Frequent facebook users more likely to lose their friends

Frequent facebook users more likely to lose their friends: "People who devote the most hours to Facebook are more likely to be
'defriended' on the social networking site."

Freedom In Sight: Crane Arrives At Chile Mine

Freedom In Sight: Crane Arrives At Chile Mine: "Large pieces of a crane that will be used to winch 33 trapped Chilean miners to safety are in place - as hopes increase the men could be free as early as next week."

UK house prices 'see 3.6% fall'

UK house prices 'see 3.6% fall': "House prices fell by 3.6% in September compared with the previous month, according to the latest figures from the Halifax."

The West is being 'outmanoeuvred' by violent Islamist extremists: Tony Blair

The West is being 'outmanoeuvred' by violent Islamist extremists: Tony Blair: "Western democracies have been 'outspent, outmanoeuvred and out-strategised' by violent Islamist extremists, Tony Blair has claimed."

T-Mobile sneaks "rootkit" into G2 phones - reinstalls locked-down OS after jailbreaking

T-Mobile sneaks "rootkit" into G2 phones - reinstalls locked-down OS after jailbreaking: "James Losey from New America Foundation writes, 'I thought you might be interested in a new 'feature' of the latest Android phone. Officially released tomorrow October 6, some T-mobile stores began selling the HTC G2 yesterday. Within 24 hours, users have discovered that the phone has built-in hardware that restricts what software a device owner might wish to install.

Specifically, one of the microchips embedded into the G2 prevents device owners from making permanent changes to the Android operating system, re-installing the original firmware.'

Plugging a USB wireless modem into a laptop for T-Mobile's broadband services does not mean that T-Mobile can say that Ubuntu Linux is not an approved operating system, or that Skype is not an allowed voice service. Yet when unsuspecting members of the public buy Google's Android G2 at a T-Mobile store, they aren't getting a customizable mobile computer or phone but are instead getting a device where the hardware itself dramatically limits users' right to make changes to their computers and install the operating system of their choice.

Clearly, this is a major new initiative to control users rights to run their computers as they see fit. Instead, the new Google Android hardware rootkit acts just like a virus -- overriding user's preferences to change settings and software to conform to the desires of a third party. And just like a virus, this kind of behavior should be just as illegal. Users of the new Google Android G2 should be warned that their device has a rootkit that will overwrite their software modifications. We are seeking further clarification as to the legality of this malicious software.

Newest Google Android Cell Phone Contains Unexpected 'Feature' -- A Malicious Root Kit.


(Thanks, James!)

(Image: Fuck T-mobile, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from gillyberlin's photostream)

• The New York Times: Text messages cost carriers virtually nothing ...


• EFF wins enormous victory against DRM: legal to jailbreak iPhones ...


• Jailbreak your iPhone 4


• Another reason to Jailbreak your iPhone: Backgrounder


• Android installed on iPhone

"

"CIA Secret Experiments" on National Geographic Channel

"CIA Secret Experiments" on National Geographic Channel: "




Tonight, National Geographic Channel is airing a special program titled 'CIA Secret Experiments,' about the organization's secret research on mind control, germ warfare, and other questionable methods that they thought could give the US an upper hand in the Cold War. The video teaser on the site is a bit cheesy with the re-enactments, but I expect there will be some good info in the show. From National Geographic Channel:

• In the wake of World War II, the U.S. government was engaged in a large number of confidential medical experiments designed to help win the Cold War. During these elicit experiments they exposed unknowing members of the public to biological and chemical agents, developed techniques for mind control, and even planned assassinations on powerful leaders of developing nations.

• Some methods that were considered for the distribution of these chemicals were to poison cigars, toothpaste, and ink.

• The CIA embarked upon a multimillion dollar, highly classified research program into the covert use of biological and chemical materials such as bacteria to infect the enemy, poisons for assassinations, and truth drugs for interrogations.

• Included in the medicine chest used for these experiments would have been anthrax, the plague, and brucellosis.

• A U.S. army experiment on New York City in 1966 exposed over a million people to the bacterium bacillus subtilis variant niger. Scientists used light bulbs filled with a combination of bacteria and charcoal particles, which they then dropped through vents onto the subway tracks.

• During this experiment, trillions of germs were released into the transit system during peak travel hours. The trials were conducted without the knowledge or cooperation of the NYC Transit Authority or Police Department.

• During this period, the CIA was also looking into the use of chemical substances for ways to manipulate and control human behavior; one such chemical that caught their attention was lysergic acid diethylamide, or LSD.

• The CIA recruited prisoner volunteers to be administered LSD as part of their experimentation. The prisoners who cooperated were sometimes given heroin as a reward. In one experiment, prisoners were kept on increasing doses of LSD for 77 consecutive days.

'CIA Secret Experiments'

• Experiments in Torture: Physicians group alleges US conducted ...



• The CIA's obsession with LSD in the water supply


• French village went insane after CIA spiked its bread with LSD ...


• CIA releases Pentagon docs on MK-ULTRA origins, secret LSD tests ...


• Video drama about CIA's real project to drug unwitting US citizens ...


• Midcentury LSD Experiments at Canadian mental hospital


• More on the CIA's evil genius, Dr. Sidney Gottleib

"

Firefighters watch as house burns to the ground: owner had not paid annual firefighting fees

Firefighters watch as house burns to the ground: owner had not paid annual firefighting fees: "Homeowners in the region outside the town limits of South Fulton, TN, have to pay $75 to come under the protection of the town's firefighters. Late in September, the house of Gene Cranick, who had not paid his $75 for the year, caught fire. When the fire department arrived, they announced that since Cranick had not paid his fees, his house would be allowed to burn to the ground. Cranick offered to pay the $75, but the firefighters weren't having any of it. They eventually acted to put out the fire when it spread to the home of a neighbor who had previously paid. As the mayor said, ' if homeowners don't pay, they're out of luck.'

The Cranicks told 9-1-1 they would pay firefighters, whatever the cost, to stop the fire before it spread to their house.

'When I called I told them that. My grandson had already called there and he thought that when I got here I could get something done, I couldn't,' Paulette Cranick.

It was only when a neighbor's field caught fire, a neighbor who had paid the county fire service fee, that the department responded. Gene Cranick asked the fire chief to make an exception and save his home, the chief wouldn't.

We asked him why.

He wouldn't talk to us and called police to have us escorted off the property. Police never came but firefighters quickly left the scene. Meanwhile, the Cranick home continued to burn.

We asked the mayor of South Fulton if the chief could have made an exception.

'Anybody that's not in the city of South Fulton, it's a service we offer, either they accept it or they don't,' Mayor David Crocker said.

Firefighters watch as home burns to the ground

(via JWZ!)

• Firefighter allegedly shoots cyclist in head to teach him not to ...


• Vintage firefighter helmet is a steampunk inspiration


• 5 tools firefighters use in extremely hot conditions


• Firefighters told to cool it on the energy drinks


• DHS to firefighters: snoop on emergency victims for evidence of ...


• German firefighting porta-sprinklers of 1931


• Fluorescent Hansel and Gretel system for firefighters


• Power On Self Test: Communist robot firefighter

"