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Nancy Pelosi claims Facebook doesn’t care about the truth
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared some harsh criticisms of Facebook at a press conference today. Pelosi said Facebook doesn't care about truth and has been "very irresponsible."
It's official: Playing as Oddjob in 'GoldenEye' was cheating
I thought this secret would go to the grave with me, but alas, my hand has been forced -- I have a confession to make. Back in gaming's early glory days, when Rare's seminal Nintendo 64 first-person shooter GoldenEye was the only game that really mattered, I would always play as Oddjob against my younger (clueless) sister. I told her the only reason she couldn't hit me was because her aim was rubbish and I was just better than her, but I knew it my heart this was a lie. Now the game's creators have ratted me out.
Study finds fake news spreads faster and further on Twitter than truth
There's been a lot of discussion about fake news, how it spreads on social networks and how it impacts behaviors like political decisions. But there hasn't really been an in-depth look into how true and false information spreads on sites like Facebook or Twitter, nor has there been an analysis on how big of a role bots play in that spread. Well three researchers at MIT have just published a study in Science that does just that and their work finds that false information spreads faster, further, deeper and more broadly than true information and that humans, not bots, are to blame.
Fact-check Trump's next tweetstorm as it happens
President-elect Donald Trump is an active Twitter user and has over 17.4 million followers. Those are facts. The contents of his tweets usually aren't. Or they aren't whole truths. As a way of fact checking our nation's next leader's online musings, The Washington Post created a Chrome extension that does just that. Called "RealDonaldContext," it takes his 140-character thoughts and, as the name suggests, gives context to what he's saying.
Recommended Reading: The internet and the truth
How the Internet Is Loosening Our Grip on the Truth Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times Thanks to rise of online media, we're able to find loads of "facts" to support nearly any stance we take on any particular issue. During this year's presidential election, it has become quite clear that Facebook and the internet as a whole have become an echo chamber where we're free to hunt for the information that supports a certain point of view rather than actual facts. The New York Times takes a look at how we got here, the damage that's been done and if there's any way to reverse the effects.
Texting: the truth serum of the 21st century
The University of Michigan and The New School for Social Research has found that if you want someone to tell you the truth, you should text them. Dispensing with the lie detector for job interviewees, academics found that people gave more honest and detailed answers via SMS than over the phone. The team believes it's due to the lack of time pressure and not having to produce a pleasing answer for your interrogator. If the findings continue to provide similar results, it looks like Steve Wilkos could be replaced with a smartphone.
TOSY and Justin Bieber announce mRobo: we go hands-on, dance-off (video)
Beethoven's Fifth. Michelangelo's Pietà. Plato's Republic. Cornerstones of human civilization, to be sure, but they all pale in comparison to what we saw today at CES: TOSY's new mRobo robot, inspired by none other than the Cultural Colossus of our time, Justin Bieber. The Vietnamese manufacturer and pubescent Prince have just taken the wraps off their latest collaboration: a petite, portable speaker-robot that dances -- nay, transcends -- just like his only slightly larger progenitor counterpart. When in speaker mode, the mRobo weighs in at just 3.3 pounds, stands a little under eight inches tall, and boasts 2GB of internal memory. Its integrated speaker pumps out the jams at bass levels of 40Hz, but the real magic happens once the music starts playing, automatically prompting the system to transform into an 18-inch tall robot and start dancing. Unfortunately, the bot is still in prototype mode, but it's expected to retail for about $200 when it launches during the fall of 2012.Today, though, we were lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the mRobo, courtesy of a mic'd-up Messiah with sweepy bangs and a leather jacket. Upon taking the stage to roars of applause and Jelly Bean sunshowers, Bieber went on to do a brief demo of the bot, displaying its ability to sync its dance moves to whatever tunes blare out of its abdomen speaker -- in this case, Billie Jean. The mRobo looked admittedly clumsy at times, and was especially awkward when onstage with the teen phenom, but, as TOSY repeatedly reminded us, it's still in prototype phase. (Bieber, for his part, did a good job of looking completely awestruck throughout much of the experience.) Before descending from his bubblegum pulpit, Bieber reminded his acolytes to "follow your dreams." Ours, at least, have just been realized. Follow yours past the break, straight to our hands-on video.Mat Smith contracted Bieber Fever from this report.
The Secret World's Tornquist talks truth, pain, and non-combat gaming
Rock, Paper Shotgun is back with part two of its interview with The Secret World's Ragnar Tornquist. Part one debuted yesterday and detailed a bit of the history behind the game's development as well as blurbs about factions, puzzles, and ARG thingamajigs. Today's installment talks about everything from Tornquist's recurring real world/hidden world motifs, to the endings of Lost and Dreamfall, to unfulfilled fan expectations. As you might expect, the interview errs heavily on the side of the philosophical rather than delving into gameplay specifics. Everything from the nature of truth, to Funcom's Secret World agenda, to the reticence of the gaming industry to evolve beyond kill-everything-that-moves is up for discussion. On this last point, Tornquist hints at the challenges inherent in designing non-combat gaming experiences. "It's difficult. You can't sacrifice fun. But then of course the idea of fun is ambiguous. Does it always have to be fun? Can't it be painful too?"
'Push It' real good, win Dance Central
Do you lack both the money for a Kinect and Dance Central, and shame? Harmonix and Truth have a Mephistophelian offer for you. Their "Killer Routine" contest asks fans to submit 10-30 second videos of themselves dancing to this clip of Salt-n-Pepa's "Push It." Those videos will then be posted, with the most popular video earning its creator a "House Party with a Dance Central choreographer" and Xbox/Dance Central/Kinect bundles for themselves and five friends. "You must be participating in some recognizable form of dance for at least 75% of the video," the rules warn. If you are dancing for the whole time and you're disqualified for this rule ... that's going to sting. But if you're confident enough in your dancing to show the world, you have until November 25 to get up on this!
Engadget HD definitively answers: does cable, satellite, or fiber provide more HD?
You want to know -- nay, you deserve to know -- which service provides the most HD content. Engadget HD's got the answer, see how your HD provider stacks up.
The case of the missing resolution independence
What the heck happened to resolution independence?In Gruber's review of the Powerbook a few years ago, he trumpeted the coming of a feature long evading the Mac faithful, a resolution independent interface. Others at the time expected the same thing to appear in Leopard: UI elements that were completely independent of the screen's resolution, and, finally, a fully scalable interface, and freedom from whatever screen you were working on. Higher resolutions without squeezing down the UI elements. And as we got closer to Leopard, more and more word went around that OS 10.5 would have it. At WWDC 2006, some developers even confirmed it. And Apple even filed a patent to get it done.Except now it's November, Leopard is out, and resolution independence is nowhere to be found, at least at the user-accessible level. What gives?
"The truth about switching" to the Mac
A man named Bill Westerman has penned a very down-to-earth article listing some of the ups and downs of switching to the Mac. Following a long line of switchers, Bill pens a nice mix of typical and not-so-typical scenarios, reactions and thoughts on the experience that I haven't seen capture quite as well elsewhere (and no, I'm not complementing Bill just because he links to TUAW in the article's footer). Two of my personal favorites are the "damnit!" / "ah-ha" moments Bill mentions, as I constantly meet switchers both old and new who find themselves frustrated with one behavior or another with Mac OS X, only to discover that they're really just being held back by an embedded expectation from their time with Windows. All in all, Bill rounds out 22 well-summarized points that switchers can look forward to experiencing on their journey to the right side of the force. The only things I can think to add are: #23: If you buy a MacBook/Pro, you just might have to turn into a nerd for notebook cases. You'll quickly find that most manufacturers build their cases for the lowest common denominator in the industry, which includes those 2"-thick Dells that seem to be so popular. I recommend bumming around the Mac web and tracking down a few key Mac-centric case manufacturers to scratch that itch. #24: Don't start dressing like Justin Long from Apple's "Get a Mac" ads, especially on a college campus. You're likely to compound any ridicule you're already receiving (see Bill's first point). Other than that, let the switching continue! [via digg]
Lying and gadgetry go hand in hand
We've certainly seen our fair share of broken promises when dealing with gadget producers, but a recent UK-based survey claims that "nearly 75-percent of people say gadgets, like Blackberrys for instance, made it easier to fib." While this might not come as any surprise to you, that figure is at least somewhat worrisome, as just over half of the respondents noted that using gadgets to bend the truth made them feel "less guilty" versus pulling the shades face to face. As expected, the workplace was the most favored locale to bust out a techno-fib, with "67-percent" saying they had using technology to fake sick, announce completed work they hadn't even started, or to "cover up a big mistake." Moreover, digitized communication has seemingly made it easier to lie to our very families, as "just over 40-percent" of those surveyed admitted to fibbing to loved ones with the help of their mobile / email. Of course, most folks claimed that their primary intentions were to "spare others' feelings," but we're not so sure these tricksters didn't start lying to the surveyors. Regardless, saving face has never been easier thanks to handheld / wireless communications, but at least someone's already thinking about curbing this purportedly growing problem -- at least, that's what we've been told.[Via TechDirt]
The (in)famous 1080p truth pt. 2
Do we have to go into this again? I've got to question this piece on The Inquirer that compounds the confusion of the article cited. They're telling people that their CRT TV is going to throw away half the information on 1080i Blu-ray and HD-DVDs giving you a 540p image, and that a 1080p set is really only going to give you 540p, which is not necessarily an accurate description.One way of getting your information correct is to go straight to the source like HDTV UK did recently. They have an excellent writeup getting information on 1080p from the manufacturers themselves. The original author has written a new post clarifying a few things. While I'm still puzzled by repeated references to CRTs method of displaying 1080i in relation to why a 1080p television using totally different technology won't be 1080p; it seems we agree on one thing: "I’m not against anyone buying a 1080p HDTV — I just want that person to be a smart shopper and ask plenty of questions to see how the content is actually mastered and delivered to the HDTV."If you're still wondering what all the hubbub is and if it affects your buying decision, don't take my word for it (© The Reading Rainbow). Check out the further information links and comments on our other post and educate yourself, then take a look to to see if you notice a worthwhile difference in 1080p.
