Hurricane Irene lashes Dominican Republic, heads for Bahamas, US (The Christian Science Monitor)

Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic – An increasingly powerful Hurricane Irene lashed the Dominican Republic’s north coast Tuesday, forcing thousands to seek refuge as it moved north towards the US.

An estimated 7,000 residents from along the Caribbean country’s Atlantic Coast had been evacuated or displaced by the storm, says José Luis Germán, deputy director of the country’s Emergency Operations Center. The center had lost contact with several communities and was still collecting information, he says. No injuries had been reported.

“The situation is changing from minute to minute. We know there is damage, but we don’t know how extensive it is yet,” Mr. Germán says, adding that several communities were without power.

IN PICTURES: Hurricane Irene

The storm strengthened into a Category 2 hurricane with 100 mph winds, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said in Tuesday morning advisory. It was moving to the northwest at a speed of 10 mph and was likely to strengthen into a major Category 3 storm on Thursday.

The center issued hurricane warnings for the Turks and Caicos and parts of the Bahamas.

By Friday morning, residents in Florida’s East Coast could be affected by the storm, which is projected to strengthen to a Category 4 storm.

The center projected the storm would make landfall in the US in the Carolinas this weekend.

Dennis Feltgen, spokesman for the center, says “an atmospheric tug of warâ€

Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 season, on Monday tore through Puerto Rico, leaving roughly 1 million residents without electricity. Gov. Luis Fortuno declared a state of emergency as the storm caused flooding and downed power lines.

It picked up strength as it moved toward the island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Previous models showed it barreling directly over the island, but it moved north.

Disaster averted in HaitiAlthough Haiti is expected to see rain and wind, it will be spared a direct hit – a potential disaster for a country where nearly 600,000 remain in refugee camps more than 19 months after the 7.0 magnitude earthquake.

Dominican authorities, meanwhile, maintained a red alert for several communities, where flooding was possible even after the storm moves offshore. The storm could dump as much as 10 inches of rain in spots, the center said.

Dominican Republic prepares for relief efforts“We had a little bit of luck in that we avoided a direct hit. But some of those communities in the north and northeast are susceptible to flooding,” says Germán.

The country had emergency food and water supplies for 1.5 million people and readied volunteers to assist with evacuations.

Dozens of flights in an out of Dominican airports were canceled and hotels in the tourism-rich Atlantic Coast doubled up on supplies.

The 109-room Gran Bahia Principe resort in the town of Samaná, which sits on a bay off the northern Samaná Pennisula, saw heavy rains and “lots of wind gusts,” says a hotel employee. “There is still a lot of water in the streets and there are trees down. But it is not as bad as it could have been.”

IN PICTURES: Hurricane Irene

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Google+ promises heads' up before it dumps your fake account

via Know Your Meme

Who gets dumped by Google+? People who use upside-down characters in their names, or who are using obviously fake names, "like 'god' or worse," writes Robert Scobal.

Google+ wants you to know that while yes, it indeed "screwed up" over how it handled businesses flocking to the fledgling social network (by dumping them), it is not all about dumping individuals using fake names willy-nilly.

Rather, "it is about having common names and removing people who spell their names in weird ways, like using upside-down characters, or who are using obviously fake names, like ‘god’ or worse,"  tech blogger Robert Scobal posted on his Google+ profile yesterday, following his conversation with Google VP +Vic Gundotra (and Scobal's former boss at Microsoft).

As Technolog noted previously, for all Google+'s attempts to do things better than Facebook, the one thing the nascent product had in common with its chief competitor is unceremoniously and without warning, dumping profiles like it's running out of Internet.

Further addressing the growing freakout over "Google+ deleting accounts en masse, with no clear answers," Google+ product VP Bradley Horowitz attempted to provide some answers Monday night.

"We’ve noticed that many violations of the Google+ common name policy were in fact well-intentioned and inadvertent and for these users our process can be frustrating and disappointing," Horowitz posted on Google+. "So we’re currently making a number of improvements to this process — specifically regarding how we notify these users that they’re not in compliance with Google+ policies and how we communicate the remedies available to them."

From here on out, Google+ will give users a clear heads' up if it thinks your account is in violation, and the opportunity for the suspect user to address the issue. Further, any confusion over the Google+ name policy is clearly addressed in this document you'll receive at time of notification — and pretty much states you still have to use your real name, not a pseudonym: 

Google Profiles is a product that works best in the identified state. This way you can be certain you’re connecting with the right person, and others will have confidence knowing that there is someone real behind the profile they’re checking out. For this reason, Google Profiles requires you to use the name that you commonly go by in daily life.

On the "plus" side (get it?!), it's awesome that Google wasted little time in openly addressing the hitches that come with any new endeavor. But to believe that Google+, like Facebook, demands real names because, "this way you can be certain you’re connecting with the right person, and others will have confidence knowing" that unicorns exist or whatever, is like asking us to believe the YouTube battle between Old Spice Dude and Fabio is for realzies. (It is not.)

Real names, as far as social networks are concerned, are about real information about you that advertisers can use to better sell you stuff. There's no such thing as a free profile, and your info is how you pay.

As Horowitz writes, Google+ does give you the opportunity to use a nickname or maiden name elsewhere in your profile, which you can make visible to whomever you choose, but of course this is no concession to those interested in Internet anonymity — a concept still worth fighting for elsewhere in cyberspace. (On social networks, it's a battle you ain't ever gonna win.)

The popular myth — spread by social networks, primarily — that lost anonymity means a troll-free Internet was quickly proved false by the Facebook comments app now used on many websites (including msnbc.com). Check underneath any news story of heated interest and you'll see more than a few commentors spewing bile on their fellow Web users, despite having their "real" Facebook identities attached to their comments.

Then check out the Geek Feminism Wiki for a full list of "people who are disadvantaged by any policy which bans Pseudonymity and requires so-called "Real names" (more properly, legal names)." Abuse victims, political dissidents and people who wish to discuss issues of health, sexuality or politics without damaging their relationships with acquaintances or employers.

That said, the Google+ policy on non-anonymity is pretty much the same as Facebook's, and most likely will never change. You've got to give Google+ credit, however, for straight-up addressing Google+ hysteria with comparatively little spin. It's rare you'll see any giant company repeat its bad press, but here Horowitz speaks to "myths" spawned by early Google+ gaffes:

MYTH: Google doesn’t care about ____. (businesses, teenagers, organizations, pseudonymous usage, disadvantaged populations, etc.)

We aspire to having great solutions for these (and many more) use cases. While this may appear as easy as the stroke of a policy pen (“Just let the businesses in!”), we think we can do better. We’re designing features for different use cases that we think will make a better product experience both for them and for everyone else. Please don’t misconstrue the product as it exists today (< 4 weeks since entering Field Trial) as the “end state.” We’re flattered that there’s so much passion and interest... and will continue to improve the product and innovate in ways that will hopefully surprise and delight.

MYTH: Not abiding by the Google+ common name policy can lead to wholesale suspension of one’s entire Google account.

When an account is suspended for violating the Google+ common name standards, access to Gmail or other products that don’t require a Google+ profile are not removed. Please help get the word out: if your Google+ Profile is suspended for not using a common name, you won't be able to use Google services that require a Google+ Profile, but you'll still be able to use Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Blogger, and so on. (Of course there are other Google-wide policies (e.g. egregious spamming, illegal activity, etc) that do apply to all Google products, and violations of these policies could in fact lead to a Google-wide suspension.)

Summing up: Google+ will still dump your fake account, but it will tell you first. And that's just good manners.

More on the annoying way we live now:

Helen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet. Tell her to get a real job on Twitter and/or Facebook ... and see if you can find her on Google+. She triple-dog dares you

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