advantageous shagging: October 2013

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Georgia votes for president to succeed Saakashvili

Georgian Dream ruling coalition's presidential candidate Georgy Margvelashvili, left, kisses his daughter Anna, outside a polling station during presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Georgians are voting Sunday for a president to succeed Mikhail Saakashvili, who during nearly a decade in power has turned this former Soviet republic into a fledgling democracy and a staunch U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Georgy Abdaladze)

Georgian woman crouches as she leaves a voting booth during the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Georgians are voting Sunday for a president to succeed Mikhail Saakashvili, who during nearly a decade in power has turned this former Soviet republic into a fledgling democracy and and a staunch U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Georgian woman and her son cast a ballot at a polling station in the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Georgians are voting Sunday for a president to succeed Mikhail Saakashvili, who during nearly a decade in power has turned this former Soviet republic into a fledgling democracy and a staunch U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Georgy Abdaladze)

Georgians cast their ballots in the presidential election in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. Georgians are voting Sunday for a president to succeed Mikhail Saakashvili, who during nearly a decade in power has turned this former Soviet republic into a fledgling democracy and and a staunch U.S. ally. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Georgians voted Sunday for a president to succeed Mikhail Saakashvili, who during nearly a decade in power has turned this former Soviet republic into a fledgling democracy and a staunch U.S. ally.

For Saakashvili, it's a bitter departure. The vote is expected to cement the control of his rival, billionaire Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, whose coalition routed Saakashvili's party in a parliamentary election a year ago.

Ivanishvili's chosen candidate, Giorgi Margvelashvili, a former university rector with little political experience, is expected to win Sunday's election. But much uncertainty remains.

Ivanishvili has promised to step down next month and nominate a new prime minister, who is almost certain to be approved by parliament. Under Georgia's new parliamentary system, the next prime minister will acquire many of the powers previously held by the president.

Ivanishvili has not yet named his choice to lead the country. And he says he intends to maintain influence over the government, although how is not entirely clear. But his fortune, estimated at $5.3 billion, gives him considerable leverage in this country of 4.5 million people with a gross domestic product of $16 billion.

Much uncertainty also hangs over Saakashvili's future. Since last year's election and what was in effect a transfer of power, dozens of people from Saakashvili's team, including several former government ministers, have been hit with criminal charges and some have been jailed, including the former prime minister.

Ivanishvili confirmed in an interview with The Associated Press that Saakashvili also is likely to be questioned by prosecutors once he leaves office next month.

Prosecutors have reopened a criminal inquiry into the 2005 death of Zurab Zhvania, who was Saakashvili's first prime minister. Zhvania's death was attributed to accidental carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a faulty gas heater, but his brother has accused Saakashvili of hiding the truth.

Saakashvili also may face questioning over the 2008 war with Russia, which ended with Russian troops in full control of two breakaway Georgian republics. His opponents accuse him of needlessly antagonizing Russia and giving Moscow a pretext to invade.

Saakashvili repeated Sunday that he has no plans to flee the country. "No one can forbid me either to leave the country or to stay, but I do not intend to leave Georgia," he told television journalists while jogging along the Black Sea coast in western Georgia.

His party needs its candidate, former parliamentary speaker David Bakradze, to finish a strong second among the 23 candidates to maintain political influence. Bakradze now leads the opposition faction in parliament.

Bakradze faces the biggest challenge from Nino Burdzhanadze, a veteran politician who boasts of good relations with Moscow and has called for Saakashvili to be jailed.

While Ivanishvili made his money in Russia and has had some success in restoring trade ties with Georgia's hostile neighbor, he has maintained the pro-Western course set by Saakashvili.

"Nobody can change this. This is the will of the Georgian people, to see their country in the EU and in NATO," said Alexi Petriashvili, one of Ivanishvili's ministers. "The majority see the U.S. as Georgia's strongest strategic partner."

If not for Washington, Georgia most likely wouldn't have survived as an independent state, Petriashvili told the AP. He pointed to Washington's support for the closing of Russian military bases in Georgia in 2005.

The U.S. supports Georgia diplomatically and financially, with assistance in 2013 totaling about $70 million.

Ivanishvili's government has come under pressure from U.S. and EU officials to show that the justice system isn't being used to settle political scores and to refrain from jailing Saakashvili.

Many Georgians became deeply disillusioned with what they saw as the excesses and authoritarian turn of the later years of Saakashvili's presidency.

The achievements of the early years, however, are difficult to deny. Saakashvili brought the economy out of the shadow, restored electricity supplies, eradicated a corrupt traffic police force, and laid the foundation for a democratic state.

Georgia's GDP has quadrupled since Saakashvili became president after leading the peaceful 2003 Rose Revolution.

"Yes, everyone forgot how we sat in the darkness and what kind of roads we had," Marina Vezirishvili, 46, said after voting in Tbilisi. "But just so you know, I'm not a member of Misha's party and I didn't vote for their candidate."

Saakashvili, commonly known as Misha, has earned wide international respect for allowing the government to change through the ballot box rather than through revolution for the first time in Georgia's post-Soviet history.

"We have to recognize, whatever our position is inside Georgian political fights, that Georgia has been a great example," said Joao Soares, head of an election monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-27-Georgia-Election/id-1f6d71f5c27347e9b5b9f507dea41439
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Pastor who banned fried chicken leads Mississippi Obamacare push

By Julie Steenhuysen

HERNANDO, Mississippi (Reuters) - When Dr Michael Minor first became pastor at Oak Hill Missionary Baptist Church in Hernando, Mississippi, in 1996, he discovered a population overcome by an epidemic of obesity.

"It was so bad, I was having a funeral every weekend," he said.

Minor took dramatic action for a Southern preacher, banning fried chicken at church potlucks and setting up a walking track around the church perimeter.

He has had marked success. "You can see the difference. People are much better sized, way better. And once they get it off, they want to keep it off," he said.

Now he is taking on the much bigger task of trying to get the state's nearly 275,000 uninsured people to sign up for health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

With technology problems dogging enrollment on Obamacare health insurance exchanges, the roles of people like Minor are becoming increasingly crucial in determining the success or failure of President Barack Obama's healthcare law.

His church is one of only two organizations in the state to get a federal "navigator" grant to help the state's uninsured sign up for policies provided through Obamacare.

He has his work cut out for him.

Mississippi ranked last in a 2012 study comparing the health of the states, tying with Louisiana, and consistently ranks at the top for rates of obesity and diabetes.

The local political environment has been far from friendly to Obamacare. Republican-led Mississippi rejected federal funds for an expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor - while its application for a state-based exchange was rejected by Washington, leaving it to use the faulty federal exchange.

"That man is essentially heading up outreach enrollment of the ACA for Mississippi. It's staggering," said Roy Mitchell, executive director of the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program.

Mitchell and other health advocates initially wondered just how this pastor of a tiny church on the Northwestern edge of the state won its grant.

"I applied for it," said the 48-year-old Harvard graduate and health advocate who grew up just miles away in the town of Coldwater.

"I'm a firm believer that people are limited because someone tells them they are limited," Minor said. "I tell my members we can do whatever we want to do. Let's just go for it."

'NO FRY ZONE'

In the foyer of Oak Hill Baptist hangs a picture of Minor and his wife, Lottie, in the White House, a proud reminder of the heights this tiny church of 100 or so has already reached under his leadership. His efforts caught the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama, who in 2009 invited Minor to help promote her "Let's Move" anti-obesity campaign and has invited him to the White House on several occasions.

Off to the side is a room housing a machine donated by the American Heart Association that allows parishioners to get regular readings of their blood pressure and body-mass index.

In the church kitchen hangs a plaque reminding the congregation that it is a "No Fry Zone," a sign of the church's commitment to offer healthier fare at church gatherings.

"It's a symbol, especially with people of color," Minor said of the ban on fried chicken. "You've got to rally around symbols."

Seeing the success in his own congregation, Minor began expanding his gospel of healthy living. His church started sending teams of "health ambassadors" and health professionals to make regular checks on people in rural areas in the Mississippi delta, the poorest region in the poorest state in America.

He started organizing ushers in Northwest Mississippi to promote health among churches in the region, an effort that has grown into a national outreach program through the National Baptist Convention, the largest predominantly African-American Christian denomination in the United States.

Minor sees his work promoting health-care reform as a natural next step. "The ACA fits a niche," he said.

"The way we see it is, we're already doing a decent job with the spiritual aspect of it. The ACA affords us the opportunity to rescue the body and the mind."

HEAVY LIFTING

As a navigator, Minor's initial plan was to recruit ministers in the 41 counties in the Mississippi delta, but when he realized that the other group with federal navigator funding, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, was initially only planning to target current and past patients, Minor decided to set up a statewide network.

To stretch his $317,742 grant, Minor joined forces with Cover Mississippi, a network of consumer and patient advocacy groups and community health centers organized by the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program.

Building awareness will be critical. According to a Kaiser Health Tracking Poll released last month, two-thirds of the uninsured said they did not have enough information about the law to know how it will impact their families. And a survey commissioned by the MHAP of nearly 1,000 residents who would be eligible to buy insurance on the exchanges showed that three-fourths did not know enrollment began October 1.

The U.S. government has not released figures on how many people have signed up so far, but Chad Feldman, who's leading the navigator program at UMMC, said the center has assisted more than 3,000 people, including 1,000 phone calls and more than 2,000 visits.

"The Mississippians we are interacting with are very interested. People are engaged and wanting to learn more," Feldman said.

The hospital has been reaching out to the 200 or so uninsured patients who seek treatment at the hospital each day, and early next year it plans to use its telemedicine network to offer video counseling to walk people through the application process in 100 sites across the state.

That would mean there would be no in-person navigators in some of the state's neediest counties.

So Minor has spent the past three weeks patching together a network of patient advocacy groups and church volunteers, who have gone through the needed 20 hours of navigator training, with the blessing of the Department of Health and Human Services.

He is also tapping into the network of some 20 community health centers and organizations that shared nearly $2.5 million in federal grants to become certified application counselors - trained individuals stationed in health centers that can offer face-to-face enrollment assistance.

As of last week, Minor and his coalition partners had built a network of 75 to 100 navigators and counselors.

"I was so happy I jumped up and down," he said. "We have navigators within an hour's drive of everywhere in the state."

The coalition crosses denominational lines and racial and ethnic lines. "People are just so excited," he said.

Minor's organization will be hitting its stride around the second week of November, when he expects to be signing up thousands of people for coverage that begins on January 1. The plan is to organize enrollment events ahead of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in the hopes that people will share their good news during family gatherings.

"We feel like once you get people in churches and families, they will become de facto navigators," he said.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Prudence Crowther)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pastor-banned-fried-chicken-leads-mississippi-obamacare-push-120227102.html
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'Zombie' Tea Party Won't Stay Dead

With the predictability of Halloween decorations flooding your local CVS, the Tea Party is once again being pronounced dead. Unable to defund Obamacare, unhappy about funding the government, the far right’s nihilist wing has nowhere to go but the grave.

Or so we are told. But in a very seasonal irony, it won’t stay buried.

Source: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/2013/10/24/039zombie039_tea_party_won039t_stay_dead_318554.html
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More evidence buyers are shunning Windows Phone: Carrier discounts

What's going on with discounted prices for Windows Phone 8 smartphones like the recently launched Samsung ATIV S Neo and Nokia's Lumia 1020?

Carriers won't say much, but they seem to be clearing their shelves of excess smartphone stock that's getting stale by cutting prices for some Windows Phone 8 phones that have been on the market for barely two months.

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In one example, AT&T on Thursday said it would begin selling the Samsung ATIV S Neo for $99.99 with a two-year contract starting Nov. 8. The 4.77-in. Neo will be AT&T's first Windows Phone 8 smartphone from Samsung and will run on the carrier's 4G LTE network.

At that price, the Neo has plenty going for it, but Sprint is now offering the same smartphone for half of AT&T's price, $49.99, plus a two-year contract.

What's more, the Neo first went on sale at Sprint on Aug. 16, when Sprint charged $149.99 with a two-year contract and a rebate. Sprint had already been selling the HTC 8XT, also with Windows Phone 8, in July for $99.99 with rebate and a two-year agreement.

Nokia is normally the big name associated with Windows Phone 8, making about 80 percent of such devices, including the Lumia 1020 with a 41-megapixel camera.

AT&T put the Lumia 1020 on sale exclusively in the U.S. for $299.99 and a two-year agreement in August. But now, AT&T is selling the Nokia Lumia 1020 for just $199.99 online.

AT&T will also be the exclusive U.S. carrier of the coming Nokia Lumia 1520 with its 6-in. display, also on Windows Phone 8, the carrier revealed earlier this week.

So, are the discounted prices really that significant -- possibly a sign of Windows Phone 8 weakness in the U.S.? Or are the discounts part of a wider pattern caused by having so many smartphones on various platforms with an array of new features hitting the market at the same time?

And why would AT&T begin selling the ATIV S Neo, weeks after rival Sprint did, when a phone's shelf life is considered to be so short?

The answers to these questions are somewhat obscure. To be sure, carriers constantly adjust prices for many smartphones -- especially the slower selling ones --as they recognize that new models, such as the iPhone 5S, will capture buyers' attention of buyers for just a few hurried weeks before year-end sales come to a close.

In such a crowded and fast-paced marketplace, Windows Phone 8 will suffer heavily because it has only 3.3 percent market share, according to research firm Gartner's numbers for the second quarter. Gartner placed Windows Phone 8 third behind phones running the Android mobile operating system and Apple's iOS, but ahead of BlackBerry for the first time.

Analysts theorized that Samsung could be reaching out to AT&T for sales of the ATIV S Neo by offering the carrier some sort of discounted wholesale price to reduce Samsung inventory.

Meanwhile, Sprint's discount on the same phone could be Sprint's way to quickly reduce its own ATIV S Neo inventory. Sprint offered an explanation on Thursday for its Neo discount of 66 percent, indicating concern for its cost-conscious customers. "Sprint is regularly reviewing our product pricing to be sure our offerings are as accessible as possible for our customers," a spokesman said.

Source: http://podcasts.infoworld.com/d/mobile-technology/more-evidence-buyers-are-shunning-windows-phone-carrier-discounts-229566?source=rss_mobile_technology
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China Fights Choking Smog With New Regulations

China's central and local governments are releasing a slew of new regulations aimed at cutting severe air pollution and mitigating its deadly effect on citizens. The seriousness of the problem is obvious in China's northeast, where smog in one city this week cut visibility down to a few yards, and particulate matter soared to 60 times the level deemed safe by the World Health Organization.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

And I'm Audie Cornish.

Cool autumn temperatures are moving into Northeast China. And Sunday, many cities turned on their coal-fired heating systems for the first time this season. This contributed to severe air pollution, which has largely shut down Harbin, a city of 11 million people. China has recently announced new regulations aimed at cutting smog and mitigating its deadly effect on citizens.

But as NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports from Beijing, any fundamental solution seems a long way off.

(SOUNDBITE OF A ROADWAY)

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: Schools, highways and airports remain closed for a second day in the city of Harbin. State television showed images of cars with flashing hazard lights and pedestrians wearing face masks, appearing and disappearing in a thick grey miasma. A mix of soot, dust and other tiny particles, that get into people's lungs, was recorded at levels as high as 60 times the concentration of the World Health Organization considers safe.

Many officials are blaming this emergency in part on the weather. Fang Li, the vice director of Beijing's Environmental Protection Agency, spoke at a press conference in the capital.

FANG LI: (Through translator) The heavy pollution in Harbin is due to weather conditions. We have noticed that the entire northeastern region is shrouded in heavy fog. Under these conditions, it's not easy for these pollutants to dissipate.

KUHN: Indeed, there has been no strong winds and heavy rain to lower wash the manmade pollution away. Today, Fang outlined the Chinese capital's new plan for dealing with pollution emergencies. After three days of heavy pollution, schools will close; factories will scale back production; and private cars will only be allowed on the roads on alternating days, depending on their license plates.

LI: (Foreign language spoken)

KUHN: And when it really gets smoggy, Fang added, the capital will also ban fireworks and barbecues.

Before last year, China did not disclose detailed data about air pollution. The Chinese language did not even have a word for smog until very recently. Wang Jingjing is vice director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs. She displays a map which shows that most of the pollution in China comes from industry.

WANG JINGJING: (Through translator) We can see that there are more than 4,100 major sources of air pollution. These sources emit more than 65 percent of all the sulfur dioxide, nitrides and particulate matter.

KUHN: Wang welcomes a series of recently announced government plans to tackle pollution. Last month, China announced a plan to cut its coal consumption to below 65 percent of primary energy use by 2017 - a reduction of less than 2 percent in five years. She says China's government is determined to avoid the mistakes the West made when it industrialized.

JINGJING: (Through translator) We've seen the historical experiences and lessons that have come before. We don't want to take that path. We must control the pollution beforehand, instead of cleaning up afterwards.

KUHN: Whatever is learned from the West's experienced, it seems clear that China already faces a lengthy process of cleaning up its air, land and water.

Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Beijing.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NprProgramsATC/~3/LigaaF1TskA/story.php
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'Maria' case raises fears of booming baby fraud

In this police handout photo taken on Thursday , Oct. 17, 2013, Christos Salis, 39, right, and his companion Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, or Selini Sali — as the woman has two separate sets of identity papers. pose with the little girl only known as "Maria" in the Larisa regional police headquarters, Greece. Police in Greece have released the photographs of a couple alleged adductors of a girl known “Maria” after they were formally taken onto pre-trial custody and an international search for the girl’s parents intensified. (AP Photo/Greek Police)

In this police handout photo taken on Thursday , Oct. 17, 2013, Greek Roma, Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, or Selini Sali —a woman who has two separate sets of identity papers. is seen in the Larisa regional police headquarters, Greece. Dimopoulou and her companion have been charged with abducting a little girl found living with them in a Gypsy settlement. Police in Greece on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, have released the photographs of a couple alleged adductors of a girl known “Maria” after they were formally taken onto pre-trial custody and an international search for the girl’s parents intensified. (AP Photo/Greek Police)

In this police handout photo taken on Thursday , Oct. 17, 2013, Greek Roma, or Gypsy, man Christos Salis, 39, is seen in the Larisa regional police headquarters, Greece. Salis and his companion have been charged with abducting a little girl found living with them in a Gypsy settlement. Police in Greece on Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, have released the photographs of a couple alleged adductors of a girl known “Maria” after they were formally taken onto pre-trial custody and an international search for the girl’s parents intensified. (AP Photo/Greek Police)

Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Council of Europe, speaks to The Associated Press in an interview at the start of his two-day visit to Athens, on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013. Greek lawmakers are to vote late Tuesday on a proposal to suspend state funding for political parties accused of criminal activities, a measure targeting the Nazi-inspired Golden Dawn group. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Prosecutors across Greece were ordered Tuesday to conduct emergency checks of birth records from the past six years, after the arrest of a Gypsy couple on suspicion of abducting a little girl triggered fears of widespread welfare fraud.

The blond-haired, fair-skinned girl, known as Maria and believed to be 5 or 6, drew the attention of police during a raid on a Gypsy camp last week because she looked unlike the couple raising her. DNA tests showed they were not her biological parents as claimed on her birth certificate.

The mystery of the girl's identity has attracted the interest of investigators and parents involved in missing-child cases around the world. The case has also raised concern among human rights groups that Europe's Roma, or Gypsy, community is being unfairly targeted.

The Gypsy camp suspects, Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, and Christos Salis, 39, received more than 2,500 euros ($3,420) in monthly welfare payments after declaring they had 14 children, eight of whom are unaccounted for and presumed not to exist, authorities said. They were jailed on charges of abduction and document fraud.

They deny the abduction allegations, claiming they received Maria from a destitute woman to raise as their own.

A Supreme Court prosecutor ordered a review of thousands of birth certificates issued after Jan. 1, 2008, amid growing criticism that the country's birth registration system is wide open to abuse.

Families cheating the welfare system typically declare the same birth in multiple cities or produce false birth certificates for children who may not exist.

Up until five months ago, there was no central national registry, so births declared in different municipalities were not cross-checked.

"The case of the underage girl Maria does not appear to be an isolated one," the order signed by prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani said.

Benefit fraud has become a powerful issue in Greece, which is suffering through its sixth year of recession and has an unemployment rate of nearly 28 percent. Most Greeks have seen their income and pensions drastically cut since the country was bailed out in 2010.

Police spotted Maria during one of dozens of raids they have carried out on Roma camps in the past few weeks in a crackdown on drug smuggling and burglary gangs.

Police said Maria's birth was falsely declared in Athens by Dimopoulou in 2009, but they did not elaborate. A charity in charge of the girl's temporary care said a dental examination indicated she is 5 or 6, not 4 as originally thought. It is not even certain the child was born in Greece.

Her DNA has been entered into an Interpol database to check for matches.

On Monday, the mayor of Athens suspended three officials in charge of record-keeping after an emergency review revealed multiple instances of birth certificates issued without proper documentation.

In Ireland on Monday, police seized a young blond girl from a Romanian Gypsy couple in Dublin in a move spurred by the case in Greece.

The couple said the 7-year-old child was theirs, but a Dublin maternity hospital they cited had no record of the birth. No arrests have been made.

Europe's top human rights official said he is worried about a possible backlash against the Roma.

"Of course it is a danger," said Thorbjoern Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe. "If a Roma family, a Roma people are involved in this, this should not lead to condemnation of the whole Roma society."

___

AP writers Costas Kantouris in Thessaloniki, Nicholas Paphitis in Athens and Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-22-Greece-Mystery%20Girl/id-c39b142f927d4173accd8197dc298fa2
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LinkedIn tool shares user info on iPhone email

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — LinkedIn just gave its users another reason to ensure their resumes are up to date. The online professional network has introduced a mobile feature that shows information about people's careers in emails being read on iPhones.

The tool, called Intro, pulls details from the profiles of LinkedIn's more than 238 million users so the recipient of an email can learn more about the sender.

The information will be limited to what the email senders already allow anyone to be seen on their LinkedIn accounts, unless they already have granted the recipient broader access through a connection on the service.

The feature released Wednesday works with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail and Apple Inc.'s iCloud when any of them are plugged into the iPhone's built-in email app. LinkedIn Corp. plans to update the feature so it also works with Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook.com and Exchange email. It's available at https://intro.linkedin.com/ .

Intro also works on Apple Inc.'s iPad, although the feature isn't tailored for that device. LinkedIn eventually will release a version of Intro designed especially for the tablet format.

LinkedIn imported the technology powering the Intro feature from its acquisition last year of Rapportive, a startup that had already been mining online social networks to include personal information in correspondence sent to Gmail accounts.

Intro is part of LinkedIn's push to make its network indispensable on mobile devices as more people manage their personal and professional lives on smartphones and tablets.

LinkedIn says about 38 percent of the traffic to it networking services now comes through mobile devices, up from just 8 percent in early 2011. LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner predicted Wednesday that mobile devices would be reeling in more than half the service's traffic at some point next year.

As part of its effort to make its network more alluring on mobile, LinkedIn also released a new version of its service's app for the iPad.

LinkedIn's strategy has been paying off since the company went public nearly two-and-half years ago. The Mountain View, Calif. company has consistently been delivering earnings that exceed analyst projections, helping to lift its stock by more than five-fold from its initial public offering price of $45.

The shares shed $3.60 to $241.35 in Wednesday afternoon trading, as the broader markets ticked down..

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-10-23-LinkedIn-Email%20Intro/id-374c55e19a154efda29c761d7542dea2
Category: Maria de Villota eagles iPhone 5S Allison Micheletti Rafael Caro Quintero

Meet The Coders Of The Disrupt Europe Hackathon

The Disrupt Europe Hackathon is underway, but just because you can’t make it out to Berlin for the festivities, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the experience.

That said, we’re bringing you as close as possible to the sights, sounds, and (unfortunate) smells of the 24-hour coding competition with this video. We’re seeing starts from near and far, experienced and brand new to the scene compete.

More than $5,000 is on the line, as hackers will present their products on stage tomorrow at noon to a panel of amazing, expert judges. Plus, our incredible API sponsors like Weather Underground and Yammer are giving away some amazing prizes for the best use of their API.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vkNdrnVB3sM/
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Saturday, October 26, 2013

Selling healthcare: Colorado uses beer kegs, golf clubs and bros (Los Angeles Times)

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Oracle gears up to battle Salesforce.com, IBM with Eloqua update

Oracle is rolling out a series of new features for its Eloqua marketing automation suite, hoping to get a leg up on rivals like Salesforce.com and IBM in the red-hot software segment.

Now generally available is AdFocus, which provides marketers with tools for running multichannel advertising campaigns. A key feature is the ability to deliver targeted display ads to customers and prospects, while comparing their effectiveness to so-called "owned" and "earned" media, such as company websites and buzz on social networks, respectively.

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Another update concerns Eloqua Profiler, which like its name suggests, is used to build out profiles of prospects based on their interactions with "assets" tracked in Eloqua, such as emails and web pages. Now Profiler can also include asset activity that's occurring on properties the marketer's organization doesn't own, such as video content hosted on a third-party website.

Finally it's now possible to tap Facebook's custom audience feature from AdFocus, giving marketers the ability to target discrete blocks of users based on their social profile.

There's perhaps no hotter area of enterprise software these days than marketing automation, following a rash of consolidation as platform vendors attempt to build out broad product suites.

Last week, Oracle bought Compendium in order to bolster the capabilities of Eloqua, which it acquired in December for $871 million. Compendium provides software for creating different types of content that can be used to entice customers to visit a marketer's web site or other property, said John Stetic, vice president of products, Oracle Eloqua Marketing Cloud.

Among others, Salesforce.com has also invested heavily in marketing software, scooping up ExactTarget, Buddy Media and Radian6 for its own cloud-based suite.

Oracle gets an edge over the competition with Eloqua, as its always been "built by marketers, for marketers," Stetic said. "We allow for really advanced targeting throughout the entire buying process."

In addition, Oracle is taking a more open approach, offering a full suite but not forcing customers to use it all, he said. "Lots of vendors want to think they'll have this whole stack and own the world, but what I hear from customers is, I want choice."

Meanwhile, as online privacy concerns mount in the wake of revelations over surveillance programs by the U.S. National Security Agency, marketers need to be mindful of the boundaries between themselves and customers, Stetic said.

"Ultimately what it comes down to things like government surveillance, people can't vote with their wallets on that, whereas in the commercial world if someone feels they're being overly tracked and overly monitored and not getting value out of it, they vote with their wallets," he said.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/oracle-gears-battle-salesforcecom-ibm-eloqua-update-229499
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Jessica Simpson and Maxwell Go for Mexican

Happy to be back in the States, Jessica Simpson and Eric Johnson took their daughter Maxwell to grab Mexican food in Calabasas, California on Friday (October 25).

The Weight Watchers spokeswoman wore a white top, black jacket, and black jeans as she carried her 1-year-old on her hip.

As previously reported by GossipCenter, last week, the engaged couple headed to Capri, Italy to reportedly scout out a location for their wedding.

Accompanied by wedding planner Mindy Weiss, the pair focused on Capri as that's where they had their first getaway as a couple.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/jessica-simpson/jessica-simpson-maxwell-1060700
Category: tom hanks emmy winners friday the 13th What Does the Fox Say tommy morrison

UFC Fight Night 30 results: Norman Parke has too much cardio for Jon Tuck

Matt Hughes once said about unbeaten mixed martial artists "Show me a fighter with a zero in the loss column, and I'll show you someone who hasn't fought anyone yet."

Jon Tuck seemed to live out this saying Saturday at UFC Fight Night 30. The Arena MMA fighter from Guam took an unbeaten record into his fight against TUF: Smashes lightweight champion Norman Parke, but quickly found he was no match for the Northern Ireland fighter.

Parke (19-2) dropped Tuck (7-1) from the ranks of the unbeaten with a unanimous decision victory Saturday in Manchester, England. The judges' scores were 29-28, 29-28, and 30-27.

Tuck had his strongest round in the first, a back-and-forth standup affair. But Parke turned up the pace late in the round and also scored a late takedown.

Parke really turned it on in round two, letting his hands go and scoring punches in bunches. He punctuated the round by ducking superman punch and cracking him with an uppercut.

Tuck visibily faded in round three, at one point losing his mouthpiece and stopping to pick it up, though Parke didn't quite let him. Parke continued with the volume and speed and cruised to victory.

"That was the game plan, I wanted to push the pace and force him to make bad decisions," said Parke. "He was a tough guy, I give him credit."

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/26/5032124/ufc-fight-night-30-results-norman-parke-has-too-much-cardio-for-jon
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Review: Office 365 administration made easy

October 21, 2013

A business that moves its email to a hosted solution such as Office 365 typically hopes to reduce operating and administrative costs, reduce spam, and decrease downtime. Alas, administrators who open up the Web-based GUI for Office 365 discover that several of the commonly needed administration and reporting options for Exchange are not available. In many cases, administrators get around the omissions by running PowerShell scripts against the Exchange APIs -- or by hiring consultants to run the PowerShell scripts, which are not exactly easy or intuitive to create for mere mortals.

Enter 365 Command, a Microsoft Windows Azure Web application, available for a modest monthly fee, that presents a much more complete GUI for administration of Office 365 Exchange. Companies might use 365 Command to eliminate or reduce the need for consultants, who in turn might use it to do more work in less time with fewer errors.

[ InfoWorld review: Office 365 turns up the heat | Office 2013 is the best Office yet | 9 Windows Start menus for Windows 8 | Stay atop key Microsoft technologies with InfoWorld's Technology: Microsoft newsletter. ]

In my testing, 365 Command worked well for administering my small Office 365 Exchange installation. I didn't encounter any issues that required asking for support, and I managed to make my intended changes without breaking anything for anyone. On the other hand, I more or less knew what I wanted to do.

As far as I can tell, 365 Command currently has no competition.

365 Command helps with administrative actions, reporting, and auditing. An example of an administrative action is converting a mailbox from a User type to a Shared type (see screen image). Why would you want to do that? One reason is that there is (or was) a bug in the conversion software that moves Exchange mailboxes into the Office 365 cloud that makes all mailboxes the User type. When a group uses a mailbox -- such as "sales" or "marketing" -- one good way to manage the mailbox is to make it shared. This also saves a license.

Another reason is that for common aliases, such as "sales," you may want fine-grained control over who sees what folders that you can't get from a forwarding rule in a User mailbox or from group membership.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/review-office-365-administration-made-easy-229007?source=rss_infoworld_test_center_articles
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3-month-old Prince George is christened in London

Britain's Prince George is held by his father Prince William as they arrive at Chapel Royal in St James's Palace in London, for the christening of the three month-old Prince Wednesday Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/John Stillwell/Pool)

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, right, speaks with Prince William and Kate Duchess of Cambridge as they arrive with their son Prince George at the Chapel Royal in St James's Palace, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2013. Britain's 3-month-old future monarch, Prince George will be christened Wednesday with water from the River Jordan at a rare four-generation gathering of the royal family in London. (AP Photo/John Stillwell/Pool)

Britain's Prince William, holds his son Prince George as they arrive at Chapel Royal in St James's Palace in London, for the christening of the three month-old Prince Wednesday Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/John Stillwell/Pool)

Britain's Prince William, Kate Duchess of Cambridge with their son Prince George arrive at Chapel Royal in St James's Palace in London, for the christening of the three month-old Prince George, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/John Stillwell/Pool)

Royal fans wait outside St James's Palace, in the hope of catching a glimpse of members of the British royal family who will be attending the christening of Prince George in London, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. Prince William and his wife Kate have asked seven people to be godparents to their son, Prince George, who will be christened at a major royal family gathering Wednesday, palace officials said. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

LONDON (AP) — Dressed in a lace and satin gown designed in the 1840s, Britain's 3-month-old future monarch, Prince George, was christened Wednesday with water from the River Jordan at a rare gathering of four generations of the royal family.

The occasion had historic overtones: the presence of Britain's 87-year-old monarch and three future kings, Princes Charles, William and, of course, little George.

Queen Elizabeth II, usually the center of attention, quietly ceded the spotlight to her rosy-cheeked great-grandson, who seemed to wave at her when he arrived — an illusion created by his father, Prince William, playfully moving the infant's arm.

The private affair at the Chapel Royal at St. James's Palace was also attended by Prince Charles, next in line to the throne, and the queen's 92-year-old husband, Prince Philip, who has shown remarkable stamina since returning to the public eye after a two-month convalescence following serious abdominal surgery.

All told, it was an exceptional day for a monarchy that seems to be basking in public affection since the 2011 wedding of William and Kate Middleton and the maturing of Prince Harry, who appears to have put his playboy days behind him.

George, who was born on July 22, wore a replica of an intricate christening gown made for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter and first used in 1841.

When William was christened in 1982, he wore the original gown — by then well over a century old — but the garment has become so fragile that a replica was made.

The infant, who will head the Church of England when he becomes king, was christened with water from the River Jordan by Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

He arrived at the chapel in his father's arms with his mother by their side.

Kate, smiling broadly on her way into the chapel, wore a cream-colored Alexander McQueen dress and hat by milliner Jane Taylor, with her long hair brushed to the side. William wore his customary dark suit and tie as he proudly carried their first child.

Kate's parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and her sister, Pippa, and brother, James, were also at the ceremony.

Pippa Middleton read from the Gospel of St. Luke and Prince Harry read from the Gospel of St. John. The two hymns were "Breathe on Me, Breath of God" and "Be Thou My Vision."

The chapel has a strong connection to William's mother, the late Princess Diana, whose coffin was laid before the chapel's altar for her family to pay their last respects in private before her 1997 funeral.

Baby George has seven godparents, among them William's cousin, Zara Phillips, daughter of Princess Anne and a close friend of the couple.

They also include Oliver Baker, a friend from William and Kate's days at St. Andrews University; Emilia Jardine-Paterson, who went to the exclusive Marlborough College high school with Kate; Hugh Grosvenor, the son of the Duke of Westminster; Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, a former private secretary to the couple; Julia Samuel, a close friend of Princess Diana, and William van Cutsem, a childhood friend of William's.

Palace officials said water from the River Jordan — where Christians believe Jesus Christ was baptized — was used for the christening.

In the West Bank, hours before the christening, busloads of Russian tourists descended on Qasr el-Yahud to immerse themselves in the river. The site, five miles (eight kilometers) east of Jericho, is considered Christianity's third-holiest site after Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The river's waters have often been used to make the sign of the cross on the heads of royal infants.

Some royal watchers camped outside the palace for more than 24 hours to obtain a good vantage point to watch the guests arrive, but the ceremony was private.

William and Kate hired photographer Jason Bell to take official pictures, which are expected to include a historic multigenerational photograph of the queen with the three future kings.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-23-Britain-Prince%20George/id-18915cbfd9aa419983ef566ee3ccddcb
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Alessandra Ambrosio: Sexy Queen of Hearts at Casamigos Halloween Bash

Going all out with a fun and sexy costume, Alessandra Ambrosio headed to the Casamigos Halloween party in Beverly Hills on Friday (October 25).

The Victoria's Secret Angel smoldered as the evil Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland in a short dress, high collar, red wig, and jaunty crown.

Sharing a photo of her stylish posse who also wore "Alice in Wonderland" themed outfits on Instagram, Alessandra asked, "Where is Alice?"

Earlier in the day, the busy Brazilian beauty joined "Fashion Police" on E! for their spooky Halloween special.

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/alessandra-ambrosio/alessandra-ambrosio-sexy-queen-hearts-casamigos-halloween-bash-950314
Category: Johnny Manziel once upon a time Never Forget 9/11 nfl scores kobe bryant

The new Web tracking: You never see it coming

October 24, 2013

If a website really wants to track you, it seems, it'll be able to do so no matter what.

That's one of the conclusions to be gleaned from a report published by researchers from the KU Leuven Dept. of Computer Science and the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.

Entitled "FPDetective: Dusting the Web for Fingerprinters," the report describes a method for determining whether or not browsers are being tracked via mechanisms that are invisible to the end-user and don't use cookies, Flash, or other technologies that are easily tracked and blocked.

Tracked without traces
Tracking mechanisms such as this typically involve polling the browser for information about it and its host PC that are readily available. This doesn't just include the browser's user agent string, but also the size of the screen, the fonts available in the system (a major source of uniquely identifiable data), and so forth. Because all this data is routinely made available to the browser -- and thus any Web page invoked in it -- it's trivially simple to harvest it and create a fingerprint from it.

"Device fingerprinting raises serious privacy concerns for everyday users," the report notes. "Its stateless nature makes it hard to detect (no cookies to inspect and delete) and even harder to opt out." Few if any sites admit that they do this kind of detection -- in part because such fingerprinting is used in conjunction with "massive device reputation databases where device fingerprints are stored along with the device owners' Web history and 'reputation scores.' "

The researchers found that tracking of this sort is not only quite pervasive, but provided by a wide range of third-party outfits normally involved in consumer tracking, such as Mindshare Technology, BlueCava, and others.

Even spookier was the way some of the tracking mechanisms in question actively evaded detection, such as "by removing the fingerprinting script once the device has been fingerprinted, and collecting fingerprints through third-party widgets."

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/t/internet-privacy/the-new-web-tracking-you-never-see-it-coming-229440?source=rss_infoworld_blogs
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Robert Zemeckis to Direct 'Marwencol' for Universal

marwencol.com

A still from the documentary "Marwencol"

Robert Zemeckis is developing a new drama as as follow-up to his Oscar-nominated Flight.

Universal has optioned the 2010 documentary Marwencol, which tells the unique story of Mark Hogancamp and the way he coped with the severe memory loss he suffered after he was attacked and beaten by a group of teenagers. As part of the deal, Universal also picked up Hogancamp's life rights.

The project is coming to Universal with a script by Caroline Thompson, and Zemeckis is attached to direct.

PHOTOS: 25 of Fall's Most Anticipated Movies

The beating Hogancamp suffered at the hands of five teenagers was so severe that it left him in a coma that lasted nine days. When he emerged, he had no memory of his life, his friends or his family. As a form of therapy, he began building a one-sixth scale model of a World War II-era Belgian village in his backyard, replete with figures made in the image of him, his friends, and, shockingly to some, his attackers. While the process mends his mind to a certain extent, it also lets him escape into a fantasy world in which he creates various scenarios with the figurines.

The documentary, which ended up on many best-of lists, also showed how fragile Hogancamp's world was when the New York art scene became interested in his work and wanted to display it to the public.

The planned film aims to move between and blend fantasy and reality, something that Thompson has an affinity for, judging by her past credits. The scribe co-wrote Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas as well as an adaptation of the classic novel The Secret Garden. She last wrote the adaptation for City of Ember.

While no castings have been made, sources say Zemeckis is hoping to lure Leonardo DiCaprio for the lead.

PHOTOS: 'Flight' Premiere: Denzel Washington, Robert Zemeckis Touch Down on Red Carpet

ImageMovers will produce under their Universal-based banner. VP production Maradith Frenkel and creative executive Chloe Yellin will oversee the project. Jeff Malmberg, the director of the 2010 documentary, will executive produce.

Zemeckis is repped by Gang Tyre. Thompson is repped by ICM Partners and Hansen Jacobson.

Watch the trailer for the documentary below.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/xOKBcIsvc6o/robert-zemeckis-direct-marwencol-universal-650730
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Wachowskis hope to surprise with next film

FILE - In this Oct. 24, 2012, file photo, co-directors Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski pose for a photo at the Los Angeles premiere of "Cloud Atlas" in Los Angeles. The Wachowski siblings say they’re hoping to again surprise audiences with the science-fiction movie “Jupiter Ascending,” starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis. The Wachowskis said in an interview Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, that they were overseeing editing and special effects for the movie set for release next summer. (Photo by Todd Williamson/Invision, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Wachowski siblings say they're hoping to again surprise audiences with the science-fiction movie "Jupiter Ascending," starring Channing Tatum and Mila Kunis.

Andy and Lana Wachowski said in an interview Thursday night that they were overseeing editing and special effects for the movie set for release next summer.

"It's a science fiction space opera," Lana Wachowski said outside an Australians in Film awards dinner. "It has a lot of things from a lot of genres that we love. It's got a lot of original action, it's got a lot of romance."

Andy Wachowski, 45, said editing "Jupiter Ascending," which the siblings wrote and are directing together, has been smoother than last year's ambitious, multi-layered book adaptation "Cloud Atlas," though he called the new film's visual effects "way more complicated."

"We seem not to be very good at making small things. We keep saying 'Let's go make a small movie.' But then they always end up being enormously complex," said Lana Wachowski, 48. "We want to somehow always find something that is different or that no one has tried."

"The Matrix" directors said that while "Cloud Atlas" and their previous film, 2008's "Speed Racer," were considered box office flops, both seemed to have struck a chord with fans.

"People come up to us and just break into tears talking about ('Cloud Atlas')," Lana Wachowski said. "Even 'Speed Racer,' we get people that come up and say it was their favorite movie of all time. We've been very lucky that way. We have great fans. ... And we keep trying to keep surprising them."

The writer-directors say they'll begin pre-production in January on the Netflix sci-fi series "Sense8." And if all goes well, Lana Wachowski said, laughing: "Then we're going to take a sabbatical."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wachowskis-hope-surprise-next-film-183313417.html
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Case Of 'Little Maria' Is Solved, Bulgarian Romas Are Her Parents

Greece's Hellenic Police say they found the girl living with the Roma couple last week. Authorities have sought tips that might lead to information about her identity.

Hellenic Police/Getty Images

Greece's Hellenic Police say they found the girl living with the Roma couple last week. Authorities have sought tips that might lead to information about her identity.

Hellenic Police/Getty Images

A DNA test has confirmed that the biological parents of Little Maria are a Roma couple living in Bulgaria.

Maria, you might remember, was taken from Christos Salis and his wife, Eleftheria Dimopoulou, because police said the child was too fair to be the Greek Roma couple's daughter. The two were charged with abducting a child, but they maintained that they had adopted Maria from another Roma couple in Bulgaria.

The case raised questions about the stealing and trading of children, and about racial profiling and the way the Gypsy community in Europe has been treated for decades.

The case, driven by the media to international prominence, led couples in the U.S. to wonder if Maria was their missing child.

Today, as the AFP reports, we found out that Sasha Ruseva and Atanas Rusev are the girl's biological mother and father.

During interviews on Thursday, before the results of the DNA tests were known, Sasha Ruseva said she had given up Maria because she was too poor to care for her.

CNN quotes the mother as telling Bulgaria's TV7: "We gave her, we gifted her, without money. I didn't take any money. I didn't have any food to give to the kid. I saw it yesterday and I've been sick. I haven't eaten since last night."

The Bulgarian couple, reports the BBC, is now being investigated over allegations that they sold the child.

The Guardian adds:

"A lawyer representing the Greek couple said they planned to seek legal custody of the fair-haired girl. The couple have told authorities they received Maria after an informal adoption.

"Under Greek law, child abduction charges can include cases where a minor is voluntarily given away by the parents outside the legal adoption process.

"The couple's lawyer, Costas Katsavos, said: 'Now that they're in prison there's not much they can do. But provided what we said is borne out, that it was not an abduction, then logically they will be released from prison and they will be able to enter a proper [adoption] process ... They truly and ardently want her back.'"

As we reported, this case spurred two cases in Ireland, where blond children were taken from their Roma parents, only to be returned after DNA tests proved the Romas were the biological parents.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/25/240791734/case-of-little-maria-is-solved-bulgarian-romas-are-her-parents?ft=1&f=1001
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Administration: A Month Needed To Fix Obamacare Enrollment Site

The HealthCare.gov insurance exchange site shown on Oct. 1, when it opened. Since then, it's been plagued with problems.

Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

The HealthCare.gov insurance exchange site shown on Oct. 1, when it opened. Since then, it's been plagued with problems.

Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images

A subcontractor that built a portion of the HealthCare.gov website that's now working relatively well is being promoted to oversee a thorough revamping of the entire glitch-prone portal, and work will be done by the end of next month, the White House says.

QSSI apparently will replace Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in the lead role. OSSI is tasked with identifying problems and prioritizing fixes, Jeffrey Zients, who is in charge of fixing the website, said in a briefing on Friday.

"By the end of November, the vast majority of consumers will be able to successfully and smoothly enroll through HealthCare.gov," Zients said.

HealthCare.gov – the online entry point for uninsured Americans to get coverage under the Affordable Care Act - has turned into an obstacle for people trying to purchase coverage.

Zients told reporters that currently about 90 percent of the website's users are able to set up an account but "as few as 3 in 10 are getting through the process."

He said that a team of "leading managers and programmers" drawn from government and the private sector assessed the problem with the portal and determined "it is fixable."

Reuters says QSSI "produced the federal data hub and a software tool for creating online consumer accounts, which was at the center of early logjam problems."

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/10/25/240775440/administration-a-month-needed-to-fix-obamacare-enrollment-site?ft=1&f=1001
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Fla. Special Election Will Reflect Shutdown's Impact

The death of Florida congressman Bill Young is likely to lead to the first congressional election in a competitive district following the government shutdown and debt ceiling fight. An election date has not yet been set by Gov. Rick Scott, but could be in March.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=240823230&ft=1&f=1014
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The Acela Spy

On Amtrak, powerful people talk loudly and spill secrets.

This is conclusion based on five years’ field research commuting on Amtrak’s Acela between cities along the East Coast.

By now, you’ve heard about former NSA director Michael Hayden, who on Thursday talked nonstop to a reporter—on background—as the train went north from Washington, D.C. toward New York City. A few seats behind Hayden was Tom Matzzie, former Washington director of political group MoveOn.org, who started live-tweeting his eavesdropping.

As someone who rides the Acela two to three times a week, I can tell you that what Hayden and Matzzie each did—talking loud and tweeting louder—isn’t unusual. In fact, private conversations are so often broadcast across the train car that it’s become fertile ground for competitive intelligence gathering, business development or, as in Matzzie’s case, gaining a whole bunch of new social media followers.

It’s astonishingly easy to become an Acela spy—even if you don’t really want to be a part of other riders’ business—as I have learned from years of experience. Until very recently, all Amtrak tickets were paper-based, and the tickets looked a lot like airline boarding passes. In addition to the train and destination information, they included the passenger’s full name in the upper left-hand corner. Also until recently, those tickets were wedged between the top of the cushion and the hard back of each seat, with the name showing for anyone who desired to look. (E-tickets on mobile phones are starting to replace paper tickets for some riders.)

It has been my practice to board the train, and then walk up and down the aisle to glance at the names on those tickets. I’ve also taken note of who’s sitting in what seat. I’ve avoided some people (Chelsea Handler), and I’ve purposely sat down next to others whom I wanted to meet (a C-suite executive at an investment bank).

Shortly after we leave the station and I’ve done my rounds, the mobile phones invariably come out. When they do, I take note of who’s talking, what’s being said, and the name I saw on the ticket.

Amtrak trains don’t have the same whoosh of ambient noise as an airplane in flight. The cars are pretty quiet. If anything, sound reverberates and amplifies inside that confined space. Once, Sheryl Crow was sitting across from me with her headphones on, rehearsing for a performance at the White House. I’m sure she thought she was barely whispering, but those of us in the back of the car were treated to a sweet, soulful tiny train concert.

A few months ago, two men joined me at a four-top and placed their tickets on the table. I briefly looked at their names and their faces, and found them instantly on LinkedIn and Twitter. Within minutes, I knew that one was the global head of human resources at a very large bank. I knew where he went to university, who he was meeting with in Washington, and what he intended to discuss. While I listened—though is it eavesdropping when a conversation takes place at normal volume in a seat next to you?—I pulled an aerial photo of his house off the Web. He and his co-worker—a head of sales at the bank—obviously weren’t close. As they small-talked their way from New York City to Newark, the sales guy talked glowingly of a college football career. He didn’t mention what I already knew about him, which is that he was a placekicker, and had spent most of the time off the field.

Soon, their conversation turned to a female co-worker who’d returned from maternity leave. Sales guy complained aggressively that while she’d been out of the office for so long, the software they used had upgraded. There was no way she’d ever get caught up, he argued. She had the audacity to put in for a promotion, after being gone for three months!

HR guy concurred. Women were a major distraction, holding back productivity and advancement at their bank. It was a shame they couldn’t legally fire a woman for getting—or even wanting to get—pregnant. It was a worse shame that they had to hire women in the first place.

I went on a Twitter rampage of my own:

I’ve overheard assistants making private jet arrangements for the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a national news media personality complain about his network, a woman tell a Lands’ End call-center employee that her dad was dying and she hadn’t spoken to him in a decade. I listened to an RNC staffer say she was launching a conservative website, then drop a bunch of backer names.

Mobile phones aren’t the only problem, though. One of the regular riders on my route, a German man who dresses in very expensive suits, reminds me of Augustus Gloop, all grown up but just as childish and awful. Once, an Amtrak attendant dropped some sliced fruit on his pant leg. Augustus Gloop made her get down on her knees and wipe off the table, his shoes, and his thighs.

I was incensed, but not mad as the woman next to me that day, who immediately hate-Instagrammed him.

The Acela offers free Wi-Fi, it has comfy seats, and I’ve found it to be the best way to move around my part of the East Coast. It’s not like riding an airplane, where we’re strapped in and told how to brace ourselves should the plane start to crash. As passengers, our guards are down. We’re relaxed, we unwind with a drink, and we settle into the sorts of conversations better served for private spaces.

The problem is that trains—even in first class, where I’ve observed the worst offenders—aren’t private. They’re very public venues, just like Twitter. And just like on Twitter, sometimes we forget that we’re actually on stage as we reveal our own worst private selves to the outside world.

My hunch is that most of us don’t really want to hear those other conversations. We’re accidental spies, initially irritated by the noise and then enticed by the details of the conversation.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/data_mine_1/2013/10/michael_hayden_tom_matzzie_and_the_acela_why_amtrak_is_such_a_great_place.html
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