Ralph Lauren To Quit As Fashion Label's Boss

Ralph Lauren has announced he is stepping down as head of the iconic fashion brand he founded nearly half a century ago.

Stefan Larsson, the president of Gap's thriving low-price chain Old Navy, is taking over as CEO.

The 75-year-old will still have a major role at the firm however, staying on as chairman and head of design.

"I am here, and I am not leaving," said Lauren.

"Stefan is coming to the company because I really believe he's going to be an interesting addition."

Kanye West and Lil Wayne have both mentioned the firm in their lyrics

"He understands what dreams are," Lauren added.

After years of growth, shares in the company have dipped by 44% this year because of weakening sales.

Larsson is a retail veteran, having previously been Nike's general manager of global apparel and will take over in November with the aim of reinvigorating the firm.

The pair say they are looking to grow sales in places such as China and also improve internet sales.

The Ralph Lauren brand began in 1967, first selling ties before expanding into men's and women's wear.

The brand even designed the kit for the US winter Olympic team last year

The firm's iconic shirt - featuring an emblem of a polo player - was first released in 1972.

Lauren's success personifies the American Dream.

The fashion stalwart was born Ralph Lifshitz in the Bronx in 1939 to Jewish immigrant parents from Belarus.

He changed his name to Lauren at 16.

His empire eventually grew to include accessories, fragrance, home decor, footwear and even restaurants.

The company currently has 467 stores and 558 concession shops.

Revenue jumps at Rocket Internet's top start-ups

Sales growth accelerated at the top online start-ups owned by German ecommerce investor Rocket Internet during the first six months of 2015 and it said some will break even in two years.

Rocket Internet, Europe's largest Internet company, is viewed as a launch pad for future stock market listings from online fashion to food delivery firms although several mooted initial public offerings have been put on ice recently.

The company said its top 12 start-ups, or its "proven winners", saw average weighted net revenues jump 142 percent to 1.37 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in the first half, accelerating from growth of 82 percent in 2014 as a whole.

Rocket Internet's volatile shares, which have slumped 49 percent this year after it tapped investors to plough cash into online takeaway food and grocery delivery, surged more than 16 percent to 28.23 euros, though that's well below the 42.50 euro offer price for last October's initial public offering (IPO).

The biggest revenue increases came at online general merchandise sites such as Jumia in Africa and Lazada in southeast Asia, followed by fashion sites such as Namshi in India.

The "proven winners", five online fashion firms, three general merchandise sites, two food delivery firms and two home furnishing sites, saw average operating margins rise 6 percentage points, though all continued to make hefty losses.

"A certain number of proven winners will break even in two years," founder and Chief Executive Oliver Samwer told a capital markets day presentation webcast from London.

The Berlin-based group founded in 2007 said its portfolio value had increased 3.4 billion euros ($3.8 billion) since its listing in Frankfurt last October to 6 billion, in part due to a financing round that lifted the value of online ingredients delivery firm HelloFresh.

"MARKET LEADERSHIP"

Founded by brothers Oliver, Alexander and Marc Samwer, Rocket has set up dozens of ecommerce and online marketplaces, aiming to replicate the success of Amazon and Alibaba in new markets in Africa, Latin America and Russia.

Rocket said it was on track to meet its target of starting 10 new companies this year, with nine already launched.

Analysts expect most Rocket start-ups to make losses for years and Rocket's presentation for the capital markets day said it was aiming for "long-term market leadership and mid-term profitability".

First-half revenues for the Global Fashion Group, which incorporates five online fashion firms in emerging markets, rose 63 percent to 418.2 million euros, while the operating margin improved slightly to a negative 36.1 percent from 37.4 percent.

Furniture websites Home24 and Westwing, both seen as eventual IPO candidates, saw revenue rise 98 percent to 117.6 million euros and 48 percent to 108.8 million euros respectively. Operating margins deteriorated to negative 31.7 percent for both firms.

First-half revenues for Rocket Internet itself rose 5 percent to 71.3 million euros but it slipped to a loss of 45.9 million from a profit of 91.9 million a year ago due to a reduction in consolidation gains from companies it no longer owns stakes in.

($1 = 0.8907 euros)

(Editing by David Clarke)

Entertainment One Acquires 70% Stake In ‘Peppa Pig’ Producer Astley Baker Davies

Entertainment One today announced it has acquired a 70% stake in Peppa Pig producer Astley Baker Davies worth $212 million. The two companies already co-owned the animated cash cow- or is that pig- beloved of children around the world and the adventures of Peppa and her family. eOne said Wednesday it had issued $293 million in shares to finance the deal, which values Astley Baker Davies at 11.6 times its current Ebidta (earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation).

“eOne has entered into an agreement with Peppa Pig co-owners Astley Baker Davies to purchase a controlling stake in the global brand,” said eOne in a statement. “As part of the deal, creators, directors and producers Mark Baker, Neville Astley and Phil Davies are producing an additional 52 magical episodes of Peppa Pig.”

Shares in eOne fell 8.75% Wednesday morning on news of the deal, possibly reflecting the market’s response that the deal overvalued Astley Baker Davies and also, by virtue of specifying the number of remaining episodes to be produced, that an end to new Peppa Pig episodes was in sight. By way of comparison, eOne paid an Ebitda multiple of less than nine when it acquired the Mark Gordon Company in January.

Astley Baker Davies was founded by Mark Baker, Phil Davies, Neville Astley, who created the Peppa Pig character in the late 1990s. Prior to today’s deal, the trio had been the sole shareholders. Royalties from sales and merchandise will now be split 85-15 in favour of eOne. It had previously been 50-50 between the three men and their corporate partner.

The two have worked together since 2007, when eOne began distributing the show globally and retaining a co-ownership stake. Over 200 episodes of Peppa Pig have been produced with the show aired in over 180 territories, including Nickolodeon JR in the U.S. eOne president and chief exec Darren Throop believes that further growth of the brand internationally is not only possible but, “the growth opportunities for Peppa are significant.”

Volkswagen staff acted criminally, says board member

Olaf Lies, a Volkswagen board member and economy minister of Lower Saxony has told Newsnight some staff acted criminally over emission cheat tests.

He said the people who allowed the deception to happen or who installed the software that allowed certain models to give false emissions readings must take personal responsibility.

He also said the board only found out about the problems at the last meeting.

About 11 million diesel engine cars are affected by the problem.

Mr Lies told the BBC: "Those people who allowed this to happen, or who made the decision to install this software - they acted criminally. They must take personal responsibility."

He said: "We only found out about the problems in the last board meeting, shortly before the media did. I want to be quite open. So we need to find out why the board wasn't informed earlier about the problems when they were known about over a year ago in the United States."

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Technology is not ruining our kids. Parents (and their technology) are ruining them

Many of us worry what technology is doing to our kids. A cascade of reports show that their addiction to iAnything is diminishing empathy, increasing bullying (pdf), robbing them of time to play, and just be. So we parents set timers, lock away devices and drone on about the importance of actual real-live human interaction. And then we check our phones.

Sherry Turkle, a professor in the program in Science, Technology and Society at M.I.T. and the author, most recently, of Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, turned the tables by imploring parents to take control and model better behavior.

A 15-year-old boy told her that: “someday he wanted to raise a family, not the way his parents are raising him (with phones out during meals and in the park and during his school sports events) but the way his parents think they are raising him — with no phones at meals and plentiful family conversation.”

Turkle explains the cost of too-much technology in stark terms: Our children can’t engage in conversation, or experience solitude, making it very hard for them to be empathetic. “In one experiment, many student subjects opted to give themselves mild electric shocks rather than sit alone with their thoughts,” she noted.

Unfortunately, it seems we parents are the solution. (Newsflash, kids aren’t going to give up their devices because they are worried about how it may influence their future ability to empathize.)

That means exercising some self-control. Many of us aren’t exactly paragons of virtue in this arena. Maybe that’s because we adopted technology later in life and have been furiously adding functionalities—email! a camera! 100 apps!—rather than restraining them. We don’t have the muscles, or at least the habits, of constraint.

Yet we expect, or at least hope, that our kids will somehow magically gravitate toward self-control. (Oh wait, we need to parent them?)

It’s not impossible. Steve Jobs was reportedly a low-tech parent (his family talked about history at the dinner table). The New York Times wrote about how many tech executives in Silicon Valley send their kids to the Waldorf school where screens are banned. Chris Anderson, the former editor of Wired and now chief executive of 3D Robotics, a drone maker, told the paper that he and his wife instituted time limits and parental controls on every device in his home.

“My kids accuse me and my wife of being fascists and overly concerned about tech, and they say that none of their friends have the same rules,” he said of his five children, ages 6 to 17. “That’s because we have seen the dangers of technology firsthand. I’ve seen it in myself, I don’t want to see that happen to my kids.”

Turkle suggested that we do what Anderson did: own up to our weaknesses and exercise some initiative. “We have to commit ourselves to designing our products and our lives to take that vulnerability into account,” she wrote.

Behavioral economists would suggest we employ commitment devices, ways to force ourselves to the do the things we know we will not do like automatic 401k contributions, or publicly tracking caloric intake.

Leave your phone behind—you can’t use it if you don’t have it. Create tech-free zones, even if it is just 10 square feet in the house (we have to start somewhere, right?). No phones at dinner seems obvious but how many people actually obey it? Devise a tech lock box, where everyone—parents included—leave their devices in an attempt to have a conversation? Give the youngest the key. And if all else fails, rest assured that the kids might be okay. Turkle told Quartz that she is more hopeful for the next generation because of the example we are setting for them. “They know what it felt like to have parents who had no time for them and turned instead to their phones,” she said (in an email, which she acknowledged was ironic). “That sense of cost and loss, more than any notion of ‘discipline’ is what I think is going to get us to another place.”

- qz.com -

Rihanna Covers The FADER's 100th Issue

The singer took a self-portrait for the cover.


Rihanna is the second artist announced to cover The FADER's 100 issue.

The cover image is of the singer taking a self-portrait. The photo shoot was directed by Renata Raksha in Los Angeles. The images "capture Rihanna in ways that showcase the superstar as she sees herself," the press release states.

"All photos of Rihanna, at this point in her career, have layers of artifice," Naomi Zeichner, editor-in-chief of The FADER says. "We wanted to see what would happen if we were able to pull some of that away."

Drake is the other cover artist for the magazine's celebration.

"The FADER's 100th issue reckons with the changes in music and media since The FADER's launch," Zeichner continues. "Today there are fewer music magazines than ever, which makes The FADER’s job bigger, and means we are more responsible than ever for contextualizing the work of major artists like Drake and Rihanna. At the same time, there are more ways and more places for artists to tell their own stories than ever before, and this is one example of that. These photos, like the entirety of this issue, reflect on the changing relationship between artists and media."

View Rihanna's cover and photos below:

 

 

DMX Released From Jail; Video Released

UPDATE: DMX was arrested in July for issues stemming from child support. Video of his release has been posted.


Video of DMX soon after his release from jail Friday (September 25) has been released by TMZ.

The Yonkers, New York rapper wears a T-shirt featuring the Ruff Ryders logo as he says hello to and hugs several people who were waiting for him.
Watch the video here

Make Music That Gives “Young Women A Sense Of Their Value" Presidential Candidate Ben Carson To Kanye West

“I was extremely impressed with his business acumen,” Ben Carson says of Kanye West.


Kanye West announced last month his plan to run for president of the United States of America in 2020. One 2016 candidate says that he’s spoken with the Chicago rapper-producer.

“I was extremely impressed with his business acumen,” Republican candidate Ben Carson says of West during an interview with Martha Raddatz on ABC. "He knows a lot about business.”

Carson also says that he talked to West about "doing some music that might be uplifting, that might give young women a sense of their value and young men a sense of responsibility,” Carson adds. "I think it could be a tremendous thing in our society.”

As for West’s presidential aspirations, Carson says he is open to West’s candidacy.

"I’m certainly willing to give him a chance,” Carson says. "We’ll see. He’ll be able to explain things and [we’ll] see if he resonates with the people.”

West is slated to attend and perform at a Democratic National Committee event in San Francisco on October 10.

Ma$e Receives Federal Tax Lien

The rapper is accused of failing to pay more than $10,000 in taxes.


Ma$e was given a federal tax lien on September 3, The Jasmine Brand reports.

The rapper is being accused of failing to pay $12,036.51 worth of taxes in 201o. The IRS filed the case in Georgia. It is threatening to seize his property if he does not pay the debt.

Ma$e lost a lawsuit over the art for his "Why Can't We" single in December and must pay $7,500 to the model who appears on the cover.

He also filed for divorce from his wife in April of 2014 and, in the agreement that stemmed from the case, he must pay her $6,000 per month.

MOVIE: War Against Men (Trailer)

Three young military boys basking in the euphoria of the power of their uniform, decide to take advantage of young unsuspecting female undergraduates and the like. Their rumpus escapades soon lead to unwanted pregnancies and brutal murders. The authorities are too slow to either react or even take any actions as the boys are seen as untouchables with one of them having a general for a father. 

In any case, no one can even believe the girls as the guys are also professionals in covering up evidences. Left with no other choice than to seek revenge on their own, the surviving girls find an ally in a former female Major who also just lost her only daughter to the antics of the young officers. The girls are quickly taken through a crash course on military drills and weapon handling.... 

The result? A bloody battle of unimaginable proportion. The ultimate sacrifice is made but whether the girls' efforts were enough to stop the ruthless boys from further atrocities can only be unravel in the movie... Full of suspense, drama and high stake intrigues

VIDEO: Tipsy – O Wunmi

Hip-hop diva Tipsy releases the music video for her TeeBeeO produced single “O Wunmi”.

Tipsy switches from her usual fierce rap delivery as she flirts with afro-pop and delivers. The clip is directed by Avalon Okpe.

VIDEO: Joe EL – Chukwudi ft. Iyanya

 

Kennis Music Number One, Joe EL hits it harder with the beautiful visuals to his hit single Chukwudi featuring Iyanya. Chukwudi which is One of the songs off the Timeless Album which was released some months back. The video was directed by Clarence Peters.

 DOWNLOAD VIDEO

A-Q – King Slayer [Prod. By Beats By Jayy]

The Son Of John, A-Q comes back with a thrilling hip hop piece titled “King Slayer”.

The Beatsbyjayy produced tune is quite nice as A-Q goes all hard.

DOWNLOAD AUDIO

Mr Raw – Igbakalam Isi ft. Gyc

Mr. Raw is back with a love tune titled “Igbakalam Isi” featuring Esteem Entertainment star boy “GyC”. The Raw Deal Entertainment boss delivers his trademark flows on this one and with GyC on the hook, they produce what is arguably the best love song of this era.

Download, Share & Enjoy

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StoneBwoy – Gbedegbede [Prod. By BeatzDakay]

Gearing up towards the release of the remix of “No Sir” featuring Burna Boy, Ghana’s acclaimed dancehall King, StoneBwoy dishes out a new record titled “Gbedegbede”.

DOWNLOAD AUDIO

VIDEO: Cynthia Morgan – Simatiniya

Northside INC ragga/dancehall diva Cynthia Morgan presents the music video for “Simatiniya”.

The visual for the romantic track is an emotional love story which see Burna Boy play Morgan’s love interest.

Papelbon grabs Harper by throat, fight breaks out in Nats' dugout

WASHINGTON -- NL MVP front-runner Bryce Harper and teammate Jonathan Papelbon got into a fight during a game Sunday, when a Washington Nationals season that long ago spiraled out of control on the field did so in the dugout.

After a flyout in the eighth inning of what became a 12-5 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, Harper headed to the dugout, where he and Papelbon, the team's closer, exchanged words. The argument escalated, and Papelbon reached out with his left hand and grabbed Harper by the throat.

Papelbon then shoved the outfielder toward the bench with both hands, before teammates pulled the pair apart.

"I mean, he apologized, so, whatever," Harper said with a shrug afterward in the clubhouse, messy smears of eyeblack on his cheeks. "I really don't care."

Asked whether he had tangled with a teammate before, Harper responded: "Usually fighting the other team."

Papelbon said: "I'm in the wrong there. ... For me, I can't allow that to happen in the middle of a game. You can handle that after the games or allow the manager to handle that. So in that light of it, I'm wrong."

Nationals manager Matt Williams, whose highly touted team was officially eliminated from playoff contention Saturday, delivered terse answers during a briefer-than-usual postgame news conference.

"Certainly there's a lot of testosterone flowing among young men competing. What I can tell you is this: This is a family issue and we'll deal with it that way," Williams said. "There was an altercation in the dugout, and we'll leave it at that."

He said there hadn't been any discussion yet about whether the team might suspend Papelbon, who was acquired from the Phillies in a trade in late July in hopes of a possible postseason push.

On Wednesday, Papelbon plunked Baltimore star Manny Machado and was ejected from that game; afterward Harper called the hit-by-pitch "tired" and worried aloud about whether the Orioles would retaliate by beaning him. Papelbon was suspended for three games by Major League Baseball for hitting Machado but appealed, allowing him to continue playing.


On Sunday, Harper was replaced in right field for the ninth. He went 0 for 4 for the Nationals, who began the season as World Series favorites. Already out of the chase for a wild-card berth, their playoff hopes ended completely Saturday when the New York Mets mathematically clinched the NL East title.

Harper entered Sunday leading the league in batting average (.339), homers (41), slugging percentage (.663) and on-base percentage (.470).

Papelbon (4-3), who entered in the eighth, went back to the mound for the ninth in what was a 4-all game. He allowed five runs, including Andres Blanco's go-ahead, two-run homer.

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Danny Pintauro reveals he got HIV while on crystal meth

In 2003, Danny Pintauro realized he had a problem. Unlike countless other child stars who crash and burn before they can legally drink, the 27-year-old man who once played the tow-headed child sprite Jonathan on “Who’s the Boss?” was not dead or in jail. But after graduating Stanford University and heading to New York, he was a bit adrift.

“So as soon as I got to New York all that stopped and I suddenly went, ‘Who am I?'” he said in 2004. “I had no idea. I was so focused through school and college that I never tried to figure out the difference between Danny Pintauro and Dan Pintauro. We’re very separate people.”

Work wasn’t necessarily the problem — Pintauro has been performing on-and-off since he finished college, even if only in modest productions of “Shear Madness.” Perhaps surprisingly, his sexuality wasn’t an issue either. Pintauro came out “before everybody,” he said, way back in 1997 after a tabloid threatened to do the job for him — and TV mom Judith Light advised him to come clean.

But, after the end of a two-year relationship, he felt he should see what else was out there. This is what led the young man, whose character used to confide in Light and Tony Danza on national television, to crystal meth — and, as Pintauro told Oprah Winfrey in a dramatic interview aired over the weekend, an HIV diagnosis.

“I’m HIV positive,” a tearful Pintauro told Winfrey. “And I have been for 12 years.”

Pintauro told Winfrey he was diagnosed in March of 2003.

“I went in for a regular checkup,” he said. “You know, as a responsible gay man, you’re getting an HIV test done every six months … And you sort of waited two weeks on pins and needles, or at least I did, because I was just terrified of the idea of getting HIV.”

The diagnosis was, he told Winfrey, even a bit of a relief.

“It’s backwards,” Pintauro said. “You’ve spent so much time terrified that you’re going to get it, and then you have it. You don’t have to be terrified anymore.”

Winfrey asked for more details.

“There was more that I wanted to explore sexually,” Pintauro told Winfrey. “Crystal meth takes away your inhibitions. You have no limits. And if you want to explore that adventurous side, taking the drug is going to put you there.”

“Does it make you more sexual?” Winfrey asked.

“Heightened,” Pintauro said. “Very, very heightened.”

His readiness to experiment led to a drug-fueled sexual encounter, Pintauro said, with a man whose name he did not know.

“I truly thought I was being safe, and obviously, I wasn’t,” Pintauro said.

“Just paint a picture for me,” Winfrey said. “You’re doing crystal meth … swinging from the chandeliers, having sex for days?”

“Something like that, yeah,” Pintauro said.



But after his diagnosis, Pintauro said he got more responsible. There was always the fear — “Who’s gonna wanna love me?,” Pintauro wondered — but he said he told the man who became his husband about his HIV status before they even kissed.

“What I vowed at time was that I wasn’t going to be the guy who gave it me,” he said. “And I never became that guy.”

Pintauro said he is now looking forward to life as an HIV activist.

“I missed the opportunity to be a beacon of light for gay kids who were going through what I was going through,” Pintauro said.

“I feel like one of the ways the community is going to listen is for me to be pretty harsh,” he told People in a separate interview about his HIV status and past drug use. “It’s not going to be, ‘Hey guys, let’s work on fixing this.’ It’s going to be, ‘Get your f—ing s— together,’ pardon my language.”

Indeed, even before his was HIV-positive, Pintauro had expressed frustration with closeted Hollywood stars.

“What really pisses me off these days is the number of actors who are gay — who are living that lifestyle — but who are not out in their public lives,” he said in 1999. “My point is that somewhere out there is a 13- or 14-year-old kid who knows that he’s gay and who is having a very hard time with it. And he or she sees this actor or actress on television and just knows in their hearts that they are also gay, but see them totally living the lie. That really bothers me.”

In that 1999 interview, Pintauro also responded to the oft-discussed schoolyard speculation that he and/or Jonathan, the character he played on “Who’s the Boss?,” was gay.



“I can’t tell you how many people have said that to me,” he said. “But at the time, I really wasn’t at all aware of it. Now, when I look at old episodes of ‘Who’s the Boss?’ I say, ‘God, you are such a little f—got.’”

But more than two decades after the show went off the air, Pintauro seemed ready to help make change.

“Last meal as a nobody,” Pintauro wrote below a picture with his husband on Instagram posted over the weekend. “First meal as an activist.”

- washingtonpost.com -

Blood & Oil Series Premiere: Gossip Girl's Nate Archibald Is Back as Billy the Oil Tycoon!

Ever wonder what happened to Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford) after he left Gossip Girl? Turns out he morphed into Billy, Blood & Oil's resident entrepreneur whose life takes a turn for the greasy when he moves to North Dakota and gets caught up in the high-rolling world of oil tycoons.

ABC's new show has all the makings of addictive TV, and we're getting you caught up on Sunday's premiere episode. Spoiler alert: There will be blood. And also oil, to be honest.

PHOTOS: Gossip Girl's best looks

Meet the Cutest Couple on TV

Get ready to swoon! High school sweethearts Billy and Cody (Rebecca Rittenhouse) are TV's cutest new couple. These lovebirds moved to North Dakota to start a laundromat business, but their lives got majorly soapy when they wrecked their car and ended up in a small town full of gun-slinging cowboys. With tons of debt and nowhere to live, Billy did what anyone would do: became a casual oil tycoon.

Baby on Board!

It only took about five seconds for Cody to discover that she was pregnant, which made things slightly complicated in her marriage. Understandably, this mom-to-be wanted to book it back home, but she stood by her man and even forked over a family heirloom so he could put down collateral on a land investment. Let's just say it was a good call.

PHOTOS: Gossip Girl's best style moments ever


The cast of ABC's Blood & Oil
Credit: Craig Sjodin/ABC via Getty Images

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Fact: Rock Springs is ruled by a millionaire oil tycoon named Hap Briggs (Don Johnson) and his wife, Darla (Amber Valletta), and their latest scheme is to tap Four Bears Reservation for oil. The problem with said scheme? The reservation's oil needed to be accessed through an adjacent plot of land, which Billy bought out from under them thanks to a few well-timed loans. Thanks to Billy's genius investment, he was able to lease the land to Hap for a cool $1,000,000, which means he and Cody are officially Uncle Scrooge-level rich. There's just one issue: Hap's deadbeat son, Wick (Scott Michael Foster).

Ugh, #WickProblems

Thanks to Wick's major daddy issues, he decided to siphon oil from Hap. Not exactly a great plan considering that Hap, Darla, Cody, and Billy showed up on the night of said oil siphoning. In the final moments of the premiere, Wick held his dad at gunpoint, was attacked by Billy, and then –– after some hilarious oil puddle wrestling –– the entire place erupted in flames.

PHOTOS: Gossip Girl's biggest OMG moments

You'll have to wait until next week to find out who made it out alive, but it's times like this that we ask ourselves WWBWD? (What Would Blair Waldorf Do?).

Blood & Oil airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Tell Us: Will you keep tuning into Blood & Oil?

- usmagazine.com -

CSI series finale react: Into the sunset

I’m not sure what I expected from “Immortality,” the two-hour reunion-finale that ended CSI’s 15-year run on Sept. 27. Returning cast members? Sure, and there were plenty: Original series stars William Petersen and Marg Helgenberger returned, relegating final-phase stars Ted Danson and Elisabeth Shue to a few scenes (for him) and a throwaway reference to an offscreen death (for her). There was also Lady Heather, sort of the Irene Adler to Grissom’s Sherlock.

And there was that mysterious redheaded young investigator, proudly declaring that this was her first day on the job. “Where did that girl come from anyway?” asked Grissom. Willows, after a long pause: “My vagina!” Yes, that was Catherine Willows’ daughter, a second generation CSI. The fact that this was Willows Jr’s first day on the job — and the fact that she immediately referenced “giving blood” and “chocolate covered grasshopper” — were callbacks to CSI’s very first episode, which introduced rookie CSI Holly Gribbs, an everyman audience-surrogate variously confused and freaked out by Grissom’s after-hours nerd squad.

Of course, the big weird dark joke in the CSI pilot was that Gribbs didn’t last very long: Shot to pieces by the end of episode 1, dead halfway through episode 2. A decade and a half later, CSI was in no mood for anything so bold. A bomb goes off in a casino, which immediately makes everyone think of terrorism. But the trail quickly leads to Lady Heather, which brings Grissom back from his pro bono adventures as, like, a maritime anarchist. (One of Grissom’s first lines in the movie: “Looks like somebody jumped a shark!”)

The finale turned on a few very out-there flourishes, some pseudo-scientific (South American mind-control flower!) and some pseudo-psychographic (lots of talk about the metaphorical implications of “dominance” and “submissive”). Midway through the two-hour running time, a few suspects showed up, and one of them was played by Doug Hutchinson. If you’ve ever seen Doug Hutchinson in anything, this was the end of the mystery.

Still, it was interesting seeing this most coldly logical of mystery shows indulge its romantic side. At one point in the finale, a mysterious bad guy sends in a face-scrambling video message straight to Grissom: “The grand finale is specifically designed for you.” That vibed like a meta mission statement for “Immortality,” which worked best as an extremely melodramatic triangle between Grissom, longtime antagonist/ambiguous love interest Lady Heather, and even-longer-time ally/ex-wife Sara.

No, but really, at a certain point in the second hour, “Immortality” went full soap, with Heather and Sara interrogating each other vis-à-vis Grissom:

Heather: “You’re scared for him.”
Sara: “I am.”
Heather: “Do you love him?”
Sara: “I do.”
Heather: “I believe you.”
Sara: “You should. Do you?”
Heather: “Do I what?”
Sara: “Love him.”
Heather: “…No.”

This was helplessly weird in the context of what CSI used to be. Unlike the histrionic Miami or the brutalist NY, the original CSI always had a nice mixture of bleak humor and sharp professionalism. Like every show in the franchise, it was set in a world where steadily more attractive philosopher-kings use futuristic technology and apparently bottomless reserves of funding to capture maniacs. But with Petersen and Helgenberger — and with Danson and Shue — there was always steady low-key rhythm to this most procedural of procedurals. It could be sad or weird when it wanted to be, of course. But “Immortality” pushed things into Hannibal territory.

Don’t believe me? When it turned out the bad guy was Doug Hutchinson all along, he blamed all his actions on Grissom — because Grissom stole Lady Heather’s heart. I quote directly: ““You came along, and you turned her heart. She quit role-playing because of you. SHE QUIT HER PRACTICE BECAUSE OF YOU. SHE QUIT ME… BECAUSE OF YOU!!!”

This led Grissom to give a good long speech about the 52-Hertz Whale, a lovelorn semi-mythic mega-creature who sings a love song at a frequency far too low for a lady whale to ever hear him. Grissom was the whale, kind of — for the finale of a show set in a landlocked desert town, there was a lot of ocean imagery in “Immortality.”

In the end, Willows declared that she wanted to come back to Las Vegas, to take care of her casino and some orphan children and her daughter, the rookie CSI. And Sara got to take over as director of the CSI program. “Vegas is lucky to have you,” said Grissom. “The oceans are lucky to have you,” said Sara.

The show ended with Sara and Grissom together, boating off into the distance. “Immortality” tied that finale into some larger notion of the show as Grissom’s rehumanization. “I’d lost my belief in humanity… she restores my faith in the human being.” Thus, all of CSI was the story of a man of science, learning to become a man of faith. Or something.

If you didn’t buy that, then there was another, quieter ending embedded in the finale. “I’m not one for big goodbyes,” said D.B. Russell, the chief-dude CSI for lo these past four seasons. “Cakes. Candles. Hullaballoo.” Russell was packing his things and heading East; Danson’s joining Cyber in a couple weeks. The oceans are lucky to have him.

What did you think of the CSI finale?

- ew.com -

After Historic Season, Jordan Spieth Has Officially Changed Golf

ATLANTA, Ga.—You say you want a revolution?

Golf has been there, done that.

Just as Tiger Woods changed the game with his power and fitness more than a decade ago, Jordan Spieth changed golf this year with less glamorous but no less effective concepts--putting, wedge play and preparation.

The secret of golf is not making bogeys. Woods exemplified that during his peak when his short game and putting was near best-ever levels but it was his long drives and precise iron play that got most of the attention.

Sure, Spieth won the Tour Championship here at East Lake by four strokes over Stenson, Justin Rose and Danny Lee, but his great contribution this year was in using all facets of his game and in placing the game’s emphasis back where it belongs, on scoring instead of monster drives and bomb-and-gouge golf.

Spieth ranks No. 1 in one-putts per round and No. 2 in percentage of putts made from 15-25 feet and it was no coincidence that he racked up his fifth victory of the season.

The look on challenger Henrik Stenson’s face was priceless at the par-3 11th green. Spieth’s tee shot came up short, caught a mound mid-green, and rolled back down the slope. Stenson had hit it to three feet. Spieth poured in the up-and-over-and-barreling-right putt from 45 feet like it was a simple.

“That was a dagger,” Spieth admitted.

Stenson keeps a good poker face normally but his that-figures smirk was unmistakable and, gamesman that he is, he gave Spieth a modest fist-bump and a nod, then rolled in his own short birdie putt.

“It’s been a phenomenal year for Jordan,” Stenson said later. “I watched it first-hand in the first two rounds in Augusta and he played phenomenal and putted phenomenal and it was the same putting display today. It was just an exhibition on the greens.”

Struggling to bring home a three-shot lead on the closing stretch, Spieth rolled in par-saving eight-footers at 14 and 15, showing his emotion with a clenched-hand fist pump at the 15th. There was also an 18-footer for birdie at the ninth, which brought a roar from a big gallery jammed around the green.

“His putting and his mental focus is the best in the world,” Stenson said. “He’s a very tidy player and every time he’s in trouble, he saves himself. When he gets the chance, he rolls it in for birdie so he’s hard to beat.”

His chipping and pitching are as good as anyone on tour. The same may be true of his work ethic. Think about the little things. Even though Jason Day outran him at the PGA Championship—and had to shoot the lowest score in major championship history to do it—Spieth holed out an important bunker shot at Whistling Straits’ 18th hole in the second round because he’d talked to local caddies who’d told him about that bunker (and another one) were firmer and played differently than all the rest.

For the British Open, Spieth played simulator golf so he could learn some of the nuances of the Old Course at St. Andrews since he didn’t go over early because he wanted to defend his title at the John Deere Classic.

At Chambers Bay, of course, his caddie Michael Greller used to work there so Spieth already had an edge over the rest of the field.

His edge at the Tour Championship, an event that Woods and Phil Mickelson were known to skip, was that he valued it and prepared accordingly. It’s safe to say that few players have treated this event as a must-win in the past when most saw it as a cash reward for a good season. Spieth recognized the Tour Championship for what it is—the most important part of the FedEx Cup series, if not the only important part. The FedEx Cup champion and the man who gets the $10 million bonus is usually the Tour Championship winner. So those three FedEx Cup events leading up to it, they’re sort of just the warmup act.

“We approached Atlanta like a major championship,” Spieth said earlier. “The whole year has been about majors and I consider this to be a fifth one at the end. I said in New York (before The Barclays), Everything now is to prepare to peak in Atlanta.”

Spieth wasn’t implying that the Tour Championship really is the fifth major, a silly thought for a 30-man field, just that he decided to treat it like one in his mind and perform his usual due diligence.

Peak for Atlanta? Those are words that have seldom, if ever, been heard in regard to the Tour Championship over the years.

Spieth and Greller—they’re the “we” Spieth usually refers to—will be beaten on occasion but not because they’ve been outworked.

I think we were the first ones out here on that Monday morning,” Spieth said. “At Chambers Bay, I went in Saturday and had been there the Saturday before. When you change grass types, it’s a bit of an adjustment. I love this bermuda here but we don’t normally see it on the tour this time of year. We mainly did short game work and then getting my body right. My trainer was here. “I can’t speak about us compared to other players but I will say that I noticed it very, very lonely out here on that Monday, which was kind of nice.”

Who preps for regular tour events? Nobody. There isn’t time. The Tour Championship, however, isn’t a regular tour event. There are only 29 other players to beat—27 this week after two withdrawals—and the big prize is $11.8 million in prize money, including the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus money. That, plus capping off a great season with a feel-good win, is what made it worth the extra effort that Spieth and Greller spent.

Whether Day and Rory McIlroy and the rest of golf realizes it yet, Spieth and Greller have raised the bar on being ready and being motivated, just the way Tiger’s strength sent almost every PGA Tour player scurrying to the fitness van for weight work to get stronger.

You don’t believe this is a revolution? Spieth’s accomplishments say otherwise.

He’s the first player to win more than $12 million in one season. Tack on the $10 million FedEx Cup bonus and he’s over $22 million.

At 22, he’s the youngest player to win five times in a season since Horton Smith in 1929.

This win reclaims the No. 1 world ranking, clinches the Vardon Trophy for best scoring average and obviously the money title. Player of the Year? That was never truly in doubt. Even before this week, would Jason Day have traded his PGA Championship and four other wins for Spieth’s two majors and two other victories. Damn right he would. Would Spieth have traded with Day? Not a chance.

NBC golf analyst Johnny Miller expressed the appropriate amount of awe at the end of Sunday’s telecast. “You’ve got to keep reminding yourself that this guy is 22 years old,” Miller said of Spieth. “That’s what is amazing. This is a great year for a guy in his prime at 26 or 28 or 30. At 22, where does his progression end? Are we seeing the best he’s going to play and putt or is he going to get better?”

Knowing how hard Spieth and Greller work, you’ve got to believe he—sorry, they!--will get better.

This revolution has only just begun.

- golf.com -

VIDEO: Selecta Aff – Shele Mo ft. AdeJosh

Filmed on location in Ibiza, and directed by Danny Wonders, the visuals for ‘Shele Mo’ see Selecta Affand Adejosh soak in the beautiful scenery of Ibiza in the summer, on an epic lads holiday. Packed with gorgeous women, captivating seaside and an enthralling nightlife, the visuals perfectly depict the instantly infectious and catchy summer banger that ‘Shele Mo’ already is. 

With two solid singles now firmly under his belt, plus collaborations with O.Y Productions soon to be released, Selecta Aff is having a breakthrough second half of 2015. The rest of this month will see the Afrobeats crooner supporting Davido on his upcoming UK tour, going further to solidify Selecta Aff as one to watch from the international Afrobeats scene. Enjoy his ‘Shele Mo’ video below.

Sammy – Today Today ft. Praiz

X3M Music act, Sammy releases a rhythmic tune with a fine blend of Highlife and R&B featuring label matePraiz on the single titled ‘Today Today’ which was produced by GospelOnDeBeatz.
Sammy has some song credits to his name such as, ‘Carry go’ and ‘Gimme that’ released back in January 2015.

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May D – Let Them Talk [Oyinbo Repete]

 

Confam Entertainment’s Mr. May D dishes a groovy party tune titled “Let Them Talk” (Oyinbo Repete). The Legendary produced beat would surely top charts.

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Regulators to Shut Down Health Republic Insurance of New York

Regulators will shut down Health Republic Insurance of New York, the largest of the nonprofit cooperatives created under the Affordable Care Act, in the latest sign of the financial pressures facing many insurers that participated in the law’s new marketplaces.

The insurer lost about $52.7 million in the first six months of this year, on top of a $77.5 million loss in 2014, according to regulatory filings. The move to wind down its operations was made jointly by officials from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; New York’s state insurance exchange, known as New York State of Health; and the New York State Department of Financial Services.

In a statement, Health Republic said it was “deeply disappointed” by the outcome, and pointed to “challenges placed on us by the structure of the CO-OP program.”

Health Republic has about 215,000 members, with about half holding individual plans and half under small-business coverage, a spokesman for the insurer said.

The regulators said they chose to take action before the exchange’s November open enrollment period, when individuals can choose coverage with a new insurer. Health Republic policies will remain in effect amid “an orderly wind down” of the insurer’s operations, they said. In a statement, Kevin Counihan, the CMS official who oversees insurance marketplace operations, said the move came “because of the likelihood that Health Republic Insurance of New York would become financially insolvent.”

The shuttering of Health Republic, at least the fourth to falter among the ACA’s original 23 co-ops around the country, reflects the losses many insurers are seeing in their business related to the health law’s exchanges, which are particularly acute for small plans without deep pockets or diversified lines of business.

In Health Republic’s case, its premiums appeared not to be set high enough to cover members’ health expenses and its own costs, said Deep Banerjee, an analyst with Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. “They are paying out in claims and expenses a lot more than they are getting in the door,” he said.

A Health Republic spokesman said the insurer didn’t receive the full rate increases it requested from state regulators for 2015, and “we didn’t feel as if we got rate adequacy” for this year’s plans.

The situation was complicated by programs created under the health law to ease risks for insurers that signed up a lot of sicker, more-costly enrollees. Under one of those programs, Health Republic had expected to break even, but instead it was assessed to pay around $80 million into the program’s pool, likely reflecting that it enrolled a relatively healthier clientele compared with competitors. Health Republic also expected to receive $147 million under another one of those programs, known as risk corridors, the insurer said. Because of a tweak to a federal spending bill, insurers may not get as much as they have projected, Mr. Banerjee said—an issue that could squeeze other companies.

The co-ops were set up as nonprofit insurance entities governed by their members, and analysts have said several of those that remain are in challenging financial straits. Health Republic’s membership is far larger than the next-biggest co-op, which had around 131,000 enrolled, according to Mr. Banerjee.

The Iowa insurance regulator said in January that it would shut down CoOportunity Health. At least two other co-ops, in Nevada and Louisiana, have said they won’t offer plans next year.

Two other co-ops bearing the Health Republic name, in New Jersey and Oregon, are independent operations and not affected by the New York plan’s situation, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey plan said. The Oregon plan said in a statement: “While we share a common name, we are a completely independent company.…[and] are not financially connected to Health Republic Insurance of New York.”

Corrections & Amplifications:
The amount Health Republic Insurance of New York expected to receive under the federal risk-corridor program for 2014 was most recently $147 million. A previous version of this article cited an older figure of $58 million included in an analyst report. (Sept. 25, 2015)

- wsj.com -

‘Furious 7’ Breaks Home Entertainment Records

“Furious 7” is burning rubber at the home entertainment market.
The latest, adrenalized installment in the fast cars and hard-driving criminals series is the highest-grossing live action film of 2015 when it comes to DVD, Blu-ray and digital sales. Since debuting on Sept. 15, the film has generated $52.5 million in consumer spending across both physical and digital formats. It sold roughly 2.5 million units on Blu-ray and DVD in its first week of release. 

It ranks as the franchise’s top-selling release to date and is on pace to be Universal’s highest-grossing live-action home entertainment release in its history. The film, which was nearly derailed when the death of star Paul Walker necessitated production delays and the use of body doubles and digital trickery, was a box office phenomenon. It ranks as the fifth highest-grossing film of all time, with $1.5 billion in receipts. 

The success of “Furious 7” is also good news for the movie business. The growth of digital sales andrentals has only partially filled the hole left by the collapse of the DVD market, but the strong reception for “Furious 7” demonstrates that it’s still possible to have a home entertainment hit. 

In addition to Walker, “Furious 7” stars Vin Diesel, Jason Statham and Dwayne Johnson. An eighth film is scheduled to hit theaters on April 14, 2017.

- variety.com - 

NHS-accredited health apps putting users’ privacy at risk, study finds

 

Smartphone health apps backed by the NHS could be putting users’ privacy unnecessarily at risk, according to a study.
Researchers from Imperial College London investigated how data was handled by apps endorsed by the NHS health apps library and found several sent unencrypted personal and medical information over the internet – putting users at risk of identity theft and fraud.
They said the findings questioned the trustworthiness of NHS accreditation at a time when health apps covering a wide range of topics from weight loss to pregnancy were used by an estimated half a billion people across the world. 

It comes after the government announced that patients could soon access their medical records by smartphone and urged the NHS to adopt more mobile technology.
The library features applications reviewed by the health service “to ensure they are clinically safe” and comply with the Data Protection Act, according to the NHS Choices website.
But a test of 79 apps listed on the service over a six-month period in 2013 found that 70 transmitted data over the internet and 38 had a specific privacy policy that did not state what information would be sent. 

The study, published in the journal BMC Medicine, also found 23 sent identifying details without protection, of which four apps sent both personal and medical information unencrypted.
The researchers used a form of hack known as a “man-in-the-middle attack” to capture the data sent by an app over the internet. 

Lead researcher Kit Huckvale said: “It is known that apps available through general marketplaces had poor and variable privacy practices, for example, failing to disclose personal data collected and sent to a third party. 

“Our study suggests that the privacy of users of accredited apps may have been unnecessarily put at risk, and challenges claims of trustworthiness offered by the current national accreditation scheme being run through the NHS.“However, it was assumed that accredited apps – those that had been badged as trustworthy by organisational programmes such as the UK’s NHS health apps library – would be free of such issues.” 

“The results of the study provide an opportunity for action to address these concerns, and minimise the risk of a future privacy breach. To help with this, we have already supplied our findings and data to the NHS health apps library.”
Earlier this month, the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, said his ambition was to get 15% of NHS patients routinely reading and adding to their online medical records using smartphones apps within the next 12 months.

- theguardian.com - 

NHS-approved apps found 'leaking' ID data

Many NHS-accredited smartphone health apps leak data that could be used for ID theft and fraud, a study has found.
The apps are included in NHS England's Health Apps Library, which tests programs to ensure they meet standards of clinical and data safety. 

But the study by researchers in London discovered that, despite the vetting, some apps flouted privacy standards and sent data without encrypting it.
The apps that leaked the most data have now been removed from the library.
"If we were talking about health apps generally in the wider world, then what we found would not be surprising," said Kit Huckvale, a PhD student at Imperial College London, who co-wrote the study. 

But given that the apps the study looked at were supposed to have been vetted and approved, finding that most of them did a poor job of protecting data was a surprise, he added. 

Fake data
Mr Huckvale and colleagues looked at 79 separate apps listed in the NHS library. Over six months they periodically supplied the apps with fake data to assess how they handled it.
The apps in the library are aimed at helping people lose weight, stop smoking, be more active and cut back on drinking.

Of the total, 70 sent personal data to associated online services and 23 did so without encrypting it.
The study found that four apps sent both personal and health data without protecting it from potential eavesdropping

.

The apps are aimed at helping people be more active, manage their drinking and stop smoking
If intercepted the data could be used for ID theft or fraud, said Mr Huckvale.
More than half of the apps had a privacy policy but many of these were vaguely worded and did not let people know what types of data were being shared. 

Mr Huckvale said the most of the data the apps gathered and shared was about a person's phone or their identity, with only a handful collecting information about the health of users.
A new, more thorough NHS endorsement model for apps has begun piloting this monthStatement, NHS England 

The results of the study are published in the open access journal BMC Medicine.
Mr Huckvale added that the NHS needed to work harder on testing because of how apps were likely to be used in the future. 

'Worrying information' 

"The study is a signal and an opportunity to address this because the NHS would like to see strategic investment in apps to support people in the future," he told the BBC.
"We will see them used more often and become much more complex over time." 

NHS England said: "We were made aware of some issues with some of the featured apps and took action to either remove them or contact the developers to insist they were updated.
"A new, more thorough NHS endorsement model for apps has begun piloting this month."
Security expert Ken Munro of Pen Test Partners said the study revealed the shortcomings of many developers who were not following well-established ways of handling personal data. 

"It's worrying information," he said of the study. "Where insecure storage of personal data often fails is with developers not understanding the consequence of poor security practice."

- bbc.com - 

Two more startups sued as part of ongoing employee vs. contractor debate

A Boston lawyer has brought two new lawsuits seeking class-action status against tech companies, which she claims have mis-classified their workers as contractors rather than employees.

The attorney, Shannon Liss-Riordan, filed the two cases in state court in San Francisco on Wednesday, on behalf of former workers of GrubHub and DoorDash, both food delivery startups.

Liss-Riordan is also the attorney who brought a class-action lawsuit against Uber, currently in federal court in San Francisco. And she has sued on behalf of a Massachusetts woman who worked for Handy, an on-demand home cleaning service.

GrubHub and DoorDash are the latest in a group of tech companies that are now facing lawsuits where their current or former workers argue that they should in fact be treated as employees (where social security, unemployment and other benefits would be paid by the company) rather than independent laborers. One, HomeJoy, even folded not long after being sued over similar issues.

DoorDash did not respond to Ars’ request for comment. Megan Gage, a spokeswoman for GrubHub, declined to respond to Ars’ request for comment.The new San Francisco lawsuits are both very similar and allege numerous violations of California labor law, including failure to reimburse business expenses and failure to provide itemized wages. In the GrubHub case, the plaintiff also alleges a failure to pay minimum wage and failure to pay overtime, among other accusations.

"Thank you for reaching out, but we don't discuss pending litigation," she e-mailed. "Sorry we can't be of more help."

Both state and federal labor law have dealt with this issue for a long time, even outside app-driven startups.

"Exotic dancers have won a number of ‘misclassification’ lawsuits, where they have been paid as independent contractors and not as employees," he said. "Strip clubs in these lawsuits typically charge dancers a fee to rent a dressing room, another fee for stage time, a required ‘house tipping’ charge, and penalties for appearance faults, such as not wearing their hair down. Courts have ruled that the dancers are due minimum wages and overtime. Typically, these lawsuits allege federal and state violations. States are more specific about matters such as when to pay (basically, within a short time), and provide for prohibitions against deductions from wages.""State wage laws say that pay is to be based on accrued time on the job, and is not dependent on an employee’s satisfactory performance of a task," Michael LeRoy, a law professor at the University of Illinois, e-mailed Ars.

Indeed, in July 2015, the United States Department of Labor released a guidance document showing that it is watching the situation carefully.

That document states:

Misclassification of employees as independent contractors is found in an increasing number of workplaces in the United States, in part reflecting larger restructuring of business organizations. When employers improperly classify employees as independent contractors, the employees may not receive important workplace protections such as the minimum wage, overtime compensation, unemployment insurance, and workers’ compensation. Misclassification also results in lower tax revenues for government and an uneven playing field for employers who properly classify their workers. Although independent contracting relationships can be advantageous for workers and businesses, some employees may be intentionally misclassified as a means to cut costs and avoid compliance with labor laws.

 - arstechnica.com -

Sharp Pressed to Find Investors in Smartphone Display Business

TOKYO— Sharp Corp., the troubled Japanese electronics maker, came under increased pressure Friday to find an investor for its smartphone panel business after the company said its financial results in the current period would fall short of expectations and its share price plunged. 

Sharp has been speaking with several potential investors in its liquid crystal display arm, including Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. of Taiwan, also known as Foxconn, and Japan Display Inc., according to people familiar with the situation. But a deteriorating outlook for the LCD business is weakening its hand, and a Sharp spokesman said no deal had been struck. 

The company, once a global powerhouse in consumer electronics, has sold off its television-making operations in much of the world outside Japan to focus on making smartphone panels for Apple Inc., alongside Japan Display and LG Display of South Korea. But prices of panels have fallen sharply because of a slowdown in the Chinese economy and an oversupply of high-end displays, analysts say. 

Sharp shares fell 6% Friday after the company said the “severe environment” in the display business meant it would fall short of the ¥10 billion ($83 million) operating profit it previously forecast for the six months ending Sept. 30. 

In May, the company secured its second bailout in three years, lining up ¥225 billion in new funding from Japan Industrial Solutions Ltd., a fund that specializes in turning around troubled companies, and two Japanese banks: Mitsubishi UFJ Financial GroupInc. and Mizuho Financial Group Inc.

 

Kozo Takahashi, president of Sharp, previously said the company wouldn’t sell its smartphone panel business, but has since reversed that stance. PHOTO: BLOOMBERG NEWS
At the time, Sharp chief executive Kozo Takahashi said the company had no intention of selling a stake in the smartphone panel business. But Mr. Takahashi later reversed course and said Sharp would consider bringing in outside investors. 

People familiar with the situation say the banks, which together hold more than ¥600 billion in Sharp loans, are putting pressure on the company to strike a swift deal. Engineers have been fleeing the company in droves, they say, undermining the technological know-how that was the foundation of Sharp’s former success. 

Analysts say potential investors might be reluctant to commit. Japan Display, which was formed through a merger of units of Sony Corp., Toshiba Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., is already building a new plant in Japan to help it meet demand from Apple. Any investment in Sharp’s LCD business could also raise antitrust concerns. 

People familiar with the situation say Sharp considers Hon Hai a more promising candidate for a deal. But that company, which also assembles iPhones for Apple, has been wary about such an investment after the collapse of a previous agreement to buy a stake in Sharp, struck in 2012. This time, according to these people, the Taiwan company is insisting on a majority stake in the Sharp panel business or a deal that gives it management control. 

Foxconn and Japan Display declined to comment.

- wsj.com - 

More on-demand startups are embroiled in contractor lawsuits

Another day, another lawsuit.
San Francisco labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan filed two class action cases against DoorDash and GrubHub, respectively, according to a report by SFWeekly. The two startups, which operate in San Francisco as well as other cities, are added to Liss-Riordan’s list of companies targeted for similar cases — Uber, Lyft and Postmates are also embroiled in separate trials.
DoorDash is a Palo Alto-based food delivery company working with restaurants in select metro areas. GrubHub is a publicly traded company that includes its own brand as well as Seamless, Menupages and Allmenus.
All five companies, with Uber leading in the process, will have to answer questions about whether their independent contractors should be classified as employees. In early September, a California judge granted class-action status to the Uber case.
Additionally, Liss-Riordan filed a demand for arbitration against food delivery service Caviar, also about an independent contractor’s employee classification.

These lawsuits are in the wake of plenty of questions swirling around on-demand startups and their use of independent contractors in the “gig economy.” On one end, cleaning startup Homejoy was forced to shut downamid many lawsuits surrounding the classification of its employees. On the other, startups like Sprig, Shyp, Instacart and Munchery have decided to classify their delivery drivers and other workers as full-time employees instead of contract workers.
There are plenty of polarizing viewpoints in the situation: on one hand, some companies believe that what their contracts lack in stability, they make up for in flexibility. Critics say that startups are abusing 1099 contracts to keep personnel costs low, and ultimately hurt drivers and other contracted personnel by denying them benefits. It seems that these questions will be answered in court.

- thenextweb.com - 

Entertainment industry, viable platform for job creation – Ambode

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode on Wednesday said the state government will explore the potentials that abound in the entertainment and arts industry as a viable platform to create jobs for the teeming youths in the state. The Governor spoke when some members of cast and crew of ’93 Days’, a film which chronicles how Lagos was able to effectively contain the Ebola Virus Disease last year, paid a courtesy visit to him at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja. 

He assured the team, led by veteran Hollywood actor, Mr. Danny Glover, that his government will give the necessary support to project the ideals of the film, stressing that the collective feat recorded will remain a milestone in the history of the state. “Clearly, what you have done to join hands with our people in Nollywood is to celebrate one of the major successes of Lagos State”. 

“Our government will support this project. No story can be told better than in graphic form and once you are turning this story to a movie, it means that every other part of achievements that we can put together is going to be something historic. It’s happening for the very first time. Apart from the fact that it is showing the way government has been able to respond to issues that relate to the society, we are also showcasing what Lagos stands for,” Ambode said. 

The Governor, while thanking the crew for deeming it fit to use the film to retell the Ebola success story in Lagos, also seized the opportunity to name Mr. Glover as Brand Ambassador for Lagos, saying that his wealth of experience will benefit the entertainment industry in the state immensely. 

“I can say that this is a platform to rebrand Lagos and for that reason, we would support this film and everything that has to do with it. Like I said, we would be looking forward to the premiere and I have told Danny that he has to be part of it and bring his experience and social-capital into it and he will be coming with other world class actors to do that. We would join in promoting this also”. 

“That means a lot to us and it would also mean a lot to the entertainment industry. It would be part of the legacies that you would be leaving to us here because as much as we look forward to all the great things that you have achieved, we believe also that this would also be part of the celebration for your 70th birthday next year”, he said. 

“As we move forward, in 2017, Lagos will be 50 years. So, Lagos at 50 is something that we are planning and the planning must start from now and it has so much to do with entertainment and things that are actually monumental and iconic. I have also extended invitation to Danny Glover and he would be part of that celebration come 2017”, the Governor said.
He said his administration will continue to support the strides of Nollywood industry, expressing optimism that aside providing entertainment to the eyes, the industry has the capacity to stimulate job creation for youths in the state. 

Earlier, Glover said the film ’93 Days’ acknowledged the efforts of the state government in curtailing the Ebola Virus Disease adding that it was not a mean feat.
He welcomed his nomination as brand Ambassador for the state, saying he shares the vision of Governor Ambode to further project Lagos as a Centre of Excellence. He also pledged to engage in works that will encourage upcoming artist to fully actualize their potentials.

- vanguardngr.com - 

Why technology is a double-edged sword for US-China ties

 

The US has sent mixed messages to China. While the tech firms want in, the government is talking sanctions. But with President Xi Jinping visiting, they may have to accept collaboration as a conduit to peace.
Confusion. That's a key word when it comes to US-China relations on cyber issues. 

"There is too much confusion over different aspects of the cybersphere - too much confusion in the media and frankly, I think, occasionally in the minds of the policy makers," says Kenneth Lieberthal, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center. 

But it stands to reason: seeing Chinese president Xi Jinping (pictured above) hobnob with American tech luminaries in Seattle while at the same time the White House considers sanctions on China for "government-enabled cyber theft of proprietary information" is indeed confusing.
You may in fact wonder, as I have, whether the US government is out of step with the American tech industry. 

Kenneth Lieberthal says an emphatic "no."
"Do the tech companies want the US government to push back on Chinese demands for source codeand that kind of thing? Of course they do. They're not out of step on that," says Lieberthal. "But the companies themselves will make their own decisions as to what they participate in in China and what the conditions are." 

Those conditions are often difficult. Lieberthal says there is "no doubt" the Chinese government wants to make the conditions for US internet companies operating in China "onerous."
"The flipside," he says, is that "China is a huge commercial opportunity." 

E-commerce boomChina has the largest e-commerce market in the world, says Charles Ng, an associate director-general who oversees innovation technology at InvestHK. The country boasts "over 550 million buyers and users," he says.
Small wonder, then, that China should want to flaunt its market.

READ MORE 

Volkswagen crisis: chief executive Martin Winterkorn resigns

And here’s our latest story on the VW scandal and Winterkorn’s decision to do the honourable thing:

Volkswagen has announced the resignation of its chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, and said the fallout from the diesel emissions test scandal would result in further executive scalps and a likely criminal investigation in Germany.

Winterkorn said on Wednesday he took full responsibility for the scandal, in which the company admitted that 11m cars were installed with a defeat device that reduced emissions under test conditions only, but he denied personal wrongdoing.

The company’s stock market value has fallen dramatically since the admission this week. As he resigned, Winterkorn described the situation facing the carmaker as a “grave crisis”.

Volkswagen faces up to £12bn in fines and is the subject of multiple investigations after the US Environmental Protection Agency accused it of manipulating tests on 18 September. Its executive committee said on Wednesday that it had voluntarily submitted a complaint to the state prosecutors’ office in Brunswick.

“In the view of the executive committee, criminal proceedings may be relevant due to the irregularities,” it said.

- theguardian.com - 

Daytime Emmy winner Andre Bautista charged with attempted murder

LOS ANGELES -- Authorities say a Los Angeles man who once won a Daytime Emmy has been charged with stabbing his roommate.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said in a statement Tuesday that Andre Salaman Bautista has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon.
Bautista's bail was set at $550,000 and a bail hearing is set for Thursday.
Bautista is accused of stabbing his roommate on Sept. 8. He surrendered at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City Sept. 17.
Bautista won a Daytime Emmy Award under the name Andre Bauth for his work as a producer on the online soap opera "The Bay: The Series."

- cbsnews.com - 

Top 5 Common Startup Killers

By definition, every startup is predictably unpredictable, since new solutions have no proven track record, startups are usually building a new market, and the world around them is changing faster than ever. Yet, as an advisor to startups, I see some common disasters, and recommend some anticipation and recovery moves that can save every entrepreneur some painful time and money. 

Five major elements of every business include your people, product, opportunity, money and marketing. While every entrepreneur needs to remain upbeat and optimistic on all of these, it is also smart to anticipate the worst case scenarios that are possible with each. Prepare ahead of time to prevent or head them off quickly, before it is too late, as events unfold: 

1. Key people let you down.
In all startups, one of the key concerns and biggest disaster potentials is the loss or lack of commitment from principal players. The first rule to remember is the old saying, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Hire carefully and slowly, with an overriding focus on skills, experience and commitment.
Don’t rely on friends, family and interns. They may come cheaply but will likely cost you dearly when times get tough. When people problems arise, it is critical that leaders act quickly to visibly fix them, rather than ignore the problem or carry under-performers in lieu of replacing them. Use experienced recruiters to assess and strengthen your team. 

2. The solution fails to come together.
Innovative products and services always take longer to develop than anticipated, and quality problems pop up where least expected. Delivery and cost milestones are missed, which derail marketing and rollout plans, de-motivate the supporting organizations, and drive costs into worst-case scenarios.
Even though invention can’t be scheduled, detailed planning does work, both on the product side and the business side. Written product specifications and business plans pay big dividends. Bring in expert advisors and mentors to set initial goals, and build recovery plans. Make sure all new development is buffered, rather than stretch-oriented. 

3. The market changes faster than your startup.
No matter how certain you are that your solution matches the market need, you probably missed it to some degree on first entry, or the market changed while you were building your product. Startups are all about change, but entrepreneurs can be slow to change, due to passion and stubbornness.
Assume your startup will have to pivot at least once, so don’t let your team be caught off guard and devastated. Smart entrepreneurs have metrics for assessing their progress against milestones and regularly communicate new insights to the team.
Update your plan at least once a month. Don’t wait for a crisis to drive change. 

4. The money runs out before revenues start.
Almost every startup underestimates their costs, and waits too long to raise more money or implement “Plan B.” Managing cash-flow must be the number one priority of every entrepreneur. Write every check personally, rather than relying on a bookkeeper or administrative help.
Again, expert advance planning is the key here for assessing the likely costs, as well as managing payables and receivables. Don’t allow your startup to “fail by success,” meaning too many orders delivered and inventory required for big customers, before their long payment cycle kicks in. To prevent this, build a buffer and line of credit. 

5. Word-of-mouth marketing doesn’t work.
No matter how great your solution, it takes real marketing effort, content and investment to get attention these days. Many entrepreneurs assume everyone will feel their passion, and find and promote their solution with the same zeal as their friends and family.
Thus every business plan needs specifics on cost and content for marketing, with measurements to assess progress. Innovation and creativity are just as critical for marketing as they are for solution development. Don’t wait for your worst case scenario where no customers show up, and expect that slashing the price will solve the problem.
Experienced entrepreneurs have learned that unpleasant surprises are the way of life in a startup, and a big part of the satisfaction is beating the challenges. It’s a lot more fun, and much less risky, to learn from the worst case scenarios of others rather than paying for every mistake every time.

- entrepreneur.com -