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PATH: BS | Business
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Israel Goes High Tech With Online Astroturfing
Posted by Pile
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 Do you ever wonder how such a small minority has so much power online and in the media? Here's one reason:
The Megaphone desktop tool is a Windows "action alert" tool developed by give Israel the appearance of large scale online support. The tool is distributed by the World Union of Jewish Students, World Jewish Congress, The Jewish Agency for Israel, World Zionist Organization, StandWithUs, Hasbara fellowships, HonestReporting, and other pro-Israel public relations, media watchdog, or activism organizations. The tool delivers real-time alerts about key articles, videos, blogs, and surveys related to Israel or the Arab-Israeli conflict, especially those perceived by GIYUS (which stands for Give Israel Your United Support) to be highly critical of Israel, so that users can vote or add comments expressing their support of Israel.
The Megaphone Desktop Tool gives the user the option of going to a particular site with a poll, and if the user chooses to go to the site, the software then casts a vote automatically, when this is technically feasible. The vote is chosen automatically by the distributors of Megaphone. |
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De-Friend Ten People For A Free Whopper
Posted by Pile
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[Junk Food] |
 It hasn't escaped my notice that America's advertising industry continues to bundle product merchandising with insatiable selfishness between two sadism-seed buns. I thought I'd seen these campaigns peak with slogans like Twix's, "Two for me, none for you" campaign, or the myriad of commercials showing people making others suffer in tawdry amusement at the altar of materialism (My favorite was Toyota demonstrating how quiet their car's interior was by locking a passenger in the cabin with a light-sleeping flesh-hungry critter), but Burger King apparently went so far, even Facebook said "Hold the mayo!"
At the first of the year, Burger King released the "Whopper Sacrifice" application on the social-networking Facebook website, allowing Facebook users to dump 10 of their Facebook friends and get a coupon for a free burger. The application, which received widespread publicity, was used by 82,000 people to delete more than 230,000 friendships on Facebook.
On Wednesday night, David Swain, a spokesman for Facebook in Palo Alto, Calif., said the website had placed restrictions on the use of the application. Some concerns about privacy had been raised, because when Facebook friends were deleted, they were notified that it was because of the "defriending."
It's bad enough to have someone abandon you as a friend, but over a really bad fast food item? Isn't this one of the signs of the apocolypse? |
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Her bio says, "A New York Times best-selling author, Ellie Krieger is a renowned registered dietitian specializing in nutrition and health communications. Her extensive work in the media has earned her a loyal following and national recognition as a trusted health professional."
Have you ever wondered why it's fashionable to be young and stupid? Craig Ferguson has it figured out...
Are you worried about people rummaging through your checked bags on airline flights and lost luggage? Well, there's now an easy solution. It may seem crazy, but TSA rules state that if you declare a weapon in your luggage, additional tracking and safety protocols, including locking your bags go into effect.
In a study released by the International Journal of Biological Sciences, analyzing the effects of genetically modified foods on mammalian health, researchers found that agricultural giant Monsanto's GM corn is linked to organ damage in rats.
Since we have nothing better to do, and I'm sure a cure for cancer is on the way, and our country's democratic process is in perfect health, we here at BSA decided we could afford a more fruitless pursuit for your pleasure. We scoured Amazon.com for funny, humorous and amusing product reviews...
Imagine what you've been eating the last few years (thanks to meat industry lobbyists) when you eat a McDonald's burger (or the hamburger patties in kids' school lunches) or buy conventional ground meat at your supermarket:
Hey... you lost your job? What a drag. Wonder how that happened?
Health insurance giant Aetna is planning to force up to 650,000 clients to drop their coverage next year as it seeks to raise additional revenue to meet profit expectations.
Israel has taken the next step in pushing its own friendly image in cyberspace: An army brigade dedicated to astroturing pro-Israel messages on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking sites.
In our twelfth podcast we take on the advertising and propaganda industries and expose WEASEL WORDS: How people are lied to and misled about everything from products to promises to history and politics. 
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow confronts Tim Phillips, head of the co-called "grass roots" group, Americans For Prosperity which is going on a bus tour around the country spreading misinformation about health reform and get to the bottom of who's really behind this "grass roots organization."
Did you know that if you work at Wal-Mart, the corporation will take out a secret life insurance policy on you, naming themselves as the beneficiary? It's called "Dead Peasant Insurance" and thousands of corporations do it. It seems that most employees are worth more dead, than alive to these companies and they gamble and speculate with the insurance industry to make money when their employees die.
An insurance company that initially refused to pay for a liver transplant for a 17-year-old Northridge girl who died in a hospital should face criminal charges and pay civil damages, an attorney for the girl's family said Friday.
A new, beautifully-designed line of bottled water - this time not from the melting Alps, nor from faraway, clean-water-deprived Fiji, but rather from the contaminated ground near the site of the 1984 Bhopal catastrophe - scared Dow Chemical's London management team into hiding today.
Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won't be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.
It's called, "Reputation Management" or "Word of Mouth Marketing." Their web site says, "WOMMA members represent the best and brightest minds of the business world, and they have come together to build a prosperous word of mouth marketing industry based on best practices, measurable ROI, and ethical leadership. "
More than half the baby shampoo, lotion and other infant care products analyzed by a health advocacy group were found to contain trace amounts of two chemicals that are believed to cause cancer.
CNBC's Rick Santelli is angry that those loser homeowners are going to get bailed out. Jon Stewart has some comments on that... especially after Santelli bailed from appearing on The Daily Show.
Print ads for the Sci Fi Channel outside the United States get pretty clever....
Mike Rowe, host of the tv show, "Dirty Jobs" addresses a group in the tech industry and gets into a very insightful talk about whether conventional wisdom is "right" and what the problem is with America. Very well worth watching...
Just after midnight on December 22, levees broke at the The Kingston coal power plant, and a man-made pond containing toxic ash - essentially the leftovers from the nearby coal-burning power plant - burst its walls, and more than one billion gallons of coal ash spilled into the Tennessee River and its tributaries.
Just when you think you've heard it all, a shocking story surfaces that most of the mainstream media has not reported. Would an American drug company, upon finding that a supply of blood-based drugs was tainted with the HIV virus, offload these drugs overseas in an attempt to make a profit? Foreign regulators that have allowed this to happen are in prison. Nobody in the United States seems to even know this happened!
In a not-so-shocking analysis of one of the most-watched TV investment advisers, author Eric Tyson argues that Jim Cramer's actual stock-picking performance doesn't match the strength of his bellowing.
A Wal-Mart worker died after being trampled when hundreds of shoppers smashed through the doors of a Long Island store Friday morning, police and witnesses said.