This week’s DIGIT Digest features stories on the latest online conspiracies doing the rounds, what may well be the Zoom call from hell and a sneak peak at what a future robot uprising may look like.

We’re Live

We’ve all been through the Zoom call from hell, but at least the experience is generally shared between us and our colleagues.

However, a school board in northern California has been forced to resign after a video call they thought was private turned out to be broadcast publicly.

When discussing letters from parents concerning prolonged school closures, the board members launched into expletive-laced insults and threats against the parents. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before the penny dropped and they realised they were all live.

The entire board had to resign as a result and the district’s superintendent issued an apology for their behaviour.

1) When officials at the Oakley Union Elem. School district thought they were meeting privately, they used profanity to insult & threaten parents upset by the district’s prolonged school closures.

Here’s when they realized their mtg was being broadcast to the public.

“Uh, oh.” pic.twitter.com/OXbHWq9FMy

— Bigad Shaban (@BigadShaban) February 18, 2021

Uh oh indeed.

Spot’s Rampage

The future painted by the Terminator films has taken another step closer as a group of artists have mounted a paintball gun to a robot.

The artists, dubbed MSCHF, have created a new art installation that will allow people to use the internet to control a Boston Dynamics’ robo-dog, named Spot, armed with a paintball gun around a mock art gallery.

However, the company has criticised the installation, called ‘Spot’s Rampage’, claiming it was “provocative” and that Spot’s warranty may be voided by the performance.

The artists warned that one day robots like Spot may well be used in military scenarios, drawing attention to issues over so-called ‘killer robots’.

But it doesn’t look like Spot will become a weapon in Skynet’s arsenal – about an hour into the performance, Spot collapsed and was unable to get up.

Fake Snow

In an age of misinformation and conspiracies, it’s starting to feel like anyone will believe anything. A new conspiracy theory did the rounds earlier this week, with people taking to TikTok claiming the recent snow that blanketed Texas isn’t real snow.

Their evidence? Apparently, the snow doesn’t melt. Videos shows people bringing snowballs inside and burning them with lighters. Since the people apparently have never heard of sublimation, they seem to think the lack of water is a sign that the snow isn’t actually snow.

Perhaps next time they should just leave the snow on the kitchen worktop and see what happens.

THIS SHOULD’VE STAYED IN YOUR DRAFTS: Some folks in Texas appear to think that the snow falling in Texas is not real and a government conspiracy. Numerous videos are popping up on TikTok with people trying to expose what one person called “Government Snow.” pic.twitter.com/LQZ4Awlhtb

— Def Noodles (@defnoodles) February 23, 2021

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