Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh's deeply sad plan to transform Downtown Las Vegas—the bleakest part of a bleak town—into a startup enclave is dying, Las Vegas Weekly reports. Huge layoffs just arrived, and one of the $350 million project's leaders is already publicly blasting Hsieh.

Nucleic rapper Kanye West, embodiment of the New Uncanny, appears to have found himself in the same position as many an entrepreneur before him: long on ideas and short on financing. And what better place to look for funds right now than the frothing coffers of Silicon Valley?

After inviting so many of them to his modest marriage proposal, Kanye West might be rethinking his nerd-chic allegiance to tech: in a recent sit-down with Bret Easton Ellis, West, strangely, slams internet shoe warehouse Zappos and its Vegas-dwelling chief Tony Hsieh.

There's not much to say about Tech Cocktail, and the firm says that little bit itself: it's "a media company and events organization for startups, entrepreneurs, and technology enthusiasts." Networking stuff. Simple stuff—and something apparently worth a giant investment from the head of Zappos.