Clipmarks | Forbes's clips

With This Burger, I Thee Wed

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:46:59 GMT

clipped by: Francesca Donner
clipper's remarks: Burgers at weddings? Yum!

AS the wedding season gets into full swing, many brides and bridegrooms are taking a decidedly down-home approach. Bring on the grilled steak, sweet potato fries and Rice Krispie treats (not to mention the checkered tablecloths). It’s enough to have the most sophisticated bride scrambling for her grandmother’s Betty Crocker cookbook.

Tags: weddings, food, burgers, catering, events

A New Kind Of Science Museum

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:44:57 GMT

clipped by: Elisabeth Eaves
clipper's remarks: This one teaches astrophysics, via mini golf.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The Hall of Science’s miniature golf course may not have quite the architectural grandeur of the Parthenon, but it has real NASA rockets three times as high as the Greek columns, and in some ways its aspirations are more heroic than anything at the Forum.

This is believed to be the world’s first mini-golf course designed to teach astrophysics. Possibly even to tweens.

Better science through mini-golf may not immediately sound like an educational breakthrough, but there are a couple of reasons for optimism. First, there’s the native genius for this sport. While American students keep getting outscored in international science tests, American mini-golf designers have long led the world in technologies like windmill obstacles, loop-de-loops, moving drawbridges, laughing pirates and steaming volcanoes.

Celebrity: Patrick Muldoon

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:22:30 GMT

clipped by: Kym McNicholas
clipper's remarks: Former Calvin Klein model turns to music and lands title song in new Jessica Biel movie

Clip Source: video.forbes.com

Patrick Muldoon: Soap Star To Rock Star

Tags: celebrity, patrick muldoon, muldoon, cheryl woodcock, woodcock, entertainment tonight, sleeping masses, youtube, facebook, myspace

iPhone 3GS vs. Palm Pre

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:51:44 GMT

clipped by: Kym McNicholas
clipper's remarks: BillShrink.com CEO Peter Pham explains why someone would choose the iPhone over the Palm, and vice versa. His company helps users decide on the best phone to meet their needs across all networks

Clip Source: video.forbes.com

iPhone 3GS Vs. Palm Pre

Tags: iphone, apple, palm, palm pre, billshrink, kym mcnicholas, forbes video network

Finally, Some Late-Night Stability

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 15:58:27 GMT

clipped by: Lacey Rose
clipper's remarks: As NBC tests the waters with another (risky) hour of late-night fare (in prime-time) CBS is wise to hold on to its stable alternative. After a decade-plus at no. 2, the tiffany network's veteran host has a real shot at poaching former Leno viewers and winning the ratings war.

Clip Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

The network is about to re-sign the Emmy-winning talk show personality to continue hosting "Late Show With David Letterman" through the 2011-12 season, sources said. The agreement would mark a two-year extension of his current contract, set to expire in 2010.

The decision comes as NBC makes dramatic changes to its late-night lineup, moving top-rated host Jay Leno to 10 p.m. in the fall and installing Conan O'Brien behind the "Tonight Show" desk. O'Brien bested Letterman in the ratings during his first week on "Tonight," but the gap narrowed as the frame progressed.

Hockey in Trouble in the Desert

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:40:45 GMT

clipped by: Tom Van Riper
clipper's remarks: The NHL's Phoenix Coyotes are floundering, yet the league says they're staying put.

Clip Source: www.thestar.com

Even with the Phoenix Coyotes' debt mounting, speculation growing about bankruptcy and no new owner in sight, the NHL insists the team is staying put.

The Coyotes have never made money since owner Jerry Moyes became an investor in 2001, and annual financial losses have exceeded $20 million (all figures U.S.) during his tenure.

Eyes on Smartphone Ads

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:57:48 GMT

clipped by: Laurie Burkitt

Clip Source: www.marketingvox.com

One-Third of Smartphone Users Respond To Mobile Ads

A research study on smartphone usage patterns found that more than a third of high-use smartphone users respond to mobile advertisements, reports Mediaweek.

Interpublic Group's Universal McCann conducted the study earlier this year and presented detailed findings at the OMMA Mobile Conference this week.

The study polled 1,800 participants online who frequently surf the web with their mobile devices. "Smartphone users" are defined as those that download mobile content from the web at least once at day or close to it.

Smartphone users are clicking on ads (53%), requesting more information or a coupon (35%) and making purchases via their handsets (24%).

Some 82% of respondents report they use mobile devices at work. 81% use them while shopping.

Nearly one of every seven minutes of media consumption takes place on a mobile device, and six of every 10 consumers expect their mobile internet use to increase significantly over the next two years.

Peter Arnell forced to pay back HarperCollins

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:46:35 GMT

clipped by: Helen Coster

Clip Source: industry.bnet.com

Despite $550,000 Payoff, Arnell Fails to Write Book, Must Pay Publisher $100,000

Peter Arnell has been ordered to return $100,000 of a $550,000 advance for a book on “personal branding” that he failed to deliver to HarperCollins. (Read the ruling below.)

Arnell failed to deliver the book despite having the assistance of two ghostwriters, a personal assistant, his wife and an editor at HarperCollins. He only turned in 25,000 words of a promised 80,000 manuscript — and HarperCollins sued to get its money back.

50% Tax Rate Causes Banker's to Flee the City

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:40:54 GMT

clipped by: Maurna Desmond
clipper's remarks: Higher tax rate in London and New York are bound to force financiers to order someone to pack up their things. But where will they go? Pal Beach, anyone?

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s proposal to boost the tax rate to 50 percent from 40 percent on income above 150,000 pounds ($220,000) pushed headlines about “class warfare” onto the front pages of the capital’s newspapers. It also prompted predictions from business groups that it would undermine the U.K.’s competitiveness and lead to an exodus of financial talent. Brown was portrayed as Vladimir Lenin in a cartoon on Page One of the Daily Telegraph.

The income-tax change, set to take effect next year, would give the U.K. a higher top rate than Spain, Italy, Germany, France and the U.S., according to KPMG, the accounting firm. Among the 30 members of the Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development, the country would jump to seventh from 19th in the rankings of tax rates, accounting firm Ernst & Young said.

Citadel CEO wants to Uncle Sam to cover your Downpayment

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 18:58:03 GMT

clipped by: Maurna Desmond
clipper's remarks: Doling out 20% downpayment loans is a great idea, except the FHA already lets anybody get a 3% down loan with relatively low fees.

Clip Source: blogs.reuters.com

Griffin said that the economy won’t recover until the financial system does, and that the financial system won’t recover until the housing mess is resolved, and that the housing mess won’t be resolved until the huge overhang of unsold real-estate is dealt with, and that the huge overhang of unsold real-estate won’t come off the market unless and until people start buying houses again, and that people won’t start buying houses again unless they can come up with downpayments, and that people clearly can’t come up with downpayments because the US savings rate has essentially been zero for most of the past decade. So Griffin’s proposed solution was for the government to provide low-cost, full-recourse 20% downpayment loans to anybody who wants to buy a house. Yes, he said, no-money-down house purchases were what got us into this mess to begin with, but we kinda need them in order to get out of the mess too.

Tarp Overseer Stressed Over Tests

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:36:14 GMT

clipped by: Maurna Desmond
clipper's remarks: If any equity analyst could run their own stress tests per Friday's white paper, then who'd care about the New York Fed's?

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

TARP cop sees unstressful bank tests

She said, ideally, the document released by the Federal Reserve on Friday would have provided enough detail to allow outsiders to run their own version of the stress test on the largest banks. The government plans to release the results of the tests on May 4.

Warren also said the public needs details on how rigorous the stress tests really were because the macroeconomic assumptions involving unemployment were not that much more severe than current conditions.

"It looks disturbingly close to where we are now," Warren said.

Tags: tarp

AAAA chief gives wake-up call at conference

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:28:49 GMT

clipped by: Melanie Wells

Clip Source: www.warc.com

Agencies must face up to "new realities," says 4As' Hill

Portfolio magazine bites the dust

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:01:53 GMT

clipped by: Melanie Wells

Clip Source: adage.com

Conde Nast Gives Up on Portfolio

Editor Joanne Lipman, Publisher William Li to Leave Company

The Sad State Of Online Comments

Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:42:06 GMT

clipped by: Elisabeth Eaves
clipper's remarks: "Sweetie," "dear," and "zionist stooge liar." Virginia Heffernan, writing about foreign affairs columnist Ann Applebaum, sums up the quality of discourse going on in the reader comment sections of most news sites.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

What commenters don’t do is provide a sustained or inventive analysis of Applebaum’s work. In fact, critics hardly seem to connect one column to the next. In spite of Applebaum’s hard-to-miss hints that she celebrates Christian holidays (“On Christmas morning, my husband found a CD of ‘The Greatest Speeches of All Time’ in his stocking”), conspiracy-minded commenters insist that she’s Jewish and that her Jewishness determines her politics. And even though she makes it plain that her worldview coalesced when she was reporting on Eastern Europe in the ’80s and ’90s, commenters almost never address the intellectual consequences of her analogies between the cold war and the war on terror.

Someone should be paying more attention, especially since online newspaper commenters as a whole seem to have (at least) the stamina, drive and spare time to become a cogent part of online journalism. But as it is, online commentary is a bête noire for journalists and readers alike.

Are credit card rates out of control?

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 18:07:57 GMT

clipped by: Melanie Lindner
clipper's remarks: As President Obama makes controlling credit card rates a priority, banks are pushing back saying they have to raise rates to accommodate for the rising costs of doing business in a challenging economic environment.

Clip Source: online.wsj.com

Michael Burkholder, who has had a Bank of America credit card for the better part of the last decade, said his jaw dropped recently when the interest rate on his card nearly tripled to 14.99% from 5.5%.

The 41-year-old Laurel, Md., resident insists that he always pays his bills on time and that while he typically carries a balance, he has made it a practice the last two decades to pay well over the minimum amount due on his accounts.

When he called to complain, a customer-service representative told him the bank would lower the new rate to 7.9% for six months and that he should call back at a later time for another decrease.

He asked why the bank jacked up his rate for what he believes was no apparent reason and was told it was necessary to offset losses from the growing numbers of low-performing or default accounts.

Tags: credit cards, banks, obama