Seven years ago, Amazon acquired Quidsi, what was then a five-year-old competitor that ran the sites Diapers.com and Soap.com. Since then, the company has been running independently and expanded its offerings. Now Amazon is shuttering Quidsi’s brands, saying that it’s been unable to make a profit since the acquisition. [More]
shutdowns
United Airlines Offers To Fly Air Force Football Team To Play Naval Academy
By 10.2.13
Though the various colleges representing the U.S. Armed Forces are still operating through the shutdown of the federal government, the transportation budgets for those schools’ sports teams have been frozen while it’s determined whether that money comes from Congressional appropriations or from other sources. This has put this weekend’s football showdown between the Air Force Academy and the Naval Academy in jeopardy. Now United Airlines has volunteered to help make the game happen. [More]
Shutdown Forces Justice Dept. To Press Pause On Attempt To Block US Airways & American Merger
By 10.1.13
It’s been more than six weeks since the Justice Dept. rained on the planned wedding between US Airways and American Airlines, and it looks like the fate of the two carriers may be further delayed by the current shutdown of the federal government. Earlier today, lawyers for the DOJ filed a motion for a stay in its lawsuit to block the merger because the shutdown is “creating difficulties for the Department to perform the functions necessary to support its litigation efforts.” [via Reuters] [More]
Seattle Libraries To Close For A Week To Save Money
By 8.23.10
If you live in Seattle, make sure you don’t plan any library outings between August 30th and September 6th, when all branches will be closed. As it did last year, the library system is shutting down services and not paying employees for a week to cut about $650,000 from its budget. Fortunately, you’ll still be able to access several electronic services that week, including ebook checkout and online databases. [More]
Items Affected By The Cellular Analog Network Shutdown
By 12.27.07
“In particular, check phones that are kept around as 911-only phones. Such phones, which don’t have a phone number and aren’t initialized with a carrier, were given out by some donation programs that collected old phones.” Less than 1% of cell phones currently in use are analog, but the article points out that that still counts for over a million devices. Anything less than 5 years old or that can text message isn’t analog.
