In the latest news from the diamond world this week, a couple of seriously big rocks won't be changing hands any time soon.
The famed Koh-i-Noor diamond, one of the world's biggest at a whopping 106 carats, has graced Britain's Crown Jewels since the mid-19th century. On Monday, the gem was at the centre of an ownership tussle in India's Supreme Court. The government's official position on whether to demand it be repatriated has not yet been made clear.
Meanwhile, across the pond, Sotheby's New York held its Magnificent Jewels sale on Wednesday. The star attraction was the so-called Shirley Temple Fancy Deep Blue Diamond ring given to the child star by her dad on her 12th birthday. (Makes you wonder what she got for her 13th.)
The stone, weighing in at almost 10 carats, failed to find a buyer as no bids reached the bottom end of it price range of $25-million (U.S.) to $35-million.
For those Shirley Temple fans whose pockets don't run so deep, you can pick up a more affordable memento. On Monday, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honouring "America's Little Darling." Just 47 cents a piece.
Who you callin' chicken?
Now that's what you call classy chicken. Never mind your run-of-the-mill global fried-chicken chains (Yes, we're talking about you, Colonel).
The owner of a South Korean fried chicken restaurant was ordered by a district court to pay 14.5 million won ($16,000) for flouting a court judgment. The order prohibited him from giving his restaurant a name that suggested an association with global luxury goods brand Louis Vuitton.
The Korea Times, identifying the man only as a Mr. Kim, reported on Monday that he had called his chicken restaurant LOUISVUI TON DAK, a pun riffing off the word tongdak, which means "whole chicken" in Korean. He didn't help his case by having napkins printed with a logo that resembled Louis Vuitton's.
Louis Vuitton parent company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, apparently thinking that a fried chicken joint could easily be confused with a fancy handbag maker, brought its action against Mr. Kim in September. The following month, the Seoul Central District Court ruled Mr. Kim must drop the name and logo or face paying 500,000 won a day to LVMH.
He did, but it wasn't good enough for LVMH. The company demanded he fork over 14.5 million won for brand infringement for the 29 days from the date of the original judgment.
Mr. Kim claimed he should be let off the hook after the changing the the name, but the court begged to differ: "chaLOUISVUI TONDAK" still wasn't good enough.
Extra, extra large fries with that
It was too good to be true.
McDonald's has made a number of moves in recent years to turn around slumping growth by adding healthier menu options. Kids' Happy Meals, for instance, can be ordered with milk, juice, yogurt and apple slices.
But now it's looking to prop up the other end of the market with a test outlet set to open in Mound City, Mo. St. Joseph News-Press reported Monday that a 6,500-square-foot McD's will open in July, featuring comfy couches and armchairs, kiosks where customers can customize their orders, and serving staff to bring your order to your table. But the most revolutionary change? ALL YOU CAN EAT FRIES!!! While it's unlikely to appeal to juice-drinking apple munchers, there's definitely a niche demand. Reaction on Twitter ranged from "Omg I am so happy" to "Yass! Hope it comes with a side of defibrillator and elastic-banded sweatpants."
Hold the phone … two days later McDonald's head office broke the news: The all-you-can-eat fries are for a limited time only. At least you won't have to stick to chicken wraps and salads to make up for it.
Tapping the power nap market
Nodding off on the job? Feel like just a quick nap will help you get through the day?
That's what some Hong Kong workers think, and it's no surprise, since at 50 hours on average, they log the longest workweeks, according to Quartz. To meet that need, a new kind of business has cropped up: the nap lounge.
Now while "nap lounge" sounds like a euphemism, these are the real deal: places where you can rent a space for a short snooze.
Some of them are higher-end and cater to the harried executive, offering services more commonly seen in hotels. The Nap Lounge, for instance, offers single rooms with WiFi (although why someone would want WiFi while they're sleeping is anybody's guess), a phone answering service, music and refreshments for $15 (U.S.) an hour.
Over at Chillazy, it's a little more casual, with nappers sharing an open concept space and dozing in hammocks at $7.50 for the first hour and $2 for each hour after that, with discounts available on the monthly plan.
A less colourful breakfast
Have you noticed your kids' bowl of Trix cereal doesn't have that day-glo look it used to have? There's a reason for that. As of the beginning of the year, General Mills had removed all artificial colours from 75 per cent of its breakfast cereals, including Twix, Cheerios, and Golden Grahams, it announced on its blog. (It threw in the towel on blue and green before the relaunch, as the photos demonstrate; the company says there still working on it.)
Artificial colours, flavours and preservatives have been cereal killers for some time, with the overall category suffering steadily declining sales. The General Mills overhaul seems to be paying off, though, and the relaunched brands have seen a 6-per-cent boost.
But it looks like it's hit a wall: Lucky Charms. The "magically delicious" cereal contains a range of coloured marshmallows, including a crescent moon, in that dreaded blue colour, along with bright green, pink and yellow.
GM is looking to get a new, improved Lucky Charms on the market by the end of next year. Still, don't expect to find it at on the shelves at a health food store near you.
Airport security has gone to the dogs
Well, what would you expect from a British dog?
The sniffer dog team trained to detect contraband entering the country at Britain's Manchester Airport cost £1.25-million ($2.28-million) to set up. A survey released on Thursday examining the dogs' performance over a seven-month period found they had failed to sniff out a single class-A drug, a group that includes cocaine and heroin.
But they are pretty good at detecting other things, namely cheese and sausages, as Reuters reported. That shouldn't be such a surprise, considering the two foods are a staple of the traditional British diet. To give them credit, in addition to 181 kilos of meat, they also turned up more than 46,000 cigarettes among the 22 million people who pass through the airports in a year, the study said.
In typical English understatement, the survey said the number of class-A drug detections "were not at the level that might be expected." In other words, zero is below the level that was expected. Maybe they shouldn't have set the bar so high.