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Amazon launches “Etsy-killer” Handmade at Amazon, a marketplace for handmade goods

Online retail giant Amazon is launching a marketplace for handcrafted goods: Handmade at Amazon . It’s “an arts-and-crafts bazaar online that squarely takes aim at a niche but growing market dominated by the Brooklyn-based Etsy,” as the New York Times puts it . Handmade at Amazon went live early Thursday more than 80,000 items from roughly 5,000 sellers in 60 countries around the world. Crafters can sell their crocheted pants or 3D-printed succulent cozies on the new Amazon marketplace, just as they’ve been able to for years at Etsy, a $2bn-a-year business. Amazon’s business is a lot bigger: $75 billion in annual sales. And Amazon’s is growing, while some recent changes at Etsy have been followed by challenged growth. Is this the end of Etsy? Amazon will start out with six categories — home, jewelry, artwork, stationery and party supplies, kitchen and dining, and baby — Mr. Faricy said. One distinct advantage Amazon will bring is reach. Its 285 million active customer accounts dwarf Etsy’s 22 million, giving artisans access to far more traffic and potential customers. And Amazon is also offering logistical backing to its sellers, allowing them to ship products, in lots, to one of the company’s many fulfillment centers around the country. Amazon will then ship out those products as part of its Prime service, which offers members unlimited free shipping for an annual fee. Most sellers are likely to give Amazon a bigger cut of their sales for that reach, however. Etsy charges a 20-cent fee for each item a seller lists on its site and takes a 3.5 percent cut of the sales. For now, Amazon will charge no listing fee but take 12 percent of sales, which it says covers all costs, including payment processing, marketing and fraud protection. ” Amazon Challenges Etsy With Strictly Handmade Marketplace ” [nytimes]

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Amazon launches “Etsy-killer” Handmade at Amazon, a marketplace for handmade goods

Porous concrete helps prevent flooding

Add / Remove Concrete can be a burden during heavy rainfall. Runoff from the normally impervious material puts pressure on drainage systems, leading to flooding and ice hazards as well as environmental concerns. UK-based Lafarge Tarmac has developed a porous concrete that aims to solve these issues. Concrete runoff is a major source of localized flooding in urban areas, and pooling water in low temperatures increases the risk of ice patches. Topmix Permeable, however, allows rain water to drain straight through to the underlying water table, easing the burden on existing water drainage systems. This is due to an increased amount of void space in the material — up to 35 percent more than standard concrete, which allows up to 1000ml of water to run through a square meter per minute. The porous concrete also has environmental benefits — the material filters out pollutants that normally runoff into water systems and delivers more water into soil layers, preventing drying out of natural areas. Whilst unsuitable for heavy traffic areas, Topmix Permeable has already provided effective drainage surfaces for pedestrian access areas such as carparks. Other areas of potential utilization include cycle paths, sports pitch borders and paving around new housing development. If large scale adoption occurs, porous concrete may even be a source of city cooling, as evaporation from stored underground water lowers surrounding temperatures. As urban growth leads to increased surface impermeability, adopting porous concrete can help reduce flooding risks and even help maintain the natural environment around cities. In what other ways could porous materials be used? Website: www.tarmac.com Contact: enquiries@tarmac.com The post Porous concrete helps prevent flooding appeared first on Springwise .

Facebook Is Testing Six New Reaction Emoji Instead of a Single "Dislike" Button

It was exciting when Mark Zuckerberg suggested that Facebook was building a “Dislike” button . So many things not to like! However, the social network just started testing a new emoji reactions feature that is probably the real future of disliking stuff on Facebook. Read more…

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Facebook Is Testing Six New Reaction Emoji Instead of a Single "Dislike" Button

This Incredible Fossil of an Ancient Horse Still Contains Its Unborn Foal

Paleontologists in Germany have identified the fossilized remains of a horse-like animal that dates back 48 million years. Remarkably, the fossil still contains its unborn foal and traces of soft tissue—leading scientists to call it the earliest and best-preserved specimen of its kind. Read more…

Unionized video game voice actors overwhelmingly approve strike vote

Members of the SAG-AFTRA union have overwhelmingly approved a measure authorizing an “interactive media” strike that could have wide-ranging impact on the availability of professional voice talent for video game projects. The union announced today that 96.52 percent of its members voted in favor of the strike. That’s well above the 75 percent threshold that was necessary to authorize such a move, and a result the union is calling “a resounding success.” Despite the vote, union members will not strike immediately. Instead, a strike can now be called whenever the union’s National Board decides to declare it. Armed with that knowledge, SAG-AFTRA will be sending its Negotiating Comittee back to talk with major game publishers including EA, Activision, Disney, and Warner Bros., which are signatories to a current agreement with the union. After their old agreement technically expired at the end of 2014, both sides have failed to reach a new understanding in negotiation sessions in February and June. SAG-AFTRA is looking for a number of concessions from the game industry, including “back end bonus” royalties for games that sell at least two million units, “stunt pay” for “vocally stressful” work, and more information to be provided about projects before time-consuming auditions are scheduled. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Unionized video game voice actors overwhelmingly approve strike vote

This video proves China has the most insane traffic jams on Earth

“This is what happens when people come back from vacation in China and try to get into Beijing. And you thought your puny traffic jams were crazy.” (more…)

Google is purging hacked spam from your search results

It’s bad when your web searches include sites that are mainly marketing fluff , but it’s much worse when that fluff has been hacked into legitimate sites that you wouldn’t visit otherwise. Well, Google has had enough of this attempt to game the system. It’s tweaking its algorithms to “aggressively” cull hacked spam from results, leaving you only with sites that intended to include the content you’re looking for. While the changes will only affect about 5 percent of searches when all is said and done, that could mean a lot if it helps you avoid compromised pages and the malware that might be lurking inside. [Image credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan] Source: Google Webmaster Central Blog

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Google is purging hacked spam from your search results

How 80s Computers Create 8-Bit Music

You’ve got to love that 8-bit sound. Blips and bloops and beeps magically merge together to create choppy, nostalgic melodies that remind us how far we’ve come since the first personal computers. But how did those big beige boxes actually make music ? Read more…

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How 80s Computers Create 8-Bit Music

Pandora Just Bought Ticketfly For Nearly Half a Billion Dollars

Your favorite internet radio service will soon make it easier to buy concert tickets. Pandora just bought Ticketfly , a Ticketmaster competitor, for $450 million. Why? Because it’s a great idea. Read more…

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Pandora Just Bought Ticketfly For Nearly Half a Billion Dollars

These 8K displays may end up on your next tablet

Most of us have barely touched 4K content, but the keen folks in Japan are already showing off some 8K displays, and we’re not just talking about those of conventional TV sizes. At CEATEC, NHK brought along three upcoming 8K panels that may end up on future tablets, laptops and monitors. These include JDI’s 17.3-inch LCD that was just announced last week, as well as Ortus’ insanely sharp 9.6-inch LCD (that’s a whopping 915 dpi!) from May, and Sharp/SEL’s 13.3-inch OLED display. Even though the OLED panel was unveiled back in June last year, it’s still by far the best 8K display out of the three; it’s as if you’re looking into another world, thanks to the combination of high contrast, strong vibrancy plus insanely sharp resolution. Alas, there’s no launch date for any of these just yet, but a spokesperson from NHK hopes to see these come out before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will be broadcast in 8K .

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These 8K displays may end up on your next tablet

Ken May

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