Michael Migliozzi opened up more than just a tasty beer when he tried to buy Pabst Brewing Co. using crowdfunded money. photograph by alyson aliano, wardrobe and prop styling: kristina van dyk The world is about to have a whole lot more angels. Thanks to the JOBS (Jumpstart Our Business Startups) Act that was enacted this April, average people will soon be able to use crowdfunding investment platforms to become equity shareholders in startups. Here, the story of that bill's more-than-two-year gestation is told by the principal characters--from a pair of lawmakers to a joker running an L.A. ad firm. ACT I: The Accidental Catalyst Michael Migliozzi, managing partner, L.A. ad agency Forza Migliozzi: It started as a joke in November of 2009. I saw ... Continue reading →
Twitter uses the t.co domain as part of a service to protect users from harmful activity, to provide value for the developer ecosystem, and as a quality signal for surfacing relevant, interesting Tweets. Back to Twitter Learn more Continue reading →
As a child and teenager, I remember being mildly disturbed by the animal quality that overcame my mother while in the presence of babies. It was a quality she cloaked in a polite, seemingly offhand request—may I hold the baby?—and a nonchalant tone of voice, but I knew her intentions were indisputably vulturine at their core. She wanted that baby in her hands and she wanted it now. “Oh,” my mother would coo once she had the borrowed baby in her possession. “Look at this,” she’d moan to me, standing desolately witness to her mysterious rapture. “There’s nothing on this earth like the smell of a baby once you’ve had one of your own,” she would explain each time. “Nothing like the weight of a ... Continue reading →
Mark Crumpacker stared at the job description with disbelief. "A headhunter looking to fill a CMO position for another major fast-food brand got in touch with me," says Chipotle’s chief marketing officer. "The description was really bizarre. The head marketing person runs the culinary team and is responsible for the whole menu!" It’s the food-marketing chain gone haywire, Crumpacker explains. New menu items become fodder for new ads; new ads need to be promoted on expensive mass media; and all that spending puts pressure on finding ever-cheaper ingredients to invent the next McRib. "It’s the crack of marketing," Crumpacker says. "Once you’re on it, it’s really, really hard to get off." Crumpacker doesn’t play that game at Chipotle, choosing instead a fast-food heresy: Tell customers ... Continue reading →
Other food corporations have also started to show signs recently of moving toward humane practices. McDonalds and Wendy’s announced their intentions to eliminate gestation crates earlier this year, but do not have a time table. Smithfield Farms and Hormel also committed to removing the crates by 2017. And in the state of California, the 2008 bill Proposition 2 called for an end to crowded crates and cages by 2015. Continue reading →
By Jonathan Stempel and Yinka Adegoke Thu Apr 5, 2012 1:19pm EDT (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court has revived lawsuits by Viacom Inc, the English Premier League, and various film studios and television networks accusing Google Inc of allowing copyrighted videos on its YouTube service without permission. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday reversed a June 2010 lower court decision in favor of YouTube, which had been considered a landmark in setting guidelines for how websites could use content uploaded by users."It's hard to characterize this as anything other than a loss for Google, and potentially a significant one," said Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law. "It has given new life ... Continue reading →
