NEW YORK - A U.S. judge has issued final dismissals of lawsuits accusing Lululemon Athletica Inc and various company officials of defrauding shareholders by concealing defects in yoga pants.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan had on April 4 issued "draft" decisions dismissing a shareholder lawsuit against Lululemon, and two lawsuits accusing 11 executives and directors of missing red flags about poor quality control.

The judge issued a final, longer ruling dismissing the proposed shareholder class action on Friday, after having done the same in the other two lawsuits last week.

Shareholders accused Lululemon of failing to disclose how its black Luon yoga pants were too sheer, culminating in an expensive March 2013 recall.

They also accused the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company of overstating its ability to ensure good quality control and of concealing plans to replace its since departed chief executive, Christine Day.

But Forrest wrote on Friday that the plaintiffs' "narrative requires the court to stretch allegations of, at most, corporate mismanagement into actionable federal securities fraud."

"This is not the law," she added.

The lawsuits had sought damages for an estimated $2 billion decline in Lululemon's market value. Lululemon has denied wrongdoing.

A lawyer for the plaintiffs and representatives for Lululemon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Read more here:
Lululemon yoga pants lawsuits dismissed

The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced the honorees for the 2014 Digital V.I.P. Awards. Visionaries, Innovators and Producers that have made significant contributions to the advancement of digital entertainment and storytelling during the past year will be honored onJune 6th. The celebration will be held at Soho House in Los Angeles and will kick off the 2014 Produced By Conference.

Honorees for the 2014 Digital V.I.P. Awards are:

Visionaries

Innovators

Producers

In the past year we have seen exceptional invention and ingenuity in the world of digital media, said Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch, Presidents of the Producers Guild of America. In an intensely competitive environment, these individuals and companies have managed to stand ahead of the pack by creating supreme standards for innovation, creativity, and technology. We look forward to celebrating their contributions to the digital industry at this years Digital V.I.P. Awards.

Last years inaugural Digital V.I.P Awards were held at the home of entrepreneur Elon Musk. The 2013 honorees included,Visionaries: John Raatz(Founder, Board Chairman, CEO of The Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment),Eckhart Tolle(Honorary Founder of GATE) andJim Carrey(Honorary Founder of GATE) and Bruce Sterling multi award-winning science fiction author for his influence upon technology as it relates to storytelling and in co-founding the cyberpunk movement; Innovators: Kevin SystromandMike Krieger(Co-Founders of Instagram), Bill Westenhofer(Life Of Pi), and Ed Ulbrich (CEO of Digital Domain), Philip Atwell (Geronimo Productions), Dylan Brown (The Yard Entertainment), Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre for Virtual 2Pac; and Producers: Disney Imagineeringteam (Disneys Cars Land), Louis C.K. (Louie), and Ben Donovan(President & Co-Founder),Danny Zappin(CEO & Co-Founder) andLisa Donovan(GM & Co-Founder) of Maker Studios, andConan OBrien (Team Coco).

The PGAs Digital V.I.P. Committee determined the honorees, in conjunction with PGA Presidents Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch, as well as a distinguished group of industry Advisory Board members including: Mark Cuban, Jason Calacanis, Sharon Calahan, Illeana Douglas, Dick Glover, Quincy Jones, Jr., John Rubey and Chris Williams.

Digital V.I.P. Committee members include: Michael Bellavia, Shawn Gold, Marc Scarpa, Bruce Cohen, Drew Baldwin, Will Keenan, Christina Lee Storm, Laura Allen, Dina Benadon, Valerie Johnson, Margaret Schrader and Megan Mascena Gaspar.

Source: The Producers Guild of America

See original here:
PGA to Honor Alfonso Cuarn at Digital VIP Awards

(CNN) We can blame the Internet for plenty: the proliferation of porn, our obsession with cat videos, the alleged rise of teen trends likebrace yourselfeyeball licking.

But is it also a culprit in helping us lose our religion? A new study suggests it might be.

Allen Downey, a computer scientist at Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts, set out to understand the national uptick in those who claim no religious affiliation. These arethe nones,which the Pew Research Center considers the fastest-growing religious group in America.

Since 1985, Downey says, the number of first-year college students who say theyre religiously unaffiliated has grown from 8% to 25%, according to theCIRP Freshman Survey.

And, he adds, stats from theGeneral Social Survey, which has been tracking American opinions and social change since 1972, show unaffiliated Americans in the general population ballooned from 8% to 18% between 1990 and 2010.

These trends jibe with what thePew Research Centers Religion & Public Life Projectreported in 2012. It said one in five American adults, and a third of those under 30, are unaffiliated.

Downey says he stepped into the ongoing debate about the rise of the nonesnot because he has a vested interest one way or the other, but because the topic fascinates him. He says its good fodder for study and appeals to students who are learning to crunch real data.

In his paper Religious affiliation, education and Internet use, which published in March on arXiv an electronic collection of scientific papers Downey analyzed data from GSS and discovered a correlation between increased Internet use and religious disaffiliation.

Internet use among adults was essentially at zero in 1990; 20 years later, it jumped to 80%, he said. In that same two-decade period, we saw a 25 million-person spike in those who are religiously unaffiliated.

People who use the Internet a few hours a week, GSS numbers showed Downey, were less likely to have a religious affiliation by about 2%.Those online more than seven hours a week were even more likely an additional 3% more likely to disaffiliate, he said.

See the original post here:
Study: Is the Internet Killing Religion?