This is a new one.
https://www.bespacific.com/your-social-security-number-isnt-suspended-ever/
Your Social Security Number isn’t suspended. Ever.
FTC.gov: “A caller says that he’s from the government and your Social Security Number (SSN) has been suspended. He sounds very professional. So you should do exactly what he says to fix things…right? Wrong. T he FTC has gotten reports about scammers trying to trick people out of their personal information by telling them that they need to “reactivate” their supposedly “suspended” SSNs. The scammers say the SSN was suspended because of some connection to fraud or other criminal activity. They say to call a number to clear it up – where they’ll ask you for personal information. Thing is, Social Security Numbers do not get suspended. This is just a variation of a government imposter scam that’s after your SSN, bank account number, or other personal information. In this variation of the scheme, the caller pretends to be protecting you from a scam while he’s trying to lure you into one. … If someone has tried to steal your personal information by pretending to be from the government, report it to the FTC.”






I suspect this process is to labor intensive for social media. Automating the process isn’t easy either.
https://www.bespacific.com/satellite-images-and-shadow-analysis-how-the-times-verifies-eyewitness-videos/
Satellite Images and Shadow Analysis: How The Times Verifies Eyewitness Videos
The New York Times: Understanding the times Visual investigations based on social media posts require a mix of traditional journalistic diligence and cutting-edge internet skills.
“Visual investigations based on social media posts require a mix of traditional journalistic diligence and cutting-edge internet skills. In an effort to shed more light on how we work, The Times is running a series of short posts explaining some of our journalistic practices. Read more of this series here. Was a video of a chemical attack really filmed in Syria? What time of day did an airstrike happen? Which military unit was involved in a shooting in Afghanistan? Is this dramatic image of glowing clouds really showing wildfires in California. These are some of the questions the video team at The New York Times has to answer when reviewing raw eyewitness videos, often posted to social media. It can be a highly challenging process, as misinformation shared through digital social networks is a serious problem for a modern-day newsroom. Visual information in the digital age is easy to manipulate, and even easier to spread. What is thus required for conducting visual investigations based on social media content is a mix of traditional journalistic diligence and cutting-edge internet skills, as can be seen in our recent investigation into the chemical attack in Douma, Syria. The following provides some insight into our video verification process. It is not a comprehensive overview, but highlights some of our most trusted techniques and tools…”






Extend this to online site with updates sent as new legislation created, debated and approved.
https://www.bespacific.com/50-state-survey-of-social-media-privacy-legislation/
50-state survey of social media privacy legislation
“Social media and related issues in the workplace can be a headache for employers. Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s Social Media Practice Group is pleased to provide you with an easy-to-use guide to social media privacy legislation and what employers need to know. The Social Media Privacy Legislation Desktop Reference 2017-2018:

• Describes the content and purpose of the various states’ social media privacy laws.
• Delivers a detailed state-by-state description of each law, listing a general overview, what is prohibited, what is allowed, the remedies for violations, and special notes for each state.
• Provides an easy-to-use chart listing the states that have enacted social media privacy laws and the features of the law in all such states.
• Offers our thoughts on the implications of this legislation in other areas, including trade secret misappropriation, bring your own device issues and concerns, social media discovery and evidence considerations, and use of social media in internal investigations.”
  

This is a common story. “Belief” overriding “science.”
https://www.bespacific.com/hard-words-why-arent-kids-being-taught-to-read/
Hard Words Why aren’t kids being taught to read?
American Public Media Reports – “…The basic assumption that underlies typical reading instruction in many schools is that learning to read is a natural process, much like learning to talk. But decades of scientific research has revealed that reading doesn’t come naturally. The human brain isn’t wired to read. Kids must be explicitly taught how to connect sounds with letters — phonics. “There are thousands of studies,” said Louisa Moats, an education consultant and researcher who has been teaching and studying reading since the 1970s. “This is the most studied aspect of human learning.” But this research hasn’t made its way into many elementary school classrooms. The prevailing approaches to reading instruction in American schools are inconsistent with basic things scientists have discovered about how children learn to read. Many educators don’t know the science, and in some cases actively resist it. The resistance is the result of beliefs about reading that have been deeply held in the educational establishment for decades, even though those beliefs have been proven wrong by scientists over and over again. Most teachers nationwide are not being taught reading science in their teacher preparation programs because many deans and faculty in colleges of education either don’t know the science or dismiss it. As a result of their intransigence, millions of kids have been set up to fail….” [includes a Podcast]






Perspective.
http://fortune.com/2018/09/17/fortnite-addiction-divorce/
'The Digital Revolution Has Introduced New Addictions.' Fortnite Is Being Cited in Divorce Cases
Fortnite apparently is not just a video game phenomenon. It seems it’s also a relationship killer.
According to Divorce Online, a U.K.-based “online divorce website”, the video game Fortnite: Battle Royale has been cited in at least 200 divorce petitions filed through the site since January. That’s about 5% of the divorce petitions the website received in the same period.
… In July, the free-to-access game passed the billion-dollar threshold through in-game sales alone, and some colleges are even starting to offer scholarships to top players.






The same story from two perspectives.
http://fortune.com/2018/09/17/machines-robots-work-software-wef/
The Robot Takeover Is Coming: Machines Will Do Half Our Work by 2025
Machines and automated software will be handling fully half of all workplace tasks within seven years, a new report from the World Economic Forum forecasts.



(Related)
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/17/wef-machines-are-going-to-perform-more-tasks-than-humans-by-2025.html
A.I. and robotics will create almost 60 million more jobs than they destroy by 2022, report says
Machines will overtake humans in terms of performing more tasks at the workplace by 2025 — but there could still be 58 million net new jobs created in the next five years, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said in a report on Monday.
Developments in automation technologies and artificial intelligence could see 75 million jobs displaced, according to the WEF report "The Future of Jobs 2018." However, another 133 million new roles may emerge as companies shake up their division of labor between humans and machines, translating to 58 million net new jobs being created by 2022, it said.






How Donald Trump learned that it is okay to lie as long as the lies are believed by voters?
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/16/al-gores-hurricane-florence-claim-debunked-scienti/
Al Gore's claim about Hurricane Florence doused by scientists
Another climate-change claim by former Vice President Al Gore is coming under fire, this one involving Hurricane Florence.
Mr. Gore said Friday that two major storms from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans had never made landfall at the same time, referring to Hurricane Florence, the Category 1 hurricane that struck North Carolina on Friday, and Super Typhoon Mangkhut, which hit the Philippines early Saturday.
… “Al Gore just (fraudulently) claimed without any evidence that we’ve never had hurricanes in both the Atlantic and Pacific making landfall at the same time,” tweeted Mr. Maue, an adjunct scholar at the free-market Cato Institute.
University of Colorado Boulder meteorologist Roger A. Pielke Sr. also took issue with the claim by Mr. Gore, known for his 2006 climate-change film, An Inconvenient Truth, and the 2017 follow-up, An Inconvenient Sequel.
… Numerous articles and even books have been written fact-checking and challenging Mr. Gore’s climate predictions and pronouncements, including meteorologist Roy Spencer’s An Inconvenient Deception, and “Al Gore’s Science Fiction: A Skeptic’s Guide to an Inconvenient Truth,” a 154-page paper by the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Marlo Lewis Jr.



(Related)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.07282d114f51
In 601 days, President Trump has made 5,001 false or misleading claims



(Related)
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fema-test-presidential-alert-system-next-week-n909816
FEMA to test 'Presidential Alert' system next week
… Next Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will do its first test of a system that allows the president to send a message to most U.S. cellphones.
More than 100 mobile carriers, including all the major wireless firms, are participating in the roll out, FEMA stated in a message on its website posted Thursday.
"The EAS [Emergency Alert System] is a national public warning system that provides the President with the communications capability to address the nation during a national emergency," FEMA said.
… Users whose phones are on will twice hear a tone and vibration and then see an English-only (for now) message: "THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”
… The test is supposed to take place at 2:18 p.m. EDT on Sept. 20. Under the Warning, Alert, and Response Network (WARN) Act of 2006, cellphone users cannot opt out of the presidential alerts.