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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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/334841242?client_source=feed&format=rss
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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.

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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.

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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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