Those embarrassing photos you deleted from Facebook? They’re still there -

Those embarrassing photos you deleted from Facebook? They’re still there - 




Those embarrassing photographs you thought you deleted from Facebook are still there, a technology site reports.


A photograph of a toddler posted and then deleted by a family friend in 2008 is still there, Ars Technica senior editor Jacqui Cheng said after verifying the information herself.


“The photo is still online, as are several others that readers linked me to that were deleted at various points in 2009 and 2010,” Cheng said.


Ars Technica first exposed the lingering deleted Facebook pictures three years ago and reported Monday that nothing had improved.


Facebook is trying to fix the problem, spokesman Frederic Wolens told the Star in an email on Tuesday.


“We have been working hard to move our photo storage to newer systems which do ensure photos are fully deleted within 30 days of the removal request being received,” he said.


“This process is nearly complete and there is only a very small percentage of user photos (fewer than 3 per cent) still on the old system awaiting migration.


“We expect this process to be completed within the next month or two.”


Read more -
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1127385--those-embarrassing-photos-you-deleted-from-facebook-they-re-still-there?bn=1

Google Testing Experimental Devices In Hundreds Of Employees’ Homes -

Google Testing Experimental Devices In Hundreds Of Employees’ Homes - 


Google is testing 252 “mystery” devices in its employees’ homes, but what the device is, nobody outside of Google knows.


Google recently applied for an experimental license with the Federal Communications Commission for an unnamed entertainment device.


The device is still early in development as testing is set to see if the device works properly and to “reveal real world engineering issues and reliability of networks.”




One possibility that was suggested was the device is related to the Android@home framework, where Google promises to allow users to control appliances such as lights and alarm clocks through an Android device.


Another possibility is that it could be another version of Google TV.


Read more - 
http://seattle.cbslocal.com/2012/02/07/google-testing-experimental-devices-in-hundreds-of-employees-homes/

Students at a public Pennsylvania university can buy the "Morning-After" Pill from a campus vending machine -

Students at a public Pennsylvania university can buy the "Morning-After" Pill from a campus vending machine - 


Students at a public Pennsylvania university can buy the "morning-after" pill from a campus vending machine, though the school's minister is working to get the dispenser off of school grounds.
The vending machine at Shippensburg University's Etter Health Center that provides Plan B emergency contraceptive pills for $25 was installed after a survey found that 85 percent of student respondents supported it, according to Peter Gigliotti, the university's executive director for communications and marketing. The machine also dispenses condoms and pregnancy tests.


"We value student input on matters that directly pertain to their health and safety so these results were an important part of the decision-making process," Gigliotti said in a statement emailed to FoxNews.com. "We are not the first one to make this available so this is not unique to us or to public higher education. This decision was also made in consultation with our medical staff."
Plan B is available without a prescription to anyone 17 or older. Gigliotti said that all current students at Shippensburg -- a public school of roughly 8,300 students in central Pennsylvania -- fit that criteria.
"Any student who wants to discuss Plan B may do so at any time," Gigliotti's email continued. "In addition, medical information is provided with the Plan B for purchasers to read before its use."
The machine -- the only one on the school's campus -- is in a private room within the health center and is accessible only by students, Gigliotti said.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/07/vending-machine-at-pennsylvania-college-dispenses-morning-after-pill/

Facebook and Twitter are more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol, study finds -

Facebook and Twitter are more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol, study finds - 


A new study suggests that social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter are more difficult to resist than cigarettes or alcohol.
A team from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business recently conducted an experiment involving 205 people in Wurtzburg, Germany to analyze the addictive properties of social media and other vices.


Participants in the week-long study were polled via BlackBerry smartphones seven times per day and asked to report when they experienced a desire within the past 30 minutes, and whether or not the succumbed to that desire. They were also asked to gauge each desire on a scale from mild to “irresistible.”
In total, 10,558 responses were recorded and a total of 7,827 “desire episodes” were reported by participants. The results of the team’s study will soon be published in the Psychological Science journal, however preliminary data provided to The Guardian suggests the highest rate of “self-control failures” were tied to social media services.
“Modern life is a welter of assorted desires marked by frequent conflict and resistance, the latter with uneven success,” said Wilhelm Hofmann, the leader of team conducting the study. Hofmann suggests people may fail to resist social media so much because there is no obvious or immediate downside to checking services like Twitter or Facebook. He does warn that these services can ultimately be a huge drain on users’ time, however.
“Desires for media may be comparatively harder to resist because of their high availability and also because it feels like it does not ‘cost much’ to engage in these activities, even though one wants to resist,” Hofmann said.
”With cigarettes and alcohol there are more costs – long-term as well as monetary – and the opportunity may not always be the right one. So, even though giving in to media desires is certainly less consequential, the frequent use may still ‘steal’ a lot of people’s time.”




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/02/06/facebook-and-twitter-are-more-addictive-than-cigarettes-or-alcohol-study-finds/?test=latestnews

'Oldest living thing on earth' discovered - dated them as up to 200,000 years old -

'Oldest living thing on earth' discovered - dated them as up to 200,000 years old - 


Australian scientists sequenced the DNA of samples of the giant seagrass, Posidonia oceanic, from 40 underwater meadows in an area spanning more than 2,000 miles, from Spain to Cyprus.
The analysis, published in the journal PLos ONE, found the seagrass was between 12,000 and 200,000 years old and was most likely to be at least 100,000 years old. This is far older than the current known oldest species, a Tasmanian plant that is believed to be 43,000 years old.
Prof Carlos Duarte, from the University of Western Australia, said the seagrass has been able to reach such old age because it can reproduce asexually and generate clones of itself. Organisms that can only reproduce sexually are inevitably lost at each generation, he added.
"They are continually producing new branches," he told The Daily Telegraph. "They spread very slowly and cover a very large area giving them more area to mine resources. They can then store nutrients within their very large branches during bad conditions for growth."
The separate patches of seagrass in the Mediterranean span almost 10 miles and weigh more than 6,000 tons.


Read more - 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/9066393/Ancient-seagrass-Oldest-living-thing-on-earth-discovered-in-Mediterranean-Sea.html