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Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jun 23, 2014
June 23, 2014
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Bid'ness is Bid'ness:
Do you crave the delicious chicken at Popeye's? The big wigs at the company are betting on it and just spent a fortune on their blend of herbs and spices. PerezHilton.com reports the deep fried chain paid $43-million-bucks to a Louisiana seasoning company so they can own the same recipe they've been using for decades. Apparently the bean counters did the math and decided it was a good investment considering they were already ponying up a cool $3.1-million every year in royalties. (Lee)
The Internet:
Last Thursday's half-hour Facebook outage could have cost the company a half-million dollars.
Forbes says the outage is the longest since 2010, when the online social network was down for two and a half hours. And since Facebook's revenue works out to $1.16million an hour, the half an hour outage would cost a bit more than a half-million bucks.Trash talk and satellite dish:
Warning: note language.
KIM KARDASHIAN and KANYE WEST probably won't be picking up any parents of the year awards. RadarOnline.com reports a few former fans aren't happy with their jet-setting lifestyle, question why their baby girl, NORTH, is rarely around and called the little girl "Ignori," "Norphan" and a "f-ing prop." Ouch.
Meanwhile, the duo threw a big shindig for Nori's first birthday over the weekend that featured teepees, a Ferris Wheel, face painting, hair braiding and called it "Kidchella" --a takeoff on the Coachella Music Festival. (Lee)ANNA KENDRICK was a late bloomer. The actress tells Us Weekly magazine that her mom used to tell her that at least she never had to worry about boys being interested in her just for her boobs. "I would have been thrilled if guys were interested in me because of my boobs!" (Myers)
Grace notes from Vinny Marino:
Comedian DAVE CHAPPELLE just started a nine-night stand at New York's Radio City Music Hall. RollingStone.com says KANYE WEST was a surprise guest at Friday night's show. He did three tunes: "New Slaves," Gold Digger" and "Jesus Walks." Kanye was a guest on Comedy Central's "The Chappelle Show" when the rapper was just about to become a superstar, so they go way back. Dave will have musical guests all this week at Radio City. NAS is with him tonight, THE ROOTS tomorrow night. On Wednesday, it will be BUSTA RHYMES, DJ PREMIERE and JANELLE MONAE, closing out with ERYKAH BADU on Thursday. (Marino)
Digital Domain:
Ever hear about those restaurant owners who wanted to install jammers so people couldn't talk or text at their tables while eating dinner? Or movie theatres that wanted them for the same reason?
Well, last Friday a Chinese electronics dealer got fined around $35 million by the FCC for selling those jammers to people in the US.
It's the biggest fine ever dropped on somebody by the FCC.
Part of the problem comes from the fact that the Chinese company falsely advertised that the jammers were approved by the FCC --which they weren't.Earlier this year, a Florida man was caught using a jammer in his car and fined $48-thousand dollars.
Turns out Metro PCS was getting complaints about a bad cell along interstate I-4, which kept failing each morning and evening. So CNET reports they organized a stakeout and caught a guy in a blue Toyota Highlander putting out "a strong wideband emission." And when they stopped JASON HUMPHREYS, their own two-way radios were jammed.
The Tampa Tribune says Humphreys admitted he owned the jamming gadget and told investigators he was using the jammer to keep people from talking on a cellphone while driving. He said he thought the jammer would work in a 30-feet radius, but instead, the jammer was powerful enough that it was affecting cellphone towers. -
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