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(AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File) FILE – A person waits in line to vote in the Georgia’s primary election on May 24, 2022, in Atlanta. A new poll shows 71% of voters think the future of the country is at stake when they vote in November’s midterm elections. That’s according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File) Majorities of Republicans and Democrats in a new poll said that the political opposition would destroy America as we know it if it is not stopped. The NBC News poll, published on Sunday, found that 81 percent of Democratic respondents said the GOP “poses a threat that, if not stopped, will destroy America as we know it,” while 17 percent of Democrats surveyed disagreed.  Seventy-nine percent of Republican respondents said the same of Democrats, while 20 percent of Republican respondents disagreed. In addition to the findings on polarization in the U.S., 47 percent of respondents said they prefer Democrats to control Congress,  » Read More

About 400 million years ago, Michigan was covered by seawater.Over time the waters evaporated leaving behind a deposit of potassium-rich salt now buried 8,000 feet deep. Underneath all that rock and soil could lie a billion-dollar industry for Michigan.“There’s a big enough deposit that it could be of great value to the country,” said Bill Harrison, director of the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education at Western Michigan University.A proposed mine is on the brink of tapping into the potash — potassium chloride — after securing state approval and funding. But the $1.2 billion project from Michigan Potash & Salt Company remains shrouded in environmental concerns despite its potential economic benefits.What is potash?Potash, a critical ingredient for fertilizer, is only found in a few places in North America. And Harrison believes Michigan’s supply, which stretches under eight mid-Michigan counties, is one of the purest deposits in the world.“It’s at least 100 feet thick through the underground environment here in Michigan,” Harrison said.The crystalized potash ore sits a mile-and-a-half under the earth’s surface — roughly one and half times the depth of the Grand Canyon.  » Read More

Home Tech News Facebook threatens to block news content over Canada's revenue-sharing bill The Online News Act laid out rules to force platforms like Meta's Facebook and Alphabet's Google to negotiate commercial deals. Facebook warned on Friday that it may block sharing of news content on its platform in Canada over concerns about legislation that would compel digital platforms to pay news publishers.The Online News Act, introduced in April, laid out rules to force platforms like Meta's Facebook and Alphabet's Google to negotiate commercial deals and pay news publishers for their content, in a move similar to a ground-breaking law passed in Australia last year. The legislation is under consideration at a parliamentary committee, to which the U.S. social media company said it has not been invited to share its concerns. "We believe the Online News Act misrepresents the relationship between platforms and news publishers, and we call on the government to review its approach," Marc Dinsdale,  » Read More

After Facebook’s Bitmoji-style avatars invaded Instagram and Messenger, now they’re coming to Whatsapp, too. According to a report from WABetaInfo, WhatsApp is rolling out support for customizable avatars in the latest 2.22.23.9 beta on Android, but only for some users.Those with access to the feature will see a new “Avatar” category in their settings menu that they can use to customize the digital version of themselves. Just like on Meta’s other apps, WhatsApp will then generate a sticker pack with the avatar in various poses, which users can use to express themselves when messaging family and friends. WABetaInfo first spotted the feature last month, but now it’s actually rolling out to users. It’s unclear when WhatsApp will roll out the feature to all users on Android, or when it plans on bringing the feature to iOS. Meta didn’t immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.Meta first introduced avatars on Messenger and the News Feed in 2019 before they became available to use in Facebook comments and stories in 2020.  » Read More

Landscapers found a car buried in an Atherton backyard Thursday morning, police said. This happened at a home on the 300 block of Stockbridge Avenue. NBC Bay Area’s SkyRanger flew over the multi-million-dollar property and spotted investigators digging up what is being considered a possible crime scene. Police believe the car has been in the ground since the 1990s and belonged to a previous owner of the home. They added that the current owner of the property, who called police, said they had no idea the car was there. Officials said the car was buried about 4 to 5 feet underground. “Cadaver dogs were called to the scene. The cadaver dogs made a slight notification of possible human remains,” said Commander Dan Larsen of the Atherton Police Department. Police said that no human remains were found as of Thursday night. Local The Menlo Park Fire District came to the neighborhood Thursday to assist with the digging.  » Read More

Midterm election misinformation brought to you by Facebook and TikTok. Credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images Facebook and TikTok failed to block paid advertisements spreading misinformation about voting in the 2022 midterm elections, according to a new report from the human rights non-profit Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy (C4D) Team at New York University. For its test, Global Witness created dummy accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube and attempted to run ten identical advertisements on each platform in both English and Spanish. Each ad contained "outright false and misleading election misinformation." These ads contained falsehoods such as telling voters they needed to be vaccinated to vote in person or that voters would need to vote twice so that their votes would count. Other ads simply provided the wrong date for people to vote. The ads targeted voters in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania – all battleground states. Global Witness then went through the process involved in running this misinformation through each company's official ad platform.All of the submitted advertisements were in violation of all three platforms' policies.  » Read More

October 20, 2022 - Advocate Aurora Health notified 3 million patients of a data breach that resulted in potential protected health information (PHI) exposure. The breach stemmed from the nonprofit health system’s use of Google and Meta (Facebook’s parent company) tracking pixels, which are commonly used tools that allow organizations to track website visitor activity. In August, North Carolina-based Novant Health notified 1.3 million patients that the use of Meta pixel code on its website also potentially exposed PHI. Background As previously reported, a co-published report by The Markup and STAT discovered that the Meta pixel tracker was being used on hundreds of hospital websites. While the use of pixels is common, the report found the pixel installed inside multiple password-protected patient portals and scheduling forms. With the tracker present, packets of data were allegedly sent to Facebook whenever someone clicked a button to schedule a doctor’s appointment. Facebook allegedly received highly sensitive protected health information (PHI), including medical conditions and doctors’ names,  » Read More

Meta's independent oversight board announced Thursday that it can choose to apply warning screens and labels to posts on Facebook and Instagram, starting this month. The warning screens include labeling content as "disturbing" or "sensitive."These labels would be applied when "leaving up or restoring qualifying content," including to photos and videos.Several instances cited by the board where a warning screen should apply are in relation to graphic videos from Sudan that show things like human rights abuses.Meta did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.The oversight board's first 20 members were announced in 2020. The board currently consists of 23 academics, lawyers and experts in other fields from around the world. While the board is indirectly funded by a $130 million Meta trust fund, the company said it will abide by the board's decisions, even when they are in disagreement."We are committed to making principled, independent decisions that are binding on Facebook about important pieces of content and by issuing advisory opinions on Facebook's content policies," the board says on its website.  » Read More

(from left) Lili Taylor in The Conjuring; Vivien Leigh in Psycho; Drew Barrymore in Scream.Photo: Todd Gilchrist/ New Line Cinema; Universal Pictures; Dimension FilmsThe only thing scarier than the horror movies Hollywood makes are the real-life stories that inspire them. For decades, horror films have thrived by using the all-too-common “based on a true story” label, or the less reliable “inspired by true events,” to create a fiction believable enough to sell tickets and make audiences white-knuckle their theater seat armrests. Terrifying classics like The Exorcist or Psycho owe their existence in large part to very real, and very unsettling, events that form the bedrock of their narratives. So as Halloween creeps around the corner, here are 15 horror movies (listed in order of release) based on (or at least inspired by) some real-life nightmare fuel.1. Psycho (1960)Alfred Hitchcock’s black-and-white classic Psycho is as timeless as its real-life origins are infamous.  » Read More

Photo courtesy of Champaign Park District’s Facebook page Photo courtesy of Champaign Park District’s Facebook page by: Bradley Zimmerman Posted: Oct 19, 2022 / 04:38 PM CDT Updated: Oct 19, 2022 / 04:38 PM CDT CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (WCIA) — The Champaign Park District is warning the community of a scam on Facebook related to an event series it is hosting later this fall. The district said on its Facebook page that there are several events on the platform that all refer to Winter Nights at Prairie Farm. However, only one of these events was published by the district. The authorized Facebook event is listed as being organized by Champaign Park District Special Events and the Champaign Park District. The other, fraudulent events list Christmas Holiday Season and World Christmas Event 2022 as the organizers. Winter Nights at Prairie Farm will take place from Nov. 25 to Jan. 1.  » Read More