Tag Archives: washingtonpost

Crocs running out of business

The Washington Post is reporting that the makers of Croc shoes are running out of business.

The company had expanded to meet demand, but financially pressed customers cut back. Last year the company lost $185.1 million, slashed roughly 2,000 jobs and scrambled to find money to pay down millions in debt. Now it’s stuck with a surplus of shoes, and its auditors have wondered if it can stay afloat. It has until the end of September to pay off its debt.

A fashion faux pas will soon be laid to rest.

Posted on July 17, 2009 in Fashion · Also tagged | Comments closed

Michael Jackson ex post facto

The Washington Post discusses the death of Michael Jackson being first spread through sites such as Twitter before being confirmed by more traditional news sources. Interestingly, consumption of news can be tracked with Google Trends and iTunes.

Within a few hours of the news of Jackson’s death, his 1982 album “Thriller” was the No. 1 album on iTunes. Several of his discs were also in the top 10 of the digital store.

I’ve always been fascinated by the power of social media that permeates through our daily lives. I am sure for the upcoming year there will be many supposed lifelong Michael Jackson fans, all of whom are unwilling to admit to his death being a catalyst to their consumption of what’s now considered relevant. I’m sure of it because until this afternoon, no one was talking about Michael.

Posted on June 25, 2009 in Links, Music · Also tagged , | Comments closed

Tom Murphy of Dupont Circle

An article by the Washington Post from 2007 that looks into the world of blitz chess and street hustling. It follows Tom Murphy, a well-known chess player that roams Dupont Circle, and his experiences with hustling for dollars to the ups and downs of competing in tournaments to increase his rank in United States Chess Federation.

As endgame approached, Murphy had 18 minutes on his clock. His opponent had two. Murphy had steadily disassembled the boy’s defenses. The game ended with the boy madly shuttling his king toward a corner, while Murphy’s queen closed in on checkmate. The effect was like watching someone seeking shelter on a barren battlefield under machine-gun fire.

The pace in which blitz chess is played is astounding. One has to fully grasp chess theory and strategy to be able to effectively play at that speed. The possibilities from such a small range of spaces and pieces means he’s ten, fifteen, maybe twenty steps ahead of the current situation.

“The first four moves can lead to seventy thousand different positions,” George Steiner wrote in the New Yorker in 1972. “The number of possible ways of playing the first ten moves on each side is such that if every man, woman, and child on the earth played without respite it would require more than two hundred and seventeen billion years to go through them all.” The possible ways of playing an entire game is a much vaster number, 10120, a number considerably larger than the number of electrons in the known universe (1079), according to chess historian David Shenk.

Posted on April 19, 2009 in Links · Also tagged , , , | Comments closed