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It’s a pair of classic brands that are carrying Mattel. Hot Wheels and Barbie saw fourth quarter gains as the toymaker pulled through a challenging year that saw losses due to the collapse of Toys “R” Us in the U.S. and lackluster sales from other brands and divisions in the company. Mattel, which quietly went through another round of internal reorganization and staffing cuts last week, saw an after-hours stock rally after the late afternoon reveal of fourth quarter and full year numbers for 2018. The fourth quarter saw a surprise profit of $14.9 million ($0.04 per share) vs. a loss of $281 million (-$0.82 per share) in the fourth quarter of 2017. Full year net sales were $4.51 billion last year vs $4.88 billion in 2017; fourth quarter net sales were $1.52 billion vs $1.61 billion in 2017.
“Our fourth quarter results demonstrate meaningful progress in executing our strategy and significant improvement over last year,” says Ynon Kreiz, chairman and CEO. “We remain focused on advancing our strategy to restore profitability and regain top-line growth in the short-to-mid-term and are laying the groundwork to capture the full value of our IP in the mid-to-long-term. After three consecutive quarters of solid, disciplined execution, we are well on our way to becoming an IP-driven, high-performing toy company and creating long-term value for our shareholders. Among all the achievements in 2018, I would like to applaud our team for regaining the #1 toy company position globally in a year full of challenges and headwinds. This is a great moment to celebrate, before we go back and continue the hard work of implementing our multi-year turnaround.”
For the year, both net and gross sales were down 8 percent. The company notes that this reflects a negative 6 percent impact from Toys “R” Us and another negative 2 percent impact from a slowdown in Chinese business. Gross margin improved across the board.
Sales for Mattel’s “power brands,” which include owned IP were down 3 percent for the year. Gross sales for Hot Wheels were up 7 percent for the year, 9 percent for the quarter. Barbie was up 14 percent for the year, 12 percent for the quarter. Gains in these two categories offset big declines for Fisher-Price and Thomas & Friends (down 13 percent for the year) and American Girl (down 28 percent for the year).
Barbie continues to do strong sales as the brand heads into its 60th year, as does Hot Wheels, driven in large part by the brand’s 50th Anniversary last year.
Sales across Mattel’s “toy box” mix of owned and licensed partner brands was less than stellar, down 16 percent for the year, 21 percent for the quarter. Owned brands, including construction products from MEGA Construx and MEGA Bloks were down 10 percent. Partner brands were down 23 percent for the year, 25 percent for the quarter. The company notes that lower-than-expected sales from products such as Disney•Pixar Cars was offset by initial sales of licensed product from Universal’s Jurassic World franchise.
Looking ahead to Toy Fair New York, this should be a year of change for Mattel as they move to better position themselves into the entertainment realm, much like Hasbro. Recent moves include the hiring of former Disney Channel exec Adam Bonnett to lead Mattel Television, while the newly-minted Mattel Films division has Hot Wheels and Barbie films in-development with Warner Bros. Pictures. New partnerships including Barbie x National Geographic, a collaboration with Korean pop stars BTS, and a foray into the live event space with Hot Wheels Monster Trucks Live should keep core brands moving.


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Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Games have announced a new in-game promotion for monster-hunting game Evolve. Anyone who plays the game online between 9 PM PDT tonight and 9 PM PDT on Sunday, March 8 will receive the “Turtle Rock Gold Skin” for Goliath, Kraken, and Wraith.
This skin (pictured in this post) is an incredibly rare virtual item, as it was previously only available to developers at Turtle Rock Studios.
“We developed these exclusively for our development team,” Turtle Rock explained. “This beautiful molten-gold skin helps identify developers in-game and generally make us feel good about the time we put in to making Evolve. It’s bold. It’s distinct. It’s shiny.”
The skins will be delivered to players sometime after Sunday but no later than March 14.
Evolve’s Hunt for Gold Weekend event is the first in a series of upcoming community challenges that will take place over the upcoming months, Turtle Rock says. “Future challenges may require the Evolve community to collectively achieve specific in-game milestones for in-game rewards,” the developer explained.

domain: news


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Apple is dealing with a $50 million ransom demand from a infamous Russian hacker group referred to as REvil. The corporate was attacked after Quanta, which is a Taiwan-based provider, reported an information breach on one among its servers that contained knowledge about upcoming Apple merchandise.
9To5Mac reports that the hacker group has provided proof, which incorporates schematics of latest and upcoming Apple merchandise, by releasing a few of the paperwork that it has on the web. The paperwork that the hacker group has launched to date contains specs of the upcoming Apple Silicon-powered MacBook Professional bearing codenames J314 and J316. The leaked particulars are consistent with the studies, which urged that the brand new MacBook Professional will include an SD card slot and an HDMI port amongst different issues.
As per a separate report by MySmartPrice, REvil posted the information from the Quanta server on Joyful Weblog, which is a darkish internet market that it runs. The hacker group then requested Quanta to pay a ransom of $50 million, however when the corporate refused, it moved to Apple threatening to launch delicate industrial data pertaining to the corporate. Now, the hacker group is threatening to launch extra knowledge if its calls for should not met by a deadline of Might 1.
It’s price noting that Apple will not be the one goal of the corporate. The publication says that earlier REvil has posted data belonging to Acer India. The checklist included the corporate’s pay orders, industrial paperwork and financial institution paperwork.


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IT SHOULD have been the entertainment industry’s best-kept secret. However, in February a hacker known only as Arnezami found a key to the encryption system protecting the latest high-definition DVDs against pirates and published it online – just three months or so after the new players went on sale. Attempts to have the key removed from websites backfired and it quickly spread, even appearing in artwork and songs and on T-shirts. To make matters worse, other hackers soon discovered that, in some DVD players, by disconnecting a chip inside the machines they could circumvent their encryption system entirely.
Yet such setbacks aren’t deterring the industry from trying to make copy protection work. Worried by the fresh opportunities that digital broadcasting creates for pirates to copy and swap films and videos on the internet, the industry – along with a conglomeration of TV studios, broadcasters and consumer electronics manufacturers – is quietly pressing ahead with plans that could transform the way we watch TV.
Their idea is to add a hidden label to every digital TV broadcast. This will be read by a secure chip in the TV receiver in your living room and place restrictions on what you can do with a programme – whether it can be copied, say, or even recorded in the first place. The studios or broadcasters will control these restrictions.
If the technology works as planned, it should help prevent pirates from making illegal copies of movies or TV shows and distributing them on the web. Innocent viewers will be affected too, however, according to US-based campaign group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). The system could prevent you recording …
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Gurugram: Led by Amazon Echo devices, the shipments of smart home speakers are expected to cross 7.5 lakh units in India by the end of year, which is an all-time high, a new report said on Monday.
The market is primarily led by Amazon Echo Smart Speakers which had a massive 95.9 per cent cumulative market share for the January-September period.
Xiaomi made an impressive debut in the September quarter, with 7.1 per cent market share by unit shipments.
Google has a cumulative India market share of 1.2 per cent for the year (till September).
“As Indian homes go more for smart technologies, voice-controlled device like a smart speaker has an increasingly important role to play. The users understand this and are investing in the device which offers a blend of utility as well as fun use cases,” said Faisal Kawoosa, Founder & Chief Analyst, techARC.
Amazon has nurtured the ecosystem well by encouraging a wide choice of apps (skills) to be developed giving users a lot of engaging content for using the device which has made Echo devices very popular,” Kawoosa said in the ‘India Smart Speaker Market Scan’ report.
Amazon Echo Dot third generation was the most sold smart speaker in the July-September period, with over 53 per cent of the smart speakers shipped being Amazon Echo Dot 3rd generation.
For the cumulative period of January-September, the Amazon Echo model share stood at a huge 70.4 per cent.
The average selling price (ASP) of a smart speaker was Rs 5,560 which is expected to go high as the proportion of display-enabled devices increases in the overall shipments.
For the July-September period, the ASP was Rs 6,100.
The trend of buying smart speakers with display is on the rise in India.
In Q3, shipments of smart speakers with display rose by 87% compared to the previous quarter.
The cumulative share of display enabled speakers for Q3 was 6.4 per cent, with the quarter percentage recording highest at 9.7 per cent.
“Among the display-enabled smart speakers, 65.9 per cent (2 out of every 3) were with 8-inch screen size. This makes Amazon Echo Show 8 the most popular display-enabled smart speaker,” the report mentioned.
“In the display-enabled Smart Speakers, there is still scope for more players to foray particularly when the trend is catching up”.


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Twitter wants to raise the subscription price for its Twitter Blue plan to $19.99 — from $4.99 — part of a wave of plans for the social media platform by new owner Elon Musk.
According to published reports Sunday (Oct. 30), the company is also considering a plan that would give verified users — “blue checkmarks,” in Twitter parlance — 90 days to subscribe or lose their status. The company is also threatening staff working on the project with firing if they don’t meet its Nov. 7 deadline.
After the news broke, investor Jason Calacanis polled his 573,000 followers to ask them how much they’d pay to gain a blue checkmark. Eighty-one percent — as of Monday morning (Oct. 31) — replied that they wouldn’t pay, to which Musk replied “Interesting.”
Representatives for Twitter were not immediately available for comment Monday.
The price increase would be the second one subscribers have seen this year. In July, PYMNTS reported that Twitter was increasing its rates from $2.99 to $4.99 in an effort to help the platform build out new features.
Last week, the platform said it was testing a feature that will expand links to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to display a preview. The feature, dubbed NFT Tweet Tiles, will allow some links to NFTs on select digital goods marketplaces to “show you a larger picture of the NFT alongside details like the title and creator. One more step in our journey to let developers impact the Tweet experience,” the company said in a tweet.
While it’s still not clear what Musk’s ownership will mean for the platform, PYMNTS noted last week that one thing is for certain: his oversight of Twitter is going to have a major impact on the use of cryptocurrencies for payments, to say nothing of their prices.
Musk has shown in the past that he’s able to change the value of bitcoin by billions of dollars with one tweet. Meanwhile, his interest in dogecoin has turned it from a created-as-a-joke memecoin into a top-10 cryptocurrency that crypto payments tech providers and payments processors have had to support based solely on consumer demand.


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(Pocket-lint) - Google has released a developer update to Chrome OS that'll add Android app support to four Chromebook models.
At its Google I/O conference in June 2016, Google finally confirmed plans to bring Android apps to Chrome OS laptops and other products. That means soon you'll be able to fling Angry Birds from a catapult on your Chromebook and download a shedload of other apps you'd normally find on your smartphone or tablet. However, at launch, the only Chromebook model with Android app support was the Asus Chromebook Flip.
The company promised support would be added to dozens of other Chrome OS-powered laptops. You can find the entire list of supported machines here. It contains Chromebooks from the most popular manufacturers, including Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba, and HP, among many others. Now, thanks to the new developer update, the Dell Chromebook 13, HP 13, Samsung Chromebook 3, and ASUS C301SA have support.
- Chromebooks will soon run Android apps: Will yours get Google Play access?
- Android Apps on Chrome: How to give your Chromebook an app-vantage
Of course, if you’d like to get access to the Play Store on one of these laptops immediately, you'd have to run the most recent developer version of Chrome OS. Simply open the settings menu, then click About Chrome OS > More info > Change channel, and select the developer channel.
The Chromebook will automatically download the update and prompt a reboot to finish the installation. And that's it.


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United Wagon Company releases 100,000th freight car
Research and production corporation “United Wagon Company” (UWC, the Holding or the Company) (MOEX: UWGN), Russia’s largest manufacturer of freight cars1, has released the 100,000th freight car produced since the launch of the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant in January 2012. The milestone gondola car will be delivered to the State Transport Leasing Company as part of a contract to supply 20,000 gondola cars by the end of 2022. The size of the fleet of new generation cars in operation in the 1520 mm gauge railway area now stands at 150,000 (or around 15% of the total fleet on the Russian Railways network), 65% of which is Tikhvin-produced rolling stock.
Since 2012, Tikhvin’s production operation has had an eventful path of development. Following the launch of the Tikhvin Freight Car Building Plant, where the new generation of all-purpose rolling stock is being produced, the TikhvinChemMash enterprise was commissioned in 2015 for the production of tank cars, and in 2016 the first batch of specialized cars came off the production line at TikhvinSpetsMash. A car repair enterprise is in operation at the Titran-Express Tihvin Assembly Plant, while the Timken UWC joint enterprise is home to a batch production operation for cassette bearings.
Today, the UWC group is the largest manufacturer of freight cars in Russia and the CIS. The group’s products are in demand both on the domestic market and abroad, successfully competing with modern rolling stock models produced by global manufacturers. UWC supplies cars and accompanying components to North America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
Since the mass production of Tikhvin cars began, the cars’ increased load capacity has contributed to an extra 22 million tonnes of freight of different types being transported across the Russian rail network: over 18 million tonnes of coal, 2 million tonnes of grain and mineral fertilizers, and 1 million tonnes of metallurgical products and construction freight.
Based on INFOLine’s assessment of the results of operating innovative wagons on the Russian railway market, the cumulative effect on Russian GDP of using gondola cars with increased load capacity since 2013 is forecast to reach RUB 200 billion by the end of 2019, with that figure rising to RUB 1 trillion by the end of 2025.
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Alexander Morozov noted in his opening address that “innovative cars produced by UWC have shown excellent results in the transportation of various types of freight, ensuring a high degree of efficiency and safety in rail transport. Our aim today is to ensure the implementation of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation on increasing the carrying capacity of the Russian rail network, as well as increasing exports of high-tech products. The Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade is counting on UWC’s potential and is willing to provide support so that it can achieve its objectives”.
1Data sourced from INFOLine-Analytics: https://infoline.spb.ru/news/?news=162724


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The judge overseeing Chrysler's bankruptcy approved the first building block of Chrysler's proposed deal with Italian automaker Fiat on Monday by letting the company borrow $4.5 billion from the U.S. and Canadian governments to operate while a deal is worked out.
In addition to allowing the government loans that Chrysler may never pay back, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez let Chrysler pay hundreds of millions of dollars owed to suppliers and dealers.
The credit line drew objections from a small group of Chrysler debt holders who oppose the Fiat deal. They contended it was too closely tied to the sale.
Corinne Ball, the attorney representing Chrysler, argued that the government loans were the only way Chrysler could survive over the next few days.
"Let us have this lifeline to go forward," she told Gonzalez.
The deal grants the United Auto Workers' trust fund for retiree health care 55% of a new Chrysler-Fiat, a figure worked out by the Obama administration task force and the UAW.
Most of Chrysler's debt holders, carrying $6.9 billion in secured loans, have agreed to take $2 billion in cash for canceling the debt. But the lenders who oppose the deal contend the $2 billion is less than Chrysler would be worth if it were liquidated.
The opposition group includes at least two members, OppenheimerFunds and Stairway Capital. But attorney Thomas Lauria asked to keep the other members shielded from public view, saying some members had received death threats for holding out on the Chrysler deal.
Gonzalez will hear arguments Tuesday over the method by which Chrysler and Fiat plan to conduct their sale in bankruptcy court. The deal can be canceled if the sale isn't closed by June 15, a deadline that can be extended a month for regulatory hurdles.
•The CEO of Fiat, which last week agreed to acquire 20% of Chrysler, met with Germany's economy minister in search of government loan guarantees that would let the Italian automaker take control of Opel.
Sergio Marchionne seeks at least some of General Motors' European operations, which includes the Opel and Vauxhall brands. His grand goal is to spin off the carmaking giant, which he said could turn out 5.5 million vehicles a year and thus compete with the globe's biggest and most successful car companies.
•GM announced that it had a number of potential buyers for its Saturn brand and hoped to sell it before the end of the year.
Saturn, which was created in 1984 to compete with Japanese cars for quality and was marketed with a "hassle-free" set price, has slipped in sales. GM said in February it would shut Saturn down if it couldn't be sold.
Contributing: Associated Press


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When the Jeep Compass went on sale in India in mid-2017, it looked like the premium SUV is set to offer FCA India the much needed break. The competitively priced SUV had a strong start with waiting period extending to several months in some parts of the country.
After the initial euphoria, the most affordable Jeep in India settled into a rhythm, posting consistent monthly sales performance. In the advent of fresh competition from the likes of Tata Harrier and MG Hector, the Jeep Compass slowly started losing its shine. Except for July 2018, Jeep Compass has not posted sales growth in a single month since launch.
Both its rivals are priced aggressively and didn’t waste time in creating their own fan bases. So, the American SUV started witnessing erosion of its marketshare in what is turning out to be a hotly contested segment. Combine that with the general slowdown of the industry, the Compass just endured its worst month in the country in July, clocking sales of just 511 units, a 57% Y-o-Y decline. MG Hector posted sales of 1,508 units in same month.
Since the beginning of 2019, the sales performance of the Jeep Compass has been declining steadily. With Kia Seltos set to arrive later this month, FCA has its work cut out. The locally manufactured Jeep is still some months away from its mid-life refresh and we think that the current situation warrants an aggressive marketing move immediately.
Globally too, FCA’s prospects do not look any brighter. Costs cutting is prevalent across all markets. The company recently announced that the FCA India MD and CEO, will also be the MD and CEO of FCA Australia.
The Jeep Compass is priced between INR 15.60 lakh to 27.6 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi) and is available in six trims – Sport, Sport Plus, Longitude, Limited, Limited Plus and Trailhawk. The premium compact SUV is powered either by a 1.4-liter Multiair turbocharged petrol engine or a 2.0-liter MultiJet diesel engine (also powers rival SUVs Tata Harrier and MG Hector). The former is rated at 163 PS and 250 Nm of torque while the latter is good for 173 PS and 350 Nm of torque.
A 6-speed manual transmission is standard across the range but the petrol unit can also be opted with a 7-speed DCT. 9 Speed DCT is exclusive to Trailhawk, which also gets BS6 compliant engine. The Compass diesel can also be specified with 4×4 system in Limited and Trailhawk trim.
With Uconnect touchscreen infotainment system, multiple airbags, leather upholstery, power adjusted driver seat and so on, the SUV is rather well equipped but its main problem is that the competition offers more for less.


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Perrigo Company (Nasdaq: PRGO; TASE) announced on May 26, 2010 that it had acquired rights to Novel Laboratories' pending ANDA for HalfLytely® and Bisacodyl Tablets Bowel Prep Kit (PEG-3350, sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate and potassium chloride for oral solution and bisacodyl delayed-release tablets). On May 27, 2010, Novel received tentative approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on its ANDA for the generic version of HalfLytely®. Annual sales for the Braintree Laboratories brand were approximately $80 million according to Wolters Kluwer.
Novel is believed to be first to file and Perrigo expects to be in a position to launch a generic version to HalfLytely® and Bisacodyl Tablets Bowel Prep Kit at the expiration on the brand exclusivity, on or about September 25, with 180 days of generic exclusivity. The company has not been sued. Under terms of the Perrigo/Novel agreement, Novel will manufacture the product exclusively for Perrigo.
Perrigo's Chairman and CEO Joseph C. Papa concluded, "We are excited to see that tentative approval has been received so quickly. This reflects well on Novel's strong track record of bringing high-value generic products into the market."
Novel's President and CEO Veerappan S. Subramanian stated, "We are pleased to receive this tentative approval for a first launch generic, our second in a week, which completes our colon-cleansing product line. With Perrigo as a strategic partner, we will enhance our position in the generic pharmaceutical marketplace."


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BUILDING TRUST: Maybe all the celebrities were taken for Condé Nast’s “Point of Passion” campaign. Over at Time Inc., it’s media buying executives who are the headliners of the company’s new corporate ad campaign, “Trusted Connections.” The campaign focuses on four media executives who control purchasing plans in Time Inc. and other titles. They were photographed to represent the Time Inc. brand of their choice and, in a statement, executive vice president Stephanie George drummed the point home: “These fabulous executives have always had star status in our world,” she gushed. So who are these celebrities in the Time Inc. universe? They’re John Lisko of Saatchi & Saatchi, George Janson of Mediaedge:cia, Robin Steinberg of MediaVest and Andrew Swinand of Starcom.
The campaign will run in the traditional trade and online venues, as well as on taxi tops and in Times Square. It was dreamed up by its in-house marketing and creative executives.
One of the campaign’s tag lines, “We don’t sell pages. We sell attention,” was clearly front of mind at the company’s Digital Showcase Wednesday, given the recent shift in focus on many of its Web sites from page views to “engagement.” This coincides with a decision by Nielsen/NetRatings last month to give measurement of time spent on a site more weight than simple page view rankings. Even before the Nielsen move, some Time Inc. sites already had begun to shift their emphasis from breaking news to video content and social media, as shown in presentations from people.com’s Mark Golin, si.com’s Paul Fichtenbaum and Southern Progress Corp. representatives. Executive vice president John Squires acknowledged that, while those brands have made fairly natural transitions online, it is more “difficult to consider a unique position online” for a site like time.com, relaunched in January, though he hopefully pointed to that site’s blogs.
Time Inc. also is beginning to package its principal 15 Web titles — those that have seen the most investment so far — as a group buy. The digital future was touted as the company’s savior in an earnings conference call, also Wednesday, during which Time Warner chairman and chief executive officer Dick Parsons said that just about every quarter, he is asked about Time Inc.’s future within the group. His answer hasn’t changed: He said the company is committed to the division and is “focusing on the titles that can have a life in the online space.” Publishing revenues of $1.3 billion were essentially flat for the second quarter, reflecting higher ad revenues, offset by lower “other” revenues. Operating income rose 13 percent to $256 million, based on an increase before depreciation and amortization.
Condé Nast also owns WWD, although the “Point of Passion” campaign is only for the glossy magazines and Web destination Web sites. — Irin Carmon and Amy Wicks
CAMERA READY: Photographer Norman Jean Roy has signed a corporate contract with Condé Nast to shoot for a number of its glossy fashion magazines, including Glamour, Vogue, Men’s Vogue and Vanity Fair. Roy joins the publisher’s stable of high-profile photographers with corporate contracts such as Annie Leibovitz and Patrick Demarchelier. Roy has regularly shot covers and features for Vanity Fair, GQ, Men’s Vogue and Glamour, where he has photographed female role models in its Women of the Year package. Outside of magazines, Roy has shot campaigns for Visa, Avon, Samsonite, Showtime and Lycra. — Stephanie D. Smith
GROWING BUT SHRINKING: Blueprint isn’t increasing its frequency next year, but come January, it will once again raise its rate base. After increasing its rate base to 400,000 for the July/August issue from 350,000, the personal style magazine will grow to 450,000 early next year. But Blueprint owner Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia was in a giveth-and-taketh-away mode during a conference call Wednesday: Susan Lyne, president and ceo, said the group is reallocating $10 million it previously had earmarked for Blueprint. The company is shifting its marketing efforts from sending direct mail to potential subscribers to investing in more Internet expansion, including Blueprint, Lyne said. The rest of the money will fold back into the group’s bottom line.
It needs the boost. Operating income in the publishing division fell to $5.1 million in the second quarter, compared with $6.1 million a year earlier, even though revenues rose 16 percent to $47.5 million. Ad pages jumped 12 percent at Martha Stewart Living and 22 percent at Everyday Food. Total ad revenues increased 23 percent in the quarter to $27.8 million. — A.W.


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Valve has issued a stark warning to Dota 2 cheaters, while confirming it has permanently banned over 40,000 accounts using a "honeypot" tactic.
In a blog post published last night, Valve said it had banned accounts it found were using third-party software to cheat in its hugely popular MOBA over the last few weeks.
According to Valve, this software accessed information used internally by the Dota client that wasn't visible during normal gameplay, giving cheaters an unfair advantage.
The company said it has now fixed the underlying issues that enabled these cheats, and removed "bad actors" from the active Dota playerbase.
Valve detected these cheaters by creating a "honeypot", or "a section of data inside the game client that would never be read during normal gameplay, but that could be read by these exploits".
"Each of the accounts banned today read from this 'secret' area in the client, giving us extremely high confidence that every ban was well-deserved," Valve explained.
Valve said it decided to make this "particularly large" ban wave public to "make our position clear":
"If you are running any application that reads data from the Dota client as you're playing games, your account can be permanently banned from playing Dota. This includes professional players, who will be banned from all Valve competitive events."
If you're wondering how Dota 2 players cheat in-game, some enable the removal of the fog of war, auto last hits, auto aim for abilities and automatic use of dodge, among others.


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Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards jumped into the presidential race Wednesday a day earlier than planned, prodded by an Internet glitch to launch a candidacy focused on health care, taxes and other domestic issues. The slip-up gave an unintended double-meaning to his campaign slogan "Tomorrow begins today."
Swarms of online shoppers armed with new iPods and iTunes gift cards apparently overwhelmed Apple's iTunes music store over the holiday, prompting error messages and slowdowns of 20 minutes or more for downloads of a single song. Analysts said the problems likely were the result of too many people with holiday iPods and iTunes gift cards trying to access the site at once.
Theme parks ban trans fats
The early reviews are mostly positive at the Universal Studios theme park in Hollywood where the menu changed on Christmas Eve to cut unhealthy trans fats from many junk food favorites. The action follows entertainment giant Walt Disney, which announced in October it will serve more nutritious kids' meals and phase out the artificial fats at its resorts.
Murders up across U.S.
After many years of decline, the number of murders climbed this year in New York and many other major U.S. cities, reaching their highest levels in a decade in some places. New York reported 579 homicides through Dec. 24--a nearly 10 percent increase from the year before. In Chicago, homicides through the first 11 months were up 3.3 percent compared with the same period in 2005.
His bright idea? Proposal by Xmas lights
Melissa Gemig said she always knew her boyfriend's marriage proposal would be unique. But she never expected Brian Steinseifer to design a lighted Christmas display that read "Melissa will you marry me?" That's what he did, adding it to a neighbor's Kenosha, Wis., yard on so-called Christmas Lane, a street known for its colorful holiday displays. Steinseifer and Gemig took a stroll Sunday night, where they saw the sign. Gemig said yes.


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For anyone that has ever played, it is no surprise that the popular game “Cards Against Humanity” has received questionable comments about its content. It purposefully turns vulgarity into humor, and many believe that it is inappropriate altogether.
Now, the creators of the game are getting more questionable comments. This time, it is not about the game, however, but rather about the promise they are making with the game.
The creators, being adamantly against President Trump, said that they have now purchased land on the U.S.-Mexico border in order to stop the creation of the proposed wall. They said that they are working with a law firm in order “to make it as time-consuming and expensive as possible for the wall to get built.”
In regard to President Trump, they said, “Donald Trump is a preposterous golem who is afraid of Mexicans. He is so afraid that he wants to build a twenty-billion dollar wall that everyone knows will accomplish nothing.”
In order for the campaign to work, the company asked people to donate to “Cards Against Humanity Saves America.” In return, the donors will receive gifts.
The company said, “You give us $15, and we’ll send six America-saving surprises right to your doorstep. It will be fun, it will be weird, and if you voted for Trump, you might want to sit this one out.”
The first of the six gifts is reportedly an illustrated map of the land, new cards, a certificate about fighting the wall, and more. As a part of making the donation, participants had to fill out a survey answering who they voted for in the 2016 election.
On the company’s website, a video narrator said that they want to save America from “injustice, lies, racism, the whole enchilada.” They also said that America seems “to be hanging from a thread” since last November’s election.
They said, “But then, the small card game company from Chicago, Illinois, known as Cards Against Humanity, launched a bold campaign to save America…These scrappy comedy writers would come to be hailed as saviors by the American people. They stopped Trump’s border wall.”
Since the company launched this project, the promotion has already completely sold out.
What do you think about this? Let us know your thoughts on Facebook. In other recent news, Franklin Graham just slammed the Church of England for their recent LGBTQ stance.


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Ultrabooks getting Price Cuts
Ryan Martin / 7 years ago
Ultrabooks from brand vendors such as Acer, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard (HP) are all recently seeing price drops in the North America, sources from retail channel believe that the PC vendors are dropping their ultrabook prices to promote new upcoming ultrabook models, that are set to launch soon after Intel releases its new Ivy Bridge processors.
Acer’s S3 ultrabook equipped with a hard disc drive has already seen its price drop to US$799 in North America, while Lenovo and HP’s ultrabook prices also recently dropped 25% and 21%, respectively.
HP is already set to launch its new Ultrabook Envy Spectra 14 in Taiwan this week with Acer and Lenovo’s new ultrabooks are set to release in the second quarter.
Although ultrabooks are unlikely to achieve Intel’s goal of having a share of 40% in total notebook shipments by the end of 2012, as more new ultrabook products will appear in the retail channel, the average price should quickly drop to US$699-799 in the second quarter from the current US$1,000 price, the sources noted.


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Website analytics company StatCounter have revealed its latest report covering global trends of internet access and software popularity. Dubbed ‘Internet Wars’ the report contains two major power shifts: in terms of mobile internet access Samsung has overtaken Apple whilst Chrome have has stolen Internet Explorer’s browser crown. See below for a full break-down of the report:
In terms of mobile vendors the changes have been somewhat expected. 12 months ago Nokia was the number one vendor for connecting to mobile internet but they’ve now dropped to third place as Samsung overtakes Apple by a small margin.
In terms of mobile browser usage the global market shows Android’s default browser out in front with 29% compared to Safari’s 25%; but in the US and the UK the Apple products are clear leaders – taking 55% and 48% of the market share respectively.
This is a direct reflection of mobile OS trends where Android are ahead globally (38%, up from 26% last year) but with the US and the UK showing a pretty clear preference for the iOS. In the US Apple takes 55% and Android 39%; in the UK Apple gets 48% and Android has 30%. The UK also proves to be a bit of a hold-out for Blackberry – holding on to a respectable 15% of the market.
The browser wars have seen Google overtake Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the first time in June this year, with Firefox and Safari taking third and fourth place respectively. Chrome took 34% of the market, compared to IE’s 32%.
StatCounter’s report also took in the balance of power with operating systems, showing Windows 7 actually increasing its internet usage share to 51% despite the fanfare-launch of Windows 8. And 12 years after its launch, Windows XP is still hanging in there with 21% of the global market, comfortably above Apple’s consistent third-place OSX (over 7% share).
In the UK specifically Windows 7 still keeps its top-spot with a 49% market share, but – unlike in the global market – Mac’s OSX takes second place with 11%, beating out Windows XP’s 10% share.
It was also revealed that despite reports of Facebook’s declining appeal amongst teenagers the site has still managed to increase its market share – at least in terms of referall traffic, the metric that StatCounter uses.
Worlwide Facebook has increased its referral influence from 61% in June 2012 to 71% in June 2013. Other social networks still barely register on this scale – with StumbleUpon falling from 9% to 5%, Pinterest taking the number two slot with 8% and Twitter taking up third place with 7%.
In the US Pinterest had a far more dominant position, climbing to a healthy second place in terms of referral traffic with 22% of the market share compared to Facebook’s 52%; whilst in the UK it was Twitter that took the number two spot, with 16% of referral traffic compared to Facebook’s 62%.
However, it should be noted that referral traffic – whilst a useful metric – is by no means the be all and end all of social media influence.
JAKARTA – Google recognizes that besutannya rudimentary mapping applications. Therefore, the company continues to update and even in this case involve the user. This was stated by Google Indonesia Country Head, Rudy Ramawy.
“That’s when you make the trip? Maybe it’s been accurate. That’s why we have never held a ‘grand launch’ of our products, because the company is aware of updates and updates to keep going” Rudy said while responding to thoughts about the accuracy of the crew Techno Okezone Google Maps in Jakarta , overnight.
“We are aware that our service is not completely perfect, but we continue to make updates. Indonesia with a wide geographical conditions is a challenge to deliver the best service,” he said.
Furthermore, Rudy said that if the Android-based smartphone users to enable or diligently perform ‘share location’, it was very helpful software giant to improve the accuracy of its services. “Of course in this case we appreciate aspects of secrecy,” said Rudy.
“If the big cities such as Jakarta, the accuracy of Google Maps can be relied upon. But if remote areas, we continue to provide the best possible experience. Many ways we are doing, Google Drive one of them,” said Rudy.
Meanwhile, following the Google Maps that can be accessed offline in a number of countries, Indonesia Google promised that the service would go in Indonesia, but companies are reluctant to disclose when exactly the service that can be enjoyed.
“A number of countries able to access Google Maps offline, and Indonesia are also included in the list will receive the service. Certainty but we do not know yet,” alluded Country Marketing Manager for Google Indonesia Krishna Zulkarnain.
NEW YORK (TheStreet) — Facebook’s (FB_) second-quarter earnings focused on mobile revenue. Shares were soaring in premarket trading Thursday as Wall Street raised price targets and upgraded shares.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters were expecting Facebook to earn 14 cents a share on $1.62 billion in revenue for the quarter.
The company ended the quarter with 1.15 billion monthly active users (MAUs), up 21% year over year. There was a 51% annual increase in mobile MAUs, which drove the strength in mobile revenue. Daily active users (DAUs) were 699 million, up 27% annually.
Following the earnings, many analysts were bullish, with several upgrading shares and raising price targets. Here’s what some analysts on Wall Street had to say:
JPMorgan analyst Doug Anmuth (Overweight, $44 PT)
“Facebook delivered its strongest quarter yet as a public company–results that we think could be thesis-changing for many–and we would continue to buy Facebook shares even after the ~17% move up in the after-market. Our revenue and nonGAAP EPS estimates increase 12% and 38% for 2013, and 22% and 46% for 2014.”
Topeka Capital Markets analyst Victor Anthony (Buy, $40 PT)
“Facebook needed to, and delivered, a blowout quarter. What is clear from the results is advertisers have validated Facebook as an advertising platform. For full year 2013, our revenue and Adj. EPS increases to $7.196B and $0.71, resp, from $6.733B and $0.63. We still see more upside for the stock and recommend purchase. There are several well defined catalysts over the next two years that should lead to further share price appreciation, including: 1) monetizing Instagram, which, per CEO Zuckerberg, will generate “a lot of profits”, 2) launch of auto-play video ads, 3) monetizing Graph Search, 4) a bigger push into e-commerce, and 5) the potential for S&P 500 inclusion. Further, only 1mm or 6% of FB’s 18mm potential advertisers are buying ads, implying a huge runway for advertiser uptake exists.”
Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia (Buy, $37 PT)
“We are incrementally bullish on FB’s prospects following 2Q results and believe the stock should be a core holding in Internet portfolios. 2Q’s highlight was Mobile advertising (+76% q/q versus consensus +20%). Overall revenue (53% y/y) and EBITDA (+57% y/y) accelerated from 1Q’s 38%/35% revenue/EBITDA growth. Better than expected user engagement, strong monetization and good cost control helped FB outperform even the most bullish expectations on the Street. Reiterating Buy.”
Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein (Outperform, $36 PT)
“Following materially better than expected 2Q results, we are increasing our estimates and price target, and are reiterating our Outperform rating. 2Q upside was driven by higher advertiser demand for newsfeed, both on volume and price, and since mobile Newsfeed pricing is similar to desktop and advertisers are largely indifferent between mobile and desktop, revenues are tracking the consumer shift to smartphones. We believe this dynamic is an important differentiator vs. other ad-supported internet companies, that are being hurt by the mobile mix shift. As such, we are increasing ’13E and ’14E revenue by 3% and 5%, and non-GAAP EPS by 7% and 9%, respectively. Raising target to $36 from $32.”
Shares of Facebook were soaring following earnings, tacking on 30.48% to $34.59 in premarket trading.
While using hashtags in Facebook posts might be a fun tactic for brands trying to engage consumers, it doesn’t appear to be paying off, a new study finds.
Research from social media analytics firm Simply Measured revealed that while 20 percent of Facebook posts among top brands now include hashtags (which give users a way to group messages of similar content), there is no evidence that hashtags are influencing engagement.
The study shows that posts with hashtags —a new feature added with in the last several months — perform as well as those without, suggesting that people are not yet discovering brand posts by their tags.
Overall, the study shows nearly all of the companies in the Interbrand 100 — which ranks businesses based on financial status — now have a Facebook fan page, with 60 percent posting something at least once a day.
[No, Really, Facebook Makes Employees More Productive]
The research revealed that visual content is by far the primary driver for engagement on Facebook. Photos posted by top brands average more than 9,400 engagements, which includes likes, comments and shares, per post, while video posts average more than 2,500.
When it comes to text posts, brands must walk a fine line. Analysis of more than 500 status updates from the top brands shows that the longer a status update is, the less engagement it typically receives. However, if a status update is too short — less than 50 characters — it may not be long enough to capture viewers’ attention or provide the necessary context to drive the number of likes, shares and comments a brand would like.
“For most brands, Facebook is no longer just a network; it has become the hub of their social marketing efforts and one of the most effective ways to engage with fans,” said Adam Schoenfeld, CEO of Simply Measured. “This latest research once again proves that knowing your audience, understanding your content assets and measuring your efforts are extremely important to develop the social strategies that will work best for you.”
Businesses that limit Facebook fans from writing on their page might want to reconsider their strategy. The research shows that nearly 30 percent of top brands do not allow users to post on their wall. For those brands, user engagement on their page is limited to likes, comments and shares, resulting in 15 percent less engagement than brands that do allow user posts.
When it comes to drawing the most Facebook fans, no one does it better than Facebook itself. The social media giant claims the top spot with 93 million fans, followed by Coca-Cola and MTV.
CALIFORNIA – Microsoft has denied allegations that the government says it gave the United States (U.S.) direct access to a number of Microsoft products, including SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype, for the U.S. government (U.S.).
Reported by Read Write, Tuesday (16/07/2013), the software giant’s rebuttal to respond to a report in The Guardian, which has channeled suspect Skype user data into the monitoring program PRISM National Security Agency (NSA) since 2011.
Microsoft confirmed the company has clear principles in responding to government demands for user information related to law enforcement and national security issues. Perusahana consumers insist only provide data in response to legal process and only permitaan adhere to certain accounts or identification.
“We appreciate our commitment to the user and in accordance with applicable law very seriously, so we provide only to respond to consumer data due process. To be clear, Microsoft does not give the government direct access to SkyDrive, Outlook.com, Skype, or Microsoft products the other, “explains Microsoft.
In the end, Microsoft said, when companies update product liability law, may in some circumstances have to retain the ability to provide information in response to requests by law enforcement or national security.
“That’s why, we argue that additional transparency will help everyone understand and debate the important issues,” said Microsoft.
In addition to announcing second-generation Nexus 7 and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Google today also announced the existence of which is a smart Chromecast shaped dongle instead Nexus Q. Chromecast shaped stick that utilizes an HDMI port on the television to run Chrome OS version is simple and will integrate several Google services such as YouTube, Google Play Music, Play Video, and Google Chrome both applications in mobile, tablet or laptop.
Chromecast works like a second screen. If someone such as looking at a YouTube video on your phone, laptop, or tablet and then touch the button Chromecast available in the Chrome browser, it is a television that has been installed sticks Chromecast will play the video as it is displayed on the phone screen. In addition Chromecast can also accept input from a variety of devices that will be played simultaneously turns, for example, from cell phones and play video from laptop playing a movie. Besides Google Play Music and Video, Netflix app (in the U.S.) are also supported by this Chromecast.
Chromecast control can be done from the phone, for example, adjust the volume or change the video played. Chromecast also allows playback of video ‘removed’ from the phone to the tablet and will be passed from the last time the video is played.
Google Chromecast also able to play music like a DJ. This service can access Google Play Music and Pandora. In addition it can also display tabs Chromecast Chrome on television to view photos or videos on Google+ or Vimeo for example. Chromecast also create opportunities through Google Cast application development SDK for Android, iOS and Chrome. To run Chromecast, the television must have an HDMI port plugs plus a blank as a resource for Chromecast mealui microUSB.
Chromecast can be purchased at a price of just USD 35 and is now becoming available in the United States. In addition Chromecast can also be purchased from the Play Store, Amazon.com and BestBuy.com. Currently no information when this gadget will be available in Indonesia.
CALIFORNIA – A recent study reveals social networking site Twitter will turn into a place where people sell products and fame. Two researchers from Columbia Business School and the University of Pittsburgh said, later Twitter is like a TV ad featuring the artists and activities.
Olivier Toubia, professor from Columbia Business School, and Andrew T. Stephen, an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who conducted the study believe Twitter users who only use it for personal purposes will decrease.
Instead, Twitter activity are used for product promotion or promotion of a company of a celebrity will continue. “So be prepared to welcome Twitter with content such as TV,” said professor Toubia.
The study was conducted by examining at least 2500 non-commercial Twitter account. The study was conducted by randomly selecting accounts to identify the use of Twitter and find out about the follower.
The study found that the results in some groups follower accounts increased meaning of each rating also increased his tweet. In other words, a tweet from a follower who increased his can be used for promotion.
Toubia and Stephen predicts post Twitter for regular users will decrease, while the activity of the celebrities and commercial products will continue to increase.
“Communication between one’s personal will be reduced on Twitter. Twitter and activity will be mainly dominated by commercial content, “says Toubia.
Yet he denies Twitter will lose his fame in the future. “With 500 million Twitter users around the world will not be destroyed, but rather to be a tool for the promotion activities of celebrities, companies or anything like that,” he concluded.
Apple’s developer website was back online Friday, more than a week after it was targeted by a hacker who reportedly attempted to steal personal information, various media outlets have reported.
According to Bloomberg’s Jordan Robertson, the website used by engineers who write Mac and iOS device applications was said to be active as of 5pm Pacific time on July 26. The attack had forced it offline for a total of eight days.
“Developers use the site for software downloads, documentation and engineering information,” Robertson said. “The maker of iPhones and iPads said this week that it’s ‘completely overhauling’ its developer systems to prevent a security threat from happening again. While some of the website’s information was encrypted, Applesaid it hadn’t been able to rule out whether names, mailing addresses or e-mail addresses may have been accessed.”
The website targeted by the cyberattack is used by the Cupertino, California-based tech giant to communicate with its community of nearly six million software developers, according to Reuters reporter Aman Shah. A UK-based Turkish researcher named Ibrahim Balic has claimed responsibility for the attack, which he says was not malicious in nature, but not everyone buys his story.
“Balic, who describes himself as a security consultant, claimed on Sunday that he had discovered a number of weaknesses in the site at developer.apple.com which allowed him to grab email addresses of registered developers,” Guardian reporter Charles Arthur explained. “In all, Balic said he had been able to grab the details of 100,000 people registered on the site, and that he included 73 of them in a bug report to Apple.
Arthur said they attempted to contact 29 people whose emails were allegedly extracted by Balic during the hacking, but seven of those emails bounced and none of the remaining 22 responded to requests to state whether or not they are registered Apple developers. Furthermore, none of the names or email addresses could be located online, which the Guardian notes would be unusual for active software developers.
“Many of the names and email addresses either don’t look like they would belong to Apple developers, or appear to have left no footprints anywhere else on the net,” added independent security consultant Graham Cluley. In addition, in reference to ten emails featured in a YouTube video created by the alleged hacker, Cluley said, “It’s almost as though these are long-discarded ghost email addresses from years ago or have been used by Balic in his video for reasons best known to himself.”
In related news, a new phishing scam involving Apple has arisen on the heels of the developer website hacking,according to CNET’s Charlie Osborne. Attempting to capitalize on security concerns raised by the cyberattack, the new phishing scam warns users to click on a link in order to change their passwords.
While the email is short, it may appear legitimate to some users, Osborne said. However, it includes a grammar mistake in the title, fails to capitalize Apple on several locations and includes a link that clearly does not lead to a domain registered or owned by the tech giant.
“Users have taken to Twitter to warn others of the phishing attacks, and security firm Kaspersky Lab has found that Apple-related phishing scams have skyrocketed in the last six months, with scammers focused on stealing login credentials and financial data,” the CNET writer added.
CALIFORNIA – July is almost over and Google has removed more than 100 million web pages containing links content copyright infringement. The removal of the copyright holder hope these links can keep consumers from pirated content sites.
Reported by Softpedia, Friday (27/07/2013), according to TorrentFreak reports, the number of links that have been removed by Google starting this year more than in 2012. Meanwhile, Google decided to be transparent about all removal requests pirated content in search results.
Since January this year, Google has been asked to remove more than 105.3 million web pages that allegedly contain pirated content. A number of sites that claimed to contain pirated contents has also been reported.
Search engine files, FilesTube, is the most hunted with more than 5.8 million links, and Rapidgator.net Torrentz.eu followed, with each more than 2 million links.
Meanwhile, The Pirate Bay, which had become the hunted, now is not in the list of top 20. This is because the torrent sites are changing domains and only has two million links.
Launching a new website is hard. Launching a new brand with that new website can be downright madness.
Just ask Moz. Or iAcquire. Apparently, 2013 is the year of the marketing agency rebrand, and I’m happy to announce we’re part of that list, too: Last week, 352 Media Group became 352.
Those 2½ months spent building our new website and our new brand were the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life. They were also the most rewarding, and despite my incessant cursing, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Why? Because look at the old site:
Whenever you launch a site, everyone just sees the design change, but rarely do you see the behind the scenes – and I’m not just talking about design iterations, although there were probably 13 of those – work that goes into a new website. We’re assuming you’ve already redid your keyword and market research.
Thankfully, the domain didn’t change, but the URL structure did change to directory style. I used Ruth Burr’s template for domain migrations, but made some tweaks.
First, pull every single URL that’s on your root domain. I used both Screaming Frog and our database to make sure I wasn’t missing anything. Drop into Excel and start analyzing what’s going where on your new site.
We work in agile web development, which accounts for short sprints of work (in our case, two weeks at a time) when at the end we’d be able to launch full functionally pieces of our website. Think of it like building a house one room completely at a time.
Because this bad boy needed to be up before mid-July, the planned to launch with the Slim Fast version of our sitemap: A lot of pages weren’t going to exist yet, but they would soon. That meant a lot of pages of our existing site weren’t going to move yet, but they would.
So, in addition to the 301s and 404s, I added a section of what was going to be in Phase II to make our support departments’ lives a little easier. I think it worked.
I admit it: I didn’t remember to install the analytics code on our new site until 24 hours before the site launched. *Facepalm*.
Seriously: Don’t forget it, but also, don’t settle for the basic version. There is so much more that you can see with a little customization, and you need to think about what makes most sense for you. For us, there were three big ones:
If your URLs are changing, so will your sitemaps. Don’t forget to generate a new XML sitemap and resubmit me that GWT to speed up indexation of your new site. We went the multiple XML sitemap approach, one of our main site and one for our blog.
That’s every SEO professional’s nightmare. We’re living that right now. We decided to change our name in January. In May, we took a match to our old site and started over from scratch. Around June, someone finally said “Hey, I wonder where we’ll be ranked with our new brand name.”
Page 3. PAGE 3?!
Logically, it makes sense. 352 is the area code of Gainesville, Florida, our headquarters and our namesake. Sure, we’ve been known simply as 352 (tree-five-two) for 15+ years both by clients and internally, search engines weren’t making that connection.
Why would they? All of our brand links are 352 Media Group, and all of our content was 352 Media Group. We also don’t have nearly the social community that Moz does to blog, link and tweet the name change that would clued Google in sooner.
While our new brand does come with a whole new keyword targeting – Pro tip: Start your new keyword research very early – I couldn’t care less about our exact-match anchor text until we’re showing up No. 1 for “352.” How do you do it? Pull your backlink using your favorite tool, go down and find all of the links with your brand name, and start contacting.
Trust me: Start this process very early if you’re changing name, as in way before you officially launch. Start by reaching out to people who you know can queue up their change to go live on your exact launch date, for example, your author bio for any places you’re a contributor. Don’t forget to make sure your internal team changes any links they have on personal websites.
I’m in the thick of this now, and you never really realize how many brand links you have until you’re staring at a 4-digit long Excel spreadsheet.
Last year, I went skydiving. There’s a moment about 30 seconds into your free fall where you convince yourself that the shoot should have opened by now, and this was going to be it. Then, the chord pulls, you shoot up vertically, and you feel the biggest rush of relief because you are, in fact, going to make it through.
At 3:52 p.m. – see what we did there? – on July 16, 2013, I got that same rush from the launch of our site.
And while the honeymoon of the new brand only lasted about 24 hours until my inbox was flooded with feedback, I needed that kick to keep up the momentum our team had with post-launch iterations.
There will be things you don’t think of. There will be bugs you missed. There will be internal feedback that makes more sense. There will definitelybe user feedback you didn’t even know existed. You need an organized way to keep track of all of this.
My agency used TFS and work through a backlog of items based off client priority and effort to complete the task. This helps us better see the cool things we want to do and where it lies based on priority.
It’s not the most intuitive, and we’re searching for some something a little more user friendly, but it works well enough for now.
If you’re going through a new site launch, I feel you, buddy. It’s long. It’s a pain in the ass. Sometimes, you just want to quit. It’s extremely difficult not to get discouraged, but the end result will be worth it.
Don’t get disappointed if you forget something. There’s a lot to do, and we missed a few “Well, duh” things post launch, but it’s OK. That’s the beauty of constant iterations.


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Despite its Apple exclusivity, Frank Ocean's "Blonde" has been an easy find for Internet pirates.
The first-week predictions for Frank Ocean's Blonde were just revealed, and he's set to take the No. 1 spot by a long shot, as the album is expected to move 225-250k in equivalent album units. That's not to mention the entirely separate "visual album," entitled Endless, that he put out the day before. While an audio version of Endless is not yet available, Blonde was exclusively released on iTunes as an album-only purchase (no individual tracks) and for streaming via Apple Music. Much of the album's first-week sales figures will have been generated through its streaming numbers, which have become an increasingly dominant factor in tracking album sales, especially with streaming exclusives like VIEWS and The Life of Pablo.
While streaming is up and traditional album purchases are down, it seems that a lot of fans are still readily downloading high-profile releases illegally. Not just those with Apple Music have been able to acquire Blonde. In fact, Music Business Worldwide reports that as of 7AM EST on Thurs. (Aug. 25), Blonde had been illegally downloaded 753,849 times.
Music Business Worldwide generated the above numbers via the anti-piracy company MUSO, which only tracked downloads of Blonde in its entirety and not of individual tracks, reports Complex.
Two days after Kanye West dropped his February album The Life of Pablo, released as a Tidal exclusive, it was reported that the album had already been illegally downloaded over 500,000 times. It's looking like streaming exclusives are being countered with rampant piracy. In any case, it appears there is still a huge component of the listening audience opposed to the dominance that a few streaming platforms have exercised over the releases of mainstream music, and at this point, they've found ways to get their hands on the most in-demand projects for free.


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Casual footwear company Crocs Inc. reported a net loss of $27.7 million, or a loss of 37 cents per share for the third quarter, compared with income of $12 million, or per-share earnings of 12 cents in the same period a year ago. FactSet's EPS consensus was 10 cents. Revenue for the quarter fell 9% to $274.08 million, compared with $302.4 million in the year-earlier period. The FactSet revenue consensus was $278 million. Chief Executive Gregg Ribatt said the company was hit by challenges from global currencies and macro-level economic conditions in China. "The full impact of our transformation will be seen during the first half of 2016, as we complete the 18-24 month turnaround process that we have been discussing over the past year," Ribatt said in a statement. Shares of Crocs are down 13% in the year to date, underperforming the S&P 500 index, which is up 2%.
Copyright © 2015 MarketWatch, Inc.


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French bank Credit Agricole is launching a contactless payment trial in Caen. The bank will provide 200 iPhone users with a phone case from Device Fidelity containing a microSD-based NFC solution. Triallists will be able to use a Visa-provided secure payment application to make purchases of up to €20 (US$27) from merchants accepting Visa contactless payments.
- Transcript: Apple VP Kevin Lynch and CEO Tim Cook show off how Apple Watch can be used beyond payments
- Video demos show how Apple Pay users will make a payment with the iPhone 6
- How Apple will generate revenues from mobile payments begins to become clear
- Discover in talks on Apple Pay support
- MasterCard issues European contactless POS mandate


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MOBILE giant EE yesterday said it had surpassed two million 4G users, just four months after exceeding a million users, doubling the company’s original target for 2013.
EE’s current 4G sign up rate is now the second fastest in the world, behind South Korea.
The mobile network also confirmed that 75 per cent of small and medium enterprise customers have upgraded to 4G, showing a strong demand from businesses and corporate users.
Average data use across EE grew by 70 per cent in 2013, with social media and video being huge contributing factors.
EE is also investing £275m into voice usage, seeing it as key to future growth after a 25 per cent increase in spending across the EE network in 2013.
Chief executive Olaf Swantee said: “Two out of three new 4G customer have moved over from Orange and T-Mobile. This year, our network priority is to deliver the benefits of super fast mobile internet to more of the UK.”
However, the impact of 4G across the mobile network remains relatively low, with just seven per cent of EE’s 27m customers on 4G plans.
EE was the first carrier to launch the service last year, ahead of rivals Vodafone and O2.


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Fresh Del Monte Produce, through its North American subsidiary Del Monte Fresh Produce, has acquired US vegetable producer Mann Packing for $361 million as it aims to expand in North America.
Mann Packing’s annual sales were approximately $535 million in 2017 and Del Monte expects the transaction to be completed in the first quarter of 2018.
Established in 1939 and based in Salinas, California, Mann grows, processes and supplies fresh vegetables, including washed and ready-to-eat vegetables, snack packs and party trays, as well as washed and trimmed lettuce products for the food service and retail markets.
Fresh Del Monte CEO Mohammad Abu-Ghazaleh said: “We are extremely pleased about our acquisition of Mann Packing, a leader in the fresh and value-added vegetable category.
“Mann Packing’s strength in the vegetable category, one of the fastest growing fresh food segments, will allow us to diversify our business, leverage our distribution network and infrastructure and increase our market reach.
“In addition, this transaction will provide us with synergies, enhancing our ability to better serve our combined customers and address consumers’ needs for healthier products. This acquisition is a significant step toward our goal to be the world’s leading supplier of healthful, wholesome and nutritious fresh and prepared food and beverages for consumers.”
Nestle SA has accelerated its product development process by 60% since 2016, according to the company. The faster speed to market has been achieved through a restructuring of its research and development process. Now the company is investing in various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to further improve its R&D process and generate better results.
German chemicals distributor Brenntag has confirmed potential takeover talks with US rival Univar Solutions and is understood to be debating the feasibility of a potential acquisition in the coming months. Univar Solutions confirms that it has received a preliminary indication of interest from Brenntag regarding a potential transaction.
Cargill has announced the acquisition of Owensboro Grain Company, a soybean processing facility and refinery located in Kentucky. The purchase of the Owensboro-based company will support Cargill’s efforts to “modernise and increase capacity across its North American oilseeds network to support growing demand for oilseeds driven by food, feed and renewable fuel markets”.


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Despite the drag of its Mobike business, Chinese food delivery giant Meituan has a good quarter with a 70.1% year-on-year revenue growth in the first quarter of 2019, its latest corporate filing shows.
Meituan booked RMB 19.17 billion (USD 2.77 billion) in revenue and RMB 5.07 billion in gross profit in the first quarter of 2019, up 70.1% and 57.8% respectively from the same period last year. Its quarterly operating loss, however, also increased 24.5% annually, from RMB 1.05 billion to RMB 1.30 billion.
The company said its food delivery business has “sustained its strong growth momentum,” with the number of transaction orders increased from 1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2018 to 1.7 billion in the same period this year, up 35.8%. Gross profit from the business grew by 187.9%, from RMB 535.1 million in the three months ended March 31, 2018 to RMB 1.5 billion in the same period of 2019.
Meituan said it was “disciplined” on capital allocation for its new business initiatives, such as closing Ella supermarkets in lower-tier cities, restructuring Mobike’s overseas operations and cutting back subsidies for its ride-hailing business.
Meanwhile, the Beijing-based tech giant expanded its ride-hailing services to 15 new cities, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Chengdu. It plans to further roll out ride-hailing services in more cities in 2019, according to the filing.


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To help loved ones and caregivers transition care from the hospital to home, healthcare services giant, $CAH today unveiled the Hospital Quality at Home brand, a new line of hospital-quality products available over-the-counter, available nationally via Amazon.com & locally at select Meijer Pharmacy & Bartell Drugs locations in Midwest & Washington.
$NFLX a monster move, going up. Expect making some money on Monday.
$AMD down more than 6% even after posting above consensus third quarter results.
$MCD stock rose more than 2% after it posted better than expected 3Q16 results, driven by global same-store sales growth. Meanwhile, earnings and revenue were lower than last year, hurt by refranchising efforts.
$RAI has received a $47 billion take over offer from British tobacco giant British American Tobacco! This is huge!


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Reckitt faces 89 mln stg UK lawsuit over Gaviscon
LONDON, April 17
LONDON, April 17 (Reuters) - Britain's health authorities are suing consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser (RB.L) for 89 million pounds ($145.6 million)over the supply of its heartburn medicine Gaviscon, the company said on Sunday.
"We will be vigorously defending it (the lawsuit)," a Reckitt spokeswoman said.
In October, Reckitt was fined 10.2 million pounds by the Office of Fair Trading after admitting abuse of its dominant position in Britain for the supply of Gaviscon. [ID:nLDE69E075]
Reckitt admitted infringing British and European competition law by withdrawing and delisting Gaviscon Liquid original from Britain's National Health Service (NHS) prescription service in 2005 and replacing it with a different-formula Gaviscon Liquid advance, for which there is no generic rival.
It meant that when family doctors searched for the product under the Gaviscon brand, the NHS prescription database would find only the advance version -- which is still patent protected -- and no cheaper generic alternatives. (Reporting by Mark Potter; Editing by Mike Nesbit) ($1=.6111 pounds)
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Zentis, a leading fruit processing company in the United States and Europe, plans to build a new manufacturing facility in the state of Idaho, according to a press release posted on businesswire.com.
But regional economic development officials said Thursday they no nothing about the proposed facilty.
The press release appears to be from Zentis, listing valid contact information for the company, but Capital Press has not yet been able to verify the information with company officials. Phone calls and email to those officials have not yet been returned.
The press release states the 100,000 square foot plant with more than 100 million pounds of production capacity will be fully operational in the summer of 2014.
The press release does not state the location of the plant, but a listing for a job opening with Zentis for a food scientist on www.FoodHACCP states the job will be located in Twin Falls, Idaho.
At the Southern Idaho Economic Development (SEIDO) annual summit in Twin Falls Thursday, SEIDO Executive Director Jan Rogers said an announcement on two large food companies coming to southern Idaho is imminent.
But she told Capital Press Zentis is not one of those companies.
Rogers said she has heard rumors of Zentis locating in Idaho for the last couple of months and has seen the press release, but no one from the state level down has any knowledge of the company building a plant in Idaho.
It’s just a mystery at this point, she said.
It’s highly unusual that a company would build such a large plant without anyone knowing about it. Companies are usually looking for economic incentives and have to obtain permits to build a plant, she said.
It could be happening, and the company could be partnering with another industry. But if it is happening, someone is keeping it really close to his vest, she said.
If Zentis did build a plant in Idaho, the assumption is it would be in southern Idaho because Zentis is a supplier to both Dannon in South Jordan, Utah, and Chobani in Twin Falls, she said.
Headquartered in Aachen, Germany, Zentis specializes in fruit preparations for the dairy, bakery and confectionary industries. Innovative developments for the dairy industry are a core competence of the company, such as the newest market introduction of stable chocolate and cereals for yogurt, the press release states.
The investment in the Idaho plant will allow Zentis to better serve its long-term dairy partners, who depend upon the company to help them grow with innovative products that continually delight their consumers, the release states.
As a partner to the dairy industry, Zentis embarked upon opening a new manufacturing plant in response to the continual growth of the yogurt category and the increased demand for customized, innovative fruit preparation solutions for new products, according to the press release.
The new plant will add to Zentis’ network of U.S. manufacturing operations in Gardena, Calif., Plymouth, Ind. and Philadelphia. The company employs more than 500 people in the U.S. Zentis also has plants in Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Russia, the release states.
For more information on Zentis, go to


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The three leading cloud computing vendors, AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, each have their own strengths and weaknesses that make them ideal for different cases.
The competition for leadership in the public cloud computing is fierce three-way race: AWS, Azure & Google. Clearly, for infrastructure as a service and platform as a service, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) hold a commanding position among the many cloud companies.
Amazon is particularly dominant. In a 2018 report, Synergy Research Group noted that spending on cloud infrastructure services jumped an astounding 51% over the prior year's quarter, noting: "AWS worldwide market share has held steady at around 33% for twelve quarters now, even as the market has almost tripled in size."
Meanwhile, Microsoft is particularly strong in SaaS, while Google Cloud, having changed leaders in 2018, is positioned for aggressive growth – and is known for offering discounts.
Download the white paper to see the full cloud comparison summary between AWS, Azure & Google.
AWS, Azure & Google Comparison Report


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Patchwork Show drew an estimated 7,000-plus people Sunday for shopping and socializing in the heart of the Artists Village in downtown Santa Ana, the founding location and biggest in what has become a network of events focusing on handmade arts and small businesses.
About 160 local vendors sold original jewelry, clothing, accessories, toys and artwork. The event also offered food trucks, photo booths, craft stations and live music.
Event co-founder Nicole Stevenson said Patchwork, in its seventh year, visits cities that have a growing arts presence. Patchwork hosts shows in Long Beach, Oakland and Santa Ana.
“There are Los Angeles vendors that have never been to Santa Ana before,” Stevenson said. “We want people to come here, hang out and bring awareness to people about these emerging arts communities.”
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More from Star Tribune
More From Business
There have been reports of internet disruption across the East Coast of the United States after a key firm was hit by a cyberattack.
Toy companies are working harder to think outside their usual box, offering more-inclusive items like dolls with disabilities, female superhero figures and characters with a range of skin tones.
Unemployment rates rose in three of eight U. S. swing states last month, fell in two and were unchanged in the remaining three.
U.S. stocks veered lower in early trading Friday as investors pored through earnings from General Electric, McDonald's and other big companies. Energy stocks were down…
Wal-Mart is investing $50 million in New Dada, China's largest online grocery and logistics company, as it moves to strengthen its foothold in the nation's fiercely competitive food market.


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When can we stop wearing face masks?
COMPULSORY wearing of masks in public spaces like trains, buses, and shops was scrapped from January 26, 2022.
However, people are still advised to wear coverings in enclosed or crowded spaces such as the Tube.
When do we stop wearing face coverings?
From January 27, 2022, government rules state that face masks can be ditched in some settings.
This means that the Plan B measures announced by Boris Johnson in December 2021 after passing a parliament vote, have been lifted.
Mandatory face masks - one of the prongs of the Government's Plan B - had been in force for shops and public transport since November 30, 2021, to stem the rising tide of Omicron.
In January 2022, the Prime Minister announced the scrapping of almost all Covid restrictions.
Compulsory mask-wearing has largely been binned in shops and pubs, but is still advised in crowded and enclosed spaces where you may come into contact with other people you do not normally meet.
Businesses and travel operators will be able to make their own rules on mask wearing - but without the hefty fines to enforce the measures.
Transport for London, for example, has said face masks will still be needed on its services, like the Underground and buses - unless they were medically exempt.
It comes after London Mayor Sadiq Khan slammed the decision to get rid of the mask mandate.
latest coronavirus news
Nationwide, mask rules are expected to stay on public transport, but will be recommended rather than enforced by law.
And supermarkets are expected to still advise customers to wear a face covering.
On January 21, 2022, the PM told schools to scrap masks in classrooms with them being ruled out of communal places from January 27, 2022.
Why do we need to wear face coverings?
Covid-19 spreads through droplets that are released when a person coughs, sneezes, laughs, shouts or even speaks.
Face coverings should be worn to protect other people from coronavirus rather than the wearer.
They should cover your nose and mouth - the two confirmed main sources of transmission.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) says that the use of face masks in public places may reduce the spread of infection in the community when they are worn by people who might not realise they are infected with the virus.
When should I still wear a face covering?
Generally, the advice is that you should wear a face mask when it's difficult to socially distance and where you come into contact with people you don't normally meet.
While there is now no legal obligation to wear a mask on public transport, it is strongly recommended that travellers continue to wear them.
Transport for London (TfL) has said passengers still need to wear one in stations and for the entire length of their journey.
Enforcement officers in London have the power to deny access or eject passengers who are found to not be complying with the mask requirement.
What were the fines if you didn't wear face coverings?
The government has confirmed that the wearing of coverings will largely become a personal choice rather than a legal requirement from January 27, 2022, and fines will no longer be enforced.
Prior to this cops and TfL could issue fines of £200 (reduced to £100 if paid within 14 days) for the first offence.
Repeat offenders could have their fines doubled at each offence - up to a maximum punishment of £6,400.
Transport operators can also refuse access to services if a passenger is not wearing a mask.
Children under the age of 11 and people with breathing problems, mental illness, and/or physical disabilities are exempt from wearing masks.
Carrying an exemption card or badge is a personal choice and is not required by law.


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The hearing about Apple’s proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland has started, with local independent statutory body An Bord Pleanála beginning to hear submissions about the proposal.
Apple’s proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland may be one of the most environmentally-friendly projects the company has yet put its name to, but that’s not stopping locals from kicking up a fuss about it.
This month, Apple will defend its plans during a hearing to be held on Tuesday 24 May in Galway City, when Cupertino representatives will attempt to convince An Bord Pleanála, an independent, statutory body which decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in Ireland.
Apple is set to face a hearing over its proposed 850 million euro ($960 million) data centre in Athenry, Ireland — one of Apple’s biggest projects in Europe to date, which is scheduled to open in 2017.
The hearing over the proposed data center, which will help power Apple Music, the App Store, iMessages, Maps and Siri, will be with An Bord Pleanála, an independent, statutory body that decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in Ireland.
Dublin, the largest and capital city of Ireland, may finally be about to get its first Apple Store.
Apple is reportedly in talks with a developer group called the Natrium consortium to open up a flagship retail store in Dublin’s city center — possibly based on the ground floor of an iconic former department store, bought last year for €29 million ($33 million).
Apple has spoken up about the European Union investigation into its Irish tax affairs, telling a panel of E.U. investigators that it pays “every cent of tax” it owes in the country, and that it gets no advantage whatsoever compared with other companies.


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Tags: Terex TA400 articulated truck
Terex Corp. says its new TA400 Generation 9 articulated truck is designed to keep productivity levels high, fuel consumption low, and cycle times short. The machine boasts a 444-horsepower Tier 4 Interim-compliant Scania DC13 engine with a maximum torque of ...
During a lean economy, manufacturers introduced new products and equipment that feature increased fuel efficiency, increased productivity, and cost savings. By Kerry Clines, Senior Editor, and Therese Dunphy, Editor-in-Chief How we made our choices When we ask readers how we can best help ...
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harvesting personal information from Facebook to create profiles labeling people a “Jerk” or “not a Jerk,” then falsely claiming that consumers could revise their online profiles by paying US$30.
According to the FTC’s complaint, between 2009 and 2013 the defendants, Jerk, LLC and the operator of the website, John Fanning, created Jerk.com profiles for more than 73 million people, including childrenThe FTC claims that the defendants violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by
misleading consumers that the content on Jerk.com had been created by other Jerk.com users, when in fact most of it had been harvested from Facebook; and by falsely leading consumers to believe that by paying for a Jerk.com membership, they could access “premium” features that could allow them to change their “Jerk” profile.The FTC is seeking an order barring the defendants’ deceptive practices, prohibiting them from using the personal information they improperly obtained, and requiring them to delete the information.
The FTC argues that
Jerk.com profiles often appeared in search engine results when consumers searched for an individual’s name. Upon viewing their photos on Jerk.com, many believed that someone they knew had created their Jerk.com profile. Jerk reinforced this view by representing that users created all the content on Jerk. But in reality, the defendants created the vast majority of the profiles by misusing personal information they improperly obtained through Facebook .... They registered numerous websites with Facebook and then allegedly used Facebook’s application programming interfaces to download the names and photos of millions of Facebook users, which they in turn used to create nearly all the Jerk.com profiles.
In addition to buttons that allowed users to vote on whether a person was a “Jerk” or not, Jerk profiles included fields in which users could enter personal information about the subject or post comments about them.
In some cases, the complaint alleges, the profile comment fields subjected people to derisive and abusive comments, such as, “Omg I hate this kid he\’s such a loser,” and, “Nobody in their right mind would love you … not even your parents love [you].”
The profiles also included millions of photos, including photos of children and photos that consumers claim they had designated on Facebook as private .... Some of them featured intimate family moments, including children bathing and a mother nursing her child. Numerous consumers have complained that photographs and other information about them on Jerk were originally posted on Facebook using controls that enabled users to designate material for dissemination only to a limited group, and that the information was not designated for public viewing …Unhappy with undesired appearance on the site? Jerk.com indicated that
No one’s profile is ever removed because Jerk is based on searching free open internet, searching databases and it’s not possible to remove things from the Internet. You can however use Jerk to manage your reputation and resolve disputes with people who you are in conflict with. There are also additional paid premium features that are available.The defendants told consumers they could “use Jerk to manage your reputation and resolve disputes with people who you are in conflict with”.
Importantly, the defendants allegedly
- charged consumers US$25 to email Jerk.com’s customer service department, and also
- falsely told consumers that if they paid US$30 for a website subscription, they could access “premium features,” including the ability to dispute information posted on Jerk.com, and receive fast notifications and special updates. (In many instances consumers who paid the customer service or subscription fee got nothing in return).
- did not respond to consumers’ requests and did not remove their photos from Jerk’s website. (Numerous consumers were hesitant to provide their credit card information to Jerk and thus had no easy mechanism to contact the company. Some savvy consumers contacted Jerk’s registered agent or web host and requested that respondents delete their photo, or a photo of their child, which was originally posted on Facebook.)
- were unresponsive to law enforcement requests to remove harmful profiles. (In at least one instance, respondents ignored a request from a sheriff’s deputy to remove a Jerk profile that was endangering a 13-year old girl.)
the issue was caused by Facebook's privacy policies. ….
"We were equally horrified to discover that Facebook is placing personal information from its users including name and photographs in the public domain without requiring any agreement to its terms of service where anyone can acquire it".


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It's old news to just about everyone here about the difficulties of the bookstore business, which has been the subject of the odd SNLC over the years. This SNLC takes up that theme again, with the recent news that The Book House, in the municipality of Rock Hill, needs to leave its current digs by the end of July. The store is currently located in a 150+ yo building that's one of the oldest in Rock Hill, which looks as though it'll get razed to make way for a storage facility. There's a certain meta-irony in that, of course. More below the flip....
Coverage on this story has come from two blog articles this week by Sam Levin at the Riverfront Times, and in between those, an article by Steve Giegerich of the Post-Dispatch:
Giegerich's article summarizes the situation:
"If all goes according to plan, the Book House, two other businesses and a handful of houses tucked into 1.45 acres behind a Manchester Road title company will disappear, razed to make way for a storage facility."Right before that summary, the owner of the store, Michelle Barron, was quoted, where Giegerich noted her choice of grammar:
"'This was a haven, a magical place,' said Barron, already referring to the shop in the past tense."The meta-irony noted before the flip in this situation is that inventory turnover at used bookstores tends to be pretty slow, so that in their way, used bookstores are already "storage facilities". It's just that an actual storage facility can charge people for the privilege of keeping stuff there, while a bookstore has the opposite problem of wanting to unload/sell its inventory, with the corresponding burden of paying taxes on unsold inventory after the end of each year.
Barron has apparently tried to buy the building in the past, per Levin's Monday blog post:
"The Book House....has been in business with a lease at that house for over 30 years and does not own the property. They have made efforts in recent years to try and buy the property, but have not had any luck.....One of the commenters, Linda Austin, wrote in a 'breaking news' post later on the day that the article went on line:
Relocating seems almost impossible says Barron, who is 48 and lives in Webster Groves.
"It would cost a fortune. We'd have to get a loan.... And anything we could get would cost three times as much," she says. "We're just now breaking even and getting back on track from the recession."
"The Book House just got its eviction notice. Out by July. Rock Hill has to rezone that land for industrial and approve their own designated historic structure to be bulldozed."Austin wrote in a later post, regarding Barron:
"She can't afford to relocate. The logistics of moving 200,000 books and finding another affordable place anywhere near that area make it impossible. The developer is not actually going to help, as we can see he hasn't offered to move the house or her books. Just get out."This posting by Austin contradicts the spokesman for EZ Storage, Bill Bowman, in the article:
"Bowman....pledges to help Barron find a new home for the 200,000 books crammed floor to ceiling and into every conceivable cranny of the 1863 Victorian Gothic house.It's easy to be cynical about statements from an out-of-town corporation about trying to be nice to the locals when the big, bad corporate types swoop in and gobble up real estate. Here, the cynicism seems rather justified, although it's the local landlord, Rex Stahl, who's pulling the plug on Barron and the current location of her business. Going back to the possibility of Barron buying the premises, in a "he said, she said" situation, the lawyer for Rex Stahl, David Waltrip, and Barron tell their sides of the story about Barron trying to buy the place earlier:
'We don't want her on the street,' he said. 'We want to work with her.'
Bowman said Great Northern Developments is considering several options, including preserving the character of the quirky bookstore by physically moving the 150-year-old home to another location.
'It's great, I love the place,' he said. 'I love the idea of sitting in a house and reading. But sometimes you can move an old house and sometimes you can’t.'
"Waltrip also says that Barron had an opportunity to purchase the house - but backed out.Given that the RFT leans left, even in its corporate New Times-owned incarnation, the blog writer's sympathies and shading of the article are pretty obvious. The current RFT blog post from Monday mentions 2006 article on The Book House, which draws parallels between Barron and Rock Hill itself:
'We thought she was going to buy the building, and we were going to have to carve out that portion,' Waltrip says, 'but she was the one that withdrew.'
Barron, however, says that she did everything in her power to try and purchase the house, but that the landlord only made offers that would be financially impossible.
'I tried for three years to buy this property,' she says. 'I could not get a bank loan to save my life.... I tried and I tried and I tried.'
She adds, 'It was obvious I wanted to keep the building, but they would not give me any way to do it.'"
"In some ways Michelle Barron is an apt metaphor for struggling Rock Hill. Sharing borders with its more prosperous neighbors — Webster Groves, Ladue, Brentwood and Glendale — the one-square-mile city of 4,700 people has been running on empty for a decade. Government is administered from a mini-strip mall, a rented city hall pressed between Missouri Payday Loan and Rock Hill Chop Suey. The city's municipal building, now boarded up, was sold for $3.6 million last August to Novus Development Co.....There's also this interesting bit:
Nearly $3 million in debt, Rock Hill is without a fire chief or police chief. There's no money to build a permanent city hall, and roadwork projects are on hold. Empty city positions cannot be filled."
"The city had a chance about five years ago to bring in a Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, but a public outcry prevented it and the retail center ended up on Hanley Road in Maplewood, which was then facing bankruptcy. That development deal, which like the Market at McKnight was partially funded through tax-increment financing (TIF), has added $2.5 million to Maplewood's bottom line."I loathe Wal-Mart as much as any self-respecting DK'er, but with the benefit of hindsight, one now has to wonder. Also, there's this bit from that article, quoting Rex Stahl:
'"I'm not going to tear it down," Stahl says, standing outside his foreign-car repair shop, located just behind the Book House. "I just wish the city had some money. They could use it as a library."'No, Stahl won't tear it down. Someone else will, the firm he sells it out to, which will amount to the same thing, of course.
Self will admit that I'm not exactly helpful regarding the plight of The Book House, as I think I've only been there once or twice ever over the years, and I can't remember if I've ever bought a book there. I probably haven't. I love used bookstores, but I also have too many unread books in my place, as I constantly state in posts under cfk's Bookflurries diaries. So it wouldn't really be smart for me to add more to that backlog. However, I suppose that here, I might have to make an exception to that idea. It would be good if a bunch of local folk could do the same thing, i.e. buy books to help reduce her inventory and ease the burden of trying to move to a new location. We'll see if that happens, on my side and other people's.
So with that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week. But to add to the loserness here....