All they had to do was apply transparent glue to a designated section of the billboard, so that any bugs caught on it would appear to be trapped in the bug spray’s path. After a few days, nearly 230,000 insects gave their lives for the sake of advertising. Or, as Publicis Italy calls it, preventing 230,000 insects from bothering anyone else.

Cool? Imaginative? Disgusting? Yes, yes, and yes.

[h/t PSFK]

The bugs don’t pose a threat to humans–or much of anything, really–and actually promote substantial growth in trees once they die. Their carcasses have been found to stimulate the production of seeds and nitrogen in certain trees and plants, acting as a sort of biological Miracle-Gro. However, a large amount of cicadas appearing all at once may prove to be more than an annoyance to some on the East Coast. In fact, this year could be one of the worst we’ve seen in a long time as far as outbreaks go.

“There are some pretty convincing reports coming out,” John Cooley, an expert on cicadas at the University of Connecticut, said. “It’s fair to say it’s starting, but it’s still in the very early stages. It certainly isn’t going all crazy. … When it really happens, it’s not going to be like this. It’s going to be shovel loads of cicadas.”

Entomologists have been tracking the critters as they emerge this spring, and it’s been rather slow going. But Cooley says this is just the calm before the storm. The East Coast is expected to receive the buzzing guests by the billions.

The bugs get their name because of a sort of hibernation cycle they undergo; for 17 years, they burrow underground and feed on plant roots. When it’s time to come out, the males spread out to find mates and the females eventually lay their eggs. The adult cicadas die off within a few weeks, leaving their legacy in the babies soon to hatch.

Though many states have experienced a rather cold spring so far, scientists say it won’t be long before the soil is warm enough for the bugs to begin their life above-ground.

“Within a week or so, it ought to really be going,” Cooley said. “Spring can’t hold off forever.”

Image: Magicicada.org

Google acknowledged the bug yesterday on the Android Google+ page, and said that the Android team was already busy on a fix. The team also clarified that the bug only affects the people app, and that December is still available on the calendar app.

Android1 day ago

We discovered a bug in the Android 4.2 update, which makes it impossible to enter December events in optional fields of the People app (this bug did not affect Calendar). Rest assured, this will be fixed soon so that those of you with December birthdays and anniversaries won't be forgotten by your friends and family. 2784    500 Powered by socialditto

Google is fixing the most visible bug in Android 4.2, but users are hoping that Googles gets a few more fixes in before the end of the year. As we reported yesterday, some users are experiencing everything from random crashes to batteries that drain faster than usual.

It should be noted that commenters in yesterday’s story let us know that their devices running Android 4.2 aren’t actually giving them any problems. The issues don’t seem to be widespread just yet, but the fact that they’re affecting more than just a few users is a problem.

[h/t: Droid Life]

The problem seems to be affecting both Android users and, for some, the desktop website. Basically, users have been unable to update their location on Latitude, assuredly leaving many of their friends and family to work up the obvious conclusion: that they have tripped and fallen off the face of the Earth.

Yesterday, Googler Jade Wang offered up some advice on how to remedy the problem, but according to a few of you readers as well as commenters over at the Google help forum, that fix didn’t actually fix Latitude much. Today, however, a second Googler, Daniel Mabasa, contributed to the forum. His post was less advice but more reconnaissance for details about users experiencing the Latitude bug.

Thanks for all the continued reports, the team is currently investigating the issues–we need a bit more information from you.

1. What is the make/model, service carrier, OS version of your device (if you haven’t already provided it)?

2. Is the email account you’re using for the forum the same as your latitude account? Only answer yes/no, do not post your email address.

3. Do we have permission to look at your account’s Location History for debugging purposes? (This is strictly confidential and used solely for troubleshooting)

Thanks for working with us to help resolve the issue.

-Daniel

He later provided a follow-up post with the following suggestion:

A few more questions and steps for you:

The following steps have helped some users resolve the issue, make sure you’ve done the following before sending us a new report:
Update to Google Maps 6.8.1
Tap “Join Latitude”
Reboot your phone
Wait several minutes
Still not working? What are you seeing?

A. Are some or all friends missing?
B. Can your friends see you?
C. Is your location updated on the website?

His proposed fix still only addresses the Android problem and, even then, many subsequent replies to the suggestion have indicated that Latitude still isn’t working for people. Beyond the mobile problem, several users (myself included) continue to have difficulty when using the desktop version of Latitude on a variety of browsers.

Actually, having just typed that, I decided to try Latitude out on my browsers just to be sure of its non-workingness but now it appears that Latitude has crapped out altogether.

We’ll keep you updated as we find out what’s going on over at Google and, as always, feel free to let us know what your status is with Google Latitude in the comments section below. Especially let us know if Google’s advice above helped you out.

We recently noticed a bug in Google Maps for Android 6.8 that affected Latitude. We are aware that service was disrupted for some users, and we apologize. We have been working on the situation and have implemented a fix.

To implement the fix, please upgrade to Google Maps for Android 6.8.1. Open the app and tap on the “Join Latitude” icon from the drop-down menu from the top toolbar to sign into Latitude.

Despite the solution, several Latitude users posted replies in the thread stating that the proposed fix did not in fact fix Latitude for them. Although Wang offered the later suggestion that Android users should try the old turn-off-and-turn-on reboot, users still reported that Latitude wasn’t working for them after following the advice.

Checking in the desktop version, I’m still met with the same “Unknown Location” location that I was seeing yesterday (evidenced in the lead image).

As far as a possible Android fix is concerned, one user, rgrhcs, posted in the forum with this suggestion:

Ok so after uninstalling Maps from my Android and then reinstalling the newest version 6.8.1 and rejoining Latitude it appears to have fixed the issue, but it will require all other people using it to the do same to allow for there location to also be updated and viewed.

That same user then appended, “Hopefully this helps you get Latitude back working like it’s current crappy self….”

So…. good luck, everybody?

We contacted Google for an update on what’s going on with Latitude and to comment on why the proposed update doesn’t appear to be working for all users, but as of writing this we’ve yet to hear anything. In the meantime, anybody out there that’s experienced this bug had any success with Google’s proposed fix? Anybody discovered a different solution? Or is Latitude still not working for a lot of folks? Let us know in the comments.

The first report of the outage was posted roughly one day ago. Latitude appeared to only be down for users of the mobile app for Android but as of writing this the desktop app doesn’t seem to be working, either (see lead image). As far as the desktop version goes, if you try to share your location, you’ll find yourself with nothing other than a cornflower-blue abyss with the dubious “Unknown Location” as your locale. 31 posts have been made to the forum, all corroborating that Latitude is not functioning properly.

Over at Search Engine Roundtable, Barry Schwartz confirmed with Google Map’s community manager that there is a bug afflicting Google Latitude at the moment but that a fix is on the way.

We asked our Google Maps people for an update, but as of publishing this article we hadn’t heard back from them.

In the meantime, playing with that Unknown Location feature is peculiar. For some reason, it’s not just a big blue abyss you’re sent to but somewhere in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii and just east of the islands of Buariki, Bonriki, and Bairiki. What’s neat about this location is that this specific spot is almost exactly where the International Date Line is.

Fun factoid of the day: Google Latitude defaults you to the earliest beginning of the the day when it’s not working.

Update: As of 5:21PM this afternoon, Latitude still doesn’t appear to working; still no word from Google. Guess you’ll just have to let people know where you are the old-fashioned way: telling them directly.

What you probably don’t know is that the strawberry coloring used in those Frappuccinos is made from cochineal extract, which consists of the ground-up bodies of dead insects–the cochineal bug, to be exact, which is found in Mexico and South America.

Starbucks has issued a statement on the matter, reiterating that the Frappuccino is not vegan-friendly:

“At Starbucks, we strive to carry products that meet a variety of dietary lifestyles and needs. We also have the goal to minimize artificial ingredients in our products. While the strawberry base isn’t a vegan product, it helps us move away from artificial dyes. Many Starbucks ingredients can be combined to create a beverage free from animal-derived products; however, we are unable to guarantee this due to the potential cross-contamination with other animal-derived products in our retail locations.”

The good news (sort of) is that the FDA considers cochineal extract to be safe for consumption, and it has been used for years to give jams, meat, marinades, alcoholic drinks, cookies, cheese and other food products a little color.

But while it’s considered safe for food use, it has also been found by the World Health Organization to cause asthma and allergic reaction in certain people.

So what can you take away from this? If you are prone to allergic reactions or breathing problems, be wary of red food and drink.

Speaking of Open Graph, Facebook has finally caught up on reviewing Open Graph submissions in their backlog. They are working on reducing their response time, but sorting through thousands of submissions takes a while. They ask developers to complete their new Open Graph checklist before submitting their request.

Facebook is retiring three parts of the Facebook development platform on April 1. If you have any applications that uses any of the following tools, better change them now:

Removing support to claim Domains using Page ID
We will remove the ability to claim domains with a Page ID. The recommended option for claiming domains is with an App ID or User ID and existing domains that have been claimed will continue to work fine. After claiming domains, owners are able to view insights or run Domain Sponsored Stories. See the Insights documentation for more on the updated domain claiming flow.

Making deprecated SDK repositories private
We will make the Python and C# SDK repositories on GitHub private. These repositories are deprecated and may not work as expected due to changes in our auth system.

Removing canvas_name field from application object
We will be removing the canvas_name field in favor of namespace field on the application object.

The bug report is always the most fascinating part of the Facebook developer recap. Over the last week, Facebook has had 236 bug reports. Out of those 236 bug reports, 43 bugs were accepted, 12 were by design, 28 were fixed and 81 were duplicates, invalid or need more information.

To see the full list of bug fixes, check out the platform update page.

Facebook is a constantly evolving service that needs to be transparent for developers to make the magic happen. The site is a shining example of close interaction with developers to make sure the site remains active and bug free. This week’s bug fixes should make things go smoother for everybody – developers and users.

While taking a look at the top trending topics on Twitter this morning, one of them (#inappropriatemovies)is giving me "no results" when I click on it. How can it be a trending topic if there are no results?

Interestingly enough, if you search for "inappropriatemovies" with Twitter search, there are plenty of results (hashtag and all):

As you can see from the above screenshot, I am not the only one to have noticed this. The question is, is this a glitch or has Twitter intentionally blocked results for this trending topic (though I can’t imagine why they would). If I’m not mistaken, this has been a trending topic in the past with results that worked just fine.

Meanwhile, the rest of the trending topics appear to work fine. Of course trending topics are part of Twitter Search, and we know it is far from perfect.

Have you ever seen an issue like this on Twitter? Tell us about it.

Update: Robin Wauters is pointing out anoher bug, where Twitter is not shoing the correct application being used on individual Tweets. It’s showing everything as from the web.

A quick, church-sermon-esque Twitter search on "lost followers" reveals hundreds of tweets about them. Some have lost in the tens, others in the hundreds, and others report losing half to 75% of their follower lists.

Twenty or so disappeared from my own account. Jeff Pulver, who is also a Twitter investor, reports the loss of 400 followees and 700 followers overnight. The subsequent resounding question throughout the abbreviated Twittersphere: WTF?

According to that post:

"To combat aggressive following directly we have recently imposed new limits on following—spammy accounts following too many users have been drastically curbed. Those that existed prior to this new limit await review."

While the spam initiative has some interesting timing in relation to this morning’s phenomenon, it was clear early that not only spammy followers were lost, but also friends. Anna, who goes by ShoeSmitten on Twitter, says she lost 120 friends, accounting for half of her list. She told WebProNews many of them were "dear" friends and "far from spammers."

Pulver, too, indicated some larger problem. "I seemed to have lost 400 people who followed and 700 people who followed me," he said via email. "I’m still at 5,000+ ‘real people’ so maybe that is ok. I don’t know yet who got removed by accident and how many of these people where designated as spam.

"This issue is a sign of a bigger problem/challenge/learning that is ongoing."

Pulver also said that when Twitter launched in 2006, the founders "could not have appreciated the space they would be filling in the life of others and the unintended consequences that would prevail." He said this was part of the challenge of maintaining a "real enough time (RET) communication network."

Stone responded to request for comment saying the data loss was not because of recent spam efforts, but instead is a bug. "The followers/followees bug is unrelated to our spam initiatives," he said. "We worked on it last night but we’ll be looking more into the follower bug today."

There is a broader question here that may be very difficult to define. In April of this year, Rocketboom founder Andrew Baron briefly put his Twitter account up for auction on eBay, which brought into question whether one’s list of followers/followees has real monetary value. Baron pulled his auction, so we may not know, but bids reached about a dollar per follower. Could Twitter be liable for lost data then?

Pulver declined to put any specifics on the value of a Twitter account, but agreed there was value, however you define it, in them. "I believe that our social graphs have value. Understanding and levering your social graph is the subject for a fun conversation. But with 5,000 friends on Facebook and 5,000 followers (post twitter spamm issue) I believe there is ‘value’ there.

Posed the same question, Stone had not yet responded by press time.
 

UPDATE: There was a notice on the Twitter corporate blog early this morning warning of a loss of follower counts: 

"We’re still in the process of recovering from the missing follower/following problem that occurred earlier today. Over the next several hours, you may see inaccurate counts or timeline inconsistencies as the correct data is propagated to all parts of the system."