Facebook Inspired Home Invasion

Police in Australia are urging people to be more cautious about what they post online, after a picture on Facebook sparked a home invasion in the New South Wales southern highlands last week. A 17-year-old girl was helping her grandmother count personal belongings in her Sydney home last Thursday, when she posted a picture of a large sum of cash on her Facebook profile.

At about 11:30pm, two men armed with a knife and a wooden club allegedly went to the girl’s mother’s house in Bundanoon. A 47-year-old woman, a 58-year-old man and a 14-year-old boy were at home at the time. The robbers demanded to speak to the teen about the money, but her mother told them she no longer lived there.

The men then stole a small amount of money and personal belongings before leaving. Nobody was injured. Police say people need to be extremely careful about posting personal information on Facebook.

Facebook China Version 2.1 beta

Some Chinese Internet users have this week been able to access blocked websites such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, relishing the newfound freedom although the reason for the breach in China’s Great Firewall of censorship was a mystery.
China blocks most foreign social networking sites (SNS) out of fear that unfettered access would lead to instability. Chinese SNS firms have filled the void by offering similar products that censor topics the government may find sensitive.

“I can suddenly access YouTube! No need to breach the firewall!” Weibo user Arvin Xie posted on Tuesday.

Weibo is a microblogging platform, similar to Twitter, that allows users to post short messages and follow other users. Internet users including students on university campuses reported that they were able to access YouTube, Facebook and Twitter on their mobile phones and desktops in the afternoon and evening on Monday and Tuesday. Read the full article »»»»

Facebook China

When it comes to China, Facebook should consider itself forewarned. Cracking the world’s biggest Internet population might seem an obvious ambition for the social networking giant as it trumpets its global growth before a $5 billion initial public offering, but the chances it will succeed look slim. Facebook said last week it was contemplating re-entering China, the world’s second-biggest economy, after being blocked nearly three years ago. Facebooks offering would likely face intense competition, political meddling and little commercial success.

There are just six countries in the world where Facebook is not the most popular social networking site,  Mark Zuckerberg clearly has his sights set on all six.

Japan, India and Korea currently have popular local alternatives to Facebook, and the Chinese government has no intention of lifting its ban on the site. Read the full article »»»»

Facebook Timeline: Unearthing Pix You Forgot You Had? or A Stalkers Dream!

Like it or not, Facebook is about to make its new profile format –  Timeline – compulsory. Over the next few weeks, every Facebook account will be updated with the new-look profile, presenting a scrapbook of all of your past status updates and photographs.

The latest upgrade to Facebook has security experts warning people to clean up their online history or risk having embarrassing photos, comments and status updates resurface. Facebook will not say exactly when, but sometime in the next month all user profile pages will transition to the new Timeline setting.

The changes mean that every post, photo and action in a Facebook user’s history will be available for friends to easily view in reverse chronological order. Facebook users have had the option to use Timeline since last year.

The problem with Facebook is it keeps changing its default settings, you might not care about the change right now, in 20 years when you’re standing for political office? Clearly social media sites like Facebook have granted us a much more transparent society. Graham Cluley, a social media security commentator says “Facebook is encouraging users to enter even more personal details about themselves and their life experiences, and making it simpler for others to view the information.” Read the full article »»»»

UK Parents Using Facebook To Find Children They Gave Up For Adoption or Abandoned

Hundreds of adopted children in the United Kingdom have been contacted by their birth parents, who used social media sites like Facebook to track them down. One adoption support group in Victoria says the process can be illegal, and a mother of three adopted children in the UK says it can be highly traumatic.

Adopted children can sometimes spend their whole lives wondering about their birth parents because the search process through official channels can take years. One adopted teenager in the UK received a message on Facebook saying “Hello, I am your father.

I have been searching for you ever since you were stolen by social services. You look beautiful. I love you so much.” The father who wrote the message is a registered paedophile, whose children were removed by social services and later adopted.

It’s a development that has concerned some psychologists, who fear the destabilizing impact that kind of sudden contact could have.

In Britain, health services fear that some birth parents, and in particular those who may have been abusive in the past, could track down their birth children via sites like Facebook to establish or re-establish contact. 

Some psychologists have reported that adopted children have displayed troubled behavior after their parents had unexpectedly re-established contact :: Read the full article »»»»

Kim Jong il's Family Problems

Our favorite dicator, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il – aka Yuri Irsenovich Kim aka Dear Leader  - has been in absolute power now for 18 years. Forbes ranks the Supreme Leader as 31st in it’s List of The World’s Most Powerful People. Don’t let his iron-fisted power fool you though. It seems the Genral has as much trouble as the next man keeping his family in-line. A quick rundown on our favorite dictator reveals some astounding facts:

CONTINUED: Read the full article »»»»