Did you hear?
Space travel
How do you hail a space taxi?
Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Boeing Co. are contending for more than $3 billion in funding to resume U.S. manned spaceflight with the first commercial venture to fly humans into orbit.
The contract to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station by 2017 in so-called space taxis would end U.S. reliance on Russian rockets since the space shuttle was retired three years ago. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration set a deadline to announce the award this month.
For Musk, winning would be a pivotal step toward his dream of colonizing Mars, while a Boeing victory would extend its half-century history with the U.S. space program. A third rival, Sierra Nevada Corp., offers a winged, shuttle-type vehicle as it seeks to expand beyond supplying rockets for sub-orbital tourist trips on Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.
Retail
‘Frozen’ sales still hot a year later
Wal-Mart says it knows what kids want this upcoming holiday season. And that’s Frozen, Frozen and more Frozen. Even a year after the Disney film’s release, it remains among the top drivers of predicted holiday sales.
The retailing giant’s top holiday toys list, voted on by kids, includes the Frozen Snow Glow Elsa doll from toy-maker Jakks – a light-up, singing model of the chilly cartoon queen, and store officials say it has potential to be the must-have toy of the coming holidays.
Five toy trends that have emerged: electronic toys; licensed toys; classic throwbacks like Hot Wheels and Nerf; ride-ons and scooters; and creative and crafty toys like the Sew Cool sewing machine from Spin Master and the Maya Group’s Make Your Case cellphone cover kit.
Television
More sharks in the water
“Shark Tank” has become a reliably popular show on one of television’s least popular nights, Fridays – so naturally, ABC wants even more of it. The network was expected to announce that it would add a companion show to the hit series about successful businesspeople, called “sharks,” competing to invest in the businesses of aspiring entrepreneurs. The new show, “Beyond the Tank,” will trace the next stage of a startup in which its product tries to find its way to market and either succeeds or flops.
Like “Shark Tank,” “Beyond the Tank” will be produced by Sony Pictures Television. On Thursday, the deal with ABC was in the final stages, one executive involved said. No date has been set for the new show’s debut, but it will most likely make it onto ABC’s schedule sometime in the coming television season.
“Beyond the Tank” has Mark Burnett, the most successful reality TV producer of the last decade, as an executive producer. His company, One Three Media, will co-produce it with Sony. “This show is exactly what ‘Shark Tank' fans have been asking: Tell me what happens when they walk out of the tank,” Burnett said in an email.
Workers rights
License, insurance and deodorant?
Body odor is among 52 criteria that officials at San Diego International Airport use to judge taxi drivers. Cabbies say that smacks of prejudice and discrimination.
For years, inspectors with the San Diego Regional Airport Authority run down their checklist for each cabbie – proof of insurance, functioning windshield wipers, adequate tire treads, good brakes. Drivers are graded pass, fail or needs fixing. Anyone who flunks the smell test is told to change before picking up another customer.
Leaders of the United Taxi Workers of San Diego union say the litmus perpetuates a stereotype that predominantly foreign-born taxi drivers smell bad. Many San Diego drivers are from East Africa.
Investing
Investing in fun
Your stock-fund manager wishes you’d buy more fun things.
Most mutual funds are failing to keep up with broad market indexes again. It’s a trend that’s gone on for years, and the most recent struggles for portfolio managers may be due to their preference for companies that sell coffee, make travel reservations and otherwise focus on non-essentials for consumers. These stocks have had some of the year’s weakest performances.
Bloomberg News, Chicago Tribune, New York Times and The Associated Press contributed.
This story was originally published September 14, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Did you hear?."