Author: Josh Wolford

ICYMI, Saturday Night Live aired a nice little sketch over the weekend called “Djesus Uncrossed,” which featured host Christoph Waltz taking on the role of revengeful Jesus Christ and going on a killing rampage to right the many wrongs done to him. That means plenty of dead romans, a really dead Judas, and more.

Christoph Waltz, Jesus, Tarantino-like violence. What’s not to love? As they say in the skit, it’s being hailed as a less-violent version of Passion of the Christ.

Check it out if you missed it:

Well, apparently someone at reddit is a time traveller – a couple of people, actually. Either that or SNL writers like to read reddit. It’s up to you to decide what’s really going on here.

Users in a week-old comment thread discussing an article about Quentin Tarantino’s plans to make a third film in the “revenge” trilogy (Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) laid out the premise of the SNL skit days before it ever aired.

The top comment states “Maybe he’ll do a Jesus movie. Actually a Jesus revenge movie makes the most sense. Mel gibson would have a role too.”

Three responses down, a user suggests the title “Djesus Uncrossed.”

Adding to the coincidence, another user suggested that “Christopher Waltz would have to be Jesus then.”

After the SNL episode aired, other redditors came back to discuss the fulfillment of the prophecy. Some suggested that SNL stole the idea from reddit.

Are these redditors prophets? Time-travellers? Do the SNL writers read reddit? Is this all just a coincidence?

Today, I’d say that we’re at least fairly certain that the Earth (and all the other planets) revolve around the sun, and not the other way around. I don’t want to rule out some crazies out there, I mean, the world does have 7 billion people in it. But let’s just go with it. We know that the heliocentric model for our solar system is the correct one, and we have Nicolaus Copernicus to thank for that.

Not just Copernicus, of course. Heliocentrism wasn’t his idea – it was proposed as early as the 3rd century BC. But Copernicus is credited with forming the comprehensive mathematical heliocentric model and his book De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) is considered one of the most important works in the history of science.

After the publication of Celestial Spheres, the so-called Copernican Revolution began, ushering the world into the Scientific Revolution.

Copernicus, are true Renaissance Man, served as a mathematician, astronomer, Catholic cleric, artist, physician, economist, and is said to have spoken at least four langages.

Copernicus was born on February 19th, 1473 and died in 1543 at the age of 70. Today’s animated Google Doodle (currently being displayed in Australia and the like) celebrates his 540th birthday.

Facebook has just announced that last month they were targeted by a “sophisticated attack” that saw some of its employees let malware onto their systems after visiting a compromised site.

Not to fear, though. Facebook says that they have found no evidence that any of your information was ever compromised.

“Last month, Facebook Security discovered that our systems had been targeted in a sophisticated attack. This attack occurred when a handful of employees visited a mobile developer website that was compromised. The compromised website hosted an exploit which then allowed malware to be installed on these employee laptops. The laptops were fully-patched and running up-to-date anti-virus software. As soon as we discovered the presence of the malware, we remediated all infected machines, informed law enforcement, and began a significant investigation that continues to this day,” says Facebook on its Security page.

Facebook identified the problem as a zero-day Java exploit.

“After analyzing the compromised website where the attack originated, we found it was using a “zero-day” (previously unseen) exploit to bypass the Java sandbox (built-in protections) to install the malware. We immediately reported the exploit to Oracle, and they confirmed our findings and provided a patch on February 1, 2013, that addresses this vulnerability.”

Apparently, the hack is still being investigated but they reiterate (multiple times) that no user data was accessed .

“Facebook, like every significant internet service, is frequently targeted by those who want to disrupt or access our data and infrastructure,” says the company.

Today, in celebration of asteroid 2012 DA14′s near miss of Earth, Google planned to run a new Doodle on its homepage. In fact, they did run it for a short time. But if you visit the Google homepage right now you won’t see any asteroid-related Doodle.

That’s because Google removed it.

And yes, it’s for the reason you suspect. Google took down the animated Doodle out of respect for those injured in Russia by that huge meteor shower. Reports indicate that over 500 people were injured as a result of the shower – most from broken glass and other parts of structures ripped apart by the meteorites. Google confirmed this to ABC News:

Out of respect for those injured in the extraordinary meteor shower in Russia earlier today, we have removed today’s doodle from the Google homepage. The doodle was created to mark Asteroid 2012 DA14 passing Earth.

So, here’s the Doodle you weren’t supposed to see. It will live on forever here.

[via SearchEngineLand]

I’m not sure if you know this, but actor Vin Diesel has a huge Facebook presence – over 39 million likes. It’s probably due to the fact that he posts well and often – a good combination of promotional stuff and personal stuff. For instance, last week he posted a picture of himself, holding his sister’s new baby. Cute.

Anyway, yesterday he posted a video for Valentines’s Day. It’s Diesel covering the Rihanna hit “Stay.”

And it’s everything you dreamed of and more.

[Chett DeLong via reddit]

Facebook is throwing its weight behind a proposed California law that would provide tax equity for the state’s LGBT couples.

AB 362, proposed by Democratic Assemblymember Philip Ting (San Francisco), would provide tax relief for employees who receive reimbursement from their employer for federal taxes they paid on healthcare benefits provided to their same-sex partner and dependents.

The law would apply to those who work for public entities or participating private companies who currently choose to reimburse for federal taxes paid on benefits received for their partners – those like Google and Facebook.

And it’s Facebook that’s the first to public suppor the measure.

“Facebook today announced its support of legislation introduced by California State Assemblymember Phil Ting that would provide tax relief for employees who receive reimbursement from their employer for federal taxes they paid on healthcare benefits provided to their same-sex partner and dependents. Facebook Director of Compensation & Benefits Tudor Havriliuc joined Assemblymember Ting and San Francisco Supervisor Mark Farrell at a press conference to unveil the legislation. Parity in healthcare coverage is among a host of equitable benefits Facebook provides all of its employees,” said Facebook in a post on its LGBT@Facebook page.

“At the heart of this issue is a question of fairness for same-sex couples,” said Ting. “The federal policy to tax their benefits is discriminatory, and the last thing the state of California should do is make it harder to remedy the injustice by taxing the reimbursement of these costs,” he added.

Facebook, as you probably know, is one of the most pro-LGBT companies in tech. Google could also claim that title, as well.

Twitter’s Vine app asked users to send them some creative Valentine’s Day-themed Vine videos, and said that the best ones would get a retweet:

Roses are red. Violets are blue. Tweet us your favorite #valenvine posts. We’ll RT a few.

— Vine (@vineapp) February 14, 2013

Here are the four that they felt were worthy of that honor. Considering Vine’s little run in with the NSFW territory, we’re not surprised that they’re a little tame.

Rome and Juliet. We tried #valenvine #cnnvalentine #loop #vinekids #cute vine.co/v/brMuWZgrxbK

— Amy Johnson (@makermama) February 14, 2013

@vineapp I drew a real heart vine.co/v/brAeHaWb9Hx #valenvine

— Ben Rowell (@scienceben) February 14, 2013

@vineappHappy Valentines day! I vined chocolate for daughter. Please check it,thank you.vine.co/v/brzIBFj1HqU#valenvine

— *maho/まほりーぬ (@maholine) February 14, 2013

Happy valentines #valenvine vine.co/v/brMraJq2aW3

— London Lazerson (@londonlaz) February 14, 2013

And here are few more that we spotted:

I made my wife a wee film for #valentines. Aye it’s cheesy, but it’s a practical SFX masterpiece. vine.co/v/brJgtOPMLDr

— David Galletly (@davidgalletly) February 15, 2013

Amazing! RT @ryanhopkinson: Happy anti-valentine’s day #DazedVine vine.co/v/brKa2TxwhVz

— Dazed and Confused (@DazedMagazine) February 14, 2013

#CNNValentine vine.co/v/bvOPjP2WpWh

— Stewart Scott-Curran (@stewartsc) February 11, 2013

I know, I know. We’re all sick of the Harlem Shake. Like any semi-enjoyable thing, the Internet has run it into the ground. There’s no need to mourn it. What was created by the internet must eventually be destroyed by the internet. I think that’s some sort of cosmic law.

But before we say goodbye, for good, I must inform you that both The Colbert Report and The Daily Show did their own versions of the craze.

First, Colbert:

And then Jon Stewart gives a valiant, if completely unsuccessful attempt at it:

We know the Facebook is the most popular social network in the U.S., and even in the world in terms of total active users. In fact, it dominates. But just how big of a lead does Facebook have on other social sites when it comes to where you spend your time?

Well, it’s not even close.

According to a white paper from ComScore, Facebook accounts for 5 of every 6 minutes spent on a social networking site (83%). The next highest was Tumblr with 5.7%. Pinterest and Twitter command a very small amount, 1.9% and 1.7% respectively.

According to the report, Facebook leads in share of total time spent on the web with 10.8% – just over all Google sites with 10%. Google sites command the largest audience, however, with 191.4 million people in the U.S.

Long story short: it’s Facebook’s world, and all other social networks are just living in it.

[ComScore via CNET]

This is simply stunning. And it proves that there really is no bad way to cover Leonard Cohen’s beautiful masterpiece. Well, unless you’re Bono.

According to the IMDb MOVIEmeter, the Netflix original series House of Cards is currently the most popular TV show in the world right now.

IMDb’s MOVIEmeter is based on algorithms that determine levels of public awareness and interest. It takes into account IMDb pageviews and well as star ratings.

“IMDb Pro uses proprietary algorithms that take into account several measures of popularity for people and titles. The primary measure is who and what people are looking at on the public IMDb.com website. Other factors include Box office receipts and user quality votes on a scale of 1-10,” says IMDb.

According to IMDb, this doesn’t mean that House of Cards is the best TV show out there. It’s not a rank of that. What it does show is a ton of buzz and interest for the new political drama.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings seems delighted by the news:

Reed Hastings10 hours ago

Wow. House of Cards now the #1 most popular TV show in the world, according to IMDb. And I still can’t get Ted Sarandos to tell me how many millions are enjoying it on Netflix.

IMDb: Most Popular TV Series With At Least 5,000 Votes
IMDb’s advanced search allows you to run extremely powerful queries over all people and titles in the database. Find exactly what you’re looking for!

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Earlier this week, we learned from Netflix Content Chief Ted Sarandos that House of Cards is currently the most-watched program on Netflix – both in terms of total hours streamed and total viewers.

“We’re not doing ratings, [but] we’re thrilled with the numbers,” said Sarandos. “It’s the most watched thing on Netflix in every country we operate in.”

More good news for Netflix, who spent a pretty penny of this series (and who has plenty of other original series in the works).

Facebook has won a court challenge in Germany that will see its real names policy upheld in the country.

Back in December, Germany’s data protection office Unabhaengiges Landeszentrum fuer Datenschutz (ULD) issued a ruling against Facebook’s real names policy, claiming that it infringed upon citizen’s rights to free speech and anonymity online. Facebook said that they would fight the ruling, which they have done – successfully.

On Thursday, an administrative court in Germany approved Facebook’s request to suspend the ruling that said Facebook’s real names policy violated German and EU law. The reason they gave was that Facebook was only beholden to Irish data protection laws, since their European offices are located there. Irish date law is much less severe than that of Germany.

Facebook’s real names policy state that:

Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way. Here are some commitments you make to us relating to registering and maintaining the security of your account: You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission, [and] you will not create more than one personal account.

It goes on to say that any account can be removed due to “use of a fake name” or “impersonation of a person or entity, or other misrepresentation of identity.”

Facebook has always claimed that its real names policy protects users and makes the network a much safer, better-functioning place. Germany isn’t the only place where we’ve seen the effects of this policy, but it is one of the few places who have fought against it, fervently, in court.

”We are pleased with the decision of the Administrative Court of Appeals of Schleswig-Holstein. We believe this is a step into the right direction. We hope that our critics will understand that it is the role of individual services to determine their own policies about anonymity within the governing law – for Facebook Ireland, European data protection and Irish law. We therefore feel affirmed that the orders are without merit,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

The ULD isn’t giving up, however. In a statement, the group said that they have plans to appeal the decision to a higher court.

[AP via TechCrunch]

We’ve already covered how Facebook’s new Graph Search feature may cause some privacy concerns for some users. It’s not that Graph Search allows people to see any more of your information than is already available, but it does make it much easier to find.

The fact that users can search parameters involving “people who like ______” and “photos of people who like ______” makes some users uneasy. But the bottom line is that Graph Search only allows people to unearth information that’s already public. Sure, it may be tedious to go back and tighten the security level of all of your photos, posts, likes, etc. – but the point is that it can be done. Sure, Graph Search could lead to some interesting situations, but Facebook gives you a way to take yourself off the grid – if you so choose.

Anyway, privacy concerns are always magnified when it comes to kids, and Facebook contains a whole lot of kids between the ages fo 13-17 (and plenty under the age of 13 as well).

So Facebook has issued a statement on minors and Graph Search, seemingly in response (or preparation) to these privacy concerns. The main point is that Facebook doesn’t treat minors any differently in Graph Search than it does in any other facet of the site:

As with all of our products, we designed Graph Search to take into account the unique needs of teens on Facebook. On Facebook, many things teens are likely to do – such as adding information to their timelines or sharing status updates – can only be shared with a maximum of Friends of Friends. In addition, for certain searches that could help to identify a young person by age or by their location, results will only show to that person’s Friends, or Friends of Friends who are also between the age of 13-17.

Facebook’s Minors & Privacy help page indeed confirms that Facebook only allows those aged 13-17 to share photos and statuses with friends of friends, and only friends of friends can tag them in posts. For minors, location services are also turned off by default.

You may disagree with Facebook’s policies toward minors and think that even sharing with “friends of friends” is too much, but that’s the overall Facebook policy when it comes to minors – and always has been. It’s not an invention of Graph Search.

Of course, all the has to happen to get around all of these restrictions is for a kid to lie about his/her age. That happens all over the internet. And short of implementing impossibly resource-intensive and expensive mechanisms, there’s not much Facebook can do about that.

Did you know that every year, about one asteroid between 16 and 33 feet wide hits the Earth? And when you look at asteroids that are less that 16 feet wide, the total that hit the Earth jumps to around 500?

Crap, that means that you have a pretty solid chance of your house being destroyed by an asteroid, right?

Wrong. The odds of that happening are actually pretty terrible – like one in a few trillion depending on how big your house is. Movoto has created a neat little interactive infographic that lets you calculate that probability.

Mine was about 1 in 1.8 trillion. I feel pretty safe.

On Friday, February 15th, an asteroid named 2012 DA14 will pass by the Earth. When we say “pass by,” we mean that it will come within 17,200 miles of the Earth’s surface. So it’s not going to hit you – you can sleep tight.

[Movoto via Geekosystem]

After unveiling Promoted Posts for businesses that allowed them to highlight and give more visibility to individual posts (for a fee, of course), Facebook eventually let individual users do the same for their statuses, photos, events, and more.

Now, they’ve taken it a step further. Starting now, Facebook is rolling out the ability to let you pay to promote your friends’ statuses, photos, events, etc.

So if your friend has an amazing photo that you think more people should see, you can now help them out, for a price.

The only people for which the post will be given prominent billing are the poster’s friends. You’re basically just bearing the weight for their promoted post. If the original poster and the promoter have mutual friends, they will see the whole thing.

“You can only promote posts to the people that your friend originally shared with. If you have mutual friends, they’ll see that you shared it and promoted it,” says Facebook.

It should be gradually rolling out globally, and it will only be able to be used by those with 5,000 or less friends/subscribers. Shortly after rolling out Promoted Posts for users, Facebook did away with the 5,000-friend limit and let anyone and everyone promote posts. If this sort of cross-Promoted Posts takes off, there’s no reason to think Facebook won’t consider upping the limit here too.

[via The Verge]

If you’re a film lover and want to spend the weekend holed up watching the best of Jean-Luc Godard, Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut, Kurosawa, Chaplin, and more – Criterion and Hulu have an offer for you.

Starting today and continuing through the weekend, all Criterion films on Hulu will be free to all – even those who are not subscribed to Hulu Plus.

Normally, Criterion films are only able to be streamed by Hulu Plus members. In that case, they’re ad-free. In this free-stream weekend, you’ll have to put up with a few ads throughout the film. But it’s a fairly small price to pay to have access to nearly a thousand classic films.

Follow @Criterion

Criterion Collection
@Criterion

We made all our movies free on @Hulu through the weekend. Enjoy. <3 http://t.co/2YPiTv11

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The Criterion Collection first appeared on Hulu back in February 2011. As of today, there are over 800 different films to stream from Criterion on Hulu, making it one of the most-impressive collection of classic and often hard-to-find films around.

You can start browsing Criterion films on Hulu here.

Starting today, you can purchase reddit gol in two new ways: Bitcoin and Credit Card.

Previously, reddit users who wanted to upgrade could only used PayPal or Google Wallet.

“We’re using Coinbase as our bitcoin payment processor and Stripe for credit cards. Right now we’re only accepting credit card payments from the US and Canada, but bitcoin payments can be made from anywhere in the world. Buy your loved ones reddit gold for Valentine’s Day–it’s a gift sure to warm their hearts,” says Brian Simpson on the reddit blog.

Why buy reddit gold? Well, apart from special features like the ability to customize r/all, comment highlighting, saved comments, and the choice to turn off ads, buying reddit gold can help support the site.

And there’s always that ultra-secret super swanky lounge people keep talking about, but I’ve never seen it. It’s kind of like the reddit version of the pool on the roof of your high school.

Or, if you’re cheap, you could always wait for that perfect moment to deliver a wonderful comment somewhere on the site and hope some generous soul buys it for you.

Reddit gold is $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year.

After a little bit of a wait, the official video for the new Justin Timberlake single “Suit & Tie ft. JAY Z” is here. It’s black & white, stylish, and directed by The Social Network‘s David Fincher.

It’s not strange that Fincher would direct a Justin Timberlake music video – the two worked together on The Social Network, where Timberlake played Napster founder and Facebook investor Sean Parker. Fincher also has a background in music videos.

“Before Fincher directed his trademark edgy films like Seven, Fight Club, and Panic Room, he cut his teeth making iconic music videos, including Madonna’s “Express Yourself” and The Rolling Stones’ “Love Is Strong”, amongst others,” says Timberlake on his site.

(There was a lyric video that dropped before this, but this is the real deal)

Check it out:

Did you see the couple of iPad cameos? Clever. Another Fincher project with a fair amount of Apple product placement is the new Netflix original series House of Cards. Fincher directs House of Cards and a Justin Timberlake video – both haevily featuring Apple devices. To complete the circle, I call a Timberlake cameo in next season of House of Cards. What do you say?

After the Centers for Disease Control in the U.S. acknowledged and then issued a quick response guide for the possible zombie apocalypse, Canadian MPs knew that they had to get in line. As they say, zombies know no borders.

It’s assuring to hear Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird authoritatively declare that “Canada will never become a safe haven for zombies, ever.”

Watch the awesome House of Commons moment below: