Following a disappointing holiday season for sales, eBay announced it would be cutting 2,400 jobs — roughly 7 percent of its workforce. The e-commerce company will soon be dividing its PayPal and eBay marketplace businesses into two publicly traded companies.
That’s how long President Barack Obama talked about the economy Tuesday in his hourlong State of the Union address, more than any other topic. That’s according to the Washington Post, which broke down the speech by topic. Twitter’s data scientists also annotated the speech, showing which topics were being tweeted about when both Obama and Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst were addressing the nation.
We’ve heard of taking a break, but this is a bit ridiculous. A.K. Verma, an executive engineer at the Central Public Works Department in India, took a leave of absence … back in 1990. In 1992, he was found guilty of “willful absence,” but it would take another 22 years for him to be fired.
That’s how much ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com sold for Wednesday, after the site became a sensation over the weekend, pulling in over 20,000 orders. Flipping these types of viral sites is common, Motherboard reported, usually when the owner hopes to cash in before a fad burns out.
That’s how much the U.S. Justice Department will have to pay Sondra Arquiett for using pictures of her to create a fake Facebook profile. Arquiett was arrested in 2010 for allegedly being involved in a drug ring. At the time, her phone was confiscated, at which point she gave permission for officers to access data to help with the investigation. She did not anticipate that they would later use photos found on her phone to make a Facebook profile with the intent of trapping her boyfriend, also suspected of being involved in illicit activity.
The portion of Airbnb listings in New York that violate zoning or other laws, according to a report the state’s attorney general released last fall. Now the city is using new data-driven tools to crack down on these listings, WNYC reported. One official called the practice “‘Moneyball’ for quality of life violations,” and it means 30 percent more work without hiring anyone new to help.