Uber Suspends Operations in Spain

Uber has called it quits in Spain, at least for now. Uber, the ride-booking company that has been plagued by vocal opposition from taxi associations and policy makers around the world, suspended its operations in Spain late Tuesday. The decision came in response to a judge’s ruling this month that the company’s low-cost service, called UberPop, did not comply with Spanish laws and potentially amounted to unfair competition for taxi drivers.

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The weed entrepreneurs who are creating a new brand of startup farming

Money to burn: The first generation of weed farmers is using Silicon Valley strategy to create today's agri-startup.

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Time is running out for RadioShack

RadioShack has made it through its 94th Christmas. But its chances of surviving another year are very much in doubt. The company is saddled with more than 5,000 stores, many of which it can't afford to keep open. Unfortunately for Radio Shack, the company is so cash-strapped that it can't afford to close them, either.

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How California's New Rules Are Scrambling The Egg Industry

On Jan. 1, all eggs sold in California will have to come from chickens living in more spacious digs. The rules have disrupted the egg industry and pushed prices up at grocery stores in California.

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New Level: Monsanto Tries Patenting Natural Tomatoes

Did you know that Monsanto tried to patent a tomato that had no biotech traits? Now, the European Patent Office has revoked Monsanto’s fraudulent patent.

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United Airlines sues 22-year-old who found method for buying cheaper plane tickets

A young computer whiz from New York City has launched a site to help people buy cheap plane tickets. But an airline company and its travel partner want to shut him down.

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Grocery Delivery Startup Instacart Scores $220 Million Investment

Instacart, the grocery delivery startup, disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it had closed a monster $210 million investment that a source says will increase to $220 million when all is said and done.

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United Airlines sues 22-year-old who found method for buying cheaper plane tickets

A young computer whiz from New York City has launched a site to help people buy cheap plane tickets. But an airline company and its travel partner want to shut him down. United Airlines and Orbitz filed a civil lawsuit last month against 22-year-old Aktarer Zaman, who founded the website Skiplagged.com last year. The site helps travelers find cheap flights by using a strategy called “hidden city” ticketing.

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Christmas at Amazon: One Man's Story

What is it like to work at an Amazon warehouse during the annual holiday rush? One Amazon warehouse employee kindly narrated the "nonstop chaos" for us over the past month. Even in normal times, the job of an Amazon warehouse employee is physically and psychologically demanding. When the holiday shopping season arrives, the company staffs up with thousands of new, temporary "seasonal" workers. A few weeks ago, one of those seasonal Amazon warehouse workers began sharing his thoughts with us...

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Cybersecurity Firm Identifies Six In Sony Hack — One A Former Company Insider

Norse, the cybersecurity firm that first identified a potential insider in the massive November hack of Sony Pictures, believes it’s uncovered evidence on six individuals primarily involved in the attack, including one former Sony employee with ”extensive knowledge of the company’s network and operations.” Senior vice president at Norse Kurt Stammberger told the Security Ledger late Sunday the company has identified six people “with direct involvement in the hack"...

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U.S. Health Agency Says Nearly 6.5 million People in HealthCare.Gov Plans

Nearly 6.5 million people either selected or were enrolled in a new individual insurance plan for 2015 on the HealthCare.gov website through Dec. 26, the U.S. government health agency said.

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That's it, we can never trust bankers again

It was another scandalous year for banking. Enough is enough.

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Who is Mr. Bitcoin and what are his demands?

Bitcoin is sponsoring a college football bowl game this year, officially dubbed the "Bitcoin Bowl." And because sports fans love mascots, "Mr. Bitcoin" is now apparently a thing that exists. All around the game's festivities, people are posing for photos with the rotund representation of the cryptocurrency.

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King of Clickbait

Andrew Marantz profiles Emerson Spartz, a digital-media guru profiting from the cat photos, catchy headlines, and GIFs that fill your Facebook feed. After graduation, he and his girlfriend started building rudimentary Web sites, sometimes as many as one a month: GivesMeHope (“ ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’—the twenty-first-century, Twitter-style version”); Memestache (“All the Funny Memes”); OMG Facts (“The World’s #1 Fact Source”). Many of the sites fizzled out; others gained a following.

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Microsoft will surprise in 2015

As the company seeks new ways to grow, it is likely to explore things once unthinkable for it.

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Not Just A Man's Drink: Ladies Lead The Whiskey Renaissance

Whiskey was long considered a man's drink. But as sales of whiskey soar, it's women who are leading the new boom, thanks to a vanguard of female distillers, blenders and tasters.

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The Death of the Artist—And the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur

Hard-working artisan, solitary genius, credentialed professional—the image of the artist has changed radically over the centuries. What if the latest model to emerge means the end of art as we have known it?

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A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality

Non-partisan research and policy institute working on federal and state fiscal policies and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income Americans

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Rwandan revival: The rise of tech entrepreneurship in Rwanda

It’s easy to forget where you are when standing by the cappuccino machine on the sixth floor of the Telecom House in Kigali, Rwanda. The Telecom House, as the building is known (most buildings in Rwanda don’t have addresses), is the center of Rwanda’s startup scene. The building houses Carnegie Mellon–Rwanda and kLab, one the country’s best-established incubators.

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California Is About To Make Egg Production More Humane, By Giving Hens 70 Percent More Space

Starting next year, 15 million egg-laying hens in California and millions more providing out-of-state eggs to Californians will be required to have 70 percent more space — going from a minimum of 67 square inches each to nearly 116 square inches, about a 10.7-inch square of space per bird. California is the biggest consumer of eggs in the country, and this new regulations is part of a broader national effort to shift industry focus away from...

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"The Interview" Could Make Online Premieres Popular In Hollywood

The Interview's lasting impact won't be because it's a mediocre film turned into an accidental symbol of freedom, or because it marked James Franco’s slide into the bowels of bad acting (though both are true). More likely, it will be remembered as the flick that transformed the way Hollywood distributes films. Sony, after suffering cyberterrorist attacks until it nixed the movie, bowed to public opinion (as well as that of the POTUS) by releasing the film after all. On Christmas Eve...

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American Barbershops: A Vanishing Act?

Why neighborhood barbershops are hanging on by a hair.

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Kamloops hot dog stand explodes, injuring two

Two people are in hospital in Kamloops after a hotdog stand exploded outside a Canadian Tire on Saturday morning. Kamloops acting assistant fire chief Brian Lannon said the two injured, the cart owner and a passerby, are in stable condition. He said firefighters received a call shortly after 11 a.m. About a hot dog stand on fire. When they arrived the flames had already been extinguished by staff from the Canadian Tire.

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Raising The Roof: Tesla Opens The Era Of The Upgradeable Car

Tesla unveiled an upgrade to its original car, the Roadster, that will allow it to travel 400 miles on a single charge. But perhaps even more exciting, it's kicked off the era of the upgradeable automobile, making cars themselves more sustainable, not just what powers them.

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Visa and MasterCard quit Crimea over US sanctions

Visa and MasterCard said they can no longer support their payment cards being used in Crimea. The move by the world’s biggest payment card companies follows the latest round of US sanctions imposed earlier this month over Russia’s annexation of the peninsula in March. The United States has prohibited US-registered companies from investing in Crimea...

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A Bad Business Model Is Taking Over the World

Imagine if you could only fill up your car with one brand of gasoline. Once you bought the car, you were trapped — try any other brand, and your car wouldn’t even start. It sounds crazy, but this same business model is proliferating across industries from coffee machines to cleaning brushes. Changes in the global economy are only helping it to spread, almost always to the detriment of consumers.

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Facebook apologizes after 'Year in Review' stirs up bad memories for some users

While scrolling through your Facebook News Feed this holiday season, you probably encountered the typical statuses from friends: photographs of families opening gifts and inevitably, a few "Year in Review" posts, a photo slide of highlights from your Facebook Timeline over the past year. Unfortunately, Facebook's algorithm for choosing the images wasn't very thoughtful, dishing out good memories along with the bad.

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Japan Approves $29 Billion Spending Package to Boost Economy

Japan’s government approved a 3.5 trillion yen ($29 billion) fiscal stimulus package to boost the economy after April’s sales tax hike caused consumption to slump.

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4 Lessons from a Hack: My Airline Miles Were Stolen

Recently, I went to check up on the reservation I made for my flight to Vegas in January 2015, a flight I had booked and confirmed months ago. But the app didn’t accept my password. I tried it several times, and then I got locked out completely and was directed to call the help desk. I thought it odd but put the call off for a few days: I got busy and thought it was likely just a site glitch. It wasn’t.

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'The Interview' pulls in $1 million at theaters, but on-demand generated earnings is the big mystery

A million dollars in Christmas Day ticket sales isn't exactly Sony acing The Interview. But the experience of the world's first premium video-on-demand release is a nice thing to have on the résumé. Playing at only 330 hastily arranged independent U.S. theaters after the studio meltdown heard 'round the world, The Interview averaged about $3,000 per venue on Thursday, which would be considered solid...

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No Goat Left Behind: Getting Americans to Eat Goat

Goat is the most widely consumed red meat in the world. So why does it so rarely make it onto Americans' tables? Trying to solve that problem is Heritage Foods USA’s No Goat Left Behind program, which has given the goat meat industry a small but stable boost. The organization connects dairy goat farmers that have extra kids to New York City restaurants who want to try out the meat. The culmination of this program takes place in October...

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Russia Refuses to Have a Gloomy New Year

The rouble's slump and warnings of a looming economic crisis have come at a bad time for Russians preparing for New Year festivities.

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Why Airlines Want to Make You Suffer

Airlines that charge fees for things like leg room, checked bags, and WiFi have a financial interest in making basic economy an intolerable experience.

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The Open Bay helps launch 372 'copies' of The Pirate Bay in a week, becomes GitHub's most popular project

isoHunt, the group now best known for launching The Old Pirate Bay, has shared an update a week after debuting The Open Bay. The Pirate Bay, the most popular file sharing website on the planet, still isn’t back following police raids on its data center in Sweden, but its “cause” is very much alive.

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Putin Cancels Christmas Vacation for Russian Government Employees

"The government... cannot afford such extensive holidays, at least not this year," Putin said. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he has canceled holiday vacations for members of the government, as the Kremlin struggles to address Russia’s plummeting national currency and embattled economy. Putin delivered the bad news during a Christmas Day speech, saying that government employees had to work through Christmas to help solve Russia’s growing economic crisis...

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Uber's CEO is now a wanted man in South Korea

2014's been a year to forget for Travis Kalanick, but since there's still a week to go before 2015, there's one more nasty surprise waiting for him. South Korea has indicted Uber's CEO on charges of operating an illegal taxi service in the country, which could see him slapped with an $18,000 fine, or two years in jail. According to Yonhap News, Uber, along with its rental agency, MK Korea, has broken local laws specifically preventing...

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The Real Story of How America Became an Economic Superpower

Very rarely, you read a book that inspires you to see a familiar story in an entirely different way. So it was with Adam Tooze’s astonishing economic history of World War II, The Wages of Destruction. And so it is again with his economic history of the First World War and its aftermath, The Deluge. They amount together to a new history of the 20th century: the American century, which according to Tooze began not in 1945 but in 1916...

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Bitcoin has been one of the world's worst currencies in 2014

So far in 2014, Bitcoin has lost more value than the Russian ruble. Wolfers is absolutely right that Bitcoin is a poor store of value. And people who prefer the currency as a hedge against the inflationary tendencies of the dollar are deeply confused.

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JetBlue Offers Police Free Flights to Attend Slain NYPD Officers' Funerals

JetBlue Airways is offering free flights to relatives and two members of any American law enforcement agency who wish to attend the funerals of the two New York policemen fatally ambushed by a gunman last weekend. Officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos were sitting in a patrol car Saturday when authorities say they were shot by a man identified as Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who then turned the gun on himself in a nearby subway station.

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Inside The Indiana Megadairy Making Coca-Cola's New Milk

Coca-Cola got a lot of attention in November when it announced it was going into the milk business. In fact, its extra-nutritious milk product was invented by some dairy farmers in Indiana.

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Dish lists over 50 reasons why the Comcast-TWC merger is a terrible idea

The Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger is that rare proposal that’s such a bad idea that it actually brings people of all different political beliefs together. If you look at the website for Stop Mega Comcast, for instance, you’ll see both liberal groups such as Common Cause and conservative outfits such as Glen Beck’s The Blaze are both lined up in mutual opposition to the proposed deal.

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Merry Christmas From Uber: Here's A $2 Booking Fee

Everyone's favorite rideshare app has decided that Christmas Eve is the perfect time to slip through a small change to its Uber Taxi service. Nothing big. Just a $2 fee every single time you want to hail a cab through Uber. Motherboard has a copy of the email that Uber (very quietly) sent to UberT users, on this, a day when everyone will totally be paying attention to their emails. UberT currently works as a hailing system for yellow or boro cabs — use the app to get a ride...

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The Accidental Lobster Farmers

The last few years have been plentiful ones for Maine’s lobstermen. While New England’s other iconic fishery — cod — went belly-up, crustacean landings exploded to 125 million pounds in 2012 and 2013, five times the historic average and enough meat to give every American a lobster roll (with leftovers to spare). If anything, Maine’s biggest problem has been too many lobsters: The decapods were so abundant last year that prices crashed.

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Google and Microsoft fight hotels' attempts to block personal WiFi

The battle between hotels and hotspot-toting travelers isn't over just because Marriott settled a complaint that it blocked personal WiFi -- far from it. Google, Microsoft and a US carrier lobbying group (the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association) are opposing a hotel industry petition asking the FCC to let them block guests' hotspots while they're on the premises. Google and its allies contend that the hospitality business...

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Latest Online Security Breach Forces Mom To Change Post-It

The Onion - America's Finest News Source

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From the Dead: Businessman Resurrecting Canadian Ghost Town

Built in the late 1970s, this mining village housed 1,200 people at its peak and was left effectively intact for over twenty years before being sold as a whole for $5,000,000 to an entrepreneur in 2004 who has worked on bring it back to life in the decade since. He has, however, had to adjust his plans to the market along the way – his latest endeavor: to revive it to fit its original purpose once more.

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I Don't Care If Prices Crash To $20 — We're Not Budging

Saudi Arabia convinced its fellow OPEC members that it was not in the group's interest to cut oil output however far prices may fall, the kingdom's oil minister Ali al-Naimi said in an interview with the Middle East Economic Survey. OPEC met Nov. 27 and declined to cut production despite a slide in prices, marking a shift in strategy toward defending market share rather than supporting prices.

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Bankers Brought Rating Agencies ‘To Their Knees’ On Tobacco Bonds

Wall Street pressed S&P, Moody’s and Fitch to assign more favorable credit ratings to their deals and bragged that the raters complied. Now many of the bonds are headed for default.

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Kevin Spacey Shares What Content Marketers Can Learn From The Entertainment Industry

Academy-Award winner Kevin Spacey opens up about nurturing creatives in the entertainment industry, collaborating with non-media brands, and crafting binge-worthy stories. He also shares why the distribution platform no longer matters.

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US Corps Claim Billions In Assets In Cuba And Now They'll Want It Back

When the Castro regime assumed power in Cuba in 1959, it quickly nationalized the assets of almost every foreign corporation within its borders as the country transitioned to communism. For half a century now, American companies have laid claim to billions of dollars in lost assets on the Caribbean island 90 miles from U.S. shores. Under American law, the claims have been steadily accruing interest, but the companies have never seen a penny.

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