Forget Little Green Men – Aliens Will Look Like Humans, Says Cambridge University Evolution Expert
By Paul Gallagher. They are often portrayed on screen as little green men with elongated limbs and saucer-like eyes.
From E.T to the X-Files, aliens from outer space have captured our imagination for decades.
Yet a new book from a leading evolutionary biologist argues that if they exist and we ever encountered them, they would look very similar to us.
Professor Simon Conway Morris said extra-terrestrials that resemble human beings should have evolved on at least some of the many Earth-like planets that have been discovered by astronomers.
In his new book published on 2 July, The Runes of Evolution, the University of Cambridge academic builds on the principle of convergent evolution – that different species will independently evolve similar features, with the comparison of the camera eye of an octopus and a human eye a favourite example – and argues it will not just took place on Earth. (Read more from “Forget Little Green Men – Aliens Will Look Like Humans, Says Cambridge University Evolution Expert” HERE)
MOD to Release UK’s Top Secret UFO ‘X-Files’ That ‘Could Prove Aliens Exist’
By Jon Austin. The major boost for alien hunters can be exclusively revealed by Express.co.uk on World UFO Day, which campaigners are using to call for the release of all such records globally.
UFO researchers, backed by House of Lords peer, have been fighting for the release of 18 top secret Ministry of Defence (MoD) files about UFO sightings from more than 30 years ago.
The Government faced claims of a cover-up from conspiracy theorists when their release was stalled at the end of 2013.
Some investigators claim the files could provide key evidence of extra-terrestrial life visiting the UK and of specific information about famous controversial sightings such as the Rendlesham Forest incident – a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights and the alleged landing of one or more craft in Suffolk in late December 1980.
Lord Black of Brentwood, who asked the Government for an update through a Parliamentary question, was assured yesterday – the day before World UFO day – the files would be released by the MoD to the National Archives by March next year. (Read more from this story HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-03 03:58:282016-04-11 10:59:21Leading Evolutionist Demonstrates Why Most People Believe in Intelligent Design
We’ve experienced a national tragedy recently with the Supreme Court redefining a few different terms. Like a legislative body legislating against gravity, they are ultimately showing their arrogant denial for what is, in order to try and create their fantasy of what is not. It’s a progressive, utopian agenda, based on the belief that all men should be servants to government, instead of the sovereign individuals that God created them to be, with government’s duty being to serve the citizens and protect their rights.
This in itself is not the moral decline that has been affecting our country for three hundred years; it is just a shocking reminder of that ongoing decline. It is a sign of the advancing thought process that sees government as the god who will watch over us and demands submission from us. The next step, as so many thoughtful commentators have pointed out, and as testified to by government lawyers in the latest case, is the trampling of religious liberty.
Nationally, we’ve had not only Supreme Court decisions, but have been betrayed by our Senators in their approval of the Trans-Pacific Partnership fast track, with the TPP being the largest public surrendering of US Sovereignty ever contemplated. However, I’m only talking about what’s happening nationally to bring focus on the fact that real political change will only come about by starting at the local level.
While I participate in elections for our national representation and send occasional emails about what needs to be done, I certainly don’t believe that I, or most individuals, have much influence on what goes on in Washington, D.C. At the State level, especially in Alaska, we can exert more influence, and that is certainly worth putting some effort into. What I’ve seen though is that we can really have an effect on the local level.
History has often shown that a small percentage of vocal hard-working people can have a large influence on our culture and in politics. Historical numbers have shown that it is really about 3% of the population that makes a difference in elections. Just last year in Fairbanks we had a local election turnout of 16.9%, and a major ballot issue was decided by 355 votes, which was about half a percent.
Let’s look at consequences of local elections to see the long and short-term impacts they make. The negative consequences of not participating are huge as our local borough learned with a last minute tax increase of half a mill taking school district funding to record levels. A note about that funding is that the mill rate increase later went down to a quarter mill when assessments increased, but the school district had saved half of the money instead of using it, so the increase in taxes ended up only putting money into the school district’s savings accounts. The loss of property rights are another easy way to see negative results of not participating in the local elections, and in our borough specifically the loss of ability to be able to cost-effectively heat your home.
Now let’s look at some benefits of participation. A big one is the principle of interposition. This is based on a core principle of the American system where individuals are sovereign and more local layers of government are more sovereign than less local ones. This is a principle that has been used by states to stop federal government encroachment in the past. It also applies to local government vs the state or feds. This is why county sheriffs are the most powerful law enforcement agent in their local jurisdiction, and can dictate to federal or state agents. This local power has been used even here in Fairbanks to revolt against the MTBE additive the federal government tried to push on us some years ago with its usual lack of science and research. That push got the State to interpose and declare they weren’t going to obey that edict, and we ended up winning and stopping that awful agenda. As the EPA has now even decided to regulate ditches on roads, it is a ripe environment for local governments to protect their citizenry from out-of-control federal regulators.
Another aspect of local elections is that many, many state and federal politicians get their start on the local level. Ben Franklin was on the City Council, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson both began on local bodies (House of Burgesses), Sam Adams was elected Tax Assessor/Collector of Boston, and the list goes on. By taking a long-term view of politics, it is a good investment to pay attention to local elections, and helping conservatives get elected, so that in the future you can have those conservatives fighting tax increases at the state level.
Conservatives not going to the polls leaves the selection process to those who have a vested interest in increasing government spending. Two-thirds of FNSB assembly members elected in the last three years voted for the completely unnecessary tax increase. Ultimately, modern politics is a war between those who believe that we should be economic slaves of government and those who feel we should be able to lead our lives as we see fit. When you don’t show up for the largest battle every year, then you are just ceding ground to those who seem to despise individual, economic and religious liberty. Rome fell to barbarians even though there were plenty of men to defend its walls. The citizens of Rome just gave up and left their positions because of apathy, not caring anymore about their city being destroyed, but the end result of that was their own property and lives being decimated. The strategy of local participation is what can protect our rights, staying home on voting day is how to lose them.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-03 03:58:192016-04-11 10:59:21Local Politics Is the Strategy
It is easy for libertarians, conservatives and capitalists to be upset with popes … although it is also easy to be selective about quoting them. After all, it was Pius XI who said, as late as 1931, that “No one can be at the same time a sincere Catholic and a true socialist.”
Despite this, Catholic bishops, especially in the West, appear to be totally addicted to socialist doctrines. This is not an inconsistency of Catholic teaching, but rather an inconsistency in its application. Confiscation and redistribution by the state is, after all, a violation of the Fifth Commandment: “Thou shalt not steal”, and not only stifles, but makes a mockery, out of voluntary Christian charity.
It is from this school that Pope Francis comes. Catholic teaching on papal infallibility does not guarantee popes from error except in very limited circumstances, such as making centuries-long traditions that come into question by theologians, into defining dogma. The last time a pope used this tool was in 1870, and involved the Virgin Mary.
It has been centuries since the Catholic Church has had a weak or even a bad pope, but no Catholic can deny that there have been some lemons in the mix of the 266 Vicars of Christ since St. Peter. The problem is, criticism of popes and their often foolish remarks ought to be shared with Catholics, and even then, it would be best to allow the passage of time to pass a verdict on the legacy of any pontificate.
Tim Brown’s anti-catholic screed is hardly worthy of any sensible reply, for it repeats emotional calumnies and generalizations that demonstrate colossal ignorance about what Catholic teaching is, how Catholic doctrine is formed, or how the canon or body of teaching cannot be changed by the whim or personal predilections of individual popes.
Pope Francis, by all measurements available to us, is a confused and weak pope. His refusal to entertain scientific evidence that disdains politically correct and government-funded climate science reminds us of a child who stops his ears and talks loudly to avoid hearing something unpleasant. His invitation to abortion apologists into the Vatican as advisors, his disparaging remarks about large Catholic families, and his sympathy towards renegade cardinals and bishops, bode ill for Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
But no pope is without virtues, and to hear Dr. Tim Brown decry the pope for living in a thousand-room mansion, with servants, is amazing in that Francis has made a point to live as humbly in the Vatican as he did in Buenos Aires.
Or did I miss something?
Then, too, there is the problem of selective reporting by the secular media. As a candidate for public office, and as a prolife activist, I know a little about this. Folks writing about this pope ought to read the entire interviews. Few would doubt that Francis’ remarks, especially the one about “Who am I to judge?” have been taken out of context. We might charitably expect that the same thing has been done regarding his comment on the manufacturing of weapons.
And I would remind our protestant and anti-Catholic brethren that we have homosexual marriage because it was protestants, and not Catholics, who have permitted divorce … and remarriage … and contraception … and in many denominations, abortion. All of these have, together with homosexuality, divided the marital act from its accepted and inseparable duality of procreation and spousal unity. It was the protestant churches who held this doctrine along with the Catholics — until the 1930s. It would be well to read what both Luther and Calvin said on the subject.
And, in case Dr. Brown missed it, Pope Francis has affirmed the most unpopular and controversial encyclical in centuries, Humanae Vitae, issued by the supposedly liberal Paul VI in 1968, against the majority advice of his own secular and religious advisors, and which clearly predicted the mess we are in.
In Catholic worship, Francis has also continued the “reform of the reform” begun by Benedict and John Paul: returning the sense of sacred to the Catholic Mass, rather than the false, banal and mundane “Spirit of Vatican II.” These are very, very conservative actions by a supposedly very, very liberal pope, but only a few Catholics are even aware of it.
I could wreak havoc about protestants, their inconsistencies, their historical records, and their doctrines … but Christian charity, the need for Christian unity, genuine friendship and dare I say need in these benighted times, prevent me from doing so. I would hope that Joe Miller’s excellent Restoring Liberty website will, in the future, more carefully screen the offerings that it chooses to post for the rest of us to digest.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-03 03:58:092016-04-11 10:59:21On Pope Francis: A Response to Tim Brown’s Anti-Catholic Screed
Each Fourth of July and throughout the year, Americans express their support for the freedoms they enjoy and for the unlimited opportunities they have to improve their station in life because of The Free Enterprise System. The Fourth of July is also an opportunity for each Patriotic American to celebrate a second birthday.
Countless generations of Americans fought for and under the American Flag. The American Flag symbolizes the unity of the American people, is flown on national holidays, and symbolizes the principles upon which the Founding Fathers established the Republic, in signing the Declaration of Independence 239 years ago.
On the Fourth and every day, Americans continue to demonstrate their support for Military Veterans, members of the US Armed Forces who swore to protect and defend the US Constitution, and proudly served in the defense of the Republic, under the American Flag.
At one point in their lives, Americans who served in the US Armed Forces, wrote a blank check made payable to “The United States of America” for an amount “up to and including their lives.” The courage demonstrated by Combat Veterans who served in the defense of the Republic, can be appropriately described by a quote, made in 352 BC, by King Philip of Macedonia: “Here is courage, mankind’s finest possession. Here is the noblest prize.”
High Alerts have been issued by US Intelligence Agencies because of threats of attacks by ISIS terrorists on the United States during Fourth of July celebrations. We encourage all Americans to respond to those threats by flying the American Flag on the Fourth of July weekend, and by continuing to join with their fellow Americans to celebrate the Fourth of July in the same way they have done so in the past. (“Happy Fourth of July, God Bless the USA!”, originally posted HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-03 03:57:542016-04-11 10:59:21Happy Fourth of July, God Bless the USA! [+videos]
Credit – Getty ImagesBy NPR. Ted Cruz has some unsolicited advice for the states not specifically named in last week’s Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage: Ignore it.
“Those who are not parties to the suit are not bound by it,” the Texas Republican told NPR News’ Steve Inskeep in an interview published on Monday. Since only suits against the states of Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky were specifically considered in the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which was handed down last Friday, Cruz — a former Supreme Court clerk — believes that other states with gay marriage bans need not comply, absent a judicial order.
“[O]n a great many issues, others have largely acquiesced, even if they were not parties to the case,” the 2016 presidential contender added, “but there’s no legal obligation to acquiesce to anything other than a court judgement.”
While Cruz’s statement may be technically true, federal district and circuit courts are obligated to follow the Supreme Court’s precedent and overrule all other states’ same-sex marriage bans as unconstitutional.
The Texas senator then went on to suggest that Republicans who have called for following the court’s decision are members of a “Washington cartel” and are lying when they say they do not support same-sex marriage. (See more from “Sen. Ted Cruz Tells States to Ignore Supreme Court Ruling” HERE)
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Megyn Kelly Grills Ted Cruz Over Supreme Court Fix; ‘You Want to Rewrite the Constitution?’
By Michael Schaus. Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz tangled with “The Kelly File” host Megyn Kelly Tuesday, defending his proposal to give American voters the power to remove Supreme Court justices through the ballot box.
Kelly challenged the Texas senator’s plan, saying his plan to “rewrite the Constitution” would result in a court that was even more political than it is now.
Justices are now appointed by the president with the confirmation by the Senate. Barring impeachment, they hold lifetime terms. And since only one Supreme Court justice has ever been impeached (Samuel Chase was acquitted by the Senate in 1805 and remained on the court), they serve in effect until they die or choose to retire.
Cruz, who has been vocal in his outrage over the court’s decisions last week upholding Obamacare and making gay marriage a constitutional right, argued that a amending the Constitution to allowing citizens to vote on retaining judges is the only way to keep the court in check . . .
“How would an electorate that twice elected Barack Obama create a court that you like better?” she asked. (Read more from “Megyn Kelly Grills Ted Cruz Over Supreme Court Fix; ‘You Want to Rewrite the Constitution?'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-02 03:51:212016-04-11 10:59:22Senator Ted Cruz Tells States to Ignore Supreme Court Ruling on Homosexual Marriage
Middle and high school students can’t get a Coca-Cola or a candy bar at 13 Seattle public schools, but they can get a taxpayer-funded intrauterine device (IUD) implanted without their parents’ consent.
School-based health clinics in at least 13 Seattle-area public high schools and middle schools offer long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), including IUDs and hormonal implants, to students in sixth-grade and above at no cost, according to Washington State officials . . .
The state and federally funded contraceptive services are made possible by Take Charge, a Washington State Medicaid program which provides free birth control to adults who are uninsured, lack contraceptive coverage, have an income at or below 260 percent of the Federal Poverty Level — or, in this case, to teens who don’t want their parents to know they’re on birth control.
In an email exchange with the Washington State Health Care Authority and CNSNews.com, a Take Charge spokesperson acknowledged that underage students are eligible for a “full array of covered family planning services” at school-based clinics if their parents meet the program’s requirements.
Take Charge added that “a student who does not want their parents to know they are seeking reproductive health services is allowed to apply for Take Charge using their own income, and if they are insured under their parents’ plan, the insurance would not be billed.” (Read more from “6th Graders Can’t Get a Coke at School, but Can Get IUD’s, Other Birth Control” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-02 03:51:072016-04-11 10:59:226th Graders Can’t Get a Coke at School, but Can Get IUD’s, Other Birth Control Devices Thanks to Medicaid
I’m working my way through the latest Clinton email dump and there are several observations that stick out.
Hillary and her crew thought Barack Obama was a clueless amateur; “Journalist” David Broder of the Washington Post apparently allows Clinton ghost writers to pen his columns; disgraced, unindicted criminal Sandy Berger (of the shredded Top Secret Bill Clinton/Bin Laden memos) was a key adviser to Clinton; and, based upon the dozens and dozens of pages of fully redacted material, Granny Catlady was definitely sending and receiving tons of classified information through her compromised email server (which gives the feds the right to seize that box).
To wit:
Bonus Entertainment:
More to come as time permits. (“New Revelations From Hillary Clinton’s Latest Emails”, originally posted HERE)
TV Land has pulled reruns of Dukes of Hazzard in light of the recent uproar over the Confederate flag, which is emblazoned on the roof of the show’s iconic General Lee 1969 Dodge Charger, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The show has faced criticism over the depiction of the controversial flag in the wake of the June 17 shooting in Charleston, S.C., that left nine dead, and what many viewed as South Carolina’s delayed decision to take the flag down.
Confederate merchandise has since been dropped by Walmart, Target, Amazon and other businesses after the shooting, which took place at a historic black church.
Shortly after the attack, photos surfaced showing alleged shooter Dylann Roof burning one American flag and stepping on another, while waving and posing provocatively with Confederate banners.
In a recent interview with THR, Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider defended the series’ use of the flag. “Labeling anyone who has the flag a ‘racist’ seems unfair to those who are clearly ‘never meanin’ no harm,'” he said. His co-star Ben Jones has also come out in defense of the flag, saying it represents the “indomitable spirit of independence.” (Read more from “TV Land Pulls Dukes of Hazzard Episodes Amid Confederate Flag Uproar” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-02 03:50:132016-04-11 10:59:22TV Land Pulls Dukes of Hazzard Episodes Amid Confederate Flag Uproar
Last week, the Supreme Court redefined both liberty and marriage, and opened the door to punitive taxes, crippling lawsuits and criminal prosecutions against orthodox Christian churches, schools and hospitals. During President Hillary Clinton’s first 100 days in office, the U.S. would likely move toward a two-tier religious system, with faithful churches banished to the fringes of society along with the white supremacists. And the media will present it as progress: Love has won, now it’s time to shoot the prisoners.
That’s not the script for a paranoid, low-budget Christian film. It’s what many progressives plan. Pundits are already calling for the end of tax exemptions for churches — not on a fringe website, but in TIME magazine. That same magazine features a call by Rod Dreher for conservatives to drop our cooperation with Republican politicians who promise to protect us from persecution. Instead we should withdraw into apolitical enclaves of like-minded fellow believers and hope that the gay totalitarians and their fellow travelers decide to let our kids alone.
So is it time to give up, hide, and hope for the best? Should we throw down the weapons we still have, which God provided us? Shall we surrender America to the sex radicals, and leave our children with none of the liberty that we inherited from our parents? Is it moral to abandon our fellow citizens and neighbors to the ever-escalating demands of the secular culture of death? Is it time to dissolve all activist divisions of the pro-life movement, which has made so many strides, and accept that abortion on demand, for nine months, for any reason, will be legal here forever?
All of these outcomes would flow from the misnamed “Benedict Option,” favored by Dreher, who for years has advocated a sort of apolitical Christian separatism. I am not surprised that the same magazine that publishes a piece from a writer wanting to crush the churches with the tax code has given Dreher a venue to counsel surrender. Any conquering army hopes to sow defeatism in the enemy. Remember all those leaflets in Arabic we dropped on Saddam’s troops in 2003, promising good treatment and hefty rations for those who defected? Think of Marshal Petain’s appeal to the French Army in 1940 to throw down their guns and collaborate. The Germans were happy to broadcast it.
This is no time to back down. We still have legal options, including The First Amendment Defense Act, which would strip the federal government’s power to wield such penalties. A major candidate and big-state governor, Scott Walker, has called for a constitutional amendment to reverse the Court’s deranged decision. Christians retain political clout, in the upcoming Republican primaries. The candidates, as good politicians, are watching to see how much fight is left in America’s Christians: Will we make religious liberty a litmus test for our support? Will we set aside our differences on other issues — from national defense to immigration policy, from poverty programs to Obamacare — and unite as a powerful bloc in defense of our children’s freedom of faith? Some politicians, including Walker, Ted Cruz, and Mike Huckabee, appear to be stepping out and offering to fight for us. Others, like Jeb Bush and Rand Paul, are kicking back and counting on our passivity and exhaustion.
Should We Find Some Hole to Hide In?
I understand battle fatigue. I started exercising Christian citizenship thirty-nine years ago, when at age 11, I rang doorbells collecting signatures for New York’s Right to Life Party. I have been active in one way or another ever since — earning ostracism at Yale for defying gay-rights groupthink; facing down most of my grad school professors across the picket line at an abortion clinic while one of them recorded each of our faces with a video camera; leading a successful fight (with a budget of $100) against a state-wide multiculturalist pro-gay brainwashing mandate for the entire LSU system; and so on, ever since. I am sure that many readers have similar stories to tell.
And like you, I am bone tired. Worn-down, frustrated and tempted to curl up in apathy and just binge-watch Daredevil on Netflix. But as that show reminds us, “The world is on fire.” I won’t just hunker down and watch Rome burn. I am not fireproof and neither are you. Nor are your kids. You may decide that you’ve had enough, that you’re tired of worrying about other people’s unborn children and their marriages and their intergenerational dependency on welfare programs and the wretched public schools that dumb down their kids and the low-skill immigration that drives down their wages. You’re sick of it all. You just want to hang around with your fellow Christians and live your life in peace. You’d like to find an enclave where you can hide.
There is nowhere to hide, no ghetto so obscure that the gay totalitarians will leave you alone. Think of all the money that Germany spent persecuting a single homeschooling family. Laws like Germany’s are coming here soon, if we don’t fight them tooth and nail. Remember the thousands of bureaucrats who dutifully audited Tea Party groups for the IRS. Soon thousands more will be scrutinizing your church, its school and every Christian organization in the country. The Left has tasted blood, and intends to feed. Even if you piously decide to turn the other cheek, and congratulate yourself on being persecuted for Christ, you have no right to make that decision for your children or your neighbor.
Persecutions Have Consequences
Philip Jenkins’ brilliant The Lost History of Christianity makes for a wrenching read. It chronicles the vast and vibrant Christian churches that once extended from Antioch to China, whose well-schooled believers as late as 1000 AD almost equaled the number of recently baptized Western barbarians. All that is gone now, with the last few brave, abandoned believers cowering on mountaintops hiding from ISIS while the West concentrates on creating “safe spaces” free from “transphobia.”
What happened to the great churches of the East? As Jenkins reports, one church after another lost the protection of the government. At first persecution was mild, and tolerant Muslim or Confucian rulers would sometimes leave breathing space for local Christians. But finally, over centuries, the slow drip of humiliation, of punitive taxes and periodic massacres, ground down all the Christians, till no one was left. Once-mighty monasteries are now dusty masjids, or abandoned ruins. Cathedrals are mosques or museums. Once-Christian cities from Constantinople to Mosul are now almost purged of Christians.
Churches can withstand a lot — even the 60-plus years of Communist oppression in China. And Christ has promised us that the Church universal will prevail to the end. But we know from history that Christianity can be purged from entire regions. Should we invite such appalling circumstances, by retreating to holy enclaves?
It is inhuman to expect generations of Christian families to pass along the faith in wartime conditions. It almost certainly will not happen. God can grant a miracle, but as Our Lord made clear in the desert, we should not test Him by climbing the Temple Mount.
Here let me anticipate and knock down the straw man that Dreher trots out every time he is contradicted: No, it is not enough to simply vote for pro-Christian conservatives. No one has ever claimed that it was. We must witness our faith in dozens of non-political ways, by building strong Christian families and institutions, caring for the poor, sick and dying — exactly the kinds of institutions that progressives intend to co-opt or close, using same-sex marriage as the steamroller in a war on civil society. If we let them get away with that, by abandoning our solemn responsibilities as Christian citizens to defend human rights and the common good, then we act like hirelings and abandon our lambs to the wolves. We will answer for it to the Good Shepherd who laid down His life to save them. (“The Benedict Option, or Benedict Arnold Option?”, originally posted HERE)
Recently, with the announcement of the legalization of same sex marriage in America, people have been coming out voicing their opinions on the ruling very loudly. For supporters, one of the easiest yet most effective ways has been to change their profile picture so that it has a transparent rainbow overlay using a tool set up by Facebook itself.
Within just a few hours, over 1 million users had changed their Facebook profile picture to include this rainbow image using the ‘Celebrate Pride’ tool. To date, more than 26 million users have used the tool.
While it seems like an innocent way to show your support for marriage for gay Americans, there may be something slightly more ingenuine going on. Facebook users using the ‘Celebrate Pride’ tool may be falling into a trap – a data trap, that is.
Back in 2014, it was discovered that Facebook had been conducting psychological experiments on its users without their knowledge. The social media giant studied how different users moods and statuses reflected what they saw on their own news feed, even going so far as to cater specific content to users to determine how it would effect their own mood.
Now, the rise of the ‘Celebrate Pride’ tool has some users theorizing that their information is being collected again. The thought is that the company is trying to find out how likely a user is to change their profile picture in response to a social issue and whether it is based on previous social declarations or even based on their other friends’ profile pictures. (Read more from “If You Changed Your Facebook Pic to a Rainbow Flag, You May Have Fallen Into One BIG Trap” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-07-02 03:44:312016-04-11 10:59:22If You Changed Your Facebook Pic to a Rainbow Flag, You May Have Fallen Into One BIG Trap
