You might say the week is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workweek, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Weekly Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past seven days -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click ...
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/0VpCs37RDvc/Like many a pop idol, a lot of rock-star companies transcended their troubled or humble origins with the help of a new name for themselves or their wares. This quiz will ask you to guess the birth names of a host of major consumer brands—and to reflect on how some of the most brilliant business minds of the last 100 years could have come up with "Baby Gays," "Brad's Drink," or "Cadabra" for their products.
Starbucks was named after a character in Moby-Dick when which name from the same novel was rejected?
What was the original name of Google's search engine?
Which common household item used to go by the name Baby Gays?
For its first 17 years in business, Best Buy shared its name with which famous musical?
Brad's Drink was the underwhelming first moniker of which future bottled-drink juggernaut?
Which grocery-aisle mainstay was first marketed as Country Squares?
Which television channel began life as the Pinwheel Network?
Traf-O-Data, a company that interpreted data from roadway traffic counters, was the first failed startup by the founders of which future software giant?
Hugh Hefner was forced to change the name of his future media company due to a trademark challenge by a rival magazine. What was Playboy's first name?
Amazon incorporated in 1994 under the name Cadabra, as in "abracadabra." Why did Jeff Bezos' lawyer reject the name?
Which chain launched as Pronto Market?
What was the original name of Yahoo, which combined the names of founders Jerry Yang and David Filo?
Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/when_big_businesses_were_small/2013/10/quiz_match_the_great_business_with_its_terrible_original_name.htmlFulfilling his need for speed, Bradley Cooper revved up his KTM superbike in Los Angeles on Saturday (October 26).
The "Silver Linings Playbook" star was clad in black leather and a matching helmet as he sped out on the road.
Earlier this month, it was announced that the 38-year-old actor will team with Relativity Television and Georgeville Television for a scripted TV show based on the movie, "Limitless."
In the 2011 movie, a mysterious pill enables a struggling writer to use 100% of his brain. He becomes a financial wizard and attracts some dangerous forces who want to use his power.
Here at the TechCrunch Disrupt Europe Hackathon, Sam Gichuru (left) and Billy Odero spent the night working on a neat hack to help small businesses promote themselves by tapping into social network influencers. The hack, called Twpple, is designed to give smaller outlets, such as kebab shops, market stalls, hair salons and so on — basically any small businesses that hasn’t built up its own digital following — a stronger voice than they would otherwise have in the digital sphere to promote whatever it is they sell.
The hack uses Klout scores as a shortcut to identify individuals with the most social cachet that the SMEs can then tap into. The social influencers get paid for tweeting a series of messages (which they would word themselves) about the business or promotions they are running — with small payments giving them an incentive to help businesses spread the word.
“If your Klout score is 25 you can get $2.50 for sending three tweets,” said Gichuru, during his on stage pitch. “We have called this ‘pay per influence.’”
The bigger story here is not so much the hack but the fact that Gichuru and Odero came all the way from Nairobi, Kenya, to join the hackathon. The pair work for an accelerator in Nairobi called nailab – where Gichuru is CEO and co-founder, and can normally be found helping startups hone their pitches for the hackathons the incubator runs.
They told TechCrunch they made the trip to Europe to attend another tech conference in Amsterdam and meet with some investors and decided to add a two-day hack in Berlin into the mix while they were here. Their eight-hour flight from Nairobi was followed by an epic 13-hour train ride from Amsterdam to Berlin, which involved a lengthy detour after a 500-pound unexploded WWII bomb was found under a bridge(!). Add to that, Odero’s laptop broke and the pair’s Kenyan bank cards were rejected so they couldn’t buy a replacement machine — meaning they had to share one MacBook to build Twpple. Yet still they hacked.
Gichuru said Twitter is especially popular in Kenya — hence their focus on that social platform for Twpple. But while social media is a “big game” in Kenya for individuals, many small businesses still remain on the outside.
“They are always asking us, ‘hey how do you get on social media? How do we get social media influencers to tweet about us? And talk about us and write and talk about our Happy Hour?’ So we decided to build a platform where they can just log in, even from their mobile phones, create a small campaign — just based on the preferences they put up — for example their location, demographic, target market they want to reach.
“Then they’re able to get a list of the social media influencers who have signed up on our platform. And based on these guys’ Klout data they are able to say how much to pay for a certain amount of tweets.”
Payments would require influencers to send a series of tweets — in order for the small business to get enough “traction” from the micro campaign, said Gichuru, discussing the hack backstage. ”You need at least three tweets [per influencer] to get enough traction [for the business that's paying for the campaign]. But it has to be a conversation. We have to find a balance between having a real conversation and having marketing tweets from these people,” he said.
“It’s very easy for people who have a lot of Klout to start a trending topic [in Kenya],” added Odero. “We have some of the craziest hashtags. And normally it’s just one guy.”
“Social media big wigs — we call them ‘big wigs’ — become celebrities in my country,” added Gichuru. “They are known, they are followed, they actually — when the government does something, they do have a voice to question it or put government to task to explain it. And you will notice that even during the recent terrorist attack in Nairobi, social media influencers were the ones who were providing more information than the government, than the mainstream.”
Gichuru also pointed out that leaning on social big wigs — who are after all going to be broadcasting marketing messages to their own followers — adds an element of “self-regulation” to the advertising process. ”If it’s bad people are going to come back at you,” he said. “And you don’t want to be the point that the community attacks.”
How did the TC Disrupt hackathon compare to hacks nailab runs? “It’s been a really global experience. We’re always developing local solutions. Being here gives us a chance to see how to develop for a bigger audience and a bigger market,” said Gichuru. “It gives you a sense of how to monetise it as you’re hacking.”
“Most people [at nailab hackathons] try to focus on social enterprise,” added Odero. “It’s easier to get donor funding, it’s easier to get sponsors if you’re actually building something that solves an existing problem where we are.”
Here’s Gichuru presenting Twpple on stage:
As Minute Earth rightly points out, we could avoid a lot of flesh wounds by having thicker armored skin like a pangolin. But the energy needed to generate and maintain that armor wasn't evolutionarily worth it for us to expend because we put so much fuel into our enormous brains. We can think of ways to escape danger or make intelligent plans to avoid dangerous situations in the first place. And we do have scales, they're just not visible to the naked eye, but they protect us from tons of microbes. A lot is going on with our skin as the layers form, live out their life rising to the surface and then die. Watch this video and then go exfoliate.
     |
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/3DjpFvs0wFE/a-detailed-description-of-why-human-skin-is-amazing-1453056862Miley Cyrus is hitting the road! The "We Can't Stop" singer announced she will be going on tour during a surprise appearance on Saturday Night Live during Ed Norton's monologue on Oct. 26.
"I'm really great. Really quick, I'd just like to announce to all of my fans that I am about to be going on tour," the 20-year-old said to the host and the audience during her drop by.
PHOTOS: Miley's raciest outfits
She also gave the Academy Award-nominated actor some hosting tips. "Eddie, here are Miley's three rules to hosting," she boasted. "One, you've got to have fun. Two, you gotta keep your energy up and three, you gotta stick your tongue out like this." The Moonrise Kingdom star seemed hesitant, but quickly mimicked the blonde beauty by sticking out his tongue. (Cyrus previously hosted SNL earlier this month.)
Miley Cyrus announces her new tour on Saturday Night Live alongside host Ed Norton
Credit: NBC
After her appearance, the "Wrecking Ball" entertainer tweeted the news about the upcoming tour herself and celebrated at 1 Oak club in NYC. "I'm gooooing on tooooooour!! #Bangerz2014Tour," Cyrus excitedly wrote to her over 14 million followers. She added: "#Drinkinouttavasesamirightttt #celebrate #Bangerztour2014."
At the club, Cyrus was spotted wearing the same white crop t-shirt and tight black pants she donned on the SNL stage earlier in the evening. "She was non-stop dancing" for two hours, a source reveals to Us Weekly. "[The club] played two of her songs" and "she had her hands up" while dancing.
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, file photo, registered nurse Salanda Bowman, left, talks with part-time Kentucky Wesleyan College student Jason Ward, of Whitesville, about job openings at the Owensboro Health Regional Hospital during a Regional Career and Job Fair in the Owensboro Sports Center in Owensboro, Ky. The U.S. economy added just 148,000 jobs in September, suggesting that employers held back on hiring before a 16-day partial government shutdown began Oct. 1. (AP Photo/The Messenger-Inquirer, Gary Emord-Netzley, File)
FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013, file photo, registered nurse Salanda Bowman, left, talks with part-time Kentucky Wesleyan College student Jason Ward, of Whitesville, about job openings at the Owensboro Health Regional Hospital during a Regional Career and Job Fair in the Owensboro Sports Center in Owensboro, Ky. The U.S. economy added just 148,000 jobs in September, suggesting that employers held back on hiring before a 16-day partial government shutdown began Oct. 1. (AP Photo/The Messenger-Inquirer, Gary Emord-Netzley, File)
A customer enters a Chinese bakery that has a sign posted in the door, "Hiring! Sales Position Inquire within," Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in New York. The U.S. economy added just 148,000 jobs in September, suggesting that employers held back on hiring before a 16-day partial government shutdown began Oct. 1. Still, hiring last month was enough to lower the unemployment rate. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
WASHINGTON (AP) — A dim view of the U.S. job market emerged Tuesday with a report that employers cut back on hiring in September just before a partial government shutdown began.
Just 148,000 jobs were added last month, a steep drop from August's gain, though they were enough to lower unemployment to 7.2 percent from 7.3 percent in August. The report bolsters expectations that the Federal Reserve will maintain its pace of bond purchases for the rest of 2013 to try to keep long-term loan rates low.
The government's release of the September jobs report had been delayed 2½ weeks by the shutdown. Temporary layoffs during the 16-day shutdown will probably depress October's job gain. That means a clear picture of the job market won't emerge before November jobs figures are issued in December.
"The economy is too fragile for the Federal Reserve to touch," Sung Won Sohn, an economist at California State University, said. "The shenanigans in Congress have hurt confidence and increased uncertainties, most likely hurting both consumer and business spending as well as hiring."
Average U.S. job growth has fallen sharply in the past three months after a promising start this year. The economy added an average of 143,000 jobs a month from July through September. That was down from the 182,000 average gain during from April through June and well below the 207,000-a-month pace from January through March.
The report "reinforces the impression that the labor market was losing a little momentum heading in to the shutdown," said Josh Feinman, global chief economist at Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management. "The labor market is continuing to create jobs. ...It's just frustratingly slow."
Stocks rose after the report was released, in part because slower job gains mean the Fed will continue its stimulus efforts. The Dow Jones industrial average was up about 50 points in midday trading.
Economists at Barclays now predict the Fed won't trim its bond purchases until March, much later than its previous forecast of December.
A tight job market has discouraged many Americans from looking for work. The percentage of Americans working or looking for work remained at a 35-year low last month.
The government doesn't count people as unemployed unless they are actively looking for work. Most of the drop in the unemployment rate this year has occurred because many people have either given up looking or have postponed their job searches by remaining in school.
The September jobs report showed that some higher-paying industries added jobs at a healthy pace. Construction companies, for example, added 20,000.
Transportation and warehousing gained 23,400 jobs, governments 22,000. Manufacturers added 2,000 jobs.
Lower-paying industries were mixed. Hotels and restaurants cut about 11,000 jobs, after strong hiring earlier this year. Retailers added 21,000 positions.
The budget impasse didn't stop Accumold, which makes components for medical devices, smartphones and other electronic goods, from boosting its workforce. CEO Roger Hargens said the Ankeny, Iowa-based company filled jobs in September and plans to add up to 65 to its 185-worker staff in the next few months.
Hargens says he is seeing more orders from customers who are shifting from Chinese manufacturers to U.S. suppliers.
"There's a big trend to move manufacturing back to the United States," he said. "It's really speeding up now for us."
Last month, average hourly U.S. pay ticked up 3 cents to $24.09. In the past year, pay has risen 2.1 percent, ahead of the 1.5 percent inflation rate.
The government revised its estimates of job growth in July and August to show a slight net gain of 9,000. It said employers added 193,000 jobs in August, more than the 169,000 previously estimated. But it said just 89,000 were added in July, the fewest in more than a year and below the earlier estimated 104,000.
The deceleration in job growth was a key reason the Fed decided in September to hold off on slowing its $85-billion-a-month in bond purchases. Many economists think the lack of clean data will lead the Fed to put off any decision on the bond purchases until 2014.
"It reinforces their hesitancy," Feinman said of the September jobs report. "It's more validation for their hesitancy to taper in September."
Many economists say the shutdown cut $25 billion out of the economy and slowed growth to about a 2 percent annual rate in the October-December quarter. That's down from estimates before the shutdown that the economy would expand at a 2.5 percent annual rate.
Robert Mellman, senior U.S. economist at JPMorgan Chase, forecasts that October's job gains will be lower by about 35,000 because of cutbacks at government contractors and other companies affected by the shutdown. Many of those jobs will be regained in November.
Growth is expected to rise slightly in the first three months of next year, as consumers and businesses make purchases and investments that were delayed during the shutdown.
___
Follow Chris Rugaber on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/ChrisRugaber
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-22-Economy/id-c37b1ac1fd324e3980ffe807eecb583fDid Apple manage satisfy your cravings for a new iPad? Maybe that new Mac Pro has got you readying a preorder, if only for the illusion of the power user that you one day hope to be. After a year's break, the return of Nokia World coincided with Apple's soiree, but the Microsoft-aligned phone maker actually had more new hardware to show off, including a pair of new Windows Phones, its first Windows tablet and a brimful (that is, three) of Asha phones. Leaf the digital page over to see both events reprocessed, vitamin-enriched and in numerical form.
Singer-songwriter Rita Hosking grew up in a house she says was haunted. She even saw the ghosts of a mother and her son, she says.
Singer-songwriter Rita Hosking grew up in a house she says was haunted. She even saw the ghosts of a mother and her son, she says.
Weekend Edition has been asking you to share your scary stories, the ones that have become family lore. This week, we're sharing those stories and delving into how and why they affect us.
Singer-songwriter Rita Hosking grew up in a house that was haunted. It was known as the Old Erickson Place on Hatchet Mountain in California. In her 2009 album Come Sunrise, she tells the tragic story of the woman and her little boy who lived there years before.
"She was lonely before the Lord took her son," Hosking sings. "She couldn't take any more, so she took out her gun. It's there that she died with her hand on her hip, and it's there that she cried, this song on her lips."
Hosking grew up with the story, her father telling the tale on stormy nights.
One day, in the corner of a room in the house, she saw a little blond-haired boy.
"I immediately knew that this was this woman's son. He was looking at me, and I took off flying out the door ... because I was so frightened," she says.
When she looked back up toward the house, the curtain in her parents' bedroom on the top floor was being held back — then dropped. Hosking says she knew immediately it was the mother.
"Tragedies bring sorrow so deep and so strong that I feel like sometimes it just doesn't end with one generation. It carries on," she says. "And maybe that's what ghosts are, maybe they're just carrying on this sorrow."
Built on Apache Hadoop YARN architecture, HDP 2.0 changes Hadoop from a single-purpose Web-scale batch data processing platform into a multi-use operating system for batch, interactive, online, and stream processing.
Case in point: Running SQL on Hadoop. Business analysts have been using SQL as the query language to perform ad-hoc queries against data warehouses for years. If you're creating a data lake using Hadoop, you've got to be able to query that data using SQL.
[ Harness the power of Hadoop with InfoWorld's 7 top tools for taming big data. | Explore the current trends and solutions in BI with InfoWorld's interactive Business Intelligence iGuide. | Discover what's new in business applications with InfoWorld's Technology: Applications newsletter. ]
"But by building SQL access on top of Hadoop, it just highlights the challenge of Hadoop being a single application system," writes Arun Murthy, founder and architect at Hortonworks and former architect of the Yahoo Hadoop Map-Reduce Development Team. "For when I run a SQL query on that data, it could consume all the resources of the cluster and cause performance issues for the other applications and jobs running in the cluster-not a good outcome to say the least."
The answer to that problem is YARN (Yet Another Resource Negotiator), the foundation of the recently released Hadoop 2. Apache Hadoop YARN serves as the Hadoop operating system, taking what was a single-use data platform for batch processing and evolving it into a multi-use platform that enables batch, interactive, online and stream processing.
YARN acts as the primary resource manager and mediator of access to data stored in HDFS (Hadoop distributed file system), giving enterprises the capability to store data in a single place and then interact with it in multiple ways, simultaneously, with consistent levels of service.
Hortonworks, provider of the HDP (Hortonworks Data Platform), one of the most popular distributions of Hadoop, was quick to take up the YARN banner today with the announcement of the general availability of HDP 2.0.
HDP 2.0 is the first commercial distribution built on Hadoop 2, delivering the YARN-based architecture and new features from Phase 2 of the Stinger Initiative. The Stinger Initiative is a community-based effort that aims to enhance the speed, scale and breadth of SQL semantics supported by Apache Hive.
"The YARN-based architecture of HDP 2.0 delivers on our mission to enable the modern data architecture by providing one enterprise Hadoop that deploy integrates with existing, and future, data center technologies, says Shaun Connolly, vice president of corporate strategy at Hortonworks.
"In our benchmarking across some of the customers we've been working with, classic MapReduce jobs will just port over from the 1.0 line to the 2.0 line," Connolly adds. "You get twice the performance and you can run twice the jobs. You get a lot more headroom in the cluster."
Meanwhile, the addition of Hive 0.12 (the culmination of phase 2 of the Stinger Initiative) delivers large performance gains for queries that bring them in line with "human interactive response time rather than batch response time."
Connolly says queries that previously took 1,400 seconds for a response can now get responses in fewer than 10 seconds. Phase 3 (targeted for the first quarter of 2014), is expected to improve those response times even more by allowing interim processing to happen within memory.
HDP 2.0 is available for download now. Connolly says HDP 2.0 for Windows will be available next month.
Thor Olavsrud covers IT Security, Big Data, Open Source, Microsoft Tools and Servers for CIO.com. Follow Thor on Twitter @ThorOlavsrud. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline, Facebook, Google + and LinkedIn.
Read more about big data in CIO's Big Data Drilldown.
Looks like Snooki's son Lorenzo has a new playmate! Jersey Shore star Pauly D is now a father to a baby, he confirmed to TMZ on Tuesday, Oct. 22. The reality star and DJ (real name: Paul DelVecchio) recently welcomed a child with a former fling.
Although the ex has yet to be named, TMZ says she's 26, and that the pair hooked up in Las Vegas and that she currently resides with the little one in New Jersey.
PHOTOS: Meet the Jersey Shore stars' parents!
"I'm proud I'm a father," Pauly D told TMZ. "I am excited to embark on this new part of my life." (TMZ reports that paternity tests are pending, but that Pauly has already accepted responsibility for the little one, who was born a few months ago.)
PHOTOS: Best Jersey Shore moments
It's the first child for the MTV star. His castmate Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi is mom to Lorenzo, nearly 14 months, with fiance Jionni LaValle.
No matter how many times you’ve been there, the White House is a pretty awesome place, conferring on every president what “The West Wing” creator Aaron Sorkin once called “the single greatest home-court advantage in the modern world.”
So it would have to rank as the biggest “in your face” any modern president has faced if someone actually said to Barack Obama, in his own workspace — where a constantly shifting array of blown-up photographs of him line the halls and a retinue of helicopters wait at his beck and call — “I cannot even stand to look at you.”
With a new record, the band Arcade Fire is trying to top their 2011 release, which won a Grammy for Album of the Year. Critic Will Hermes says that on Reflektor, they turn to dance music to try to reinvigorate their sound.
Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
The Canadian rock band Arcade Fire released their first record "Funeral" back in 2004 on a small independent label. But these days there's nothing small about them. Their third record, "The Suburbs," won a Grammy and the band's upcoming fourth album is one of the most anticipated releases of the year. It's after a much hyped appearance on "Saturday Night Live" and a half hour special on NBC. Will Hermes has this review of "Reflektor."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WILL HERMES: Arcade Fire may have won an album-of-the-year Grammy for "The Suburbs," but that record struck me as kind of short on fresh ideas. This time they did what David Bowie, The Clash, Talking Heads and so many rock acts before them have done to reinvigorate their sound. They turned to dance music.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
HERMES: This is always a dicey strategy for rock bands, given the tribal rift that dates back to the rock versus disco battles of the 1970s. But wisely, Arcade Fire enlisted as co-producer James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem, a guy who's done more to bridge rock and dance music than anyone in the 21st century. And the band shuffles through all sorts of danceable rock tropes like on "Joan of Arc," which mixes punk and glam rock stadium stomp.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOAN OF ARC")
ARCADE FIRE: (Singing) They're the ones that spit on you, 'cause they got no heart. I'm the one that will follow you, you're my Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc.
HERMES: My favorite tracks draw on Haitian and Jamaican music like this one, "Here Comes the Nighttime."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HERE COMES THE NIGHTTIME")
FIRE: (Singing) Here's comes the night. Here comes the night, the night, the night time. Now the preachers they talk of (unintelligible). If you're looking for hell, just try looking inside.
HERMES: I'd like to hear the band go further with that Caribbean fusions. But "Reflektor's" really engaging, all 76 minutes of it. Unlike much dance music, the lyrics, which often address the vacancy of online culture, are actually worth unpacking. And when I saw Arcade Fire play some of these songs in a packed Brooklyn warehouse last week, it showed that good dance music, when used as intended, is a very effective cure for digital alienation. When you're fully shaking it in a room full of sweaty, good looking people, staring at your phone just seems stupid.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AFTERLIFE")
FIRE: (Singing) And after all the hangers-on are done hanging on to the dead lights of the afterglow. I've gotta know. Can we work it out? We scream and shout 'till we work it out.
BLOCK: The new album from Arcade Fire is "Reflektor." And you can hear the interview with the band on Monday on MORNING EDITION. Our critic Will Hermes is author of the book, "Love Goes To Buildings On Fire."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "AFTERLIFE")
FIRE: (Singing) 'Till we work it out. 'Till we work it out. 'Till we work it out. Afterlife. I think I saw...
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Let us know what you like about the program and what you don't. You can write to us, just go to npr.org and click on the word Contact at the bottom of the page. We may read your comments on the air.
BLOCK: And if you want to hear something again or catch up on what you've missed, just go to our webpage. It's all online at npr.org/allthingsconsidered.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
CORNISH: You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.
Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett speaks at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Corbett visited the hospital to promote his Healthy Pennsylvania initiative.
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett may have been watching fellow Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio who bypassed the Republican Legislature in his state this week to expand Medicaid.
As part of the Affordable Care Act, states have the option to make coverage available to low-income adults, with the federal government picking up the entire tab for the first three years.
Only about half the states so far have planned to do that, starting Jan. 1, and Pennsylvania has, so far, not been among them.
But Corbett is now canvassing the state touting his Healthy Pennsylvania plan, which calls for accepting the federal funding to expand Medicaid, with some caveats.
"We need [a] medical insurance program that's designed for Pennsylvania. One size does not fit all," Corbett said at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in North Philadelphia recently.
Healthy Pennsylvania would direct newly eligible people, mostly low-income adults without children, into the health insurance exchange where they could buy private coverage. That's in contrast to how it works now, where the state puts Medicaid patients into private managed care plans and sets the rates for what doctors and hospitals are paid.
Corbett's idea is to use the federal expansion funds to subsidize people buying individual plans instead. "Most important, it's not putting 500,000 more people into an entitlement program," he said. "It's putting them in a program where they are invested in the program, they are invested in their health care, in a way where a person in Medicaid may not have that same personal investment," he said.
Last month, the federal government approved a plan by Arkansas that allows new Medicaid recipients to shop for coverage on the insurance exchange. The Arkansas decision shows that the feds are willing to let states be creative with the expanded program. Corbett's plan differs from Arkansas' though, so federal approval isn't guaranteed. He'd also change some current Medicaid benefits and include a job-training component.
"The governor is looking for a way to draw down the federal money," says Nicole Huberfeld, a professor of health law at the University of Kentucky. She's not surprised by Corbett's latest move. "The Legislature may or may not be on board, but the governor recognizes a lot of federal money to be had that will likely save the state a lot of money in the long run," she says.
When the Supreme Court gave the states the option last year to expand Medicaid, many Republicans didn't have an appetite to do it, no matter who paid the bill, according to Matt Baker, a Republican lawmaker in Pennsylvania. "The Democrats in Harrisburg, by and large, support a full-blown Medicaid expansion," he says. "The Republicans do not. And we're very, very concerned about the cost."
But Baker doesn't view Corbett's plan as an expansion because of the shared responsibility element, and it doesn't appear to be facing severe political backlash.
Democratic leaders worry Corbett is moving too slowly and say they want more details. But some advocates for a full expansion are cautiously optimistic, including Michael Race of Pennsylvania's Partnerships for Children. While he "would have preferred to see Medicaid expansion put on the table," he says he was hopeful early on a plan would surface.
The whole plan isn't a done deal, but the University of Kentucky's Huberfeld says one thing is clear: Federal officials at the Department of Health and Human Services have signaled from the outset that they're willing to work with states to give them maximum flexibility to expand Medicaid under their own terms.
This piece is part of a collaboration among NPR, WHYY and Kaiser Health News.
St. Louis Cardinals' Allen Craig reacts after hitting a double during the ninth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series against the Boston Red Sox Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
St. Louis Cardinals' Allen Craig reacts after hitting a double during the ninth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series against the Boston Red Sox Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
Boston Red Sox's Xander Bogaerts hits an RBI single during the eighth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Boston Red Sox's Daniel Nava hits into a fielders choice during the eighth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, in St. Louis. Jacoby Ellsbury scored on the fields choice. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
St. Louis Cardinals' Carlos Beltran slides safely past Boston Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia during the seventh inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, in St. Louis. Beltran scored from second on a double by Matt Holliday. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
St. Louis Cardinals' Pete Kozma can't get to an RBI single hit by Boston Red Sox's Xander Bogaerts during the eighth inning of Game 3 of baseball's World Series Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Third baseman Will Middlebrooks tripped Allen Craig for a game-ending obstruction call on Jon Jay's ninth-inning grounder, giving the St. Louis Cardinals a bizarre 5-4 win over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday night and a 2-1 World Series lead.
Boston had tied the score with two runs in the eighth, and Yadier Molina singled with one out in the ninth off loser Brandon Workman. Allen Craig pinch hit and lined Koji Uehara's first pitch down the left-field line for a double that put runners on second and third.
With the infield in, Jon Jay hit a grounder to diving second baseman Dustin Pedroia. He threw home to catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia, who tagged out the sliding Molina. Saltalamacchia threw offline past third, and Middlebrooks, with his stomach on the field, raised both legs and tripped Craig.
Third base umpire Jim Joyce immediately signaled obstruction, and even though a sliding Craig was tagged by Saltalamacchia at the plate following the throw by left fielder Daniel Nava, plate umpire Dana DeMuth signaled safe and then pointed to third, making clear the obstruction had been called.
The Red Sox scored twice in the eighth inning to tie it 4-all. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a single and Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch for the sixth time this postseason. Both runners moved up on Pedroia's groundout, and David Ortiz was intentionally walked.
Cardinals manager Mike Matheny went to hard-throwing closer Trevor Rosenthal with the bases loaded, hoping for a five-out save from a rookie who has looked almost untouchable this October. But the Red Sox pushed two runs across.
Daniel Nava drove in one with a short-hop grounder that was smothered by second baseman Kolten Wong, who had just entered on defense in a double-switch.
Wong went to second for the forceout, but Nava beat the relay and Ellsbury scored to make it 4-3. Xander Bogaerts tied it when he chopped a single up the middle.
Brandon Workman jammed Matt Holliday and retired the slugger on a routine fly with two on to end the bottom of the eighth. That sent the game to the ninth tied at 4.
Holliday's two-run double puts the Cardinals on top 4-2 in the seventh.
It was a tough inning for Red Sox reliever Craig Breslow. Matt Carpenter reached safely when he checked his swing on an infield single to shortstop. Carlos Beltran was grazed on the elbow pad by a pitch — making no effort to get out of the way.
Beltran, in fact, almost appeared to stick his elbow out just a tiny bit to make sure the ball made contact.
Junichi Tazawa came on and Holliday pulled a grounder past Middlebrooks at third. The ball kicked into the left-field corner and Holliday went all the way to third on the throw to the plate.
Tazawa then got a couple of strikeouts and prevented further damage.
It was Middlebrooks' first inning in the field. He entered as a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh and took over at third base in the bottom half.
That shifted Bogaerts to shortstop — and neither one was able to make the difficult defensive play Boston needed in that inning.
Cardinals starter Joe Kelly, one of the few major league pitchers to wear glasses on the mound, set down his first nine batters. The Red Sox seemed to see him better the next time around in coming back from a 2-0 deficit.
Bogaerts opened the fifth with a triple that banged-up right fielder Beltran couldn't quite reach. The rookie later scored on a grounder by pinch-hitter Mike Carp.
Slumping Shane Victorino drew a leadoff walk from Kelly in the sixth and wound up scoring the tying run. Ortiz grounded a single off lefty reliever Randy Choate, and Nava greeted Seth Maness with an RBI single that made it 2-all.
Their fielding woes from Game 1 far behind them, the slick-fielding Cardinals made several sharp plays. Kelly barehanded a one-hopper, Carpenter threw out a runner from his knees up the middle and third baseman David Freese backhanded a line drive.
St. Louis quickly broke ahead, scoring in the first inning for the first time this October on RBI singles by Holliday and Yadier Molina. After the Cardinals got three hits in a span of four pitches, Red Sox reliever Felix Doubront began heating up in a hurry before Jake Peavy settled down.
Peavy wriggled out of bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth to keep the Cardinals' lead at 2-0. He got some help, too, from St. Louis third base coach Jose Oquendo.
With runners on first and second, Jon Jay hit a sharp single to center. The Red Sox were conceding a run and ready to let Molina score from second, but Oquendo held up the slow-footed catcher.
Peavy actually lowered his career postseason ERA by more than a full run, down to 9.27 in five winless starts.
A day before Kelly and Peavy faced each other, they sounded totally different.
Kelly kidded about his pregame preparation: He stays up all night taking on his Twitter followers, shooting away in "Call of Duty," the popular first-person war video game.
Peavy, meanwhile, was already ramped up and ready to go.
"This is what I've lived for my whole life," he said Friday. "I'm as prepared as I'll ever be, physically, mentally."
NOTES: Cardinals Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith and Red Schoendienst took part in the first-ball festivities, with fan favorite Willie McGee tossing the pitch. ... At 21, Bogaerts became the third-youngest player to hit a triple in a World Series. Ty Cobb and Mickey Mantle did it at 20. ... Molina has a six-game hitting streak in World Series play. ... The family of late umpire Wally Bell was in the stands. Bell died at 48 this month, and the six-man crew is wearing patches to honor him. Bell's first plate job in the World Series was at this ballpark in 2006.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-27-BBO-World-Series/id-1b943929b5f043a8b3e46c02373c5eafFrom left, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
From left, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during a new conference following a meeting at the Republican National Committee offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, and House Majority Leader Eric Canton of Va., right, walk away from the microphones following a news conference after a meeting at the Republican National Committee offices on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
From left, Tufts Health Plan President and CEO James Roosevelt, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida CEO Patrick Geraghty, Kaiser Permanente CEO Bernard Tyson, and other health care chief executive officers arrive at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2013, to meet with White House officials regarding President Barack Obama's health care law. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The principal contractors responsible for the federal government's troubled health insurance website say the Obama administration shares responsibility for snags that have crippled the system.
Executives of CGI Federal, which built the federal HealthCare.gov website serving 36 states, and QSSI, which designed the part that verifies applicants' income and other personal details, were testifying Thursday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
As the hearing began, Republican committee members said the website problems are symptomatic of deeper flaws in the Affordable Care Act, and they accused administration officials of misleading Congress with repeated assurances that the rollout was on track.
"The American people deserve something that works, or start over," said Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., adding that the administration should suspend the health law until problems are fixed.
Democrats acknowledged the website problems but defended the law, saying millions of uninsured Americans are counting on it to finally get coverage — and thousands are succeeding in signing up. They accused Republicans of trying to sabotage the law, not to fix it.
"Republicans don't have clean hands coming here," said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J.
The hearing comes as President Barack Obama's allies are starting to fret about the political fallout. Democrats had hoped to run for re-election next year on the benefits of the health care law for millions of uninsured Americans. Instead, computer problems are keeping many consumers from signing up through new online markets.
One House Democrat says the president needs to "man up" and fire somebody, while others are calling for signup deadlines to be extended and a reconsideration of the penalties individuals will face next year if they remain uninsured.
The focus on the contractors is a first step for GOP investigators. After the failure of their drive to defund "Obamacare" by shutting down the government, they've been suddenly handed a new line of attack by the administration itself. Administration officials, including Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, are to testify next week.
Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president of CGI, suggested in prepared testimony that Congress should look beyond the contractors. HHS "serves the important role of systems integrator or 'quarterback' on this project and is the ultimate responsible party for the end-to-end performance," she said.
Overwhelming interest from consumers triggered the website problems, she said. "No amount of testing within reasonable time limits can adequately replicate a live environment of this nature," she said.
Andy Slavitt, representing QSSI's parent company, said the operation's virtual back room, known as the federal data hub, is working well despite some bugs. But his company was also involved with another part of the system, a component for registering individual consumer accounts that became an online bottleneck.
Slavitt blamed the administration, saying that a late decision to require consumers to create accounts before they could browse health plans contributed to the overload. "This may have driven higher simultaneous usage of the registration system that wouldn't have occurred if consumers could window-shop anonymously," he said.
Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., chairman of the panel's health subcommittee, said he wants to focus on the administration's decision not to allow browsing, or window-shopping. That's a standard feature of e-commerce sites, including Medicare.gov for seniors. Lack of a browsing capability forced all users to first go through the laborious process of creating accounts, overloading that part of the site.
"Who made that decision? When was it made? Why was it made?" Pitts asked.
Acknowledging what's been obvious to many outside experts, the administration said Wednesday that the system didn't get enough testing, especially at a high user volume, before going live. It blamed a compressed time frame for meeting the Oct. 1 deadline to open the insurance markets. Basic "alpha and user testing" are now completed, but that's supposed to happen before a launch, not after.
The administration provided no timetable to fix extensive computer snags but said technicians are deep into the job. Its explanation, posted online in an HHS blog post and accompanying graphic, identified six broad areas of problems and outlined fixes underway but in most cases incomplete.
The HHS explanation identified some bugs that have gotten little outside attention. Technical problems have surfaced that are making the application and plan-shopping functions difficult to complete. That's a concern because those stages are farther along in the signup process than the initial registration, where many consumers have been getting tripped up. The problems are being analyzed and fixes are planned.
Meanwhile, House Democrats are starting to worry aloud about persistent problems with the rollout.
Rep. Richard Nolan, D-Minn., told The Associated Press the computer fiasco has "damaged the brand" of the health care law.
"The president needs to man up, find out who was responsible, and fire them," Nolan said. He did not name anyone.
Former White House chief of staff Bill Daley, interviewed Thursday on "CBS This Morning," said that Obama "can't just get stuck on this for the next several weeks." As for calls that Sebelius be fired, Daley said that would be like firing the captain of the Titanic "after the ship hit the iceberg."
Obama says he's as frustrated as anyone and has promised a "tech surge" to fix the balky website. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration will be more transparent about the problems. After more than 20 days without briefing the media, HHS will start regular sessions on Thursday, he said.
In light of the computer problems, some Democrats are saying Obama should consider extending open enrollment season beyond March 31 and revisit the penalties for individuals who don't sign up and remain uninsured. Under the law, virtually all Americans must carry health insurance starting next year or face fines.
On that point, a change in the timeline for signing up for coverage is underway, the White House said. Consumers have until Dec. 15 to apply for coverage that's effective Jan. 1. Even though open enrollment lasts until March 31, people would face a penalty if they postpone buying coverage beyond mid-February. Calling that a "disconnect," the White House said officials will soon issue policy guidance allowing consumers to sign up by the end of March without penalty.
____
Associated Press writers Josh Lederman and Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-24-Health%20Overhaul-Problems/id-b031d2ff912248758b8967355a6049deCORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — The NCAA investigation of Miami did not start with Nevin Shapiro taking some recruits for a ride on his yacht or handing out some cash.
Instead, no one was checking the Hurricanes' phone bills.
Compliance issues — a lack of monitoring — were at the root of the mess Miami was in over the past few years. And even though NCAA Case No. M362 is now essentially over, with a relatively small number of scholarship losses for football and men's basketball as the most significant penalties left to deal with, the trick for the Hurricanes is making sure something like this never happens again.
"We have a lot of educating to do," Miami athletic director Blake James said. "That's something that never stops."
Some of the issues that needed to be fixed date back to at least 2009, when Miami self-reported numerous violations regarding improper phone calls and text messages, it all having nothing to do with Shapiro. The NCAA started looking looked at the Hurricanes then and amped-up the probe a few months later when the former booster and mastermind of a $930 million Ponzi scheme began sharing his story with investigators.
The NCAA's assessment Tuesday was worded like this: "Staff members had a poor understanding of NCAA rules or felt comfortable breaking them."
Miami insists those days are gone.
"We're moving full speed ahead as a program," James said.
Virtually the entire Miami athletic administration has been hired since the Shapiro scandal broke widely in 2011 or has assumed a new role during that time. Compliance officials are far more visible now, utilizing social media and seminars to educate anyone around the program — even boosters — about what's right and what's wrong under NCAA rules.
Miami is still reaching out and asking its donors for support — but warning them that support doesn't mean anything close to unfettered access.
"Everybody in our community has been, to a person, totally supportive," Miami President Donna Shalala said. "Whether it's the students or the faculty or the alumni, they've been supportive both of the sanctions we imposed on ourselves and the way we conducted ourselves. They're also committed to how much we're going to have to invest in making sure that we do everything we can to stay within NCAA rules."
Miami is certainly not the only school to be tightening the reins these days. Coaches everywhere know that finding the right balance when it comes to compliance safeguards isn't always easy.
"You know, it's really a double edged sword because you want your guys to meet some people that are going to be beneficial to them down the road," West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins said. "Potential employers, people who have contacts, people who can make calls, people who can be references. At the same time, you're supposed to stay away from those very people. It's a fine line I think we all walk."
A two-page list shows how seriously Miami is taking all this.
Pages 100 and 101 of the NCAA's infractions report on Miami that was released Tuesday is nothing but a list of the corrective measures the school has taken to clean up compliance and safeguard against a future Shapiro-like mess. Boosters now have limited access to Miami athletes and facilities, as well as the Hurricanes' football sideline on game days. Even the compliance office was moved so there could be better access to athletes.
Nothing is foolproof, but this scandal certainly showed the Hurricanes where they were most vulnerable.
"Education," James said. "I think that's the biggest component of it. A lot of the structure we've put into place. Now it's educating everyone. It's continuing to educate our coaches. It's continuing to educate our student-athletes. It's doing more reach-out with our fans and our alums on the process. The one big piece is education."
___
AP Sports Writer Dave Skretta in Kansas City, Mo. contributed to this report.
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-10-23-Miami-NCAA-What-Next/id-dffd4d9707844a77872b8f47ad554d8cWhether you think shaving is relaxing, an art form for you to master, or a miserable time sink, you probably still have to do it, and anything worth doing is worth doing well. Hopefully some of our favorite products get put to good use making your face a bit smoother, and we can't wait to hear your recommendations in the comments.
| |
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/AyojxG9ZIJI/our-favorite-shaving-gear-1448191339
Co-stars Johnny Knoxville and Jackson Nicoll crack up over shooting the prank flick's craziest scenes.
By Alex Zalben
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uO48qX39GduhRo2z-323fWa7B9gvXm2Sn3WyfXRFssqWhrxWDvw-9gz9qR2hsl7iAA-sZJ7IuiArzDTRXcPE7mq-4fHki6MiOVyCs7NsE=s0-d){kind=small}
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Lauri Kovanen
lauri.kovanen@aalto.fi
358-505-670-032
Aalto University
People's tendency to communicate with similar people is stronger than earlier believed, which restricts the flow of information and ideas in social networks. These are the findings that an Aalto University research group will publish this week in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publication series.
The results were obtained by means of a computational method developed by the research group and then applied to massive amounts of anonymised mobile phone call data. The data came from a mobile phone operator's billing system and includes detailed information about the timing of hundreds of millions of mobile phone calls and the age, gender and billing types of anonymised callers and recipients.
The research is linked to computational social science, an area of multidisciplinary research that has become highly important in recent years. In this area, computational methods are used to mine information about human behavior from massive data sets. Rather than focusing on the individual, computational social science strives to understand general properties in the behavior of large groups of people. This contrasts with data collection and mining used for intelligence purposes, which has recently attracted a lot of publicity. Furthermore, the data used is always anonymised.
The research group's computational method is based on statistical analysis of the precise timing of phone calls. This allowed researchers to show that various patterns where phone calls immediately follow each other (for example, A calls B, who then calls C) are more common between people who are similar in terms of age, gender and mutual friends than could be observed based only on numbers of calls made.
Application of the developed method is not only limited to research on communication between people; it also has potential uses in areas like brain research.
###
Further information:
Lauri Kovanen, D.Sc. (Tech.), +358 50 567 0032, lauri.kovanen@aalto.fi
Professor Jari Saramki, +358 40 525 4285, jari.saramaki@aalto.fi
Aalto University School of Science
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, BECS
Department webpages: http://becs.aalto.fi/fi/index.html
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Oct-2013
ShareContact: Lauri Kovanen
lauri.kovanen@aalto.fi
358-505-670-032
Aalto University
People's tendency to communicate with similar people is stronger than earlier believed, which restricts the flow of information and ideas in social networks. These are the findings that an Aalto University research group will publish this week in an article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences publication series.
The results were obtained by means of a computational method developed by the research group and then applied to massive amounts of anonymised mobile phone call data. The data came from a mobile phone operator's billing system and includes detailed information about the timing of hundreds of millions of mobile phone calls and the age, gender and billing types of anonymised callers and recipients.
The research is linked to computational social science, an area of multidisciplinary research that has become highly important in recent years. In this area, computational methods are used to mine information about human behavior from massive data sets. Rather than focusing on the individual, computational social science strives to understand general properties in the behavior of large groups of people. This contrasts with data collection and mining used for intelligence purposes, which has recently attracted a lot of publicity. Furthermore, the data used is always anonymised.
The research group's computational method is based on statistical analysis of the precise timing of phone calls. This allowed researchers to show that various patterns where phone calls immediately follow each other (for example, A calls B, who then calls C) are more common between people who are similar in terms of age, gender and mutual friends than could be observed based only on numbers of calls made.
Application of the developed method is not only limited to research on communication between people; it also has potential uses in areas like brain research.
###
Further information:
Lauri Kovanen, D.Sc. (Tech.), +358 50 567 0032, lauri.kovanen@aalto.fi
Professor Jari Saramki, +358 40 525 4285, jari.saramaki@aalto.fi
Aalto University School of Science
Department of Biomedical Engineering and Computational Science, BECS
Department webpages: http://becs.aalto.fi/fi/index.html
Share
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
