How much does Facebook know about you?

WorldRadio.ch (Switzerland); Wisdom Quarterly
(Sweden The Local, Info-wars.org/Ireland)

This summer, Austrian law student Max Schrems asked Facebook to send him all the data they had on him.

What he received was a massive 1,200-page file. But that wasn’t the biggest surprise. He discovered that the social networking site had kept data he had deleted from his account, like messages and photos, and for its own use, they imported contacts from his personal e-mail account, all of this without his knowledge.

• LISTEN TO AUDIO

Now, Schrems has lodged 22 complaints against Facebook for data protection breaches. WRS’s Dave Goodman talks to social network specialist Olivier Glassey, a senior lecturer and sociologist at the University of Lausanne, who says that he is not at all surprised.

• Germans sue Facebook over facial recognition
• Scrub your Facebook clean with Exfoliate?
  
• NJ teacher may lose job over Facebook post
• Facebook passwords must be shared in divorce case
• Facebook can't control spam attacks

Fake Buddha quotes on Web (video)

Wisdom Quarterly

Hilarious satire from collegehumor.com's "Facebook Quote Buddha" is good humor, not so Tricycle and others' fake Buddha quotes.

There is an issue that pervades the Internet -- misquotes attributed simply to "Buddha." (And we don't mean sensational humor or satire).

Oddly, many of these are usually misinterpretations of America's favorite Buddhist discourse, the Kalama Sutra.

This is odd because it is exactly the "Message to the Kalamas" (AN 3.65) that suggests how to distinguish Dharma from non-Dharma, what would be good to accept as truth and what would be better rejected.

• When a great publication is the bad source of quotes (shoddy fact checking from Tricycle Magazine)

The Kalama discourse is an invitation to open inquiry. But abbreviations say it means "Think whatever you want," "Believe no one and nothing," or "It's all good!" Homer Simpson may think it's all good, but the Buddha had much more enlightened advice on dealing with what circulates as "truth."

The only way to be sure if the historical Buddha, the "Sage of the Shakyas," said something is to look for the mark of legitimacy then check that citation against the texts.* In parentheses there should be a citation that refers to sutra's collection and location as in "AN 3.65," which means Anguttara Nikaya, "Numerical Discourse Collection" and its exact "address" within that collection of sacred texts.

• Buddha? Who is "Buddha"? In Mahayana Buddhism and Hinduism the name refers to countless bodhisattvas and deities. In Theravada and for careful readers, the title refers to the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, and to a very limited number (28) of historical buddhas he named and one future buddha he described (Maitreya). Those buddhas ("Supremely Enlightened Ones") are revered every month in Theravada temples, where each has a name and the aeons they lived and made known the path to freedom, the timeless Dharma that is always there to be rediscovered by anyone who develops the Ten Perfections (paramitas, reduced in Mahayana to six, just as the 31 Planes of Existence the historical Buddha outlined were reduced to six) with the intention of liberating others.

*NOTE: Just because it has a reference or citation and is in the texts, that does not mean the Buddha said it. Often translations are poor and only looking at the original language will do. But even then, even if it is handed down and accepted, that still does not mean the historical Buddha said it. Does it agree with teachings or is it at odds with them, does it conduce to wisdom, compassion, and liberation? Buddhism is not for faith and belief, but rather for practice and realization. Most Mahayana literature was not uttered by the historical Buddha -- and it often does not claim to be. But most readers assume it is, and it does not help matters that much of it misleadingly begins, "Thus have I heard."

Why I quit Facebook (video)

Rosa Golijan (MSNBC) [tweaked by Wisdom Quarterly]
(redactednews blog)

(MSNBC) Facebook gave its News Feed a makeover yesterday and many users got angry. How dare the social network suddenly change so much, after all? Well, hope you held back on the rage -- because a lot more changes are coming, [the CIA controlled company] announced at F8, Facebook's developer conference, today. [So long Netflix, so long Zuckerberg.]

• Facebook shows off new Timeline profiles, apps...
  

The official announcements will start trickling in once [titular] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg takes the stage to give his keynote speech at 10:00 am PT/1:00 p.m ET. But there are already a lot of whispers regarding what's coming.

One of the key hints about all the announcements is F8's motto, which All Things D's Liz Gannes reports is "Read. Watch. Listen." This leaves us expecting a new way to consume text-based news, some sort of video component, and the long-rumored incorporation of music streaming.

When it comes to the "Read" element of the F8 motto, there's not much mystery regarding what's coming. We know that Facebook wants... More

• Facebook: The CIA Conspiracy
• You will obey [clandestine agency plant] Obama
  
• NSA Surveillance Program Gets Tiny Setback
• Trusted computing still waiting for the big dance
  
• Pentagon: Military ready for "don't ask, don't tell" repeal
  

It's funny because it's true, or it couldn't possibly be true because it was made into satire?

What does God want today? (Compassion)

In the opinion of Ian Morgan Cron on FOX News

This morning I woke up and asked God the question, “What do you want from me today?”

Since God rarely capitulates to my demand for an instant answer, I didn’t wait for a response. [Atheist Mother Theresa also explained her "communication" with the ultimate Christian deity as one of "mutual silence."] I jumped out of bed and into my day.

It was in the [bathroom] shower that I heard God’s reply. This happens so frequently that I’m beginning to wonder if my bathroom should be designated a religious shrine.

“Be compassionate,” God said. “That’s what I want you to do today.”

As [Buddhist monk and peace activist] Thich Nhat Hanh says, “Compassion is a verb.” Unlike someone who is merely empathic, the compassionate person not only feels the pain of the other but actively does something to alleviate their suffering as well.

Why is compassion in such short supply these days? Radical self-concern, our spiritual nemesis, militates against our practicing it. We are so preoccupied with our own struggles that we become inured to the unseen difficulties others are surely facing. More

• Was Mother Teresa an atheist? (Guardian.co.uk)
• Mother Teresa's crisis of faith (Time Magazine)
• Christopher Hitchens on Mother Teresa's atheism
• Shattering the Myth of Mother Teresa
• Can "Godless Atheists" have Moral Values?

The mystic experience of Oneness (while dancing)

CIA's "Facebook" tanking before IPO

Facebook Traffic Drops For a Second Month In a Row - Is The Funfair Over?
iLo Ivy (Technocrati, June 13, 2011)
Inside Facebook reported, for the first time, a consecutive monthly drop in traffic figures, making this a slower growth than usual. The U.S. fell to 149.4 million users in May, while Canada lost 1.52 million. The U.K., Norway, and Russia also reported losses of over 100,000 users, according to today’s morning tech wrap on Forbes. The question is, what could be behind this dramatic fall? Invariably, short-term factors will always influence Facebook’s traffic from country to country. Yet, could this perhaps have something to do with the recent cyber security breaches on the networks of other major sites and big corporations like IMF's? More

• Privacy groups push for US Facebook probe‎
• Privacy Advocates Ask Feds to Stop Facebook Facial Recognition‎
• Facebook IPO: Could Facebook be worth more than $100 billion?‎
• Facebook planning IPO on $100 billion valuation?‎
• Goldman Sachs, Facebook, and the IPO - 2012 It Is
• Facebook and the IPO frenzy‎
• Is Facebook losing users? Report says U.S., Canada growth slowing‎
• Is Facebook growth stalling in North America?‎
• Facebook loses 6M US users in May‎ (Computerworld)

Facebook's facial recognition: CIA jackpot!

Lauren Effron (Nightline, ABCNews.com, June 10, 2011)

User browses the social networking site Facebook that now identifies "friends" in photos automatically without their permission (Chris Jackson/Getty Images).

Oh, Facebook, here we go again. The social media giant is facing a new wave of concerns over privacy protection after launching its latest feature:

It "allows" [forces unless one opts out] users to identify their friends automatically in photos without their permission.

The photo tagging tool, called Tag Suggestions, was put into place in December. But it was listed as unavailable until recently. Here's how it works:

When a user uploads new photos to his or her Facebook profile, the new feature then scans them with [police-approved] facial recognition software to match the people in the photos with other photos in which they might have been previously tagged.

• Nightline's Facial Recognition Challenge (CIA thanks you)

The feature also offers "group tagging," which allows [pressures] users to type in a person's name and "apply it to multiple photos of the same person," according to Facebook's blog post on the subject. The problem is that users can do this without their friend's permission. More

Ex-Agent: CIA Seed Money Helped Launch Google
An ex-CIA agent has gone further than ever before in detailing Google's relationship with the Central Intelligence Agency.

He claims sources told him that CIA seed money helped get the company off the ground and has for the first time named Google's CIA point man.

Robert David Steele, a 20-year Marine Corps infantry and intelligence officer and former clandestine services case officer with the Central Intelligence Agency, is the CEO of OSS.net.

Speaking to the Alex Jones Show, Steele elaborated on his previous revelations by making it known that the CIA helped bankroll Google at its very inception.

"I think Google took money from the CIA when it was poor and it was starting up and unfortunately our system right now floods money into spying and other illegal and largely unethical activities, and it doesn't fund what I call the open source world," said Steele, citing "trusted individuals" as his sources for the claim.

"They've been together for quite a while," added Steele....

"Memorial Day" explained

Connect the Dots (Pacifica Radio, KPFK.org), Memorial Day 2011, Monday 7:00 - 8:00 am

KPFK Pacifica Southern California Radio

I long to wake up on Memorial Day to find our country at peace with the world. Instead of mourning the young men and women who think they died fighting to protect their country, let us mourn the truth.

Let us mourn the fact that most of the time our beautiful youth died to keep our permanent war economy alive. They died for what Eisenhower referred to as the "military-industrial complex." They died for the power and profit of strangers.



Had they thought of the expression “die for your country” as a public relations con job would they have risked their lives in such massive numbers? Of course not. But profiteers and presidents are so good at selling war… and most of us are so bad at knowing when we’re being manipulated.

It hurts us to recognize that practically since its inception our country has been in a state of perpetual war. This is a cause, not for celebration but for shame.

Listeners feel I’m being disrespectful of our fallen perhaps? Am I not taking into consideration the sacrifice, the“glory” of Memorial Day? Perhaps this should be a day of prayer and religious rituals? Very well. How about this?

No one knows for sure of course, but let’s say God actually is an old guy with a white beard.

And he stood on top of a mountain holding out his arms like Charlton Heston. He had the attention of millions of armed service men and women below him about to be shipped off to war.

What would he say? I don’t know about your God, but my God would roar:

“Stop! You think you’re going off to save Democracy, to protect your country, to create freedom and equality? Know that you are going to protect the oil companies and the drone makers, Halliburton, Blackwater, Bechtel, General Electric, corporate America and the military. More

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News of the Day: Facebook Nation

Facebook is acting like a sovereign nation

The Atlantic Wire, May 24, 2o11

In Paris, today, French president Nicolas Sarkozy rubbed shoulders with tech industry superstars, including Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg, for the inaugural eG-8 meeting. The two-day event intends to prime the conversation at the Group of Eight summit set to take place later this week in Normandy. Sarkozy took a hard line in urging governments to better regulate the Internet. "Don't let the revolution that you've begun threaten everyone's basic right to a private life and full autonomy," he told the conferences attendees. "Full transparency… sooner or later runs into the very principle of individual freedom."

Dutch Jewish Groups Face Off Against Animal Activists
Opening Serve: Thieme, one of only two members of Dutch parliament representing the "far-left minority" Party for Animals, introduced a bill back in April that, according to Chabad.org, "would effectively outlaw kosher slaughtering in the Netherlands," including kosher slaughtering practices which require "that an animal be conscious when its throat is cut." Radio Netherlands Worldwide reported when the bill was first introduced that "The Animal Rights Party fervently believes that animals should not have to endure what they call torture in order to accommodate religious beliefs." In an op-ed at Radio Netherlands Worldwide entitled, "An Animal Doesn't Care About Its Killer's Faith," Thieme wrote that, despite the fact that the Qu'ran and Torah both "describe how animal products should be prepared in such a way that no such suffering is inflicting on humans or animals ... based on new insights, their methods of slaughter are in need of reform today. Religious believers can no longer justify a method that was ahead of its time 3000 years ago."

Fukushima out of control: melting down, contaminating sky and sea, being covered up.

10 Free Ways to Speed Up Computer

Computer boot up and Web page loading too slow? If computers are running slower, here are some things to do to get “old reliable” running in tip-top shape again. Of course, budget-savvy Nerd Chicks are always looking for ways to save some dough, so we’ve made sure they are all FREE.

Palin lets her religion show, confuses prophecy with history
(Commentary) Sarah Palin never seems far from saying things that invoke god's name or a biblical allusion. She has been known to be as blunt when sharing her religious beliefs as she is about most other issues. She spoke with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro on Saturday, telling her that Pres. Barack Obama was on the wrong side of history -- and god -- with his policy positioning on Israel. He announced that position during Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington. "Anyone who studies history," Palin told Fox News, "studies the Old Testament, studies geography, understands that Israel now is surrounded by enemies at all times. It should be now that America takes a stand in defending our friends in Israel."

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Fun with Texting!!!

Steven Hodson (Inquistr.com, Australia)

"OMG, hi!!! this is so fun!!!" "0.k., now u send me 1."

As a society we seem to love nothing better than creating psychological disorders around every new fad that comes our way. And it seems that texting is no different.

The Sydney Morning Herald in Australia has a post up in which Jennie Carroll, a Melbourne technology researcher with RMIT University, claims to have "discovered" four separate disorders when it comes to texting and children.

Yes, children are once again in danger of themselves and this wicked and evil texting thing. Why? Well, they just don’t know any better.

Carroll says teenagers who text too much could find themselves suffering from:

1. Textaphrenia: thinking we’ve heard or felt a new text message vibration when there is no message.
2. Textiety: a feeling of anxiety from not receiving or sending any text messages.
3. Post-Traumatic Text Disorder: injuries related to texting, such as walking into objects by not paying attention to surroundings.
4. Binge Texting: sending massive numbers of texts to build self-esteem among peers. More