Friday, March 1, 2013

From fresh blood, absurdist short fiction with plenty of bite ? The ...

Photo: Courtesy of Knopf

Karen Russell?s new lemon-colored book is batty in the best of ways.There aren?t too many writers who, still in the young, fresh dawns of their careers, feel compelled to throw caution to the wind. Reputations have been ruined with ill-timed forays into the experimental. It becomes clear, somewhere between the Japanese farm-girls mutating into swollen, furry-faced silkworms and the Antarctic tailgaters risking death to cheer on microscopic krill against behemoth baleen whales, that Karen Russell couldn?t care less.? In her new collection of stories, Vampires in the Lemon Grove, she has no fear of failure. And if the short story is dying, she is determined to have it go out with a big, bizarre bang.

But before delving further, the obligatory backstory: A native of Miami, Russell is a wunderkind of sorts who has astonished literati with her disarming oeuvre of fantasy, inventive prose, and off-kilter observation. Her debut short story collection, Lucy?s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, was critically acclaimed, and her 2012 novel, Swamplandia!, was mired in a Pulitzer-Prize controversy when the prize committee?forced to choose between Russell, David Foster Wallace, and Denis Johnson?grumpily decided to recuse themselves from their only job: to give an award to somebody.

But Russell has returned. Her new octet of short stories, with or without Pulitzer imprimatur, is a liberation of sorts, her first work situated outside the humid frontier of Florida. There?s something of a circus in Russell?s brain, and all the acrobatics and pyrotechnics come pouring out on page: Gulls hoard trinkets of the future in a damp tree hollow, great harvests of bone rise chalk-white in a prairie expanse, and vampires feel the pangs of unrequited love while they slake their thirst with tart Italian lemons.

Given these cursory descriptions, it?s clear why Russell is primarily known for the outlandish nature of her work.? She has an imagination that resembles the twisted lovechild of Hayao Miyazaki and H.P. Lovecraft, and it conjures entire landscapes and mythologies within twenty or thirty pages. In fact, Vampire?s short stories often read like excerpts from some lost sci-fi epic or chapters in a larger novel.

This imagination is Russell?s greatest strength and most glaring weakness. When she is at her best, she provides a devastating blend of intellect, understanding, and symbolism. But in a handful of stories the gimmick dominates the narrative, and it becomes apparent that such imagination is only useful when coupled with insight. Stories like ?Reeling for the Empire,? wherein Japanese girls are able to coil colored thread within their silkworm bodies, are beautifully written but serve no purpose other than pure entertainment. No more, no less.

This dichotomy is most evident in the middle of the collection, with two stories that indicate Russell?s interest in the underbelly of the American Dream.? The first is the sublime and near-perfect ?Proving Up,? which won the 2012 National Magazine Award for Fiction. A haunting exercise in Gothic execution, the story is set in a late 19th-century dystopic heartland, where a federal Homestead Act mandates that in order to own a piece of land a family must build a claim shanty on the wanted land, maintain residency through drought and famine for five years, somehow grow a sustainable crop, and possess a glass window on their property. This last caveat is the ?wink in the bureaucrats? wall,? which, given the scarcity of glass in the area, is ?a whimsical clause that has cost lives out here.?? It?s a damning indictment of government?s disconnect with reality, an ingenious dig at the na?ve yet sinister consequences of political games, and Russell never plays her hand too heavily.

The second story, ?The Barn at the End of Our Term,? features a doting, slightly neurotic Rutherford B. Hayes reincarnated as a ?skewbald pinto with a golden cowlick and a cross-eyed stare.? His stable also houses an introspective Woodrow Wilson, a feisty Eisenhower, and an overly ambitious Andrew Jackson. It?s Animal Farm meets 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It?s also Russell becoming a slave to her equine premise, relying on one (good) joke, and milking it for all it?s worth.

It?s the difference between these two stories?the former a profound yet concise commentary, the latter more of a half-boiled idea jotted down in one-liners?that Russell needs to avoid more consistently. Part of the problem is an identity crisis: Should she succumb to her wily gifts and entertain the masses, or cater to the somber definitions of ?literature? that win awards, magazine covers, and whispered salvos of highbrow adulation? It?s a fine line, and in an ideal world, Russell will find a sturdy middle ground. Though she displays the same sentence-by-sentence mastery as her famed idols?George Saunders and Flannery O?Connor?she is not like them. She is, in many ways, better.

Take, for example, her uncanny precision. She?ll pry you with finely calibrated stabs of description and insight, and entire characters are captured, released, in a single turn of phrase. The tension and layers of a story often unspool like a sudden sigh. It?s a literary acupuncture of sorts, and Russell operates with deft hands.

If there is a further method to her madness, it is a refreshing focus on youth. In Vampire?s stories, adults are the louche figures of grown-up decay?needy, flawed, and broken. They are white noise, a house of mirrors in which children wander unseen and ignored. Russell?s stories bring these adolescents to the fore. In ?The Seagull Army Descends Upon Strong Beach, 1979? teenaged Nal works constantly to supplement his defeated mother?s income; his belle d?amour, Vanessa, ?rumbles around the house like its last working part.? Even Beverly, the forty-something protagonist of ?The New Veterans,? tries ?to wear her face proudly, like a scratched medallion,? but, ?still feels like an old child.? Russell?s eccentric touch is by no means the happy magic of our childhood, but it is almost certainly the witchcraft of our adolescent interiors.

Vampires in the Lemon Grove is an only slightly flawed addition to Russell?s burgeoning legend, and her voice promises depths that have yet to be explored.? She need only temper her novelty with the more enduring traits of restraint and self-awareness; if she is to realize her full potential, she must better moderate her prodigious imagination so that her beautifully sketched characters aren?t suffocated by her zany premises. Regardless, in an era of insufferably self-serious authors, it?s inspiring to encounter a writer who can craft a powerful tale about a soldier?s magic tattoo and glistening trapezius muscles. And let?s acknowledge the most important fact?she?s 31 years old. She?s got time, and so do we.

Source: http://chicagomaroon.com/2013/03/01/from-fresh-blood-absurdist-short-fiction-with-plenty-of-bite/

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'American Idol' Really Wants a Girl to Win this Season

"It's absolutely a girl's year to win," American Idol judge Keith Urban said in a conference call with reporters last Wednesday. But now that he and his fellow judges have picked the 10 guys and 10 girls that fans will vote upon, it almost seems like they're pushing viewers in that direction. The show hasn't exactly handed us a compelling group of guys here.

Source: http://www.ivillage.com/american-idol-wants-girl-win-season/1-a-524840?dst=iv%3AiVillage%3Aamerican-idol-wants-girl-win-season-524840

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Circling the wagons? Putin urges 'drastic upgrade' to Russia's military

In a speech to Russia's top military brass, President Vladimir Putin has urged them to make a "drastic upgrade" to Russia's armed forces within the next five years to counter a series of emerging external threats and what he described as "systematic attempts to undermine the balance of power" by the United States.

Russian military experts caution that Mr. Putin's hawkish rhetoric in his Wednesday address to the Defense Ministry Board, which includes the defense minister and most top generals, was probably not intended for a foreign audience.

Yet the remarks are nevertheless bound to be read around the world as another sign ? one among many ? that Russia under Putin is turning inwards, circling the wagons against foreign influences, and using fear of external threats as a means of enforcing an increasingly conservative and isolationist brand of national unity.

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

"The changing geopolitical situation requires rapid and considered action. Russia?s armed forces must reach a fundamentally new capability level within the next 3-5 years," Putin said, according to an English-language transcript of his speech posted on the Kremlin website. "We see how instability and conflict are spreading around the world today. Armed conflict continues in the Middle East and Asia, and the danger of ?export? of radicalism and chaos continues to grow in our neighboring regions."

Russia has been deeply alarmed by what it sees as chaos spreading across the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring. The Kremlin blames the West for fanning the flames of revolt, and worries that the turmoil will spread to its own mainly Muslim north Caucasus region, where an Islamist insurgency has been gradually growing for years.

"At the same time, we see methodical attempts to undermine the strategic balance in various ways and forms," Putin continued.

"The United States has essentially launched now the second phase in its global missile defence system. There are attempts to sound out possibilities for expanding NATO further eastward, and there is also the danger of militarization in the Arctic.... All of these challenges ? and these are just a few of the many we face ? are of direct concern to our national interests and therefore also determine our priorities," he added.

Experts say Putin was likely using the external threat as a device to restore normalcy and a sense of common purpose in Russia's military brass after five years of sweeping structural reforms that led to the forced retirement of over half the officer corps, abolished scores of "phantom" Soviet-era divisions that had a full complement of officers but were meant to be filled out with conscripts in wartime, and tried to replace them with a smaller number of mobile, professional military "brigades."

The reforms picked up pace after Russia's brief summer war with Georgia which, though victorious, exposed many levels of serious shortcomings in the armed forces.

In addition to draconian structural changes, the Kremlin also authorized a $750 billion, 8-year rearmament program designed to re-equip the armed forces with 21st century weaponry.

Those reforms were carried out by now-disgraced former Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, who was accused of corruption and removed late last year in what many observers saw as the revenge of the old military establishment.

"Mr. Serdyukov's reforms were a strong rejection of Russian military traditions, and they were hated by the majority of officers," says Alexander Golts, military columnist with Yezhednevny Zhurnal, an online news magazine.

"He basically abolished the Soviet and czarist-era model of a 'mass mobilization army,' and tried to replace it with more modern armed forces," he says. "Now is a good historical moment for such reforms, since it's clear that our armed forces have no global adversary."

Serdyukov was replaced by Sergei Shoigu, one of Russia's most respected political leaders and a staunch Putin loyalist, who has since dismayed liberals by chipping away at the reforms, apparently with Putin's blessing. Mr. Shoigu has already issued 20 orders aimed at putting things back the way they were, including restoring the famous Tamanskaya and Kantemirovskaya divisions, which had been transformed into smaller brigades by Serdyukov, says Viktor Baranets, a former defense ministry spokesman who's now military columnist for the Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.

"Shoigu is trying to return the army to the position it had before Serdyukov," Mr. Baranets says.

Baranets, reached on his cellphone in the midst of a visit to a famous Russian paratroop division in Pskov, adds the vast majority of officers and men he talks with approve of reversing the reforms.

"They welcome Shoigu's decisions.... Serdyukov was mutilating the army, and even the good things he introduced were badly implemented.... The army hopes Shoigu will be able to continue," he says.

Mr. Golts says that Putin, who introduced the military reform in the first place and appointed his close associate Serdyukov to implement it, knows that the changes were essential for bringing Russia's military into the 21st century. Yet in his speech to the military brass, Putin avoided any mention of Shoigu's efforts to reverse the reforms, and confined his own remarks to themes that were sure to play well with the assembled generals: the need for greater vigilance against rising external threats, better weaponry for the armed forces, more war games, and higher pay and benefits for officers.

"Putin understands perfectly well what's needed, but these days he appears more interested in securing the political support of those old-fashioned officers," Golts says.

RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/circling-wagons-putin-urges-drastic-upgrade-russias-military-171102703.html

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Armored & Counter IED Vehicles Market Analyzed & Forecast by SDI in New Report Available at MarketPublishers.com

New research report ?The Global Armored and Counter IED Vehicles Market 2012-2022? elaborated by Strategic Defence Intelligence (SDI) has been recently published by Market Publishers Ltd.

London, UK (PRWEB) February 28, 2013

In 2011, the value of the worldwide market for armored and IED vehicles exceeded USD 25 billion. North America and Europe form the top two regional markets for armored and IED vehicles, accounting together for about 55% share of the overall market. By 2021, the market is likely to decrease to almost USD 24 billion given the drop in demand provoked by the anticipated end of the global operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nevertheless, Asia and Africa are predicted to experience a strong demand for armored and counter IED vehicles in the offing. IFVs and APCs are forecast to call for the largest market chunk in the years to come.

Oshkosh Defense, Force Protection, Otokar, BAE Hagglunds, General Dynamics, Krauss-Maffei Wegmann, China North Industries Corp., Rheinmetall and Iveco are amid the most prominent participants in the global armored and IED vehicles industry.

New research report ?The Global Armored and Counter IED Vehicles Market 2012-2022? elaborated by Strategic Defence Intelligence (SDI) has been recently published by Market Publishers Ltd.

Report Details:

Title: The Global Armored and Counter IED Vehicles Market 2012-2022


Published: February, 2013


Pages: 197


Price: US$ 4,800.00


http://marketpublishers.com/report/industry/vehicle/global-armored-n-counter-ied-vehicles-market-2012-2022.html

The report offers an extensive guide to the world market for armored and counter IED vehicles by examining the actual situation on the market, tracing its historic evolution and providing SWOT analysis. The research study contains unique data on the market structure, size, value and segmentation as well as scrutinizes the key factors limiting and driving the market. It also presents valuable information on the investment climate and defense expenditures, the major market challenges and opportunities. The report describes the existing and emerging market trends and covers recent technological developments and armored and counter IED vehicles programs. The research includes strategic insight into the market, comprehensive assessment of the competitive landscape and in-depth review of the top market players. The study discusses the possible market development and discloses growth and expenditures expectations for the market over the next 10 years.

In addition, country-wise market analyses for the USA, Russia, the UK, France, China, Australia, India, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Brazil and Colombia are provided in the report.

Reasons to Buy:

More new research reports by the publisher can be found at SDI page.

Tanya Rezler
The Market Publishers, Ltd.
+44 208 144 6009
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/armored-counter-ied-vehicles-market-analyzed-forecast-sdi-135634107.html

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Matt Riddle cut from the UFC after second positive test for marijuana

Last week, Matt Riddle talked about how he mended fences with UFC brass over his positive test for marijuana. This week? He tested positive again and lost his job. According to MMA Junkie, Riddle tested positive for marijuana after his UFC on Fuel 7 bout with Che Mills, and was then cut from the UFC. Riddle also tested positive at UFC 149.

While it's true that Riddle has a medical marijuana card in Nevada, he knew full well that the UFC tested for the drug. Whether that drug should be banned is not the point. It is, Riddle knows it's banned, and Riddle broke the rules.

If your boss banned red shirts for no reason at all and you were suspended for wearing your favorite red shirt to work, are you going to wear it again? Yes, you can talk about how your boss is crazy for banning red shirts and work to change his mind on red shirts, but you can't wear the shirt and expect to slide by.

It's also important for UFC fighters to walk the line these days as the promotion looks to trim their roster. UFC president Dana White recently noted that they have approximately 100 fighters to trim from their roster. Riddle made it too easy for them to pick his name.

UPDATE: The UFC released a statement on Riddle's release, which reads in full:

Matthew Riddle tested positive for marijuana metabolites following his bout at UFC on FUEL TV 7 in London, England on February 16, 2013. This is Riddle?s second failed drug test for marijuana within the past seven months. Riddle previously failed a post-fight drug test due to marijuana following his UFC 149 victory over Chris Clements.

As such, the UFC organization is exercising its right to terminate Riddle for breach of his obligations under his Promotional Agreement as well as the UFC Fighter Conduct Policy. The UFC organization has a strict, consistent policy against the use of any illegal and/or performance-enhancing drugs, stimulants or masking agents. The outcome of the bout against Che Mills was changed to a no contest and the results of the positive test will be reported to the official Association of Boxing Commissions MMA record-keeper.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/matt-riddle-cut-ufc-second-positive-test-marijuana-183853926--mma.html

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Flash: First Quarter of 2013 Corporate Earnings Growth Turns ...

Thursday, February 28th, 2013
By Michael Lombardi, MBA for Profit Confidential

First Quarter of 2013 Corporate EarningsThe pieces of the puzzle are coming together. Companies in key stock indices like the S&P 500 are doing what I expected them to do to make corporate earnings look better. They are either buying their own company?s stock or laying off employees.

United Technologies Corporation (NYSE/UTX) is expected to reduce its labor force by 3,000 employees this year, and it may continue to make further cuts to keep its costs in line, due to difficult market conditions. (Source: The Republican, February 18, 2013.)

General Electric Company (NYSE/GE) Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Keith Sherin, said, ?For us, our focus is on lowering costs.? The company didn?t specify how many jobs will be cut, but it plans to reduce costs by $2.0 billion in two years through restructuring to spur corporate earnings. (Source: Sechler, B., ?GE CFO Says Job Cuts To Be Part of Ongoing Restructuring,? Wall Street Journal, February 21, 2013.)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE/JPM), the biggest bank in the U.S. based on assets, plans to cut 15,000 jobs by the end of 2014 for a total savings of $3.0 billion. For every billion dollars the S&P 500 bank cuts, it will add $0.20 per share to its corporate earnings. (Source: Forbes, February 26, 2013.)

Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE/TRI), which is not an S&P 500 company but a major company nonetheless, announced 2,500 jobs cut from its core business?its financial and risk division. The reason: the company reported net sales declined in 2012, and it expects 2013 to be a challenging year for revenue growth. (Source: Market Watch, February 13, 2013.)

For the first quarter of 2013, corporate earnings expectations for companies on the S&P 500 have turned negative. Wall Street analysts now expect corporate earnings to have negative growth of 0.2%. (Source: FactSet, February 22, 2013.) So far, for the first quarter of 2013, 72 S&P 500 companies have provided negative corporate earnings guidance!

If companies continue to cut costs in order to show better corporate earnings, the unemployment rate will rise. As I have said in these pages before, healthy companies grow when their sales grow. But since overall demand in the global economy is declining, companies are reverting to cutting costs again. But improving corporate earnings through cost cutting can only go so far before service is compromised.

I?d like to remind readers that in the third quarter of 2012, corporate earnings growth was also negative for the S&P 500 companies. Hence, we?ve now witnessed negative earnings growth twice in only three quarters. Doesn?t quite jive with a rising stock market, does it?

Michael?s Personal Notes

While the mainstream certainly loves rising home prices, the reality is that the housing market is still fundamentally damaged and is in an artificial price rebound.

Robert Shiller, the co-creator of the most quoted housing market indicator, the S&P/Case-Shiller index, said this week, ?Part of the reason the indexes have gone up is because the foreclosure boom has receded. Foreclosed homes sell at a lower price, and the share of those sales has been falling. People might be deceived by looking at the indexes. The question is whether the gains will be sustained.? (Source: Timiraos, N., ?Shiller?s Bottom Line: Risk Lingers in Housing,? Wall Street Journal, February 26, 2013.)

As I have been saying in these pages for some time now, we are still missing first- time homebuyers in the housing market recovery!

In January?s existing home sales report, the National Association of Realtors reported first-time homebuyers only accounted for 30% of all purchases?similar to December of 2012 and a decrease of nine percent from January 2012. (Source: National Association of Realtors web site, February 21, 2013.) With mortgage rates at an all-time low, first-time homebuyers are shying away from the housing market?this is definitely not a good indicator.

Dear reader, the truth behind the home prices increasing in the U.S. housing market is simple: average Americans aren?t buying homes; it?s the rush of investors to buy homes for investment purposes that is causing prices to rise.

At a time when first-time homebuyers are shying away from the housing market, investors are pouring in. In January, investors purchased 19% of all the existing homes, about the same percentage as in December.

Looking at a more regional level, we see a more distorted picture of the U.S. housing market. According to Urban Strategies Council, investors purchased, with cash, 42% of the homes in Oakland that went into foreclosure between January of 2007 and October of 2011. (Source: San Francisco Chronicle, June 29, 2012.)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE/JPM), with the funds raised from its clients, has purchased 5,000 single-family homes to rent out in Florida, Arizona, Nevada, and California. The firm plans to sell the houses in three to four years. (Source: Bloomberg, February 4, 2013.)

To see sustainable growth in the housing market, we need first-time homebuyers in the market. Currently, the majority of Americans are suffering, because they are uncertain about their jobs and income?never mind planning to buy a house. Don?t just look at rising home prices; look at the underlying factors that could have an impact on the housing market over the long term. Remember, the faster the speculation drives home prices higher, the faster they can come back down.

Where the Market Stands; Where it?s Headed:

I continue to believe we are near a top for the stock market. Too much bullishness amongst stock advisors, heavy corporate insider selling, rapid stock buyback programs (to prop-up earnings), a contracting U.S. economy, and negative corporate earnings growth?all are factors that suggest the stock market rally is not sustainable.

What He Said:

?I?ve been writing to my readers for the past two years claiming the decline in the U.S. property market would not be the soft landing most analysts were expecting, rather a hard landing. My view remains unchanged. The U.S. housing bust will cut deeper and harder than most can realize today.? Michael Lombardi in PROFIT CONFIDENTIAL, June 13, 2007. While the popular media was predicting a bottoming of the real estate market in 2007, Michael was preparing his readers for worse times ahead.

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Flash: First Quarter of 2013 Corporate Earnings Growth Turns Negative, 10.0 out of 10 based on 1 rating

Source: http://www.profitconfidential.com/stock-market/flash-first-quarter-of-2013-corporate-earnings-growth-turns-negative/

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5 reasons Google should be very afraid of Samsung

Google takes pride in the fact that its Android mobile operating system has outpaced Apple's. But the truth is, Android phones don't outsell Apple phones, Samsung phones do. Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft ? these may be Google's main competitors, but it's Samsung that could be the search giant's biggest threat.

As Samsung launches the Galaxy Note 8.0 this week, and the upcoming Galaxy S 4, not to mention a fleet of new Smart TVs, here are five reasons Google should be afraid:

1. Phones, phablets, tablets and more
Samsung has been the largest phone maker in the world for a while, but for the better part of last year, it was even out-selling Apple in the profitable smartphone category. On the surface, this is good news for Google, since Samsung is the largest ambassador of Android phones.

But compare the interface on a Google-branded Nexus phone to the software on Samsung's best-selling Galaxy S phones. The fundamental operating systems are the same, but everything from the stock apps (calendars, email, media player, etc.) to the interactive services (voice command, wireless file sharing, etc.) are different. Critics (including me) generally prefer Google's "pure" Android experience offered by Nexus devices (which also get faster OS updates), but the masses don't seem to mind Samsung's interface. And with time, money and momentum on its side, Samsung can keep improving.

The bigger the device gets, the more problematic things are for Google. Android phone apps may be a roaring success, but Android tablets have barely any native apps, especially compared to what's built for iPad. As evidenced in the expanding Note line ? which just welcomed an 8-inch model ? you can expect to see more Samsung-only features and interface tweaks, and increasing cooperation between Samsung and its software partners.

2. Retail stores
In an age when big-box stores struggle, Apple can still brag of its unbelievable (and mostly unforeseen) brick-and-mortar store success. Former skeptics now believe that the best way for electronics makers to reach their customers is through direct shopping-mall and online sales. Google is building up the online side, but recently rejected the idea of a retail store. Meanwhile, Samsung has quietly built out an online sales site, and is starting to show the urge to build some Apple Store clones of its own. In the meantime, it has clout with Best Buy, other mall retailers and even cellular carriers that Google could only dream of.

3. Mobile payments
Google got the jump on the competition when it comes to using your phone as a credit card. Built-in near-field communication chips in its Nexus phones combined with the Google Wallet system lets you, in Google's words, "shop faster, smarter and safer, in-store and online." Apple has been slower to get into mobile payments ? its Passbook app is a useful tool for those already checking into flights and buying event tickets online, but it's not yet a vehicle for commerce in itself. Now Samsung is making its own move with its own app ? called Wallet.

While the system, as it stands, currently resembles Apple's Passbook more than Google's similarly named service, don't forget that Samsung has NFC built into most of its premium phones. Not only that, as the Verge points out, it has a partnership with Visa to use the credit card company's PayWave service.

4. Media store
About two years ago, I laughed when Samsung tried to get me to buy a movie via its service on a cellphone. The selection wasn't great, and what was I going to do, watch some outdated action film on a phone's 4-inch screen? The laughter has, substantially, subsided. Those screens have gotten bigger, and Samsung has sold a lot of phones with its media store pre-installed.

Meanwhile, Samsung has expanded its media sales to its Smart TV line, and the current Smart TV interface dedicates a whole page to Samsung media. In other words, while you can still buy movies for apps like Amazon Instant Video and Vudu, you'll soon most likely stumble over stuff first on Samsung's page. How soon till you're giving it your $3.99 for a movie rental, rather than your cable provider or the competition?

5. Apple TV
Google's already spent its ammunition on something called Google TV, which you likely never bothered to purchase. Apple TV exists now too, as a cheap little add-on for Mac, iPad and iPhone owners, but Apple may yet pop a full-size TV that's so user friendly, fanboys would drool like they haven't drooled since Steve Jobs was alive.

Only thing is, Samsung already has an answer to Apple TV, and from what we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Samsung isn't going to rest until it gets the interface right. Does it need Google's help to do it? Nope.

(Bonus dirt in Google's face: LG recently went out of its way to buy a third-party operating system, probably so it wouldn't have to rely on Android for its next-gen smart TVs.)

Maybe none of this matters to Google as long as it can keep making money on mobile ads on Samsung devices ? but according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal, even this relatively safe haven could be threatened by Samsung's explosive growth.

Further reading:
Samsung sparks anxiety at Google - The Wall Street Journal

Eyeing Apple: How competitors are finally making phones consumers want - The New Yorker

Samsung takes a page from Apple's Passbook with new Wallet app - The Verge

'Next generation' Samsung smartphones to ship with Visa NFC payment system - The Verge

Android boss Andy Rubin says Google doesn't need a retail store - Business Insider

Samsung's new retail store clearly inspired by Apple - Digital Trends

Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science editor at NBC News Digital. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/technolog/5-reasons-google-should-be-very-afraid-samsung-1C8593123

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