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Believe It or Not, Someone's Listening
June 1, 2008
By MICHELLE HIGGINS
FRUSTRATION with the fluctuation in the cost of airline tickets. Disappointment with airline reward programs. Annoyance with airport security searches and long checkpoint lines. Dropped hotel bookings.
These traveler complaints among others dominated the discussion of a focus group last month at the New York office of Travelocity, the online travel agency. Customers were invited to a bright conference room to vent, gripe and complain. As they spoke, Travelocity's chief executive, Michelle Peluso, fastidiously took notes, regardless of whether the problem was the fault of the company or simply a consequence of the chaotic state of air travel today.
When an issue arose that the company, which is based in Southlake, Tex., could have mitigated - like the flight departure alert that came early, leading the designer to believe his flight left without him, or the bank manager who booked a room in the adults-only section of his resort only to end up, as he put it, in "the kindergarten area" - Ms. Peluso deftly defused any possible tension with a quick apology, an acknowledgment of the inconvenience caused ("That shouldn't have happened in the first place") and a promise to do better.
Partly to garner loyalty with their customers, but also to make sure the struggling airlines don't drag them down with their mess, various players have been working on ways to pick up the slack in customer service.
The New York meeting, which brought eight of Travelocity's frequent customers together over wine and cheese, was part of a larger effort by the company to get input from travelers on what the overall industry needs to do to improve the travel experience. Throughout the first week in May, Ms. Peluso and other Travelocity executives also visited call centers to listen in on calls and address customer needs.
A recurring theme: dissatisfaction with air travel. Calls relating to air travel were up 17 percent in the first quarter of this year from the same period last year, while calls about hotels, car rentals or other concerns were flat or down.
In April, when airline bankruptcies and flight groundings for maintenance inspections threw many travelers' plans into chaos, Travelocity contacted more than 30,000 customers to advise them of their options.
The company, which works with an array of travel suppliers, said it hoped its efforts would also motivate its partners to take a hard look at what needs to be done to make traveling better. The call to action, however, is not completely magnanimous.
"When consumers have a bad experience they blame both of us," said Ms. Peluso, even if the problem wasn't Travelocity's doing. It's an issue much of the travel industry is grappling with these days as mounting airline issues ripple through the industry, driving disgruntled travelers to frustration and leaving the rest of the industry to deal with it.
Last month, the Resiliency Edge, a new program of the Human Resiliency Institute at Fordham University, offered a class to help overtaxed airport workers handle stressed-out passengers.
"We're typically the first person and the last person they see at the airport," said Stacie Porosky, the customer service manager for Five Star Parking at Newark Liberty International Airport, who attended the class. "Any frustration they may have had from their travels, whatever has happened with the flight, now they've brought it to the parking lot. We're almost out there like psychologists, trying to deal with people's emotions."
HOTELS also have been doing their part to smooth travel. Affinia Hotels, with properties in New York, Chicago and Washington, recently began maintaining guest profiles so that its hotels can have things like yoga mats, laptop chargers and other items guests may want in their room but don't want to lug on a plane. In response to American Airlines' plans to charge $15 each way for the first checked bag, Loews Hotels is reimbursing guests this summer with bag fee receipts up to $30.
How do the airlines feel about all these efforts to clean up their mess? While expressing appreciation, David Castelveter, a spokesman for the Air Transport Association, a trade group of the major carriers, said his industry can't do more given the high cost of fuel. "There are limits to how much resources we can expense to those sorts of niceties simply because of the cost structure we're facing today," he said.
With the airlines' continued service problems, Travelocity, like other online travel agencies, routinely sends out automated alerts to customers advising them of schedule changes and canceled flights. Three years ago, it guaranteed that if its travelers encountered any problems, it would work with its travel partners to make things right. For example, if your airline cancels your flight, Travelocity will do the legwork to locate a hotel at a reasonable price.
This year, it began "text-mining" all the feedback it receives from customers - whether through blogs, e-mail or call centers - sifting through the information for customer "pain points" in an effort to correct recurring issues and to notify its partners of problems.
And those problems are not just with airlines. After discovering a pattern of dropped reservations at certain hotels, Travelocity hired a company in India to call the hotels ahead of customer stays to make sure they were prepared for the guests. The company says this has reduced the incidence of dropped reservations in two years to less than 1 percent from as high as 20 percent.
Increasingly, said Ms. Peluso, "We are taking accountability for things we otherwise wouldn't take accountability for."
Customers seem to appreciate the effort. Todd Mansfield, an information technology consultant who was part of the New York focus group, wasn't sure what to expect going into it, but came out impressed. "I thought it showed a real commitment to customers," said Mr. Mansfield.
Of the general travel industry issues that were raised in the meeting, like long security lines or rising ticket prices, he said, "I'm not sure Travelocity can change that much in that space, but at least they gave us a shoulder to cry on."
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BANGOR – To celebrate their one year anniversary, the Brahma Grill is getting ready for the 2nd Professional Bull Riders competition by providing unique specials next week.
The competitions start next weekend at the Cross Insurance Center. The owner of the grill is hoping to provide the handlers a place to hangout while they arrive in town a few days before the event. He believes that it fits the overall theme.
“What goes better with this kind of event. It’s steak, bourbon, whiskey,” said Brett Settle, the owner of the grill, “So we definitely want to celebrate it and just ties into what we wanted to do.”
The restaurant is also giving out tickets to the event for one of the nights. Those interested should contact the restaurant.

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Denver is always a trendsetter. And, thanks to Mayor Michael Hancock’s proclamation, Saturday, October 12 is the city’s third Breakfast Burrito Day. (Okay, so he hasn’t made any proclamations this year, but we’re just going with it.) In honor of the popular to-go breakfast, Santiago’s is offering its breakfast burrito for $1.25 for the day. The burrito regularly sells for $2.50, so it’s 50% off.
If you’re wondering, the price is what a breakfast burrito cost, when the much-loved Mexican restaurant first opened back in 1990. There is a limit of five burritos per person, so pick up a few extras for friends, family or co-workers.
Hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
There are 28 locations in Colorado.


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- Big 50
Monday was a big day for Fastenal. Not only did the company report its monthly sales results for October, but it had the honor of ringing the Nasdaq market opening bell.
Grainger held an analyst meeting on November 10th at its Lake Forest, Illinois headquarters, where the company reaffirmed its previously stated full year 2017 outlook, as well as a confident look ahead to 2018.
Industrial vending is a key business area for many distributors today, and it’s become a popular topic among our ID audience.


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Microsoft Flight Simulator SteamVR Support Touches Down Today
It’s a big day for virtual reality (VR) flight sim fans as Asobo Studio rolls out SteamVR support for Microsoft Flight Simulator, massively expanding the range of compatible headsets.
After announcing the Microsoft Flight Simulator roadmap in November which included the VR update for December, in a video featurette last week, the team went into further detail regarding development. Working closely with Alex Kipman and the Microsoft Mixed Reality (MR) team, Asobo Studio was able to integrate OpenXR technology, the standard being employed to make cross-platform development easier.
This ensures that no matter whether you own an Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality headset or Oculus Quest using Oculus Link, you’ll be able to access Microsoft Flight Simulator. Just like the standard version, VR players can select from a wide variety of control options, whether that’s a keyboard and mouse, gamepad, or the full sim HOTAS option. There’s no motion controller option mentioned though.
Interacting with cockpit instruments is via mouse, although Asobo has improved that feature with a 3D mouse cursor. Players can also customise their environment by bringing game panels into their surroundings, such as useful tools like the weather panel.
For those that haven’t bought Microsoft Flight Simulator yet, awaiting the VR update, the title is available in three versions. Each simply adds more content, with the Deluxe version adding 5 more airports and planes, whilst the Premium Deluxe Edition expands that further with an additional 5 planes and airports.
Microsoft Flight Simulator has made headlines thanks to its detailed graphics, ability to fly anywhere in the world, real-time weather and traffic systems to name just a few of its features. For further VR updates, keep reading VRFocus.


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Woman was pestered into paying HK$4.3m to join Hong Kong gym
Consumer Council reveals she was also talked into signing up for 3,381 hours with a personal trainer – which would have taken 19 years to complete
A 36-year-old woman paid HK$4.3 million for a gym chain membership and 3,381 hours of personal training after being constantly pestered by sales staff.
The Consumer Council, which revealed on Wednesday that complaints about health clubs shot up 189 per cent last year, said the amount involved was the highest it had ever recorded in such a case.
Chairman Professor Wong Yuk-shan said the woman agreed to the deal in 2013 and signed 54 contracts after several staff members took turns to work on her using various sales methods, such as the offer of discounts.
But she managed to complete only 500 hours by June 2015 and worked out that if she spent three hours a week at the gym it would take her 19 years to finish the sessions.
The woman then demanded the chain return about HK$3.8 million for the remaining time, Wong said.
According to the council, which declined to name the fitness centre, the woman had been pursuing her case via legal means.
“The problems with consumption with pre-payment cannot be left unsolved,” Wong said. “We encourage the government to pay attention to this issue.”
Council chief executive Gilly Wong Fung-han said the government should study the experiences of overseas countries and introduce a compulsory cooling-off period to allow consumers to rethink and cancel contracts unconditionally for pre-paid services.
About 70 per cent of the 1,667 complaints about fitness centres were related to the closure of California Fitness last year. The company owed 64,000 members and 700 former employees more than HK$100 million.
But the council found that even after excluding the California complaints, the number still increased by 16 per cent from 2015.
The number of complaints against beauty services, another pre-payment area, had dropped 10 per cent to 1,239, but complaints related to medical beauty services went up 70 per cent.
In one case a woman paid over HK$40,000 for laser treatment to remove leg hair but ended up with serious burns that needed medical treatment for six months.
In another case a woman preparing for her wedding paid HK$6,880 for facial filling injections to remove her dark circles, but the material later drifted to her nose.
The overall number of complaints to the council dropped by 8 per cent to 25,098.


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May 9, 2023
Contact: Dane Eifling
Fayetteville ranks 3rd in U.S. for Bicycle Friendly Business awards
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Fayetteville now has 50 businesses that have been labeled a Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) by the League of American Bicyclists – the third most of any city in the country.
This week the League honored 13 more businesses in Fayetteville with BFB awards as part of its spring 2023 list. With only 48 U.S. businesses being added to the list this round, Fayetteville businesses made up 27% of the spring cohort.
The announcement comes after Fayetteville recently was named the first Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community in Arkansas.
“There is always fierce competition among cities to be among the top places with the most BFBs as both a point of pride and to encourage more bicycling tourism,” according to a League news release. “This round, Fayetteville, Arkansas, stood out.”
The BFB awards recognize an organization’s contributions in shifting up and accelerating the movement to build a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone. There are now 1,582 certified BFBs across the country, including everything from government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, bike shops and other employers, all united in a commitment to transform American workplaces to be more welcoming to both customers and employees who bike.
New Fayetteville businesses include the following at the respective levels:
- Silver: Columbus House Brewery, Barn on the Hill;
- Bronze: Staybridge Suites, Subway 11433, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Sleep Inn, Comfort Inn Suites, La Quinta Inn & Suites, Boulders and Brews, Northwest Arkansas Land Trust, Feed and Folly, City Park Fayetteville and Spin.
The League credited the annual Bicycle Friendly Business Bootcamp workshop for Fayetteville’s increase in BFBs. The workshop was co-hosted by the City of Fayetteville (Silver-level BFB), Experience Fayetteville (Bronze-level BFB) and Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce (Silver-level BFB).
Dane Eifling, mobility coordinator for the City of Fayetteville, said, “More people bicycling to work means fewer cars on the roads and a healthier work force to serve our city.”
To see the full list of awarded businesses in Fayetteville, go to: https://bikeleague.org/bfa/award-database.
For more information about the League of American Bicyclists and the BFB awards, visit: https://bikeleague.org/bfa/business/.


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3D printing has just been given a speed boost thanks to a team of MIT researchers who have developed a 3D printer that is ten times faster than consumer models at creating builds.
Such high throughput printing and additive manufacturing processes can lower costs and scale processes in the future.
Developed by a team of engineers at MIT, the desktop-scale extrusion additive manufacturing system provides a much larger build rate than other commercial systems.
The team says that processes which traditionally take around an hour to print can be finished within just minutes using the ‘FastFFF’ system.
FFF stands for fused filament fabrication technology and as the name suggests, the system is a faster version thereof. It is basically the same as FDM which is used across most 3D printers to deposit melted plastic layers – but with some technological twists.
The team found that faster extrusion additive manufacturing can be achieved using a novel high-throughput print head.
The FastFFF system combines a nut-feed extruder, laser-heated polymer liquefier, and parallel gantry to speed up the extrusion forces as well as the filament heating process and gantry motion.
The revised printhead includes a screw mechanism that can feed the filaments at much faster speeds, which results in an overall faster process. In addition, a laser has been fitted closer to this mechanism in order to speed up the melting of the plastics.
Overall, the high-speed solution does offer the possibility of testing new methodologies in additive modeling as well as business models. In addition, the team recognizes that the technology could potentially be adapted to deal with higher temperature thermoplastics and greater extrusion force composite materials. If you want to drill deeper, here’s the link to the research.
John Hart, Associate Professor at MIT, would not be opposed to the technology reaching the market via licensing the technology or starting a distribution opportunity. However, the path the team will take is not yet certain.
FastFFF would certainly be an improvement for companies currently employing desktop 3D printers by offering drastically reduced printing speeds. Indeed, being able to create handheld objects in under 10 minutes would seriously impact prototyping.
As for the cost of the system, things aren’t fully worked out just yet. The prototype cost $15,000 with the laser and servo motors being the costliest. According to the paper, the authors would propose a modification of the system to feature a heated enclosure to become more competitive for commercial use.
License: The text of "New MIT Technology Makes 3D Printers 10 Times Faster" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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Smeg UK was awarded for its newest Regent Street St James’s store window, entered into RIBA’s Regent Street Windows competition 2018. Smeg partnered with award-winning London architects, Coffey, to design an inspiring Linea oven and hob window display, taking a single key component, the humble cast iron pan stand, to create a beautiful repeating pattern to bring the product to life – through light, reflection, layers and transparency.
The Smeg scheme, which was voted for by consumers and singled out by a RIBA panel of heavyweight design experts, was recognised for the ‘Best Collaboration’ award thanks to its architecturally-led window. Judges included representatives from Westminster City Council, Wallpaper Magazine, The Archivist and even RIBA’s past president.
«We’re delighted to be recognised in this way by RIBA in our inaugural year in London – they say from the Italian company – and have hugely enjoyed this collaboration, creating a striking, long lasting display, recognised by the highest level of industry. As a design-led brand, Smeg’s interest in working with and supporting architects, specifiers and developers has been re-affirmed yet again and we look forward to continuing to welcome guests to our flagship on Regent Street St James’s.»


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$ADNT reports 9% Decrease in Revenue, But Improved Adjusted EBITDA Margin in Q1 2023 compared to Q1 2022
The financial report on Adient plc reveals a 9% YoY decrease in revenue in Q1 2023 due to lower sales volumes. However, the company's Adjusted EBITDA margin increased by 110bps to 7.0% and it generated $231mn Adjusted EBITDA. The report also includes non-GAAP measures such as Adjusted EBIT and free cash flow to evaluate the company's business segments. While Adient has shown improvement in some areas, its performance continues to be challenged by lower sales volumes. Investors should remain watchful of its future growth and profitability.


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Suvey finds most companies gives U.S. businesses high marks on service
Cincinnati –Most consumers hold strong positive attitudes on the quality of service they receive from U.S. businesses, according to new research from customer relationship management company Convergys Corporation. Among the top findings of the research: nearly nine out of 10 consumers believe that service improved or stayed the same over the past year, and an impressive seven out of 10 say they were either “extremely” or “very” satisfied with their most recent service experience.
“Efforts by service organizations to deliver an outstanding experience are paying solid dividends in higher customer satisfaction,” said Christine Timmins Barry, senior VP of global operations for Convergys’ customer management business. “Credit for this strong approval rating goes to companies that maintain a commitment to excellent customer service, and to the talented and dedicated people who work on the front lines with customers every day.”
The 2011 Convergys U.S. Customer Scorecard Research shows a correlation between corporate investment in customer service training programs and an employee’s confidence in his or her ability to deliver a superior service experience. Nearly half (49%) of employees surveyed report that training remained at the same level during the year, while another 29% say that training increased, and 11% say that training increased “significantly.”
According to Convergys, training is an important factor in determining an employee’s ability to deliver on service attributes that customers cite as most important, including addressing customer needs on the first contact, being knowledgeable about a company’s products or services, and treating people like a valued customer.
“In our survey, service employees showed a remarkable consistency in singling out and identifying the attributes that customers want most from the service experience,” said Barry. “At the same time, it is notable that nearly two out of five say they need more training in order to provide excellent service. In a market environment where service is now the single most important competitive differentiator, companies should heed this warning sign, and step up to employee demands for more training.”
Sam’s Club offers holiday 15-week membership
Bentonville, Ark. –Sam’s Club will offer a limited 15-week membership for $15.
The seasonal membership is available for purchase during regular club hours for a limited time between Oct. 4 and 10.
Michael Francis leaves Target for J.C. Penney
New York City — Longtime Target Corp. veteran and chief marketing officer Michael R. Francis on Monday resigned from the discounter and was named president of J.C. Penney Co., effective Oct. 4.
In his new position, Francis, 48, will be responsible for all merchandising, marketing, planning and allocation, and product development and sourcing functions. His appointment is seen as the handiwork of Penney’s incoming CEO, Ron Johnson, who is himself a former Target executive. Although Johnson is best known as the head of Apple stores, he previously served 15 years at Target, where he held various positions including VP merchandising.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for me to get back to department store retail,” Francis said in a statement. “I began my career working on the sales floor of the State Street Marshall Field’s in Chicago. It was there where my passion for retail began and my understanding of the power and potential of the department store was formed.”
Francis began his marketing career in 1985 with Marshall Field’s, which in 1990 was acquired by Target. He was promoted to EVP marketing at Target in 2001, and was named CMO in 2008. In January 2011, he was charged with overseeing with Target’s entrance into the Canadian market.


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L’Oreal has begun manufacturing models with 3D-printed skin for testing its cosmetics and beauty products. The 3D models are an ideal way for the company to more accurately test its products because of the ability to observe product interactions on different skin phenotypes.
The French company is currently producing its patented 3D-printed skin called 'Episkin.' Episkin is made from the incubated tissue samples donated by surgery patients, which are then matured in a collagen culture. The epidermis samples are used by L’Oreal to determine the exact way in which its products will interact with human skin.
The revolutionary technology is particularly useful for sunscreen and anti-aging products, as the company can determine exactly how to tweak each serum to better adapt to different skin types. While the technology is still very much in its infancy, L’Oreal is leading the way in experimental forms of 3D printing.
L’Oreal is Now Manufacturing 3D-Printed Skin for Testing Its Cosmetics
Katherine Pendrill — June 2, 2015 — Tech


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Setter Ridge Vineyards will celebrate its 18th anniversary Saturday with wine specials, music and food at its Kutztown, Berks County location.
Eighteen years makes it one of the state’s older wineries, and one that opened its doors during a period of rapid growth in the industry.
It possesses one of the state’s prettier venues, with a large covered patio and an A-frame tasting room that sits atop a hill at 99 Dietrich Valley Road overlooking the Blue Mountains and the farmland that fills in to the horizon.
Owned and operated by the Blair family, they got their first license in 2003 and opened their first tasting room aside their home in Rockland Township a year later. They moved to their present location five years after that. The tasting room sits on the third floor atop a gravity-flow winery.
Patriarch Rich Blair, who makes the wine, said the history there is actually rooted a little deeper, with the first grapes going into the ground in 1998.
It’s a winery that for more than a decade was called Blair Vineyards, then changed its name in 2017 to differentiate itself from similarly named producers as it was looking to establish markets outside Pennsylvania. Here’s a story on why it chose that name.
Setter Ridge also is unfortunately tied to the spotted lanternflies, which have been a growing threat to East Coast vineyards since they were discovered in 2014 not that far from the winery’s previous and current location. They wiped out Setter Ridge’s 9-acre Stonehenge vineyard in 2017, one that the family only began to replant a couple of years ago.
They also have a 23-acre vineyard at the winery’s present location.
Blair said the lanternflies aren’t that much of a problem at the Mertztown vineyard right now, largely because there’s no fruit to feast on there. As for the other vineyard, nothing has changed; they remain an ongoing threat. “Abundant” is the word Blair used.
All told, they now have about 27 acres under vine.
The irony is that when Blair was asked about the major changes in the industry over the past 20 years, the biggest change is the agriculture part of it.
“When we started, you had to have a farm and vineyards,” he said, and “100 percent of your fruit had to be from Pennsylvania.” That was eventually changed to 75 percent.
Today, there are a number of wineries opening without a vineyard, largely bringing their grapes in from the West Coast.
“That’s really changed the dynamics of the business,” he said. “There’s no effort into buying juice from California and making it into wine. The effort is in growing the grapes.
“It’s what we built our business on when we started, and what a lot of these older licensees built their business on. It was part of the process. Grow the fruit and make wine. There was a connection to Pennsylvania.”
Known for its dry wines that include Pinot Noir, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay, Blair said recent plantings in the old vineyard should help give its product line a new look over the next few years.
Beginning this year, he said, they expect to harvest Petit Verdot and Tannat for the first time, and are anticipating doing the same next year for Carmine and Gamay.
“We’re trying to expand our red wine portfolio,” he said. “The white wines are the ones that grow best in Pennsylvania, but people want to drink red. So we’ve got to find the red ones that work.”
Here are the details for the anniversary celebration tomorrow, out of a Thursday email:
Relax to music from the Hannah Violet Trio from 1 to 4 pm. Spuds will be onsite with delicious food until 3:30 pm. Out of respect for our food vendors and Setter Ridge Vineyards, please limit your outside food and absolutely NO outside alcohol is permitted on site.
We’re excited to be celebrating 18 years as a PA Limited Winery! We received our license in 2003 and have been making quality wine from our grapes since then.
Enjoy an 18% discount on all our wines throughout the day. Purchase a half or full case? Enjoy additional discounts on top of the 18% off! PLUS A 3 pack of Gewurztraminer is only $30 including tax AND Enjoy a 3 Pack of Pinot Noir (1 of our 2014 Stonehedge Vineyard, 1 of our 2014 Richard J Vineyard, and 1 of our newly released 2015) for $60 including tax.
We also are having special gifts for new wine club signups.
The first 50 purchases enjoy a celebration cupcake from Warm Sugar Bakery.


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Glencore Plc, a global integrated commodity producer and marketer, was reported to be among the companies considering bidding for Chevron Corp.’s South African assets after a proposed sale to China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (Sinopec) stalled. Chevron’s local partners apparently announced that they will exercise their preemptive right.
Chevron Corp. announced last year that it was selling its 75% stake in its South African unit. Chevron solicited expressions of interest for the stake, a sale that would form part of a three-year asset divestment program for the second-largest integrated energy company headquartered in the United States.
Chevron South Africa operates a 110,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) refinery in Cape Town and a lubricant blending plant in the eastern port city of Durban. Chevron South Africa markets its products through more than 845 Caltex-branded service stations.
In March 2017, Sinopec announced that it has agreed to pay USD900 million for Chevron’s 75% stake. The action by Chevron’s black economic empowerment partners, who own the remaining 25% of the assets, has re-opened the sales process.
Glencore appears to be in an acquiring spree. Yesterday, the company announced its intention to make an offer via a public tender for up to 48.19% of class A common shares of Volcan, which produces some of the highest quality zinc concentrates in Peru. The transaction will provide an increase and extension of Glencore’s zinc production profile and the opportunity for synergies with Glencore’s existing Peruvian zinc operations. The aggregate consideration payable by Glencore pursuant to the terms of the offer will be between USD531 million and USD956 million, depending on the level of acceptances.}


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Here is a peek at some of the latest bridal collections from top designers.
NYS Entity Status
NYS Filing Date
JUNE 12, 2013
NYS DOS ID#
NYS Entity Type
DOMESTIC BUSINESS CORPORATION
2013 - DS BRIDAL INC
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Highlights from the shows, including a celebrity-packed front row at Calvin Klein and a trek to Bedford Hills, N.Y., to see Ralph Lauren’s vintage cars.
- NY AG presses TransUnion, Experian for cybersecurity details
By DAVID KLEPPER, Associated Press - Tuesday Sep 19, 2017
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is pressing TransUnion and Experian to explain what cybersecurity they have in place to protect sensitive consumer information following a recent breach at Equifax that exposed the data of 143 million Americans.In letters to executives at the two credit monitoring companies, the Democratic attorney general asked them to describe their existing security systems as well as what changes they've made since the Equifax cyberattack."The unprecedented data breach experienced by Equifax Inc.
- NY's Hometown Paper Once Again Owned By Chicago Publisher
Tuesday Sep 5, 2017
New York's hometown paper is once again owned by a Chicago-based newspaper holding company, following the 'New York Daily News' sale on Monday to Tronc Inc. In a way, it's like deja vu. Tronc wasformerly Tribune Publishing, the publisher of the 'Chicago Tribune,' which originally created the 'New York Daily News' nearly a century ago.


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BlackBerry has announced that its BlackBerry Messenger apps for Android and iOS have already been downloaded over 10 million times.
BlackBerry re-launched the Android and iOS apps yesterday, after problems with a rogue version of the Android app forced BlackBerry to suspend the rollout for almost a month.
Despite this initial huccup, however, BlackBerry claims that yesterday was one of the best single-day openings for a mobile app ever.
BBM quickly rose through the rankings on the App Store to become the number one free app in more than 75 countries in the first 24 hours, including the US, Canada, the UK, Indonesia and most of the Middle East, according to BlackBerry.
User ratings in both the App Store and Google Play are also overwhelmingly positive, earning BBM 60,000 five-star reviews on Google Play from about 87,000 reviews.
“The mobile messaging market is full of opportunity for BBM,” said Andrew Bocking, Executive Vice President, BBM at BlackBerry. “We intend to be the leading private social network for everyone who needs the immediate communication and collaboration of instant messaging combined with the privacy, control and reliability delivered through BBM.”
Previously exclusive to BlackBerry smartphones, BBM is now available as a free download in Google Play and the App Store. Android smartphones must be running Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean (Android 4.x) and iPhones must be running iOS 6 and iOS 7. Customers can download BBM by visiting www.BBM.com from their smartphone browser.
Android and iPhone users who download the BBM app will be able to carry out both one-on-one and group text chats, and share files such as photos and voice notes instantly. They will also be able to send a message to all of their BBM contacts in one go using the ‘Broadcast Message’ function.


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Partners to build on mutual synergies, push fleets to embrace sustainable, electrification agenda
In the automotive industry’s march towards decarbonization, one key aspect has been that of fleet electrification. Fleets have often been indicted for their high emission levels, underscoring the impact that electrifying fleets will have on environment-friendly transport practices.
Today, fleet electrification is becoming not just a “nice-to-have” but a “must-have” goal. Governments have begun clamping down on vehicular emissions with increasingly stringent emissions targets. Simultaneously, technological advances are on track to neutralize a key challenge of electric vehicles (EVs) being much more expensive than their internal combustion engine (ICE) counterparts. Such trends are serving to highlight the benefits – environmental and economic – of fleet electrification.
According to Frost & Sullivan’s Fleet & Leasing Database, the electrification rate of company cars in the US was at 1.1% as of 2020. This signals a huge potential in the next five years, emphasizing that this is the right time to invest in reinforcements, i.e., charging infrastructure.
The signs are propitious. In a bid to fast-track the transition of company fleets towards EVs, fleet management company LeasePlan USA recently entered into an agreement with EV charging network ChargePoint. What will each of the partners bring to the table and how does this symbiotic partnership envision helping company fleets realize cost-effective, sustainable mobility?
Collaboration to Make Charging More Accessible and Promote Adoption of EV Fleets
From our perspective, this agreement is an obvious and much-needed one, bringing together two leading players in the fields of EV charging and fleet management services. The partners will be pooling their competencies to provide LeasePlan’s customers with software and EV charging hardware. This will be backed by a comprehensive range of services spanning implementation to management. In short, the partnership will provide LeasePlan’s corporate fleet customers access to all the necessary resources, services, and solutions to “enable fully-managed EV charging at home and work.”
There are two aspects to consider here: at-home charging and public charging. In terms of at-home charging, ChargePoint will enable monitoring and managing energy prices and achieve effective energy management via its cloud subscription services.
At-home charging notwithstanding, access to robust public charging infrastructure is critical to allaying concerns over range anxiety and taking eMobility to the next level. With this agreement, LeasePlan’s customers can charge their vehicles at ChargePoint’s extensive network covering over 100,000+ charging stations. Moreover, they can also charge their vehicles at thousands of other EV charging outlets associated with networks with which ChargePoint has roaming agreements.
Economic and Environmental Benefits Beckon
As a signatory to the EV 100 global initiative that seeks to make “electric transport the new normal by 2030,” LeasePlan will look to this partnership to meet its commitment of reducing emissions across its nearly two million strong fleets to net zero over the next decade.
It also reinforces the company’s EV consultancy program that seeks to support companies with strategic and financial advisory aimed at easing their shift from conventional fuel-powered powertrains to their electrified equivalents.
We believe that this synergistic collaboration between LeasePlan and ChargePoint will birth a virtuous cycle. By making EV charging easier and more accessible, it will encourage more fleets to adopt EVs.
In general terms, we expect fleet electrification to trigger new growth and revenue-generating opportunities across the e-Mobility value chain for EV leasing providers, EV manufacturers, energy suppliers, and charging point operators. For corporates, electrifying their vehicle fleets will allow the rationalization of operational costs while moving them closer to achieving their sustainability targets.


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Daily Reaction is a PSLS exclusive feature where Sebastian Moss & Dan Oravasaari discuss today’s most hard-hitting topics every single weekday.
With the news that pretty much all the major US cable companies are gearing up to bring out their own cloud gaming service in 2013 and 2014, Daily Reaction discusses what that means for PlayStation, Gaikai and you.
Seb: So we’ve discussed cloud a lot on DR, and I think that’s a testament to just how much is going on in this sector. Sure, OnLive declared bankruptcy earlier this year, but that was mainly due to the ineptitude of the company’s management – renting far too many servers on fixed contracts, refusing to sell despite needing more capital. Meanwhile, Sony have gotten into the game in a big way by buying Gaikai for $380 million, Microsoft is openly hiring OnLive staff and Gamestop is rolling out their own cloud gaming service. Along with these cable companies, I’m sure we’ll see even more announcements from Samsung, Amazon, Google or even Apple. Gaming is currently a $24 billion market in the US alone, and could be set to grow exponentially in value as internet speeds increase – and they are going to increase.
That leaves the big question as to whether Sony is going to be able to remain competitive in such a crowded market. They have one big advantage on their side – they can hit first, and hit hardest. They own Gaikai, with all its experience, they own SCE, with all its developer relations and they own a money-making games business, they own a huge mindset and fanbase among gamers, they own a huge online gaming ecosystem. That means they can move into the cloud quickly, with experience on their side, and confidence that they’ll have a subscription base. Cable companies, on the other hand, will be entering a new market, with zero experience. They’ll start slowly, and expand. They won’t go big for quite a while, and it’s during that time that Sony needs to push their cloud proposition.
Cloud gaming is a very, very expensive and risky business move for a company – essentially, they have to buy enough gaming PCs to allow people to be able to access it at any time, just as if they owned it. If they buy too many, they’ll lose a ton of money, and if they buy too few, they’ll lose subscribers. Not only that, but because you remove the initial hardware fee that happens when someone buys a $300 console, the margins are squeezed. The cable companies will be cautious, slow and careful, something that’ll cost them a lot of market share… if Sony is there to take it.
Dan: Agreed, as gaming is about as big as it has ever been with over 211.5 million gamers in the US alone, it’s a wonder why some of the biggest companies in other media outlets haven’t entered the market. Well, the main reason is exactly as you said, the risk and cost to buy into the gaming sphere at it’s peak is extremely high, especially if we don’t see a growth in the population as a whole. This would be similar to playing the stock market, you don’t want to buy into something at it’s peak as you won’t see a significant return or gain. So as the industry starts to shift away from home consoles to stream based media, we are entering the cusp of a new generation – and it could be one of the biggest turning points for the industry as a whole.
If companies like AT&T, Verizon, or TWC enter the gaming sphere, we could see a mass exodus from the current standard if they play their cards right – as they already have an established subscriber base. The primary issue for either Sony or anyone else, is simply the difficulty in controlling a market where you can’t lock your user in. If Sony can get Gaikai up and running into a program early enough, they could take the mind share of the market and solidify itself ahead of the competition. Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, and TWC while all big companies are going to have to start from the ground up, creating a feasible program in a timely manner or lose the war from the gate. This timing pressure will most likely cause a number of partnerships from either Sony or Microsoft, namely due to fear and to subsidize the cost of the service. We have seen Sony work with AT&T for the Vita on it’s 3G program, and if AT&T enters, we will see Comcast follow suit in no time – probably with Microsoft. As things are still very much in the rumormill, it’s exciting and worrisome to think about what will happen in the future.
Seb: It’ll definitely be a tough battle, and as more enter the battle, it’s only natural that Sony’s position will be weakened. The big issue here is that these are not small companies, this isn’t a lame fancy like Ouya. If the next time someone signs up for their cable, or renews a contract, there’s a little box that says [Tick here for Gaming Services – Only $10/month], that’s already a huge number of people that could either move from consoles to cable cloud or even, if they are younger, start off knowing nothing else. Add that to the fact that most of these companies have cloud TV services with a lot of subscribers, and some have their fingers in the phone market, and that all adds up to a hell of a lot of formidable enemies.
Consoles will still be king for at least most of the next gen, during that time Sony needs to ensure that every single PS4 owner with good internet in the US goes to their cloud and no one elses. That is crucial.
Interestingly, Sony has been long rumored to be working on their own internet-based cable TV like service, something that could help chip away at the cable owner’s stranglehold on the market.
It’s going to be a long, tough road, and I do wonder if Sony will ever be able to become the leader of the games industry again, but if they do manage to leverage all their considerable assets, there might just be a chance that they can continue as a major player in the business.
Dan: Cable networks will never view Sony as a threat in its current form, the biggest threat they have to deal with is Google, and their YouTube site, or programs like Netflix. The internet is going to eat cable television alive, and that is going to only feed into the need for those companies venture to new mediums – that is to say Google or Netflix don’t become apart of someone else’s exclusive package.
Sony really will only have a few years at best to decide their fate of it’s stance in the gaming sphere, as technology changes, and new gamers enter the market. As we saw with the Wii, we are going to eventually move out of gaming as we know it, consoles will be around for a generation or two, but it’s the person who controls the tech controls the future. That means patents, and we have seen Sony start making moves to patent new forms of interaction, sensors, and cameras. This could slow others and give control of the market to Sony, depending on how the next few years go – and luckily Sony is already a major contender who can mold the next few years, if they plan accordingly. With VR only a few generations away, cloud gaming around the corner, and some of the richest companies in the world putting their eyes on the industry, we are really in for one of the craziest times in gaming history.
Do you think cable companies entering the cloud gaming market could put PlayStation and Gaikai at risk? Could you see yourself signing up for Verizon Gaming? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and let your mind drift off to the clouds by listening to the soothing sounds of Seb and Dan’s ramblings.


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Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader will make its debut in the bookseller’s brick-and-mortar stores in Dec. 7, later than anticipated, and in limited quantities. However, Barnes & Noble is promising that all stores will have demonstration units, as the company seeks to wrest market share away from Amazon.com and other e-reader manufacturers during the holiday season.
On its Nook FAQ page, Barnes & Noble announced that “starting on December 7th, you can visit your local Barnes & Noble store and experience Nook. All stores will have a demonstration unit for customers to try.”
In addition, a Barnes & Noble spokesperson told Reuters that only a very limited number of Nooks will be sold at “high-volume” stores starting on Dec. 7. This follows the bookseller’s Nov. 20 announcement that people ordering the Nook after that date would have to wait until the first week of January 2010 for their e-reader to ship.
Barnes & Noble insists that high demand is the cause behind the delays.
“I called a few stores in the SF Bay area who all pointed me to the San Jose store,” one commenter posted on a Barnes & Noble forum devoted to e-books. “So I called and they said they would have demo units, but no units for sale in store as all the stock was allocated to pre-orders.”
Other commenters on the forum reported similar experiences. “Just got off the phone with our local store,” wrote another, “who confirmed the demo units are slated to arrive on Dec 7th but they won’t be selling the products physically in any stores-only online.”
Yet another posting, supposedly by a Barnes & Noble employee, stated that “our demo has been pushed by until week of 12-7 as of this time. It has appeared [in] the near (large) stores, and we have been told that it will continue the process next week. However, due to the demand they have pushed the offering of additional product in stores back, so as to fulfill pre orders.”
Barnes & Noble is not alone in its delay issues. Sony has also announced that delivery dates for its Reader Daily Edition, which includes a 7-inch touchscreen display, “cannot be guaranteed,” although devices are expected to ship between Dec. 18 and Jan. 8.
The Nook, whose dual-screen format allows text to be read on an e-ink display while navigation and book-downloading is conducted via a separate iPhone-like touchscreen, is competing against Amazon.com’s Kindle line of e-readers.
On Nov. 30, Amazon.com suggested that the Kindle had posted its best-ever sales for November. However, the e-bookseller continued its tradition of not breaking out any sales numbers. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos has previously indicated that Kindle sales account for roughly a third of the company’s book-related revenue.
Although e-readers have long been considered something of a niche industry, with Forrester Research predicting sales of around 3 million units in 2009, their manufacturers’ claims of increased demand suggest that the market may be expanding. Helping that growth, of course, is the rapidly falling prices for many e-readers. Amazon.com has repeatedly lowered its e-reader prices in the face of competition from Barnes & Noble, with the original Kindle and the Nook now both selling for $259.


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Paris sees dramatic drop in flight bookings for Christmas
The popularity of Paris as a holiday destination has taken a hit after the terror attacks. Bookings for Christmas flights to the French capital have been badly affected, according to travel industry data firm ForwardKeys.
Passenger bookings to Paris for the winter holidays are down 13 percent compared with the same period last year. Visitors coming from the US, Spain, Japan and Germany were affected most.
After #ParisAttacks French capitals turned into ‘ghost town’ https://t.co/uYJlq4kyuapic.twitter.com/eVTho1VrT2— RT (@RT_com) November 15, 2015
The ForwardKeys study was based on figures from 200,000 travel agencies.
Early reaction to the attacks led to lots of cancellations, primarily from business and event travelers for immediate departures, according to the data.
“While a 25 percent jump in cancellations the week after the tragedy has now eased, new bookings remain dramatically below last year’s level,” a travel data specialist from ForwardKeys told Bloomberg, citing reservation numbers through November 20.
UPDATE: #Brussels schools & subway to reopen on Wednesday, govt announces https://t.co/tzQuMdI1jy#BrusselsLockdownpic.twitter.com/7dxySN16fK— RT (@RT_com) November 23, 2015
ForwardKeys CEO Olivier Jaeger said the booking situation for arrivals during the Christmas holidays has become worrisome. He was citing figures for arrivals in the December 25-31 period. “Paris will rebound. The question is when will that start?” added Jaeger.
The terror attacks in Paris on November 13 left 130 people dead and over 350 injured. ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attacks.


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Bento food tourism lures visitors to Japan
TOKYO — Bento, a Japanese compact meal packed in a box, is gaining global popularity. Bento-making classes are attracting tourists visiting Japan from abroad, who are even attending them as the main purpose of their visit. They are attracted by bento’s rich and appealing ingredients which are not readily accessible in their home countries.
In January, Max, a 19-year-old Dutch student studying in Japan, participated in a class to make “character bento” or “charaben,” a type of elaborately arranged bento which features food decorated to look like people, characters from popular media, animals and plants. Using rice dyed yellow with a colorant made from gardenia seeds, he carefully made a bento featuring the jolly face of Pikachu, a yellow, mouse-like cartoon creature from the Pokemon media franchise.


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September 1, 2006
CAW proposes new labour agreement with Ford
Toronto, Ontario – The Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW) is proposing a new labour agreement with Ford, in the hope of keeping the company’s St. Thomas, Ontario assembly plant open.
“As a union, we have to be much more aggressive now than we have been in the past,” says CAW president Buzz Hargrove. “We want to make sure companies know that Canada is a favourable climate and we want government strongly on side.”
At the beginning of the year, Ford announced it was slashing jobs at St. Thomas part of a larger cost-cutting plan; the company also said it was looking for a low-cost site in North America for a new assembly plant.
“We absolutely should make a bid for St. Thomas as the site for that new assembly plant,” Hargrove says. “We can offer a great package that is more innovative and high performance than others. St. Thomas needs support, and we need to do what we can to provide that support.”
The CAW proposal keeps the St. Thomas facility open, with some other contract vehicle producer, possibly Magna, building a plant nearby to produce cars for Ford. Hargrove says he wants to meet with Ford as soon as possible to present the proposal.


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The Game Awards (TGA), the largest of the major game awards ceremony, will cover the best game in 2022 on December 8th.
TGA announced on the 22nd that TGA 2022 will be held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 8th. Like the previous year’s event, TGA 2022 will be broadcast live on more than 40 video platforms around the world, including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook. As based on the local perspective, it is expected to be able to participate online in Korea on the 9th in Korea.
Meanwhile, this year, as the number of works based on the game increases, the awards category, including theaters, streaming shows, podcasts, novels and comic books, based on video game IP, is the best adaptation. (Best Adaptation) will be added.
In fact, Jeff Kayley, the host of the show, has been acquainted with not only the game but also a movie-related person, and has made the first release of various films and TV series at TGA. Even if it is limited to the game category, the first trailer of Super Sonic 2 and Paramount’s TV Series Halo, which had been a big success as a game film, was first unveiled in TGA.
Jeff Kayley, who is also the general producer of the event, raised the value as a creative way of finding and adding to the world of our favorite game franchise and the truth. In addition, there are many projects inspired by the game throughout the entertainment, mentioning the excellence of the game world.
The event will be performed by the Top Gun: Maverick, Mission Impossible Fallout, and 6 Underground movie music, as well as games such as Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty. In addition, trailers and performances in various sectors, including games, movies, TV series, and music, will be performed with game awards.
Meanwhile, IMAX will cooperate with TGA and will hold special community events in major countries around the world.
TGA, a famous journalist, Jeff Keylie, has been renewed since 2014 since the Spike Video Game Awards. In particular, it was inspired by the Academy Awards, attracting fans’ attention with the production and composition that seemed to be watching a large game show beyond the awards.
On the other hand, ‘Elden Ring’ is the strongest game candidate of the year, and ‘God of War: Ragnarok’, which is expected to be a strong game competition of the year before its launch, has been released in November. If you select a preliminary candidate for game media that can play the game in advance, ‘God of War: Ragnarok’ will also be able to name the TGA Awards.


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(Reuters) -McDonald’s Corp, the world’s largest burger chain, said on Friday a data breach in South Korea and Taiwan has exposed some customer, employee information.
The company has hired external consultants to investigate unauthorized activity on an internal security system, with the investigators discovering the data breach in certain markets.
A small number of files were accessed, some of which contained personal data, McDonald’s said, adding that only Korea and Taiwan had customer personal data accessed and they will be taking steps to notify regulators and customers.
The breach is the latest in a series of attacks by cybercriminals on global companies, including meat processor JBS and Colonial Pipeline oil.
(Reporting by Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)


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The Digital Fotogroup, an innovative photo studio specialising in premium advertorial photography, accepted a challenge: photographer Michael Koch wanted to realise a rig shooting of a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing (“Flügeltürer”) built in 1956. The car is one of just 49 SL 300 racing cars with an aluminium car body. To capture the elegance and fascination of such a car, Michael Koch has chosen the Leica S2. “The camera proved to be a perfect choice, especially for the driving shots,” said Michael. “The sensor resolution and lens quality of the S2 are simply outstanding.” His colleague, Ulla Hebgen, a passionate Leica photographer, captured the scenery during the shooting with her M9. And so the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL and the Leica S2 shared the spotlight. See for yourself!
-Leica Internet Team


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“You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty”. Exodus 28:2
Glory and beauty are without a doubt two words with a great force. Glory causes respect and with it, you become highly regarded, and beauty, causes harmony and so it is a key factor for something to become worshiped. Moreover, beauty, it would seem, has never been despised, not even by the creator of the universe himself. So with that idea put on the table, writing about fashion and the Catholic Church has been something that has been in the back of my mind for some weeks now. The idea actually sounded even more appealing the day I found out that the theme for the 2018 Met Gala will be exactly this: “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”.
Now first of all, and as a Catholic myself, I would like to say that the idea of taking inspiration from Catholicism for fashion sounds brilliant to me. Although I believe that there are certain lines that certainly are not allowed to be crossed in order to respect a religion, the idea of making garments that were inspired by Catholic symbolism is appealing. But here’s one essential thing, and it’s something that has been talked about nonstop in regard to the Met Gala exhibition that is coming up on May 10th: “there will be provocation and controversy”. While the current Head Curator of the Met, Andrew Bolton when asked about the controversy of the exhibition said that “there will always be viewers who’ll try to reduce it to a political polemic”, there is actually a lot more to talk about.
We are living under circumstances where there’s currently a battle between those who consider themselves liberalists and those who consider themselves conservatives, in every sense of scenario you could think of. Especially now when the difference between Pope Francis we have now and the last one (Pope Benedict XVI) is crystal clear. Talking in a language redirected more into fashion, Pope Benedict XVI was sensed as a liturgical dresser, fancy and in essence looked upon as someone who was making the church go backward, whereas Pope Francis now is making the Catholic Church move forward with the unique modesty that characterizes him. Actually, to begin his service, he started off by rejecting the fetishization of clothing within the church, promoting a simpler and humbler way of clothing that was translated into a lifestyle proposal. Although Pope Francis is clearly making a great job at stopping the monarchic mien that the Catholic Church has always had in society, it’s inevitable that there will always be an association between the word lavish and Catholic imagery, and that has been the root of inspiration for most design houses.
Now it’s fair to say that things have been changing a little bit, our society is more drawn to simplicity than ever before, that simplicity is modest and humble, humble is nice. But when it comes to the exhibition that is going to be presented, I don’t think the idea is to propose an extravagant comeback, neither a showoff of how “rich” the Catholic Church has been over the years. On the contrary, I think that the main objective or idea of the exhibition is just to put on evidence how Catholicism has influenced the most successful and recognized designers in the world, and to me, it also has to do with dropping a hint that faith has a lot to do with the whole picture. The reality is, that most of the designers that are getting their work displayed were raised as Catholics, and that has a lot to do with how the inspiration came from in the first place. The truth is, whether you consider yourself religious or not, religion has an attracting effect on the human mind, so it makes sense that Catholicism found a way to engage designers into finding their approach in their creativity mindsets.
To set that thought, let’s go over some examples of Catholic imagery inspiration, that I’m convinced that will be displayed in the exhibition. The first ones would, of course, have to be Italian designers such as Versace or Dolce & Gabbana, who have been influenced by Catholicism since their childhoods. Dolce, as he lived a Sicilian life, got inspired by the mosaics of Sicily’s Cathedral of Monreale, and Versace got inspired by papal robes and decided to implement the color purple more into his collections. Moreover, a couturier such as Jean-Paul Gaultier publicly said that his collection on 2007 was a hundred percent inspired by the Catholic Church, and more specifically, the Virgin Mary. And to add a little more into the idea, even Alexander McQueen took a more dramatic turn into one of his collections in 1998 with cardinal-style jackets and going as far as presenting a model in a ring of fire.
So let’s go back to glory and beauty, one more time. The theme of Catholicism will always have people talking and expressing opinions of all kinds, but you can’t deny that the garments that will be displayed, along with accessories on loan from the Vatican will certainly give a feeling of nostalgia among the people who get the idea of faith, and especially for the ones that truly appreciate what’s behind all that symbolism. On the other hand, fashion wouldn’t be fashion without some controversy, it’s all a matter of respecting the ideas and traditions of others plus always seeing the world with an open mind. At least that’s how I know successful people in fashion got inspired.


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TIA Offers Free Membership to Toy Design Students at FIT and OTIS
July 30, 2013 | In support of the next generation of toy professionals, the Toy Industry Association (TIA) has announced that it will provide students enrolled in the toy design programs at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City and the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles with complimentary TIA Student Memberships beginning with the Fall 2013 semester.
Student members of TIA may take advantage of industry networking and other professional development opportunities, including:
- Invitations to attend TIA’s annual American International Toy Fair and certain other member events;
- A subscription to Toy News Tuesday, TIA’s weekly industry e-newsletter;
- Access to exclusive online information resources such as toy trends, legislative, regulatory and technical/safety updates, and other education and training resources; and
- Access to the TIA Member Directory and the TIA Job Bank, where student members can post a resume and portfolio free of charge.
Additionally, TIA staff has offered to deliver in-school presentations on safety, trends and other topics to the students at FIT and Otis.
“Joining TIA’s more than 600 member companies is a great way for young toy designers to network and stay up-to-date on the latest trends and industry news,” said Ken Ebeling, TIA’s vice president of membership. “We’re proud to count these students among our members and help them jumpstart their careers in the toy industry.”
The complimentary memberships supplement TIA’s longstanding annual financial support of both schools, which offer the only two Toy Design degree programs in the nation.
“I am honored that the TIA has chosen to provide our students with this extraordinary gift,” said Judy Ellis, chairperson and founder of the Toy Design Department at FIT. “Membership is a wonderful way for them to become a part of the toy community they are so passionate about. …. I want to thank the TIA for their continued support to the growth and development of the industry’s future designers."
Otis President Samuel Hoi added, “We are committed to providing an education to talented young designers that prepares them to be competitive in this age of ideas and innovation. The Toy Industry Association clearly understands this. Their generous support will ensure that we meet our goals.”


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Samsung's founding family will donate tens of thousands of rare artworks, including Picasso and Dali pieces, to help them pay a massive inheritance tax bill following last year's death of company chairman Lee Kun-Hee.
They will also give hundreds of millions of dollars to medical projects and research in an apparent attempt to improve their public image as they proceed with a multi-year plan to inherit both the wealth and corporate power of South Korea's richest-ever businessman.
The Lee family, including his widow and three children, expects to pay more than 12 trillion won ($A13.8 billion) in inheritance taxes, which is more than half the wealth Lee held in stocks and real estate, Samsung said Wednesday.
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This would be the largest amount in South Korea and more than three times the country's total estate tax revenue for last year.
Giving away the late chairman's vast collection of art masterpieces would reduce the taxable portions of his estate.
The family plans to divide the payment in six instalments over five years, while making the first payment this month.
"It is our civic duty and responsibility to pay all taxes," the Lee family said in a statement. They had until Friday to report the extent of the inheritance and payment plans to tax authorities.
Raising cash for the tax payment is crucial for the Lee family to extend its control over Samsung's business empire, which extends from semiconductors, smartphones and TVs to construction, shipbuilding and insurance. Some analysts say the process could result in a shake-up across the group.
The late Lee owned 4.18 per cent of Samsung Electronics, which is one of the world's biggest makers of computer memory chips and smartphones, but also held stakes in Samsung affiliates that collectively owned a larger share than his in the crown jewel electronics company.
The complex shareholding structure has allowed Lee and his family to exert broad control over the group.
In Wednesday's statement, Samsung did not mention how Lee's widow and children would split his assets, and there's speculation they haven't reached a final agreement.
Most market analysts believe Lee's shares will be distributed in a way that would strengthen the leadership of his only son and corporate heir, Lee Jae-yong, the de facto chief of Samsung Electronics who is currently imprisoned for bribery and other crimes.
Lee's other children are Lee Boo-jin, CEO of Samsung's Shilla luxury hotel chain, and Lee Seo-hyun, who heads the Samsung Welfare Foundation.
The family plans to donate 23,000 art pieces from Lee's personal collection to two state-run museums.
They include old Korean paintings, books and other cultural assets designated as national treasures, and modern Korean painters such as Park Soo-keun and Lee Jung-seop.
There are also the works of Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Joan Miro and Salvador Dali, Samsung said.
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art said the 1488 pieces it received from the Lee family was its biggest private donation.
The works included Lee Jung-seop's Bull, Dali's Family of Marsupial Centaurs, Monet's Water Lily Pond (Le Bassin Aux Nympheas), and Chagall's Red Bouquet With Lovers (Les Amoureux Aux Bouquets Rouges).
The National Museum of Korea will receive around 21,000 pieces from Lee's collection of Korean traditional art, including paintings, ceramics and sculptures.
Hwang Hee, South Korea's culture minister, said some of the art donated by Lee will be displayed for the public starting in June.
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The manufacturer has developed emergency relief food with Korean rice as the main ingredient for three years (2020-2022) to contribute to a sustainable community. BSR KOREA, one of the host institutions, said that the project will help manufacturers to meet the needs of United Nations agencies such as the World Food Program (WFP) by supporting strict quality control, due diligence, bidding strategies and invitations to international organizations. to help them enter the public procurement market. , and global marketing strategy, and product development.
Soul Nature Food, one of the ISO 14001 and 9001 certified manufacturers, specializes in both general food and health functional food. Recently, we have developed cereal foods called super powders and super cereals as relief food that can be nutritious simply by cooking in remote areas where conditions are limited.
J Food Service is famous as a food premix manufacturer and has obtained HACCP, HALAL, and FSSC22000. They have developed an energy bar as a relief food containing an 8-grain powder mix containing non-glutinous rice, wheat, brown rice and barley.
KEIL Corporation is developing hydrolyzed protein production technology derived from edible insects, aiming to be the leader in the alternative food industry in Korea. They are one of South Korea’s leading green biomaterials providers and the strongest player in the edible mealworm business. Mealworms are considered the best alternative food for reducing carbon emissions. KEIL values its products to combat food crises in vulnerable communities such as African countries.
upon June 22ndBSR KOREA invited officials from international organizations and government agencies Kenya When Uganda (Minister of Health, Deputy Minister of Health and Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce) and provided an opportunity to introduce our products and technology to beneficiary manufacturers. Local government officials, procurement prime his vendors, and manufacturers had productive discussions by sharing strategic plans for entering the procurement market.
Foreign officials and major vendors acknowledged the competitiveness of South Korea’s nutritional food products and emphasized that this meaningful discussion called for will lead to food resilience and a sustainable food chain. It is expected that Korean companies will recognize the possibility of entering the UN procurement market in the near future.
Source BSR Korea
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Cisco Systems Inc. has announced software for its switches designed to turn off Internet Protocol phones and wireless access points after normal working hours. Dubbed EnergyWise, the software will eventually be used in building control systems to a...
Networking, Wireless & VoIP - News
Cisco this week unveiled products specifically for small companies as part of its recently announced US$100 million commitment to that business market.
Cisco Systems is looking to reduce the energy consumption of network attached devices such as IP phones, laptops and access points using a new architecture called EnergyWise, the company announced at its user conference in Barcelona on Tuesday.
Cisco this week announced that it has purchased privately held Richards-Zeta Building Intelligence, a provider of middleware that enables businesses to integrate building infrastructure and IT applications over an IP network.
Cisco Tuesday unveiled vital extensions to its data center arsenal with additions to the Nexus switching line and enhancements to its Catalyst products, including software designed to let the switches control the energy consumption of attached device...
Cisco System launched a major green initiative this week that includes free software to help customers use their networks to automatically turn off computers and network gear at night and whenever they aren't being used.
Just a few months ago, Dave Stevens began his second stint as CTO of Brocade. But this time, the company has much bigger aspirations. With the acquisition of Foundry having closed Dec. 19, Brocade is aiming to become Cisco's chief competitor for cust...
Hewlett-Packard's ProCurve networking division Monday announced an ambitious alliance with enterprise application vendors to optimize their software as it runs over ProCurve switches and other networking gear.
Enterprise IT shops might soon get another option for virtualizing their entire datacenter.
The Russian security company that caused a stir some months by talking up its cracking tool for recovering Wi-Fi encryption keys, has started selling its software to all-comers in a specially packaged product.
The Mumbai, India, police have launched their previously announced plan to secure Wi-Fi networks. A team of police is using a battery of devices to systematically identify and eliminate unsecured Wi-Fi networks in the wake of last year's attacks, whe...
TransferJet wireless capability is getting closer to reality. The technology, which is being developed by major camera makers Sony, Olympus, Canon, Kodak, Nikon, is intended to make it easier for to transfer your images between devices wirelessly.
The growth of 802.11n wireless LAN access points has been somewhat limited by a well-known problem with insufficient power to APs when using Power-over-Ethernet connections.
Networking company D-Link Systems is already seeing consumers and businesses switching to 802.11n, even though the wireless LAN technology isn't a ratified standard.
Being out of the office without a PC will no longer be an excuse for missing meetings on Cisco Systems' WebEx Meeting Center and Unified MeetingPlace conferencing systems.
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The case against fashion duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana - who have been found guilty of tax evasion - dates back to an investigation that began in 2008.
A judge ruled that the pair sold their brand to Luxembourg-based holding company Gado in 2004 to avoid declaring taxes on royalties of about 1 billion euros.
The designers are one of the few high-profile cases to have come to trial so far since Italian authorities launched a tax avoidance crackdown.
More top news
Tony Kim, who taught accounting at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, was detained as he tried to leave the country.
Southern England will start dry and bright, and sunnier, colder weather will arrive in the north later in the day.
Drivers caught speeding excessively can now expect fines starting from 150% of their weekly income.


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Niemann Foods’ County Market has seen a fourfold jump in the redemption rate for its Penny Pincher coupons since making the paper-to-digital transition with the help of technology partner Birdzi.
The digital Penny Pinchers format leverages Birdzi’s artificial intelligence-based customer engagement solutions to highlight relevant offers for each shopper in the County Market app, Iselin, N.J.-based Birdzi said. When clipped, the coupons are automatically added to each shopper’s profile and activated at checkout. Birdzi dashboards also monitor the success of Penny Pinchers coupons in real time, enabling County Market to adjust campaigns as needed.
Overall, County Market operates 42 grocery stores in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri. The grocer’s parent company, Quincy, Ill.-based Niemann Foods Inc., runs a network of more than 100 grocery, pet food, hardware and drug stores and gas stations under multiple banners in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Missouri.
“We were impressed by our shoppers’ willingness to switch to digital Penny Pinchers,” Avry Brown, consumer engagement manager for Niemann Foods, said in a statement. “With Birdzi, we witnessed an over 400% increase in digital coupon redemption rates compared to previous digital coupon trials in just the first month.”
According to Birdzi, County Market aimed to shift the popular Penny Pincher paper coupons to a digital format to cut printing costs, boost shopper engagement through more personalization and, in turn, increase profit. To that end, the grocer tapped customer engagement specialist Birdzi to enable virtual ad circulars. The tech firm already hosted County Market’s mobile app and previously worked with the retailer to implement a web app, personalized email marketing, and customer segmentation and analytics capabilities.
In December, County Market began the transition to digital by offering two to five digital coupons via its app for two months. The grocer used signage, flyers and bag stuffers to educate and encourage customers to download the app. QR codes were placed next to selected items and, when scanned, the codes launched the app and took customers to the related coupon. All in-store associates also were trained to use the platform so they could assist customers. By March, County Market had rolled out the digital Penny Pincher campaign to all of its stores.
“Birdzi has been an essential partner for us as we enhance the customer journey for both our in-store and online customers,” Brown added.
At a fraction of the cost of paper circulars, County Market’s digital Penny Pinchers coupons in their first month drove a more than 300% increase in the number of digitally engaged customers, while monthly app downloads and web registrations surged 500%, Birdzi reported. Also, 80% of shoppers who clipped and activated an offer redeemed it with a purchase, and the overall redemption rate for the digital coupons came in at 45%, representing a 400% gain from previous redemption rates.
“County Market did an exceptional job encouraging customers to try the digital Penny Pincher,” accoding to Shekar Raman, co-founder and CEO of Birdzi. “As a result, County Market immediately earned lifts in loyalty and engagement. Over time, they will gain invaluable data and customer intelligence that can be used to better cater to the needs of their shoppers and improve profitability.”


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France has introduced a law banning plastic packaging for over thirty varieties of fruits and vegetables.
by Aude Lognard
The French government estimates that this could reduce the number of single-use plastic on over one billion items.
The law is part of a broader plastic reduction strategy launched by Macron's government, the "Anti-waste law for a circular economy", which aimed to eliminate single-use plastic by 2040. Other laws, such as the ban on teabags containing plastic and plastic toys in children's menus, also came into force on the first of January.
Ireland is currently debating our Circular Economy Bill to provide a national policy framework. It is an opportunity for us to create an ambitious bill that will ensure a truly circular economy in Ireland. Can we take a leaf from the French circular economy bill?
Are we being ambitious enough?
Since the 2019 European Single-Use Plastic (SUP) directive, which aims to prevent the impact of certain plastic products on the environment. European countries have had to commit to reducing the use of plastics at a national level.
Ireland, along with France, is one of the European countries that have established an ambitious circular economy plan. However, when we look at the profusion of plastic still present in our supermarket, isn't it time to accelerate the change and follow in the footsteps of France?
NGOs, such as VOICE, have an important place at the negotiating table. We made our recommendations, now it's time for them to be supported by our ministers.
By supporting us you can help to make Ireland's circular economy more ambitious.
You can also take action by asking your local TD to support the revised Circular Economy Bill - HERE


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2015 Technology Fast 50
The Deloitte Technology Fast 50 in Central Europe is a programme that recognizes and profiles fast growing technology companies in the region. The programme, which is now in its 16th year, ranks the 50 fastest growing public or private technology companies.
The pace of change among Central Europe’s fastest-growing technology companies is rapid and relentless. Three out of the top five places in the 2015 Deloitte CE Technology Fast 50 report, which ranks the companies showing the strongest revenue growth rate between 2011 and 2014, are new entries to the listing, including those in the first two places. However, the average growth rate of all companies in the Fast 50 has fallen from 698% to 560% over the last year, continuing the slide since the peak reached in 2012 of 1,026%.
Top place in this year’s ranking goes to Czech software company Simplity, with its four-year revenue growth rate of 1971%. Interestingly, Simplity was sixth in last year’s Rising Star category, when it was still too young to feature in the Fast 50 ranking itself. Next is secure mobile payments company Skycash Poland with 1,665%, while third place goes to last year’s overall leader, Hungarian online real estate business Szallas.hu.
The Rising Stars awards go to those companies that are too young to feature in the main Fast 50 report, but have recorded such spectacular growth rates over the last three years that they are almost certain to be included soon. The overall winner this year is Polish software company Codewise, whose astonishing 4,555% growth rate over the last three years is not far off double the 2,506% recorded by fellow Polish software business CodiLime. Third place goes to Croatian software agency Axilis (464%).
The Big Five category rewards those companies that, although fast-growing in their own right, are too large to compete directly on revenue growth terms with smaller businesses in the Fast 50. It is headed this year by Romanian software company Insoft Development & Consulting (577%), which is also 15th in the main ranking. Lithuanian e-commerce business UAB “Pigu” (235%) comes second, and Slovakian software company ESET (223%) is third.


text: If you’re interested in Russia in any capacity – not just online video – you should definitely download a copy of the new ‘Online Video in Russia’ report. Produced by East-West Digital News, comScore, Ernst & Young, Moscow’s Higher School of Economics and TheNextWeb, it’s a good overview of internet trends in general in Russia, as well as a deeper dive into what’s happening with video specifically. “Virtually no online video existed before the end of 2006, whereas the first US services, such as YouTube, had already been thriving for years at that time,” explains the report. “With nearly 60 million monthly viewers in 2013, the Russian online video market is now emerging as one of the most important markets for electronic video content on the globe.” That includes being the biggest in Europe for unique video viewers, and second biggest for monthly views. Elsewhere in the report there’s this startling stat: Games account for 97% of Russia’s estimated $1.4bn content market, with video accounting for 2% and music and books combined just 1%.


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In the recent gaming news of the remastered version of Marvel’s Spider-Man, game studio Insomniac Games recently revealed a new detail that shocked many fans: Peter Parker’s face has been recast.
To respond to that, Creative Director Bryan Intihar and Peter’s voice actor Yuri Lowenthal shared their opinions on the topic.
According to Intihar, the news definitely has shocked a lot of fans out there and even him. It took him a while to get used to Peter’s new look, he said. The PlayStation Blog post did say that they needed to do the recasting because the team wanted to do a better match with the facial performance provided by Lowenthal.
The decision was made due to the PlayStation 5 hardware performance. It was made clear that delivering even more believable looking characters would be possible now. So to make it almost as similar to Lowenthal’s face, they had to do that recasting that would best match his face.
Lowenthal made his own statement in regards to the change. He said that it was due to the bone structure of his face. “The stupid stupid bones in my face,” he said. “Blame my bones.”
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered will be available on PlayStation 5 on the day of the next-gen’s launching, Nov. 12.


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NEW YORK --
Jamaica's new government, headed by Prime Minister Bruce Golding,
"will foster tourism investment opportunities aggressively and at
unprecedented levels," according to Edmund Bartlett, the country's
minister of tourism.
the Jamaican-American Chamber of Commerce here earlier this
product development and investment, which Bartlett described as
"the three pillars of Jamaica's tourism policy," will ensure that
Jamaica has "the best product out there, coupled with a variety of
experiences for our visitors."
In 2006, Jamaica
set a record, topping 3 million stayover and cruise visitors (more
than 2 million were from the U.S.). Visitors generated $2 billion
worth of business. But Jamaica has not fared as well this
"We couldn't hold
on to those gains this year," Bartlett said. "The first seven
months saw a 10% to 12% decline in stayover business due to Mexico
coming back fully on stream following the 2005 hurricanes. That,
coupled with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative requiring
passports for air travelers re-entering the U.S., has set us
picture did brighten in September with a 4.8% increase in visitors
year over year.
minister envisions 5 million visitors per year by 2010: 3 million
air arrivals and 2 million cruise passengers.
"Five million is
the critical mass needed to drive up the level of investment that
will bring heads to beds and open up new attractions," he
providers want a destination that draws at least 3 million stopover
visitors a year before investing in a site, Bartlett
He's hopeful, too,
that the per capita earnings from cruise passengers, now calculated
at $83 per day, and stayover visitors, now at $100 a day, can top
$150 a day in both markets by the end of 2010.
plans call for the redevelopment and redesign of six key resort
areas on the island that "will complement and fit into the total
picture of Jamaica," Bartlett said.
plans to establish a School of Hospitality in Montego Bay to train
local youth in the tourism business, expand the airports and ports
and have a hotel inventory of 75,000 rooms by 2015, with 35% of
those rooms in the high-end, luxury category.
With that room
inventory in place, gross earnings from tourism could reach $7
billion a year, he said.
acknowledged, however, that the destination's reputation for crime
has negatively affected the perception of Jamaica as a vacation
"Crime pervades our
market, and we know that you in the U.S. know this," Bartlett said.
"These perceptions will disappear once we acknowledge the problems
and deal with them."
surveillance program that includes a mobile police station, more
training for the police and cameras mounted in selected areas of
Montego Bay "will send the message to drug dealers that we are
watching, we will find them and we will prosecute them," he
To contact reporter Gay Nagle Myers, send
e-mail to [email protected]