Demand Media acquires e-commerce marketplace for $94 million

By Jennifer Saba

(Reuters) - Demand Media, the owner of content websites eHow, Livestrong and Cracked, said on Monday it had acquired the e-commerce marketplace Society6 for $94 million in cash and stock as the company diversifies its business model.

Society6 marks Demand's first real foray into e-commerce. With a community of about 300,000 members, Society6 helps artists sell their goods such as iPhone cases, T-shirts and prints directly to consumers.

For example, an artist belonging to Society6 uploads an image of a product. Once a purchase is made, Society6 gives the order to an external manufacturer and shipper who then sends it to the buyer. Founded four years ago in Los Angeles, Society6 reported about $15 million in revenue and $4 million in operating income in 2012.

Also on Monday, Demand said it had revised down its second-quarter forecast due to a reduction in search engine referral traffic. Revenue is expected to be in the range of $100 million to $101 million compared with the previous range of $105 million to $107 million.

Demand has been a closely watched experiment on how content is inexpensively created and distributed. Freelancers paid by Demand write articles and produce videos to appear at the top of Internet search results that in turn generate advertising.

Founded in 2006, Demand has became known as a source of "quick-hit" articles and videos on subjects like summertime dangers for pets.

The company has faced challenges over the past few years because of its reliance on Google. The search engine giant has been steadily making changes to its algorithm with the aim of weeding out content it considers to be of low quality.

During the first quarter, approximately 40 percent of Demand's total revenue was derived from advertising arrangements with Google.

Over the past several months, Demand has been moving to vary its revenue base to lessen its reliance on advertising - and Google. The company, for instance, acquired Creativebug in March, a network of artists who produce how-to videos on crafting skills, such as knitting and making jewelry. The videos are accessed by subscription.

"We really started looking at these models late last year," Rosenblatt said about subscription and e-commerce sites. "We stuck our toe in the water with Creativebug."

Demand has launched other paid initiates including one at eHow that matches people looking for expert advice in real-time and a weight loss program at Livestrong.

Demand owns a registrar business that sells top level generic Internet domain names like ".actor," and ".social." Earlier this year it announced plans to separate that division in a spinoff.

Shares of Demand, which closed at $8.17 on Monday, have fallen nearly 20 percent over the past 12 months.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/demand-media-acquires-e-commerce-marketplace-94-million-221648193.html

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The Children of Pahiatua

An American Army Public Health nurse with a group of children in a camp for Polish displaced persons at Bensheim,Germany on June 19, 1945. Other Polish children ended up in New Zealand as refugees.

Photo by Universal Images Group/Getty Images

WELLINGTON, New Zealand?A fish restaurant in New Zealand seemed an odd place to discuss a war that took place several thousand miles away and several decades ago, but there we were: Sea bream was served, sauvignon blanc was poured, the rain drummed down outside, and I listened while three septuagenarians smiled, laughed, and told me of the unimaginable tragedy they had lived through as children.

All three were born in eastern Poland, and all three were arrested and deported, along with hundreds of thousands of other Poles, after the Soviet invasion in 1939. Soviet soldiers and police packed their families into boxcars and exiled them to Siberia or central Asia, where many died of illness or starvation. Only in 1942, after Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union, were survivors released and allowed to form a Polish army in exile. After crossing the border into Iran, the adults formed themselves into fighting units and began to travel back to Europe via Palestine.

But their children could not fight. Some were already orphans, having lost their parents to hunger or disease. More would lose their parents, or lose track of their parents, in the course of the war. An international appeal went out: Thousands of Polish children could not remain in Isfahan forever. Among others, New Zealand?a country that had never before accepted refugees?responded.

On Oct. 31, 1944, their ship pulled into Wellington harbor. More than 750 orphans, from toddlers to young teenagers, and 100 adult caretakers, teachers, and doctors disembarked. Hundreds of New Zealanders met them at the port, cheering and waving flags. More people lined the roads and waved as the Polish orphans drove through the countryside to a refugee camp created for them in Pahiatua, a village in the southeastern corner of New Zealand's North Island. There they stayed together, studied together, organized Polish scouting troops, and waited for the war to end so they could go home.

In one sense, this story does not have a happy ending. The war ended, but Poland did not regain its independence. Eastern Poland, where the children of Pahiatua had been born, became part of the Soviet Union. The western part of the country became a Soviet satellite state. Most inhabitants of the Pahiatua camp had nothing, and no one, to return to.

But in another sense there was a happy ending?one that we might usefully contemplate. In recent years, the gap in educational attainments of rich and poor Americans has grown wider, largely because of the enormous resources many of us pour into our children. Success, we have come to believe, depends on excellent schools, carefully organized leisure and, above all, on high-concentration, high-focus parenting.

The orphans of Pahiatua did not have any of these things. On the contrary, they had witnessed the deaths of parents and siblings, experienced terrible deprivation, and lost years of education before finding themselves in an alien country on the far side of the world. And yet they learned the language, they assimilated, they became doctors, lawyers, farmers, factory workers, teachers, and businessmen. Krystyna Tomaszyk?a Pahiatua child who became a pioneering social worker?told me over lunch that she was proud of their success. "We all had difficult childhoods. But none of us became criminals or vagabonds. We fit in."

There were reasons for that success. New Zealand boomed after the war: Logging and mining expanded, and work was easy to find. The Polish children had an unusually warm reception here at an unusual moment: Knowing where they had come from, people went out of their way to be kind.

But more than 70 years later, the now-elderly children of Pahiatua have an additional explanation. Zdzislaw Lepionka now believes that "the fact that we weree kept together, that we sang Polish songs and did scouting drills together? that was a kind of therapy." Lepionka was 3, he thinks?there are no records?at the time of his family's deportation. His mother died in exile; he lost track of his father, whom he never saw again. But he and those of his siblings who boarded the boat to Wellington long ago founded families and careers of their own. Decades later, he is still in touch with many of the "Pahiatua children," who still offer one another moral support.

Is an idyllic childhood a prerequisite for a happy life, or are there other roads to contentment? Are parents the key to future success, or are there other ways to get there? Is a turbulent childhood always a recipe for adult failure, or can some people overcome tragedy? I saw many amazing things in New Zealand?a volcano, a geyser, and some extraordinary lush, green landscapes?but none made me think more than that Wellington lunch.

This month, Slate is sharing stories of people who started over?like budget wonk Ina Garten, better known as the Barefoot Contessa?in our "Second Acts" Hive. We want to hear your tales, too. Please go here?to submit your story about starting over.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/briefing/second_acts/2013/06/the_children_of_pahiatua.html

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Saints Row IV banned in Australia due to 'unjustified' evil

For every tearful accountant at Saints Row HQ, there must be a gleeful marketing person punching the air, playing mini golf and doing whatever else marketing people do when they're full of glee. Conflicted emotions aside, however, game publisher Deep Silver can now claim the notorious distinction of having its latest title, Saints Row IV, rejected outright by the Australian Classification Board (ACB). It's the first such refusal since the ACB implemented a new R18+ rating, which is meant to allow for adult themes within games but which evidently couldn't cope with Saints Row's peculiar depictions of sexual violence (which were "not justified by context") or its drug-themed reward system (which is "prohibited by the computer games guidelines"). According to The Guardian, this effectively means Saints Row IV is banned from sale in retail stores in Australia, but Joystiq has received word from Deep Silver saying it intends to create a "reworked" version of its open world game specifically for that country. Meanwhile, the regular version has been given PEGI 18 and ESRB M ratings elsewhere, and it looks to be on track for an August release date.

Filed under: Gaming

Comments

Source: Joystiq, The Guardian

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/saints-row-iv-refused-rating-in-australia/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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First look at the new AOL Reader beta, a surprisingly pleasing way to get your RSS fix

Google Reader will come to an end on July 1, one week from now. We're not that short on options to continue receiving our RSS fix, but one that quietly emerged in recent days is AOL Reader. Currently in beta form, and web only, access to the new service is now available. You're told to log in and request an invite, but it seems as though verifying your email address is about all you need to do to get in and take a look. So, we did.

AOL Reader is currently only available on the web, though an iOS application is promised for the future. You can import your current subscriptions from Google Reader, though you'll need to export the data first via Google Takeout (something we'd highly recommend doing anyway before July 1.) Google exports a series of files, but the one you'll need is the one titled as "subscriptions.xml." Should you have any issues importing this to AOL Reader, try changing the extension from .xml to .opml, and you should be good to go.

While functional, Google Reader's web interface always felt somewhat basic, and a little chaotic. AOL Reader takes a similar form factor, but with a much prettier design. It's actually a surprisingly pleasing way to read your RSS feeds. There's a selection of viewing options, including list, card, pane and full views, a dark and light theme to customize the appearance to your own personal tastes and a choice of different font sizes. AOL Reader is much, much easier on the eye than Google Reader.

An interesting touch, perhaps to be appreciated more by the power users, is a bunch of keyboard shortcuts. Pretty much full navigation of AOL Reader can take place without touching the mouse, and to help us get started there's a handy guide as to which keys do what.

We're still only scratching the surface, but AOL Reader is a surprisingly good product. Having come from quite literally nowhere, what we have is a nice looking, perfectly functional, free RSS client. It may be late to the party, especially since the Feedly train continues to roll, but if you're undecided on where to go after Google shuts down Reader, AOL is worth a look. And of course, we still haven't seen the accompanying iOS apps yet. But this is a good start. Go ahead and give it a try, and let us know what you think!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/s5PrXpgYDPo/story01.htm

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Man completes tightrope walk near Grand Canyon

LITTLE COLORADO RIVER GORGE, Ariz. (AP) ? Aerialist Nik Wallenda completed a tightrope walk that took him a quarter mile over the Little Colorado River Gorge in northeastern Arizona on Sunday.

Wallenda performed the stunt on a 2-inch-thick steel cable, 1,500 feet above the river on the Navajo Nation near the Grand Canyon. He took just more than 22 minutes, pausing and crouching twice as winds whipped around him and the rope swayed.

"Thank you Lord. Thank you for calming that cable, God," he said about 13 minutes into the walk.

Wallenda didn't wear a harness and stepped slowly and steady throughout, murmuring prayers to Jesus almost constantly along the way. He jogged and hopped the last few steps.

The event was broadcast live on the Discovery Channel.

Winds blowing across the gorge had been expected to be around 30 mph. Wallenda told Discovery after the walk that the winds were at times "unpredictable" and that dust had accumulated on his contact lenses.

"It was way more windy, and it took every bit of me to stay focused the entire time," he said.

The 34-year-old Sarasota, Fla., resident is a seventh-generation high-wire artist and is part of the famous "Flying Wallendas" circus family ? a clan that is no stranger to death-defying feats.

His great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, fell during a performance in Puerto Rico and died at the age of 73. Several other family members, including a cousin and an uncle, have perished while performing wire walking stunts.

Nik Wallenda grew up performing with his family and has dreamed of crossing the Grand Canyon since he was a teenager. Sunday's stunt comes a year after he traversed Niagara Falls earning a seventh Guinness world record.

Wallenda wore a microphone and two cameras, one that looked down on the dry Little Colorado River bed and one that faced straight ahead. His leather shoes with an elk-skin sole helped him keep a grip on the steel cable as he moved across.

About 600 spectators watching on a large video screen on site cheered him on as he walked toward them. A Navajo Nation ranger, a paramedic and two members of a film crew were stationed on the canyon floor and watched from below.

The ranger, Elmer Phillips, said Wallenda appeared to be walking like any normal person would on a sidewalk. But he said he got a little nervous when Wallenda stopped the first time.

"Other than that, a pretty amazing feat. I know I wouldn't even attempt something like that," Phillips said. "Very nicely done."

Before the walk, a group of Navajos, Hopis and other Native Americans stood along a nearby highway with signs protesting the event.

The event was touted as a walk across the Grand Canyon, an area held sacred by many American Indian tribes. Some local residents believe Wallenda hasn't accurately pinpointed the location and also said that the Navajo Nation shouldn't be promoting the gambling of one man's life for the benefit of tourism.

Discovery's 2-hour broadcast showcased the Navajo landscape that includes Monument Valley, Four Corners, Canyon de Chelly and the tribal capital of Window Rock.

"When people watch this, our main thing is we want the world to know who Navajo people are, our culture, traditions and language are still very much alive," Geri Hongeva, spokeswoman for the tribe's Division of Natural Resources, said before the walk.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/man-completes-tightrope-walk-near-grand-canyon-020400936.html

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Biggest and brightest moon of the year awes skywatchers

A supermoon sets near the Statue of Liberty, Sunday, June 23, 2013, in New York. The larger than normal moon called the "Supermoon" happens only once this year as the moon on its elliptical orbit is ... more?A supermoon sets near the Statue of Liberty, Sunday, June 23, 2013, in New York. The larger than normal moon called the "Supermoon" happens only once this year as the moon on its elliptical orbit is at its closest point to earth and is 13.5 percent larger than usual. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) less?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/biggest-and-brigest-supermoon-of-the-year-awes-skywatchers-slideshow/

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Driver dies in 24 Hours of Le Mans race

Allan Simonsen's death after a spinout cast a pall over the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The race still had more than 23? hours to go, but there was no call to stop it on Saturday after the first driver fatality in 16 years.

Simonsen's partner Carina, the mother to their daughter born last year, made sure of that.

It was her "specific request" that Simonsen's team, Aston Martin Racing, continue the world's most renowned endurance race in honor of the Dane.

Just 10 minutes into the race, Simonsen spun and skidded into the barrier at the Tertre Rouge corner where cars typically reach speeds of up to 105 mph. The 34-year-old Simonsen was taken to a hospital, where he died of his injuries, race organizers said.

The violence of the impact showed as a tire from Simonsen's car rolled on the track while a door hung wide open. The race was held up for nearly an hour to repair the guard rail.

"Tragically, and despite the best efforts of the emergency services in attendance, Allan's injuries proved fatal," Aston Martin said in a statement.

Simonsen's death marked the first driver fatality since 1997 when Sebastien Enjolras was killed in pre-qualifying. The last driver fatality during the race was Jo Gartner in 1986.

Simonsen was participating for the seventh time at the endurance race, which is won by the team that completes the most laps in 24 hours with up to three drivers alternating. He finished second in the GT2 class at Le Mans three years ago. He clocked the fastest time in qualifying on Thursday in the GTE-Am class.

Jean Todt, the FIA president, and Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l'Ouest which organizes the race, paid tribute to Simonsen.

"Allan was an extremely talented and experienced sportscar driver who had raced in every corner of the world and was highly respected by his peers and his team," they said in a joint statement. "For many in endurance racing, Allan was above all a good friend who displayed his passion for racing on and off the track. His loss will be felt by the FIA, the ACO and the greater motorsport family."

Simonsen and Danish co-drivers Kristian Poulsen and Christoffer Nygaard were leading the GTE-Am class in the world endurance championship after topping their category at Silverstone in April and finishing second in Spa-Francorchamps last month.

"Aston Martin Racing will not make any further comment until the precise circumstances of the accident have been determined," Simonsen's team said.

Toyota Racing team president Yoshiaki Kinoshita expressed his condolences, along with drivers from around the world.

Formula One driver Jenson Button tweeted: "Allan Simonsen RIP. Such a tragic loss. A true fighter & a true racer. Safety is something we need 2 improve on in Motorsport."

IndyCar Series leader Helio Castroneves tweeted: "Very sad to know about the fatal accident of Allan Simonsen on Le Mans today. Praying for him and (his) family."

Another IndyCar driver Tony Kanaan tweeted: "Such a tragic news on the passing of @AllanSimonsen. Sad day in motorsports again. Thoughts and prayers are with his family."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/driver-dies-24-hours-le-mans-race-163235405.html

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