GOOD DAY FOR: A space race, after California’s XCOR Aerospace Inc. entered the commercial space travel business, announcing plans to undercut Virgin Galactic by offering passage to suborbital space at half the price. Tickets for XCOR’s two-seat Lynx spaceship will sell for $95,000, with the first flight scheduled for 2011. (Reuters)
BAD DAY FOR: Amazon, as libraries are picking up the slack from declining book, CD, and DVD sales. As consumers tighten their belts, libraries are seeing double-digit increases in traffic. “October was probably one of the toughest, slowest retail months that many of our members have had since their stores were in business,” said Oren Teicher of the American Booksellers Association. (Los Angeles Times)
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