Word: wals
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...past basic queries for the URLs of sites like Mapquest and Yahoo! Maps, it turns out that the top searches aren't for countries, states or cities. People don't want to know where the Iraq is. Rather, the most popular search requests are for the closest "Wal-Mart," followed by "Best Buy," "Pizza Hut" and "Costco." We've zoomed in so close - we've put on blinders to the world beyond the street-by-street route to the nearest big box store - that it's hardly any wonder that 20% of our populace can't locate their own country...
...Stuffed and Starved does veer, at times, into the social footnotes of food. Patel recounts the rise of Wal-Mart, and tells how obesity became a symptom of race relations in America, or how the desire to counter scurvy among sailors spawned the huge food-conservation industry. (Then there's the story of Ellen G. White, the founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, who claimed to have had a vision revealing vegetarianism as the key to longevity - thus making her congregation the "the first white people in the United States to make tofu.") The author also makes no pretence...
...chaos commence. Like the customers ready to break into a Wal-Mart warehouse the morning of a pre-Christmas sale, a horde of North American film lovers have avidly awaited the opening of the 31st Toronto International Film Festival. Yesterday, the doors finally opened. You have 10 days, cinema shoppers, to see as many of the festival's 349 films as possible. The winner gets nothing but bragging rights for the next year. On your mark...
...Hollywood figures it, the upside is worth the gamble. Toronto, unlike Cannes or Venice, is really a people's festival; the movie equivalent of those Wal-Mart warriors pay real money to see these pictures. They may boo films but more often cheer them on, stoking a producer's dreams of big revenues and little statuettes. The studios count on Toronto audiences (and the thousand or so critics who come from the lower 48) to ignite the word-of-mouth that can keep a movie hot through February. Heat shouldn't be a problem at TIFF this year. The temperature...
...digital music business is one of the prime battlefields right now, with new vendors entering all the time. In the week alone leading up to Nokia's announcement, giant retailer Wal-Mart strengthened its downloading service, and MTV, Real Networks and Verizon Wireless joined music forces. They're all chasing a digital download business that the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry says grew to $2.1 billion in 2006, or 11% of all recorded music sales, as more artists embrace it. "Any band that's resistant to it is crazy," says Adam Levine, lead singer of Grammy-winning L.A. group...