Facebook Mobile App?s Been Stealing Phone Numbers

Facebook has been inadvertently collecting phone numbers belonging to people who download the site?s Android application ? even if they aren?t members of the social network, don?t ever sign into the app or don?t explicitly share their cell phone number.

The bug was reported by a security software provider Wednesday and has been confirmed by Facebook, which noted the problem will be addressed in the forthcoming version of the app. A Facebook spokesman said the company believes the technical flaw was introduced in February of this year.

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?Inadvertently? my a$$. This ain?t the 1980s when you could get away with the lame excuse that ?the computer screwed up.? People are more tech savvy now.

Somebody wrote that into the Android App software and somebody created a file for the info on the Facebook server. This wasn?t an unanticipated bug, this was a deliberate feature.

Funnily, Facebook supposedly had no idea this was happening until the embarrassing revelation that this data had been stolen by hackers. Now they have to explain how they got all these phone numbers in the first place.

And Facebook wasn?t just harvesting phone numbers (without permission) to marry up with user names, they were stealing phone numbers of people who weren?t even Facebook users along with the names and numbers off the phone?s contact list. That?s some juicy metadata.

I?ll take it one step farther, I detect the rancid scent of the NSA at the bottom of Mr. Zuckerbird?s garbage can.

Giving Zuckerbird the undeserved benefit of the doubt, maybe it was the NSA who slipped that snippet of code into the Android App and configured the Facebook server to accept the incoming data and squirrel it away in a hidden file.

This is what can happen when you give the government direct access to your network.

Yesterday I saw a post advising Turkish dissents to use Twitter to communicate instead of Facebook. According to Turkish officials Facebook has been very cooperative in sharing information.

Twitter on the other hand has refused to cooperate and the Erdogan regime has declared them a menace to society.

High praise indeed from a tyrant.

Source: http://blurbrain.com/facebook-mobile-apps-been-stealing-phone-numbers/

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Iran's Rouhani pledges an inclusive cabinet, moderate government

Iran's President-elect Hassan Rouhani has pledged to appoint a 'trans-factional' cabinet beholden to no political party. His statement should reassure both hardliners and reformists, who he says will both have a seat at the table.?

By Yeganeh Torbati,?Reuters / June 29, 2013

Iranian President-elect Hasan Rouhani speaks in a conference in Tehran, Iran, Saturday. The president-elect called his win in national elections this month a vote for change and vowed Saturday to remain committed to his campaign promises of moderation and constructive interaction with the outside world.

Mohammad Berno/Office of the President-elect/AP

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Iran's president-elect Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday he would appoint ministers from across its political spectrum as Iranian voters had chosen a path of moderation over extremism.

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His victory in the June 14 vote has lifted hopes of a thaw in?Iran's antagonistic relations with the West that might create openings for defusing its nuclear dispute with world powers. Rouhani has pledged a more conciliatory approach than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under whose belligerent presidency the Islamic Republic drew ever more punishing international sanctions.

Rouhani's pledge of an inclusive cabinet could reassure conservative hardliners who look askance at the endorsement he was granted by reformists in the election.

In turn, reformists will hope to regain some political influence - with the aim of easing repression at home and?Iran's isolation abroad - after being sidelined under Ahmadinejad, who by law could not run for a third consecutive term.

"The future government must operate in the framework of moderation ...(and it) must avoid extremism, and this message is for everyone," Rouhani, a former chief nuclear negotiator, said in a speech carried live on state television.

"The next cabinet will be trans-factional ... This government is not obligated to any party or faction, and will work to choose the most qualified people from all sides and factions, under conditions of moderation and temperance."

Analysts say Rouhani, a mid-ranking Shi'ite Muslim cleric who has held sensitive security posts since the 1980s, enjoys an insider status and close relationship with theocratic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and may be able to build bridges between factions to yield reforms.

But Khamenei will retain the final say on policies that most concern world powers, including?Iran's nuclear programme and its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against rebels trying to overthrow him.?

CONSTRUCTIVE INTERACTION

Rouhani also urged moderation in Iranian policies towards the rest of the world and called for a balance between "realism" and pursuing the ideals of the Islamic Republic.

"Moderation in foreign policy is neither submission nor antagonism, neither passivity nor confrontation. Moderation is effective and constructive interaction with the world," he said.

"The Islamic Republic of?Iran, as a major regional power or the biggest regional power..., must play its role and for this we need moderation."

Western powers suspect?Iran?of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability, which Tehran denies. The Islamic Republic is now languishing under increasingly tough sanctions limiting its oil sales, a crucial source of revenue, obstructing its foreign trade and stoking higher inflation and unemployment.

Iran's friends and foes indicated shortly after Rouhani's election triumph they did not believe it would bring fundamental change in Iranian foreign policy.

Tehran is at loggerheads with Western powers on a range of foreign policy issues including its shadowy nuclear programme and its support for Syria's Assad, the Lebanese Shi'ite militant movement Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

U.S.-allied Gulf Arab countries have also accused?Iran?of interfering in their affairs, though Tehran denies trying to subvert Saudi Arabia and its wealthy Gulf neighbours.

Rouhani, who will take office in early August, said he was dedicated to "mutual relaxation of tensions" with other states.

Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/gns6kdR3N48/Iran-s-Rouhani-pledges-an-inclusive-cabinet-moderate-government

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NY ex-lawyer in terror case must remain in prison

NEW YORK (AP) ? A former New York lawyer convicted in a terrorism case says her request for early release from a 10-year prison sentence to fight cancer has been rejected.

Lynne Stewart said in a statement to supporters this week that she was "disappointed but not devastated" by a Federal Bureau of Prisons letter. She said it was flawed factually and medically.

Stewart has said medical authorities at the Federal Medical Center Carswell in Fort Worth, Texas, recommended her for compassionate release. The program permits early release for "extraordinary and compelling reasons." She said the warden then forwarded the application to Washington.

The 73-year-old Stewart was sentenced on a charge of conspiracy to provide support to terrorist organizations.

A Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said she can't comment for privacy reasons about individual inmates.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ny-ex-lawyer-terror-case-must-remain-prison-211720106.html

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After Three Months Of Work, Digg Reader Officially Opens To The Public

Despite much wailing and gnashing of teeth Google Reader is finally set to go dark next week, and more than a few companies (including TechCrunch owner AOL) are shooting to fill the gap it's going to leave behind. Digg Reader is probably the most prominent of those reader replacements, and just a few minutes ago the team officially announced on the Digg blog that the long-running project is now open to the public.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/scfwWgC3Mhg/

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Hunt champion galloping in new directions - Livingston County News

VALLEY HORSES

Hunt champion galloping in new directions

June 29, 2013 by Sally Fox

For six years in the recent past, Cara Peters and Ace owned the Stock Horse Sprint at the Genesee Valley Hunt Race Meet on the second Saturday in October, even though the race is easily the most heavily entered of the day.

From sweet sixteen at Geneseo Central School, the youngest age allowed to compete in the event, through college at Cornell University, Cara grew to a statuesque young woman, while her mount maintained his diminutive size ? slightly more than 15.1 hands ? and his strong desire to be out in front of the pack.

Ace was originally purchased as a 3-year-old from an auction at Batavia Downs for Cara?s father Mike, with an expectation that he would continue to grow to fit his intended rider. When that didn?t happen, Mike passed him along to Cara.

Ace ended up going to college with Cara, not to compete, but as her ?stress reliever? on trail rides to balance out the demands of a double major in agribusiness and natural resources. Graduating in 2011, she had a job waiting with Farm Credit East, where she had interned the summer before her senior year.

Moving to southern New Hampshire with Ace in tow, she found the private farm where Ace is now boarded through word of mouth at work.

The owner in her 50s took her out for a ride and informed her, ?No nonsense, no drama. If you can keep up, you can stay!? as she headed off down the trail at a smart clip.

Passing muster in that regard, Cara was then introduced to a whole new world of horse sport ? Cowboy Mounted Shooting.

From what I have found online, Cowboy Mounted Shooting is one of the fastest growing equestrian sports in the nation.

In the spirit of the soldier and cowboy, a group called the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Association was created in the 1990s so that horse people and cowboy action shooters can enjoy the competitive nature of shooting sports while riding horseback.

The object of the sport is to shoot 10 balloon targets while riding through a variety of challenging courses using specially-loaded blank cartridges fired from Old West-style single-action revolvers. It?s a high-speed, timed spectator sport in which the competitor who rides the fastest with the least amount of missed targets wins. So, this obviously demands both horsemanship and shooting skills.

The typical event requires two single-action revolvers loaded with five, black-powder cartridges. Ten targets are arranged in an arena. Targets are engaged with blank ammunition that is certified to break a target balloon within but not beyond 20 feet. (No bullets are used.)

When the competitor is given the signal to go, indicating the arena is clear of people and hazards, the rider crosses a timer line and engages the targets. Once all 10 targets have been engaged, the rider returns across the timer line and a score is determined based on the raw time and penalties added for missed targets, failure to follow the specified course or procedure, or knocking over barrels or target stands.

In the early years, mounted shooting competitors were required to wear costumes, clothing of the American west, Classic B-Western Movies, or military cavalry uniforms of any time period or country.

Today, all that is required is modern cowboy clothing with chinks or chaps, long-sleeved shirt and a cowboy hat. (You?ll see in the photo, however, that Cara is wisely wearing a helmet ? one of the few competitors to do so.)

There are four levels of competition.

Cara and Ace are just getting their feet wet at Level 1.

Still, I won?t be surprised to hear that they are moving up the ranks and doing well.

Perhaps we?ll see them one day competing around here.

Pony Club Western New York Region Games Rally

This kind of rally is the first one that most Pony Clubbers experience.

The Genesee Valley Pony Club once again hosted the rally at the Avon Driving Park.

There were four teams in the Walk-Trot division, with the GVPC team consisting of Nicholas and Catherine Staley, Brogan Henderson, Peytyn Geer and Piper Emo, calling themselves the ?Jazzy Jumpers.?

The Heart to Heart team from the Alexander area, Northern Exposure PC team Lullabye from the Canton area, and the Mendon Wild Things rounded out the division.

There were three Junior teams from East Aurora, Northern Exposure, and a mixed team of Carly Lloyd from GVPC, a Mendon girl, and two from Heart to Heart PC.

The Senior division had two teams, with GVPC represented by Joe Thorne, Marissa Rice, Kassandra Wohlschlegel, Logan Ellis and a Mendon girl, Jenna Newcomb.

The other team was from Canton.

Glenn Staley, who competed in games for many years with the club, was the coach for GVPC teams. Mary Donegan and Deanna Wohlschlegel were the rally organizers. Club member Paul Cripps served as C advisor with the WT teams.

Coming Up

June 30: Firecracker Derby, hosted by the GVRDC, at Hideaway Farm on Roots Tavern Road off Route 39 north of Geneseo.

Divisions range from Introductory to Training level. The derby format incorporates a mix of water, ditches, and solid, cross-country fences, along with show-jumping style fences that can be knocked down, on a course over varied terrain. Special prizes will be awarded to the individual in each division showing the most patriotic spirit in their attire. In the past there have been some wonderfully creative get-ups that add to the fun.

The schedule starts first thing in the morning with the Introductory division, and progresses upward throughout the day. Some bleacher seating is available, but it?s not a bad idea to bring your own chair to sit in the shade. Free admission and parking; food available.

July 4: Cavalry Games,the east lawn of The Homestead at the south end of Geneseo?s Main Street.

This unique Valley happening was first held in 1885 at the same location. The upcoming event starts at 2 p.m. No admission fee, no chairs, no concessions, (so bring your own amenities), just good fun as riders once again test their skills with saber, lance, jumps, rescuing a comrade, and those pesky musical chairs.

Source: http://thelcn.com/2013/06/29/galloping-in-new-directions/

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Army Network Tests Drive New Tactics: Officials | Defense Tech

The U.S. Army?s semi-annual network tests at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., are spurring soldiers to adopt new tactics for the battlefield, officials said.

The so-called Network Integration Evaluations give troops the opportunity to test new radios, smart phone-like devices, satellite communications networks, software and other gear in a combat-like environment, the officials said. They?re helping to refine the service?s so-called tactics, techniques and procedures, or TTPs, for using the technology, they said.

?Over the last few NIEs, the network has become much more stable than it was ? so we are able to get at the TTPs and figure out mission command and do all that kind of stuff much more now than we have in the past, when we were really just trying to figure out the architecture,? Col. Beth Bierden, chief of the Network Integration Division at Brigade Modernization Command, said in an interview.

For instance, a new tactic was developed for soldiers using Nett Warrior, a smart-phone like device that displays maps with icons showing the position of forces, as well as nearby terrain and other combat-relevant intelligence, Bierden said.

?Soldiers love the Nett Warrior,? she said.

The program links troops using a handheld device called the Rifleman Radio, a single-channel radio that transmits voice and data communications running a high-bandwidth software package called Soldier Radio Waveform, or SRW.

?They call it tethering where they can give a team leader direction over Nett Warrior and do so without having to issue orders or talk to them,? Bierden said.

Tethering allows users of the system to send so-called ?graphic control measures,? essentially icons imposed over a digital map showing where units are in relation to surrounding terrain, obstacles or enemy forces, Bierden said.

?From the platoon leader talking to the squad leaders and the team leaders, they call this leaving ?bread crumbs? ? where they could put graphic control measures down and leave their intent,? she said. ?The whole platoon could see them down to the platoon leader level and really do TTPs regarding how that platoon works together using the Nett Warrior,? she said. ?Working through these TTPs is giving all kinds of capability that did not exist before.?

The technology allows troops to make mission adjustments more quickly and efficiently, Bierden said.

?That whole platoon leadership is seeing the same picture on their Nett Warrior device as they are moving toward the objective or doing a search,? she said. ?That platoon leader can really direct his squads and teams wherever they want to go.?

With another system called Warfighter Information Network ? Tactical Increment 2, or WIN-T, commanders were able to communicate while driving in armored trucks and other combat vehicles at a level that?s normally reserved for tactical operations centers.

The system is a mobile satellite communications and radio network engineered to integrate with tactical vehicles such as armored trucks, known as Mine Resistant Ambush Protected ? All Terrain Vehicles, or M-ATVs. It includes antennas and, in some cases, a small satellite dish mounted onto vehicles, giving commanders the ability to chat with other commanders, as well as digital maps and intelligence information, Bierden said.

The network system uses an application called Command Post of the Future, or CPOF, a constantly updated display showing pertinent combat and intelligence data. The application gives commanders the ability to lead missions while stopped or moving.

The system is designed to be ?self-healing,? meaning it can switch between a satellite connection to high-band radio as needed if, for instance, a line-of-sight connection is interrupted by terrain.

During testing, commanders had a soldier monitor the flow of data and alert the commander as needed, said Rickey Smith, director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center ? Forward.

?There is a lot of complexity and challenge to mission command on the move,? he said. ?A commander?s got a lot going on. He?s got to know where his elements are and at the same time know what the enemy is doing. You have to manage the data elements in real time. One solution was to have another soldier take on the monitoring of the data and manage the data so that the commander is not stuck to the screen.?

After installing the second version of the system on wheeled vehicles, the Army plans to configure numerous tracked vehicles with the technology, Smith said.

The Army is developing another tactic to better unify operations and intelligence data, Bierden said. While much of the transitional work with this is still ongoing, the effort will more fully fuse technologies such as CPOF with the Army?s intelligence database called Distributed Common Ground System ? Army, or DCGS.

This effort involves moving toward what Bierden referred to as a web or cloud-based common operating environment, or COE. The term refers to a common set of standards so that emerging and new technologies can better integrate with existing systems. The effort will also integrate a host of web-applications and move operational and intelligence data onto a single server, she added.

The next evaluation, called 14.1 and slated for October of this year, will likely advance this effort in a substantial way, Bierden said.

?The TTPs will get better and they will be better integrated,? she said. ?We?re moving a lot of these operational applications onto one server to the intel standard, so that everything is integrated.?

Much of this gear is part of what the Army calls Capability Set 13, a suite of integrated networking technologies slated to deploy to Afghanistan this summer with the service?s 10th Mountain Division. Developers stay in close communication with the operational units receiving the gear so as to continually inform and refine TTPs, Bierden said.

?We will learn more TTPs from them [10th Mountain] and then incorporate that back into the process,? she said.

June 27th, 2013 | Comms, Gadgets and Gear, Ground, The Defense Biz | 1 Comment

Tagged as: Army, Nett Warrior, Network Integration Evaluation, NIE, Warfighter Information Network-Tactical, WIN-T

Source: http://defensetech.org/2013/06/27/army-network-tests-drive-new-tactics-officials/

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Rescuers believe American schooner carrying 7 sank

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) ? Rescue crews searching for a classic American schooner carrying seven people believe the boat sank between New Zealand and Australia, although they haven't given up hope of finding survivors.

A third day of aerial searches Friday turned up no sign of the 85-year-old wooden sailboat or its crew. Named Nina, the boat left New Zealand on May 29 bound for Australia. The last known contact with the crew was on June 4. Rescuers were alerted the boat was missing on June 14, but weren't unduly worried at first because the emergency locator beacon had not been activated.

The six Americans on board include captain David Dyche, 58, his wife, Rosemary, 60, and their son David, 17. Also aboard was their friend Evi Nemeth, 73, a man aged 28, a woman aged 18, and a British man aged 35.

The leader of Friday's search efforts, Neville Blakemore of New Zealand's Rescue Coordination Centre, said it's now logical to assume the 70-foot (21-meter) boat sank in a storm but added that it's possible some crew members survived either in the life raft that was aboard or by making land.

On the day the boat went missing, a storm hit the area with winds gusting up to 110 kilometers (68 miles) per hour and waves of up to 8 meters (26 feet).

Blakemore said the Southern Hemisphere winter months tend to produce the year's worst storms, although he added that he wouldn't normally expect a sturdy and well-maintained craft like the Nina to sink in a storm like the one in early June.

Friday's search focused on the coastline around northern New Zealand, including the small Three Kings Islands. Rescuers were looking for wreckage or the life raft.

Blakemore said plane searches earlier this week covered a wide band of ocean between New Zealand and Australia. He said searchers were considering their options for the weekend.

He said the logical conclusion is that the boat sank rapidly, preventing the crew from activating the locator beacon or using other devices aboard, including a satellite phone and a spot beacon. He said that unlike many locator beacons, the one aboard the Nina is not activated by water pressure and wouldn't start automatically if the boat sank.

Dyche is a qualified captain, and he and his family are experienced sailors. Blakemore said the family had been sailing around the world for several years and was often joined on different legs by friends and sailors they met along the way.

Susan Payne, harbor master of the St. Andrews Marina near Panama City, Florida, said the couple left Panama City in the Nina a couple of years ago and sailed to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, where they prepared for the trip.

New Zealand meteorologist Bob McDavitt was the last person known to have been in contact with the schooner, when the boat was about 370 nautical miles west of New Zealand.

He said Nemeth called him by satellite phone on June 3 and said, "The weather's turned nasty, how do we get away from it?"

He advised them to head south and brace for the storm.

The next day he got a text message, the last known communication: "ANY UPDATE 4 NINA? ... EVI"

McDavitt said he advised the crew to stay put and ride out the storm another day. He continued sending messages the next few days, but didn't hear back. Friends of the crew got in touch with McDavitt soon after that, and then alerted authorities.

___

Associated Press writer Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Pensacola, Florida, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rescuers-believe-american-schooner-carrying-7-sank-053935827.html

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Japan prices stop falling but BOJ inflation goal seen a tall order

By Tetsushi Kajimoto and Kaori Kaneko

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's consumer prices stopped falling in May and labor demand reached its strongest level in five years, but the Bank of Japan's time frame for achieving a 2 percent inflation target still appears unlikely.

Industrial output rose at its fastest pace since 2011, in a sign of strength in the corporate sector, but an unexpected fall in household spending may raise some concerns about activity.

On the whole, the data on Friday signaled steady economic growth, but it may take more time to achieve sustained rises in prices even as the government's expansionary policies are making some progress towards ending 15 years of deflation.

"The results are mostly due to energy prices. The output gap is shrinking, but the core-core CPI shows that final demand is still weak," said Norio Miyagawa, senior economist at Mizuho Securities Research & Consulting.

"It's possible for the BOJ to ease (policy) again later this year, when it becomes clear that there's not enough progress in reaching its price target."

Core consumer prices, which exclude fresh food but include energy, were unchanged in May from a year earlier, matching the median estimate from a Reuters poll.

It was the first time in seven months that prices did not fall. Prices fell an annual 0.4 percent in April.

Japan's core-core CPI, which excludes both food and energy, fell 0.4 percent in the year to May, following a 0.6 percent annual decline in April, the government data showed.

AMBITIOUS TARGET

The BOJ unleashed the world's most intense burst of stimulus on April 4, promising to inject $1.4 trillion into the economy by buying government debt and riskier assets to meet its pledge of achieving 2 percent inflation in roughly two years.

Many private sector economists say the two-year target is overly ambitious. Even one member of BOJ's policy board has publicly called on the bank to loosen this time frame.

A Reuters poll of 24 economists showed last week that core consumer prices are expected to rise 0.3 percent in the current fiscal year to next March.

They saw consumer inflation picking up only to 0.8 percent in the following year to March 2015, stripping out impacts from a planned sales tax hike next year.

By contrast, the BOJ projects a 0.7 percent rise for this fiscal year and 1.4 percent rise for the next, followed by a 1.9 percent increase in the year to March 2016.

The last time Japan's core consumer inflation topped 2 percent for the year was in the early 1990s when its asset-inflated bubble economy collapsed. Later in that decade deflation set in the Japanese economy.

Finance Minister Taro Aso played down the significance of the fact consumer prices stopped falling, saying that it wasn't a sign of an immediate end to deflation.

"It's true that the pace of decline in prices is slowing, but it's not that easy (to end deflation)," Aso told reporters.

BRIGHT SIGNS

Separate data on the labor market showed the jobs-to-applicants ratio rose to 0.90 in May from 0.89 in April, meaning jobs were available for 9 out of 10 job seekers. This marks the strongest demand for workers in five years.

The unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.1 percent.

Wage earners' household spending fell 1.6 percent in May from a year earlier, sharply below the median estimate for a 1.4 percent increase.

Consumer spending is likely to expand as some shoppers buy more luxury goods and next year's sales tax hike prompts a last-minute buying spree, but some economists warn that spending will eventually slow as wages have not increased.

Industrial output rose by a better-than-expected 2.0 percent in May from April and the outlook is for slight net growth in coming months, data from the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry showed.

Manufacturers expect their output will fall 2.4 percent in June before increasing 3.3 percent in July, partly due to improving demand for cars from the United States.

In another bright sign, the Markit/JMMA Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index showed manufacturing activity expanded in June at the fastest pace in more than two years.

Japan's economy grew at an annualized rate of 4.1 percent in January-March, as private consumption and a rebound in exports led a recovery from a slump last year.

(Additional reporting by Stanley White and Leika Kihara; Editing by John Mair & Kim Coghill)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-prices-stop-falling-boj-inflation-goal-seen-030201997.html

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Director sees 'Hunger Games' star as Snowden

Movies

Maria Elena Fernandez NBC News

June 27, 2013 at 8:56 AM ET

EPA, The Guadian

At least one Hollywood filmmaker thinks actor Liam Hemsworth, left, would be the right man to play Edward Snowden in a movie.

Fugitive National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, charged with violating espionage laws, is in the transit zone of the Moscow Airport, presumably trying to find a way to get to the Ecuadorian Embassy to seek asylum. How his story will end no one knows, but one Hollywood director is already envisioning what it would look like on the big screen.

Phillip Noyce, a director best known for spy and thriller films like "Salt" and "Patriot Games," told NBC News that he is personally fascinated by the espionage thriller that is playing out in front of the world. As he reads every article available about the case, Noyce says he can easily picture it as a suspenseful film with some comedic elements. He's already identified a possible leading man, but what excites him the most is that the verdict on the story's central question may remain unrendered for decades.

"This is a movie that's playing out before our eyes, even though we can't see anything," Noyce said. "We can't see the hero or the villain -- the central character. Like my last big movie, 'Salt,' it's a story where you're not quite certain if you're dealing with a heroine or a villain. And we may not be certain until the end of the movie or even beyond that. That's a beautiful duality to deal with when you're making a story or watching a movie. You can speculate he's motivated by complete unselfish motives through belief in protecting worldwide public interests. Or you can speculate he was himself a victim of knowing that notoriety might bring him immortality."

Who would play the 29-year-old who revealed the existence of the Prism Program, which gives the NSA direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other Internet giants? Noyce thinks that's an easy one: Liam Hemsworth, the 23-year-old actor who starred in "The Hunger Games" and "The Expendables 2."

"He's perfectly positioned as a rising star," Noyce said. "I think he'll probably be one of the great ones. His older brother, Chris, could also play him but Liam looks more like an everyman. I think he'd be perfect."

Noyce's movie, which he described as just "chatter in my head" for now, would open with the The Guardian's disclosure of Snowden as the leak and an exciting chase.

"We'd have this wonderful Harold Lloyd comedy sequence which is the best part of the movie - -the chase," he said. "In this case, it's a chase that's both funny and serious. It involves some of the highest officials in the world, and their different points of view while Mr. Snowden is holed up presumably at the Moscow Airport. That's a great sequence as world leaders argue over this 29-year-old and the merits or otherwise of his actions. "

The story, he added, also would need to feature WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and deal with the gaps in American intelligence-gathering illuminated by Snowden -- which brings up another key question the film would address: how safe are our secrets?

"Although Assange was the original whistleblower and people feel he did commit a betrayal, he changed American policy and how people felt about the war and the legality of the war," Noyce said. "And as far as Mr. Snowden is concerned, he was a contractor who did not inherit the ethos of a permanent public servant, like a CIA or NSA employee. But he seems to have had access to the names of operatives around the world and could have betrayed that confidence. The issue is not whether he did or didn't but that he could have. That brings up the security of our operatives, the people that willingly give their lives fighting the intelligence wars. Why did a 29-year-old contractor know so much? He knew who they are and had the ability to reveal that to the nation's enemies."

As an observer of the quickly unfolding story and its would-be storyteller, Noyce said he hasn't made up his mind about how he feels about his protagonist, Snowden.

"I would need access to him to understand his psychology a lot better," Noyce said. "In his own mind, he's obviously a hero. But what is truly motivating him? Does he want to be a 15-minute celebrity? Is it fame or fortune? Or does he truly want to sacrifice himself Christ-like for the rest of mankind? We don't know how this will end and the end might not come for another 50 years. We haven't even finished Act 1 yet."

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/hollywood-director-fascinated-nsa-leaker-snowden-envisions-movie-6C10459234

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Helping SAD sufferers sleep soundly

June 27, 2013 ? Lying awake in bed plagues everyone occasionally, but for those with seasonal affective disorder, sleeplessness is routine.University of Pittsburgh researchers report in the Journal of Affective Disorders that individuals with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) -- a winter depression that leads to loss of motivation and interest in daily activities -- have misconceptions about their sleep habits similar to those of insomniacs. These findings open the door for treating seasonal affective disorder similar to the way doctors treat insomnia.

Kathryn Roecklein, primary investigator and assistant professor in Pitt's Department of Psychology within the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, along with a team of researchers from Pitt's School of Medicine and Reyerson University, investigated why, according to a previously published sleep study by the University of California, Berkeley, individuals with seasonal affective disorder incorrectly reported that they slept four more hours a night in the winter.

"We wondered if this misreporting was a result of depression symptoms like fatigue and low motivation, prompting people to spend more time in bed," said Roecklein. "And people with seasonal affective disorder have depression approximately five months a year, most years. This puts a significant strain on a person's work life and home life."

Roecklein and her team interviewed 147 adults between the ages of 18 and 65 living in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area during the winters of 2011 and 2012. Data was collected through self-reported questionnaires and structured clinical interviews in which participants were asked such questions as: "In the past month, have you been sleeping more than usual?" and "How many hours, on average, have you been sleeping in the past month? How does that compare to your normal sleep duration during the summer?"

In order to understand participants' ideas about sleep, Roecklein's team asked them to respond to questions such as "I need at least 8 hours of sleep to function the next day" and "Insomnia is dangerous for health" on a scale from 0 to 7, where 7 means "strongly agree" and 0 means "disagree completely."

Roecklein and her team found that SAD participants' misconceptions about sleep were similar to the "unhelpful beliefs" or personal misconceptions about sleep that insomniacs often hold. Due to depression, individuals with SAD, like those with insomnia, may spend more time resting in bed, but not actually sleeping -- leading to misconceptions about how much they sleep. These misconceptions, said Roecklein, play a significant role in sleep cognition for those with seasonal affective disorder.

"We predict that about 750,000 people in the Pittsburgh metro area suffer from seasonal affective disorder, making this an important issue for our community and the economic strength and vitality of our city," said Roecklein. "If we can properly treat this disorder, we can significantly lower the number of sufferers in our city."

Roecklein's research data suggests that addressing, understanding, and managing these "unhelpful beliefs" about sleep by way of psychotherapy could lead to improved treatments for seasonal affective disorder. One of the most effective treatment options for insomnia, said Roecklein, is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (known as CBT-I), which aims to help people take control of their thinking to improve their sleep habits as well as mood, behavior, and emotions.

Roecklein's next research project aims to improve treatment for seasonal affective disorder by studying light perception and biological clock synchronization. Light from the environment synchronizes internal biological rhythms with the timing of dawn and dusk, which naturally changes with the seasons. This synchronization allows people to be awake and alert during the day and to sleep at night. Roecklein will examine whether people with seasonal affective disorder perceive this light from the environment differently because of changes in the function of neurological pathways from the eye to the brain. This could help uncover reasons why people suffer from seasonal affective disorder and could suggest new treatment options.

Roecklein's research team included, Peter L. Franzen and Brant P. Hasler of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Department of Psychiatry, Pitt psychology graduate student Patrica M. Wong, and Colleen E. Carney from Reyerson University's Department of Psychology.

Their paper, "The Role of Beliefs and Attitudes About Sleep in Seasonal and Nonseasonal Mood Disorder, and Nondepressed Controls" was originally published online May 23 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.This work was partially supported by a National Institutes of Health grant.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/rkdVuc175Ek/130627142547.htm

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Stocks rise for second day straight

Stocks closed up on Wall Street Wednesday, despite a slowdown in the US economy.?Stocks have been unpredictable for weeks, ever since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke started hinting that a pullback in Fed stimulus programs would start soon.

By Christina Rexrode,?AP Business Writer / June 26, 2013

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday. Stocks were up Wednesday despite a slowdown in US economic growth.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

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The U.S. economy slowed down, but the stock market went up for a second day in a row on Wednesday.

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The gains were decisive. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 149.83 points, or 1 percent, 14,910.14. All 10 sectors in the Standard & Poor's 500 index were higher.

The appraisal of the economy was just as clear, and contrary: The government reported that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in the first three months of the year, down significantly from the previous estimate of 2.4 percent and anemic by the standards of many economists.

It might seem counterintuitive for stocks and growth to go in opposite directions, but analysts said it made sense.

The slower growth made traders and investors less anxious that the Federal Reserve might act too soon to end measures aimed at propping up the economy and stock market. Investors also seemed to realize that they dumped too many stocks last week, when they panicked after the Fed outlined plans on how it might eventually end the measures.

"The sell-off was a little bit overdone," said David Coard, head of fixed-income sales and trading at Williams Capital Group in New York. "Sometimes you've got to take a breather."

Tuesday and Wednesday marked the stock market's first two-day gain since the Fed gave its timetable for throttling back its economic stimulus a week ago. That announcement, which followed weeks of speculation about its next move, had spooked markets, causing stocks to gyrate and bond yields to spike.

The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 15.23, or 1 percent, to 1,603.26. The Nasdaq composite index gained 28.34, or 1 percent, to 3,376.22.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell for the first time since June 14, slipping to 2.54 percent from 2.61 percent.

The price of gold plunged $45.30, or 3.6 percent, to $1,229.80 an ounce, its lowest price in three years.

The markets have been unpredictable for weeks, ever since Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke started hinting that a pullback in Fed stimulus programs would start soon. In the last 25 trading days, the Dow has ricocheted through 17 triple-digit swings, split almost evenly between ups and downs.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/H0QrNrY9Wog/Stocks-rise-for-second-day-straight

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Mapping out how to save species

Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Clinton Jenkins
clinton_jenkins@gmail.com
919-308-7044
North Carolina State University

In living color

In stunning color, new biodiversity research from North Carolina State University maps out priority areas worldwide that hold the key to protecting vulnerable species and focusing conservation efforts.

The research, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pinpoints the highest global concentrations of mammals, amphibians and birds on a scale that's 100 times finer than previous assessments. The findings can be used to make the most of available conservation resources, said Dr. Clinton Jenkins, lead author and research scholar at NC State University.

"We must know where individual species live, which ones are vulnerable, and where human actions threaten them," Jenkins said. "We have better data than in the pastand better analytical methods. Now we have married them for conservation purposes."

To assess how well the bright-red priority areas are being protected, researchers calculated the percentage of priority areas that fell within existing protected zones. They produced colorful maps that offer a snapshot of worldwide efforts to protect vertebrate species and preserve biodiversity. More maps are available in high resolution at http://savingspecies.org/2012/stunning-new-biodiversity-maps-show-where-to-prioritize-conservation.

"The most important biodiversity areas do have a higher rate of protection than the global average. Unfortunately, it is still insufficient given how important these areas are," said co-author Dr. Lucas Joppa with Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England. "There is a growing worry that we are running out of time to expand the global network of protected areas."

Researchers hope their work can guide expansion of protected areas before it's too late.

"The choice of which areas in the world receive protection will ultimately decide which species survive and which go extinct," says co-author Dr. Stuart Pimm of Duke University. "We need the best available science to guide these decisions."

###

Jenkins' work was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Blue Moon Foundation and a National Aeronautics and Space Agency Biodiversity Grant.

-ford-

Note to editors: An abstract of the paper follows.

"Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity and conservation"

Published: Online the week of June 24 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Authors: Clinton N. Jenkins, North Carolina State University, Stuart L. Pimm, Duke University, and Lucas N. Joppa, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, England

Abstract: Identifying priority areas for biodiversity is essential for directing conservation resources. Fundamentally, we must know where individual species live, which ones are vulnerable, where human actions threaten them, and their levels of protection. As conservation knowledge and threats change, we must reevaluate priorities. We mapped priority areas for vertebrates using newly updated data on more than 21,000 species of mammals, amphibians, and birds. For each taxon, we identified centers of richness for all species, small-ranged species, and threatened species listed with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Importantly, all the analyses were at a spatial grain of 10 by 10 km, 100 times finer than previous assessments. This fine scale is a significant methodological improvement, because it brings mapping to scales comparable with regional decisions on where to place protected areas. We also mapped recent species discoveries, because they suggest where as-yet-unknown species might be living. To assess the protection of the priority areas, we calculated the percentage of the priority areas within protected areas using the latest data from the World Database of Protected Areas, providing a snapshot of how well the planet's protected area system encompasses vertebrate biodiversity. Although the priority areas do have more protection than the global average, the level of protection still is insufficient given the importance of these areas for preventing vertebrate extinctions. We also found substantial differences between our identified vertebrate priorities and the leading map of global conservation priorities, the biodiversity hotspots. Our findings suggest a need to reassess the global knowledge of conservation resources to reflect today's improved knowledge of biodiversity and conservation.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Jun-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Dr. Clinton Jenkins
clinton_jenkins@gmail.com
919-308-7044
North Carolina State University

In living color

In stunning color, new biodiversity research from North Carolina State University maps out priority areas worldwide that hold the key to protecting vulnerable species and focusing conservation efforts.

The research, published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, pinpoints the highest global concentrations of mammals, amphibians and birds on a scale that's 100 times finer than previous assessments. The findings can be used to make the most of available conservation resources, said Dr. Clinton Jenkins, lead author and research scholar at NC State University.

"We must know where individual species live, which ones are vulnerable, and where human actions threaten them," Jenkins said. "We have better data than in the pastand better analytical methods. Now we have married them for conservation purposes."

To assess how well the bright-red priority areas are being protected, researchers calculated the percentage of priority areas that fell within existing protected zones. They produced colorful maps that offer a snapshot of worldwide efforts to protect vertebrate species and preserve biodiversity. More maps are available in high resolution at http://savingspecies.org/2012/stunning-new-biodiversity-maps-show-where-to-prioritize-conservation.

"The most important biodiversity areas do have a higher rate of protection than the global average. Unfortunately, it is still insufficient given how important these areas are," said co-author Dr. Lucas Joppa with Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England. "There is a growing worry that we are running out of time to expand the global network of protected areas."

Researchers hope their work can guide expansion of protected areas before it's too late.

"The choice of which areas in the world receive protection will ultimately decide which species survive and which go extinct," says co-author Dr. Stuart Pimm of Duke University. "We need the best available science to guide these decisions."

###

Jenkins' work was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Blue Moon Foundation and a National Aeronautics and Space Agency Biodiversity Grant.

-ford-

Note to editors: An abstract of the paper follows.

"Global patterns of terrestrial vertebrate diversity and conservation"

Published: Online the week of June 24 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Authors: Clinton N. Jenkins, North Carolina State University, Stuart L. Pimm, Duke University, and Lucas N. Joppa, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, England

Abstract: Identifying priority areas for biodiversity is essential for directing conservation resources. Fundamentally, we must know where individual species live, which ones are vulnerable, where human actions threaten them, and their levels of protection. As conservation knowledge and threats change, we must reevaluate priorities. We mapped priority areas for vertebrates using newly updated data on more than 21,000 species of mammals, amphibians, and birds. For each taxon, we identified centers of richness for all species, small-ranged species, and threatened species listed with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Importantly, all the analyses were at a spatial grain of 10 by 10 km, 100 times finer than previous assessments. This fine scale is a significant methodological improvement, because it brings mapping to scales comparable with regional decisions on where to place protected areas. We also mapped recent species discoveries, because they suggest where as-yet-unknown species might be living. To assess the protection of the priority areas, we calculated the percentage of the priority areas within protected areas using the latest data from the World Database of Protected Areas, providing a snapshot of how well the planet's protected area system encompasses vertebrate biodiversity. Although the priority areas do have more protection than the global average, the level of protection still is insufficient given the importance of these areas for preventing vertebrate extinctions. We also found substantial differences between our identified vertebrate priorities and the leading map of global conservation priorities, the biodiversity hotspots. Our findings suggest a need to reassess the global knowledge of conservation resources to reflect today's improved knowledge of biodiversity and conservation.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/ncsu-moh062713.php

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A stepping-stone for oxygen on Earth

June 26, 2013 ? For most terrestrial life on Earth, oxygen is necessary for survival. But the planet's atmosphere did not always contain this life-sustaining substance, and one of science's greatest mysteries is how and when oxygenic photosynthesis -- the process responsible for producing oxygen on Earth through the splitting of water molecules -- first began. Now, a team led by geobiologists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has found evidence of a precursor photosystem involving manganese that predates cyanobacteria, the first group of organisms to release oxygen into the environment via photosynthesis.

The findings, outlined in the June 24 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), strongly support the idea that manganese oxidation -- which, despite the name, is a chemical reaction that does not have to involve oxygen -- provided an evolutionary stepping-stone for the development of water-oxidizing photosynthesis in cyanobacteria.

"Water-oxidizing or water-splitting photosynthesis was invented by cyanobacteria approximately 2.4 billion years ago and then borrowed by other groups of organisms thereafter," explains Woodward Fischer, assistant professor of geobiology at Caltech and a coauthor of the study. "Algae borrowed this photosynthetic system from cyanobacteria, and plants are just a group of algae that took photosynthesis on land, so we think with this finding we're looking at the inception of the molecular machinery that would give rise to oxygen."

Photosynthesis is the process by which energy from the sun is used by plants and other organisms to split water and carbon dioxide molecules to make carbohydrates and oxygen. Manganese is required for water splitting to work, so when scientists began to wonder what evolutionary steps may have led up to an oxygenated atmosphere on Earth, they started to look for evidence of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis prior to cyanobacteria. Since oxidation simply involves the transfer of electrons to increase the charge on an atom -- and this can be accomplished using light or O₂ -- it could have occurred before the rise of oxygen on this planet.

"Manganese plays an essential role in modern biological water splitting as a necessary catalyst in the process, so manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis makes sense as a potential transitional photosystem," says Jena Johnson, a graduate student in Fischer's laboratory at Caltech and lead author of the study.

To test the hypothesis that manganese-based photosynthesis occurred prior to the evolution of oxygenic cyanobacteria, the researchers examined drill cores (newly obtained by the Agouron Institute) from 2.415 billion-year-old South African marine sedimentary rocks with large deposits of manganese.

Manganese is soluble in seawater. Indeed, if there are no strong oxidants around to accept electrons from the manganese, it will remain aqueous, Fischer explains, but the second it is oxidized, or loses electrons, manganese precipitates, forming a solid that can become concentrated within seafloor sediments.

"Just the observation of these large enrichments -- 16 percent manganese in some samples -- provided a strong implication that the manganese had been oxidized, but this required confirmation," he says.

To prove that the manganese was originally part of the South African rock and not deposited there later by hydrothermal fluids or some other phenomena, Johnson and colleagues developed and employed techniques that allowed the team to assess the abundance and oxidation state of manganese-bearing minerals at a very tiny scale of 2 microns.

"And it's warranted -- these rocks are complicated at a micron scale!" Fischer says. "And yet, the rocks occupy hundreds of meters of stratigraphy across hundreds of square kilometers of ocean basin, so you need to be able to work between many scales -- very detailed ones, but also across the whole deposit to understand the ancient environmental processes at work."

Using these multiscale approaches, Johnson and colleagues demonstrated that the manganese was original to the rocks and first deposited in sediments as manganese oxides, and that manganese oxidation occurred over a broad swath of the ancient marine basin during the entire timescale captured by the drill cores.

"It's really amazing to be able to use X-ray techniques to look back into the rock record and use the chemical observations on the microscale to shed light on some of the fundamental processes and mechanisms that occurred billions of years ago," says Samuel Webb, coauthor on the paper and beam line scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, where many of the study's experiments took place. "Questions regarding the evolution of the photosynthetic pathway and the subsequent rise of oxygen in the atmosphere are critical for understanding not only the history of our own planet, but also the basics of how biology has perfected the process of photosynthesis."

Once the team confirmed that the manganese had been deposited as an oxide phase when the rock was first forming, they checked to see if these manganese oxides were actually formed before water-splitting photosynthesis or if they formed after as a result of reactions with oxygen. They used two different techniques to check whether oxygen was present. It was not -- proving that water-splitting photosynthesis had not yet evolved at that point in time. The manganese in the deposits had indeed been oxidized and deposited before the appearance of water-splitting cyanobacteria. This implies, the researchers say, that manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis was a stepping-stone for oxygen-producing, water-splitting photosynthesis.

"I think that there will be a number of additional experiments that people will now attempt to try and reverse engineer a manganese photosynthetic photosystem or cell," Fischer says. "Once you know that this happened, it all of a sudden gives you reason to take more seriously an experimental program aimed at asking, 'Can we make a photosystem that's able to oxidize manganese but doesn't then go on to split water? How does it behave, and what is its chemistry?' Even though we know what modern water splitting is and what it looks like, we still don't know exactly how it works. There is a still a major discovery to be made to find out exactly how the catalysis works, and now knowing where this machinery comes from may open new perspectives into its function -- an understanding that could help target technologies for energy production from artificial photosynthesis. "

Next up in Fischer's lab, Johnson plans to work with others to try and mutate a cyanobacteria to "go backwards" and perform manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis. The team also plans to investigate a set of rocks from western Australia that are similar in age to the samples used in the current study and may also contain beds of manganese. If their current study results are truly an indication of manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis, they say, there should be evidence of the same processes in other parts of the world.

"Oxygen is the backdrop on which this story is playing out on, but really, this is a tale of the evolution of this very intense metabolism that happened once -- an evolutionary singularity that transformed the planet," Fischer says. "We've provided insight into how the evolution of one of these remarkable molecular machines led up to the oxidation of our planet's atmosphere, and now we're going to follow up on all angles of our findings."

Funding for the research outlined in the PNAS paper, titled "Manganese-oxidizing photosynthesis before the rise of cyanobacteria," was provided by the Agouron Institute, NASA's Exobiology Branch, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship program. Joseph Kirschvink, Nico and Marilyn Van Wingen Professor of Geobiology at Caltech, also contributed to the study along with Katherine Thomas and Shuhei Ono from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/Jr95gYiRb8g/130626153924.htm

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Prince Jackson to Testify in Wrongful Death Case

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/prince-jackson-to-testify-in-wrongful-death-case/

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Bombing in southern Pakistan kills 2

QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) ? A senior police official says a bomb has killed at least two people in a village in an area of southern Pakistan frequently hit by violence.

Fayyaz Sunmbol, the deputy inspector general of police in Quetta, says the blast Thursday morning in the village of Kuchlak also wounded five people.

The village is about 22 kilometers (13 miles) from Quetta, which is the capital of Baluchistan province.

Sunmbol says authorities are investigating whether it was a roadside bomb or a suicide bomber.

Baluchistan has been beset by violence from multiple groups. Baluch separatists often attack Pakistani military and government targets while Sunni Muslim extremist groups have repeatedly killed Shiite Muslims living in the region.

Many members of the Afghan Taliban also make their base in the province.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bombing-southern-pakistan-kills-2-062840188.html

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How Other People's Facebook Data Profiles You

In a classic Friday-afternoon news dump, Facebook quietly admitted last week that it had publicly disclosed the private data of six million members ? by accident.

"We recently received a report," the company said in a statement posted at 4:50 p.m. Eastern time, "regarding a bug that may have allowed some of a person's contact information (email or phone number) to be accessed by people who either had some contact information about that person or some connection to them."

That doesn't sound so bad when you first read it.

But what really happened was that millions of individuals who'd sought to review everything they'd posted on Facebook ended up receiving some things they hadn't posted ? specifically, other people's email addresses and telephone numbers, information that may have been private.

"If a person went to download an archive of their Facebook account through our Download Your Information (DYI) tool," the statement said, "they may have been provided with additional email addresses or telephone numbers for their contacts or people with whom they have some connection."

The mistake confirmed that Facebook is using "shadow data." That is, to build up the fullest possible profile of each member, Facebook is using not only information provided by that member, but also information about that member provided by other members.

It also lends some credence to the long-standing, but unconfirmed, suspicion that Facebook is creating "shadow profiles" of people who are not members ? using data provided by people who are.

[11 Facebook Privacy Steps to Take Now]

Put it into a song

Confusing? Perhaps a fictional example will make it clearer.

Let's say Facebook member John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt wants to see everything he's ever posted. He goes to his "Account Settings" page on Facebook, clicks the link "Download a copy of your Facebook data" and authorizes the process.

After an hour or so, John gets an email that the process has completed, and then reviews his data.

He notices that alongside the contact info he uploaded for one of his workplace colleagues, Jenny Tutone, there's a phone number that he doesn't recognize: (917) 867-5309.

John calls the number, and Jenny picks up. She explains that (917) 867-5309 is her private, unlisted mobile number, one she gives only to family members, and that she has never given it to Facebook.

So how did Facebook get that number for Jenny? Jenny's brother, Tommy Tutone, admits that he has that number listed under Jenny's name on his iPhone, but that he's never given it to Facebook.

Looks like Tommy didn't read the terms and conditions of the Facebook app for his iPhone. They clearly state that Facebook will upload his iPhone's contact list to Facebook's servers.

Facebook says that it uses such information "to match that data with the contact information of other people on Facebook in order to generate friend recommendations."

Using the contacts list from Tommy's phone, and noting that Tommy and Jenny had listed each other as siblings, Facebook correctly surmised that (917) 867-5309 was a phone number for Jenny ? and added it to its pile of data about her.

So when John downloaded the Facebook information about himself, he learned Jenny's secret phone number.

For a good time, call....

What's so bad about that? Well, Jenny didn't want (917) 867-5309 to be known by anyone except her family. She didn't consent to Facebook learning of it, much less disclosing it.

But now the number is in Facebook's databanks. Jenny can ask Facebook to have it removed, but it'll be uploaded again the next time Tommy accesses the Facebook app on his iPhone.

In fact, thanks to its smartphone apps, Facebook has one of the largest repositories of North American mobile phone numbers, which don't normally appear in phone books (driving telephone direct-marketers crazy).

A security glitch in Facebook uncovered last fall allowed anyone to do a "reverse lookup" and trace back random mobile phone numbers to the Facebook members who used them. The glitch was quickly fixed.

It would be simple for Facebook, if it wanted to, to create a regular name-to-number matching service for mobile numbers. There's no indication that Facebook plans to do so, but the valuable mobile-number databank the company is sitting on would be pretty tempting to sell off in hard times.

[Why You Should Quit Facebook Now]

Profiles in the shadows

There's also no indication that Facebook is creating "shadow profiles" of non-members. But last year, the social-influence-ranking site Klout admitted it had done so using data from Facebook pages, leading to speculation about whether Facebook was doing the same thing.

Here's how shadow profiles would work: Jenny and Tommy Tutone are Facebook members, but their gruff old father, Lou Tutone, is not.

Yet Jenny and Tommy have Lou in their smartphone contact lists. They identify Lou by name, and as their father, in family photos they post to Facebook. They mention Lou in their status updates and Facebook messages.

Because Lou doesn't have a Facebook page of his own, Facebook can't officially confirm that Lou is Jenny and Tommy's father. But it knows he exists, what he looks like and what his phone number and email address are. And it can target ads to Jenny and Tommy's pages based on that information.

There's no point in targeting ads to Lou directly, since he doesn't have a Facebook page. But if Facebook ever decides to sell specific data about its members (right now, it's making so much money from ads that it doesn't need to), it might be tempted to create profiles for non-members as well.

Minimize yourself

So what can Jenny ? or you ? do about all this?? Not a whole lot, unfortunately.

Jenny could, as security experts Sean Sullivan and Graham Cluley recommend, go to Facebook's "Remove All Imported Contacts" page and click the blue "Remove" button.

Doing so would clear Facebook's servers of the contacts-list information uploaded from every mobile device upon which Jenny has installed the Facebook app. (Users of Apple devices will need to also uncheck "Sync" under the "Friends" setting in the app.)

While that procedure will clear Jenny's own uploaded data, it won't erase (917) 867-5309 until Tommy, and every other member of Jenny's family who has that number on a smartphone, does the same thing.

If Jenny has a small family ? say three to 10 people ? this should work. But if members of Jenny's entire extended family, including dozens of second cousins, have (917) 867-5309 in their contacts lists, there's little chance she's going to convince all of them to adjust their Facebook app settings.?

Because current Facebook members would still be uploading Jenny's secret number, it will be out there for good, even if Jenny takes the drastic step of deleting her Facebook account.

Instead, Jenny should just move on. She should get a new secret number, share it with less than half a dozen people and insist that none of them enter it into their smartphones' contact lists.

Jenny might come off as rude, but in an age in which dozens of organizations, from the NSA to Facebook to Google, are trying to collect as much information about her as possible, you might also argue that she's being smart.

This story was provided by TechNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow Paul Wagenseil?@snd_wagenseil. Follow us?@TechNewsDaily,?Facebook?or?Google+.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/other-peoples-facebook-data-profiles-160639500.html

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Japanese robots Kirobo and Mirata set for launch, literally

Don't get excited about buying the new robots created by Japanese company Dentsu in conjunction with Toyota and the University of Tokyo -- they won't be hitting stores anytime soon. However, do get excited that one of them, namely the white-helmeted droid Kirobo (shown above, left), will actually be launched into orbit as part of a Japan Space Agency mission to the ISS on August 4th. In fact, he and his backup Mirata were endowed with voice recognition, natural language processing, speed synthesis, realistic body language and facial recognition for that very reason. They'll be participating in the "world's first conversational experiment" between people and robots in space, while also mixing it up with kids on earth with educational activities. Hopefully, the astronauts won't give Kirobo any HAL 9000-like control of the station, though the cute 'bots seem malice-free, saying they "wanted to create a future where humans and robots live together and get along." Check it out for yourself in the video after the break.

Filed under: Robots, Science, Alt

Comments

Source: US News

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/japanese-robots-kirobo-and-mirata-set-for-launch-literally/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Partying with fans, Blackhawks show off Cup

Chicago Blackhawks center Michal Handzus carries the Stanley Cup after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Blackhawks center Michal Handzus carries the Stanley Cup after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

A plane carrying the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks is welcomed with water cannons after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

A plane carrying the Stanley Cup winning Chicago Blackhawks is welcomed after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. The Chicago Blackhawks landed home with the Stanley Cup just before dawn Tuesday morning and were greeted on the tarmac with a water cannon salute, about a dozen fire trucks and even more police cars _ all with their lights flashing. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Blackhawks center Michal Handzus carries the Stanley Cup after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

Chicago Blackhawks center Michal Handzus carries the Stanley Cup Trophy after arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. (AP Photo/Paul Beaty)

CHICAGO (AP) ? The party goes on for the Chicago Blackhawks.

Hours after returning from their 3-2 win over the Boston Bruins, the team has been giving fans a close-up look at the Stanley Cup, hauling their prize around to bars and restaurants around the city.

Team members greeted cheering fans with high-fives as they filed into The Scout bar in Chicago's South Loop. TV news helicopters hovered overhead as they followed the bus and limos ferrying the players and their families around town under a police escort.

Earlier, the team was greeted on the tarmac at O'Hare International Airport with a water cannon salute from about a dozen fire trucks and even more police cars ? all with their lights flashing.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-06-25-Blackhawks%20Return%20With%20Cup/id-27e1ec6a3f9544fa9365884c96d30ab1

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