The Daily Populous

Monday February 5th, 2018 day edition

image for The number of people using Facebook daily in North America dropped for the first time

The number of people using Facebook daily in North America dropped for the first time 11:19 AM ET Thu, 1 Feb 2018 | 00:48.

The number of people in the U.S. and Canada who check Facebook every day dropped between the third and fourth quarter of 2017, the first such quarterly drop in company history.

Facebook usage in North America has been largely flat for the last several years, leaving international growth to pick up the slack.

But the drop suggests that Facebook usage has reached a saturation point in its first and most lucrative market, and could foretell similar usage drops around the world.

Facebook claimed 184 million daily average users (DAUs) in the U.S. and Canada in Q4 2017, down from 185 million in Q3.

Those users accounted for $6.39 billion of Facebook's revenue in the fourth quarter, up from $5.03 billion in Q3.

On the company's earnings call, CFO David Wehner said that usage in this region would "fluctuate" based on m arket penetration. »

Extraordinary Biomass-Burning Episode and Impact Winter Triggered by the Younger Dryas Cosmic Impact ∼12,800 Years Ago. 1. Ice Cores and Glaciers

Authored by journals.uchicago.edu

Evidence suggests that the YDB cosmic impact triggered an “impact winter” and the subsequent Younger Dryas (YD) climate episode, biomass burning, late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions, and human cultural shifts and population declines.

The YD onset also exhibits increased dust concentrations, synchronous with the onset of a remarkably high peak in ammonium, a biomass-burning aerosol.

The ice record is consistent with YDB impact theory that extensive impact-related biomass burning triggered the abrupt onset of an impact winter, which led, through climatic feedbacks, to the anomalous YD climate episode. »

TIL Canada has the "Apology Act", whereby apologising to someone after an incident can't be used in court to establish guilt or liability of the person apologising.

Authored by bclaws.ca

"court" includes a tribunal, an arbitrator and any other person who is acting in a judicial or quasi-judicial capacity.

(a) does not constitute an express or implied admission of fault or liability by the person in connection with that matter,.

(d) must not be taken into account in any determination of fault or liability in connection with that matter. »

Blood test detects proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease

Authored by edition.cnn.com

(CNN) A team of scientists from Australia and Japan has developed a blood test to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease.

The idea behind the test is to predict the presence and levels of amyloid beta in a person's brain.

Buildup of the abnormal protein in the brain is one sign of Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia. »