Tasmania Police take selfie with drunk guy so he’ll know how he got home

Some good-hearted cops made sure a drunk man got home safely, then took a selfie with him, using his phone, so he would remember how he got home.

According to Tasmania Police, they got a call from a taxi company, asking them to help a man get home, who was “a bit worse for wear.” Reportedly Reece Park, the man in question, was very drunk. The officers made sure he got home safely, then took the now-viral selfie, so he would know exactly how he got there. In the image the two officers can be seen in the foreground, with an intoxicated Park giving the “thumbs up” in the background.

The next day Reece was scrolling through his phone when he discovered the selfie and posted it to Facebook. He added the caption, “So was just looking through my phone and turns out these good ****s took some banger selfies after they took my drunk ass home,” adding the words “Bloody legends.” After posting the image, it naturally went viral.

In the above Facebook post, Tasmanian police took the opportunity to use that image to urge party-goers to in future “plan ahead.” "Pre-arrange a designated driver, use public transport or organise a taxi if you are intending to have a big night."
 
Senior Sgt. Craig Fox of the Tasmania Police explained that on this occasion, police had been called by the taxi company to help get a drunken man home. When police arrived, they found out what his address was and took him home. While they waited for a friend to arrive to look after Reece, they decided to take the selfie. 

Fox did stress that police do not normally drive people home when they are suffering the effects of alcohol. However, he did say police will always look for a place of safety for anyone suffering the effects of too much to drink.

Source: Facebook / New York Post

IDF 'hitman/assassin' posts disturbing pictures on FB, Instagram

IDF is yet again on the defensive over its troops’ use of social media, after an elite regiment soldier posted pictures of himself half-naked, and smoking drugs on his Instagram, and boasted about killing an Arab on Twitter.

The pro-Palestinian news resource Electronic Intifada mined publicly available images and comments of Osher Maman, a 20 year-old private in the Golani Brigade, who recently moved from the US to Israel on a special military recruitment program.

Maman, who calls himself a “hitman/assassin” in one of his public posts says he joined the elite unit “to beat up terrorists and sh*t”.

In one tweet from January last year, he boasts “Just took an Arab out… Whataa a feeling.”

His Instagram feed features a mock-up of a popular WWII poster that says “Keep Calm and Take Over Gaza” and a map of the territory, which the Israeli Defense Force left in 2005, with the Hebrew inscription “Soon to be a giant theme park.”

The soldier has since been reprimanded by his superiors, and all the social media accounts have been taken down.

“This is a grave incident, which do not represent the IDF,” said Capt. Eytan Buchman, a military spokesman, who noted that an investigation into the private’s behavior is ongoing.

Maman’s feed also contained pictures, apparently taken by others with access to the armory, of the soldier naked, covering his genitals with the barrel of a gun, and rifles arranged into a Star of David.

Another set shows Maman smoking what appears to be a joint in his hand (an Army offense) and showing off a clump of marijuana in his palm.

The controversy comes only days after another 20 year-old soldier was investigated for posting a picture of what appears to be an Arab boy in the crosshairs of a rifle. The soldier, Mor Ostrovski, said he found the picture on the internet.

The same explanation is unlikely to wash for Maman’s highly-personalized photo collection.

To the source: http://www.rt.com/news/idf-instagram-weed-guns-naked-240/

104-year-old woman too old for Facebook, had to lie about age

While some ladies have been known to lie about their age, Marguerite Joseph is nothing but proud of her 104 years. Only one problem, Facebook's settings say she is too old and automatically makes her 20 years younger. 

 Joseph loves using Facebook to keep in touch with family and friends. She was four-years-old when the Titanic sank, she lived through several wars and even witnessed the Great Depression. She has seen the introduction of every new method of communication known to mankind, including Facebook. All good stuff for a long-lived and interesting lady who wanted to sign up on Facebook.

 

Joseph has an extensive family, with five children, 12 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren, so Facebook is the ideal place to keep in touch with everyone. Only one problem, when she signed up, she was 102-years-old. 

 

When her granddaughter, Gail Marlow, tried to state her actual year of birth, 1908, it kept changing to 1928. Apparently there is a clause regarding age policies on Facebook that implies that people over 99 cannot be registered on the social network.

 

In a status update in January, Joseph wrote, "I'm annoyed by facebook because I can't add my actualy [sic] birth year. When I originally opened my account I could only enter myself as being 99 years old, eventhough [sic] I was 102...now I'm 104 almost 105 and still can't enter in my correct DOB. And I think I'm the oldest facebook member...I've written fb but they don't seem to fix it! Any suggestions???"

 

Marguerite Joseph is legally blind and can’t hear, but her granddaughter reads and responds to all messages the elderly woman gets and generally keeps her up to date. “All of our family members always asked how grandma was doing on my Facebook page,” Gail Marlow said. “So I decided I would set up a page of her own so she could stay connected to her family in Canada.”

 

"Every time I tried to change the settings to the right year, Facebook came back with an unknown error message and would send us right back to a year she wasn’t born in,” Marlow said. “I would love to see her real age on Facebook. I mean, in April she’s going to be 105. It’s special.”

 

Marlow told the local TV station WDIV-TV that she "would love to see" her grandmother’s age displayed, and regretted her own inability to fix "a glitch in the system."

 

Marlow even contacted Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but he never responded to her query. Reportedly Facebook is apologizing for the problem with spokesman Andrew Noyes telling AP the company is "trying to deal with the issue."

 

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/343984

Police use Facebook message to contact mother about son's death

Clayton County, Ga police officers were having trouble contacting Anna Lamb-Creasey to tell her of the death of her son in a traffic accident, so they sent her a message through Facebook, which ended up in the notorious "Other" folder for 20 days.

Anna Lamb-Creasey had been worried for weeks, as she had been unable to contact her 30-year-old son, Rickie Lamb. She had contacted hospitals and jails. She left messages for him on his Facebook page, saying, "Rickie where are you? Love mom." 

As the weeks went by, she worried more and more, until finally, and purely by chance, she found a message in the "Other" folder of her private messages on Facebook, after her daughter found something similar on her account.

We have probably all come across that notorious folder. If someone who is not a Facebook friend tries to contact you, the message goes straight in there, and unless you think to go searching, you may never find it. Under Facebook's new money-making schemes, if people pay $1 their message will go direct to you, but not everyone thinks of doing that, and they may never know that their message did not reach you.

This was the case here. Now Lamb-Creasey is furious with the police for using this method of contacting her. 

It turns out that Lamb-Creasey's son, Rickie, was struck and killed by a car on January 25. While the driver was not charged, the police say that they had exhausted all avenues before trying to contact Lamb-Creasey through Facebook.

Rather strangely, they used the private Facebook account of one of their employees, named "Misty Hancock". In the message she identified herself as Lt. Shindler and left a number where they could be reached. As "Misty Hancock" had a profile photo of herself posing with Atlanta rapper T.I., who has served prison time in the past, at first Lamb-Creasey didn't take the message seriously.

"Misty Hancock, and I'm like who is a Misty Hancock? That sounds like a stripper’s name or something," she said. However, when she did phone the number, she was told that her son was dead and the circumstances surrounding his death.

Lamb-Creasey told Atlanta's News Channel 2, "They told me that they did the best that they can do, but I'm not sure about that. They can track a criminal down, they couldn't track me down? They could have done better."

"I've been on my job 13 years. They could have found me."

If the police had used more traditional methods of contacting her, or if Facebook stopped holding its members ransom for their private messages, possibly Lamb-Creasey would have known sooner, and Rickie's body would not have waited in the county morgue for 20 days.

Chief Greg Porter of the Clayton County police told Channel 2 that he was unhappy with the way the incident had been handled and that he is now making changes: "I've since instructed my staff to create a Facebook page to try to eliminate issues such as this," Porter said.

However, if the messages they send from this new page also end up in the "Other" folder, is this going to help?  

Also, to add insult to injury, Lamb-Creasey has to cover the high cost of her son being stored in the morgue for 20 days!

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/343933

US programmer outsourced own work to China, played on Internet

A rather ingenious programmer, working for a critical infrastructure company in the US, outsourced his work to a Chinese contractor for a fraction of his salary. He then sat and played on Facebook, ebay and reddit and watched cat videos all day.

The unnamed programmer, dubbed "Bob" by the media, was earning a six-figure salary. He handed over his login information to a Chinese firm, giving them full access to do his work, then sat back and played, including watching cat videos, participating on Facebook and reddit.

His cover got blown by an audit, which revealed an active virtual private network (VPN) between "Bob's" workstation and the firm in Shenyang, China. Company executives, suspecting a breach in their security system, then requested an audit from Operations Verizon. 

Andrew Valentine, a spokesman for Verizon, said, "Evidence even suggested he had the same scam going across multiple companies in the area,” adding that “he earned several hundred thousand dollars a year, and only had to pay the Chinese consulting firm about $50,000 annually."

According to Verizon, the employee had sent his security credentials via Fedex to the Chinese firm, giving them access to log on with his username during working hours. 

Verizon also uncovered hundreds of PDF files and invoices exchanged between "Bob" and the contractor in Shenyang.

Valentine said that, "Authentication was no problem. He physically FedExed his RSA [security] token to China so that the third-party contractor could log-in under his credentials during the workday. It would appear that he was working an average nine-to-five work day.” 

Apparently the contractor in Shenyan had been working for "Bob" for several months and even had access to classified files of the “critical infrastructure company.” All this just begs the question, what did "Bob" actually do all day? The company had a look at his Internet browsing history, which revealed that he spent hours surfing reddit, updating Facebook and generally surfing the Web for cat videos.  

CNN has posted a typical working day in the life of "Bob": 

9:00 a.m. - Get to work, surf reddit, watch cat videos 

11:30 a.m. - Lunch 1:00 p.m. - ebay  

2:00 p.m or so - Facebook and LinkedIn

4:30 p.m. - Send end-of-day e-mail update to management 

5:00 p.m. - Go home 

The funny thing is, official performance figures for the company show that "Bob" was the most productive developer in the building. He was also described as “inoffensive, quiet” and talented, and is apparently fluent in several different programing languages. All sounds good, except, of course, he wasn't actually doing the work.

After the story broke in the media, there was a mixture of reactions, with some praising "Bob" for his ingenuity, and others, mainly in China, being more critical of his actions. 

Users of the Chinese Twitter-style social network Weibo, were particularly upset with one commenter writing, “Learn English and let’s find work in US. Why do we have to do the dirty work for such a cheap price in China?"

While "Bob's" real identity is still unknown, it has rather unsurprisingly been reported that he no longer works for the company, and it is pretty certain that the Chinese company has been fired too.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/341518

Pepsico's 'Naked Juice' to feel the pain after boycotting Prop 37

Naked Juice is the next company to feel the hurt, after their parent company, Pepsico, contributed $2.5 million against Proposition 37, the ballot initiative for mandatory GMO labeling in the recent elections.

Digital Journal reported recently on the attack on Cheerios' Facebook page, in retaliation for General Mills' support of the "No on Proposition 37" campaign. Now there is yet another company feeling the strain. 

 

Did you know that Pepsico owns some of your favorite "organic" and "natural" brands, including Naked Juice, Tostitos, Tropicana, Tazo, Loóza, Izze, Sabra, Smartfood, Stacy's, Mother's and Near East? And that Pepsico contributed $2.5 million against GMO labeling in the recent elections in California? 

 

Well now, Organic Consumers Association has started a campaign against Naked Juice and is calling on consumers to boycott the product. Concerned citizens can send an email to Mike Torres, senior director of communications for PepsiCo, telling him they're all done buying Naked Juice - or any other Pepsi brand - until PepsiCo and Naked Juice support GMO labeling and product transparency. 

 

Anti-GMO protesters and activists are also invited to share their thoughts and speak their minds on the Facebook page for Naked Juice, and will find plenty of company amongst all the comments already pouring in. 

 

 On top of this, it is interesting to note that Naked Juice is the subject of a class-action lawsuit for fraudulently promising that its beverage products are "100% juice," "all natural," and "non-GMO." 

 

According to the lawsuit, Naked Juice uses soy ingredients that are genetically engineered "by design or by contamination." (Naked Juice doesn't use certified organic or verified non-GMO soy.) 

 

The lawsuit also accuses Naked Juice of intentionally using misleading language to give consumers "the false impression that the beverage's vitamin content is due to the nutritious fruits and juices, rather than the added synthetic compounds such as calcium pantothenate (synthetically produced from formaldehyde)" and "Fibersol-2 (a proprietary synthetic digestion-resistant fiber produced by Archer Daniels Midland and developed by a Japanese chemical company), fructooligosaccharides (a synthetic fiber and sweetener) and inulin (an artificial and invisible fiber added to foods to ... increase fiber content without the typical fiber mouth-feel)." 

 

The plaintiffs in this class-action suit are requesting compensatory and punitive damages, as well as an injunction against Naked Juice stating that its products are 100 percent juice, are all natural and that they contain no genetically modified organisms, when this is clearly not the case.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/339270

Cheerios' Facebook page hijacked by anti-GMO protesters

Following the recent demise of Proposition 37, the ballot initiative for GMO labeling, many companies are being boycotted for supporting the wrong side. One of these companies is the owner of Cheerios, who mistakenly tried some social media marketing. 

Unfortunately for them, this month General Mills, the Cheerios guys, decided to try and engage with their customers through Facebook.

Big mistake.

As reported by triplepundit.com, "What was supposed to be a warm-and-fuzzy page dedicated to childhood odes to Cheerios has turned into an anti-GMO (genetically modified organism) rant." The image at the top of their Facebook page reads, "Your moments. Our timeline. The story of Cheerios as told by you." And boy, did people tell their stories! 

One recent comment reads,

"Instead of wasting your money on campaigning against labeling GMOs you should have saved that money and changed your labels. Maybe your values are misplaced. Maybe you have GMOs in your products and you were afraid of losing business? Well, guess what? You are losing customers anyway because you didn't support labeling and joined the opposing team with monetary support. That told customers the answer they were searching for even without the label. Great job! Geez! I used to like Cheerios. Shame on you."

They even went so far as to ask customers questions, like: "What are your favorite memories of childhood?" To which one commenter wrote:

"As a child, my favorite cereal was Cheerios."

However, they immediately added,

"Now that I have my own child, I don't let him eat it. I will not support a company that supports GMO's."

Another question was, "This Thanksgiving, we’re grateful for you, our fans, for showing us that the most simple things can bring great joy. What are you thankful for?" To which some protesters responded:

"I'm thankful I have a choice NOT to buy your GMO product and I CAN buy organic products."

And another:

"I'm thankful for social media making it easier to call out big corporations that only have profits in mind, not the health of families...esp kids."

Along with many, many more - I could keep this up pretty much all day! In fact, perusing the comments on the image, where they asked their question, there don't seem to be any positive comments at all. 

Most of the offending remarks on the timeline itself have since been removed, but new ones are cropping up all the time, like:

"Boycotting until the GMO's are gone! People over profits! You don't exist if we choose not to support you. Plant that in your modified fields :)".

And another reads,

"Genetically modified Mills, I have stopped buying your products."

And yet another:

"TRUSTED........ NO WAY!!! How can we trust a Company..... who contributed over $1.1 million to "NO on 37"??? Why don't you want labeling of GMOs (genetically modified organisms)??? What are you hiding from us???"

One more:

"I will not spend one red cent on ANY product produced by a company who spends their capital $$ lobbying to block the labeling of GMO usage in our food. Get with it, General Mills."

In fact, perusing the Cheerios photo page is a hoot, each photo has more anti-GMO comments. 

The main barrage against General Mills was apparently headed by GMOInside, a coalition that aims for GMO-containing products to be properly labeled. However other anti-GMO activists were not slow in getting into the action.

General Mills, the owners of Cheerios, contributed a whopping $1.1 million to the "No on 37" campaign. Being on the "No on Proposition 37" list, probably means that the company uses genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in their cereal.

Come on guys, all the protesters really want is a little transparency.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/339052

Social media of Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shalom hacked

It was recently reported that the prominent hacker group Anonymous had leaked the personal information of 5,000 Israeli officials. Yesterday the social media of Israel's Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom was filled with pro-Palestinian messages.

ZCompanyHackingCrew or ZHC has claimed responsibility for the cyber attack against the Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts of Israeli Deputy Premier Silvan Shalom.  The group hacked the accounts and filled the pages with pro-Palestine status updates... read more, view video and see images.