Bill Gates became a “Secret Santa”

Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder, has surprisingly taken the role of Secret Santa this year and surprises a Reddit user, NY1227, with secret Santa gifts.

Gates donated a cuddly cow and a travel book to the family via Heifer International.

The post is a joy to read. For example: "My santa had not messaged me, but I knew I was super thorough and have a pretty good posting history so I wasn't too worried that my santa would stiff me. Finally, I received a shipped notification to my email on Monday- I was SO SO SO excited but even more excited when I realized A) my gift was being OVERNIGHTED and B) it was 7 pounds- OMG!"

Let us reiterate, it is a joy. "Thank you so much Bill for a fantastic and thoughtful gift. I'd really love to send a thank you card to you, but if not, I hope this post and message suffices. Thank you so much!!!!!! I will think of you every time I read my book, which will find a nice home on my coffee table once I'm done reading it. 10/10, I would receive a gift from Bill Gates again. "

Source:

Spoiler alert: Bill Gates did not get you, because he got me. Redditgifts (http://goo.gl/Jup0z7)

Facebook “Dislike” (sort of) button for its messenger

Facebook has finally launched a sort of “dislike” button for its messenger app for the desktop and mobile versions in the form of a blue “thumbs down” sticker in a set of stickers, which are available for free in Facebook's Sticker Store.

To get the stickers:

1. Go to the chat feature while browsing Facebook on the web or mobile.
2. Click the smiley logo in the bottom right of a chat window.
3. Click the shopping cart to open the "Sticker Store".
4. In the "Sticker Store," download the "Likes" pack of stickers.

Apple Inc has finally announced its heavy-duty Mac Pro

Apple Inc. has announced the sales of its all-new long-awaited, cylindrical Mac Pro, on Wednesday, keeping the promise that the company made in late October at its last product event.

Apple’s Mac Pro is a professional workstation (a heavy-duty, super-high-end computer) and the base model will start at $2,999, giving you a 3.7GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5-1620 v2. It will also be available with 6-core, 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, having up to 64GB of ECC DDR3 RAM, dual AMD FirePro graphics chips with up to 6GB of dedicated memory, up to 1TB of PCIe-based solid state storage, six Thunderbolt 2 ports,and support for 4K displays.

From Apple’s website;

In creating a pro computer for the future, we wanted to provide an enormous amount of expansion — without being limited to the space inside the enclosure. Designed with built-in Thunderbolt 2, USB 3, Gigabit Ethernet, and HDMI 1.4 ports, Mac Pro sets a new standard in flexible, high-performance expansion. It’s our most expandable Mac yet. And it has everything you need to build a workstation completely customized to what you need and how you work.

It will be available to order from Thursday, December 19, through the Apple's online store, Apple's retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

Sources:

Apple - http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/

Facebook knows whatever you type on the website

Facebook knows what you write on your status updates, comments or biographical info whether you publish it or not. Facebook has said that it is within its terms of service to know the status or comment even if the user has deleted that, i.e. “self-censorship”.

"We receive data about you whenever you use or are running Facebook, such as when you look at another person's timeline, send or receive a message, search for a friend or a Page, click on, view or otherwise interact with things .... ," the Data Use Policy says in the section titled "Information we receive and how it is used."

This report came from the study that checked the habits of about four million people in the U.S. and U.K. over 17 days in the summer of 2012. Study shows that nearly 71% of Facebook users cut their own status updates with 51% deleting at least one post and choosing to leave 4.52 unpublished on average over the period. Another 44% censored comments, with an average of 3.2 going unpublished.

Study shows that males remove their comments or posts more often than women and older users remove their contents more often than younger users.

You can turn off Javascript - software that allows the developers to know about the typing of some words etc on the website - to stop giving your information to Facebook.

Source:

Facebook can see what users type even if status is not posted - Los Angeles Times (http://goo.gl/fvNHkg)

New “Donate Now” button on Facebook

While planning to launch different things such as video advertising and “Sympathize” button, Facebook Inc. has also launched “Donate Now” button on Monday giving the users a chance to show more respect to a cause or charitable organization instead of just “like” or “recommend” them.

This new button would appear on charities' pages and besides their posts, and would collect credit card numbers and other billing information. Facebook has started working with 18 non-profit organizations or charities as part of the launch. World Wildlife Fund, the Red Cross and UNICEF are among the first users of the new "Donate Now" button.

From Facebook blog,

Donate also gives nonprofits an easier way to reach out and ask for help, both to support their everyday mission and in the wake of major disasters. And, with a community of over one billion people on Facebook, every local cause can become a global one — and every global cause can become a personal movement.
Facebook has launched the button in the time of holiday season, when many people would like to donate.

Related article on SayPeople.com: Facebook is planning to attract annual $66.35 billion TV advertising market in U.S. (http://goo.gl/hJLxqX)

Further Reading:

Donate to Nonprofits Through Facebook - Facebook (http://goo.gl/sKmknk)

Antibacterial soap is not that effective as said

U.S.  Government has noted after about four decades of study and debates on Monday that chemicals in many antibacterial soaps and cleaning products — used daily in homes, schools and elsewhere — may not work against bacteria and may result in health risks by making humans resistant to antibiotics.

From FDA’s site,

In fact, there currently is no evidence that over-the-counter (OTC) antibacterial soap products are any more effective at preventing illness than washing with plain soap and water, says Colleen Rogers, Ph.D., a lead microbiologist at FDA.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new rules for the manufacturers of such soaps to prove that they work better than other normal soaps and water or they have to reformulate products.

From FDA’s site,

The agency issued a proposed rule on Dec. 16, 2013 that would require manufacturers to provide more substantial data to demonstrate the safety and effectiveness of antibacterial soaps. The proposed rule covers only those consumer antibacterial soaps and body washes that are used with water. It does not apply to hand sanitizers, hand wipes or antibacterial soaps that are used in health care settings such as hospitals.

Experts are of opinion that many of such products would soon disappear from store shelves.

Further Reading:

FDA Taking Closer Look at 'Antibacterial' Soap - FDA (http://goo.gl/so57r9)

Image credit: Erik Herrera/Flickr

Pregnant women are not confused about the spaces around them

Main Point:

Scientists have found that pregnant women can equally judge the space around them as other people such passing through the doorways.

Published in:

Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

Study Further:

In the present study, researchers worked with 11 women during their course of pregnancies and found that the changing body shapes don’t affect the spatial judgments. This good judgment is attributed to a process called as perceptual-motor recalibration that helps people to adjust themselves according to the changing body shapes and sizes.

The possibilities to perform certain actions are shown by the balance between the body and environment, and are known as “affordances”. Affordances usually occur in the person’s life and change, when the body changes relative to the environment.

“Pregnant women accurately perceived the space needed to accommodate their growing bodies,” wrote Franchak, who stated that changes to the body must be considered with respect to a task and an environment, and what is possible to perform or not.

“The experience of weight gain or weight loss likely operates similarly to pregnancy— experience might be necessary to facilitate recalibration to changes in body size and compression, in other words, how much the body can be 'squeezed' to fit through a specific opening,” added Adolph.

“These findings indicate that experience facilitates perceptual–motor recalibration for certain types of actions,” Researchers wrote.

Related Article on SayPeople.com - Minimum time of Pregnancy (http://goo.gl/ESekJW)

Sources:

Life’s not a squeeze for pregnant women - AlphaGalileo (http://goo.gl/6DKWSH)

Gut estimates: Pregnant women adapt to changing possibilities for squeezing through doorways - Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics (http://goo.gl/43Ti06)