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven. Apparently, the titular boy has been objecting to the book and denying its veracity for years.

  3. Cracked.com is a comedy site, but this particular article is quite insightful, in my opinion, and does a great job discussing the trouble with the way we react to attacks.

Things of Interest: 01/09/15

On By Ricky of KokiriIn Highlights, News, Politics, TV/MoviesLeave a comment

I read and watch a lot of stuff on the Internet that I find interesting; plus, as a university student, I receive a lot of recommendations from students and teachers alike. In these posts, I share a few of the highlights I’ve come across.

  1. Tragedy struck the offices of a French satire magazine on Wednesday when three gunmen entered a meeting and murdered twelve people. More details here. Just insane.

  2. In The New Yorker, Lincoln Caplan isn’t happy about analysis that seems to indicate the United States Supreme Court seems to pick cases to look at based not only on the merits of the case but the merits of the lawyer as well.

  3. UCR was handing out free tickets for the 10 pm showing of Taken 3 today; the line was super long and lasted for hours. Not sure how the theater handled that. In honor of the new movie, Screen Junkies has released an Honest Trailer for the first two installment.