Facebook Gives Teens a Longer Leash

By giving teens the option of posting in the public eye, Facebook's new rules have sparked yet another round of privacy concerns. On the other hand, "I'm not sure how many are going to want to turn on for all to see," suggested Justin Brookman, director of the consumer privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "In some ways, the less public stuff is of more concern."

Facebook on Thursday changed the default setting determining who can see posts by kids aged 13 through 17.

Up until now, the setting for the first post on Facebook of a kid in this age group was "friends of friends," and kids had the option to change it.

Now, the initial setting will be the narrower audience of "friends." However, also new under the revised rules will be the option for teens to make their posts visible to the public.

Teenagers can now also use the "Follow" feature, which lets people automatically receive posts from other users even if they are strangers.

Fear, Loathing and the New Rules

The change immediately sparked concern because the potential audience for teens' posts has been widened to the public at large. That, in turn, could expose teenagers more readily to bullies, sexual predators and marketers.

Sex offenses linked to Facebook or Twitter have surged over the past four years, UK newspaper The Mirror reported in April, noting also that pedophiles are increasingly logging onto social network sites to target children.

Facebook also figures prominently in cyberbullying, with 64 percent of the victims reporting they were harassed on the social networking site, privacy-focused social network Sgrouples states.

Cyberbullying has driven several teenagers to suicide, the most recent victim being Florida 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick.

"What Facebook has done is classic bait and switch -- fake the public into thinking they've added more privacy when in fact they've taken a whole layer away and put teenagers at greater risk for cyberbullying," Sgrouples CEO Mark Weinstein told TechNewsWorld.

On the other hand, "I don't see kids posting everything -- or even that much -- to the public," remarked John Simpson, consumer advocate at Consumer Watchdog.

Storm in a Teacup?

In fact, the changes might actually be for the better, Simpson told TechNewsWorld.

The old default setting of sharing with friends of friends "could be a huge number of people," Simpson pointed out. "Now the default is to share just with friends."

The original setting "encompasses a huge number of people, some of whom are unsavory at best," Simpson continued.

Further, teenagers are increasingly migrating to services like Tumblr and Twitter that don't require them to use their real names so as to avoid parental oversight, "so I'm not sure how many are going to want to turn on for all to see," remarked Justin Brookman, director of the consumer privacy project at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Those who choose to make their posts public will see pop-up reminders warning the post can be seen by anyone.

It's not likely that Facebook will run afoul of laws established to protect kids online. California requires that kids should be able to erase social media content, but "Facebook already has in place tools for users to go back and erase stuff," Brookman pointed out.

Facebook did not respond to our request for further details.

Working Hard for the Money

Facebook probably relaxed its rules for teenage posters to drive engagement and compete with other services such as Tumblr and Twitter, where teens can already share posts publicly, the CDT's Brookman told TechNewsWorld.

"More engagement is good for advertising revenue, but I'm not sure it really matters to Facebook whether the sharing is private or public," Brookman pointed out.

Teenagers are sharing more personal information on social media sites, Pew Internet has found.

That would make them better targets for marketers, and Facebook's online marketing efforts are paying off handsomely. Click-through rates, which show how consumers interact with ads, increased by a factor of 3.75 year over year in Q3, figures from Nanigans indicate.

Keep an Eye Peeled

Parents should monitor what their kids do online, whether or not it's public, Brookman said.

"In some ways," he concluded, "the less public stuff is of more concern."

Source: http://www.technewsworld.com/rsstory/79222.html
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Cambodian Opposition Leader Declares Political 'Stalemate' (Voice Of America)

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House debt limit, funding plan would not pass Senate: Reid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday that an alternative debt limit and government funding plan promoted by conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives could not win approval in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Reid said the plan, which was discussed at a House Republican meeting on Tuesdays morning, was "an extreme piece of legislation and it's nothing more than a blatant attack on bipartisanship."

Earlier, House Speaker John Boehner said no decisions had been made to bring the House plan up for a vote. The proposal would track several key parameters of an emerging deal that Reid is negotiating with Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell but it would require some concessions on "Obamacare" health reforms and add some other restrictions on funding and borrowing.

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-debt-limit-funding-plan-not-pass-senate-155600643--business.html
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Here's A Reason To Love Disco Again: Stopping Food Waste

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day. Stuart is shown here in New York, where he attended the first U.S.-based disco soup event in September.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Tristram Stuart, founder of Feeding the 5000, is helping to organize several disco soup events across Europe for World Food Day. Stuart is shown here in New York, where he attended the first U.S.-based disco soup event in September.

Courtesy of Feeding the 5000

Wednesday is World Food Day, an occasion food activists like to use to call attention to world hunger. With 842 million chronically undernourished people on Earth, it's a problem that hasn't gone away.

This year, activists are trying to make the day a little spicier with pots full of disco soup to highlight the absurd amount of food thrown away that could feed people: one-third of all the food produced every year.

What is disco soup, you ask? It's the tasty outcome of a party designed to bring strangers together to cook food that would otherwise end up in the trash. Oftentimes, the soup is donated to the hungry. Oh, and as the name suggests, there's music involved, too.

The first disco soup party was held in Germany in early 2012 by some folks affiliated with the Slow Food Youth Network Deutschland. The organizers collected discarded fruits and vegetables from a market, blasted some disco music and made a huge pot of soup.

Two months later, a group in France threw a disco soup party, and attracted 100 people. More parties followed, in Australia, South Korea, Ireland and beyond. You can check out an earnest little video of another French disco food event here:

The idea eventually caught the attention of Tristram Stuart, a British food waste activist and writer who started Feeding the 5000, a campaign named for an event held in London in 2009 and 2011, where 5,000 members of the public were given a free lunch made with perfectly edible ingredients bound for the rubbish bin.

Stuart is adamant that consumers and businesses in the developed world have a moral obligation to reverse "the global scandal" of food waste. In addition to throwing events to cook up blemished but edible produce, his campaign is also working to change European Union legislation on feeding food waste to pigs through the Pig Idea project.

For World Food Day, Feeding the 5000 is hosting a "flagship" disco soup party in Brussels. And the group says more pots full of disco soup will be bubbling away today in the Netherlands, France, Germany, Greece and Macedonia. The event hub is the Disco Anti Food Waste Day Facebook page.

And what if you don't like disco? Can you still have a disco soup event?

"We play anything that gets people dancing as they peel and chop the vegetables and fruit," Dominika Jarosz, event coordinator for Feeding the 5000, tells The Salt in an email.

While there are no disco soup events scheduled for Oct. 16 in the U.S., Feeding the 5000 says disco soup is starting to get traction here. The first U.S. disco soup event was held on Sept. 20 in New York, with the support of Slow Food NYC, the Natural Gourmet Institute, chef Paul Gerard of the East Village restaurant Exchange Alley and the United Nations Environment Program.

In advance of the soup blitz, Stuart visited local farms in New York and New Jersey and gleaned blemished tomatoes, over-sized watermelons, squash, eggplants and other fresh produce that the farmers were unable to sell. A rotating crew of DJs provided a soundtrack at the soup-making party at the Chelsea Super Pier, and most of the food was donated to the Bowery Mission. Such events, he says, help raise awareness among food donors like grocery stores and farmers and help them forge long-term relationships with organizations that feed the hungry.

Americans may be getting more motivated to address food waste, but we have to hand it to the Europeans, who do seem to be out in front on the issue. It was a group of Austrians, after all, who started a reality cooking show centered around Dumpster diving.

Food waste was also a talking point for world leaders who spoke up on World Food Day. "Reducing food waste is not, in fact, only a strategy for times of crisis, but a way of life we should adopt if we want a sustainable future for our planet," Nunzia De Girolamo, Italy's minister for agriculture, food and forestry policy, said at a ceremony Wednesday at the Food and Agriculture Organization's headquarters in Rome.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/10/16/235355021/turning-food-waste-into-disco-soup?ft=1&f=
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2 BART workers killed after being struck by train

WALNUT CREEK, Calif. (AP) — A commuter train that is part of a San Francisco Bay Area system whose employees are on strike hit and killed two maintenance workers Saturday afternoon, officials said.

The accident in the East Bay city of Walnut Creek occurred shortly before 2 p.m. as the train was on a routine maintenance operated by non-union staff members, Bay Area Rapid Transit officials said in a statement.

BART officials said an "experienced operator" was at the controls, but did not specify who it was. The train was being run in automatic mode under computer control at the time of the accident, the statement said.

Union representatives have warned of the danger that could come with allowing managers to operate trains.

The two dead were one BART employee and one contractor who were performing track inspections in response to a reported dip in the track, BART said.

"Both people had extensive experience working around moving trains in both the freight train and the rapid transit industry," BART said.

The procedures for such maintenance require one employee to inspect the track and the other to serve as a lookout for oncoming traffic, BART officials said, but they did not immediately say whether that procedure was being followed.

The accident occurred about a mile from the Walnut Creek station and some 25 miles northeast of San Francisco.

Two tarps that appeared to be covering the two dead were laid across the tracks, the Contra Costa Times reported.

The victim's names and ages were not immediately released.

BART management and officials from two unions representing workers have been at an impasse over contract negotiations since Thursday as the system that links San Francisco and Oakland to Bay Area suburbs goes through its second work stoppage in less than three months.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-19-BART-Train%20Deaths/id-658ecc94c429431fb818fc2c4e03d4db
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Sam Claflin Talks Kristen Stewart's Struggle With Fame in Harper's Bazaar UK November 2013

With his highly anticipated film "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire" slated to hit theaters November 22nd, Sam Claflin scored a feature in the November 2013 issue of Harper's Bazaar UK magazine.

During his Q&A session with the publication, the "Snow White and the Huntsman" actor chatted about his role as Finnick and his observation of Kristen Stewart's struggle with fame.

Check out a few highlights from Mr. Claflin's interview below. For more, be sure to visit Harper's Bazaar UK!

On becoming Finnick:

"I saw people's reaction and some were harsh. Not to the point where I'm going to kill myself but I thought, 'I'm sorry I'm not your Finnick. Trust me, when I read the book, I didn't see me as Finnick either!' I don't think I'm that attractive. I remember sitting waiting for the audition, reading the breakdown of the character: 6ft, tenner, toned. I felt very out of shape; I had stubble, long brown hair and very pale. This other kid walked in who looked like Brad Pitt in 'Thelma & Louis' the muscles, blonde hair, a vest. I thought, I am not going to get this part.' He's a very complex character and you have to be able to portray the vulnerabilities as well as the charm and charisma. There was something I did with the acting part of it that they liked."

On the drawbacks of fame:

"Kristen, bless her heart, is the most looked-at person of anyone I've worked with. She felt she had to hide herself away. I feel sorry for her knowing how she and Rob [Pattinson] must've had to live."

On marrying Laura Haddock:

"It's difficult to go more than a few weeks without seeing each other. The longest we've gone is a month and that was really tough. Every time I come home to London, she's a distraction - I want to drink wine and eat good food when I'm with her. But we Skype a lot. Our relationship started on Skype so it's always been that way. Meeting Laura has blown me off my feet. It's fresh, it keeps me on my toes. We spend a lot of time missing each other, which is a nice feeling. And she's understanding because we both work in the same industry. If we made plans for this weekend and then I had to go to LA to meet Steven Spielberg, she'd understand."

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/sam-claflin/sam-claflin-talks-kristen-stewarts-struggle-fame-harpers-bazaar-uk-november-2013-942219
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3 American Economists Win Nobel Prize

Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller won the 2013 economics prize for their work on developing new methods to study trends in asset markets. They will share the $1.25 million prize.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

OK, the Nobel Memorial Prize in economics was awarded today to three American men - Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen, Robert Shiller. The Nobel committee cited their research in the predictability of stock prices, as well as other asset prices. We're going to find out more now from Zoe Chace of NPR's Planet Money team. She's on the line. Hi, Zoe.

ZOE CHACE, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: Each of these guy's names is a little familiar, I think to the layman, especially maybe Shiller. Who are they?

CHACE: So, all right. These guys, they're kind of, it's kind of the perfect example of what economics is, that these three guys won. Because Fama thinks one thing and Shiller kind of thinks the opposite. And that's sort of what economics is, is like an argument...

INSKEEP: And both won it together, OK, fine. Go on.

CHACE: Yeah, but if you put them together, there's sort of some logic to it. It's both about predictability in the stock market, and sort of what stock prices mean.

Fama, the first guy, the research that he did is basically that the price of a stock is kind of the perfect amount of information. The market absorbs information really quickly and prices, stocks exactly appropriately. So...

INSKEEP: OK.

CHACE: Like, quarterly earnings come out, or something like that, the stock market reacts right away. That's a perfect assimilation of new information.

INSKEEP: OK.

CHACE: Like that's great information.

INSKEEP: Investors are watching and people make their conclusions and it's a collective conclusion. OK.

CHACE: Yeah, sales are up, people buy the stock, you know, that's logical and that makes sense. But Shiller looked at stock prices and asset prices kind of over a longer period of time and he kind of puts the heart into it. He says people are crazy and people are emotional and sometimes they will just buy up, you know, a whole bunch of things just because they're excited about it. And it's not really the price of something; how popular something is isn't necessarily a perfect piece of information because we're crazy and we get excited. And so, that is not really absorbed very, you know, into the price of something.

INSKEEP: Robert Shiller, isn't he the guy whose name is on the Case-Shiller Index, which has to do with home prices and so forth?

CHACE: Yes. He is the guy.

INSKEEP: Which, of course, that's something - that's a market that's had quite a lot of craziness in recent years, as all of us know.

CHACE: Yes. So Shiller's kind of the father behavioral finance, basically. Like, he's a really famous guy and he predicted the tech bubble in 2000. He predicted the real estate bubble of 2008 because he sees bubbles as a kind of natural outgrowth of the human emotion that comes along with investing money. And so, the Case-Shiller Home Price Index is something that's really popular because that's a way to look at, you know, like, confident people are feeling in the economy.

INSKEEP: OK.

CHACE: Confidence is really - that's what investing is all about.

INSKEEP: OK, so you got one guy who thinks the market is rational and another guy who thinks the market is irrational. And we have this third guy, Hansen. Who's he?

CHACE: Yes. Hansen is the math guy. He came up with the model that you can sort of use to prove your assumptions. I can't really get into it because the math is complicated...

INSKEEP: Right.

CHACE: ...and it's a little bit beyond me, beyond us, probably. But what it is, is that you can use his model to prove Shiller's point and you can use his model to prove Fama's point, which are sort of opposite points...

(LAUGHTER)

CHACE: ...but that's economics. You know, it's an argument.

INSKEEP: OK. We were wondering if these guys, since they won the Nobel Prize for the predictability of the markets, if they were able to make themselves rich. But I'm guessing from what you said, maybe not.

CHACE: No. They can invest their couple hundred thousand dollars each in the markets, but they don't know what they're going to get. That's how the markets work.

INSKEEP: Zoe, thanks very much.

CHACE: Thank you.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's Zoe Chace of our Planet Money team. And again, the Nobel Prize winners in economics - Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller. You heard it right here on MORNING EDITION 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.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/14/233930030/3-american-economists-win-nobel-prize?ft=1&f=3
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Verizon deploying LTE on AWS spectrum in major markets

New spectrum along with carrier aggregation to improve Verizon's LTE offerings soon

Following its nearly $4 billion purchase of AWS spectrum last year, Verizon is ready to start putting it to work for its LTE network in major markets across the U.S. The spectrum, which is also used by T-Mobile for its own network, will give Verizon more real estate to roll out its network to capable handsets. While Verizon isn't disclosing which markets are receiving the upgrades at this time, users have already pegged New York City as one of the markets.

When Verizon does get around to using up its AWS holding in the largest markets, the carrier will be able to offer 20x20MHz LTE — essentially more lanes on a highway for cars to drive on. The number of devices actually capable of using LTE on AWS spectrum is limited, but Verizon says that those with the appropriate hardware will receive software updates to take advantage soon.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/G5y7bqJYBmg/story01.htm
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Eva Longoria & Melanie Griffith: Lunch Ladies

Looking forward to some delicious eats and stimulating conversation, Eva Longoria and Melanie Griffith showed up at E. Baldi restaurant in Beverly Hills on Thursday afternoon (October 17).

Both ladies looked beautiful as they finished up their meal and promptly headed off to a shopping spree at several nearby boutiques.

Last night, Eva had a guest-starring role on “Welcome to the Family,” the new NBC series starring her “Desperate Housewives” costar Ricardo Chavira.

Prior to the show, Longoria tweeted, “You guys ready for my return to television!! Watch me this week with @RicardoAChavira on Welcome To The Family this Thur on NBC!#WTTF.”

Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/eva-longoria/eva-longoria-melanie-griffith-lunch-ladies-945336
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The hidden challenges of using cloud backup to replace tape

October 15, 2013

It's no secret: IT pros absolutely love to hate tape. I've remarked on that fact in this column several times over the past few years, and it's no less true now than it was any of the other times I've mentioned it. But that's all changing! What local disk backup couldn't solve on its own, cloud storage providers with their hyperredundant and constantly maintained fleets of disk can certainly fix! Finally, we can put a stake in the heart of tape and it will simply become a ghost story that the old timers tell IT newbs. Right?

Maybe, but not so fast. Although the cloud absolutely can replace some of the use cases for tape, it can't satisfy them for everyone all the time. The very same reasons why tape was still alive and kicking when I wrote about it nearly four years ago are still largely true today.

However, you need not fret if you're itching to get rid of tape and make backup someone else's problem by moving it to the cloud. Things are definitely looking up -- especially if you're working with relatively small amounts of data, can deal with long restoration times, or have ridiculous amounts of bandwidth to spare.

To continue reading, register here to become an Insider

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Source: http://akamai.infoworld.com/d/data-explosion/the-hidden-challenges-of-using-cloud-backup-replace-tape-228690?source=rss_infoworld_top_stories_
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Britain's Cameron attacks EU red tape before reform drive

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - European Union regulation is strangling economic growth and costing the continent billions of euros, according to a British government-backed report on Tuesday that Prime Minister David Cameron hopes will bolster his case for reform of the bloc.

Cameron set up the review of EU red tape in June, addressing one of the biggest grievances of British Euroskeptics who complain that the 28-nation bloc's rules are often petty, interfering and expensive to implement.

"All too often, EU rules are a handicap for firms," Cameron said of the report. "There are lots of simple and practical ways to cut EU red tape and save businesses across Europe tens of billions of euros."

Reducing regulation will be central to Cameron's campaign to reshape the EU and Britain's place in Europe before a promised referendum on its continued membership of the bloc.

His hopes of winning the 2015 election depend in part on convincing wavering Conservative voters not to defect to the UK Independence Party, whose call to leave the EU could split the centre-right vote and benefit the opposition Labour party.

Across Europe, trust in the EU's institutions has fallen since the start of the financial crisis. In one recent poll, 60 percent of Europeans "tended not to trust the EU", up from 32 percent in early 2007 before the crisis.

The European Commission, the EU's executive, said this month it would pare back EU rules to answer critics' accusations that it over-regulates.

Responding to the British report on Tuesday, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Brussels had scrapped more than 5,000 laws and rules over the past five years.

"Common rules are essential to make the single market work properly, but I also want to make sure that the EU does not meddle where it should not," said Barroso, a Portuguese.

Cameron will press his case for reform at next week's meeting of European leaders in Brussels.

'POINTLESS, BURDENSOME'

The report, compiled by a panel of six business leaders and chaired by Business Minister Michael Fallon, said there were too many "pointless, burdensome and costly regulations".

It made more than 30 recommendations, in areas from shale gas extraction, licensing medicines and environmental safeguards to paid maternity leave and limits on working hours. Scrapping the rule that forces firms to keep health and safety records could save 2.7 billion euros ($3.67 billion), it said.

Business lobby groups said the ideas would simplify companies' operations, make it easier to hire staff and encourage investment.

Union leaders, however, said it would erode workers' rights.

"None of these policies have anything to do with economic growth and are instead about certain business leaders' desire to worsen people's basic working conditions, egged on by the government," said Frances O'Grady, head of Britain's Trades Union Congress.

Since joining the EU's forerunner in 1973, British Euroskeptics have grumbled about "meddling Eurocrats" in Brussels imposing rules. Anti-EU newspapers ridicule and sometimes distort the details, prompting the Commission to issue rebuttals on its own "Euro Myths" website.

($1 = 0.7361 euros)

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Brussels; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britains-cameron-attacks-eu-red-tape-reform-drive-132750213.html
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5 examples why there's no room for love in WWE

Heart: It's what drives WWE Superstars to overcome the odds and triumph in the face of adversity. Without heart, Hulk Hogan could've never had the strength to bodyslam Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III. Without heart, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin would've shouted "I quit!" when he was trapped in the Sharpshooter at WrestleMania 13.

It's the love that does some pretty crazy things with Superstars' heads, clouding their judgment and leaving them prone to rivals’ schemes. Case in point: Daniel Bryan was ambushed by Randy Orton on Monday night's Raw when he rushed to the aid of his fiancée, Brie Bella. In recent weeks, WWE's Apex Predator has relentlessly targeted Bryan's affection for the Bella Twin as a cunning way to toy with his opponent's mind before they clash inside Hell in a Cell for the WWE Title.

From a scandalous photo spread involving a legendary valet to a ladder match being fought over custody of a young boy, take a look back at five other examples that prove why emotional attachment can turn into vulnerability – and destruction – in WWE.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/inside/why-theres-no-room-for-love-in-wwe
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2 killers registered as felons after their escape

This undated combo of photos provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins, left and Charles Walker. Walker and Joseph Jenkins were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department. of Corrections)

This undated combo of photos provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins, left and Charles Walker. Walker and Joseph Jenkins were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department. of Corrections)

This undated photo provided by the Florida Department. of Corrections shows Joseph Jenkins. Jenkins and Charles Walker were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Department of Corrections)

This undated photo made available by the Florida Department of Corrections shows Charles Walker. Walker and Joseph Jenkins were mistakenly released from prison in Franklin County, Fla., in late September and early October. According to authorities, the the two convicted murderers were released with forged documents. A manhunt is under way for the two men. (AP Photo/Florida Dept. of Corrections,HO)

In this undated image released Thursday, Oct 17, 2013 by the Orange County Circuit Court, in Orlando, Fla., a bogus document authorities say led to the release of a convicted killer is shown. Authorities say this document and others like it led to the mistaken release of two prisoners. (AP Photo/Orange County Circuit Court)

In this undated image released Thursday, Oct 17, 2013 by the Orange County Circuit Court, in Orlando, Fla., a bogus document authorities say led to the release of a convicted killer is shown. Authorities say this document and others like it led to the mistaken release of two prisoners. (AP Photo/Orange County Circuit Court)

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Within days of strolling out of prison without a hitch, two convicted killers freed by bogus paperwork went to a jail about 300 miles away and registered as felons, records showed. They were even fingerprinted, photographed and filled out paperwork to apparently keep up the ruse.

Authorities are now searching for Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, who were mistakenly freed from a Panhandle prison within the last month. Both men were serving life in prison but were let go when authorities said forged documents duped the Corrections Department and court system and reduced their sentences to 15 years.

"We're looking at the system's breakdown, I'm not standing here to point the finger at any one at this time," Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said Friday as he appealed to the public to help authorities find the men. He said he believed they were still in the central Florida area.

The release led prosecutors and prison officials to review their records to make sure no one else had been mistakenly freed. The corrections agency also changed its policy to require officials to verify all early releases with judges.

Jenkins was released Sept. 27 and registered at the Orange County jail in Orlando on Sept. 30. Walker was set free Oct. 8 and registered there three days later.

Felons are required to register by law. When they do, their fingerprints are digitally uploaded to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and a deputy at the jail verifies that they don't have any outstanding warrants, said jail spokesman Allen Moore.

By registering, Jenkins and Walker likely drew less attention to themselves.

"If there's no hit that comes back, they're free to go," said Isaiah Dennard, the Florida Sheriff's Association's jail services coordinator.

If felons do not register, a warrant is put out for their arrest, Dennard said.

The sheriff said there had been some sightings of the men, and "most" of their families were cooperating, but he didn't go into specifics about either detail. Police were offering a $5,000 reward for help and billboards were going up in the area.

Authorities learned about the mistaken release when one of the murder victim's family notified the state attorney's office. Dennard said victims' families are automatically notified when a felon is released, typically by a computer voice-generated phone call.

It's not clear exactly who made the fake documents ordering the release or whether the escapes were related. Authorities said the paperwork in both cases was filed in the last couple of months and included forged signatures from the same prosecutor's office and judge.

The state Department of Law Enforcement and the Department of Corrections are investigating the error, but so far have not released any details.

Chief Circuit Judge Belvin Perry said Thursday there were several red flags that should have attracted the attention, including that's it uncommon for a request for sentence reduction to come from prosecutors.

The Corrections Department said on Friday it verified the early release by checking the Orange County Clerk of Court's website and calling them.

Corrections Secretary Michael Crews sent a letter to judges saying prison officials will now verify with judges — and not just court clerks — before releasing prisoners early.

Sen. Greg Evers, who chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said he spoke to Perry on Friday and that the judge will offer a proposal in which judges review all early release documents before court clerks send them to prisons.

"They're working on some fail safe plans," said Evers, a Pensacola Republican. "If the court administrator put these plans in place throughout the state it will solve the problem."

New measures were implemented in the Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts Office after workers there thwarted the release of a burglary suspect from forged paperwork in 2011. The changes included only accepting judge's orders from the judge's assistant and to treat them especially carefully, said Cindy Guerra, chief operating officer for the office.

"That situation in Orlando, that just doesn't happen here," said her colleague, Louis Tomeo, the office's director of criminal courts. "Our clerks, I venture to say, would have picked up on that easily."

As the Florida court system transitions into a paperless era, special email accounts have been set up for judges. The deadline to go completely electronic is February, though it has already been moved back several times.

Across the country, prisoners have had varying success trying to escape using bogus documents. In 2010, a Wisconsin killer forged documents that shortened his prison sentence and he walked free, only to be captured a week later. In 2012, a prisoner in Pennsylvania was let out with bogus court documents, and the mistake was only discovered months later.

Jenkins, 34, was found guilty of first-degree murder in the 1998 killing and botched robbery of Roscoe Pugh, an Orlando man.

State Attorney Jeffrey Ashton said he learned Jenkins had been released when Pugh's family contacted his office. They reviewed the paperwork and found that it was a fake, then notified law enforcement.

Later, they discovered Walker's release documents were also fake.

"It is now clear that the use of forged court documents to obtain release from prison is an ongoing threat which all law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, court clerks and prison officials must address and stop," Ashton said.

Walker, 34, was convicted of second-degree murder in a 1999 slaying in Orange County. He told investigators that 23-year-old Cedric Slater was bullying him and he fired three shots intending to scare him.

Ashton said another man serving a life sentence for attempting to kill a law enforcement officer was also scheduled to be released using forged documents, but an investigator discovered the scheme in the spring before any release.

___

Farrington reported from Tallahassee.

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mikeschneiderap

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Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-10-18-Prison-Mistaken%20Release/id-f49048dc901f4524b156d2b0d3d05374
Category: freedom tower   freedom tower   brandon jacobs   Manny Diaz   Dustin Keller  

Early George Lucas Contract Reveals $2,500 Payday (Photo)

George Lucas' path to movie billions began rather humbly and can be seen in the hidden vaults of Warner Bros. Corporate Archive, a facility kept away from most prying eyes deep in the Valley.

Lucas first joined Warners' payroll when Francis Ford Coppola brought his friend on board as an assistant on 1968's Finian's Rainbow. Studio payroll memos highlight how Lucas was getting paid $110 a week and was even bumped up to $125 per week.

Warners' internal memos between executives highlight the young Lucas' interest in sci-fi. A year later, Warners came aboard to distribute Lucas' THX 1138, paying him $2,500 in installments.

PHOTOS: Inside Warner Bros.' Chamber of Secrets

The financial memo was among the movie treasures The Hollywood Reporter saw as it was allowed an extremely rare peek into the workings of the little-known but hugely important division, whose facility houses decades' worth of costumes, props, scripts, correspondence, memos and animation art -- almost anything to do with a Warners movie and, more recently, a Warners-made television show -- is saved and stored.

Among the other treasures: a slew of batmobiles, replicas of agent Smith from The Matrix, puppets from Gremlins and Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, and George Clooney's batsuit from Batman & Robin (seriously!)

See a behind-the-scenes video here and photos from the archives here.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/THRComicCon/~3/2E5GiMM9nmk/story01.htm
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UFC 166 weigh-in video

At the UFC 166 weigh-ins, all 26 fighters taking part in Saturday night's UFC 166 fights will step on the scale Friday evening, and we'll have the live video here at MMAFighting.com.

In the main event, UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos will have to make the heavyweight limit of 265 pounds.

The UFC 166 weigh-in takes place at 5 p.m. ET at the Toyota Center in Houston, and the video is above.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/18/4848428/ufc-166-weigh-in-video
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White House: House Republican plan too partisan

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says the latest proposal from House Republican leaders for reopening the government and extending the nation's borrowing cap is a partisan effort to appease tea party conservatives. It praises bipartisan negotiations in the Senate as a good-faith effort to end the partial government shutdown and avoid an economy-shaking default.

The White House also announced it will meet with House Democratic leaders Tuesday afternoon as negotiations continue and a deadline to raise the debt ceiling moves ever closer.

White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage says a proposal from House GOP leaders that would attach health care law changes to shut-down and debt ceiling measures is a, quote, "partisan attempt to appease a small group of tea party Republicans who forced the government shut down in the first place."

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-10-15-Budget-Battle%20Obama/id-a1353d780c2543d79de9a9ce166ab1a7
Category: furlough   Agents of SHIELD   miss america   backstreet boys   Edward Snowden  

Health Website Woes Widen as Insurers Get Wrong Data (WSJ)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/334826913?client_source=feed&format=rss
Tags: glee   Krokodil   kenya   Amanda Berry   British Open  

Snowden: No classified documents taken to Russia

	Essential News from The Associated Press

©  Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-17-US-NSA-Surveillance-Snowden/id-4f057cdb51194bd292a67bb704aa47ea
Category: Eid mubarak   cnn news   Lleyton Hewitt   us open tennis   Comic Con 2013  

Why lithium-ion-batteries fail

Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
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Contact: Vanessa Wood
wood@iis.ee.ethz.ch
41-446-326-654
ETH Zurich

Lithium-ion batteries are in our cellphones, laptops, and digital cameras. Few portable electronic devices exist that do not rely on these energy sources. Currently battery electrodes contain active materials known as intercalation compounds. These materials store charge in their chemical structure without undergoing substantial structural change. That makes these batteries comparatively long-lived and safe. However, intercalation materials have one drawback: their limited energy density, the amount of energy they can store per volume and mass.

In the search for higher energy density batteries, scientists have experimented for more than 20 years with materials capable of repetitively alloying and de-alloying with lithium. Laboratory-scale experiments have shown that batteries with such materials have energy densities multiple times that of intercalation materials; however, these alloying materials are not yet exploited in industry because their lifetime is limited. Martin Ebner, Ph.D. student at the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) explains: "their capacity typically fades after a couple of charging and discharging cycles." This is attributed to a massive up to threefold expansion of the electrode material during charging. During discharge, the materials contract again, but do not reach their original state. Electrode particles break apart, the electrode structure disintegrates, and the fragments loose contact to the rest of the cell.

Batteries x-rayed during operation

To better understand this complex electrochemical and mechanical degradation of the electrode and to gain insight into how to develop better batteries, Martin Ebner and ETH-Professor Vanessa Wood, head of the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics at D-ITET, recognized the need to study a battery electrode non-invasively during operation. To do so, they turned to an imaging tool developed by ETH-Professor Marco Stampanoni. Professsor Stampanoni, holds a faculty position at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering at D-ITET and runs the tomographic x-ray microscopy beamline at the Swiss Light Source, the synchrotron facility at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The spectrally pure and intense synchrotron x-ray radiation enables the fast acquisition of high-resolution x-ray images that can be computationally assembled into three-dimensional movies.

The researchers observed the inside of the battery as it charged and discharged over 15 hours. They gathered unique, three-dimensional movies that capture the degradation mechanisms occurring in the battery and quantified the processes occurring within every particle for the thousands of particles in the electrode. The results of this study will be published in the journal Science; a pre-print version is available online at Science Express.

Irreversible structural changes

The data illustrate that tin oxide (SnO) particles expand during charging due to the influx of lithium ions causing an increase in particle volume. The scientists demonstrate that material lithiation happens as a core-shell process, progressing uniformly from the particle surface to the core. The material undergoing this reaction expands linearly with the stored charge. The x-ray images show that charging destroys the particle structure irreversibly with cracks forming within the particles. "This crack-formation is not random," emphasizes Ebner. Cracks grow at locations where the crystal lattice contains preexisting defects. During discharge, the particle volume decreases; however, the material does not reach its original state again; the process is therefore not completely reversible.

The volume change of the individual particles drives expansion of the entire electrode from 50 micrometers to 120 micrometers. However, during discharge, the electrode contracts only to 80 micrometers. This permanent deformation of the electrode demonstrates that the polymer binder that holds the electrode together is not yet optimized for high volume expansion materials. This is critical for battery performance because deformation of the binder causes individual particles to become disconnected from the electrode and the battery looses capacity.

In addition to demonstrating that x-ray tomographic microscopy provides insight into morphological changes in the particles and electrodes, the researchers show that this technique can also be used to obtain quantitative and spatially resolved chemical information. For example, the researchers analyze chemical composition throughout the battery electrode to look at differences in lithiation dynamics at the single particle level and compare this to the average particle behavior. This approach is essential to understanding the influence of particle size, shape, and electrode homogeneity on battery performance.

Such insights into the operation of a battery would not be possible without the highly advanced x-ray tomography setup at the Swiss Light Source. "Visualizing batteries in operation was essentially impossible until recent advances in x-ray tomography. Thanks to the world class facilities developed by Professor Stampanoni and his team, we can watch the battery at work," adds Wood enthusiastically.

Alternatives to crystalline materials

The researchers chose crystalline tin oxide as a model material because it undergoes a series of complex transformations also present in other materials, enabling deeper understanding into the behavior of a variety of battery materials. The insights provide the basis for developing new electrode materials and electrode structures that are tolerant to volume expansion. For Prof. Wood the results of this work indicate the benefit of using amorphous or nanostructured materials instead of crystalline ones. "On the quest for new materials, one must also bear in mind that they are only of industrial interest if they can be produced in large quantities at a low cost. However, amorphous and nanostructured materials offer a sufficient playground for innovation." emphasizes Wood.

###

Reference

Ebner M, Marone F, Stampanoni M, Wood V. Visualization and quantification of electrochemical and mechanical degradation in Lithium ion batteries. Science Express, published online 17th October 2013.

---

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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: 17-Oct-2013
[


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| Share

]

Contact: Vanessa Wood
wood@iis.ee.ethz.ch
41-446-326-654
ETH Zurich

Lithium-ion batteries are in our cellphones, laptops, and digital cameras. Few portable electronic devices exist that do not rely on these energy sources. Currently battery electrodes contain active materials known as intercalation compounds. These materials store charge in their chemical structure without undergoing substantial structural change. That makes these batteries comparatively long-lived and safe. However, intercalation materials have one drawback: their limited energy density, the amount of energy they can store per volume and mass.

In the search for higher energy density batteries, scientists have experimented for more than 20 years with materials capable of repetitively alloying and de-alloying with lithium. Laboratory-scale experiments have shown that batteries with such materials have energy densities multiple times that of intercalation materials; however, these alloying materials are not yet exploited in industry because their lifetime is limited. Martin Ebner, Ph.D. student at the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics in the Department of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering (D-ITET) explains: "their capacity typically fades after a couple of charging and discharging cycles." This is attributed to a massive up to threefold expansion of the electrode material during charging. During discharge, the materials contract again, but do not reach their original state. Electrode particles break apart, the electrode structure disintegrates, and the fragments loose contact to the rest of the cell.

Batteries x-rayed during operation

To better understand this complex electrochemical and mechanical degradation of the electrode and to gain insight into how to develop better batteries, Martin Ebner and ETH-Professor Vanessa Wood, head of the Laboratory for Nanoelectronics at D-ITET, recognized the need to study a battery electrode non-invasively during operation. To do so, they turned to an imaging tool developed by ETH-Professor Marco Stampanoni. Professsor Stampanoni, holds a faculty position at the Institute for Biomedical Engineering at D-ITET and runs the tomographic x-ray microscopy beamline at the Swiss Light Source, the synchrotron facility at the Paul Scherrer Institute. The spectrally pure and intense synchrotron x-ray radiation enables the fast acquisition of high-resolution x-ray images that can be computationally assembled into three-dimensional movies.

The researchers observed the inside of the battery as it charged and discharged over 15 hours. They gathered unique, three-dimensional movies that capture the degradation mechanisms occurring in the battery and quantified the processes occurring within every particle for the thousands of particles in the electrode. The results of this study will be published in the journal Science; a pre-print version is available online at Science Express.

Irreversible structural changes

The data illustrate that tin oxide (SnO) particles expand during charging due to the influx of lithium ions causing an increase in particle volume. The scientists demonstrate that material lithiation happens as a core-shell process, progressing uniformly from the particle surface to the core. The material undergoing this reaction expands linearly with the stored charge. The x-ray images show that charging destroys the particle structure irreversibly with cracks forming within the particles. "This crack-formation is not random," emphasizes Ebner. Cracks grow at locations where the crystal lattice contains preexisting defects. During discharge, the particle volume decreases; however, the material does not reach its original state again; the process is therefore not completely reversible.

The volume change of the individual particles drives expansion of the entire electrode from 50 micrometers to 120 micrometers. However, during discharge, the electrode contracts only to 80 micrometers. This permanent deformation of the electrode demonstrates that the polymer binder that holds the electrode together is not yet optimized for high volume expansion materials. This is critical for battery performance because deformation of the binder causes individual particles to become disconnected from the electrode and the battery looses capacity.

In addition to demonstrating that x-ray tomographic microscopy provides insight into morphological changes in the particles and electrodes, the researchers show that this technique can also be used to obtain quantitative and spatially resolved chemical information. For example, the researchers analyze chemical composition throughout the battery electrode to look at differences in lithiation dynamics at the single particle level and compare this to the average particle behavior. This approach is essential to understanding the influence of particle size, shape, and electrode homogeneity on battery performance.

Such insights into the operation of a battery would not be possible without the highly advanced x-ray tomography setup at the Swiss Light Source. "Visualizing batteries in operation was essentially impossible until recent advances in x-ray tomography. Thanks to the world class facilities developed by Professor Stampanoni and his team, we can watch the battery at work," adds Wood enthusiastically.

Alternatives to crystalline materials

The researchers chose crystalline tin oxide as a model material because it undergoes a series of complex transformations also present in other materials, enabling deeper understanding into the behavior of a variety of battery materials. The insights provide the basis for developing new electrode materials and electrode structures that are tolerant to volume expansion. For Prof. Wood the results of this work indicate the benefit of using amorphous or nanostructured materials instead of crystalline ones. "On the quest for new materials, one must also bear in mind that they are only of industrial interest if they can be produced in large quantities at a low cost. However, amorphous and nanostructured materials offer a sufficient playground for innovation." emphasizes Wood.

###

Reference

Ebner M, Marone F, Stampanoni M, Wood V. Visualization and quantification of electrochemical and mechanical degradation in Lithium ion batteries. Science Express, published online 17th October 2013.

---

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| 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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/ez-wlf101713.php
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WOW: Tablet Gaming Startup Supercell Just ... - Business Insider

Supercell

Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen (left)

Supercell, a Helsinki-based gaming startup, has raised a $1.5 billion round of investment from SoftBank and GungHo.

It sold a 51% stake in exchange for the investment, TechCrunch confims.

That comes six months after its previous round of financing, which valued Supercell at a reported $770 million.

Then, the tablet-first gaming company was making about $2.4 million per day. None of it was from merchandise, which is how companies like Rovio and Mind Candy make a lot of money. Supercell generated $180 million in the first quarter of this year alone from two hit games, Hay Day, which targets women, and Clash of Clans, which appeals to men.

Here's a blog post from Supercell's founder, Ilkka Paananen:

I have some very exciting news to share with you today. We have received a strategic investment of $1.5 billion from SoftBank and GungHo. This new partnership will accelerate Supercell towards our goal of being the first truly global games company, and gives us enough time to get there.

Let me try to explain why.

The combination of tablets, mobile and the free-to-play business model has created a new market for games, one that will be accessible to billions of consumers, more people than ever before in the history of games. This truly is a new era of gaming and has opened up exciting opportunities for new kinds of companies.

At Supercell, one of our greatest aspirations is to become the first truly global games company, one that has a strong foothold in both the West and the East, including Japan, Korea and China. We want to build a company that people all over the globe will look back in 30 years and talk about all the great games that we developed and the impact they had on people’s lives. The same way I personally feel about Nintendo, for example.

This is a lofty goal and getting there takes persistence, passion, and luck – but just as importantly, it takes time, and requires a lot of patience. Even if we have had a pretty good start on our journey, it is still very early days. Creating history takes time.

The strategic investment from SoftBank helps us to accelerate towards our goal in two different ways:

1)     SoftBank provides us with a massive selection of strategic resources that will help us deliver our games to hundreds of millions of new consumers all over the globe.

2)     SoftBank is all about the long term. In fact, I have never met anyone who thinks as long term as its founder, Masayoshi Son, does. When we first met, he told me he has a 300-year vision, and I thought he was joking until the following day when he ran me through what it actually looks like and it is indeed very real and extremely inspirational. When you meet someone like Masa you realize what it takes to build a global business that will last forever. It further strengthened my belief that, we are just getting started. As a company, we are 3 years old so we’re only 1% done if we plan for the next 300 years.

In his own words, here’s what Masa wanted to tell our players, employees and friends about Supercell and our new partnership:  

“In our quest to become the #1 mobile Internet company, we scour the globe in search of interesting opportunities and right now some of the most exciting companies and innovations are coming out of Finland.  Supercell is one of those rare and special companies. While your success is impressive, it is your amazing culture and deep passion that truly inspired me. After getting to know Ilkka and some of the team, it became clear to me that you, like us at Softbank, are on a similar long and aspirational journey to shape the future of entertainment for the next hundred years.  And, I'm excited to see an independent Supercell continue to rise with great people and great games, delivering happiness to so many people around the world."

This new partnership also takes our collaboration with our good friends at GungHo to the next level. We are super excited to have them participate in this investment by putting in 20% of the total amount. We’ve had a great collaboration between Puzzle & Dragons and Clash of Clans. They’re an amazing bunch of people, and they have a terrific culture. Through them we’ve come to learn that the Japanese and Finnish cultures are pretty similar on many levels. Not only when it comes to taking your shoes off before you enter someone’s home, but also and more importantly, when it comes to partying, if you know what I mean.

It may sound like a detail, but I should also mention that the company that will end up owning 51% of Supercell is incorporated in Finland. This is both exciting and important for me personally. Although our aspirations are global, our roots and future are very much in Finland. Our operations remain in Finland, our management team remains in Finland and in San Francisco, and we continue to pay taxes in Finland. I think more and more people in this country are realizing that there is life after Nokia!

Naturally, this transaction is great for us from an economic perspective. As many of you know, a big part of Supercell’s culture is the idea of “we are all in this together”. In line with this thinking, everyone at the company will participate in the upside and receive a portion of the proceeds from the investment. None of us work here just for of money, but when the company succeeds, everyone should get their fair share of it and this transaction is no exception.

Although we now have a major new investor in Softbank, it is extremely important to understand that we are still in full control of our future and will continue to operate independently. In fact, and this may sound surprising to some, I feel that with this deal, we're now more independent and in control of our future than we ever have been.

Lastly, I want to thank our players, all the Supercellians, and everyone else whose support has been so valuable in getting us this far. We’ve had an amazing journey together, and it will only get more exciting in the years to come.

Thank you for reading this far. I know this was a lengthy post, but since this is such an important milestone for the company, I wanted to take the time to fully explain our thinking behind it and exactly what it means to all of you.

 

Now, let’s go make history together! Kippis! Kampai!

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/supercell-raises-15-billion-from-softbank-and-gungho-2013-10
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