Did Facebook Change Its Rules to Placate the Right?

Former lobbyist/political advisor Joel Kaplan joined Facebook in 2011 to lead its Washington D.C. outreach, reports BuzzFeed news. But some employees said they were very unhappy with decisions made by both Kaplan and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: In April 2019, Facebook was preparing to ban one of the internet’s most notorious spreaders of misinformation and hate, Infowars founder Alex Jones. Then…

TikTok Misses US Deadline For Sale Without Punishment

“After months of wrangling, proposals, court rulings and a few extensions, a deadline set by the Trump Administration’s Treasury Department mandated a sale for TikTok by December 4th,” remembers Engadget. But that’s not what happened. “Instead, Bloomberg and Reuters report, based on anonymous sources, that the Chinese company and the US government will continue negotiations.” Bloomberg reports: While the deadline has…

Schedar shines brightly at the Queen’s heart

Orange-hued Schedar is the brightest star in the distinctive W-shaped northern constellation Cassiopeia the Queen. Source: https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/schedar-short-life-of-burning-bright…

The Curse of the Buried Treasure

Two metal-detector enthusiasts discovered a Viking hoard. It was worth a fortune — but it became a nightmare. From a report:
Leominster, in the West Midlands area of England, is an ancient market town where the past and the present are jumbled together like coins in a change purse. Shops housed in half-timbered sixteenth-century Tudor buildings face the main square, offering cream…

Facebook Targeted In UK Legal Action Over Cambridge Analytica Scandal

An anonymous reader shares a report from the BBC: Facebook is being sued for failing to protect users’ personal data in the Cambridge Analytica breach. The scandal involved harvested Facebook data of 87 million people being used for advertising during elections. Mass legal action is being launched against Facebook for misuse of information from almost one million users in England and…

Tesla’s Touchscreen Wiper Controls Ruled Illegal In Germany

New submitter Rei_is_a_dumbass shares a report from Electrek: Tesla’s wiper controls through its touchscreen have been ruled illegal in Germany after someone crashed their Model 3 while using them and fought a fine and driving ban through the court system. A Tesla Model 3 driver got into an accident while using the touchscreen to adjust the speed of the automatic windshield…

‘King of Donkey Kong’ Billy Mitchell Continues Defamation Suit Over Cheating Accusations

destinyland shares an update about Billy Mitchell, the intense dark-haired videogame champion in the 2007 documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Last year the videogame record-keepers at Twin Galaxies revoked Billy Mitchell’s entire lifetime’s worth of videogame high scores after an online discussion argued videotapes of three of Mitchell’s performances suggested they’d been achieved using a MAME emulator….

‘Video Vigilante’ Arrested After Filming a Hospital’s Emergency Ramp

The Boston Herald writes that a “video vigilante faces numerous charges after being arrested outside Massachusetts General Hospital where police say he was recording the emergency ramp at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.” schwit1 shares their report: John L. McCullough, 41, was charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace and threats to do bodily harm after police say he refused to…

Was the ‘Nazareth Inscription’ a Roman response to Jesus’ empty tomb? New evidence says it wasn’t.

The origins of the Nazareth Inscription, a Roman emperor’s edict threatening grave robbers with severe punishment, have been hotly debated for decades. Source: https://www.livescience.com/nazareth-inscription-jesus-tomb-reinterpreted.html