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30 May 2010 14:35

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Biz: Time’s Newsfeed: A boring, obvious attempt at a news blog

  • Hey, it’s like we’re looking at us. Except not as good. Time’s new Newsfeed blog has a similar news+short approach to us, except with one major difference. (OK, two; it has a budget.) It’s super-cluttered. The headlines are too bold. There are too many images. The bar on the left gets in the way. And it doesn’t do anything interesting with the idea. There are other sites that do way more interesting things with this idea. The Atlantic Wire, for example. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 May 2010 12:19

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Biz, U.S.: BP’s stock is in free-fall right now; we wonder why

  • 25% decline in BP’s stock since the oil saga began source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

30 May 2010 11:11

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Biz: Salt really unhealthy, but it makes so many foods taste so good!

  • Salt really changes the way that your tongue will taste the product. You make one little change and something that was a complementary flavor now starts to stand out and become objectionable.
  • Kellogg vice president and food scientist John Kepplinger • On why he sees salt as a key ingredient for processed food. The New York Times wrote this massive, impressive exposé on the fight to limit salt in processed food. As part of it, Kepplinger prepared a bunch of foods without the salt, and among other things, Cheez-Its, which are loaded with salt normally, tasted absolutely awful. Processed foods and restaurant meals now account for 80 percent of all the salt that people eat nowadays, something some politicians are trying to limit. They say it could save as many as 150,000 lives per year. As well as make crackers taste like cardboard. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

29 May 2010 13:19

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Biz: No May flowers here: For stocks, it was the worst May since 1940

  • 7.9% dip in Dow’s value in the merry month of May source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 May 2010 19:31

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Biz: Indulgent burger joints like Five Guys apparently recession-proof

  • Five guys: The presidential sealBoth Barack and Michele Obama have been seen noshing on burgers from Five Guys, the 600-strong national chain that prides itself in really good burgers and fries. Too good in fact, some might argue.
     

    Part of a larger trendEven though Fuddruckers is in the midst of a bankruptcy and the economy in general is tanking, Five Guys is reflecting a trend towards bigger, better burgers. In fact, it’s one of the only growing segments of the restaurant industry. Maybe McDonald’s should consider bringing back the Arch Deluxe. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

28 May 2010 10:57

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Biz: Did consumer spending go up in April, guys?

  • NO but it didn’t go down, either;
    it stayed flat source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2010 21:08

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Biz, Tech: Protip: Electric car companies not good for your finances

  • good Elon Musk, the guy who founded Paypal and runs Tesla Motors has a career so storied that the movie “Iron Man 2” is reportedly based on him. He’s kinda like Tony Stark in real life, kids.
  • bad Musk, however, has burned through all of his money trying to get Tesla Motors off the ground (along with a divorce), and he had a lot of it to burn through – over $100 million. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

27 May 2010 20:47

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Biz: Ford kills Mercury, has eyes on Zeus himself next

  • 528k number of Mercury models the automaker sold in 1985
  • 92k number of Mercury models they sold just last year
  • 0k number of Mercury models they plan to sell after 2010 source
  • Why kill them? Simply put, Ford is trying to ditch most of their sub-brands to focus on the flagship. Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo have all met similar fates. Mercury has more history than any of those brands, though – at 71, it’s eligible for social security.
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

27 May 2010 11:05

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Biz: China doesn’t do anything, and all of a sudden, stocks are happy

  • What went down: The Financial Times reported that China was thinking about ditching their European debt, which would be a huge blow for Europe’s economy. However, China denied these rumors, and reassured investors. Essentially, they stayed the course and singlehandedly turned stocks around. Not bad for doing nothing.
  • 1.7% the increase in the Dow Jones Industrial this morning
  • 2% the leap in
    the broader S&P 500
    after the news
  • 2.3% the leap in the tech-heavy Nasdaq 500 on the news source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

26 May 2010 10:37

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Biz: Domino’s Pizza improves their pizza, then their quarterly sales

  • +14.3% the increase in Domino’s
    quarterly sales after starting a
    campaign to improve
    its pizza from the bottom up
    with better ingredients
  • -3% the decline of the pizza-delivery industry in general, due to the recession; this article uses the phrase “vastly improved frozen-pizza technologies” source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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