Author: Serkadis

Wait, we thought retail sales rebounded in December. At least that was the impression we got from per-store measures. Something’s amiss.

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AP: Retail sales fell in December as demand for autos, clothing and appliances all slipped, a disappointing finish to a year in which sales dropped by the largest amount in 27 years of records.

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• Check Out The Retail Home Run In December

The always classy Jimmy Fallon isn’t taking sides in the Conan/Leno debacle. Sadly, that same graciousness hasn’t rubbed off on Jay and Conan themselves. NBC’s dueling men of late night seem to be turning on each other. There was a certain snippiness to the monologues of each man Wednesday, a day after O’Brien said he wasn’t willing to move The Tonight Show back a half-hour to make way for Leno.

“Seven months!” Leno exclaimed on last night’s show, biting back at Conan’s complaint that he was only given seven months to create a lasting audience for his show. “How did he get that deal? We only got four.”

O’Brien directed the sarcasm back at Leno, saying: “And I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. … Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.”

SDG Systems has announced that and Android version of their Bluebird Pidion BIP-6000 handheld is available.  Based on Android 1.5, the BIP-6000 is designed Independent Software Vendors (ISV) and Value-Added Reseller (VAR) as well as end users who want to develop commercial applications for Android on a “rugged” handset.  When we say rugged, we mean it meets the “military standards for drops, vibration, temperature, pressure, moisture, and sand and dust exposure.”  Chances are, it can withstand more than you.The BIP-6000 sits next to SDG’s Trimble Nomad as the only two rugged handheld devices with Android backbones.  While the BIP-6000 comes with the Cupcake build today, Android 2.0/2.1 is expected later this quarter or early Q2.  Also expected in the same time frame is support for 2D scanning and RFID capabilities.

Specs for the Bluebird Pidion BIP-6000 include:

• 806 MHz processor
• QWERTY or numeric keypad
• 1D bar code scanning
• 3MP camera with autofocus and flash
• GSM voice, HSDPA 3G cellular data
• VGA (480×640 resolution) 3.5″ TouchWindow LCD screen

Front/Back of Windows Mobile Version

Source: Engadget

…Orr, a junior nursing student at Concordia University, will be among about 1,200 college students from 11 schools gathering at Concordia in north Portland, and then boarding buses to visit job sites across the city.…More than 100 University of Portland students will be involved in Monday’s gathering at Concordia, which was organized through Oregon Campus Contact, Hands On, United Way and 11 different colleges.

»Read the entire article in the Portland Tribune.

R&B singing legend Teddy Pendergrass has died. The velvet-voiced ’70s crooner — who rose to the top of the charts with panty-dropper like “Somebody Loves You Back,” “Love TKO,” and “Turn Off The Lights” — lost his battle against colon cancer at a surburban Philadelphia hospital on Wednesday. He was 59. Teddy was paralyzed from the waist down after he crashed his Rolls Royce into a tree in a car accident in 1982, but he continued to record and even released a hit album in 1990.

His son, Teddy Pendergrass II said, “He will live on through his music.” In recent years, Pendergrass had invested his energy into creating a charity to help victims of spinal cord injuries, like his own.

We’ve got to do something about this darn cancer. Still praying for a cure. Rest in Peace, Teddy.

Anne Hathaway will be honored by the Ivy Leaguers at Harvard University next month.

The Oscar-nominated actress has been named The Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year and will accept the title in a ceremony at the prestigious Massachusetts college. The prizes are handed out every year by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest undergraduate drama troupe in America. Hathaway, 27, who has appeared in films including Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, and Rachel Getting Married, will lead a parade through Harvard Square to a ceremony at New College Theatre – formerly known as The Hasty Pudding Theatre.

The legendary award is given to entertainers who have made a “lasting and impressive contribution to the world of entertainment” and known for being very slapstick. Last year’s winner Renee Zellweger was persuaded to put on a fat suit while the male recipient James Franco was made to milk a “gay cow” to mark his work in the movie Milk.

Past recipients of Hasty Pudding’s Woman of the Year award include Meryl Streep, Katharine Hepburn, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Dame Elizabeth Taylor, and Charlize Theron. Clint Eastwood, Tom Cruise, Robert De Niro, Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Anthony Hopkins, Bruce Willis, and Christopher Walken are among the former male recipients.

The recipient of this year’s Man of the Year prize has yet to be announced.

It has not yet been revealed which male star will take the honour this year.

Online music is growing at a healthy pace with YouTube clearly dominating, but other players like Hulu, at least in the US, are coming strong from behind. One trend that has helped this growth lately is the increasing amount of professional content available online. And, while TV series and shows are proving quite popular on Hulu, it’s still music vid… (read more)

Diferentes medios italianos han comenzado a afirmar que Bruno Senna quedarse fuera de Campos Meta para acabar firmando finalmente por la escudería Toro Rosso. De confirmarse este fichaje, desgraciadamente el piloto español Jaime Alguersuari quedaría fuera del equipo.

La razón por la que el piloto brasileño dejaría Campos Meta es porque a día de hoy el piloto no cuenta con los patrocinadores necesarios para poder correr en el equipo. Recordemos que el propio Bruno Senna afirmó que el no compraría su asiento.

Por otra parte, en caso de ser todo este rumor cierto, yo creo que es un grave error por parte de Toro Rosso ya que la temporada pasada la utilizaron para que Algersuari consiguiera el nivel necesario para competir con el resto de pilotos y creo que todos podemos decir que lo consiguió con creces.

Related posts:

1. Bruno Senna no cobrará nada por correr en Campos Meta
2. Pedro de La Rosa y Bruno Senna ya podrían haber confirmado su fichaje por Campos Meta
3. Jaime Alguersuari firma con Toro Rosso para 2010

Yesterday Pat Robertson said that the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Tuesday was the result of a pact the Haitians made with the Devil to oust the French in Revolution. He believes that this pact has been the cause of the many hardships that have plagued the small country throughout the years since its independence. (He supported this argument by pointing to the fact that the Dominican Republic has tourism and lacks the abject poverty that beleaguers Haiti).

Out of curiosity (and boredom) I looked up Haiti's religious makeup and was surprised (in light of Robertson's comments) to find that the majority of Haitians are Roman Catholic…majority as in 95%! There are also Jehovah&#39’s Witnesses, Evangelical Christians, Pentecostals and a small number of Muslims. There are indeed those that practice Vodou, but mainly in the rural parts of the country–and it seems from what I can gather, there is still a stigma attached.

So, given this information, I wonder why Pat Robertson would make this statement as thousands of children are trapped under rubble…? Does he believe that God would create a dooms day Sodom and Gomorrah scenario for a country in which 95% of its citizens believe in Him and His son?

Unlike a few in the MSM I heard last night, I'm not questioning Robertson's prerogative to believe this AND to say it…I am questioning the logic and the data behind the belief…

What I do find amazing is the fact that most people believe in the supernatural retribution of "karma" and talk about it quite freely, but if someone dares to imply the supernatural retribution is "God"…they're crazy or "vile." If you do believe in God, why wouldn't he punish people with earthquakes and other destructive happenings? The rainbow is a promise the Earth won't be destroyed by water…not shaking or whipping winds.

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It’s official: “Mr. Nasty” Simon Cowell is his final days as judge on American Idol. Ever since the British music mogul announced plans to ditch the ratings juggernaut to create an Americanized-version of his UK hit The X Factor, Idol fans have been discussing Cowell’s possible replacement.

Add two more names to the mix: We hear former boy bander Justin Timberlake and salsa star/J. Lo manbag Marc Anthony are among the top contenders to join the judging panel of A.I. once Simon steps down this spring.

Kyle Bass is one of a growing number of investors betting on a collapse of the hedge fund market.

David Faber caught up with Bass before the Hayman Capital founder testified at yesterday’s crisis hearings. In the first part, Bass talks about some of his reform proposals (which we covered yesterday) though in the final two minutes he gets to Japan.

As he sees it, the country is a canary in the coalmine for what will happen here, and that at this point, there’s no way out.

*The fact that both the Euro breakup and the Japan collapse are getting so much attention these days, supports our contention that there are no paper currencies that anyone can possibly like right now. It’s a very strange time.

** For a counterpoint on the Japanese hyperinflation scenario, see here.

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See Also:

• Here’s What Will Trigger Japan’s Hyperinflationary Fiasco
• German President Angela Merkel Just Dropkicked The Euro
• With The US Spending, The Euro Crumbling, And Japan Debauching, It’s Hard Not To Like Gold

Liz Cheney’s Keep America Safe ad:

Keep America Safe: “100 Hours” from Keep America Safe on Vimeo.

Shall we explore Ms. Cheney in the 2012 Meet and Greet?

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Singers Avril Lavigne and Katy Perry are the new faces of Proactiv Acne Cream, and the recently-engaged Perry will reportedly be paid $4 million for ther role in a campaign debuting next month.

The eccentric divas will share their secret weapons for fighting acne in a series of TV ads to be shown in 58 countries this month.

“I got acne at the start of my career. It was stressful. I have acne scars which I’m self-conscious about,” Katy was once quoted as saying.

Vanessa Williams, Jessica Simpson, and Jennifer Love Hewitt have endorsed Proactiv products in previous campaigns.

TorrentFreak is covering the ongoing trial of Alan Ellis, the admin of the popular (and now shut down) private torrent tracker OiNK. Back when it shut down, Trent Reznor outed himself as a regular user of OiNK, pointing out that it really filled a niche that the industry itself was not providing. As he noted:

“I’ll admit I had an account there and frequented it quite often. At the end of the day, what made OiNK a great place was that it was like the world’s greatest record store. Pretty much anything you could ever imagine, it was there, and it was there in the format you wanted. If OiNK cost anything, I would certainly have paid, but there isn’t the equivalent of that in the retail space right now. iTunes kind of feels like Sam Goody to me. I don’t feel cool when I go there. I’m tired of seeing John Mayer’s face pop up. I feel like I’m being hustled when I visit there, and I don’t think their product is that great. DRM, low bit rate, etc. Amazon has potential, but none of them get around the issue of pre-release leaks. And that’s what’s such a difficult puzzle at the moment. If your favorite band in the world has a leaked record out, do you listen to it or do you not listen to it? People on those boards, they’re grateful for the person that uploaded it — they’re the hero. They’re not stealing it because they’re going to make money off of it; they’re stealing it because they love the band. I’m not saying that I think OiNK is morally correct, but I do know that it existed because it filled a void of what people want.”

The problem, however, as more people looked at the issue was that it wasn’t clear what laws were actually broken. The UK apparently does not have a concept like contributory copyright infringement (and, yes, one of the things ACTA is trying to require is that all signees add that to their copyright laws), and since he operated just the tracker, Ellis didn’t copy any works on his own computer. He wasn’t storing anything and he didn’t transfer anything. So what did it do? After working through a variety of theories they came up with conspiracy to defraud the music industry, which sounds quite similar to felony interference of a business model.

Now that the trial is ongoing, Ellis is explaining that he didn’t believe that what he did in running OiNK directly was copyright infringement, even if users of OiNK may have infringed on copyright (he does admit to downloading works via OiNK, however — but that’s separate from his admin role, and he claims that he only used it to sample new musicians, and bought the albums of those he liked). Without a contributory copyright infringement rule, it is difficult to see how hosting the tracker alone could infringe — and if that’s the case, it’s not clear why the site was shut down. Hopefully the court recognizes this. However, we’re still trying to understand how this “conspiracy to defraud” concept works. As Reznor pointed out above, there was little effort to “defraud” anyone. It was very much about sharing and promoting artists to help them in the OiNK community. But, of course, the industry will never admit to the promotional value of sharing.

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Lindsay Lohan has been rocked by rumors that a cash-strapped waiter is shopping an alleged “sex tape” — in which she is the star — for nearly $200,000.

An alleged 47-second clip of the tawdry sex flick features a naked woman that appears to be Lohan engaging in “adult activity” with a waiter from a popular American restaurant chain, who she reportedly enjoyed a fling with last year, London’s The Daily Mirror dished on Thursday.

“This video file is dynamite. It’s pretty seedy and shows Lindsay engaging in a particular sex act which, obviously should remain behind closed doors,” squealed a spy.

The footage has reportedly been offered to Huslter for six figures, while the waiter is toying with the idea of giving the X-rated footage to an “offshore porn site” to be downloaded around the globe for the masses.

Lindsay, 23, is “devastated” by the rumors after working diligently to repair her fractured public image in recent years, tattles tell the tab. The Georgia Rule actress even traveled to India last month, where she filmed a documentary on human trafficking for the BBC. Lindsay is said to be weighing her legal options for blocking release of the footage.

“If and when it is released on the internet, via a spurious, unofficial website, there is absolutely nothing she or her lawyers can do about it….It is fair to say that Lindsay has had a pretty torrid past 24 hours.”

British team 666 Road Racing Limited, founded by two racers, announced their intention in competing in the world’s first zero carbon emission championship, the TTXGP 2010. Nick Potts and Jonathan Shepherd founded 666 Road Racing Ltd several years ago and their client list include the Factory Yamaha outfit, Hydrex Honda, Relentless Suzuki, Raceways Yamaha and Parkalgar Honda, to name just a few.

There are not many podiums we haven’t been on this year as suppliers and that has been consistent o… (read more)

When Guardian News & Media acquired ContentNext Media, owner of tech and media blog PaidContent and other blogs in July 2008, various reports claimed the price as north of $30 million, including earn-out and dependent on future performance of the young media company started by journalist and Internet entrepreneur Rafat Ali.

This morning, industry trade outlet PressGazette revealed that the price that was actually paid for ContentNext Media was £4 million, which would today convert to roughly $6.5 million. Accounts filed with Companies House by the Guardian Media Group subsidiary earlier this week revealed the previously undisclosed terms of the deal.

So where did that £15 million ($30 million) figure come from?

According to PressGazette, that sum was dependent on the highest possible future performance figures for the media venture. Guardian Media Group told PressGazette that it still considers ContentNext Media a “good strategic fit to the business” but that the “carrying value” was “impaired following difficult trading conditions”.

Since we all know the global economy started falling apart shortly after the acquisition deal was signed, it’s isn’t much of a surprise to find out that those ‘highest possible future performance figures’ were not achieved. I’ve reached out to some of the people on the ContentNext team to get their side of the story and will update accordingly.

ContentNext was founded in 2002 by Rafat Ali and funded by Greycroft Partners in 2006.

They are one of the new media companies we respect most, and we’re glad to see they’re still alive and kicking and keeping us on our toes 24/7.

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It’s hard to be a euro-bull, when the President of Europe’s most important economy, Germany, is a euro-bear:

Bloomberg:

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Greece’s mounting budget deficit risks hurting the euro, saying the currency faces a “very difficult phase.”

Merkel, speaking at a private forum hosted by Die Welt newspaper yesterday, questioned the fiscal discipline of other countries using the euro, according to a transcript posted on the German government’s Web site today.

“The Greek example can put us under great, great pressures,” she said, according to the transcript. “Who will tell the Greek parliament to please go ahead and pass a pension reform? I don’t know that they’ll be enthusiastic about Germany giving them instructions.”

A few months ago, you couldn’t find a dollar bull to save your life. Now they’re everywhere. These days, you can’t find anyone bullish on the euro, even Thomas Friedman says it’s the currency he’d short.

What’s particularly amusing is that it all seems to have stemmed, originally, from the Greek issue, which is understandable, but the troubles in Greece are hardly knew. A casual observer throughout 2009 would have seen trouble coming.

Then one day the country was slapped with a downgrade — ratings do still seem to matter — and everyone freaked out about the euro becoming unglued. Markets are strange.

Meanwhile, the dollar index, as you can see, is having a hell of a morning (via INO)

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See Also:

• ‘No Chance’ Greece Would Abandon The Euro Says Finance Minister, Credit Default Swaps Hit Worst Level Ever
• Thomas Friedman Tries To Give Short-Selling Advice To Jim Chanos
• Look How Quickly Schizophrenic Markets Lost Faith In The Euro System