36316433
submission
plastick writes:
Shoppers could soon be automatically recognized when they walk into a shop using a controversial new cameras installed by Facebook in retail areas.
Called Facedeals, the camera uses photos uploaded to Facebook to recognise people as they walk in. Shoppers who agree to use the system, which has not been developed with Facebook, will be offered special deals.
The system is already being trialled in Nashville shops and bars. Is this the next level of Facebook's invasion of privacy?
34967617
submission
plastick writes:
Blizzard (the makers of World of Warcraft) has decided to ban anyone running Diablo III on Linux using Wine and is classing the practice as gaining an unfair advantage by running unapproved third party software.
21525448
submission
plastick writes:
The FDA has now finally admitted that chicken meat sold in the USA contains arsenic, a cancer-causing toxic chemical that's fatal in high doses. But the real story is where this arsenic comes from: It's added to the chicken feed on purpose.
Even worse, the FDA says its own research shows that the arsenic added to the chicken feed ends up in the chicken meat where it is consumed by humans. So for the last sixty years, American consumers who eat conventional chicken have been swallowing arsenic, a known cancer-causing chemical.
Pfizer, the manufacturer of the chicken feed product known as Roxarsone has decided to pull the product off the shelves. Pfizeris the the very same company that makes vaccines.
Another disturbing fact you probably didn't know about hamburgers and conventional beef: Chicken litter (yes, chicken crap) containing arsenic is fed to cows in factory beef operations. So the arsenic that's pooped out by the chickens gets consumed and concentrated in the tissues of cows, which is then ground into hamburger to be consumed by the masses.
21524736
submission
plastick writes:
Senate Bill 978, a bipartisan measure introduced last month by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sen. Christopher Coons (D-Del.), is backed by supporters who say it closes glaring loopholes in current copyright infringement law created by the realities of the digital age.
“As technology rapidly evolves, our laws must be updated to protect creativity and innovation,” said a statement by Cornyn.
But critics say a section of the bill provides for steep penalties — up to five years in prison — for “publicly performing” copyrighted material and embedding the video to sites like YouTube.
“It seems like (the bill) is attacking the core of the Internet itself, which is to promote communication amongst people all over the world,” said Hemanshu “Hemu” Nigam, a former White House counsel for online protection and the founder of the online safety advisory firm SSP Blue.
19706238
submission
plastick writes:
In an experiment, 41% of Facebook users were willing to divulge highly personal information to a complete stranger. This according to IT security firm Sophos, which invited 200 randomly selected Facebookers to befriend a bogus Facebook user named "Freddi Staur" (an anagram of "ID Fraudster"). Of those queried, 87 responded to the invitation, among them 82 people whose profiles included personal information such as their email address, date of birth, address or phone number. In total:
- 72% of respondents divulged one or more email address
- 84% listed their full date of birth
- 87% provided details about their education or workplace
- 78% listed their current address or location
- 23% listed their current phone number
- 26% provided their instant-messaging screen name
19256936
submission
plastick writes:
It’s taken a while, but Google has finally caved in to pressure from the entertainment industries including the MPAA and RIAA. The search engine now actively censors terms including BitTorrent, torrent, utorrent, RapidShare and Megaupload from its instant and autocomplete services. The reactions from affected companies and services are not mild, with BitTorrent Inc., RapidShare and Vodo all speaking out against this act of commercial censorship.
17065740
submission
plastick writes:
Many of the most popular applications, or "apps," on the social-networking site Facebook Inc. have been transmitting identifying information, in effect, providing access to people's names and, in some cases, their friends' names to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies, a Wall Street Journal investigation has found.
"Apps" are pieces of software that let Facebook's 500 million users play games or share common interests with one another. The Journal found that all of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook were transmitting users' IDs to outside companies. The apps, ranked by research company Inside Network Inc. (based on monthly users), include Zynga Game Network Inc.'s FarmVille, with 59 million users, and Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille. Three of the top 10 apps, including FarmVille, also have been transmitting personal information about a user's friends to outside companies.
17065616
submission
plastick writes:
In their experiments, researchers employed human embryonic stem cells, which possess the extraordinary ability to become any other cell. To simulate microgravity on Earth, the scientists used a NASA-designed machine which kept the cells nourished with oxygen and nutrients while constantly spinning to keep the cells in a state of freefall for 28 days.
After this experiment, the cells showed vast differences on the molecular level, with 64 percent of their proteins differing from those grown under normal gravity. Specifically, these microgravity-exposed cells generated more proteins that degrade bone and fewer proteins with antioxidant effects. Antioxidants protect against reactive oxidants that can damage DNA.
Microgravity also influenced levels of a broad range of other proteins. These include those involved in cell division, the immune system, the muscle and skeletal systems, calcium levels within cells, and cell motility.
These findings in embryonic stem cells may not bode well for attempts at procreation in microgravity.
