I got them on Firefox with Ublock Origin but only with my VPN on US or Canadian servers. Then a few days later, even on those servers they disappeared. Haven't seen one since those first few.
After 911 a woman in my city (Portland Oregon) called the police because she saw powder on the hood of her parked car - parked under trees that were shedding pollen. She though fer sher that evildoers were targeting her with anthrax spores or something. The police are required to respond to those calls with full bio-emergency gear, so it was a huge scene, road blocked off, police vans everywhere, people in full body protective gear taking samples of the "anthrax" from her car. The end result was a public announcement from the police asking the public to please use common sense before calling. The drama going on in people's heads sometimes ... yikes.
More likely because researchers, professors, and even grad students are desperate to publish because their jobs require it in the new research-for-profit model of universities and colleges, so they work too quickly and take shortcuts to make their publishing quotas and deadlines.
Good point. Sleepwalking into authoritarianism doesn't seem difficult these days.
British panel (game) shows like Would I Lie to You and 8 out or 10 Cats Does Countdown. The game element is just an excuse for funny, interesting people to crack jokes and have a good time.