Despite the frivolous nature of most social media interactions, Facebook’s latest new feature is intended for use only in serious situations. Unveiled today in Japan, Safety Check notifications are pushed to users when a natural disaster hits and area you have listed as your location, where you’ve checked in on Nearby Friends , or where you recently logged in from. Tech companies like Google and Facebook have worked to connect people after significant disasters in the past, and Facebook says the project is an extension of the Disaster Message Board its Japanese engineers rolled out after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami there. Safety Check is rolling out globally on Android, iOS, feature phones and the desktop — there’s a demo video (embedded after the break) to explain how it all works. A simple I’m safe / I’m not in the area toggle can push an update (and comments, if you enter them) that’s visible only to people on your friends list, intended to quickly give some piece of mind when they notice a USGS report for your zipcode — or worse. If you simply have friends who are in the area of a natural disaster, there’s a notification when they check-in as safe that can take you to a list of their updates. A useful tool, or just a cagey way to try to take some of the creepiness out of its apps’ location tracking features? We’re figuring the latter impression doesn’t hurt from Facebook’s perspective, but in this connected age it’s also a reflection of how people really use the net in trying times. Additionally, it can take some pressure off of overloaded infrastructure with everyone trying to call affected areas after disasters hit, and of course, save you from a post-tragedy chewing out for failure to let people know you’re fine. C’mon, just call your parents / friends / casual acquaintances once in a while, it’s not that hard. Filed under: Internet , Mobile , Facebook Comments Source: Facebook

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Facebook ‘Safety Check’ lets friends know you’re OK after a major disaster

It’s easy to assume, that finding ice on the first rock from the sun, would be like finding a snowflake in a furnace (it can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit after all). But, you’d be wrong. And NASA’s long had radar and photographic proof (just nothing in the visual range) that water ice did exist on the planet. Now, we have the first optical evidence — after pictures snapped by the NASA’s Messenger spacecraft managed to snag enough sunlight inside the 70 mile-wide, permanently-shadowed Prokofiev crater on the north pole of the planet for a photo. The images might not look like much to the untrained eye (though still wonderfully otherworldly), but they provide those that know with enough information to suggest that the ice deposits are relatively recent (and not from when the planet was being formed). No doubt, more revelations will come as the images get scrutinized fruther, and Messenger continues the good work . Filed under: Science Comments Via: Space Source: Geology Journal

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NASA’s Messenger captures first photos of ice on Mercury