Alibaba said $2 billion of goods were sold in the first hour of its Singles Day shopping bonanza in China on Tuesday, maintaining the day's dominance as the world's biggest retail event as it went global for the first time.

The ecommerce giant said that amount was more than a third of the $5.8 billion full-day sales recorded on the same day last year.

Alibaba has been pushing Nov. 11 as Singles Day — so named for the number of ones in the date — since 2009 as it looks to tap an expanding army of internet shoppers in China, which has the world's biggest online population.

Singles Day already surpassed major shopping festivals in the US in terms of transaction value last year, toppling the combined online sales of $3.7 billion recorded on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, according to an estimate by the internet analytics firm comScore.

The day was originally marketed as an "anti-Valentine's Day" in China featuring hefty discounts to lure the country's singletons and price-sensitive buyers. 

It has been expanded globally this year to include overseas merchants and customers.

Within the first one hour, 12 seconds, more than 12.23 billion yuan ($2 billion) of deals were settled on both domestic and international retail marketplaces, Alibaba said in a statement, adding that 45.7 percent of the transactions were made via mobile devices.

Headquartered in the eastern city of Hangzhou, Alibaba debuted its shares in New York two months ago with a record-breaking $25 billion initial public offering.

The giant operates China's most popular online shopping platform, Taobao, which is estimated to hold more than 90 percent of the online market for consumer-to-consumer transactions.

The company does not sell products directly but acts as an electronic middleman. It also owns other marketplaces, including the business-to-consumer platform Tmall.

More than 27,000 brands and merchants are participating in this year's Singles Day, while consumers in more than 220 countries and regions will be able to join the 24-hour spending spree, the statement said.

Some 500 million packages are expected to be shipped during this year's festival, up 50 percent from a year earlier, the state postal service told state media last month.

But some internet users were less impressed, accusing some merchants of fooling consumers by raising prices beforehand.

"I don't know why people are so excited about the 'Double 11' (November 11). It's meaningless as they all hike prices before offering a discount," one wrote on China's Twitter-like blogging service Sina Weibo.

Alibaba said last week its third-quarter net profit jumped 15 percent year-on-year to $1.1 billion, its first earnings report since successfully completing the world's biggest stock offering in September.

Revenue soared by 53.7 percent from the same quarter last year to $2.7 billion, it said. 

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Super-cooled water is super fun too, at least the first time you see it. Still in liquid state, it's actually well below zero—so when you touch it with a spoon, say, it turns sold right before your eyes. The best bit? You can make it at home.

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(via cuteanimalspics)

The post At least you tried appeared first on Ghetto Red Hot.

The post This is not cute just saying appeared first on Ghetto Red Hot.

The post Autocorrect Could Have Inspired This… appeared first on Damn You Auto Correct!.

northeastnature:

This plant is a ghostly parasite. Most plants use a green pigment to make food from the sun, but some, like this Indian pipe (Monotropa uniflora), steal nutrients from fungi that are connected to tree roots. Without the need for sun, this plant can grow on gloomy forest floors. I think it’s rather pretty, but you won’t see it in a garden any time soon. To grow one, you’d need to transport the whole system - unsuspecting trees and fungi - too.

Dissolving detergent pods, introduced in 2012, are convenient and popular. They’re also extremely dangerous to the young children to whom they look like delicious squishy treats. And a new study finds it’s even more children than previously thought, with an average of one child being hurt by a laundry pod every hour.

The New York Times reports that in 2012 and 2013, over 17,000 children were in some way poisoned by the colorful cleaners, either by swallowing or breathing the contents or by getting the liquid in their eyes. Some detergent poisonings have tragically been fatal.

The CDC has been reporting for years that the detergent pods are particularly attractive to small children, and the CPSC issued a consumer safety alert on them back in 2012.

The pods were originally sold in clear plastic containers that made their shiny, colorful contents especially attractive to curious toddlers and pre-schoolers. Most manufacturers have since switched to opaque containers, but concern about the pods remains.

The researchers gathered their information from the National Poison Data System. Reporting incidents to the database is voluntary, and so it’s likely that the study is, if anything, underreporting the number of incidents.

“These 17,000 children we found amounts to one child every hour being exposed to one of these laundry pod products,” one of the study authors told the New York Times. “That’s a very different order of magnitude than other hazards.”

At least ten brands of laundry detergent pods are now available, and consumers sure do like to snap them up. Consumers spent about $525 million on the two brands in 2013, the New York Times says, which is an increase of over 55% as compared to 2012.

Two children have died as a result of poisoning from laundry detergent pods. During the period the study covered, 6000 children were seen in emergency rooms, 750 were hospitalized, and over 300 required intensive care.

Detergent Pods Pose Risk to Children, Study Finds [New York Times]

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, everyone's favorite sad-eyed, inevitably likable actor, will play Edward Snowden, everyone's favorite vacant-eyed, always unkempt former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower, in a new movie directed by Oliver Stone. Do you see the resemblance?

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Yes, believe it or not, there’s a scientific explanation on why people (apparently) like the smell of their own farts.

[AsapSCIENCE]

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream. But apparently not loud enough as kids because the tiny portions we got from those standard-sized ice scream scoopers pale in comparison to what this monster can serve up in one fell scoop. That's a full pint of the good stuff there, ready to crush cones and overflow bowls.

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Drive a fancy car? Taylor Swift doesn't even give a shit, man.

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Now look at these r2-d2 yoga pants »

"Beast Setee"

Nikolai and Simon Haas are twin brothers from Texas whose vision in furniture is soft, luxurious and a little bit Cousin Itt. Certain pieces in the exhibition, such as one they call "Sex Room Entrance," are full of sexual imagery. Their New York show “The Haas Brothers: Cool World,” the title inspired by the 1992 film of the same name, is at R & Company in New York. The exhibition began on November 4 and runs through the January 3, 2015. The R & Company description explains that the Haas brothers' show is based on the idea of "California freedom":

"The concept of freedom provides the nexus for the body of work exhibited in Cool World, in particular the ideal of California freedom. As Simon Haas writes, 'California has been the catalyst for our development as artists -- its alien-ness and variety of culture and landscape have taught us by example that fantasy and reality can be merged by choice. Our newest pieces offer a taste of the Californian utopia that we developed for ourselves.'"

With their whimsically named pieces, some after celebrities, such as "Anna Nicole" and "The Edward Fur-long," these pieces are an animalistic delight. Read a detailed description of the Haas brothers show, including more quotes from them about the inspiration of their pieces, at the R & Company website.

Visit the Haas brothers' websiteto see more of their work. 

Via Dangerous Minds | Images: The Haas brothers 

 "Golden Corral and Beast Guests"

 "Beast Club Chairs"

 "Anna Nicole"

I don’t know why you’re surprised, pimps like to take rides in limos too. Just gotta keep it slow so you don’t spill the Cognac, ain’t that right Pinky?

Arizona

The post That’s How We Roll appeared first on People Of Walmart.

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[link] [332 comments]

Austrian sound designer Mario Wienerroither gives the music video for Sia's "Chandelier" his famous "Musicless Musicvideo" treatment, where he strips the video of all its music and replaces it with hilarious original sound effects.


Here's the original 'Chandelier' music video for comparison:

Previously from Mario: Snoop Dogg's 'Drop It Like It's Hot' Without the Music

[mario wienerroither]

An upcoming build of the CyanogenMod operating system includes a simple but brilliant security feature called "Scramble PIN Layout." It's exactly what it sounds like: a way to scramble the keypad when you unlock your phone so that people can't peek at your keystrokes and learn your PIN.

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This beautiful video shows drill bits milling into steel plates, chipping away slowly and methodically. It's a mesmerizing look at a process that takes merely seconds at full speed. The title of the video is "Metal It Is Beautiful." It certainly is!

(Video Link)

-via Twisted Sifter

$40G per bird? California cormorants refuse to budge from bridge slated for demolition. That’s $32 million folks. Meanwhile the solar plant in the California-Nevada desert whacks up to an estimated 28,000 birds per year and wind farms whack an estimated 100,000 birds/year to 440,000 birds/year, but that’s OK because it’s ‘green.’ This is an estimated whopping 800 birds. This is how stupid our elected officials are.

submitted by Isben [link] [63 comments]

A few weeks ago I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Daryl Hall and John Oates in concert. But when they performed what is probably my favorite Hall & Oates song, "I Can't Go For That," I wasn't digging their live arrangement. I realized it's because this version, recorded in Hall's garage, will probably be my favorite forever.

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thefrogman:

[video]

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[link] [388 comments]