Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users 'Dumb Fucks' - for trusting him with their personal information -

Facebook CEO Admits To Calling Users 'Dumb Fucks' - for trusting him with their personal information - 

Mark Zuckerbergadmits in a New Yorkerprofile that he mocked early Facebook users for trusting him with their personal information. A youthful indiscretion, the Facebook founder says he's much more mature now, at the ripe age of 26.

"They trust me — dumb fucks," says Zuckerberg in one of the instant messages, first published by former Valleywag Nicholas Carlson at Silicon Alley Insider, and now confirmed by Zuckerberg himself in Jose Antonio Vargas's New Yorker piece. Zuckerberg now tells Vargas, "I think I've grown and learned a lot" since those instant messages.

And yet the old quote resounds precisely because Facebook continues to stir up privacy controversies at regular intervals. Zuckerberg justifies his privacy rollbacks by saying the social norms have changed in favor of transparency, but, as tech executive Anil Dash tells the New Yorker, that sort of change is much more appealing for a privileged, Ivy Leaguer golden boy of Silicon Valley like Zuckerberg than for his half a billion users, many of whom work for less tolerant bosses and socialize in more judgmental circles.

The dichotomy between Zuckerberg's philosophy and the lives of his users makes revelations about the Facebook CEO's own private life all the more interesting. It seems natural to figure that this forceful advocate for transparency is ready totest his own informational boundaries a bit.

And Zuckerberg does open up a little to the New Yorker, admitting that he's red-green colorblind, and explaining the Mandarin lessons he's been taking: They're for a scheduled vacation with girlfriend to Priscilla Chan to China. And Chan, it turns out, is finally moving in with Zuck.

Then there's Zuckerberg's defacto unfriending of Aaron Sorkin, the screenwriter behind Zuckerberg's least favorite Facebook movie The Social Network. The CEO had listed Sorkin's TV show The West Wing as a "favorite" on his Facebook profile, only to remove it under questioning from Vargas. Now Zuckerberg's re-favorited the West Wing. Curious. Apparently living under the new social norms can lead to old school regret. Even if you're Mark Zuckerberg.

Read more - http://gawker.com/5636765/facebook-ceo-admits-to-calling-users-dumb-fucks?skyline=true&s=i

$823,200 of economic stimulus funds spent to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex -

$823,200 of economic stimulus funds spent to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex - 



The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the
National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex.

The genitalia-washing program is part of a larger $12-million UCLA study examining how to better encourage Africans to undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling – however, only the penis-washing study received money from the 2009 economic stimulus law. The washing portion of the study is set to end in 2011.

“NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications,” the grant abstract states. “We propose to evaluate the feasibility of a post-coital genital hygiene study among men unwilling to be circumcised in Orange Farm, South Africa.”

Because AIDS researchers have been unsuccessful in convincing most adult African men to undergo circumcision, the UCLA study proposes to determine whether researchers can develop an after-sex genitalia-washing regimen that they can then convince uncircumcised African men to follow.

“The aim of the proposed feasibility study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a post-coital male genital hygiene procedure, which participants will be asked to practice immediately post-coitus or at least 12 hours after,” reads the abstract.

Entitled “Community-Based HIV VCT: South Africa,” the name of the broader umbrella project, the program plans to test how well received the penis-washing regimen is among South African men.

If most of the men in the study wash their genitals after sex, are willing to do so after the study ends, and report that their partners accept the regimen, the researchers will develop another study to see if the “penile cleansing procedure” actually works to prevent HIV infections.

“If we find that men are able to practice consistent washing practices after sex, we will plan to test whether this might protect men from becoming HIV infected in a later study,” the grant says.

The study’s lead investigator Dr. Thomas J. Coates was the fourth highest-funded researcher in the country in 2002 and is currently conducting HIV research on three continents.

CNSNews.com asked both Coates and NIMH the following question: “The Census Bureau says the median household income in the United States is $52,000. How would you explain to the average American mom and dad -- who make $52,000 per year -- that taxing them to pay for this grant was justified?”

Clean, Green Senate Leader Harry Reid rolled up to the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas in a fleet of giant SUVs -

Clean, Green Senate Leader Harry Reid rolled up to the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas in a fleet of giant SUVs - 



Clean, Green Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid rolled up to the Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada last week. . . in a fleet of giant SUVs.

The Heartland Institute reports that while the Senate Majority Hypocrite "and other high-profile environmental activists blasted carbon-based fuels at the Reid-sponsored summit, Reid and other bigwigs were caught on film driving to and from the summit in several SUVs."

"I was absolutely astonished, not to mention appalled, that Harry Reid would retain a fleet of gas-guzzling SUVs so that he and a few aides would not have to walk the mere 100 yards to address environmental activists," said Heartland Institute Senior Fellow James M. Taylor, who took the attached photo. "If greenhouse gas emissions are such a problem, you would think Reid might have actually made the short stroll through the parking lot, or at least retain Priuses rather than large SUVs for the summit," said Taylor.

Reid's arrogance is routine in Washington where pols ride in Secret Service-provided GMC Yukons and Chevy Suburbans while denouncing SUVs as wasteful transportation to the peasants.