Facebook's Arab Problem? Network Blocks 'Palestinian' and 'Arab' From Profiles
Last week, Facebook accidentally deleted Sarah Palin's rant at/plea to Muslims (depending on your side of the fence) to oppose the construction of the so-called Ground Zero Mosque. On Sunday, a group called The Palestinian Refugee ResearchNet tried to make a Facebook fan page for its supporters, but wasn't allowed because a glitch in the system blocked the world "Palestinian" from page titles. (The conspiracy theorists out there can rest their tin-foil-bedecked heads, because "Palestine" made it through without a problem, and Facebook has corrected the bizarre bug.)To compound Facebook's seeming anti-Arab connivance, a reader wrote to Gawker yesterday, saying that, when she tried to change her maiden name to her married name ("Arab," a common Palestinian surname), Facebook did not approve the change. Although her husband had successfully signed up with his English-transliterated name in 2007, when he changed it to Arabic characters, and then back to English, he was also denied. So this points to a recent change in Facebook's filters.
As we all know, deleting your Facebook account can involve some pretty intensive leg work. Disgruntled users often find themselves trapped in the social network's labyrinth of procedures, and, in the event that they actually find a way out, must then wait a full 14 days before their accounts completely disappear from this Earth. Facebook euthanasia is certainly an arduous ordeal, but that may ...
We're still waiting for flying cars, laser guns and teleportation devices, but it looks like we can scratch one childhood dream off the list: touchable holograms. According to the NTDTV report posted after the jump, researchers at Japan's Tokyo University have managed to concoct holograms that not only react to touch, but that also create the sensation of touch, itself. Apparently, and not ...
Nintendo, of course, pioneered light gun gaming with the epochal 'Duck Hunt' and the somewhat forgettable Super Scope. In the '90s, though, Sony adapted the addictive 'Time Crisis' arcade series for the PlayStation, giving birth to a new generation of light guns and gaming.
That franchise and its Guncon armament remain with the PlayStation 3, but the advent of Move technology has quickly ...
When we were wee-little bloggers, nothing piqued our interest in books more than the Choose Your Own Adventure series. In retrospect, the series (which was launched in 1979) and its interactive storylines presaged the role-playing video games that would later engross millions. Having changed publishers' hands over the years, Choose Your Own Adventure has found a still newer venue -- albeit under a ...
