] The RIAA reports a sale as a unit SHIPPED to record
] stores. Whereas Soundscan reports units sold [to the
] consumer] at the point of purchase. So, you're talking
] about apples and oranges.

10% more music was sold, but revenue was down 7%. Funny, that.

And if the RIAA's accounting is like this, once can only dream of what the MPAA, in the presence of mystical and legendary Hollywood Accounting (budget was $80M, movie made $300M -- no net profit!), could concoct.

US

] Either way, our heroes this week are the folks who, given
] the lemon of the Atkins diet, make lemonade. Like
] Colgate-Palmolive's (NYSE:CL - News) Hill's Pet Nutrition
] division, which recently started selling Prescription
] Diet Feline m/d, "a low carbohydrate, high protein pet
] food formula clinically proven to alter a cat's
] metabolism for effective weight loss."
]
] Yes. An Atkins diet for your cat. A Cat-kins diet, so to
] speak.
]
] Of course, high-protein diets have been traditional among
] members of the cat family -- lions and tigers come to
] mind -- but the audacity of imposing a human weight-loss
] strategy on a defenseless animal is indeed awesome to
] behold. We can't wait to hear what Weight Watchers
] (NYSE:WTW - News) will be offering in this space.

The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

] TMF: Coffee and coffee drink-vending machines are big in
] Japan but haven't yet caught on here. Buy, sell, or hold
] the possibility that we might see Starbucks vending
] machines?
] Schultz: That is a buy.

(Howard Schultz, chairman of Starbucks)

Fool.com: Starbucks on the Fly [Special] May 14, 2004

] The Russian capital Moscow now boasts more billionaires
] than any other city in the world, according to a survey
] by Forbes magazine.
]
] The study also estimates that a quarter of Russia's
] wealth is now concentrated in the hands of just 100
] people.

Sent to me by warday with the comment "I love capitalism!"

BBC NEWS | Business | Moscow 'has most billionaires'

] According to a recent J.D. Power & Associates survey of
] new-car quality, American car makers now have a new
] low-priced, high-quality Korean rival to add to their
] list of expensive, high-quality Japanese nemeses in
] Toyota (NYSE: TM), Honda (NYSE: HMC), and Nissan (Nasdaq:
] NSANY). I refer, of course, to the surprise second-placer
] in J.D. Power's survey: Hyundai (which tied Honda for
] second and lost only to Toyota). The Korean automaker
] achieved its impressive numbers by slashing its average
] problems per 100 vehicles by nearly 30% in a single year.
] Since 1999, the company has improved its results by
] closer to 50%.

Who didn't see this coming?

Fool.com: Detroit's Quality Pickle [Motley Fool Take] May 13, 2004

] Mobile phone maker Motorola Inc. plans to introduce a
] device that would seamlessly switch calls from cellular
] networks to cheaper Wi-Fi networks wherever they're
] available. Discount carrier IDT Corp. is testing consumer
] Wi-Fi phone service in Newark, N.J.

Salon.com Technology | Wi-Fi phones could be next trend in thrift

] For a variety of reasons, American companies that sell
] globally say that they have so far experienced little if
] any disruption from discontent over the war in Iraq. For
] the most part, consumers around the world seem as likely
] to be influenced by economic conditions as by politics.
] And, in a display of the growing sophistication in
] marketing big American brands in global markets, many
] people see products originating from the United States as
] firmly rooted in their own home nations.

It is by this that the rise of the global corporate nation-states will begin. :)

The New York Times Business:World Business:War and Abuse Do Little to Harm U.S. Brands

] "We are on the cusp of perfection of extreme evil -- an
] evil whose possibility spreads well beyond weapons of
] mass destruction," Joy warned recently in Wired magazine.

Yes, it is the Weekly World News, but its still fun to kick Bill Joy.

Yahoo! Top Stories - Super-Robots Will Wipe Out Mankind!

] The following demonstrates some preliminary results in
] the analysis of acoustic emanations from personal
] computers, showing them to be a surprisingly rich source
] of information on CPU activity.

Acoustic cryptanalysis

] A N O P E N L E T T E R T O
] W I L L I A M K R I S T O L ,
] R I C H A R D P E R L E, A N D
] P R E S I D E N T B U S H ' S
] O T H E R N E O C O N S E R V A T I V E
] P U P P E T M A S T E R S

Humor is good.

McSweeney's Internet Tendency: An Open Letter to William Kristol, Richard Perle, and President Bush's Other Neoconservative Puppetmasters