Would You Have Kept Going?

By Natasha Althoff-Kelley

A doctor by the name of Judah Folkman kept in his archives an article printed in the New York Times written by two physics professors explaining how it would never be possible for aeroplanes to fly. Three months later the Wright brothers soared through the air at Kitty Hawk.

Folkman had proposed in 1970 an idea that conflicted with what scientists at the time knew. He proposed that tumours generated new blood vessels to feed themselves and grow. He was ridiculed, and met with hostility and told that his study was futile science. At a research convention, when he showed his ideas half the audience walked out. For two decades he kept going, despite everyone else's opinions and reactions.

My question is: Would you have kept going? Today he has helped over 100,000 cancer patients from his research and he is considered to be a leader in the fight to cure cancer.

Michael Jordan was cut from the varsity basketball team in his first year at high school.

My question is: Would you have kept going? Michael did double the practice of every other player on the team and went on to become the best basketball player of all time.

Colonel Sanders, the father of legendary fast food chain KFC was broke, with only a small house and an old car to his name. He was 65 years old. He decided to sell his chicken recipe to restaurants for free in return for a small percentage on the chicken sold. He was rejected over 1000 times.

My question is: Would you have kept going? He got 1009 rejections to his proposal before he got his first 'yes'. With that one success Colonel Hartland Sanders changed the eating habits of the whole world with Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).

Bruce Lee studied and mastered kung fu but all he really wanted was to be an actor. He obtained some small roles in TV and film but thought his big break had arrived when he heard there was to be a new TV series called "Kung Fu" and they were looking for a new star. He had a successful screen test but in the end the role was given to David Carradine.

My question is: Would you have kept going? He was offered and starred in many film roles after that and his reputation as an actor and his skills in the martial arts made him a household name.

Fred Smith was a student at Yale studying economics. He wrote a paper disagreeing with his professor about air-freight through passenger planes, and instead proposed having separate planes dedicated to mail and not people. The professor gave him a low grade.

Fred was not discouraged and went out to tell others of his idea and to get investors. He was met with disinterest. However his passion and his courage to his convictions served him well and he raised $91 million on his untested idea.

FEDEX was born and in the first few years the losses amounted to millions of dollars. The investors wanted to remove Fred and get someone else to take over the company.

My question is: Would you have kept going? Fred did not lose faith, he worked night and day to solve the operational problems and that resulted in $75 million revenue with $3.6 million profits. Today FEDEX is a multi-million dollar company.

W. Mitchell was a good looking 28 year old on top of the world! He had finally saved enough money for his dream motorbike and life was good. A traffic accident left him with a crushed elbow and pelvis and burns to 75% of his body. His face was burned beyond recognition and his fingers and thumbs had been burnt off leaving him with two stumps where his hands used to be.

My question is: Would you have kept going? After 6 months of rehabilitation he came across an idea for a stove company. He thought to himself 'hmmm I know a bit about fire' so he co-founded Vermont casting Inc which became Vermont's second largest employer. With the profits he was making he bought himself a personal aeroplane and despite the physical barrier of having no hands, he learnt to fly.

Mitchell thought he was on top of the world again. Life was good and he had achieved so much.

However on a routine flight to San Francisco - a flight Mitchell had made many times before - the plane malfunctioned and crashed. There were four others in the plane and they all walked out. Everyone except for Mitchell. He had crushed his twelfth thoracic vertebrae and he would never be able to use his legs again. He needed a wheelchair.

My question is: Would you have kept going? He says about the accidents: 'Before my accidents, there were ten thousands things I could do. I could spend the rest of my life dwelling on the one thousands that I had lost, but I instead chose to focus on the nine thousands I still had left'.

Mitchell is still a director of the board to a number of companies, and is a successful businessman. He is also a co-founding chairman of a $65 million company.

What is the point of these stories I am telling you? Whatever you take out of these stories is the message you are ready to hear right now. To me the theme of this article is persistence. I go. Until. No buts, maybes, excuses, could of, would of, should of. Just I do. Until.

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And It All Came Down ...

by Pandora Poikilos

I don't think I need to explain my relationship with Orangeberry. Anyone who has been reading the blog will know the obvious. Everyday the Orangeberry team is back to back with promoting authors, checking blog stops and interacting with authors / blog hosts.

We pulled off the Summer Splash (100 authors, 500 blog stops), tested the waters for a virtual book expo in December and we've come a long way from our humble beginnings. Smooth sailing? Not really. But we get by. It is always a wonder to meet one new author after another and to read a different experience.

Then, a few days ago, reality showed up at our doorstep and to say she was livid would be an understatement.

Earlier this month, we promoted The Great Gift by Misty Wright as a paid sponsor for our free alert segment. It did well. On it's last free day it was ranked #2 overall in the Kindle store. It was an author we had never heard of but that's nothing new for us.

Of course we shared our find with the Quality Reads UK Book Club (Orangeberry teamed up with them in December) and they had raving reviews. Most members gave the book 3 to 4 stars.

When the author came back to book another free alert and a Phoenix tour, we agreed. Then, as the first few book club members downloaded the book, my inbox exploded.

As it turned out, Misty Wright had plagiarised at least four different from three different authors. You can read Eliza's discovery HERE. Obviously, the author's money was refunded and all other promotional efforts were declined But the hows and the whys are still running through my head in more ways than one.

We apologised on the public forums that we had shared the free alert on and did our best to inform the authors that were involved.

Why did the author do this? Obviously, the motivation was money. Let's not forget most of these books were under the #40,000 Paid rankings at the Kindle Store. She had approached blogs to feature her guest posts, advertised her free book days on several sites and as of 19 minutes ago, her publisher was still advertising her books on Twitter.

How? She created new attractive covers using stock photos, changed names of characters and in some places nouns were moved around to make the sentence different. Fortunately, as we soon found out, Google doesn't care about these little changes. Quality Reads was able to match exact sentences from the books of other authors. The authors Misty Wright had picked had minimal social media presence and one did not have his books sold on Amazon.

Where is Amazon in all this? Amazon was fast to act. Once Bob & Eliza reported it, the books were not available for sale within 24 hours. BUT. And note the capitals. I don't understand how it got into their store in the first place. This was the first question Eliza asked me and I still don't have an answer for her. If a senior citizen who doesn't understand how to download books to her iPad could spot these chunks of plagiarism, how did 4 plagiarised books get past Amazon's 24 hour "in review" stage before the books were successfully published to the store?

What am I talking about? When you have a new book to publish, you log into your KDP author dashboard. Fill up your book details. Fill up your price details. Then, you tick your consent and press save. Your book appears as "in review". You cannot make any changes during this time. God forbid you have uploaded a wrong version of your ebook, you will just have to wait.

Do they have the software to check plagiarism? Of course, they do. Last year, when I was publishing Books, Blogs & Smiles which was a calendar series of book covers, author websites, blogs and quotes from the public domain, one of these books - Books, Blogs & Smiles 3 - was blocked. I received an email to say I had used quotes that were not mine. This content was freely available on the Internet and I had to submit an explanation as to why I was using these quotes. When I submitted my explanation to say that these quotes were in the public domain and were properly credited, I was told my explanation was unsatisfactory and the book was blocked. They only agreed when I sent back at least 100 other examples of books in the Kindle store that also had quotes from celebrities and famous people. So .... if they can check for quotes, I'm pretty sure they can check for chunks of plagiarised text.

What is the outcome so far? I never have and will never condone public lynching online or off. Misty Wright thought she saw the gold at the end of the rainbow and decided to get it by any means possible. Pity that it was someone else's rainbow and someone else's pot of gold. Strangely enough, her publisher seems to agree with her. Any publisher with a bit of common sense would check the work for plagiarism before publishing it. But then, common sense isn't so common.

What can you do? Read Eliza's article. See the proof for yourself. Support the affected authors. Buy their books, tweet out the plagiarism that has affected them, put yourself in their shoes and imagine waking up to this mess.

To Jennifer Cloud, Mark Stewart and Leitha Wards - we hope that this issue is resolved as quickly as it can and are truly sorry that you have to go through this. We would love to promote your work so feel free to email us at info AT orangeberrybooktours DOT com

To our readers - Orangeberry and Peace from Pieces - we are truly sorry for having promoted The Great Gift by Misty Wright. We were not aware of the copyright infringement at the time and as mentioned above, we have declined all future promotional requests from this author and her publisher.

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Anna & Modern Day Slavery

By Magda M. Olchawska


I’m a writer of children books, short stories and scripts & an award winning filmmaker. I became interested in modern day slavery and human trafficking over a year ago.

The stories about sex slavery/human trafficking or modern day slavery that have been surfacing all over the world are horrendous and would make even the toughest of people cry.


After a good bit of crying I came to the conclusion that crying won’t do anyone any good. It was time to do something useful and make as many people aware of the problem as possible.

Since I’m a filmmaker & a writer I decided to write a script and make a feature narrative film called “Anna and Modern Day Slavery”.

Many of us don’t know (recently I was one of those people) that the sex slavery is one of the most profitable “businesses” in the world.

I can only guess that making “Anna and Modern Day Slavery” is going to be an emotional journey. However I do believe that together we can make a difference and make people more aware of the huge problem humanity is facing.

What I’m intending to do with the movie?

Once “Anna and Modern Day Slavery” is made, I’m planning to enter the movie into various film festivals. Of course, to make my job and effort more fruitful, I’ll hire a publicist to help me choose the right festivals for the movie.

When we finish the festival circuits I’m going to make the movie available for everyone to watch online for FREE.

Yes, you heard it right. For FREE.

Of course for some period, let’s say two weeks, the movie will only be available exclusively for the supporters of the movie. But after that time passes, everyone will be able to watch it. The more people the better because...

... while making “Anna and Modern Day Slavery” my goal is not to make enormous amounts of money from it. I’m making this movie because I want people to wake up and see how cruel our advanced society are.

After watching the movie the audience will have a chance to make a donation towards making another Anna movie, (this time about illegal organ selling) & towards charities helping the victims of human trafficking. The charities will receive 55% of the total donations.

We will also have special packages for community & campus screenings of which 55% earnings will go towards the charities, too. Our first charity is CREER - Centre for the re-insertion and education of street children.

This is my IndieGoGo campaign page. Please find some time to check it out and see how you can help.

If you would like to be updated daily on the movie progress please check out my daily blog 

Synopsis - “Anna and Modern Day Slavery”

Anna, a strong & independent woman, leaves her partner & high paid government job behind to set up an underground Organization that exposes corruption and injustice which is spreading like a virus around the world.

Her IT/hacking skills come in very handy when she discovers international sex slavery networks that run deep into the government & corporate structures.

Her investigation leads her to Eastern Europe where one vital contact set her on track to discover horrific truths behind human trafficking.

To keep up on top of things Anna recruits Pawel, a talented researcher who unwittingly gets entangled into the unstoppable current of events.

Together they help unravel the secrets behind a major trafficking ring and shed public light onto the horrors of sex slavery.

How to find me?

Twitter

https://twitter.com/#!/magdaolchawska

Facebook  

https://www.facebook.com/magdaolchawska

Website

http://www.magdaolchawska.com/

Anna & Modern Day Slavery

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Anna-and-Modern-Day-Slavery/323109581079335

Website

http://annaandmoderndayslavery.weebly.com/index.html

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I Am Your Mother, Daughter, Sister, Wife & Friend

What would you do if this were your mother, sister, wife, daughter or friend? 

Excerpts from an article by Ahdaf Soueif
Sourced from The Guardian UK

The woman is young, and slim, and fair. She lies on her back surrounded by four soldiers, two of whom are dragging her by the arms raised above her head. She's unresisting – maybe she's fainted; we can't tell because we can't see her face. She's wearing blue jeans and trainers. But her top half is bare: we can see her torso, her tummy, her blue bra, her bare delicate arms. Surrounding this top half, forming a kind of black halo around it, is the abaya, the robe she was wearing that has been ripped off and that tells us that she was wearing a hijab.

The military has shot protesters, and thrown rocks, Molotov cocktails, china embossed with official parliament insignia, chairs, cupboards, filing-cabinets, glass panes and fireworks. They've dragged people into parliament and into the Cabinet Office and beaten and electrocuted them – my two nieces were beaten like this.


They beat up a newly elected young member of parliament, jeering: "Let parliament protect you, you son of … ". They took a distinguished older lady who's become known for giving food to the protesters and slapped her repeatedly about the face till she had to beg and apologise. They killed 10 people, injured more than 200, and they dragged the unconscious young woman in the blue jeans – with her upper half stripped – through the streets.

The message is: everything you rose up against is here, is worse. Don't put your hopes in the revolution or parliament. We are the regime and we're back.

What they are not taking into account is that everybody's grown up – the weapon of shame can no longer be used against women. When they subjected young women to virginity tests one of them got up and sued them. Every young woman they've brutalized recently has given video testimony and is totally committed to continuing the struggle against them.

The young woman in the blue jeans has chosen so far to retain her privacy. But her image has already become icon. As the tortured face of Khaled Said broke any credibility the ministry of the interior might have had, so the young woman in the blue jeans has destroyed the military's reputation.

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Google Pays $500M Fine

Even Google is held accountable for its actions in the virtual world, enough said.

Sourced from NY Post

Google agreed to pay $500 million to settle a US government probe into its distribution of online ads from Canadian pharmacies illegally selling prescription drugs to Americans.

The settlement means Google will not face criminal prosecution, officials said. Google said it shouldn’t have allowed Canadian pharmacies to market prescription drugs to Americans.

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50 Ways To Keep Your Child Safe On Facebook

Sourced from Flockpost

11 March 2010 - 400 million people are using Facebook.com and spending more than an average of 50 minutes per day(source), This made it the world's biggest and most successful social networking website. Now it's not just a favorite social networking website for certain professional/educational group. Even teenagers are more enthralled with Facebook than their once favorite role playing websites and avatar enabled forums. If you are also a parent of a teenage child who is having Facebook fever than you might need some guidance and help to protect your child  from any wanted situation like phishing, spamming, profile hacking, cyber bullying, abuse etc.
Here are some points you may find helpful, though I believe that every parent knows how to care their children. Sometimes they are unaware of what's going around them, it won't be a lie that your 13 year old knows more than what you know about Internet and Facebook. So why not try to be one step ahead from your child?
I focused on some major points including getting started with Facebook, making network, posting on walls, sharing content on Facebook groups, pages and sharing photos on Facebook.

Getting Started With Facebook

1. First point; always be friendly with your child. That's the best way to get his trust on you.
2. Teach him what social networking is before allowing him to join Facebook.  I consider social networking as a way to connect virtually with known and unknown people to share information, knowledge and fun.
3. Make some  rules between you and your child to be followed, by both of you strictly.
4. Help your child to create his own Facebook profile
5. Don't use his real name on Facebook profile, though fill other options truly.
6. Keep Relation Status and Looking For option "Empty".
   
7. Clarify, what to share online and what not to share and why? Children are always ready to throw questions so you be prepared to answer them.
8. Don't let them share their personal information to anyone anywhere on Facebook
9. Personal information includes location, addresses, phone numbers and even some photographs should not shared
10. Profile picture of your child should not expose his/her clear face; better to take a profile picture zoomed out wearing cap or sunglasses or use any graphic images.
11. Add your name in Family members when filling profile information of your child; this may keep stalkers away from your him/her.

Making Network

1. Teach your child how to make a good social network by connecting with good people and avoiding strange people. Introduce your relatives on Facebook to your child and then ask some of your close friends to add your child too. Now your child will be surrounded by many known people.
2. Add your child's friends in your Facebook network too.
3. Observe the activities of users connected to your child if you get doubtful.
4. Remove the suspected user from your child's connection immediately.
5. Report to Facebook and save other children too from that suspected user.
6. Make your child join Facebook groups relevant to his likes, hobbies and interests.
7. Teach him not to be too friendly with strangers online.
8. Teach him not to be racist online and even offline.
9. Teach him why not to disclose family secrets online.
10. Edit your child's Facebook privacy settings carefully.
11. Keep your child always offline on Facebook chat. No No live chats.

Posting On Walls/Groups/Fanpages/Inbox

1. Teach him not to post his/her current location
2. Not to disclose any family or personal secrets
3. Delete if someone one posts offensive material on your child's Facebook wall. It is better not to allow anyone to post on your child's wall by editing privacy settings.
4. Don't let him join hateful/offensive/abusive/porn or controversial Facebook groups. Though Facebook staff are trying their best to clean all filth but managing 400 million users is not that easy.
5. Don't let your child post anything racially anywhere on Facebook.
6. Don't let him/her disclose his/her sentiments or feelings publicly, better talk to him/her personally.
7. Read Facebook terms with your child and teach him/her to follow.
8. Check his/her inbox messages every day. Report for abusive content if any.
9. Check sent messages too, you should know what your child talking to others.
10. Get the list of top 10 followers of your child's profile (Who is following me) This application will show you who is more engaged with your child by frequently posting, liking or replying to his/her updates. However, you cannot find who is viewing his/her profile with this application.

Sharing Photos & Videos on Facebook

1. Before uploading any images, edit privacy settings "Who can see this". You will get this option while uploading photos from your personal computer.
2. Let him share family photos to only relatives and close friends whom you know and met personally.
3. Don't let him share his/her own photos, your family photos, his/her room or photo of your house, nearby area or anything which can expose his location and personal details to anyone on Facebook.
4. Do you know that if photos are uploaded without editing privacy settings it can be viewed by anyone on Facebook. It can also be shared by any user to his network and can spread widely.
5. If you are uploading photos from your digital camera, better crop the size with Photoshop if possible. Or use online photo editor websites like picnik.com, lunapic.com or fotoflexer.com all are free services. Google it for more.
6. You should know that all images posted on a Facebook album can be copied by anyone. Try it yourself if you don't know. Open any uploaded pic—Right Click- save image as. If this doesn't work then you can even take direct screen shots of that image. So be cautious.
7. Report to Facebook for any misuse of photos of your child. There is an option below that particular photo.
8. Don't allow your child to put photos of an unrelated person on his/her Facebook album.
9. Don't allow to upload any copyrighted /abusive/spam photos

More Tips

1. Keep the account password of your child with you, keep changing it weekly or randomly.
2. Don't let him use Facebook in his room, keep your PC in public room or hall.
3. Allow only 15-30 minutes to be on Facebook every day.
4. Discuss with your child his Facebook experience every day.
5. Ask him what he came to know from his Facebook friends etc. Knowledge, information etc.
6. You should know that Facebook is not for users under 13.
7. You should also know that there are many who break this rule. Don't let your child do this.
8. Subscribe to some good Facebook related websites/blogs to get latest news and happenings. Like insidefacebook.com allfacebook.com however both are unofficial Facebook blogs.
9. You should join some Facebook groups of parents this will keep you connected and updated with other parents.
10. Read internet safety resources here on TheOnlineMom
11. Very useful safety resource here too onlinefamily.norton.com
12. Read why social networking is good for your child. Here is another great article on Techcrunch
13. Make a time table for all this. Do it even if you trust your child, you very well know that this world is not so trust worthy.

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Facebook Beefs Up Security After Zuck Hack

By Tim Bradshaw, Financial Times

Facebook is to offer its users greater security when they log in, after the social network’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy suffered hacking attacks.

From Wednesday, users will be able to turn on an “https” secure connection, a form of browser security usually found in online banking services and at the check-out on e-commerce sites.

The new security features will be eagerly awaited by dissidents in countries where governments have been cracking down on internet use, such as Egypt. In Tunisia before the recent revolution, the state intercepted protesters’ Facebook login details and locked them out of their accounts.

Last year, Facebook suffered a security scare when a browser add-on called “Firesheep” allowed people to capture others’ login details over unsecured WiFi networks.

Earlier this week, an unidentified hacker broke into Mr Sarkozy’s Facebook page and wrote a message, littered with spelling and grammar errors, that he planned to step down at the next election.

The French president made light of the break-in, later writing on the site: “My Facebook account has been hacked tonight, perhaps to remind me that no system is foolproof. I will take the lesson of writing and spelling, but disagree with the conclusions.”

Last night, Mr Zuckerberg, Facebook chief executive, also found he had fallen victim to a similar attack. A message that appeared on his fan page read:

“Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a ‘social business’ the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it? What do you think? #hackercup2011.”

The apparent criticism of Facebook’s recent $1bn fundraising through Goldman Sachs was swiftly deleted, but not before being spotted by the TechCrunch blog and attracting hundreds of comments.

(UPDATE – Facebook commented: “A bug enabled status postings by unauthorized people on a handful of public Pages. The bug has been fixed.”)

Facebook said that it was introducing https connections across the site as part of international “Data Privacy Day” later this week, rather than in response to the recent attacks.

Users will have to opt into using the extra security, through their account settings.

“You should consider enabling this option if you frequently use Facebook from public internet access points found at coffee shops, airports, libraries or schools,” wrote Alex Rice, a Facebook security engineer, on the company blog.

“We are rolling this out slowly over the next few weeks, but you will be able to turn this feature on in your Account Settings soon. We hope to offer https as a default whenever you are using Facebook sometime in the future.”

Mr Rice warned that turning on https would slow down page loading and could break third-party applications.

Facebook is also introducing a new way to distinguish between human users and automated attempts to log in, which can be used in hacking attacks.

Instead of the common “captcha” box which asks users to write the distorted letters they see in an image, Facebook users will be asked to identify a friend displayed in a selection of photos.

“Hackers halfway across the world might know your password, but they don’t know who your friends are,” Mr Rice said.

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Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook Fan Page Hacked

By Stan Schroeder, Mashable

26 January 2011 - Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook fan page seems to have been hacked, with the hacker posting a message calling on the company to transform into a “social business.”

The message, seemingly posted on Facebook from Mark Zuckerberg’s account, was quickly removed (together with the fan page), but not quickly enough to go by unnoticed, receiving more than 1,800 “likes” and hundreds of comments in the process.

The message read: “Let the hacking begin: If facebook needs money, instead of going to the banks, why doesn’t Facebook let its users invest in Facebook in a social way? Why not transform Facebook into a ‘social business’ the way Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus described it? [LINK] What do you think? #hackercup2011″

Facebook made no statement about the incident, but if Zuckerberg’s fan page was indeed hacked, it’s a big deal. If the Facebook CEO (more accurately, the PR team that’s handling the page for him) can’t keep his Facebook account safe from intruders, who can?

We’ve reached out to Facebook about the incident and will update the post when we hear back.

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Parents Warned Of Facebook Model Scam

By Donal Walsh, School Days

25 January 2011 - Parents have been warned that there is a scam circulating on social network site Facebook targeting children.

Last week, Leicestershire Police revealed that fake modelling agencies are using the social media website to entice youngsters to pose in their underwear by promising them a career in modelling.

Facebook profiles have been set up which have logos and brand names to appear genuine, with people emailing children asking them to send indecent photos of themselves to the agencies.

Detective sergeant Ed Jones, member of the Paedophile and Online Investigation team at Leicestershire Constabulary, said reputable modelling agencies would "never approach you in this way".

He told children not to pose for pictures in their underwear, stating: "You have no control when posting photos on the internet where they may end up and they could appear on the internet forever."

A spokesman for Facebook stated that the safety of its members is its "top priority".

This news follows findings by the European Commission released last week, which recommended internet companies to provide more support to protect young people online.

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Social Media, Scam Advertisements & Misinformation

By Amy Lee, Huffington Post

18 January 2011 - Facebook is expanding the empire, Google-style. Estimates place the social networking giant's advertising revenue at $1.86 billion for 2010, an 86 percent increase from the year before.

Though Facebook is not yet anywhere close to infringing on Google's ad dominance (the search engine nets close to $2 billion each month), AdAge predicts that Facebook's ad revenue will more than double by the end of 2011, to over $4 billion.

The majority of advertisers are small or medium sized companies making use of Facebook's self-serve system--the same system that transformed Google into a goliath of online advertising. Sixty percent of Facebook's ad revenue, or $1.12 billion, came from smaller companies.

Facebook, which has over 650 million registered users, controls about 5 percent of the online ad market share, though it is expected to control over 8 percent by the end of 2011. AT&T and Match.com were the top two advertisers on the site, with Google itself ringing in at number five.

But as ReadWriteWeb points out, Facebook's number three advertiser is the bizarre scam site Make-my-baby.com, a strange page using the pretense of a virtual baby face customizable with a mustache or glasses, to gain access to browser settings and reset user homepages to Bing, the Microsoft search engine. According to ReadWriteWeb, the site prompts users to install a browser-plug in which then proceeds to change the default search and homepage to Bing. The affiliate company responsible, Zugo, then receives a piece of the revenue whenever users click through a search ad. Attempts to uninstall the toolbar redirect to a broken link.

Update
ReadWriteWeb managed to get in contact with both Microsoft and Facebook: Facebook denied that the offending site was not an advertiser on the site at all, and Microsoft told RWW:
Distribution deals and affiliate programs are an important part of how all search engines introduce their product to customers. That said, we have been made aware of some practices from a specific publisher that are not compliant with the guidelines, best practices and principles put in place by Bing. As a result, the relationship with this publisher will be terminated.

Make-my-baby itself has apparently vanished off the Internet. Further response from comScore, the data company that AdAge initially based their report on, shows that AdAge misread the information they received, which showed make-my-baby as the third largest advertising on "social networking" generally, not Facebook specifically.

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Facebook Does A U-Turn On Phone Sharing Policy, For Now

By Bianca Bosker,Huffington Post

18 January 2011 - Facebook is temporarily suspending a controversial new policy that enabled Facebook app developers to access users' home addresses and mobile phone numbers.

In a carefully-worded blog posted Tuesday at 2:25AM, Facebook outlined the benefits of the expanded sharing options rolled out the previous week, though noted that the company would be disabling the "feature" for several weeks to make changes to the tool.

"Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data," Facebook wrote. "We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so. We'll be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready. We look forward to re-enabling this improved feature in the next few weeks." (Read the full statement below)

Though many argued that allowing third-party developers access to users' addresses and phone numbers put members of the social network at risk for spam, identity theft, and other problems, Facebook plans to embrace the more open policy, while making tweaks that will make it more explicit if a website or developer requests access to users' personal information.

Users must explicitly grant an application permission to use such information. When Facebook originally introduced the change, it planned to display users a pop-up with a line of text -"Access my contact information" - that some said most users would overlook.

Internet security firm Sophos warned that the new policy "could herald a new level of danger for Facebook users," noting, "the ability to access users' home addresses will also open up more opportunities for identity theft, combined with the other data that can already be extracted from Facebook users' profiles."

Facebook's blog post:
Improvements to Permissions for Address and Mobile Number
On Friday, we expanded the information you are able to share with external websites and applications to include your address and mobile number. With this change, you could, for example, easily share your address and mobile phone with a shopping site to streamline the checkout process, or sign up for up-to-the-minute alerts on special deals directly to your mobile phone.

As with the other information you share through our permissions process, you need to explicitly choose to share this data before any application or website can access it, and you can not share your friends' address or mobile number with applications. Also, like other data you make available to third party apps and websites, you can always clearly see and control the ways your information is being used in the Application Dashboard.

Over the weekend, we got some useful feedback that we could make people more clearly aware of when they are granting access to this data. We agree, and we are making changes to help ensure you only share this information when you intend to do so. We'll be working to launch these updates as soon as possible, and will be temporarily disabling this feature until those changes are ready. We look forward to re-enabling this improved feature in the next few weeks.

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If This Were Your Child?

By Daily Mail

18 January 2011 - A teenager has admitted to killing a 13-year-old girl he met on social networking site Facebook, according to Lithuanian police.

The 14-year-old lured the girl to the county's capital, Vilnius, where he lives.

And this morning he confessed to the murder, police said, after the unnamed girl's half-naked body was found last night. The teenage girl was found half-naked near a bus stop outside the capital Vilnius.

Police spokeswoman Dalia Petrauskiene says the girl from the town Alytus was murdered after arranging on the popular social networking site to meet the boy.

The spokeswoman said today that the boy confessed to the killing and if he is found guilty of murder he faces a maximum 10-year sentence.

The boy, 14, allegedly killed the 13-year-old boy near to Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Lithuania is one of Facebook's fastest growing markets, with some 710,000 users in the country of 3.4 million.

Facebook has attracted over 600 million users since it was established in 2004.

And the social networking site has already been the cause of some attacks and killings, drawing vicious criticism from some quarters who complain that privacy settings should be tighter.

In January 2009 Edward Richardson, 41, was convicted of killing 26-year-old Sarah Richardson in a 'frenzied and brutal attack' at her parents' home in Biddulph, Staffordshire, after he had become 'enraged' when she changed her status from 'married' to 'single'.

Last March Peter Chapman, 33, was jailed for at least 35 years over the killing of Ashleigh Hall, 17, in Sedgefield. The known sex offender met her via Facebook.

Meanwhile in August three Colombian teenagers were murdered in five days after their names appeared on two hitlists published on Facebook, the social networking website.

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Married To Single, Single To Dead

By Paul Cheston, Daily Mail

17 October 2008 - A husband who hacked his wife to death with a meat cleaver in fury over her Facebook entry was jailed for a minimum of 14 years at the Old Bailey today.

Wayne Forrester, 34, drank alcohol and took cocaine before driving 15 miles to the family home to attack wife Emma as she lay in bed.

The couple had separated four days before the murder in February and Forrester later told police he had been provoked by his wife changing her marital status to "single" on her Facebook entry, the court heard.

Forrester, a HGV driver, admitted murder in February this year in New Addington, near Croydon.

Emma was found in a pool of blood after neighbours were woken at 6.30am by her screams. Near her body was a large kitchen knife and in another room a blood-soaked meat cleaver.

Jailing him for life, the Common Serjeant of London Brian Barker QC said: "Your wife ended the relationship. Your reaction was one of anger and resentment.

"There is no possible excuse or justification.

"This is a tragic killing of a young woman and what you have done has called untold anguish."

The court heard that the Forresters had a "volatile and unstable marriage characterised by periods of separation and reconciliation".

Alex Lewis, prosecuting, said that while Forrester was in and out of work and cared little for family life, his wife took two jobs to make ends meet.

Her parents supported the pair financially and moved home closer to them to help their daughter. Four days before the murder Forrester moved out of the family home to stay with his sister in Paddington. He repeatedly called home and threatened to kill her.

Ms Lewis said: "He was angry about an entry on Facebook he said made him look like a fool as she had advertised her marital status as single. He accused her of having an affair."

Forrester drove to Croydon armed with the knife and meat cleaver and forced the front door open.

After neighbours called 999 he emerged from the house covered in blood and holding a carton of juice.

When the police arrived he held his arms out for handcuffs and told them: "Who called you? My wife is in there. I killed her."

Inside the house they found Mrs Forrester's body with a large wound in her neck. Two bannister rails had been broken off and there were clumps of long brown hair outside the bedroom.

She had multiple wounds to her neck and head and defence wounds to her arms showing she had fought to ward off the blows.

Forrester later handed detectives a prepared statement in which he said: "She forced me out of the family home and posted messages on the internet website telling everybody she had left me and was interested in meeting other men."

He went on: "The whole incident seemed a blur. I felt I was watching somebody else attacking Emma."

In an impact statement the victim's sister Eliza Rothery said the family had been devastated by the murder.

Peter Dahlsen, defending, said Forrester felt "a deeply held remorse".

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We Haven't Met

By Rachel Law
newsdesk@thestar.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR (13 January 2011): A woman was shocked when she learned a mutual friend on Facebook had uploaded photographs of her on the social network site and accused her of spending all his money and then dumping him.

The man, who called himself Kelvin Tan, claimed that the woman Bong Xiew Mei, 22, of Kajang made him exceed his credit card limit, forcing him to be in debt with loan sharks.

Bong showed a print screen shot of Kelvin’s note which also claimed that they dated and had a sexual relationship, and that she dumped him after she had exhausted his money.

“I don’t even know this guy. I have never met him in real life. I don’t understand why he had to post nasty and false things about me,” she said, adding that she thought he was a friend she met on one of Facebook’s game applications when she accepted his friend request last month.

“This incident has affected my life horribly,” the student said at a press conference at the Public Services and Complaints Department at MCA headquarters here yesterday.

She said Kelvin first posted her photograph on Sunday night and had since then uploaded four more.

Her boyfriend, Hung Yun Joo, 25, said about 200 people were tagged on each of the photographs.

“The guy added our family members and a lot of our close friends and tagged them on the photographs,” he said, adding that he and Bong had closed their Facebook accounts.

Hung, a businessman, said that they suspected the culprit was a close acquaintance as Kelvin had published Bong’s bank account number in one of his posts.

“He seems to know a lot of her personal information,” he said.

Bong lodged a police report at Batu 9 police station in Kajang on Monday.

Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said he had received 17 similar cases in the past two years where the victims were discredited on the Internet.

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Facebook Or Fakebook?

By Lauren Gerber
Sourced from PC1 News

Facebook is the one site on the internet that is probably the most used. The amount of Facebook users are increasing dramatically on a daily basis. Facebook started out as a social networking site which mainly consisted of lots of young users but as Facebook currently stands there are users of all ages and walks of life. The computer security of Facebook is reaching alarming heights and Facebook users should be aware of the growing computer security concerns. Inclusive in the Facebook security concerns is fake profiles. Facebook is currently being flooded with fake profiles. Due to the huge daily registration rate on Facebook, it is hard to keep track of who is a regular user and who is a Facebook fake.

It has recently been discovered that over forty percent of new Facebook profiles are actually fake. The question that may be asked is why are people setting up fake Facebook profiles? The fake profiles are generally set up by a combination of either spammers or various malware and virus writers. Once the fake Facebook profiles are set up and in existence, the virus writers then proceed to persuade users to click on links. These links are not authentic and the majority of the time will take the user to malicious and dangerous sites.

Social networking sites are being targeted by spammers at an alarming rate. Various virus writers as well as cybercriminals are using the creation of these particular fake Facebook profiles to their advantage. One of the many tactics which are used is to persuade users to visit the fake profile page. This is achieved either by sending a friend request or sending a personal message. The profile page redirects the user to a malicious malware site. Another one of the tactics used is to persuade users to click on links leading to dangerous sites. This is done by placing the links on other people's walls or on fascinating blogs. People see the link and automatically assume that it is just another legitimate link and don't even think twice about clicking on it.

Facebook does have an extremely clear and precise policy with regard to fake profiles. According to Facebook and its policy a fake profile will be deleted when the Facebook teams becomes aware of it. Fake profiles are causing huge problems for many innocent Facebook users who have genuine profiles. The factor that spammers and virus writers are using fake Facebook profiles to their advantage means that people will stop at nothing in order to get people online to do what they want. Computer security in general is a great concern to all internet users worldwide.

It is interesting to note that besides people creating fake Facebook profiles for the usage of malicious purposes or spam, people create fake Facebook profiles of celebrities and actors all the time. If you are a regular Facebook user and do a search for a celebrity of your choice, chances are very likely that this particular celebrity has a Facebook profile. The question that arises is if this a genuine Facebook profile or is it a fake? The majority of the time there is no real way of telling. It can thus be said in conclusion: Don't take everything on Facebook at face value.

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Facebook 'Scammer'

Spurned man calls woman 'scammer' on Facebook
By Debra Lim (newsdesk@thesundaily.com)

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 18, 2010): A 26-year-old woman claimed today that she had been accused of being a "scammer" on Facebook by a man she once spurned.

Sammi Lam Sin Yee, a part-time real estate agent and tuition centre owner, was browsing through her Facebook account on Nov 9 when she found out that a man named Chai Hui Feng was spreading rumours about her.

Lam said that Chai had added her friends to his contact list and published a posting accusing her of being a "scammer" who cheated men, and one would use all kinds of alluring words to court, flirt and gain their trust for money.

Chai has also claimed that Lam had cheated her "victims" of about RM300,000 in Bahau, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

Lam is worried as her MyKad and car registration numbers were also published on Lam’s profile.

Lam suspected that Chai’s Facebook account was created by her insurance agent Simen, who tried unsuccessfully to court her three years ago and is now taking revenge by attempting to destroy her life.

"I have received (short) messages and emails from Simen before. He said he would not let me lead a peaceful life," said Lam at a press conference held by MCA Public Service and Complaints Department chief Datuk Michael Chong at Wisma MCA, Kuala Lumpur.

Lam said Chai has removed the postings about her after she lodged a police report on Nov 15.

Describing people who use the Internet to destroy other people’s lives as cowards, Chong said he would bring the matter up with Simen’s insurance company.

He said it is against the code of conduct for an insurance agent to expose a client’s details and would ask the company concerned to conduct an investigation.

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They Eat When There Is Food

By Rachel Thien, The Brunei Times

2 May 2011 - "If there is food, then I will cook. If not, then everyone will take care of themselves," says a mother of nine children in Kg Lorong Tiga in Seria.

Four of 47-year-old Suryati Ayat's children, aged 7, 9, 15 and 17, are juveniles, as defined by the Children and Young Persons Order 2006. The order defines "juveniles" as people who are between 7 and 17 years old.

"I can endure the hunger pangs, but I worry for my children," the mother said, adding she was sad to see her young children hungry at times.

Eight of her children live with her in a two-bedroom unit in Kg Lorong Tiga. The Belait District Office relocated her family to this unit in October last year. Four, aged 19, 20, 21, and 22, are adults and unemployed.

"My eldest son is now married and has his own family," says Suryati. "Although he does not live with us, he provides us with food supplies when he can."

One more child, an 11-year-old girl, recently died of electrocution.

One of her daughters is now married to 41-year-old Alfian Junaidi. He has two toddlers and the wife is expecting her third child. They all live with Suryati in the two-bedroom affair. He is also unemployed.

When The Brunei Times paid a visit to the residence recently, the house smelled stale, like a closet that has not been opened for years. Two of Suryati's children were sleeping on a mattress on the floor. There were no bed sheets.

After one of her sons opened the door to let the party in, he sat himself down and continued watching television. None of his other siblings seemed curious to know why they had visitors over, and no one offered seats.

Suryati was not home, so one of her sons called her to come home from her friend's house.

When she arrived, she began to speak of their plight. She said although they do not have to pay rent, they had to pay for water and electricity. However, she said she has not paid any of the bills yet because they did not have the finances to do so.

"I have not been working for a long time, and have been divorced for 10 years now. I do not want to work because it is difficult for my two young children if I do as they will always look for me," she said.

She also said that being away from the workforce for a long time made it difficult for her to find a job.

Suryati said her family did not eat regularly, and hardly sat down to dine together because they barely cooked.

Their gas stove was not working, she said, and they did not want to use electricity to cook.

"We are scared it will take up electricity," she said.

"There are days when we do not have any food," she said.

Suryati said it was "distressful" living in such conditions, and would welcome anyone would would help them by providing financial aid and food supplies.

"Last time, we used to have help from the Brunei Islamic Religious Council (MUIB), where they provided my family $1,080 a month, but we stopped receiving it last year," she said.

"I already applied for financial help from them again last year and I already went for the interview at the Religious Office here. I also applied to the Community Development Department (Japem) but have not been called for an interview yet," she added.

She said two of her children used to receive $60 a month from Japem for buying school supplies. They stopped receiving the money last October.

Suryati also said she needed money to support her two younger children, aged 7 and 9, at school.

"I also need money for them to buy food at their school canteen."

Her son-in-law Alfian said he is currently looking for a job. "I have already applied to Baitul Mal and we just received $365 from them last month."

Alfian said when they received the money, he immediately bought food supplies and powdered milk for his children.

"The money is not enough and I am thinking of my children, and that is why I am looking for a job now."

Meanwhile, Suryati's two sons, aged 15 and 22, said they dropped out of school years ago.

The Compulsory Education Order 2007, under the constitution of Brunei Darussalam (order Under Article 83(3) which has been enforced since November 27, 2007, provides a nine-year compulsory education for a child of compulsory age a child above the age of six and who has not yet attained the age of 15 with primary and lower secondary education in Brunei.

Sufrizan Sufri, Suryati's 15-year-old son, said he dropped out of school after completing Primary Six.

Asked whether he intended to go back to school, he said, "I want to go to technical or vocational school."

Currently, he said he spends his days "gallivanting and lazing around".

His brother, Sufrizal Sufri, 22, said he stopped school at Primary 4. "We had family problems so I stopped going to school. I also want to study at a Technical or Vocational School, but not at a normal school."

Asked whether he has ever worked before, he said, "Yes. I used to work at a restaurant in Bandar as a helper in 2009, but they did not pay me the full $300 every month so I decided to quit".

He added he recently applied for another job, but has not heard back since. "If I need money, I just ask from my mum," he said.

Social volunteer Walter Boyd, who heads a volunteer group, accompanied The Brunei Times during the visit, to see what he could do to help the family.

After gathering information, he said he would return and have a meeting with his group to see what kind of food supplies he could provide them with.

In February, the family suffered the loss of their 11-year-old sister, who passed away after being electrocuted on her way home from Pasarneka Seria.

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If We Only Knew, If He Only Told Us

Sourced from Ryan's Story

October 7, 2003 will always be the day that divides my life. Before that day my son Ryan was alive. A sweet, gentle and lanky thirteen year old fumbling his way through early adolescence and trying to establish his place in the often confusing and difficult social world of middle school. After that day my son would be gone forever, a death by suicide. Some would call it bullycide or even cyber bullycide. I just call it a huge hole in my heart that will never heal.

Our son Ryan was a sweet, gentle and very sensitive soul. He was born in Poughkeepsie , NY just a week before Christmas. That Christmas, Ryan was the best present of all. As he grew, his affectionate way made it irresistible to hug him and feel him hug you back. He had the magic ability to bring a smile to anyone that looked his way. As he grew, he developed a wonderful sense of humor too. And when we moved into new neighborhoods twice during his life, kids quickly gravitated to his warmth and friendliness.

But there were early concerns with Ryan's speech, language and motor skills development as he neared kindergarten. Ryan received special education services from pre-school through the fourth grade. We will always be grateful for the entire staff at Hiawatha Elementary School in Essex Junction for being so wonderful and caring for our son. The special education team there fell in love with him and his drive to do his best every day. By the time he reached the fifth grade, he was assessed to be on grade and no longer needing special education services. But as he became older, he also became more aware that he was not as academically strong as most of his classmates. This began to bother him deeply as he headed into middle school. He had to work much harder at homework, re-reading assignments several times to comprehend the material. He was hard on himself, no matter how much we tried to lessen the academic pressure and focus his awareness of his other strengths.

I often told Ryan that there are all kinds of intelligence, for instance: academic, music, physical and social intelligence. I always felt his strength was social intelligence- that his very warm, sweet, caring and sensitive personality would take him far in life because people liked being with him. One of the best compliments we ever received about Ryan was from a parent that said they loved having him over and wanted his sweetness to rub off onto their child.

It was during the fifth grade that we first began to encounter the bullying problem. A certain kid and his friends picked up on Ryan's academic weaknesses and his poor physical coordination. But since he was not being physically bullied by these boys, only by words, we advised him to just ignore them, walk away and remember that he had good friends to count on. We even went so far as to get him a therapist to further help him develop coping skills and to boost his self-esteem during this school year. By the end of fifth grade he seemed fine and so, based on the therapist's advice, we stopped the sessions.

Ryan's middle school, Albert D. Lawton (ADL) in Essex Junction, Vermont had grades 6 through 8 in the same building. It was a bit of a scary transition for Ryan coming in as a very young 6 th grader into a building with some pretty older looking 8 th graders lurking through the hallways. As with his early school years, Ryan still struggled to make average grades. School still was not easy for him and he often brought up the concern of being put back in "sped" (special ed.)

Sure enough, the bullying problem resurfaced on and off during his first middle school year, but never to a point that gave us great concern. Again, we had the conventional adult belief that this was just kids being kids, a part of growing up ... that encountering mean kids in middle school was just inevitable. But the situation got much worse for him during the 7th grade.

In December 2002, the bullying problem surfaced again to a significant level. There was an evening that month when he just had a melt down … a very tearful session at the kitchen table. We thought 7th grade was going fine but discovered he was bottling up a lot of bad experiences during the first few months. Again, it was the same kid and his friends that bullied him on and off since the 5th grade. They were tormenting him again and he said he hated going to school, that he never wanted to go back there. He asked that night if we could move or home school him.

I was torn between wanting to be his bodyguard all day and feeling he needed to (again) learn how to manage the situation as a part of growing up. We sat at the kitchen table discussing our options that evening. We explained that moving in the middle of the winter was not a good time and home schooling was not an option because Mom worked part-time. I said, "That's it Ryan. I had enough. Let's take it to the principal and have him put a stop to it once and for all." To that, Ryan exclaimed, "No dad, please don't do that. They will only make it worse. I see it happen all the time." Instead Ryan asked that we help him learn how to fight so he can "beat the heck" out of this kid if he or his 8th grade friends tried to jump Ryan.

How I wish I could now turn back the clock. I wish we instead looked into why Ryan did not trust his school administration to address the problem in the first place. But at that moment in time, I immediately thought of the movie "The Karate Kid" and said so to Ryan. We laughed and agreed that was exactly what was needed for this situation. But instead of karate, Ryan was much more interested in Billy Blank's Taebo Kick Boxing program which often aired as a 30 minute commercial in this time frame. He asked that we get him this program along with the punching bag and boxing gloves for Christmas.

After a short discussion with Kelly, we bought Ryan the "Taebo" kick boxing training kit for Christmas that year. All through the month of January and into February, Ryan and I got down to business. After dinner every evening we did this exercise program together. These are some of my favorite memories of time spent with Ryan. We talked about a lot of things during these workouts including strategies in dealing with the bully and his friends. I was quite proud of him, seeing his self confidence build. It truly felt like the "Karate Kid" movie, getting him ready for the big match. But I reminded Ryan that he was never to start a fight with this kid, but he certainly had my permission to "whale on him" the moment he laid a hand on Ryan.

Sure enough, we got a call from the assistant principal after a school day in February 2003. He just broke up a fight between Ryan and the bully at the nearby Maple Street Park in our village. He said Ryan was ok but wanted us to be aware. We were very grateful for his intervention. When we found Ryan walking home, he was both scared and elated. He was shaking but said he got a few good punches in and felt good he was able to stick up to the bully. He said, "I got a few good punches in before Mr. Emory got there. That kid probably won't mess with me anymore." We were all feeling pretty relieved that day for Ryan; for being able to stand his ground and seemingly make it through a typical teenage rite of passage.

As the months followed, he seemed to be doing great. He was still struggling academically, but that was always the case for Ryan since kindergarten. He acted out like a typical middle school age kid – moody at times but also very sweet and funny most of the time. The "normal" ups and downs were what we observed. And we were always there for him, always reminding him how much we loved him. For the rest of 7th grade, I kept checking in with Ryan and asking him if that kid was still bothering him. His answer was always the same … that since that fight, the bully had left him alone. I often thought to myself, "This plan worked perfectly!"

One day Ryan's answer surprised us. He said he was now friends with the kid. We were not happy with this news. We warned him to watch his back since this kid was his nemesis for so long. We discouraged the friendship but decided to back off, feeling he was of age to make decisions like this and potentially have to learn from a misjudgment. How I wish we instead ended the so called friendship right from the start.

Ryan's young teen life included swimming, camping, skateboarding, biking, snowboarding, playing computer games and instant messaging. A typical array of "healthy" and "normal" teen activities … or so it seemed. My son loved being on-line, staying connected with his friends after the school day and throughout the summer. But during the summer of 2003, a greater deal of time was spent on-line, mainly instant messaging. I was concerned and felt compelled to remind him of our internet safety rules.

No IMing/chatting with strangers
No giving any personal information (name/address/phone) to strangers
No sending pictures to strangers
No secret passwords
Our last rule was a safety one. I told my two older children that they had to use the password I gave them for any accounts they signed up. I promised I would not read personal messages or spy on them but, "God forbid you don't follow the first few rules and you just disappear one day, I will want instant access to all of your activities on-line." Never in a million years did I imagine this rule would someday end up becoming the key to unlocking the mystery of why my son took his own life.

A few days after his funeral I logged on to his AOL IM account because that was the one place he spent most of his time during the last few months. I logged on to see if there were any clues to his final action. It was in that safe world of being somewhat anonymous that several of his classmates told me of the bullying and cyber bullying that took place during the months that led up to his suicide. The boy that had bullied him since 5 th grade and briefly befriended Ryan after the brawl was the main culprit. My son the comedian told his new friend something embarrassing and funny that happened once and the friend (bully) ran with the new information that Ryan had something done to him and therefore Ryan must be gay. The rumor and taunting continued beyond that school day … well into the night and during the summer of 2003. During the summer, my son approached a pretty "popular" girl from his school on-line and worked on establishing a relationship with her; I'm sure as a surefire way to squash the "gay" rumor before everyone returned to school in the fall.

When the 8 th grade school year started up again, Ryan approached his new girlfriend in person. I'm sure he was never prepared to handle what happened next. In front of her friends she told him he was just a loser and that she did not want anything to do with him. She said she was only joking on-line. He found out that her friends and her thought it would be funny to make him think she liked him and to get him to say a lot of personal, embarrassing stuff. She copied and pasted there private IM exchanges into ones with her friends. They all had a good laugh at Ryan's expense.

Now certainly my son was not the first boy in history to be bullied and have his heart crushed by a pretty girl's rejection. But when I discovered a folder filled with IM exchanges throughout the summer and further interviewed his classmates, I realized that technology was being utilized as weapons far more effective and reaching then the simple ones we had as kids. Passing handwritten notes or a "slam" book has since been replaced with on-line tools such as IM, Websites, Blogs, cell phones, etc. The list keeps growing with the invention of every new hi-tech communication gadget.

It's one thing to be bullied and humiliated in front of a few kids. It's one thing to feel rejection and have your heart crushed by a girl. But it has to be a totally different experience then a generation ago when these hurts and humiliation are now witnessed by a far larger, online adolescent audience. I believe my son would have survived these incidents of bullying and humiliation if they took place before computers and the internet. But I believe there are few of us that that would have had the resiliency and stamina to sustain such a nuclear level attack on our feelings and reputation as a young teen in the midst of rapid physical and emotional changes and raging hormones. I believe bullying through technology has the effect of accelerating and amplifying the hurt to levels that will probably result in a rise in teen suicide rates. Recent statistics indicate that indeed teen suicide is on the rise again after many years of declining rates.

I want to be very clear. I don't blame Ryan's suicide on one single person or one single event. In the end, Ryan was suffering from depression. This is a form of mental illness that is brought on by biological and/or environmental factors. In Ryan's case, I feel it was the "pile on effect" of the environmental issues mentioned above that stemmed from his middle school life. Tragically, teenage depression often goes undetected against the backdrop of typical teen angst. And since most of us have never received basic education in the signs and prevention of teenage suicide at any point in our lives, young people suffering from depression are at greater risk.

We have no doubt that bullying and cyber bullying were significant environmental factors that triggered Ryan's depression. In the final analysis, we feel strongly that Ryan's middle school was a toxic environment, like so many other middle schools across the country for so many young people. For too long, we have let kids and adults bully others as a right of passage into adulthood inside a school building. We place accountable for this tragedy, first and foremost, on ourselves as his parents... but also on Ryan's school administration, staff and the young people involved. As parents, we failed to hold the school accountable to maintain an emotionally safe environment for our son while he was alive. But accountability and responsibility should be shared by all involved - parents, bullies, bystanders, teachers and school administrators ... basically the whole system.

Something had to happen in response to this tragedy. It had to be something substantial and sustained, not just a short lived sympathetic response. We decided to take all this intense pain and channel it into productive areas to help other young people avoid the same fate as our son. You'll learn on the other pages about the bully prevention law we spearheaded in Vermont that holds schools much more accountable in preventing and responding to this growing epidemic. We also worked closely with I-Safe America to raise awareness about cyber bullying and the severe emotional impact it can have on a young person. We've done several national and local news media interviews to spread this story. I have also decided to dedicate the rest of my life to visit as many schools as possible to share Ryan's story and the powerful healing messages of forgiveness and unconditional love.

Nothing can ever bring back our Ryan. Nothing will ever heal our broken hearts. But we hope by sharing the personal details of our tremendous loss, another family will have been spared a lifelong sentence to this kind of pain.

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In Memoriam - Tim Hetherington & Chris Hondros

For all those who have taken on the underrated and often unrecognised task of being our eyes to the rest of the world, our prayers and thoughts are with you.

Sourced from msnbc

20 April 2011 - An Oscar-nominated war-film director and a second prize-winning photojournalist died covering a battle between rebels and Libyan government forces in the western city of Misrata on Wednesday.

Two other Western photographers apparently working alongside them were wounded.

British-born Tim Hetherington, co-director of the 2010 documentary "Restrepo" about U.S. soldiers on an outpost in Afghanistan, was killed, said his U.S.-based publicist, Johanna Ramos Boyer.

Chris Hondros, a New York-based photographer for Getty Images, died later Wednesday after suffering a serious head wound, according to Getty's director of photography, Pancho Bernasconi.
Neither of the men had protective gear with them, colleague Andre Liohn told The New York Times. The report said Liohn was at the triage center where medics treated the injured journalists after the attack.

Protective equipment has been difficult to bring into Libya from Egypt, The Times report said, as customs officials have thwarted the transport of equipment like helmets and flak jackets.

Doctors said two other photographers were treated for shrapnel wounds: Guy Martin, a Briton affiliated with the Panos photo agency, and Michael Christopher Brown, a New York-based photographer originally from Skagit Valley, Wash.

The bodies of Hetherington, 41, and Hondros, 41, were taken from Misrata to Benghazi on Thursday by the International Organization for Migration aboard the Ionian Spirit, which had been brought in to evacuate civilians from Misrata, according to a statement by Human Rights Watch.

Jeremy Haslam, a coordinator for the Geneva-based organization, said the boat had more than 1,000 evacuees, including 239 Libyan civilians and 586 migrants from Niger and others from Africa and Asia.

Martin had shrapnel wounds and was undergoing surgery Wednesday night, The New York Times reported. Brown had shrapnel wounds but his life was reportedly not in danger.

The photographers were reporting from inside the only rebel-held city in western Libya, which has come under weeks of relentless shelling by government troops.

Hetherington tweeted Tuesday: "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."

The circumstances of the incident were unclear. Statements from Hetherington's family and from Peter N. Boukaert of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, said he was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade.

Leila Fadel, a Washington Post reporter who was at the hospital, reported that Hetherington was rushed from the battle by ambulance along with rebel fighters. He was taken to a triage tent next to the hospital, she said, and appeared pale and was bleeding heavily. He was pronounced dead some 15 minutes after his arrival, according to her account in The Washington Post.

"Tim was in Libya to continue his ongoing multimedia project to highlight humanitarian issues during time of war and conflict," Hetherington's family said in a statement. "He will be forever missed."

Hetherington was best known as co-director of the documentary film "Restrepo" with Sebastian Junger, author of "The Perfect Storm." The film tells the story of the 2nd Platoon of Battle Company in the 173rd Airborne Combat Team on its deployment in Afghanistan in 2007 and 2008. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best documentary. The title refers to the platoon outpost, named after a popular soldier, Juan Restrepo, who was killed early in the fighting.

Hetherington's coverage of American soldiers in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan also won him the World Press Photo of the Year Award, one of three World Press prizes he has received.

"He was an amazing talent and special human being," Sundance Institute spokeswoman Brooks Addicott said of Hetherington, whose "Restrepo" won Sundance's top documentary award. "We send our sincere condolences to the Hetherington family, to Sebastian Junger and Daniela Petrova, and to Tim's many admirers all over the world."

Hetherington was born in Liverpool and studied literature and photojournalism at Oxford University. Known for his gutsy ability to capture conflict zones on film, his credits included working as a cameraman on the documentaries "Liberia: An Uncivil War" and "The Devil Came on Horseback." He also produced pieces for ABC News' "Nightline."

The White House in a prepared statement said it was "saddened" to learn of Hetherington's death.
"Journalists across the globe risk their lives each day to keep us informed, demand accountability from world leaders, and give a voice to those who would not otherwise be heard," the White House said. "The Libyan government and all governments across the world must take steps to protect journalists doing this vital work."

Hondros had covered wars in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan. His work has been widely published around the world. In 2003, Hondros made a picture of a Liberian government soldier with an RPG launcher that became one of the most iconic documents of that civil war.

In 2006, Hondros was awarded the Robert Capa Gold Medal Award by the Overseas Press Club for a series of images from Tal Afar, Iraq, in which U.S. soldiers mistakenly opened fire on an Iraqi family’s car. The next year, in a video interview with msnbc.com , Hondros said "I’m glad that those pictures exist, because it documents a circumstance that happens a lot there, and that people need to know about."

Hondros was born in New York City and moved to Fayetteville, N.C., as a child. He studied English literature at North Carolina State University and got a master's degree at Ohio University School of Visual Communication. He worked as a photographer for his hometown paper, the Fayetteville Observer and from there came to New York. He worked for the AP, freelanced and eventually became senior staff photographer at Getty.

Mohamed Abdel Dayem, program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists in the Middle East and North Africa, told Reuters this week that the number of attacks on the media in the Middle East and North Africa since the start of the year was "unprecedented."

"This hasn't happened before, not with this intensity and not with this frequency," he said of the attacks.

Dayem said 14 journalists have been killed worldwide so far this year, with 10 of those deaths in the Middle East and North Africa. Hundreds of other attacks on the media in the region included detentions, destruction of equipment and death threats.

While the Committee to Protect Journalists said press freedom has improved in Egypt and Tunisia since protesters ousted the presidents of both countries this year, it described the situation as only graduating from "horrendous to bad."

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Send Us Cash Or We'll Rape Her Again

KOMPAS.com, 14 January 2011 - A British woman described how she was gang raped for two hours in a Thailand hotel by men who then phoned her mother to demand money.

The 23-year-old claims she was assaulted by a group of Swedes and Thais in a room near Patong Beach, in Phuket, after agreeing to go back for a party.

In a sickening phone call, her attackers told her mother back in Britain that they would rape her again unless they received money. A friend described how the men placed a hood over her head and then laughed as they phoned her mother.

'She had gone back to the room with a Swede,' she added. 'But inside there were five others, including three Thais.

'She was raped and then one of them demanded her mother's phone number. There was laughter as one of the gang members told her mother that unless she sent money, her daughter would be raped again.

'Afterwards she went to find the Embassy official. I don't think she could even remember her attackers and I guess she was drunk.'

The woman had overstayed her visa and was working illegally, which both carry jail terms. She had got a job on the island after answering an advertisement for 'Time-Share' sales staff but quickly became penniless after earning little commission.

It is understood that Embassy officials arranged for her medical examination, but afterwards decided it would be hopeless to attempt a prosecution. She has now left the country.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: 'We can confirm we gave consular assistance in this case.'

In the case of sex attacks on Britons abroad the FCO is able to offer much more help than in other distress cases. They will accompany victims to police, arrange medical treatment and examinations, and can even arrange instant loans for flights, and deal with immigration issues.

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