Top Five Ways Social Media is Beneficial | Internet Marketing

Everyone uses social media these days.? From teens to the middle-aged to even seniors, we are all engaged in an online world made to stimulate fuller communication between friends, acquaintances and colleagues.

But did you know that businesses are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to boost business?? In a world where consumers regularly use social media to filter news and products, Fortune 500 and little operations alike are using Facebook and Twitter to attract customers.? What are the top five ways social media is beneficial to business?

According to an article on Forbes.com by Eric Savitz, social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are poised to become office productivity tools.? Already, HR departments are using social media to connect with job seekers and streamline the application process, according to Savitz.

Exchanging Ideas

Companies have been using email since the early 1990s for communication between employees, and the technology for transmitting information between staff has remained mostly unchanged since email was invented in the early 70s.? Today, companies are using social media tools like Yammar and Chatter to enable employees to form virtual work groups and exchange ideas on centralized message boards.

This new technology allows companies to easily centralize information, eliminating the arduous task of exchanging information solely through email and on an employee to employee basis.

Big Data

Social media agencies are using social media to collect information on client behavior and preferences- so called Big Data, according to Savitz.? Large companies like Dell, Gatorade and even the Super Bowl have gone so far as to create dedicated command centers to analyze, in real-time, consumer behavior and preferences.

Data Compression

Savitz says that companies will use this same technology to compress information onto single screens that once required entire command centers to process, allowing directors and department heads to analyze social metrics on their smartphones.? Tools like this are already being used by companies like Nestle to track customer sentiment and GE to speed up repairs to the electrical grid.

Social Media Archiving

Also expect companies to turn to business grade social media management systems that feature built-in archiving. They allow companies to archive and track all social networking activity done by their company.? Businesses can use this information in the future, for unexpected research purposes or to track the trajectory of improvement in their social networking interactions.

Information Sharing

Finally, the ability for social media experts to share their insights about customer behavior with sales staff presents innumerable benefits.? According to Design Damage, a blog on cracking the code of internet marketing strategies, if the sales staff of a particular company understands the words or questions used by customers to talk about a product, they can make a better sales pitch.

In this new world of Facebook and Twitter, companies would be remiss to pass by a chance to boost sales with social networking.? Big companies are already using these sites in new and innovative ways to learn about their customers.? Are you ready to jump in?

Source: http://theinternetispeople.com/top-five-ways-social-media-is-beneficial/

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Sony Xperia E dual review: Something extra In 2012, Sony decided to alter its s...

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Google bug returns porn for mathematical queries

Devin Coldewey , NBC News ? ? ? 6 hrs.

A bug in Google search ? fortunately, a rare one ? gives porn links and images as results when the user puts certain mathematical equations into the search box. It's certainly strange, but there is an explanation.

It was discovered by a user of the Q&A site Quora, who wrote a question asking why the search "-4^(1/4)" should return not just the result of that equation but hundreds of links to a wide variety of porn sites.

The search still works, and you can try it yourself, although if you're at work, you might want to wait until the boss is out of sight. Results are similarly inappropriate with image search.

So what's happening here? Another user of Quora (who stayed anonymous to avoid being associated with porn by Google, clearly a serious risk) broke it down. Google calculates the numerical query as it should, but also runs it as a normal text search as well, just in case. When it does that, it interprets things differently: the parentheses act like quote marks and the negative sign is used to exclude unwanted words from results.

The end result is that Google tries to find pages that have a 1 and a 4 next to each other... but no 4s. Obviously there are no pages that both have and don't have a 4, and as Google search engineer Jeremy Hoffman showed up at Quora to explain, it should return no results.

Instead, the bug results in these porn sites being shown, which have been extensively optimized to show up on as many searches as possible, even unrelated ones. The optimization is so strong that porn is showing up even for queries that don't make sense! Other contradictory queries return porn results, but not all.

Google declined to comment to NBC News. But the Google engineer who answered the question says that a bug fix is on the way, so you can calculate on Google with no fear of smutty links clogging up your results.

Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/google-bug-returns-porn-mathematical-queries-1B8332578

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Warming continent: What the BBC might have said about climate change in Africa

• 12 Feb 2013, 13:15
• Roz Pidcock

In the final episode of the BBC's Africa documentary, broadcast last week, veteran nature presenter Sir David Attenborough said that "some parts of the continent have become 3.5 degrees Celsius hotter in the past 20 years".

This prompted a fair bit of discussion, and rightly so - the BBC has since called the statement "disputable" and removed it from repeats of the programme. But if the BBC got it wrong, what could it have said? Here we look through the scientific literature to find some material the BBC could have used instead.

The issue came to light with a flurry of inquisitive Twitter users expressing surprise at the 3.5 degree claim shortly after the programme aired last Wednesday. The Guardian's Leo Hickman took a closer look with a blog post headlined 'BBC exaggerated climate change in David Attenborough's Africa' - and the story was widely picked up in other papers. The Times, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail all covered the story yesterday - the latter calling the episode "an embarrassing climbdown over climate change claims".

The BBC swiftly removed the offending phrase from Sunday's repeat, with the admission that Attenborough's words "should have been more carefully scripted". All that remains in the programme as broadcast is a rather vague statement that "Africa's climate is certainly changing".

First hurdle

Looking for temperature trends across Africa is not like looking for trends in the UK or elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere. Temperature measurements are only quite patchy across the continent, and where measurements do exist they don't extend very far back in time.

With temperature data only available for relatively short periods of time, it's harder to spot long term changes - or trends. And gaps in the geographical coverage make it hard to see how widespread any detected trends are.

So what does the scientific literature say about temperature rise in Africa? Dr Tim Osborne, climate scientist at the University of East Anglia, told the Guardian that the retracted BBC statement probably came from a 2008 paper by Cynthia Rozensweig, a climate scientist working at NASA. Let's start by looking at what that paper says.

At least two degrees, but not necessarily 3.5

Below is a graph from the Rozensweig paper showing how observations of temperature across Africa changed between 1970 to 2004. The continent is split up into boxes, each with a colour representing the level of warming. The graph covers a 35-year period, not the 20 years the BBC talked about. The graph does show how patchy the data record is - white squares indicate missing data.

Source: Rozensweig et al. (2008)

The light red squares show places that have warmed between one and two degrees over 35 years. It's hard to distinguish between light red squares and dark red ones, which represent the highest level of warming. But the graph seems to show only a handful of dark red squares where temperatures have risen more than two degrees.

As Osborn told Hickman, the map uses the same colour - dark red - for all warmings between two and 3.5 degrees Celsius. We asked Osborn for a bit more detail, and he told us this could be "where the BBC had got the 3.5 degrees Celsius figure (i.e. by assuming that some of those regions had reached the 3.5 degrees Celsius mark)."

So based on the data in this paper, what should the BBC have said instead?

Osborn told us:

"[M]y conclusion from the Rosenzweig et al. map is that it indicates some African regions had warmed by at least two degrees Celsius over a 35-year period".

As for the 20-year time frame, it seems BBC producers got confused between the conclusions of the Rozensweig paper and claims about 3.5 degree warming in a Christian Aid report from 2006, repeated in a 2006 publication by Oxfam and the New Economics Foundation.

Page 30 of the Christian Aid report says:

"[T]he maximum temperature in Kericho, a highland area in the Rift Valley province where most of Kenya's tea exports are grown, has increased by 3.5?C during the past 20 years."

This particular claim doesn't seem to be have been published in a peer-reviewed journal and cannot be verified so far.

What does other literature say?

An analysis by Professor Mike Hulme from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research at UEA suggested Africa has warmed at a rate of 0.1 degrees Celsius per decade throughout the twentieth century - although not uniformly across the continent. A more recent study in the Journal of Climate put the figure at 0.16 degrees per decade over the satellite era, which means since 1979.

Every five or six years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) produces an in-depth assessment of the state of research in all areas of climate science, from precipitation patterns to polar ice melt. A quick scan of the IPCC's 2007 report would probably have led the BBC researchers to the graph below.

For Africa as a whole, it shows around a one degree temperature rise since 1900 - the black line in the middle lower panel. This rate of temperature rise is higher than the global average, which is about 0.76 degrees since the start of the 20th century.

?

Source: Regional scale projections from the IPCC's 4th Assessment Report

The IPCC notes that Africa is likely to warm faster than the global average in the 21st century. The 2007 report says:

"In all four regions and in all seasons, the median temperature increase [between the years 2080 to 2099 and the years 1980 to 1999] lies between three degrees Celsius and four degrees Celsius, roughly 1.5 times the global mean response."

The IPCC's Summary for Policymakers also contains some top line conclusions about the vulnerability of African ecosystems to drought:

"It is estimated that, by the 2080s, the proportion of arid and semi-arid lands in Africa is likely to increase by five to eight per cent. Ecosystems are critical in Africa, contributing significantly to biodiversity and human well-being. Between 25 and 40 per cent of mammal species in national parks in sub-Saharan Africa will become endangered."

Published literature about African temperature trends may be a little thinner on the ground than in other parts of the world. But peer-reviewed research looking at the impact of climate change on the continent does exist in the scientific literature. The BBC's Africa programme was an otherwise enlightening and elegantly told story of the African continent. What this episode suggests is that slightly more attention to referencing would have served the programme better.

Source: http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2013/02/warming-continent-what-the-bbc-might-have-said-about-climate-change-in-africa

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Lawmakers urge oversight of drone program

FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., right, welcomes CIA Director nominee John Brennan on Capitol Hill in Washington, prior to the start of Brennan's confirmation hearing before the committee. Lawmakers are considering whether Congress can set up a court to decide when drones can kill U.S. citizens overseas, much like the secret courts that now grant permission for surveillance. It's another sign of the U.S. philosophical struggle over remote warfare, raised after CIA head nominee John Brennan's vigorous defense of the drones. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 7, 2013 file photo, Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., right, welcomes CIA Director nominee John Brennan on Capitol Hill in Washington, prior to the start of Brennan's confirmation hearing before the committee. Lawmakers are considering whether Congress can set up a court to decide when drones can kill U.S. citizens overseas, much like the secret courts that now grant permission for surveillance. It's another sign of the U.S. philosophical struggle over remote warfare, raised after CIA head nominee John Brennan's vigorous defense of the drones. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's use of unmanned drones to kill Americans who are suspected of being al-Qaida allies deserves closer inspection, lawmakers said Sunday as even some of the president's allies suggested an uneasiness about the program.

Obama's stance toward the terrorist threats facing the United States has left some Democrats and Republicans alike nervous about the unmanned drones targeting the nation's enemies from the skies. Questions about the deadly program dogged Obama's pick to lead the Central Intelligence Agency last week and prompted lawmakers to consider tighter oversight. All killings carried out under the drone program have ballooned under the president's watch.

"We are in a different kind of war. We're not sending troops. We're not sending manned bombers. We're dealing with the enemy where we find them to keep America safe. We have to strike a new constitutional balance with the challenges we face today," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.

"The policy is really unfolding. Most of this has not been disclosed," the second-ranking Senate Democrat added.

Before John Brennan's confirmation hearing to lead the CIA on Thursday, Obama directed the Justice Department to give the congressional intelligence committees access to classified legal advice providing the government's rationale for drone strikes against American citizens working with al-Qaida abroad. That 2012 memo outlined the Obama administration's decision to kill al-Qaida suspects without evidence that specific and imminent plots were being planned against the United States.

The nomination of Brennan, Obama's counterterrorism adviser who oversaw many of the drone strikes from his office in the West Wing basement, kick-started the discussion about how the United States prosecutes its fight against the terrorist group.

Sen. Angus King, an independent from Maine, said he prefers a review before the remote-operated aircraft fire on someone.

"It just makes me uncomfortable that the president ? whoever it is ? is the prosecutor, the judge, the jury and the executioner, all rolled into one," King said. "So I'm not suggesting something that would slow down response, but where there is time to go in and submit it to a third party that is a court, in confidence, and get a judgment that, yes there, is sufficient evidence here."

Former Defense Secretary Bob Gates, himself a former CIA chief, suggested "some check" on a president's ability to order drone strikes against American al-Qaida operatives would be appropriate and lent support to creating a special court that would review such requests.

"I think that the rules and the practices that the Obama administration has followed are quite stringent and are not being abused. But who is to say about a future president?" said Gates, Pentagon chief for Presidents George W. Bush and Obama.

The potential model that some lawmakers are considering for overseeing such drone attacks is a secret court of federal judges that now reviews requests for government surveillance in espionage and terrorism cases. In those proceedings, 11 federal judges review wiretap applications that enable the FBI and other agencies to gather evidence to build cases. Suspects have no lawyers present, as they would in other U.S. courts, and the proceedings are secret.

The Democratic leader of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, said she intends to review proposals for "legislation to ensure that drone strikes are carried out in a manner consistent with our values."

Republicans seemed to oppose such an oversight proposal.

The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said his members review all drone strikes on a monthly basis, both from the CIA and Pentagon.

"There is plenty of oversight here," said Rep Mike Rogers, R-Mich. "There is not an American list somewhere overseas for targeting, that does not exist."

Other lawmakers seemed leery of the program's current reach even as they lined up against the oversight proposals.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said a Feinstein-backed oversight panel would be "an encroachment on the powers of the president of the United States."

"But what we need to do is take the whole program out of the hand of the Central Intelligence Agency and put it into the Department of Defense, where you have adequate oversight," McCain said. "Since when is the intelligence agency supposed to be an air force of drones that goes around killing people? I believe that it's a job for the Department of Defense."

And Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., questioned whether America's intelligence operations were benefiting from the killings.

"We are losing a lot of opportunities out there to actually extract people and get information," he said. "Human intelligence is really much more important than taking out individual targets."

During Thursday's hearing, Brennan defended drone strikes only as a "last resort," but he said he had no qualms about going after Anwar al-Awlaki in September 2011. A drone strike in Yemen killed al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both U.S. citizens. A drone strike two weeks later killed al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son, a Denver native.

"I think it's very unseemly that a politician gets to decide the death of an American citizen," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. "They should answer about the 16-year-old boy, al-Awlaki's son who was killed not as collateral damage, but in a separate strike."

Those strikes came after U.S. intelligence concluded that the elder al-Awlaki was senior operational leader of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula plotting attacks on the U.S., including the failed Christmas Day bombing of an airplane landing in Detroit in 2009.

Lawmakers largely sided with the strategy even if they differed on how precisely to execute it.

"If you take up arms against America and you fight in a terrorist training camp or on the front lines in Pakistan or Afghanistan or Yemen, you shouldn't be surprised if America reaches out and exacts justice against you," said Republican Rep. Tom Cotton or Arkansas, who opposes bringing judges into the decision-making process.

Durbin appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." King, Gates and Paul spoke with CNN's "State of the Union." Rogers was interviewed on CBS' "Face the Nation." McCain and Cotton were on "Fox News Sunday." Cole was a guest on ABC's "This Week."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-02-10-Drones-Politics/id-8424a60ddffd4de9bb9fb3ad2ec10b8f

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Review: Lucia, Swinegate | Food & Drink | Muse | Nouse

Sunday 10 February 2013 | ONLINE ONLY
Tom Witherow

Address: 13 Swinegate
Main Courses: ?9-14
House wine: ?12 (1 litre carafe)
Rating: 4 Stars

?Would I be able to get a table for?? A restaurant that doesn?t take bookings is one to steer clear of. Either they?re so busy they couldn?t possibly leave a table sitting empty, waiting for its less than punctual guests, or they see little point in wasting the effort in booking people into a graveyard.

Lucia was, I suppose, in the latter category. Admittedly it was a Thursday night, on a cold February evening, with about an 80% chance of torrential rain, so I can perfectly imagine that an alfresco wine bar wasn?t at the top of everyone?s menu. Indeed on arrival I soon thought that it wasn?t really on the top of mine either.

We walked up to the outside terrace to find flashing coloured fairy lights and wicker chairs, not a lot different from a cheap Spanish seaside resort. And the rotating cake stand and the slightly awkward waiter didn?t exactly help.

But books and covers, I thought. Onward we marched?

We took a place at our table, with two roaring outdoor heaters (which we were glad of) and some leopard-printed rugs (which we were increasingly glad of), under which we were gently warmed.

Any worries were however put to rest once our food arrived, alongside a carafe of extremely reasonably priced house red. The pork belly, served with chorizo and grainy mustard mash, was sumptuous, salty, and fantastically crunchy. The chorizo was spicy, and the portion generous. My discerning companion had lemon and thyme chicken ?supreme? (what is a supreme? What ever happened to calling it a sauce), served with risotto and tomatoes, which the menu claimed were sun blushed (like me, after a day at the beach). Although I didn?t try the offending item myself, the sounds emanating from the other side of the table suggested that it had hit the culinary g-spot, ?not quite lemony enough? being the only criticism. From a quick examination of the few neighbouring tables that were filled, the sea bass and the lamb shank look worth a try, although are a little more pricey at ?14, as opposed to the ?9-10 bracket that most of their mains fall into.

The food is thus a great success, and make this ?wine bar? somewhat a hidden gem. Presentation of the main courses was beautiful, and if you?re there with parents there?s also an extensive steak menu. The puds however didn?t look quite so appealing, rotating round a glass cabinet (they looked like an Iceland special). But we didn?t let this hold us back, a liquid dessert a la Evil Eye ensued ? highly recommended.

Ultimately, if you can get beyond the odd music and the indifferent waiters, then you will be rewarded by great food from the grill. Both wine and food are reasonable, and with a good outdoor seating area, I?ll look forward to getting back here in the summer.

Source: http://www.nouse.co.uk/2013/02/10/review-lucia-swinegate/

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February 10, 1863: The Union trade in Southern cotton

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