• Japanese retailers also bearing the brunt of economic downturn (Reuters)
• Human workers replaced by efficient robots at major retail warehouses (Wired)
• Twentieth Century Fox fills the Narnia void left by Disney (L.A. Times)
• Miley gets her own…stock index? (StockPickr)
• License this: The Triceracopter, a triceratops-shaped helicopter? (Gizmodo)
• Now you can fight Storm Troopers in the rain with these light saber umbrellas (Geekologie)
• Target the latest to reduce employees, cuts 9% of HQ staff (L.A. Times)
• Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book snags Newbery Medal (Washington Post)
• On the Gaiman front, here’s a look at the upcoming Coraline movie (MTV Movies)
• Finding other kid-friendly useful functions for the Nintendo Wii? (Kotaku)
• Celebrate your eleventy-first birthday with these Lord of the Rings-inspired cakes (Cake Wrecks)
• US retail sales continue to fall as consumers spend less (Bloomberg)
• UK high street sales also seeing sliding sales in January (BBC)
• Children’s books getting tested for lead, too (Washington Post)
• All chance and no strategy make for unchallenging kids board games (BoingBoing)
• Behind the ViewMaster: the creator and creation of the 3-D images (Neatorama)
• And now, some strange examples of gaming furniture (Web Urbanist)
• More bids tabled for struggling Entertainment Rights? (The Daily Telegraph)
• Lessons from Mary Poppins in these troubled times (BBC)
• McDonald’s looks to expand its golden arches through Europe (International Business Times)
• The debate of Brain Age‘s effectiveness (Kotaku)
• Video games outsold DVD and Blu-ray at retail around the world (Joystiq)
• Disney to merge ABC TV net and production arms (Wall Street Journal)
• The big toycos prep to conform to new safety laws while small businesses struggle (Bloomberg)
• Also on the toy front, India bans Chinese-imports without giving a reason (Reuters India)
• No White Knights galloping forth for failing retailers (Reuters)
• Are we even closer to the invisibility cloak? (Wired/GeekDad)
• Microsoft to slash 5,000 jobs (New York Times)
• The Children’s Place sees e-commerce spike, but cuts jobs (Yahoo!)
• China a bright spot for big-name retailers in spite of economic slump (Wall Street Journal)
• The Dark Knight, Iron Man and WALL-E get Oscar nods (MTV)
• Kids say the darndest things to Obama. In book form. (Neatorama)
• Warner Bros. slashes 10% of workforce (Bloomberg)
• US retail stocks continue downward spiral (CNNMoney)
• Used games drive GameStop sales (Wall Street Journal)
• Comparing Disney and Universal theme park lineup lengths (The Examiner)
• TakaraTomy’s take on the Game of Life board game reflects current life in the economy? (Neatorama)
• Steve Jobs leaves Apple, but stays on board with Disney (Washington Post/paidContent.org)
• How cell phones will change the ways of listening to music (Wired/Epicenter)
• The troubles of evergreen character comebacks (The Sunday Times)
• Iron Man nominated for its eye candy by the Visual Effects Society (The Hollywood Reporter)
• Circuit City liquidates its US stores (L.A. Times)
• A Scrabble keyboard for the word game fanatics (BoingBoing.net)
• Perhaps you’d like to add a Darth Vader gas mask to your Star Wars collection? (Gizmodo)
• Blast from the past: old-school video game ads (Unreality Magazine)
• Q4 numbers set to reveal the toy industry isn’t as recession-proof as some think (CNNMoney.com)
• Channel to be shoehorned into a wider entity, UK gov’t report leak suggests (Financial Times)
• Kids apparel manufacturers in a panic over lead testing (L.A. Times)
• The voice behind the voice of Lisa Simpson (The Guardian)
• Bloomsbury’s profits in the post-Potter era (The London Telegraph)
• Star Wars, as hilariously told by someone who hasn’t seen it (Wired/GeekDad)
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