Demand for colorful clogs tanks
Rocky Mountain News Nov 13, 08 3:02 AM CST
(Newser)
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Crocs, the maker of hugely popular colorful plastic clogs, suffered a $148 million third quarter loss on a 32% drop in demand in Europe and the US. The Colorado-based company has shuttered a factory in Canada, will close another in Brazil next month, and has amassed extensive unsold inventory, reports the Rocky Mountain News .
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$10M in public-health grants eschew peer review for innovation
Washington Post Oct 23, 08 2:13 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The Gates Foundation has awarded more than $10 million to medical researchers with quirky ideas that might not be funded otherwise, the Washington Post reports. The initiative, dubbed Grand Challenges Explorations, offered a simple 2-page application and vetting by entrepreneurs, not medical professionals. “Peer review—by definition almost—excludes innovation because innovation has no peers,” the Foundation’s global health director said.
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Buffett bumps Gates
in redrawn rankings
of world's wealthiest
Bloomberg Oct 10, 08 12:15 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The mortgage meltdown has certainly hit middle-class Americans hard but hasn't spared the uber-wealthy, Bloomberg reports. Las Vegas Sands CEO Sheldon Adelson’s net worth shed $4 billion between Aug. 29 and Oct. 1, for instance, while Warren Buffett overtook Bill Gates, whose net worth declined $1.5 billion, as the richest American. Other losers and their losses:
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ANALYSIS
Microsoft's $300M ad campaign fights 'snooty' Apple
Slate Oct 1, 08 4:29 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Apple's ads have long painted Microsoft users as square, but the PC has effectively stood up to the cool kids in the company's $300 million campaign, writes Farhad Manhoo in Slate. "Even if they are a little saccharine, the core message of Microsoft's ads—that Apple is snooty—should resonate," he writes. "That's because Apple is snooty." If you don't choose a Mac, Apple's self-affirming line goes, you're part of the lazy masses who don't stand up to the "IBM-Microsoft regime."
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Or, $2,300 for each of America's 300M average Joes
Slate Sep 24, 08 2:22 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson have been urging Congress the past two days to authorize the largest bailout in US history. Slate breaks $700 billion into smaller bites: $2,300 per person (based on the US population of 300 million) 12 Bill Gateses 381 Hollywood blockbusters ( Titanic made $1.8 billion)
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OPINION
Cryptic ads left some 'scratching their heads'
Los Angeles Times Sep 18, 08 9:56 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Microsoft has axed the cryptic Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates ads that left some viewers "scratching their heads," Michelle Quinn writes in the Los Angeles Times . Though a Microsoft spokesman claims it was the plan all along to stop here, the blogosphere is abuzz about Microsoft's "strained effort" to seem "cool and in touch with regular customers" in response to Apple's Mac vs. PC ads.
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Leads Forbes ranking for 15th year
Forbes Sep 18, 08 2:07 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates leads the latest Forbes list of America's richest people with a fortune estimated to be $57 billion. It's the 15th year in a row that the visionary behind the computer revolution has topped the ratings. But the rich are not getting richer, Forbes reveals. Several fortunes have dwindled significantly. But don't squirt too many tears for the rest of these top-ten richies:
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Some find Seinfeld/ Gates routine unfunny; others, 'hilarious'
InformationWeek Sep 5, 08 7:20 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A new Microsoft ad is sparking praise and putdowns in roughly equal measure around the Web today. Paul McDougall calls the spot "outdated and not very funny" in InformationWeek , but says it's revealing — of a tech company totally out of touch with Generation Y. The choice of “has-been” Jerry Seinfeld proves that Microsoft is “dominated by middle-aged white guys who made their own millions more than a decade ago."
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OPINION
Better education can't be legislated, or bought—parents have to make the effort
Good Magazine Aug 21, 08 4:29 PM CDT
(Newser)
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As dissatisfaction with the nation’s No Child Left Behind policy grows, it seems educators, politicians, and businessmen all have their own take on how to “save” the US public school system—with little consensus. Gary Stager, in Good , examines the overwhelmingly complex difficulties facing the nation’s ailing schools, and why responsibility—and a solution—lies with parents, not polemicists.
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Comedian to front $300M campaign to counter stodgy image
Wall Street Journal Aug 21, 08 7:29 AM CDT
(Newser)
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So what's the deal with Microsoft ads? The company has enlisted Jerry Seinfeld to spearhead a new $300-million campaign, the Wall Street Journa l reports, to try to shake the negative buzz about Vista, and the nerdy, feckless image projected by John Hodgeman in Apple's popular "Mac vs PC" ads. The campaign, to start next month, will net the funnyman $10 million.
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He ruminates on how to tweak market forces to help more people
Time Jul 31, 08 6:04 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Bill Gates tweaks his corporate colleagues with an essay in Time urging businesses to look harder for ways to extend the benefits of capitalism to a greater portion of the global population. As a philanthropist, he says, he recognizes the need for nonprofit work, but as a businessman, he knows that only corporations have the resources to improve people’s lives on a grand scale—they just need incentives.
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Billionaires donate $375M to global anti-tobacco campaign
Associated Press Jul 23, 08 1:20 PM CDT
(AP)
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Microsoft founder Bill Gates and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are pooling their piles of money and pouring $375 million into a global effort to cut smoking. The two philanthropists—who have a combined worth of more than $70 billion—say the new effort will target developing countries where tobacco use is highest.
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