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Here's 20,000 Well-Armed Reasons Why North Korea Should Chill Out

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Every year, 20-some-odd thousand troops from the Republic of Korea and the United States get all their loudest, flashiest toys together, churn up the ocean, and culminate by throwing an exclusive party that's about 10 miles from the demilitarized zone in North Korea.

Every year, this happens. Yet every year, North Korea flips out.

One year, I even got to go.

In 2008, the two main operations — Foal Eagle and Key Resolve — were put together as one. Key Resolve is the largest body of operations, consisting of jets, ships, and naval exercises.



Then the Marine companies jump off the boats for the land assault.



Eventually the Marines unload and meet up with Army personnel who are permanently stationed in South Korea.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The Sequester Cuts Go A Lot Deeper Than White House Tours — Here's How Local Communities Are Struggling

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Most of the chatter about the sequester this week has revolved around the looming cancellation of White House tours. But outside of the nation's capital, local communities are starting to grasp what the cuts will mean for them.

For the past few weeks, we've been taking a look at how local newspapers have been bracing their communities for what's to come. 

Now that the cuts have begun to kick in, here's what they were warning about on Friday.

The Olympian in Tacoma, Wash., reported that federal funding to the state will shrink by $83 billion.

Source: The Olympian



In Lynchburg, Va., the News & Advance reported that a local airport will have to close its control tower unless it can prove it serves a "national interest."

Source: The News & Advance



The Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport in Texas is facing similar concerns because of FAA cuts.

Source: The Lubbock Avalance-Journal



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Check Out Google's Offices In Stockholm Which Honor Great Swedish Inventors (GOOG)

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Google Stockholm Office

Google has offices all over the world.

And each office is unique to the place it's located. Sure, there are staples for each office like free food, massages, and often times, a slide.

But the decor of each office is tailored to the locale.

We have photos of Google's offices in Stockholm, Sweden, which were designed by Camenzind Evolution, the firm that's designed a lot of Google offices in Europe.The photos are a few years old, but they're were new to us.

Camenzind Evolution tried to make each part of the office reflect a different Swedish theme.

This is the reception area.



We're still in the reception area. There is a foosball table in the reception area.



This is sales and marketing. It has a Stockholm City theme, according to Camenzind Evolution.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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What Beloved Child Stars Look Like Today

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Ben Savage Danielle FishelCory and Topanga. Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski. Steve Urkel.

These are just some of the famous TV character names seared into our brains as if the actors who played them are still frozen at the moment in time in which their shows aired.

From "Little Miss Sunshine" Abigail Breslin to Mayim Bialik, many child stars of the past have, well, "Blossom"-ed into working adult actors.

But not all have had as happy of an ending.

Amanda Bynes was recently reported to have been evicted from her New York apartment building. Macaulay Culkin shocked fans with his gaunt frame.

Oliwia Dabrowska, the red coat girl from "Schindler's List," recently emerged to say the violent film devastated her as a child. Now she's studying to be a librarian.

See where child stars — from the '80s and on — are today.

Alexa Vega is well-known for her role in the 2001 film "Spy Kids."



The 24-year-old unveiled a more grown-up look on the set of "Machete Kills" last year.



Abigail Breslin's breakout role was as Mel Gibson's daughter in "Signs" before she received an Oscar nomination for "Little Miss Sunshine" at age 10.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Pepsi's Global Marketing Chief Is Out After $1 Billion In Lost Sales (PEP)

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pepsico salman amin

PepsiCo's global chief marketing officer, Salman Amin, has left the company to become COO at S.C. Johnson, Ad Age reports.

Amin will be the 29th senior brand manager to leave Pepsico since 2008.

The company, after a years-long list of setbacks, is trying to turn itself around—spending up to $600 million more on marketing and ads — but the company's management suite, under CEO Indra Nooyi, suffers from near-constant musical chairs.

A successor to Amin has not been named.

Pepsi's Americas Beverage unit, which sells the iconic soda, saw a 10 percent operating profit decline to $2.9 billion in 2012, on a 4.5 percent dollar sales decline to $21.4 billion. That's $1 billion less in sales from 2011, the company reported in its 10-K. The reduction was due in part to a discontinued Mexican business but it included sales declines in North America and in its flagship soda business. (The company, which also has various food divisions, reported an overall sales decline of 1.5 percent to $65.5 billion in 2012.)

Amin had been with the company 18 years, Ad Age noted, but got the top job just last May.

Here's our updated list of execs who recently parachuted out of Pepsi.

2008

  • Chris Kempczinski, vp/marketing. Went to Kraft Foods as svp of the U.S. Grocery Division.
  • Russell Weiner, vp/cola marketing. Became chief marketing officer at Domino's Pizza.
  • Cie Nicholson, svp/chief marketing officer. Is now evp/chief marketing officerEquinox.


2009

  • Mike White, CEO of PepsiCo International (retired)
  • Rick Gomez vp/marketing for waters, enhanced waters and juices. He went to a top marketing position at Coors.
  • Jeff Urban, svp/sports marketing at Gatorade. Now a partner at Kids Sports Entertainment.
  • Todd Magazine, president of Gatorade. Now President N. America/consumer healthcare at Pfizer.
  • Jim McGinnis, vp/marketing for Tropicana. Now vp/marketing at Intuit.
  • Dave Burwick, svp/chief marketing officer, PepsiCo North America Beverages. Now president, North America at Weight Watchers.


2010

  • John Galloway, vp/marketing Gatorade.
  • Ralph Santana, North America vp/colas. He went to become Samsung's chief marketing officer.
  • Tom Silk,  VP Hydration. He went to KB Homes as svp/marketing.
  • Danielle Vona, vp/marketing for the Propel water brand. She went to become chief marketing officer at Sonic Drive-in.
  • Richard Burjaw, general manager of the Starbucks/PepsiCo partnership. Now a speaker and guest lecturer in Toronto.
  • Mark Schiller, senior vice president Frito Lay New Ventures. Now an evp at Pinnacle Foods and president of Duncan Hines.


See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Why I Fled My Dehumanizing Corporate Law Firm And Never Looked Back

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It's no secret that corporate law can wreck your spirit.

Jobs at big firms pay more than $165,000 a year to start, but the hours are notoriously long and the work can be mind-numbing.

One former lawyer says it was utterly demoralizing too.

At the end of our source's brief stint at a major firm, she felt she had no choice but to leave BigLaw completely.

This former lawyer joined the firm after graduating from an Ivy League law school. At first, partners distributed work evenly among her "class" of associates, or young lawyers who have yet to make partner.

But then a pecking order was quickly established.

"I think law firms are very goal-oriented," our source told us. "You are going to become a partner, or you are disposable. If you are disposable, then you have a crappy life."

The "disposable" associates, like our source, often received assignments at 4:30 or 5 p.m. that partners wanted "overnight." Our source routinely worked 13-hour days.

"Probably three or five months in, it was very hard to maintain other things in my life," she says.

Her work life was made more miserable by the unfriendly atmosphere in the office. The firm once held a "diversity training" where lawyers were told they should greet one another to make people feel less alienated, but partners and senior associates balked at the notion of saying hello to underlings.

"There was major kickback from the senior associates and partners," our source says. "They were like, 'No, we don't want to say hello. My prerogative is to be an accomplished lawyer.'"

The entire experience, our source says, "was just not very humanizing."

Life at the firm got worse after after she got a bad annual review. The writing was on the wall. Our source believes her firm never intended for her to become partner.

"I think the abuses started piling up after that," our source told us.

For a while, she put one foot in front of the other and went to work.

"But at a certain point my body just turned on me," she says, "and I was just not going to physically go into the office anymore."

Her departure was not unusual. "They take in large junior classes each year, and at the end of two years most people are gone for different reasons," she says. "People just disappear."

SEE ALSO: 'Going To Law School Was The Biggest Mistake Of My Life'

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Nine Men Who Took Their Wife's Last Name

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Why don't men change their names when they get married?

This provocative question was posed in a popular article by Jill Filipovoic at The Guardian. The focus of her article, however, is on how women should stop changing their names.

"Your name is your identity," Filipovic writes, and "the cultural assumption that women will change their names upon marriage ... cannot be without consequence."

But we wanted to know if there are actually men out there who have taken their wife's name. It turns out there are.

  • Mike Salinger took his wife Donna's last name. "Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought it would have caused as much of a stir as it did,"he told USA Today.
  • Barry Chalfin Lenair made his "maiden" name his middle name, and took his wife's surname. "I realized that it was an important thing to do for me...and for the people who used to call me Mr. Lenair anyway,"he told TODAY. "I don't regret it for a second."
  • Lazaro Dinh was accused of fraud when he took his wife Hanh's last name. “The suspension has been lifted,” Kristen Olsen-Doolan, spokeswoman for the Florida Department Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, told ABC news. “We’re doing training so everyone realizes [the name change] works both ways.”
  • Mark Tyler took his wife Carol's name. “Shortly before the wedding I decided to make the change,"he told GalTime. "She (Carol) was stunned. Actually, she asked me to reconsider, that it was cool with her for me not to change. But I told her it was too late, and then she said great!”
  • After a lot of discussion, writer Aryon Hopkins took his wife Olivia's name. Blogging for The Frisky, Aryon said: "Hopkins, my wife’s last name, referenced a lineage of doctors from her father to her grandfather. The choice for me was simple: Honor a family tradition with meaning in our lives."
  • Mark Kemp was married for years with two children before he changed his last name to his wife's. He wrote on Role Reboot:

"I got in a minor traffic accident, and the two boys were in the back of the car. The police officer dealt with the accident situation in a few minutes and then asked me about the kids. I told him that they were mine, but he didn't accept it— I was a man driving around in the middle of the day with two little boys who had different last names than me. It took about 30 minutes (which included calls to their school and preschool and multiple calls to my wife) before he followed me home and verified that the boys and I lived there. That night, when my wife got home, I said, 'That's it. Case closed. I'm taking your last name.' She agreed."

  • Kris Myddelton took wife Jo's last name simply because he liked it. "My surname was rubbish and hers wasn't,"he told The Independent.
  • Robert Everhart fought the state of Mississippi in order to take his wife's name. "I know most people think I rolled over and took my wife's name,"he told AP in a telephone interview. "But she's the only surviving kid with her parents, and everybody said my name wrong. It was a dual reason. Now all I have to do is worry about people misspelling it."
  • Josiah Neufeld took his wife Mona's last name much to the chagrin of his relatives. He wrote in The Globe and Mail: "So far the name change hasn't cost me more than a few hours of paperwork, some explanations to public officials and a few strained conversations with brittle relatives who think I've joined a matrilineal cult. I still feel like myself. My identity remains intact."

DON'T MISS: 30 Things You Didn't Know About Marriage And Love

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The 10 Best Charts Of The Week

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gold versus 5 year TIPS thumbnailThe world is changing, and nowhere is that better illustrated than in a good series of charts.

Luckily, we've seen no shortage of excellent charts this week that amply illustrate the changes underway.

The best charts this week touch on everything from the first margin debt sell signal in three years to a major phase change for the U.S. dollar.

Now, let's go to the charts.

If rising real interest rates are supposed to be driving this gold selloff, then it's definitely starting to look overdone

READ MORE: You're Going To Shake Your Head When You See Why Everyone's Gotten So Bearish On Gold >



Thanks to explosive student loan debt growth, the federal government now holds more nonrevolving consumer debt than the banking system

READ MORE: The Government Holds More Non-Revolving Consumer Debt Than Banks For The First Time Ever >



And the delinquency rate of student loans is surging

READ MORE: GUNDLACH: Young People Need To See These 4 Charts Before Signing Up For College >



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Incredible Photos Of The Gutted White House During Its 1950s Renovation

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White House demolition 1950

When President Harry Truman took office for his second term, the White House was falling apart.

The East Room floor was sagging 18 inches. The President's bathtub was sinking into the floor. And the structure could no longer support the third level and steel roof that were added in 1927.

So in 1948, the First Family was forced to vacate to the nearby Blair House — the official state guest house of the President — and the White House underwent a massive four-year renovation that cost approximately $5.7 million

Photos of the renovation, taken by National Park Service photographer Abbie Rowe and made available by the U.S. National Archive illustrate how massive this undertaking really was.

All of these images are from a batch in 1950, when the project was halfway complete.

Source: U.S. National Archives



In total, the renovation cost $5.7 million.

Source: Truman Library



To support the walls, crews poured 126 new concrete support columns that reached depths of 26 feet.

Source: White House History



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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This Island Is A Toxic Bomb In The Center Of Paradise

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Thilafushi

Thilafushi, located just a few miles west of the Maldivian capital of Malé, is a far cry from the white beaches and turquoise waters that surround it.  

Once a pristine lagoon, the artificial island now serves as a dumping ground for one of the most exclusive tourist destinations in the world.

Hundreds of tons of solid waste and toxic material from Malé and luxury hotels on nearby islands are unloaded on Thilafushi every day.

The amount of waste continues to grow as more and more tourists flock to the islands. 

Maldivian native Hani Amir captured shocking images of Thilafushi, taken last year, that reveal the ugly side of paradise.  

The island of Thilafushi is just a short boat ride from Malé, the capital of the Maldives.



It was originally a lagoon called "Thilafalhu."



In 1992, the area was reclaimed and transformed into an artificial landfill in order to solve Malé's trash crisis.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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15 Classic Novels That Wall Street Traders Love

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Earlier this week, we published Stifel Nicolaus Managing Director Dave Lutz' annual list of books recommended by traders.

Every year, Lutz polls his clientele and ask them what books they like. He then sends out a big list to give everyone fresh ideas.

Now, we dig a bit deeper — and go a bit more high-brow — by pulling 15 classic novels that appear on the list. 

Some you probably haven't read since high school but are always worth revisiting.

Others have maybe always been on your list.

If so, here's a great excuse to finally get around to them.

Coming Up For Air

Author: George Orwell

Amazon Description: "George Bowling, the hero of this comic novel, is a middle-aged insurance salesman who lives in an average English suburban row house with a wife and two children. One day, after winning some money from a bet, he goes back to the village where he grew up, to fish for carp in a pool he remembers from thirty years before. The pool, alas, is gone, the village has changed beyond recognition, and the principal event of his holiday is an accidental bombing by the RAF."

Year published: 1939

Buy it on Amazon >



Infinite Jest

Author: David Foster Wallace

Amazon Description: "A gargantuan, mind-altering comedy about the pursuit of happiness in America. Set in an addicts' halfway house and a tennis academy, and featuring the most endearingly screwed-up family to come along in recent fiction,Infinite Jest explores essential questions about what entertainment is and why it has come to so dominate our lives; about how our desire for entertainment affects our need to connect with other people; and about what the pleasures we choose say about who we are."

Year published: 1996

Buy it on Amazon >



Blindness

Author: Jose Saramago

Amazon Description: "A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to this nightmare who guides seven strangers-among them a boy with no mother, a girl with dark glasses, a dog of tears-through the barren streets, and the procession becomes as uncanny as the surroundings are harrowing. A magnificent parable of loss and disorientation and a vivid evocation of the horrors of the twentieth century, Blindness has swept the reading public with its powerful portrayal of man's worst appetites and weaknesses-and man's ultimately exhilarating spirit. The stunningly powerful novel of man's will to survive against all odds, by the winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature."

Year published: 1997

Buy it on Amazon >



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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American Apparel's First Profits In Years Put The CEO's Sex Scandals In The Rearview Mirror (APP)

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Dov Charney

American Apparel recently reported its first net income profit after 12 straight quarters of losses.

That's an amazing turnaround for a brand which a few years ago was close to bankruptcy; its CEO surrounded by lawsuits alleging sexual harassment.

Now, comparable same-store sales are showing increases of 7 - 13 percent.

Q4 revenues rose to $173 million. And CEO Dov Charney made good on his promise — made to Business Insider back in June— of booking more than $600 million in revenue for the year.

Even the stock is up.

Things are different now at the U.S.'s most-watched fashion advertiser (a company known to have girls in bikinis wash its roof). In the past two years, AA has undergone a wrenching series of changes to get the all-American clothing house back on the right track.

Here's how Charney did it.

In the beginning ...

American Apparel was started by Dov Charney while he attended Tufts in the late 1980s.

By 1997, the company moved from Charleston, South Carolina, to Los Angeles. In 2000, American Apparel moved into its current Los Angeles factory.

In 2006, the company was sold for more than $380 million to Endeavor Acquisition Corporation.

Charney stayed on and still runs the company today.



In 2004, concerns about the sexual nature of AA's corporate culture emerged.

Charney gave an infamous interview with Claudine Ko, which became a relatively unedited article looking into the company, Charney and the women around him.

Ko claimed Charney masturbated in front of her — multiple times.

What followed were a series of lawsuits from former employees, now totaling nine, regarding sexual harassment, naked pictures, etc. In one of them, filed in 2011, a woman alleged Charney trapped her in his home as a sex slave.

But in the mid-2000s, sales were booming.



2008 was a very good year, until ...

... Charney called his CFO a "complete loser."

Ken Cieply resigned a few weeks later and the stock had one of its worst months in history. It would get temporary reprieve, but then suffer with the rest of the markets in the fall of that year.

By December there were still reasons to celebrate a bit: rapid expansion, success in the U.K., domestic praise, and a great online strategy



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Here Are Some Of The Crazy Luxury Items For Sale At IRS Auctions

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Rolls Royce Silver Cloud

We hope you filed your taxes this year. If not, some of your most prized possessions could end up being sold off to the highest bidder, courtesy of the Department of the Treasury.

The International Revenue Service conducts about 300 public auctions every year, selling off seized treasures like classic cars, electronics, and even airplanes.

Here are some of the most bizarre items up for sale in March and April. 

In the market for a boat with a microwave? Check out the IRS auction in Gravois Mills, Mo.

This "like-new" 1995 Baja 38 Special is a 35-foot powerboat with red/white color scheme, and plenty of amenities, including a CD changer, cook top and microwave (in the forward area), GPS, and a TV.

Auction start: March 12, 2013

Minimum bid$31,200

Average price: $66,000 and up



Poker fans in Sacramento can bid on championship jewelry from the World Series.

A World Series of Poker championship necklace and 2007 championship bracelet and are among a number of expensive pieces of jewelry being auctioned off by the IRS in Sacramento, Calif. 

Auction start: April 4, 2013

Minimum bid: $6,389.40



This almost-brand new airplane is going for just $30,000.

A 1976 Beechcraft 58TC-Baron with a multi-engine piston turbo engine and less than 6,500 flight hours is being auctioned off in Harrison, Ark. 

Auction start: March 27, 2013

Minimum bid: $30,000

Original price: $170,750



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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The Best Entries From Smithsonian's Photo Contest Finalists

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Smithsonian photo contest travel bacson valley vietnam hai thinhThe Smithsonian just released the finalists from its 10th annual photo contest. This year's front runners are absolutely stunning.

The contest received over 37,600 photo submissions this year from photographers hailing from 112 countries. The pictures are broken down into five categories, including The Natural World, Travel, People, Americana, and Altered Images.

Each category was narrowed down to 10 photographs for a total of 50 finalists. Voting for the Reader's Choice Award is now open to the public until March 29 at 2 p.m. EST.

All of the submissions are outstanding, but 15 in particular caught our eye.

An Indonesian woman and her family harvest salt after a long drought spell.

Source: Smithsonian.com



A Bangladeshi day worker piles 33-pound chemical drums in Dhaka.

Source: Smithsonian.com



An onlooker watches the annual solar eclipse in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Source: Smithsonian.com



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27 Expensive Products That Wound Up Being Complete Wastes Of Money

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Whether it was a post-breakup shopping spree or a $2,000 "It" gadget that was rendered useless within a week, everyone has a few regretful purchase skeletons rattling around their hall closets. 

In a popular Reddit thread, hundreds of users shared the most expensive things they've ever bought that were a complete waste of money. 

We've rounded up 27 of our favorites. 

"I spent over $400 on a giant spear gun, like the kind you hunt tuna and shark with while scuba diving. I don't live near any water and I have never been scuba diving. I did shoot it at a float in a pool once."

Source: Reddit



"A diamond ring. I get to claim my money was literally thrown in a toilet and flushed away."

Source: Reddit



"The Wii Fit board. I even got a nice cover for it. Used it I think only once then it was forever forgotten."

Source: Reddit 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Designers Showed Us How To Make Google Glass Look Fashionable And More 'Normal' (GOOG)

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Concept 1 a

Google Glass is actually a pretty good design. But can it be better?

Two designers think they've come up with an improvement.

Nickolay Lamm and Mark Pearson have come up with a concept design that hides most of Google Glass behind the user's head.

By concealing the hardware and battery behind the head, the device can become slightly more normal-looking.

The design is something akin to street-style headphones that you might even already own.

Of course, when we're talking about strapping an internet-connected heads-up display to your face, "normal" becomes quite relative, but a minimalist appearance may be more appealing to some users.

Are these an improvement over the current design? Let us know in the comments!

First, a reminder of what Google Glass looks like now



Lamm's reimagined design sees the glasses wrapping around the back of the user's head.



With more of the hardware out of sight, the device becomes less obtrusive to people interacting with you.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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How Twitter Knows So Much About You Before You've Even Signed Up

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peep hole

If you've been on Twitter for years, like many people in the tech and business world, it's easy to forget what it was like signing up and using it for the first time.

The truth is that learning to use Twitter was really hard back then, and many new users abandoned the service. In 2009, its retention rate was worse than MySpace, threatening its ability to grow to critical mass. Too many new users were simply too confused to stick around and learn how to read and write 140-character posts.

It got over that. Twitter now has more than 200 million active monthly users. And a key reason why is its slick process for onboarding users.

One big reason why people abandoned the service was that they couldn't figure out who to follow on Twitter. So in 2009, the information network started with a more or less hand-picked "suggested user list"—the same for everyone, heavily weighted toward Silicon Valley figures and Hollywood celebrities. The following year, it started tracking patterns in who followed whom, and used that to target suggestions.

But in 2012, Twitter took a big step that's still not well understood. Publishers have placed Twitter buttons on millions of websites, making it easy to share pages on Twitter.

Even if you don't tweet on a page—in fact, even if you don't have a Twitter account—those buttons allow Twitter to track which websites you visit, if you haven't or the publisher hasn't opted out.

The website-visit data is deleted after 10 days, and Twitter makes it easy to opt out. (It's not collected from European visitors, because of local laws).

But this is a primary way Twitter has improved the way it signs new users up.

First, create an account. Name, email, password—all pretty standard. But wait, let's click "Learn More."



Here's an explainer of how Twitter tracks some of the websites we visit. Honestly, this stuff doesn't faze us, but it might bother some users.



Now Twitter starts explaining itself—beginning with what a 140-character "tweet" is.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Awesome Career Advice From LinkedIn's Billionaire Founder

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Reid Hoffman started his professional life with the intention of becoming an academic.

But then he realized: "in order to be a professional scholar, you have to dedicate a vast majority of your career to writing esoteric books that only 50 people will understand."

So instead, he got into the technology industry with a job at Apple, where he helped build eWorld, Apple's version of America Online.

Next, he started a company called SocialNet. It failed. 

A friend of Hoffman's, Peter Thiel, recruited him to join a startup, PayPal. It sold to eBay in 2002.

Then Hoffman went on a long trip to Australia. There, he decided to create an Internet company.

It's still around. 

It's LinkedIn.

Today, it's worth $19 billion – and Hoffman is its biggest shareholder.

It's been a pretty impressive career. Want to know how Hoffman did it? Want to know the guiding principles he followed?

You're in luck.

Last year, Hoffman and an entrepreneur friend of his, Ben Casnocha, wrote a book together called "The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career."

To mark it's one year anniversary, Hoffman and Casnocha created a visual summary of the book. They've allowed us to re-publish it here for you.

"The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career."







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The Stunning Life And Career Of Nancy Pelosi

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Pelosi JFK

Despite first running for office at age 47, House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has managed to become the most powerful woman in Washington. 

It's been a long road, but with staggering fundraising skills and a political sixth-sense, Pelosi has managed to break gender barriers and force her way into the notorious Old Boys Club on Capitol Hill. 

Here's how a San Francisco housewife became part of the Washington elite. 

Pelosi grew up in Baltimore, the daughter of the Democratic Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro. As a young girl, she manager her father's book of who owed him political favors.

Source: U.S. NewsNancy Pelosi Biography



She attended her first Democratic National Convention at age 12. Here she is at age 20 with JFK at his inaugural ball.

Source: Nancy Pelosi Biography



Pelosi met her husband Paul at Georgetown. She was a mother of five by 1969, when the family moved to San Francisco. Paul worked as a banker, while Nancy raised their children and started a Democratic Party club at her home.

Source: U.S. News



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24 Countries With Better Infrastructure Than America

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Willy Brandt Berlin Brandenburg International Airport germany

The United States was ranked the seventh-most economically competitive country in the world, according to the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report for 2012-2013.

The WEF defines competitiveness as "the set of institutions, policies, and factors that determine the level of productivity of a country."

While the U.S. benefits greatly from the sheer size of its economy, excellent universities, flexible labor markets, and innovative businesses, it's falling behind on the overall quality of infrastructure.

The U.S. ranked 25 in this category, falling behind countries like Saudi Arabia, Spain, and South Korea.

We took a closer look at those 24 countries with better infrastructures than the U.S.

24. United Kingdom

The United Kingdom ranks 3rd for airline seats per capita, and 22 for air overall transportation infrastructure.

The country's economy was driven by an efficient labor market. According to the WEF, it has "sophisticated and  innovative businesses that are highly adept at harnessing the latest technologies."

Global Competitiveness Index: 8 out of 144

Source: World Economic Forum



23. Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia ranks 3rd for mobile telephone subscriptions per capita and 12th for quality of roads. Saudi Arabia ranks in the top 30 for all categories.

Its global competitiveness has improved thanks to more stable economic policy and its productivity has improved thanks to its use of IT.

Global Competitiveness Index: 18 out of 144

Source: World Economic Forum



22. South Korea

South Korea ranks 10th for quality of railroads and 17th for quality of roads. It ranks in the top 30 for all categories.

The country operates in a "sound macroeconomic environment."  It also ranks highly in terms of education and it's known for its ability to innovate.

Global Competitiveness Index: 19 out of 144

Source: World Economic Forum



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