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People are sharing hoax post on Facebook about missing boy in Batavia

By Howard B. Owens
facebook hoax post about missing boy

A post in a Batavia-related group about a three-year-old lost in Batavia is a hoax, according to the Sheriff's Office.

The post on Facebook contains a couple of clues that it's a hoax.

The post says "Deputy Ryan Braidley" took the child to the "police station."  

There is no Deputy Ryan Braidley in Genesee County. A police station would imply a Batavia Police Department case, not a Sheriff's Office case.

At the time of this story, the post had been shared by 154 people.

The account of the original poster may also be fake.  The account's page has posts that appear to be spam.

Batavia Chief of Police Shawn Heubusch said users should be careful about sharing unverified information.

"Social media is a great resource for keeping in touch with friends and family, but everyone should be cautious about what they share publicly," Heubusch said. "Especially if they have not verified the information to be true and it has not come from a credible source. Sharing false information on social media can cause unnecessary panic and confusion."

The Batavian: Now using Facebook's commenting tool

By Howard B. Owens

This will be the first post on The Batavian where comments are powered by code from Facebook and tied to Facebook's registration system. To comment, you will need a Facebook account.

Starting with this post, the website will display the Facebook commenting system. Older posts have the old commenting system and will retain the old comments.

Why the change? 

Because Facebook has better moderation tools than are available through our old commenting system. Also, practically the whole universe has a Facebook account now and sites that use Facebook comments get more comments on stories.

Why not? Because it feels a little like giving into the Borg. "You will be assimilated."  

I think it's the right move now but we'll see.

Facebook has other projects in the works to help local publishers like me, mostly through the trade association I helped create, Local Independent Online News Publishers, that makes me a little less wary of Facebook.

So, we'll see. In business, if you're not trying new things, you're dying. So we try new things.

Batavia Boys outdoor track team captures back to back sectional title

By Steve Ognibene

For the second year in a row, the Batavia Blue Devils boys outdoor track team captured the Section V title at the host school, Honeoye Falls Lima, yesterday evening. Batavia finished with 110 points over second place rival U-Prep, which scored 88 points.

Highlights of their success include junior Anthony Ray winning both the discus throw event at 43.81 meters and shot put at 16.54 meters, setting a new school shot put record. Senior Frederick Cunningham took third place in both the triple jump and high jump. Senior Andrew Mruczek took first in the long jump with 6.64 meters.

Boys relay teams placed third in both 4x100 and 4x400 and took second in the 4x8. Senior Campbell Anderson finished fourth in both the 800-meter run and pole vault and senior Sam Bartz took fifth in the pole vault. Julio Vazquez took second in the 110 meter hurdles and fourth in the 400-meter hurdles. Eric Davis took took in both the 400-meter hurdles and 100-meter dash. Andrew Mruczek took second in the 200-meter dash.

Last year sectional winners Batavia girls outdoor track team finished last night in third place overall with 63 points. Iaya Franklin finished second place in the 100- and 400-meter dash and first in the 200-meter dash. Claire Zickl finshed fourth in the 800-meter run. Batavia girls took first in the 4x400-meter relay. Sophomore Lizzie Cohen placed first in the pole vault. Senior Tanner Kolb finished third in the discus. Edmarie Calderon-Torres finished fifth in the pentathlon.

This marks Batavia track and field with their 29th Sectional Championship in program history.

Facebook photography group

By Tom Gilliatt

My facebook photography group if you into photography stuff

 

http://www.facebook.com/groups/139128306209804/

Page briefly appears on Facebook seemingly promoting fighting at Batavia schools

By Howard B. Owens

UPDATED 1:39 p.m.

For a brief time overnight and this morning, a page appeared on Facebook called "Batavia Fights," which promoted itself as a place for students to post videos of their friends and classmates fighting.

One video was posted of two girls reportedly at Batavia Middle School involved in a fight as classmates cheered them on.

Christopher Daily, assistant superintendent of the school district, said the district was aware of the page and video and were investigating possible student involvement.

"Obviously, we don't condone it," Daily told WBTA. "We will work with the authorities as well to make sure that our students' safety is of utmost concern."

The school district contacted Batavia PD this morning and according to Det. Todd Crossett, the PD used a special law enforcement phone number to contact Facebook and alert the social network to the page.

Crossett he didn't have information on whether Facebook removed the page or if the original poster removed it.

There's nothing criminal, Crossett said, about shooting or posting the video and the actual fight itself is a school disciplinary matter and at this point law enforcement isn't involved.

Comments on the video were mostly approving, calling it "cool" and "funny."

At the end of the video an adult appears to enter the shot and break up the fight.

The video appears to have been posted around 5 p.m., Thursday.

By 11:40 p.m., the page was no longer available on Facebook.

A screen shot and the video were saved by WBTA's Geoff Redick before the page disappeared. Redick blurred the video to make it harder to identify individuals in the shots.

Introduction to Facebook at Batavia's Richmond Library

By Daniel Crofts

Want to learn how to get "Facehooked?" Then come on over to the Richmond Memorial Library, at 19 Ross St. in Batavia, for an hour-long session on how to use the popular website, Facebook!

On Tuesday, July 13, Lisa Gricius will show you how to set up an account, how to use and manage it, and games to play (or not). The program will begin at 7 p.m. and is open to all adults in the Batavia area. Registration is not required.

Please call the library at 343-9550 for more information.

Event Date and Time
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Why you should read Facebook's Privacy Policy!

By JoAnne Rock

A funny thing happened to me on my way to Al Jazeera’s website, or rather, upon my return to Facebook. As soon as I returned to my Facebook tab, I received a Facebook pop-up asking me if I wanted to continue viewing facebook in English (UK). I surmised that the only reason that this pop-up came up, is because they were monitoring the websites that I visited and I had just visited a foreign website and viewed the English (UK) version. This kind of made me sit up and take notice.

I have always taken facebook’s privacy policy with a grain of salt....I have no expectation of privacy for anything I post or do on facebook and since I am not doing anything wrong, I didn’t really pay too much attention to their privacy policy. I think that a great majority of people feel the same way.

I decided to read their entire privacy policy - shame on me for not doing so before this.

This is the part that causes me concern and prompted me to send Facebook an email to clarify this privacy issue for me.

Access Device and Browser Information

. When you access Facebook from a computer, mobile phone, or other device, we may collect information from that device about your browser type, location, and IP address, as well as the pages you visit.

This is not a matter of FB knowing what information you make available publicly on their site; so they can use that information to market products and services to you and your FB friends. This is much more sinister. You have no control over what information they collect or who they share/sell it to. Their privacy policy, specifically the clause that I have referenced above, removes any boundaries that might otherwise limit the information they are allowed to collect. Simply logging on to FB grants permission to have everything you do on-line become potentially public information. This is not something you can OPT-OUT of either, it is their marketing strategy.

I bank and make purchases on-line. Given the number of times hackers have invaded FB in the past, I don’t think they have the ability to adequately protect protect the information that they collect. Assuming, that is, that you knew what information was collected in the first place and had a means of verifying that it was still safe and secure.

Facebook has yet to respond to my email. I requested clarification on 2 specific questions:

1. Does facebook collect information about the pages I visit ONLY when I am connected to facebook or even when I am NOT connected to facebook?

 

2. Will logging off of facebook first, keep the websites I view PRIVATE?

Whether or not I remain on FB will depend upon how they answer these questions. In the meantime, I will be sure to log off of Facebook before I log on to a secure website. Hopefully, but by no means certainly, this will be a way to block Facebook from monitoring that which I do not want monitored.

 

Farm Town

By Bea McManis

Bea stands up, shuffles feet, and clears throat.

My name is Bea and I am a Farm Town addict.

I'm not sure if it is because I'm in a rural area that living the farm life vicariously through this simulation or if it is the thrill of selling  produce for vast sums of money, but I'm stuck on it.

Thanks to a good batavian.com blogger (we don't name names, because some addicts don't want to become public)  who helped me harvest last night.  It worked out for both of us.

Just a hint to those of you who do farm and send stuff....I really, really, really need animals.  My farm just doesn't look right without them. hint, hint, hint.

I'm weaning my way out of the farm for the weekend by planting crops that take three days to ripen.  That way I won't need to be there all weekend long.  Think it will work?

Present Tense on Facebook

By Philip Anselmo

From Present Tense bookshop:

Present Tense now has a Facebook page! We will be updating it frequently with store events, book recommendations, and all the interesting, unusual, and amusing news and notes from the world of books! Here's the link: Facebook.

If you already have a Facebook account you can automatically get our updates by clicking the Become a Fan link. You can still view our page even if you are not a Facebook member, just follow the link above.

We hope you find our new Facebook page interesting, useful, and entertaining!

Facebook - Something new is something old.

By Lori Ann Santini

     A toast to friendship and find something old in something new.

     Earlier this week I went out on a limb. I had heard about My Space and Facebook but I didn't know much else. I decided that while the the snow was blowing and the kids were down for a nap I would wander through one of these sites. I chose Facebook just because it was the first one alphabetically.

      I found that registering was easy however I realized that I had already revealed more info then I would ordinarily prefer. No woman wants everyone to know her age and birthdate. I had put it out in cyber world that I was OLD.  This however was easily corrected.  I had dodged a bullet.

     Next came the question of how  and where do I go. How do I communicate with others? Can I really find anyone that I know? Amazingly enough it's easy. I put that I graduated from York Central and SUNY Fredonia.  To my amazement I found friends that I had long given up hope of ever hearing from again. With a few key strokes and an invitation, they were back in my life.

     Catching up after over 2 decades was easier then I thought.  We shared similar stories. There were moves, divorces, kids, and more kids, illnesses and loses. Some stories were suprising while others seemed to fit  just fine.

     The memories started to flood back of moments shared. How in my senior year a tight group of us did everything together. Instead of  individual crazy pictures for the yearbook, we chose to take ours together. We were in silly outfits because of spirit week. We hung upside down on the jungle gym. I remember almost passing out from having to hang there for minutes at a time. It is immortalized in the yearbook.

     As we share the stories of our lives, it is almost as if we have never been apart. Some people went on to do exactly what they had said they would. Others had wandered down different paths. Economics and hardship had also played a roll.

     I listened to one friend that said he left his chosen career on the day that an accident had almost killed him. He was one of the lucky ones that survived a roof collapse in a print shop. It killed three of his co-workers. He never went back.

     People asked how I had switched from Political Science to becoming a Paramedic. I told them my story. How on a dark night  just before Halloween, I was in a car accident. That moment was life altering for me. If it were not for the First Aid training a friend of mine had just finished I wouldn't  be here. He saved my life. When I asked him one day how I could ever repay him, he said "Lori Ann - Just take a First Aid class. Some day someone will need it."   I hope that I could make him proud.

     I have lost classmates too. In fact, we lost one the day I joined facebook. We as a "family" found out together. We were there to comfort each other, to send condolences to those Chris had loved.

     These past friends of mine were near and far. Some  were as close as the next town over. We wondered how our paths had never crossed. Then I found  that one of my dearest  friends from college was in Bahgdad. I didn't realize that he had returned to the military. September 11 had had a powerful impact on him. He felt compelled to re-inlist in to the Army. Now here we were, talking by IM (instant messaging) as if we sat across the table from each other. We laughed at things we had done in college. We remembered things that we probably shouldn't have done too. It was decided that some things should just stay in the closet. As they say, "No harm - no Foul."

     Facebook had done something that I could not. It had opened doors that long ago had been closed. So as I said in the first sentence. Something old came out of something new. Old friends are now in my life again. We are writing, talking, having fun and laughing.

     See - trying something new isn't so bad.  Hey, If you are bored try looking up an old friend. You might be pleasantly surprised.  I was.

 

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