We hope you have returned from your 3-day weekend a little more clear and focused. Here’s what you might have missed last week: Pope Benedict XVI stepped down. Local barista lost his job over his blog, Bitter Barista. Twitter and Amex teamed up and the result is you can now pay with a hashtag. E-commerce…

I’m talking to you, Marcom managers: your webinar strategies from 2007 don’t work anymore. Have you been staying up late writing the perfect abstract, reformatting the registration page, tweaking the PowerPoint designs, sifting through thousands of CRM contacts, and purchasing 3rd party email lists before blasting the same HTML design you’ve been using for years?…

Last week in the news: Local hip hop artist, Macklemore and producer Ryan Lewis, finally reach number 1 on the Billboard charts with their hit single “Thrift Shop.” FYI, the last time a Seattle hip-hop artist topped the charts was in 1993 with the release of “Baby-Got-Back” by Sir-Mix-A-Lot. Yep. Pentagon lifts ban on women…

In the news last week: Final match-up between presidential candidates. Doesn’t that seem like a lifetime ago? Microsoft Surface became available in stores. Seattle’s Space Needle will have Evergreens painted on the top — which will be there for the next 50 years. Apple unveils iPad Mini and iPad 4 only 6 months after the…

Here are some note worthy news that happened last week: The second Presidential Debate happened and yes, included yet another rapidly-replicating meme for the night. Microsoft released its TV ad campaign for the Surface, started pre-orders, and is currently sold out. (Ours arrives Friday!) Newsweek ended its print subscription. And here’s what we talked about…