p#149; The U.S. leg of Madonna's Sticky Sweet tour had a gross of $91.5 million on sales of about 550,000 tickets. For those of you keeping score at home, that's an average ticket price of $166. By my math, the average ticket price on on the U.S. leg of her a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_Tour"2006 Confessions tour/a was $183. The total Sticky Sweet tour is on pace to gross around $282 million. (a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKTRE4B00EA20081201"Billboard/a)/p p#149; Labels fret as Woolworths Entertainment UK, the distribution arm of Woolworths, has gone into adminstration. The company is said to be responsible for up to 30% of physical sales in the UK. (a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7755443.stm"BBC News/a)/p p#149; An article on the new owner of LA club The Viper Room, with requisite pun title. The owner, by the way, says he "absolutely" plans on creating a Viper Room franchise. (a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/25/AR2008112502098.html"Washington Times/a)/p p#149; a href="http://www.songbeatplayer.com/en/"Songbeat Player/a is a new application that scans multiple search engines (such as Seeqpod and Project Playlist) for music. The paid version (about $30) offers unlimited streaming and downloads -- but nothing for copyright owners. The marketing of this product (pay for unlimited, maybe-maybe not legal downloads) is similar to the way P2P applications used to be marketed before the a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM_Studios,_Inc._v._Grokster,_Ltd."Supreme Court's Grokster decision/a. (a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/12/01/songbeat-makes-searching-for-music-online-really-simple/"TechCruch/a)/p p#149; RIM's new Blackberry Storm isn't much of a music device. (a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13526_3-10107163-27.html?tag=mncol;title"Digital Noise/a)/p p#149; Concord Music Group will develop Ray Charles' post-1960 catalog. There will be six catalog reissues in 2009 and some digital-only releases as well. (a href="http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=115368"Press release/a)/phr/[music jobs] a href="http://coolfer.jobamatic.com/a/jbb/job-details/43602"The Beggars Group Matador Records is seeking a Paralegal/adiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/coolfer?a=zyz2o"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/coolfer?i=zyz2o" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/coolfer?a=EbDSO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/coolfer?i=EbDSO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/coolfer?a=OsAAO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/coolfer?i=OsAAO" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/coolfer/~4/471461828" height="1" width="1"/

LINK

Quote: It's official: U.S. in a recession since December 2007

Monday December 1, 12:26 pm ET

The National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday that the U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007, making official what most Americans have already believed about the state of the economy.

The NBER is a private group of leading economists charged with dating the start and end of economic downturns. It typically takes a long time after the start of a recession to declare its start because of the need to look at final readings of various economic measures.

"The committee views the payroll employment measure, which is based on a large survey of employers, as the most reliable comprehensive estimate of employment," said the group's statement. "This series reached a peak in December 2007 and has declined every month since then."

Employers have trimmed payrolls by 1.2 million jobs in the first 10 months of this year. On Friday, economists are predicting the government will report a loss of another 325,000 jobs for November.

The Semiconductor Industry Association said Monday that global sales of chips declined by 2.4 percent in October.

The Semiconductor Industry Association said Monday that global sales of chips declined by 2.4 percent in October.

Protesters blockading international flights to Bangkok threatened to draft in more demonstrators Monday as the tense standoff with authorities looked set to enter a second week.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=jnRIgA4H"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=6ZgEBF6i"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=nrk5frK1"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=nrk5frK1" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=fEwmaGK6"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=iUpRzULZ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=iUpRzULZ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/tXDP0dGsVmg" height="1" width="1"/

Protesters blockading international flights to Bangkok threatened to draft in more demonstrators Monday as the tense standoff with authorities looked set to enter a second week.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/mVlscVDaEnc" height="1" width="1"/

India on Monday demanded Pakistan take "strong action" on those behind last week's massacre in Mumbai, raising diplomatic tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=eqzpMMC4"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=LQfnj5yH"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=gPf7Bcdd"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=gPf7Bcdd" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=Cd7Yu4Xg"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=mmKrrKqT"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=mmKrrKqT" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/Giazg03K39g" height="1" width="1"/

India on Monday demanded Pakistan take "strong action" on those behind last week's massacre in Mumbai, raising diplomatic tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/w7Xo3ENsRy8" height="1" width="1"/

Happy Cyber Monday! If the crowds on Black Friday were any indication, it looks like consumers will be busy surfing the Web for deep discounts as well.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/money_latest/~4/Gb2BbyiAj1M" height="1" width="1"/

A homicide bomber detonated his explosives in a crowded market in southern Afghanistan Monday, killing eight civilians and two policemen, an official said.

psmallSylvie Barak a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/"the Inquirer/a, Monday 1 December 2008. 12:02:00/small/ppi But only in French /i/ppMSI HAS ANNOUNCED its new generation of netbooks, based on the Intel Z series Atom processor. At an event in France, MSI unveiled the U110 and U115, both sporting 1.6GHz Atom Z530s, copycatting Dell's Inspiron Mini 12..../pimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.theinquirer.net/c/554/f/7127/s/27a2e67/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=MSI announces new netbookslink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/01/msi-announces-netbooks" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=MSI announces new netbookslink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/01/msi-announces-netbooks" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24193197490/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/41561703/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24193197490/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/41561703/a2.img" border="0"//a

psmallMark Ballard a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/"the Inquirer/a, Monday 1 December 2008. 15:42:00/small/ppi Myspace pop video makes a comeback /i/ppTHE FATE of Pentagon Hacker Gary McKinnon will be decided by a UK judge on the same day that Barak Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States. The UK's High Court has set 20 January as the day when it decides whether to grant McKinnon a judicial review,.../pimg width='1' height='1' src='http://feeds.theinquirer.net/c/554/f/7127/s/27a2e65/mf.gif' border='0'/div class='mf-viral'table border='0'trtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=McKinnon's fate decided on Obama daylink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/01/mckinnon-fate-decided-obama-day" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" border="0" //a/tdtd valign='middle'a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=McKinnon's fate decided on Obama daylink=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/12/01/mckinnon-fate-decided-obama-day" target="_blank"img src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" border="0" //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24193197488/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/41561701/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/24193197488/u/89/f/7127/c/554/s/41561701/a2.img" border="0"//a

via engadget

Let's face it: this year's recession-busting Black Friday sucked, featuring a few good deals but no single blockbuster worth getting up at 2:00 am to stand in the cold. Over the weekend we still maintained a bit of hope that Cyber Monday would bring something worth getting excited about, and while right now it looks like we're set for another disappointingly bargain-free day full of nothing but work and turkey sandwiches, one deal did catch our eye. Amazon has a Nintendo DS up for just $99; that's $30 less than you'll find it elsewhere -- if you can find it elsewhere. The catch is it's the "Limited Edition Pink Ribbon" version, and pink and white is not exactly the perfect color scheme for those about to rock. However, a deftly-placed AC/DC sticker might let you feel the joy of supporting a good cause this holiday season ($5 goes to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation) while also avoiding any embarrassing taunting from thoughtless friends.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...kiangagenew-20

Venice has suffered its worst flooding in 22 years, leaving many parts of the historic Italian city neck-deep in water, reports said Monday.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=WCPGvacA"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=FR68gSZq"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=sV8pxMAr"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=sV8pxMAr" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=Nc7eb7Ep"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=UFHghFMq"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=UFHghFMq" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/a7SJkUkg3Xc" height="1" width="1"/

Venice has suffered its worst flooding in 22 years, leaving many parts of the historic Italian city neck-deep in water, reports said Monday.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/5xy3ZmUT16s" height="1" width="1"/

Black Friday is long behind us. It's time for Cyber Monday: an online shopper's dream. Check out Gearlog's Cyber Monday deals.

pThis week, Nintendo begins the week by giving us a new take on the iSpace Invaders/i series, women fixing cars in iPit Crew Panic!/i and the classic iMetal Slug 2/i. /ppa href="http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/12/01/wii-ware-and-virtual-console-monday-more-metal-slug"Read More.../a/p

Business communications service provider j2 Global Communications Inc. said Monday it acquired most of MailWise LLC and the fax and voice messaging units of Mijanda Inc.div class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=t5fLO"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=t5fLO" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=UX9uo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=UX9uo" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?a=3YlUo"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~f/ibtimes/tech?i=3YlUo" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ibtimes/tech/~4/471458526" height="1" width="1"/

A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=VoFnjZa7"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=6f7innie"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=Se4TMi9d"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=Se4TMi9d" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=gDj6riU8"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?a=u4f5bndQ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_topstories?i=u4f5bndQ" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_topstories/~4/tKSpuUXAp48" height="1" width="1"/

A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday.

A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday.div class="feedflare" a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=Jp3RrOho"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=Kg4XTrgI"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=50" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=lrSfwqJF"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=lrSfwqJF" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=lkxevNTQ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://rss.cnn.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?a=UdJo3jMu"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/rss/cnn_world?i=UdJo3jMu" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/cnn_world/~4/M77S6QIquEI" height="1" width="1"/

A 30,000-ton luxury cruise ship outran pirates off the coast of Yemen this weekend, the ship's owner said Monday.img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/rss/edition_world/~4/f-xu0UIwOOM" height="1" width="1"/

Navigation Web et applications 3D peuvent maintenant cohabiter - Avec le code à barres 2D, affranchir c'est communiquer - Voxox - Zoetrope indexe l'éphémère en ligne - Appels mobiles : après le contrôle parental, le contrôle entrepreneurial - Le coupon d'embarquement mobile au banc d'essai : peut mieux faire - Combien de vidéos regardent-t-on sur Internet ? - AtlantIc : tout un symbol - E-Commerce : succès annoncé du fait de petits prix supposés - Trackback - http://mageekstore.com - La Chine - Les nouveaux modèles de locations en ligne - Zilok - Kiloutou - Touareg flexibilise le bureau mobile - cyberextruder - 123people.com, le moteur qui fiche les internautes français - Le chiffre du jour : 78 664 votes en ligne aux élections prud'homales - Wizzgo suspend son service après sa condamnation pour contrefaçon - Le Search 2.0 - Yoono - Le Casual Gaming - Cyber Monday - Charles Matton

Navigation Web et applications 3D peuvent maintenant cohabiter - Avec le code à barres 2D, affranchir c'est communiquer - Voxox - Zoetrope indexe l'éphémère en ligne - Appels mobiles : après le contrôle parental, le contrôle entrepreneurial - Le coupon d'embarquement mobile au banc d'essai : peut mieux faire - Combien de vidéos regardent-t-on sur Internet ? - AtlantIc : tout un symbol - E-Commerce : succès annoncé du fait de petits prix supposés - Trackback - http://mageekstore.com - La Chine - Les nouveaux modèles de locations en ligne - Zilok - Kiloutou - Touareg flexibilise le bureau mobile - cyberextruder - 123people.com, le moteur qui fiche les internautes français - Le chiffre du jour : 78 664 votes en ligne aux élections prud'homales - Wizzgo suspend son service après sa condamnation pour contrefaçon - Le Search 2.0 - Yoono - Le Casual Gaming - Cyber Monday - Charles Matton

Late 2008 might seem a bit late for the launch of a brand new website where bands can post their videos in hopes of being discovered, but Microsoft apparently doesn't think so. The company launched MSN Unsigned on Monday, giving independent bands yet another avenue for distributing their stuff for free online -- in this case to MSN Music's five million-plus British users.

Only UK users will apparently have access to the videos, probably due to copyright concerns