Facebook Cover Photos Are Disappearing

In the scope of a couple of days, several people — including Mashable staffers — have seen their Facebook cover photos disappear without explanation. The issue appears to be a move by Facebook to aggressively crack down on images that are considered promotional.

[More from Mashable: 500,000 Facebook Users Chase Fake $ 1 Million From Powerball ‘Winner’]

I first encountered the issue yesterday when Facebook ostensibly removed a promotional still from the TV series Doctor Who that I used as a cover photo. When I attempted to upload another image, I saw this message:

Pick a unique photo from your life to feature at the top of your timeline. Note: This space is not meant for banner ads or other promotions. Please don’t use content that is commercial, promotional, copyright-infringing or already in use on other people’s covers.

[More from Mashable: This Facebook App Gives Annoying Friends a ‘Time Out’]

Since we published the original article about the incident, several readers have come forward, reporting the same thing happened to them in the comments. In addition, three other Mashable staffers reported Facebook removing their cover photos in the last 24 hours.

When asked if there was some kind of crackdown going on, a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable via email that Facebook’s policies regarding photos and cover photos haven’t changed. Facebook’s terms of service specifies that a cover photo should be a “unique image that represents your Page.”

The exact reason why Facebook removed each cover is a mystery, since the user is not informed, except by the glaring empty space where the photo used to be. It could be due to a copyright violation or that the photo was deemed to “promotional.” Although Facebook removes the photo from the cover position, it doesn’t actually delete the photo itself.

“Facebook is in business to make money,” says Lou Kerner, a former social media analyst and founder of the Social Internet Fund. “The great thing about that is most ways they’re going to make money is by letting people do what they want — as long as it doesn’t break the law. For the most part, if they act in the user’s best interest, they act in their own best interests.”

While I speculated Facebook was removing cover photos to prevent the site from becoming too tacky, one of Mashable‘s commenters suggested Facebook was looking to preserve its business model. After all, if brands recruit “ambassadors” by encouraging — or paying — them upload promotional cover photos, that would detract from Facebook’s own tools that are meant to help brands engage with their fans on the service.

Disney, for example, offers fans of its franchises images to download that are specifically formatted for Facebook Timeline. If this is indeed a crackdown, that practice could cease.

“That seems more heavy-handed than Facebook generally acts,” says Kerner. “That sounds very egregious to me in terms of how they want brands and people to interact. I don’t see how Facebook benefits by not allowing a brand’s fans to engage with the brand like that.”

How widespread is the practice? It’s hard to say from the evidence so far, but based on Twitter reactions over the last day, it’s definitely been happening regularly. Although some users say the removed photos were their own, the pattern that seems to be emerging is that the photos are either promotional or violate copyright:

Why do you think Facebook is removing users’ cover photos and should it be doing so? Share your reactions in the comments.

1. Red Bull

Not only has Red Bull taken advantage of Timeline, it has also created a scavenger hunt with prizes to get fans interacting with the company’s history.

Click here to view this gallery.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Bachelorette Ashley Hebert and JP Rosenbaum are Married

Ashley Hebert is a bachelorette no more!

The 28-year-old dentist and her construction manager fiancé J.P. Rosenbaum, 35, walked down the aisle on Saturday in Pasadena, California, reports People Magazine.

The ceremony, officiated by Bachelor and Bachelorette host Chris Harrison, was attended by familiar faces from the series including Ali Fedotowsky, Emily Maynard, and Jason and Molly Mesnick.

Video: 'Bachelorette' Ashley Hebert and Fiance J.P.'s Passionate PDA

Ashley and J.P.'s exchanging of vows will be televised December 16 on a two-hour special on ABC.

The season seven sweeties will be the second Bachelorette couple ever to televise their walk down the aisle, following in the footsteps of Trista and Ryan Sutter, who married in December 2003.

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Street honor for heroic NYPD lensman, killed filming Sept. 11 attacks

A police officer killed after he rushed towards the collapsing World Trade Center towers to gather video on Sept. 11 had a street in front of the Police Academy renamed in his honor.

Glen Pettit, was an award-winning video journalist before he joined the NYPD in 1997, and began working in the department's Video Production Unit three years later.

When the first plane slammed into the Twin Towers, the officer knew where he had to be, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a ceremony today.

"Glen Pettit dedicated his life to serving others," Kelly said, describing how Pettit raced towards the tragic scene and got "crucial video" of the collapse. He was last seen racing toward the South Tower, camera in hand, minutes before the building tumbled down.

Pettit's mother, Jane Wixted, wore an American flag scarf around her neck as the sign renaming the section of East 20th Street "Police Officer Glen K. Pettit Corner" was unveiled.

"Having a street named after him is a privilege and an honor," Wixted said. "Glen always wanted the best shot and I'm sure he got it on 9/11."

She spoke to her departed son, "Thank you Glen for allowing me to be your mother. I'll be very proud of you for the rest of my life," she said.

Pettit had already been awarded the Medal of Honor, NYPD's highest honor, posthumously, and a plaque was installed in the lobby of the Police Academy where the Video Unit is located.

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Scott’s ALF panel let industry off hook, critics say

TALLAHASSEE --
Gov. Rick Scott used tough language in the summer of 2011 when he created a panel to help fix the deadly abuse and neglect in Florida assisted living facilities.

He pledged to provide protections for elderly and disabled ALF residents, who in recent years saw sweeping breakdowns of care as lawmakers stripped regulations and failed to protect the state’s most vulnerable people from burns, beatings and death.

Then politics happened.

In a change of tide, Scott’s panel issued its final report this week, calling for diminished transparency, fewer regulations and more money for ALF operators. The panel calls for the state to better enforce existing rules rather than create new ones. And to reward ALFs when they do right rather than punish them when they do wrong.

Although some hailed the recommendations as a step forward, not everyone was cheering.

“[Providers] are probably doing cartwheels right now,” said Brian Lee, a resident advocate and director of Families for Better Care.

The recommendations are a product of more than a year of contentious meetings and a panel on which advocates for the powerful ALF industry had the lion’s share of seats. Scott appointed the group after The Miami Herald reviewed thousands of documents and published a sweeping series on the squalid conditions for many of the state’s most vulnerable residents.

Some advocates for the elderly have blasted the panel since its formation, accusing Scott of stacking the committee with business-oriented ALF operators. Scott promised a second round of meetings would include more ALF residents and advocates. Critics contend the reverse was true.

On Friday, Scott insisted the work group is just one step, and that he’ll work with lawmakers to pass meaningful reform. He made similar promises last year.

“We need to act this session to make sure that existing regulations are being enforced to protect our seniors from abuse and to make necessary changes to stop facility operators from breaking the law,” he said this time around.

The furor from the Herald series prompted Scott’s panel to offer a variety of solutions in 2011, from stricter educational requirements for ALF caretakers to more government oversight for facilities that cause patient harm. Those emerged shortly after the series was published and served as a foundation for sweeping legislation that lawmakers softened and then defeated in 2012, under pressure from powerful industry lobbyists.

The new round of proposals offer bits and pieces of that original package.

Larry Polivka, chairman of the panel and head of the Claude Pepper Foundation, touted the group’s more resident-friendly proposals. Those include an appeals process to give evicted residents recourse and the creation of an independent nonprofit organization to train and credential providers.

“I think the workgroup struck a good balance,” he said, adding that the first round of proposals are not moot. “It has to be a carrot-and-stick approach. You can’t live by punitive measures alone.”

But Pat Lange, lobbyist and director of the Florida Assisted Living Association, said the final report appears to stand on its own. And she hopes it stays that way.

“The more recent conversations have been much more productive. This agrees with what we’ve felt from the beginning, which is that the regulations that exist are adequate,” she said. “I think [the panel] realized they need to make some differences in some of the ways they were handling recommendations.”

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Barbara Hershey Talks Once Upon A Time Season Two Winter Finale

In 2010, Barbara Hershey presented a tragic portrait of a stage mother in the Academy Award winning thriller Black Swan. And, believe it or not, many of the emotions that drove Erica Sayers to demand Swan Queen perfection from Nina (played by Natalie Portman) are once again bubbling to the surface on ABC's Once Upon A Time.

As Cora, former Queen of fairytale land and mother to Regina, Hershey revealed to ETonline that she believes a mother's love is what has fueled all of Cora's less-than-lovely behavior. With Once Upon A Time's winter finale unfolding this Sunday, we caught up with the Oscar-nominated actress to find out what fans can expect from the 2012 swan song!

ETonline: What attracted you to Once Upon A Time?

Barbara Hershey: I've always loved fables and fairytales. I've always thought the reason they endure is because they fill a need that we have as human animals. There is something so satisfying about them because at the root of fairytales is a story about the human condition -- of course it's magnified and fantasized, but it really is about us and I enjoy it on that level. Any TV series is a grab bag for an actor, but particularly with this one because you never know what world you're going to be in next week!

RELATED - Jamie Chung Talks Mulan's Motivation

ETonline: Actors can never view their characters as "the villain" of a show, so where does her perceived evil come from in your mind?

Barbara: Her love for her daughter. Even though how she loves and what she's doing in the name of it seems a little insane, it comes from a soft place inside of her. It's the one softness inside her. She's just very twisted and warped and unhealthy about it. There are a lot of parents who think they're doing well for their kids, but are really pushing them in a direction they want. Cora is doing that. She thinks everything she's done is in her daughter's best interest, but it's not. She's quite amazing to play.

ETonline: Given that, how much of Cora's motivation in getting to Storybrooke is revenge-based?

Barbara: None of it. I think she truly is a mother trying to reconnect with her daughter. Again, she's just so warped in her emotions and in a bubble of her own making, that her own version of love is so different from what mine would be. But Cora just wants to reconnect with her daughter and live their lives together.

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ETonline: Should Cora get to Storybrooke, which character would you like to work with?

Barbara: I've had a lot of scenes with Hook, which has been fun. Colin [O'Donoghue] is just wonderful. Of course I'm looking forward to a Rumpelstiltskin confrontation, but I'm wide open. I'm fond of all the characters; it's such a grab bag of amazing options.

ETonline: Looking ahead, what are you excited for the fans to see as the season wears on?

Hershey: What's fun for me is that there are a lot of surprises with Cora in the winter finale. I was blown away on almost every page. I'm excited for the audience to feel that too. You'll see as we go into the future episodes, it gets really, really interesting.

Once Upon A Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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'Macho' Camacho gets big sendoff in East Harlem

Bolivar Arellano

Christian Camacho, 20, with his 14 year old brother Stanley Camacho both sons of deceased boxing Champion Hector 'Macho' Camacho. Here they were riding through the streets of East Harlem where their father was born and raised.

It was a goodbye fit for a king of the ring.

Boxing legend Hector “Macho” Camacho was given a royal sendoff today as his casket was paraded through the streets of East Harlem in a horse-drawn carriage as thousands of mourners wished him farewell.

The procession began at St. Cecilia’s Catholic Church on East 106th Street, went up First Avenue, cut across East 116th Street, traveled down Fifth Avenue and returned along East 106th Street, winding back to the church.

Revelers joined in along the way, marching behind the carriage and procession of vehicles carrying grieving family members and friends.

People were spotted hanging out car windows and sunroofs while wildly waving Puerto Rican flags and clutching pictures of Camacho in his fighting prime.

When the casket, draped in a Puerto Rican flag, arrived at St. Cecilia’s, a mob of people standing behind police barricades chanted, “Macho. Macho.”

“I love you guys,” Camacho’s mother, Maria Matias, shouted back while pumping her fist in the air. The line of people waiting to get inside and pay thier respects was several blocks long.

“I fought hard to bring my son here, where he belongs,” she told The Post.

“He fought here, he was raised here and now he is being buried here. Look at all these supporters here, it is amazing.

“They are telling me that Camacho is alive today. His spirit is not dead. He is a champion. I will always carry him in my heart.”

She recalled how Camacho started learning to box at the age of 7 and bought her a home with his career winnings.

“My son had a good heart... and took care of me.”

Camacho was shot Nov. 20 while sitting in a parked car in his hometown, Bavamon. He was 50.

Matias lashed out at her son’s killers.

“He did not deserve to die. They killed an innocent man for no reason. One bullet took my son’s life.”

She said that police have three men in custody and are tring to peice together a motive behind the slaying.

“They don’t have all the evidence yet, but soon they will.”

A farewell for Camacho in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Tuesday was marred by violence after Cynthia Castillo, 28, who claims to have been the pugilist’s girlfriend, angered his sisters by kissing him inside the open casket and walking to a VIP area designated for family and close friends.

She then fought with his former girlfriend Gloria Fernandez outside the chapel, according to the newspaper El Nuevo Dia.

Police were called in to pull the ladies apart.

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California Pizza Kitchen brings prototype to Sawgrass Mills

The restaurant chain that took barbecued chicken pizza mainstream is ready to push the culinary envelope again. How about a pizza topped with roasted Brussels sprouts and applewood smoked bacon or a Korean barbecue pizza with pork loin and spicy kimchee salad?

Innovative menu items are just one piece of what’s unique about California Pizza Kitchen’s new flagship restaurant unveiled Thursday at Sawgrass Mills in Sunrise. The first of its kind, the Sawgrass location aims to reinvigorate the brand that started in 1985 in Beverly Hills.

“The whole idea is about taking the best of what put us on the map and making it relevant for 2012 and beyond,” said G.J. Hart, who took over as chief executive officer of the chain just over a year ago. “Over the years the brand morphed from being a leader and it became a follower of food trends. We want to bring back the hip, cool feel.”

The changes are obvious from the moment you walk into the restaurant, which opens to the public Monday. The new look is all about focusing on the chain’s California roots. Very little of the bright yellow and chrome remains. The design is California-casual with earth tones and reclaimed wood everywhere from the walls to the floor and tables. An outdoor terrace with couches and fire pits is designed to encourage lingering. Large windows and glass doors let in lots of natural light and fold open to enjoy the weather.

Pizza is center stage with the kitchen designed so diners can watch the pizza makers at work. At the Sawgrass location — and by mid-2013 at all restaurants — pizzas will once again by hand-tossed. Currently the chain uses a pizza press to make the dough more uniform.

The new focus is on upping the culinary quotient across the board with dishes like a roasted beets and whipped goat cheese salad, plus a sweet pea carbonara featuring pea-filled pasta purses tossed with Italian pancetta and a Romano cream sauce. These are some of the unique items only on the Sawgrass menu, which also features a specialty menu of hand-crafted cocktails.

Chain-wide the company has actually slimmed the menu from more than 100 items to 74 in order to improve execution. But there are also more healthy choices like quinoa and arugula salad or a fire-roasted chile relleno stuffed with chicken, cheese, mushrooms, spinach and eggplant that dishes up at only 380 calories.

“As we grew, we didn’t keep up with the creativity on the menu and we tried to be all things to all people,” said Brian Sullivan, senior vice president of culinary innovation, who has been with the company for 24 years. “We’re always going to be pizza-centric. But we’ll continue to push the envelope with these specialty items that resonate with who we are. We don’t want items that you are going to see in other restaurants.”

The chain chose Sawgrass to unveil its new flagship location because of a combination of the area’s diverse demographic base and the influx of international visitors. South Florida has already been a strong market for the brand, which has seven locations in the tri-county area stretching from Coral Gables to Palm Beach Gardens.

The opening is the culmination of a new vision that began to take shape when Golden Gate Capital purchased California Pizza Kitchen in July 2011 for $470 million, taking the company private and bringing in Hart as the new chief executive.

“They saw a brand that was undervalued,” said Hart, who has an ownership stake in the chain. “This is an iconic brand with so much brand equity. If we can bring the excitement and enthusiasm back we’re only going to see it go up.”

Industry experts say the changes make sense because the brand still has a loyal following, although it has not kept pace with the competition.

“It’s a good time for them to go back to what were the fundamental things that made the brand so intriguing,” said Dennis Lombardi of WD Partners, a restaurant industry consultant. “The difficulty is going to be getting the word out to consumers that this is different. The devil is always in the details in these kind of evolutions.”

Based on consumer reaction, the plan is to take pieces of the Sunrise concept and introduce it into the chain’s other 268 existing restaurants. Some restaurants could be completely remodeled, but most will only get elements of the new prototype, which cost $2 million in Sunrise, Hart said. The company’s Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton locations could be strong candidates for remodeling next year or early 2014, he said.

Community and business leaders, who got a first look at the restaurant on Thursday, were impressed.

“This is phenomenal,” said Luanne Lenberg, general manager of Sawgrass Mills. “We’re so excited to have this caliber of restaurant and to be their test for the rest of the world.”

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Friend testifies foster mom borrowed dog cage for Rilya

A dozen years ago, Geralyn Graham called a friend and asked to borrow a dog cage — where Graham planned to keep her foster child, Rilya Wilson, during the night.

Graham “said she was going to use it to keep [Rilya] from doing harm to herself,” Graham’s friend, Detra Coakley Winfield, told jurors this week in Graham’s trial on murder and child-abuse charges.

Winfield said she supplied the dog cage, but she never saw Rilya inside it.Graham, 66, is accused of killing 4-year-old Rilya sometime around Christmas 2000, when the girl disappeared from the Kendall home that Graham shared with her domestic partner, Pamela Graham. Child welfare workers — who were supposed to be monitoring the foster child — did not notice Rilya’s disappearance until April 2002. The child’s body has never been found.

Graham has maintained that Rilya was taken from her home in January 2001 by an unidentified woman who claimed to be a worker with the Department of Children and Families — a story that prosecutors have called a lie, part of a cover-up to conceal the child’s death.

Miami-Dade prosecutors began their case this week by focusing on Geralyn Graham’s treatment of Rilya, and Graham’s shifting explanations for Rilya’s absence after December 2000.

Winfield said she once saw Rilya confined in a laundry room as punishment for misbehavior. She said Rilya — born to a crack-addicted mother and later placed in foster care — often seemed “sad” during the eight months she lived at the Graham house. Winfield said Rilya appeared to have behavior problems, and she once watched the child play with feces.

“To me, she had some issues, some mental issues,” Winfield told jurors Thursday.

Around Christmas 2000, Graham told Winfield that Rilya was going to go on a trip to New York with a “Spanish lady” who had befriended the child. Winfield said she saw the woman, but never spoke to her.

Winfield said she never saw Rilya again after that.

After Rilya’s disappearance made the news in 2002, Winfield said she called Graham, who told her that the “Spanish lady” had returned Rilya — before a DCF worker came to take Rilya away again.

But during her testimony, Winfield often appeared confused about the sequence of events, and said she didn’t recall many details after all these years.

And under questioning from defense attorney Michael Matters, Winfield said that she never saw Graham strike Rilya.

But on Wednesday, another family friend, Laquica Tuff, told jurors that she saw Rilya with scratches and a gash on her forehead about two months before the girl’s disappearance. Tuff said Graham told also told her that Rilya was going on a “road trip” to New York and Disney World.

Graham “said she would be gone for awhile,” Tuff said.

Graham’s trial will resume on Tuesday.

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Hip Hop producer gets 2 years for attempted gun possession

Hip Hop producer Bryan Leach -- credited with discovering Lil Jon and the Yin Yang Twins -- was sentenced to two years prison on attempted gun possession today, but is being allowed to remain free until April pending appeal.

Leach had been busted two years ago after allegedly driving his 2006 Bentley Continental erratically on West 72nd Street. His Kel-Tec handgun -- loaded with hollow-points -- was recovered from the car's console. His sentence before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone includes one and a half years of probation.

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Gift ideas for the techie on your list

The holidays are coming fast, and if you’re like me, you’ve probably gotten very little of your gift shopping done.

Here are suggestions for a variety of gifts for the techie and the not-so-techie people on your list.

Some of these items can be found in stores and some are only available online, but you should be able to order them in time for Christmas or Hanukkah.

IOMEGA EZ MEDIA & BACKUP CENTER

What is it? A hard drive that lives on your home network so you can share files, store all your photos and music and back up your home computers. Works on Macintosh, Windows and Linux computers.

The EZ Media & Backup Center is available in 1-, 2- and 3-terabyte capacities. It is simple to set up. It lives next to your home router and plugs into the network via Ethernet.

Major features include a built-in iTunes server so your music is available to all connected computers, Time Machine support for easy Macintosh backups and Iomega’s Personal Cloud to access your data from any Internet connection.

It can also stream your video files to your TV if you’ve got a compatible streaming box or an Internet-connected TV.

Software for backing up Windows PCs is also included.

Who’s it for? Any family that wants central storage for their digital lives. This is a great home for your digital photo, music or video library.

What does it cost? One terabyte for $169.99, two terabytes for $209.99, three terabytes for $279.99.

Where can you get it? Online at www.iomega.com, Amazon, Best Buy, Apple store, Fry’s.

NETATMO URBAN WEATHER STATION

What is it? A wireless indoor/outdoor weather station that displays through an application on your Apple or Android mobile device.

There are two parts, one that lives in your house and one you place outside.

The indoor component plugs into the wall and monitors the temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, carbon dioxide level and even the sound level in decibels.

The outdoor module is battery-powered and measures temperature and humidity.

Once you connect the Netatmo to your home Wi-Fi network, you can download the free app and see your weather stats from anywhere.

Setup was easy enough, and you can set the app to notify you when carbon dioxide rises to levels that you should be warned about — which is great.

Who’s it for? Weather geeks and people who like to know what the temperature is without having to fire up a browser.

What does it cost? $179

Where can you get it? www.netatmo.com

3M LED ADVANCED LIGHT

What is it? 3M’s first foray into the home light bulb market is with the LED Advanced Light, which uses light-emitting diodes (LED) to produce 800 lumens (the light of a 60-watt bulb).

The Advanced Light has a life span of 25 years and costs just $1.63 per year if it’s turned on for three hours per day.

The bulb lights instantly and is dimmable.

It’s a little intimidating to start buying light bulbs that might outlive me, but my wallet approves.

Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to save money or wants a bulb that might not have to be changed until 2035.

What does it cost? $25

Where can you get it? Select Wal-Mart stores. For more information, go to www.3mlighting.com/LED.

STEM IZON 2.0 WI-FI VIDEO MONITOR

What is it? A small, wireless video camera that you can monitor remotely with an iOS device.

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