California - The online savvy and digital download prowess of Apple Inc is standing the online retailer in good stead. It is poised to assume the lead in retail music sales, wresting the title away from retail giant Wal Mart for the first time.
ITunes and its many variations is likely to lead Apple to the number one music retailer position, eclipsing Wal Mart and the traditional CD format of music sales.
The NPD group issued a Tuesday report that says that Apple has already overtaken Target and Best Buy, to become the current Number 2 retailer of music in the United States. If the trends to not change, then Apple will overtake and pass Wal Mart as the top music retailer sometime later this year. (more…)
Toronto - A sold out show at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto Tuesday night wrapped off a farewell world tour for the Spice Girls.
The tour was supposed to continue on but was ended in Toronto, dubbed “Spice City” in an online contest, due to the singers’ personal and family commitments.
Fans young and old-er packed the ACC, some dressed as Spice Girls themselves, others with shirts adding themselves to the list with Ginger, Scary, Posh, Sporty and Baby. “Naughty Spice (and) Nice Spice,” were the words written on shirts worn by Sarah’s friends Laura and Lacey. “I didn’t get a shirt,” she shrugged. (more…)
Toronto - The Toronto Maple Leafs have traded enforcer Wade Belak to the Florida Panthers for a fifth round draft pick in 2008.
The NHL trade deadline is today at 3:00pm (EST) .
Yesterday, Leaf’s forward Mats Sundin said he would not wave his no-trade clause.
The Leafs play the Panthers tomorrow night in Florida.
Los Angeles - Less than a week after giving birth, Jennifer Lopez has been released from the hospital, TMZ reported Tuesday.
The new mom and her husband, Marc Anthony, brought their twins home, J.Lo’s obstetrician confirmed.
Lopez gave birth to a baby boy and girl, born eleven minutes apart, last Friday.
Speaking of the happy new parents, producer Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas said: “She and Marc are so ready for a family.
“They love each other so much and built this beautiful life together.
“It feels like the only thing missing were these children, and now they have them. She really enjoyed her pregnancy.”
Lopez due to start filming movie “Love and Other Possible Pursuits” later this year.
Los Angeles - Britney Spears was allowed to see her two children again on Monday, the second time in three days.
According to E!, Kevin Federline’s bodyguard drove Sean Preston and Jayden James to her home for another three hour visit.
Before these recent reunions, Spears hadn’t seen her babies since January 3rd when she was hospitalized in a psychiatric ward.
Federline’s lawyer said that Britney’s father, Jamie, was instrumental in helping work out the latest visitation arrangement.
Cambridge, Massachusetts - The Internet service provider, Comcast found itself the point of intense questioning during a summit that was held at Harvard Law School on Tuesday. The Internet provider is being scrutinized for its practice of delaying customer point to point, or PSP traffic.
Comcast says that the practice is common, and necessary to regulate the way that bandwidth is applied and distributed. It claims that it provides a disclaimer, which every customer is required to sign. In its testimony before the FCC panel of commissioners on Tuesday, Comcast says that they ask customers to sign a statement that says: “Comcast may on occasion delay or temporarily slow P2P traffic if such traffic will have an adverse affect.” (more…)
Washington - Doctors researching various hormone therapies have discovered some alarming facts. Women who have been taking combined therapy hormones for five years or longer are at greatly increased risk for abnormal mammograms, and abnormal breast biopsies.
There is believed to be about 25 million women in America who take replacement hormones or other hormone therapies. These hormone therapies are to fight the effects and discomfort of menopause, and for other medical conditions. Some of the conditions that these therapies try to solve include night sweats, mood swings, and hot flashes. All of these symptoms are present in women who have gone through menopause or who are dealing with it currently.
Dr. Rowan Chlebowski is on staff at the LA Biomedical Research Institute, linked with the UCLA Medical Center. Dr. Chlebowski and his fellow researchers tracked 16,608 women who were postmenopausal, in a five-year study.
Some of the women included women from the greater Los Angeles Area, and some of the women were followed in Oregon, through the Portland Based Bess Kaiser Medical Center. (more…)
Toronto - Surprise, another snow storm is rolling into Toronto and the GTA.
If this were any other February, we’d probably be on high alert for today’s snowfall of 6 to 10 centimetres, but this February another round of snowfall seems to be no big deal.
Winds gusting up to 60 km/h are expected to create drifts, The Toronto Star reported Tuesday.
We’re getting used to driving in it and shovelling it but it seems, many of us also need a break from it.
Michael Pope, took his family to Mexico for 10 days in February — a trip that was supposed to be only one week.
“I can’t remember any winter having as much snow,” says Pope, 40, of Newmarket. “My wife and I were sort of getting fed up of the winter weather and wanted a break to kind of cut winter in half, to give us a boost for the last little bit.”
Some Toronto tour operators say they’re doing a booming business over the last year simply because people are sick of the snow.
New York - Jamie Lynn Spears is now a high school graduate.
The pregnant sixteen-year-old passed the GED exam last month and apparently scored pretty well on reading comprehension.
A source close to Jamie - the younger sister of troubled singer Britney Spears - told People magazine: “She’s already got her diploma. She wants to take her college entrance test. She’s not wasting any time.
People don’t know her. When she gets something in her head, she’ll make it happen. Everybody is so supportive of her, and will back her in whatever she chooses to do.”
She is now looking to take the ACT college entrance test.
She said: “I haven’t thought anything about what I might study. I’ll have to look more into that. But if I went anywhere, I think it would be fun to go to Louisiana State University.”
Orlando - A tourist from Austria has died after being attacked by a shark near Florida.
He was diving near the Bahamas in water at the time of the attack.
49-year-old Markus Groh was on a commercial diving trip last Sunday, when he was bitten 50 miles off of the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
What this particular company does is offers a “face to face” meeting with sharks. They bait the waters with bloody fish parts to attract them. They run trips for shark enthusiasts and photographers.
They stated there will be blood in the same water as the divers when this happens.
It proved fatal for this tourist who took part in the adventure.
He was airlifted to a hospital after being attacked, where he later died.
Groh was bitton on the leg, CNN reported.
The shark was seen but managed to get away.
EDITED: Feb 27