New IBM Tool Wants To Bring Shadow IT Under Control | TechCrunch

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This morning IBM introduced a new tool called IBM Cloud Security Enforcer, whose purpose as you might guess is helping IT to root out unauthorized cloud apps inside organizations.

The use of cloud apps outside of IT’s purview has sometimes called Shadow IT because the cloud enables users to provision their own tools. This tends to make IT admins a bit crazy, knowing that people are using apps that they know nothing about.

The thinking behind the new tool is that sensitive data could be leaking through these rogue cloud applications, and that the Powers that Be in the enterprise need to get a grip on this, find the ones that people like and block the ones that are the worst security offenders.

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An Open Letter to Joy Behar | According to Kateri; a Blog

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As many of you have seen, Miss Colorado delivered a beautifully spoken monologue about nursing during last week’s Miss America pageant. Recently, on The View as the pageant was discussed, Miss Colorado’s scrubs were referred to as a costume, and Joy posed the question of why she was wearing a “doctor’s stethoscope.” Below is my now calmed down reply to all of it. Additionally, I would like to personally and publicly congratulate Kelley Johnson RN on her chosen talent, it is one that will reward you forever. 

Dear Joy Behar,

A beautiful woman in a beauty pageant put on baggy clothes and humbly walked across the stage to talk proudly about her career, and her passion for caring for other human beings, and the only thing you could muster in response was an insult grounded in ignorance. Rather than being offended or getting angry, I will instead, take a moment to teach.

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Why This 14-Year-Old Student Was Arrested Over a Clock | Entrepreneur

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A 14-year-old student was arrested after he brought a homemade clock to school that teachers thought looked too much like a bomb, The Dallas Morning News reports.

Ahmed Mohamed likes to make electronics as a hobby, and he said that when he was showing his new project to teachers he made it clear that it was a clock.

But he may now face charges of making a hoax bomb, according to the Morning News. Ahmed has also been suspended from MacArthur High School in Irving, Texas, where he missed a student-council meeting because of his arrest.

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5 Corporate Marketing Efforts That Backfired | Business News Daily

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There’s a good reason companies are willing to spend big bucks on marketing and advertising: Wide-reaching campaigns on social media, radio, television and other channels can be a highly effective way to drum up a lot of attention for your company. But be warned — it may not always be the kind of attention you bargained for.

Despite their large marketing and social media teams, corporations will occasionally miss the mark in their ad campaigns, resulting in confusion at best and an offended, irate consumer base at worst. These marketing gaffes are even further amplified in an age of instant communication, viral social media posts and Internet archives, which means a company’s error can live on long after the tweet has been deleted or the TV spot has been pulled.

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What are Tax Extenders for Small Businesses | Morey & Associates

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downloadTax extenders are a group of fifty tax breaks that apply not only to small businesses but teachers and individuals as well. What you need to be concerned with are those that apply directly to small businesses. While these tax breaks are temporary in nature, they can have a serious impact on how you conduct your business for the next year.

In 2013, these tax breaks actually expired on December 31st, but the United States Congress retroactively extended the tax breaks into 2014. They typically do this at the last moment of the year, or right after the first of the new year, making it difficult for small businesses to plan ahead. These tax breaks are also only renewed for one year meaning they will have need to extend them again before the end of 2014, so they can carry over into 2015.

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The 10 U.S. Cities With The Biggest Gap Between Rich And Poor | Co.Exist

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In San Francisco, the richest 5% of households rake in an average of $423,000 a year, while the poorest 20% make around $24,000. The income gap between rich and poor is even worse in Atlanta, where the wealthiest people make nearly 20 times more.

As the gap between rich and poor grows in the U.S., it’s worst in big cities. In a Brookings Institution ranking of the most unequal cities in the country, Atlanta and San Francisco topped the list, but others were close behind.

Big cities have more inequality for two reasons, says Alan Berube, deputy director and senior fellow of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. For one, they contain relatively more subsidized housing and services for the poor. On the other end of the spectrum, most cities are also home to the highest-value jobs in their regions, in sectors like finance, professional services, education, and technology.

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The Pickup Truck of Electric Bikes May Be Better Than a Car | WIRED

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NEW TO SAN Francisco, I discovered quickly that having a car is terrible, but not as terrible as relying on the city’s horrific public transportation or spending the few dollars I have left after rent on surge-priced Ubers.

For me, and for an increasing number of people in cities all over the world, the answer is a bicycle. 60 percent more people commute to work on a bike now than a decade ago, and cycling infrastructure has grown as cities have become too congested to handle more cars. Bikes rule, cars drool.

For a couple of weeks this summer, I sat in the seat of a bike called the Xtracycle Edgerunner 10e. This is no ordinary bike. This $5,750 beast is a longtail, one in a burgeoning breed of giant, high-tech cargo bikes. The 10e is capable of carrying up to 400 pounds’ worth of people, groceries, and whatever else you can think to throw in its many compartments. It comes with an electric motor, too, which makes it far easier to carry that huge load. This is the Ford F150 of bicycles, sold on its towing capacity—or maybe the Subaru Outback, the family-friendly car you can count on.

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Illinois refuses to make lottery payments, thus hitting the jackpot for outrage | Mashable

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There is a fight brewing to save the last glimmer of the American dream.

No, we’re not talking about the dream of owning a home, a feat that is less common in the U.S. today than any time since 1967. Nor are we talking about the idea of sending your children to college so they can have a better life, a reality threatened by the fast rise in student loan defaults. And of course we’re not talking about the ability to retire because, well, let’s be honest: that dream is shot to hell.

The fight is to preserve what could more accurately be called the insurance policy for the American dream: winning the lottery.

When all else fails, as it too often does, you have the option to spend money you do not really have on lottery tickets you should not really buy in the hopes that it just might (but probably won’t) pay for the dream you hoped hard work and a smooth functioning economy would provide. (Even though the lotto often ends up funding a nightmare of robberies, divorce and general burnout from the sudden wealth.)

In recent weeks, however, it has come to light that one state is reneging on this all-important obligation. The Illinois Lottery has stopped paying out prizes of $25,000 or more to winners as lawmakers have yet to pass a budget for the state which is about $5 billion in the red.

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