Mr. Costolo (Photo: About.me)

Last week, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo reportedly quit as director of the company's U.K. arm. The news comes just days after government regulators forced TweetDeck to dissolve following accounting issues. [Sky News]

Bloomberg is apologizing to its clients after allegations that reporters snooped on client terminals to see their Seamless orders or whatever. [CNN Money]

JackThreads' recent push into international waters, like Australia and the U.K., is doing well for the company's bottom line as sales overseas now make up 10 percent of its business. [AllThingsD]

Facebook Home is missing features that Android users love (widgets, docks, oh my!) because all of the developers use iPhones. The lack of "droidfooding" is causing them to scramble to add those features to turn around Home's slow downloads. [TechCrunch]

Here's a groovy map that shows you where in the world Wikipedia is being edited right now. [Ars Technica]

Elon Musk and David Sacks have left Mark Zuckerberg's political action group over growing concerns over the support of certain politicians. [AllThingsD]

See ya! (Photo: Wikipedia)

How quickly Google giveths, it takes away. The company said it rescinded its Glass offer to some of the #ifihadglass contest winners for not complying with the rules. Bitchy! [CNet]

Sue Gardner, the "driving force" behind Wikipedia's rapid growth, is stepping down. But don’t edit her page just yet! She isn’t leaving the company for another six months. [NY Times]

Blackberry posted a profit last quarter but Blackberry owners are still waiting for the news to load on their phones. Perhaps BBM it to them? [AllThingsD]

Speaking of not-dead messaging apps, the Wall Street Journal digs into the rapidly growing sector of texting apps that's siphoned $23 billion in revenue from carriers in 2012. [WSJ]

The BBC has a pretty great feature on the rise of dating websites aimed at people with sexually transmitted diseases, because everyone needs to be loved. [BBC]

The oil spill, as seen from space. (Photo: Wikipedia)

If you can't clean up all the dirty oil your tankers have dumped into the ocean, what's the next best thing? Cleaning up your Wikipedia page, naturally.

CNET reports that Wikipedia editors are up in arms over a certain user named "Arturo at BP," a BP representative who they estimate has rewritten 44 percent of British Petroleum's Wikipedia page, including sections about the company's environmental record. (As a reminder, this is the company responsible for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster.)

Writes one Wikipedia editor:

I know very little about BP and have no particular interest in it. My concern here is that it's a controversial company (fairly or unfairly) that is being allowed to rewrite the article about itself by proxy, without this being signalled to the reader.

In using BP's drafts, editors are using unpublished primary source material, and letting it set the tone entirely by slotting it into the article without quotation marks and without attributing it to BP. These drafts give us BP's views of itself, or BP's summary of the secondary sources BP has chosen to highlight.

As CNET notes, the company may be attempting to clean up its public online image as it gears up for an April 5th hearing regarding a class action suit brought by individuals and businesses negatively impacted by the 2010 spill. So if you see any lines about BP being voted the number-one company for customer satisfaction, you might want to check another source on that one.

Update: BP provided Betabeat with the following statement.

Arturo Silva is a full-time BP employee assigned to the Group’s Corporate Communications team in Houston.

Among his many responsibilities, Silva has been leading our project to openly engage with Wikipedia editors and offer suggestions to improve the accuracy of the BP Wikipedia article.

BP operates within Wikipedia’s guidelines for how company representatives should interact with the site's editors. For nearly a year now, we have been fully transparent, never directly editing any copy and always disclosing that any suggestions we offer to Wikipedia’s editors have come from a BP representative.

(Photo: Help for Depression)

Before the dawn of the Internet, when libraries were places where people read and not just a bathroom for the homeless, young people used to seek out their elders for advice on life's important questions. "How is babby formed?" they wondered. "What's it like being an old person?"

Now, with the advent of the Internet, grandparents are slowly becoming obsolete, at least according to a morbid new survey. Almost two thirds of grandparents feel that their role is being eclipsed by Google, Wikipedia and YouTube, where kids go for advice on traditionally grandparent-y stuff like dinner recipes, household chores and historical insights.

"Grandparents believe they are being sidelined by Google, YouTube, Wikipedia and the huge resource of advice available on the internet," one researcher told The Telegraph. "They are aware that their grandchildren – already with their noses buried in a laptop, tablet computer or smartphone – find it much easier to search the internet for instant advice."

What the survey did not point out is that grandparents are still the number one source for warm hugs that smell of cough drops, uncomfortable comments about your appearance and offensive sentiments about other races.

Some things the Internet can never replace.

(Photo: Wikipedia)

Oh, the curious case of Gibraltarpedia.

Last September, CNET reported that a well-placed Wikipedian named Roger Bamkin was using his influence at nonprofit Wikipedia to promote the British territory of Gibraltar—whose government was the client of a public relations firm run by Mr. Bamkin.

The upshot was, Gibraltar was showing up an awful lot in the "Did You Know" section of Wikipedia's home page—17 times in the month of August. And while it is interesting to ponder how hungry you'd have to be to eat your shoes, as Gibraltar's inhabitants are said to have done during a siege of the fortress city in 1333, 17 times seems a little excessive.

Excessive, and quite likely, damaging to Wikipedia's reputation as a source of unbiased information. In October, Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales, who proposed a five-year moratorium on Gibraltar-themed DYKs. Alas, Mr. Wales may be Wikipedia's spiritual leader, but sole rule-maker he is not, and while Wikipedia editors did agree on a vetting policy for Gibraltar-related nominations, the new process hasn't don't much to stem the tide.

According to the Register, Gibraltar showed up in Wikipedia's Did You Know box nine times in December, 11 times in January, and six times so far this month. What's more, the paper's readers are apparently obsessed with spotting Gibraltar-themed DYKs: They've been asked to stop alerting editors every time a new entry shows up.

(Photo: Wikipedia)

There's no room for bigotry on the bridge ... or in online communities, new redditor William Shatner said in a series of comments in the "Star Trek" subreddit: "The fact that someone could come here, debase and degrade people based on race, religion, ethnicity or sexual preference because they ‘have a right’ to do so without worry of any kind of moderation is sending the wrong message, in my humble opinion." [PandoDaily]

NASA's rover Curiosity drilled into a rock bed on Mars in search of water-deposited minerals, and there are photos. [Discovery]

Automaker Lincoln spent lavishly to help Beck record an old David Bowie number: "If this is what you guys are talking about when you talk about 'native ads,' then okay." [AllThingsD]

Several journalists who cover Myanmar, including a correspondent for the Associated Press, received warnings from Google that their Gmail accounts might have been hacked by "state-sponsored attackers." [NYT]

Here is an infographic that wants to help you defuse Internet trolls. Good luck with that. [Mashable]

Are you underwhelmed by the traffic to your carefully manicured Wikipedia page? Two ideas that might help jump your bio to the most widely-read entries: Perform during the Super Bowl halftime show, or drop dead. [Gizmodo]

Via Smile, It Looks Good on You

You'd think after Hurricane Sandy, nothing short of the actual apocalypse could rattle New Yorkers. And yet, if Twitter is any indication, it seems there's a fair bit of panicky flailing happening around the city right now. Well, buck up, because we've assembled a complete Internet preparedness kit featuring everything you might possibly need.

Maybe also buy some batteries, though? 

1. Information Sources: First off, you'll want to follow the Wall Street Journal's Eric Holthaus, who will promptly freak you the fuck out with dispatches like, "If higher end snow totals do materialize for NYC, this blizzard could be among the top five since the Civil War." (We saw that movie and it turns out Abraham Lincoln dies, so no thanks.) For sheer ALL CAPS HYSTERIA, it's hard to beat the Weather Channel's website, which comes with bonus livestream of star weatherman Jim Cantore and his furrowed brow from downtown Boston.

2. Playlist: Well, obviously, you're going to want a soundtrack to the snowstorm. Here is a Songza playlist to get you started.

3. Entertainment: Absolutely no Finding Nemo, which would be like wearing the band t-shirt to the concert. Might we recommend House of Cards? The weather is scheduled to last until sometime Saturday, which means you've got plenty of time to watch the entire show. If that doesn't appeal, might as well finally watch Freaks and Geeks, or the one-two punch of New York Times documentaries, Page One and Bill Cunningham New York. (Don't watch The September Issue, as you'll already be feeling frosty enough.)

Of course, you'll probably get sucked into Say Yes to the Dress, regardless. 

If you're not feeling a 13-hour television marathon, there's the entire Longform archive. Might we recommend everything ever written by Texas Monthly? We're not sure what to tell you if the power goes out. Maybe light some candles and try reading an IRL dead-tree book?

4. Food: Obviously skip Trader Joe's unless you enjoy bread riots, and the Fresh Direct train has already pulled out of the station. That means, at some point in the next 24 hours, you're probably going to want to order Seamless. All we'd say is: Don't be an asshole, and tip more than 20 percent--in cash.

5. Ways to Document the Storm: When someone says "historic blizzard," your first thought should be "pictures!!!" There's even a distinct possibility of thundersnow, the most terrifying and awe-inspiring of meteorological phenomena. Well, good news: Vine isn't just for porn. If you haven't already, it's time to download the app so you can spam your followers with out-of-focus video of flurries. If you don't have an iPhone, however, you're stuck with Instagram and Snapchat. Snow-day sexts!

6. Outdoor Activities: Here's a Reddit thread devoted to places you could possibly sled, if you're into that sort of thing.

6. GIFS! GIFS! GIFS! At some point your mom/cousin/best friend from third grade is going to want to know how you're holding up, which means you'll need more than a simple pic you can send. Let us remind you: No Finding Nemo GIFs. Try these instead:

Sad, cold crow via Denise Maneter

Via my head is gone

7. Internet K-Holes: There's no way to plan a K-hole, really, but we suggest starting with this Wikipedia page of conspiracy theories.

8. Coping strategies: If you've ever seen The Shining, you know that being cooped up inside can put a severe strain on one's relationships. There's Yelp if you suddenly find yourself in the market for a marriage counselor. Also, there's always porn.

9. A digital snuggle buddy: Failing all else, there's always the kitten cam.

(Photo: Blogger)

Homeopathy, an alternative form of medicine employed by free-spirited aunts everywhere, has just made a very potent enemy. On his newly-minted Quora blog, Wikipedia cofounder Jimmy Wales voiced his disapproval for the method, which has been systematically proven to be an ineffective pseudoscience.

While suffering from a cold, Mr. Wales asked a pharmacist in London to suggest a remedy. The pharmacist suggested Oscillococcinum, a French homeopathic remedy that he claimed would "disrupt the DNA of the virus before it could make [him] ill." Unfortunately for this poor pharmacist, he had no idea who he was talking to.

Mr. Wales politely declined the recommendation and instead purchased some cough drops. But his hatred for homeopathy was reignited.

The flu, Mr. Wales argues, is a dangerous virus that kills people every year, and yet some people may eschew a life-saving vaccine in order to take homeopathic remedies that are falsely marketed as being effective. "What I want to know is this: why is this legal?" Mr. Wales wondered. "Or, if it is not legal, then what can be done about it?"

Since the Wikipedia cofounder is a little busy at the moment, he asked who he should contact to help fight the good fight against homeopathy. "This is not my primary area of interest and so I am not the right person to lead it myself," he wrote. "But I would like to help."

Mr. Wales is not alone: Many technologists, scientists, Singulatarians and skeptics have also voiced their anti-homeopathy stance. Last year, Singularity University's VP of academics Vivek Wadha came under fire for allegedly spreading the dark art of "pseudoscience" when he let a homeopath speak to students.

(h/t Carl Franzen)

According to a press release from the Knight Foundation, the funding will help Wikimedia develop "features to improve the mobile experience regardless of how feature-rich the device is—including new ways to access Wikipedia via text; increasing the number of languages that can access Wikipedia on mobile; and improving the way feature phones access the platform."

Wikimedia wasn't the only winner in the contest, which shelled out $2.4 million to reward projects that harness mobile to inform and engage communities, often in developing economies. Three New York-based organizations also shared in the Knight Foundation riches.

The human rights organization WITNESS got $320,000 for an app, called InformaCam, that helps authenticate photo, video and audio files, stamping the work with metadata that make news organizations more likely to use the work of citizen journalists.

Digital Democracy, meanwhile, will get $200,000 to arm indigenous people with tools to report on the oil and mining companies that operate in the Peruvian Amazon.

And TKOH will get $330,000 for its project, Thread, which its easier to record audio- and video-rich oral histories without being hindered by the need for high technical expertise.

(Photo: The Morton Report)

In order to pass the Turing Test, a computer must display both emotional and intellectual behavior that's almost indistinguishable from that of humans. IBM's most famous supercomputer, Watson, is close, but first he must emulate one of humanity's finer inventions: crazy Internet slang. YOLO!

According to Fortune, researchers at IBM attempted to indoctrinate Watson into the wonderful world of LOL and OMG, but in the process they accidentally caused the supercomputer to develop a bit of a filthy mouth. As it turned out, Watson "couldn't distinguish between polite language and profanity," and curse words lifted from Urban Dictionary and Wikipedia began sneaking into his lexicon. He even began responding to some researcher queries with the retort "Bullshit!" (Though, to be fair, it has to be so annoying to work with mere human mortals when you're a supercomputer.)

In the end, the IBM researchers had to create a filter that would stop Watson from cursing, as well as wipe his memory of all Urban Dictionary information.

If only we could do the same.