Shout-out to the Jackson Telegraph

A story I wrote about in December is receiving some pick-up today, thanks to CNN.

A few people asked why I began looking into the BlackLivesMatter1 page, and it started in September when I was researching a fake news site called the Jackson Telegraph.  A Facebook user named "Mai Lee" posted a story from the Jackson Telegraph (titled "Black Tuscaloosa man charged after making fist into gun shape & farting near officers") in a Black Lives Matter group.  And that group was linked to the BlackLivesMatter1 page.

Originally, I was trying to figure out if there was a link between the BlackLives group and the Jackson Telegraph.  I don't believe they were linked, although I do suspect the person (or one of the persons) running the Jackson Telegraph was Australian.

Darn it, Publix!

This is the second time I've bought Bistro salads at Publix and then realized one (or more) of them had already reached their expiration date.

Check these out.  I bought them both on Wednesday, April 4th.  The salad on the left had an expiration date of April 4th.  The one on the right has an expiration date of April 13th.  As you can see, the container on the left is all...gassy and stuff:

Netflix viewing activity

I just figured out the answer to a trivial question:  Does my Netflix "viewing activity" page include titles that are no longer available on Netflix?

The answer is yes.  I went to my account page and scanned my viewing activity, and movies like The Pill (which was removed at the end of December) are still listed.  If I follow the link, I can still view the title card, read a synopsis, and give the movie a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down." 

Another question I had is whether a title will appear more than once on the "viewing activity" page.  The answer is no.  I did a CTRL+F for "Civil War," and there was only one result.  But I've definitely watched Captain America: Civil War multiple times.

The imposter "Eduardo Martins"

This was a crazy story I saw last year in Mashable: https://mashable.com/2017/09/05/fake-photojournalist-eduardo-martins-brazil-instagram/#Mjp3hTZcBZqf

A man falsely claimed to be a war photojournalist, and he took other people's pictures and submitted them to a variety of publications.  Even the Wall Street Journal was duped.  The guy went by the name "Eduardo Martins," and he made social media profiles and even a personal website.

I like to imagine that I wouldn't be duped by this type of charade, but who knows...

Culpam.com

Come on, Culpam.com, who are you trying to fool?

Your article from April 3, 2018, is titled: "Chicago pizza delivery woman moved to tears after church honors her with incredible tip"

A WGNTV.com article from March 2, 2018, is titled: "Chicago pizza delivery woman moved to tears after church honors her with incredible tip"

Your opening:

CHICAGO -- A local delivery driver was brought to tears after being surprised with an incredible tip during a Chicago church service.

For the entire month of February, New Life Covenant Church, located in Chicago's Humboldt Park, says they had been challenging members of the church to honor people.

The opening from WGNTV:

CHICAGO -- A local delivery driver was brought to tears after being surprised with an incredible tip during a Chicago church service.

For the entire month of February, New Life Covenant Church, located in Chicago's Humboldt Park, says they had been challenging members of the church to honor people.

You're using somebody else's content, and your site has AdSense ads?  That's just sketchy. 

Villanova wins!

They are champions of the college basketball world:

A Russian on BlackLivesMatterMedia.com?

I've written previously about BlackLivesMatter1, a sketchy Facebook page claiming to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement.  The Facebook page frequently linked to a middleman site, BlackLivesMatter.media, which was structured a lot like Reddit:  The site contained links to news articles, and visitors were encouraged to create an account and upvote or downvote the different threads.

I don't think BlackLivesMatter.media ever became popular in its own right.  Hardly any links received more than 1 upvote, and most of the people who registered accounts seemed to be hawking products.  After I published my first article, BlackLivesMatter.media disappeared, and it was replaced a couple months later by BlackLivesMatterMedia.com.  The new site was structured exactly like the old site, and my impression is that all the accounts registered on BlackLivesMatter.media were carried over to BlackLivesMatterMedia.com.

One of theoe accounts was "AbenaTau," and I made an archive of their profile here: http://archive.is/efaRd.  AbenaTau submitted 13 links:

6 links to BlackMattersUS.com
3 links to AtlantaBlackStar.com

2 links to DoNotShoot.us

2 links to HuffingtonPost.com

BlackMattersUS.com and DoNotShoot.us have both been identified as domains controlled by Russia's Internet Research Agency.  I doubt any of AbenaTau's links were viewed more than a couple times, but still...it's mildly interesting!  I wonder where else the IRA spammers tried promoting their sites?

Notre Dame wins!

Champions of the NCAAW basketball world: