Page 9 - Business Facts

Google intends to scan all of the known existing books by the end of the decade!

Although it may seem like an impossible task, Google plans on having all known books which is around 130 MILLION books, uploaded to their digital book store “Google Editions”. When this project is completed, which will hopefully happen by the year 2020, Google will have uploaded over 4 billion digital pages as well as 2 trillion words in total! Unlike other online book stores, users won’t need a specific device to read the books such as a Kindle, because all the books are online!

However the progress for Google was slowed down after a major lawsuit in 2010 over copyright infringement that ended in a court settlement of $125,000,000! As of March 2012, Google had uploaded 20 million books! They better hurry if they want to reach their goal. For more info, see the source.

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Fifty Shades of Grey saved a small town in Maine! How?

In 1900, the Great Northern Paper Company [GNP] was founded in Millinocket, Maine. The paper mill started off strong, producing up to 240 tons of newsprint on a daily basis! As the century went on, business was only getting better in better until the end of the century approached.

At the end of the 20th century, a lot of publishing companies were outsourcing to other countries around the world because they charged less than the GNP. As a result, GNP lost a lot of business and had to close many of their plants, and lay off hundreds of workers, including 400 workers in the small town of East Millinocket.

Things quickly turned around when Cate Street Capital bought the GNP plant in East Millinocket and quickly signed a deal to produce 3,000 tons of paper that were needed to print E.L. James’ novel: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. Business has never been better for GNP and they have even opened up their mills again! There you have it, erotica creates jobs.

For more on this story, see the source.

Minecraft has paired up with the United Nations for a game! Why?

Minecraft is about to get a lot more addicting now that they’ve teamed up with the United Nations. Why? Well, because now gamers can feel like they are actually solving problems in the world by playing Minecraft. In September 2012, the gaming company that runs Minecraft teamed up with the UN Habitat to start a project they are calling ‘Block by Block’. Essentially, the game takes real-world environments and puts them into Minecraft.

Once this happens, the gamer will be able to play these environments and try to make changes in the world that they would like to see! This isn’t the first time Minecraft has been used for an educational project, either. In 2011, an organization called MinecraftEdu was created with the purpose of getting Minecraft into schools to help educate! Over 250,000 students around the world use Minecraft to learn! Learn how they do this and more about Minecraft in the source

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Do you have an awesome idea? The Awesome Foundation awards $1000 to each month’s most brilliant idea!

The Awesome Foundation was founded in Boston in 2009, but it’s a wordwide network of people. They are devoted to “forwarding the interest of awesomeness in the universe.” They distribute a series of $1,000 grants to projects and their creators. They give the grants with no strings attached and no claim or ownership over the projects. Money is pooled between 10 “micro-trustees” focused on a specific interest within their cell group or geographic location. The money is given in cash or check up front.

The foundation has grown since its humble beginnings to encompass cell groups world wide working to influence positive change projects that effect the ecosystem and more. The neat thing about the foundation is that you don’t have to be rich to partake in it and make a difference. The money given can be specified towards an area of your own interest, too. To make the world a little more awesome one month at a time, check out The Awesome Foundation.

The CEO of Red Lobster was fired over an all you can eat promotion, because he underestimated American gluttony!

Red Lobster ran a promotion for about a month that boasted all you can eat Alaskan snow crab legs. The food chain wasn’t expecting for Americans to pack away so many pounds of crab legs. The chain was being eaten out of house and home. It was so bad that the original price of $20 for the all you can eat platter was raised by up to $5 more.

The company was none too pleased with losing money over the promotion. They removed the CEO from her chair. Officially they are saying it had nothing to do with the promotion debacle, but unofficially it looks to be the precise reason. Unlucky timing plagued the promotion, too. While patrons were eating more than expected, wholesale prices on the crab legs rose, too. Patrons were eating thirds, fourths, and fifth servings. Needless to say, there won’t be any promotions that cheap on crab legs any time soon for Red Lobster.

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