Friday, August 13, 2010

"HUNT THEM DOWN AND KILL THEM!" - Former Police Superintendent Reneto Adams tells Citizens & Police to Kill Gun Men who murdered family of Eight last Night in Spanish Town

FORMER Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams says that the gunmen who murdered eight persons in Tredegar Park, Spanish Town, St Catherine last night, August 12th, should themselves be killed. Without trial, without a day in court, just hunted down, found, no questions asked and killed! HUH!??

This is the very same man, who shortly after policemen were caught on tape shooting a murder suspect in Buckfield, St. Ann two weeks ago, spoke out against the killing and described the shooting as the most heinous and despicable act he had ever witnessed.

Reneto Adams
Jamaicans had long become essentially immune to news of murder except when the murders are particularly heinous or involves children. With a crime rate that is spiralling out of control and the distinction of being classified one of the countries with the highest murder rate, the public's reactions to murders, even double and tripple killings have become a bit blase`.

However, when Jamaica awoke this morning, Friday 13th to the news that a family of eight (8) persons in a community in Spanish Town had all been murdered by gunmen as the nation slept, shock waves rippled across the island. The incident came just two weeks after a policeman was caught on tape shooting a murder suspect as he lay writhing on pain on the ground after a brutal beating by the police. The damming evidence gave credence to long time allegations of a corrupt police force which killed innocent civilians at will and fabricated statements fed to the Constabulary Communications Network, (CCN) the information arm of Jamaica's Police Force which then passed the information to the media without seeking to verify the police's claim even when residents mount protests declaring otherwise.

I CAN STALK U!! - WEB Photos that give your Home Address etc!

Uploading a photo taken by some smartphones to Facebook, a blog, Twitter and other social networks or other places on the Internet can actually reveal sensitive information like where you live without you even realising it.

Smartphones such as I-phones by default tags photos with GPS coordinates. Tech savvy persons can extract the location from the picture's metadata, then look up the GPS coordinates stored in the photo's EXIF tag and get an address. Stalkers, crazy ex-spouses, vengeful mobsters and other creepy types can do this also. It seems to be a useful tool for law enforcement officials so gangsters, beware!

Who knew that simply shelling out top dollar for a cool mobile phone that keeps you connected to the Internet while on the go, is an entertainment hub with music videos, movies and hundreds of tunes at your fingertips, provides Instant messaging features among other hi-teck features that you would also be purchasing a security risk that could endanger you and your family? Serious food for thought.

According to Wikipedia, Geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as photographs, video, websites, or RSS feeds and is a form of geospatial metadata. These data usually consist of latitude and longitude coordinates, though they can also include altitude, bearing, distance, accuracy data, and place names. It is commonly used for photographs.

However, few people are tech savvy and the feature embedded in the phones are not that easy to turn off or disable as an article in Yahoo Finance pointed out. "I’d say very few people know about geotag capabilities,” said Peter Eckersley, a staff technologist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, “and consent is sort of a slippery slope when the only way you can turn off the function on your smartphone is through an invisible menu that no one really knows about.”

"Indeed, disabling the geotag function generally involves going through several layers of menus until you find the “location” setting, then selecting “off” or “don’t allow.” But doing this can sometimes turn off all GPS capabilities, including mapping, so it can get complicated." The article continued.

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

USAIN '~LIGHTENING~` BOLT STOPS ~runnning~ -- Following Friday's Defeat by Tyson Gay

The current Profile photo on Usain Bolt's Facebook Fan Page
Usain  Bolt, Jamaica's sprint sensation and the world's fastest man, has decided to take an extended leave of absence from the track. The bombshell announcement was issued a short while ago by Usain's management team via the track star's Facebook Fan Page. 

The decision followed an even more shocking development when, on Friday, August 6th, Usain lost to Tyson Gay of the United States in the 100 metres, his premier event, in Stockholm, Sweden. On August 6th, most Jamaicans were home from work celebrating Jamaica's 48th year of Independence. They expected Bolt to win, giving them a birthday present; the usual 'Bolt' resounding victory with maybe a new record to top it off. He DIDN'T! Shock and disbelief rippled across Facebook, which is a pulse for current and breaking news, confirming the power of social networks which threatens to outstrip the relevance of traditional media.


 

Unthinkable! Shocking! Bolt lost a race for the first time since he began his golden record-breaking stint; even competing against himself by breaking world records he himself had set.

It was obvious, it could not be 'business as usual'. The first official words from Usain's camp were sobering. Fan's were assured that they understood the severity of what had happened. A few hours after the race, Bolt's management team issued this statement via his Facebook Fan Page.

Usain Bolt "Dear Fans, I got beat today by an athlete who was in better form and shape than I was. It was one of those days...I got a great start, but there was no power and I came in second. There is no excuse! Thanks as usual for your support."

August 6 at 3:48pm · ·

His fans, some of whom had earlier that day severely chastised Asafa for pulling out of the race which should have been a three-the-hard-way show down, were overly sympathetic towards Bolt. Unlike Asafa who had opted out of several races in the past at short notice, Bolt had always been a trooper who had 'pulled' through. A flamboyant character, he had given them win after win after win and a signature ~lightening~ pose which is now a signature '~BOLT`~ pose with or without any reference to the young athlete who hails from Trelawny, a rural parish in Jamaica renowned for its yams which has spawned a very popular Yam Festival, which is an annual crowd puller.
THE SIGNATURE BOLT POSE


In the press release issued a few hours ago, Bolt's management team stated: "After an assessment from his medical team we can confirm that Usain Bolt will close his 2010 track season and cancel his participation in the IAAF Diamond League meetings - Weltklasse Zurich and Memorial van Damme, Brussels.

Monday, August 9, 2010

*NEW!!* The Facebook Unsubscribe BUTTON! ll AND A DRUG MANUFACTURER Warned over Facebook Marketing.


 The  Facebook Unsubscribe Button Gets Rid of UN-wanted Notifications From Story Feed.

Facebook! Facebook! Facebook! *SMDH* So Facebook creates an annoyance and a few months down the line, UN-creates it! Makes it go away! What am I talking about? Forgive me, but when it comes to Facebook and their random creations and UN-creations I tend to rant. For crying OUT ((LOUD!)) You created the annoyance in the first place! So what do you expect from your fans? The Innovator of the year Award!?  Streupsee!!

The Facebook "UNSUBSCRIBE" button! That allows you to UN-subscribe from a particular notification feed after you feel you REALLY don't want to be notified people are STILL commenting in a thread, long after the conversation stopped including anything in reference to you or your lone comment! Trust me! I have been annoyed by those things often enough! Especially when some random person tags me in a video or a photo that has NOTHING! to do with me! And I keep getting notifications that people I don't even know have just commented on a video or photo of me! I am like :*groan!!* why mmmeee!??! Read all about Facebook's latest UN-creation here: And start looking for that "UNSUBSCRIBE" button! LOL. I know I got a few things I want to UN-subscribe from, retor-ACTIVE-ly~~ LOL. One Facebook fan wrote in response to the post: "It always says “replied to your post” but they are hardly ever talking to me." *Ouch!* Believe me! I CAN relate!  

However, you probably won't see the much anticipated UN-subscribe button immediately. As usual, Facebook is doing a 'phased roll out of the feature.

 
 A DRUG Manufacturer Warned over Facebook Marketing.
AND in other Facebook news: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning to Novartis over the way it was marketing Tasigna, an anti-cancer drug. In a letter to Novartis sent on July 29, the FDA said the company’s use of Facebook Share was both incomplete and misleading.

An article in Bloomberg Business Week quotes the letter: “The shared content is misleading because it makes representations about the efficacy of Tasigna but fails to communicate any risk information associated with the use of this drug. In addition, the shared content inadequately communicates Tasigna’s FDA-approved indication and implies superiority over other products.” The letter also pointed out that Novartis did not fulfil its obligation to notify the FDA of the Tasigna promotion.

The Novartis application had apparently allowed Facebook users to share content by generating a link on his or her profile to the information with a brief description and a thumbnail image. It was the brief description of Tasigna that fell foul of the FDA.

An article on Facebook's Allfacebook Page warns: "If you plan to mix Facebook and drug marketing, you need to make sure you know what you are doing. Or you could land in trouble with federal regulators, like pharmaceutical company Novartis."  *Double Ouch!*

Sunday, August 8, 2010

"What's on Your Mind?" FaceBook Danger - DON"T tell ALL!!



"YIPPEE! TGIF! Off to South Florida with the fam for the entire week-end" 
· · · Share


Hmmm.. Face Book status updates, that small rectangular box on top of your Facebook page that asks you so beguilingly: "What's on your Mind?" with a button just below it that invites you, entices you to 'SHARE". But security experts have been warning Facebook users to be mindful of what they do "SHARE" on Facebook. They remind us that hidden among the group of persons we consider "friends' in our Facebook circle are persons who will use that information maliciously as one young lady who is in the United states found out a few weeks ago.

The story has been making the rounds for some weeks now, but CNN's Anderson Cooper recently spoke to the young lady and obtained footage from the security camera in her home of two young men including one of her Face Book Friends who she later found was her childhood friend. Read the full story on Anderson Cooper's blog AC360

One Friday evening she updated her Facebook status that she and her boyfriend would be going to see a concert and came home to find that her home had been broken into and items, including a plasma TV stolen. She was able to identify one of the two men caught on camera after she posted photos from the footage on her Facebook page and some of her friends identified him as someone who she knew since she was seven!

 THE BURGLARY CAUGHT ON SECURITY CAMERA


Saturday, August 7, 2010

JCDC IN THE `*`~*HOT SEAT`*~` Aspects of JAMAICA'S HERITAGE: In Need of Preservation

I am part of a group of growing innovative music lovers on Facebook who offer structured musical entertainment via music pages on the social site as an alternative to Farmville and the other interactive games, which, while popular, do not resonate with all Facebook users. I operate a music page on Facebook; IRIE JAMZ. The popularity of Facebook pages like mine have grown tremendously on the social site, where people, especially ardent music lovers, are able to post, comment and share music videos. Youtube and the music videos that are uploaded there is what keep me and millions of other music lovers 'fed' and happy and it is a huge let down when you are searching for a music video and cannot find it in the global music video library.

The administrator of another music page; Video Sound Clash and several fans of his page experienced such a disappointment a few days ago. He lives outside Jamaica and gripped by a bout of homesickness coupled with patriotic pride, he began posting winning festival songs to his music page during an impromptu Jamaicas Festival segment on the night of Emancipation Day, Monday, August 1st. Fans of the page, many of whom are also Jamaicans living overseas, reacted enthusiastically to the segment and a corresponding wave of patriotic, musical vibes swept over my home page as the fans of the page, some of whom are my face book friends began re-posting the songs to their pages which showed up in my home feed. 

Missing Festival Songs
However, by the time he got to the year 1979 in his countdown, he was having trouble finding festival songs. He was unable to find the winning song for that year, Born Jamaican by the Astronauts on Youtube. A number of other songs for subsequent years could not be found either and while some were later found by doing an artiste search, they were not able to be found by inputting the official song titles provided on the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission's website. This highlighted the point that our winning festival songs are not archived/preserved properly or adequately.