If you aren't addicted to it, then your kids or friends probably are. Minecraft, the Lego-like video game, is rapidly gaining fans of all ages.

The story behind the game might be even more compelling than defending your Minecraft home from creepers or zombie villagers. 

In Minecraft, players use building blocks -- made of stone, wood and other materials -- to construct landscapes and buildings. Players also have to find food and fight off monsters, including exploding baddies known as creepers. 

 

Would elevator music with a different name be any less annoying? The parent company of Muzak is about to find out.

According to the New York Times. Muzak's owner Mood Media is planning to retire the much-mocked brand this week. The company acquired Muzak, which started in 1934, for $345 million two years ago. 

Muzak has long tried to convince the public that it was more than just "elevator music." The company brags on its website that it has used "original artist material" from stars such as Michael Jackson since 1984.

The Muzak brand doesn't adequately describe the company's offering since music isn't the only way it gets consumers in the mood to shop. Mood Media also offers what it calls "commercial scent solutions" to entice consumers through the sense of smell. 

Canada is phasing out the penny, with the the Royal Canadian Mint on Monday halting distribution of pennies to banks and other financial institutions. 

That means that the supply of Canadian pennies will gradually decline and eventually go the way of the dodo. But why is our northern neighbor taking the step, and should the U.S. follow in its footsteps?

Canada's reasoning is partly financially driven: Each penny costs the country 1.6 pennies to make. But Shelly Glover, Parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance, noted another couple of reasons in bidding farewell to the penny.

"They demand too much time, for too little return, of our small business owners," she said in a statement.

 

Yum Brands (YUM) didn't stumble in the fourth quarter. It fell off a cliff.

Shares of the owner of Pizza Hut, KFC and Taco Bell fell nearly 4% Tuesday following Monday's disappointing earnings report. For a closer look at the earnings, click here. My colleague Jim Jubak opined on the earnings here.

Wall Street is especially worried about Yum's businesses in China, where the company owns 5,000 restaurants in 800 cities, most of them KFCs. The company's reputation for quality food at a low price has taken a hit in the world's most populous country amid media reports that its poultry suppliers did business with farmers who feed their flocks excessive levels of antibiotics. Yum gets more than half of its sales and operating profit from China. 

Just how important is it for a major U.S. city to have a state-of-the-art sports stadium?

It's a question many municipalities across the country are facing as they come under pressure from sports leagues and team owners looking for help in footing the bill for renovated or new facilities.

A case in point: The owner of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, billionaire and Home Depot (HD) co-founder Arthur Blank, has been dropping hints that the team might move to Los Angeles. And those rumors have been sparking pandemonium in the local media and among city and state officials.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal says it's “incumbent on us” to keep the Falcons in Atlanta.

 

It may be hard to believe, especially if your commute involves a daily trial-by-traffic jam, but there indications that many Americans are driving less.

Business Insider recently looked at some very informative graphs on this topic. One from the Department of Transportation shows the number of U.S. vehicle miles driven, which had been rising steadily since the 1970s, declined at the start of the recession in 2008 and has remained flat ever since. Another graph, from the traffic information service Inrix, notes average commute times during peak hours have also been dropping steadily as gas prices rise.

Some of these trends in our driving habits may reflect a changing economy. The recession certainly prompted many cash-strapped drivers to economize and cut back on unnecessary trips. 

Remember the fiscal cliff and all those changes to the tax code? If you think they're driving the average taxpayer nuts, just look what they're doing to H&R Block (HRB) and Intuit's (INTU) TurboTax.

TurboTax fired the first shot earlier this tax season by suggesting that not only were tax preparers at H&R Block and other shops part-timers who aren't dedicated to their customers, but moonlighting plumbers with no background in financial planning whatsoever.

H&R Block turned around and sued Intuit, alleging the ads infringed its trademarks and falsely asserted that its tax preparers aren't real experts. Its motion to withdraw the commercials was denied, so now the battle's gone online.

 

Washington's renewed focus on gun control is starting to turn into real proposals.

Two Republican and two Democratic lawmakers are planning to unveil a bill Tuesday to make gun trafficking a federal crime, The Washington Post reports. The bill is coming out of the House of Representatives, and is similar to one in the Senate.

The bill would punish people who knowingly buy guns for convicted felons and others who aren't allowed to buy weapons on their own. Right now, gun sellers get "little more than a legal slap on the wrist" for buying and reselling guns to this group, writes the Post's Greg Sargent.

The proposals in the House and Senate seek to close this loophole for "straw purchasers." But will they get enough Republican support to pass?