business

Ski touring group climbs adjacent to the Bec des Rosses mountain above the Swiss Alps resort of Verbier.

"Death from overworking" claims hit record high in Japan - legal claims relating to "karoshi" rose to a record high of 1,456 last financial year.

a baby crocodile decided to climb onto the head of a hapless frog

Billions: Sir Richard Branson, head of Virgin Group, said that he felt ‘sadness’ after Virgin America was bought by Alaska Airlines under a $2.6 billion deal.

(quote)  read more »

Update 15 May 2016 Unlucky woman's GPS led her straight into a lake
(quote)
Technology doesn't always love you back.
A woman in Tobermory, Ontario drove down a boat ramp and into Lake Huron last Thursday thanks to faulty directions from her GPS.
The GPS has not yet apologized for its actions.
Luckily, she was able to roll down the window, retrieve her purse and clamber out of the car before it started to sink.
She is reportedly doing just fine, with no injuries other than a few technological trust issues.

26 March 2016
BBC: The company said Google Maps directed them to the wrong address; they were supposed to tear down a home just one block away. Diaz says she has now received a personal apology but hopes the company will change its procedures to ensure addresses are more thoroughly checked before any demolition starts. And she warns against relying on GPS for directions. "I do not like to rely on GPS," she says. "I've had GPS take me to the wrong places also. So I look at the map."

Diaz says the demolition crew, who were still at the site of her home when she arrived, did offer a kind of explanation. One employee told her they had been due to tear down a house at 7601 Cousteau Drive, one street away, but their GPS mapping system had taken them to her home at 7601 Calypso Drive instead - The building, which included two homes, was pummelled in December's tornado but was due to be repaired  read more »

(quote)

March 7, 2016 Recall chicken nuggets: pieces of plastic Applegate Naturals is recalling some of their chicken nuggets because there may be pieces of plastic in the product.

February 23, 2016 Plastic in Snickers bar prompts Mars recall in 55 countries Mars Inc has recalled chocolate bars and other products in 55 countries, mainly in Europe, due to choking risk after a piece of plastic was found in a Snickers bar in Germany.

15-Feb-2016 McCain Foods recalled 25,215 pounds of bacon fritter Frittered: McCain issues recall after customer complaint.  read more »

Glitch's prank. this guy's luck. Google-operated domain service on 29 Sept 2015 sold google.com to MBA student Sanmay Ved, charged his credit card for $12, emailed him the transaction confirmation. For a glitch-created historical minute, a guy owned google.com beyond Google.

Washington Post - Max Schrems, left, and his lawyer Herwig Hofmann, right, at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg on Oct. 6, 2015. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

(quote)

For just $12, he bought Google.com - Babson College student, Sanmay Ved, briefly owns Google.com
For just one brief but unforgettable moment, a Babson College student owned the internet domain for the world's most heavily trafficked website. For just $12, he bought Google.com. Sanmay Ved is getting his MBA, but he used to work for Google. He was playing around with the website registration service, Google Domains. For fun, he entered "Google.com."

"I put in Google.com and it showed it was available," he said.
Much to his surprise, the domain he presumed would be unavailable, actually was. "I thought it was a mistake or something that should not happen, Google.net, is unavailable, but...(shows paperwork) as you see, Google.com is showing as available," he said, referencing screenshots.  read more »

(quote)

George Lucas, father of "Star Wars", is a pioneering filmmaker who redefined how films are made. Lucas wanted to make a movie that would teach children the central ethic of right and wrong, good and evil. “I want[ed] to see if I can bend their lives at a particular point in time when they’re very vulnerable,” he recalls, “and give them the things that we’ve always given kids throughout history. The last time we had done it was with the Western. And once the Western was gone, there was no vehicle to say, ‘You don’t shoot people in the back’ and such.”

He’ll receive a Kennedy Center Honor this weekend for his blockbuster work in movies and film technology, but he’s quick to point out that he’s the only recipient this year who isn’t technically a performer. The Honors are being held a mere 12 days before the intensely anticipated release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” the saga’s seventh episode. Harrison Ford said: “George has been amazing to me. He’s been the author of the early chapters of my life and given me the opportunity to have a really extraordinary life.”  read more »

(quote)

ex-hedge funder increases price of pill 5,000% overnight, drawing outcry
Hedge funder buys rights to drug used by AIDS patients and raises price from $13.50 to $750 per pill. A hedge fund trader is at the centre of mounting controversy after the pharmaceutical company he bought raised overnight the cost of a life-saving treatment for people with Aids and weakened immune systems from $13.50 per pill to $750.

The 5,000 per cent increase was enacted last month for Daraprim, known generically as pyrimethamine, by Turing Pharmaceuticals of New York, a start-up firm, shortly after it bought the rights to the drug. The firm is headed by Martin Shkreli.

Daraprim fights toxoplasmosis, the second most common food-borne disease, which can easily infect people whose immune systems have been weakened by AIDS, chemotherapy or pregnancy, according to the Centres for Disease Control. About 60 million people in the United States may carry the toxoplasma parasite.

Ex-Hedge Funder Buys Rights To Drug Used By Aids Patients And Raises Price From $13.50 To $750 Per Pill  read more »

(quote)

ABC news - Couple Fighting With Verizon Over $2M cell phone bill, said it took them 10 months to clear up - $2 million for one month
A couple in Oregon say they spent 10 months trying to clear up a whopping $2 million phone bill, which they say has prevented them from buying the home of their dreams. Ken Slusher and his girlfriend, of Damascus, Oregon, have a balance of $2,156,593.64 on a Verizon Wireless bill that was for a wireless account that they opened in November. "Yeah, it's been very stressful to say the least," Slusher told KPTV.com.

The couple canceled their service in December and returned their phones in January, but the bills continued to arrive, as first reported by KPTV. Customer service representatives told them in-person and on the phone that they promised to clear up the matter, he said.

Slusher said he hoped to close on a new house next Monday and his girlfriend and their children are eagerly awaiting the move. But he said his mortgage company won't sign off on a loan due to the phone debt. They began receiving several calls from collection agencies demanding upward of $2,000, KPTV reported. According to Slusher, the couple's first bill should have been around $120, but it was actually $698 with a balance of $451.

CBS - Volkswagen said its cheating software affects 11 million vehicles and may cost up to $87 billion  read more »