- Google World Takeover, Step 17: Conquer the world of group discount sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial. With Web searches, email, social media and other important Internet frontiers already part of its plan for world domination, Google will now launch Google Offers, a new service that will take on sites offering discounted goods and services through online coupons and certificates. A fact sheet on the new venture lays out the basic concept of the system, which is predicated upon Google Offers subscribers receiving a daily e-mail offer for a buy-in discount. According to sources, businesses will get 80 percent of revenue derived from the coupon in the three days after a deal runs. Google will sent the rest after 60 days once it processes any returns. The Web giant has made no secret of its desire to get into the Internet discount world and even made a $6 billion buyout offer that Groupon summarily rejected. Although Google has not issued an official statement about its own take on the phenomenon, it did say in a statement that, "Google is communicating with small businesses to enlist their support and participation in a test of a pre-paid offers/vouchers program. This initiative is part of an ongoing effort at Google to make new products, such as the recent Offer Ads beta, that connect businesses with customers in new ways. We do not have more details to share at this time, but will keep you posted." Thanks for that promise Google, we all look forward to you taking over another part of our digital world on your way to controlling all of it………
- Odds are this won't help Kobe Bryant’s popularity in the state of Colorado. A lot of fans in the state will forever remember him for the incident in an Eagle, Colo. hotel room for which he was never punished but allegedly sexually assaulted a young woman. No charges were filed but the saga soiled Bryant’s reputation and nowhere more so than Colorado. I’m guessing that Bryant calling Denver Nuggets fans "stupid" for booing Carmelo Anthony over his trade stance won't endear him to Coloradans. Bryant’s remarks came before his Lakers came to town to play the Nuggets and he implied that if Anthony were at all unsure about his desire for a trade, the Nuggets fans' angry treatment just might propel him right out of Denver. "Melo's a good friend of mine and it's the truth," Bryant said after the game. "It's stupid. You don't boo him. It's silly. You boo him the first time, let him know how you feel and get over it." Those comments came Thursday and when he was given a chance to clarify those remarks and perhaps soften his stance on Friday, Bryant had no interest in doing so and actually tossed some more gasoline on the fire. "I said they were idiots for booing," Bryant recalled. When someone corrected him and told him that he had actually characterized Denver fans as "stupid" for booing their own superstar, Bryant shot back, "Stupid and idiots are synonymous." Funny, but I would consider idiot to be harsher and more derogatory than stupid, but Bryant wasn’t sure and didn’t seem to care. "I don't know," he said. "They're close. They're cousins." Well, that definitely will not alleviate the loud booing Bryant regularly hears at Pepsi Center himself. In the end, he got over by scoring 14 of his 18 points in the decisive third quarter as the Lakers won 107-97. Ultimately, it’s understandable why one superstar would take up for another. They are in an elite fraternity and feel like they need to have one another’s back if possible because such a select and small group of people in the world get what their lives are like on a daily basis. Having said that, Colorado is probably a place where Kobe should have kept his opinions quiet……..
- Churches can happen anywhere. In an actual church, in a house, in a high school gym, in a bowling alley (as fringecollective.com has shown you) and apparently, in a former honky-tonk bar. Meet Pastor Adam Knight of University Methodist Church in San Antonio. The church’s newest outreach, "West U," was looking for a place to meet and began thinking about historic Braun Hall, a former gun club and much more since 1893. After carefully weighing their options, church leaders settled on the space and while Knight admits it’s an unusual setting for a place of worship, he likes the atmosphere. "If that means I hope you'll come and see me (and) I'll be under the Coors Light sign, then that's what that means," Knight said. "The building is perfect the way it is. I wouldn't touch it." The church did some minor rearranging on one side of the building, hauling in "a bunch of stuff to make it look like church," Knight said. But on the other side of the building, there remains a bar stocked with beer and wine, and nearby is a neon beer light. Even with the church up and running, the building is still home to a dance hall, a wedding center and a softball league. "It's just home," says Evelyn Carolan, who has worked in the building for two decades. Worshippers still have to be able to look past the ribbons, dance hall lighting and tacky stars that hang from the ceiling, but Knight says so far there have been no complaints and for the first service, West U had approximately 150 people in attendance. Two churches have gone through the same experience at Braun Hall and both have grown enough to outgrow the facility and move into their own space, a trend Knight and his congregation are hoping to continue. "We'll be here as long as we fit, to be honest with you," he explained. “Braun Hall just made sense. It was available. But it was a community center. It was a place where people gather already." A place where they typically gather to listen to gawd-awful country music and dance inane country line dances, but gather they do………
- Do not ever, ever count a superhero out. Especially not when superhero movies and television shows are riding high on a wave of popularity and networks and studios know that fanboys will eagerly tune in for any new superhero project. Despite that trend, every major network passed on a new Wonder Woman pilot from David E. Kelley and it appeared the show was dead before it even got a chance. However, a regime change at NBC has led to a shift in philosophy and with head of programming Angela Bromstad on her way out and . Robert Greenblatt now running the network’s primetime schedule, the Peacock has picked up the show as ant impending Comcast takeover looms. Greenblatt comes armed with plenty of recent success, having revived Showtime with critical favorites like Dexter and Weeds. The primary weight dragging down the Wonder Woman project the first time around was the price of producing the show, not in terms of actual production costs, but in the expensive licensing fees to bring the iconic character back to life. NBC knows the perils of the process all too well, having brought back Bionic Woman without success. Kelly did his homework for his version of Wonder Woman, making sure her signature lasso, cuffs and plane were in the script. Those who have gotten a look at Kelly’s idea describe it as a serious, non-cheesy take on the DC Comics character. Kelly is not the first creative mind to attempt to bring back Wonder Woman, but he may succeed where other big names (including Joss Whedon) have failed. From the looks of Kelly’s latest series to hit the air, Harry’s Law, a drama for NBC starring Kathy Bates, he should probably hope that Wonder Woman makes it because let’s just say a legal drama with a past-her-prime, out-of-shape actress who hasn’t been relevant in quite a few years isn’t likely to enjoy a long run on the air………
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! How pumped should we all be about the freaking awesome rioters in Algeria who openly defied a ban and took to the streets of the capital demanding political reform on Saturday? So proud! Big ups to Algeria's largest opposition party, Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), for summoning the participants in this inspiring uprising to demand the release of detainees, the lifting of a state of emergency that has been in place for almost two decades and the restoration of individual and collective freedoms. On their own, any of those aims would be worth rioting over. Put together…….lob a Molotov cocktail, overturn and burn a police car and brawl with riot troops using whatever weapon you can find or make on short notice. The riot took on added significance because the RCD asked to stage a legal protest and were denied. At that point, their punk card had been pulled and they had no choice but to respond. "We asked to do a march, in a legal way, but they told us: 'You are the opposition and you don't have any rights in your country,'" said Said Saadi, head of the RCD. He boldly proclaimed that the government wants Algerians to "kneel in front of them. But, we don't kneel." Well said, Said, well said. I cannot begin to eloquate how fired up I was to see rioters clash with Algerian security forces, to hear the government whine about how the demonstration was "unauthorized" and to have its security forces prevent journalists from photographing the demonstration or interviewing organizers. In the aftermath of the riot, the official Algerie Press Service reported that seven policemen were injured, two seriously, but it did not report whether any demonstrators were hurt or arrested. Today’s riot was merely the latest in a line of angry demonstrations that began in early January after weeks of similar demonstrations in neighboring Tunisia that eventually ended 23 years of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's rule. Algeria’s unrest was sparked mostly by spiraling food costs, with the opposition blaming the government of failing to use the nation's energy wealth to better the lives of ordinary people. The comedy in all of this stems from a law adopted in 2001 indefinitely bans all demonstrations in Algiers and a nationwide state of emergency in effect for nearly two decades which allows the government to ban any event that is "likely to disturb public order and tranquility." Right, because people are going to meekly honor those two measures and not take it to the streets when the need arises. Riot on, angry Algerians, riot on……….
No comments:
Post a Comment