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Hoboken Still Looks Like A War Zone [PHOTOS]

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Hoboken Sandy 2012

Just across the river from Manhattan, Hoboken has become a residential retreat for New Yorkers looking for a bit of space and an easy commute.

But it was no retreat when Sandy's storm surge pushed the Hudson River through the city taking boats, vehicles and power with it. Streets were still choked with drift wood and river debris, stores and restaurants boarded up, windows covered in tape.

In a few apartment windows residents could be seen burning candles to fight the gloom as the sun set, but the small flames would do nothing to ward off the cold.

When we were there, residents were still in shock and eagerly showed us video on their phones and told us what they'd seen when the storm swept through.

People in Hoboken had already been through a lot, and still don't expect to have power for perhaps another week.

All this while just across the river are bright lights and life returning to normal in Manhattan.

Dropping into Hoboken there is no question conditions are extreme — roads are blocked and there's a heavy military presence



Hoboken flooded badly and people here have seen a lot — facing another week without power has many people upset



Down at the docks the Yankee's caretaker told us the 105-foot ship weathered Sandy here no problem



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Take A Tour Of America's Cushiest Prison

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martha stewart arrest

Nobody wants to go to prison.

But following the recent sentencing of Rajat Gupta for insider trading, we wondered where white collar criminals would want to go if they had to.

In choosing America's fanciest prison, we considered whether they had high-profile, non-violent inmates, and what kind of "amenities" they offer.

Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, W. Va. is our pick.

It is the women's prison where Martha Stewart spent five months in 2004 and 2005. Other famous inmates have gone there, too.

They get to enjoy yoga and other luxuries inmates in other prisons don't have ...

Aerial view

The 159-acre minimum-security prison camp is nestled in the scenic hills near Greenbrier State Forest, on the bank of Greenbrier River. The small town of Alderson, W. Va. is located east across the river.

Source: Washington Post



Main entrance to FPC Alderson

Built in 1928, the prison is actually the first federal prison for women. The prison camp follows a reformatory model, in which cottages are built around unfenced grounds. The low-security prison had one famous escapee ...

Source: Paula Johnson, "Inner Lives: Voices of African American Women In Prison."



Lynette Fromme

Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme was sentenced to life in prison after her attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford in 1975. She escaped Alderson in 1987 but was recaptured two days later and was ultimately released in 2009.

Source: U.S. Secret Service report, ABC, Los Angeles Times.



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HOUSE OF THE DAY: Buy 3 Acres Of Paradise Off The Georgia Coast For $20 Million

Deep Underground, 'Pump Train' Teams Are Working To Clear NYC's Subways

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mta subway pump train

New York City's subways were devastated by Hurricane Sandy, and the Metropolitan Transit Authority has embarked on the long road to get things up, running and back to normal.

It has huge, diesel-powered "pump trains" that are working on the subway tunnels. Deep underground, crews are pumping all that water back into the Hudson River. Each of the three pumps on the trains remove 1,500 gallons of water per minute.

"Everyone is working around the clock. Workers. Management. Nobody's standing around," hydraulic worker Tommy Dropp tells the New York Daily News.

The MTA recently posted some photos of a pump train at the Cranberry Street Tunnel, which takes the A and C trains between Brooklyn and Manhattan under the East River.

At the Cranberry Tube, workers connect water lines to the pump room.



The lines are brought down the tracks into the darkness.



They're deep in Cranberry Street Tunnel, which connects the A and C lines from Manhattan to Brooklyn.



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A Behind-The-Scenes Look At Obama's Virginia Campaign Organization

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Obama campaign office

President Barack Obama has built one of the most impressive organizations in the history of contemporary American politics.

Obama For America, the official name of Obama's 2012 re-election effort, consists of a vast network of volunteers, and is one of the most sophisticated data mining efforts in history. 

Last week, we visited an OFA office in Virginia, the state that delivered one of Obama's largest electoral coups in 2008. The question this time around is whether the campaign's efforts will be enough to hold the state this time around. 

The first thing that you notice when you walk in the door at Obama's Hampton office is this gigantic sign



The "Why I'm In Wall"— a standard feature of any OFA office



Supporters and volunteers get to leave a note of encouragement to the people working for what sometimes amounts to 14 hour days.



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Heartbreaking Photos Of The Shuttered GM Plant In Paul Ryan's Wisconsin Hometown

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Janesville General MotorsJANESVILLE, Wis. — The symbol of this city's descent into economic calamity still sits near the middle of town. 

In June 2008, General Motors made the decision to close its plant here in Janesville. Opened in 1919, it was the oldest GM plant at the time of its shuttering, in April 2009. Now, the Janesville plant has become a microcosm of the economic crisis that has plagued much of the Midwest during President Barack Obama's first term. 

The unemployment rate skyrocketed to 13.4 percent in February 2010, up an astounding 9 percentage points in just two years. And all that came after President Barack Obama visited the plant during the 2008 campaign and said that "if our government is there to support you ... this plant will be here for another 100 years."

The plant produced SUVs and light trucks under a partnership with Izuzu, which ended in April 2009. About 1,200 people were notified just before Christmas in 2008 that they would lose their jobsIn 2011, GM re-committed to keeping the plant on "standby" status, meaning it could still reopen sometime in the future. 

Today, though, the plant still sits idle, locked up, rusted and deserted.

This original banner perfectly encapsulates what the plant has become.



An empty $15.00 sign remains on the outskirts of the plant.



A wide shot of the plant.



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17 Things You Don't Know About Horror Film 'Halloween'

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halloween jamie lee curtis

Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Myers, and a jack-o-lantern all come to mind when thinking of the "Halloween" franchise. 

However, you probably rarely consider the man who came up with the idea for the horror classic.

We read autobiography The Man Who Created Halloween, and learned Irwin Yablans may have never went into film production if it weren't for the interference of his younger brother, Frank. 

See what you may not know about the horror movie >

Before creating "Halloween," Yablans worked primarily as a salesman and distributor at major motion picture studios Paramount and Warner Bros.

While at Paramount, he turned down a huge opportunity to oust and take over his boss' position as vp manager of sales in L.A. The man who eventually took over was his younger brother Frank, a longtime Disney employee. 

With his brother soon in control of Paramount, Irwin became known simply as the "president's brother."

Frank soon forced his brother from his sales position, asking him to work instead as a production assistant. The adjustment, though difficult at first, was probably the best thing that ever happened to him. 

"This invitation was probably encouraged by my brother, for it would conveniently resolve the issue of how to get me out of Paramount as a sales executive," said Yablans. "I would like to believe that Frank really thought that I would be happier making movies than selling them, and truth be told, it's what I really wanted to do. The reality is that it was a combination of the two that Frank cleverly used to rationalize moving me out of distribution."

After ending his contract at Paramount, Yablan left the major studios to run independent studio Compass International Pictures (originally Turtle Releasing Company), which led to his eventual meeting with the real-life Michael Myers and the creation of international success, "Halloween."

Yablans came up with the idea for the film on a first-class flight back to Los Angeles.

Before "Halloween," Yablan's Indie film company Compass put out failed film, "High Velocity" before turning to new director John Carpenter with "Assault on Precinct 13."

After the success of Carpenter's first film, Yablans knew he wanted him on board to work on a follow-up film.

"The idea came to me that a movie about babysitters in jeopardy could be interesting," said Yablans. "I reasoned that everyone had either been a babysitter, hired one, or at the very least, been a baby."

(The Man Who Created Halloween)



The character, Michael Myers, is a real person.

 At the time, he was the owner of a small independent film distributing company in London, Miracle Pictures.

Yablans met with Myers to discuss the entry of Carpenter's "The Assault on Precinct 13" in the London Film Festival. 

(The Man Who Created Halloween)



Director John Carpenter had two requests for the film.

1. The credits above the film read "John Carpenter's Halloween."

2. Carpenter's girlfriend, Debra Hill, would be named producer, and allowed to co-write the script.

(The Man Who Created Halloween)


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Republicans Are Running Their Ground Game Like A Sleek, Hyper-Local Start Up

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Republican Romney office

The Romney ground game uses the strength of local candidates and the GOP establishment to get out the vote. 

While the offices of the Democratic party are all run from the centralized Obama campaign organization, the Republicans like their party organization like they like their government: Small on the national level, leaving it to the states to work it out.

The Virginia GOP, after a rough loss in the 2008 cycle, is back in force, and I got to tour one of the county-level victory offices that make up the core of the Republican plan to win not only the presidency but also the House and Senate.

This one covers the lean-red James City County and tossup Williamsburg areas of Virginia, where the race is tight and the stakes couldn't be higher.

James City County leans to the right and is a crucial area for Romney in Virginia — not only does he need to win here, but he needs to win big.



This is Rick Batten, the former Chair of the JCC GOP and the man currently running the office.



The Romney ground game is actually run through the Republican National Committee, so Romney shares the spotlight with state and local candidates.



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The First 11 Apps You Have To Download On Your iPad Mini (AAPL)

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ipad miniApple's iPad mini and revamped iPad 4 launched just two short days ago. 

If you were lucky enough to score one, you'll want to start off your experience right by downloading these awesome apps.

The apps we selected come from across the spectrum and are sure to make your iPad more entertaining and useful.

The first three apps you need to download are, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu.

Netflix, Amazon Instant, and Hulu allow streaming of TV shows and movies straight to your iPad.

Each service offers different experiences. The downside is you have to have a subscription to watch and they all cost different prices.

Netflix streaming is $7.99 per month and offers 1 month of free streaming.

Amazon's Instant video service is $79 per year. This breaks down to about $6.58 per month. Not only do subscribers get unlimited instant streaming to thousands of shows, if you're an Amazon shopper, you also get two-day shipping on millions of items, plus a Kindle book to borrow for free each month from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library.

Hulu Plus offers unlimited instant streaming of thousands of shows and movies for $7.99 per month.

While all three services are good in their own respect, if we had to choose a winner, we'd pick Amazon's Prime Instant video service. It is the cheapest and the only service to bring other useful perks like quicker shipping with it.

Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and Hulu Plus are all free apps available in the App Store.



Evernote helps you to never forget a thing again.

Think of Evernote as your online notebook for everything. The service lets you store text notes, audio files, photos, web articles, to-do lists, and just about anything else you can think of online. You can then access all your stuff on your PC, the web, or mobile device. 

Price: Free



Amazon's Kindle bookstore has over 1 million books that you can read on all your devices, even PC.

Kindle lets you to purchase and read books from Amazon's book store. The app is well-designed and robust and offers an excellent interface. We love that your purchased books sync between all your Kindle devices and apps, so you can pick up where you left off. Amazon Kindle users can also check out books from their local library and lend purchased titles to friends.

Price:Free



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The Truth About Staten Island: It's In Much Better And Way Worse Shape Than You Realize

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staten island sandy

Staten Island is 100 square miles large — a third bigger than all of Washington DC.

It has 470,000 residents — the same as all of Sacramento.

So as reports began emerging from folks like Anderson Cooper that Hurricane Sandy had wreaked havoc on the island  ("Cop on Staten Island tells me 'it's chaos here. It's bad'" he Tweeted Friday), we tried to rush over there.

We figured we could simply hop on a bus and get off anywhere, and the destruction would be all around us.

It turns out that's not the case.

Electricity was flowing through most of the isald, and whatever roads may have been impassible had been cleared.

Most bars and restaurants were open.

Despite the gas shortage, taxis and car services were up and running.

Even the Staten Island railway, which runs fairly close to the coast, had begun operating again by Saturday. 

It ended up taking us about two hours to make it to the coast, where the real damage was. And the only reason we made it was that the middle of the island was so clear that bus lines were running unimpeded.

But when we finally made it to Crescent Beach, the scale of the damage was total.

On the way in, the mood on the bus was pretty grim



But this was about the worst we saw on much of the island: The manager at a Subway in the island's Sunnyside neighborhood said Time Warner was still working to restore Internet:



And this tree had failed to sever the power connection nearby



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6 Literary Masterpieces Turned Into Graphic Novels

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Diary of Anne Frank comicAbridging classic novels for younger readers is nothing new. But in recent years, classic literature has been graphic novel-ized, making it more accessible for readers young and old while preserving the plot, themes, and sometimes even the author’s voice. English class will never be the same, thanks to these classics gone graphic.


The Picture of Dorian Gray

Oscar Wilde’s only novel, about a man who sells his soul to maintain his beauty, was just begging for a more visual makeover. The 2009 graphic novel written by Ian Edginton and illustrated by I.N.J. Culbard abridges the text, but still keeps much of Wilde’s original prose. Marvel’s 2008 version has better graphics, but it reads more like a copy of SparkNotes. Both books are recommended as a supplement to—not a substitute for—the original work. In the words of Dorian Gray himself, “How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. If it were only the other way!” 



The Metamorphosis

The Incredible Hulk. Wolverine. Gregor Samsa. All of these characters undergo major transformations, but only one of them might appear on an AP English exam. Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella about a traveling salesman who wakes up to find he’s turned into a huge insect makes for a compelling graphic novel. Peter Kuper’s 2004 adaptation looks like an enjoyable read, but it goes against Kafka’s wishes. When the cover of the first edition was being designed nearly a century ago, the author asked that Gregor not be drawn as an insect. Instead, he hoped readers would conjure their own image of “horrible vermin” when picturing the creepy-crawly protagonist.

"The Trial," Kafka’s dystopian novel about the perils of bureaucracy, has also been adapted into a graphic novel. And if you want to learn more about the man behind the stories, check out Kafka’s graphic biography by R. Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz.



Ulysses

"Ulysses" is one of those works that comes with a few barriers to entry. For starters, the Penguin Classics version is 1040 pages long. Then there are the 18 unstructured chapters that James Joyce boasted “[have] so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant.” (Thanks, dude.) But Robert Berry’s “Ulysses ‘seen’” makes the modernist masterpiece more modern—and accessible—than ever. The graphic novel is available for free online or $7.99 on the iPad. Like the original, Berry’s adaptation is serialized and raised a few questions of obscenity—Apple required nude images to be removed. Unlike the original, each chapter comes with a handy reader’s guide.



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One Of These Conservatives Could Be Attorney General If Romney Wins

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pam bondi

If MItt Romney wins the nail-biting race on Tuesday, his new cabinet could have a major impact on the country.

And the nation's top lawyer will be one of the most important posts.

Previous U.S. attorneys general have been at the center of national controversies.

John Ashcroft had a huge, and lasting, impact fighting the "war on terror," while Eric Holder incurred the wrath of Congress over the Fast and Furious gun-trafficking debacle.

Who will stir future legal controversy?

Paul Clement

Current position: Partner at the law firm of Bancroft LLP

Claims to fame: He argued the case against Obamacare before the U.S. Supreme Court, and argued for the Clinton-era Defense of Marriage Act.



Richard Wiley

Current position: Name partner in the law/lobbying firm Wiley Rein

Claims to fame: He chaired the Federal Communications Commission under Nixon and has been called the "father" of high-definition television.



Pam Bondi

Current Position: Attorney general of Florida

Claim to fame: She was the lead attorney general seeking to overturn Obamacare.



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The 25 Most Dangerous Cities In America

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baltimore county police cars

Every year the FBI compiles a giant collection of data on crime in America. Local precincts report everything from violent crimes to rape to art thefts. 

And in a stroke of good news, the most recent report shows that violent crime last year was at a five-year low.

The FBI defines violent crime as murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault.

We've rounded up the most dangerous cities in America based on the number of violent crimes per 100,000 people reported for each city. We only considered cities with 100,000 residents or more.

#25 Baton Rouge, La.

Baton Rouge had 1,066 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

There were 385.6 robberies per 100,000 people. The national average for robberies is 113.7 per 100,000 people.

Source: Crime In The United States 2011



#24 Orlando, Fla.

Orlando reported 1,073 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

It also reported 49.4 forcible rapes per 100,000 people. The national average is 26.8 per 100,000 people

Source: Crime In The United States 2011



#23 Springfield, Ill.

Springfield reported 1,096 violent crimes per 100,000 people.

However, the city also reported 22.31 robberies per 100,000 people. That's significantly less than the national average, which is 113.7 robberies per 100,000 people.

Source: Crime In The United States 2011



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Thousands Of People Ran A Marathon In Central Park Today Even Though The Race Was Canceled

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marathon new york runners

The ING New York City Marathon may have been canceled in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, but that didn't stop nearly 2,000 runners from completing a 26.2-mile circuit in Central Park on Sunday.

The runners, including groups that had arrived from abroad and members of Achilles International, who support marathoners with disabilities, started arriving just after dawn to run laps around the park, clocking the distance on their Garmin watches.

There were none of the usual crowds or water stations, but small groups of spectators dotted the makeshift route and cheered on the runners. And a few individuals handed out water cups and collected garbage.

Things were most lively by the finish line, which was fenced off but swarming with runners and their families.

Meanwhile, huge numbers of would-be marathoners boarded the ferry to Staten Island to help with relief efforts there.

The ING New York City marathon may have been canceled in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, but that didn't stop the runners.



Nearly 2,000 people participated in an unofficial marathon around Central Park.



They had to share the road with strollers, bikers, and cycle taxis.



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CALM DOWN: Here's Why Canada's Housing Market Will Not Experience A US-Style Crash

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canadian home price

Benjamin Tal, deputy chief economist of CIBC World Markets, recently released a report to calm domestic and foreign investors who fear that Canada’s housing market is collapsing.

He acknowledges that the persistent upward trend home prices is a reason to be nervous (see right).

However, he notes there are substantial differences between the current state of the Canadian housing market and its American counterpart circa 2006.

Even under a worst-case scenario, a Canadian housing market crisis, wouldn't be on the same scale as the American housing crisis.

Tal provided four points with charts to support his thesis.

Canada's housing market has very little speculation

The ratio of housing starts to household formation over the past ten years is significantly lower in Canada than in pre-crash U.S.

"On average, over the past decade, housing starts in Canada exceeded household formation by only 10%— with most of the excess seen in cities such as Toronto and Vancouver. In the US, the gap during the decade leading to the crash was almost 80%."

In short, the supply of houses better reflects the real demand.

Source: CIBC World Markets



Borrowers have less sensitivity to interest rate spikes

The share of variable rate mortgages (a mortgage without a fixed rate) in Canada has dropped substantially in the short-term, and remains lower than the percentage of VRMs in the precrash U.S. market. 

This means that rising interest rates won’t be accompanied by rising mortgage payments for the vast majority of Canadian borrowers, lowering the risk of default.

Source: CIBC World Markets



Credit scores in Canada have improved since the recession.

"The distribution of the credit score in Canada has not changed dramatically in the past four years with some increase in the relative proportions of both sides of the risk spectrum. That is very different than the experience seen in the US in the four years heading into the recession. The proportion of the risky category rose by no less than ten percentage points and accounted for 22% of the market."

Source: CIBC World Markets



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Victoria's Secret Loaned These Massive Generators To The National Guard

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generator

As the east side of Manhattan struggled without power, Victoria Secret serendipitously came to the aid of the National Guard when they showed up at the East Side Armory on 26th and Park with a whole bunch of HUGE generators for their upcoming fashion show.

The lingerie company graciously allowed the National Guard to use the generators to get the armory up and running to aid in relief and recovery efforts. But now, as the show date approaches Victoria's Secret has taken back the generators, and taken over the armory, so that they can have their fashion extravaganza.

The generators are impressive and we stopped by to check them out. While the National Guard based at the armory is heading to the Javits Center, many were still at and around the armory when we stopped by.

The Armory entrance on Lexington Ave, near 26th St. stands quiet as many work inside.



But troop presence weighs heavy around the building.



Across the street, Humvees are lined up and loaded with supplies.



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How To Create The Fastest Growing Media Company In The World

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eli pariser ted upworthy

On March 26, 2012, a new media startup called Upworthy launched.

Upworthy is a 14-person site that tries to make meaningful information and pictures go viral.

Today, it is the fastest growing media company in the world. Upworthy finished October with 8.7 million monthly uniques, up from 6 million the month prior. In August, it hit four million uniques, up from 2.5 million in July. Its fast growth was rewarded with $4 million from investors.

There are lots of media companies out there, but none have grown that quickly.

Are Upworthy's growth and business model sustainable? We're not sure, but either way the stats are impressive. We asked CEO and co-founder Eli Pariser what Upworthy has been doing to smash traffic records every month.

Here's what he had to say.

Don't write about politics.

Before he started Upworthy, Pariser worked for a digital, political publication, MoveOn. He and his co-founder, The Onion's former Managing Editor, Peter Koechley, thought the upcoming election would drive traffic to Upworthy.

But people weren't sharing much of Upworthy's political content, so the pair ditched that angle and broadened the site's coverage.

"We thought, 'Ok, it's an election year, people are going to be really interested in politics and the campaign, and we'll get a leg up that way,'" Pariser says. "The election was our whole argument for starting Upworthy this year. But it turned out to be a total non-driver of growth. Of all our top pieces, only a couple deal with politics or the election."

It can be tough for startups to let go of initial ideas and pivot to what's working. But as soon as Pariser let go of the politics angle, traffic soared.



Find story ideas on social media feeds, not other websites.

Upworthy's curators don't start their days surfing other websites for news. They surf social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook instead.

Sometimes it's easier to highlight a conversation than to start a new one.

"We have our team of curators spending all their time looking on the Internet for stuff," says Pariser. "We go for visible, sharable stories and really stay away from doing more typical, text-driven articles and blogging. We lean into images and videos."



Focus on Facebook, not Twitter

Upworthy has found that Twitter is small traffic potatoes compared to Facebook. At the end of the day, Facebook is where the most people spend the vast majority of their time online.

"Facebook is a huge piece of the puzzle for us," says Pariser. "Our Facebook community has grown from zero in March to over 600,000 likes."

Pariser says Upworthy hasn't done anything particularly brilliant to juice Facebook for traffic. It just spent a lot of time and energy cracking the social network.

"Honestly, I think part of [our success with it] is we take Facebook much more seriously than many of the other social networks," he says. "I love Twitter, and Twitter is a fun place to hang out with smart people, but it's a small fraction of our traffic compared to Facebook. The time and attention most sites spend on [perfecting] their homepages is probably what we spend on Facebook. If you look at our homepage, it's pretty mediocre."



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Nate Silver And 9 Other Political Figures Who Don't Actually Vote

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Nate Silver

We’re not telling you not to vote. We’re just saying that these 10 people won’t be (or didn’t).

When “Poblano” began publishing his 2008 presidential election predictions and analyses on Daily Kos in 2007, people paid attention.

See the other political figures who don't vote >

Then “Poblano” moved to his own blog, FiveThirtyEight.com, where he later revealed he was really Nate Silver, the guy behind PECOTA, a system that predicts Major League Baseball players' performances.

After Silver accurately predicted the results of 49 of 50 states’ 2008 election results (and all 35 Senate races), FiveThirtyEight moved to The New York Times.

But none of the eyes on Silver this week will catch him at the polls: he has not voted since he moved to the Times and doesn’t intend to this year, though he told Charlie Rose that if he did, “it would be kind of a Gary Johnson versus Mitt Romney decision.”

2. Jim Lehrer

When Lehrer moderated the first presidential debate this year (you may remember it as the “Big Bird” debate), Politico dubbed him “the most trusted moderator in America.” Lehrer had moderated debates 11 times before, and according to “MacNeil/Lehrer Report” cohost Robert MacNeil, “He stays so far out of the political swamps that he doesn’t even vote.”



3, 4 and 5. Generals David Petraeus, George C. Marshall and William Tecumseh Sherman

Though he is registered as a Republican, General Petraeus stopped voting in 2002, when he became a two-star general “to avoid being pulled in one direction or another, to be in a sense used by one side or the other.” His voter abstinence follows a long military trend of non-voting generals, which includes both Marshall and Sherman. General Marshall famously disagreed with President Truman’s plan to recognize the state of Israel, saying, “If I were to vote in the election, I would vote against you.”



6. Leonard Downie Jr.

Len Downie worked in the Washington Post newsroom for 44 years, first as an intern in 1964. By 1991, he was the paper’s Executive Editor, overseeing coverage for every election from 1984 through 2008. In 2004, Downie revealed that he’d stopped voting years ago, “when I became the ultimate gatekeeper for what is published in the newspaper. I wanted to keep a completely open mind about everything we covered and not make a decision, even in my own mind or the privacy of the voting booth, about who should be president or mayor, for example.”



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The 10 Greatest Adventurers Of The Year

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Renan Ozturk National Geographic

For the past eight years, National Geographic has been rounding up the 10 greatest adventurers from around the globe.

The men and women selected this year are explorers, artists, humanitarians, and athletes who achieved incredible feats in 2012.

Their collective accomplishments include riding a 15-foot wave, winning the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc race for the fifth time, and climbing the 3,600-foot Southeast Ridge and the Cerro Torre peak.

You can also vote for your favorite explorer on National Geographic's website for the People's Choice Adventurer of the Year. The winner will be announced on January 16, 2013.

Felix Baumgartner, Austrian BASE Jumper

Felix Baumgartner recently made history when he jumped 24 miles from space to the Earth's surface. He's seen here about to jump from the capsule of the Red Bull Stratos during the final manned flight in Roswell, New Mexico, on October 14, 2012.

Felix Baumgartner National Geographic

Photograph from the Red Bull Content Pool via National Geographic

Source: National Geographic



Josh Dueck, Canadian Skier

On February 3, 2012, Josh Dueck performed the world's first sit-ski back flip on a massive jump at Powder Mountain Catskiing outside of Whistler, British Columbia. Previously, he won a silver medal at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in the men's slalom sit-ski event.

Josh Dueck National Geographic

Photographed byPaul Morrison via National Geographic

Source: National Geographic



Steve Fisher, South African Kayaker

Fisher and his team successfully kayaked the Congo River's 50-mile Inga Rapids. The first stretch took four days, but the team was prepared after spending three weeks training on Uganda’s White Nile.

Steve Fisher National Geographic

Photographed by Greg von Doersten, Red Bull Content Pool via National Geographic

Source: National Geographic



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HOUSE OF THE DAY: A Goliath Mansion In London Just Hit The Market For $160 Million

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One Cornwall Terrace $160 million london

London's One Cornwall Terrace has hit the market for $160 million, according to the International Business Times.

The mansion is named after King George IV, who was originally the Duke Of Cornwall.

The home was built in the 1820s, and spans 21,500 square feet. The house has seven bedrooms, nine bathrooms, and 11 reception rooms.

Cornwall mansion is just one of eight homes on the property. The home has been classified a landmark, so the new owners can't tear it down.

At that price, you might imagine it's the priciest pad in Great Britain, but it actually falls short of a London townhouse that hit the market for an insane $484 million in September.

Welcome to Cornwall Mansion.



The home is one of the most expensive in the world.



A New Zealand diplomat used to live here.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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