FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Fresenius pulled the plug on plans to take over Rhoen-Klinikum, discouraged by healthcare industry investors who had sought to prevent the emergence of a dominant private-sector hospitals operator in Germany.
Fresenius said in a statement on Monday it would not launch a renewed takeover offer "for the time being".
"We regret that our public offer was blocked without providing a constructive alternative," Chief Executive Ulf Schneider said.
"All our investments must add value, with manageable risks. After thorough analysis, we have therefore reached the conclusion that a new offer cannot be justified."
Rhoen said it regretted the decision as it remained convinced of the benefits of merging two large private clinic operators in Germany, adding it would seek to play an active role in the consolidation of the market.
German healthcare conglomerate Fresenius in April unveiled plans to buy Rhoen in a deal worth 3.1 billion euros ($3.9 billion) and fold it into its own hospitals unit Helios, combining two of the three largest private-sector hospital chains in Germany.
But in June, German hospital group Asklepios effectively blocked the bid by buying a more than 5 percent stake in Rhoen. As a result, Fresenius fell short of the 90 percent approval it needed among Rhoen shareholders.
B. Braun, which competes with Fresenius in medical equipment such as infusion and tube feeding supplies, followed up by buying a 5 percent stake in Rhoen. The group is said to be against the tie-up because it risks losing an important client if Rhoen becomes part of Fresenius' hospitals division.
Although caving in for now, Fresenius said it would raise slightly its stake in Rhoen of currently 5 percent minus one share, it said.
($1 = 0.7933 euros)
(Reporting by Ludwig Burger; editing by Victoria Bryan)
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The Pentagon?s top tech research arm is reaching out to gaming community to help cure a blood infection that kills troops in battlefield hospitals every year.
The disease is sepsis, a blood infection that turns deadly when a patient goes into septic shock as the body tries to fight an infection. Troops often go into septic shock after suffering a massive trauma like losing a leg to a road side bomb.
Leaders of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, want to fight that disease and have challenged the game and online community at Foldit, a website funded by DARPA, to help cure it.?
DARPA has asked the Foldit community to tinker with protein designs in a massive brainstorming session to design new proteins to attack the ones that cause sepsis.?The hope is to design ?protein-based pathogen capture reagents to be used for the removal of circulating pathogens patients? blood as part of a larger [dialysis-like therapeutic] system,? according to DARPA.
The Pentagon had success with this approach in January when the Foldit online community of more than 240,000 gamers helped scientists remodel a reaction in organic synthesis. Had scientists had toiled over the protein design for years. Foldit users helped them solve it in three weeks.
August 31st, 2012 | Bizarro, Gadgets and Gear | 8 Comments
Full text of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney?s remarks to the Republican National Convention on Aug. 30 in Tampa , as prepared for delivery.
Mr. Chairman, delegates. I accept your nomination for President of the United States of America.
I do so with humility, deeply moved by the trust you have placed in me. It is a great honor. It is an even greater responsibility.
Tonight I am asking you to join me to walk together to a better future. By my side, I have chosen a man with a big heart from a small town. He represents the best of America, a man who will always make us proud ? my friend and America?s next Vice President, Paul Ryan.
In the days ahead, you will get to know Paul and Janna better. But last night America got to see what I saw in Paul Ryan ? a strong and caring leader who is down to earth and confident in the challenge this moment demands.
Click HERE to watch this video on a mobile device.
I love the way he lights up around his kids and how he?s not embarrassed to show the world how much he loves his mom.
But Paul, I still like the playlist on my iPod better than yours.
Four years ago, I know that many Americans felt a fresh excitement about the possibilities of a new president. That president was not the choice of our party but Americans always come together after elections. We are a good and generous people who are united by so much more than what divides us.
When that hard fought election was over, when the yard signs came down and the television commercials finally came off the air, Americans were eager to go back to work, to live our lives the way Americans always have ? optimistic and positive and confident in the future.
That very optimism is uniquely American.
It is what brought us to America. We are a nation of immigrants. We are the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the ones who wanted a better life, the driven ones, the ones who woke up at night hearing that voice telling them that life in that place called America could be better.
They came not just in pursuit of the riches of this world but for the richness of this life.
Freedom.
Freedom of religion.
Freedom to speak their mind.
Freedom to build a life.
And yes, freedom to build a business. With their own hands.
This is the essence of the American experience.
We Americans have always felt a special kinship with the future.
When every new wave of immigrants looked up and saw the Statue of Liberty, or knelt down and kissed the shores of freedom just ninety miles from Castro?s tyranny, these new Americans surely had many questions. But none doubted that here in America they could build a better life, that in America their children would be more blessed than they.
But today, four years from the excitement of the last election, for the first time, the majority of Americans now doubt that our children will have a better future.
It is not what we were promised.
Every family in America wanted this to be a time when they could get ahead a little more, put aside a little more for college, do more for their elderly mom who?s living alone now or give a little more to their church or charity.
Every small business wanted these to be their best years ever, when they could hire more, do more for those who had stuck with them through the hard times, open a new store or sponsor that Little League team.
Every new college graduate thought they?d have a good job by now, a place of their own, and that they could start paying back some of their loans and build for the future.
This is when our nation was supposed to start paying down the national debt and rolling back those massive deficits.
This was the hope and change America voted for.
It?s not just what we wanted. It?s not just what we expected.
It?s what Americans deserved.
You deserved it because during these years, you worked harder than ever before. You deserved it because when it cost more to fill up your car, you cut out movie nights and put in longer hours. Or when you lost that job that paid $22.50 an hour with benefits, you took two jobs at 9 bucks an hour and fewer benefits. You did it because your family depended on you. You did it because you?re an American and you don?t quit. You did it because it was what you had to do.
But driving home late from that second job, or standing there watching the gas pump hit 50 dollars and still going, when the realtor told you that to sell your house you?d have to take a big loss, in those moments you knew that this just wasn?t right.
But what could you do? Except work harder, do with less, try to stay optimistic. Hug your kids a little longer; maybe spend a little more time praying that tomorrow would be a better day.
I wish President Obama had succeeded because I want America to succeed. But his promises gave way to disappointment and division. This isn?t something we have to accept. Now is the moment when we CAN do something. With your help we will do something.
Now is the moment when we can stand up and say, ?I?m an American. I make my destiny. And we deserve better! My children deserve better! My family deserves better. My country deserves better!?
So here we stand. Americans have a choice. A decision.
To make that choice, you need to know more about me and about where I will lead our country.
I was born in the middle of the century in the middle of the country, a classic baby boomer. It was a time when Americans were returning from war and eager to work. To be an American was to assume that all things were possible. When President Kennedy challenged Americans to go to the moon, the question wasn?t whether we?d get there, it was only when we?d get there.
The soles of Neil Armstrong?s boots on the moon made permanent impressions on OUR souls and in our national psyche. Ann and I watched those steps together on her parent?s sofa. Like all Americans we went to bed that night knowing we lived in the greatest country in the history of the world.
God bless Neil Armstrong.
Tonight that American flag is still there on the moon. And I don?t doubt for a second that Neil Armstrong?s spirit is still with us: that unique blend of optimism, humility and the utter confidence that when the world needs someone to do the really big stuff, you need an American.
That?s how I was brought up.
My dad had been born in Mexico and his family had to leave during the Mexican revolution. I grew up with stories of his family being fed by the US Government as war refugees. My dad never made it through college and apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. And he had big dreams. He convinced my mom, a beautiful young actress, to give up Hollywood to marry him. He moved to Detroit, led a great automobile company and became Governor of the Great State of Michigan.
We were Mormons and growing up in Michigan; that might have seemed unusual or out of place but I really don?t remember it that way. My friends cared more about what sports teams we followed than what church we went to.
My mom and dad gave their kids the greatest gift of all ? the gift of unconditional love. They cared deeply about who we would BE, and much less about what we would DO.
Unconditional love is a gift that Ann and I have tried to pass on to our sons and now to our grandchildren. All the laws and legislation in the world will never heal this world like the loving hearts and arms of mothers and fathers. If every child could drift to sleep feeling wrapped in the love of their family ? and God?s love ? this world would be a far more gentle and better place.
Mom and Dad were married 64 years. And if you wondered what their secret was, you could have asked the local florist ? because every day Dad gave Mom a rose, which he put on her bedside table. That?s how she found out what happened on the day my father died ? she went looking for him because that morning, there was no rose.
My mom and dad were true partners, a life lesson that shaped me by everyday example. When my mom ran for the Senate, my dad was there for her every step of the way. I can still hear her saying in her beautiful voice, ?Why should women have any less say than men, about the great decisions facing our nation??
I wish she could have been here at the convention and heard leaders like Governor Mary Fallin, Governor Nikki Haley, Governor Susana Martinez, Senator Kelly Ayotte and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
As Governor of Massachusetts, I chose a woman Lt. Governor, a woman chief of staff, half of my cabinet and senior officials were women, and in business, I mentored and supported great women leaders who went on to run great companies.
I grew up in Detroit in love with cars and wanted to be a car guy, like my dad. But by the time I was out of school, I realized that I had to go out on my own, that if I stayed around Michigan in the same business, I?d never really know if I was getting a break because of my dad. I wanted to go someplace new and prove myself.
Those weren?t the easiest of days ? too many long hours and weekends working, five young sons who seemed to have this need to re-enact a different world war every night. But if you ask Ann and I what we?d give, to break up just one more fight between the boys, or wake up in the morning and discover a pile of kids asleep in our room. Well, every mom and dad knows the answer to that.
Those days were toughest on Ann, of course. She was heroic. Five boys, with our families a long way away. I had to travel a lot for my job then and I?d call and try to offer support. But every mom knows that doesn?t help get the homework done or the kids out the door to school.
I knew that her job as a mom was harder than mine. And I knew without question, that her job as a mom was a lot more important than mine. And as America saw Tuesday night, Ann would have succeeded at anything she wanted to.
Like a lot of families in a new place with no family, we found kinship with a wide circle of friends through our church. When we were new to the community it was welcoming and as the years went by, it was a joy to help others who had just moved to town or just joined our church. We had remarkably vibrant and diverse congregants from all walks of life and many who were new to America. We prayed together, our kids played together and we always stood ready to help each other out in different ways.
And that?s how it is in America. We look to our communities, our faiths, our families for our joy, our support, in good times and bad. It is both how we live our lives and why we live our lives. The strength and power and goodness of America has always been based on the strength and power and goodness of our communities, our families, our faiths.
That is the bedrock of what makes America, America. In our best days, we can feel the vibrancy of America?s communities, large and small.
It?s when we see that new business opening up downtown. It?s when we go to work in the morning and see everybody else on our block doing the same.
It?s when our son or daughter calls from college to talk about which job offer they should take?.and you try not to choke up when you hear that the one they like is not far from home.
It?s that good feeling when you have more time to volunteer to coach your kid?s soccer team, or help out on school trips.
But for too many Americans, these good days are harder to come by. How many days have you woken up feeling that something really special was happening in America?
Many of you felt that way on Election Day four years ago. Hope and Change had a powerful appeal. But tonight I?d ask a simple question: If you felt that excitement when you voted for Barack Obama, shouldn?t you feel that way now that he?s President Obama? You know there?s something wrong with the kind of job he?s done as president when the best feeling you had was the day you voted for him.
The President hasn?t disappointed you because he wanted to. The President has disappointed America because he hasn?t led America in the right direction. He took office without the basic qualification that most Americans have and one that was essential to his task. He had almost no experience working in a business. Jobs to him are about government.
I learned the real lessons about how America works from experience.
When I was 37, I helped start a small company. My partners and I had been working for a company that was in the business of helping other businesses.
So some of us had this idea that if we really believed our advice was helping companies, we should invest in companies. We should bet on ourselves and on our advice.
So we started a new business called Bain Capital. The only problem was, while WE believed in ourselves, nobody else did. We were young and had never done this before and we almost didn?t get off the ground. In those days, sometimes I wondered if I had made a really big mistake. I had thought about asking my church?s pension fund to invest, but I didn?t. I figured it was bad enough that I might lose my investors? money, but I didn?t want to go to hell too. Shows what I know. Another of my partners got the Episcopal Church pension fund to invest. Today there are a lot of happy retired priests who should thank him.
That business we started with 10 people has now grown into a great American success story. Some of the companies we helped start are names you know. An office supply company called Staples ? where I?m pleased to see the Obama campaign has been shopping; The Sports Authority, which became a favorite of my sons. We started an early childhood learning center called Bright Horizons that First Lady Michelle Obama rightly praised. At a time when nobody thought we?d ever see a new steel mill built in America, we took a chance and built one in a corn field in Indiana. Today Steel Dynamics is one of the largest steel producers in the United States.
These are American success stories. And yet the centerpiece of the President?s entire re-election campaign is attacking success. Is it any wonder that someone who attacks success has led the worst economic recovery since the Great Depression? In America, we celebrate success, we don?t apologize for it.
We weren?t always successful at Bain. But no one ever is in the real world of business.
That?s what this President doesn?t seem to understand. Business and growing jobs is about taking risk, sometimes failing, sometimes succeeding, but always striving. It is about dreams. Usually, it doesn?t work out exactly as you might have imagined. Steve Jobs was fired at Apple. He came back and changed the world.
It?s the genius of the American free enterprise system ? to harness the extraordinary creativity and talent and industry of the American people with a system that is dedicated to creating tomorrow?s prosperity rather than trying to redistribute today?s.
That is why every president since the Great Depression who came before the American people asking for a second term could look back at the last four years and say with satisfaction: ?you are better off today than you were four years ago.?
Except Jimmy Carter. And except this president.
This president can ask us to be patient.
This president can tell us it was someone else?s fault.
This president can tell us that the next four years he?ll get it right.
But this president cannot tell us that YOU are better off today than when he took office.
America has been patient. Americans have supported this president in good faith.
But today, the time has come to turn the page.
Today the time has come for us to put the disappointments of the last four years behind us.
To put aside the divisiveness and the recriminations.
To forget about what might have been and to look ahead to what can be.
Now is the time to restore the Promise of America. Many Americans have given up on this president but they haven?t ever thought about giving up. Not on themselves. Not on each other. And not on America.
What is needed in our country today is not complicated or profound. It doesn?t take a special government commission to tell us what America needs.
What America needs is jobs.
Lots of jobs.
In the richest country in the history of the world, this Obama economy has crushed the middle class. Family income has fallen by $4,000, but health insurance premiums are higher, food prices are higher, utility bills are higher, and gasoline prices have doubled. Today more Americans wake up in poverty than ever before. Nearly one out of six Americans is living in poverty. Look around you. These are not strangers. These are our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans.
His policies have not helped create jobs, they have depressed them. And this I can tell you about where President Obama would take America:
His plan to raise taxes on small business won?t add jobs, it will eliminate them;
His assault on coal and gas and oil will send energy and manufacturing jobs to China;
His trillion dollar cuts to our military will eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs, and also put our security at greater risk;
His $716 billion cut to Medicare to finance Obamacare will both hurt today?s seniors, and depress innovation ? and jobs ? in medicine.
And his trillion-dollar deficits will slow our economy, restrain employment, and cause wages to stall.
To the majority of Americans who now believe that the future will not be better than the past, I can guarantee you this: if Barack Obama is re-elected, you will be right.
I am running for president to help create a better future. A future where everyone who wants a job can find one. Where no senior fears for the security of their retirement. An America where every parent knows that their child will get an education that leads them to a good job and a bright horizon.
And unlike the President, I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs. It has 5 steps.
First, by 2020, North America will be energy independent by taking full advantage of our oil and coal and gas and nuclear and renewables.
Second, we will give our fellow citizens the skills they need for the jobs of today and the careers of tomorrow. When it comes to the school your child will attend, every parent should have a choice, and every child should have a chance.
Third, we will make trade work for America by forging new trade agreements. And when nations cheat in trade, there will be unmistakable consequences.
Fourth, to assure every entrepreneur and every job creator that their investments in America will not vanish as have those in Greece, we will cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget.
And fifth, we will champion SMALL businesses, America?s engine of job growth. That means reducing taxes on business, not raising them. It means simplifying and modernizing the regulations that hurt small business the most. And it means that we must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare.
Today, women are more likely than men to start a business. They need a president who respects and understands what they do.
And let me make this very clear ? unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class.
As president, I will protect the sanctity of life. I will honor the institution of marriage. And I will guarantee America?s first liberty: the freedom of religion.
President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and heal the planet. MY promise?is to help you and your family.
I will begin my presidency with a jobs tour. President Obama began with an apology tour. America, he said, had dictated to other nations. No Mr. President, America has freed other nations from dictators.
Every American was relieved the day President Obama gave the order, and Seal Team Six took out Osama bin Laden. But on another front, every American is less secure today because he has failed to slow Iran?s nuclear threat.
In his first TV interview as president, he said we should talk to Iran. We?re still talking, and Iran?s centrifuges are still spinning.
President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus, even as he has relaxed sanctions on Castro?s Cuba. He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments, but is eager to give Russia?s President Putin the flexibility he desires, after the election. Under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty, and Mr. Putin will see a little less flexibility and more backbone.
We will honor America?s democratic ideals because a free world is a more peaceful world. This is the bipartisan foreign policy legacy of Truman and Reagan. And under my presidency we will return to it once again.
You might have asked yourself if these last years are really the America we want, the America won for us by the greatest generation.
Does the America we want borrow a trillion dollars from China? No.
Does it fail to find the jobs that are needed for 23 million people and for half the kids graduating from college? No.
Are its schools lagging behind the rest of the developed world? No.
And does the America we want succumb to resentment and division? We know the answer.
The America we all know has been a story of the many becoming one, uniting to preserve liberty, uniting to build the greatest economy in the world, uniting to save the world from unspeakable darkness.
Everywhere I go in America, there are monuments that list those who have given their lives for America. There is no mention of their race, their party affiliation, or what they did for a living. They lived and died under a single flag, fighting for a single purpose. They pledged allegiance to the UNITED States of America.
That America, that united America, can unleash an economy that will put Americans back to work, that will once again lead the world with innovation and productivity, and that will restore every father and mother?s confidence that their children?s future is brighter even than the past.
That America, that united America, will preserve a military that is so strong, no nation would ever dare to test it.
That America, that united America, will uphold the constellation of rights that were endowed by our Creator, and codified in our Constitution.
That united America will care for the poor and the sick, will honor and respect the elderly, and will give a helping hand to those in need.
That America is the best within each of us. That America we want for our children.
If I am elected President of these United States, I will work with all my energy and soul to restore that America, to lift our eyes to a better future. That future is our destiny. That future is out there. It is waiting for us. Our children deserve it, our nation depends upon it, the peace and freedom of the world require it. And with your help we will deliver it. Let us begin that future together tonight.
(YWN World Headquarters ? NYC)
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Ah, the next-gen iPhone. What more can we say? Almost sadly, we already know the screen will be bigger, the connecting port is smaller, and the design will be drastically different, with a two-tone metal casing. And yet, we still haven't seen one of these bad boys fully assembled. We've seen parts ? boy have we seen parts! But with two weeks left until the official announcement, this is the first assembled handset we've seen, and it's smiling for pics alongside the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS, no less!
Editors note:? Traci is an ?old? Gamma Phi friend from my college days.? She blogs over atMy Job is Amusingand makes me laugh out loud every time I read her posts.? You may remember a link we posted a while back about Traci?s husband delivering her baby?? At her home???? Yea.? We remember, too.?Here?s the link ~ you don?t want to miss it.?
Traci will be writing for Her View From Home this fall!? Yeah!? We will unveil more of her work (along with many other contributors) with the new launch.? Can?t wait to have her on board!? Here?s a sneak peek at her writing!? ~Leslie
**Authors Note: I have made up every single fact that I have reported in this blog post. There is no evidence to support a single claim I make. All statistics are based on anecdotal presumptions.
Thank you for taking a break from ?pinning? in order to read this post. I am not under the delusion that a single word I will say to you today will add anything to your life as valuable as whatpinterestbrings you on a day to day basis, but I am very pleased that you are here. When you are finished, please head straight to the store to pick up a yard of burlap and some PVC pipe for your next project.
The truth is, very little on the web can hold a candle to the phenomenon that is pinterest. I mean, come on?Preschool lunches featuring organic ingredients cut into silly shapes! How to make a $30 IKEA cabinet into a custom built-in using a hack saw & spray paint! Inspirational quotes shown using hipster graphic design! 431 ways to entertain your 2 year old! A tutorial on how to convert a ratty old sweatshirt into an adorable baby romper! How to make your own Mod Podge, Febreeze, ketchup, bug spray, or even a reed diffuser!
It?s all too much.
No matter how many pins you?ve seen, you remain in awe that you now hold the key to so much life change and possess such a wealth of knowledge. You feel inspired to purchase & create?and so does everyone else.
This mutual inspiration has caused a ripple effect in the economy that is changing lives for the better?
?AND for the worse (cue daunting music).
Today, I will share with you the economic victims of what I call ?The Pinterest Effect??as well as its top beneficiaries.
*VICTIM #1:?THE PAINT INDUSTRY: The manufacturers of interior & exterior house paint have been the hardest hit by the Pinterest effect. Behr, a captain of the industry, has reportedly been forced to lay off 5% of its work force. Why?Paint chip theft. Paint chips aren?t cheap people, and since the launch of pinterest, paint companies have had to increase paint chip production by 22%. My case in point: projects like these which are all over Pinterest:
Women have been hitting hardware stores in droves tucking paint chips into their home sewn satchels. There is actually a warrant out for the arrest of the person whose bedroom is photographed above.
The ripple effect of this thievery is drastic?countless jobs have been lost. This is the sad but true result of selfish pinterest crafting.
*VICTIM #2: THE WORLD OF COOKBOOKERY
With the influx of recipes available on pinterest, cookbook authors & publishers are encountering bleak times. Amazon has reported a 11.4% drop in sales in the cookbook genre since the invention of pinterest. Pulling a stack of cookbooks off the shelf is becoming a less and less popular way to plan dinner. Women are now choosing to do their meal planning online, especially through pinterest. Poor Betty Crocker.
*VICTIM #3: PERSONAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS
Pinterest exposes users to a vast amount of clothing, home decor, makeup, craft supplies, jewelry, children?s products, books, party supplies, & electronics that would not have been discovered otherwise. This exposure creates not only the urge to buy an item here and there, but a general desire to attain a certain ?way of life?. Whether it be the modern urbanite, the hyper organized stay at home mom, the granola yuppie, geek chic, the vintage hipster, or countless other lifestyle options..a pinterest user can often find themselves with a unspoken yearning to create a world for themselves that looks like the pins on their boards.
This affects the economy in a positive way: increased spending. Sadly though, there is a voiceless victim in this unspoken urge to create a pinteresting life: a pinterest users? savings account. Unfortunately, making your own hand soap, laundry detergent, and play dough does not quite make up for the increased spending of these pinterest addicts, therefore they have less money to set aside for a rainy day (but don?t worry- they have a list of 200 free rainy day activities pinned on their ?Ideas? board!!).
*VICTIM #4: REAL PHOTOGRAPHERS
These days, photography tutorials ?are all over pinterest. This has created a flood of?amateur?photographers onto the economic landscape. Everyone now has a friend with a photography habit and a basic level of knowledge regarding concepts like aperture, white balance, & ISO. Many people are now choosing to have these ?wannabes? take their family/baby/event photographs instead of enlisting the talents of actual professionals, thus harming an actual professional photographer?s bottom line.
*VICTIM #5: FONT DESIGNERS
With free fonts galore, no one is paying for their fonts these days. The field of Font Design has seen a 40% decrease in employment (Seriously though, Font Designer?is that a thing?)
OTHER PRODUCT/INDUSTRY VICTIMS (due to the ?make your own? craze): Salad dressing, Febreeze, laundry soap, crayons, play dough, glue, household cleaners, toothpaste, cooking spray, flavored jello, Bisquick, tea bags (OK so perhaps this isn?t true?I mean, has ANYONE that has pinned these make your own ideas actually followed through? Please comment.)
Shame. Shame. Shame.
Don?t you fret for long! The economic news isn?t all bad, it?s time to share the BENEFICIARIES?of the Pinterest effect?
*Embroidery?Hoop Manufacturers everywhere
*Any designer who chooses Chevron?
*Etsy sellers- those?who don?t want to follow the oodles of tutorials on pinterest just head on over to etsy & buy things from people who aren?t such lazy piles (this would describe yours truly)
*Pallet producers-?Who knows where people find all these pallets, but someone somewhere has gotta be pleased with the popularity of all this pallet crapola
*Bloggers- Pinterest brings new readers to blogs like Russian gymnast Aliya Mustafina brings the attitude. Di.Va. ?Bloggers with advertisers see those added numbers and ads get added additionally. Bloggers without advertisers might become bloggers with advertisers if they keep on adding?pin worthy posts. Have you ad it with me?
*IKEA- so many ikea hacks, so little time. Spice racks are flying off the shelves, and sales of the Expedit shelf are up 14.5% alone.
*Thrift Stores/Antique shops/Flea Markets- Hoardes of prudent pinterest users have been flocking to these locations desperately seeking items to sand, spray paint, and refurbish.
*Anyone involved in the production of the following products: vinegar, FELT/felt balls, quinoa, bento boxes, kale, baking soda, nail polish, wreath forms, yarn, chalkboard paint, crock pots, oatmeal, rubber door mats, & mason jars
P.S. I know I?m poking some fun at good ole Pinterest, but I want ya?ll to know I?m definitely a fan. You want proof?? Well?I own a Chevron lamp shade, made a Pinterest recipe for dinner Friday, created one of those growth chart rulers, whipped up a wreath for my mantel, regularly pin funny things I come across (my favorite one), found Caroline?s party decoration ideas there, and I even tried one of the hair tutorials (and failed). I?m not great about pinning, but I look for things on there quite often. Next on the agenda: finally learn how to do my eye makeup at the age of 31.
P.P.S. No time for Sunshine/Raincloud on this post?I?ve gotta whip up a spinach & oatmeal smoothie with flax seed & drink it out of a mason jar.
The Pentagon?s top tech research arm is reaching out to gaming community to help cure a blood infection that kills troops in battlefield hospitals every year.
[VIDEO IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]
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