WEATHER ALERT
Looking for a leap year lift? Check out this silly French newspaper that only publishes on Feb. 29
Read full article: Looking for a leap year lift? Check out this silly French newspaper that only publishes on Feb. 29Satirical French newspaper La Bougie du Sapeur only comes out on Feb. 29, once every four years.
San Francisco bidding to reverse image of a city in decline as host of APEC trade summit
Read full article: San Francisco bidding to reverse image of a city in decline as host of APEC trade summitWorld leaders, CEOS, protesters and thousands of others will soon descend on San Francisco for a high-profile trade summit that could give the battered city a chance to reverse its image as a powerhouse in decline.
Ikea fined $1.3 million over spying campaign in France
Read full article: Ikea fined $1.3 million over spying campaign in FranceA French court has ordered home furnishings giant Ikea to pay more than $1.3 million in fines and damages Tuesday over a campaign to spy on union representatives, employees and some unhappy customers in France.
Ikea France on trial over claims it spied on staff, clients
Read full article: Ikea France on trial over claims it spied on staff, clientsBut at Monday's trial in the Versailles court, lawyers for Ikea France denied any strategy of “generalized espionage." Another accusation alleged that Ikea France used unauthorized data to try to catch an employee who had claimed unemployment benefits but drove a Porsche. Former Ikea France CEOs Jean-Louis Baillot and Stefan Vanoverbeke, former Chief Financial Officer Dariusz Rychert, store managers and police officers are also going on trial. Ikea France, a subsidiary of Swedish furniture company Ikea, said Monday it has cooperated with French judicial authorities. In France, Ikea employs more than 10,000 people in 34 stores, an e-commerce site and a customer support center.
IKEA Jacksonville donates teddy bears, VR glasses to Ronald McDonald House
Read full article: IKEA Jacksonville donates teddy bears, VR glasses to Ronald McDonald HouseIKEA Jacksonville Donates Teddy Bears and VR Glasses to Children Staying at Ronald McDonald House Charities of JacksonvilleJACKSONVILLE, Fla. – IKEA Jacksonville donated 500 plush teddy bears as part of IKEA’s nationwide “Let’s Play” Campaign which gives customers the opportunity to purchase new soft toys and donate them to a local organization. The “Let’s Play” campaign is an 8-week campaign that ran November 1 – December 24, 2020 that generated support from hundreds of local IKEA supporters and employees. IKEA Loyalty Manager, Andrea Dombrowski, was excited to personally deliver the variety of plush bears with other IKEA employees. “When we looked at organizations that we felt would experience the greatest impact from this donation, it was an easy choice to choose Ronald McDonald House of Jacksonville.”Each child served by Ronald McDonald House Charities of Jacksonville is welcomed with a brand-new teddy bear with a special message of comfort attached to it. AdFor more information, customers can visit www.IKEA-USA.com/Jacksonville or visit our location at 7801 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, FL 32256.
Desk shortage forces people to get creative about workspaces
Read full article: Desk shortage forces people to get creative about workspacesMillions of kids logging onto virtual school this fall has parents scrambling to find furniture for them. But John Furner, who runs Walmart’s U.S. stores, acknowledged low stocks of kid’s desks and laptops in a ABC News interview on Sept. 11. “It’s not as cute or trendy as a bought desk and I wish it had drawers for storage,” said Fry. Will the homemade desk make it through the school year? “I could not believe in three weeks how much damage he’s done to this desk.”_____Follow Joseph Pisani on Twitter @ josephpisani
IKEA recalls thousands of infant bibs for possible choking hazards
Read full article: IKEA recalls thousands of infant bibs for possible choking hazardsLEIDEN, Netherlands - Ikea is recalling thousands of infant bibs over concerns their snaps could be a choking hazard if they detach. The recalled 7,000 MATVR infant bibs appear as a pair in a pack, and were sold in stores online and worldwide. "The blue bib has a green seam along the outside with white polka dots. The red bib has a yellow seam along the outside with red polka dots," IKEA said. It asked consumers to stop using the recalled bibs and return them to any IKEA store for a refund.
Apple's 5 biggest flops
Read full article: Apple's 5 biggest flopsReleased in 2000, the G4 Cube didn't look like a computer at all -- it looked like some knickknack you'd buy at an Ikea store. The computer was cube-shaped and entombed in an acrylic case. As so often tends to be the case with Apple, fashion beat out function with this device. It was encased in an acrylic box and had no fan (Apple wanted to keep it quiet), so it was prone to overheat. It also lacked an audio output -- something computers sort of need.
Ikea and Queen of Sweden design homes for people with dementia
Read full article: Ikea and Queen of Sweden design homes for people with dementiaFor the past three decades, the group has built more than 11,000 modular homes throughout Sweden, Finland and Norway using the Ikea model: strip out costs by producing large quantities of parts off-site. Its namesake, Queen Silvia of Sweden whose mother suffered from Alzheimer's has been a partner from the beginning. Before he died in 2018, Ikea founder Ingvar Kamprad made a large donation to the project through the the queen's foundation, which provides training on dementia care. "BoKlok was designed the IKEA way: large volumes, low prices," according to a Skanska blog post from 2011. "It's still the same floor layout, but you need to understand how people with dementia react in certain situations," Spangenberg said.
Walmart, Amazon and Ikea sued over Edison light bulbs
Read full article: Walmart, Amazon and Ikea sued over Edison light bulbsPixabay(CNN) - The Edison light bulb is having another moment - 140 years after its invention: It's the center of a new lawsuit. The University of California Santa Barbara is suing five major retailers Walmart, Target, Amazon, Ikea and Bed Bath & Beyond for violating its patents on "filament" LED light bulbs. The bulbs are designed to look like the some of the original light bulbs produced by inventor Thomas Edison. In the court filings, the university expects sales for the Edison bulbs to exceed $1 billion this year. The bulbs have an antique aesthetic but are much more energy efficient than the original Edison bulbs.
Deaths linked to potentially dangerous products aren't always made public
Read full article: Deaths linked to potentially dangerous products aren't always made publicJACKSONVILLE, Fla. - If deaths are linked to a potentially hazardous product and the government knows about it, you'd think that information would always be made public. Consumer Reports is revealing surprising restrictions in the very law governing the agency that is supposed to protect us from dangerous products. Yet, the identities of the companies whose sleepers were linked to infant deaths were kept hidden from the public for years because of Section 6-B of the Consumer Product Safety Act. One of the critical next steps is for Congress to just simply eliminate this 6-B provision, said David Friedman, Consumer Reports VP, Advocacy. The agency responded that it is reassessing the product class and hazards associated with it.All Consumer Reports material Copyright 2019 Consumer Reports, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Golden Retriever's Best Friend Is a Toy That Looks Exactly Like Him
Read full article: Golden Retriever's Best Friend Is a Toy That Looks Exactly Like HimBarley the golden retriever never leaves home without his best friend Fluffy, a stuffed toy that looks exactly like him. His owner, 31-year-old Zita Butler, explained the 1-year-old pup living in Amsterdam is your average fun-loving golden retriever. Hes an attention seeker. Butler said Fluffy even seems to comfort Barley during stressful times, like when the vacuum cleaner comes on. But the Community Kept Them TogetherFrida the Beloved Rescue Dog RetiresDog Who Sat at Late Owner's Hospital Bed Finds New Home
Ikea will pay you to travel to Denmark to figure out why everyone there is so happy
Read full article: Ikea will pay you to travel to Denmark to figure out why everyone there is so happyIkea is determined to find out the key to happiness and needs your help to crack the code. Denmark always ranks high when websites rank the happiest countries in the world, and that's why Ikea Denmark wants to send someone to the country to figure out why the people of Denmark are so dang happy. Ikea Denmark will fly you out to Denmark and give you a place to stay in the historic city of Copenhagen for two weeks in September. All you need to do is tell Ikea a little bit about yourself and send in a 60-second video explaining why you'd be the perfect candidate to travel to Denmark to figure out why the Danes are always happy. Applications are due by July 1, so if you feel like this could be your calling, we'd suggest you start filling out that application ASAP.