Facebook and fake news

It must be very difficult to come up with an algorithm that is fair and unbiased, I just worry sometimes that the line, keeping people "safe" from fake news and propaganda by filters on free speech and debate is actually a dystopian move to suppress information that could affect the companies agenda.  

The concerning thing for me is that Meta’s AI-powered tool, called Sphere, introduced to detect, and address misinformation, or “fake news”, of the internet uses scanning of hundreds of thousands of citations at once to check whether they truly support the corresponding claims. 

This sounds fine, but science and progress in general, revolves around questioning citations and not just following blindly along. The questioning views opposing mainstream beliefs have been filtered by Sphere and either not shown at all due to their being labelled as false news or only shown to a very small proportion of the community. 
So here is how it works, the Facebook algorithm evaluates every post. It scores posts and then arranges them in descending, non-chronological order of interest for each individual user. This process happens every time a user—and there are 2.9 billion of them—refreshes their feed. 

The goal of the Facebook algorithm is to give the best Facebook user experience possible. It allows Facebook to sell more ads by increasing their time on the platform. Facebook looks at 3 main signals to evaluate a post’s relevance to users: 

Who posted it: People with whom you have a lot of interaction will appear at the top of your feed. 

Type of content: Your feed will favour the videos, photos, or links that you interact with the most. 

Interactions with the post: Posts with a lot of interactions, especially those with whom you engage the most, will be prioritized by Facebook. 

 

So really all this is giving you is more of the same content you have viewed, liked, or shared in the past and only the content considered safe.

Mark Zuckerberg is betting the future of his company on the metaverse, turning part of it into a hardware business with its own operating system. The Metaverse is one of the WEF’s dystopian visions for us, a single, shared, immersive, persistent, 3D virtual space where humans experience life in ways they could not in the physical world while they are imprisoned in 15 min cities with CBDC’s and digital ID’s controlling every part of their existence.

Veg shortages

I am lucky to have some land and a poly tunnel so I grow quite a lot of veg here, I like to grow my own as I know they are organic and not modified reproductions designed to look good on supermarket shelves. I think the taste is better especially when food is harvested and eaten rather than ripening after harvest in the time taken to get it to market, so it looks perfect. The down side is my veg doesn't look perfect.

Anyway, you may have heard about the Dutch farmers protesting against the Dutch government's plan to buy up and shut down almost 3,000 farms in a bid to meet tough EU greenhouse gas emissions targets. I think their reasoning in EU emissions targets does not make sense, if  Holland stops producing fruit and veg then it will be sourced from countries outside the region which will have longer distances to travel to market and therefore increase C02 emissions in both the transport and other regions. This is just posturing, outsourcing carbon emissions and not reducing them.   

Holland has problems with its water quality, some of which no doubt, is caused by intensive farming. The pesticides, chemicals and fertilisers used in intensive farming could be eradicated by organic farming which would keep farms in business, this would mean a lot less product per acre and result in a product demanding a lot higher price, but better resulting water quality. 

The problem is people are used to buying tasteless perfect shaped fruit and veg at very cheap prices, the fact that most of the products have been genetically modified to fill the market brief seems to go right over peoples heads but that's another story.  

Getting rid of farmers in the EU to satisfy emissions targets will make food less available, more expensive and higher in C02 emissions because of the distances it has to be transported. The targets will not help global warming.   

I hope we will see a rise in farmers markets soon and people embracing good nutritious, tasty products that are grown in their local area, without a middleman, and that the WEF plans for everyone to eat insects and even more modified veg, gets the thumb down from everyone.  

$19.99

Have you ever wondered why the Rounding Laws introduced when 1 and 2 cent coins went out of circulation in 1995 have never been changed?

Well here is the answer to the question. 

We couldn't be arsed to complain about false advertising. €19.99 and €19.98 and €19.97 are actually €20 the reason they are priced at €19.99 on the shelf or on petrol pump prices is to do with psychology and its quite interesting to read about. 

When people are buying based on their feelings (e.g. hedonic products such as food and fashion, a spa experience), use round prices (e.g. €15, $200).

When people are buying for rational reasons (e.g. utilitarian products such as a washing machine, business services), use non-rounded prices (e.g. €15.95, $229.50).

Your customers will have higher preferences for your product and will be more likely to buy.

It works this way because 

1.Rounded numbers are more frequent in our life, so we find them easier to mentally process - which increases how likely we are to use our feelings. 

2.Non-rounded numbers are harder to process but feel more rational - as if they are more grounded in facts.

3.When the price matches our state or emotional vs rational, our judgment about the product “feels right”. 

4. In turn, this intensifies our judgment of the product (i.e. good becomes great, bad becomes terrible).

Psychology is used throughout our lives by marketers, in the supermarket layout to colours in brands and all sorts and it is also used in propaganda with reciting data over and over and over until we believe there is no question about the propaganda being truth and just take it as read. 

Al Gore's Inconvenient Truth is a good example, his movie is a 2006 American documentary about his campaign to educate people about global warming. The film features a slide show that, by Gore's own estimate, he has presented over 1,000 times to audiences worldwide. His movie has been used in School syllabus and the claims he made were taken as a crisis bound to happen.  

The crisis never happened, but he is still preaching global disasters today because if you say something enough times it has to be true. 

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How Mineral Supply Will Change EV Forecasts

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Cobalt is considered the highest material supply chain risk for electric vehicles (EVs) in the short and medium term. EV batteries can have up to 20 kg of Co in each 100 kilowatt-hour (kWh) pack.

I would argue that it is physically impossible to replace all cars with electric ones because:

Nissan Leafs, which have under 200 miles of range, come in 40 kWh and 60 kWh variants. The Long Range Tesla Model 3, capable of over 300 miles of range, comes with a 75 kWh battery pack.

So if we take it that each car requires 10kg of Cobalt to make its battery.

Total world reserves of Cobalt are estimated by the United States Geological Survey at around 7.6 million tons of contained cobalt. There are 1.446 billion cars in the World in 2023, my basic grasp of arithmetic dictates that to replace the cars would require 1 trillion four hundred and forty six million kgs of cobalt. There are 907.185kgs in a metric ton so the required amount in tons is 1,609,374,052

The Congo is the Worlds largest producer of cobalt, accounting for roughly 70 percent of global production, 130,000 MT in 2022. Production would have to be ramped up 12.5 times.

Maybe battery recycling can reduce the amount of raw material that needs to be dug up but it doesn't exist in any capacity yet.

So who gets a car? well that's obvious. Klaus will have one and Bill and Al and everyone else can walk.

It will be great, our health will improve and we will be happy, and sarcasm will be outlawed.

 

I just focused on Cobalt, and didn't even mention Lithium,manganese, graphite, steel, and nickel.

Having problems understanding the need for a Metaverse

The Metaverse : is a spatial computing platform that provides digital experiences as an alternative to or a replica of the real world, along with its key civilizational aspects like social interactions, currency, trade, economy, and property ownership.

Do we really need an alternative to the real world? Maybe if we are locked into 15 min cities the only escape will be to strap on a helmet and virtually escape. Its quite scary the plans the likes of the WEF have for us. 

Imagine a virtual world where billions of people live, work, shop, learn and interact with each other -- all from the comfort of their couches in the physical world.

In this world, the computer screens we use today to connect to a worldwide web of information have become portals to a 3D virtual realm that's palpable -- like real life, only bigger and better. Digital facsimiles of ourselves, or avatars, move freely from one experience to another, taking our identities and our money with us. WHY? 

Rather than sitting on couches young people should be encouraged to meet other real people not digital avatars, in real situations not bigger and better virtual worlds, to get out into nature get their hands dirty and learn about life.

I just don't get it.

Well done Florida Health Department

I'd like to congratulate the State of Florida Health Department in the US for making public and transparent their vaccine adverse reactions data, even though I realise they probably have been transparent to oust a different political party from power.

This You Tube video by Dr John Campbell who has been concerned throughout the pandemic is a good breakdown of the reactions data taken from the Health Departments release. I would really encourage people to watch it especially if thinking of taking another shot.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2YGdDbZpSg&t=620s 

I can understand why Governments and the Elites like Mr Gates and Big Pharma are trying to cover up the fact that they insisted we all dosed up on vaccines that had not undergone the rigorous trials that all previous vaccines had to go through, as it will see them lose their positions of power and riches, but I think the Facts cannot be swept under the carpet as they could have been in the past due to the internet and social media.  

 

Geneology and my family tree

 I got given a DNA testing kit for Christmas and the results came back today. There was nothing really surprising in the results with 91.7% of recent ancestors being from the UK, mostly SW Scotland and Northumbria where my Mum is from. 

I added the results to a website I have been working on in my spare time instead of watching Love Island or Sam Smith, its at  http://shairp.xara.hosting/ 

It goes back to 1562 and I got a bit carried away with my research so the website only contains direct ancestors on my Paternal and Maternal sides and indirect ancestors on Angela's side. The site is quite bland at the moment being of a more a database than anything fancy and for viewing on a bigger screen than a phone but I might jazz it up a bit when I finish linking all the pages etc and do a responsive version.

 

                                                               http://shairp.xara.hosting/ 

 

Feel free to leave a comment if I have made any mistakes.