Quantcast
Channel: Business Insider
Viewing all 115285 articles
Browse latest View live

Sex Scandal Rocks NYC's 'Gossip Girl' High School

0
0

nightingale bamford school

A 55-year-old teacher was yanked from his posh, Upper East Side classroom after it emerged he might have had an affair with a student. 

Jonathan Fuller teaches science at the all-girls Nightingale-Bamford School in Manhattan, and was removed from his class on the second day of school, Emily Smith at the New York Post reported. The school is used as the model for the television series "Gossip Girl." 

The alleged affair was with a former student who is now 18 or 19-years-old, Smith reported, citing anonymous sources and documents she obtained from the school. 

The Post reported that Fuller was a favorite among students, who created MySpace and Facebook profiles in his honor.  A source told The Post he came to school an hour early to help students with homework. 

Parents pay upward of $40,000 a year for tuition at the prestigious school. 

A recent review posted to hallway.com called Fuller the "best teacher ever." 

The school sent us this statement: 

"Upon receiving reports that a high-school teacher had behaved inappropriately, Nightingale immediately began an internal investigation. The teacher was quickly suspended and will remain so, pending the results of the investigation, which is continuing with the help of counsel. The education of our students and the well-being of those in our community remain our primary concerns."

DON'T MISS: Texas 'Teacher Of The Year' Gets Caught In Student Sexting Scandal >

Please follow Law & Order on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »





These Fabulous Aircraft Are Part Of Vladimir Putin's Rumored $1 Billion Fleet

0
0

putin airbus photoshop

Vladimir Putin has claimed that his life is comparable to that of a galley slave. But according to Boris Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister and opposition politician, the Russian president is incredibly wealthy.

A report published by Nemtsov last month details various luxuries enjoyed by the oligarch, including an enormous fleet of 58 aircraft.

Following the report, we have rounded up the best private planes, helicopters, and jumbo jets Putin is accused of enjoying.

Photos are of models of aircraft supposedly owned by Putin, not the actual aircraft.

These are no ordinary aircraft.

The Nemtsov report claims Putin flies around in a highly customized Ilyushin Il-96.

Changes made for the president include a toilet that cost $75,000.



The Airbus ACJ319 is for traveling with small groups.

Airbus' new private jet offers seating for 19 passengers. The conventional layout includes lounge areas, club seating, and two private rooms.

Nemtsov says Putin's version is designed with leather, marble, and hand-woven carpets.



Putin supposedly has eight Tu-154s.

The report estimates their value at between $7.5 million and $20 million, depending on their age.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Getting There on Twitter and Facebook.


The Most Iconic September 11 Magazine Covers

0
0

time september 2011

No matter where you are today, whether at school or work, traveling or at home we'll all be reminded of the harrowing events that occurred this September day 11 years ago. 

We'll see media coverage, the newspaper headlines, and we'll also see the magazine covers.

On this 11th anniversary, we went through magazine covers from the past decade, selecting the ones that stayed with us the most.

From images in the wake of 9/11 up until the ten year anniversary, here are the covers we remember.

People – September 24, 2001 (sold $4.1 million copies, one of their highest-selling issues of all time)



TIME – September 14, 2001



ESPN Magazine – September 19, 2001

Both ESPN and Sports Illustrated offered vacant covers. While SI draped a chair with an American flag, ESPN gave us an entire paragraph.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.




This Handbag Design Is A Valiant Attempt To Make Boxed Wine Classier

0
0

Vernissage Boxed Wine

Boxed wine usually conjures up memories from college and games of "slap the bag."

But can packaging make boxed wine elegant and tasteful? That's the question Swedish company Vernissage has attempted to answer with a new line of wine-on-the-go designed to look like fashion handbags.

The so-called Bag-in-Bag wine comes in white (Chardonnay Viognier), red (Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon blend), and rosé all from Taxis Soldato's Nordic Sea Winery in Sweden. Each wine has a complementing handbag color to match, as well as a cord handle and pop-out spout.

The packaging, designed by Sofia Blomberg, has won multiple awards since its premiere in 2010 for most innovative design from the Pentawards as well as the Carton Awards.

And while perhaps it would be frowned upon to start pouring wine from one's handbag, it certainly beats lugging around a carton of Franzia any day.

Now see a handbag with a built-in wine holder >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




Ideologues Took Over The Yelp Page Of The Pizza Shop Owner Who Bearhugged Obama

0
0

Barack Obama

If you're thinking about eating at Big Apple Pizza in Fort Pierce, Florida, you're not going to find much information about what the food actually tastes like on its Yelp page, even though it boasts more than 2,300 reviews.

It's because of the controversy surrounding an image of owner Scott Van Duzer bearhugging President Obama that quickly went viral.

Conservatives declared a boycott, Obama supporters came to the pizzeria's aid, and a full-on Yelp troll battle — which, again, has nothing to do with food or service —began.

The Atlantic Wire counted the reviews and reported around 60-1 ratio of five-star to one-star reviews, so it looks like the pizza place's supporters are winning. Big Apple Pizza is now the highest-rated restaurant on Yelp in the state of Florida.

Why is that happening? Eater's Gabe Ulla explains:

"Yelp's 'review filter,' which is designed to catch 'fake, shill or malicious reviews,' isn't particularly effective at catching a mini-flood of one-star reviews. In this case, though, it seems to have been better at eliminating the one-stars, since the vast majority of what's left are the five-stars. Many of them having nothing to do with pizza."

Here's a sampling:

yelp pizza obama

 NOW SEE: The Most Popular Fast Food Restaurants In America >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




The Rich Are Getting Poorer And Luxury Retailers Are Freaking Out

0
0

burberry trench coat

For the first time in history, rich people are actually getting poorer, and luxury retailers are freaking out about it. 

The average income for the top 5 percent of people fell from $358,700 in 2006 to $313,298 in 2010, Pam Danziger, president of luxury research firm Unity Marketing said in a report. That means that swanky retailers are furiously vying for customers' discretionary income. 

We saw this trend at work with Burberry, whose shares slid 20 percent after the retailer reported sales were down. CEO Angela Ahrendts blamed the trend on the "external environment." 

Danziger explained why declining incomes are hitting the luxury retailer especially hard: 

"Because these same consumers are significantly invested in their high-end lifestyle with income committed to a wide-range of fixed expenses to maintain that lifestyle, it's in discretionary spending where they are going to take their cuts. So that translates into less money to spend each month for clothes, shoes and handbags, jewelry and home decorative accessories. These folks have plenty of all that stuff already, so it is the easiest, most painless way to adjust one's budget when there is less money coming in each month."

The days of "shop 'til you drop" for the wealthy are long gone, Danziger said. This means that luxury retailers are working hard to figure out how to catch consumers' attention. 

We checked out some luxury retailers for signs of the trend: 

  • Nordstrom has started collaborating with less expensive retailers like British fast-fashion store Topshop. They're also marketing "key" pieces for fall, basics like jackets or denim that people could wear for a lot of occasions. 

  • Saks is offering promotions including a "double points event" for loyalty program members and free shipping on orders greater than $150.  

  • Bergdorf Goodman has a bevy of exclusive merchandise for its 111th anniversary, including a $4,000 pair of Christian Louboutin shoes. 

To get the consumer's attention, even the luxury retailers are working harder than ever. 

DON'T MISS: How Lululemon Keeps Women Coming Back For More >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




This Action Figure Has Been Declared The Most Iconic Childhood Toy

0
0

G.I. Joe

On July 16, The Children's Museum of Indianapolis asked the hard-hitting question, "what was your favorite toy growing up?"

And after eight weeks and more than 24,000 votes submitted, the final results have been announced—and the winner is G.I. Joe. He was followed by Transformers, and then LEGO Toys in third place.

After the first five weeks of public voting, the top 100 iconic toys were narrowed down to a list of the top 20. From that 20, another vote was conducted to determine the final rankings.

"Each of the toys the public chose for the top 20 has been produced for 25 years or more, which is not surprising considering their cross-generational appeal," said president & CEO of The Children's Museum of Indianapolis Dr. Jeffrey H. Patchen is a press release. "Objects such as crayons and bicycles have been around for decades—evoking strong emotions and fond memories with children, parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents."

Beginning today, the final 20 toys will be on display at the museum for the public to view until the end of the year.

Check out the final ranking of the top 20 iconic toys below:

  1. G.I. Joe®
  2. Transformers®
  3. LEGO® Toys
  4. Barbie®
  5. View-Master®
  6. Bicycle
  7. Cabbage Patch Kids®
  8. Crayons
  9. Play-Doh®
  10. MONOPOLY®
  11. Raggedy Ann®
  12. Spirograph™
  13. Etch A Sketch®
  14. Little Golden Books®
  15. Hot Wheels®
  16. Lincoln Logs®
  17. Candy Land®
  18. Roller Skates
  19. Silly® Putty
  20. Mr. Potato Head®

Now see the toys every kid will want this year >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




In The World Of Luxury Real Estate, '$80 Million Is The New $20 Million'

0
0

$100 million city spire penthouseThe very top of the New York real estate market is roaring, while the real estate domain of the "merely rich" homes in the $5 million to $20 million rangelags behind.

It was enough to make Kirk Henckels, director of private brokerage at Stribling, declare "$80 million is the new $20 million" in a new report on the luxury residential market, according to The Wall Street Journal's Josh Barbanel.

In 2008, prices at the highest end of the New York market hovered around $40 million, and the record sale price was around $6,000 per square foot, Henckels told The WSJ. Today, that figure has risen to more than $10,000 per square foot.

The biggest sale in New York in the past year was Sandy Weill's $88 million penthouse at 15 Central Park West, which was bought by a Russian oligarch who paid the full asking price. A penthouse at the still-under-construction One57 reportedly went for more than $90 million, and there's currently a $100 million apartment on the market and two more that are asking $95 million.

At the same time, residential properties in the $5 million to $20 million range have not fared so well. Writes Barbanel:

...the report said that there were 388 sales of $5 million this year through August, a decline by 7.4% compared with the same period in 2011, with prices between $5 million and $20 million increased slightly.

Steeper declines in sales co-ops and condominiums were offset in part by an increase in townhouse sales.

Now check out the most expensive apartment currently for sale in NYC >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »





Watch This Top New York Chef Make A Giant Foie Gras And Squab Spring Roll

0
0

We recently interviewed Chef Gabriel Kreuther of The Modern (the restaurant located inside the Museum Of Modern Art here in New York), about how he turns food into gorgeous works of art.

A native of Alsace, Chef Kreuther told us his food was a combination of traditional Alsatian cooking, local ingredients and the creative inspiration he finds working in a museum and living in New York.

He gave us a first hand demonstration of how all those elements come together when he prepared one of the restaurant's signature dishes: a squab and foie gras croustillant – essentially a big squab and foie gras sandwich that looks like an spring roll.

The result was both beautiful and delicious!

Watch the video below:

 

Produced by Kamelia Angelova & Robert Libetti

Don't Miss:

How To Cook Like The Executive Chef Of BLT Steak

MOMA Restaurant Chef Tells Us How He Turns Food Into Art

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




These Virtual Models Could Be The Future Of Online Shopping

0
0

looklet model

For online fashion retailers, displaying an ever-changing selection of clothing can pose a major logistical and financial challenge.

Enter virtual modelscomputer-generated ladies and gentlemen who can strike a pose, look good in anything, and don't require makeup or a paycheck.

Click here to jump right to the digital models >>

Looklet, a Sweden-based design company, is already working with major online fashion retailers like H&M and Vente-Privee to present their stock on virtual clotheshorses.

Looklet co-founders Adam Berg and Robert Ahlborg answered questions about why virtual models are good for online retailers, how the models are created, and what digitally crafted models say about body image.

What was the original concept for Looklet? Did you always plan to partner with retailers and fashion companies?

The original idea was that we wanted to create a styling tool online, where users could combine real garments on real models. Although this was primarily targeted at the end consumer, we knew from the start that this product would interest fashion retailers online.

The idea of it as the b2b solution for creating images that is our main focus today grew organically as our licensing customers understood how they could achieve higher quality and save money with our process.

What are the advantages for a retailer who uses digital models on its website, as opposed to actual models?

Normally e-commerce fashion companies handle a huge amount of images every day creating the digital product description. The shooting needs planning, preparation and big budgets. It needs specific locations, models and large teams of special competences. This old way of doing things is extremely time consuming and also costs a lot of money.

We came into this business with fresh eyes and have re-invented the workflow of the traditional shoot by breaking it into separate pieces where products, models, backgrounds, effects are shot separately all made in a far more technical, faster and industrialized manner. The final image is then put together in the last stage through our software combining the different elements.

This creates client control of the image creation instead of they being dependent on attending the actual photoshoot managing photographers, models and makeup teams. Our process creates consistent high quality through the industrialization and also saves a lot of money since the big teams of models, photographers are no longer needed.

How do you create the models? Are they based on actual humans?

Exactly how we do it is something that I can not disclose but everything you see in the end result is photos of real humans and real garments. We avoid working with virtual images because it’s extremely time consuming, if even possible, to achieve the same quality as photography. We’re a bit of old school magicians, masters of smoke and mirrors.

Looklet.com offers options for face and skin type. Are there options for body shape as well?

We have an always growing number of different body shapes and poses available for both men and women, and we also create new body shapes on demand, giving our clients the freedom to chose whatever body they want to display their products on.

How do you respond to critics who say that virtual models are unrealistic and put even more pressure on women to be thin?

A relevant discussion, but as we offer any body type, it’s the client that has the end choice on how it wants to present its products. 

What does the future look like for the company? Are there expansion plans? Do you expect virtual models to become the norm for online shopping? Elsewhere?

We have huge interest in our product from all around the world. E-commerce fashion companies around the world struggle with the problem of handling thousands and thousands of images in an effective way. We have very good hopes and big plans for helping them out. Stay tuned.

The folks at Looklet can create figures with any body type.



But the models tend to to be thin.



And attractive.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.




Gorgeous Photos Of Bora Bora, Which Was Just Named The Best Island In The World

0
0

bora bora

The romantic island of Bora Bora was just named the No.1 island in the world by the travel editors at rankings titan U.S. News & World Report.

Bora Bora, located in the Islands of Tahiti, is just 18 miles in circumference.

"The very definition of a tropical getaway, blissful Bora Bora abounds with luxurious resorts, sunny skies, warm waters, and friendly locals," U.S. News & World Report declared.

What makes Bora Bora so wonderful? 

Welcome to Bora Bora, the best island in the world, according to U.S. News & World Report.

Source: U.S. News & World Report



The island is six miles long and 2.5 miles wide.

Source: U.S. News & World Report



The best way to get around Bora Bora is by bicycle.

Source: U.S. News & World Report



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.




Armored SUV Manufacturer Conquest Just Introduced A Luxury Model For Civilians

0
0

conquest evade luxury suv

In most cases, safe driving takes the fun out of things. That's not the case with Conquest Vehicles' Knight XV, the fully armored luxury SUV that has been letting the rich and famous hit the road in high style and complete safety since 2008.

Now Toronto-based Conquest is expanding its market, bringing the Knight XV to China and India, and introducing a new, non-armored luxury SUV.

Like the Knight XV, the newly introduced Evade is built on a Ford F550 Super Duty Chassis.

With night vision camera systems and roof-mounted, joystick-controlled searchlights, this is not a vehicle for ordinary luxury driving.

That's not to say the high-end features are missing. The cabin provides 400 cubic feet of space, furnished with quality leathers and touch-screen technology. A commercial grade front and rear suspension keeps the ride smooth.

For civilians who want to dominate the road but don't need armored plating for protection, the Evade may be the way to go. It will be offered this fall, for $579,000.

It features armored plating and bulletproof glass.



With a $629,000 price tag, the armored Knight XV is reserved for the wealthy.



It has a V10, 6.8-liter engine, powered by biofuel.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Getting There on Twitter and Facebook.




HOUSE OF THE DAY: Buy A Victorian Home In Aspen For $8.9 Million

Barack Obama Spends Hours On His iPad After Michelle Goes To Bed

0
0

barack obama michelle obamaBarack Obama stays up for three hours surfing the internet on his iPad and watching sport on television after his wife has gone to bed, it has emerged.

Despite leading the free world and fighting for re-election, the US president disclosed that he has an evening routine with his wife, Michelle, that will be familiar to millions of couples.

"From the time his wife goes to bed, around 10, until he finally retires, at 1, Barack Obama enjoys the closest thing he experiences to privacy," according to a new account of his day-to-day life.

"No one but him really knows exactly where he is or what he's up to. He can't leave his house, of course, but he can watch ESPN, surf his iPad, read books, [and] dial up foreign leaders in different time zones."

Mr Obama told Vanity Fair magazine, which was given unprecedented access over eight months, that he wakes at 7am before working out in the White House gym for an hour. "You have to exercise," he explained, "or at some point you'll just break down."

He then changes into a preselected suit and eats a breakfast already chosen for him. "I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing," he said. "I have too many other decisions to make".

Mr Obama recalled waking, startled, during his first night in the White House. But having settled in, he and Mrs Obama found a favourite spot – the Truman Balcony – where they sit in the evenings.

"It's the closest you can get to feeling outside," he said. "To feeling outside the bubble."

The President bemoaned the fact that there is a "character people see out there called Barack Obama" that he didn't recognise, and that he had lost the "moments of serendipity" of ordinary life.

"You don't bump into a friend in a restaurant you haven't seen in years," he said. "The loss of anonymity and the loss of surprise is an unnatural state. You adapt to it, but you don't get used to it."

Despite its intimate tone, the article was carefully handled by Mr Obama's staff. A conversation in which he became emotional was ordered cut from the piece by the White House, which was "perhaps wary of having the commander in chief described as in tears," according to The New York Times.

Please follow Politics on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




Prince Harry Revealed A Hot New Side Of Las Vegas

0
0

prince harry

Sept. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Prince Harry’s naked hotel romp in Las Vegas has turned into a marketing opportunity for casinos seeking to spotlight new nightclubs and pools for the growing ranks of tourists seeking fun away from the craps tables.

The prince, third in line to the British throne, spent an August weekend cavorting at MGM Resorts International’s Wet Republic “day club,” racing U.S. Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte at a late-night swim party and clowning with a young woman -- minus his clothing -- at Wynn Resorts Ltd.’s Encore. People Magazine put the 27-year-old royal on its Sept. 10 cover and said his suite, equipped with a pool table, cost $5,000 a night.

Harry’s wild weekend couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for Las Vegas casinos, which face more competition from gambling in others states and have yet to see their businesses recover to pre-recession levels. To counter that, they’re spending lavishly on faster-growing non-casino operations, upgrading rooms, pools, bars and restaurants.

“Vegas and Madonna are the same, they know how to reinvent themselves and focus on the trends,” said Jonathan Segal, whose New York-based The One Group will manage the Bagatelle Beach & Nightclub opening next month at the Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. “You can game on the Internet, game on the reservations and in lot of U.S. states. So what does Vegas do? They say, ‘OK we’re going to turn this into the greatest party city in the world.’”

Next door, MGM Grand is building Hakkasan, a five-story restaurant and disco that will be among largest nightclubs on the Strip. Caesars Entertainment Corp. is putting up Linq, an outdoor promenade with a 550-foot Ferris Wheel dubbed the High Roller. It’s one of two under construction on the Strip. Bagatelle, featuring a complex of pools and volleyball courts, will have its own entrance on Tropicana Blvd.

 

Harry Photos

 

Nude photos of Harry from his visit appeared on the Internet, causing an international scandal that had U.K. reporters scouring the city for news, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal.

A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said the trip was a private holiday before the prince’s return to military duty.

The Las Vegas Convention & Visitor Authority took out an ad in USA Today and distributed others through social media, poking fun at the scandal.

“Las Vegas is a place to celebrate adult freedom, freedom that even celebrities and royals can enjoy,” Cathy Tull, the authority’s senior vice president of marketing, said in a statement.

The average Las Vegas gambler’s budget dropped to $447 last year from $652 in 2006, according to authority surveys. The number of visitors has increased 1.9 percent to 23.4 million this year through July. At the same time, gambling on the Strip has risen 3.2 percent to $3.62 billion. That includes a 28 percent rise in July sparked by volatile baccarat winnings.

 

Sure Bet

 

Spending on shopping, eating and shows continues to grow in importance, contributing 62 percent of the Strip’s $14.5 billion in revenue last year, up from 41 percent in 1984, according to the University of Nevada Las Vegas Center for Gaming Research. Resort owners are now tracking those expenditures, calculating how to ply patrons with free meals and other promotions, as they have for years with high-rollers.

“Some of these customers are small potatoes, but there are people who come in and never gamble and drop $20,000 in a weekend,” said Roy Student, a Las Vegas-based casino consultant. “The casinos realize these are high revenue opportunities with a lot less risk.”

MGM, the largest casino operator in Las Vegas, is spending $180 million remodeling hotel rooms and other amenities at its namesake resort. Night clubs and day clubs, their daytime poolside kin, have been setting revenue records at the company this year, according to James Murren, chairman and chief executive officer.

 

Lifestyle Shift

 

“It’s been quite a lifestyle shift,” Murren said in an interview. “Fewer people during the day are just hanging out by the pool. They want to do something different and that’s why these day clubs have been very profitable for us.”

Las Vegas accounted for eight of the 10 top-grossing bars in the U.S. in 2011, according to the trade publication Nightclub and Bar and the consulting firm Technomic Inc. At No. 1, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas’s Marquee Day & Night Club, generated revenue of as much as $80 million.

“People are spending differently,” Murren said. “The $500 bottles, they’re less frequent, but the sheer volume of people that are willing to spend quite a bit of money has increased.”

MGM fell 1.3 percent to $10.78 yesterday in New York. The shares have gained 3.4 percent this year. Wynn added 1.7 percent to $104.80 and is down 5.1 percent year-to-date. Caesars added 0.4 percent to $7.13 and is off 21 percent since its February IPO. All three companies are based in Las Vegas.

 

Top DJs

 

The Las Vegas club scene began to grow in significance in the 2000s when venues such as Light, a now-defunct disco at MGM’s Bellagio, and Rain at the Palms Hotel began collecting cover charges and setting minimum food and beverage orders to reserve tables, according to Neil Moffitt, CEO of Angel Management Group, which will run Hakkasan.

Lately the focus is on exclusive contracts with internationally known disc jockeys. Wynn Resorts has signed agreements with 36 DJs, charging fans as much as $100 for a ticket to see Tiesto and deadmau5, who makes “more than Sinatra at his peak,” CEO Steve Wynn told Rolling Stone magazine this year.

Advanced ticketing gives club operators a sense of how many people will show up on a particular night and makes the venues more accessible to the masses, according to Sean Christie, who manages such properties at Wynn Resorts. That’s important as the size of the clubs and the number of people required to fill them has grown.

“The old days of holding the door and having a huge line to make the club look a certain way -- that drove people away,” Christie said. The beach club at Wynn’s Encore cost $70 million, including its outdoor showers with stripper poles.

 

Caesars’ Linq

 

No bet is bigger than Caesars’ Linq project, a $550 million dining and entertainment destination located between the company’s Flamingo and Imperial Palace hotels in the center of the Strip. Almost $20 billion in debt after a 2008 leveraged buyout, Caesars borrowed $450 million at 9.25 percent to fund Linq and a new tower at Caesars Palace across the street, according to filings.

Caesars expects as many as 4 million visitors to ride the High Roller in its first year at a price of about $25, according Jon Gray, the vice president in charge. Guests have already asked to be married in the ride’s 40-person pods. It will open in the second quarter of 2014.

“Today, it’s hard to push up room rates,” said Los Angeles mall developer Rick Caruso, a consultant to the project. “You’ve got to find other revenue streams.”


--With assistance from Nadja Brandt in Los Angeles. Editors: Rob Golum, Anthony Palazzo

 

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Palmeri in Los Angeles at cpalmeri1@bloomberg.net

 

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Palazzo at apalazzo@bloomberg.net

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »





Chicago Should Spin Off Its Failing Public Schools

0
0

As measured by student test scores and adjusted for budget ($13,000 per student (source)), Chicago has some of the world’s least effective schools. The teachers earn an average of $76,000 per year, but with health care, retirement, and other benefits, the true cost is probably closer to $150,000 per year (more than $200,000 per year for a teacher working a standard full-year schedule rather than just for nine months).

A Teach for America graduate can be hired for as little as $25,500 per year (source) and will do at least as good a job (see this Stanford study). It would appear that Chicago thus has a golden opportunity to shed crushing pension and health care obligations by spinning off and decentralizing its public school system.

Chicago could simply create a non-profit organization for each school, give the administrative jobs within that school to existing administrators (presumably they are not on strike), fund those new non-profit organizations with $13,000 per student, and let the administrators hire whatever teachers they can find (including hiring from among the currently striking teachers) at market-clearing salaries and with a standard defined contribution retirement plan (rather than the defined benefit plan that has led to the Chicago Public School’s billion-dollar deficit).

Now that Obamacare is available, give employees higher salaries and let them purchase health insurance from the Obamarkets.

For students in the Chicago schools, obviously the biggest problem is that they aren’t learning much. For childless taxpayers, however, the biggest problem is that an aging workforce is owed health care and pension benefits that could only be affordable in an economy with real per-capita GDP growth of 5 percent annually (instead of the 0-1 percent that we have).

It would seem as though there is no better time to declare the experiment of a centralized school system run by the Chicago city government to be a failed one and, in doing so, spare the taxpayers from future ruin. A decentralized system of publicly-funded non-profit schools would provide at least as good an education, in the very same buildings, at a fraction of the current cost. After that it would be possible to try to do something for the kids, i.e., attempt to ensure that they are receiving an actual education.

Please follow Business Insider on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




Telemarketers Who Take Your Money For 'Charity' May Be Keeping Most Of It For Themselves

0
0

telemarketer-phone-call-yelling-angry-telephone

Americans who make charitable donations to nonprofits like the American Diabetes Association and American Cancer Society are led to believe that the vast majority of their money will go directly to research.

But in some cases, the vast majority of their donations actually goes directly into the hands of telemarketers, even when donors are explicitly told otherwise, according to a major report released by Bloomberg Markets Magazine today.

In one case investigated by the magazine's David Evans, telemarketers from InfoCision Management Corp., a company that does marketing for nonprofits, corporations and political groups, told potential donors that 70 percent of their donations would go directly to the American Diabetes Association. In reality, just 22 percent of funds raised in that campaign went to the charity, according to a North Carolina regulators.

In another case, the same telemarketing firm raised $5.3 million for the American Cancer Society during FY 2010. But none of it went to fight cancer, according to Evans:

Hundreds of thousands of volunteers took part, but none of that moneynot a single pennywent to fund cancer research or help patients, according to the society's filing with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the state of Maine. Every bit of it went to InfoCision, filings show. The society actually lost money on the program that year, its filings show. InfoCision got to keep 100 percent of the funds it raised, plus $113,006 in fees from the society, government filings show.

Some of the experts Evans spoke to said InfoCision's actions were deceitful and could potentially qualify as criminal. But the company, which brought it $424.5 million for its nonprofit clients between 2007 and 2010, has barely faced any repercussions, aside from a  $75,000 settlement in a civil case brought by the Ohio Attorney General's Office.

So how do telemarketers dupe potential donors? Evans outlines a few deceptive tactics:

  • When a telemarketer calls, the name of the charity appears on the caller ID, not that of the telemarketing firm.

  • Solicitors sometimes identify themselves as "volunteers" instead of paid employees.

  • Charity-approved scripts may lie about how much money will actually go to the charities.

Big charities bring in far more money through other initiativesfor direct campaigns like mailings, phone calls, websites and foundation grants, 70 to 80 percent of donations go directly to the cause, writes Evans.

But they don't seem to mind keeping up contracts with for-profit telemarketers like InfoCision. Mike Townsend, a spokesman for the American Lunch Association, told Bloomberg Markets Magazine"We have break-even contracts with these telemarketers so we don't 'lose' money and sometimes we even make a little." 

Now meet the 25 most generous people in America >

Please follow The Life on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »




The 12 Most Expensive Celebrity Wedding Gowns Of All Time

0
0

madonna guy ritchie wedding

The average American bride spends $1,500 on her wedding gown. 

But that won't do for celebrities. Forbes recently compiled a list of the most expensive weddings and included some of the more exorbitant gowns. 

Jennifer Aniston and Tori Spelling spent over $50,000 on their gowns. Victoria Beckham, Melania Trump and Catherine Zeta Jones all had dresses worth six figures. 

And Kate Middleton's gown is worth enough to buy you a very large house. 

Even the best dress can't buy you love, though. Very few of the celebrity brides we profiled are still married to their grooms. 

We wonder what happened to the dresses.

12.) Liza Minelli married David Gest in 2002 in what was said to be the most expensive wedding of all time. Her Bob Mackey gown cost $45,000.



11.) Jennifer Aniston wore this Lawrence Steele gown when she married Brad Pitt in 2000. The dress was said to cost $50,000. The couple divorced five years later.



10.) Tori Spelling married Charlie Shanian in 2004, but divorced a year later. Her custom Badgley Mischka gown cost around $50,000.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow The Wire on Twitter and Facebook.




See Where The World's First Commercial Space Flights Will Take Off From

0
0

Spaceport America

Virgin Galactic has promised to launch its pioneer spaceflight sometime next year aboard its spacecraft Spaceship Two. Once this flight takes off, it could mean the start of a whole new wave of commercial space tourism—and all of those space flights will likely leave from America's shiny new spaceport: Spaceport America.

Located in New Mexico, Spaceport America is "the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport."

Built and operated by the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, Spaceport America officially opened in 2010, but the public areas aren't slated for completion until 2013.

The terminal and hangar facility, designed by British architectural firm Foster + Partners, is sleek and modern, yet it blends seamlessly into the arid New Mexico landscape. It's also high-tech and environmentally-friendly.

Overall, the project will cost $209 million. 

Spaceport America is located just west of the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range in the Jornada del Muerto desert basin in New Mexico. It's about 90 miles north of El Paso and 55 miles north of Las Cruces.



"The world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport" has an airfield, launch pads, a terminal and hangar facility, emergency response capabilities, utilities and roadways.

Source: Spaceport America



Spaceport America officially opened in October 2011, but it's not fully completed yet. The public visitor facilities are slated for completion sometime next year.

Source: Spaceport America



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Science on Twitter and Facebook.




A Bankruptcy Court Is Selling Warren Sapp's Florida Mansion For $3.8 Mill

0
0

warren sapp house

Former NFL lineman Warren Sapp filed for bankruptcy back in April and now his Florida mansion is going on the auction block according to Realtor.com via Larry Brown Sports.

Sapp's 15,600 square foot mansion was listed by a bankruptcy court for $3.77 million. If it hasn't sold by November 1st it will go on auction to the highest bidder.

Sapp's house is seriously luxurious. Realtor.com says there is "a heavy use of marble, hand-painted gold leaf crown moldings and Venetian plaster finishes."

The outlined area is all Sapp's property



A view of the front of the 15,000 square foot palace



Let's go in the gates



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Please follow Sports Page on Twitter and Facebook.




Viewing all 115285 articles
Browse latest View live




Latest Images