At Least He's Got The Right Wardrobe For Going On Interviews

George Zimmer, who often sold his Men's Warehouse chain in commercials saying, "You're going to like the way you look. I guarantee it", may not like the way he feels.

The executive chairman and highly recognizable pitchman was fired with no reason given by the clothing retailer. Zimmer did address the rift via a written statement, saying, "instead of fostering the kind of dialogue in the boardroom that has, in part, contributed to our success, the board has inappropriately chosen to silence my concerns by terminating me as an executive officer."

Zimmer, who owned owned 1.8 million shares of the company (3.5%), brought in spiritual leader Deepak Chopra as a member of the company's board in 2004, and pumped his own money into California's failed Proposition 19 in 2010, which would have legalized marijuana in the state. He also instituted the policy for new hires that didn't include background checks, because he believed that everyone deserves a second chance.

Company stock finished down on account of the news, but still near its 52-week high, and is up 20% since the start of the year. Does that mean the face of the brand is not going impact their profits? That remains to be seen, but it does mean that there won't be anymore commercials with him cruising around like a weird version of the Most Interesting Man In The World...those kinda sucked.

A Food Singularity

Your parents and grandparents probably never thought they'd live in an age where there would be computers the size of a coin or the interweb or any billion other achievements that time and technology have brought.  And just so, did our modern generation never expect the Doritos Loco Taco...but that's just the start.

In a nice little reciprocal marketing move, Frito-Lay is going to be offering Doritos in a Taco Bell  flavor.  Yes, they're reconstituting their chips to taste like a combination of nacho cheese and taco flavors, which, I assume is as simple as mixing in a packet of meat seasoning (paging Lawry's for a corporate three way).  You won't have too wait too long - this spring, we'll see if the flavor fancy goes both ways.

Of course, it's just a matter of time before we see Doritos Locos Tacos made from Taco Bell Taco flavored Doritos, right?  This will undoubtedly create a diarrhea paradox for all eaters, and prompt the chicken (taco) and egg question about what flavor begat which item.  Very meta - though the internal cramping and bleeding may not be.  And perhaps I'm burying the lede a little too, but there will be Cool Ranch flavored Doritos Locos Tacos coming...

Cash Is Lord King

If you're going to the Vatican, better bring your wads of cash, because credit cards and electronic payments are as unwelcome as the devil.

Deutsche Bank Italia (German bank of Italy?) pulled its authorization at the start of 2013, after providing the Vatican with electronic payment services for 15 years. Newspapers reported the bank took the action because the Vatican has not yet fully complied with European Union safeguards against money laundering. And we all know that the church has meticulous records open to public review of how much money they take in. Oh, wait...

For those who need to pay for museum tickets, souvenirs and other services in the tiny city-state, they're outta luck unless they can miraculously get their hands on cash.

No Longer All The News(week) Fit To Print

After nearly 80 years, Newsweek is coming off the newsstand.  Hey, are there even newsstands anymore?

Their decision to go all-digital hastens the problems newspapers and print are experiencing, as blogs and websites dominate, and readers favor tablets and mobile devices over pages.  The last issue of the magazine will have a December 31 cover date.

Starting next year, it will be rebranded as a subscription-based digital publication called Newsweek Global. There are currently 1.5 million subscribers (down from a peak of 3 million) that will gain access to the digital edition, and the new digital-only Newsweek would be on par with current print price (currently they also offer the iPad edition at $24.99 annually, and a combined print-iPad yearly subscription for $39.99). Newsweek will still offer selected content for free on the Daily Beast website.

With the loss of U.S. News & World Report in 2010 to digital and the move by Newsweek, TIME magazine has not made any mention of a full shift to digital while they enjoy the lack of print competition.  And it remains to be seen if the tabloid-esque and attention getting covers of late - the Muslim uprising in the Middle East, a photoshopped picture of Princess Diana, and President Obama under the tagline "The First Gay President" - will have the same impact among the interweb's usual assortment of ridiculous opinions.  Now they'll have to compete for relevance against the Huffington Posts and Drudge Reports, who's time on the web means more than Nwesweek's decades in print.

Weekend Edition

Counting down the top 20 links we didn't cover during the week...

20 • Boyfriend Assaults Girlfriend With Steak Sauce Over Fifty Shades Of Grey - He still got the Wor(ce)st(ershire) of it.

19 • Raccoons Chase, Attack Woman Who Had Just Finished Jogging In Park / Tigers Kill Man Who Scaled Fence At Danish Zoo - It's no different this week...animals are pissed off at humans.

18 • Graphene Miracle #5,347: It Can Repair Itself Entirely Unassisted - Higgs-Boson?  Graphene is the God particle.

17 • Suicide Bomber Kills 7 Of His Own Family In Iraq / Explosive Fireworks Horrifically Severed And Blew Off A Paraplegic's Leg - Two perfect examples of exactly how bad things can go when you shouldn't be playing with explosives.

16 • Microsoft, NBC Dissolve MSNBC.com Joint Venture - No word on who gets custody of Rachel Maddow.

15 • Ohio Diner Owner Dies Hours After Obama Visit / Obama Staffer Dies After Collapsing At Campaign’s Chicago HQ - Our president...the angel of death?

14 • Autistic Man Survives 3-Week Ordeal In Utah Desert - A happy ending to the story, even  though his autism was what got him into trouble.

13 • Nigerian Tanker Explosion, At Least 95 Killed After Crash As People Rush For ‘Free Fuel’ - It's usually a sign that signals a promotion for free gas, not a crash and gallons of it spilling out.

12 • San Bernardino Third California City To Seek Bankruptcy - If only they sold all that meth, they'd be in the black.

11 • 13-Minute Dark Knight Rises Featurette Hits The Movie's Major Characters And Themes / DC Is Just @#$%ing Gonna Give Up On Movies Until 2015 - Get hyped for now!  Because after Batman and Superman, DC has to learn how to make comic characters into film properties.

10 • Flying Robot Makes 3D Map Of Building's Interior - Just like those bots in Prometheus, now with 100% less Engineer dicks.

09 • Immigrants With ‘Gang Tattoos’ Denied U.S. Visas - The easiest way to keep the bad elements out of the country is if they make it obvious.

08 • Rejoice, For Edifi, The First Christian Tablet Is Here! - That damn headline takes all the sarcasm out of my comments on it.

07 • Blind Contestant Completes In Miss Florida - Yet she'll never see how silly pageants are.

06 • Found: Multiple People Combined Into Single Mummies - Who knew that Dr. Frankenstein was over 3,000 years old?

05 • ESPN The Magazine’s 2012 Body Issue Will Make You Appreciate The Athletic Female Form / Ronda Rousey Would 'Beat The Crap Out Of Kim Kardashian' Because Her Fame Came From A Sex Tape - I support hot naked women athletes...especially the ones who want to kick the piss out of a Kardashian.

04 • Scientists Create Molecule To Make Teeth Cavityproof - Great news!  Now all we need is a company to sell it...

03 • Man Dies In Rollover Crash After Running Over Wife In SUV - There's one story every week that makes me smile at it's perfection, and this is it.

02 • Twitter Divides In Response To Daniel Tosh's Rape Joke - Yeah, I'll pick a side and back Team Tosh.  Comedy isn't pretty, but it's still comedy.  And let's keep everything in context.

01 • Auditors Say Billions Likely Wasted In Iraq Work - Was anybody surprised at this?  It's such predictable news that I can't switch from disappointment at being cynically correct to anger over it.

OxyKidone

The maker of OxyContin is trying to get FDA approval to label their painkiller for use by children as young as six.  Because children get really bad play pains, right?

Purdue Pharma has paid dozens of clinical testing sites to document what happens when children get OxyContin.  Hmm, I think it would look something similar to this.  What possible reason could they come up with to do that?  The company says its motivation is to help doctors who currently prescribe the drug off-label to children, "a common practice in the treatment of pediatric conditions that involve moderate or severe pain", but I don't see how selling your brand of opiate... makes a difference to doctors.  Oh, that's right, it helps your company's bottom line.

A trio of physicians working with Purdue on the trials said the company appears to be doing the research to get a six-month extension on their patent for the original formulation of OxyContin, which expires next year.  Ah, another noble reason!  The pharmaceutical earned them close to $2.8 billion in sales revenue last year, and exclusivity in the drug world  is huge.

Most critics are citing addiction woes and their fear of abuse by younger recipients, but that is really irrelevant as far as I'm concerned.  Kids can't hock enough baseball cards to get the coin to buy the script, so that's out as a way to sustain abuse.  And pharmacies don't give prescriptions to minors, so that alleviates that.  Prescription drugs legally dispensed to and for adults have the same potential for abuse regardless of what they are - and that's on the recipient to keep those safely out of children's access.  Plus they're already giving off-label versions to kids...where's the current data on that "abuse"?

I'm bothered by this because it's a clear instance of a drug company trying to squeeze more profit out of a product in unscrupulous ways.  You've got to have a little more morality when you're making that much money on meds.

In Space, No One Can Hear You Strip Mine

Kudos to James Cameron, who found another way to make billions more!

Planetary Resources, Inc. is a new Cameron fronted venture,  backed by investors the likes of Google co-founder Larry Page, Ross Perot Jr. (chairman of The Perot Group and son of the former presidential candidate), Eric Schmidt (executive chairman of Google), K. Ram Shriram (Google board of directors founding member), and Charles Simonyi (chairman of Intentional Software Corp.), with the intention to mine near-Earth asteroids for precious metals and water.

Referring to them as "the low-hanging fruit of the solar system", these asteroids would provide ample uthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum  - all rare and in demand on Earth (and mostly controlled by Chinese and foreign interests).  Under the noble idea of advancing humanity's exploration of space, their resource extraction and refining will create the unimaginably rich and powerful corporate backbone for that to occur.  Like an intergalactic gas station, they can provide water and key elements for manufacturing technological products.  For example, a single space rock 1,650 feet wide contains the equivalent of all the platinum-group metals ever mined throughout human history.

Before that can happen, it needs to do some in-depth prospecting work. Of the roughly 8,900 known near-Earth asteroids, perhaps 100 or 150 are water-rich and easier to reach than the surface of the moon.  Using a telescope that will be launched into a low-Earth orbit in the next 18 to 24 months, the company will source it's targets.  Currently, all mining activities are planned to be accomplished by swarms of unmanned spacecraft, and the company does not (immediately) plan to extend its operations to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter or to the surface of the moon.  but it should be stressed that there was no date or timeline given when they would (or could) begin extracting metals or water from space rocks.

Though a recent study sponsored by Caltech estimated that a 500-ton near-Earth asteroid could be snagged and dragged to the moon's orbit by 2025 at the low low cost of about $2.6 billion, it did not detail the giant space lasso needed, but what ever the method, Planetary Resources has the jump on everyone.

Have It Your Way (Without Going Out Of Your Way)

The number three fast food chain wants to see America make plenty of number two in the comfort of their own home.

Burger King may be behind Wendy's and McDonald's, but they've got the jump on them when it comes to getting consumers at their most vulnerable...and lazy.  In select Washington, D.C. locations, the King will come to you. They don't do fountain drinks, coffee, breakfast foods, or milkshakes; delivery costs $2 an order; and you must live within a 10-minute drive of a participating store. But Burger King not only guarantees 30-minute delivery, but their "proprietary thermal packaging technology" will keep your fries crisp and burger "hot and fresh".

French fried potatoes for couch potatoes, from a business perspective, is a slam dunk - as long as they can keep those happy meals from turning into crappy ones.  I wish I still ate the fast food and lived in D.C. to give it a whirl - though maybe I can convince Famous Sister to be a guinea pig...

Old Will-waukee

You're the Pabst Brewing Company (in Wisconsin), and Will Ferrell approaches you about making a series of commercials for Old Milwaukee beer for free - but, he wants to shoot them in Davenport, Iowa, and that's the only place they can be aired.

Yeah, they went for it.

Reebok has agreed to pay $25 million to settle unsupported claims their "toning shoes" could make fat asses less so.

Reebok's advertisements said the shoes strengthened hamstrings and calves by up to 11% more than regular sneakers, and toned the buttocks up to 28% more. That was based on clever salesmen, and not any real studies.

The ads were pulled once an investigation was launched into the claims, though Adidas, who owns Reebok, disagreed with the FTC and stood behind the shoes. The toning shoes were designed to be slightly unstable, and the instability requires the wearer to work harder, thus strengthening muscles. But 11 to 28 percent more?

Since 2009, they've sold millions of pairs in the United States alone, which likely covers the consumer refunds. Competitors like New Balance, Skechers, Ryka and Avia sell similar types of footwear that can fetch up to $300...and lawsuits are forthcoming regarding their products.

Nopez Notever

If you're looking to set up a recording of Ice Road Truckers repeats and syndicated episodes of Family Guy, you and your DVR are in luck! TBS has given the hook to "Lopez Tonight".

Lopez's Thursday show at midnight (tomorrow) will be the final one, the cable network said in a statement that added they were proud to have worked with the "immensely talented comedian and entertainer." I'm sorry, they're talking about George Lopez, right?

The kill order came not only based not only on declining ratings but the cost of the show, according to the famed "person familiar with the production", who "spoke on condition of anonymity".

Though he's about as funny as a basic cable infomercial, it does suck that he graciously got forced moved to the later time for Conan O'Brien's show - who'd ironically left NBC when Jay Leno retook his airtime.

Lopez's total viewership dropped over 40% in its second year, from an average of 910,000 nightly viewers in the 11 p.m. slot to 543,000 at midnight. So far this month his audience has dropped to 391,000. Conan has been drawing slightly more than 1 million viewers for his first season - just 13% higher than Lopez did in his debut year, but the lead in program is still taking in more than 700,000 nightly viewers.

So it's a good news / bad news thing - George Lopez is off the air, but he's bound to be working on another project to try to get back on TV. Enjoy it while it lasts...

Withholding Sex

Pulling out is not one of the things normally associated with porn.

Organizers of Adultcon, one of the local porn conventions, are pulling two of their shows from the Los Angeles Convention Center. C'mon, isn't this town big enough for everybody's stable of dye-blond whores with implants and oversized cocksmen?

The rumor is the convention hall refused to bar other sex-themed gatherings within three months of the event. Are they not counting on chronic convention-ators? Close to 30,000 perverts people are expected to attend the three Adultcons this year, but next year there will be only one (like the Highlander, but with less money shots).

The Convention Center also booked the Exxxotica show, which also charges an entrance fee to meet porn stars and purchase exhibitor's wares, and the Everything To Do With Sex Show, which offers speakers, seminars alongside sex toys. That last one sounds boring without the porn stars.

Adultcon Vice President Renaud West (I was surprised they have a vice-president, but then I'm not when his name sounds like a Eurotrash gigolo) says too many shows confuse the public and are bad business, because flat out calling porn enthusiasts stupid idiots could negatively effect their attendance. What, consumers can't distinguish between two different shows selling the same giant plastic dildos? Convention Center managers naturally disagree, and believe there’s enough demand for all three shows. That, and it breaks up the boat and car shows.

Erotica LA, Los Angeles' largest adult show for 13 years running (which is longer than most careers in the industry), canceled 2010 show and did not return in 2011. Damn it, I will certainly miss making my annual reminder post that the show is in town.

Leno Still Has A Show?

For the first time in a decade - or 40 consecutive quarters in TV terms, NBC's "Tonight Show" has not won the coveted adults 18-49 demographic. Q2 2011, hail the conqueror...Jon Stewart!

Stewart's margin in the demo was slim, but a victory is a victory: "The Daily Show" averaged 1.295 million viewers compared to Leno's 1.292 million. Usual runner-up "Late Show with David Letterman" had 1.096 million viewers.

It is the one-two punch of The Daily Show and "The Colbert Report" were the top-rated late-night shows on television among viewers 18-34 and male viewers (both 18-24 and 18-34). The Daily Show averaged 2.2 million total viewers, up 9%. The Colbert Report averaged 1.5 million total viewers and gained of 6%.

Interim Former Tonight Show host Conan O'Brien took the third spot for overall viewers in the quarter.  It's surprising that Leno isn't on CBS, home of the dull, but I'm sure that would be his next stop if Letterman quit.

EndSpace

After slashing half their staff earlier this year to present a leaner profile to potential buyers, Myspace has been sold (and it wasn't for 60 bitcoins and a Subway foot long Italian as rumored).

The proud new owner of that cyber graveyard is Specific Media, an advertising network who had a spare $35 million laying around. News Corp. will still hold onto a stake of less than five percent for nostalgia. The deal includes another halving of Myspace’s staff of 400, and a limited run for Myspace CEO Mike Jones and other top personnel. The sale comes just before the end of the fiscal year (tomorrow!).

There were several other bidders recently, including separate efforts by the two co-founders of Myspace, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson. The most recent lead suitor was a group including Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, but the deal fell apart, leaving Specific and private equity firm Golden Gate Capital. Specific Media was founded in 1999 and helps marketers buy digital ads for the interweb, online video, and mobile devices. The company now ranks among the largest online advertising networks in the country, reaching 170.9 million or about 79% of the U.S. internet users just last month.

While the company gets data about Myspace users which can be used for ad targeting, it's still pouring a lot of money into a domain that is losing attention and members to Facebook on a daily basis. But hey, it's their money to waste, and they can try to make it back

Thrashed And Shut Out

Canada struck back again at their hockey neighbors to the south by regaining another club from Georgia. Canada 2, Atlanta 0.

The Atlanta Thrashers owners sold their team to a group in Winnipeg, marking the return of pro hockey to the city who lost their own Jets team 15 years ago to Phoenix, where the club was renamed the Coyotes. It was 31 years ago that the Atlanta Flames also headed north, settling in Calgary.

True North Sports and Entertainment announced the deal at Winnipeg’s MTS Centre, their 15,000 seat home arena. Winnipeg is Manitoba's largest city, and Manitoba is in Canada. The move comes a few weeks after the city of Glendale voted to subsidize the Phoenix Coyotes for another season while as the equally troubled team tries to secure new ownership. At that point True North turned its attention to the Thrashers.  While the few fans in Atlanta are suffering both Winnipeg residents and players are excited about the move.

"What I like about playing in Canada is the fans hold you accountable. They know when you’ve done something good and they give it to you when you've done something bad. You don’t want to get booed out of your building or have your own fans at the grocery store telling you how bad you played," said Rob Schremp. "I think the guys are real excited about it. It's a chance to play in Canada and there’s a lot of Canadian guys on the team." See, it was like, destiny or something.

The Thrashers made only one playoff appearance in 11 seasons and never won a postseason game. Their ownership was plagued by financial problems, and the team averaged less than 14,000 a game this season, rank 28th out of 30 teams. The deal is reportedly worth $170 million, including a $60 million relocation fee that would be split by the rest of the owners. League owners must give their approval, which should be a formality at their June 21st meeting.

Winnipeg's new team could reclaim the Jets nickname, though a decision has not been made. The Thrashers name was coined by former owner Ted Turner in reference to the state bird of Georgia, and is not part of the deal. Although he was keen on trying to send ex-wife Jane Fonda out of the country...

CEO Gaga?

If you're a savvy businessperson like me, you like your information and advice coming out of Germany. And grossly incorrect.

The article "Old CEOs Can Learn A Few New Tricks From Lady Gaga", painfully tries to convince us that the singer can "school corporations in strategic innovation", based on the observations of a German business researcher.

Martin Kupp, a professor (hopefully not tenured) at the European School of Management and Technology (Berlin) expects her album "Born This Way" to end up at the top of the music charts and generate strong sales and land atop the music charts, regardless of critical reception. Wow, bold prediction! His obvious premise is based on how consumers relate to her brand, but that's where any semblance of logic ends.

"Lady Gaga blurs the industry boundaries and it's not really clear if she's a musician, artist or fashion designer," said Kupp. Actually, it's absolutely clear - how the hell are you a professor and not be able to differentiate? She's a musician. Just like Britany Spears, Cher, and Jessica Simpson. And like them, she is marketing her brand, because being a popular pop singer is a licensing licence to print money. They're not making their fragrances or clothing - they just have final approval before their name goes on it. Of course that would go over the head of a guy who recently wrote a book on business lessons from artists like Madonna (aka, the original Lady Gaga) and Renaissance painter Titian.

"I think there may be people out there who associate her much more with fashion or with other sorts of entertainment than music," Krupp added. Think whatever you want, asshole, and be wrong while you're at it. Lady Gaga exists as a musician first and foremost, and the rest is just using her Q to bring attention to whatever she puts her weight behind. This is Branding 101, and something that's been going on since the first days of marketing and business.

So why does Kupp and colleagues think she's the new paradigm? They made a recent case study and point to the singer's "social media strategy" as a way for businesses "to learn new methods to shake up an established industry". Wait, using social media to contact your fans? Did she invent this technique? Nope. Can we at least pretend that using the latest technological / communication advertising trend is original? Fine - but only so we can continue this critique, because harnessing new media is as old as any company putting their website address on everything. I mean, as old as companies having websites on the internet. I mean, as old as product placement and brand management in film and television. I mean, as old as cable television advertising for companies. I mean, as old as corporate sponsorship of radio and TV programs. I mean, as old as billboards. I mean, as old as companies using print advertising in newspapers.

So, by using Facebook and Twitter, Lady Gaga has "developed" fans through virtual interaction and not by "pushing traditional marketing principles of promotion, product and price onto consumers", says Kupp. Sorry, that's totaly inaccurate. As a musical artist, all the fan club nonsense with autographed photos and special items goes back to the days of Elvis - and that's still promotion, and via virtual interaction. And the product, be it her albums or concerts or adult diapers is the only reason to reach out to the fan, lest you forget entertainment is a business too. He's also completely wrong about price as a factor - what other reason would demand for her new album disrupt Amazon.com servers if it wasn't a tied into a promotion for their cloud music service offering a special 99 cent price?

"Social media is not a one-way communication and I think Lady Gaga understands that," he adds. "It's more about emotions, engagement and interactivity, so she's very advanced." By the way, take a moment and learn about Advanced Genius Theory...Gaga, she's not advanced at all, and certainly no genius. And she's only the top of the Twit-heap by a less then impressive margin. Her 8,627,513 Twitter followers came over 36 months when she set up her account. For comparison, Justin Beiber racked up 7,942,954 in only 24 months. And Kim Kardashian, Ellen DeGeneres, Katy Perry, and Ashton Kutcher each have roughly 6.5 - 7 million followers too. Kupp needs to understand that Gaga didn't reinvent the wheel, let alone improve it.

He can argue that her use of social media was "to create much more intimacy than what you created with traditional marketing instruments", but that's ridiculous to say in the face of her massive beachhead of promotion for the album. Not only has Lady Gaga recently graces most major magazine covers (from Rolling Stone to Vogue), but she's appeared on every high profile show, from Oprah Winfrey to American Idol to Saturday Night Live, and debuted her own HBO concert special. Beyond the media blitz, non-traditional outlets, she's fucking everywhere:

• Starbucks is selling her album and launching a "digital scavenger hunt" for Gaga-inspired goods.

• Google Chrome had a commercial with Gaga featuring a track from the album.

• Internet clothing outlet Gilt Groupe is partnering to offer Gaga-inspired clothing and purchase of VIP performances.

• Best Buy is giving away the album free to anyone who purchases a mobile phone and signs up for a service contract.

• Zynga, creator of the popular online game FarmVille, has created GagaVille, which allows fans access to exclusive Gaga songs.

Yeah, that feels intimate.

Kupp believes that Lady Gaga's business strategy has been able to breathe life into an industry that has struggled to adapt its business model, but that's the same song and dance we've not only heard before about internet downloads and piracy and the different entertainment media facets, but also read before here again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.  Just picture my head banging against the wall rather than my fingers banging out words on the keyboard every time a moron like Kupp tries to spin that bullshit.

It's insulting to have people who are so clearly unaware of the things they're talking about act in any manner of authority on the subject. God bless Gaga for reinventing Madonna's shtick for a new generation and being successful at it, but comparing the stunts and direction of an entertainer to the methods of titans of business is pure ineptitude. Like Rupert Murdoch, Warren Buffet, Carlos Slim or Bill Gates needs to wear a meat dress or come out of an egg to promote their business. And you're even more sorely mistaken if you can't see the army of choreographers, producers, dancers, stylists, make-up artists, costumers, and designers that got into creating "Lady Gaga - the brand image", let alone the nameless, faceless lawyers, business managers, accountants, marketing execs, advertising personnel and other non-creative types that have to put the Gaga brand in play.

And to think that the days of Germans getting information all backwards and being misled were a thing of the past...

Must Be A Hell Of A Read

Interested in Peter Lawrence's The Making of a Fly?  Published in 1992, it's currently out of print and beneficial to developmental biologists. And if you've got $23,698,655.93, you can pick up a new copy!

A used copy sells for only $35, but brand new, you'll get raped in the pocketbook. It was the work of an algorithmic pricing strategy between two companies, Bordeebook and Profnath.

Michael Eisen, who tracked this price escalation, first noted the Bordeebook was 1.270589 times the price of the copy offered by Profnath. Shortly after another price increase, the Bordeebook copy was 1.270589 times Profnath again. Basically, Profnath set their price to be 0.9983 times Bordeebook's price once a day. The prices would be fairly close for hours, until Bordeebook "noticed" Profnath's change and raised their price to 1.270589 times Profnath's higher price. The pattern continued perfectly for the next week of his observation.

Everybody is worried that Skynet is going to take out the human race, but it could be Amazon and a program that kills it with over the top prices first.

Oil In, Oil Out

According to WikiLeaks, Saudi Arabia is writing oil checks to the world that their sand-capped reserves can't cash.

In cables between a U.S. diplomat and the former head of exploration for Saudi oil, it was unlikely the country would maintain their 12.5 million barrels per day output in order to keep prices stable. They also indicated that Saudi producers are likely to hit their peak oil output as early as 2012. If true, it will be downhill from there for the enormous Saudi oil industry...which would be awesome to see their stranglehold on the world loosen.

As a comfort for our oil-thirst, a new drilling technique is opening up previously out-of-reach oil in the western US. Deposits scattered across North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and California could yield as much as 2 million barrels of oil a day by 2015. That's more than the entire Gulf of Mexico produces currently. This new drilling is expected to raise production by at least 20% over the next five years help reduce oil imports by more than half in a decade. Of course, the process is environmentally questionable.

The method is to drill down and horizontally into the rock, then pump water, sand and chemicals into the hole to crack the shale and allow gas to flow up. Since oil molecules are both sticky and larger than gas molecules, drillers learned how to increase the number of cracks in the rock and use different chemicals to free up oil at low cost.

We may not be out from under the thumb of big oil, but at least it could be our thumb in the future.

Axing The Axe

Over at Activision Blizzard, call it the day that music died.

The company behind "Guitar Hero" is pulling the plug on the title after a five year run as one of the most successful video game titles of the last decade. The decision follows Viacom's decision last November to sell Harmonix, who was behind the "Rock Band" video games. Harmonix was eventually sold to an investment firm, and in an ironic twist, created the first "Guitar Hero" game.

Game industry analysts, which is as cushy a job as it sounds, have long lamented what the call the "weakness in the music genre". After their initial surge of popularity in the mid-2000s, the games lost their profitability as the required guitars and musical equipment had been acquired. Even with extra songs purchased via download and expansion packs, Activision Blizzard did not feel the title was adequately profitable.

The company's shares tumbled after the announcement, which follows an up and down year. Early 2010 numbers were disappointing, but the company finished with a strong fourth quarter, between "Call of Duty: Black Ops" earning $1 billion after just six weeks in stores and high sales for their latest "World of Warcraft" expansion. Their opening 2011 quarter was back down, posting a $233 million loss. The discontinuation of the game will equal about 500 jobs lost from Activision Publishing's business, which has about 7,000 employees.

Oh well...it was a fun game at drunken parties, but no substitute for real instruments.  And this stupid kid is going to have to find a new career...I'm guessing it's one where he asks if you want to super-size it.

Binged!

Is the best way to beat the competition to join them? Enter that question into your search window and check the results!

In May 2010, Google took notice that Microsoft's rival search engine Bing was consistently turning up the same sites when someone would enter unusual misspellings. Search Engine Land - who not only goes into great detail about the result snatching, but also uses an excellent and relevant picture from Real Genius in their post, shows "torsoraphy" as an example. Google corrects it to the correct spelling of "tarsorrhaphy", bringing up the relevant search results for that term. With Bing, the misspelled word gets no correction and still lists the "tarsorrhaphy" results.

By October, Bing had started showing a greater overlap with Google's top results than previous months, including instances where both search engines told listed exactly the same page in the number one spot. Sure, there were lots of searches that did not come up the same, but Google suspected Bing had done something to its search algorithm to make the results to be more like Google's. They figured that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser could be sending back data from Google searches to Bing.

Google crafted a sting to confirm their suspicions, and created a "one-time code" that would allow it to manually rank a page for a certain term. They also made close to 100 "synthetic" searches of the most random, obscure searches that could be entered - searches that returned a tiny number of poor quality matches or none on Google or Bing. Once they integrated the code, Google placed a "honeypot" page to show up at the top of each synthetic search. As Search Engine Land simplifies, "The only reason these pages appeared on Google was because Google forced them to be there. There was nothing that made them naturally relevant for these searches. If they started to appeared at Bing after Google, that would mean that Bing took Google’s bait and copied its results."

Google engineers started on December 17. By December 31, some of the results started appearing on Bing. Microsoft's PR machine countered with the expected "we do not copy Google's results," but it's hard to deny or explain otherwise...