How Facebook Will Profit Even More From Your Profile

Facebook is only free in name. While the company most definitely does not sell your information, Facebook “makes its money from showing you ads,” as a webpage from Facebook explains. So what, you might say: Ads are everywhere, flashing and pop-upping from websites across the internet, on the sidelines of your Gmail account, on the floor of your supermarket.

What’s different is that the ads you are shown on Facebook are tailored to you based on your personal information and on whatever pages, events, etc. you have “liked” on Facebook. Rather than you having to scan the pages of the weekly circulars — those advertising inserts tucked into paper newspapers that many of us never look at anymore — the ads about things you’re likely to be interested in are seamlessly delivered to you.

An “exclusive” guest post on BetaBeat says that new features on Facebook mean that the company, whose spring 2012 IPO is getting closer and closer, will generate even more profits from your profile. The author of the post is an anonymous contributor described as a “former CTO who now does tech consulting for other start-up ventures and was briefed on Facebook’s advertising strategy”; he says that Facebook’s much ballyhooed new Timeline profile was designed not so much with a view to enhance your social media experience, as to enhance advertisers’ brand messaging.

Starting in January, Facebook will also integrate another type of ad, “sponsored stories” — posts and activities that businesses have paid Facebook to feature – into your Timeline. They will look like updates from friends as a friend’s profile photo will be displayed besides content they have “liked.” Facebook has described Timeline as a great innovation that makes it possible to present your entire history back to the day you were born; all Facebook profiles will be converted to the new format by the end of this year.

But, according to the BetaBeat post, what Timeline is really doing is disguising ads as updates from your friends. From BetaBeat:..... more
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The most indebted country in the world

And 'the United Kingdom, the world champion of debt


The graph of the Morgan Stanley report on global debt / GDP published by the site BusinessInsider

The ' England is the state most indebted in the world. The ratio debt / GDP , in fact, now stands at 900% . At some distance there are the Japanese (a little over 600%), the Swedish (around 450%) and, thereafter, Norway, Switzerland, United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. This was revealed by a recent study by Morgan Stanley published by BusinessInsider , which is a calculation of debt much larger than that usually used for classification of this type. The U.S. investment bank has not been limited to include in the report that the debt States have built up to cover operating expenses. In this indicator, in fact, researchers have added three more financial debt , that is what the contract by financial institutions such as banks, to non-financial , which is part of the business and the household debt , which weighs on individuals. "Consider in particular the financial debt is also important - says Gianluigi Cesano , macroeconomic analyst of the study G2C and lecturer at the ' High School Finance of Turin - this area because if you have any problems, it is inevitable that the state be in charge of that burden, since this area at the base of the economic system. " entering into the merits of the results, Cesano notes that "the study of Morgan Stanley highlights the state of sieve which pays the ' economy of the United Kingdom . " The relationship between the debt in the longer version and GDP, equal to 900%, the analyst points out that "the most important part is..... more
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Warning! The Future Of Our Planet Is At Risk

People in towns and cities are losing touch with the “realities of the natural world”, which is putting the future of the planet at risk, Sir David Attenborough has warned.

The veteran wildlife presenter says rapid urbanization over the past 60 years has endangered the future of planet earth, since a growing number of people do not regularly come into contact with the natural world.

Over Half The World’s Population Now Lives In Cities

Attenborough is reminding us that since at least 2005 over half of the world’s population lives in cities.

In an interview with Eureka magazine, published by the Times, he said: “We have a huge moral responsibility towards the rest of the planet. A hundred years ago people certainly had that … They were aware of the seasons and aware of what they were doing to the land and animals around them.”.... more
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Protester Dragged By Headscarf in Tahrir: 3 Days of Violence

For the third day in a row, protesters and military police have clashed in Cairo’s Tahrir Square in deadly violence. At least 10 have been killed and over 441 injured. Hundreds of protesters, demanding that the ruling military council hand over power to civilians, have been camping out in the cold in Tahrir. The violence began on Friday after one of several hundred protesters at a sit-in outside Parliament officers was detained and beaten. More clashes have occurred on Saturday and Sunday, when results from a second round of voting, again showing gains for Islamist parties, were announced.

Shocking Brutalities Against Unarmed Protesters

The Guardian and Al Jazeera both describe shocking details of military police kicking protesters repeatedly in the head until they stopped moving and of protesters being dragged into parliamentary buildings where they were beaten, slapped and tortured with electronic prods. Military police used truncheons and long sticks, destroyed a field hospital, set fire to tents and briefly detained journalists. According to the Guardian, military police threw the camera and equipment of an Al-Jazeera film crew off the balcony of a building......more
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FLORENCE: FLORENCE IN 12 THOUSAND A PROCESSION,''''RESPECT FOR IMMIGRANTS

(Reuters) - Florence, 17 Dec - Around 12 000 people are

taking part in the demonstration in Florence

solidarity 'with the people of Senegal.

The head of the parade (for the police participants are

about 8 000) and 'just arrived in Piazza Santa Maria

News, where you take final action.

The event was' held up to this point

very quiet, without incident. Only a few whistle

by some youth centers, the passage of

politicians: the secretary and the chairman of the Democratic Party

Pierluigi Bersani and Rosy Bindi, the leader of Sel Nichi

Vendola, Governor Henry Smith, Mayor Matthew...... more

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Lowe’s Withdraws Ads From All-American Muslim Show

The Florida Family Association, a Christian group, is claiming that its protests have led to a number of companies pulling their ads from All-American Muslim, a TLC reality-TV show about five Lebanese families in Dearborn, Michigan, that premiered on November 13 and that has been so far well-received. While the national hardware chain Lowe’s has indeed pulled its ads from future episodes of the show after consumer complaints, it is not clear if other companies have pulled their ads for similar reasons. In at least one case, FFA’s claim that a company had pulled its ads has been contradicted by the company itself.

According to FFA, 65 out of 67 companies it targeted have pulled their ads; the companies listed are Bank of America, the Campbell Soup Co., Dell, Estee Lauder, General Motors, Goodyear, Green Mountain Coffee, McDonalds, Sears, and Wal-Mart. However, Home Depot and Sweet ‘N Low both noted (via emails posted on the FFA site) that they had simply only bought one commercial spot, rather than cancelling ads. Amway has indeed “denied” that it had pulled ads from the show and stated that any reports to the contrary are “misleading” and had “falsely named” Amway.... more
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Crowd of Over 50 Teens Overrun Police in Attempt to Assault Victim at Home

It seems that these days bullying stories have sadly become pretty common in the news.

This does not mean we should stop writing about them or that they are less important. On the contrary, the only way we are going to be able to successfully address the issue of bullying is by continuing to highlight the reality that kids face these days.

Take for example a girl in Staten Island who was bullied by not 1 or 2 other students, but a crowd of 50-55 teens who showed up at her door step with guns, blades, and knives to start a fight...... more
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