Daily Archives: May 15, 2022

Liberal Party ‘warms up’ with final countdown underway – The Transcontinental

Posted: May 15, 2022 at 10:25 pm

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Australia is heading into the final week before election day, and the contest is heating up. The Coalition officially launched its campaign on Sunday, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison telling Liberal Party supporters in Brisbane he's just "warming up". Mr Morrison promised economic growth and "better days" if the government is re-elected, during his speech at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre. "I'm seeking a second term to ensure that we can take this to the next level, to those better days," Mr Morrison said. Mr Morrison made housing a central part of the Liberal Party's official launch, promising a re-elected Coalition would allow first home buyers to use up to 40 per cent from their superannuation to buy a home. "Evidence shows that the best thing we can do to help Australians achieve financial security in their retirement is to help them own their own home," Mr Morrison said. Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese was also in Queensland on Sunday, pitching to Labor Party faithful ahead of the campaign's final week. "When you vote for a Labor candidate, you're voting to make life better, for yourself, your children, your community, your state of Queensland and your nation," Mr Albanese said. It followed an appearance on morning television where he lent his support to a COVID-19 education campaign to encourage vaccination. "We know the infection is out there, we know that the more people that are vaccinated, the better the health outcomes will be," Mr Albanese told the ABC's Insiders program. Mr Albanese recently criticised Mr Morrison for failing to support a rise in the minimum wage, ahead of two key pieces of economic data which may impact undecided voters. With crucial wages figures due on Wednesday and April's labour force report due on Thursday, the cost of living is likely back on the agenda. Stay tuned, and happy voting. THE NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW:

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DIGEST

May 15 2022 - 5:00PM

Australia is heading into the final week before election day, and the contest is heating up.

Mr Morrison promised economic growth and "better days" if the government is re-elected, during his speech at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

"I'm seeking a second term to ensure that we can take this to the next level, to those better days," Mr Morrison said.

"Evidence shows that the best thing we can do to help Australians achieve financial security in their retirement is to help them own their own home," Mr Morrison said.

"When you vote for a Labor candidate, you're voting to make life better, for yourself, your children, your community, your state of Queensland and your nation," Mr Albanese said.

"We know the infection is out there, we know that the more people that are vaccinated, the better the health outcomes will be," Mr Albanese told the ABC's Insiders program.

With crucial wages figures due on Wednesday and April's labour force report due on Thursday, the cost of living is likely back on the agenda.

Stay tuned, and happy voting.

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Liberal Party 'warms up' with final countdown underway - The Transcontinental

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Abortion leak: Is the Supreme Court conservative or liberal? | Opinion – Deseret News

Posted: at 10:25 pm

It was an extraordinary moment in 2018 when Chief Justice John Roberts issued a stinging public rebuke of the president. I cannot recall anything like it happening before.The chief justice has tremendous respect for each of the branches of the federal government and the officials who lead them. He is what political scientists call an institutionalist someone who believes that the preservation of the institutions of our society is vital and that critics of their performance should be careful not to undermine their role in American life.

On top of that, Roberts is an amiable man who favors compromise and consensus because he respects the views of others. And yet when President Donald Trump cavalierly dismissed a judicial decision against his administration because it had come from an Obama judge, Roberts responded immediately and forcefully: We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges. What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them.

I was reminded of the chief justices claim during the firestorm of criticism triggered by the recent leak of a draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito that favors overruling Roe v. Wade. Pundits, commentators and politicians critical of Alitos conclusion and the support it had garnered among four of his colleagues have accused those justices of pursuing a partisan agenda. To these critics, the justices are partisans in robes, mere political hacks.

Which reminds me of H.L. Menckens puckish observation that for every complicated matter there is a simple solution that is wrong. The simple answer critics give when they dislike a decision of the Supreme Court is that the justices are doing the bidding of the party that supported their appointment. That simple answer is profoundly wrong and does great damage to our constitutional order.

Careful study of the work of our federal judiciary shows that although judges are not perfect, most of the time most of them live up to the oath each takes to be impartial.

A word about that oath: I teach a seminar at Harvard Law School on the role of a judge under the Constitution. Our readings cover in detail the debate over whether a judge should view the Constitution as a living document that should be interpreted to reflect the changing sensibilities of the American people or as a charter that protects rights that can only be added to or taken away by We, the People amending the Constitution through our elected representatives, and not by judges.

Our study of this debate takes up much of the course, but before we jump into that debate, we spend several days studying the oath of office required of every federal judge. That oath was created in the initial act of the First Congress and requires each judge to pledge to the American people and to God that he or she will be impartial and will not decide cases to favor partisan ends.

Never once in my 15 years as a judge on the U. S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit did I see a colleague cast a vote that I thought was tainted with partisanship. The disagreements were always over what the law requires and not our preferred political outcomes. Cynics may dismiss my report as nave, delusional or even deceptive, but they would be wrong. I was in the room where it happened. Im not nave. Im not delusional. Im not a liar. Ive never been a Supreme Court justice, so maybe things work differently there? The chief justice claims they dont. And Justice Stephen Breyer, a political progressive appointed by a Democratic president, agrees with the chief.

I know the chief justice. I know Justice Breyer. Neither is nave. Neither is delusional. Neither is dishonest.

Of course, a citizen cant rely on the pundits descriptions of judicial decisions to understand what is at work. As Justice Amy Coney Barrett pointed out recently, the best way to determine whether a judge is a partisan, as the critics claim, or keeping her oath of impartiality, as the chief justice and Breyer assert, is to read her written opinions. Thats hard work. For example, the draft opinion by Justice Alito that was leaked to the public last week is 98 pages long. Im a slow reader. Thats three hours of work for me. And yet how can I conclude the opinion is in error or is correct, is driven by a partisan agenda or a faithful effort to follow the law, unless I roll up my sleeves and do the hard work of studying it for myself?

I was a member of the Presidents Commission on the Supreme Court, which was given the task of describing the current debate over the role of the Supreme Court in American society. Most observers viewed the creation of the commission as an effort by President Joe Biden to create a forum for the debate over whether the number of justices on the Supreme Court should be increased. For a year, the members of the commission studied the issue intensely. We read books and articles. We took testimony from experts and comments from any with enough interest in the topic to write. I joined the commission convinced that increasing the number of justices on the Supreme Court would be a dangerous gambit. Nothing I read or heard in the year that followed changed my view. Heres why.

Those pressing for expansion believed judges were partisans in robes. They didnt believe the claim of the chief justice, Justice Breyer or me that judges decide cases based on the law and not politics. They were dissatisfied with some of the decisions of the current Supreme Court, and they assumed that they could change those decisions by adding justices who had partisan political ends in mind.

Im not pleased with all of the decisions of the Roberts court either. I was overturned by the court in a landmark case that eviscerated a key component of the most significant voting rights legislation in our nations history. I think the court gave short shrift to the power given to Congress after the Civil War to root out racism in the way we conduct elections. But I dont attribute the courts approach to an effort to hurt Democrats and help Republicans because I know the justices and I know they take seriously their oath to be impartial. They had a different view than do I about the reach of the 15th Amendment. Such differences over the meaning of the law, not competing partisan allegiances, explain our disagreement.

I was honored that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson asked me to introduce her to the Senate Judiciary Committee at the start of her historic confirmation hearings. I was well-acquainted with her work as a judge on the federal district court in Washington, D.C., because I sat on the court that heard appeals from her rulings. Pundits and reporters commented on the novelty of a political conservative appointed by a Republican president endorsing a political progressive nominated by a Democratic president. Im happy if my full-throated support of Jacksons appointment was a strike against hyperpartisanship, but pushing back against political tribalism wasnt my main purpose.

Speaking up for an impartial judiciary was.

As a judicial conservative who believes that a judge plays a limited role under theConstitution, I may end up disagreeing with Jackson on any number of matters, and yet I do not believe for a moment that her decisions will be driven by an interest to advance the policies of political progressives. They will be driven by what she believes the law requires.

The American people have good reason to have confidence in our judicial system. Those who attack our federal judges as partisans for the pursuit of their own political gain do great damage to the Constitution. Jonathan Haidt warns of a catastrophic failure of our democracy. The reason? We just dont know what a democracy looks like when you drain all trust out of the system.

In the years following the collapse of the Soviet empire, I had the good fortune of traveling throughout Eastern Europe and meeting with courageous reformers who risked their lives to establish the rule of law in their countries. They were eager to learn from the American experience, especially about how to create and maintain an impartial judiciary, which they believed was the crown jewel of American democracy.

As Benjamin Franklin observed at the conclusion of the Philadelphia convention that drafted our Constitution, the rule of law is a fragile possibility that is difficult to keep in the best of times. We are not living in the best of times. All the more reason to stop the partisan attacks on a judiciary that has served our Constitution imperfectly but well.

Thomas B. Griffith is a former federal judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and a fellow of the Wheatley Institution at Brigham Young University.

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Abortion leak: Is the Supreme Court conservative or liberal? | Opinion - Deseret News

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AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals: 2020 Edition

Posted: at 10:23 pm

On January 15, 2020, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) issued and posted an updated version of the Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals. The 2020 Edition is available for download at https://www.avma.org/KB/Policies/Documents/euthanasia.pdf.

The PHS Policy,IV.C.1.g., requires that Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) reviewing research animal activities determine that methods of euthanasia used will be consistent with the recommendations of the AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animalsunless a deviation is justified for scientific reasons in writing by the investigator.

Federal Register Notice2020-03607 and NIH Guide Notice NOT-OD-20-069 Request for Information were issued to solicit input from the public on any concerns they may have with the 2020 Edition of the Guidelines.

The public comment period closed on April 29, 2020.

OLAW encourages Assured institutions to begin using the 2020 Guidelines when reviewing research projects as soon as possible and expects full implementation after October 1, 2020. Previously approved projects undergoing continuing review according to PHS Policy,IV.C.5., which requires a complete review at least once every 3 years, must be reviewed using the 2020 Guidelines after October 1, 2020.

Call (301-496-7163) or e-mail (olaw@mail.nih.gov)OLAWfor answers to your questions.

AVMA Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals: 2020 Edition

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Heartbreaking photo of ‘hugging pups’ saves them from euthanasia – Times Now

Posted: at 10:23 pm

Hugging dogs Kala and Keira | Image: Facebook

A heartbreaking photo of two dogs embracing each other hours before their scheduled euthanasia saved their lives.

Kala embraced Kiera in a warm cuddle just three hours before they were due to die. A shelter volunteer took a photo of their hug.

The duo ended up being rescued by Angels Among Us Pet Rescue, a non-profit charity that saves dogs and cats from high-risk situations in Georgia, America.

The shelter posted the picture on Facebook and wrote, "Im Kala. This is Keira. Were so scared in here. The people working in the shelters see how scared we are but just told each other that today is our deadline. We have to have someone rescue us or well be next.'"

"Angels Among Us Pet Rescue knew that immediate action was needed to save these two friends and they pulled them from their dire shelter situation without a minute to spare," a spokeswoman was quoted as saying by Mirror.

"Kala and Keira's hug and plea for rescue was seen around the world and brought the plight of shelter dogs to the forefront of national and international media and spurred conversations across the globe," she added.

When lifelong friends Wendy and Pam came across Kala and Keira's story in a magazine, they decided to give the doggos their forever home.

Wendy had recently lost her two elderly dogs and realised that the "hugging pups" were available for adoption. She said, "It just fell together. We turned out tears in to smiles with these two young, playful dogs."

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Heartbreaking photo of 'hugging pups' saves them from euthanasia - Times Now

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‘This is my story’ – Assisted dying patient followed on final journey – 1News

Posted: at 10:23 pm

Since the End of Life Choice Bill passed into law last November, at least 92 people have legally taken their own lives. One of those, Esther Richards, invited Sunday to accompany her through the final months of her life.

This is my story, my journey and my choice, Esther said. I love life, I just wish I could live it.

Earlier this year Sunday's cameras filmed Esther, 58, her best mate Jooles and her son Alex around her Tauranga home for two months as Esther fought her brain cancer and sought permission to die.

Everyday life is getting up in the morning, slowly getting dressed and showered, and I'm usually in pain, Esther said. I wake up in pain.

Theres more to life than the ability to breathe. I dont call what Im doing now living.

Esther was diagnosed with brain cancer nine years ago, when her only child Alex was just 18.Its been me and her the entire time, Alex said. It wasnt a wealthy upbringing, but mum tried to give me everything I needed.

The two shared a tight relationship and a common sense of humour.

As soon as I told him I had shadows on the brain, his first comment was, oh, they found a brain, which cracked us up and then he said, you can fight this, eh, mum," Esther said.

"I had to say yes, and I fought it.

Esther fought for Alex and she fought for the legislation.

A photo of Esther Richards and her son Alex, in an earlier time. (Source: 1News)

Dying is not a choice, were not choosing to die, were choosing not to suffer as we die.

The bill divided the country when it passed, as it still does now. Primary concerns among those who oppose euthanasia in New Zealand include that the disabled and elderly could be pressured into it, and many Christians oppose the practice for religious reasons.

Esther is not among those Christians, having reconciled her decision with her faith.

She said she did a lot of praying while waiting to hear the referendums result, and she felt peaceful.

In October 2020, the binding referendum on the End of Life Choice Bill found that 65.2% of New Zealanders supported it, and the bill came into force on November 7 2021.

READ MORE: Assisted dying legal in New Zealand from today

In December, Esther first tried to convince the doctors that she was ready, but she was declined because she couldnt honestly say she was enduring unbearable suffering.

So (the doctor) said Im sorry, I have to decline you and I said 'thats okay."

Unbearable suffering is one of the restrictions in the bill, along with having a terminal illness with six months or less to live and being in a state of irreversible physical decline. A person must also be of sound mind to apply.

Esther Richards takes comfort in her friend Jooles. (Source: 1News)

Esther was found to meet these criteria when she repeated the interview on March 18.

After that, she had six months to use the medication and set a date, May 20. But when her condition took a turn for the worse, Esther brought it forward to April 22. The date marked the 30th anniversary of her mothers death from the same cancer.

I am going to die anyways if I do it or not, I just don't want to die a slow painful way, Esther said. She planned to go out listening to Metallica and surrounded by family and friends, including Jooles and Alex.

Ive never been afraid of death, Im afraid of how Ill die, Esther said. I dont want to die in pain, I dont want to die as someone other than me.

Esther Richards died at 1.14pm on April 22, 2022.

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Letter: ‘Sanctity’ and ‘sacredness’ of life are malleable concepts. Let’s focus on what really matters. – Salt Lake Tribune

Posted: at 10:23 pm

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Hundreds of anti-abortion activists rally at Pro-Life Utah's March for Life at the Utah Capitol on Saturday, in conjunction with the national March for Life in D.C., Jan. 22, 2022.

| May 15, 2022, 12:00 p.m.

Anti-abortion proponents often justify their arguments on the sacredness of life, its connection to God. Considering that the 8 billion people on the planet have roughly 8 billion concepts of God, varying from He Quotes Leviticus in Hebrew to Me when Im Stuck in Rush-Hour Traffic to He Kicked Off the Big Bang and Hasnt Been Heard From Since, I submit that sacredness is a poor criteria to evaluate the morality of abortion.

Other proponents argue the sanctity of life, its ultimate importance and inviolability, without necessarily a religious connection. But there are morally acceptable situations when we take someones life: capital punishment, a soldier killing an enemy soldier, a policeman killing an unarmed man believed to be a mere threat to safety, euthanasia, sacrificing one individual to save others and any threat in general to our survival for example, Floridas Stand Your Ground law.

The act of conceiving is remarkably easy (with apologies to couples who do have trouble doing so). Sanctity, frankly, just isnt on our minds at the time. Were not thinking ahead to potential unintended consequences. Heck, were not thinking at all. Its pleasurable. Were wired to do it. No credit card, permission, driver license or smart phone required. All you need is a partner.

For countless millennia Homo sapiens was just another species on the planet, struggling to forage and survive. Nowadays were adept at overpopulating the planet, a veritable poster child for an invasive species. What was historically sacrosanct is now much less so.

If you really want to honor sanctity, quit focusing on the first weeks and instead focus on what really matters the next five or 15 years. Thats where a child needs support on so many fronts. That childs mother is by far the best equipped to decide if she can or will make that childs life what life should be. No one else can make that decision.

Mike Duncan, Moab

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Letter: 'Sanctity' and 'sacredness' of life are malleable concepts. Let's focus on what really matters. - Salt Lake Tribune

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Completing the 1080 project – The Saturday Paper

Posted: at 10:23 pm

I have recently taken it upon myself to work my way through the internet in search of my ancestry. I call it my 1080 Project. As a wise old tech-savvy male elder of the family Rattus rattus, and with no chance of a pleasant natural death, Im planning to avail myself of our voluntary euthanasia as soon as Ive completed the project. I have access to that excellent metabolic poison 1080. And at least were never likely to go extinct like the poor old dodo. We were largely responsible for that particular vanishing, you know. We travelled on the Dutch ships and we rushed ashore on Mauritius and hopped into the dodos eggs. The sailors also helped by killing and eating the big old birds. Wipeout!

I have been led hither and thither electronically and now I will share with you some of the information I have unearthed. Theres the relationship I discovered between my family and a rather lovely 7th-century Belgian saint, Gertrude. She is the only saint who has been accorded rodents as her emblem. First it was just the mice, the little fellows, but then we were permitted to participate, and St Gertrude is now the patron saint of the fear of rats. She is one of those saints who is not recognised by the Vatican. Mind you, there are plenty of rats in the Vatican. Theres a popular Rattus boy-band called Squealing and Dealing that plays regular gigs in the kitchens. I just hope they can travel to perform at my funeral.

I, like most members of the family, am a zoonotic vector of certain pathogens, notably the Black Death, or bubonic plague. This disease is spread in two ways: by infected fleas from rats, or by contact with the bodily fluids of a dead plague-infected person or animal. Its kind of hard to know the answer to the chicken-and-egg question in this case. Theres the rat flea and theres the rat. Rat carries plague bacteria, flea feeds on rat, flea bites human. Did the flea get its measure of bacteria from a rat in the first place? Or did the rat get its juice from the flea? Anyhow, the bacteria, once they pop into the bloodstream, travel to a human lymph node or two, where they reproduce, causing swelling. Painful. You bet. What follows is now get this necrosis of the extremities, the appearance of black dots and bruising, fever, cramps, seizures, bloody vomit, delirium, death. Fascinating.

As you would realise, the plague played its part in history, changing societies wherever it went. Its a matter of considerable family pride that it was one of us who carried the flea that bit Elizabeth, queen consort of EdwardIV of England in 1492. Maybe you cant place Elizabeth in the history youre familiar with. Well, Ill tell you. She was the granny of Henry the VIII. Got that? She came from the House of York, the one with the white roses, and she was known as the White Queen. Oh, and she was the mother of those boys who disappeared in the Tower of London. She was quite pretty, if you can believe the portraits. I like to believe.

Im fond of art, generally. You should see the statue of St Gertrude in Berlin. Its a big bronze thing on the Gertrude bridge, and shes given a boy a mug of beer. Hes got a big goose with him, and running around beneath his feet theres a ring of great bronze rats, and a few mice. Since people are frightened, they make up stories and legends about us, often with a grain of truth. Speaking of grain, we have sometimes changed the course of history by gobbling up all the crops. As for the legends think of the Pied Piper of Hamelin thats based on a true story. He musicked the rats away, and when the city refused to pay him, he musicked away the children. Interesting! Humans do go in for revenge and retribution. I always wonder where the rats and children ended up. They couldnt vanish into thin air, could they? Or maybe they could.

A significant rat death occurred in the royal palace of the Russian Emperor PeterIII in 1762. The emperor had a big collection of toy soldiers, and used to organise scenes of warfare all over the floor. Well, one of my ancestors was making a meal of two delicious little cork sentinels who were guarding a fortress, when the emperors dog caught him at it and delivered him to the emperor. The emperor sentenced the old ancestor to death, constructed a gallows and executed him. Quite a good way to go.

Wherever I look on the internet, there are traces of the Rattus family. Its amazing. And we simply love the way the planets heating up. They used to say that in New York City you were never more than 12 inches from a rat. Thats a great overstatement these hot days its now more like six inches. Same in London. Were even closer in Paris and Rome. By the time the planet boils, well be half an inch from your ear. Nibble-nibble like a mouse (rat). There goes your ear. It really surprises me that they dont properly canonise St Gertrude to put her more firmly in the frame when it comes to fear of rats. Not that it would do them any good, mind you. We are organised, ubiquitous, invincible. But I realise it gives humans comfort to imagine they have a powerful good woman on hand to deal with us.

I plan to travel to Berlin to die at the feet of the statue of St Gertrude, with whom Ive become a bit obsessed. In fact it wasnt until I discovered her that I made my final decision about the 1080. Does that sound a bit extravagant? Ive always been known for the dramatic gesture. I will pack a bag with the precious white powder, bid farewell to the family at the cheese and butter factory, and take a jet to Germany. I hope I can organise to have Squealing and Dealing to play at the ceremony. St Gertie, here I come.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper onMay 14, 2022 as "Completing the 1080 project".

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Completing the 1080 project - The Saturday Paper

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LETTER: The slippery slope of Canadas MAiD regime – Agassiz Harrison Observer

Posted: at 10:23 pm

Editor,

In times past, when a fellow human being desired to end their life, all manner of assistance was brought together to help that person and pull them back from the (literal or proverbial) edge. In fact, I remember as a child asking my father what it meant when the traffic reporters said that the Port Mann bridge is closed due to a police incident and him telling me that there was likely someone who felt their life was no longer worth living and wanted to jump off the bridge. In those situations, the first responders wouldnt think twice about shutting down an entire bridge in an effort to save the persons life because if someone got to the point where they wanted to jump off a bridge it meant society had failed them in one manner or another and we needed to try to make it right.

Its only been six years since Canada legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide and while it was first justified as something necessary for those with a terminal illness in the last days of their life on earth, it has now become something nearly everyone can access, soon to also include those with mental illness. We should be ashamed of ourselves. On the one hand we commemorate Bell Lets Talk Day, a day to highlight the fact that life is worth living even while suffering through mental illness, and on the other hand we will offer death as a solution to mental suffering.

Just as in the past it would have been unthinkable for first responders to assist a mentally ill person by pushing them off the bridge, it should also be unthinkable today that we allow a euthanasia doctor to assist the same person by killing them in the sterile environment of a hospital bed.

Mike Schouten

Yarrow

Serial fake news peddler CJ Werleman shares another fake news claiming that Hindutva extremists thrashed a Muslim man – OpIndia

Posted: at 10:20 pm

Islamist-sympathiser CJ Werleman, who has a notorious history of peddling fake news on social media platforms, yet again took to Twitter to put out an undated video to claim that a Muslim man was assaulted by a mob of Hindu extremists in the national capital Delhi on Wednesday.

Sharing an edited video of a Muslim man being thrashed by the public, serial fake news peddler Werleman claimed that a mob of Hindu extremists in Delhi assaulted a Muslim man.

The carefully edited video was shared by Islamist sympathiser Werleman to put out a false narrative that Muslims are being attacked in India by Hindus.

However, it is not true.

The video shared by Werleman pertains to an incident that occurred last week in Delhi. The full clip of the incident with the audio was shared by a social media user named Nitin Singh. Werleman had removed the audio from the video so that people dont know the facts behind it.

In the original video shared by Nitin Singh, it can be seen that the mob was thrashing a Muslim man, for eve-teasing and allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl for over five days. The girl finally confronted the 45-year-old Muslim man and informed the locals.

The locals caught the culprit, who thrashed him for his unruly behaviour with the minor girl. The incident was reported in Nathu Colony in Delhi.

The audio clearly shows that the locals are beating him for molesting a minor girl. However, CJ Werleman used this incident to edit the video carefully, removed the audio, and circulated it across social media platforms to propagate lies against Hindus and incite Muslims in the country.

Well, this is not the first time that theIslamist-sympathiser who was profiled by Shekhar Guptas ThePrint has resorted to peddling fake news against Hindus. Just last week, he had spread a similar fake news by claiming that a Dalit was killed by Hindus for marrying a Muslim girl, when the fact is that the man was killed by the Muslim family members of the girl. CJ Werleman had said in a now delated tweet, A Dalit was lynched to death to death by Hindu extremist mob for marrying a Muslim woman.

In the tweet, he had included a photograph of Billapuram Nagaraju and his wife Syed Ashrin Sultana from Hyderabad. Sultanas family was opposed to this inter-faith marriage, and her own brother had killed Nagaraju on May 4th. Sultana herself has identified her brother Syed Mobin Ahmed as one of the killers of her husband, and Ahmed along with his accomplish Mohammed Masood Ahmed have already been arrested by police within a day of the murder. But still serial fake news peddler CJ Werleman had claimed that Nagaraju was killed by Hindu extremist mob.

He keeps sharing such fake news on a regular basis, and surprisingly, he tweets are not labelled as fake by Twitter.

Last year, he shared an undated video on his Twitter profile to claim that a group of Hindu men desecrated and destroyed a Muslim Graveyard in Nathan, India. In a tweet, he wrote, Hindutva radicals desecrate and destroy a Muslim graveyard in Nathan, India.

However, the local administration had called out the lie peddled by the radical Islamist sympathiser.

Similarly, he had made false allegations that the Indian government is suppressing Muslims on several other occasions. In August 2018, he took to Twitter to wrongly claim that the BJP had banned the slaughter of livestock during Eid. Werlemen also contended that the Police Officer was forcing an Imam to declare Qurbani is a punishable crime to his followers in the video that he had attached. In the same year, heposteda video claiming Hindutva fanatics destroying 25 Muslim owned businesses and properties in Aurangabad on 25th March.

CJ Werlemenappears to have a particular grudge against Uttar Pradesh, probably because a saffron-clad monk is the Chief Minister of the state. In several tweets, he had mentioned Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as a Hindutva terrorist.

In 2018, Kasganj Police had torefutehis allegations after Werlemen accused them of teaming up with Hindu extremists to target Muslims. In a separate instance, this time not involving Uttar Pradesh, Werlemen used a video depicting the violence during the Bhima-Koregaon clashes in Maharashtra and claimed that it, in fact, showed Hindus destroying Muslim property.

Elon Musk wants to know how many fake accounts Twitter has, but experts say his approach is all wrong – CNBC

Posted: at 10:20 pm

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent Twitter shares tumbling on Friday when he said he was going to put his$44 billion acquisition of the social network "on hold" while he researches the proportion of fake and spam accounts on the platform.

Though Musk later clarified that he remains committed to the deal, he continued to hammer on the issue of fake accounts. He wrote, on Twitter, that his team would do their own analysis and expressed doubt about the accuracy of numbers Twitter has reported in its most recent financial filings.

In its first-quarter earnings report this year, Twitter acknowledged there are a number of "false or spam accounts" on its platform, alongside legitimate monetizable daily active usage or users (mDAU). The company reported, "We have performed an internal review of a sample of accounts and estimate that the average of false or spam accounts during the first quarter of 2022 represented fewer than 5% of our mDAU during the quarter."

Twitter also admitted to overstating user numbers by 1.4 million to 1.9 million users over the past 3 years. The company wrote, "In March of 2019, we launched a feature that allowed people to link multiple separate accounts together in order to conveniently switch between accounts," Twitter disclosed. "An error was made at that time, such that actions taken via the primary account resulted in all linked accounts being counted as mDAU."

While Musk may be justifiably curious, experts in social media, disinformation and statistical analysis say that his suggested approach to further analysis is woefully deficient.

Here's what the SpaceX and Tesla CEO said he would do to determine how many spam, fake and duplicate accounts exist on Twitter:

"To find out, my team will do a random sample of 100 followers of @twitter. I invite others to repeat the same process and see what they discover." He clarified his methodology in subsequent tweets, adding: "Pick any account with a lot of followers," and "Ignore first 1000 followers, then pick every 10th. I'm open to better ideas."

Musk also said, without providing evidence, that he picked 100 as the sample size number for his study because that's the number Twitter uses to calculate the numbers in their earnings reports.

"Any sensible random sampling process is fine. If many people independently get similar results for % of fake/spam/duplicate accounts, that will be telling. I picked 100 as the sample size number, because that is what Twitter uses to calculate <5% fake/spam/duplicate."

Twitter declined to comment when asked if his description of its methodology was accurate.

Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz weighed-in on the issue via his own Twitter account, pointing out that Musk's approach is not actually random, uses a too small sample, and leaves room for massive errors.

He wrote, "Also I feel like 'doesn't trust the Twitter team to help pull the sample' is it's own kind of red flag."

BotSentinel founder and CEO Christopher Bouzy said in an interview with CNBC that analysis by his company indicates that 10% to 15% of accounts on Twitter are likely "inauthentic," including fakes, spammers, scammers, nefarious bots, duplicates, and "single-purpose hate accounts" which typically target and harass individuals, along with others who spread disinformation on purpose.

BotSentinel, which is primarily supported through crowdfunding, independently analyzes and identifies inauthentic activity on Twitter using a mix of machine learning software and teams of human reviewers. The company monitors more than 2.5 million Twitter accounts today, primarily English-language users.

"I think Twitter is not realistically classifying 'false and spam' accounts," Bouzy said.

He also warns that the number of inauthentic accounts can appear higher or lower in different corners of Twitter depending on topics being discussed. For example, more inauthentic accounts tweet about politics, cryptocurrency, climate change, and covid than those discussing non-controversial topics like kittens and origami, BotSentinel has found.

"I just can't fathom that Musk is doing anything other than trolling us with this silly sampling scheme."

Carl T Bergstrom

Author, "Calling Bulls---"

Carl T. Bergstrom, a University of Washington professor who co-wrote a book to help people understand data and avoid being taken in by false claims online, told CNBC that sampling one hundred followers of any single Twitter account should not serve as "due diligence" for making a $44 billion acquisition.

He said that a sample size of 100 is orders of magnitude smaller that the norm for social media researchers studying this sort of thing. The biggest issue Musk would face with this approach is known as selection bias.

Bergstrom wrote in a message to CNBC, "There's no reason to believe that followers of the official Twitter account are a representative sample of accounts on the platform. Perhaps bots are less likely to follow this account to avoid detection. Perhaps they're more likely to follow to seem legitimate. Who knows? But I just can't fathom that Musk is doing anything other than trolling us with this silly sampling scheme."

See original here:

Elon Musk wants to know how many fake accounts Twitter has, but experts say his approach is all wrong - CNBC

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