Facebook has built an empire on getting to know its users’ preferences, sometimes with a frightening accuracy. A while back, the company launched a new advertising campaign called “Sponsored Stories” that incorporated users’ “likes” into advertisements.;
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Facebook to pay 614,000 users $15 each over privacy concerns
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Thai village under siege from marauding macaques
In a Thai village, homes are raided, property is pinched and locals are attacked by dastardly gangs operating beyond the law — but the perpetrators are not men, but monkeys. “They creep into my house when they see me sleeping, they go into the kitchen and take cooking oil, sugar and...
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New Edith Piaf biography debunks myths
A new biography of Edith Piaf debunks several myths about the doyenne of post-war French music, including claims she was born on the streets, suffered from blindness and helped prisoners during World War II. “Piaf, a French Myth”, which hits the bookstands this week, draws on scores of...
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‘Racy’ condom ad causing a giant uproar in Pakistan
The advertisement was less than a minute long, but its impact on Pakistani society could last for much longer.;
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Hold onto your wallet — contrived ‘Fiscal Cliff 2.0′ is coming soon
With news that the federal government will hit the “debt ceiling” in mid-October rather than in December, as had been previously predicted, we’re headed toward another contrived “fiscal cliff” crisis. Hold onto your wallet. Barack Obama has…
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‘The Butler’ falsely portrays Ronald Reagan as racist, says son
Michael Reagan accuses Lee Daniels’ film about African American White House butler of harboring ‘a bunch of lies’ It has been hailed by no less a dignitary than the current president of the United States, Barack Obama, but the Oscar-tipped civil-rights drama The Butler has not...
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Researchers launch massive database of Pirate Bay users to study ‘habits and norms’ within the file-sharing community
A few years back, The Pirate Bay agreed to team up with the Cybernorms Group at Sweden’s Lund University to do some detailed research on who uses The Pirate Bay, and look at the “habits and norms within the file-sharing community.” Over the past few…
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Former White House ‘intellectual property czar’ immediately jumps ship to Microsoft-driven anti-piracy lobbying group BSA
This was rumored for weeks before the former White House IP czar (technically “Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator”) even had announced that she was stepping down from her job, but now it’s been confirmed: just weeks after leaving the White…
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FBI called MLK ‘most dangerous Negro’ in the U.S. after ‘I Have a Dream’ speech
Wednesday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow discussed the fact that not everyone in the U.S. government was happy about the March on Washington in 1963. The Federal Bureau of Investigation — under the leadership of ultra-conservative cross-dresser and closeted...
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Comedy comes to Cern with scientists’ standup night
Six research scientists at Large Hadron Collider facility will host comedy night in bid to broaden science’s appeal Despite the one about the Higgs boson that goes to church (you can’t have mass without him) and the atom certain it lost an electron (it’s positive), physics...
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Swedish engineers invent ‘nano gas’ that ‘instantly neutralizes’ carbon pollution
The old saying “fighting fire with fire” may be true or not depending upon the situation, but if someone told you the best way to fight (carbon-based) gas is with another gas, you might raise a skeptical eyebrow or two. But that’s exactly what…
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Why won’t more Americans ride trains?
AMERICA has by far the largest rail network in the world, with more than twice as much track as China. But it lags far behind other first-world countries in ridership. Instead of passengers, most of America’s massive rail network is used to carry freight…
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Bloomberg loves security cameras –until NYPD officers are ordered to wear them
Lawyer representing the city of New York have filed a request for a stay of Judge Scheindlin’s decision and court order pending appeal. Scheindlin found components of the NYPD’s stop and frisk unconstitutional in her decision and ordered several remedies…
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James Clapper says Feds will start releasing ‘some’ FISA and NSA metadata
We were just mocking the government’s position that it cannot reveal the “metadata” on the numbers of FISA orders (and the number of people impacted) when those same people insist that we shouldn’t worry about many NSA surveillance programs since they…
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Evangelist adorns ‘Biblical Principles of Child Discipline’ book with ‘Modern Family’ image he found via Google
Maybe it’s because I’ve had to learn how to find Creative Commons images for use in posts, but I always thought that the outrage over Google image searches was silly. I mean, I get that there is such a thing as copyright, but when Germany can’t recognize…
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Massive solar drone could remain in flight for five years
Huge Solar Plane Could Fly For Five Years (via Clean Technica) A solar-powered high-altitude drone made by Titan Aerospace is intended to be able to remain in flight for about five years. When manufactured, it would have 3,000 solar panels producing about 7 kW of electricity and would be above the...
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Irish Nobel literature laureate Seamus Heaney dead at 74
Seamus Heaney, who has died aged 74, was widely regarded as the greatest Irish poet since William Butler Yeats, who like Heaney was a recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Born and raised in Northern Ireland, Heaney was renowned for his mastery of Irish and Gaelic sources, as well as Old...
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France backs action on Syria as U.S. seeks coalition, says strike possible by Wednesday
French President Francois Hollande gave a boost Friday to US hopes of forging an international coalition for possible strikes against Syria after British lawmakers rejected any involvement in military action. The White House had signalled Thursday that President Barack Obama, guided by the...
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Russia to deploy ‘star wars’ defense system in 2017: report
Russia’s defence ministry plans to deploy in 2017 a sophisticated new air missile defence system that can hit targets in space, a senior ministry source told Russian news agencies on Friday. “The promising S-500 air defence missile system is at the development stage. It’s planned...
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Maddow on LGBT rights: ‘Thanks for nothing, Bill Clinton’
Thursday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow marveled at the changes in federal policy on same sex marriage and toward states that are legalizing marijuana. She said that the new laws are so significantly different from the norm that the situation is like “cats...
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