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via Graham Cluley, Naked Security Facebook has released statistics showing that it believes there are more than 83 million fake accounts on its social network. Some 8.7% of the site’s 955 million users are believed to be bogus, according to documents that the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this week. … Continue reading
via Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post Devra Davis, a long-ignored evangelist on the health dangers of cellphones, finally feels like she’s been heard. As soon as next week, Congress is expected to say that a year-long investigation by the Government Accountability Office has found the Federal Communications Commission’s cellphone-safety regulations are woefully out of date. … Continue reading
via Robert Lee Hotz, The Wall Street Journal Precisely on time and target, NASA’s Curiosity rover touched down safely on Mars Monday to begin an ambitious two-year trek through a mountainous crater that promises to reveal whether the red planet was ever hospitable to life. The one ton, $2.5 billion Curiosity is the most scientifically … Continue reading
via Josh Constine, Tech Crunch Over the next few months, anyone still refusing to voluntarily switch to the Timeline profile redesign will be automatically migrated, Facebook tells me. Users could choose to adopt the redesign starting in January, but there have been some hold-outs who didn’t want their whole life becoming easier to access, or … Continue reading
via Liz Szabo, USA Today There are no scientific reasons the world can’t chart a path, albeit a difficult one, toward the world’s first AIDS-free generation, a top federal health official said Sunday. “There is no excuse scientifically to say we cannot do it,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and … Continue reading
via Rob Waugh, Mail Online A Russian entrepreneur who heads a hi-tech research project called ‘Avatar’ has contacted billionaires to offer them immortality. Itskov claims he will personally oversee their immortality process, in exchange for an undisclosed fee. Itskov, a media entrepreneur, claims to have hired 30 scientists to reach this goal – and aims … Continue reading
via Justin Sink, The Hill’s Ballot Box The joke might be over. Comedian Stephen Colbert’s super-PAC raised only $5,690 in June, the second straight month that the organization brought in less than five figures. The totals pale in comparison to the committee’s performance last year, when the group raised more than $825,000. Colbert began the … Continue reading
via Louis Peitzman, Gawker How often have you been on a long drive and wished that you had a hot shot of espresso to wake you up? Aside from the fact that spilling scalding coffee is a safety hazard, an extra appliance is a distraction, and drinking espresso will make you have to pee way … Continue reading
via Brian Stelter, The New York Times On Sunday night, MSNBC.com did something that successful Web sites almost never do: it renamed itself. The site became NBCNews.com, signifying the end of a relationship between NBC and Microsoft that dates back to the earliest days of the commercial Web. Early next year, MSNBC.com will be reborn … Continue reading
via Editorial Board, The New York Times Cellphones, e-mail, and online social networking have come to rule daily life, but Congress has done nothing to update federal privacy laws to better protect digital communication. That inattention carries a heavy price. Striking new data from wireless carriers collected by Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, and … Continue reading
via Dylan Byers, Politico Americans’ confidence in television news has hit an all-time low, according to a new survey by Gallup. Twenty-one percent of the 1,004 adults polled said they had “a great deal” or “a lot” of confidence in television news media, continuing a steady decline from the 46 percent who expressed confidence in television … Continue reading
via Deborah Netburn, L.A. Times Google doesn’t often get political, but on the issue of rights for gay people, the company is unequivocal: “LGBT Rights Are Human Rights” it proclaims on a Web page describing its new project Legalise Love–an international campaign to promote safer conditions for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people inside and outside the … Continue reading
via David Horsey, L.A. Times The “God particle” — the Higgs boson — exists, and that is good news. Without it, the universe would fly apart and we would have much more to worry about than a jobless recovery, immigrants sneaking across the border or the fate of “Obamacare.” On the Fourth of July, after … Continue reading
via Associated Press, The Washington Post If you’ve ever lied to a potential Internet date about your weight, texted your spouse that you were someplace you weren’t or emailed mom to say how much you love that ugly new sweater, you were breaking the law if you did it in Rhode Island. But state lawmakers … Continue reading
via The Huffington Post Facebook is adding to its ever-growing list of gay accolades with the introduction of new marriage icons that depict same-sex couples. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) notes that the new icons follow a number of notable lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) inclusion efforts put forth by the … Continue reading
via Mary Long, Media Bistro The City of New York sent a subpoena to Twitter in February demanding it release all of Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcolm Harris’ tweets between September 15 and December 31 2011, as well as his email address and any other user information associated with his account. Well, after a lot … Continue reading
via David Talbot, MIT’s Technology Review Your voice can be a biometric identifier, like your fingerprint. Does Apple really have to store it on its own servers? Even in an age of vanishing privacy, people using Apple’s digital assistant Siri share a distinct concern. Recordings of their actual voices, asking questions that might be personal, … Continue reading
via CBS News Food, sex and Facebook posting views. It’s what your brain likes best. The reward given by a person’s brain when a Facebook posting of theirs is viewed, liked and commented on has proven to be comparable in pleasure to the response from food and sex, according to a recent Harvard University study. … Continue reading
via Whitson Gordon, LifeHacker Facebook just removed everyone’s email address from their profile and replaced it with an @facebook.com email address without asking you. Here’s how to easily fix the problem. Long ago, Facebook launched its own email service, which was promptly forgotten by everyone. Recently, they removed everyone’s email addresses from their profile, replacing … Continue reading
via Britney Fitzgerald, The Huffington Post How many times have you posted a brilliant Facebook comment, only to realize that you made a ridiculous spelling mistake? Facebook took note of this predicament and started rolling out a new feature today, allowing users to edit their comments without deleting them. While only select groups of people … Continue reading
via Sam Laird, Mashable A stodgy lawyer, a deposed prince, a helpless (yet filthy rich) waif with a needy relative — their emails land in our inboxes all too often asking for a modest cash advance in exchange for a massive payday down the line. And a disproportionate number of those too-good-to-be-true missives purport to … Continue reading
via Alexis Tsotsis, TechCrunch After about a month of speculation, Facebook has finally announced its acquisition of Israeli facial recognition technology Face.com. We’ve heard from multiple sources that the acquisition price was around $100m, with others reporting that the price was between $80m-$100m. (Update: We’re now hearing from a source familiar with the matter that … Continue reading
via Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post In the ‘you-can’t-make-up-this-stuff’ category, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is spending about $1.1 million to develop a way to physiologically measure how engaged students are by their teachers’ lessons. This involves “galvanic skin response” bracelets that kids would wear so their engagement levels could be measured. If this … Continue reading
via Jessica Hopper, NBC Rock Center When Helen and Jay Stassen’s 21-year-old son, Benjamin, committed suicide 19 months ago, he did not leave a note. If it had been 20 years ago, the Stassens might have looked through diaries, letters or other personal items in an attempt to find clues as to why he decided … Continue reading
via Dan Costa, PC Mag There have been a number of theories explaining Facebook’s lackluster IPO performance. Perhaps it’s the social network’s dependence on advertising or just a general sense that no company can live up to the colossal hype generated by Facebook. Personally, I see Facebook’s mobile offerings as its primary weakness. The world … Continue reading
The Brandt Standard 