Warren Buffett — known for investing in traditional media — has finally joined the ranks of new media.

The billionaire unveiled his new Twitter handle on Thursday during a speech. Buffett posted his first tweet at 12:20 p.m. ET and had amassed over 75,000 followers by Thursday afternoon.

Warren is in the house.

— Warren Buffett (@WarrenBuffett) May 2, 2013

The business mogul has shied away from investing in technology companies because he says he can't predict the future of those businesses the way he can with insurance or manufacturing companies.

Buffett says even though he may not understand Twitter well, he knows it can't be all bad because one of the company's co-founders is from his home state of Nebraska.

Mark Zuckerberg has clicked "Like" on the Keystone XL Pipeline — and now his timeline is going to be chock-full of angry.

The Facebook founder and CEO recently started a political advocacy group called FWD.us — and the group is running a series of television ads in support of the controversial Keystone XL Pipeline and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

His PAC was created to support immigration reform, but it is also going to support such things as drilling. There are those in Congress who support immigration reform, but who also support drilling, and some say that the PAC funding might be a means to an end.

Feared and loathed by environmentalists, the pipeline would open up Canadian tar sands for oil and gas exploration.

Activists in the San Francisco Bay Area say they are "angered and mystified" over Zuck's turn for the pipe, and a group of about 50 protested Wednesday at Facebook's world headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. The protest was timed just before the company released its first-quarter earnings. . Wednesday is also "May Day," a day where many took up immigrants' rights and a path to citizenship as the key causes of the day.

The protesters questioned why Zuckerberg would "spend millions in support" of the pipeline, "among the dirtiest projects on Earth."

And they created an online petition to stop "running ads supporting fossil fuels" which as of Wednesday afternoon had collected more than 18,000 signatures.

Zuckerberg did not come outside the building when the protect occurred about noon, nor did he issue any statement on his Facebook news website.

Supporters, however, point out that that building the pipeline means thousands of jobs.

FWD.us's ads feature Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) bashing President Barack Obama for not being supportive-enough of the pipe.

Credo Mobile, the socially-active mobile carrier, says that Facebook has refused to run its ads that blast the pipeline and FWD.us's support for it.

Even though experts say Zuckerberg's primary directive in effecting change in social policy is immigration reform, some are not going to agree with using the pipeline ads as "cover" for that change.

"But invariably there is going to be people who don’t understand and the inevitable result is going to be this type of press fire," Dan Schnur, a political science professor at the University of Southern California, told the Los Angeles Times.

Ironically, the Zuckerberg critics have a Facebook page dedicated to their cause.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who sparked an uproar and hurt her image as a working mom when she banned telecommuting two months ago, is now offering employees generous new family leave benefits.

Under the new policy, mothers can take 16 weeks of paid leave with benefits, and fathers can take up to eight weeks, each time they have a new child via childbirth. Both parents receive eight weeks of paid leave for new children via adoption, foster child placement or surrogacy.

This change is a significant increase for Yahoo employees, particularly mothers, who will basically get twice as much paid time off. Under the old policy, moms received up to eight weeks paid after pregnancy.

Yahoo will also give new parents $500 to spend on such things as house cleaning, groceries and babysitters, plus Yahoo-branded baby gifts.

Mayer's decision, which brings the Sunnyvale-based Yahoo closer to Silicon Valley titans Google and Facebook, could help repair the damage as she works to turn around the struggling media giant.

But it doesn't only make sense from a public relations standpoint, observers said. The new policy could fit into a broader corporate strategy to attract and retain more talent and ultimately improve Yahoo's financial performance.

"It's a smart move," said Rachel Sklar, a New York-based writer and founder of The Li.st, an organization dedicated to elevate the status of women in New Media and technology. "It suggests a long-term strategy. This is a great precedent."

Companies who provide "everything" to their employees, such as free lunch and daycare sites at Google, do better financially in the long run because there is nothing to "distract" their workers from working, Sklar said.

"The temptation will be to see this through a gender lens - -that of course she did it because she's a new-mom CEO," Sklar said. "And this certainly would suggest she has a heightened awareness as a working mom, but this will encourage new parents to be engaged with the company and have a financial peace of mind. When companies nickel-and-dime their employees, it just adds to their burden."

From the moment she became Yahoo's new chief executive last year, Mayer, 37, has been seen as a symbol of corporate gender politics. She took the job when she was five months pregnant and worked through a two-week maternity leave that ended in October.

Her decision to return to work so quickly attracted both praise and criticism - praise for showing that a new mother could continue to steer a Fortune 500 company, and criticism for failing to set a realistic expectations for America's working moms.

Mayer drew praise for adding perks such as new iPhones and free food, cutting company bureaucracy and redesigning work spaces. Many of those amenities were standard at her prior employer, Google.

In February, Mayer sparked another debate when she decided to end Yahoo's lenient telecommuting policy. Employees with existing work-from-home arrangements were told they had to start coming into the office or look for another job.

The move reflected Mayer's an all-hands-on-deck approach to turning around Yahoo and make it more competitive. But she was again accused of making it harder on working parents.

But her decision to double family leave for new parents from 8 weeks to 16 weeks puts Yahoo in the same ballpark as her Silicon Valley rivals: Google gives between 18 and 22 weeks off to new mothers, and Facebook told the New York Times that it gives new mothers and fathers four months of paid leave.

A Google spokeswoman said that all the Mountain View-company perks - which include preferred parking for expectant mothers and $500 in "baby bucks" to spend on things such as takeout dinners, like Yahoo is now offering - are so that life can be as smooth as possible for new parents. That's of course, the spokeswoman noted, so that they can come back to work fully rested.

In California, workers are eligible for six weeks of partial pay through the state's disability benefits program.

Mayer's move also comes amid a broader debate in America about the country's commitment to family leave. The United States, which hasn't updated its Family and Medical Leave Act in 20 years, ranks among the worst of all developed countries. Sweden, Denmark and Russian mothers get at least a year off paid and Canadian mothers get 50 weeks off paid.

The U.S. law requires large companies to provide 12 weeks of unpaid leave to employers who need to care for a newborn child or an ill relative. And that relatively stingy benefit covers only workers who have been at a company for at least a year. That leaves millions without access to the benefit. Many more cut their absences short because they can't afford unpaid leave.

NBC Bay Area's Scott McGrew contributed to this story

LivingSocial, the D.C.-based daily deals site, says more than 50 million customer accounts may have been compromised by a cyberattack.

Customers' names, email addresses, dates of birth and encrypted passwords stored on the company's servers may have been accessed, a company spokesman confirmed in an email to NBCWashington.

The first news of the hacking was reported by All Things Digital.

Credit card information was not accessed or affected, according to the company. Nor was merchants' financial or banking information.

LivingSocial suggests all customers change their passwords on their accounts. The company is in the process of emailing the customers who were affected to help them reset their passwords.

They are also working with law enforcement to investigate the breach.

"The security of our customer and merchant information is our priority," said LivingSocial CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy in the email to customers. "We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future."

Here is the email that LivingSocial is sending to affected customers:

Subject: An important update on your LivingSocial.com account

LivingSocial recently experienced a cyber-attack on our computer systems that resulted in unauthorized access to some customer data from our servers. We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue.

The information accessed includes names, email addresses, date of birth for some users, and encrypted passwords -- technically ‘hashed’ and ‘salted’ passwords. We never store passwords in plain text.

The database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed.

Although your LivingSocial password would be difficult to decode, we want to take every precaution to ensure that your account is secure, so we are expiring your old password and requesting that you create a new one.

For your security, please create a new password for your <<email_address>> account by following the instructions below.
1. Visit LivingSocial.com
2. Click on the "Create a New Password" button (top right corner of the homepage)
3. Follow the steps to finish
We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s).

The security of your information is our priority. We always strive to ensure the security of our customer information, and we are redoubling efforts to prevent any issues in the future.

Please note that LivingSocial will never ask you directly for personal or account information in an email. We will always direct you to the LivingSocial website – and require you to login – before making any changes to your account. Please disregard any emails claiming to be from LivingSocial that request such information or direct you to a different website that asks for such information.

If you have additional questions about this process, the "Create a New Password" button on LivingSocial.com will direct you to a page that has instructions on creating a new password and answers to frequently asked questions.

We are sorry this incident occurred, and we look forward to continuing to introduce you to new and exciting things to do in your community.

Tim O'Shaughnessy
CEO, LivingSocial
 

 

Anything whispered or commanded to Apple's virtual assistant can stay on Apple servers for up to two years, according to reports.

An Apple spokeswoman confirmed how long it keeps Siri data, Wired reported. However, spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the data on Apple servers is anonymized and only the company only collects the sound bytes to improve the virtual assistant.

Apple apparently assigns voice files a randomized number to represent an individual user and represents the user in voice analysis. After six months, Apple will take away a user number from the clip and delete the number. However, it still keeps the voice files for 18 or more months.

The American Civil Liberties Union wants Apple to link to its Siri privacy policy so users know that a person could reveal "sensitive things about you, your family or business" before they buy an Apple device.

Apple being forthright about how it uses its customer information would be a boost for consumer protection. However, Apple is notorious for not being a very forthright company. In fact, it seems to revel in its secrecy. So, can Apple be the proverbial leopard that changes its spots? Probably not.

After a pair of explosions rocked the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 150, millions took to social media to look for loved ones, let friends and family know they were OK, and to express sympathies for victims.

On Facebook, two disparate voices carried the day: the beloved children's TV host Mr. Rogers, who died in 2003, and comedian Patton Oswalt.

A black-and-white photo of a smiling Mr. Rogers made the rounds, with the caption, "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"

Oswalt, a man best known for a wit that can be as merciless as it is acerbic, offered a reminder of the prevalence of good, one that took Rogers' point a step further:

You watch the videos of the carnage and there are people running TOWARDS the destruction to help out… This is a giant planet and we're lucky to live on it but there are prices and penalties incurred for the daily miracle of existence. One of them is, every once in awhile, the wiring of a tiny sliver of the species gets snarled and they're pointed towards darkness. 

But the vast majority stands against that darkness and, like white blood cells attacking a virus... This is beyond religion or creed or nation. We would not be here if humanity were inherently evil. We'd have eaten ourselves alive long ago. 

So when you spot violence, or bigotry, or intolerance or fear or just garden-variety misogyny, hatred or ignorance, just look it in the eye and think, "The good outnumber you, and we always will."

In addition to sharing these messages, many on Facebook changed their cover photo to a picture of the Boston skyline, and still others switched out their profile photo for the iconic "B" logo of the Boston Red Sox, or some other similar show of support.

Close to 50,000 Facebook users have joined a "virtual run" event that asks people to "run (or walk) any distance, anywhere and at anytime" to show solidarity in the running community.

NBC correspondent Ann Curry launched a new hashtag #26Acts2, which is an update to #26Acts - a Twitter call to arms for random acts of kindness in the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn.

A piece by Bruce Schneier of The Atlantic in which he implored readers to "Refuse to be terrorized," bore a headline that included the phrase "Keep Calm Carry On." Originally part of a 1939 propaganda campaign in England meant to boost morale, the phrase has of late developed something of a kitsch cool about it, but yesterday and today it was repeated with sincerity time and again on Twitter.

In the moments after the explosions, the Twitterverse was quickly flooded with the hashtag #prayforboston and some variation on the message, "You go to a movie, You get shot, You go to school, You get shot, You go to a marathon, You get bombed."

The terror in Boston also brought out attention-seeking charlatans. Twitter has already suspended a fake account, @_BostonMarathon, which claimed it would donate $1 to victims for each retweet.

But Google offered a stark counterpoint to fake Twitter accounts by establishing a "Person Finder" for the Boston Marathon, a site where people can look for or post information about loved ones. As of Tuesday morning, it was tracking more than 5,200 records.

Google is paying homage to Swiss math genius Leonhard Euhler with an interactive Google Doodle on Monday to celebrate his 306th birthday.

Euhler, born in 1707, is deemed one of the greatest mathematicians of all time. He published close to 900 books - despite going blind in his 50s -  and made important discoveries in astronomy, optics, fluid dynamics and mechanics.

The renowned mathematician got into Switzerland's University of Basel at 13 and earned his master's degree by the time he was 16. He was also the first person to use Venn diagrams to show the relationship between two sets or numbers.

The Doodle is an image of a piece of scratch paper with math notes and geometric shapes. It pays tribute to some of Euler's famous findings like Euler's formula for Polyhedra and Euler's number.

Google has a soft spot for tech and science geniuses. In December, the world's first computer programmer Ada Lovelace received her own Doodle. "Hitchhiker's Guide" author Douglas Adams was immortalized with a Doodle in March.

A survey reports that more people are finding rudeness on Facebook and other social media on the rise.

A survey of 2,698 people in February found that 78 percent reported rudeness on the upswing, according to corporate training firm VitalSmarts, and as many as 40 percent ending contact with people because of a "virtual altercation," according to Reuters.

Many of those surveyed believed that people are much ruder online than in real life, but that didn't stop about 20 percent of the respondents from stopping face-to-face contact with someone who treated them badly online.

Many of these issues occur because emotions are high, Grenny said. Users should avoid monologues, replace judgmental words and cut personal attacks -- especially when emotional. Instead, people should take a break from online, or maybe settle disagreements face-to-face, Grenny said.

You have to respect a bunch of rocket scientists who can explain things in 140-character bursts.

For the second year in a row, NASA won a Shorty award Monday night -- the equivalent of the Oscar in the social media world.  “We're sharing the universe 1 tweet at a time. Be inspired!" the space agency tweeted to its more than 3 million followers on Twitter.

The award in the government category was one of more than five dozen Shorty awards handed out at the Times Center in New York. Hosted by actress Felicia Day, the ceremony also featured opening remarks by Mayor New York Michael Bloomberg via video who said, “SRY I can’t be there IRL.”

Special guests invited to present the awards this year include tech-savvy model Coco Rocha, comedian Hannibal Buress, Chris Hardwick from AMC’s "The Talking Dead" and more.

Anyone on Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Facebook, and Tumblr can be nominated for a Shorty. The Twitter community selects six finalists in each award category, and a panel of experts and celebrity judges choose the winners. This is the fifth year for the awards.

This year, the popular blog Texts from Hillary won Micro Blog of the Year on Tumblr. Selena Gomez received the Celebrity Fashion award and tied with Tara Strong, a Canadian actress best known for her voice-over work, including the voice for Bubbles from Cartoon Network’s "Power Puff Girls," for best actress.

The Science Shorty Award had two winners: ASAP Science and Chris Hadfield, a Canadian astronaut and commander of the International Space Station (ISS). Hadfield delivered his acceptance speech via video inside the ISS while orbiting in space.

Other big winners included Brazilian comedian Rafinha Bastos, who has more than 5.4 million followers on Twitter.

George Takei received the Distinguished Achievement in Internet Culture Award. Jimmy Kimmel won the Lifetime Achievement Award, which requires “staying power, personalities that remain interesting and funny in our fickle internet era." Previous winners of this award include Ricky Gervais and Conan O’Brien.

Logan West, the Connecticut-native Miss Teen USA presented the first-ever Keep Good Going Award that honors those who use social media to inspire others to stay focused on the positive in life. “Those nominated in this category include upbeat bloggers, energetic entrepreneurs and parents of young performers who live actively and share good with others.” The winner of this award was Kathy Zucker, Founder of Metro Moms Network.

Here is a video produced by the Shorty Awards where Felicia Day learned the value of having more than a million Twitter followers in New York City:

Pop icon Cher was almost killed -- by a hashtag.

The hashtag #nowthatcherisdead circulated in the Twitterverse on Monday and quickly became a source of confusion for Cher's fans. It turns out, the hashtag was generated by a website called "Is Thatcher Dead Yet?" dedicated to monitoring the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, according to The Wall Street Journal. Thatcher passed away on Monday at the age of 87.

Fans panicked when they saw the hashtag and took to Twitter to mourn what they thought was the pop star's death.

RIP Cher. At least now we'll find out about life after love. #nowthatchersdead

— David Itzcovitz (@ItzDaveMedia) April 8, 2013

Did Cher die?! #nowthatchersdead

— Nick Frost (@Nick_Frost) April 8, 2013

#nowthatchersdead Cher is dead?!?!?!

— George Clarke (@MrGeorgeClarke) April 8, 2013

Fortunately, comedian Ricky Gervais was available to help put an end the confusion:

Some people are in a frenzy over the hashtag #nowthatchersdead.It's "Now Thatcher's dead". Not, "Now that Cher's dead" JustSayin'

— Ricky Gervais (@rickygervais) April 8, 2013

Cher is now part of the club of celebrities who were victims of death pranks. Bill Cosby had to refute reports of his own death on Twitter in 2010. Denzel Washington was presumed dead in 2011 thanks to the newssite Global Associated News, which known for generating fake news. The site is also responsible for the fake deaths of Charlie Sheen, Adam Sandler and Owen Wilson. Others who have combated phony death reports on Twitter include: Jeff Goldblum, Harrison Ford, Matt Damon, Britney Spears, Morrissey, and Ellen DeGeneres.