Amazon, the massive online retailer has just recently opened their own brick and mortar book store in Seattle called Amazon Books according to The Seattle Times.
The physical store has roughly over 5000 books and 15 employees to run the place. But why would Amazon need such a thing? Especially considering that their entire business model is based on avoiding the overhead of an actual store.
“There is some irony in Amazon’s opening a physical store. For years, it could undercut physical retailers on price because it didn’t have brick-and-mortar locations. But those stores offered something Amazon couldn’t: the instant gratification of owning an item the second it was purchased, as well as the personal touch of a knowledgeable sales clerk.
Amazon is betting that the troves of data it generates from shopping patterns on its website will give it advantages in its retail location that other bookstores can’t match. It will use data to pick titles that will most appeal to Seattle shoppers.”
VICE reports that the store will also be trying something innovative in the way that it presents books.
From VICE:
“Every single copy it carries will face out, as opposed to being lined up spines-out on shelves as bookstores generally do. Each title bears a card with either a review or a rating from a customer, and the books cost just as much online as they do in-store.”
Jennifer Cast, vice president of Amazon Books says that the store will use data and technology to make the store different that most.
“It’s data with heart,” Cast told The Seattle Times. “We’re taking the data we have and we’re creating physical places with it.”
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It’s Hard Out Here For A White Rapper In Miami
By Victoria Nilbrink
Grizzy Gary is an aspiring rapper from Miami. He’s twenty-four years old and currently studying in college for a degree in music technology. He’s also white. And that’s a problem.
Gary has been rapping and ghost writing for 6 years, as well as making art and customizing shoes. He also attended the Art Institute in Miami for his artistic competence and his passion for designing clothes. When he isn’t in school or making music he says that he likes to ‘Netflix and Chill.’
“I don’t rap anything like Eminem or Macklemore at all, but 9 times out of 10 before I spit my verse that’s the first thing people mention.”
As any upcoming artists he’s faced many challenges. But the hip hop scene can sometimes prove especially difficult for white rappers to break into.
Watch: Grizzy Gary’s “After Life”:
“Personally I think with image it’s really hard. Being a white rapper you have certain quota and its hard because there aren’t so many established white rappers, so you always get compared to them,” Grizzy Gary said. “I don’t rap anything like Eminem or Macklemore at all, but 9 times out of 10 before I spit my verse that’s the first thing people mention. It’s not even me but its always a comparison. It’s to a point where I have to show my music first and tell them its me after to get a real honest opinion, which is annoying because I work hard at it. Often I don’t get taken too seriously, people will think I’m joking but music is really all I do.”
Listen: Grizzy Gary’s “Pretty As Fuck”
In the near future he hopes to get a major deal as a recording artist. If not he would like to ghost write and start making beats. He is also working on a few projects with Red Table Studios, and Vice Cult- a company he co-owns with another Miami rapper, OldBoy Cab.
Vice Represents- Versatile Independent Creative Entertainment. In addition to making music, they also sell merchandize.
“My music represents the exaggerated thoughts that are in my head. It takes me and all the crazy things i think about and merges into one thing. Grizzy Gary I would say is my alter ego, my duality,” Grizzy Gary said. “Look out for whats coming out this year. I’m gonna close 2015 really strong. Music is what I’m gonna do no matter what. All I have to say is, Don’t look at the artist, listen to the artist.”
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Cover Photo: Submitted
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MOB RULES: Missouri Protestors Turn Against Student Journalists, As Communications Professor Turns On First Amendment
Some protestors at the University of Missouri rallying under the banner of the #ConcernedStudent1950 movement harassed, and obstructed a student journalist from taking photos on campus yesterday.
The university, also known as “Mizzou” is a public college and the protestors were gathering on public grounds to celebrate the resignation of university system president Tim Wolfe.
In a video published on Youtube by Mark Schierbecker, shows a mob of people try to stop the first amendment rights of student reporters.
It is pretty shocking. Even more shocking is that one of the leaders of the mob, a white woman with red hair is a communications professor named Melissa Click.
Perhaps the folks in the video should pick up a copy of the Constitution to refresh their memories of what the foundation of the First Amendment is.
WATCH:
Cover Photo Credit: Mark Schierbecker/ Youtube (Screenshot)
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Here’s Why Memorial Day Really Matters This Election Year
By Christopher Kelly
Memorial Day this year calls on all Americans with particular significance. It requires us to look backward at our past and forward to our future as our nation considers its choices for its next commander in chief.
Just last year we celebrated the seventieth anniversary of the end of World War II, the worst war in human history. Americans like Lieutenant Dick Winters of the 101st Airborne parachuted into Normandy seventy-two years ago, in 1944, in Operation Overlord.
In the spring of 1945, American soldiers discovered the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. After Eisenhower visited Ohrdruf concentration camp, which had been liberated by American troops on April 4, he declared: “We are told that the American soldier does not know what he is fighting for. Now at least he will know what he is fighting against.”
Over the course of just under four years, over sixteen million American men and women had served in some capacity in the war. Today in 2016, fewer than one million WWII vets are still alive.
Just over 400,000 Americans, most of them young, never returned from their duties in World War II. On Memorial Day, Americans will visit cemeteries such as Arlington in Virginia, as well as many more around the nation. Many Americans who paid the ultimate price are, however, buried overseas, in twenty-four different cemeteries in eleven different countries.
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Throughout its history, Europe has been a blood-soaked continent. Two World Wars scarred the twentieth century. The Napoleonic Wars raged on and off for over fifteen years. The Hundred Years’ War between France and England actually lasted for 116 years.
After World War II ended, American servicemen and women stayed in bases across Europe. The Marshall Plan helped to rebuild the shattered economies of postwar Europe. In 1946, Winston Churchill warned of an “Iron Curtain” that had descended on Eastern Europe. NATO was founded in 1949 to confront the challenge of Communism.
In 1989, the Cold War finally ended and the Berlin Wall came down. The defeat of Fascism and Communism was due in large part to the sacrifice of the American servicemen and women that we honor on Memorial Day.
Since 1945, Europe has enjoyed a period of peace, interrupted only by the breakup of Yugoslavia, that is unprecedented in its history. America as well as Europe have benefitted from this long peace.
Simultaneously, though, Americans have been fighting a war of unprecedented duration.
On September 11, 2001, our world suddenly changed. Since the autumn of 2001, American troops have been engaged in Afghanistan fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
There are soldiers serving today in Afghanistan who were toddlers when the Twin Towers in New York were struck by hijacked commercial airliners.
Americans in 2016 confront many dangers. In the Middle East, we must face the challenge posed by ruthless ISIS operatives who have waged a war against diverse people in different countries, and even against history itself.
The Syrian civil war has claimed over 100,000 lives and has created the worst refugee crisis since World War II. Recent attacks in Paris, Brussels, and San Bernardino, California, remind us that terrorism remains a threat around the world.
This year, Americans will select a new commander in chief. As we go to the polls in November, we should reflect upon the need for sound, mature judgment in all of our leaders, and particularly in our president.
Americans must consider that they are choosing an individual who controls the most powerful military in the world and who has the power to end life as we know it.
Memorial Day imposes a duty on all Americans to remember the sacrifice of our fallen heroes and to reflect prayerfully on how best we should steer a course through our dangerous and turbulent world.
Christopher Kelly is the co-author of America Invades: How We’ve Invaded or Been Militarily Involved with almost Every Country on Earth and Italy Invades: How Italians Conquered the World. For more information, visit www.americainvades.com and www.italyinvades.com.
RISE NEWS is a grassroots journalism news organization that is working to change the way young people become informed and engaged in public affairs. You can write for us.
Cover Photo Credit: Patrick Emerson/ Flickr (CC By 2.0)
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