Hoaxes! Urban legends! Tabloid trash and conspiracies! They’re about as common online as cat videos. So today we’re talking about them because, as the Charles Spurgeon said: “A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” Internet Myths and Fact Checking – Part 1 What can we do about it? Need some fact checking sites and other resources? Snopes.com PolitiFact.com https://www.newsguardtech.com/ https://www.wired.com/story/momo-hoax-viral-scares-advice/ https://www.npr.org/2019/03/02/699663319/the-latest-internet-hoax-momo-challenge
Defending against Internet Hoaxes! (3/2/19 Part 2)
So, there are hoaxes. What to do? How do you defend against them? We talk about how you can bop them on the nose! Internet Myths and Fact-Checking – Part 2 For more fun stuff to challenge your brain with: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ https://yourbias.is/ https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles https://www.denverpost.com/2016/10/31/definitive-guide-to-denver-international-airport-conspiracy-theories/
Danno Strikes Back! (2/9/19 Part 2)
More privacy! More generational differences! More speculating, theorizing, and actively wondering! Dan, and Privacy and Neutrality and Culture and… – Part 2 Man, its great having Dan over!
2018 Predictions Show: Its time to score! (12/29/18 Part 1)
Its our Predictions Scoring Show! Yes, at the beginning of 2018 we made some guesses (educated, wild, and out of nowhere). The time for reckoning has come, and we’re taking score! Some of our predictions include: 2018 Scorecard – Part 1 Apple will lose or settle the class action lawsuits against them regarding battery life and phone throttling. Space X or Orion will have a successful human launch this year. Augmented reality craze will slow, be a simmer versus boil. Too “faddy” to catch on. 1tb SSD drives will go below $199 on the low-end. USA astronauts will start launching to the ISS from Cape Canaveral this year. Facebook and online political ads will get more trickey and targeted this year, and will come from outside the country. Net Neutrality will not be a significant campaign issue. Optical drives will go the way of the floppy disc and zip: not on laptops, maybe on desktops.
2018 Predictions: How’d we do? (12/29/18 Part 2)
We continue our mad parade of seeing how good our psychic powers of prognostication are! Predictions we made and covered this hour: 2018 Scorecard – Part 2 AI will be the complete and total fad of 2018 but nothing will pass the Turing Test. Cryptocurrency theft and mining zombies will be this year’s flavor of malware. A caller prediction! Alexa voice files will be hacked, and people will start getting very rude responses. One of the big password managers will get hacked and have to admit it publicly. SSDs will replace conventional hard-drives by the end of the year. One of the top companies (IBM, Microsoft, Apple, Google, etc) will report a major data breech. Maybe not in a timely matter, but they’ll report it. Crypto-currency will have a major correction, but there’s so much money it’ll continue. 1st year that energy costs will be a big concern. AMD and Intel’s partnership for CPU/GPU on laptops will be a big hit, but won’t be in anything except Macbook Pros so far as Apple is concerned. There will be no fully autonomous cars on the road this year. Apple will indeed start trying to make easier to develop iOS and MacOS apps, just like Microsoft has been and Ubuntu wanted to. Virtual reality will continue to improve, sell, but will not have explosive growth. 10-15% growth maybe?
Its Charity Season! Its Scam Season! Its a 101! (12/15/18 Part 2)
Its holiday season! Its a time for giving, peace on Earth, and goodwill to your fellow human beings. And sadly, its a time the bad guys try to take advantage of your good nature. Charities and Scams! But we’re here to help! Charity watchdog sites https://www.charitywatch.org/home https://www.charitynavigator.org/ http://www.give.org/ https://www.guidestar.org/ Charity scams https://www.aarp.org/money/scams-fraud/info-2017/charity-check-scams.html https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/how-donate-wisely-and-avoid-charity-scams https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/tax-exempt-organization-search http://www.nasconet.org/resources/state-government/
Bad News and Fake News (11/10/18 Part 1)
Look! Bat Boy is cheating on Marilyn Monroe with an Alien Elvis Clone! It used to be that bad news was confined to the pages of the supermarket tabloids. Aliens! Secret Conspiracies with Lizard People! The Pope is a 1,000 year old Vampire! Fake News! – Part 1 Likewise, some “news” were more sensationalist in nature. Remember Y2K? How many times have “its the end of the world!” come up as a headline? There might’ve been a kernel of truth or just an opinion at the core, but it got spun up to be more headline grabbing. Now? Not only is it easy to find bad and sensationalist stories online, its exploded. Additionally, you can find anything you want. Got an opinion? Someone out there will cater to it. Chances are, there’ll be dozens of sites out there. Is it fake? Is it bunk? Why would we make this up? Oh, right, there’s money to be made. Join Jonathan, LD, Sam, and special guest Tracey as we talk about bad and fake news!
Protecting yourself against Fake News (11/10/18 Part 2)
Self-defense isn’t just a physical thing: it relates to your mind as well. While you can’t judo-chop lies and flim-flamery, you CAN go through your due diligence. Fake News – Part 2 Fact checking! Axios as a nice list of some of the initiatives out there to help sift the wheat from the chaff. https://www.axios.com/fake-news-initiatives-fact-checking-dfa6ab56-3295-4f1a-9b38-e61ca47e849f.html If you have library near by, you might be able to get a groovy bookmark to help you with this! What’s on there? A short little list to help you karate-kick fake news! Want to buy the bookmark for friends, your classroom, work place, or group? You can get it online at https://www.alastore.ala.org/content/fact-or-fiction-bookmark You can also download and print or buy ready-made posters with logical fallacies, cards with critical thinking skills, and more! https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/shop
Who are these Q&A people, anyhow? (11/3/18 Part 2)
So, you’ve been listening to the show for a while. We hope you’ve been enjoying it and learning a lot! But do you know about the people behind the microphone? Who Are We? We give Jonathan the platform to go over Q&A! What do we do? What are we about? How are we here for you? You can find us in Kahului on 270 Lalo Street, Suite #104 from Monday through Friday, 8:30am til 5pm! Check us out at: https://www.q-a.net/ http://www.alertinternetsurfer.com https://www.facebook.com/qainc/
“I am a red-blooded [insert country] just like you!” (10/20/18 Part 1)
So, Eastern European trolls are keeping busy. How busy? Very. And they’re possibly expanding! Trolls are a-Trollin’ So, elections 2018 and movie season… what fun for the trolls!