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Tech NewsSocial MediaFacebook Will Now Rank Your Comments So Its Dumbass Website Can Be ‘More Meaningful’
Facebook is a disease, but it’s still trying to be “more meaningful.” Two reports on Friday gave us fresh reminders of why Facebook is a detriment to society. First, Intercept reported that—despite Mark Zuckerberg’s repeated insistence that his company has a moral and professional obligation to protect users’ privacy—Facebook’s lawyers argued to a California judge … Continued
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ScienceHealthPolice Let Mom Keep Feeding Son Bleach After She Showed Them YouTube Videos, Doctor Approval
Search YouTube for “Miracle Mineral Solution” or “MMS” and you will find a trove of videos about how consuming bleach will treat various illnesses—acne, flu, malaria, HIV, hepatitis, cancer, and autism. But MMS is just chlorine dioxide—an industrial bleach. The Food and Drug Administration has warned that MMS “can cause serious harm to health” and … Continued
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io9TelevisionReport: Almost Every American Is Incapable of Staring at Just One Screen
When’s the last time you watched TV without pulling out your phone to rage tweet or fall down a Wikipedia-hole inspired by a show? You’re not the only one who can’t just stare at one device for an extended period of time. The majority of Americans engage with a second screen when they are watching … Continued
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Tech NewsTransportationWill Self-Driving Cars Turn People Into Even Bigger Assholes?
People like to fuck with Uber self-driving cars, according to an executive leading the autonomous program. At Uber’s Elevate conference in Washington, DC, Uber’s head of Advanced Technologies Group Eric Meyhofer told a crowd that cameras, and the human-assist drivers in the self-driving cars, have caught pedestrians acting hostile towards the vehicles. “We’ve seen people … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityPopular Soccer App Spied on Fans Through Phone Microphone to Catch Bars Pirating Game Streams
Spain’s data protection agency has fined La Liga, the nation’s top professional soccer league, 250,000 euros ($283,000 USD) for using the league’s phone app to spy on its fans. With millions of downloads, the app was reportedly being used to surveil bars in an effort to catch establishments playing matches on television without a license. … Continued
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Tech NewsCrimeSnapchat Gender Swap Used to Catch Cop Who Was Allegedly Looking to Hook Up With Underage Girl
A 20-year-old college student used the Snapchat gender-swap filter to catfish a cop on Tinder, in a creative act of vigilante justice. NBC Bay Area reported on Tuesday that the student told police that he set out to find potential pedophiles after his friend told him she was sexually assaulted during her childhood. Ethan (last … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityFor Sale: Have I Been Pwned
Security researcher Troy Hunt revealed on Tuesday that he is planning to sell his data breach service Have I Been Pwned (HIPB). Since Hunt created HIPB in 2013, the platform has played a significant roll in informing the public of several of the largest data breaches in recent history, by both breaking news about the … Continued
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Tech NewsYouTube Starts Banning Fake ‘Rescue’ Videos of Snakes Attacking Puppies and Kittens
Warning: This post contains descriptions of videos depicting animal cruelty. Anyone who wants to see animals going after each other for some reason can just search on YouTube and find a wealth of disturbing videos. But there’s one especially disgusting sub-genre of animal attack content on the platform that seems to be a fairly recent … Continued
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Tech NewsTransportationMan Sues Jaguar Claiming Automatic Door on $96,000 Car Severed His Thumb [Graphic Photo]
Warning: This post contains graphic imagery. An 81-year-old Florida man claims he lost a portion of his thumb when the automatic door on his Jaguar XJL R closed on his finger, snapping it off. A lawsuit filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, claims that on August 7, 2018, Theodore Levy … Continued
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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityRussia Plans to Block Major VPNs as Next Step in Closing Up Internet
Russia is getting closer to implementing the sort of internet regulations that exist under the Great Firewall of China. Earlier this year, internet providers began preparing to conduct tests to find out if Russia can build an internet disconnected from the rest of the world. Now, Russia plans to block major VPN (virtual private network) … Continued
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Tech NewsCommerceJeff Bezos Outlines Plan to Colonize Space, Interrupted by Chicken Protestor
This week Amazon is hosting its first Re:Mars conference, a Las Vegas event where researchers, executives, and Tony Stark are discussing AI and space travel. During Thursday’s events, burgeoning evil mastermind and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos tested out large robotic hands and described his plans to create an infrastructure to colonize space. First off, here … Continued
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Tech NewsTech PolicyFCC Finally Votes to Allow Carriers to Automatically Block Robocalls
The FCC voted on Thursday to allow telephone carriers to block unwanted calls and illegal robocalls before those calls make it to consumers’ phones. FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai first proposed the measure last month, and he championed the cause in a USA Today op-ed published Thursday morning, in which he suggested that the main parties … Continued
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ScienceHealthHere’s Why That Helicopter Rescue With the Spinning 74-Year-Old Hiker Went So Nauseatingly Wrong
By now, millions of people have seen the footage of the rescue mission that spiraled out of control. On Tuesday morning, a 74-year-old woman stumbled and suffered head and face injuries while hiking Piestewa Peak in Arizona’s Phoenix Mountain Preserve. But when the Phoenix Fire Department rescued her by airlifting her to a hospital, the … Continued
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ScienceHealthOakland Becomes Second U.S. City to Decriminalize Magic Mushrooms
For people who have not been following the fight to legalize psilocybin, it may seem like the movement to decriminalize magic mushrooms sprung up from the earth overnight. The Oakland City Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to decriminalize magic mushrooms and other psychoactive fungi and plants, ordering law enforcement to stop the prosecution of possession … Continued
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Tech NewsTransportationBird Announces Electric Moped That Can Injure Two Riders at the Same Time
Bird is about to launch a new way to get seriously injured. It is similar to the current means the company provides for riders to get seriously injured, except with the new vehicle, riders can get seriously injured with their friends. E-scooter rental companies are invading cities across the country, providing residents with more micro-mobility … Continued
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Tech NewsYouTube’s Nightmare Algorithm Exploited Children by Recommending Pedophiles Watch Home Videos of Kids
YouTube’s recommendation algorithm has been encouraging pedophiles to watch home videos that families upload showing their children playing. A New York Times report details how YouTube has been exploiting minors through this automated system. According to the Times, researchers for the Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society were studying YouTube’s influence in Brazil … Continued
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Tech NewsCrimeYouTuber Sentenced to Prison For Giving Homeless Man Toothpaste-Filled Oreos
YouTube contains hundreds of videos of the toothpaste-filled-Oreo prank. A cursory search will turn up many of these videos showing children tricking their family into eating a fluoride-filled faux treat. But in January 2017, a teenage, Barcelona-based YouTuber published a video showing a particularly cruel spin on this common prank. In the video, Kanghua Ren, … Continued
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ScienceHealthTourist Infected by Brain-Invading Parasite After Eating Slug on a Dare in Hawaii
Hawaii health officials are warning residents and visitors to avoid slugs, snails, and rats after the Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that three travelers visiting the state were recently infected with rat lungworm disease. One visitor got the disease because the individual ate a slug. The notice, issued last week, warns people to inspect … Continued
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Tech NewsTransportationCar2stay: Frustrated Man Builds Fence Around Car2go Parked in His Driveway, Demands Fee
After Seattle property-owner Dan Smith tried unsuccessfully for hours to have a Share Now (formerly car2go) car removed from his property, he took an unconventional approach. He constructed an elaborate barricade around the Mercedez-Benz. Smith told the Seattle Times that when he noticed someone had parked the vehicle—marked with decals for the ride-share company—in a … Continued
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Tech NewsNorth Face Apologizes for Showing Us the Future of Marketing
This week The North Face pulled off a clever marketing stunt that continues to deliver. Even following the company’s retraction and apology, the glittering underhandedness of the campaign will inspire marketing scum for generations. The campaign first garnered attention and ire on Tuesday when Ad Age ran a promotional video explaining the scheme—North Face did photo … Continued
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