Facebook fires human editors, algorithm immediately posts fake news

Enlarge / This morning, Trending promoted this as its top story related to the trending topic “Megyn Kelly.” The story was up for several hours, and is completely false. (credit: Washington Post)

Earlier this year, Facebook denied criticisms that its Trending feature was surfacing news stories that were biased against conservatives. But in an abrupt reversal, the company fired all the human editors for Trending on Friday afternoon, replacing them with an algorithm that promotes stories based entirely on what Facebook users are talking about. Within 72 hours, according to the Washington Post, the top story on Trending was about how Fox News icon Megyn Kelly was a pro-Clinton “traitor” who had been fired… but she wasn’t.

The original accusations of bias came from a disgruntled ex-editor at Facebook, who leaked internal Trending training materials to Gizmodo. The training package offered tips on, among other things, how to curate news from an RSS feed of reputable sources when the stories provided by Facebook users were false or repetitive. Though the human editors were always expendable—they were mostly there to train the Trending algorithm—they were still engaging in quality control to weed out blatant falsehoods and non-news like #lunch. And after Trending latched on to the fake Kelly scoop, it appears that human intervention might still be required to make Facebook’s algorithms a legitimate source of news after all.

In a post about the changes, Facebook said the early move to eliminate human editors was a direct response to “the feedback we got from the Facebook community earlier this year,” an oblique reference to the raging controversy unleashed by the Gizmodo revelations. Facebook explained that the new, non-human Trending module is personalized “based on a number of factors, including Pages you’ve liked, your location (e.g., home state sports news), the previous trending topics with which you’ve interacted, and what is trending across Facebook overall.” Instead of paying humans to “write topic descriptions and short story summaries,” the company said “we’re relying on an algorithm to pull excerpts directly from news stories.” Which is why millions of Facebook readers this morning saw the “news” that Megyn Kelly is a traitor who has been fired.

Read 2 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – Facebook fires human editors, algorithm immediately posts fake news

Prime Members Can Save Nearly 50% on Select Huggies Diapers Today

If you have your own little tot crawling around, or have any friends with young children, Amazon’s offering a parenting lifeline with 35% off various diapers and baby wipes, plus an extra 20% for Prime members via an Amazon Family Subscribe & Save discount.

Read more…



Source: LifeHacker – Prime Members Can Save Nearly 50% on Select Huggies Diapers Today

65-year-old woman takes out drone over her Virginia property with one shot

Enlarge / Jennifer Youngman, 65, used a .410 gauge shotgun like this to take out a drone. (credit: Big Swede Guy)

With a single shotgun blast, a 65-year-old woman in rural northern Virginia recently shot down a drone flying over her property.

The woman, Jennifer Youngman, has lived in The Plains, Virginia, since 1990. The Fauquier Times first reported the June 2016 incident late last week. It marks the third such shooting that Ars has reported on in the last 15 months—last year, similar drone shootings took place in Kentucky and California.

Youngman told Ars that she had just returned from church one Sunday morning and was cleaning her two shotguns—a .410 and a .20 gauge—on her porch. She had a clear view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and neighbor Robert Duvall’s property (yes, the same Robert Duvall from The Godfather). Youngman had seen two men set up a card table on what she described as a “turnaround place” on a country road adjacent to her house.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments



Source: Ars Technica – 65-year-old woman takes out drone over her Virginia property with one shot

FBI Says Foreign Hackers Breached State Election Systems

The FBI has uncovered evidence that foreign hackers breached two state election databases in recent weeks, and it has warned election officials across the country to some measures to step up the security of their computer systems. The Guardian reports: The FBI warning did not identify the two states targeted by cyber intruders, but Yahoo News said sources familiar with the document said it referred to Arizona and Illinois, whose voter registration systems were penetrated. Citing a state election board official, Yahoo News said the Illinois voter registration system was shut down for 10 days in late July after hackers downloaded personal data on up to 200,000 voters. The Arizona attack was more limited and involved introducing malicious software into the voter registration system, Yahoo News quoted a state official as saying. No data was removed in that attack, the official said. US intelligence officials have become increasingly worried that hackers sponsored by Russia or other countries may attempt to disrupt the November presidential election.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – FBI Says Foreign Hackers Breached State Election Systems

Apple Sued Over Unresponsive iPhone 6 Touchscreens

Apparently a class action lawsuit is brewing over that iPhone 6 screen defect we told you about last week (here). Since the design defect affects all iPhone 6 Plus owners, I can’t even begin to imagine how much a lawsuit like this could end up costing Apple.

Apple Inc has been sued by owners of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus smartphones who say a design defect causes the phones’ touchscreens to become unresponsive, making them unusable. According to a proposed nationwide class-action lawsuit filed on Saturday, Apple has long been aware of the defect, which often surfaces after a flickering gray bar appears atop the touchscreens, but has refused to fix it.

Comments

Source: [H]ardOCP – Apple Sued Over Unresponsive iPhone 6 Touchscreens

Enter a World of Psychic Teens and Cold War Con Artists In The Skeptics

What if, at the height of the Cold War, Russia revealed that it had the ultimate weapon in its conflict against the Western world: Superpowered teenagers? That’s the premise of Black Mask Studio’s new comic The Skeptics—but as we’ve learned from writer Tini Howard, there’s a lot more going on that just Russian superteens.

Read more…



Source: io9 – Enter a World of Psychic Teens and Cold War Con Artists In The Skeptics

Project Diva X Makes Up For Its Short Song List With Story And Substance

With fans anxiously awaiting word on whether Sega plans to bring the 224 song monster that is Project Diva Future Tone
to the West, why should they bother with the measly 30 tracks in Hatsune Miku Project Diva X? Because this one’s got more actual game in it.

Read more…



Source: Kotaku – Project Diva X Makes Up For Its Short Song List With Story And Substance

Let the Right One In Will Be a U.S. TV Show Because Vampires Never Die

John Ajvide Lindqvist’s teen vampire tale Let the Right One In began life as a best-selling book in Sweden, rose to international prominence in 2008 thanks to a Swedish film adaptation, then got a 2010 American cinematic re-do. Now, TNT is ordering a pilot based on Lindqvist’s book. Vampires really are eternal!

Read more…



Source: io9 – Let the Right One In Will Be a U.S. TV Show Because Vampires Never Die

Who Killed YTMND? 

In its heyday, You’re The Man Now Dog (YTMND) rode the cresting wave of early mainstream online communities, alongside its brethren like 4chan, Something Awful, and Newgrounds. The site allowed anyone to pair a gif (animated or not) with looping sound, to be voted on and shared by other users. At its peak, YTMND had four million monthly users.

Read more…



Source: Gizmodo – Who Killed YTMND? 

Uh-Oh: Reports Of Clown Trying To Lure Children Into Woods In South Carolina

south-carolina-clown.jpg

Police deputies are investigating several reports of a “clown or a person dressed in clown clothing” trying to lure children into the woods near the Fleetwood Manor Apartments in Greenville, South Carolina. Thankfully, most children will run from a clown because clowns are terrifying and not the sort of thing you’d be willing to follow into the woods like an ice cream or taco truck. So that’s a relief. At least people are doing the right thing and trying to shoot at the clown. Wait — what?

“I thought my child was seeing things,” [Resident Donna] Arnold said. “And then the next day I had about 30 kids come up to me and say, ‘Did you see the clown in the woods?”

Another resident also reported seeing a “large-figured clown with a blinking nose” standing under a streetlight near the trash dumpsters.

Deputies also spoke with children who told them clowns “try to persuade them into the woods further by displaying large amounts of money.” The children advised they believed the clowns lived in an old house near a pond, accessible via a trial behind the apartment complex.

Deputies said they found the house near the pond but found no signs of suspicious activity or clowns.

According to the investigative report, deputies also received two prior calls about clowns in the area and one call about gunshots being fired at clowns.

Listen: I want you to dress me up like a kid and I’ll walk on my knees and get to the bottom of this clown mystery. It says the clown is displaying large amounts of money. I will take that money. And, if police happen to find a dead clown in the woods with his red nose and horn jammed up his ass, well, he said there was gonna be free candy. I don’t take empty promises lightly. Also, if this is supposed to be some sort of sick viral advertising for the new Stephen King It movie coming out, that’s f***ed up.

Hit the jump for a local news report.

Source: Geekologie – Uh-Oh: Reports Of Clown Trying To Lure Children Into Woods In South Carolina

Giant Realistic Cockroach Pool Float

roach-pool-float-1.jpgYou’re on a giant roach — now act sexy.

This is the gigantic Cockroach pool float manufactured by Kangaroo (it was made in a pouch!) and available on Amazon for $30. Or you can buy one from me for $20, but I’ll never actually send it. I’ll swear up and down I did, but I did not, I lied. Also, what’s that look that lady is giving me? Does she want me to rub suntan lotion on her back? Or does she want me to do a cannonball and splash her as much as I can? “Probably just stop staring.” You think the binoculars are too much?

Keep going for several more pics of this chick doing her best to look sexy on top of a giant cockroach.

Source: Geekologie – Giant Realistic Cockroach Pool Float

Snapchat's First Multi-Level Game Stars Serena Williams' Outfits

Snapchat's First Multi-Level Game Stars Serena Williams' Outfits
Serena Match Point

Today, Snapchat is featuring its first multi-level video game, a retro tennis title based on Serena Williams’ 22 major tennis victories, each with its own level. And, for an 8-bit Gatorade-sponsored ad buried beneath ESPN’s Snapchat Discover stories (baseball player Carlos Gomez running into a wall and a stack of kids sliding down a hill on a piece of cardboard), Serena Match Point killed it on the fashion. 10/10.

Read more…



Source: Kotaku – Snapchat’s First Multi-Level Game Stars Serena Williams’ Outfits

Facebook Removes Fake Article About Megyn Kelly From Trending Topics

Less than a week after Facebook announced that it is changing the way it handles the Trending Topics section on the social networking website, a fake article about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly was found trending on Facebook. The article, headlined “Breaking: Fox News Exposes Traitor Megyn Kelly, Kicks Her Out for Backing Hillary” comes from a conspiracy theory website, which has more than 200,000 likes on Facebook. Its Megyn Kelly story was the topic of discussion for many across the world. The article is obviously fake. The other cited source for this trending topic was an outlet called “Conservating101”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



Source: Slashdot – Facebook Removes Fake Article About Megyn Kelly From Trending Topics

Verizon's 'LTE Advanced' network promises 50 percent higher speed

Every wireless carrier has various tests that say its network is the best, but most still view Verizon as the best overall choice when looking for that all-important combo of speed and reliability. (That combo doesn’t come cheap, of course.) Today, t…

Source: Engadget – Verizon’s ‘LTE Advanced’ network promises 50 percent higher speed

PSA: Vizio's 5.1 Surround Sound System Is Down to $130 For Prime Members, Which Is Ridiculous

Vizio’s turnkey 5.1 surround sound system is back in stock again, and now all the way down to $130 for Prime members. This was going in and out of stock for $150 last week, which at the time seemed too good to be true. Just note that you won’t see the $50 Prime discount until checkout.

Read more…



Source: LifeHacker – PSA: Vizio’s 5.1 Surround Sound System Is Down to 0 For Prime Members, Which Is Ridiculous