Within hours of the murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City earlier this week, the surveillance video that captured the brazen crime made the rounds across social media. Across X, Reddit and Facebook, the short video was likely analyzed as closely as the footage of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy just over 61 years ago. And like that infamous shooting, the one in Midtown Manhattan has led to no shortage of conspiracy theories that are now making the rounds on the social platforms. Online sleuths offered their unsolicited opinions, while countless "experts" provided unique insight—with some suggesting the murder was carried out by a professional hit man, who not only used a suppressor but likely subsonic ammunition, which necessitated the need to manually operate the handgun's slide. Some even identified the firearm as a Welrod , a British bolt-action, magazine-fed, suppressed pistol devised during the Second World War, while others said it was likely a B&T VP9. Neither is likely the case. Moreover, the professional killer theories were in stark contrast to the New York Police Department's claim that the suspect's firearm had jammed, and he left several clues that could help the investigation. "Experts" Are Quick To Weigh In Armchair generals and Monday morning quarterbacks are all too common in our modern era—they're the individuals who quickly offer opinions after the fact, and typically with the benefit of hindsight. Social media is filled with these so-called experts, many who have built massive followings. As fresh details surrounding Thompson's murder were released, it only served to fuel the online speculation. The case already has the potential to be like a true crime podcast that unfolds in real-time. Yet, it also is clear that there is likely far more misinformation spreading than actual facts. "The amount of information that is out is inconsistent and much of it is inaccurate," said Dr. Dan Ariely, professor of psychology and behavioral economics at Duke University. "This does a very large disservice to society." Ariely warned that in situations like this still ongoing investigation, it has the potential to erode trust in the mainstream media, which often waits for confirmation. Social media by contrast is quick to post, even if the information is wrong. Beyond the fact that an individual was killed on the streets of America's largest city, this casual posting online often lacks perspective, and fact-checking and is too quick to rely on guesswork—and without much of the evidence that the NYPD has access to. "All this speculation is problematic because it sets expectations that may not be met," explained technology industry analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group. "We are making conclusions before we have all the facts and 'Confirmation Bias' tells us that is a bad thing because people will then only recognize facts or theories that are consistent with the position they have already taken," Enderle added. "It is shoot, ready, aim, instead of what should be ready, aim, shoot." Vetting Sources Closer inspection of the video, as well as the shell casings and unspent round that was recovered; it has been determined that the firearm almost certainly used by the assailant wasn't the aforementioned Welrod or B&T VP9. Nor was the ammunition subsonic. Likewise, given that the shooter's movements have been traced—including to a Starbucks, where he bought a bottle of water and energy bars—it would seem that he wasn't likely a professional assassin. Few hit men would likely stop to pick up breakfast and be caught on camera. Still, it is all too easy to forgive those who are quick to post such misinformation, because of a desire to want to know the facts as quickly as they unfold. Newsrooms seek not to be first, but to get it right—whereas on social media there is a race to share that expert insight as quickly as possible. "We have all become expert crime solvers on social media, especially when there is a compelling and surprising crime such as the shooting death of this health insurance executive," said Susan Campbell, distinguished lecturer in the Department of Communication, Film, and Media Studies at the University of New Haven. "There will always be a lag time between new developments and publication of those developments in traditional media because traditional media worth its salt will still take time to vet the facts," Campbell added. "If people want to hear guesses quickly, social media is their platform. If they want to know facts, that takes a little more time." How Conspiracies Are Born The final concern is that the posts on social media will only serve to give rise to unfounded conspiracy theories that are impossible to debunk. Even after more than two decades, some still question the events of 9/11, and after six decades, the assassination of JFK continues to be debated. This is largely harmless, at least until it isn't. "There will also be efforts after facts are collected to ignore those that counter already taken positions," said Enderle. "In effect, this speculation corrupts the process and makes it less likely we'll ever see the truth. So, in general, social speculation doesn't help the process, it corrupts it." While it could impact the ability to bring an individual to justice, it also serves as another divide in our already deeply divided nation. "Sadly, everything is becoming political," said Ariely. "Right now, people aren't coming from the facts, but rather from a specific point of view. We need to figure out how to look at facts rather than identity."
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Eagle-eyed fans spot Ruben Amorim’s ice cold reaction to Marcus Rashford’s opening goal in Ipswich clash
Commerce Bank lifted its stake in shares of Schlumberger Limited ( NYSE:SLB – Free Report ) by 1.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 64,605 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock after buying an additional 958 shares during the quarter. Commerce Bank’s holdings in Schlumberger were worth $2,710,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Schlumberger by 4.1% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 8,638 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $471,000 after purchasing an additional 337 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC increased its holdings in Schlumberger by 53.3% in the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 6,302 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $345,000 after buying an additional 2,192 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC acquired a new stake in Schlumberger during the first quarter valued at approximately $99,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Schlumberger by 18.8% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 14,753 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $808,000 after buying an additional 2,330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Schlumberger by 106.1% in the 1st quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 37,259 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,042,000 after acquiring an additional 19,178 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.99% of the company’s stock. Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on SLB shares. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on Schlumberger from $53.00 to $49.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price target (down from $62.00) on shares of Schlumberger in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Schlumberger from $60.00 to $54.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $69.00 target price on shares of Schlumberger in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Schlumberger from $60.00 to $58.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $60.97. Schlumberger Trading Up 0.4 % Shares of NYSE:SLB opened at $44.23 on Friday. Schlumberger Limited has a twelve month low of $38.66 and a twelve month high of $55.69. The company has a current ratio of 1.48, a quick ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The firm has a market cap of $62.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a 50 day moving average of $42.78 and a 200-day moving average of $44.55. Schlumberger ( NYSE:SLB – Get Free Report ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 18th. The oil and gas company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.01. Schlumberger had a return on equity of 21.84% and a net margin of 12.44%. The firm had revenue of $9.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.27 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.78 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that Schlumberger Limited will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Schlumberger Dividend Announcement The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a $0.275 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.49%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. Schlumberger’s payout ratio is 35.37%. Insider Activity In other Schlumberger news, EVP Abdellah Merad sold 60,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.90, for a total value of $2,514,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 211,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,880,160.30. This represents a 22.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock. About Schlumberger ( Free Report ) Schlumberger Limited engages in the provision of technology for the energy industry worldwide. The company operates through four divisions: Digital & Integration, Reservoir Performance, Well Construction, and Production Systems. The company provides field development and hydrocarbon production, carbon management, and integration of adjacent energy systems; reservoir interpretation and data processing services for exploration data; and well construction and production improvement services and products. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding SLB? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Schlumberger Limited ( NYSE:SLB – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Schlumberger Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Schlumberger and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .NYT Strands today — hints, spangram and answers for game #276 (Wednesday, December 4 2024) - Tom's Guide
Occidental Petroleum Corp. stock outperforms competitors despite losses on the day
Ant and Dec brought news of a 'shake-up' for I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here at the end of Friday night's show, as some viewers cried 'fix' at the latest result. The Geordie presenters are now nearing the end of their latest stint at the helm of the ITV programme, having fronted it since its inception back in 2002. The competition has been heating up in the jungle over the last week, with Jane Moore, Dean McCullough, Tulisa , Melvin Odoom all kicked out on their own, before Barry McGuigan and Maura Higgins left together in the first of two double eliminations on Thursday. The bad news for the remaining I'm A Celebrity stars in camp was that there was another double exit on Friday, as Coronation Street actor Alan Halsall and social media icon GK Barry were given their marching orders by Ant and Dec. . After interviewing both evicted stars, the hosts had some big announcement for the millions watching at home, revealing that for the first time this series, I'm A Celebrity will be shunted from its usual 9pm primetime slot on ITV, to make way for the reboot of You Bet, hosted by Holly Willoughby and Stephen Mulhern. With another vote-off looming before the final, as well as this year's Celebrity Cyclone, Ant and Dec confirmed that Saturday's I'm A Celebrity will start at the later time of 9.30pm. The announcement came as fans called 'fix' over Oti being given immunity from two separate eliminations, effectively taking the power out of their hands. Taking to X, one critic blasted: "I'm a celeb such a fix! How has oti been allowed to survive last few votes offs" as a second commented: "Oti would have been out by now already if she had not won the golden ticket fix. Other campmates are more popular."Littler threatened to overturn an early deficit but Humphries held his nerve to win the last three legs. World number one Luke Humphries retained his Players Championship Finals title with an 11-7 victory over teenager Luke Littler in Minehead. Littler, who won the Grand Slam of Darts last week, hit checkouts of 170, 164 and 136 as he threatened to overturn an early deficit, but Humphries held his nerve to win the last three legs. “I’m really, really proud of that one to be honest,” Humphries told Sky Sports. “I didn’t feel myself this week playing-wise, I felt like I was a dart behind in a lot of the scenarios but there’s something that Luke does to you. He really drives me, makes me want to be a better player and I enjoy playing him. “He let me in really early in that first session to go 4-1 up, I never looked back and I’m proud that I didn’t take my foot off the gas. These big games are what I live for. “Luke is a special talent and he was right – I said to him I’ve got to get these (titles) early before he wins them all. “I’d love to be up here and hitting 105 averages like Luke is all the time but he’s a different calibre, he’s probably the best player in the world right now but there’s something about me that never gives up. “This is a great way to go into the worlds.” Littler, who lost the world championship final to Humphries last year, said: “It was tough, missed a few doubles and if you don’t take chances early on, it’s a lot to come back. “I hit the 170 and the 164 but just didn’t have enough in the end. “It’s been a good past two weeks. I just can’t wait to go home, chill out, obviously practice at home for the worlds. That’s it now, leading up to the big one.”
And with generative AI being used to supercharge some major cyber scams this year, it's also a good time to teach and not just fix. Here are some tips on how to manage your tech encounters this holiday season: Set devices up for automatic updates Whether it's Windows, macOS, iOS or Android, simply keeping your operating system and apps up-to-date will help protect your family's computers and devices against a surprising number of security threats, such as malware, viruses and exploits. Most operating systems, especially those for mobile devices and their app stores, typically have auto-updates turned on by default. Be sure to double-check the device to make sure it has enough storage space to carry out the update. (More on this below.) Keeping apps updated may also reduce the number of "Why isn't this app working?" type of questions from your relatives. Freeing up storage space Chances are someone in your family is going to have a completely full mobile device. So full, in fact, that they can no longer update their phone or tablet without having to purge something first. There are many approaches to freeing up space. Here are a few you can easily take without having to triage data or apps. Use the cloud to back up media: iPhone users can free up space occupied by songs and pictures by storing them on iCloud. Android users can use the Google Photos app to back up and store their photos on their user space. Clear browsing data: Each major browser has an option to clear its data cache — cookies, search and download histories, autofill forms, site settings, sign-in data and so on. Over time, these bits take up a significant amount of storage space on mobile devices and home computers. So cleaning caches out periodically helps free up space and, in some cases, improves system performance. What's my password? According to some admittedly unscientific studies, the average person has hundreds of passwords. That's a lot to remember. So as you help your relatives reset some of theirs, you may be tempted to recycle some to keep things simple for them. But that's one of the bad password habits that cybersecurity experts warn against. Instead, try introducing your forgetful family member to a password manager. They're useful tools for simplifying and keeping track of logins. And if you want to impress a more tech-savvy cousin or auntie, you could suggest switching to a more secure digital authentication method: passkeys. Educate your loved ones about the latest scams As scammers find new ways to steal money and personal information, you and your family should be more vigilant about who to trust. Artificial intelligence and other technologies are giving bad actors craftier tools to work with online. A quick way to remember what to do when you think you're getting scammed is to think about the three S's, said Alissa Abdullah, also known as Dr. Jay, Mastercard's deputy chief security officer "Stay suspicious, stop for a second (and think about it) and stay protected," she said. Simply being aware of typical scams can help, experts say. Robocalls frequently target vulnerable individuals like seniors, people with disabilities, and people with debt. So-called romance scams target lonely and isolated individuals. Quiz scams target those who spend a lot of time on social media. Check our AP guide on the latest scams and what to do when you're victimized. How fast is their WiFi? Home internet speeds are getting faster, so you want to make sure your family members are getting a high-speed connection if they've paid for one. Run a broadband speed test on your home network if they're still rocking an aging modem and router.
Benz: How you could benefit from tax-loss selling this year
