Companies that were financial giants back in the 1980s
and 1990s are now struggling in the 21st century and many of them
are now stressed in the new smaller economy that we are now living
in. It is hard for most small business to adapt their business
model so that they can make it in this economy. But it is becoming
hard for even Giants like Block Buster to survive.
I can remember when my dad bought our first VCR. The year was
1982 and me and my sister and brother were all home after school.
There was only one TV in the house and we did not fight over it
much because there was usually nothing on for a kid to watch.
It was early winter when our dad came home that night. I was going
through the usual routine of surfing through the 5 or 6 channels
that the TV antenna would pick up when I noticed that dad was
caring in a big box along with some other smaller boxes.
We all set down in our small and modest living room watching him
unpack the VCR, read through the instruction manual, and hook
it up to our old vacuum tub TV. I can remember looking at the
VCR tapes and not really understanding what the big deal was,
and not really comprehending what the strange looking machine
would do after it was hooked up.
It probably took less than a hour to get the thing working, dad
put in the first of three video tapes and pressed play. It was
my first VCR movie that I watched from home. It was Raiders of
the Lost Arc. I watched the movie 3 or 4 times before we had to
take it back and after that my addiction to VCR movies was set.
In the next 20 some odd years I would spend thousands of dollars
renting, and buying VCR tapes then DVD discs.
Who could of believed that 28 years later the giant of the home
entertainment industry would be filling for chapter 11 bankruptcy.
For those of you that are old enough to remember. What
was your first movie rental? Send it to me on face
book.
Jerseyville Carpet, Furniture, Bedding,
Appliance, & TV Galleries
1672 S. State street
Jerseyville il 62052
618-639-9858
German police finds hidden stash of pre World War II weapons
Children’s pocket money falls to 7
year low
BERLIN (Reuters) – German police have seized an illegal
arsenal of 86 weapons -- most dating from World War One and World
War Two -- stored in the house of a Bavarian man who died two
years ago.
In defiance of Germany's strict gun control laws, firearms and
hand grenades were found unsecured in the pensioner's house, police
said. The man's son had notified authorities after discovering
the weapons recently while clearing out the house.
Of the total 86 weapons seized, most date from the time between
the World War One and the end of World War Two.
The collection included assault rifles, revolvers, tommy guns,
21 detonators and explosive devices, seven hand grenades, and
23 metal boxes containing various types of munition, police said.
LONDON (Reuters) – British children's weekly
pocket money has fallen to a seven-year low, in a sign parents
are still cutting back on non-essential spending even as the country
emerges from recession, a survey showed Monday.
Halifax, part of Lloyds Banking Group, said average
pocket money fell to 5.89 pounds ($9.23) a week in 2010 from 6.24
pounds in 2009. The new figure is the lowest weekly sum since
2003 when parents paid an average of 5.79 pounds.
Children's pocket money has fallen despite a small
rise in their parents' wages over the past year. Average weekly
pay in Britain in the three months to July was 431 pounds excluding
bonuses, 1.8 percent more than a year earlier.
Parents paid daughters less pocket money than sons,
in a parallel to the gender gap in the earnings of grownups.
Girls received an average 5.70 pounds a month, compared
to 6.08 pounds a month for boys, a difference of around 6 percent
compared to 12 percent between men and women in full-time work.
Halifax based its data on a survey of 1,204 children
aged between 8 and 15 conducted from August 26 to September 2.
