VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI says social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can foster friendships and understanding, but warns they also can isolate people and marginalize others.

Benedict urged a culture of online respect in his annual message Friday for the World Day of Communications.

Benedict welcomes as a “gift” new technologies such as social networking sites, saying they respond to the “fundamental desire” of people to communicate.

But he also warns that “obsessive” virtual socializing can isolate people from real interaction and deepen the digital divide by excluding those already marginalized.

He urges producers to ensure that the content respects human dignity and the “goodness and intimacy of human sexuality.”

Pope Warns Against “Obsessive” Facebook Use.

U.S. military create live remote-controlled beetles to bug conversations

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:18 PM on 19th October 2009

Spies may soon be bugging conversations using actual insects, thanks to research funded by the US military.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has spent years developing a whole host of cyborg critters, in the hopes of creating the ultimate ‘fly on the wall’.

Now a team of researchers led by Hirotaka Sato have created cyborg beetles which are guided wirelessly via a laptop.

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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1221438/Ssh–conversation-bugged-cyborg-beetle.html#ixzz0URGtXzU0