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What it's like inside America's toughest prison

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ADX supermaxMore than 40 US states run "super-maximum security" prisons for particularly violent or ill-behaved convicts. But the federal government runs only one "Supermax:" the notorious US Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado.

More widely known as the ADX or the "Alcatraz of the Rockies," it's the highest-security prison in the entire country. There, every inmate spends roughly 23 hours a day in solitary confinement, The New York Times reported in a lengthy article over the weekend.

The ADX was designed for “a very small subset of the inmate population who show absolutely no concern for human life,"Norman Carlson, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, has said, according to The Times. The ADX currently houses 422 inmates, including some of the world's most infamous names, like the Unabomber. 

The Times described their daily life like this:

Inmates spend their days in 12-by-7-foot cells with thick concrete walls and double sets of sliding metal doors (with solid exteriors, so prisoners can’t see one another). A single window, about three feet high but only four inches wide, offers a notched glimpse of sky and little else. Each cell has a sink-toilet combo and an automated shower, and prisoners sleep on concrete slabs topped with thin mattresses. Most cells also have televisions (with built-in radios), and inmates have access to books and periodicals, as well as certain arts-and-craft materials. Prisoners in the general population are allotted a maximum of 10 hours of exercise a week outside their cells, alternating between solo trips to an indoor “gym” (a windowless cell with a single chin-up bar) and group visits to the outdoor rec yard (where each prisoner nonetheless remains confined to an individual cage). All meals come through slots in the interior door, as does any face-to-face human interaction (with a guard or psychiatrist, chaplain or imam). The Amnesty report said that ADX prisoners “routinely go days with only a few words spoken to them.”

Click here for photos »

In 2012, Michael Bacote, an illiterate inmate with an IQ of 61, along with a handful of other inmates, sued the government, alleging the ADX violated their basic rights by placing them in such deplorable conditions. It's the largest lawsuit ever filed against the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

“This place is not designed for humanity,” Robert Hood, the warden from 2002 to 2005, told the Times. He also described the facility as a "cleaner version of hell" to "60 Minutes" back in 2007. 

Built for $60 million on 600 acres of land donated by Colorado residents, the ADX succeeded another Supermax facility in Marion, Illinois after a wave of guard killings shut it down. 

An Amnesty International representative toured the facility in 2001 and allowed Business Insider to reprint her photos.  Between then and now, the prison only granted access one other time.

 

A typical cell in a General Population Unit (gen pop).

Source: Amnesty International



Another angle of the cell.

Source: Amnesty International



Prisoners spend 22 to 24 hours a day confined to these rooms.

Source: Amnesty International



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13 celebrities who left Scientology

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Leah Remini

HBO's explosive new Scientology documentary, "Going Clear," has shed a new light on the controversial church.

In the film, director Alex Gibney is especially critical of famous church members Tom Cruise and John Travolta for allegedly turning a blind eye to the reported harassment suffered by church members.

But many celebrities weren't afraid to leave the church and later speak out against it.

Leah Remini

After 30 years as a devout Scientologist, actress Leah Remini abruptly left the church in July 2013, and she didn't go quietly. 

At the time of her exit from the church, Remini explained to People magazine:

"I believe that people should be able to question things. I believe that people should value family, and value friendships, and hold those things sacrosanct. That for me, that's what I'm about. It wouldn't matter what it was, simply because no one is going to tell me how I need to think, no one is going to tell me who I can, and cannot, talk to." 

After viewing HBO's Scientology documentary "Going Clear," Remini released a statement thanking fans for their support:

"I wish to share my sincere and heartfelt appreciation for the overwhelming positive response I have received from the media, my colleagues, and from fans around the world. I am truly grateful and thankful for all your support."

More on Remini's history with the church here.



Lisa Marie Presley

Elvis Presley's daughter broke from the church in May 2012, removing all traces of Scientology from her official website soon afterward.

She then released her third album, "Storm & Grace," where it was suggested she dissed the religion on several tracks.

From single "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet":

“This here is a city without lights / Those are all the people without eyes / Churches, they don’t have a soul / Soup for sale without a bowl / Religion so corrupt and running lives / Farewell, fair weathered friends / I can’t say I’ll miss you in the end."

After watching HBO's Scientology documentary "Going Clear," Presley tweeted: "Sometimes… The S##t hitting the fan is a damn nice sound ;)."

 



Paul Haggis

Film director and screenwriter Paul Haggis ("Million Dollar Baby,""Crash") spoke out in the New Yorker about his decision to leave Scientology in 2009, saying it horrified him. 

"I was in a cult for 34 years,"said Haggis. "Everyone else could see it. I don't know why I couldn't."

After reading an article by the St. Petersburg Times that reported physical violence committed by church members, Haggis was extremely bothered.

"They were ten years old, twelve years old, ... scrubbing pots, manual labor—that so deeply touched me,"Haggis told the New Yorker. "My God, it horrified me!"

Haggis ultimately left Scientology after the church refused to publicly denounce Proposition 8 — the ballot that banned same-sex marriage in California. 

Haggis, who sent Leah Remini a letter commending her "brave" decision to leave the church, is featured prominently as a talking head in director Alex Gibney's "Going Clear" documentary about Scientology.



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12 highly influential people share the morning routines that set them up for success

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john paul dejoria

Whether you're up-and-at-'em when day breaks or stumbling out of bed, the way you spend the morning sets the tone for the rest of the day.

That's why many leaders have crafted morning rituals that maximize their energy, productivity, and creativity all day long.

We asked a mix of high-profile CEOs, authors, investors, and entrepreneurs: What is your morning routine? Read on to find out what they said.

Kara Goldin, CEO of Hint Water, checks email immediately after waking up.

Goldin wakes up at 5:30 on the dot every morning and heads directly to her inbox, which gives her a clear understanding of what the rest of the day will be like.

After that, she embarks on a hike with her husband and dogs through the Marin hillside of California. While this may seem like a nonessential step in her morning routine, Goldin says it's absolutely crucial.

"Without my hike, I feel unbalanced," she says. "I need this time to clear my head, connect with what I love, and center myself so that I can handle any challenge that might come up in the day ahead."

Read more about Kara Goldin's morning routine here.



Gary Vaynerchuk, entrepreneur and investor, has a three-hour morning routine that gets him ready for the day.

Vaynerchuk, cofounder and CEO of VaynerMedia, plans his mornings down to the minute.

First thing, he catches up on the news: ESPN, Business Insider, and a news aggregator called Nuzzel.

Next, he communicates with his massive Twitter following: "I search my handle and try to find anything I might have missed from the night before, or even that morning, considering my European and Asian bases. I respond to as many people as possible."

The most unique aspect of his morning routine, however, occurs in the car on the way to the office: He calls his mother, father, or sister, depending on who he spoke with last.

"I catch up with them. Talk to them. Just learn what they’re up to," he says. "I really value those small moments."

Read more about Gary Vaynerchuk's morning routine here.



Scott Adams, the creator of 'Dilbert,' designed his morning routine to maximize his creativity.

The first 20 minutes of Adams' day are exactly the same, every day. Putting his physical body on autopilot "frees his brain for creativity."

Concentrating his creative hours in the morning makes sense for Adams. "My value is based on my best ideas in any given day, not the number of hours I work," he says.

In his home office, he enjoys a delicious combo of protein bar and coffee. "I give myself this 'treat' knowing I can be trained like any other animal," he says. "And I want to train myself to enjoy waking up and being productive. (It totally works.)"

Read more about Scott Adams' morning routine here.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Everything you need to know about Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, a book that inspires Uber's billionaire CEO Travis Kalanick

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travis kalanick fountainhead

A lot of leaders in Silicon Valley have been inspired by Ayn Rand, her novels "Atlas Shrugged" and "The Fountainhead," and the libertarian beliefs espoused within these books.

One of the most prominent examples of this culture of Silicon Valley libertarianism is Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. 

We decided to take a look at Rand's books — particularly "The Fountainhead"— to explain why Uber and Kalanick behave the way they do.

Travis Kalanick is a fan of Rand — but especially "The Fountainhead."

For a while, Kalanick's Twitter avatar was the cover of "The Fountainhead," Rand's tale about the triumph of Howard Roark, a Nietzschean figure.



In an interview with the Washington Post, Kalanick referred to the Twitter avatar, and said: "It’s less of a political statement. It’s just personally one of my favorite books. I’m a fan of architecture."

So what's the book about, anyway?

Let's dig in...

 



The Fountainhead's hero is a principled rebel who refuses to back down from his beliefs, even if it means violating society's rules and norms.

Howard Roark, the protagonist, is a young architect. After several of his projects fall through, he eventually finds himself rising to power when he is on trial for exploding a building he designed but that was not constructed according to his plans. At his trial — where things aren't looking good for him — Roark gives a speech about needing to be true to oneself and the value of selfishness. He's found not guilty.



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Here's proof women pay more for the same products men buy

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Many products for women are no different than the same products marketed to men — but women are paying more. 

Gender-based pricing, also known as the “woman tax” or “pink tax,” has been an accepted phenomenon since a 1995 California study that revealed women pay $1,351 a year more for the same products as men. This had such an impact that California became the first and only state to ban gender-discriminatory pricing.

In a new video on the YouTube channel The Daily Share, Mike Byhoff and Katie Isaacson tested just how true this remains in the other 49 states today.

First, they compared Schick razors, both the Hydro 5 for men and the Hydro Silk for women. Both are a similar product with five blades and moisturizing strips, but the women’s razor costs $1.41 more than the men’s.

shick razors pricingThey then did a side-by-side comparison of Neutrogena’s Healthy Skin Anti-Wrinkle Cream for women and Neutrogena Men’s Age Fighter Face moisturizer which use the same ingredients according to the company, but the women’s version costs $1.07 more. 

neutrogena costs moreWhile Schick refused to comment for the video, Neutrogena told the producers that the reason the women’s products were more expensive was “related to a number of factors, including packaging differences, modification of the formulation that impact the manufacturing process, and the discretion of each retailer.” 

That was a similar response to what deodorant spokespeople told Consumer Reports in 2010 when the company found that equivalent women-marketed products such as deodorant and shampoo were significantly more expensive.

One product that the team found was unisex pricing were American Apparel’s Oxford shirts— they cost $74.99 for both genders. 

unisex pricing oxford shirts gif

Unfortunately, if you were to get these shirts dry cleaned at the same cleaners, you’d find that the “lady-shirt” would cost more than the men’s — in this case, $6 compared to $5.75. 

dry cleaning oxford shirt

And it’s not just products. Before President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, women were paying a total of $1 billion more than men for heath insurance premiums. The Affordable Care Act banned those gender-based premiums.

But women still pay more for long-term care insurance. Women can expect to be charged a full 13% more simply because they’re expected to live longer, according to The Daily Share producers.

Maybe it’s time to start buying men’s product instead if they’re cheaper and fit your needs. No need to always reach for the pink if that choice will cost you.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What the Chinese saying 'The ugly wife is a treasure at home' actually means

I went to the Masters, and it was unlike anything I've ever seen at a sporting event

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masters

The Masters you see on TV is a very pretty sight, but it's nothing compared with what it's like being there in person.

I was able to attend the Tuesday practice round of the Masters in 2014, thanks to a buddy who won the ticket lottery and had an extra ticket.

My buddy grew up in Augusta and had been to the tournament many times. It was great having a local tour guide.

Words and photos don't really do Augusta National justice, but I'll try my best to explain what it's like walking around there.

I had been to a few golf tournaments before. In 2013, I went to the Thursday round of the US Open at Merion. I also covered the Barclays in Jersey City for Business Insider.

Those are both nice events, but they're nothing like the Masters. It's a completely different experience, from the food to the crowds to — most important — the course. If you like golf at all, you owe it yourself to go there at least once.

Let me show you why …

Here are the practice-round tickets. We (my friends and I) started the day in Atlanta and drove 2 1/2 hours out to Augusta.



As we got closer to the course, we saw people looking for tickets. I was told that there is some weird law that says you can't say you're buying or selling tickets, but you can say you need tickets.



After parking the car in the front lawn of someone's house near the course, we walked up.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Check out the 15 coolest 'Fast and Furious' cars

The private 747 is a flying palace


Big, beautiful photos of the real life locations used in 'Game of Thrones'

How Peter Dinklage became the beloved 'Game of Thrones' bad boy

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game of thrones season 4 tyrion

"A Lannister always pays his debts." Actor Peter Dinklage, however, has few debts to pay.

The Jersey-born actor essentially bootstrapped his career, living as a self-described starving artist for years before reaching his "Game of Thrones" success.

Dinklage now ranks among Hollywood's most wanted actors — and just happens to be a dwarf. You can catch him on season five of "Game of Thrones," which returns to HBO on Sunday.

Peter Dinklage was born to a Morristown, New Jersey, couple in the summer of '69. He said his childhood was "uneventful"— his father sold insurance, and his mother taught music at an elementary school.

Source: Esquire



His parents never treated him like he was special, Dinklage says, despite being the only dwarf in his family. The chance of being born with achondroplasia, a genetic disorder that causes abnormalities in bone formation, is 1 in 25,000.

Source: Esquire



The Dinklages didn't even have a TV set in the house, or so he thought. In his teens, Peter discovered his parents watching a black-and-white TV they had purchased and hid in the bedroom closet. "It was 'Three's Company' from then on out," he says.

Source: The New York Times



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

How I got into Harvard Business School

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At noon on March 25, several hundred nervous applicants learned they had been accepted by Harvard Business School. For many it was the crowning moment in an application process lasting months or even years.

Business Insider caught up with a newly admitted member of the incoming class of 2017: Anny Jeung, a senior strategy analyst at PepsiCo and a New Jersey native, who graduated from New York University's Stern School of Business in 2011.

Join the conversation about this story »

19 interview mistakes young people make that cost them good jobs

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train conductor mistake stuck lost keys

At Business Insider we have interviewed hundreds of job applicants.

Go straight to the list of their mistakes >

We are usually impressed with the caliber of candidates. Most people we meet seem smart and accomplished, and applicants "get" our all-digital, fast-paced, anti-boring way of handling business news.

But ... young people are human, too. They make mistakes. And those mistakes have cost them the jobs their CVs otherwise said they were good for.

19. Having bad breath.

Everyone suffers from dry mouth at the office.

Tip: Chew a piece of gum and then remove it five minutes before the interview. 



18. Not telling a good story about your life.

A job interview is a very small window of time in which we try to get to know you. Who are you, what are you good at, and what do you want to do with your life? We want a quick, clear history of your life and career so far. At Business Insider storytelling is literally what we do, but at any company communications are key. If you cannot communicate who you are quickly, you're not getting the job.

Tip: Write it down beforehand and rehearse with a friend.



17. Being overly sarcastic or negative.

We do not expect you to be a cheerleader. But if we hire you, we're going to be spending a lot of time together, so we don't want you killing the buzz.

Tip: Just be nice. Smile.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

13 pictures that prove Amal Clooney is a complete boss

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george clooney amal alamuddinAmal Alamuddin Clooney has landed in New York City, and she's made an even bigger splash than her mega-star husband, George Clooney.

The pair is in the Big Apple while Clooney films a movie, and Alamuddin Clooney has been spotted everywhere from lunch with Anna Wintour to the halls of Columbia Law School, where the noted human rights lawyer will reportedly lecture this spring.

One thing is for sure — Amal Clooney is impeccable. Whether she's outshining her husband on the red carpet or representing Armenia in a human rights court over the Armenian Genocide, she is a complete boss.

Amal Alamuddin Clooney may have made headlines for landing notorious bachelor George Clooney, but she's a true star in her own right. A noted human rights lawyer, she has represented everyone from former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to the country of Armenia in its fight for recognition of the Armenian Genocide. Here, she speaks at a training session for lawyers in Bahrain.



In 2011, she represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during his extradition case against Sweden. That's her on the far right, leaving Britain's High Court with her client.



She recently advised the Greek government in its battle to repatriate the ancient Elgin Marbles statues from Great Britain.



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17 IBM rock star employees that show the company's new direction (IBM)

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IBM Lisa DeLuca

It's easy to think of IBM as a company composed mostly of aging white guys – despite its stylish CEO Ginni Rometty.

After all, it's coming up on its 104th birthday in June, and the three-piece-suit culture runs deep in its DNA, with 12 of its 19 senior leaders more or less fitting that profile.

But IBM is going through some major transitional pains right now, getting a lot of attention for shedding older, underperforming business units and laying off thousands of workers.

At the same time, IBM says it's still hiring like crazy, refreshing its workforce with people in the hot new "strategic" areas it has staked its future on, like cloud and security.

So we asked IBM to point out some of its rising stars, the people who represent its future. Here they are.

Super inventor: Lisa Seacat DeLuca

Lisa Seacat DeLuca is a mobile software engineer and IBM Master Inventor. At 32, she is IBM's most prolific woman inventor with 370 patent applications.

She began by dreaming up patent ideas in the evening after work, when her husband was pulling long hours working on his PhD.

She's been at IBM for 10 years, starting as a college intern. "We were exposed to IBM executives and treated like rock stars. I knew I had to work at IBM after that experience," she says.

Today, she helps to provide technical direction for IBM's Commerce unit that sells sales, marketing and customer service products.

She's a major tinkerer. She once created a pendant necklace that lights up every time a specific Twitter hashtag is mentioned.

And she wrote a children's book teaching kids how to count to ten in binary, funded through Kickstarter.



The real Pied Piper: Vinith Misra

Vinith Misra works as a researcher at the company's huge San Jose, Calif. facility.

But in his spare time, he's a technical consultant for the fictional startup "Pied Piper" on Season 2 of HBO's hit comedy "Silicon Valley,""doing everything from designing fake algorithms to producing mathematical models for jokes," he tells Business Insider.

"I joined the research team in IBM's Watson Group last September, after finishing my PhD and spending some time in startup-land," he told us. "People tend to associate startups with freedom and large corporations with straitjackets, but it's actually the other way around when you're talking about IBM's research labs."

For instance, he's taught Watson how to be a better reader and "analyzed the personalities of Lord of the Rings characters for Reddit."



Dark net prowler: Etay Maor

Etay Maor landed at IBM when the company bought his former employer in 2013, Israeli security firm Trusteer, for a reported $800+ million.

At IBM he specializes in cyber crime, watching active hack attacks and helping corporations defend against them.

He also studies how different malicious groups use the internet and their own off-the-grid version of it known as the "dark net."

"To catch cyberattacks in real time we need to understand how organized criminals groups operate these days," he explains. "The day of the lone wolf hacker in a basement are long gone — we are dealing with highly sophisticated groups."



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

If you haven't been watching HBO's 'Silicon Valley,' here are all the reasons you need to start now

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Many of the Valley's elite turned up for Wednesday's party promoting season two of "Silicon Valley," a satirical comedy that's grown into a full-fledged hit for HBO.

The new season premieres on Sunday, April 12, at 10 p.m. ET.

Most of the cast appeared at the event. Notably missing was T.J. Miller, who caused an uproar in February when he hosted the Valley's version of the Oscars, the "Crunchies," and delivered remarks viewed by many as offensive.

That was just the latest in the blurring of fact versus fiction, real versus unreal, in a show that has captured the absurdity of this singular place and time.

First off, there are no sacred cows. The show's intentions were clear from its first poster, in which its band of hapless entrepreneurs strike the same self-important pose as the one famously associated with Steve Jobs.



And who better to deliver cutting social satire than creator Mike Judge? He brought the world such unforgettable creations as the cult hit "Office Space" and '90s morons "Beavis and Butt-head," expertly skewering the world of work and meaningless culture.



In season one, main character Richard (in burgundy hoodie) creates a music app containing a revolutionary compression algorithm. Gavin Belson, founder of Hooli, offers Richard $10 million for the algorithm, but Richard decides instead to grow his own company, Pied Piper, and accepts a $200,000 investment from quirky venture capitalist Peter Gregory. Belson seeks revenge and builds Nucleus to rival Pied Piper's algorithm.

Also see, "Before He Died, Christopher Evan Welch Gave Us The Perfect Embodiment Of Tech-World Hubris."



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The 10 most infamous hackers of all time

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Hackers

Hackers have been around since the dawn of computers, and they've wreaked more havoc than many people realize. Law enforcement has yet to catch up with many of their antics.

Here is a roundup of the most well-known hackers and what they've become infamous for in the hacker community.

Adrian Lamo

Adrian Lamo was known as the “homeless hacker” for his transient lifestyle. Despite that, he was able to hack into the internal computers of The New York Times in 2002.

This hack gave Lamo access to private databases, including one that had the private information of more than 3,000 people who had contributed to the paper’s Op-Ed section. He was sentenced to two years of probation and fined nearly $65,000. Most recently, Lamo was back in the headlines for turning in Chelsea Manning for leaking classified US Army documents. 



Vladimir Levin

Vladimir Levin was a Russian hacker who, in 1995, broke into Citibank's computers and allegedly stole nearly $10 million by re-wiring it to various global accounts. The most famous part of Levin's hack was that he did not use the internet to commit his crime.

Instead, he tapped into telecommunications systems to listen to customers rattle off their private account information. All but $400,000 of his winnings were able to be recovered by the authorities. Ultimately, he pleaded guilty to just one charge of making $3.7 million in unauthorized transfers, the Wall Street Journal reported.

He was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to pay back $240,000 to Citibank.



Albert Gonzalez

Albert Gonzalez executed one of the largest-known identity thefts the world has ever seen.

In 2010 he was sentenced to 20 years in prison after confessing to stealing millions of personal credit and debit cards accounts. He was accused of stealing as many as 170 million credit card numbers, the Associated Press reported.



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How the 'Rich Kids of Instagram' spent their spring break

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rich kids of instagram

What did you do for spring break?

Probably nothing as fun as the "Rich Kids of Instagram," wealthy young adults whose lavish lifestyles are documented on a two-year-old Tumblr and Instagram account. The account's anonymous creator compiles pictures from the world's richest young Instagram users.

We took a look at the Rich Kids of Instagram earlier this year, but we're checking back in to see what they've been doing this spring. We weren't shocked to find that they've been partying it up, drinking lots of Champagne, and flying on their private jets to exotic locales.

This spring, the "Rich Kids of Instagram" took to their private jets ...

Source.



... their yachts ...

Source.



... and their Lamborghinis to travel.

Source.



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Athenahealth CEO said he pulls numbers 'out of his a--' in a video, and David Einhorn put it in a devastating presentation

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david einhorn

Greenlight Capital CEO David Einhorn presented his case against athenahealth at the Grant's Investment Conference last week.

The most eye-popping moment was a video clip of athenahealth CEO Jonathan Bush explaining how he calculates growth expectations for the company.

"Well, how did you get to your 30% organic growth?" Bush said to a panel of laughing listeners. "I said I dunno. I got it out of my ass."

Einhorn has been publicly short athenahealth since May 2014. In last week's presentation, he covered a wide variety of topics — including monetary policy and European debt — but really dug into what's going on at the medical-records company.

We've included the relevant part of the slide deck here (the video in which Bush makes his startling comment on numbers is on slide 25).

"At the Ira Sohn conference last year, we allowed relatively generous assumptions in the base case discounted cash flow (DCF) model, which valued athena at $50 per share," Einhorn said in closing. "Back then, we weren't forecasting a big slowdown in enterprise bookings, massive increases in capitalized research and development propping up the income statement, or Epic entering the cloud. As it stands now, we think athena’s business performance is tracking closer to our bear case valuation of $14 per share. We continue to expect the athena stock bubble to pop."

athenahealth is currently trading near $130 per share.

Einhorn first announced that he was shorting athenahealth last May, and he's still short.



Athenahealth is a web-based physicians billing platform.



It's entering the inpatient-hospital market.



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12 beautiful airline ads from the 'Mad Men' era

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posters

In the "Mad Men" TV series, fictional ad agency Sterling Cooper memorably creates ads and concepts for airlines including Mohawk and American Airlines.

Back in the 1960s it was a creative director's dream to land an airline account. As Paul Jarvis, British Airways' museum archivist, told us: "It wasn't really until the late sixties that the British public considered going abroad for a holiday. It was a very exciting time, when the world was still being discovered."

The British Airways Heritage centre has a vast stock of posters from over the decades, and has kindly allowed us access to its treasure trove of 1960s and 1970s ads, back when the brand was known as the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC.)

This ad showcased one of the early passenger flights to Rome.



This advert was co-produced between the BOAC and the Hong Kong tourist association.



The poster came from the 1960s and advertised Bermuda as a holiday destination from the UK.



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The 17 hottest tech startups in France

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Qobuz CEO Yves Riesel

France has built a vibrant tech culture in the last few decades, growing from a network of hardware manufacturers in the 1990s to a collection of video game developers, apps and streaming sites today.

We ranked together some of the most interesting tech startups headquartered in France, including established companies, innovative hardware manufacturers, and small startups making waves in the tech scene.

17. Yatedo

It's easy to find information online through Google, but what if you want to find people? Yatedo is a search engine for people that brings together information from all over social media and the web to generate profiles for different people. Those pages include contact information, career history, and social media profiles, all in one place.

The company brought in $1.6 million (£1.09 million) in seed funding from True Global Ventures in 2012. 

Founders: Amyne Berrada and Saad Zniber



16. Pearltrees

Pearltrees is a French startup that helps its users collect URLs, photos, and files, from around the internet and then sort them into interests.

The technical term for an organised collection of everything you like is "interest graph." Facebook has a similar functions called Facebook Graph, but Pearltrees is trying to use that technology to connect you with what you like in a smarter way. It can sort your favourite music and films, suggesting new interests.

Since launching in 2009, Pearltrees has brought in a total of €10.4 million (£7.5 million) in funding, most recently raising €6.6 million (£4.7 million) in 2012 from The Group Accueil and other investors.

Founders: Nicolas Cynober, Alain Cohen, Francois Rocaboy, Patrice Lamothe



15. Leetchi

If you've ever organised a gift for someone in the office, you know how tricky it is to get everyone to pay up. Leetchi solves that problem by allowing users to create a money pot. Friends and coworkers can use Leetchi to contribute to the pot through an app on their smartphones.

The site was founded in 2009, and has raised a total of $7.9 million (£5.4 million), bringing in $5.5 million (£3.7 million) in 2012 from investors including Idinvest Partners. It used that money to expand into the UK and Germany.

Founder: Céline Lazorthes



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