Facebook's Fakery Problem: 83 Million Phony Accounts

Several years ago, I created a Facebook profile for my friend's cat. The same friend created a profile for a bizarro evil version of me.

College kids putting inside jokes on the Internet?no surprise there. And you've probably heard of or come across fake Facebook profiles based on fictional characters or historical figures. But what's funny to Facebook users could turn out to be a headache for Facebook.

The Social Network announced today that 8.7% of its 955 million active accounts are phony. That's about 83 million accounts, if you're scoring at home. Most of them (4.8% of all profiles) are second accounts belonging to people who already have a primary Facebook account. "User-misclassified accounts amounted to 2.4%?including personal profiles for businesses or pets," the BBC says. And 1.5% of all Facebook accounts are what the company ominously describes as "undesirable," those being nefarious accounts that flout Facebook's rules or spam other users.

The fact that Facebook has 872 million users rather than 955 million doesn't sound like such a big deal until you consider Facebook's money woes dating back its initial public offering in May and deflating performance since then. And the company's admission of millions of fake accounts wasn't its only bad news this week. Reports also surfaced that those Facebook bots are wreaking havoc on the site's ad-supported business. A company called Limited Pressing says that its investigation found 80 percent of clicks on Facebook ads came from spambots.

Don't feel too bad, Facebook. Twitter is glutted with spam, too.

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/how-to/blog/facebooks-fakery-problem-83-million-phony-accounts-11284782?src=rss

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FG Moves to Implement Technology Outsourcing Business ...

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The selection and placement of news stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program. All articles, images, audio, video and related copyrights belong to their rightful owners.

Source: http://globalizationtoday.com/fg-moves-to-implement-technology-outsourcing-business-thisday-live/

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How to choose a great franchise? | BusinessTrade.org

The franchise model has a long and tested history. ?Here is an explanation of what this business model entails.?

A franchise refers to a business model where you, as an entrepreneur, can be granted a licence to market a company?s products or services within a certain area or location.?The franchise company will thereby expand their brand by having another branch of business that fall under their name and image, but the operations and success of the business will depend on your skills.

There are many different categories of franchises; some of the most familiar are popular fast food businesses, such as Macdonalds or KFC. There are over 120 different categories of franchise businesses available today, including automotive, cleaning & maintenance, health & fitness, financial services, and pet-related franchises.

As an entrepreneur investing in a franchise business you will be allowed to open your own outlets of an established company, using its name, brand and logo. This way you can already capitalize on past marketing strategies of the brand, that have made consumer familiar with the brand. The more familiar consumers are, the less work do you need to do to market you franchise shop locally. The company also allows the third party operators to use its tested management, marketing and sales systems, as well as their future promotion material.

To be given these rights, the third party operator (the person considering buying into the franchise) has to pay an initial fee to the franchise owner, after which they are referred to as a franchisee. As a franchisee, you will also have to pay annual royalties to the franchise owner. In exchange the franchise business, referred to as the franchisor, will offer the franchisee support such as training and management assistance. Before taking over an established franchise or starting a new franchise, you can save yourself a lot of work by finding out from other experienced franchisees the level of oversee the franchisor demands. Some franchisors demand strict adherence to their guidelines, such as colours you may use in your shop or the variety on the prescribed menu. Other franchisors are more relaxed with regard to guidelines. Also find out the level of management support the franchisor will give your franchise. If the management training is very comprehensive, you may not need to recruit too highly skilled staff. This could help you save on initial hiring cost and high wages, by offering their training opportunities instead.

When choosing a franchise business to invest in, you should consider the potential of the business to capitalize on current or future trend and generate profits. Look out for trends that are expected to endure.? You should also do research to find out more about the company, the industry it operates in and the local consumers.

Source: http://www.businesstrade.org/business-finance-advice/2012/07/31/how-to-choose-a-great-franchise/

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Radical change in our understanding of personalized medicine, new ...

B?ttinger and his team at the Institut Charles R. Bronfman for personalized medicine to help other medical centers across the country driving during replication of their study. Also, continue to expand the number of donors consented to the Biobank Mount Sinai, in an effort to discover genetic markers of the disease and more connections between population groups identified.To date, genomic studies have overwhelmingly focused on populations of European origin, raising concerns about the applicability of the results to determine the risk of disease and response to treatment for non-Europeans, and in particular, different genetic backgrounds receiving medical care in urban centers.

Based on their results, researchers at the Bronfman Institute are evaluating the potential clinical utility of hundreds of genetic markers for serious diseases such as heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease, and diabetes, and response to different drugs , throughout the Biobank of samples. The goal is to identify genetic markers that may be useful in predicting the risk of disease in local populations with different genetic backgrounds. The project will be completed by all 20,000 samples of banks by the end of 2011.

?We expect the results for the first time, will lead us to select the appropriate genetic markers, and allow us to provide personalized genomic medicine for patients of different communities at Mount Sinai, who are being treated for diabetes and heart, kidney and liver diseases, among other conditions, ?says Dr. B?ttinger.

RADIANT is conducted in approximately 240 centers in the United States, Canada, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Argentina. The study included patients with stage IB-IIIA NSCLC surgically removed tumors that have EGFR-positive, as measured by immunohistochemistry and / or fluorescence in situ hybridization , and who had completed four cycles of standard adjuvant therapy with platinum chemotherapy or chemotherapy have been naive. Patients were randomized 2:1 to receive Tarceva 150 mg or placebo once daily for two years.

?Our data indicate the importance of assessing patient populations at the local level,? said Dr. B?ttinger. ?Now that we are able to determine the genotype distribution of our patients, we can begin to develop tests and treatments tailored to the diverse communities we serve, which enables us to provide highly effective, personalized care.?

Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, patient consent forms that represent the various communities around The Mount Sinai Medical Center, who confidentially provide DNA samples and plasma to help research in genomics and personalized medicine. The researchers used state of the art genomic technology to determine the genetic makeup, or genotype, of nearly 1,000 local Biobank participants identified themselves as European American, African-American or Hispanic.

They found that there was a continuum with the genetic ancestry at the individual level African American and Hispanic patients who receive care at Mount Sinai ? which means large portions of their genome came from African or mixed European descent, respectively ? and with it genetic variants that indicate the risk of developing a disease.

Source: http://www.exercise24.org/?p=428

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Dubai Aluminium Goes Live with MetricStream for Enterprise Risk

MetricStream enables DUBAL to build a more harmonized, proactive, and sustainable approach to risk management

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Wednesday, August 1st 2012 [ME NewsWire]

-(BUSINESS WIRE)-- MetricStream, the market leader in enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) solutions, today announced that Dubai Aluminium (DUBAL) has gone live with MetricStream Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Solutionto centralize and streamline its corporate risk management program. As a result, DUBAL has achieved standardization of risk management across divisions and business units, improved visibility into enterprise risks, and strengthened risk management.

MetricStream will host a webinaron DUBAL?s ISO 31000-based ERM Program on Wednesday, August 8, 2012 at 3pm GST (Dubai). The live webcast will feature Toby Shore, Corporate Treasurer and Chief Risk Officer at DUBAL.

Among the top 10 aluminum-producing companies in the world, DUBAL is one of the largest industrial corporations in the UAE serving over 330 customers across 48 countries. As DUBAL grew rapidly in the last few years, it evolved into a global aluminum producer of significant size and scale. The company undertook a strategic transition from a business unit centric risk management approach to an enterprise level approach in order to drive greater standardization in risk management processes, improve risk visibility, and enable meaningful correlation of different types of risks across the organization.

?We recognized the need for an integrated risk management framework to get a strong grip on our risk related data and processes, and manage them efficiently and proactively,? says Toby Shore, Corporate Treasurer and Chief Risk Officer at DUBAL. ?We selected MetricStream as our risk managementtechnology partner for this important initiative because of the comprehensive capabilities of the MetricStream solution as well as its simplicity and usability. MetricStream?s industry leading position in GRC, its ability to easily configure the solution and map it to our requirements, and its deep expertise in risk management methodologies validated our decision. We are pleased with how the MetricStream solution has enabled a more collaborative, proactive, and centralized approach to risk management which is critical for driving business performance and growth.?

The MetricStream solution will provide capabilities for qualitative and quantitative risk analysis, control assessments, a risk-control library, scenario modeling, risk monitoring, and loss and incident management. Powerful dashboards and risk heat maps will provide in-depth and real-time risk intelligence, enabling executives to set their priorities and make decisions around business strategies, budget allocations, and project planning. The solution will also enable DUBAL to adopt the best of both the COSO and the ISO 31000 risk management standards through various capabilities such as enabling a structured and systematic approach to risk management; improving risk identification, analysis, evaluation, and monitoring; and aligning risk management with decision-making.

?We are delighted to have DUBAL as our customer,? says Shankar Bhaskaran, GM and VP of International Business Operations at MetricStream. ?DUBAL has chosen the right path towards stronger and more sustainable protection against risks, while also setting an example for its peers to follow. The MetricStream solution will help the company facilitate an enterprise-wide risk-focused culture with greater accountability, better coordination, and stronger risk-response strategies. This implementation at one of the premier corporations in UAE further extends MetricStream?s market leadership in the Middle East.?

About MetricStream

MetricStream is a market leader in Enterprise-wide Governance, Risk, Compliance (GRC) and Quality Management Solutions for global corporations. MetricStream solutions are used by leading corporations such as UBS, P&G, Constellation Energy, Pfizer, Philips, BAE Systems, SanDisk, Cummins and Sonic Automotive in diverse industries such as Financial Services, Healthcare, Life Sciences, Energy and Utilities, Food, Retail, CPG, Government and Manufacturing to manage their risk management, quality processes, regulatory and industry-mandated compliance and corporate governance initiatives, as well as several million compliance professionals worldwide via the www.ComplianceOnline.comportal. MetricStream is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and can be reached at www.metricstream.com.

Contacts

MetricStream

Mr. Vinay Bapna

Tel: +1-650-620-2955

Mob: +971-50-721-7139

pr@metricstream.com

Source: http://khaleejdailies.blogspot.com/2012/08/dubai-aluminium-goes-live-with.html

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Google Delays Nexus Q - Business Insider

Steve Kovach, Business Insider

Google has sent notices to customers who pre-ordered the Nexus Q that shipments will be delayed until the company can make the device better.

To make up for it, Google will send all of those who pre-ordered the Nexus Q a free developer version of the device. (That's the same free model Google I/O attendees got this year.)

Here's a copy of the email sent to Nexus Q customers, which The Verge obtained:

We have an important update about your Nexus Q pre-order.

When we announced Nexus Q at Google I/O, we gave away devices to attendees for an early preview. The industrial design and hardware were met with great enthusiasm. We also heard initial feedback from users that they want Nexus Q to do even more than it does today. In response, we have decided to postpone the consumer launch of Nexus Q while we work on making it even better.

To thank you for your early interest, we'd like to extend the Nexus Q preview to our pre-order customers and send you a free device. If you had other items in your order, your credit card will be charged for those items only.

Your Nexus Q will be on its way soon and you will receive a notification and tracking number from Google Play when it ships.

The Nexus Q Team

The Nexus Q was widely panned by reviewers, mostly because it needs an Android phone or tablet to control and lacks a user interface. (It also doesn't help that the Q costs $299, or $200 more than the Apple TV.)

Google has stopped taking pre-orders for the Nexus Q. Instead, the online store prompts you to sign up for an email notification once the consumer version is ready.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/google-delays-nexus-q-2012-7

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Police corpse on Aleppo pavement attests rebel fightback

The bloodied corpse of a police commander lay riddled with bullets on an Aleppo pavement on Tuesday, testimony to a fierce fightback by Syrian rebels against an army offensive in the commercial capital.

Ali Nasser, the feared chief of the main police station in southern Aleppo, had made a run for it as the rebels closed in on his headquarters in the Salhin district after fierce fighting through the night.

He made it just 100 metres (yards) before being mowed down in a hail of bullets, an AFP correspondent reported.

The rebels hailed a major victory. The police station was a major strategic objective in their efforts to cement their control over the south of the city, said Abdel Khader al-Sater, a commander of the Liwa Al-Tawhid Al-Mujahedeen (United Mujahedeen Brigade), one of the main rebel factions in Aleppo.

Jubilant fighters said Nasser had paid the price for the wave of repression he had overseen during the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, now in its 17th month.

The attack began at 11:00 pm (2000 GMT) on Monday, with fighters converging from the rebel-held districts of Marjeh and Sakhur to the east and Al-Shaar in the city centre.

They were joined by fighters from other parts of the city. One told AFP they had "come spontaneously after hearing that a large battle was in the making."

Rebels killed two police officers who attempted to escape during the night.

The security forces responded by strafing the area from helicopter gunships, but around 6:00 am (0300 GMT) the rebel force took up position around the police station.

At 6:45 am, rebel fighters used a car to hurl a large gas cylinder rigged with explosives at the front of the building but the detonator failed.

Less than two hours later, the police chief attempted his escape from his besieged headquarters accompanied by another officer, who was also killed.

A further five officers then surrendered leaving just a single officer inside when the rebels finally overran it at 10:20 am (0720 GMT).

The jubilant fighters ransacked the hated symbol of the regime before setting it ablaze.

A crowd of curious civilians gathered to view the destruction but within an hour they took flight in the face of new attack by a helicopter gunship, the AFP correspondent said.

Rebels released video footage later Tuesday that they said showed their assault on the police station. Fighters are seen weaving their way towards the entrance of a sandbagged building amid cries of victory.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 police were killed in the rebels' capture of the Salhin police station and another in the nearby Bab al-Nayrab district.

The Britain-based watchdog said that later Tuesday rebel fighters captured a third Aleppo police station, in the Hanano neighbourhood.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-corpse-aleppo-pavement-attests-rebel-fightback-200425731.html

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