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CollegeHumor co-founder Josh Abramson gets serious about his next venture: funny t-shirts. In 1999, when Josh Abramson was a sophomore in college, he co-founded the website CollegeHumor, a central portal where he and his friends could post funny pictures and videos they were circulating anyway. Five years later, looking to diversify revenue streams, Abramson started BustedTees, which sells t-shirts and other knickknacks that carry many of the funny slogans from CollegeHumor

The Friday after Thanksgiving is known for big deals at large retailers. But can AmEx's marketing push help claim enough of that business for the little guys?

The retail music landscape may be walking dead, but the carefully curated soundtracks to the Twilight franchise are alive and well, thanks to music supervisor Alex Patsavas "marriage" of story and song, featured in the upcoming Breaking Dawn--Part 1. Darkness may have washed over the retail music landscape (RIP, Tower Records ; Fare thee well, Virgin Megastore ), but hordes of teenagers dressed in black and clutching hardcover books nonetheless descended upon Hot Topic stores in malls across America last weekend for a nationally synchronized CD listening party. On November 5th , Twi-hards, those obsessive, dedicated fans of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight book series and the blockbuster movies it spawned, gathered to listen to the soundtrack to Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn--Part 1, just as they had in 2008 , 2009 , and 2010 .

The coupon site aggregator will spend the money on (what else?) acquiring more sites. Call it a whale of a cash infusion.

Jewelry wholesale founder Vanessa Merit Nornberg has no patience for unprepared salespeople who waste her time--and theirs. Don't make the same mistake as Gina. "Metal Mafia, this is Vanessa

Retailers have to up their game to capitalize off of holiday sales. Here's how to leverage the five senses to encourage customers to buy. Walk into any American mall during the months of November and December, and, if you can tune out the hordes of frantic holiday shoppers, you'll likely notice upbeat Christmas music, the smell of pine boughs and cinnamon, bright red candy-canes, and plenty of free samples

Don't keep your solar user in the dark.

Video game giant Activision is hoping that dozens of plastic toys, that interact with a series of video games on every possible platform, will be a huge success with kids (and their parents). This weekend, mammoth game publisher Activision launched a new franchise, Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure . It's an evolution of the character Spyro the Dragon which debuted on PlayStation 1 in 1998

Before beginning the renovation of the theater, Milan-based studiometrico observed the habits, tastes, and styles of Comvert employees in order to create a workspace, complete with skating bowl, that would mesh seamlessly with their offbeat corporate culture. This retail and office space was carved into a 1940s theater in Milan for the brand Comvert, which designs and distributes clothing for skateboarders and snowboarders under the brand Bastard .

There's an indoor skateboarding bowl, a converted railway station in Milan, a converted 1940s warehouse, and a tiny atelier open to the sky and earth in Japan.

From LEGOs to Japanese noodles, companies are letting users control their brand--and grow it.

In 2005, 85 percent of business owners were optimistic about the future. It's a tie between small business owners who think the economy and their small businesses will improve—and those who think both will tank, says a new report. The latest edition of American Express Open's semi-annual Small Business Monitor suggests small business optimism has not recovered from the hit it took in 2008.

Sites such as Ideeli, Lot18, Gilt Groupe, and Rue La La are offering carefully curated deals at reduced prices.

Two very big developments are about to happen in the NFC space, and together they might eliminate credit cards as we know them. Google has been courting the idea of NFC technology for a while, and it now seems poised to launch a potential game-changer (as Google is wont to do). The Wall Street Journal reported that an announcement from Google on Thursday will reveal its new NFC mobile-payment tech

Deployment of smart grid technology from U.S. utility control centers and power networks to consumers' homes could cost between $338 billion and $476 billion over the next 20 years, but will deliver $1.3 trillion to $2 trillion in benefits over that period. The benefits will include greater grid reliability, integration of solar rooftop generation and plug-in vehicles, reductions in electricity demand, and stronger cybersecurity, according to a new study by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).