The Nazi Sibling Rivalry That Divided a Town and Created Modern Sportswear

By creating Adidas and Puma, the Dassler Brothers divided both their families and their home town, all while changing sports forever. By Brian Blickenstaff.
Read more: https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/the-nazi-sibling-rivalry-that-divided-a-town-and-created-modern-sportswear/?source=Snapzu

The global elite are headed for a fall. And they don’t even know it

You often don’t realize a revolution is brewing until it’s upon you. By Damon Linker.
Read more: https://theweek.com/articles/694923/global-elite-are-headed-fall-dont-even-know?source=Snapzu

Google CEO Sundar Pichai doubled his pay last year to $200 million

Google CEO Sundar Pichai cashed in big during his first full calendar year at the helm of the Internet giant, nearly doubling his total compensation to $200 million in 2016. Pichai received a salary of $650,000 last year, slightly less than the $652,500 he earned in 2015. But the long-time Google employee, who was named CEO during the company's re-organization in August 2015, received a stock award of $198.7 million in 2016, roughly double his 2015 stock award of $99.8 million.
Read more: http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/28/google-ceo-sundar-pichais-compensation-doubled-in-2016-to-200-million.html?source=Snapzu

Escaping Poverty Requires Almost 20 Years With Nearly Nothing Going Wrong

The MIT economist Peter Temin argues that economic inequality results in two distinct classes. And only one of them has any power. By Gillian B. White.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/04/economic-inequality/524610/?source=Snapzu

Employers legally allowed to pay women less than men for same work, US federal court rules

A US federal appeals court has ruled that employers are legally allowed to pay women lower salaries than men for doing the same work, based on differences in the workers' salaries in previous jobs. According to the Associated Press, the decision by the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a previous lower-court ruling, according to which pay differences based only on prior salaries were discriminatory under the country’s Equal Pay Act.
Read more: http://www.independent.ie/business/in-the-workplace/employers-legally-allowed-to-pay-women-less-than-men-for-same-work-us-federal-court-rules-35662663.html?source=Snapzu

Saving America's Broken and Vanishing Prairie Lands

Scientists call the American prairie one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Its loss would have consequences the world over.
Read more: https://undark.org/article/saving-americas-broken-prairie/?source=Snapzu

Kill net neutrality and you’ll kill us, say 800 US startups

Yesterday, the Federal Communications Commission announced the first step in its plan to kill net neutrality — reversing the Title II classification of internet service providers. Doing so will remove many regulations placed on big cable companies, allowing them to erect barriers and tolls that impede the free movement of data around the internet. You won’t hear Comcast or Verizon complaining, of course — this benefits them.
Read more: http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/27/15447394/fcc-net-neutrality-roll-back-startups-letter-y-combinator?source=Snapzu

Inside the Insane Feud Between a Vegan Strip Club and the Steak House Next Door

In Portland, Oregon, a vegan strip club [Casa Diablo] and the steak house-slash-strip club next door [The Acropolis] are locked in an intense rivalry. By Natalie O’Neill.
Read more: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/inside-the-insane-feud-between-a-vegan-strip-club-and-the-steak-house-next-door?source=Snapzu

Google’s and Intertrust’s new PatentShield helps startups fight patent litigation in return for equity

Google and Intertrust today announced the launch of PatentShield, a new program that aims to help defend startups from patent litigation — in return for a stake in those companies. The basic idea here is to give startups that join the program ownership of a selection of patents from Google’s and Intertrust’s portfolio that they can then use as a deterrent against potential patent litigation from established players in their fields.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/25/googles-and-intertrusts-new-patentshield-helps-startups-fight-patent-litigation-in-return-for-equity/?source=Snapzu

United Airlines' policy changes include paying bumped passengers up to $10,000

United Airlines will offer up to $10,000 when a traveler voluntarily gives up a seat on an oversold flight, part of a policy overhaul following the passenger-yanking video seen around the world. The Chicago-based carrier is adopting 10 policy changes in response to the outcry over the April 9 incident, recorded by other passengers, during which aviation police pulled David Dao from his seat after he refused to exit the plane. Dao was one of four fliers selected to give up their seats to make room for airline employees.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-united-fixes-20170426-story.html?source=Snapzu

Was Uber’s CEO really the second-best Wii Sports tennis player?

Last weekend's New York Times profile of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick had plenty of important revelations about Kalanick and the company he runs, both of which have been facing some tough PR lately. But there was one incidental, almost throwaway line buried in the piece that made me stop in my tracks: "In other personal pursuits, he once held the world’s second-highest score for the Nintendo Wii Tennis video game."
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/04/was-ubers-ceo-really-the-second-best-wii-sports-tennis-player/?source=Snapzu

How Elon Musk learns faster and better than everyone else

How is it even possible that Elon Musk could build four multibillion companies by his mid-40s — in four separate fields (software, energy, transportation, and aerospace)? To explain Musk’s success, others have pointed to his heroic work ethic (he regularly works 85-hour weeks), his ability to set reality-distorting visions for the future, and his incredible resilience. But all of these felt unsatisfactory to me. Plenty of people have these traits. I wanted to know what he did differently.
Read more: https://qz.com/968101/how-elon-musk-learns-faster-and-better-than-everyone-else/?source=Snapzu

The Yik Yak app is officially dead

The anonymous social app is finally shutting down.
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/yik-yak-shuts-down-2017-4?source=Snapzu

Coca-Cola in crisis as company cuts more than a thousand jobs

Coca-Cola has announced plans to cut about 20 per cent of it corporate workforce, as the company battles a drop in sales due to falling demand for its sugary drinks. The US firm said it will cut 1,200 jobs starting later this year as it increases its cost-cutting target by $800m and is now expecting to save $3.8bn by 2019. This represents about a 22 per cent reduction of its 5,500 corporate staff or a 1 per cent reduction in its total workforce of 100,300 employees, according to figures by FactSet, cited by AP.
Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/coca-cola-cut-jobs-1200-consumers-sugary-drinks-fizzy-sales-slump-a7706241.html?source=Snapzu

Sundar Pichai just hinted at how Google will make money from maps, and it sounds like lots of ads

Google Maps is one of the company's most popular services, but when it comes to bringing in revenue, Maps is not pulling its weight. That's by design — Google admits it has been slow to monetize the app. "We take a long term view," Google CEO Sundar Pichai told a Wall Street analyst who inquired about potential plans to turn Maps into a more significant moneymaker during the company's Q1 earnings call on Thursday.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/sundar-pichai-hints-at-ads-in-google-maps-2017-4?source=Snapzu

Google is super secretive about its anti-aging research. No one knows why.

In 2013, Time magazine ran a cover story titled Google vs. Death about Calico, a then-new Google-run health venture focused on understanding aging — and how to beat it. “We should shoot for the things that are really, really important, so 10 or 20 years from now we have those things done,” Google CEO Larry Page told Time. But how exactly would Calico help humans live longer, healthier lives? How would it invest its vast $1.5 billion pool of money? Beyond sharing the company’s ambitious mission...
Read more: https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/4/27/15409672/google-calico-secretive-aging-mortality-research?source=Snapzu

A Night and a Day in Tonopah, Nevada

A 360-degree Western adventure featuring the Clown Motel, a miner's graveyard, and a forest of cars. (June 28, 2016)
Read more: http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-night-and-a-day-in-tonopah-nevada?source=Snapzu

An extreme method for breaking your bad habits

What to do when incremental change just won’t cut it. By Mikael Cho.
Read more: https://medium.com/swlh/an-extreme-method-for-breaking-your-bad-habits-8d269b5302da#.s9y12s8ng?source=Snapzu

Google Just Became The First Foreign Internet Company To Launch In Cuba

Google’s servers in Cuba went live on Wednesday, making the internet giant the first foreign internet company to host content within the long cut-off country. The servers are part of Google’s global network of caching servers, called GGC nodes, the servers work by storing popular content — like a viral YouTube video — on a local server. Instead of having to travel the long distance through a submarine cable, which currently connects Cuba to the internet through Venezuela, Cubans will now be able to access content through the nearest Google server in their country.
Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/sheerafrenkel/google-just-became-the-first-foreign-internet-company-to?source=Snapzu

How rich hippies and developers went to war over Instagram’s favourite beach

Reviews of Uno Astrolodge, a boutique new age-style hotel on Mexico’s Caribbean coast, lean heavily on words such as “magic”, “paradise” and “peace”. When it opened in 2001, Uno Astrolodge was one of the first upscale hotels in the beach town of Tulum. Over the past decade, the once-sleepy town, 75 miles south of Cancún, has become the kind of spiritual oasis particularly favoured by the fashion industry and wealthy New Yorkers. Until recently, guests at Uno Astrolodge, set on an exclusive stretch of white sandy beach, paid up to $300 per night for a room in a candlelit bungalow with a view of the ocean.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/apr/26/tulum-mexico-hotel-evictions-instagram-favourite-beach?source=Snapzu

This Is Spinal Tap’s $400 Million Lawsuit

In comedy, as in rock ’n’ roll, nothing is quite as easy as it looks. And so it makes sense that several years before the 1984 release of the legendary rock ’n’ roll mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, director Rob Reiner and stars and co-writers Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, and Harry Shearer first had to make a shorter version of the same movie: a sort of sample-size Spinal Tap, meant to whet the appetite of studios that might bankroll the real thing.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-04-20/this-is-spinal-tap-s-400-million-lawsuit?source=Snapzu

Romania’s Problem with Dracula

Bram Stoker’s novel was a mixed blessing for Romania. It attracted tourists, but the legend was at odds with communist ideals and made a villain of a national hero.
Read more: http://www.historytoday.com/duncan-light/romania%E2%80%99s-problem-dracula?source=Snapzu

Apple shows off Dubai Mall store with ‘stunning views’, motorized carbon fiber windows

A day before the official opening, Apple invited local press to tour its latest retail store within the Dubai Mall in the United Arab Emirates. Headline features include views of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and a 180-feet wide motorized window comprising 18 carbon fiber panels.
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/26/apple-store-dubai-mall-video/?source=Snapzu

The Globe of Economic Complexity: Visualize $15 Trillion of World Exports

One dot equals $100M of exports
Read more: http://globe.cid.harvard.edu/?source=Snapzu

Retailers Are Going Bankrupt at a Record Pace

Department stores, electronics sellers, and clothing shops are most at risk. Retailers are filing for bankruptcy at a record rate as they try to cope with the rapid acceleration of online shopping. In a little over three months, 14 chains have announced they will seek court protection, according to an analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence, almost surpassing all of 2016. Few retail segments have proven immune as discount shoe-sellers, outdoor goods shops, and consumer electronics retailers have all found themselves headed for reorganization.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-24/retailers-are-going-bankrupt-at-a-record-pace?source=Snapzu

Nordstrom sells jeans, jacket with fake mud on them for $425 each; Critics let loose

After making news selling rocks for $85, Nordstrom has lit the internet on fire with jeans and a jacket covered in fake mud for $425 apiece. By Clint Davis.
Read more: http://www.wxyz.com/news/national/nordstrom-sells-jeans-with-fake-mud-on-them-for-425?source=Snapzu

FTC Takes Action Against Influencers, Marketers Over Sponsored Posts

In a landmark bout of activity, the Federal Trade Commission has announced that it is, in fact, watching celebrities, athletes, and other influencers on Instagram.
Read more: http://www.thefashionlaw.com/home/this-just-in-ftc-takes-action-against-influencers-marketers-over-sponsored-posts?source=Snapzu

Marissa Mayer Set to Receive $186 Million for Failing Because This Is How Corporate America Works

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer continues to stack up piles of cash, despite her veritable failure to rescue the company from a pile of its own rot. After numerous setbacks, including two massive security breaches and dwindling ad revenue, Mayer is set to make about $186 million as a result of the company’s sale to Verizon, new SEC documents show.
Read more: http://gizmodo.com/marissa-mayer-set-to-receive-186-million-for-failing-b-1794625573?source=Snapzu

‘I See You’: A Domestic Violence Survivor Talks About Being Surveilled By Her Ex

The pluspluspodcast dives into the horrifying world of smartphone spyware. By Jason Koebler.
Read more: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/i-see-you-a-domestic-violence-survivor-talks-about-being-surveilled-by-her-ex?source=Snapzu

Uber gets sued over alleged ‘Hell’ program to track Lyft drivers

Uber has another lawsuit on its hands. This time, it’s about Uber’s alleged use of a program called “Hell.” The plaintiff, Michael Gonzales, drove for Lyft during the time Uber allegedly used the software. He’s seeking $5 million in a class action lawsuit. As the story goes, Uber allegedly tracked Lyft drivers using a secret software program internally referred to as “Hell.” It allegedly let Uber see how many Lyft drivers were available to give rides, and what their prices were. Hell could allegedly also determine if people were driving for both Uber and Lyft.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/24/uber-hell-lawsuit/?source=Snapzu

Fearing a worker shortage, [U.S.] farmers push back on immigration

The head of Bethel Heights Vineyard looked out over the 100 acres of vines her crew of 20 Mexicans had just finished pruning, worried about what will happen if the Trump administration presses ahead with its crackdown on immigrants… By Andrew Selsky.
Read more: https://apnews.com/1d92c1052dfe47f5b5cc408ebdd89e1e/Fearing-a-worker-shortage,-farmers-push-back-on-immigration?source=Snapzu

Despite being banned in numerous states, Sprayground releases all new graffiti backpack today. (2016)

The Graffiti Utility Backpack has stoked controversy since it was made available, with critics voicing concern it “sends the wrong message” and “encourages vandalism.”
Read more: http://thesource.com/2016/03/25/despite-being-banned-in-numerous-states-sprayground-releases-all-new-graffiti-backpack-today/?source=Snapzu

To keep EpiPen sales up, Mylan threatened states, sued making bogus claims

Pharmaceutical company Mylan sued West Virginia in 2015 to keep its EpiPens on the state’s “preferred drug list,” which, if successful, would mean that the state’s Medicaid programs would have to automatically pay for the pricey epinephrine auto-injectors. The bold and unusual move by Mylan—which ultimately failed—is yet another example of the aggressive marketing and legal tactics the company used to boost profits from EpiPens, which halt life-threatening allergic reactions.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/mylan-bullied-sued-states-to-get-them-to-use-epipens-court-documents-show/?source=Snapzu

The Next Disney Will Come from China and Its Name Is Tencent

Tencent is using its social networks, WeChat and QQ, and video games to build an entertainment juggernaut.
Read more: https://backchannel.com/why-chinas-tencent-might-be-the-next-disney-b8f87f305c47?gi=4350d599836a?source=Snapzu

Public banking goes to pot

California activists turn to the cannabis industry to help launch the nation’s first public bank in nearly a century. By Jeremy Lybarger.
Read more: http://www.hcn.org/articles/public-banking-goes-to-pot?src=longreads?source=Snapzu

Be kind, rewind: Blockbuster stores kept open in Alaska

“I can’t tell you how many business cards I’ve given out to people ‘cause they literally do not believe that I’m from Blockbuster,” said Kevin Daymude. He’s the manager of a Blockbuster Video outlet in Anchorage, Alaska. The new releases are new, and the candy is fresh, but it feels like a place from another era.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/be-kind-rewind-blockbuster-stores-kept-open-in-alaska/?source=Snapzu

Tim Cook reportedly threatened to remove Uber from the App Store in CEO meeting

Uber has long been the suspect of user tracking allegations on iOS, with the company itself addressing the problem as recently as last year. A new wide-raging profile from The New York Times, however, offers more detail on Uber’s location tracking habits, and how they almost got the app banned from the App Store…
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2017/04/23/tim-cook-reportedly-threatened-to-remove-uber-from-the-app-store-in-ceo-meeting/?source=Snapzu

Jack Ma Sees Decades of Pain as Internet Upends Older Economy

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Chairman Jack Ma said society should prepare for decades of pain as the internet disrupts the economy.
Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-23/jack-ma-sees-decades-of-pain-as-internet-upends-older-economy?source=Snapzu

Bill O’Reilly Is Gone, But Fox News’s Legal Nightmare Continues

The Murdochs hoped firing Bill O’Reilly would signal a changing culture at Fox News. “We want to underscore our consistent commitment to fostering a work environment built on the values of trust and respect,” Rupert and his sons, James and Lachlan, wrote in a memo to Fox News employees on Wednesday. But the dismissal of Fox News’s highest rated host isn’t going to end the crisis at the network. The toxic culture, fostered for 20 years by former CEO Roger Ailes, is proving far more difficult to remedy.
Read more: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/04/oreilly-is-gone-but-fox-newss-legal-nightmare-continues.html?source=Snapzu

Scouring the brain for clues to new treatments for mental illness

Psychiatric drugs haven’t improved much in decades. So researchers are trying to develop better models of the brain to help them understand mental illness. By Meghana Keshavan. (Feb. 15, 2017)
Read more: http://www.statnews.com/2017/02/15/psychiatric-drugs-mental-illness/?source=Snapzu

What America Would Look Like If Libertarians Got Their Way

What if you cut all benefits? What if all of public life were a giant competition? What libertarianism would look like in real life. These four libertarian/conservative dystopias are offered, as Rod Serling used to say in "The Twilight Zone," "for your consideration."The “Libertarian/Conservative”
Read more: http://www.alternet.org/what-america-would-look-if-libertarians-got-their-way?source=Snapzu

Open-sourced blueprints for civilization

Using wikis and digital fabrication tools, TED Fellow Marcin Jakubowski is open-sourcing the blueprints for 50 farm machines, allowing anyone to build their own tractor or harvester from scratch. And that's only the first step in a project to write an instruction set for an entire self-sustaining village (starting cost: $10,000).
Read more: https://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski?source=Snapzu

Fan-made subtitles for TV shows and movies are illegal, court rules

Fansubbing—the unofficial creation of fan-made subtitles for TV shows and movies—is illegal, a Dutch court ruled this week. The Free Subtitles Foundation, after coming under fire from the Netherlands' anti-piracy association BREIN, decided to raise some money and take BREIN to court. The Foundation's lawyer told TorrentFreak that the lawsuit sought to clarify whether the creators of a TV show or movie can reserve the right to create and distribute subtitles.
Read more: https://arstechnica.co.uk/tech-policy/2017/04/fan-made-subtitles-for-tv-shows-and-movies-are-illegal/?source=Snapzu

We’ve been missing a big part of game industry’s digital revolution

NPD “restatement” shows consistent spending growth as digital sales dominate.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/04/the-us-game-industry-is-a-lot-bigger-and-less-physical-than-we-thought/?source=Snapzu

Saudi Arabia, a kingdom built on oil, plans a future beyond it

It prepares to sell a piece of its crown jewel, Saudi Aramco, and reshape its economy
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/saudi-arabia-a-kingdom-built-on-oil-plans-a-future-beyond-it/2017/04/21/6574d2ee-251a-11e7-bb9d-8cd6118e1409_story.html?utm_term=.c0f48f1f40ef?source=Snapzu

Want to Stop Facebook Violence? You Won’t Like the Choices

No one wants murder videos on Facebook. But no one wants Facebook to censor their baby videos, either.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/2017/04/face-law-cant-keep-violence-off-facebook-either/?source=Snapzu

McDonald's accused of copying graffiti logo – here's why we should protect street artists' original tags.

When commercial giants want to capitalise on graffiti 'logos', it's time to protect street artists under copyright law.
Read more: https://theconversation.com/mcdonalds-accused-of-copying-graffiti-logo-heres-why-we-should-protect-street-artists-original-tags-66855?source=Snapzu

United Airlines to tie executive pay to customer satisfaction - BBC News

Boss Oscar Munoz will no longer become company chairman after the passenger ejection incident.
Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39675265?source=Snapzu

The First-Ever Banner Ad on the Web

It was an advertisement for AT&T in 1994, and people clicked on it like crazy.
Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-first-ever-banner-ad-on-the-web/523728/?single_page=true?source=Snapzu

The Borussia Dortmund bus attack may have been an attempt to manipulate the markets

'If the shares of Borussia Dortmund had fallen massively, the profit would have been several times the initial investment,' the prosecutor's office said.
Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/borussia-dortmund-bus-attack-share-manipulation-2017-4?source=Snapzu