If you want to keep your car in good shape, you have to get it washed somewhat regularly, but you can easily overpay by purchasing cleaning features you don't need. Chauffeur and redditor saxonjf suggests you only need two: high pressure wash and high pressure wax.
    
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Not every go bag has to be a bag. If you can fit all you need into a pouch, why not do it? The folks over at Every Day Carry found such a situation. This is about as minimalist as you can get.
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If you exercise, chances are you've been there before: You come home from the gym or a run and are shocked by the odor emanating from your workout clothes. Sometimes, no matter how many times you run them through the washer, the technical materials used to make exercise clothing just don't seem to want to come clean.
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Say hi to Donna Svei, a resume writer, executive recruiter, and career blogger at AvidCareerist. Recruiting since 1987, Donna has completed over 400 executive searches. She knows what hiring managers want to see on a resume and what makes them schedule an interview with you. Have questions for her? Donna is hanging out for the next hour, so ask away!
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You probably don't need us to tell you that a proper DSLR camera is better than the camera on your smartphone. But if you're curious how much better it is, the folks at Bammo have a (slightly NSFW) video that explains everything you need to know.
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A new generation of privacy-focused smartphones hit the scene at Mobile World Congress (MWC) last month. On the surface, they're all pretty exciting, but do you really need one of them to keep your data safe from prying eyes? Here's what you need to know.
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Nobody likes a clogged toilet. While you might think you just need a plunger and a strong arm to unclog a toilet, The Art of Manliness points to a few plumber tricks that make unclogging your toilet a little more pleasant.
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Many people want out of jury duty because it disrupts their lives, and you'll find an endless amount of online information about how to escape. The problem? It's mostly BS. Let's take a look at some of the more common myths out there about jury duty and the truths you should know.
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PotomacLocal.com |
Flash Cube PotomacLocal.com Manassas officer hit by texting driver returns to work after seven-month recovery – It's been a long journey, but Manassas City Police Officer Heather Munsterman is finally back at the job she loves after a seven-month absence. [WJLA-TV]. Should I-95 ... |
Prescott Arms apartments in Manassas demolished Inside NoVA In under a week, Prescott Arms, a long-standing apartment building at the corner of Prescott Avenue and Quarry Road, was leveled to make way for Prescott Court, a brand-new townhome community that will be constructed by home builder DR Horton, city ... |
What do you do when your company receives a free solicitation for a business listing and Facebook page? You might be tempted to snatch up a good deal, but there’s a good chance that deal will land you in the middle of a widespread scam. That seems to be the case for a New Jersey business owner as he faces threats of lawsuits and other action that could damage his credit.
What started as a fax solicitation in June 2013 has morphed into an apparent scam by a company with addresses in Dubai, Germany, Boston and Moscow.
The business owner tells the Newark Star-Ledger’s Bamboozled column (penned by Consumerist’s own Karin Price Mueller) that shortly after providing his contact information on the “Yellow Pages New Jersey” form for a free Facebook page to go along with his company’s directory listing, he received an invoice of $1,188 for a 12-month business directory listing.
The invoice contained a “service agent” address in Boston, a legal office in Dubai, and a postmark from Germany. A listing on the company’s website also featured a Moscow address, Bamboozled reports.
After receiving a second invoice the man looked at the original document only to see in fine print that he registered with the “business directory Yellow-Page-USA.com managed by Open Business Directory Ltd. … for a term of two years, at a price of US$99 per month, payable one year in advance…”
In July a third invoice came with a $25 reminder charge bringing his total bill to $1,213.
“All along, I treated this as a scam,” he tells the column. “They never explained where such a listing would appear — internet directory, hard copy, in which countries — or the two-year minimum term at the outlandish rate of $99 per month. However, these folks are persistent.”
Following several additional invoices, which totaled as much as $1,238, the man received notice that the company would be taking actions for the nonpayment that could result in levies against his property or other asset judgments.
The man called and sent a letter asking the company to cease and desist. Instead, he received another letter stating that not paying would be “…detrimental to your business.”
Soon after filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, the man received another email from the company offering a “gesture of goodwill” – two years of listing service for the price of one if he would immediately pay the first invoice price of $1,188.
After several months of no contact with the company the man thought his ordeal was over. But it wasn’t.
In February, he received another letter threatening to file suit if he didn’t pay $1,238 in just seven days.
That’s when Bamboozled began looking into Yellow-Page-USA.com on the man’s behalf.
Bamboozled found the company has quite a history involving complaints and accusations of being a scam.
In the past three years the BBB has received 1,544 complaints against Yellow-Page-USA.com, giving the company an “F” rating. Many of the complaints follow the same pattern.
The BBB website notes that the company uses a name and logo so close to the actual Yellow Pages Group that consumers believe they are dealing with their current advertiser.
The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs reports it received five complaints in the past two years against the company.
Since 2008, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office has received 131 complaints.
It also appears that, at least in New Jersey, the company has not actually any of the lawsuits it has threatened people with. This would seem to indicate that its intention may be to hassle people into paying with the mere threat of legal action.
When contacted by Bamboozled, the Yellow-Page-USA.com says it “undertakes it’s business in a correct and proper manner and complies with all relevant laws and regulations within the online business directory sector in which it operates.”
It declined to comment on the man’s case saying it was “of a confidential nature”.
The company said the majority of complaints filed are because customers have failed to read the contract before signing.
Consumers who received any fax solicitations should steer clear, Bamboozled suggests.
“This initially came to me as an unsolicited invitation for free listing … and with the mail/faxes coming out of Boston, with legal office in Dubai and the postage paid by the German Bundespost, I was/am very, very suspicious of the veracity of this whole thing,” the man says.
Consumerist has reported on similar “Yellow Pages Online” scam in the past. In those instances, a similar company will talk with employees asking yes or no questions and later allegedly doctor the tapes to make it appear the employee agreed to ads.
Bamboozled: NJ man hounded by alleged ‘Yellow Pages’ scam from Dubai, Moscow, Germany [Newark Star-Ledger]
ProPublica has been running a variety of stories on our temp-based economy for some time now. It’s not a bad thing to run warehouses and factories on temporary labor, though, is it? Not on its face, but remember that warehouse and factory jobs can be very dangerous, and are even more dangerous when a worker gets only rudimentary training. Even if you don’t care about your fellow human beings, that doesn’t mean that under-trained temps can’t affect you personally. After all, these are the factories that package your booze and make your frozen pizzas.
You might remember the contaminated over-the-counter drugs recalled in 2010: an investigation showed that many of the defective drugs came from a factory staffed by under-trained temps.
Here’s the original “Harvest of Shame” documentary, if historic TV interests you.
A Modern Day ‘Harvest of Shame’ [ProPublica]
Temp Land [ProPublica Investigations]
Permanently Temporary: The Truth About Temp Labor (Part 1 of 5) [Vice]
Over at The Kitchn, they’ve very pro-bringing-lunch-from-home, generally for the same reasons that we are. They offer some suggestions for things to keep in the break room or your desk drawer…depending on the scavenging tendencies of your co-workers.
Nice-quality packaged soup: Cans and dehydrated soup cups keep well, and you can find healthy and even lower-sodium choices. Even the hipster-oriented Campbell’s soup pouches could be a good choice here.
Peanut butter and crackers: If you or a colleague is allergic, you could also keep sunflower seed or soynut butter around. They’re still good for a snack or the base of a meal.
Canned beans: I’ve never tried this, but the site suggests taking advantage of your work kitchenette to prepare simple meals. You can do wonders with black beans and an avocado, assuming that you remembered to bring an avocado, a lime, and a shallot to work.
Fruit: Apples, bananas, or oranges will keep for most of the week on your desk. They make a fine dessert or snack any time. We’d also suggest packaged fruit or applesauce: as long as there’s no added sugar, they’re a healthy option that you don’t have to worry about going bad.
In Case of Emergency: 5 Foods to Keep in Your Desk for Last-Minute Lunches [The Kitchn]
Learning to Actually Pack (and Eat) Lunch: 3 Tips from a Recovering Lunch Buyer [The Kitchn]
In case you haven’t heard, the United States Postal Service has been in some troubled financial waters in the last few years, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars it owes the government in payments to its employee pension system. And so the fact that it spent $180,000 on a closed post office for five years must, well, sting the agency a little bit.
Since June 1, 2008, the USPS has shelled out approximately $180,000 to lease space for a 1,500 square foot property in a Pennsylvania town, reports the The Scranton Times-Tribune.
There’s supposed to be a post office in the building, but that hasn’t happened. It’s expected to open June 8, according to the USPS. The lease lasts through 2023.
So why is this post office stuck in a useless limbo, in what would seem like a waste of money at a time when the USPS really doesn’t need to be leaking any more cash?
It sounds like it can all be chalked up to a combination of factors that have all come together to royally mess with the opening: The place was supposed to open sooner than it did (well, of course it was), but financial and safety issues, along with other problems, got in the way.
“The lease started on the building in June 2008 with the expectation to complete the construction to occupy the building for postal operations soon thereafter,” said a spokeswoman for the Postal Service’s Central Pennsylvania and Western New York districts.
But then came a snafu when the township and state Department of Transportation got together to review the design of the building — apparently the site chosen would’ve caused traffic problems and didn’t drain properly. The USPS wasn’t expecting that, she said.
After a bunch of delays in the construction, contractors had a bit of a drainage issue on their hands, as they’d built a berm to carry water along the side of the building was in the place where officials had approved a driveway.
Town officials felt the driveway would cause safety issues as drivers would have to cross two lanes of traffic on the road to get to the post office. That road is often backed up, which would create a nasty situation, officials said.
“People are going to be stopping, and it’s going to back up traffic out onto Northern Boulevard,” the township manager said. “At some point we just said, ‘Hey, somebody is going to get rear-ended or killed.’ ”
The USPS and the town later agreed to a deal that would let the post office use an access road owned by the town, if the Postal Service would pay to widen the road and pay some future maintenance costs.
As soon as the building’s owner agrees, it’s on, said the USPS spokeswoman. The agency will finally continue construction and then open the new post office.
While $180,000 is just a drop in the bucket when compared to the $5 billion the USPS lost in fiscal 2013, money is money. Especially considering the USPS was mulling closing and/or combining some locations to save money.
You can follow MBQ on Twitter if you want to talk about snailmail on the Internet: @marybethquirk
U.S. Postal Service pays $180,000 for unopened post office [The Scranton Times-Tribune]
(afagen)
Does that headline make the hours you’ve spent taking public transit flash in front of your eyes? Because the fact that we took 10.7 billion public transit rides in 2013, the most since 1957, well that translates to billions of minutes. We did this together, everyone.
Commuting is never fun — whether by car or by rail/bus — but it does save money on gas, and many experts see it as a great way to shrink our carbon footprint. So we’ll take this new report from the American Public Transportation Association (via Business Insider) as a plus.
The overall public transit use got a 1.1% bump between 2012 and 2013, although miles driven also went up 0.3%. Cities like Austin, Philadelphia, Anchorage, Minneapolis, and Portland, Oregon all reported double-digit increases in commute rail services, which had some of the biggest growth.
The APTA sees this as a good sign of economic recovery — the more jobs there are, the more people there are commuting to work. Federal investment also plays a part, APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy said.
“The federal investment in public transit is paying off and that is why Congress needs to act this year to pass a new transportation bill,” he said in the press release.
It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re located. Whether you’re a company marketing canned pasta rings or a Swedish carmaker selling cars in China, the lesson holds true. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever use a tragedy to promote your product. Automaker Volvo learned that the hard way when a post to microblogging service Sina Weibo angered readers, who accused the company of taking advantage of an airline tragedy.
Weibo is immensely popular; for lack of a better comparison, it’s China’s version of Twitter. That means brands post marketing messages there, just like on social media everywhere else. In our opinion, many brands should just not bother to make social media posts at all, unless it’s to provide customer support.
Brands don’t listen to us, though. You’ve probably heard of MH370, the Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared entirely over the weekend. Volvo’s social media representatives, who the company says are from an outside agency, apparently wanted to make a nice post about the airline disaster. If you still think of Volvo as a Swedish company or a division of Ford and are confused about why they’re even posting on Weibo, well, it makes more sense than you might think. The Volvo brand is now owned by a Chinese company, and many of the passengers on the Beijing-bound plane were Chinese.
We don’t read Chinese, but the Wall Street Journal tells us that the original message read as follows:
The rescue operation for the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 plane is in full swing. Passenger safety is also a top priority at Volvo Cars, let’s pray together for the 239 lives that were on board of the plane. Bless them, and may a miracle occur.
The message also featured some candles. Isn’t that nice?
No. No, it isn’t. If you’re going to express condolences as a brand, do that; if you’re going to promote your product, do that, but for gosh sakes, don’t do it in the same message. No one really cares what a car company has to say about an airline disaster, though.
‘Inappropriate and Wrong’: Volvo’s Chinese Social Media Faux Pas [Wall Street Journal]
We all know that old coins can be very valuable and that saving your change adds up. But did you know that minting the low-value currency creates quite a tab for U.S. taxpayers? That’s because the cost to produce pennies and nickels is nearly twice as much as they are actually worth.
For the eighth year in a row the cost of making pennies and nickels exceeded their face value, costing the U.S. Treasury, and in turn taxpayers, $105 million, the Washington Post reports.
In 2013, cost of minting a penny was 1.8 cents, while the cost to mint a nickel was 9.4 cents. On the flip side, the cost to create a dime was a mere 4.6 cents.
The U.S. Treasury spent nearly $2 for every dollar in nickels and pennies it put into circulation last year. That means for every dollar you have in pennies it actually cost $1.83 to produce and for every dollar in nickels it cost $1.88. Putting the same amount of dimes and quarters into circulation cost the Treasury less than 50 cents.
Production costs for a dollar’s worth of pennies and nickels has always been higher than that of dimes and quarters, since it takes more of the coins to make a dollar. However, the last several years have been particularly hard on the production of pennies and nickels.
Data compiled by the Washington Post shows that coin manufacturing costs rose gradually from 1984 to 2005, when the cost of production for pennies and nickels began to spike.
The change was likely caused by the cost of metals used to produce the low-value coins. Pennies are comprised of copper and zinc, while nickels are made from nickel and zinc. As the cost for the metals rose the U.S. Mint began losing money.
In each of the past three years the Mint has lost more than $100 million on the production of pennies and nickels.
The consistent loss is enough for politicians to take notice. President Obama included a provision in his 2015 budget to assess the future of currency and explore alternatives.
One alternative could include changing the metal used to make the coins. The Post reports that the Canadian nickel is comprised of 95% steel and costs less than their face value.
Another option is to discontinue the use of pennies and nickels. Canada ceased production of its one-cent piece in 2012 and stopped distributing the coin in 2013. However, similar attempts to do so in the U.S. were squashed by the zinc industry and the operator of change-redeeming kiosks like CoinStar.
Pennies have long been the outcast of U.S. currency. The once-valuable buying machine has been devalued so much that most people don’t think twice about retrieving them from after passing through airport security or using them to make a passive aggressive payment.
In 2012, the “Death to Pennies” YouTube video visually laid out why pennies are the bane of most people’s existence. The video took viewers on a journey of how the coin transformed from its glorious copper beginnings to a now semi-worthless piece of metal.
Take Our PollTaxpayers lost $105 million on pennies and nickels last year [The Washington Post]
Last week, a woman in Michigan who was found dead in the backseat of her Jeep, which was parked in her garage. No neighbors remembered seeing her around since maybe 2008, and the bank started foreclosure proceedings. A contractor making repairs on behalf of the bank found the homeowner, who lived alone and was estranged from family. How could such a thing happen?
It turned out to be a strange perfect combination of thoughtful neighbors, a job requiring lots of travel, automatic bill payments, a nice cushion of savings, and strained family relationships. Reporters pieced together that the woman was laid off from her job in finance at Chrysler in the fall of 2008, and co-workers there were the last people to see her alive.
Her mortgage and utility payments all came automatically out of her bank account, which investigators say had about $54,000 in it at the time of her death. Property taxes were part of her mortgage payments. No one noticed that anything was amiss until the money ran out. Mail was forwarded to a P.O. box, but her bills remained paid. Her car was last registered in 2008,
Neighbors were used to having the woman leave on extended business travel, often to Germany, since Chrysler was then part of Diamler-Benz. She “kept to herself,” as people always say about neighbors they don’t know very well. Neighbors kept her lawn mowed to be nice and keep the street looking nice, even though they assumed that maybe she had moved away.
The woman’s sister, who lives in Boston, admitted that the whole family wasn’t close, but couldn’t even get hold of her when their mother died. The phone kept ringing and ringing…presumably still connected because it was on autopay.
PONTIAC: Woman’s mummified body found in Pontiac garage, neighbors said woman ‘kept to herself’ [Source Media]
“I think there was foul play,” says sister of woman found dead in her garage after six years [WXYZ]
Back in 2011, we told you about a U.S. District Court ruling that determined the wearing of “I Heart Boobies” breast cancer awareness bracelets by middle school students was protected under the First Amendment. An appeals panel later sided with the lower court, but the school district recently attempted to take its case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, the Supremes shot down that petition.
The to-do over the bracelets began at the beginning of the 2010 school year in Easton, PA. The teachers said they began to notice that students were wearing the bracelets, which read in full “I [Heart symbol] Boobies! (Keep a Breast).”
The school district’s petition to the Supreme Court [PDF] goes into detail about the various ways in which school administrators believed the bracelets to be a distraction and causing problems among the students:
“[D]uring the September through November 2010 timeframe, there were instances of sexual harassment… particularly focused on girls’ breasts. A girl in the 7/8 Building, who was wearing an “I [Heart] Boobies!” bracelet, reported… that boys approached the girls at her lunch table and stated that they ‘love boobies.’ Another girl reported… that, while she was having a conversation with other girls at her lunch table about the ‘I [Heart] Boobies!’ bracelets, a boy interrupted them and stated ‘I love boobies’ and, while playing with fireball candies, chanted ‘boobies, boobies.’ There were also instances that were not reported… in which some boys were ‘immature’ regarding the ‘I [Heart] Boobies!’ slogan and approached other middle school girls about ‘boobies.’ Further, during the same timeframe, there were instances of boys touching girls in an unwanted sexual manner.”
The school’s principal subsequently ruled that the slogan on the bracelets was a “sexual double entendre which is prohibited by the School District-wide dress code policy.”
Some had argued that students should be allowed to wear the bracelets inside-out because the inside of the bracelets only conveyed the URL for a cancer-awareness website, however the school decided that the bracelets were too easily and too quickly turned back to their original state.
However, on the school’s official Breast Cancer Awareness Day, a trio of young women defied the new rules and openly sported the banned bracelet. Two of the girls were suspended for their refusal to remove the bracelets and for refusing to accept alternative ways of expressing their support for the cause without the bracelets. They were also not allowed to attend a school dance because of their actions.
The parents of the two students sued the school district in federal court, where the judge held that because there was nothing inherently sexual or lewd about the phrase, that the school overreached in enacting the ban.
The school district appealed the case to the 3rd Circuit Court, which held that speech “plausibly” containing “social or political” commentary may not be banned, unless the speech is “plainly lewd.” Had the bracelets been merely about “boobies” with no mention of breast cancer prevention, the school district may have had a better case.
In its appeal to the Supreme Court, the school district contended that legal precedent on the issue of the banning of lewd speech in schools does not suggest that “student speech full of sexual innuendo or scatological implications must be tolerated by the Constitution just because an argument can be made to connect them with some political or social cause.”
The school’s lawyers contend that the district did nothing to suppress the message of breast cancer prevention; it only banned one particularly, arguably lewd, version of that expression.
No reason was given for the Supremes’ denial of the district’s petition. Lawyers for the students at the middle of the ban tell USA Today they will petition the District Court judge to make his injunction against the bracelet ban permanent.
Harry Potter goes to school at Hogwart’s. This is a theme park version. (tjean314)
While you might imagine any theme park involving Comcast to feature a giant whale ride that swims around devouring all the fish competition in the sea (or krill, if it’s that kind of whale), the reality has a lot more to do with flying boy wizards. Comcast is dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into its theme parks in California and Florida in a pitch to compete with Disney.
Comcast’s appetite for money will not be contained to the telecommunications business — have you heard about this proposed Time Warner merger thing? — reports The Philadelphia Inquirer, so it’s investing huge bunches of cash into Universal Orlando Resorts as well as Universal Studios Hollywood. The company acquired both resorts when it bought NBCUniversal in 2011.
The success of the Orlando resort’s Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey ride has prompted Comcast to open another Harry Potter ride and themed area at its new theme park, Universal Studios Florida, this summer. That sprawling behemoth of entertainment will share space with the original on its 750 acres.
Beyond the newest theme park, the Universal complex will also feature a new 1,800-room, 1960s-themed Cabana Bay Beach resort. That way visitors can just spend days upon end shelling out dough to Comcast, all without leaving the grounds.
But if you want to visit both Harry Potter attractions, you’ll have to buy two separate tickets.
“We’re so bummed it’s not connected and you will have to buy two tickets,” one fan said of the attraction, estimating that’ll cost them about $200 to do.
Over on the left coast, Universal Studios Hollywood announced a 20-plus-year “Evolution Plan” in 2013 for its theme park and studio property, which of course, also has a Harry Potter attraction.
Universal Studios Hollywood in California, also owned by Comcast, announced in 2013 a 20-plus-year “Evolution Plan” for its theme park and studio property, which also includes a Harry Potter attraction.
Comcast’s head honcho Brian Roberts said before that he’s “doubling down on theme parks,” adding: “We think there is a lot there in the theme park business for many years to come, and that we have the low market share and only one way to go.”
But it’s not like the company even needs to target Disney and it’s totally not doing that, adds another executive.
“We don’t have to win,” Thomas L. Williams, chairman and chief executive officer of Universal Parks & Resorts said in an interview. “We just have to get our share.”
Comcast ‘doubling down’ on theme park business [The Philadelphia Inquirer]
Charlotte, North Carolina-based fruit company Chaiquita Brands announced Monday it is merging with Ireland-based Fyffes in an all-stock deal valued at $1.1 billion, Reuters reports.
The new company, which will be named ChiquitaFyffes, will control nearly 14% of the banana supplier market well ahead of Fresh Del Monte and Dole Food Company.
“This is a milestone transaction for Chiquita and Fyffes that brings together the best of both companies,” Ed Lonergan, Chaquita chief executive says.
Officials with the new company say the merger will bring new opportunities to the industry.
ChiquitaFyffes is estimated to have $4.6 billion in annual revenue from sales of more than 160 million boxes of bananas.
With approximately 32,000 employees, the new company will be based in Ireland where it will receive operational pre-tax savings of at least $40 million by the end of 2016.
The merger will be subject to review by competition authorities, but company officials say it is unlikely to face opposition as the two companies operate in different markets.
Chiquita and Fyffes merge to make world’s biggest banana firm [Reuters]
Andrew Zimmern, chef and host of Travel Channel’s Bizarre Foods, has never held back his feelings about crowdsourced review site Yelp, once calling it a “tremendous forum for a bunch of uninformed morons to take down restaurants.” It’s all well and good to slam the site, but what are people to do when they’re looking for insight on where to eat?
His problem with Yelp, Zimmern explains in an interview with Eater.com, is that someone looking for reviews has no idea of a reviewer’s personal tastes, biases, or knowledge of food.
“I’m no one’s food snob. I consider a perfect hot dog on the street to be as valid a food experience as dinner at Blue Hill at Stone Barns,” he says. “I do not care what people — who I don’t know where they live, don’t know what their eating habits are, don’t know what sort of expertise or standards they bring to the experience — telling me what they think of a hot dog on the street or Blue Hill at Stone Barns. It’s meaningless to me.”
The solution, says Zimmern, is what he calls “crowdsourced expertise” — the use of social media to find people whose taste seem to be in line with yours and who you’d consider knowledgeable on the kind of food you’re looking for.
“I would be interested to know where Rick Bayless likes to eat Mexican food in Chicago,” he explains, referring to the chef/restaurateur/better Bayless brother. “I follow Rick Bayless. I follow Mexican chefs who are there. I follow line cooks. I build my own profile. I take food seriously, so I have my own resources. People who don’t want to spend a little bit of time building their own network and their own profile on their social media love to turn to Yelp, and that’s great. The problem is that they’re not crowdsourcing expertise. They’re just crowdsourcing noise. My suggestion is, why wouldn’t you spend 15, 20 minutes and search on Twitter and follow some people in the city?”
Zimmern says that asking for crowdsourced information from non-experts “is such a waste of time. It was really hard 20 years ago to do that. Now you can just flip on your phone.”
Since taking a controlling ownership in Sprint, Japanese telecom company SoftBank has made no attempt to hide the lust it has in its heart for fellow wireless company T-Mobile USA. Since then, federal regulators have basically told SoftBank to put its ardor on ice because there is already too little competition in the wireless market. But SoftBank may have a trick up its sleeve, coming at the deal through the lens of a market that is even less competitive — broadband.
Bloomberg reports that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son will be in Washington, D.C., this week to put his revised sales pitch before regulators at the FCC and the Justice Dept.
Son had previously tried to woo regulators by reportedly claiming that the only way for Sprint and T-Mobile to compete with the much larger AT&T and Verizon is for the two smaller businesses to merge.
The new tactic is to convince folks in D.C. that a combined Sprint/T-Mobile could provide a viable competitive alternative to broadband services.
As we recently highlighted, many cities across America have little to no competition for residential broadband service. Even those cities where there are multiple companies involved, there is sometimes no overlap.
“In most markets you have one or two choices for broadband. SoftBank’s strategy is to convince the FCC and DOJ that a strengthened No. 3 player can compete with cable,” a Wells Fargo analyst explains to Bloomberg. “The key to this will be finding a way to make it politically palatable so it doesn’t look like regulators are doing an about-face on the four-player market preference.”
There are those who believe that the future of broadband is not fiber-to-the home but some form of wireless data delivery that can provide data speeds most customers need for Internet use and streaming video/music/games without the hassle of creating a wired network that connects to each end user.
It’s inevitable that such service will someday be commonplace, but the question is whether it will be the cable companies, the wireless providers, or some third party like Google, that will be the ones to make it a reality.
Given Sprint and T-Mobile’s comparatively sluggish rollout of LTE, we have a hard time believing that SoftBank will be able to convince regulators that these are the two companies that will successfully compete against the Comcasts of the world.
Get it? A bed? Yeah. Bow chicka bow bow. (Us)
There are some business deals we don’t really understand, the kind that just can’t be good for anyone. But when the owners of Durex condoms snatch up rights to sell K-Y globally, well that’s pretty much a natural match made in the bedroom.
Because condoms and “intimate lubricants” go together like well, condoms and lubricant, Reckitt Benkiser, Durex’s makers, have bought the global rights to Johnson & Johnson-owned McNeil’s K-Y, reports The Independent.
The will close in the next few months, with Reckitt hoping that with this big buy, it can “transform” its “sexual well-being category.”
The company said K-Y had sales of more than $100 million in 2013. That popularity could give a boost to Durex, which is marketed as sexual intimacy brand instead of just a health product. K-Y is seen as a global leader, Reckitt says, one that is very popular with the ladies as it has a “high trust score amongst women.”
In related news — I just learned that K-Y started as a prescription-only product back in 1917. And here I thought “I’m a love doctor” was just a pickup line.
You can follow MBQ on Twitter if you don’t mind bad jokes about K-Y now and again: @marybethquirk
Durex hopes for ‘intimate’ boost after K-Y acquisition [The Independent]
Pizza Hut is out to become the global leader in pizzas with toppings crammed into the crusts. We have a morbid fascination with this product line, and now The Hut has introduced something even scarier than bacon cheeseburgers and chicken nuggets embedded in pizza crusts. In New Zealand, they’ve shoved Marmite in there.
Marmite, as you may now, is a yeast-based spread popular in the United Kingdom and in New Zealand, and similar to Vegemite in Australia. To say that it’s an acquired taste is an understatement. Not everyone in the countries where the yeasty spreads are popular even find them edible.
It’s not the glorious cheeseburger pizza crusts or pizzas topped with additional pizzas available elsewhere in the world, but …Marmite? Sounds horrifying.
Around the World: Pizza Hut Adds Yeast Spread to Stuffed Crust Pizza in New Zealand [Brand Eating]
