NEW YORK (AP) - Though Facebook bans children under 13, millions of them have profiles on the site by lying about their age.
Now, the company is testing out ways to allow younger kids on its site without needing to lie. It would be under parental supervision, such as by connecting children's accounts to their parents' accounts. That would allow Facebook to comply with federal regulations regarding children under 13 online.
The Wall Street Journal reported on the development in Monday's editions. It could be a long way off, or never get implemented, as happens with many features that Facebook tests.
In a statement, Facebook says it is in ongoing dialogue with stakeholders, regulators and other policymakers about how best to help parents keep their kids safe online.
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Monday, June 4, 2012
Oddities in Chinese stock index evoke Tiananmen
SHANGHAI (AP) - China's share benchmark has fallen afoul of the country's Internet censors by appearing to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
In an unlikely coincidence certainly unwelcome to China's communist rulers, the stock benchmark fell 64.89 points Monday, matching the numbers of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in the heart of Beijing.
In China's lively microblog world, 'Shanghai Composite Index' soon joined the many words blocked by censors.
In another odd twist, the index opened Monday at 2,346.98. That is being interpreted as 23rd anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown when read from right to left.
Public discussion of the Tiananmen crackdown, which the Communist Party branded a 'counterrevolutionary riot,' remains taboo. Analysts refused to comment on the numbers.
Officials at the Shanghai Stock Exchange were not available for comment.
On the popular Sina microblog site, searches using 'June 4', '64.89', 'stock market', and 'benchmark Shanghai Composite Index' were all blocked.
Such searches draw the response, 'According to law such words cannot be shown.'
That prompted some users to comment on the 'magical' nature of the market, while others groused about not being able to discuss the stock market online.
In Beijing, the anniversary passed without any major sign of protest. The front page of the party newspaper People's Daily trumpeted the 'Stable, fast development of the Chinese economy: Advancing to be the World's No. 2.'
The melee as soldiers fought their way into Beijing to clear Tiananmen Square is believed to have left hundreds dead. In response to the violence in the capital, demonstrations erupted in more than 180 cities and in some cases were quelled violently.
The government has never provided a credible accounting of the number of victims or arrests in the sweeping crackdown that followed.
Asked at a regular briefing if the government had changed its stance regarding the 'June 4 issue' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said, 'I just knew you would ask this question.'
'The political case you mentioned was concluded long ago by the ruling party and government,' he said, objecting to a U.S. State Department call for a reconsideration of the party's stance as 'rude interference in China's internal affairs.'
In the semiautonomous southern Chinese city of Hong Kong, tens of thousands crowded into a large park to mark the anniversary. They held aloft white candles that transformed the area of soccer pitches into a sea of light, before observing a minute of silence.
Activists laid a wreath at a makeshift monument dedicated to the Tiananmen victims, bowing three times as is customary in traditional Chinese mourning.
Hong Kong is a former British colony that enjoys free speech and other Western-style civil liberties not seen in mainland China.
___
Associated Press writer Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
This article is brought to you by BUY AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
In an unlikely coincidence certainly unwelcome to China's communist rulers, the stock benchmark fell 64.89 points Monday, matching the numbers of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in the heart of Beijing.
In China's lively microblog world, 'Shanghai Composite Index' soon joined the many words blocked by censors.
In another odd twist, the index opened Monday at 2,346.98. That is being interpreted as 23rd anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown when read from right to left.
Public discussion of the Tiananmen crackdown, which the Communist Party branded a 'counterrevolutionary riot,' remains taboo. Analysts refused to comment on the numbers.
Officials at the Shanghai Stock Exchange were not available for comment.
On the popular Sina microblog site, searches using 'June 4', '64.89', 'stock market', and 'benchmark Shanghai Composite Index' were all blocked.
Such searches draw the response, 'According to law such words cannot be shown.'
That prompted some users to comment on the 'magical' nature of the market, while others groused about not being able to discuss the stock market online.
In Beijing, the anniversary passed without any major sign of protest. The front page of the party newspaper People's Daily trumpeted the 'Stable, fast development of the Chinese economy: Advancing to be the World's No. 2.'
The melee as soldiers fought their way into Beijing to clear Tiananmen Square is believed to have left hundreds dead. In response to the violence in the capital, demonstrations erupted in more than 180 cities and in some cases were quelled violently.
The government has never provided a credible accounting of the number of victims or arrests in the sweeping crackdown that followed.
Asked at a regular briefing if the government had changed its stance regarding the 'June 4 issue' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said, 'I just knew you would ask this question.'
'The political case you mentioned was concluded long ago by the ruling party and government,' he said, objecting to a U.S. State Department call for a reconsideration of the party's stance as 'rude interference in China's internal affairs.'
In the semiautonomous southern Chinese city of Hong Kong, tens of thousands crowded into a large park to mark the anniversary. They held aloft white candles that transformed the area of soccer pitches into a sea of light, before observing a minute of silence.
Activists laid a wreath at a makeshift monument dedicated to the Tiananmen victims, bowing three times as is customary in traditional Chinese mourning.
Hong Kong is a former British colony that enjoys free speech and other Western-style civil liberties not seen in mainland China.
___
Associated Press writer Kelvin Chan in Hong Kong contributed to this report.
This article is brought to you by BUY AFFORDABLE COMPUTERS.
Odd twist in China stock index evokes crackdown
SHANGHAI (AP) - China's share benchmark has fallen afoul of the country's Internet censors by appearing to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.
In an unlikely coincidence certainly unwelcome to China's communist rulers, the stock benchmark fell 64.89 points Monday, matching the numbers of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in the heart of Beijing.
In China's lively microblog world, 'Shanghai Composite Index' soon joined the many words blocked by censors.
In another odd twist, the index opened Monday at 2,346.98. That is being interpreted as 23rd anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown when read from right to left.
Public discussion of the Tiananmen crackdown, which the Communist Party branded a 'counterrevolutionary riot,' remains taboo. Analysts refused to comment on the numbers.
Officials at the Shanghai Stock Exchange were not available for comment.
On the popular Sina microblog site, searches using 'June 4', '64.89', 'stock market', and 'benchmark Shanghai Composite Index' were all blocked.
Such searches draw the response, 'According to law such words cannot be shown.'
That prompted some users to comment on the 'magical' nature of the market, while others groused about not being able to discuss the stock market online.
In Beijing, the anniversary passed without any major sign of protest. The front page of the party newspaper People's Daily trumpeted the 'Stable, fast development of the Chinese economy: Advancing to be the World's No. 2.'
The melee as soldiers fought their way into Beijing to clear Tiananmen Square is believed to have left hundreds dead. In response to the violence in the capital, demonstrations erupted in more than 180 cities and in some cases were quelled violently.
The government has never provided a credible accounting of the number of victims or arrests in the sweeping crackdown that followed.
Asked at a regular briefing if the government had changed its stance regarding the 'June 4 issue' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said, 'I just knew you would ask this question.'
'The political case you mentioned was concluded long ago by the ruling party and government,' he said, objecting to a U.S. State Department call for a reconsideration of the party's stance as 'rude interference in China's internal affairs.'
This news article is brought to you by FISH OIL FOR BLOOD PRESSURE? - where latest news are our top priority.
In an unlikely coincidence certainly unwelcome to China's communist rulers, the stock benchmark fell 64.89 points Monday, matching the numbers of the June 4, 1989 crackdown in the heart of Beijing.
In China's lively microblog world, 'Shanghai Composite Index' soon joined the many words blocked by censors.
In another odd twist, the index opened Monday at 2,346.98. That is being interpreted as 23rd anniversary of the June 4, 1989 crackdown when read from right to left.
Public discussion of the Tiananmen crackdown, which the Communist Party branded a 'counterrevolutionary riot,' remains taboo. Analysts refused to comment on the numbers.
Officials at the Shanghai Stock Exchange were not available for comment.
On the popular Sina microblog site, searches using 'June 4', '64.89', 'stock market', and 'benchmark Shanghai Composite Index' were all blocked.
Such searches draw the response, 'According to law such words cannot be shown.'
That prompted some users to comment on the 'magical' nature of the market, while others groused about not being able to discuss the stock market online.
In Beijing, the anniversary passed without any major sign of protest. The front page of the party newspaper People's Daily trumpeted the 'Stable, fast development of the Chinese economy: Advancing to be the World's No. 2.'
The melee as soldiers fought their way into Beijing to clear Tiananmen Square is believed to have left hundreds dead. In response to the violence in the capital, demonstrations erupted in more than 180 cities and in some cases were quelled violently.
The government has never provided a credible accounting of the number of victims or arrests in the sweeping crackdown that followed.
Asked at a regular briefing if the government had changed its stance regarding the 'June 4 issue' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said, 'I just knew you would ask this question.'
'The political case you mentioned was concluded long ago by the ruling party and government,' he said, objecting to a U.S. State Department call for a reconsideration of the party's stance as 'rude interference in China's internal affairs.'
This news article is brought to you by FISH OIL FOR BLOOD PRESSURE? - where latest news are our top priority.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Sony dips below 1,000 yen for 1st time since 1980
TOKYO (AP) - Sony's stock price fell below 1,000 yen Monday for the first time since 1980 as global markets slide but also a symptom of its decline since huge success with the Walkman three decades ago.
Battered by competition from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Sony has lost money for four straight years - and for eight years in its core television business.
A strong yen, which erodes overseas income, and natural disasters at home and in Thailand, a key manufacturing hub, have added to its woes.
Sony's shares dipped to 990 yen before recovering slightly in trading Monday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei 225 stock average was down 2 percent after U.S. hiring slowed sharply in May.
The company said it was first time that its stock price had traded below 1,000 yen since August 1980 - the year after it introduced the iconic Walkman portable cassette player to the world in 1979.
The stock had peaked at 16,950 yen in March 2000.
Sony, whose businesses run from digital cameras and personal computers to PlayStation game consoles and movies such as 'Bad Teacher,' last month reported a record annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) for the year through March 2012.
The company is aiming for a comeback under Kazuo Hirai, appointed president earlier this year, who has headed the gaming division and built his career in the U.S. Sony forecast a return to profit for the fiscal year through March 2013 at 30 billion yen ($375 million), banking on the growing smartphone and tablet businesses.
Sony also plans to cut 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global work force.
Widely admired in the 1980s as an innovative power, Sony fell behind when digital music players and flat TVs became hits. Its gadgets have lost popularity as consumers flock to products from Apple such as the iPhone and iPod.
It's also lost out in the TV market to South Korea's Samsung and other Asian competitors. Despite losses in that division, Hirai remains committed to TVs, and promised to cut costs to turn a profit in the division in the next two years.
Sony also plans to seek new growth in emerging markets such as India and Mexico.
In 2010, Sony stopped Japanese production of its Walkman, which sold 220 million units worldwide.
Battered by competition from Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Sony has lost money for four straight years - and for eight years in its core television business.
A strong yen, which erodes overseas income, and natural disasters at home and in Thailand, a key manufacturing hub, have added to its woes.
Sony's shares dipped to 990 yen before recovering slightly in trading Monday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Nikkei 225 stock average was down 2 percent after U.S. hiring slowed sharply in May.
The company said it was first time that its stock price had traded below 1,000 yen since August 1980 - the year after it introduced the iconic Walkman portable cassette player to the world in 1979.
The stock had peaked at 16,950 yen in March 2000.
Sony, whose businesses run from digital cameras and personal computers to PlayStation game consoles and movies such as 'Bad Teacher,' last month reported a record annual loss of 457 billion yen ($5.7 billion) for the year through March 2012.
The company is aiming for a comeback under Kazuo Hirai, appointed president earlier this year, who has headed the gaming division and built his career in the U.S. Sony forecast a return to profit for the fiscal year through March 2013 at 30 billion yen ($375 million), banking on the growing smartphone and tablet businesses.
Sony also plans to cut 10,000 jobs, or about 6 percent of its global work force.
Widely admired in the 1980s as an innovative power, Sony fell behind when digital music players and flat TVs became hits. Its gadgets have lost popularity as consumers flock to products from Apple such as the iPhone and iPod.
It's also lost out in the TV market to South Korea's Samsung and other Asian competitors. Despite losses in that division, Hirai remains committed to TVs, and promised to cut costs to turn a profit in the division in the next two years.
Sony also plans to seek new growth in emerging markets such as India and Mexico.
In 2010, Sony stopped Japanese production of its Walkman, which sold 220 million units worldwide.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Avengers assemble a private screening aboard the ISS
Putting the Hulk in a pressurized container in space isn't a bad idea at allWhen The Avengers filmed scenes at NASA's Space Power Facility in Ohio, we knew we were seeing a marriage made in heaven. A favorite comic book franchise teaming up with our beloved NASA? It seemed like the best of both worlds. Now Marvel is making good on that collaboration by providing a private screening of The Avengers to the International Space Station hovering over two hundreds of miles above Earth.Marvel will provide The Avengers to Mission Control in Houston, which NASA will then uplink to the International Space Station. "These are the types of things that help to keep the crew connected to home, which is a huge morale boost while being away for long periods of time," said one of NASA's psychological support coordinators. While thoughts of all that fictional destruction might not lift spirits, Tony's trademark jokes will certainly do so.
The current crew of the ISS is made up of six people; we can't help but notice that's the same number of principal heroes in the Avengers. (That'd be Thor, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Widow, for those following along.) We can't wait to hear how the crew would recast themselves as the Avengers in their own ISS version. Here's hoping nothing delays the screening!
[via The Mary Sue]
[Source: Marvel]
This article was written by Michael Gray and originally appeared on Tecca.
More from Tecca:
- A mom's guide to The Avengers
- How much would the New York City disaster in The Avengers cost in real life?
- Review: New Avengers interactive iPad storybooks amaze and astound
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Friday, June 1, 2012
Groupon stock tumbles as IPO lock-up period ends
NEW YORK (AP) - Groupon's stock is tumbling as insiders are selling their shares after a post-IPO prohibition was lifted.
Employees and other insiders are required to wait before selling their stock following a company's initial public offering. Groupon's lock-up period expired on Friday. The company went public on Nov. 4.
Shares of Chicago-based Groupon Inc. fell 93 cents, or 8.7 percent, to $9.71 in midday trading Friday. Earlier, the stock was as low as $9.53. That's the lowest since its IPO, which priced at $20.
Friday was a bad day for the overall stock market, too. A closely watched report showed that the U.S. economy added far fewer jobs than expected last month.
This news article is brought to you by HAPPINESS - where latest news are our top priority.
Employees and other insiders are required to wait before selling their stock following a company's initial public offering. Groupon's lock-up period expired on Friday. The company went public on Nov. 4.
Shares of Chicago-based Groupon Inc. fell 93 cents, or 8.7 percent, to $9.71 in midday trading Friday. Earlier, the stock was as low as $9.53. That's the lowest since its IPO, which priced at $20.
Friday was a bad day for the overall stock market, too. A closely watched report showed that the U.S. economy added far fewer jobs than expected last month.
This news article is brought to you by HAPPINESS - where latest news are our top priority.
Google adds feature to help China searchers
BEIJING (AP) - Google has fired a new salvo in a censorship battle with Beijing by adding a feature that suggests alternatives for search terms that might result in blocked results.
Google's announcement Thursday did not mention of Beijing's extensive Internet controls. But it comes after filters were tightened so severely in recent weeks that searches fail for some restaurants, universities or tourist information. Authorities were aiming to stamp out talk about an embarrassing scandal over the fall of a rising Communist Party star.
Google Inc. closed its China-based search engine in 2010 to avoid cooperating with government censorship. Mainland users can see its Chinese-language site in Hong Kong but the connection breaks if they search for sensitive terms.
The new feature will alert users in China if they type in a search term that 'may temporarily break your connection to Google' and suggest alternative terms, Google said in a blog post signed by a senior vice president, Alan Eustace.
'By prompting people to revise their queries, we hope to reduce these disruptions and improve our user experience from mainland China,' Eustace wrote.
Google cited as an example the Chinese character 'jiang,' or river, without mentioning that it also is the name of former President Jiang Zemin, the possible reason the government blocks search results. It says the site will recommend users in China write their search terms without that character.
A Google spokesman in Tokyo, Taj Meadows, declined to comment on reasons for the feature or whether the company was concerned about Chinese government retaliation.
Google was allowed to keep a network of advertising sales offices in China that might be vulnerable if the communist government tries to punish the company.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, had 16.6 percent of China's search market in the first quarter based on use of its global and Hong Kong sites, according to Analysys International, a Beijing research firm. It was in second place behind local rival Baidu Inc., which 78.5 percent, but ahead of other Chinese competitors.
Google is also promoting its Android mobile phone operating system for use by Chinese manufacturers. Chinese regulators approved Google's $12.5 acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a wireless device maker, last month on condition Android remains available to Chinese companies and others at no cost for five years.
Tensions over censorship highlight Beijing's complicated relations with global technology companies. The communist government wants to boost incomes by promoting high-tech industry but insists on controlling access to information.
Beijing promotes Internet use for education and business and has the world's biggest population of Internet users, with 513 million people online as of December, but tries to block politically sensitive material.
The latest tightening of controls was prompted by a flurry of rumors about the downfall of Bo Xilai, a prominent politician who was party secretary of the major city of Chongqing in the southwest.
In addition to Bo's name, searches for a wide array of terms are blocked, including Chongqing and Yangtze River, which flows past the city. That means searches for universities, hotels, restaurants or other businesses that use those names also are blocked.
China's two most popular microblog services stopped allowing new postings for three days in early April to erase what they said were illegal or harmful postings.
Google's engineers reviewed the 350,000 most popular search queries in China in an effort to find 'disruptive queries,' the company said.
Google gave no indication when development of the latest feature started but said it received reports of unreliable searches 'over the past couple of years.'
This news article is brought to you by PERSONAL FINANCE BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
Google's announcement Thursday did not mention of Beijing's extensive Internet controls. But it comes after filters were tightened so severely in recent weeks that searches fail for some restaurants, universities or tourist information. Authorities were aiming to stamp out talk about an embarrassing scandal over the fall of a rising Communist Party star.
Google Inc. closed its China-based search engine in 2010 to avoid cooperating with government censorship. Mainland users can see its Chinese-language site in Hong Kong but the connection breaks if they search for sensitive terms.
The new feature will alert users in China if they type in a search term that 'may temporarily break your connection to Google' and suggest alternative terms, Google said in a blog post signed by a senior vice president, Alan Eustace.
'By prompting people to revise their queries, we hope to reduce these disruptions and improve our user experience from mainland China,' Eustace wrote.
Google cited as an example the Chinese character 'jiang,' or river, without mentioning that it also is the name of former President Jiang Zemin, the possible reason the government blocks search results. It says the site will recommend users in China write their search terms without that character.
A Google spokesman in Tokyo, Taj Meadows, declined to comment on reasons for the feature or whether the company was concerned about Chinese government retaliation.
Google was allowed to keep a network of advertising sales offices in China that might be vulnerable if the communist government tries to punish the company.
Google, based in Mountain View, California, had 16.6 percent of China's search market in the first quarter based on use of its global and Hong Kong sites, according to Analysys International, a Beijing research firm. It was in second place behind local rival Baidu Inc., which 78.5 percent, but ahead of other Chinese competitors.
Google is also promoting its Android mobile phone operating system for use by Chinese manufacturers. Chinese regulators approved Google's $12.5 acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a wireless device maker, last month on condition Android remains available to Chinese companies and others at no cost for five years.
Tensions over censorship highlight Beijing's complicated relations with global technology companies. The communist government wants to boost incomes by promoting high-tech industry but insists on controlling access to information.
Beijing promotes Internet use for education and business and has the world's biggest population of Internet users, with 513 million people online as of December, but tries to block politically sensitive material.
The latest tightening of controls was prompted by a flurry of rumors about the downfall of Bo Xilai, a prominent politician who was party secretary of the major city of Chongqing in the southwest.
In addition to Bo's name, searches for a wide array of terms are blocked, including Chongqing and Yangtze River, which flows past the city. That means searches for universities, hotels, restaurants or other businesses that use those names also are blocked.
China's two most popular microblog services stopped allowing new postings for three days in early April to erase what they said were illegal or harmful postings.
Google's engineers reviewed the 350,000 most popular search queries in China in an effort to find 'disruptive queries,' the company said.
Google gave no indication when development of the latest feature started but said it received reports of unreliable searches 'over the past couple of years.'
This news article is brought to you by PERSONAL FINANCE BLOG - where latest news are our top priority.
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