California Overcame 1/100 Odds to Beat Its Epic Drought | WIRED

April 14, 2017April 13, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Never tell California the odds. Not only has the state recovered from its record-breaking drought, it did so in record time. According to a new NOAA study looking at 445 years of climate data, California had a 1 percent chance of breaking the drought in just two years.

You remember the drought, right? Between 2012 to 2015, California’s epic dry spell—its worst in recorded history—depleted reservoirs, melted mountain snow, and forced farmers and cities to recklessly suck up groundwater reserves. Things got so dire that, in 2014, governor Jerry Brown signed a state of emergency curtailing water use for cities and official business. Then came 2016’s El Niño, then 2017’s commute-clogging, weekend-ruining, and infrastructure-crippling onslaught of storms. These two years of successive soaking prompted Brown, barely a week ago, to announce that the state’s drought emergency had ended.

Growth Of ‘Ghost’ Restaurant Concepts Proves Delivery-Only Trend Has Legs | Forbes

April 14, 2017April 13, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Whether you call them virtual restaurants, app-based establishments or headless concepts, it’s impossible to deny the recent rise of delivery-only food businesses around the country.

Restaurateurs are desperate to stem the profit-letting in their struggling sector (especially in the fast-casual world), and this new round of digital-driven establishments solves a variety of perennial industry problems. Add to this the growth of third-party delivery companies, consumers’ increasing comfort with mobile ordering and the recent explosion of meal-delivery kits like Blue Apron, and conditions seem ripe for this idea to blossom.

But first, what are these front-of-house-free restaurants?

St. Louis sues NFL for moving Rams to L.A. | Money Cnn

April 13, 2017April 12, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The place the Rams called home for two decades is now suing the football team.

The city of St. Louis, Missouri — where the Rams were based for two decades before jilting it for Los Angeles last year — filed a lawsuit Wednesday claiming the team and the NFL failed to use proper protocol when the Rams were relocated.

“In the years leading up to the Rams relocation request, Rams officials decided to move the team and confidentially determined that they would be interested in exploiting any opportunity to do so,” the complaint reads.

SEC Cracks Down on Fake Stock News | NBC News

April 12, 2017April 11, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

“Fake news” can sway not just elections, but the stock market. Now the SEC is cracking down.

The stocks and securities regulator charged 27 firms and individuals Monday with fraudulently promoting stocks through secretly paid-for articles on top financial websites. The sites included Forbes.com, Yahoo Finance, Seeking Alpha, Motley Fool, Benzinga, and Wall Street Cheat Sheet. None of the sites were named in the complaint.

Not so friendly skies: United Airlines’ public relations disaster | BBC News

April 11, 2017April 21, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Another day, another public relations disaster for United Airlines.

America’s third biggest carrier is being slammed online for violently dragging a passenger – a 69-year-old Asian man, believed to be a doctor – off an overbooked flight.

This comes just weeks after the company, whose slogan is “Fly the Friendly Skies”, was ridiculed for refusing to allow two teenage girls to board a flight because they were wearing leggings.

Chief executive Oscar Munoz added more fuel to the fire with his response, which didn’t mention the use of force. “This is an upsetting event to all of us here at United. I apologize for having to re-accommodate these customers,” he said in a statement.

Netflix remains the streaming giant, but they’ve got competition | Mashable

April 11, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

While Netflix remains the giant in the world of over-the-top (OTT) streaming, other services are staking their own claims to the landscape.

According to a new report by comScore, more than half of America’s wi-fi connected homes have at least one OTT streaming service (streaming services that don’t require an additional cable subscription). The dominant service, in a whopping 75 percent of those homes, is Netflix—presumably because no one wanted to miss out on Stranger Things.

Should Tax Preparation Be Free? Credit Karma Challenges TurboTax | Bloomberg

April 10, 2017April 9, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tax preparation isn’t rocket science.

That’s Kenneth Lin’s pitch to get you to use Credit Karma, his popular credit-monitoring site, to do your taxes online for free. He’s striking out at TurboTax and H&R Block, which are now charging the typical homeowner or investor more than $90. Their prices have jumped more than $20 over the past month, the tax preparer’s version of surge pricing, as the April 18 filing deadline approaches.

You’ll Soon Need 10,000 Views to Host YouTube Ads | Entrepreneur

April 10, 2017April 9, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Want to make money from ads on your YouTube videos? Your channel had better have more than 10,000 views.

Those are the new rules for the YouTube Partner Program (YPP), home to many people who make their livings uploading original videos and attaching advertisements to them. YouTube says the 10,000-view threshold is a way to crack down on people who join the program by re-uploading original content and trying to make money off of it.

Advertisers Flee Fox’s Bill O’Reilly Show Amid Sexual Harassment Lawsuits | NBC News

April 7, 2017April 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Fox News is in a jam this week as major automakers and smaller outfits pull their ads from the network’s popular “O’Reilly Factor” show, following a series of sexual harassment claims against host Bill O’Reilly.

BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Hyundai, and Mitsubishi all yanked their ads after a New York Times investigation that surfaced five sexual harassment cases against the political pundit.

They were joined Tuesday by pharmaceutical maker GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi Consumer Care, insurer Allstate, asset management firm T. Rowe Price, and personal finance company Credit Karma.

Mylan EpiPen Recall Spreads to U.S. | Fortune.com

April 6, 2017April 4, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Meridian Medical Technologies has issued a nationwide, voluntary recall of its Mylan EpiPen and EpiPen Jr. allergy shots.

The company said that some of devices may contain a defective part that prevents the injector from activating in the event of an allergic reaction.

“While the number of reported failures is small, EpiPen products that potentially contain a defective part are being recalled because of the potential for life-threatening risk if a severe allergic reaction goes untreated,” the company said in a statement.