Source: www.ibtimes.com --- Saturday, June 29, 2013
Apple ranks as the leading smartphone maker in the U.S., while Android remains the nation’s top smartphone platform, according to comScore. ...
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On April 30, Kate Jackson had the enterprise high.
At?The Next Women?European Pitch event in central London, Kate was one of several female entrepreneurs pitching her startup to a board of investors. Dressed in jeans and Converse, Kate?s was the evening?s final pitch. But everything about it-the crisp delivery, no-nonsense business plan, and energy that kept her walking on air-let us all know who?d won before the scores came back.
?We signed a partnership deal with Time Out London just before this,? Kate said halfway through. ?So forgive me if I?m still jumping up and down.?
?We? is?TableCrowd-a ?meet and eat? startup launched in 2011 that has developed a swift presence in London?s Tech City. It connects strangers over a tried-and-true pastime-eating. New users log in via their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or email accounts, then make a profile and browse tables that other users have already established.?Created in house using Ruby on Rails,?Mongo DB, redis and elasticsearch,?TableCrowd?s technology invites relevant diners from its database and automatically updates each booking size based on who joins each table.
Users can invite you to join their tables, and vice versa. Diners can also join ?crowds? ranging from ?Escape the City? (a?group?for lawyers, bankers and such seeking new careers) to ?Hungry Romantics? (described?as an ?alternative?to online dating, speed dating events or hitting the bars and clubs in the quest to meet new people?).
Is it a ?find friends? site for adults? A dating site disguised as the former? Kate says TableCrowd?s whatever diners make of it, and that they determine how TableCrowd can best fulfill their social needs on personal or professional levels.
?There?s a big opportunity right now,? Kate insists. ?There is an increased need to form new business, platonic and romantic relationships caused by changing social factors, including:
1. Increase in career changes; a job for life is now a thing of the past (the average worker now has 10 jobs in a lifetime).
2. Increase in romantic relationships; a partner for life is a thing of the past (marriages are down, divorces are up).
3. Increase in population mobility for work or personal choice.?
This, Kate says, is where TableCrowd fills a market gap. It?s a platform that turns online connections into real life relationships. In this globalized era of more divorces, transnational careers, and personal mobility, many adults-especially in urban areas-don?t settle for traditional social scenes anymore.
?Networking has done a full circle,? says Kate. ?Pre-2004 (before MySpace and Facebook), the world was predominantly offline. Today, around 32 million people in the UK now have an online profile. The trend we?re seeing now is online communities moving towards offline activities for their members.?
These members are willing to meet new people, but don?t have time to meet potential new dates or friends with no shared interests or connection. The chance to wine and dine over shared passions in groups erases pressure to perform one-on-one, and gives more room to spark a genuine platonic or romantic connection.
?When meeting new people, it?s good to have a focus and some ice breakers to put people at ease,? explains Kate. ?Dining out does just that. You have the combination of the food, restaurant and ambiance as the first level of conversation, which allows people to become comfortable with each other before the conversation goes deeper.?
TableCrowd diners-myself included-can vouch that the camaraderie created by food, plus dining with those who share similar interests, fosters new connections. One diner, Mindy, joined her first table on a colleague?s recommendation. New to London, she?s found TableCrowd to be a powerful tool for knowing who to meet and where to dine throughout the UK Capital.
After initially attending her first dinner to review TableCrowd, Phee Young, PR exec at Racepoint Group UK, became a regular diner herself. The food, she says, is good-but conversation?s always better.
?To be honest, the one thing I took away from the event was this: [the ability] to network with people who had the same goal as me ?to network and talk about our passions,? says Young. ?There wasn?t anybody at the event that I did not want to speak to; there were journalists, PRs, founders, bloggers. I?ve taken some valuable contacts away from that event and reconnected with someone who I had worked with for LLB. I also secured an opportunity for one of my clients; without [TableCrowd], that potentially might not have happened.?
Even beyond dating sites, TableCrowd?s not the first network to take social offline. Post-911, New Yorker Scott Heiferman had his ideas about social shaken. Previously convinced that knowing his neighbors was unimportant in the online age, he spoke with so many following the Twin Tower collapse that he asked himself a question: ?Could we use the internet to get off the internet ? and grow local communities??
His idea evolved into?Meetup-a global facilitator of social groups based on shared interests that?s now 10 million strong. From new moms to urban-dwelling hikers, users select personal interests, then receive emails from Meetup with local suggestions for groups they might enjoy. They meet like-minded strangers online, then connect in person.
Like Heiferman, Kate eschews the idea that the Internet creates false intimacy, or that those who go online can?t turn passive connections into personal relationships.
?Last week, I was speaking to a top level executive who acknowledged that he hadn?t met a high percentage of his 500+ Linkedin connections and [that] doing so would probably unlock many opportunities,? she explains. ?He was planning to put some money behind the bar and invite them all for a drink!
?With online social networking, you can?t be passive or you simply have no presence! Cut to the chase and use a site like TableCrowd to get offline quickly!?
?I believe that [social networks] provide an expansive set of opportunities that people previously didn?t have,? adds Stephen Jackson, TableCrowd co-founder and brother of Kate. ?They facilitate networking and relationships where geography was previously a boundary, regardless of whether this is internationally or merely when someone may not be able to escape their home or work.
?Opening or maintaining these relationships then leads to strengthening through face-to-face meeting, whether for friendship, dating, business or any combination. TableCrowd makes those next steps easier.?
The Time Out partnership will take TableCrowd to new heights in London, as will their recent website re-launch using responsive design. Their technology?s enabled in 3,000 UK restaurants, and Kate told me exclusively that a Cape Town company?s keen to take the concept there. But she and Stephen aim to perfect their formula locally before taking the idea abroad-although some issues can?t be avoided.
?[At one dinner], one of the diners felt another was holding too much of the conversation and made his thoughts known in no uncertain terms,? Stephen laughs. ?There have been a few others who didn?t really want to go home and failed to turn up for work the next morning, but generally it?s all good fun.
?We?d also love to help bill splitting get slicker-but even with close friends, there are sometimes issues here!?
Image: Thinkstock
Source: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/06/30/why-startups-are-taking-social-networking-offline/
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U.S. President Barack Obama, middle, and first lady Michelle Obama, right, react as Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, left, gestures during their arrival at Waterkloof Airbase in Pretoria, Friday, June 28, 2013. President Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
U.S. President Barack Obama, middle, and first lady Michelle Obama, right, react as Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, left, gestures during their arrival at Waterkloof Airbase in Pretoria, Friday, June 28, 2013. President Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
President Barack Obama, holding hands with daughter Sasha, and first lady Michelle Obama and eldest daughter Malia exit Air Force One at Waterkloof Airbase, Pretoria, Friday, June 28, 2013. President Obama is receiving the embrace you might expect for a long-lost son on his return to his father's home continent, even as he has yet to leave a lasting policy legacy for Africa on the scale of his two predecessors. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama are greeted upon their arrival at Waterkloof Air Base, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
FILE - This two-picture combination of file photos shows Nelson Mandela on Aug. 8, 2012, left, and President Barack Obama on May 31, 2013. It was as a college student that President Barack Obama began to find his political voice. Inspired by Nelson Mandela?s struggle against South Africa?s apartheid government, the young Obama joined campus protests against the white racist rule that kept Mandela locked away in prison for nearly three decades. Now a historic, barrier-breaking figure himself, Obama will arrive in South Africa Friday to find a country drastically transformed by Mandela?s influence, and a nation grappling with the beloved 94-year-old?s mortality. (AP Photo/File)
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive at Waterkloof Air Base, Friday, June 28, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama plans to visit privately Saturday with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid activist he has called a "personal hero."
The White House did not disclose any details for Obama's plans to meet the family in a brief statement issued upon Obama's first morning in South Africa during a weeklong tour of the continent. The statement simply said that Obama and his wife would offer their thoughts and prayers at the family's difficult time.
"Out of deference to Nelson Mandela's peace and comfort and the family's wishes, they will not be visiting the hospital," the statement said.
Obama told reporters on the flight to South Africa Friday that he was grateful that he, his wife and daughters had a chance to meet Mandela previously. Obama hangs his photo of the introduction he had to Mandela in 2005 in his personal office at the White House ? their only meeting, when Obama was a senator.
"I don't need a photo op," Obama said. "The last thing I want to do is to be in any way obtrusive at a time when the family is concerned about Nelson Mandela's condition."
Obama will be just a couple miles from the hospital where 94-year-old Mandela has been for three weeks after being admitted with a lung infection. The U.S. president has a bilateral meeting and news conference with President Jacob Zuma at the Union Buildings, where Mandela was inaugurated as the country's first black president in 1994 after 27 years behind bars under racist rule.
Obama has said the imprisoned activist's willingness to risk his life for the cause of equal rights helped inspire his own political activism. Obama said his message during the visit will draw on the lessons of Mandela's life, with a message that "Africa's rise will continue" if its people are unified instead of divided by tribe, race or religion.
"I think the main message we'll want to deliver if not directly to him but to his family is simply a profound gratitude for his leadership all these years and that the thoughts and prayers of the American people are with him and his family and his country," Obama said on his flight into the country.
Obama also is paying tribute to the fight against apartheid by visiting the Soweto area Saturday afternoon for a town hall with students at the University of Johannesburg. At least 176 young people were killed in Soweto township 27 years ago this month during a youth protest against the apartheid regime's ban against teaching local Bantu languages. The Soweto Uprising catalyzed international support against apartheid, and June is now recognized as Youth Month in South Africa.
The university plans to bestow an honorary law degree on the U.S. president, while protesters are planning demonstrations against U.S. policy on issues including the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the war in Afghanistan and global warming. Hundreds marched to the U.S. Embassy on Friday, carrying signs that read: "No, You Can't Obama," a message inspired by Obama's "yes, we can" campaign slogan.
Obama, the son of an African man, has been trying to inspire the continent's youth to become civically active and part of a new democratically minded generation. Obama hosted young leaders from more than 40 African countries at the White House in 2010 and challenged them to bring change to their countries by standing up for freedom, openness and peaceful disagreement.
Obama wraps up his South Africa stay Sunday, when he plans to give a sweeping speech on U.S.-Africa policy at the University of Cape Town and take his family to Robben Island to tour the prison where Mandela spent 18 years.
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Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler
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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Same-sex marriages were set to resume in California on Friday, after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a surprise order lifting an injunction preventing the unions.
The order came in response to an opinion released Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively killed a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages in the state.
Within moments of the ruling, couples, officials and activists began to converge on San Francisco City Hall, where unions were due to resume immediately.
"On my way to S.F. City Hall," tweeted the state's attorney general, Kamala Harris. "Let the wedding bells ring!"
Harris arrived with her arm around a key lawyer in the case, as the couple at the heart of a case challenging the state's ban waited eagerly for their marriage license to be issued.
"This is really a great day," said Cindy Stier, who with her fiancee Kristin Perry filed the lawsuit against Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California in 2008.
The 9th Circuit had been expected to wait 25 days before lifting the injunction so the Supreme Court would have time to release a formal order. But the judges decided to act instead on Friday, a move that would allow the marriages to begin in advance of Gay Pride weekend.
"The stay in the above matter is dissolved effective immediately," the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling.
(Reporting by Dan Levine; Writing by Sharon Bernstein and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Gary Hill and Eric Walsh)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/court-lifts-ban-gay-marriage-california-224235024.html
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PayPal is used by almost 130 million people, generates a lot of revenue, and made its backers very, very wealthy. It's a model company. But, that's apparently not enough, and PayPal just announced it will create a way for astronauts to buy things, in space. OK.
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VATICAN CITY (AP) -- A Vatican cleric and two other people were arrested Friday by Italian police for allegedly trying to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) in cash into the country from Switzerland by private jet. It's the latest scandal to hit the Holy See and broadens an Italian probe into its secretive bank.
Monsignor Nunzio Scarano, already under investigation in a purported money-laundering plot involving the Vatican bank, is accused of corruption and slander and was being held at a Rome prison, prosecutor Nello Rossi told reporters.
Scarano's arrest came just two days after Pope Francis created a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank to get to the bottom of the problems that have plagued it for decades and contributed to the impression that it's an unregulated, offshore tax haven.
Francis has made clear he has no tolerance for corruption or for Vatican officials who use their jobs for personal ambition or gain. He has said he wants a "poor" church that is concerned for the world's needy, and he has also noted, perhaps tongue in cheek, that "St. Peter didn't have a bank account."
Prosecutor Rossi said the Swiss operation involved three people, all of whom were arrested Friday: Scarano, a recently suspended accountant in the Vatican's main finance office, Italian financier Giovanni Carenzio, and Giovanni Zito, who at the time of the plot was a member of the military police's agency for security and information.
Rossi detailed a remarkable plot ? uncovered by telephone wiretaps ? in which the three allegedly planned to bring into Italy some 20 million euros in cash that financier Carenzio held in his name in a Swiss bank account without paying customs at the airport, as would be required.
Scarano's attorney, Silverio Sica, said his client was something of a middleman: The 20 million euros belonged to friends who had given the money to Carenzio to invest but wanted it back. The plot would presumably enable them to avoid paying customs fees or having any paper trail of such a large amount of money entering Italy.
Rossi identified the friends as members of the Italian shipping family d'Amico and said that the money was "presumably" being held in Switzerland to avoid paying Italian taxes. An email seeking comment from the family's Rome-based company, the d'Amico Societa di Navigazione SpA, wasn't immediately returned.
According to prosecutors, Zito, the agent, called in sick to his job one day in July 2012, rented a private plane and flew with Carenzio to Locarno, Switzerland. There, Carenzio was supposed to withdraw the cash from his bank account and hand it over to Zito to bring back to Italy. The plan was so detailed there was even to be an armed police escort waiting at the airport to bring the money to Scarano's apartment in Rome, Rossi said.
"This operation was meticulously planned in all its details," Rossi said, noting that Zito was chosen to be the mule specifically because his high-ranking position in the Carabinieri would have enabled him to pass through the airport customs area without being stopped.
The money could have been transported relatively easily because euros are issued in high denominations. If the cash had been withdrawn in the largest denomination ? 500 euro notes ? it would have weighed 44 kilograms (97 pounds) and fit in a suitcase.
But at a certain point in Locarno, the deal fell through and Carenzio made excuses that the bank couldn't come up with the money, Rossi said. He declined to identify the bank.
Zito returned to Rome empty-handed but still demanded from Scarano his fee of 600,000 euros for the operation. Scarano cut him one check for 400,000 euros which he deposited. He gave him a second check for 200,000 euros, but in a bid to prevent the check from being deposited, reported it as missing, the prosecutor said.
That put a block on the check and resulted in Scarano being accused of slander for filing a false report knowing that the check was in Zito's hands, Rossi said.
Scarano, as well as the other two, are also accused of corruption. If they are indicted and convicted, they could face up to five or six years in prison, prosecutors said.
Sica, the lawyer, said Scarano said his client would respond to prosecutors' questions.
The Vatican bank, known as the Institute for Religious Works, or IOR, is cooperating with Italian authorities and its lay board has launched an internal investigation, spokesman Max Hohenberg said.
Rossi, the Italian prosecutor, described the operation as one branch in a "mosaic" of investigations targeting the IOR, which has long been a source of scandal for the Holy See. That said, the Swiss investigation didn't immediately appear to directly involve the IOR.
The checks Scarano wrote to Zito, for example, came from an Italian bank account, prosecutors said. They declined to say if Scarano received any payment for his role in the plot, or if his IOR account was used at all.
Rossi's team of prosecutors in 2010 placed the top two Vatican bank officials under investigation for allegedly violating anti-money laundering norms during a routine transaction involving an IOR account at an Italian bank. They ordered the 23 million euros in the transaction seized. The money was eventually unfrozen but the two men remain under investigation.
Rossi's team is also working with prosecutors in Salerno on a separate money-laundering investigation involving Scarano and his IOR account.
According to Sica, the lawyer, Scarano took 560,000 euros ($729,000) in cash out of his IOR bank account in 2009 and carried it out of the Vatican and into Italy to help pay off a mortgage on his Salerno home.
The money had come into Scarano's IOR account from donors who gave it to the prelate thinking they were funding a home for the terminally ill in Salerno, Sica said.
To deposit the money into an Italian bank account ? and to prevent family members from finding out he had such a large chunk of cash ? he asked 56 close friends to accept 10,000 euros apiece in cash in exchange for a check or money transfer in the same amount. Scarano was then able to deposit the amounts in his Italian account.
The lawyer said Scarano had given the names of the donors to prosecutors and insisted the origin of the money was clean, that the transactions didn't constitute money-laundering, and that he only took the money "temporarily" for his personal use.
The home for terminally ill was never built, though the property has been identified, Sica said.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said Scarano was suspended more than a month ago and that the Vatican was taking the appropriate measures to deal with his case. He said the Vatican had confirmed it was prepared to offer its "full cooperation" to Italian investigators.
On Wednesday, Francis named five people to head a commission of inquiry into the Vatican bank's activities and legal status "to allow for a better harmonization with the universal mission of the Apostolic See."
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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vatican-monsignor-arrested-20m-euro-142354613.html
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