It's Not A Photo!

 

Vortex: The paintings are so detailed that it takes really close inspection to realise they arent photographs  

Artist Denis Peterson leaves onlookers impressed with his real life scenes showing cities around the world - but gobsmacked when they realise every inch of these pictures are painted.

At first glance some of his works look like a simple billboard over a busy urban setting.


But on closer inspection the hidden secret is revealed - even the tiny people and obscure reflections on background windows have been conjured up by his brushstrokes.


The paintings look like photos but far from being captured in a fraction of a second, Denis' paintings take a month to complete and fetch up to £30,000 each.

The 64-year-old, from New York, starts with a small photo which he then blows up 1-2000 times to capture every brick, facial expression and leaf in minute detail.

He was one of the first 'photorealists' to emerge in New York in the 1960s and early 1970s and is widely acknowledged as the founder of 'hyper-realism'.

On his website he says: 'As meaningful visual statements, my paintings go through a transformational painting process.

'The illusion of an alternate reality is secondary, a means to an end. My goal is to create timeless compositions that mesmerise the viewer and evoke a core response.'

His most recent work involves street scenes with people being 'weighed down' by advertising billboards, like the ones showing New York.

Some of his earlier work looked at the suffering felt by people imposed by governments and societies raising moral and political questions about military regimes.


His pieces are displayed at galleries and museums in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, Utah, California, UK, Italy, Corsica, Switzerland, and France.

Sony to Launch PlayStation Phone

Sony's long-rumoured PlayStation Portable smartphone is set to be launched in North America and Europe as early as the first half of 2011, according to a Japanese newspaper report.



The device would likely be based on Sony's handheld PSP Go game console, would be made by Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and run Google's Android operating system, said the Asahi Shimbun's English edition, citing unnamed sources.


Sony hopes to take on Apple's iPhone, Research in Motion's BlackBerry and Nokia devices by offering the first smartphone that is based on a portable game console, with a set of controls that allows very advanced gaming.

The PSP Go, launched in November 2009, already features software downloads through a wireless connection, allowing players to also browse the internet, watch movies, play music and read books and comics. The new PlayStation handset would similarly work with Sony's online media platform, the company's answer to Apple's iTunes.

Sony hopes the phone will stimulate sales in the sluggish videogame console market, said the Asahi. Sony called the newspaper report "speculation" and declined to comment.

After Raping, Ex-Israeli President: "Relax, You'll Enjoy It"

 

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav is escorted by police as he leaves the courtroom after being found guilty of rape, December 30, 2010 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Katsav was today found guilty of two counts of rape and one of sexual harassment. He is expected to serve between four and 16 years in prison for the crimes.

Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was convicted of rape Thursday, a dramatic fall from grace for a man who rose from humble beginnings to become a symbol of achievement for Jews of Middle Eastern origin.

The disgraced politician, who had rejected a plea bargain that would have kept him out of jail, will likely be sentenced to four to 16 years in prison. The verdict was seen as a victory for the Israeli legal system and for women’s rights in a decades-long struggle to chip away at the nation’s macho culture, which once permitted political and military leaders great liberties.



“The court sent two clear and sharp messages: that everyone is equal and every woman has the full right to her body,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. But he added that it was “a sad day for Israel and its citizens.”

The Tel Aviv District Court found Katsav, 65, guilty of two counts of raping an employee in 1998, when he was Israel’s tourism minister. It also convicted him of lesser counts of indecent acts; sexual harassment involving two other women who worked for him when he was president, from 2000 to 2007; and obstruction of justice.

Katsav denied all allegations, claiming he was a victim of a political witch hunt and suggesting he was targeted because he is a Sephardic Jew — a Jew of Middle Eastern origin. But in Thursday’s ruling, the three-judge panel said his version of events was “strewn with lies.”

A somber Katsav left the courtroom without commenting, surrounded by his legal team, security guards and family members. His wife, Gila, didn’t appear in court.

He was ordered to surrender his passport while awaiting sentencing on a date that was not immediately set. Late Thursday, he was holed up in his home with his family. Israel’s presidency is a largely ceremonial post, traditionally given to elder statesmen as a reward for a lifetime of public service.

Winning the office capped a career in which Katsav became a model of success for Sephardic Jews, who for decades were a Jewish underclass in Israel relative to the well-off, European-rooted establishment. Katsav’s world began to crumble late in his presidency when he complained that a female employee was trying to extort him.

The woman went to police with her side of the story, detailing a series of sexual assaults. Other women came forward with similar complaints.

According to the indictment, Katsav forced one woman to the floor of his office at the Tourism Ministry in 1998 and raped her. Later that year, he summoned her to a Jerusalem hotel to go over paperwork and raped her on the bed in his room.

The indictment alleged that Katsav tried to calm his victim by saying: “Relax, you’ll enjoy it.”     The indictment alleged that he harassed two women while he was president, embracing them against their will and making unwanted sexual comments. He also was charged with obstruction of justice: The indictment said Katsav tried to persuade one of the women to change her testimony.
Under heavy public pressure, Katsav resigned in 2007, two weeks before his term expired, under a plea bargain that would have required him to admit to lesser charges of sexual misconduct. But in a dramatic reversal, Katsav subsequently rejected the deal and vowed to clear his name in court.
Around that time, he held a bizarre news conference in which he lashed out at prosecutors and the media and denied any wrongdoing. His erratic behavior, in which he shook in anger, waved a computer disc that he said proved his innocence and screamed at reporters, raised questions about his state of mind.

The Israeli public has closely followed the case’s twists and salacious details.  The conviction of a former president on rape charges — virtually unheard of anywhere in the developed world — was the latest victory for women’s rights groups against the male-dominated military and political establishment.

In the early years of the state, some male leaders were known for womanizing and freewheeling ways, though that culture has gradually changed. Women’s rights groups had rallied against Katsav. On Thursday, hundreds of women stood outside the courtroom holding signs against him and chanting: “The whole nation knows Katsav is a criminal.”

Emmanuel Gross, a law professor at Haifa University, said the verdict was a testament to the independence of Israel’s legal system. “Our judiciary is not afraid of anyone,” he said. “It is one of our greatest strengths.”

In recent years, a former finance minister was sent to prison for embezzling funds, a justice minister was convicted of forcibly kissing a female soldier, and former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was forced to resign to face corruption charges. His trial is still in court.

Katsav was born in Iran and immigrated to Israel as a child, growing up in immigrant tent encampments and then in Kiryat Malachi, one of the failed “development” towns that Israel’s earliest governments built to populate the desert. Katsav, who is married and has five grown children, still resides in Kiryat Malachi, a hardscrabble town in southern Israel.

Katsav was elected mayor of Kiryat Malachi at the age of 24 — becoming the youngest mayor in Israel’s history. He rose through the ranks of the rightist Likud Party to hold a series of Cabinet posts before parliament selected him to be president in 2000.

He engineered the upset victory over Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres by rallying ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties behind him.   Katsav’s presidency was largely uneventful.
In one of his moments of glory, he shook hands and chatted briefly with the president of archenemy Iran at the funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005. He also appealed for calm and unity during Israel’s traumatic withdrawal from the Gaza Strip a few months later. On Thursday, Katsav’s son Boaz vowed his father would clear his name.

“We will continue to walk with our heads high and all the nation ... with God’s help, will know that (my) father, the eighth president of the state of Israel, is innocent,” he said.

But one of Katsav’s lawyers, Avigdor Feldman, said his client had not yet decided whether to appeal.   Any appeal would likely focus on witness credibility — an area that Israel Radio legal analyst Moshe Negbi said Israel’s Supreme Court rarely reverses.

“He has nothing to lose. He will probably appeal, but he doesn’t have much of a chance,” Negbi said.

A presidential pardon also appears unlikely because of the severity of the offenses. The office of Peres, who became president when Katsav resigned, declined to comment.

We're More Likely to Face Crime Online than in The Street

The number of Britons targeted by cybercrime is expected to overtake conventional crime for the first time next year. Internet security experts claim that up to 19million people will come under attack from hi-tech criminals, generally involved in identity theft.

While at one time, the biggest threat was a burglary or someone smashing a car window to grab a radio, today’s Britons are facing up to the growing menace of internet crime which can be carried out from thousands of miles away.



The success of ‘hacktivists’ in targeting big businesses, such as the Visa and Mastercard credit card companies in the wake of the WikiLeaks furore, has highlighted concerns about cybersecurity.
A survey of UK police officers specialising in hi-tech crime found that 79 per cent have noticed a steep increase in cybercrime activity within the past six months.

Identity theft and so-called malware attacks, in which spying software is inadvertently downloaded on to a home computer, are considered among the greatest threats.

Recent studies have shown that many of the people who use wi-fi at home to access the internet do not have security in place. This means it is possible for criminals to hack into their system and steal identity details.

The survey, commissioned by web security experts Norton, found that almost one in two people now believe they are more likely to fall victim to cybercrime than conventional crime. The rise of smartphones, tablet and notebook computers is making users more vulnerable.

Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, of the Metropolitan Police Central E-Crime Unit, said: ‘Countless new applications and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets with internet connectivity, have hit the market in recent years.

‘The reality is that technological advances provide not just benefits for the legitimate users, but also present potential opportunities for criminals to exploit. Users need to ensure they think about security and protection of their devices and their data.’

Susan Daley, the Government Affairs Officer at Norton, warned: ‘Next year, it’s highly likely we will see more people falling victim to cybercrime than ever before.

‘Anyone who spends a lot of time online should commit to taking their online personal protection seriously.’

A Phd Student Killed Prostitutes and Ate Their Flesh

A criminology student who dubbed himself the 'Crossbow Cannibal' and bragged to police about eating human flesh was jailed for life for his 'wicked and monstrous' crimes.

Stephen Griffiths, 40, who was obsessed with serial killers, murdered Suzanne Blamires, Shelley Armitage and Susan Rushworth, who all worked in the red light district near his home in Bradford, West Yorkshire.Griffiths, who pleaded guilty to the murders at Leeds Crown Court today, was caught when a caretaker at the flats where he lived saw horrific CCTV footage of Ms Blamires's final moments.

When he was arrested Griffiths told police 'I've killed loads' and claimed he had eaten some of Ms Blamires's flesh, adding: 'That's part of the magic.'

He added: 'I'm misanthropic, I don't have much time for the human race.'

Griffiths stood in the dock to enter his pleas surrounded by five security guards. Dressed in a grey tracksuit, he said 'yes' when asked to confirm his name. He said 'guilty' in a quiet voice when the clerk put each of the three murder charges to him.

Judge Mr Justice Openshaw, told the court the Kidefendant's mental health had been carefully examined and there was 'no question that he was fit to plead'.

The court heard gruesome details of the killings including the shocking revelation that 81 different pieces of Ms Blamires were found in or by the River Aire in Shipley.

A broken knife and a crossbow bolt were embedded in her severed head. The prosecutor said the head had had its skin removed.

The furniture and the walls in Griffiths' flat were splattered with the victims' blood and he claimed to have eaten raw parts of flesh of Ms Blamires. The magnitude of Stephen Griffiths's confessed crimes will inevitably open a floodgate of analysis into what drove him to such barbarity and whether he killed anyone else.

Miss Blamires mother Nicky condemned the triple killer's actions, saying: 'Stephen Griffiths is a coward and we are shocked he pleaded guilty as it is not something I thought he would have the courage to do.'

Christine Thompson, Susan Rushworth's mother, issued an emotional appeal to Griffiths to tell them what he has done with her daughter's body so she can finally be laid to rest.

She said: 'As a family, we have not been able to put our daughter to rest because she has not been found, so we want to appeal to this man to tell us what he has done with Susan.'

Gill Armitage, Shelley Armitage's mother, said: 'She took the wrong path at the young age of 16 years old when she became a victim of heroin. Her death will haunt us for the rest of our lives."

Griffiths has a violent past and has a history of poor mental health. He spent time in Rampton high security hospital in Nottinghamshire in the early 1990s.

As a 17-year-old he was arrested for shoplifting in a supermarket but as he was detained he slashed a security guard's throat with a knife. He was jailed for three years.

In 1989 he was prosecuted for possession of an air pistol but was not jailed. He was ordered to do 100 hours' community service as he had fallen foul of the previous conviction.

In 1991 he received a 24-month sentence at Leeds Crown Court for affray and possession of an offensive weapon. His girlfriends said he was violent and abused them but were too terrified to testify against him and no charges were brought.

Police sources believe his killing spree could have been triggered by his studies. It is claimed Griffiths's PhD research into serial killers caused him to 'flip' and seek out prostitutes.

His method of killing was so gruesome it could have come from a horror movie, using knives and a power tool to cut up the bodies in the bath of his flat. He made attempts to clean up but blood spots were left in his flat and detectives were able to make a match.

Griffiths also claims to have eaten some of the flesh of his victims. He told police he cooked pieces of flesh and also ate some raw. Police said it is virtually impossible to verify his claims.

Detectives have not ruled out that Griffiths may have killed more women and are looking for any evidence which links him to other unsolved murders or missing persons. So far they have found no evidence of this.

Prosecuting, Robert Smith QC, said a caretaker lived at the flat building where Griffiths lived. It was his job to review footage taken from CCTV cameras at the flats each morning.

On May 24, he reviewed the footage at 8.30am. The court was told he reviewed footage from camera 14.

The footage showed Ms Blamires running out of Griffiths's flat, followed by the defendant, the court heard. She was later seen being dragged on the floor by her leg by Griffiths, Mr Smith said.

Griffiths was seen to have something in his hand, the prosecutor added. The court was told the woman was shot with a crossbow before Griffiths 'gestured' by holding a finger up to the CCTV camera.

Mr Smith told the court how Griffiths told arresting officers: 'I'm Osama bin Laden.' The prosecutor said once in a police station he told officers: 'I've killed a lot more than Suzanne Blamires - I've killed loads.

'Peter Sutcliffe came a cropper in Sheffield. So did I but at least I got out of the city.'

The court heard he told police he put a poisonous substance in a shop and said he called himself 'Ven Pariah'.

Mr Smith said Griffiths told police Suzanne Blamires - who he knew as 'Amber' - was 'gone'.

He said he told officers he had 'eaten some of her' adding: 'That's part of the magic.'

Mr Smith said Griffiths told the interviewing officers he was 'only going to talk about five Bradford cases'.

Family members sobbed as the prosecutor revealed gruesome details of the murders. At one point a woman yelled out 'You f****** c***' as the details were revealed.

Mr Smith said Griffiths had admitted to killing Ms Blamires in the flat and dismembering her by hand, while power tools had been used on the other victims.

'It was just a slaughterhouse in the bathtub,' he told officers.

He told police he was studying for a PhD in homicide and he had 'cut himself off from society' and a 'civil war' was going on in his head.

Facebook's Bitchy Little Sister

They attend the most prestigious private schools in UK, with their parents paying up to £30,000 a year to give them the finest education.

But after going online in their hordes to spread malicious rumours about fellow pupils’ looks, sex lives and drug habits, it seems pupils at Eton, St Paul’s, Harrow and others are in urgent need of some lessons in manners – not to mention grammar and spelling.A new website that encourages schoolchildren to write anonymous gossip about their peers, which is then rated as ‘true’ or ‘false’ by other users of the site, has exploded in popularity among Britain’s pupils in the past month.

Perhaps surprisingly, it is pupils from the supposedly more illustrious institutions that appear to be the most enthusiastic users of the website. Many of the comments on LittleGossip.com are obscene, while others are homophobic or threatening.

In one post, a student at Eton made the following barely literate contribution about a peer: ‘mate your a ******* wannabe, u spend all of dads cash on your drug addiction.’

Another pupil at Emanuel School in Battersea, South London, wrote of a girl at the school: ‘****** is working her way through the boys, but unfortunately hasn’t made any girl friends along the way, what will she do when she runs out of boys? And who is her next target?’

Comments made on the site are so often obscene that 10 per cent of posts submitted to the site are reported by users for deletion. Parents and headteachers are furious their pupils are so freely spreading hurtful rumours about each other.

Charlotte Macleod, the mother of four children at The Harrodian School, in Barnes, South West London, said: ‘What chills me is the viciousness of these unmoderated and anonymous posts. My 15-year-old daughter’s friends are being mocked, sneered at and goaded. True or false, these personal and sexual taunts are universally available online.’

Teachers at James Allen’s Girls’ School in Dulwich, South East London, were alerted to the site by a parent last Thursday. They have since banned students from using it.

The school’s headteacher Marion Gibbs said: ‘I’m just so angry that this vehicle for cyber-bullying exists. I can’t imagine what kind of person wants to set up a site like this. It must be some kind of sick person.’

At Tormead School for girls in Guildford, Surrey, the site has become such a problem among the girls in Year 7 that the headteacher, Christina Foord, is threatening recriminations to any student found to have used it inappropriately.

In a letter sent to parents last night, she wrote: ‘Last Friday, my attention was brought to a social website www.littlegossip.com. This site invites comments about others and also offers the opportunity to agree or disagree with the comments. Whilst some are posted in defence of those being attacked the majority are both deeply unkind and offensive.

‘A significant number of girls are being drawn into using this site… We will act in school in January if we are able to discover any girl who is bullying in this manner.’

The site has also been slammed by the National Union of Teachers, who accuse the site’s creators of creating a ‘vehicle for cyber-bullying’.

LittleGossip.com was created by web developers in Belize, Central America, but pupils from around the world can select which country they live in and which school they attend – so peers can easily see the relevant messages.

The site was launched in the UK in November and its popularity increased as teenagers spread word of it via other social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Under pressure from schools, report buttons were added next to posts so that users can hide offensive content. The site is officially now supposed to be accessed only by adults, although its safeguards can be bypassed very easily.

LittleGossip claims the site was launched ‘to encourage deep, meaningful conversation’. A spokesman said: ‘A major aim for us is we want to eradicate the hurtful and offensive gossip that is posted by individuals completely and give our users more moderation over content submitted.’

Merry Tweetmas!

It's the one day of the year that they can forget about their celebrity duties and relax at home with their families. But for some famous faces, Christmas wasn't complete this year without an online update of their Yuletide comings and goings.

Some, including Jonathan Ross, just wanted to offer their best Christmas wishes to their fans and followers. Others, such as Dannii and Kylie Minogue wanted to post a video message to everyone.

And some celebrities just wanted to show off their families and where they would be eating their turkey feast, just like Gordon Ramsay. The celebrity chef and his family spent the day touring round some of his restaurants to visit his staff before stopping at Claridge's for their Christmas dinner.

They started at the Savoy Grill where Ramsay posed with the kitchen staff for a picture to Tweet. He wrote: 'Merry Christmas from all the amazing team @ The Savoy Grill , lunch is about to start xxx'

Then it was on to the York & Albany, his restaurant in Camden and where his children - daughters Megan, 12, Matilda, eight, and ten-year-old twins Jack and Holly - posed with Santa Claus, with Ramsay writing: 'Kids with Santa @ The York&Albany , there slightly miffed he's so fat , and sounds Australian ! X'

It was then on to Claridge's where his wife Tana took a picture of him and the children with the chefs which he posted and wrote with it: 'Just arrived @ Claridges for lunch and the Chefs Table is in full flow ! Can't wait to start eating.'

Meanwhile, TV host Jonathan Ross got wife Jane Goldman to take a picture of him and his puppy Snowball and wrote: 'Here's a Christmas pic of Professor Snowball and me. Happy Holidays! Big love to Pagans, Jedward fans and all the Little Gaga Monsters x'

Pop star Kylie and her X Factor judge sister Dannii Minogue treated their faithful followers to a video message in which they sent their Christmas love, Kylie from London and Dannii from Melbourne.

Looking stunning in the sun a red halterneck, Dannii wrote: 'Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas all the way from sunny Melbourne! See you in the new year. Love and kisses Dx.'

And Kylie, who sent a message that saw her blowing kisses from a Christmas tree bauble wrote: '*MeRrY ChRiStMaS* everyone at home in OZ!!!!! Miss you, kiss you!! Love Kylie xxx'

Former model Gail Porter posted a very Disney photo of her daughter Honey with her Toy Story toys and A Muppets Christmas Carol and wrote: 'Now that's what I call Christmas. With extra sunrays. X'

And pregnant TV presenter Myleene Klass set her followers' pulses racing when she posed for a picture in a strapless red dress and a Santa hat.

Describing her Christmas day with three-year-old daughter Ava and partner Graham Quinn, Klass said: 'Gray and I scrambling around looking for batteries, building a dolls house and eating Santa's mince pies. Merry Xmas everyone...

'Before I fall into my food coma, I hope you're all having a wonderful Xmas with your families.'

Enjoying their first Christmas as a mother was model Danielle Lloyd and reality TV star Chanelle Hayes.Both Lloyd and Hayes posted photos of themselves cuddling their respective sons, Archie and Blakely. Celebrity Big Brother star Lloyd dressed her five-month-old son in a cute Santa Claus costume, while Hayes posed surrounded by presents with her little boy.

She wrote on Twitter: 'Merry Christmas everybody!! This is my first Christmas with my own little family. Christmas with my boys!! So happy and blessed.' The Saturdays singer Frankie Sandford showed off her reindeer earrings as she spent Christmas with her family at home in Essex.

A Merry Christmas for Facebook

Facebook was Britain's most popular site on Christmas Day, beating Google for the first time. Traffic to the social networking site accounted for 10.50 per cent of all UK Internet visits, while the figure for google.co.uk was 9.77 per cent.

In March this year, Facebook beat Google to become America's most visited website, receiving received 7.97 per cent of all internet traffic while Google was just behind with 7.03 per cent.

Facebook was first started by a group of students at Harvard University including multi-millionaire Mark Zuckerberg just four years ago and now boasts more than 400million users worldwide.

It reached the Number 1 ranking on Christmas Day as users rushed to their computers to communicate online with friends and family. However, the social network is unlikely to maintain its position, according to Robin Goad of Experian Hitwise Data.

'Facebook has a very similar share of the social networking markets in both the UK and US (51.9 per cent and 51.3 per cent respectively last week), but social networking is slight more popular in the US, so Facebook’s share of all Internet visits is higher in there,' he explained.

He added that Google has a larger share of search market in the UK (over 90 per cent) than in the US (just over 70 per cent), and search engines as a category are also more popular on this side of the Atlantic.

6 Surefire Ways To Piss Off Facebook Fans

Be good to your Facebook fans, who can click “unlike” almost as easily as they liked you in the first place. It’s harder work to keep them happy than you might think at first — that’s why large brands and big celebrities often have more than one administrator moderating wall posts.

No matter what size you are, there are universal no-nos to avoid if you want to keep your community happy. Here’s six surefire ways to piss people off on Facebook:

Carelessly sell your fan list to third parties

Companies have been selling their customer lists to marketers for almost as long as they’ve been able to gather those lists, but the online version of this has more potential for controversy. Like the flak the Phoenix Suns basketball team is getting for selling its list of more than 225,000 Facebook fans for a mere $7,000 per buyer. Teams have done this sort of thing offline for years without anyone batting an eyelash, and it was harder for people to find out about these dealings. Online, either ask your fans if it’s okay to share their data with relevant partners or find other ways to monetize that customer list.

Allow posters on your wall to moderate each other

You take your customers for granted when you presume they will only post nice things about you, and that good samaritans will rebut any negative comments. There are always jokers who want to test whatever rules of conduct govern any online environment, and that’s why so companies hire community managers and the like. A bad thread that spins out of control can wreak damage well beyond the scope of a Facebook wall. We’ve seen stock prices fall during the 48 hours surrounding a bad wall incident. That cost justifies the salary(ies) of whoever you need to hire to not only watch your wall around the clock but also to create and enforce policies on when to intervene in conversations.

Use malware or let others post it on your wall

What you think of as customer profiling software might be perceived as malware by your customers. If any of the code on your page forces a download onto your fans’ computers or gathers data about their online doings without them knowing, stop right there. Eventually the security vendors that have swooped on to Facebook will catch up with you and flag your page as being buggy. The bad vibes a security alert will sow among your fans far outweighs any benefits you might reap from secretly gathering their data with the bot du jour.

Don’t disclose what you use customer data for, and don’t let them opt out

There’s nothing wrong with gathering customer data as long as you tell them you’re doing that and explain what the information will be used for. Your fans will appreciate your candor and integrity if you are upfront about things — act like a friend who wants to get to know them better in an honest way, and give them the option of saying “no” to your requests.

Don’t apologize for mistakes, and tell lies to explain errors

We all make mistakes, but admitting to them is hard to do, especially when it’s in a public arena. However, you’ll look better if you honestly acknowledge your error wherever you made it. Apologies work best if you back them up with a sincere effort to make things good. If you apologize and then offer a lie to explain what happened, that will backfire. Facebook fans have an uncanny ability to find out the truth and then broadcast it to all to of their friends, and that will make you look much worse than the original error.

Don’t use audience measurement tools

Sure, fans can’t tell whether you’re using audience measurement tools so the cause-and-effect is more subtle, spread out over a longer time horizon than the other things we’ve listed so far. Without this genre of software, it’s harder to tell how your posts are received by people looking at your page. And there’s really no such thing as being too small of an administatror to afford these applications: the vendors have tiered pricing that usually includes a free starter version, so you can start with that and upgrade when you get bigger.

Miley Cyrus Sex Tape Hoax Spreading On Facebook

In the latest installment of “Watch your most beloved/hated pop star do nasty things by clicking on this Facebook link!”, an alleged Miley Cyrus sex tape is circulating on Facebook, but the whole thing is (surprise!) a scam. Let us know if you’ve seen this on your News Feed.

In October, it was a supposed sex tape involving Lindsey Lohan which got people rsvp-ing to events that would link them to the video; of course, in reality the whole thing was about making you complete sale forms online, and the video didn’t exist. Then, it was Justin Bieber’s turn, and the promise to see the teen pop star during a “happy” moment actually spread spam and malware to your Facebook friends.
 


Now, it appears that a new scam is spreading on Facebook, though we still have to see it materialize in our News Feeds. According to Sophos, a status update that goes, “omg Miley Cyrus sex tape [plus link]” is taking over some legitimate Facebook user accounts. It is unclear how the users’ accounts are being compromised at the moment, although the website that the link takes you to is obviously malignant. Do not click on it!
Have you seen this on your page/news feed?

 We’ll keep updating as new information becomes available. While you wait, you can always watch this video of Miley partying in the USA while taking a bong hit on her 18th birthday. That video is real.

ALERT: Yet Another Video Spam Attack Hits Facebook

Don’t click on any wall posts or news feed items saying “This video should have millions of views” unless you enjoy spamming all your friends on Facebook.

 The words “OMG OMG see this video… WOW!” likely bear no resemblance to the actual writing style of the friend whose account spams out this posting to your wall. If you click on the video link, you’ll spam everyone else on your contact list with the same message that doesn’t sound like something you’d say either. Clicking on the play icon pops up the following window, courtesy of our friends at Most Viral Media:

If you complete the security check shown above, you’ll get to see a video that you might not think deserves millions of views. We know you’re curious to see it anyway, so only if you don’t mind Whitney Houston’s “And I Will Always Love You,” click here to see the footage on the spammer’s Facebook page.
We noticed that only 5,061 people “like” the video as of this writing, not the millions implied by the spam postings. Five grand is actually a lot considering how boring this footage is compared to others that have been spammed around.
Fortunately, we can’t see any kind of techie damage done by this spam campaign, so the whole thing appears to be someone’s desire for four minutes and five seconds of fame. That’s how long the video takes.

Facebook May Pull $2 Billion In Revenues This Year

Your participation on Facebook may generate two bucks in revenue for the company this year, more than expected.

Facebook could pull in $2 billion of revenue this year, better than previous projections, according to three different conversations that Bloomberg BusinessWeek had off the record.

Ad sales may more than double this year compared to last year’s. That certainly jibes with the growth in users of the site, given how the 600 million mark appears imminent.

The company previously expected revenues of $1.5 billion in 2010, double the roughly $750 million that came in during 2009.  But if this year’s take comes in higher than previously expected, Facebook will have hit the $2 billion mark faster than Yahoo and at almost the same pace as Google.
Yahoo reached that revenue milestone in its ninth year, while Google did it roughly between years five and six. Facebook got started in 2004.

Facebook has been gaining market share in display ads, and may have 9.4 percent of it in the U.S. this year, compared to 6.6 percent last year, based on estimates from EMarketer Inc.

You might already know that that this type of ad isn’t synonymous with search ads, which gives context to the following comparisons.

Yahoo will have dropped to 16.2 percent of the display ad market this year, from 16.5 percent in 2009. Google may close the year with 6.7 percent of the display ad market, up from 4.7 percent in 2009, according to EMarketer.

These statistics might not explain the increase in Facebook’s revenues for the year, assuming that whatever Bloomberg heard off the record bears fruit. The social network may be employing a tactic more common among publicly held companies: Set lower expectations of revenues or earnings so that you can beat them and then impress investors. This might make more sense given how hot the company’s shares are on SecondMarket.

Boy Who Weeps BLOOD

These are the shocking new pictures of the boy who weeps blood. Calvino Inman, 17, has been suffering from the mysterious condition for two years and doctors remain clueless as to how to stem the flow of bleeding, which can last up to an hour at a time.

But a documentary which will be shown tomorrow night on American television explores the phenomenon, experienced by only a handful of people around the world. Mr Inman, from Knoxville, Tennessee, is shown undergoing tests to investigate whether a medical issue such as a tumour, tear duct problems, or a genetic defect is causing the bleeding.

He said: 'People still call me possessed. The bleeding happens all the time, at school, at home and in the night.

‘I don’t usually know when they’re going to happen but sometimes it burns as it’s coming out.

‘Sometimes I don’t even know it’s happened until people start staring at me.

'But afterwards I feel like someone is hitting the left side of my head with a hammer.

‘I can’t sleep at night. I just lie there awake with the light out for hours.’

His anxious mother, Tammy Mynatt, said: 'We feel like the doctors have run out of ideas.

‘We’ve been to see about 15 specialists from New York to Memphis to Atlanta. It’s so frustrating to see my boy suffer like this.;

The distraught 35-year-old is now appealing to overseas doctors to help.

‘I just pray that someone out there knows how to help him,’ she added.

The Boy With Bloody Tears, which appears on The Learning Channel (TLC), also features the bizarre case of a mum of three from Patna, India, whose tears of blood also leave her extremely weak and ill. Rashida Begum, 27, began crying blood from her eyes three years ago, after a severe bout of vomiting and painful headaches.

Her doting husband Mohammed Aslam, 40, who married her against the wishes of his family, cares for her at their home, and helps look after their children Mohammed Adil, 10, Tehseen, eight, and five-year-old Asifa. As Miss Begum’s mystery illness intensified her husband was forced to quit his £5 a day job to care for his wife.

He said: ‘I just want her to be OK, I want our kids to study, I want all this to go away and I want us to be normal again.

‘We have tried everything, we have been to every doctor in Patna. We even spent 40 days praying at a shrine.’

But the documentary offers new hope for Miss Begum as she is referred to experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. After numerous tests the doctors finally believe they have uncovered the mystery which links Miss Begum’s strange bleeding to her painful and disabling stomach problem.

'I'm so grateful to the doctors for trying to help me,' she said. 'I cannot cope with the terrible bleeding any longer.'

Meanwhile, back in Tennessee Inman's doctor is exploring links to other unexplained bleeding cases in the U.S.. Dr John Fleming, of the Hamilton Eye Institute in Memphis, said: 'We usually find a reason for the bleeding, such as a growth or an infected tear duct.

'We have seen individuals who suffer from bleeding for months and years and then it suddenly stops.'

Facebook Intern Maps World via Online 'Friends'

 

 A map showing Facebook connections around the world.

A Facebook intern interested in seeing how political borders affect friendships around the globe has created a map of the world by sampling data from the social network's 500 million user base.

The map displays friendships as lights on a deep blue background. The eastern half of the United States and Europe shine the brightest, while China, Russia and central Africa, where Facebook has little presence, are mainly dark.

"I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends," said Paul Butler, an intern on Facebook's data infrastructure engineering team.

"I wanted a visualisation that would show which cities had a lot of friendships between them."

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Granted Bail but Sent back to Prison

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains in a British jail after the Swedish authorities appealed against a decision to grant him bail. The whistleblower was handed his freedom by a judge after supporters agreed to post a £200,000 cash deposit.

But in chaotic scenes the decision was overridden two hours later when Swedish prosecutors said they would challenge the decision. As a result the 39-year-old Australian returned to Wandsworth prison, in south west London, where he is being held in solitary confinement.

He will appear at the High Court within 48 hours where a more senior judge will consider the appeal and whether to overturn the bail decision. Speaking on the steps of City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court, his lawyer Mark Stephens attacked the Swedish authorities.

He said: ‘Finally, after two hours we have heard that the Swedes will not abide with the umpire’s decision and they want to put Mr Assange through yet more trouble, more expense and more hurdles.

‘They clearly will not spare any expense to keep Mr Assange in jail. This is really turning into a show trial.’

Asked how Assange, who earlier gave a thumbs up to photographers from a prison van window, reacted to the news, Mr Stephens said: ‘He is phlegmatic.’

The whistleblower is wanted in Sweden over claims he sexually assaulted two women during a visit to Stockholm in August. But his supporters claim the criminal inquiry and extradition request is unfair and politically motivated.

The former computer hacker is behind the release of hundreds of United States diplomatic cables that have caused global uproar. Assange was denied bail at his first court appearance one week ago on the grounds he could flee the country.

The decision to appeal was the final twist in a day of extraordinary drama in the mundane setting of the Westminster courthouse. Supporters and journalists queued for hours to win tickets to court number one where Assange was due to appear at 2pm.

Meanwhile hundreds of protesters besieged the building, chanting for Assange to be released and attacking the authorities in Sweden and United States. High-profile supporters including socialite Jemima Khan, novelist Tariq Ali, campaigner Bianca Jagger and film-maker Ken Loach all offered sureties.

They were joined by veteran journalist John Pilger, gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and Frontline Club founder Vaughan Smith. Others who had pledged support and were waiting in the wings included author Hanif Kureishi and filmmaker Michael Moore.

Assange, wearing a black suit and white shirt, waved to his lawyer as he arrived in the packed courtroom where some were sat on the floor. Lawyer Gemma Lindfield, on behalf of the Swedish authorities, said ‘nothing has changed’ and Assange remains a ‘flight risk’.

But after an hour-long hearing Judge Howard Riddle disagreed and granted Assange bail on the condition he deposited £200,000 in cash at the court. He also ordered that a further two sureties were given, each to the value of £20,000, and imposed a string of strict bail conditions.

These included that Assange is electronically tagged and lives at Ellingham Hall near Bungay in Suffolk, a property in 600 acres of private grounds. The estate is owned by Mr Smith, who served in the British Army before setting up the journalists’ club in Paddington.

The Australian must also leave his passport with police, observe a curfew and report to a police station every day. Speaking after the hearing Assange’s mother, Christine, said: ‘I am very happy with the judge’s decision and I thank you all so much for supporting Julian.’

Bianca Jagger, who attended in her capacity as a human rights campaigner, confirmed after the hearing that she had not provided any money.

'I am very concerned that this case is becoming politicised,' she told the media.

'If there are valid accusations against him then let them be heard.

'I don't agree with everything he has done but the most important thing in law is justice, due process and freedom of expression.'

Film director Ken Loach said: 'If the Swedish government oppose bail it will show there is some vindictive element beyond this case.'

Socialite Jemima Khan, who earlier offered a surety on behalf of Assange, said: 'It's great news. I can hear them all cheering outside.'

Prior to yesterday's hearing Michael Moore had called for supporters to attend a demonstration outside court. It said: 'If you're reading this in London, please go support Julian Assange and WikiLeaks at a demonstration at 1pm today, Tuesday the 14th, in front of the Westminster court.'

Many people took up the invitation and protested outside the court with banners and signs, while some even brandished copies of the current edition of Time Magazine, which features Assange on its cover.

The scene outside the court was controlled bedlam as the protesters and police mixed with international media. The crowds made the small, staired entrance to the court almost impassable.

Dozens of police officers corralled a vocal and diverse protest behind metal fencing on the other side of the road. A squad of officers helped celebrity Jemima Khan as she walked into court amid chaotic scenes to again offer a cash surety, as was the case with veteran journalist and campaigner John Pilger.

Among those leading the protest were gay rights activist Peter Tatchell and Lindsey German of the Stop the War campaign group. Some demonstrators wore masks representing comic book hero V, from V for Vendetta, and others used scarves to conceal their identity.

Many carried placards mocking the British and Swedish authorities as well as black and white images of Assange. One read: 'Sweden, puppets of the US', another said 'There is something rotten in the state of Sweden' and many said 'Exposing war crimes is not a crime'.

Others gave out leaflets campaigning for an end to the 'unfair' European Arrest Warrant and outlining support for the free flow of information. As the man himself arrived in a prison van photographers rushed to the side of the van to snap pictures of him through the windows, resulting in the image above.

As that picture shows, being in custody is no bar to Assange getting messages out through the media. Earlier yesterday he backed the cyber attacks on Visa, Mastercard and PayPal from his prison cell, branding the companies 'instruments of U.S. foreign policy'.

He gave a written statement to his mother, Christine, when she visited him in London where he is in custody fighting extradition to Sweden for alleged sex offences.

Internet activists launched 'Operation Payback' to avenge WikiLeaks against those perceived to have obstructed its operations by refusing to process payments to the website.

The campaign temporarily brought down the websites of credit card firms Visa and MasterCard, as well as that of PayPal and the Swedish government, last week. Assange's statement said: 'We now know that Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and others are instruments of U.S. foreign policy.

'It's not something we knew before.

'I am calling for the world to protect my work and my people from these illegal and immoral attacks.'      

The statement was a response to a request from an Australian TV network who asked Christine Assange to put one question to her son during her visit; 'Was it worth it?'

'My convictions are unfaltering,' Assange's statement continued.

'I remain true to the ideals I have expressed. This circumstance shall not shake them.

'If anything this process has increased my determination that they are true and correct.'

Christine Assange defended her son and said both were heartened by international support for him.

'I told him how people from all over the world, all sorts of countries were standing up with placards and screaming out for his freedom and justice and he was very heartened by that,' she said.

'As a mother I am asking the world to stand up for my brave son.'

The former hacker has provoked fury among international governments with his disclosure of 250,000 secret U.S. cables obtained by WikiLeaks.

Assange was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers during a stay in Sweden and turned himself in to Scotland Yard detectives last week.

He denies the allegations, which include rape and molestation in one case and molestation and unlawful coercion in a second, which he has said stem from a dispute over 'consensual but unprotected sex'.

His legal team has claimed Swedish prosecutors have been put under political pressure to restart their inquiry to help silence and discredit Assange. The decision to remand him in custody came despite the offer of a £180,000 surety - from backers including John Pilger, Jemima Khan and Ken Loach - on the grounds there was a risk Assange would fail to surrender.

For his second director Michael Moore revealed his support by posting his witness statement to the court, offering $20,000 in surety, on his website, along with a detailed explanation of his reasons for doing so. He described Assange as 'a pioneer of free speech, transparent government and the digital revolution in journalism.'

Assange and his lawyers have voiced fears that U.S. prosecutors may be preparing to indict him for espionage after the WikiLeaks website published the secret U.S. documents.

Senior politicians have said WikiLeaks has jeopardised United States national security and diplomatic efforts around the world. According to his lawyer, Assange has not been handed any of his mail since he was jailed, with even his legal letters failing to reach him.

Mark Stephens, who is representing him, said: 'Many hundreds of people have written to him and the authorities at Wandsworth Prison have not yet given him his letters, including legal letters.'

The only letter to reach him during the week he has spent in the prison's segregation unit was a slip telling him that a copy of Time magazine sent to him had been destroyed as the cover bore his photo, Mr Stephens said.

'He has absolutely no access to any electronic equipment, no access to the outside world, no access to outside media,' he said.

'Time magazine sent him a copy of their most recent edition with a compliments slip. The prison destroyed the whole magazine.'

The American news publication pictured Assange on the front with an image of the U.S. stars and stripes flag gagging him. The former hacker has been on 23.5-hours-a-day 'lockdown' in the south west London prison, taking his meals in his cell, his lawyer said.

He is kept under surveillance on infrared video. A prison source said Assange was being treated like any other inmate held in the segregation unit, which is where he had requested to be.

The case has become an international cause celebre as governments weigh up the damage to their reputations with the right to freedom of speech. Around 15 supporters of the Justice for Assange Campaign gathered outside the Swedish Embassy in central London yesterday, wearing masks bearing Assange's face and gagging themselves with US flags.

Slogans on their banners included 'political prisoner', 'gagging the truth' and 'honey trapped in Sweden'. The London-based campaign group was set up by a group of media workers after Assange was arrested.

Documentary film-maker Sharon Ward said: 'We felt we had to do something. We owe a lot to what WikiLeaks are doing today.'

She claimed that the U.S. was behind the arrest, and was concerned that it could result in Assange facing charges there.

'I do think it's politically motivated and I think they are just trying to get hold of him any way they can,' she said.

'It's quite well documented that the U.S. are desperately trying to invent charges for him.'

She added: 'I think back-door extradition is going to happen here.'

A ComRes poll for CNN found more than four out of 10 British people (44 per cent) believe the charges are an excuse to get Assange into custody so the Americans can prosecute him for releasing secret diplomatic papers. The same percentage said they believed he should be sent to Sweden to face questioning when ComRes interviewed 2010 adults online between December 10 and 13.

Mr Stephens warned it could still take an ‘inordinate’ length of time to get the bail money together and joked that his client could hardly use Visa or Mastercard. The payment giants have joined a raft of international companies, including Amazon’s web services and PayPal, who have suspended their support of WikiLeaks.

Warning the extradition process could take ‘many years’, Mr Stephens said: ‘Until then we have an innocent man in Dickensian, Victorian conditions in Wandsworth jail.’

Mr Stephens branded the bail conditions ‘Orwellian’ and said he would ask to relax them at a later date and said his client could not speak to other prisoners at Wandsworth Prison and was locked up for 23 hours a day.

He added that mail was not getting through and a copy of Time magazine featuring Assange was ‘ripped up by the censors’ and he was only given an empty envelope.

Mr Smith said: ‘The Julian Assange I know has a number of qualities: he’s a very honourable person, hugely courageous, self-deprecatory - none of the things you read about.’

Assange's court appearance came as the latest WikiLeaks releases revealed U.S. concerns that the UK was struggling to cope with homegrown extremism in the wake of the July 7 bomb attacks in London.

They also revealed that British police helped 'develop' evidence against Madeleine McCann's parents as they were investigated by Portuguese authorities looking into their daughter's disappearance.

Another Side to Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has always advocated complete transparency, but now he's learning exactly what that entails.

Journalists have been poring over the details of Mr Assange's life since his arrest in London - Germany's biggest news and current affairs magazine Stern has 15 reporters digging into every aspect of his life for a feature article - and now cyber sleuths have uncovered his cocky internet dating and couchsurfing.com profiles.

"Passionate, and often pig headed activist intellectual seeks siren for love affair, children and occasional criminal conspiracy," he writes in his dating profile on the OkCupid website under the alter ego "Harry Harrison".

"Such a woman should be spirited and playful, of high intelligence, though not necessarily formally educated, have spunk, class and inner strength and be able to think strategically about the world and the people she cares about."

Dormant since just after WikiLeaks launched at the end of 2006, the profile contains several brooding photos of Mr Assange alongside his stated desire to meet "women from countries that have sustained political turmoil". Western women, he writes, are "valueless and inane".

Following immense media interest over the past few days, the profile has been restricted so that only OkCupid members can view it. Mr Assange has copped some ridicule for confessing to being "87% slut" and writing that the most private thing he is willing to admit is: "I have asian teengirl stalkers."

Some have debated the authenticity of the dating profile but, considering it was created well before Mr Assange became famous, and contains several photographs of Mr Assange that haven't previously been released, it appears to be legitimate.

OkCupid founder Sam Yagan told Mashable the "last login" details led him to believe the profile was legitimate "because it would have required someone four years ago to have foreseen that this would have been an interesting thing to do".

Web sleuths have also uncovered what appears to be Mr Assange's profile on CouchSurfing.com, a site where travellers can meet hosts who are happy to let them sleep on their couches. The "HarryHarrison" profile, also viewable only to members of the site, appears to have been created about the same time as the OkCupid profile and was last accessed in Budapest in July 2008.

On the CouchSurfing profile Mr Assange lists his occupation as "investigative journalist/rabble rouser" and says he grew up in a "theatre family" so was "always on tour".

He describes himself as a "grown up enfant terrible" and says he has seen or done "attempted assassinations in Africa", "telephone taps in Australia", "election rigging", "Russian mafia" and "politicians' wives".

Mr Assange received top reviews from fellow CouchSurfers with one saying there is "hardly anyone more interesting than him" and another writing the he is "eloquent, intellectual, enjoyable, open". However, the latter adds that she had the impression Mr Assange "lost the understanding of some basic rules of politeness on the way. But if you tell the hacker not to hack in real terms, he will understand and respect it".

On the dating profile Mr Assange lists his location as Melbourne, says he drinks "socially" but never does drugs, doesn't smoke and is an atheist.

While Sweden wants to question him over sexual misconduct allegations, Mr Assange says on his profile that, although he is "pretty intellectually and physically pugnacious", he is "very protective of women and children". However, strangely, he signs off his self-summary with the words "I am danger, achtung".

Mr Assange explains further down that he is directing a "consuming, dangerous human rights project" that is male dominated. He describes himself as being involved in international journalism/books, documentaries, cryptography, intelligence agencies, civil rights, political activism, white collar crime and the internet.

"Often carrying mystery brown paper packages tied up with strings; these are a few of my first things," he writes in an apparent allusion to the song made famous in The Sound of Music.

As one might expect, Mr Assange spends a lot of time thinking about "changing the world through passion, inspiration and trickery".

But he definitely knows what he's looking for, telling prospective mates not to write to him if they are timid ("I am too busy") and that he's after "a spirited, erotic, non-comformist".

The World's Oldest Facebooker

Great grandmother Lillian Lowe today claimed she is the world's oldest Facebook user at 103 - and she updates her status from her iPad. Cyber centenarian signed up for the website to keep track of what her seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren are up to.

Just two months away from her 104th birthday, the family of young-at-heart Lillian believe she is the oldest of the social networking website's 500 million users around the world.

The pensioner is thought to have taken the crown of oldest Facebook user from 104-year-old Ivy Bean who died in her sleep in July.

Lillian said today that she is a big fan of the social-networking site.

'I love it - it is very exciting. It's a wonderful way of finding out about things. But I must say it's a dreadful waste of time. I'm sure there are lots of other things I should be doing rather than playing on a computer.

'I have been on Facebook for a few weeks now, some of the grandchildren do get up to some antics.

'I have seen a few things over the years, so nothing really shocks me these days anyway.

'I go on the Facebook about twice a week, I have about 30 friends at the moment so there's quite a lot to catch up on. At the moment I use my grandson's iPad but I am very hopeful to get one of my own, there are some great new models out at the moment.'

The retired hotelier and businesswoman uses her grandson's iPad to get on the internet. She has 34 Facebook 'friends' - and her most active one is her great grand-daughter Kaylee Lowe, 10.

Lillian, from Tenby, Pembrokeshire, south Wales, said it was 'just lovely' seeing her latest photographs and messages every time she logs on.

She said: 'I can recommend it for any grandparents to keep in touch with their family with ringing all the time.'

Lillian was born in 1907 when Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was Britain's Prime Minister - and she can still remember the news of the Titanic sinking in 1912.

The great-grandmother - dubbed Supergran by her family - was already at school when the First World War started and was 12 before she had a radio in her house.

Lillian said: 'I think virtually everything has been invented during my time. What I particularly like now is this Google Earth.

'When I was 84, I visited Australia with my young sister Mary, who will be 100 next year.

'We had a lovely trip, so yesterday I took myself off have a look at the Swan River.

'I've always read a lot during my life, and this computer has just taken the place of a book.'

Her grandson Steve set Lillian up with her Facebook account - and gave her his iPad to use.

Tenby RNLI mechanic Steve said: 'Lillian is incredible, she has an amazing memory and loves to keep in touch with what everyone is doing.

'I even went round the other day and she told me Microsoft had brought out a new touchpad computer she quite liked, she is dropping hints I think for her own.

'At the moment she has about 30 friends and she likes to check the news feed, she loved a video we did of one her great-grandchildren dancing in front of the TV.

'Now and again, she might raise an eyebrow at a few of the teenage antics she sees on Facebook, but she's pretty broad-shouldered and takes it all in her stride.'

Ivy Bean, 104, was the previous oldest Twitter and Facebook user. The OAP, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, became a friend of pop singer Peter Andre online and he was regularly in touch with her care home before her death.

Gordon Brown's wife Sarah led the tributes to Mrs Bean who had clocked up an astonishing 56,300 followers on Twitter, and another 5,000 on Facebook.

After Becoming One of The Richest Men on The Planet

He has already become one of the richest and most generous men on the planet. Now Mark Zuckerberg has gone one better and become the most influential of them all after being named TIME magazine’s Person of the Year.

The 26-year-old became the second-youngest person ever to receive the award due to the impact of Facebook, the social networking website he founded.

More than 500million people, or one in twelve of the world’s population, are now members to the point where it has ‘merged with the fabric of human life’, TIME’s editors say.

Facebook has such an incredible reach over human beings it now affects us ‘on a species-wide scale,’ they say.

In second place on the list was the Tea Party movement which has tightened its grip on American politics and helped turn the tide against Democrats in the U.S. mid-term elections.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was in third due to the US embassy cables which have caused a colossal diplomatic storm, followed by Afghan president Hamid Karzai despite lingering concerns he is ‘vain, incompetent and monumentally corrupt’, as TIME puts it.

Rounding off the winners were all 33 of the Chilean miners whose incredible tale of survival inspired the world.

In their awards, TIME’s editors write: ‘In less than seven years, Zuckerberg wired together a twelfth of humanity into a single network, thereby creating a social entity almost twice as large as the U.S.

‘If Facebook were a country it would be the third largest, behind only China and India. It started out as a lark, a diversion, but it has turned into something real, something that has changed the way human beings relate to one another on a species-wide scale.’

Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel added: ‘It’s something that is transforming the way we live our lives every day. It’s social engineering, changing the way we relate to each other.’

Time’s annual award is decided by the magazine’s editors for the person who ‘for better or for worse, ...has done the most to influence the events of the year’.

Previous winners have included Adolf Hitler in 1938, John F Kennedy in 1961, the computer in 1982 and Barack Obama in 2008.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh was named TIME’s very first Man of the Year back in 1927 when he was only 25, making him the youngest ever to receive the award.

The third-youngest was Queen Elizabeth back in 1952 when she was 26, the year she assumed the throne.

It has already been quite a year for Zuckerberg - according to Forbes magazine his fortune passed £4.4billion making him the 35th richest American, ahead of Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Despite his youth he has also signed up to The Giving Pledge, a commitment by dozens of American billionaires to give away at last 50% of everything they own.

On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg wrote: ‘Being named as TIME Person of the Year is a real honour and recognition of how our little team is building something that hundreds of millions of people want to use to make the world more open and connected.

‘I'm happy to be a part of that.’

In a separate poll readers of TIME had only put him at 10th most important behind Mr Assange in first place, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in second and Lady Gaga in third.

David Cameron had made the short list for Person of the Year but was not among those to make the final cut.

How Far Wikileaks Affected Indonesia-China Relations

Wikileaks revelations referring to Indonesia and China so far have not disturbed bilateral relations between the two countries, a government spokesman said.   

"So far there has been no crucial information (released by Wikileaks) that needs to be responded to because Indonesia’s relations with China remain good," presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin Pasha said here on Thursday.   



Julian made the statement after accompanying President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at a ceremony marking the graduation of Police Academy cadets here. The most important thing at present, according to Julian, was to maintain  good communication between the Indonesian government and a number of countries which were mentioned in the documents disclosed by Wikileaks.

"We believe the governments of Indonesia and China continue to maintain direct and friendly communication," Julian said.  Meanwhile,  Communications and Informatics Minister Tifatul Sembiring said in Jakarta recently that the controversial Wikileaks revelations contained  3,059 data about Indonesia.    

"We found  3,059 data about Indonesia in the Wikileaks site  after I was asked by the Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs to monitor it," Tifatul Sembiring said.    

He said his ministry was still collecting more data about Indonesia but it would take some more time as the Wikileaks site was releasing it piecemeal, he said. The ministry should continue monitoring the Wikileaks site although the data about Indonesia was  small in number compared to the 250,000 data it is reported to have on many countries in the world,  he said.    

Among the data the ministry had already gleaned from the Wilkileaks site so far was  about the J.W Marriot bombing incidents, unrest in Papua, and the Indonesian military, he said. Previously, Tifatul and Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa had been instructed by Coordinating Minister for  Political, Legal and Security Affairs Joko Suyanto to access the Wilkileaks site and monitor any information it was disclosing about Indonesia.

Terrorist Caught Through Facebook Sting Operation

Gathering evidence on Facebook has become standard legal practice, so a social sting operation was bound to happen. That’s how the Federal Bureau of Investigation caught a would-be terrorist in Baltimore.

An FBI informer made the initial contact with 21-year-old Antonio Martinez after he posted publicly on Facebook about his desire for jihad earlier this fall, according to AFP.
AFP cited a prepared statement by the U.S. Justice Department:

An affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint alleges that on September 29, 2010, Martinez publicly posted on his Facebook account a statement calling for violence to stop the oppression of Muslims, and that on Oct. 1, 2010, he publicly posted a message stating that he hates any person who opposes Allah and his prophet.

The FBI set Martinez up with a fake car bomb, and then apprehended him when he was about to set it off remotely. He’d rigged the faux explosive in a vehicle parked just outside of a U.S. military recruitment office in a suburban Maryland shopping mall.
Martinez was charged with attempting to murder federal officers and employees, along with the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction on government property.  He faces possible life in prison for these charges, and is being held in custody until a court hearing scheduled for Monday.
The timing of all this — officials were able to nab this suspect within six weeks of his jihad-seeking post on Facebook — appears brisk compared to the pace of other sting operations. The case may set an example for future continued use of the social network for stings.
Readers, what do you think about the advent of sting operations on Facebook? What effect might this have on the community?

New App Takes Facebook Profile Customization To The Next Level

When Facebook launched their new profile design, users suddenly had a new way to customize their Facebook profile. Now, application developers have noticed the new feature and we’ve now seen the first profile customization application.

“Profile Banner” is the first, in what I’m sure will be a large number of new applications that enable users to customize their Facebook profiles by modifying the images at the top of the new profile design. The application, which can be found here, provides users with a number of banner images which with one click, will be posted to their profile. I’ve posted a sample of the customization in the image below.

 

Ultimately, this is only the first of what I’d assume will be a massive wave of profile customization applications. MySpace, for example, had an entire industry built on the back of their profiles, all providing users with the ability to customize their profiles. Since the removal of profile boxes, that customization had completely disappeared from Facebook. With the new profile layout however, that has all changed.  

Missing Girl Found With Help From Facebook Pages

Police have found a missing girl who’d been the focus of community pages on Facebook.

Brittany Mae Smith, age 12, had been considered missing since December 6 but was found unharmed today, according to CBS News.

Police have an arrest warrant out for Brittany’s alleged abductor, Jeffrey Scott Easley. He is also suspected in the murder of Brittany’s mother, who he used to date. She was found dead on December 6 and that’s when police reported the girl as missing.

A page called Help Find Brittany Smith went up on Facebook and garnered 9,554 likes. A second page called Prayers for Brittany Mae Smith got 554 likes since going up on Wednesday.

Both pages contain updates about the search for Brittany, along recent coverage of her discovery.
The Facebook pages, a website called FindBrittany.com redirecting to the Roanoke County, Virginia police department, and an 800 number have helped law enforcement officials collect over 700 tips on the case.

If you happen to know anything relevant to this case, we hope you click on either of the pages devoted to Brittany and let her loved ones know.

How do you feel about the use of Facebook pages to help search for an abducted child?

Facebook Pushes Out New Comment Feed Story Format

User comments have been redesigned to show small excerpts of the content, which has some Facebook users worried about their privacy.

  

This change quietly became visible right around when Facebook reinstated the ability to like and respond to fan comments on pages for busineses and community administrators.

The changes look like new exposure of comment content to people whose privacy settings don’t include keeping their commenting activity out of public newsfeeds.

Up until the beginning of this week, new feeds would only list the name of the commenter and where he or she posted the comment without quoting anything from it.  Now your friends see small excerpts of what you say, typically the first several words from a quote but not always.

If your privacy settings include keeping your comment activity out of public newsfeeds, your friends won’t be able to see the content of comments from you — however, when you look at your own profile you’ll see the changed format. Ultimately the change follows all existing privacy settings, even though the comments appear to reveal much more information about you.


What changes have you noticed in the news feed and comment updates this week? Are you a fan of Facebook displaying “teasers” of your comment content?

Facebook Just Keeps on Growing

FACEBOOK has broken through the 10 million barrier of active users in Australia, confirming the country's status as one of the company's most important markets.

The social networking site published the new figures as it announced that early next year advertisers would be able to target users by location as they entered stores or restaurants. The number of users who access the site, post comments or pass on content at least once a month has doubled since May last year.


The regional vice-president of Australia and New Zealand for Facebook, Paul Borrud, said the take-up of Facebook on mobile phones and devices was one of the factors driving the growth, which was showing no sign of slowing down.

Globally, two-fifths of the more than 500 million Facebook users are accessing the site through their mobile devices, and those who do are twice as active as non-mobile users. Australians spend longer on the site than anyone else. Mr Borrud said advertisers were looking for greater levels of engagement as well as a large audience.

'You can have lots of people who are active, but if they are not doing things on a regular basis then they don't have much of a platform,' he said. 'It [size] is one of the things they [advertisers] should measure.'

But they should also measure the amount of engagement, sharing, and who is influencing their friends. The introduction of Deals 'early next year' would drive those levels of engagement higher, he said.

Last month in the US Facebook turned on a service to allow retailers and other businesses such as Gap and McDonald's to offer coupons and special deals through its mobile application Places, a GPS location service that allows people to alert their friends where they are.

Mr Borrud said he was confident that brands would sign up for the service, which would be free, but companies could advertise on Facebook to promote their deals.

Facebook is still a relative minnow in the online display-advertising market, with media buyers estimating it is writing about $12 million a year, a figure that Facebook will not confirm. However, things may change.

Danny Bass, the chief digital officer at Group M, said there was 'an enormous thirst' among advertisers to include social networking in ad schedules. 'Facebook being the biggest, they stand to gain the largest share,' Mr Bass said.

Other online publishers do not see Facebook as a threat. The chief executive of Yahoo!7, Rohan Lund, said Facebook would grow the online ad market as the internet became more 'social', with users sharing information.

'It's incredibly exciting as an enabler,' Mr Lund said. 'We have 480,000 followers of Home and Away on Facebook. We are building up that community and it is really working for us.'

Mr Lund also said that the rise of Facebook provided a counterweight to Yahoo!7's rival Google. 'If we had to build up that audience through Google it would cost a fortune,' he said. 'It's nice to have someone who Google is nervous about.'

WikiLeaks Says Not Linked to Revenge Cyber Attacks

WikiLeaks distanced itself Thursday from a series of cyber attacks on its perceived opponents, including Mastercard Inc. (MA) and eBay Inc.'s (EBAY) PayPal, after the arrest of the whistleblowing site's founder Julian Assange. The website did not comment on the hackings but merely said it was a reflection of public opinion.


 “WikiLeaks is aware that several government agencies and corporations, including the Swedish prosecutor, Mastercard, PayPal and State.gov (the website of the U.S. State Department) have come under cyber-attack in recent days, and have often been driven offline as a result,“ a WikiLeaks statement said.


“The attacks are of a similar nature to those received--and endured--by the WikiLeaks website over the past week, since the publication of the first of 250,000 U.S. Embassy Cables,“ it said.


“These denial of service attacks are believed to have originated from an Internet gathering known as Anonymous. This group is not affiliated with WikiLeaks. There has been no contact between any WikiLeaks staffer and anyone at Anonymous. WikiLeaks has not received any prior notice of any of Anonymous' actions,“ the statement said.


WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said in the statement: “We neither condemn nor applaud these attacks. We believe they are a reflection of public opinion on the actions of the targets.“

Give Assange Nobel Prize

Russia has suggested that Julian Assange should be awarded the Nobel peace prize, in an unexpected show of support from Moscow for the jailed WikiLeaks founder.

In what appears to be a calculated dig at the US, the Kremlin urged non-governmental organisations to think seriously about "nominating Assange as a Nobel Prize laureate".


"Public and non-governmental organisations should think of how to help him," the source from inside president Dmitry Medvedev's office told Russian news agencies. Speaking in Brussels, where Medvedev was attending a Russia-EU summit yesterday , the source went on: "Maybe, nominate him as a Nobel Prize laureate."

Russia's reflexively suspicious leadership appears to have come round to WikiLeaks, having decided that the ongoing torrent of disclosures are ultimately far more damaging and disastrous to America's long-term geopolitical interests than they are to Russia's.

The Kremlin's initial reaction to stories dubbing Russia a corrupt "mafia state" and kleptocracy was, predictably, negative. Last week Medvedev's spokesman dubbed the revelations "not worthy of comment" while Putin raged that a US diplomatic cable comparing him to Batman and Medvedev to Robin was "arrogant" and "unethical". State TV ignored the claims.

Subsequent disclosures, however, that Nato had secretly prepared a plan in case Russia invaded its Baltic neighbours have left the Kremlin smarting. Today Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Nato had to explain why it privately considered Russia an enemy while publicly describing it warmly as a "strategic partner" and ally.

Nato should make clear its position on WikiLeaks cables published by the Guardian alleging that the alliance had devised plans to defend Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia against Russia, Lavrov said.

"With one hand, Nato seeks agreement with us on joint partnership, and with the other, it makes a decision that it needs to defend. So when is Nato more sincere?" Lavrov asked today. "We have asked these questions and are expecting answers to them. We think we are entitled to that."

Lavrov said his attitude towards the leaked US state department cables was "philosophical". "It is interesting to read, including what ambassadors write to provide a stream of information to their capitals," he admitted.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia's hardline ultra-nationalist ambassador to Nato, also today voiced his support for the embattled Assange. He tweeted that Assange's arrest and incarceration on Monday at the City of Westminster magistrates' court demonstrated that there was "no media freedom" in the west. Assange's "fate" amounted to "political persecution" and a lack of human rights, the ambassador said.

In London, meanwhile, Russia's chargé d'affaires and acting ambassador in the UK, Alexander Sternik, said relations with Britain had improved since the coalition came to power. He complained, however, about the hostile reaction in the British media after Fifa's executive committee voted that Russia – and not England – should host the 2018 World Cup.

In a briefing to journalists this morning, Sternik said: "While the English bid was technically a strong one, the Russian bid was in line with the well-known Fifa philosophy of opening new frontiers for world football. The vote result was therefore quite logical, and while the disappointment of many in England is understandable, the media outrage was a step too far. It's not cricket, as the English say."