Daily 30: Mon 12.01.2014

Beyond The Headlines! 3mo
December 1, 2014

2 December 1, 2014 Vice News

Today: Demonstrations in Egyptian capital after judge drops murder charges against former President Hosni Mubarak, dozens of prisoners die of drug overdoses in western Venezuela, Haitian riot police clash with protesters demanding president's resignation, and prominent AIDS researchers insist a cure is within their reach.
3mo
Black Friday Sales Take A Tumble

17 Black Friday Sales Take A Tumble Huffington Post

NEW YORK (AP) — Black Friday fatigue is setting in. Early discounting, more online shopping and a mixed economy meant fewer people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend, the National Retail Federation said Sunday. Overall, 133.7 million people shopped in stores and online over the four-day weekend, down 5.2 percent from last year, according to a survey of 4,631 people conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the trade group. Total spending for the weekend is expected to fall 11 percent to $50.9 billion from an estimated $57.4 billion last year, the trade group estimated. Part of the reason is that Target, J.C. Penney, Macy's, Wal-Mart and other major retailers pushed fat discounts as early as Halloween. Some opened stores even earlier on Thanksgiving. All that stole some thunder from Black Friday and the rest of the weekend. Still, the preliminary data makes retailers worried that shoppers remain frugal despite improving employment and falling gas prices. Matt Shay, the trade group's CEO, said he thinks people benefiting from the recovery may not feel the need to fight crowds to get the deepest discount on a TV or toaster. And those who feel like the recession never ended may not have the money and will stretch out what they spend through Christmas. And shoppers are still feeling the effects of high food prices and stagnant wages. "While they're more optimistic, they're very cautious," Shay said. "If the deals are not right for them, they're not going to spend." Bottom line: Expect more deep discounts, all season long. "Every day will be Black Friday. Every minute will be Cyber Monday," he said. That could be what it takes to get shoppers to open their wallets for the holiday shopping season, which accounts for about 20 percent of annual retail sales. Besides economic factors, people are becoming more discerning when they shop. Armed with smartphones and price-comparison apps, they know what's a good deal — and what's not. Kimani Brown, 39, of New York City, was among the Black Friday defectors. After four years of braving the crowds, the sales failed to lure him out this year. "I consider myself a smart shopper. And it's not as alluring as it used to be," Brown said. "It's a marketing tool, and I don't want to be pulled into it." He also said the frenzy pushed him to overspend, and he paid the price in January on his credit card statement. Instead, he said he will look online Monday, the online shopping day often called Cyber Monday. Some who went shopping on Thanksgiving felt they were doing it against their will. Cathyliz Lopez of New York City said she felt forced to shop on the holiday. "It's ruining the spirit of Thanksgiving," the 20-year-old said Thursday. "But I was checking all the ads, and the best deals were today." The National Retail Federation is still predicting a 4.1 percent increase in sales for the season. That would be the highest increase since the 4.8 percent gain in 2011. Some stores and malls had reason to be optimistic. Dan Jasper, a spokesman at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, said customer counts are up 5 to 6 percent for the four-day weekend. One plus: Shoppers were buying more for themselves, a sign of optimism. "They felt confident in the economy," he said. CEOs at Target and Toys R Us said they saw shoppers not just focusing on the doorbuster deals but throwing extra items in their carts. Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren told The Associated Press on Friday that he's hoping lower gas prices will help spending. "There's reason to believe that confidence should continue to grow. That should be good for discretionary spending," he said. Some of those discretionary dollars are migrating online. Target said Thanksgiving saw a 40 percent surge in online sales and was its biggest online sales day ever. And Wal-Mart reported Thanksgiving was its second-highest online day ever, topped only by Cyber Monday last year. From Nov. 1 through Friday, $22.7 billion has been spent online, a 15 percent increase from last year, according to research firm comScore. On Thanksgiving, online sales surged 32 percent, while Black Friday online sales jumped 26 percent. In stores, shoppers spent $9.1 billion on Black Friday, according to research firm ShopperTrak, down 7 percent from last year. That was partly due to a 24 percent surge in Thanksgiving sales, to $3.2 billion. ShopperTrak estimated that in-store sales for the two days combined slipped half a percent to $12.29 billion.
8mo
True Skin

18 True Skin N10N

True Skin – A sci-fi short set in the not too distant future where augmentation is the way of life. For Kaye, still a natural, augmenting will help him keep pace in this now hyper-paced world. However, after acquiring an off-market prototype, Kaye quickly finds himself fighting not only for his own humanity, but something much larger.
Must Watch! 5mo
What's In My Baggie?

20 What's In My Baggie? Jeff Chambers

"What's In My Baggie?" is a documentary on the rise of misrepresented substances, as well as a critique of ineffective drug policy.
3mo
Common on "Nobody Smiling" Tour

21 Common on "Nobody Smiling" Tour Complex

Common is on a mission in 2014. The Chicago rapper dropped a new album this year titled Nobody's Smiling, one that tackled the growing violence throughout his hometown and the rest of the country. Now, he's taking it on the road on the Nobody's Smiling Tour with the purpose of creating a soundtrack for our growing national unrest. He also hopes that he (along with No I.D., who produced the album) created a classic statement record, like Nas with Illmatic and Ice Cube with America's Most Wanted. We caught up with Common as the tour was rounding through Los Angeles to discuss what he's looking forward to doing on the road, and what he hopes to inspire in his audiences. He also talked about his admiration of his tour mate, Jay Electronica, whom he calls timeless and an inspiration for his current work.
3mo
Gyasi Zardes Isn't Gonna Mess Up

24 Gyasi Zardes Isn't Gonna Mess Up Vice Sports

Los Angeles Galaxy star forward Gyasi Zardes let the VICE Sports crew in on his unlikely journey from the streets of Hawthorne to the heights of MLS stardom. In this exclusive video, Zardes shares how his soccer-obsessed father taught him the game and how Landon Donovan taught him the ropes of the media game. Bonus: Zardes' son makes a cameo and he's adorable.
3mo
What We Still Don’t Know About Ferguson

25 What We Still Don’t Know About Ferguson New Republic

Journalists and legal analysts have now had several days to sift through the witness testimony from Ferguson, Missouri. Based on their analysis—which you can read via the New York Times, National Public Radio, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch, among others—two things seem pretty clear. One is that prosecutor Robert McCulloch’s handling of the case was even more unusual than it seemed at first blush. As you’ve probably heard by now, prosecutors typically use grand juries to make their best case for indictments. That’s not what McCulloch did. He presented the grand jury with all of the available evidence, effectively treating the twelve-member group as a separate investigative body, so that they could make their own, unbiased determination about whether Officer Darren Wilson committed a crime when he shot Michael Brown on August 9. There’s some precedent for this; it’s actually true to the original idea of a grand jury, as a check on prosecutorial power. But there’s reason to think that McCulloch and his staff were not so impartial themselves—that they led the grand jury to reject charges against Wilson. The best evidence of this is the way prosecutors treated the witnesses. The witnesses who challenged Wilson’s version of events frequently faced tough questioning, as if the lawyers were trying to poke holes in their testimony. Wilson did not get the same treatment, at least judging by the transcripts. “It seemed the cross-examination of witnesses that conflicted with [Wilson’s] account was much more robust, and that there was very little cross-examination of him,” Rachel Barkow, a law professor at New York University, told the Times. It’s one more reason to think that McCulloch should have stepped aside or been replaced. The other takeaway from the testimony is that witness accounts diverged, sometimes sharply. (If you haven’t yet seen the amazing chart that PBS Newshour put together, you really should.) One big dispute was over what happened after the initial altercation at Wilson’s police vehicle, once Brown had run away and Wilson had chased him. Brown eventually turned back towards Wilson and, according to virtually every witness who testified, Brown raised his hands when he did so. But did Brown raise them high or low? Were they palms out, as if he was surrendering, or balled up in a fist, as if he was making an aggressive move? The forensic evidence seems to make clear that Brown started moving back towards Wilson—but was he charging or staggering? Again, the witnesses say different things. None of this is surprising. Witness recollections are notoriously subjective and inaccurate, as Paul Campos noted at Salon last week. Maybe the real story is that both Wilson and Brown were aggressive, from the very beginning of the encounter. Maybe Wilson ultimately acted in a way that Missouri law justifies (because it gives police enormous leeway to shoot suspects who have shown hostility) but many Americans would not condone (because they don’t want cops shooting people unless they pose clear, immediate threats to safety). That’s just one possibility—a guess, from somebody trying to make sense of information that doesn’t always make sense. We know enough about patterns of behavior—and about racial disparities in political and economic power—to know something is very wrong in Ferguson, and in countless communities like it. But we don’t really know what happened on August 9 and, at this point, we may never know.
Tragic News 3mo
Ohio State Lineman Found Dead

26 Ohio State Lineman Found Dead

The body of an Ohio State University football player who had been missing since Wednesday was found in a dumpster near campus, Columbus police said on Sunday evening. Kosta Karageorge, a 22-year-old defensive lineman, is believed to have been killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to Sgt. Rich Weiner. The body was found along with a handgun in a dumpster near Karageorge's apartment. The fifth-year senior had been complaining of confusion possibly due to concussions, according to his mother. She said Karageorge sent a text message Wednesday that read, "Sorry if I am an embarrassment, but these concussions have my head all [expletive] up." The Ohio State Department of Athletics released the following statement on Sunday night: The Ohio State University Department of Athletics was shocked and saddened to learn today of the death of student-athlete Kosta Karageorge, a senior from Columbus. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Karageorge family, and those who knew him, during this most difficult time. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A missing Ohio State football player was found dead Sunday, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said. Police tell media outlets the body of 22-year-old Kosta Karageorge was found near the campus after a search since he went missing Wednesday. The senior defensive tackle from Columbus had last been seen at his apartment in Columbus, when his roommates said he left to go on a walk. Karageorge's parents filed a missing-person report Wednesday evening, and his mother, Susan Karageorge, told police he has had several concussions and a few spells of being extremely confused, according to the report. She said that at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday he texted a message that cited the concussions and said, "I am sorry if I am an embarrassment." University athletic officials said they were grieved to learn of Karageorge's death. A former Buckeyes wrestler, he joined the football team as a walk-on this season. He has played in one game and was among two dozen seniors slated to be recognized at the final home game Saturday against rival Michigan. The Buckeyes won, 42-28. During halftime at the No. 16 Ohio State men's basketball game against James Madison in Columbus, pictures of Karageorge were shown and an announcement was made urging people with any information to contact police. Defensive lineman Michael Bennett said afterward that Karageorge missed practices and that teammates started getting nervous Thursday. The team's physician, Dr. Jim Borchers, has said he could not comment on the medical care of student athletes. The player's sister, Sophia Karageorge, told The Columbus Dispatch that he apparently was upset, and roommates said he went for a walk, dressed in black from his hat to his boots. "We're very concerned that he's not himself and that he maybe doesn't know what's going on," she told the newspaper. She said after each concussion he followed trainers' instructions and received proper care but "his repercussions from (concussions) have been long-term or delayed." She said he was without his wallet and his motorcycle. Coach Urban Meyer described Karageorge as a hard worker and an important player in practice.
4mo
Kingsman: The Secret Service

27 Kingsman: The Secret Service Marv Films

Kingsman: The Secret Service tells the story of a super-secret spy organization that recruits an unrefined but promising street kid into the agency's ultra-competitive training program just as a global threat emerges from a twisted tech genius.
4mo
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

28 The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five … Warner Bros.

“The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies” brings to an epic conclusion the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, Thorin Oakenshield and the Company of Dwarves. Having reclaimed their homeland from the Dragon Smaug, the Company has unwittingly unleashed a deadly force into the world. Enraged, Smaug rains his fiery wrath down upon the defenseless men, women and children of Lake-town.
7mo
Outcast

29 Outcast Arclight Films

A mysterious warrior teams up with the daughter and son of a deposed Chinese Emperor to defeat their cruel Uncle, who seeks their deaths.