When it comes to appearance, we are sometimes informally issued a number from one to ten. What if we lived in a world in which everyone is assigned a number that tells everyone ELSE how influential we are, and this number determined whether or not you got a job, a hotel room upgrade or free samples at the supermarket? This is really happening to millions of social network users.read more

We’ve all learned that there are spies on Facebook, but despite this, the company has recently admitted that it secretly hired Burson-Marsteller, a PR firm whose clients include Microsoft, to generate stories critical of the privacy mistakes being made by its rival Google, as they fight over internet users’ time and advertisers’ budgets (both Both Facebook and Google have faced criticism for the amount of personal data they collect and retain online). When the agency sent these press releases to newspapers and magazines, it did not inform them that it was acting on behalf of Facebook. How can they get away with this?
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…And Jim Marrs, this week’s Dreamland host and author of "The Trillion Dollar Conspiracy," ought to know! Banks aren’t just giving you credit scores, they are issuing their customers "bank-depositor behavior score," based on your bank balances, deposit records and withdrawal activity. Banks are nervous about making loans, so they are checking out applicants carefully first by looking at your buying habits and your records of rent, utility and credit card payments. And if you pay your rent in cash, you may look like a deadbeat to your bank.read more

Lots of secret things go on under the cover of darkness and now you can spy on all of them, without using cumbersome night vision goggles (which might give you away). Instead, you can use a phone app.!

Standard night vision devices work by converting photons, the subatomic particles that make up light, into electrons that hit a phosphorous screen and produce an image you can see. On the Discovery.com website, Gene Charleton reports that the new app uses a detector made up of layers of an organic semiconductor connected to an LED array, which gives you an image you can see on your phone.

If someone catches you peering into their windows at night, just pretend to be making a phone call.
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