Back to Facebook's roots with 'Groups for Schools'

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Way back before it had 845 million monthly active users, Facebook was a viral addiction for college and university students and now, with Groups for Schools, the massive social network goes back to its roots to allow students and faculty to interact within the site to discuss classes, make plans and share photos.

Sure, you can do all that now, but Groups for Schools drops a cone of some privacy around those activities, so that only confirmed members of a school can participate in these newly created communities.

Within a college or university, students and faculty can create sub-groups, such as those focused on certain sports, clubs, classes or other organizations, so long as it falls under the umbrella of the school.?

An added bonus is being able to share files -- up to 25 MB each -- so users can share lecture notes, assignments, schedules, etc. And thanks to the Help Center for this tidbit: "If you upload a revised version of a file, the previous version of the file will still be available." But students who think this will be the new hotspot for movies and music had best think again.

As TechCrunch, which broke the story of the Groups for Schools testing at Brown and Vanderbilt in December, pointed out: "To avoid legal issues, Facebook monitors for and disallows copyrighted files, so this won?t become your new source for MP3s and pirated movies, and leaves a somewhat sketchy gap for Dropbox to fill."

You have to have an active email account at the school to join in the fun -- including creating events and adding other members. (If you go to more than one school -- which is quite a feat in multi-tasking, to say the least -- then you can join more than one Group, but you have to verify active email addresses for those additional schools. As the Help Center clarifies: "Leaving your school community will remove you from all of the groups within your school. If you rejoin your school community, you'll need to rejoin each of your old groups individually.")

If your school has created a Group, a message will appear on the left side of your home page. Or, go to the main Groups for School page?and search for your school. ?

I found both my alma maters, Oberlin College and Stanford University, using Groups for Schools.

As with any Facebook addition, privacy is going to be a concern. On the one hand, Groups for Schools users can message any confirmed member of their school community without being friends first -- and add each other to groups even if they aren't friends. "Anyone can see the school community, its open and closed groups, as well as who's in them," the Help Center notes.

But, Facebook does allow Groups to choose between three privacy options:?

?Open: Anyone can see an open group, and who's in it. Members of the school community can also see or post updates, photos, files and events shared within the group.

?Closed: Anyone can see a closed group, and who's in it. Only members of a closed group can see or post updates, photos, events and files.

?Secret: Only members of a secret group can see the group, who?s in it and what members post and share.

And for now, if you've already created a group for your school, you'll have to start from scratch, as Facebook cannot convert those existing groups into Groups for Schools.

Check out Technolog on?Facebook, and on Twitter, follow?Athima Chansanchai, who is also trying to keep her head above water in the?Google+?stream.

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Nintendo puts 3DS in the Louvre, France remains generally indifferent

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Sharing a birthplace with Arséne Wenger, Jean-Paul Satre and Jules Verne, the Louvre is France's most prized national treasure. In partnership with Nintendo, the museum finally replaced those cumbersome handheld guides with 3DS units a fortnight after the anticipated March launch. The consoles will provide a variety of tours, offering detailed lectures around the entire museum, or the Cliff's Notes edition for the lazy connoisseur. Shigeru Miyamoto popped up to demonstrate that you can examine HD snaps and 3D images of the sculptures on show, just in case looking up and seeing it in the flesh stone would be too traumatic.

Continue reading Nintendo puts 3DS in the Louvre, France remains generally indifferent

Nintendo puts 3DS in the Louvre, France remains generally indifferent originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Apr 2012 13:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dem strategist Rosen: Ann Romney ?never actually worked a day in her life? [VIDEO]

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StamfordPlus.com News - Spring safety message from UIL

NEW HAVEN, CT - Each spring, new construction enterprises, home improvement projects and landscaping activities begin to pick up steam. UIL Holdings Corporation (NYSE:UIL), parent company of The United Illuminating Company, The Southern Connecticut Gas Company, Connecticut Natural Gas Corporation and The Berkshire Gas Company, advises you to include a Call Before You Dig (CBYD) to 8-1-1, an important part of any planting or excavation activities.

?The safe delivery of electric and natural gas supplies to all our customers is an essential component of our business,? said Anthony J. Vallillo, UIL?s Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. ?Dialing 8-1-1 to notify the Call Before You Dig program a few days before any digging activity starts helps keep our customers and our communities safe and prevents service disruptions.?

CBYD coordinates and marks the location of underground utility facilities in advance of excavation to prevent inadvertent damage and potential injury. Underground lines can include natural gas pipelines, buried electric cables, telecommunications lines, water and sewer pipes and other utility facilities. Nationwide, once every three minutes digging causes damage to utility infrastructure according to the American Gas Association. One-third of these incidents would be prevented with a call to CBYD/811 before beginning a digging project.

?All of UIL?s operating companies work closely with the CBYD program to communicate this safety message to our customers, contractors, professional excavators, and the general public,? Mr. Vallillo added. ?There is no cost to call and it could save a life.?

Damage to underground gas lines can cause injury, repair costs, fines, and service outages. Every digging project ? even small projects like installing a mailbox, building a deck or planting a tree or garden ? warrants a call to 811. Also, excavating near gas lines requires the use of hand digging tools.

April is National Safe Digging Month. Celebrate it by calling 811 before any digging project starts. For more information, visit www.cbyd.com or www.call811.com

About UIL Holdings Corporation

Headquartered in New Haven, Connecticut, UIL Holdings Corporation (NYSE:UIL) is a diversified energy delivery company serving more than 700,000 electric and natural gas utility customers in 66 communities across two states, with combined total assets of over $4 billion.

UIL is the parent company of The United Illuminating Company (UI), The Southern Connecticut Gas Company (SCG), Connecticut Natural Gas Corporation (CNG), and The Berkshire Gas Company (BGC), each more than 100 years old. UI provides for the transmission and delivery of electricity and other energy related services for Connecticut's Greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas. SCG and CNG are natural gas distribution companies that serve customers in Connecticut, while Berkshire Gas serves natural gas customers in western Massachusetts. UIL employs more than 1,850 people in the New England region.

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UN Council facing Syria 'moment of truth'

Growing demands for tough UN Security Council action on Syria are putting increasing pressure on Russia's diplomatic shield around President Bashar al-Assad.

After Assad brushed aside a Tuesday deadline to withdraw troops and guns from cities, the prospects for international pressure will depend on what UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan requests, and how far Syria has strained the patience of Russia, its main ally, diplomats say.

Annan is now insisting the Syrian leader make a "fundamental change" and keep a Thursday zero hour for a complete halt to hostilities. But the United States, France, Britain and Turkey say Assad has already failed and are demanding sanctions-style action.

Susan Rice, US ambassador to the UN, warned that the UN Security Council faces a looming "moment of truth" on Syria.

The "logical next step" would be to increase pressure through "collective action," she said.

France's Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said he wants "new measures" by the council after Thursday. Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Security Council should refer Assad to the International Criminal Court. Turkey, struggling with a wave of Syrian refugees, has also demanded action.

Russia and China vetoed two resolutions on Syria because they hinted at sanctions. They have however signed up to less weighty statements which backed Annan's six-point peace plan and his deadlines to Assad.

Annan has been praised for the way he has built up international unity behind his efforts. One step off the diplomatic tightrope could unleash new Security Council hostilities on Syria, diplomats said.

Rice said Russia and China have a special "responsibility to use the influence they have to end the killing of the Assad regime" -- more than 9,000 dead according to the UN.

For the moment, Annan is "off-limits" to Russian attacks, said one senior UN envoy. "But if he recommends sanctions, the Russians and Chinese could easily turn on him."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov complained publicly on Tuesday to Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem that the regime should be more "decisive" in carrying out the Annan plan.

But he also said Annan should put more pressure on the Syrian opposition.

"At best there is uncertainty now about the Russian attitude," said another UN diplomat.

Some analysts say Annan's plan gave leeway to Assad because he had to weaken it to get Russian agreement.

"It was clear that the regime would use what wriggle room existed, and the Annan mission built consensus around a conceptual roadmap that provided plenty of it," said Peter Harling, the International Crisis Group think tank's Middle East specialist.

Annan's plan was "a non-starter" because it contained no talk of Syria's president stepping aside, said Murhaf Jouejati, a professor at the US National Defense University and a member of the opposition Syrian National Council.

Others say however that Annan has skillfully managed his showdown with Assad by keeping the support of Russia and China.

"In a very methodical and moderate way he has revealed the extent of the Assad regime's duplicity," said Richard Gowan, of the New York University (NYU) Center on International Cooperation, who closely follows Security Council affairs.

"The hope was that because Annan put forward a fairly moderate plan that Russia would really put pressure on Syria to accept it," he said.

"Either Russia does not have the influence or it did not put full pressure on to get Assad to

comply. Either way it looks pretty bad for Moscow."

Jouejati predicted that neither Russia nor China would now veto any resolution on economic sanctions against Assad, though nothing military.

But Gowan said it was over-optimistic to think that they would be "shamed" into allowing sanctions.

"Russia's efforts to persuade Syria have been genuine but when it comes to the Security Council, they will continue to block any serious action by the council," he said.

US envoy Rice said however that deadlock risks pushing Syria "into full-scale civil war -- with all of the consequences that that entails for the people of Syria, for neighboring countries, and the wider international community."

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Forced recruitment on S. Sudan's border with Sudan

Staring into the distance of South Sudan's volatile and sun-blasted borderlands with foe Sudan, Nyrop Nyol recounts the day soldiers came to her home and took her son away at gunpoint.

Four years after fleeing the flashpoint Abyei region-- a contested area claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan -- Nyol's eldest son was conscripted, most likely to fight in the border areas from which he had run.

"A lot of people were conscripted. As he could see other people in the village were being conscripted, he handed himself over to them," the mother of eight said of 17-year-old Daper, from whom she has not heard for a month.

"If a child refused to be conscripted, they were forced," she said, adding that soldiers had sticks to beat reluctant recruits and pointed guns to force people off public transport.

Abyei was due to hold a referendum in January 2011 to determine whether it would be controlled by Khartoum or Juba but the vote was stalled. In May, Sudanese troops seized the area, forcing more than 100,000 people to flee southwards.

"The last conscription started early in the morning when people were still sleeping," Nyol said.

"In the first conscription they were not looking for children, but the last conscription they were taking everybody," she added, glancing worriedly at her 13-year-old son who evaded capture along with his father.

Since then, the press gangs have been back twice looking for new recruits.

Nyol had hoped that Daper would finish his studies and become a doctor or teacher to better the meagre existence the family has endured since fleeing violence in Abyei in 2008.

It is not clear exactly who took Daper -- who has no military experience -- and Nyol just wants him back home.

But local administrator Kat Kuol said the Dinka Ngok people of Abyei who fled to South Sudan are being called up to fight for the homeland's "independence".

Headteacher Simon Manyuol says that soldiers came to Agok market, shut shops, chased men down the rutted mud streets and beat those trying to avoid being hauled into trucks.

"They come and push people and saying 'get up, get up!' and if you don't want to go they beat you and take you to the trucks," he said, a scar above his left eye marking his attempt to resist.

While he said some of the recruiters were not in uniform, others were from the ex-rebel turned official South Sudanese army.

"They say they are taking you for training and that you will go to fight in the Abyei border area," he added.

Those claims were rejected by the South Sudan's military spokesperson Philip Aguer, who said he was not aware of any large-scale conscription in the area, which is tense following recent bloody fighting.

Clashes broke out last month between Sudan and South Sudan along their undemarcated and disputed frontier, with each side blaming the other.

The fighting, which included ground troops as well as airstrikes, was the most serious since the South gained independence from Khartoum last July, after Africa's longest war.

As mediation efforts stumbled, Juba said Sudan had resumed border air strikes on Tuesday.

Months of African Union-led talks between the nations have failed to find agreement on border areas and vast oil revenues, with Juba demanding that any deal must include the handing over of Abyei to South Sudan.

Manyuol said he spent two days in a field along with around 3,000 other men before education officials came and got some teachers released, but as he left, more trucks were arriving.

"It was a mix of people who were happy and unhappy" depending on whether they had been unemployed or were taken from their jobs, he added.

Almost all of the 40 people taken who were working for international aid agencies have now been accounted for, but Manyuol said three of his friends are missing, including a headteacher, and some pupils.

"They did not differentiate the age and they were even taking children who were 9 or 10" before releasing those under 15, he said.

While Nyol says "the really young children" were returned to the village, others went in the hope of getting a better education.

"When we asked where they were taking them, they said they were taking the young ones to school," said Alueth Chol, whose brother and brother-in-law were conscripted while playing games at a local club.

Builder Nyaluer Nyok said the lack of men is affecting farming and construction work that the villages survive on, and worries how his family would cope if he was conscripted.

"When the soldiers came, I went from village to village hiding," he said. I fear that no one will take responsibility for my family and things here."

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Qatar: RasGas Celebrates Safety Milestone>> LNG World News

Qatar: RasGas Celebrates Safety Milestone

The Shorebase Operations Support team of the Well Management Department of RasGas recently celebrated 15 years without a Lost Time Incident and 11 years without a Recordable Incident.

Congratulating the Shorebase team for its outstanding safety record, Hamad Rashid Al Mohannadi, RasGas Managing Director said that the achievement reflects RasGas? philosophy and commitment to ensuring that the highest safety standards are met in all aspects of its business.

Addressing a special ceremony held at Al Waha Club, Al Khor to mark the occasion, he said RasGas deploys the best safety practices in the world and enforce safe working behaviour.

?Our relentless commitment to safety has always played a vital role in RasGas? success in the LNG industry as it has been a core element of our operations and processes. This has contributed greatly in accomplishing our strategic choices that include enhancing reliability and gas deliverability from reservoir to delivery point with a focus on operational excellence,? said Al Mohannadi.

RasGas Subsurface Group Manager, Dave Frye, added ?Many in our industry would say that this philosophy is an admirable goal, but it just can?t be done. But today we celebrate a team that believes in a workplace with no injuries. This is a team that has proven time and again that if it can be imagined, it can be done. Your success sets a high bar that we can all aspire to.?

He also thanked the main contractors Qatar Navigation, who provides the manpower and equipment support round the clock at Shorebase to handle all cargo operations and Al-Mansoori Inspection Services, which performs all inspection activities of tubulars and equipment prior to being shipped to the offshore locations, for their contributions that enabled RasGas to achieve this great success.

?Though every achievement is a milestone, some have greater significance due to its voluminous character,? said Hamad Mubarak Al Muhannadi, RasGas Operations Group Manager.

?Since the beginning of Shorebase operations 15 years ago, there has not been a single lost time incident, and it has been 11 years since the last recordable incident at Shorebase. During that time, the team has mobilised over 1,000 miles of casing, over 150 wellheads, thousands of barrels of oil field chemicals and countless other items. It is without doubt a remarkable achievement by any standard,? he said.

He said the achievement was the result of a strong teamwork and a commitment to safety by all members of the team, regardless of positions. ?This would not have materialised without the daily efforts of each and every member of the Operations Support team,? said Al Mohannadi, adding that the team has lived up to the Well Management Department philosophy of ?Nobody Gets Hurt?.

LNG World News Staff, April 10, 2012; Image: QP

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ShopAndroid Daily Giveaway #46: Mobi Skin Case for Vibrant, Incipio Feather Case for Galaxy Note & more!

Welcome back for another week of giveaway's from ShopAndroid.com! Today we'll be featuring the Mobi Skin Case for Samsung Vibrant, Incipio Feather Ultralight Case for Galaxy Note, Seidio ACTIVE Case for Samsung Epic 4G, and the Seidio SURFACE Holster for HTC Vivid.

To get your chance to win one of our featured accessories, just leave a comment below stating which item you'd like to have for your Android.  We'll select one lucky winner by random and announce them next Monday. 

Mobi Products Skin Case for Samsung Vibrant

Made of highly durable material that feels great in your hand, the Mobi Skin Case features anti-slip properties that give your Samsung Vibrant more grip on all types of surfaces.  There are cutouts for all the Vibrant's features and the screen is left completely accessible. The Mobi Skin Case helps absorb the shock from any accidental drops and is easy to install and remove.

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