TOP WEB NEWS

Sexual Intercourse – Top Ten Facts

tenyardfede — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:55:02 +0000

Sexual intercourse is also known as copulation, coitus, coition, consummation, fornication, mating, penetration and sexual union. The popular slang that is considered vulgar includes – Bang, bonking, fucking, frig, hump, lay, quickie, ride, screw and shag

1. There are approximately 100 million acts of sexual intercourse each day.

2. The Durex – World Sex Survey indicates that globally we are having sex -

103 times per year, or
*

1.98 times per week, or
*

0.28 times per day.

3. Certain foods can boost your sex drive and the list includes – lean meat, Grains, Watermelon, Pumpkin Seeds, Almonds, Bananas, Strawberries, Mangos, Avocado, Chilies, Basil, Cardamom, Figs, Pepper, Champagne, Oysters, Chocolate, Truffles, Caviar and Whipped Cream.

4. Sex can burn about 70-120 calories for a 130 pound woman, and 77 to 155 calories for a 170 pound man every hour.

5. The Americans and Greeks top the maximum number of sexual intercourses – they do it 124 and 117 times respectively a year. The Indian do it only 76 times a year but the Japanese men seem to be the least interested and only do it 36 times.

6. Sleep studies show that men have about nine erections during a night’s sleep – regardless of what they dream.

7. In 2004 porno star Lisa Sparxxx created a very unusual world record – she had sex with 919 men in 24 hours.

8. There are over 4.2 million porn websites in the world and growing everyday with millions of videos depicting sexual intercourse in various Kama-Sutra postures.

9. The ancient Sanskrit Hindu book – Kama Sutra describes a total of 64 sexual positions for making love and sexual intercourse. These are very graphically depicted in the sculptures of Khajuraho and Konark Temple. He describes making love as “divine union”.

10. In Africa one of the common myths that prevailed has been that sexual intercourse with a Virgin can cure AIDS. Deflowering Virgins has been popular in the past too so much so that Fatafehi Paulah, King of Tonga in the 17th century – deflowered 10 virgins a day and during his entire reign had slept with 37,800 virgins.

By: Sexual Intercourse Top Ten Facts

Alarming Facts about Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs)

tenyardfede — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:49:59 +0000

1. The global annual cost of RTA is almost 230 billion dollars.
2. 1.2 million people Die every year due to Road Traffic Accidents (RTA).
3. Every day, there are 3300 deaths and 6600 serious injuries on the road in the world.
4. Approximately 850,000 deaths occur in those who are under 45 years of age in developing countries and are the sole bread-winners for their families.
5. Road Traffic Accidents cause injury to about 50 million people in the world.
6. Every tenth bed in the hospital is occupied by an accident victim.
7. The average cost of RTA in developing countries is estimated at 65 billion dollars,
8. Trauma related death occurs in India every 1.9 minutes.
9. About 120,000 people die on the road in India every year and a majority of them are pedestrians.
10. 1.27 Million People in India sustain serious injuries due to RTA.
11. Although India has only 1% of the world’s motor vehicles, but it accounts for 6% of the total global RTA deaths.
12. The cost of these accidents and death is Rs.550 Crores or 12.5 billion dollars every year.
13. A majority of major accident survivors are either confined to the bed or wheel chair bound for the rest of their lives due to brain injury or spinal cord injury.
14. Alcohol intoxication causing RTA is present in 15-20% of all traffic accidents.
15. The best chance of survival from a serious RTA victim is, if they are brought into the casualty department within the first hour of trauma or the so called Golden hour.

References

Madan VS, Road Traffic Accidents: Emerging Epidemic, Indian Journal of Neurotrauma (IJNT1) 2006, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 1-3

By: http://www.medindia.net

e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein’s proven right

tenyardfede — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:28:48 +0000

PARIS (AFP) – It’s taken more than a century, but Einstein’s celebrated formula e=mc2 has finally been corroborated, thanks to a heroic computational effort by French, German and Hungarian physicists.

A brainpower consortium led by Laurent Lellouch of France’s Centre for Theoretical Physics, using some of the world’s mightiest supercomputers, have set down the calculations for estimating the mass of protons and neutrons, the particles at the nucleus of atoms.

According to the conventional model of particle physics, protons and neutrons comprise smaller particles known as quarks, which in turn are bound by gluons.

The odd thing is this: the mass of gluons is zero and the mass of quarks is only five percent. Where, therefore, is the missing 95 percent?

The answer, according to the study published in the US journal Science on Thursday, comes from the energy from the movements and interactions of quarks and gluons.

In other words, energy and mass are equivalent, as Einstein proposed in his Special Theory of Relativity in 1905.

The e=mc2 formula shows that mass can be converted into energy, and energy can be converted into mass.

By showing how much energy would be released if a certain amount of mass were to be converted into energy, the equation has been used many times, most famously as the inspirational basis for building atomic weapons.

But resolving e=mc2 at the scale of sub-atomic particles — in equations called quantum chromodynamics — has been fiendishly difficult.

“Until now, this has been a hypothesis,” France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) said proudly in a press release.

“It has now been corroborated for the first time.”

For those keen to know more: the computations involve “envisioning space and time as part of a four-dimensional crystal lattice, with discrete points spaced along columns and rows.”

By: news.yahoo.com

These People Will Fix Your Money

tenyardfede — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:26:25 +0000

These are the men and women Barack Obama assembled today to advise him on how best to fix the cratering economy. They are a largely respected group, and though they ain’t perfect—so many CEOs and so much Larry “Women Be Unable to Learn Math” Summers!—they are certainly more reassuring than the ideologues and incompetents our last guy surrounded himself with. We’ve identified them for your benefit and their brief bios are below.

Roel Campos (former Securities and Exchange commissioner)
Eric Schmidt (chairman and CEO of Google)
Antonio Villaraigosa (mayor of Los Angeles)
William Donaldson (chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from 2003 to 2005)
Laura Tyson (professor at Haas School of Business of University of California at Berkeley; chairman of the National Economic Council from 1995 to 1996; chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1993 to 1995)
David Bonior (member of the House of Representatives from 1977 to 2003)
Robert Rubin (chairman and director of the Citigroup executive committee; secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department from 1995 to 1999)
Jennifer Granholm (governor of Michigan)
Paul Volcker (chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987)
Richard Parsons (chairman of Time Warner)
Anne Mulcahy (chairman and CEO of Xerox)
Roger Ferguson (president and CEO of TIAA-CREF; former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve board of governors)
Lawrence Summers (professor at Harvard University; managing director of DE Shaw; secretary of the U.S. Treasury from 1999 to 2001)
Roger Ferguson (former Fed Vice Chairman, CEO of Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund)
Penny Pritzker (CEO of Classic Residence by Hyatt)
Robert Reich (professor at University of California at Berkeley; secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1993 to 1997)
William Daley (Midwest chairman for JPMorgan Chase; secretary of the U.S. Department of Commerce from 1997 to 2000)

By gawker.com

Five Best Travel Sites for Cheap Tickets

tenyardfede — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:04:07 +0000

If you’ve got travel plans for the upcoming holiday season, the time to book your tickets is now. The question is, where can you find tickets cheap enough to offset the extra $40 you’ll have to spend to check your bags and enjoy a snack on your six-hour flight. Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite travel web site for cheap tickets, and today we’re back with the five most popular answers. Keep reading for a breakdown of the best travel sites on the block, then cast your ballot for the one you like best. Photo by alex-s.

NOTE: In an completely unscientific test of each site’s prices, I ran a search for a round trip ticket from Los Angeles to Omaha (my most frequent flight) departing on November 15th and returning on the 22nd. I’ll end each site’s description below with the result.

Kayak

Kayak is a travel search aggregator, scouring over 140 sites to bring you the cheapest fares it can find. The results are nicely sorted by price, and once the search is complete, you can tweak and filter the results to find the perfect ticket for your needs. Kayak supports email alerts, can search nearby airports, and the Buzz feature is great if you’re looking to take a spur-of-the-minute vacation on the cheap. Like most travel sites, Kayak also covers hotels, cruises, and rental cars. My Flight: $207.

Yapta

Yapta—aka Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant—is an airline search engine with an emphasis on tracking airline prices before and after you purchase your tickets. Before your purchase, Yapta will track a flight and alert you when it falls below your desired price (a feature available on most of the sites featured here). After your purchase, Yapta will continue tracking the ticket price. If it drops, the site will send an alert if you’re eligible for a refund or travel credit. If you’re a big Yapta fan, you can even integrate it in your browser with the previously mentioned Yapta Firefox extension or Internet Explorer plug-in. My Flight: $206.50.

Live Search Farecast

Live Search Farecast is another airline ticket search aggregator similar to Kayak. Farecast sets itself apart by offering price predictions that suggest whether now is the right time to buy your ticket—or whether you should wait. It does this by tracking and analyzing fare histories. Earlier this year, Farecast was purchased by Microsoft, who slapped the Live Search moniker on the front end. My Flight: $216.

Priceline

Priceline has long been a favorite of bargain hunters and William Shatner fans alike. Priceline made its name with its Name Your Own Price system, and while the Name Your Own Price option is still available, it’s been significantly de-emphasized on the site. If you’re looking to really low and you don’t mind bidding blindly (when you name your price, you don’t get to choose departure/arrival times or number of stops, for example), NYOP is a good way to go. Otherwise, Priceline’s default search engine still has a lot to offer. My Flight: $206.

Sidestep

Sidestep is yet another search aggregator that you may find oddly familiar if you’re a Kayak user. That’s because Sidestep was purchased by Kayak a year ago this December. In fact, from what I can tell, SideStep’s search results are the same as what you can get from Kayak—it even sports the same Buzz feature—so it’s really just a matter of choosing which one you like the look and feel of more. My Flight: $207.

By lifehacker.com

Top 10 Online Freebies and Deals

tenyardfede — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:00:51 +0000

Unless you’re a financial Jedi Knight or economic Sith Lord, you probably don’t have a ton of control over our turbulent economy. What you can reign over is your spending and saving—and when you know where they are, you can take advantage of deep discounts and general freebies across the web. Even you’re not much for coupons and you’re occasionally unable to resist splurging on a new tech toy, you can save some serious cash on many purchases, or avoid them entirely, by spending a few minutes online. Check out some of our favorite current free or cheap deals and low-hassle discounts for your weekend viewing. Don’t dawdle, though, because some deals are ending soon. The full list is below. Photo by jswieringa.

10. Get 15-30% off laptop art.

If you’ve spent any time in a Wi-Fi-providing coffee shop, you know that MacBooks look a lot alike, and the most creative most folks get with their rigs is usually a single-color skin. Break your laptop out of conformity at Infectious.com, which is offering 15 to 30 percent off adhesive art, including stick-ons for laptops and walls. The skins, on sale through Nov. 4, tend toward the feminine, but the gallery is pretty intriguing to flip through—and imagine your own gear sporting an eye-grabbing, easily-identifiable look.

9. Get free AT&T Wi-Fi on an iPhone at Starbucks and other nationwide hotspots.

After two false starts, AT&T started offering free Wi-Fi service to iPhone owners at their hotspots at Starbucks and Barnes & Noble and other locations earlier this week. Unfortunately for those of us who relished the idea of browser-tweaking freebies on laptops, this iteration uses a text message to confirm one’s iPhone-having-ness. Still, it’s a faster connection at a wide selection of hotspots, and laptop-luggers only need to spend even the tiniest bit each month off a Starbucks gift card to get a month’s worth of two-hour passes.

8. Get your real free credit report.

If you’re looking for the federally-mandated, completely free, no-service-cancellation-needed online credit report you’re entitled to once per year, head to AnnualCreditReport.com. Use it as explanatory ammo when applying for a loan, see what issues are waiting to be settled, and avoid the temptation of a smirking dilettante who wants to sign you up for an easy-to-miss yearly credit protection fee.

7. Get free or cheap books.

For those willing to look, new and used books you’ve been meaning to read can be had for the price of one of your barely-touched tomes, a postage fee, or just a pittance for downloading. PaperbackSwap (which deals with hardcovers as well) is a neat system, where mailing books out gets you credits you can “spend” to receive them, with no transaction fees, and print-and-mail forms handily provided. BookMooch works much the same, except the organizers say you can maintain a 2-to-1 ratio of received to sent books with your credits. Check out screenshots of those services and other free and cheap means of finding books, both print and audio, at our free/cheap book photo gallery.

6. Get $50 off an Amazon Kindle thanks to Oprah.

Oprah Winfrey announced last week that her favorite gadget had no 3G connectivity and a pretty low-power graphics processor—the Amazon Kindle, an online/offline e-reading device that’s more than just a flat screen you can hold. To entice her viewers and Book Club readers into checking it out, her site offers a coupon code–OPRAHWINFREY—that gets a buyer $50 off the normally $359 Kindle. The code expires today (Nov. 1, 2008), however, so if you’re thinking about getting your eyes off the back-lit screen for a bit, now’s the time to grab one of these nifty gadgets. Here’s more on how the Kindle can save you time (and perhaps money).

5. Ship online purchases for free.

FreeShipping.org is one of those URLs that you could imagine turning into a veritable spam factory, but it thankfully hosts a roundup of free shipping coupons found for more than 600 stores. If you think you can do better, or your online merchant isn’t covered, also check with Free Shipping On, which sometimes hosts different versions of similar coupons. If you’re buying from Amazon, though, and you’re just a few bucks short of hitting your free shipping target, try the Amazon Filler Item Finder, which takes in a dollar amount and shoots back hopefully useful plug-ins to save money and get you more gear.

4. Get a year of free online Carbonite backup with a LaCie drive.

It normally costs $49.95 to back up unlimited data for one year to Carbonite, which runs at least second place amongst our backup-savvy readers. At the moment, though, any external hard drive purchase from LaCie comes with a CD enabling one free year of service. So for the price of something you might’ve bought anyways, you get both external and remote automated backups—pretty much the gold standard of data safety. Carbonite is currently Windows-only, but soon to be Mac-compatible.

3. Get Microsoft Office at 91% off.

Microsoft wants college students to get familiar with their Office lineup—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, et al.—so they’ll be more apt to use and buy it in their professional futures. College students usually need some kind of official Office product at some point in their studies, and they don’t have a lot of cash. Those major forces meet up at “The Ultimate Steal,” in which the Redmond giant gives away its Office Ultimate 2007 package for $59.95 to anyone with a valid .edu address. The real deal, however, is that it seems any old .edu email—including the alumni accounts usually given away for free—get you through the door. One neat combination of Office tools is used by our own Jason Fitzpatrick, who gets things done with Outlook and OneNote 2007.

2. Keep a real web site with a custom domain for $10/year.

In the way-early days of the web, having your “own web site” meant you were all kinds of experienced with servers, protocols, and rack mounting. These days, you don’t even need your own hosted space to maintain a web presence—blogging platforms, page creators, and Google apps (out the wazoo) are practically begging to do all the heavy-code-lifting for you. With a $10-per-year domain name purchase (and some can be found cheaper), anyone who hasn’t dipped their toes into reclaiming or parking their name online can do so without spending a penny more. Reference Gina’s guide to hosting your domain with free apps. If you want to get really DIY on it, you can still host your web content yourself by assigning a domain name to your home server.

1. Choose free software and service alternatives over paid versions.

We highlight free software—both the “as in beer” and “as in speech” varieties—every day at Lifehacker, because a good software solution can save a needy person serious dough. Our compiled free replacements for paid software pulled down $225 worth of software and services, and ran through the free alternatives for Flickr Pro accounts, push email, and simple remote desktop connectors. Our readers had their own libre workarounds as well, suggesting more than $310 in savings on screen capture tools, hard drive imaging, and Slingbox-like streaming video.

What recent or evergreen deals do you turn to when you’re looking to save a few dollars? What deal-finder apps or sites are your first stop for frugality? Spread the wealth in the comments.

By lifehacker.com

Mobile Millennium Project is a Poor Man’s Traffic-Relaying GPS

tenyardfede — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:50:55 +0000

On Monday Nokia, NAVTEQ and UC Berkeley will launch the Mobile Millennium project which will use GPS data from thousands of cell phones to gather traffic information in the San Francisco Bay Area. By having users relay and access the information, it will enable them to find and avoid traffic congestion, similar to the Dash Express GPS system. I’d participate, but I wonder how much researchers would benefit from my daily commute from bed to kitchen table.

In order to get the needed information, the project uses a Java program that participants can download onto their phone.Traffic is then calculated using an algorithm researchers have developed. The software is eventually expected to work on most GPS-enabled phones on GSM networks. The project will not require many users, but does require them to be spread out for better results. Mobile Millennium plans to post the data it receives on the Web, but users who have the Java software will be most up-to-date. Luckily, for all the privacy-seekers, the information culled will be kept anonymous. Because the software uses a lot of data, only users with unlimited data plans are advised to sign up because you certainly don’t want to end up with a $218 trillion phone bill. [Mobile Millennium via IT World]

By gizmodo.com

iPhone Apps

tenyardfede — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:45:45 +0000

Guitar Rock Tour: While it appears to be guilty of any number of IP infringements, Guitar Rock Tour brings a Guitar Hero/Rock Band-like experience to the iPhone, with playable guitar and drums set to what are surely cut-rate covers of Rock You Like a Hurricane and others of that ilk. At $10 this better be awesome, but if you need to take your simulated rocking with you everywhere, here you go.

Mobile Files: From a few weeks back, but probably of note to Mobile Me/iDisk users—Mobile Files claims to be the only free app that can access your iDisk on the run. Files capable of being read by your iPhone (mp3s, office docs, etc) can be viewed remotely. Free

By gizmodo.com

The 50 Skills Every Geek Should Have

tenyardfede — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 08:38:21 +0000

digg_skin = ‘compact’;
digg_bgcolor = ‘#f1f8fa’;
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/gadgets/The_50_Skills_Every_Geek_Should_Have’;

Gizmodo readers like you tend to think they know more about technology any other people—including (or especially) Giz editors. You’re the person your friends and family come to with computer problems, what those in the know call a geek. But there are varying levels of geekdom. In order for you to prove where you stand, I’ve compiled a handy list of 50 key geek skills. Many of them are straightforward, some are tough as hell. Only the most dedicated shut-in basement dwellers will score a perfect 50. How do you stack up? Hit the jump to find out, and be sure to keep a tally as you read—there’s a poll at the end to see how you measure up to your fellow Giz readers.

1. Install a hard drive in a laptop
2. Perform a clean OS install on a machine with two OSes
3. Swap out the battery on your iPod/iPhone
4. Jailbreak an iPhone
5. Wire your house for Ethernet and Coax cable
6. Use BitTorrent and RSS to automatically download new shows from trackers
7. Use an A/V receiver to its fullest capability (every port is taken)
8. Calibrate an HDTV without the manual
9. Use a DSLR in full manual mode
10. Hack the encryption and mooch your neighbor’s Wi-Fi
11. Solder cleanly enough to get around a circuit board
12. Use your 3G phone as a Wi-Fi access point
13. Shove the guts of a modern game console into a retro game console
14. Design a webpage in HTML by hand that features a picture of your cat
15. Use Photoshop to imperceptibly doctor a photo
16. Abstain from buying extended warranties
17. Know where to buy cheap cables and accessories
18. Fix your parents’ computer over the phone without looking at a computer
19. Enter the Konami code
20. Comment on Gizmodo from your phone
21. Type quickly using T9 texting
22. Program a universal remote
23. Contribute code to the Linux kernel
24. Hide porn from your significant other
25. Avoid DRM on everything
26. Know how to back up your data to networked storage—and actually do it
27. Watch TV shows on the internet for free
28. Edit together digital video ripped from YouTube
29. Play any SNES game on your computer through an emulator
30. Reset expired trial software by messing with the registry
31. Hackintosh your PC
32. Download pre-release movies from Usenet
33. Hack the Wii to play homebrew games
34. Get around web content filters on public computers
35. Get into a Windows computer if you forgot your password
36. Securely erase your data so it can’t be recovered
37. Share a printer between a Mac and a PC on a network
38. Build a fighting robot
39. Write your own Firefox plugins
40. Navigate and reorganize the files on your computer in DOS
41. Get something on the front page of Digg
42. Get through to executive customer service
43. Rip a CD to V0 quality MP3s
44. Rip a DVD to DivX
45. Build your own computer from parts
46. Swap out the hard drive in your DVR for a bigger one
47. Get an NES cartridge working again by blowing in it
48. Calibrate a 7.1 surround-sound system
49. Play downloaded games on a Nintendo DS
50. Talk about things that aren’t tech related

By gizmodo.com

College Applicants, Beware: Your Facebook Page Is Showing

tenyardfede — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:58:21 +0000

High-school seniors already fretting about grades and test scores now have another worry: Will their Facebook or MySpace pages count against them in college admissions?

A new survey of 500 top colleges found that 10% of admissions officers acknowledged looking at social-networking sites to evaluate applicants. Of those colleges making use of the online information, 38% said that what they saw “negatively affected” their views of the applicant. Only a quarter of the schools checking the sites said their views were improved, according to the survey by education company Kaplan, a unit of Washington Post Co.

Some admissions officers said they had rejected students because of material on the sites. Jeff Olson, who heads research for Kaplan’s test-preparation division, says one university did so after the student gushed about the school while visiting the campus, then trashed it online. Kaplan promised anonymity to the colleges, of which 320 responded. The company surveyed schools with the most selective admissions.

Admissions officers have acknowledged looking at social-networking sites like Facebook to evaluate applicants.

The vast majority of the colleges surveyed had no policy about when it was appropriate for school officials to look at prospective students’ social-networking sites. “We’re in the early stage of a new technology,” Mr. Olson says. “It’s the Wild, Wild West. There are no clear boundaries or limits.”

The lack of rules is already provoking debate among admissions officers. Some maintain that applicants’ online data are public information that schools should vet to help protect the integrity of the institutions. Others say they are uncomfortable flipping through teenage Facebook pages.

Colleges’ recent interest in social-networking sites is leading many aspiring students to take a hard look at their online habits and in some cases to remove or change postings. With a high-school graduating class nationwide of 3.3 million students, colleges are expected to be sifting through a record number of applications this year.

Nicholas Santangelo, a senior at Seton Hall Prep, a private school in West Orange, N.J., says he expects colleges might look at his Facebook site but hopes admissions officers realize the postings reflect only a partial view of any student. “There are some things I might think about getting rid of,” says Nicholas, 17, who is considering such competitive schools as Amherst College and Wesleyan University.

Sites like Facebook and MySpace let users set up online profiles — including pictures, videos and other personal information — then solicit others to join their network of online “friends.” Users can exchange messages, often publicly, and sometimes offer detailed descriptions of their activities, dreams and fears.

The sites have inspired many a national conversation over privacy and exhibitionism. Some job applicants have already discovered the hard way that employers often examine the sites to weed out candidates. Representatives of the sites say users can establish online privacy settings that let their pages be viewed only by invited “friends.” MySpace is part of News Corp., which owns The Wall Street Journal. Facebook is closely held.

But Kaplan and many high-school guidance counselors say students often don’t restrict public access on social-networking sites and, in any case, damaging information can find a way to leak out. David Hawkins, director of public policy and research for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, a professional organization, says schools don’t have time to scour the Internet systematically to check out thousands of applicants. But he says admissions officers at times receive anonymous tips, which may be from rival applicants, about embarrassing Facebook or MySpace material, such as a picture of a student drunk at an underage party.

In another recent study, Nora Ganim Barnes, director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, found that 21% of colleges used social-networking sites for recruiting prospects and gathering information about applicants. It’s especially common when universities are awarding scholarships because it isn’t hard to go online for a handful of finalists. “No one wants to be on the front page of the newspaper for giving a scholarship to a murderer,” she says. “Everybody is trying to protect their brands.”

Thomas Griffin, director of undergraduate admissions at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, says the school will do an Internet search, including Facebook and other sites, if an application raises “red flags,” such as a suspension from school. Mr. Griffin says several applicants a year have been rejected in part because of information on social-networking sites. In a recent case, the university researched a student who disclosed on his application that he had been disciplined for fighting. The school found a Facebook page with a picture of the applicant holding a gun. “We have to use this information to make the best decision for the university,” Mr. Griffin says.

Janet Lavin Rapelye, dean of admission at Princeton University, says the school hasn’t rejected any applicant because of information posted on the Internet. Princeton doesn’t have time to look at all applicants’ online information, but if an offensive Facebook post came to the college’s attention, the school would examine it, Ms. Rapelye says. “All of us would consider anything that would cause us to doubt a student’s character,” she says.

Greg Roberts, senior associate dean of admission at the University of Virginia, says his staff is free to check out anonymous tips about social-networking sites or make use of the information if the admissions committee is evaluating a “tight” decision.

Sandra Starke, vice provost for enrollment management at the State University of New York at Binghamton, says she instructs her staff to ignore Facebook and other sites because she considers postings to be casual conversations, the online equivalent of street-corner banter. “At this age, the students are still experimenting,” she says. “It’s a time for them to learn. It’s important for them to grow. We need to be careful how we might use Facebook.”

Marc Prablek, a senior at Ladue Horton Watkins High School in suburban St. Louis, considers Facebook information “out in the public” and fair game for colleges. The 17-year-old, with some 550 “friends,” says, “I don’t have anything bad on Facebook,” but he may tweak his profile to be “more sophisticated.”

Marc, who plans to apply early to Stanford University, says he won’t mention that he loves to read X-Men comic books. His Facebook literary picks currently include “Crime and Punishment” and “Pride and Prejudice.”

High-school guidance counselors advise applicants, even if they restrict public access on their sites, to refrain from including anything that could hurt them in college admissions. They especially caution against foul or offensive language, nudity, or photos of drinking and drug use.

“Students need to be accountable for their actions,” says Scott Anderson, director of college guidance at St. George’s Independent School, a private school near Memphis, Tenn. When writing on Facebook or MySpace, he says, they should be thinking, “Is this something you want your grandmother to see?”

Write to John Hechinger at john.hechinger@wsj.com