extra texture :: marketing news + trends

Military funds development of brainwave binoculars. (more)

Disney’s new dream home is packed with “innoventions.” (more)

Philippe Starck: French designer to front BBC2 reality series. (more)

Revolutionary skyscraper will offer rooms with a variable view. (more)

People are increasingly turning to an iconic childhood getaway — the treehouse — for a new kind of grown-up escapism. (more)

Steve Ballmer has been CEO at Microsoft Corp for eight years, but he will finally get to move into the corner office vacated by Bill Gates, the college friend who brought him to the company nearly three decades ago. (more)

Eye movements could replace tactile electronics controls. (more)

A team of players dressed like Rambo have won the Swamp Soccer World Championship in Scotland. (more)

Domestic sugar producers are reeling from the news that the largest sugar cane grower, U.S. Sugar, is closing. (more)

Fewer than one in 10 Illinois residents feels strongly that college is worth the cost. (more)

Are the products we buy becoming part of our identity? (more)

Social network site Facebook will press members to declare whether they are male or female, seeking to end the grammatical device that leads the site to refer to individual users as “they” or “themself.” (more)

Shoppers in New York City might be excused for mistaking Barack Obama for a cult hero in the league of Bob Marley or Che Guevara because like those youth icons, he is being marketed as a fashion item. (more)

The familiar logo of the world’s largest retailer is getting a makeover. (more)

Anheuser-Busch taking caffeine out of drinks. (more)

Giant Food managed to hang on to its position as the Baltimore area’s largest grocery chain. (more)

Ralphs supermarket chain lowers prices, clips coupon savings. (more)

Blue State Digital helped create the Web machine that brought in the bucks and built the buzz for Obama. Now it’s looking to sign up more corporate clients. (more)

Could America’s fastest train whisk us away from $4-a-gallon gas guzzlers? (more)

Gentlemen, got your “guyliner”? Cosmetic companies have a skin product or two just for you. (more)

China’s Shaolin Temple, the birthplace of kung fu and the star of many martial arts films, has set up an online store to flog its wares. (more)

The Pearl River Piano Company says it’s now the world’s largest piano maker. (more)

Washington Mutual Inc., burned by subprime mortgage losses, has been issuing credit cards to borrowers with blemished credit records as it tries to rebound. (more)

Rhapsody will now sell songs online through partners including Yahoo! and Verizon Wireless. The songs will be in MP3 format so they can be played on Apple iPods. (more)

Surprise! Music sales on the upswing. (more)

An art student has set a world record by creating a toaster that pops toast 8ft 6ins high into the air. (more)

Schlitz brings ’60s formula back home. (more)