Compiled by LAURA SLATTERY
In numbers The end of the Encyclopaedia Britannica in print
244
years since the publication of the first edition of the reference book in Edinburgh. The first edition from 1768 to 1771 suggested blood-letting as a cure for illnesses 98 times.
$1,395
the price of the current 32-volume edition, gathering dust on fewer bookshelves than ever. It is set to be its last, says the company, which has been US-owned since 1901.
85
percentage of revenues that the company generates from online sales, after its famous door-to-door salesmen were killed off by Windows in 1996.
The Rose Garden response
Trade between the US and China makes the world go round – or it goes round the world, anyway. Pictured here by Reuters’ Kevin Lamarque is Barack Obama, flanked by his commerce secretary John Bryson (left) and his trade representative Ron Kirk as they ventured into the White House’s Rose Garden on Tuesday to flex US trade muscles.
The US, Japan and the EU have filed a case against China at the World Trade Organisation, challenging Beijing’s quotas on exports of rare earths – metals critical to the manufacture of products from TV sets to hybrid cars. China, which produces almost all the world’s rare earth metals, says the quotas are intended to minimise environmental damage. Isn’t that what hybrid cars are for?
Getting to know . . . Dame Marjorie Scardino
Publisher and education group Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, was the first FTSE 100 company to appoint a female chief executive – Marjorie Scardino, a US-born former lawyer and newspaper publisher – in 1997. Pearson, under Scardino, remains ahead of most of the rest on gender. The company's board was named the third most balanced in this week's Cranfield School 2012 Female FTSE report.
Not everything is harmonious, however, with FT journalists downing tools on Tuesday over pay. It's a sensitive time. Despite Scardino's insistence that the FT is "not for sale", many are convinced that her successful focus on growing Pearson's education businesses means it likely will be at some point.
The list Mother's Day marketing
It’s Mother’s Day on Sunday and a pile of leftover shamrock cupcakes probably isn’t going to cut it. Still, it might not always be a wonderful idea to listen to retailers and consumer goods companies’ delightful suggestions.
1 Twilight: Breaking Dawn DVD: As gamely suggested by troubled entertainment chain HMV. Appropriate for mothers of squalling baby vampires, perhaps.
2 L’Oréal Revitalift Repair 10: “Multi-tasking gift for your multi-tasking Mum,” says L’Oréal’s advert campaign. It’s an anti-ageing cream. And it doesn’t even make toast.
3 Adele's 21 on CD: Tesco.ieplays it safe with a copy of the biggest-selling album this century. So the chances are your mother already has it then.
4 The Babyliss Big Hair Spinning Brush: Proposed as the “ideal” Mother’s Day gift by Boots (the Dublin Grafton Street outlet). Big hair is an option, right?
5 The Mum Tulip: Not an actual flower, but a “reusabubble bubble bar”. Aerated chocolate? No, a scented bath thing from scented-bath-thingy retailer Lush.
