The History of Women in the Olympic Games Is Not What You Think | Blinkist

August 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The 1900 Olympic Games marked a new era of equality in athletics: women were allowed to compete in the all-male games for the very first time.

Or at least that’s what Google and the Olympics’ official website would have you think.

Although this fact has slipped from the pediments of modern cultural conscience, women were participating in—and winning—the Olympic Games way back in the days of empires and chariots. What makes this especially remarkable is that women were not technically allowed to take part in the Games at all, and only unwed virgins could watch. Grown and married women who dared have a peek at what went on in the stadium did so under the mythical-sounding penalty of being hurled from the cliffs of Mount Typaeum. Understandably, this punishment was enough to dissuade many of the fairer sex.

But not all of them—and definitely not one Spartan woman named Cynisca.

British food delivery startup Deliveroo raises $275M in funding | Mashable

August 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Deliveroo, a food delivery service that is facing competition from UberEats in Europe, raised $275 million in Series E funding, the startup announced Friday.

Launched in 2013, Deliveroo delivers slightly upscale restaurant food along with alcohol, breakfast and large corporate orders. The service handles the logistics of delivery for restaurants, helping boost their sales for a flat fee.

Since its launch, the London-based startup has raised $475 million. It’s currently in 84 cities throughout Europe, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

Its most recent funding round was led by Bridgepoint, the UK’s largest private equity group, along with prior investor DST Global, US-based General Catalyst and existing investor Greenoaks Capital.

In November, Deliveroo raised $100 million in a Series D round.

Why You Should Invest in Video Marketing to Grow Your Business | Small Biz Trends

August 5, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

In the rapidly evolving landscape of marketing, businesses are constantly required to come up with improved ways to promote themselves and attract valuable leads. The rising customer expectations have led businesses to develop new strategies to meet and exceed the demands.

One of these strategies that have gained momentum recently is video marketing.

There is hardly any doubt about the fact that video-driven platforms are well-received by today’s generation. In fact, Snapchat has overtaken Twitter with a user base of more than 150 million every day compared to the 136 million daily users of Twitter.

Such increased popularity of videos has convinced businesses to rethink their digital marketing strategies and include videos to attract a flood of customers.

Know the Rules Before Your Organization Brings in Interns | Payroll Link

August 4, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

If you have a backlog of projects piling up because there just aren’t enough hours in the day, you may consider hiring interns to help you get caught up. This can be a great idea that provides benefits for your company and the students.

However, if you want help from interns, don’t expect to get it for free. The requirements for unpaid internships are strict. In recent years, there’s been a wave of legal actions taken by those who’ve served as interns. They’ve accused employers of violating the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and/or state laws by not paying them.

The Department of Labor (DOL) has a six-factor test that you can use to determine whether a relationship with a worker could qualify as an unpaid internship. Keep in mind that this is a test, not a law. But don’t take it lightly — or you risk the possibility of incurring a fine or other legal action.

Marketing is the biggest difference between a purebred dog and a mutt | Business Insider

August 4, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Dogs are big business.

In Kim Kavin’s “The Dog Merchants: Inside the Big Business of Breeders, Pet Stores, and Rescuers,” she delves into the business of buying, selling, and rescuing dogs, which she estimates is worth about $11 billion annually worldwide.

If you love dogs, the dogs-as-business approach might be hard to swallow. How could your furry family member be bought, marketed, and sold as a product? How could anyone buy a “puppy mill” dog from a pet store — or alternatively, how could anyone adopt a mutt without a documented history? How will you know what you’re going to get?

But there’s one glaring conclusion in Kavin’s pages: These dogs are all the same.

Get Ready, Soon Everyone Will Be Able To Code | Co.Exist

August 4, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Code runs the world, but coding today isn’t for everyone. Generally, it’s still done by a select group of mostly male, math-literate programmers, and the rest of us are just consumers rather than participants in code’s production. “The distance between using your computer and programing your computer has gotten wider and wider.”

Could that be about to change? The media theorist Douglas Rushkoff thinks so. He’s been championing a new iPad app called Ready that he thinks marks an important shift in our relationship with software.

“The distance between using your computer and programing your computer has gotten wider and wider,” he says. “I’ve been discouraged that most portals to being a digital creator have involved these really difficult coding languages that require you to be at a certain level of sophistication in mathematics. Ready has a really simple interface that lets people have the experience of programming something for themselves.”

Comcast Is Facing a $100 Million Lawsuit Over Its Service Plan | WIRED

August 3, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

YOU DON’T NEED us to tell you that Comcast has a bad reputation when it comes to customer service. For seven years in a row Comcast ranked at the bottom of 24/7 Wall St.’s annual customer satisfaction poll. Now the company’s business practices may land it in court.

This week Washington state filed a $100 million lawsuit against Comcast, accusing the company of 1.8 million violations of the the state’s Consumer Protection Act. The state isn’t suing Comcast for bad customer service per se, but for the sorts of misleading claims and practices that have given Comcast such a poor public image. (Comcast denies any wrongdoing.)

Bitcoin drops more than 10% after security breach | BBC News

August 3, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The price of bitcoin has fallen more than 10% after the Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange Bitfinex said it had suffered a major hack.

The security breach led to the possible theft of bitcoin worth $65m (£49m).

Bitfinex told the Reuters news agency on Wednesday that nearly 120,000 bitcoin were stolen from its exchange platform.

All transactions on the virtual exchange have been suspended while the security breach is investigated.

In a statement on its website, Bitfinex said that it was “deeply concerned about the issue and we are committing every resource to try to resolve it”.

The hack is one of the biggest thefts in bitcoin’s history and is being treated as a “major deal” by many in the virtual currency community.

Do You Really Need a Non-Compete Agreement? | Entrepreneur

August 1, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Non-compete agreements are under fire lately, raising several questions about whether or not they go too far in restricting employees. The Massachusetts Senate advanced a bill in July that would limit the time period of a non-compete agreement to just three months. The bill also redefined “garden leave,” meaning the practice where an employee leaving a job is directed to stay away from work during the notice period, while still remaining on the payroll.

The Masachusetts bill would require companies to pay a departing employee his or her full salary during this non-compete period.

Non-competes, which ban workers for a period of time from taking jobs with competitor companies, certainly, are not uncommon. A May 2016 report from the White House cited research estimating that 30 million American workers (18 percent) were covered by non-compete agreements. Even more U.S. workers, according to the research — roughly 37 percent — have worked under a non-compete agreement at some point during their career.