Yorker News

Yorker News - As manager for the Bink's Outfitters outdoor clothing boutique on the Franklin Square, Emily Britton always looks forward to helping patrons find and scratch those special gift items off their holiday shopping lists.

"At Christmas, it sells itself," she said, referring to the outerwear and Southern T-shirts the store carries in hard-to-find, low-quantity brands. "A lot of our stuff is in high demand and that helps us. A lot of things you won't find in the chain stores. It's definitely our busiest time and that gets us through some of the early months whenever we're slowing."

This year, Britton has seen an extra boost from the colder temperatures lately bringing some shoppers out earlier than they normally show up.

"Having that local flavor has been great," said Brandon Binkley, an avid outdoorsman who 13 years ago opened his first Bink's Outfitters on the town square in Murfreesboro. "People in Middle Tennessee are a lot more locally minded. They like supporting hometown-type businesses."

Bink's Outfitters' offerings of brands such as The North Face, Patagonia and Hunter boots have fueled its growth to five Middle Tennessee locations, including in Green Hills and Clarksville plus a second in Murrfreesboro.

One positive trend especially for smaller retailers is falling gas prices, which should put more money in consumers' pockets. "The gas prices are going to mean more to them ultimately than anything they have done so far," said Garrick Brown, a retail analyst with Cassidy Turley commercial real estate, who sees U.S. holiday sales rising 4.6 percent.

His forecast is just above the National Retail Federation's projection of a 4.1 percent increase to $617 billion, which would be the highest rate in three years. While the average consumer is expected to spend roughly 5 percent more overall, sales and discounts will be critical to luring them.

In addition to discounts, some retailers use other special events to draw patrons. Grimey's music store, for instance, is part of Record Store Day, which offers a unique twist on Black Friday. The concept involves offering limited-edition music releases and other items plus festivities.

For some small businesses, traveling to where potential customers are is another way to boost critical sales. That's why Yusef Harris, owner of Alkebu-Lan Images Bookstore at 28th and Jefferson, was just in Kansas City, Mo., for a National Alliance of Black School Educators conference.

In addition to books, the store Harris has run for 29 years carries specialty greeting cards and items for celebrating Kwanzaa. With more chain stores entering his mostly African American market niche, Harris travels to events of black professional groups to expand his client base.

"We don't have the margins to mark things down and still maintain our survival," he said, stressing the need to support black-owned businesses.

Yorker News - Planning to travel for Thanksgiving? It sure seems like everyone else is. Some 25 million people are expected to fly, while another 45 million will hit the open road in a quest for Grandma's house. If packed planes and gridlocked highways aren't your idea of good times this holiday season, check out my tried and true travel tech hacks to ease your holiday headaches.

I fly about 10,000 miles a month all year round for work. When it comes to booking a flight and looking for a hotel, Hipmunk has totally saved my life. Its "agony" filter sorts flights by a secret mix of price, length and number of layovers. Unlike a lot of other travel apps and sites, Hipmunk doesn't stop at lowest price, it keeps digging for the trip that will cause you the very least amount of pain in terms of layovers, plane changes and all those other things that can make a low-price plane fare feel like a one-way ticket to hell. And in addition to standard hotel listings, Hipmunk shows you alternative accommodations like Airbnb and HomeAway. You can even book an Amtrak trip or — if you're a real high roller — schedule a private jet just for you. If your departure and return dates are at all flexible, be sure to search Hipmunk's pricegraph, too, for the lowest round-trip fares over a 90-day timeframe.

While you're getting ready to head to the airport, you can easily monitor the security line situation using MiFlight, which crowd-sources wait times from other frequent fliers. You'll know whether you can breeze right through the security screening hub or need to brace yourself for a massive line, before you even set foot inside the building.

Oh, and if you find yourself experiencing the absolute worst of all holiday hiccups — a delayed or canceled flight — AirHelp will make sure you get every dollar back, and then some. AirHelp specializes in getting airlines to compensate travelers for messed up flights, so be sure to get what you deserve.

If you're hitting the highways instead of the airways, you won't have to worry about security lines, but if your car, truck or SUV breaks down, who you gonna call? Honk! Honk (iOS, Android) is a brand new on-demand roadside-assistance app that can get you a tow truck and a trip to the repair shop typically within 15 to 30 minutes, so you can get back on the road as soon as possible. Another plus? There's no membership fees or hidden add-ons you might experience with a service like AAA.

If you really want to save cash and just need a way to get from point A to point B, check out Transfercar. All over the United States there are rental cars that need to be moved from state to state, or sometimes even from coast to coast, and the companies will let you drive them there for free — even RVs! Many include fuel, expenses and even insurance, which is music to my ears. Now I just need to learn how to drive a huge RV so I can have some real fun.

Does driving sound like too much of a challenge on its own? You can find super affordable rides to all kinds of interesting places, along with some friendly travel companions, with Tripda. Tripda connects friendly drivers with anyone who might need a low-cost ride. It saves gas, reduces traffic and most important, saves you a whole bunch of cash.

The travel hack to beat all travel hacks

These awesome apps and websites are your ultimate tools for hacking your holiday travel this year, but let me offer you a sneak peak at what is going to be all the rage once it hits the airport scene in late spring 2015: the Bluesmart carry-on suitcase ($235, pre-order). This super smart piece of luggage is connected to your smartphone and can measure its own weight, tell you its location and even ping you when you've accidentally left it behind.

It also sports a huge battery backup pack that can recharge your smartphone a half dozen times, making it the ultimate airport accessory. I've gotten my hands on an early working prototype of this little beast and let me tell you, it's the first Indiegogo project that I've instantly wanted to buy. That's probably why its $50,000 goal has been absolutely crushed, and the pledge amounts are now over a whopping $1 million. Yeah, it's that darn cool. Be sure to check my hands-on review of it in the video that goes with this column.

What are your secret tech travel hacks? Be sure to share them in the comments section below. Safe travels, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Yorker News - Black Hole 2,6K Light Years away from Its Galaxy Core - Researchers have found a dwarf galaxy called Markarian 177 some 90 million light years from Earth by making use of data collected by NASA's Swift satellite, the W. M. Keck Observatory and the Pan-STARRS1 telescope.

Up till now, it has been found that supermassive black holes are seated at the heart of their host galaxies, but in this case the researchers were amazed to discover a supermassive black hole candidate, SDSS1133, some 2,600 light-years away from this dwarf galaxy Markarian 177.

The astronomers made use of the Keck II telescope in Hawaii to obtain near-infrared images of the galaxy Markarian 177 and SDSS1133 black hole. They found that the diameter of the object's "emitting radius" was less than 40 light-years.

Chao-Ling Hung, of the University of Hawaii, further explained that the team identified signs, indicating that the object's host galaxy was involved in rapid star formation. There were also evidences of a recent disturbance that seemed to have occurred by a recoiling black hole.

In the past, astronomers have spent lots of time trying to find out the orphaned black holes and they have now finally succeeded in locating a promising candidate in this Markarian 177 galaxy that is located in the constellation Big Dipper.

Team member Laura Blecha, who is a researcher at the University of Maryland, has reported all the observations in the Friday's issue of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in the UK.

Blecha explained, "Astronomers searching for recoiling black holes have been unable to confirm a detection, so finding even one of these sources would be a major discovery. It's either the first example we've confirmed in this very exotic class of objects, or it's the most exotic, extreme example of a very common class of objects".

Yorker News - Chris Como, 36, is based near Dallas and in 2013 was named by Golf Digest as one of "the best young teachers." He has a Masters degree in biomechanics, which perhaps suggests that Woods will continue with some of the theories he engaged under Sean Foley.

After missing the cut at the PGA Championship following another back issue, Woods decided to shut it down for several months and also announced he'd be parting ways with Foley, his swing coach of four years.

Woods did not technically say that Como would serve as a swing coach, calling him a consultant.

"I was introduced to Chris this summer by Notah [Begay] and subsequently we had several good conversations about the golf swing," Woods said in a statement released by his agent, Mark Steinberg. "I've worked with him about a month since I started practicing. Chris will consult and work with me during the year."

Woods played just eight times worldwide in 2014, undergoing back surgery on March 31 to alleviate a disk issue. That caused him to miss the Masters and the U.S. Open. He returned in late June for the Quicken Loans National, where he missed the cut, finished 69th at the Open Championship, then withdrew during the final round of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational because of a different back issue that hampered him a week later at the PGA.

He did not begin hitting balls again until last month in preparation for the Hero World Challenge, his annual tournament that raises funds for the Tiger Woods Foundation. It is Dec. 4-7 at Isleworth near Orlando, Florida. At the event's media day in September, Woods said he was "in no hurry to look for" a swing coach, leading to speculation that he might proceed on his own.

Woods has won 14 major championships and 74 PGA Tour titles with the help of three different instructors, going back to Butch Harmon, who began working with the golfer when he was 16. Harmon was on board through eight major championships and Hank Haney was his coach for six. Woods won eight events on the PGA Tour with Foley, but none were major championships.

Yorker News - Despite the peculiar nature of Apple's ongoing e-book lawsuit, a U.S. district judge allowed Apple yesterday to pay $450 million over claims that it had colluded with several publishers to increase the prices of electronic books.

U.S. District Judge Denise Cote referred to the case as "highly unusual," but nonetheless, she approved the agreement, which would have Apple paying $400 million to up to 23 million consumers, plus about $50 million in legal fees.  Apple is currently appealing Cote's decision, and if it is successful in its appeal to overturn the conviction, it will not be liable for any monies.  A retrial would have Apple paying a reduced amount of money as its settlement.

Prior to the decision, Apple had agreed to settle in June, as federal officials in 33 states and territories had chased the company for up to $840 million, due to the collusion with the publishers. With the agreement in place, Apple is allowed to contest Cote's previous ruling in July 2013 that had found Apple guilty of violating antitrust laws when it schemed with the publishers to undercut competitors such as Amazon by raising e-book prices.

The complaint alleges that Apple had teamed up with HarperCollins, Hachette Book Group, Penguin Group, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan in 2009-10 to set e-book prices in an effort to thwart Amazon's erstwhile domination of the e-book space.  At that time, Apple had just introduced its iPad tablet, which was considered a competitor of sorts to Amazon's Kindle e-book reader.  Amazon was selling most popular titles at $9.99, which did not sit well with Apple and the aforementioned publishers, who then agreed to price these titles at $12.99 or $14.99.  Apple would eventually win a case that included a proviso allowing it to match the prices of competing retailers, Amazon included.

A federal appeals court will be hearing Apple's appeal on Monday, December 15.