Facebook reportedly launching revamped news feed with Instagram integration, content sections

On Thursday, Facebook will announce its overhaul of the social network's news feed, and a new report indicates that unveiling will include content-specific section segregation as well as integration with Instagram and other apps.

According to a new report from TechCrunch, Facebook's overhauled news feed will focus on ways to filter content. This will range from a news feed specifically for photos (featuring Instagram integration) to a feed for music (likely integrating with services such as Spotify and Rdio) along with similar dedicated feeds for other content.

Another aspect of the revamp will include larger-resolution photos than those currently displayed in the news feed; social advertisements will benefit from the change as they too will also appear larger, as will posts from a user's liked pages. As a result, ads will be "more vivid and?noticeable," the report states, although it does not expand upon any changes beyond the size of the ads.

Sources told TechCrunch that a revamped mobile news feed in Facebook's mobile apps likely won't be part of the initial launch of the overhauled interface. Facebook has traditionally launched new features on its desktop website before launching them in mobile apps and website.

Facebook's Thursday event?will be attended by several media outlets, which it invited to "come see a new look for News Feed." The event will take place 10 a.m. local time at the company's California headquarters.

Since its initial public offering last year, Facebook has quickly begun testing new features and has also launched?the recently announced Graph Search?in beta form as well as some smaller updates. The company also used the IPO to help close its purchase of Instagram.

Source: TechCrunch | Image via Facebook

Source: http://feeds.neowin.net/~r/neowin-all/~3/hn7uH3rVv6k/facebook-reportedly-launching-revamped-news-feed-with-instagram-integration-content-sections

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Churches engage in development dialogue on Africa

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Churches engage in development dialogue on Africa

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GENEVA, Switzerland, March 6, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ ? In Africa, trade, aid and investments from the European Union (EU), United States (US) and China have not fully addressed the roots of poverty, inequality and ecological degradation. Churches, therefore, need to engage in a ?development dialogue? to support alternative economic agendas, which can help eradicate poverty, while safeguarding Africa?s natural riches.

These points surfaced at a recent World Council of Churches (WCC) consultation in Arusha, Tanzania, from 27 February to 1 March.

Organized by the WCC?s Poverty, Wealth and Ecology programme, in cooperation with the All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC), the event was hosted by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania.

At the consultation, participants highlighted the need to go beyond a critique of mainstream economic agendas. Together with people?s movements and civil society, churches must begin to shape and promote a ?transformative development agenda?. This agenda, they said, is based on just economic relationships between countries based on the concept of ?life in fullness for all? and ecological harmony as its goal.

Around twenty economists, sociologists, ecologists and development experts from Africa, EU, US and China took part in this dialogue.

?Aid from the EU and others which accounts for a two-third of the total budget of national government, has benefited Tanzania?s infrastructure development and social service delivery,? said Grace Masalakulangwa from the Christian Council of Tanzania.

The EU has helped Tanzania to achieve 96 percent enrollment rate in primary schools in 2010. Yet the aid could not solve the problem of poverty, as majority of Tanzanians are still living below the poverty line, she noted.

The consultation analyzed the role of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a US policy instrument for investing in Africa. It was noted that while exports from AGOA beneficiaries amounted to 53.8 billion US dollars in the year 2011, it failed to generate substantial employment for Africans, except in the garment industry.

?The AGOA is aimed primarily at securing oil supplies for the US, which has huge investments in the petroleum industry in Nigeria and Angola,? said the Rev. Malcolm Damon from the Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in Southern Africa.

The revenues from petroleum exports help to finance public health and education. Yet, the oil wells will inevitably run dry and the ecological costs will have to be accounted for, said Damon.

The EU and China have invested heavily in Zambia?s mining sector, especially the copper mining industry. However, the Rev. Suzanne Matale from the Christian Council of Zambia noted that such investments have failed to improve the lives of ordinary Zambians and had adverse affects on the health of people in mining communities.

She noted that government revenue collections from the export of minerals remain minimal. Therefore, ?stronger environmental regulations on resource extractive activities as well as a tighter tax and revenue collection regime need to be imposed,? added Matale.

Participants of the consultation met with the representatives of Chinese contractors for a World Bank-financed road project in Arusha. Along with other recommendations, they called for effective mechanisms to ensure transfer of technologies and skills between Chinese and Africans.

The consultation was a follow-up to the EU-China-Africa Development Dialogue (ECADD) process, which emerged at the AACC Assembly in Maputo, 2008, focusing on the ?political and economic liberation of Africa?.

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SOURCE?

World Council of Churches (WCC)

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Source: http://appablog.wordpress.com/2013/03/06/churches-engage-in-development-dialogue-on-africa/

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Sonos Playbar Review: Everything Wireless Should Be This Easy

Sound bars don't immediately benefit from Wi-Fi connectivity the way music systems do, because you usually use them with your TV, and your TV isn't something you need to put in your pocket and walk around with. But that doesn't mean that Sonos' wireless music features don't benefit from its first sound bar. Just the opposite, in fact. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/cpzU27mMrgM/sonos-playbar-review-everything-wireless-should-be-this-easy

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Celebrity Apprentice All-Stars Premiere: Who Got the Chop?

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/celebrity-apprentice-all-stars-premiere-who-got-the-chop/

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Lawyer: Accusations against US senator are false

In this Friday, March 1, 2013 photograph, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, listens during a news conference at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. In the past, Sen. Robert Menendez sponsored legislation with incentives for natural gas vehicle conversions that would benefit the biggest political donor to his re-election, the same eye doctor whose private jet Menendez used for two personal trips to the Dominican Republic, an Associated Press investigation found. The disclosure reflects the latest intersection between Menendez, who is the subject of an ethics inquiry on Capitol Hill, and Florida doctor Dr. Salomon Melgen, who is involved in a federal criminal investigation. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

In this Friday, March 1, 2013 photograph, Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ, listens during a news conference at Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, N.J. In the past, Sen. Robert Menendez sponsored legislation with incentives for natural gas vehicle conversions that would benefit the biggest political donor to his re-election, the same eye doctor whose private jet Menendez used for two personal trips to the Dominican Republic, an Associated Press investigation found. The disclosure reflects the latest intersection between Menendez, who is the subject of an ethics inquiry on Capitol Hill, and Florida doctor Dr. Salomon Melgen, who is involved in a federal criminal investigation. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) ? A Dominican woman who once said in a video that she had sex with a New Jersey senator for money is now acknowledging that the allegation was false, according to a sworn statement released by a lawyer enmeshed in the scandal.

The attorney, Vinicio Castillo Seman, told reporters at a Monday press conference that the 23-year-old woman, identified as Nexis de los Santos, now claims in a sworn statement that she not only "never went to bed with" U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez but she never actually met him.

Castillo has been accused of hosting outings on his yacht in which the U.S. senator used the services of prostitutes. He has strongly denied the allegations and said he would seek a criminal investigation into the source of the reports.

On Monday, Castillo distributed copies of the woman's sworn statement to reporters during a press conference in his Santo Domingo office. The woman did not attend.

According to Castillo, the 23-year-old woman claims that she and a friend were approached by another Dominican lawyer, Melanio Figueroa, who was allegedly responsible for manufacturing the accusations against Menendez. The two women recited the accusations on a video that was recorded without their consent, he said.

Figueroa has not directly responded to numerous calls and emails seeking comment. Last month, an assistant at Figueroa's law office said they had dropped the case involving the two women on the video.

In Washington, Menendez told reporters that the accusations against him were "smears."

"I've always said that these are all false, they're smears, and so I look forward to seeing whatever the Dominican courts have that prove what I've said all along," Menendez said Monday.

Castillo, the son of a Dominican presidential adviser and the brother of a member of the country's Congress, has said he has known the U.S. senator for some 15 years and had never seen him with a prostitute. He said he's never hosted any parties involving prostitutes.

In the video released last year, the two Dominican women, whose faces were blurred, also claimed they had sex with Castillo and Dr. Salomon Melgen, a Florida eye doctor of Dominican descent who is a prominent Democratic campaign contributor and a major supporter of Menendez. De los Santos now claims that those allegations are also fabricated.

Menendez's ties to Melgen have come under close scrutiny after an FBI raid early last month at the doctor's West Palm Beach, Florida, offices. Menendez has acknowledged flying on Melgen's private jet to the Dominican Republic twice and was compelled to reimburse $58,000 for the two flights that he had previously failed to report.

A watchdog group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, has said it had received emails starting in April 2012 alleging that Menendez used the services of prostitutes in the Dominican Republic. The emails came from someone identified as "Peter Williams," though that may be a pseudonym.

Just before Menendez's successful re-election last November, The Daily Caller, a conservative web site, published a story that included a video interview with two women who claimed to be prostitutes. The women said Menendez paid them $100 for sex after agreeing to a fee of $500.

The Daily Caller did not immediately respond to emails and phone calls on Monday.

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Associated Press writers Erica Werner and Henry C. Jackson contributed to this story from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-04-CB-Dominican-Republic-Menendez/id-8edbe35b173746b086adff5d9863eb73

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Khanh Ho: Presumed Incompetent: Breaking the Silence of Racism in Academia

There's a hot new book making the rounds in the academic world: Presumed Incompetent. The book addresses the predicament that women of color high up in the ivory tower find themselves in -- a predicament few of us really know. Here it is in a nutshell: often, women of color are recruited to universities in order to represent intellectual change, to burnish the image of so-called diversity. Yet so many people have a hard time getting promotion, achieving that holy grail of the academic ladder -- tenure.

And this is precisely because they have to overcome so much. There's a lot of institutionalized racism, even among the liberal crowd of tenured radicals. In fact, one of my friends, a law professor put it best: "It's the liberal who can often have the least self-consciousness about the pain they inflict." She smiled wryly and put on her best NPR voice. "I can't be a racist; I voted for Obama."

Women of color aren't taken seriously because there exists a bias that is extremely destructive: the perception that they are tokens, that they are penny-ante players in the high stakes intellectual poker match. Yet institutions get many material benefits by recruiting people of color. And yes, they get even more by dumping them before they can become permanent. Another friend put it this way: "It's like leasing a new car if you don't grant tenure; you'll get a new one in a darker color, only it will cost you less." So, the revolving door of academia perpetrates and perpetuates a great loss... and the university can never be enriched by the gifts that a mature scholar of color can bring to the intellectual smorgasbord.

The problem is that you really can't talk about this issue: it's taboo. To do so is tantamount to grousing -- as outr? as scratching and farting at a cocktail party. And in large part this is why the system has been allowed to perpetuate itself, unchecked. I suspect this is why all my academic friends -- white and black, gay and straight, minority and majority -- are putting up images of the book on their Facebook Page. They don't say much except "I'm ordering mine" but the proliferation of this cryptic message is enough: indicating a tectonic shift.

Though Presumed Incompetent itself focuses on women of color, it is more generally about scholars of color -- both men and women -- who find themselves not only having to perform the rigorous work of making it in academia but, also, having to deal with the battle fatigue of challenging the bias that dogs their every action. It can be a tiring, thankless job being a person of color in academia -- one feels like an island in a vast, uncharted ocean. This is bourne out by the many discrimination law suits that are popping up at universities left and right, nowadays.

Presumed Incompetent is an historic work for one key reason: it voices discontents through the personal accounts of high profile scholars who have already made it, who have experienced the outrages of the academic mill...but are secure enough in their own careers to now be able to talk about some of the tribulations of being a person of color without appearing to whine. You can't say they're belly-achers or that they're working through a pile of sour grapes. They're intellectual superstars; go ahead: google them.

I'm glad that there is a book out there that can tell it like it is -- a book that can do the talking for those who have to remain silent. Only in this way, with one party speaking to the other, can we begin a useful dialog. I hope everybody sticks Presumed Incompetent's image on their Facebook page. Already, I hear it has sold out. May it sell out many times more. May it make it to the Bestseller's List and become anointed alongside the collected works of J.K. Rowling and the most compelling Vampire Erotica available. It will make the world a much, much better place.

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Follow Khanh Ho on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@LAMYSTERYWRITE

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/khanh-ho/presumed-incompetent_b_2778384.html

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Video: Reid: Can?t imagine a compromise position

A Second Take on Meeting the Press: From an up-close look at Rachel Maddow's sneakers to an in-depth look at Jon Krakauer's latest book ? it's all fair game in our "Meet the Press: Take Two" web extra. Log on Sundays to see David Gregory's post-show conversations with leading newsmakers, authors and roundtable guests. Videos are available on-demand by 12 p.m. ET on Sundays.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3032608/vp/51025054#51025054

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