Happy Thursday BaddaBing BaddaBlog readers! I know that Thursday is normally an off day, but seeing as I will be moving on Friday and will not have time to write a post then, Friday’s post is coming to you a little early. This is News for the Mighty, News of the Week! Which is the weekly post that aims to inform you, the reader, about everything noteworthy that happened during the week. That way, when you are trying to hit on a girl in your favorite pub or brewhouse, you can lay some topical lines on her. Here we go!

YouTube vs. Twitch

The act of watching other people play games and produce commentary while playing said games has become an incredibly popular form of entertainment. There is nary a person with internet connection under the age of thirty that has not heard of the uber-popular Let’s Play YouTuber, PewDiePie. Seeing the potential of a rapidly growing market, the retail company Amazon outbid Google in the purchasing off the website Twitch. This website allows users to watch people play videogames in real time, leave comments, and, in some cases, allow upwards of  millions of people to play the same videogame simultaneously. Possibly out of spite, Google took those funds that it was going to use to buy Twitch and invested it into their partner company YouTube. This allowed YouTube to launch YouTube Gaming this week, which more or less does everything that Twitch does, but better.

I personally love it when giant companies like Google and Amazon get into squabbles like this. Especially when it results in more competition being formed in an industry, which is great for both people making content and consumers. YouTube Gaming’s big hooks are that it can play videos at a higher quality than Twitch, and that its video player uses less bandwidth and processing power than Twitch’s player. I’ve never really been much into the Let’s Play scene, but now that a lot of YouTubers I like are experimenting on YouTube Gaming, I think I may have to check it out. I also believe that the deciding factor on which platform comes out on top will depend on whether Twitch can hold onto broadcasting the massive eSports competitions or if those events switch to being viewable on YouTube Gaming.

More on YouTube Gaming right here.

Reporter and Cameraman Killed on Live TV

 In sobering news, television reporter Allison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward during a live television interview. The gunman, whose name I will not write here as I do not want to contribute to him gaining any amount of fame, was a former employee of the news station Allison and Adam worked for. He had been fired from the newstation WDBJ two years prior to this tragic event due to angry, unprofessional behavior. After he killed the two WDBJ employees and injured Viki Gardner, head of a local chamber of commerce who Allison had been interviewing, he fled the scene in a rental car. He latter attempted to take his own life with his legally purchased firearms, causing the car to crash. Police apprehended the shooter and took him to a nearby hospital for treatment. The killer died in the hospital due to his self inflicted wounds.

My thoughts and heart go out to the families of the Allison Parker, Adam Ward, and Viki Gardner. I also beg lawmakers across the country to create and enact legislation to help prevent incidents like this from happening again. Clearly something needs to change in our country.

Click here for more on this tragic event.

McWhopper Proposal!!?

In lighter news, Burger King has reached out to competitor McDonald’s with the intent of creating a combination of both restaurant’s signature burger. This fusion burger would be called the McWhopper and all proceeds from the burger’s limited run would go to the charity Peace One Day. This burger would have its own unique packaging and be sold in both McDonald’s and Burger Kings across the country. This offer was make by Burger King via an open letter published in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune and McDonald’s rejection was released via Facebook.

McDonald’s turned down the offer because, apparently, they hate money. Seriously, even if the burger was only sold for one day and the proceeds went to charity, McDonald’s would still make a killing off of selling fries and drinks! I know there have to be some smart people working at McDon’s HQ for them to have grown into a massive chain and stayed around for so long, but apparently they all had the day off yesterday. This is a worse business decision than when McDonald’s sold all of the shares of the Chipotle restaurant. Sorry guys, looks like we can’t help reach world piece by eating fast food.

Side note, am I the only food lover that likes to combine foods from different restaurants? Like, I get a couple tacos from Taco Bell and then pair them with an ice cream dessert from Culvers. Does anyone else ever do that? Let me know in the comments down below.

More on the McWhopper right here.

Stock Market Madness

If I had written this post three days earlier, I would be describing how the stock market was being dominated by individuals and companies selling shares due to concerns over China’s slowing economy having a detrimental impact on the world economy. Instead, I get to write about how the Dow. Jones Stock Index has climbed 619 points, its highest clime since 2008. So good for me, as I get to write about good news, and good for literally everyone, as the world economy is not imploding.

To explain what happened simply, many investors were worried that, due to reports of China’s economy slowing, the economies all around the world would begin to slow. This caused them to rapidly sell their shares in various businesses. However, due to China’s implementations of measures to restore their economy and the realization that maybe investors overreacted, people realized that things were not tectonically bad and began buying up all of the shares that had previously been sold, for a much cheaper price.

The moral of the story here is…….kind of nonexistent. When you get an institution as connected and grand as the stock market, weird things like this are bound to happen. It actually could have been way worse.

More on the Stock Market right here.

Amazon Alcohol

Do you want to get hammered drunk, but have no immediate access to alcohol and do not want to leave your home? Well, stop trying to ferment those oranges because Amazon has got your back! The retail giant announced a new service yesterday called Amazon Prime Now, that will deliver various items, including ice cold beer, to your door in under an hour. The service will only be available to individuals living in the Seattle area for now, but if it does well you better believe that Amazon is going to expand this idea.

Well Amazon will definitely make bank off of this service, I am interested to hear what you readers thing about it. Is this the beginning of a new phase in product consumption? Is this the first step down the road of humanity becoming like the people In Wall-E? Let me know in the comments if you’re sober enough to type coherent sentences.

Alright, gang, that’s it for today’s installment of News for the Mighty, News of the Week. Thank you so much for reading. If you like this post, show it by hitting the like button and, while you are down there, maybe answer one of today’s questions in the comment section. If you want to receive notifications for new posts, you can subscribe via the right side dropdown menu, or like/follow the BaddaBing BaddaBlog Facebook Page. You can also get notified and have a few laughs via my Twitter profile, @LucasDeRuyter. You can also appreciate my badass new profile pic. while you are there.

Once again, there will be no post tomorrow. However, the next installment of Game Grind will be released on Saturday, as per usual. Have a great Thursday and Friday everybody.

BaddaBing, BaddaBye