Facebook manipulated users’ moods in secret experiment
There are on average 1,500 possible stories that could show up on users’ news feeds. Source: Getty Images
by Andrew Griffin
The Independent
Jun 29, 2014
Facebook manipulated the emotions of hundreds of thousands of its users, and found that they would pass on happy or sad emotions, it has said. The experiment, for which researchers did not gain specific consent, has provoked criticism from users with privacy and ethical concerns.
For one week in 2012, Facebook skewed nearly 700,000 users’ news feeds to either be happier or sadder than normal. The experiment found that after the experiment was over users tended to post positive or negative comments according to the skew that was given to their news feed.
Read more: Facebook responds to users’ outrage
The research has provoked distress because of the manipulation involved.
Studies of real world networks show that what the researchers call ‘emotional contagion’ can be transferred through networks. But researchers say that the study is the first evidence that the effect can happen without direct interaction or nonverbal clues.
Anyone who used the English version of Facebook automatically qualified for the experiment, the results of which were published earlier this month. Researchers analysed the words used in posts to automatically decide whether they were likely to be positive or negative, and shifted them up or down according to which group users fell into.
It found that emotions spread across the network, and that friends tended to respond more to negative posts. Users who were exposed to more emotional posts of either type tended to withdraw from posting themselves.
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[related: Facebook Tinkers With Users’ Emotions in News Feed Experiment, Stirring Outcry]
[hat tip: Neil Sanders and The Truther Girls]
VIDEO — Stefan Molyneux: Bitcoin Has The Power To End War
Canadian Awareness Network
Apr 22, 2014
Stefan Molyneaux presents the idea that adopting Bitcoin could bring an end to war. At the Toronto Bitcoin Expo on April 13, 2014.
Apologies for audio and the end cutting off. (last 10 minutes os speech was not filmed)
See more of Stefan’s work at:
http://www.freedomainradio.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/stefbot
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6/29/2014 — Radioactive waste DELIBERATELY mixed in ‘fracking’ water for underground ‘disposal’
Dutchsinse
Jun 29, 2014
It would seem ‘fracking’ has dual purposes…
- Fracture shale using water, to extract natural gas, and oil.
- Dispose of toxic / harmful substances deep underground.
The second purpose, disposal / injection wells….. apparently was seen as a ‘good’ thing to do back as far as 1965.
A ‘good’ idea to pump radioactive waste deep underground, mixed with water of course.
From the Youngstown Vindicator on September 16, 1965:
Much more can be searched out here on the topic of fracking radioactive wastewater injection:
This revelation above plays into a much more recent dirty little secret which broke on the back pages of the ‘news’ this past year… fracking companies are dumping radioactive waste sleeves out in open fields, and on the sides of roads!!!
Now we know where the radioactivity is coming from.
Al-Qaida breakaway formally declares Islamic State — video included
Yahoo News
Jun 29, 2014
by Ryan Lucas
BAGHDAD (AP) — The al-Qaida breakaway group that has seized much of northern Syria and huge tracks of neighboring Iraq formally declared the creation of an Islamic state on Sunday in the territory under its control.
The spokesman for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, made the announcement in an audio statement posted online. Islamic extremists have long dreamed of recreating the Islamic state, or caliphate, that ruled over the Middle East for hundreds of years.
Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said the group’s chief, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is the new leader, or caliph, of the Islamic state. He called on those living in the areas under the organization’s control to swear allegiance to al-Baghdadi and support him.
“The legality of all emirates, groups, states and organizations becomes null by the expansion of the caliph’s authority and the arrival of its troops to their areas,” al-Adnani said.
VIDEO — In Shadow of ISIS Offensive: France Moves to Curb MEK Terror Group, an Asset of US Joint Special Operations Command Which Hillary Clinton Removed from State Department Terrorist List with Help of Bribed Officials
TARPLEY.net
Jun 27, 2014
PN 