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EPIC Challenges Facebook's Manipulation of Users, Files FTC Complaint EPIC has filed a formal complaint to the Federal Trade Commission concerning Facebook's manipulation of users' News Feeds for psychological research. "The company purposefully messed with people's minds," states the EPIC complaint. EPIC has charged that the study violates a privacy consent order and is a deceptive trade practice. In 2012, Facebook subjected 700,000 users to an "emotional" test with the manipulation of News Feeds. Facebook did not get users' permission to conduct this study or notify users that their data would be disclosed to researchers. In the complaint, EPIC explained...

40% discount on @HillaryClinton book at @booksamillion. Manager: "very unusual" >20% for new book, "really threw me" pic.twitter.com/KaLEeXRZX2

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it would not review a ruling by a secretive intelligence court that authorized government access to millions of Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) phone-call records.

Mountain goat and lion found dead on a closed road in Glacier National park. It seems they both fell to their deaths when the cougar attacked the goat far up on the cliffs out of sight and to the right. (Not sure where to post this, but I think it was is interesting)

(Reuters) - With the White House already reeling from three major controversies, some Republican lawmakers are zeroing in on what they perceive is another possible scandal tied to President Barack Obama's landmark health reform law just as it nears implementation. On top of the troubles the administration is facing over its handling of the attack on the Benghazi mission, the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of conservative groups, and the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press phone records, Republicans hope to target Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. They are questioning her soliciting of funds on behalf of a non-profit...

If you love sausages, hot dogs, and brats, you might be in for a shorter life, a new study suggests. The study analyzed data from half a million men and women, as a part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. It was published in the journal BMC Medicine [PDF]. They found a link between "processed" meat — which includes all meat products, including ham, bacon, sausages; small part of minced meat that has been bought as a ready-to-eat product — and cardiovascular disease and cancer, they report. Also, they found that the more processed meat you eat...

LONDON: The bacon and sausage on your plate or those steaming hot pies are increasing your chances of premature death from cancer and heart disease. Processed meat is to blame for one in 30 early deaths, a large-scale study has now found. The EPIC (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition) study involving 10 countries and 23 centres in Europe and almost half a million people has found that risk of premature death increased with the amount of processed meat eaten by a person. According to the study, even one sausage a day is bad for your health. The researchers...

Recently uncovered government documents reveal that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) unmanned Predator B drone fleet has been customize designed to identify civilians carrying guns and track cell phone signals. "I am very concerned that this technology will be used against law-abiding American firearms owners," said founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation Alan Gottlieb. “This could violate Fourth Amendment rights as well as Second Amendment rights." The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) obtained a partially redacted copy of Homeland Security’s drone requirements through a Freedom of Information Act request; CNET uncovered an unredacted copy....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QViEiDjd7Ew

The National Security Agency has shot down a Freedom of Information Act request for details about an elusive presidential order that may allow the government to deploy the military within the United States for the supposed sake of cybersecurity. The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) reports on Tuesday that their recent FOIA request for information about a top-secret memo signed last month by US President Barack Obama has been rejected [PDF]. Now attorneys for EPIC say they plan to file an appeal to get to the bottom of Presidential Policy Directive 20. Although the executive order has been on the...

Documents obtained as the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit prove Janet Napolitano’s Department of Homeland Security has invented a fantastic cover story for its agenda of spying on Americans who are unwilling to relinquish their rights and liberty to the Obama Regime. In April of 2011, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking from the DHS all records pertaining to the Department’s “Media Monitoring Initiative.” Begun 2 years ago, DHS claimed the purpose of the Initiative was “…to assist DHS and its components involved in the security, safety, and border...

Meet Judy Faulkner. She is the founder and CEO of Epic Systems Corporation in Wisconsin. She is also a member of the GAO Health Information Technology Policy Committee and an advisory board member of the Journal of Healthcare Information Management. She is also politically active. In 2008, Faulkner gave at least $110,000 to political organizations and candidates, including $57,000 to the Democratic National Committee and $2,300 to then-Senator Barack Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. After Obama’s election, Faulkner continued giving to the Democrats, giving at least $85,000 through the 2010 midterm election. In 2010, Faulkner gave $60,000...

A whale nearly swallowed two people on a kayak and a woman on a surfboard. The humpback whale lunged from out of nowhere just several feet away, forcing thousands of anchovies to the surface, with sea gulls swarming around the scene in search of breakfast. Barbara Roettger filmed the epic near-miss event near Santa Cruz, California where recently a sailboat collided with another humpback whale and at least one kayaker capsized. Oh, and for the record, humpback whales typically are about 50 feet long and weigh 50 tons. That’s a whopping 2000 pounds for every foot of whale. Short be...

Returning to 2005 Spending Levels Would Match Current Revenues of 2.5 Trillion dollars. Outlays in 2005 were 2,472.2 Trillion. This solution would result in no rise the debt limit and we would have a balanced budget. This would also secure our AAA credit rating. This idea probably has too much common sense for the "Inside the Beltway Crowd."

Last weekend, a Tennessee woman was arrested at the Nashville airport for disorderly conduct after she refused TSA security measures for her children. The woman didn’t want her two children to have to go through a whole-body-imaging scanner. When a Transportation Security Administration officer told her the machines were safe, she said, “I still don’t want someone to see our bodies naked.” She won’t be pleased with a ruling then out of the D.C. Circuit today. This morning, the federal court ruled that the “naked scans” of air travelers do not violate Americans’ constitutional rights. Privacy rights group EPIC had...

Giving Transportation Security Administration agents a peek under your clothes may soon be a practice that goes well beyond airport checkpoints. Newly uncovered documents show that as early as 2006, the Department of Homeland Security has been planning pilot programs to deploy mobile scanning units that can be set up at public events and in train stations, along with mobile x-ray vans capable of scanning pedestrians on city streets. The non-profit Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) on Wednesday published documents it obtained from the Department of Homeland Security showing that from 2006 to 2008 the agency planned a study of...

WASHINGTON, D.C. Jan. 12, 2011 - A federal court granted the Department of Homeland Security's motion to conclude one of EPIC's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits. The decision stems from a 2009 lawsuit brought by EPIC, a leading privacy organization to obtain information about the controversial airport body scanners. As a result of the lawsuit, EPIC has already obtained the technical specifications and vendors contract for the screening devices that generate naked images of air travelers. According to EPIC, the documents show that the devices can store, record, and transmit images. "The documents show that the TSA was not...

This story might be epic, and could even go viral, but not if Lake Superior State University has anything to do with it. Just sayin.' The small college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, released on Friday its annual list of "banished words" -- terms so overused, misused and hackneyed they deserve to be sent to a permanent linguistic trash can in the year ahead. "Viral," often used to describe the rapid spreading of videos or other content over the Internet, leads the list for 2011. "This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined," Kuahmel Allah of Los Angeles said...

'Viral' and 'epic fail' among 2011's banished words 'Viral', 'epic fail' and 'Mama Grizzly' are among a list of 'banished' words and phrases for 2011. 7:59PM GMT 31 Dec 2010 Lake Superior State University in Michigan, USA, released its annual list of overused and misused words and terms that should be banned for the year ahead. 'Viral' is often used to describe the rapid spreading of videos or other content over the internet, leads the list for 2011. "This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined," Kuahmel Allah of Los Angeles said in making a nomination. Runners-up included 'epic'...