How Facebook Reacted At Its Annual Conference To The Facebook Live Murder

April 20, 2017

San Jose, Calif, Apr 20: Three days after a man broadcast himself committing murder on Facebook, the social platform was all about playfulness again.

fbAt the company's annual developer's conference, held in nondescript conference center in downtown San Jose this week, Facebook launched a slew of products and features that encouraged people to use its service to snap images and video of themselves goofing off.

"Photos and videos are becoming more central to how we share than text," Zuckerberg said in his keynote. "So the camera needs to be more central than the text box in all of our apps."

Aside from a single comment by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in his keynote address Tuesday morning, in which he expressed condolences to the family of the victim and vowed to "do all we can to prevent tragedies," there was almost no mention of the murder, which was posted on Facebook on Easter Sunday. The killer later used Facebook Live to boast about the shooting.

Critics have said that because Facebook has not established a rigorous system of vetting videos and live-streams, the company is creating an environment in which its policies prohibiting the display of graphic content will inevitably be broken and more murders and violent acts will be broadcast. (The company says it is working to improve its procedures after acknowledging it only received reports on the murder video an hour and a half after it was posted).

In the past, Zuckerberg has said that he wants live video to support all the "raw and visceral" ways people communicate. But at this year's F8 developers conference, he made clear his desire to reclaim Facebook as a place where people have fun - and get sucked in.

Much of the conference, which is attended by thousands of engineers, hundreds of journalists, and Facebook clients, reflected the company's eagerness to once again become a site where people express themselves habitually and light-heartedly throughout the day - and to do so through photos and live video.

This is territory that Facebook has lost to more visually oriented social networks such as Snapchat and even the Facebook-owned photo-sharing service Instagram. Indeed, many of the camera features Facebook announced here have already been popularized by Snapchat.

Some of those new products include: An augmented reality camera lets users snap selfies and adorn themselves with giant red tongue or cartoon devil ears in the image. They can send selfies to friends with cartoon rainbows floating above their head, Olympic gold medals on their chest, or cover their faces with a variety of colorful masks.

The company went further than its rivals by opening up its systems so that developers could build on them. Facebook released tools that allow any developer to create such features on a camera app, in live video, and in virtual reality. As an example, Facebook executives showed how developers in different countries and cities could designed custom backdrops for their images, or draw specialized messages on them.

Facebook said it hopes that creating such a hub for developers and designers will accelerate innovation and attract more users to its network.

The social network has reportedly faced double-digit declines in original posts, as younger users in the United States have migrated to Snapchat and Instagram. The company's growth is largely outside driven by people outside the United States. For many, the days when it felt natural to log onto Facebook to express something random or informal - vent about your latest frustration at work, say, or share a silly memory - are long over. Many people use Facebook to post news about major life events like an engagement or a death, but prefer other networks for more casual communications.

Facebook sees visual communication as the way to reverse those declines. The company is making video posts bigger in its scrolling news feed, and adding ways for Android users to continue to view thumbnail-size Facebook videos even while are using others apps. Users can now stream Facebook videos directly to their televisions, a new feature that hints at the company's ambitions in live TV. The company also introduced group video hangouts, and showcased examples of ways people can make video watching more social and interactive. For example, a theater group in Latin America recently streamed a live soap opera, or telenovela, in which the audience was able to change the plot in real-time by voting.

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Agencies
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: The Centre has made it mandatory for sellers to enter the 'Country of Origin' while registering all new products on government e-marketplace (GeM).

The e-marketplace is a special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry which facilitates the entry of small local sellers in public procurement, while implementing 'Make in India' and MSE Purchase Preference Policies of the Centre.

Accordingly, the ministry said the move has been made to promote 'Make in India' and 'Atma Nirbhar Bharat'.

The provision has been enabled via the introduction of new features on GeM.

Besides the registration process, the new feature also reminds sellers who have already uploaded their products, to disclose their products' 'Country of Origin' details.

The ministry further said that failing to disclose the detail will lead to removal of the products from the e-marketplace.

"GeM has taken this significant step to promote 'Make in India' and 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'," the ministry said in a statement.

"GeM has also enabled a provision for indication of the percentage of local content in products. With this new feature, now, the 'Country of Origin' as well as the local content percentage are visible in the marketplace for all items. More importantly, the 'Make in India' filter has now been enabled on the portal. Buyers can choose to buy only those products that meet the minimum 50 per cent local content criteria."

In case of bids, the ministry said that buyers can now reserve any bid for a "Class I Local suppliers. For those bids below Rs 200 crore, only Class I and Class II Local Suppliers are eligible to bid, with Class I supplier getting purchase preference".

In addition to this, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has reportedly called for a meeting with all e-commerce companies such as Amazon and Flipkart to display the country of origin on the products sold on their platform, as well as the extent of value added in India.

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News Network
May 30,2020

May 30: Patients undergoing surgery after contracting the novel coronavirus are at an increased risk of postoperative death, according to a new study published in The Lancet journal which may lead to better treatment guidelines for COVID-19.

In the study, the scientists, including those from the University of Birmingham in the UK, examined data from 1,128 patients from 235 hospitals from a total of 24 countries.

Among COVID-19 patients who underwent surgery, they said the death rates approach those of the sickest patients admitted to intensive care after contracting the virus.

The scientists noted that SARS-CoV-2 infected patients who undergo surgery, experience substantially worse postoperative outcomes than would be expected for similar patients who do not have the infection.

According to the study, the 30-day mortality among these patients was nearly 24 per cent.

The researchers noted that mortality was disproportionately high across all subgroups, including those who underwent elective surgery (18.9 per cent), and emergency surgery (25.6 per cent).

Those who underwent minor surgery, such as appendicectomy or hernia repair (16.3 per cent), and major surgery such as hip surgery or for colon cancer also had higher mortality rates (26.9 per cent), the study said.

According to the study, the mortality rates were higher in men versus women, and in patients aged 70 years or over versus those aged under 70 years.

The scientists said in addition to age and sex, risk factors for postoperative death also included having severe pre-existing medical problems, undergoing cancer surgery, undergoing major procedures, and undergoing emergency surgery.

"We would normally expect mortality for patients having minor or elective surgery to be under 1 per cent, but our study suggests that in SARS-CoV-2 patients these mortality rates are much higher in both minor surgery (16.3%) and elective surgery (18.9%)," said study co-author Aneel Bhangu from the University of Birmingham.

Bhangu said these mortality rates are greater than those reported for even the highest-risk patients before the pandemic.

Citing an example from the 2019 UK National Emergency Laparotomy Audit report, he said the 30-day mortality was 16.9 per cent in the highest-risk patients.

Based on an earlier study across 58 countries, Bhangu said the 30-day mortality was 14.9 per cent in patients undergoing high-risk emergency surgery.

"We recommend that thresholds for surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic should be raised compared to normal practice," he said.

"For example, men aged 70 years and over undergoing emergency surgery are at particularly high risk of mortality, so these patients may benefit from their procedures being postponed," Bhangu added.

The study also noted that patients undergoing surgery are a vulnerable group at risk of SARS-CoV-2 exposure in hospital.

It noted that the patients may also be particularly susceptible to subsequent pulmonary complications, due to inflammatory and immunosuppressive responses to surgery and mechanical ventilation.

The scientists found that overall in the 30 days following surgery 51 per cent of patients developed a pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, or required unexpected ventilation.

Nearly 82 per cent of the patients who died had experienced pulmonary complications, the researchers said.

"Worldwide an estimated 28.4 million elective operations were cancelled due to disruption caused by COVID-19," said co-author Dmitri Nepogodiev from the University of Birmingham.

"Our data suggests that it was the right decision to postpone operations at a time when patients were at risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 in hospital," Nepogodiev said.

According to the researchers, there's now an urgent need for investment by governments and health providers in to measures which ensure that as surgery restarts patient safety is prioritised.

They said this includes the provision of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), establishment of pathways for rapid preoperative SARS-CoV-2 testing, and consideration of the role of dedicated 'cold' surgical centres.

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News Network
May 6,2020

Hyderabad, May 6: Away from city lights, two hours before Sunrise, people in India and across the world can witness Annual Meteor Shower called Eta Aquarids till May 28.

Observed since time immemorial, Meteor shower are commonly known as shooting stars which are nothing but dust flakes of comet/asteroid entering earth atmosphere.

This Annual Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower peaked on Wednesday at 02.30 am on Wednesday whereas presence of Full Moon was an obstacle outshining bright streaks of lights of this meteor shower zipping across the South Eastern sky.

As this meteor shower is active till May 28, people can still watch this celestial spectacle in early morning every day, Planetary Society of India (PSI) Director N Sri Raghunandan Kumar interacting with UNI said.

As per International Meteor Organization (IMO), 50 meteors per hour are expected to be seen on day of peak today. And this number would vary as days pass on till May 28 while earth passes through dust cloud of comet debris in its orbit.

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