Throw Angry Birds For Stress Relief

December 1st, 2010

Congratulations, English! There’s now a thing called “entertainment snacking.”

  • Super-popular Angry Birds is just one of the “casual games” now dominating the digital marketplace. These games are accessible to nearly everyone because they’re rooted in basic physics concepts and extremely easy to understand.
  • A study showed that casual gaming actually reduced stress and improved mood in players, most of whom report that they play while waiting for appointments. One of the characteristics of Angry Birds is that it doesn’t punish players for failing – its feedback mechanism is reward-only.
  • Simple games aren’t new, but they’ve always been popular – just look at Tetris or Bejeweled. Alas, eventually all games run out of levels, so developers will have to keep innovating to feed the time-killing needs of their audience.

Facts & Figures

  • Angry Birds has sold more than 12 million copies since last year
  • The average session of casual gaming lasts less than 15 minutes
  • Famous Angry Birds addicts: David Cameron (the UK Prime Minister), Salman Rushdie, Conan O’Brien

Best Quote

“[I'm] something of a master at Angry Birds.” – Salman Rushdie, Booker Prize-Winning Novelist

No Fracking Way

November 30th, 2010

Shooting chemicals into New York State’s groundwater to capture an unsustainable energy source? Not in my backyard.

  • New York State is days away from approving a temporary ban (moratorium) on high-volume hydraulic fracturing (a.k.a. “fracking”).
  • Fracking (outside the parlance of Battlestar Galactica) is a method of drilling for natural gas trapped beneath shale rock. Water, chemicals, and sand are blasted into the rock until it gives, then the gas is collected.
  • Environmental groups, and now New York State legislators, are concerned about shooting harmful chemicals into the state’s water supply. Gas industry people disagree.

Facts & Figures

  • Natural gas trapped under the Marcellus Shale – a rock formation spanning NY, PA, OH, and WV – could meet U.S. gas demand for more than 10 years
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will release a report about fracking in 2012
  • The moratorium will go into effect when Governor Paterson signs it before the end of this year

Best Quote

“Right now, we think any time-out is a good one. The gas isn’t going anywhere.” – Craig Michaels, Watershed Program Director at

Black Friday’s Supertroopers

November 26th, 2010

It’s Black Friday, the biggest and most aggressive shopping day of the year. Stores slash prices and determined shoppers wait up all night, push each other, bribe each other, and occasionally trample one another to get their hands on the goods.

This year has seen an increase in the number of shoppers from the broke years after 2008, and the L.A. Times was kind enough to interview some of the consumer warriors swarming the local malls.

Best Quotes

  • “It’s cold, cold, cold, frustrating and stressful standing for five hours but you just do it. My mother-in-law put me in this spot.” – Monica Ferreira, 27, hoping for a $600 washer-dryer from Sears
  • “We are in it to win it. Go hard or go home.” – Ilene Agan, 27, veteran Black Friday Shopper at Toys R Us
  • “This is professional shopping for a lot of these customers, and they know exactly what they want. They plan these things, they have their routes and they make a beeline.” – Mike Boylson, Chief Marketing Officer, JCPenney
  • “Maybe I’m sacrificing too much for this TV.” – Vanessa Barrera, 20, Sears

Ireland’s Cuts Don’t Touch Corporations

November 25th, 2010

Ireland is in pretty big financial trouble, and the government is looking everywhere for extra money. But it seems like it forgot to look at the super-low corporate tax rate.

  • Ireland is the next European country up for a bailout from its neighbors, but it will only receive the money if it manages to scrape together $20 billion on its own.
  • So far, the government has lowered the minimum wage and raised taxes on homeowners, but it hasn’t raised its famously low corporate tax rates.
  • The emerald nation attracts big multinational corporations because they benefit from these low tax rates. Corporations bring jobs and money, but many have found ways to funnel most of their profits outside of the country.

Facts & Figures

  • Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Pfizer all operate partially in Ireland
  • Google alone employs 1,500 Irish workers
  • Multinational corporations paid more than half of all corporate taxes last year

Best Quote

“People feel that on the one hand, corporations, including Irish banks, caused the crisis, and therefore the whole corporate sector should pay. On the other hand, because people are so nervous about the future, they know that the corporate tax is one of the factors that attracts foreign direct investment, and therefore it would be a delicate time to touch it.” – Paul Sweeney, Economic Advisor at the Irish Congress of Trade Unions

Handing Out Money for Profit: Meet Chris Jacobs, Founder of Honest Discounts

November 25th, 2010

Chris is another fine lad we met at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards event at the NYSE. He’s been a business-starting maniac since age nine, but it took him until 2009 to be named Business Week’s Top Young Entrepreneur. In the same year, he was a finalist in the GSEA.

Today he runs a company that provides free discount cards to people without prescription drug insurance, making it more affordable for the underinsured to get the medication they need (and making a profit in the meanwhile). Here’s Chris:

Watch the oh-ficial GSEA 2010 recap video here. To see all our GSEA interviews, click here.

Meet Adam Blake, the Young Prince of Real Estate

November 24th, 2010

TILE showed up for part of the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards at the New York Stock Exchange this October, and we met some young folks who made us feel bad about sleeping through college.

Adam is just one of them. He was THE Global Student Entrepreneur of the Year in 2005, because he figured out how to turn a simple off-campus housing need into a multi-million dollar real estate business.

But… why? Well, we asked him:

Watch the oh-ficial GSEA 2010 recap video here. To see all our GSEA interviews, click here.

Competitive Culture = Cutting Corners?

November 24th, 2010

U.S. officials have been snooping around and raiding the offices of certain hedge funds recently, and there seems to be a cultural connection between them all…

  • Many of the hedge funds being investigated for insider trading were started by former traders for SAC (a private investment management firm).
  • SAC allow its employees to trade small amounts of company money once they’re hired, and if they do well they’re given more power. If they don’t do well, they get the boot.
  • This competitive culture creates a tension – SAC traders want to succeed professionally but don’t want to join Bernie Madoff in the clink for all eternity. Sometimes, the best intentions can land you there anyway.

Facts & Figures

  • SAC employs 800 people, including 20 lawyers and other nitpickers charged with keeping things in line with regulation
  • Level Global Investors LP and Diamondback Capital Management LLC, two hedge funds started by former SAC traders, were some of the first to be raided by federal agents
  • Richard Choo-Beng Lee, another former SAC employee, pled guilty to insider trading last year

Best Quote

“That eat-what-you-kill culture is highly competitive. A set-up where you have traders running their own portfolios instead of feeding into a centralized investment may make it more tempting for them to cut corners.” – Craig Lilly, an attorney at Greenberg Traurig LLP

Christmas In November for Tiffany

November 24th, 2010

Thinking about wrapping your gifts in a certain blue box this season? Whatever, Tiffany doesn’t really need your money.

  • The company has already seen profits way higher than projected, and the upcoming shopping nightmare known as Black Friday will probably boost sales even more.
  • Other luxury goods brands are looking up as well – both Coach and Hermes are reporting strong sales this quarter.
  • The National Retail Federation says this holiday season is probably going to be the best in four years. (If you’re a retailer, that is.)

Facts & Figures

  • Sales have increased by 14% over last year
  • The biggest increase in purchases is coming from big-ticket items – those that cost $500 or more
  • Sales of items under $500 have continued to decrease

Best Quote

“We continue to see bifurcated performance, with declines in sales and transactions below $500, but double-digit percentage increases in most every other higher priced category. This indicates to us diverging effects to one degree or another that the economy is having on consumer spending.” – Mark Aaron, Tiffany’s Investor Relations Chief

Microfinance Hits A Wall In India

November 24th, 2010

The great microcredit experiment in India was a wild success… but now it’s on the verge of collapsing entirely.

  • Politicians in India are accusing microfinance institutions of taking advantage of poor borrowers, and encouraging borrowers not to pay back their loans.
  • Microcredit is one of the only ways that poor people around the world can get loans to start small businesses. And in India, microfinance has become a booming industry in recent years.
  • Unfortunately, many people who receive microloans won’t be able to pay them back. So the loans tend to be really small, and their interest rates are really high. That means that entrepreneurs who do pay back their loans cover the cost of those who don’t pay.

Facts & Figures

  • Indian banks have about $4 billion tied up in the microfinance industry
  • In the past few weeks, less than 10% of borrowers made loan payments
  • SKS Microfinance charges a 24% interest rate on its microloans

Best Quote

“The money lender lives in the community. At least you can burn down his house. With these companies, it is loot and scoot.” – Reddy Subrahmanyam, Senior Official of the Indian Government

One Essential Fashion Tip from a Professional Stylist

November 22nd, 2010

Lani Rosenstock makes a living telling people in New York and D.C. what to wear. But this one little tip might eliminate the need for most of her fashion advice. (Sorry, Lani.)

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