Mark Zuckerberg accused of abusing power after Facebook deletes "The Terror of War" award-winning image from Vietnam war

Norway’s largest newspaper published a front-page letter to the Facebook CEO lambasting the company’s decision to censor a photograph of the Vietnam war Norway’s largest newspaper has published a front-page open letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, lambasting the company’s decision to censor a historic photograph of the Vietnam war and calling on Zuckerberg to recognize and live up to his role as “the world’s most powerful editor”.

Espen Egil Hansen, the editor-in-chief and CEO of Aftenposten, accused Zuckerberg of thoughtlessly “abusing your power” over the social media site that has become a lynchpin of the distribution of news and information around the world, writing, “I am upset, disappointed – well, in fact even afraid – of what you are about to do to a mainstay of our democratic society.”

“I am worried that the world’s most important medium is limiting freedom instead of trying to extend it, and that this occasionally happens in an authoritarian way,” he added.

The controversy stems from Facebook’s decision to delete a post by Norwegian writer Tom Egeland that featured The Terror of War, a Pulitzer prize-winning photograph by Nick Ut that showed children – including the naked 9-year-old Kim Phúc – running away from a napalm attack during the Vietnam war. Egeland’s post discussed “seven photographs that changed the history of warfare” – a group to which the “napalm girl” image certainly belongs.

Egeland was subsequently suspended from Facebook. When Aftenposten reported on the suspension – using the same photograph in its article, which was then shared on the publication’s Facebook page – the newspaper received a message from Facebook asking it to “either remove or pixelize” the photograph.

“Any photographs of people displaying fully nude genitalia or buttocks, or fully nude female breast, will be removed,” the notice from Facebook explains.

Before Aftenposten could respond, Hansen writes, Facebook deleted the article and image from the newspaper’s Facebook page.

In his open letter, Hansen points out that Facebook’s decision to delete the photograph reveals a troubling inability to “distinguish between child pornography and famous war photographs”, as well as an unwillingness to “allow[ing] space for good judgement”.

“Even though I am editor-in-chief of Norway’s largest newspaper, I have to realize that you are restricting my room for exercising my editorial responsibility,” he wrote. “I think you are abusing your power, and I find it hard to believe that you have thought it through thoroughly.”

Hansen goes on to argue that rather than fulfill its mission statement to “make the world more open and connected”, such editorial decisions “will simply promote stupidity and fail to bring human beings closer to each other”.

Analysis In firing human editors, Facebook has lost the fight against fake news
It took only two days for an algorithm to highlight a fake story about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly. Facebook’s influence on news dissemination makes such mistakes arguably irresponsible

The Aftenposten editorial comes at a time of scrutiny on Facebook for its ever-increasing dominance in the dissemination of news.

News organizations are uncomfortably reliant on Facebook to reach an online audience. According to a 2016 study by Pew Research Center, 44% of US adults get their news on Facebook.

Facebook’s popularity means that its algorithms can exert enormous power over public opinion.

A May 2016 report by Gizmodo that Facebook’s trending bar was deliberately suppressing articles from conservative news sites set off a firestorm that saw Zuckerberg making personal outreach to top conservatives.

Facebook recently fired the team of editors who managed the trending topics section, choosing to replace them with algorithms that quickly demonstrated the difficulty of automating news editorial judgment by promoting a fake news story.

In his open letter, Hansen points out that the types of decision Facebook makes about what kind of content is promoted, tolerated, or banned – whether it makes those decisions algorithmically or not – are functionally editorial.

“The media have a responsibility to consider publication in every single case,” he wrote. “This right and duty, which all editors in the world have, should not be undermined by algorithms encoded in your office in California.”

“Editors cannot live with you, Mark, as a master editor.”

Speaking in Rome last month, Zuckerberg addressed the question of Facebook’s role in the news media and appeared to downplay his editorial responsibilities.

“We are a tech company, not a media company,” he said. “The world needs news companies, but also technology platforms, like what we do, and we take our role in this very seriously.”

Hansen’s suggestions for Facebook to improve its behavior include “geographically differentiated guidelines and rules for publication”, “distinguish[ing] between editors and other Facebook users,” and a “comprehensive review of the way you operate”.

He also called for increased accessibility from the company, writing, “Today, if it is possible at all to get in touch with a Facebook representative, the best one may hope for are brief, formalistic answers, with rigid references to universal rules and guidelines.”

“While we recognize that this photo is iconic, it’s difficult to create a distinction between allowing a photograph of a nude child in one instance and not others,” a spokesman for Facebook said in response to queries from the Guardian.

“We try to find the right balance between enabling people to express themselves while maintaining a safe and respectful experience for our global community. Our solutions won’t always be perfect, but we will continue to try to improve our policies and the ways in which we apply them.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

The Terror of War, a Pulitzer prize-winning photograph by Nick Ut that showed children – including the naked 9-year-old Kim Phúc – running away from a napalm attack during the Vietnam war.

Source: The Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com)

Brazzers porn account holders exposed by hackers - more than 800,000 registered users

THE names of almost 800,000 registered users of porn site Brazzers have been exposed in a data breach.

The account details were taken from forums associated with the site on which porn fans discuss favourite scenes and performers.

It is thought attackers stole data using vulnerabilities in the vBulletin software used to run the chat forum.

Brazzers said it had taken measures to stop fraudsters re-using login names found in the list.

'Intimate thoughts'
News website Motherboard said the information about Brazzers users was passed to it by Vigilante.pw, which monitors breaches. The dump of data includes email addresses, user names and passwords spelled out in plain text. Many firms typically digitally scramble or encrypt passwords to protect them even if they go astray.

The data was taken from the Brazzersforum site that was set up for users but it appears that many people who signed up for the chat forums used the same logins and passwords on the main porn site. The data was stolen in 2013 but has only now come to light.

Security researcher Troy Hunt confirmed that the data in the dump was accurate by checking some of the details via the database of stolen credentials he maintains.

Mr Hunt told Motherboard that the release of the data was potentially more embarrassing than just knowing someone was a member of a porn site because, if someone used the stolen logins, they could see private conversations about sexual preferences.

"Problem with a hack like that is it's a forum," he said. "Worse than just adult website creds, this is what people were talking and fantasising about."

In a statement, Brazzers confirmed that the breach occurred via the vBulletin software used to keep the forum running.

Mr Hunt said the widely used vBulletin software was often poorly maintained by forum administrators who did not apply the latest security patches leaving sites vulnerable to attack. Several recent breaches had all been traced back to vBulletin, he added.

Brazzers said it had taken "corrective measures" to protect users and stop credentials being re-used.

Source: BBC World News

Great sex linked to heart disease for older men but not for women - study reveals

IF you're an older man in a relationship and you have sex once a week or more, you may be twice as likely to have a heart attack, stroke or other cardiovascular event than a less sexually active man.

This is according to a study released this week in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior. Especially if you enjoy it.

"Older men who found sex with their partner extremely pleasurable, or satisfying, had higher risk of cardiovascular events than men who did not feel so," said study author Hui Liu, associate professor of sociology at Michigan State University.

The study analyzed survey data from 2,204 people enrolled in the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project in the United States. Men and women aged 57 to 85 in partnered relationships were asked about their sexual satisfaction, frequency and health status in 2005, then again five years later. Each person's cardiovascular health was also recorded by measuring their blood pressure, heart rate, elevated C-reactive protein and history of heart attacks, heart failure and strokes.

While the analysis found great sex is risky for men in the survey, those who had sex one to three times a month and rated it less pleasurable had no increased risk for heart concerns.

For their female partners, however, results were different. Women who said they had frequent, extremely satisfying sex had a lower risk of hypertension, a common precursor to heart disease.

Mediocre sex better for heart health?
"These findings challenge the widely held assumption that sex brings uniform health benefits to everyone," Liu said. "I think it is important for older people to understand the potential risks and benefits of sex."

However, Kevin Campbell, a cardiologist at Duke University who specializes in heart rhythm disorders, said, "You have to interpret this data with a grain of salt. It's in direct contrast with the significant clinical data we have showing that as men age, if they continue to be sexually active, their risk of cardiovascular disease actually decreases."

Campbell advises patients a month after they have a heart attack or open heart surgery that " if they can walk a flight of steps without getting chest pain or shortness of breath ... then they are fine to resume sexual activity."

But Lui's study suggests otherwise.

Surprising results for men

"The results for men were surprising," said Lui, agreeing they run counter to decades of research that shows a positive health effect from sexual behavior for men, including better prostate health.

One reason for the unusual findings, she said, could be in the design of the study. She said while other research has tended to focus on younger age groups, this survey was on a nationally representative sample of older adults across the United States.

"It's a survey, not a gold-standard, randomized, clinically controlled trial," countered Campbell, also highlighting that the study was conducted in 2005, with a follow-up in 2010. "Is it really relevant now that most everyone is on a statin and our treatment of cardiovascular disease has continued to improve?" he asked.

Another reason for her findings, Lui said, might lie in the use of erectile dysfunction supplements by many older men, or the level of stress created by the act of sex itself.

"Older men may have more difficulties reaching an orgasm for medical or emotional reasons," Lui said. "Therefore, they may exert themselves to a greater degree of exhaustion and create relatively more stress on their cardiovascular system in order to achieve a climax, which may hurt health."

That could possibly be true, Campbell said, if the man is suffering from an unknown cardiovascular blockage or if he is using certain medications for existing heart disease.

"If they are taking any type of nitroglycerin, it can cause a dramatic drop in blood pressure with any of the erectile dysfunction drugs," Campbell said. "That needs to be monitored very carefully."

Sex and relationship educator Laura Berman agreed. "It's about being careful and understanding the risk factors," said Berman, a clinical assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. "If you're talking about the typical sexual scenario for most baby boomers, it's him on top, doing the work. It does make sense to me that it may be more risk factors for an older man than an older woman."

She added, "So men should be sure they are physically able to have sex, and then it's about being careful and understanding the risk factors."

Lastly, said Lui, having a high frequency of sex may indicate problems of "sexual addiction, sexual compulsivity or sexual impulsivity" for men, and could be related to "psychological states such as anxiety or depression, which may lead to negative cardiovascular health."

"To say that wanting frequent sex after a certain age may be bad for you is a problematic statement to make," said certified sex educator Logan Levkoff. "Any time we make these sort of grandiose statements of sex and sexuality it's problematic. There is no one normal on how we experience intimacy."

A win-win for women
Women, however, have good news. "Good sexual quality may protect older women from cardiovascular risk in later life," Lui said.

That makes sense, said Berman, because of the way that women view their sexual relationships.

"It's not so much the number of orgasms or how vigorous the sexual experience that predicts a woman's sexual satisfaction," Berman said. "It's how close she feels to the person she is having sex with, through kissing and cuddling as well as orgasms. That is the key to her emotional and physical well-being, which benefits her health and her heart, and everything else."

Men, however, are different.
"The way men feel emotionally close to their partner is through the physical act of sex," Berman said. "They benefit from an emotional connection, but in their minds, they don't need it as much and don't get as stressed, anxious, depressed as a woman will. They will feel that way if they are not getting sex, but they won't see isolation as such a loss."

She added, "If a man is in a relationship, no matter what sort, he will live longer, but if a woman is in a bad relationship she will live less long."

The takeaway for older couples

So what's an older couple to do when it comes to sex and the risk of heart disease?

"We need to weigh the cost-benefit analysis and allow the older sexual relationship to progress, because we're living longer in our society and we have to deal with this," Berman advised. "I still believe that for the majority of older adults, the physical and emotion benefits outweigh the risk factors."

Campbell, the cardiologist, said, "Here's the bottom line. Patients need to talk about sex with their doctors, regularly, and on each office visit, so we can diagnose and address any concerns before they escalate."

Levkoff agreed.
"All of this gets back to our inability or ability to communicate about sex and pleasure and health," she said. "It's not surprising that an older population might have some discomfort about speaking up, but the conversation of sex and aging is one that we should have been having for years."

Source: CNN World News

River in Russia mysteriously turns blood red with no scientific explanation - many other rivers turning blood red around the world

Startled residents of a Russian city inside the Arctic Circle have been posting photos of a local river that has mysteriously turned blood red.

Photos published on Russian social media appear to the show the Daldykan River near the city of Norilsk flowing vivid burgundy. Russian authorities have yet to establish a reason for the river’s unusual appearance, but local people quickly linked it to a giant metals plant upstream. Russia's Environment Ministry said it was investigating a plant leak as the likely cause.

Norilsk is known as one of the most polluted cities on earth, built around factories mostly belonging to the vast metals company Norilsk Nickel. Some Norilsk residents wrote in a local social media group that they believed the river’s biblical shade is linked to runoff from a nearby smelting plant.

Some suggested the color was being produced by wastewater mixed with mineral ore leaking into the river from the Hope Metals Plant.

The posts prompted Russia's Environment Ministry to respond, issuing a statement announcing that it is investigating and that preliminary information suggests the cause was a leak from waste pipes belonging to Norilsk Nickel. A company subsidiary denied the pollution was caused by an accident involving the Hope factory, according to the statement. The ministry said it is still working to locate the pollution's source.

Reached by ABC News, the factory declined to comment.

Area residents on social media and a local indigenous group said they were sure the color was coming from the area's metals plants, noting that it was not the first time they contaminated the region's water.

A user named Evgeny Belikov, who claimed to have worked at the Hope plant, said that workers referred to a reservoir connected to it as the "red sea" on account of its color, produced by ore runoff.

Other users posted older photos seeming to show the reservoir a similar color in an area that has large pipes running into it.

"In winter, the snow's also red," Belikov wrote on the social media group. "On the one hand, it's beautiful, but on the other, it's chemical."

Grigory Dukarev of the Association of the Indigenous Peoples of the Taimir Peninsula, which represents native communities in the area, told ABC News that he was preparing to submit a formal complaint to regional authorities asking them to investigate and was traveling to the river to record the pollution.

He said he was previously told that the runoff from the factories was not harmful and would cause minimal ecological damage. But he said he was skeptical.

"I'm going to ask the representative from the company to drink this water," Dukarev said. "Will they drink this water? I doubt that."

River turns blood red 

VIDEO: Sign of the Times: Russian River Mysteriously Turns Blood Red

Video: Rivers Turning 'Blood Red' Around The World! A Sign?

Source: ABC News 

Doctor claims he deliberately invented HIV/AIDS virus to depopulate humanity - USA

IN April 1984, Dr. Robert Gallo filed a United States application for his invention, the HIV/AIDS Virus. Normally, when a patent is filed and approved, as Dr. Gallo’s was, anyone who uses the product or invention owes a royalty payment to the artificer. Thus, holding the intellectual property laws to their fullest interpretations, one must solely marvel why Dr. Gallo has yet to file a proceedings seeking to recover damages from the usage of his invention?

As odd as this state of affairs could sound, it bears need for extra scrutiny. The scientific evidence is complete and compelling, the AIDS Virus is a designer bi-product of the U.S. Special Virus program. 

The Special Virus program was a federal virus development program that persisted in the U.S from 1962 until 1978. The U.S. Special Virus was then added as ‘compliment’ to vaccinum inoculations in Africa and Manhattan.

Shortly thereafter the world was engulfed with mass infections of somebody’s animal virus that differed from any illustrious human sickness, it was highly contagious and additional significantly. A review of the Special Virus Flow Chart (“research logic”) reveals the United States was seeking a ‘virus particle’ that might negatively impact the defense mechanisms of the system.

The program sought to modify the ordination of the virus particle during which to splice in associate degree animal “wasting disease” referred to as “Visna”. According to the Proceedings of the us of America, AIDS is an biological process, laboratory development of the peculiar Visna Virus, first detected in Icelandic sheep. Recently, American and world scientists ensure with 100 percent certainty the laboratory genesis of AIDS.

This fact is more underscored once one reviews the ‘multiply-spliced’ nature of the HIV ‘tat’ sequence and Dr. Gallo’s 1971 Special Virus paper, “Reverse Transcriptase of Type-C virus Particles of Human Origin”. Dr. Gallo’s 1971 Special Virus paper is identical to his 1984 announcement of AIDS. Upon further review the record reveals that he filed his patent on AIDS, before he made the announcement with Secretary troubler. Earlier this year, Dr. Gallo conceded his role as a ‘Project Officer’ for the federal virus development program, the Special Virus.

The Flow Chart of the program and the 15 progress reports ar undeniable proof of the United States’ game to cull world populations via the unleashing of a stealing biological organism that may ‘waste’ humanity. In light of this true genesis of the world’s most divesting biological scourge, it is the U.S. that owes ‘royal’ payments to the innocent victims. Each associated each victim of AIDS is worthy of a proper apology and a way of economic closure for an invention of death and despair, perpetrated by the United States.

The eyes of the world are upon the overall Accounting Office’s Health Care Team, under the direction of William J. Scanlon. Between 1964 and 1978, the secret federal virus program spent $550 million dollars of payer cash to create AIDS. It is now necessary to pay no matter it takes to dismantle associate invention that has junction rectifier to the best crime against humanity within the history of the world….

Dr. Robert Gallo

VIDEO: I CREATED AIDS to DELIBERATELY DEPOPULATE HUMANITY - Dr Robert Gallo. Courtesy: Dr Leonard Horovitz [in the interests of extending Human Educational knowledge]. AIDS was deliberately created to deliberately depopulation development of humanity - created at Fort Dietrick through US Bioweapons development.

Source: http://simplecapacity.com/

Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phone ignited fire while on charge and torched down family car in US

A Florida father has been left devastated after his brand new Samsung Galaxy Note 7 burst into flames and torched his family car.

Nathan Dornacher, from St Petersburg, Florida, said he was charging the phone inside his custom Jeep Grand Cherokee when it caught fire, burning both to a crisp.

Samsung have issued a worldwide recall for the Note7, saying problems with the battery can cause it to explode or catch fire.

While fire officials have not said whether that was the cause behind this fire, Dornacher told Fox 13 News that the blaze started around the charging phone.

The father-of-one said he had not heard about the recall, which was issued just five days before the fire broke out.

Posting pictures of the blaze on Facebook, he said: 'We went to a garage sale to grab a desk for my daughter, got back to the house and unloaded the car.

'I left it running with the AC on to keep the car cool as we were planning on grabbing the dog and heading to Petco.

'I went back out to the car to grab my phone which was on the charger (me and Lydia always fight over the house charger), went to open the door and saw flames inside.

'I opened the door and the car is engulfed. I ran inside to get extinguisher and of course it's not to be found. I yelled at Lydia to call Fire Department and here is the end result.'

While Dorancher says the basic cost of the vehicle was insured, he said that will not cover the thousands of dollars worth of upgrades he made to the car.

On top of that, the family are also missing their main means of transportation until the claim is settled.

However, Dorancher says he is grateful the incident was not worse because his eight-year daughter often uses the phone.

Samsung say they are aware of Dorancher's case, are investigating the cause of the fire, and say they are providing assistance to the family.

In a subsequent update, Dorancher said Samsung have sent a representative to investigate, and that all of his family are doing OK.

He added that the family are not seeking damages from the incident, and are trying to promote the recall to stop other from being hurt.

Samsung has suspended global sales of the Note 7, which was unveiled last month, due to a 'battery cell issue', and issued a recall notice for all handset already sold.

The company said: 'For customers who already have Galaxy Note7 devices, we will voluntarily replace their current device with a new one over the coming weeks.

'We acknowledge the inconvenience this may cause in the market but this is to ensure that Samsung continues to deliver the highest quality products to our customers. 

'We are working closely with our partners to ensure the replacement experience is as convenient and efficient as possible.' 

Family car torched down by fire ignited from Samsung Galaxy Note7 device

Fire fighter cool down the flames but damage was done.

Remains of the Samsung Galaxy Note7 device after the fire.

Samsung Galaxy Note7 phone widely distributed by Digicel. 

Source: Daily Mail - UK (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news)