Author: knjohn

Women to Be Allowed in All U.S. Combat Positions, Pentagon Says | Bloomberg

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Women will be allowed in all combat positions throughout the U.S. military, ending decades of exclusion from front-line jobs, Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced Thursday.

“To succeed in our mission of national defense, we cannot afford to cut ourselves off from half the country’s talents and skills,” Carter told reporters at the Pentagon.

The change, which will be implemented within 30 days, will open almost 220,000 reconnaissance, infantry, and special-operations positions that were not previously available to women. Women will have access to any position in the armed services whose requirements they can fulfill, Carter said.

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4 Reasons Your Business Has Stopped Growing | Inc.com

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Running a company that exclusively serves the small business market has provided me with countless opportunities to get inside the head of small-business owners.

Many of these small-business owners are essentially in the process of launching a startup. They’re bootstrapped, hustling for every dime of revenue and trying to unlock the secrets to consistent growth.

The harsh reality is that a lot of startups launch, have a little success early on, but then simply stop growing. I’ve come across countless business owners who seem to make the same mistakes over and over again when it comes to growth. Here are four to avoid.

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New laws force police to put guns back on the street | CNN Money

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Every year, police officers seize tens of thousands of rifles, shotguns, machine guns and other firearms from criminals across the country. While many agencies destroy these weapons, a growing number of police departments are selling them instead. And it’s not always by choice.

Since 2009, at least 11 states have passed laws that either encourage or require police departments to sell seized or recovered guns — with some banning police from destroying guns altogether, according to an exclusive CNNMoney analysis of state laws.

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Toys R Us is closing its flagship store | Business Insider

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Toys R Us is closing its iconic flagship store in New York City’s Times Square at the end of this month.

The retailer is not renewing its lease on the 110,000-square-foot store, which features a giant indoor Ferris wheel, a life-size Barbie dollhouse, and a 20-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex dinosaur, CNN Money reports.

“It is certainly bittersweet,” Toys “R” Us CEO Dave Brandon told CNN Money, referring to the rush of shoppers in the store for the final Black Friday at the Times Square location.

We reached out to Toys “R” Us and will update when we hear back.

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Areas of the Law that Every Start Up Should Be Aware Of | The Startup Magazine

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downloadYou have an innovative, perhaps even ground-breaking idea. Maybe you are also lucky enough to have a co-founder or have secured substantial investment and are about to go ahead with the start-up dream….but STOP. Do you know the legal implications or requirements that you should be taking heed of? Unbelievably, many young businesses move forward founding a business without consulting a solicitor. Simple mistakes that were made in the early days can become the very reason that yours business fails; Peterborough based law firm Taylor Rose offer to cast some light on the shadowy areas of the law that you should be aware of!

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Children’s Photos Among Data Stolen in Hack of Toy Maker VTech | Entrepreneur

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It’s a parent’s worst nightmare: Photos of their kids’ smiling faces stolen by a stranger online, along with identifying information including their names, genders, birth dates, mailing addresses and the contents of their private chats.

Thanks to a security breach at toy maker VTech, that nightmare just became a reality for thousands of parents.Yesterday, the children’s toymaker admitted that it’s on the hook for exposing all of the above private data, plus additional personal information.

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The Science Of Why Scarcity Makes Us More Creative | Co.Exist 

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The rise of mass consumption has driven worldwide economic growth for decades. But does it help our creative growth?

According to a new study, the answer is no. When we stop buying new things, we look at what we already have in new ways and come up with new uses for products we own. In other words, scarcity drives creativity. When we aren’t surrounded with ready-made solutions to problems, we have no trouble coming up with our own.

This finding may surprise precisely nobody working in any artistic field. This make-do-and-mend mentality is the way our grandparents—and in some cases parents—approached the world, ranging from jam-jars used as drinking glasses to cigar-box guitars.

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E-tailers: Minimize the Impact of DIM Charges over the Holidays | Get Entrepreneurial

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By now, you are probably aware of the dimensional weight charges implemented by big shipping carriers UPS and FedEx back in January. Under these changes, packages less than 3 cubic feet are subjected to dimensional weight pricing, also referred to as DIM pricing and DIM charges. DIM pricing calculates shipping costs based on a package’s volume— or how much space it occupies— in relation to its weight.

DIM charges, which have been applied to air shipments and larger ground parcels for a while, are now being applied to smaller ground parcels due to the increase in e-commerce sales. The continued popularity of online shopping has led to a steady increase in the volume of packages handled by carriers like UPS and FedEx, resulting in higher operating costs for these carriers. According to Alan Gershenhorn, UPS executive vice president and chief commercial officer, dimensional weight pricing “enables us [UPS] to more appropriately align rates with costs which are influenced by both the size and weight of packages.”

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