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Granted, there is a huge gap between 10 and 100 but honestly, do we need even half as many H&M stores in any country? It’s a big world out there with tons of places to shop, pick up new designers and well, spread the wealth. Sheesh.
Read more of Meere Bhatia’s report at Bloomberg.com
H&M Chief Plans to Open 10 to 100 Asian Stores Over Three Years
By Meera Bhatia Bloomberg.com
April 4 (Bloomberg) — Hennes & Mauritz AB, Europe’s second- largest clothing retailer, plans to open between 10 and 100 stores in Asia over three years.
“It’s important that we’re knocking on the door of the Far East,” Chief Executive Officer Rolf Eriksen said in a March 29 interview at H&M’s Stockholm headquarters. “It could be 100 stores in the next three years in the region, it could be 25 or 10.”
H&M, which said last week that first-quarter profit rose 28 percent, is attracting shoppers with a line of clothes designed by Madonna. The company will add three stores in Hong Kong this year after opening its first Asian outlet there last month. Its Shanghai shop opens April 12.
Asia “is interested in western fashion, so the potential is significant if you get it right,” said Robert Clark, a senior partner at Retail Knowledge Bank in London.
The Madonna collection drew hundreds of customers to the Hong Kong store on March 10, a 3,500 square-meter (37,674 square feet) outlet in the city’s prime central district. Asia was previously a source of supply, rather than demand. H&M buys more than 60 percent of its clothes in the region and sells them at about double the price it pays.
Inditex SA has 67 stores in Asia, mostly Zara outlets. The Arteixo, Spain-based company, which overtook its Swedish rival as Europe’s largest clothing retailer in 2005, last week said it’s counting on China and Japan in the next five years to expand in the region at twice its overall rate of growth.
H&M stock added 2.5 kronor, or 0.6 percent, to a record 413 kronor yesterday in Stockholm. Shares of Inditex have gained 45 percent in the past year, while H&M stock has risen 43 percent. The company’s shares have outperformed H&M’s for the past two years.
Eriksen, a two-decade company veteran and CEO for seven years, said he’ll consider more stores in the Shanghai area and cities such as Guangzhou, north of Hong Kong. The company will compete with Hong Kong-based Esprit Holdings Ltd., which plans 400 stores over the next three years.
“H&M and Inditex should concentrate on the big cities in Asia and forget the rest,” said Pablo Garcia, head of equities at Oddo Sociedad de Valores in Madrid. “The big distances you’d have to cover to expand everywhere would weigh on margins.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Meera Bhatia in Oslo at email@example.com
–Joanne Molina for Second City Style


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In response to a recent online petition, Microsoft's Xbox One chief product officer Marc Whitten said that the company could bring back some of its previously announced digital game sharing features.
A week of Windows updates, TV twists and Chromebook's business flop
Ulefone Be Touch: Video unboxing and first impressions
LG G4 Review - the phone that tries to offer everything
Our review of the Microsoft Designer Bluetooth Desktop
Galactic Civilizations III now available on Steam
galactic civilizations 3
Tronsmart's USB Smart Charger; an ideal solution for the household?
All the latest news for Windows 10 Mobile and Desktop previews

domain: news


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There have been a few headline-grabbing Big Food purchases of Good Food companies that have involved huge amounts of money. There are stalwart Good Food advocates who cringe at this development. Those who support or are at least sanguine about the new reality say, however, that the Good Food ecosystem benefits from Big Food’s acknowledgement and intersection with Good Food. We share insights on this important topic from FamilyFarmed’s Financing & Innovation Conference, held June 19 in Chicago.
John Foraker shared his experiences as former CEO of Annie’s Homegrown and current CEO of the Once Upon A Farm organic fresh baby food company (co-founded by actress Jennifer Garner) at FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Financing & Innovation Conference in Chicago on June 19. The entrepreneurs in attendance gained plenty of tips on scaling up a startup business, developing new products, taking risks and learning from what did not succeed. They also came away with one guiding principle from one of the pioneers in organic consumer packaged goods.
During his more than a decade and a half leading Annie’s Inc., John Foraker played a pioneering role in creating the market sector for organic versions of popular consumer packaged goods (CPGs) such as macaroni-and-cheese mix, crackers and breakfast cereals. Foraker was so successful building the Annie’s Homegrown product line that General Mills bought the company in 2014 for $820 million. So what is Foraker doing for an encore? He, with other innovators who include actress Jennifer Garner, has co-founded Once Upon A Farm, which is spearheading an effort to create a new retail category for fresh, organic, refrigerated baby food.
FamilyFarmed, a leading nonprofit advocate for a better food system, is happy to introduce you to the program for its 8th annual Good Food Financing & Innovation Conference. The Midwest’s premier business gathering focused on locally and sustainably produced food will be held Tuesday, June 19 at the Morgan Manufacturing event space in Chicago’s West Loop — and it has its strongest-ever lineup of industry experts discussing cutting-edge issues.


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AUGUST 15, 2002
New chief designer for Jaguar Racing
The initial layout of the car has been done by former chief designer John Russell but Taylor may decide to make alterations when he starts work at Jaguar on Monday. The aerodynamic team under Ben Agathangelou, which numbers 50, includes Mark Handford and Darren Davies and the windtunnel in Bicester is working flat out on the design of the new car.
It is anticipated that there will soon be announcement about who will be driving for the team next year with all the indications being that Mark Webber will be drafted in to replace Eddie Irvine, while Pedro de la Rosa will stay with the team to provide stability.


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Mumbai: It was six months ago when Mumbai-based Niyati Shah was watering her plants and she noticed that the plastic pots were invariably damaging her plants. Because of the plastic, air and water weren’t reaching to bottom most layer of the plant. However, it wasn’t the first time she had identified the problem. But it certainly was the first time she decided to come up with a sustainable solution. Thus, began her journey of reducing carbon footprints and preventing plastic bottles from going to the landfill.
In order to devote herself completely to her newly found organisation ‘Grow Bags’, Niyati quit her marketing after a two year stint in the beginning of this year.
I love gardening. I have several plants outside my house. The way plastic pots are designed, it makes it difficult for the air and water to reach the bottom. After conducting research, I found that virgin plastic (newly manufactured plastic nodules) is used to make the pots. That is when I decided to not only make a product which will provide sufficient air and water to plants but also one in which recycled plastic is used, says 25-year-old Niyati.
The first thing Niyati did was to collaborate with different stakeholders, like plastic crushing units and raddiwalas to procure bottles. She co-ordinates with the them and the plastic bottles are put into crushers. After forming plastic film sheets from crushed pieces of plastic, she passes the sheets to another pot maker who mixes fibre with the plastic sheets. The final product is a cloth-like material.
Niyati’s solution is better than the plastic pots as the new product is not just made from plastic. As grow bags have materials other than plastic, it absorbs air, water and sunlight in an efficient manner.
For each pot or as Niyati fondly calls it ‘grow bag’, three to five PET bottles are reused. And as the size gets bigger, the number of PET bottles recycled and reused also increases.
The best part about these plants bags is that it prevents water wastage, “In regular plastic pots, there are holes underneath that lets the water pass quickly. This sometimes leads to the person using more water than required thus damaging the plants. In grow bags, there are no holes, water passes down naturally just like it does when poured on a cloth. Once the bag is filled, one can stop the watering,” she says.
The unique material also allows aeration from all sides giving roots the same amount of sunlight and air. The process of air pruning is also facilitated by the grow bags.
Air pruning is when a root stops growing and helps new roots to grow. A branched root structure covers more space and takes up more water and nutrient, which in turn leads to a healthier plant and better yields. But it all depends on the container choice, she explains.
She further adds, “Plastic pots have poor water drainage which can lead to ‘wet feet’ or plants whose roots are waterlogged. They drown when enough oxygen is not given due to water clogging.”
Grow bags are available in different shapes and sizes and Niyati has accommodated the concept of vertical gardening by designing vertical grow bags. It can be used to cultivate fruits, flowers and vegetables and users can also try their hand at organic farming with the help of grow bags.
As for the cost, these are priced at the same rate as the regular plastic pots, “Anyone can afford the grow bags as they not price sensitive,” she says.
From corporates, NGOs to residential houses, she has so far supplied more than 100 grow bags, thus recycling thousands of plastic bottles.
Impressed by her idea and technology, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation invited her to put up a stall at the three-day plastic alternatives exhibition in Mumbai held recently in preparation of the plastic ban to educate people about viable alternatives to plastic.
My aim at the exhibition was not to sell the grow bags but instead educate them about harmful effects of using plastics and also get a feedback from them that would help me improvise my product, says Niyati.
To her surprise, many people appreciated her product and even gave advance orders for the same, “I have received 10,000 orders for grow bags,” she exclaims.
When asked what is the biggest challenge she has faced, and Niyati is quick to point out, the rigid attitude of people while trying something new, “It is very difficult for people to understand the importance of ‘grow bags’ as they have been using plastic pots for decades. However, with the plastic ban in place people are now ready to consider it.”
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BMW New Concept Changes Colour Right in Front of Your Eyes with E-Ink
Change the colour of your bimmer with a simple touch of a button in the future.
The future of car technology is here, and it’s something we have only imagined. BMW has unveiled a unique concept that dazzled us all. The company has shared a colour-changing concept that will allow you to change a car’s colour with a simple touch of a button.
BMW first teased the technology last month, and people were sceptical about it. Now, the company has elaborated that the battery-powered SUV, the iX Flow, will have a unique feature. It will change its body colour with the simple touch of a button. Still don’t believe it? Watch the video posted by the Twitter account of Out of Spec Studio and see for yourself.
It’s a 12-second clip where you see the SUV changing colour from black to white. It demonstrates the E-Ink technology. Then, another button is pressed, and you will see the colour shift happen in slow motion, and a small black section can be seen travelling across the body of the vehicle from front to back, and the white colour is left behind after it passes. It clearly means that E ink can display multiple colours at once.
The innovative technology teased by BMW is not paint. Instead, it’s a specially designed body wrap. When an electrical charge is applied to it, electrophoretic microcapsules embedded within the wrap will bring different pigments to the surface and let a vehicle take on that colour. It might remind you of how an e-reader like Amazon Kindle works.
Right now, the only colours available are black and white. But we expect BMW to display more colours if they can manage it.
BMW E-Ink colour changing concept
— Out of Spec Studios (@Out_of_Spec) January 4, 2022
Though it’s clear that BMW’s colour changing technology works, you cannot expect it to be available soon. Some things still need to be ironed out, and the technology will be launched only after a few years. This technology is also temperature sensitive, and it will also impact a buyer’s decision. There is no word on how much this technology would cost, but it is a fair guess that it will considerably change a car’s price. After all, cutting-edge technologies are never cheap.
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SUNNYVALE, Calif. and PORTLAND, Ore. -- West Side Electric Company, Inc., a full-service electrical contractor, has improved its customer service, streamlined internal communications and enhanced its billing system through the use of TeleNav Track, a cell phone-based GPS navigation and tracking service.
"TeleNav Track has exceeded our expectations. With TeleNav Track, we can monitor the whole fleet at one time from any computer," said Glenn Grossman, service manager of West Side Electric. "As a result, our dispatcher has been able to reclaim approximately five hours a week that was previously being spent on routing our technicians. In addition, now that we know the exact location of our technicians, we are able to get them the parts they need more efficiently. We estimate that these two benefits alone add up to a cost savings of more than $13,000 a year."
Family-owned and operated since 1961, West Side Electric provides residential, commercial and industrial electrical contracting services to Clackamas, Clark, Multnomah and Washington counties. For nearly half a century, West Side Electric has completed an average of 6,500 jobs annually and is committed to providing its customers with reliable service.
Over the past few years, West Side Electric has seen a steady increase in competitors entering the electrical contracting business. With this competition came an increase in customer demands, leading the company to seek out a solution that would give them a competitive customer service advantage.
By deploying TeleNav Track on Sprint cell phones on all of its 33 fleet vehicles, West Side Electric has improved its dispatching and billing capabilities. With TeleNav Track, the company can direct field workers to job sites and to the nearest necessary part -- whether at the warehouse or a nearby company vehicle, as well as locate mobile assets if they go missing. Additionally, the company is able to view the location of the whole fleet at once so they can dispatch the closest employee in case of an emergency -- offering the most reliable response times to its customers.
"For companies that rely on a dispatching center to direct field employees, it is critical to have an effective system in place," said Sal Dhanani, co-founder and senior director of marketing for TeleNav. "With TeleNav Track, businesses can monitor their entire fleet at once to ensure maximum efficiency. This added visibility protects companies against lost revenue and can bolster immediate ROI, as seen with West Side Electric."
Currently, more than 9,000 organizations rely on TeleNav Track to help manage their mobile resources. In addition, industry analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan, recently recognized TeleNav Track with its 2008 North American Mobility Award for Best MRM Solution on a Handheld Device.
About TeleNav, Inc.
TeleNav, Inc., a privately-held company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, was the first to launch a cell phone GPS system in the United States. Deployed by 14 carriers in 21 countries, TeleNav is a global leader in wireless location-based services (LBS). Currently, the company's solutions are available in four continents, including North and South America, Asia and Europe.
TeleNav's solutions include GPS navigation, Mobile Resource Management (MRM), social networking and local search. The company's flagship service, TeleNav GPS Navigator, offers functionalities comparable to in-car systems and standalone navigation devices, such as automatically-updated maps and business locations, full-color 3D moving maps, traffic alerts with one-click rerouting, location-sharing, business reviews, speech recognition, Wi-Fi hotspot finder, gas price finder and more. TeleNav also delivers its award-winning navigation service on the TeleNav Shotgun, a standalone GPS personal navigation device (PND) tailored specifically for business travelers. TeleNav's enterprise application, TeleNav Track, incorporates GPS-enabled tracking, time sheets, wireless forms and navigation. TeleNav Track is a widely adopted service with over 9,000 customer organizations using it today.
TeleNav services are available on more than 450 wireless devices and run on most major mobile platforms currently available. TeleNav's partners include Sprint Nextel, AT&T, T-Mobile USA, Alltel, Boost Mobile, SouthernLINC Wireless, Rogers, Bell Mobility, T-Mobile UK, T-Mobile Austria, China Mobile, Vivo Brazil, Telcel, NII Holdings, Research In Motion (RIM), Motorola, Samsung, Sanyo, LG, Palm, HTC, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, NAVTEQ, Tele Atlas, deCarta, INRIX and Qualcomm.


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Open PPE Project Launches Fundraising Efforts
for N95-Equivalent Mask Production
New Non-Profit Entity Seeks Funding to Produce N95-equivalent Masks,
Calls on Grassroots and Corporate Supporters, Local Manufacturers to Join the Cause
Grand Rapids, MI — Today, the Open Personal Protection Equipment Project (Open PPE Project) announced it is now accepting donations in its efforts to begin and scale production of reusable N95-equivalent masks:
"Creating N95-equivalent masks right here in the U.S. — and giving existing businesses the resources to make them, in turn — is a total game-changer, without sacrificing mask quality"
The Open PPE Project’s mission is to prototype, manufacture and scale production of reusable N95-equivalent face masks. The project plans to scale production by releasing design specifications and its open source manufacturing procedures to empower manufacturers across the country to help mitigate the current supply shortage starting in their own communities.
“Our near-term our goal is — with the help of manufacturers across the country — to meet the current demand for N95-equivalent masks for medical professionals,” explained Open PPE Project Executive Director and Founder Matt Parlmer.
“Not only is it imperative we meet the current mask demand, which will be elevated for the next 18-24 months, but also that we decentralize N95 mask production to prevent future shortages based on supply chain bottlenecks such as export restrictions,” Parlmer continued.
The Open PPE Project — a team of over 20 engineers and problem solvers — has worked with Helpful Engineers to design a reusable N95 mask.
The Open PPE RIGID Respirator’s replaceable filter medium — comprised of N95 meltblown — allows for a fraction of raw material usage when compared to traditional N95 respirators on the marketplace.
The group seeks to raise $750,000 to fund its initial purchase of machines, tooling, raw materials, staffing, legal and regulatory costs — essential for its first production run and to cover priority fixed costs to help operations scale.
"There is a lot of misinformation out there about personal protective equipment: from available supply to cleaning and alternatives. Creating N95-equivalent masks right here in the U.S. — and giving existing businesses the resources to make them, in turn — is a total game-changer, without sacrificing mask quality," said Open PPE Project Chief of Staff Matthew Chisholm. "This is a movement that taps into the heartfelt response of communities at the local level, allowing businesses to contribute how they know best to meet the urgent need for protection against this virus."
The Open Personal Protective Equipment Project is a nonprofit organization (501c3 status pending). The group is partnering with a local medical device manufacturer in West Michigan for its first production run, but intends to scale its efforts across the US and globally.
OPEN PPE PROJECT IN THE NEWS


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Amid the epidemic levels of youth use of e-cigarettes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, released a policy on January 2, 2020, requiring enforcement against certain unauthorized flavored e-cigarette products that appeal to kids. According to the policy, the FDA intends to prioritize enforcement against fruit and mint flavored, cartridge-based electronic nicotine delivery system (“ENDS”). The FDA looks to regulate all ENDS products that manufactures have failed to make safe for use, as well as any ENDS product marketed for use by minors. The 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey (“NYTS”), a survey conducted annually by the FDA in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows approximately 1.6 million youths were using ENDS products frequently, with nearly one million using e-cigarettes daily. The FDA’s enforcement policy is not a “ban” on flavored cartridges. If a company can demonstrate to the FDA that a specific product meets the applicable standard set forth by Congress, including considerations on how the marketing of the product may affect youth initiation and use, then the FDA could authorize that product for sale.
In September 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) announced a new policy that provides for the release of a list of retailers that have received a food subject to recall. In the past, the FDA did not release such information because the agency deemed it confidential commercial information. The lack of information on the part of the FDA has been a huge detriment to the public. Prior to the new guidance, the public would only find out information about the particular food that was being recalled, not where this recalled food was available for purchase. The public was told just to stop purchasing that recalled food, whether it be romaine lettuce or beef, even if there were retailers who were selling non-contaminated products. This procedure not only hurts the public but also has a huge financial effect on those retailers who are not selling contaminated or recalled products. The FDA has effectuated a new guidance because they have found that such information is necessary to enforce a recall and to ensure public safety.
Despite the United States having one of the safest food supplies in the world, more than 48 million Americans get sick from foodborne illnesses and diseases each year, and more than 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from similar issues that are largely preventable. On January 04, 2011 President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (“FSMA”) into law. This enactment was called the “most sweeping reform” of U.S. Food Safety laws in more than seventy years. But seven years later, the act is still only partially enforced as the FDA has faced resistance from the government as well as a lack of funding. The FMSA was and is intended to enable the FDA to protect the health of the public by strengthening the food system in the United States. While change and reform in the industry are necessary, what good are new reforms if they will not be enforced for years to come?


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Revolut has launched its new ‘Shops’ service in Ireland; a consumer loyalty scheme that will reward the app’s two million Irish customers with three per cent cashback on purchases.
The ‘Shops’ service allows the app’s users to search and browse products from brands including Amazon, Nike and JD Sports; among others.
Following purchases made from these brands, the service then rewards users with three per cent cashback at the checkout, so long as the entire transaction is facilitated through the Revolut app.
The automatic application of rewards at the checkout is reportedly much faster than other similar schemes, and will no doubt come to the advantage of shoppers on the eve of the Christmas shopping period.
The service works in conjunction with other discounts and savings, giving the app’s customers a double advantage on discounted purchases.
Speaking on the launch of the service in Ireland, Revolut’s general manager of lifestyle products, Christopher Guttridge comments: “As the cost of living rises, we are delivering ongoing product innovations aimed at meeting our customers’ everyday financial needs and aspirations, whilst giving them more financial control.”
“Shops helps our customers get the most out of every penny with cashback rewards, or helps them spread the cost of purchases for more expensive periods of the year, such as the Christmas holidays,” he continued.
Users also have an option to split their payment using the app’s ‘pay later’ service, being the first pay later product in Ireland that uses an approved credit limit with a specific focus on affordability.
Eligible customers can use the pay later service to fund purchases up to a maximum of €499.


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A false advertising class-action lawsuit was filed against Mack’s Prairie Wings and Yeti Coolers in April 2015 (and amended in June 2016). The complaint alleges that the actual volume of…
March 2020: This case was transferred from a court in New York to a court in Texas. (Case No. 20-cv-326, W.D. Tex.)
November 2018: A class-action lawsuit was filed against Yeti Coolers for allegedly falsely advertising that the “Load-and-Lock Gasket” technology used in Yeti Rambler Colster coolers holds drinks securely and that cans and bottles fit in the coolers “like a glove” when, according to the plaintiffs, the coolers do not hold drinks securely and they slip out of the coolers when consumers try to drink from them. (Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint in April 2019.) (Peroutka et al v. Yeti Coolers, LLC, Case No. 18-cv-6827, E. D. NY.)
MADISON, CONN. December 1, 2022 – Acting on a complaint filed by ad watchdog, truthinadvertising.org (TINA.org), California regulators have reached a settlement with lingerie company Savage X Fenty, originally a joint venture between…
This annual heartstring-tugging tradition skates into another year.
Complaints allege violations of state securities laws.
Lingerie company agrees to pay $1.2 million to settle lawsuit
Unearthing the fees that Fisher charges but doesn’t disclose in some of its TV ads.


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GEORGE TOWN: Semiconductor manufacturer GlobalFoundries (GF) has officially opened its new hub facility in Penang that will be utilised to oversee the company’s global operations.
Chief manufacturing officer Ang Kay Chai said the new Penang operation would ensure that all GF’s global manufacturing sites in Singapore, the United States and Europe have fundamental round-the-clock support, enabling the company to maintain supply chain resiliency and sustainability for global operations.
"We want to use global resources here and in Bangalore to do this (remotely run factory operations) and support our factories all over the world 24/7,” he told a press conference after the official opening ceremony in Bayan Baru near here today.
Ang said the GF Malaysia office is part of a strategic hub network that leverages the company's global footprint and complements its advanced manufacturing facilities across the globe by providing engineering resources to supplement operations on a real-time basis.
He added that this site would utilise the latest digital manufacturing technologies such as remote access, Industry 4.0 solutions and GF's state-of-the-art factory control tower (FCT).
The company invested US$1 million (US$1=RM4.69) for the FCT in the Penang hub, and it would also invest up to US$7 million for the training of the engineers and technicians in the facility for the next three years, he said.
Currently, Ang said the hub has about 300 engineers and technicians, but GF would look at hiring an additional 500 to 600 engineers and technicians should demand continue to grow.
"We are taking up one floor now for the hub but if this proves a successful model, we aim to expand up to six floors,” he added.
Ang said they discovered this way of operating the factories virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic, and now, they are the pioneers in setting up remote hubs.
He said GF chose Penang to set up the FCT due to the availability of talents with semiconductor backgrounds here, on top of the state being a vibrant location for semiconductor manufacturing innovation.
Present to officiate the facility, Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said GF would train the employees in the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate processes in semiconductor manufacturing further.
"We look forward to that knowledge-sharing and skillset transfer for the 300 engineers and technicians here,” he said.
Chow said the semiconductor industry is poised to grow to a US$1 trillion industry by 2030.
Present in 15 locations globally and with about 13,000 employees worldwide, GF operates manufacturing fabrication plants in the United States, Germany and Singapore, serving more than 250 customers around the world. - Bernama


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All proceeds from the event will benefit The University of Toledo’s Dana Cancer Center in support of prostate cancer care.
Head Coach Tod Kowalczyk and his coaching staff will sport bow ties during the game with Falcon Head Coach Louis Orr and his coaching staff wearing orange bow ties as a show of support.
Rocket fans are invited to join the fun, too. For $100, individuals will receive a ticket to the game, a UT basketball bow tie and a commemorative photo by signing up at give2ut.utoledo.edu/tieoneonreg.asp. Students can purchase the same package at a discounted rate of $20 with a coupon, which can be obtained by calling 419.530.1273.
A new feature will be added for this year’s game with the Rockets donning retro jerseys that will be auctioned off prior to the contest. Individuals can bid on the uniforms until Thursday, Jan. 24, with bidding starting at $100 and increasing in $25 increments at utoledo.edu/tieoneon. The winning bidder will have his or her name placed on the back of the jersey and receive it after the game.
In addition, Yark Automotive, local Kroger stores and the Rocket Shop are selling bow tie cutouts for the event with proceeds being donated to the cause. Yark also is making a donation to “Tie One On” for every vehicle purchased by a UT employee, student or graduate during January.


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SUMMERSVILLE, WV (WVNS)–United Cycle has been serving the Summersville community for a decade. Selling everything from ATVs, UTVs and motorcycles to local adventure enthusiasts. General Manager David Sizemore said the support from the community allowed them to move into a bigger building.
“As our product line has expanded with just the explosion of side by side sales in our area and of course they are a lot larger they require a larger facility to be able to store them and sell them. And we’ve always wanted to expand our service department,” Sizemore said. “Anyone who has been in the old shop understands the challenges of the space we’ve been limited to up there, so it’s been in the works for a while.”
They also have a location in Beckley. During the COVID-19 pandemic both stores stayed open while staff took the necessary precautions to keep customers and employees safe.
“We’ve got PPE set up at our parts departments as well as our service departments. Our employees have been supplied masks to use as well as daily sanitation at the beginning of the day and the end of the day,” Sizemore said.
Sizemore said the support of the community during the pandemic has been overwhelming.
“It’s been unbelievable,” Sizemore said. “The sales that we’ve experienced in the last 2 months alone have been far exceeding years past that is solely responsible to the community that surrounds us that came in and continued to buy parts and continue to buy machines. They are the reason that we do this, we love serving this community.”
Sizemore said if everything stays on track they should be in their new Route 19 location hopefully in the next month.


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Loxam adds Laho and 119 branches
25 March 2008
French rental company Loxam has acquired Laho Equipement - one of its largest competitors in France - from Barclays Private Equity and Lah management. The price was not disclosed. Barclays bought Laho in March 2005 for 110 million.
The deal will give Loxam an additional 119 depots throughout France and additional annual revenues of 124 million, boosting its French market share from 15% to 19%. Loxam already has 327 locations in France, which will now rise to 446.
As with previous acquisitions - including last addition of Loueurs de France - Loxam will retain the Laho Equipement brand and, said the company, will not be closing any of Lah depots.
A joint statement by Loxam and Barclays Private Equity said Laho would retain its “commercial autonomy”. In addition, Laho'st managing director, Serge Ansaldo, will remain as head of the Laho division.
Laho was one of the largest general equipment rental companies in France, along with Hertz, Loxam and Kiloutou.
The deal has to go through French anti-trust regulators.


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Emirati foods group Agthia has big plans for Egypt and MENA
Egypt is a priority market for UAE-based foods group Agthia, which plans to become a MENA leader by 2025 through boosting efficiency and striking more M&A agreements, Chief Executive Alan Smith tells Reuters. The company is currently in talks to acquire 75% of Ismailia Agricultural and Industrial Investments, the frozen meat and poultry producer which owns the Atyab brand and other brands in Egypt. Agthia’s board of directors approved the EGP 3.2 bn bid last week, putting the acquisition on track to close before the end of 1H2021. The agreement will primarily be financed through bank debt, Smith told the newswire today but gave no further details.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman, and Turkey are also important markets for the subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s investment arm ADQ, Smith says, noting that Pakistan is another country on the Emirati company’s radar. Agthia is planning to smooth into the corporate transition through hiring more strategically and bringing on board executives with prior experience in running large multinational firms, he adds.
Expansion through acquisition: Agthia, whose main products include baked goods, frozen foods, and bottled water, has a market capitalization of USD 1.3 bn, which is lower than its regional rivals Saudi’s Almarai and Savola Group, notes the newswire. But the company has recently been expanding primarily through acquisitions. The group earlier this year closed a takeover bid of Kuwait’s Al Faysal Bakery and Sweets and is close to wrapping up a separate agreement to buy out Amman-based Nabil Food Industries that is pending regulatory approvals. It also acquired Emirati dates producer Al Foah around the same time.


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The U.S. House Agriculture Committee has approved a bill that could ban all mandatory GMO labeling in the United States. H.R. 1599, the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act of 2015 would not require food companies to disclose their use of genetically modified ingredients. Under the bill, companies that want to indicate that a product is “GMO-free” may still do so.
The Star Tribune reports, “The bill represents a major victory for the food and chemical industries, which fought and failed in court to stop mandatory GMO labeling.”
The bill has found predictable support among trade associations and big food companies such as Land O’Lakes, Cargill, Hormel, and General Mills. “A state-by-state patchwork of [GMO] labeling requirements would be confusing to consumers, create supply disruptions, and increase food prices,” Cargill officials argued. “Cargill also supports the creation of a voluntary USDA-administrated certification and labeling program for non-GMO food products.”
The use of genetically modified organisms has been the subject of fierce controversy, compelling 64 countries across the world to adopt GMO-labeling rules, while 26 others have issued full or partial bans on GMO use, including France, India, and Mexico.
To create GMOs, the DNA from one or more species is added to the DNA of a particular crop in order for it to gain certain desirable traits, such as the ability to tolerate pesticides. Monsanto is the largest producer of genetically modified seeds in the world and is the leading producer of the herbicide glyphosate, marketed under the Roundup brand.
The Argentinian Federation of Health Professionals labeled glyphosate a carcinogen, explaining, “Glyphosate not only causes cancer. It is also associated with increased spontaneous abortions, birth defects, skin diseases, and respiratory and neurological disease."
Likewise, the World Health Organization has called glyphosate a “probable human carcinogen.”
Despite these health concerns, however, GMO usage continues to expand. According to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which opposes GMO labeling, as much as 80 percent of foods in grocery stores contain GMO ingredients.
GMO-labeling laws have already passed in Maine, Connecticut, and Vermont, while campaigns for similar laws are underway in a number of other states. But opponents of the labeling contend that GMOs are safe and do not require precautionary warnings. “A GMO labeling mandate will stigmatize GMO products, driving down demand for GMO crops,” declared Land O’Lakes CEO Chris Policinski during March testimony before the agriculture committee.
“Stigmatizing safe, proven biotechnology through patchwork state labeling mandates or even mandatory federal labeling jeopardizes innovation and threatens future development and use of technology in agriculture,” Policinski added. “That’s dangerous for everyone.”
Land O’Lakes contends that H.R. 1599 is critical because “all types of agriculture are needed to meet the soaring demand for food, including proven, safe biotechnologies such as GM crops.”
But Representative Rick Nolan (D-Minn.) a member of the House Agriculture Committee who opposed the bill, notes that the debate is not about whether GMOs are healthy or unsafe, but about the simple right to know what is in the food consumers purchase for themselves and their families.
Similarly, Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), which opposes H.R. 1599, contends that lawmakers should be standing up for Americans’ right to know. “Americans have the right to know what’s in food and how it was grown — the same as citizens of 64 other nations that require GMO labeling,” said Faber, EWG’s vice president of government affairs. “It’s time for lawmakers to recognize that right and stand for GMO labeling.”
Some lawmakers are also vocal in their advocacy for GMO labeling laws. Representative James McGovern (D-Mass.) — noting the recent research that showed pesticides commonly used in growing GMO crops may contain cancer-causing agents — points out that though 64 other countries have mandatory GMO labeling laws “the sky hasn’t fallen in.”
But GMO supporters on the House Agriculture Committee claim that H.R.1599 is a sufficient compromise between both supporters and opponents of GMO labeling. “Consumers increasingly want to know more about where their food comes from and how it is produced,” said Representative Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee. “I think H.R. 1599 satisfies that demand while also recognizing what we know about the safety of the foods that our farmers produce. The bill is a workable solution that will alleviate the potential mess of 50 states with 50 different labeling schemes,” he said.
Yet the bill does more than that. If enacted, the new law would allow some GMO products to be called “natural.”
Consumer and environmental groups such as Just Label It and the Center for Food Safety, as well as members of Congress from Vermont and Maine, opine that the bill is merely an effort to keep people from knowing what they are eating. They claim H.R. 1599 is an attempt to control information in such a way that it serves big businesses rather than the American people. “There is an enormous self-interest on the part of the chemical and food industries,” declared Representative Peter Welch (D-Vt.), noting that it's “bizarre” for industry groups to call GMOs safe, and yet fight so hard to conceal their presence.
And claims that GMOs are safe have been contested by reputable organizations, which point out that GMOs have not been properly studied by the Food and Drug Administration.
According to the Institute for Responsible Technology (IRT), new types of food substances must typically undergo extensive testing, including long-term animal feeding studies, when they are introduced, unless they are deemed “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS). In order to be deemed as such, the substance must undergo substantial peer-reviewed published studies and there must be an overwhelming consensus among the scientific community.
However, in 1992 IRT reported that the FDA declared that genetically modified crops are GRAS as long as the producers say they are, adding, “A company can even introduce a GM food to the market without telling the agency.”
Decades ago, the editor of the medical journal The Lancet observed, “It is astounding that the US Food and Drug Administration has not changed their stance on genetically modified food adopted in 1992.… This stance is taken despite good reasons to believe that specific risks may exist.... Governments should never have allowed these products into the food chain without insisting on rigorous testing for effects on health.”
Writing about allergies and transgenic foods in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Marion Nestle stated that FDA's lax regulations "appear to favor industry over consumer protection."
And while biotech companies do participate in a voluntary consultation process with the FDA, in the absence of FDA studies or commissions, companies can submit whatever information they choose. Former EPA scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman, who analyzed FDA review records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, observed, “It is clear that FDA’s current voluntary notification process (even if made mandatory) is not up to the task of ensuring the safety of future GE [genetically engineered] crops.”
According to the Institute for Responsible Technology, the very agency tasked with protecting the health of the food supply has also been tasked with promoting biotech products, representing a “clear conflict.”
Suzanne Wuerthele, a U.S. EPA toxicologist, stated, “This technology is being promoted, in the face of concerns by respectable scientists and in the face of data to the contrary, by the very agencies which are supposed to be protecting human health and the environment. The bottom line in my view is that we are confronted with the most powerful technology the world has ever known, and it is being rapidly deployed with almost no thought whatsoever to its consequences.”
It appears that these biotech companies still enjoy the full support of the federal government. H.R. 1599 will move on to a full vote on the House floor, where it is expected to pass.


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Archive for category Assassin’s Creed 3
Well it looks like the rumors and leaked images were real. The official Assassin’s Creed Facebook Page just released the box art for Assassin’s Creed III as seen on the left. gameinformer.com has also revealed their April covers, showcasing Assassin’s Creed 3.
Gameinformer verifies, that “Assassin’s Creed III will be set in the latter half of the 18th century,”and that “we’ll see the war between the Templars and the Assassins escalate as it crosses over to the New World of America, and witness firsthand the events of the American Revolution.”
April’s issue of Gameinformer will have 13 pages and reveal a lot more about the game.
From what I’ve read around the internet, many are loving this new direction, but many are also very skeptical that this story will work. What is your take on it?
Hit the jump for the Gameinformer April cover images.
Read the rest of this entry »
Two unconfirmed, supposedly, leaked images appeared late last night for Assassin’s Creed 3. The banner above was, according to toastervision.com, released early on gameinformer.com, and then quickly pulled. Their full screen grab can be seen here.
The image to the left was first released by kotaku.com, who said they received the photo from a best buy employee.
If legitimate, both images reveal what has long been rumored, that the new Assassin’s Creed game will take place during the American Revolution.
Most likely these are real, however we should know for sure soon, as the official Assassin’s Creed Facebook page posted this yesterday as well:
“A major announcement from Assassin’s Creed is only days away. Tune in to http://www.assassinscreed.com/ tomorrow for more details.”
So details should come at anytime now. We will keep you posted.


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“We sold 700 copies during my presale campaign,” shared Nicole Bianchi, author of Small Brave Moves (New Degree Press, 2021) and partner at Bravium HD. “Most first-time authors sell 100-150 books on average, and we did 7x that before the book even came out. That’s the real power of pre-sale publishing.”
New Degree Press has pioneered a new and different approach in the $26 billion publishing industry.
“We believe that every author should be the owner of their work,” says Brian Bies, the head of publishing at New Degree Press. “It’s shocking that most authors keep less than 4-5% of the revenue from every book they sell. We think given the changes in the creator economy, there had to be a better way.”
After working with some of the leading experts in the creator economy from Chase Jarvis, NY Times bestselling author, and founder/CEO of Creative Live, Daniel Houghton, former CEO of Lonely Planet, one of the largest book publishing companies in the world, Joshua Schwartz, CEO of Pubvendo, Robert Stevens, the former GeekSquad founder and Chief Technology Officer of Best Buy, David Marquet, the President of Intent-Based Leadership Institute and bestselling author Rated #1 Business Book by Forbes, and other, New Degree Press realized there was a huge opportunity to become the premier creator-focused publisher in the world.
“We don’t take any ownership in the books of our authors,” continued Bies. “We’ve published more than 800 authors and had three national book award winners or finalists just this year — and all of them own their books completely which is unusual in the traditional book publishing industry. But it’s core to our philosophy of the author as the creator and owner of their work.”
New Degree Press facilitates this model through its use of a pre-sale publishing approach, guiding every author through a pre-sale campaign of their book to sell the first two hundred copies of their book before the book goes through publishing. The publisher has found that not only does this approach ensure the author owns their work, but it drives a much bigger reach for the author.
Said Bianchi, “I assumed everyone just had to give up something to get a book out — but pre-sale publishing helped my book reach way more people and I’m the owner of the book.”
New Degree Press is a certified hybrid publisher from the International Book Publishing Association (IBPA) headquartered in Maryland but operating and publishing internationally. The organization is a social venture having applied to be a certified B-corporation (benefit corporation) in 2020.
The publisher prides itself on its diverse set of authors with nearly 40% of its authors represented underheard communities in traditional publishing. According to the New York Times in 2020, less than 10% of authors published by the major publishing houses in the last twenty years are authors of color.
“We work with authors all over the world and from an incredibly wide range of backgrounds and experience levels,” said Mackenzie Finklea, author of Beyond the Halls (New Degree Press 2019) and the lead author coach. “We’ve realized that our secret advantage is the ability to help every author sell more books in their pre-sale campaign than they thought they could — we have 94-96% of our authors exceed their pre-sale targets which is a testament to the model and the power of community.”
New Degree Press has an open submission policy whereby any author can submit a draft manuscript and get feedback within 3-weeks. Less than 20% of authors who submit are approved to publish, but authors who need more support are encouraged to work with partner Creator Institute to get a publishable draft completed.
For more information, visit www.NewDegreePress.com
Links to photos:
- Nicole: https://www.instagram.com/p/COQROyGhuX0/?utm_medium=copy
- Nicole: https://www.instagram.com/p/CO_a3KnBlsG/?utm_medium=copy
Use another story from Author Haley Newlin
“The support for both books has been remarkable – and as a horror novelist that’s saying something,” shared Haley Newlin, author of Not Another Sarah Halls (New Degree Press, 2019) and Take Your Turn Teddy (New Degree Press 2020). “As a recent graduate from a Masters of Fine Arts program I was told I’d likely have to wait until I was 40 to publish my first book but our response to the first book was so unbelievable that my publisher and I decided to get the second book out as soon as we realistically could.”
Links to photos:
Use story from Author Morgan Wider
“I am so grateful this book has allowed me to connect with women on a deeper level,” said Morgan Wider, author of A Worthy Wardrobe (New Degree Press, 2020) and the founder/CEO of Wider Style. “Publishing this book with New Degree Press allowed me to build an incredible community of women who supported me through the publishing journey – I thought authors just did the book alone, but building a community around my book has been transformative for me and the book itself.”
Links to photos:
Use story from Author Joseph Minani
“It’s truly an honor to be named the 2020 New Author of the Year by SABA,” said Joseph Minani, author of The Mindset of a Refugee (New Degree Press, 2020). “This book was never on the radar of the major publishers, but because New Degree Press is committed to underheard voices they took a chance on me and the story of dozens of other refugees in this book. I’m so grateful to a publisher who truly sees authors differently.”
Links to Photos:


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A call for action from the CEO at the Do it Best Spring Market
BMC Stock is expanding its distribution of Andersen products to include the Atlanta market.
Take a visual tour of the co-op’s colorful new department: The Color Bar.
Street Fighter marketing, plus a new vision for paint, highlight a May Market.
Ace members can now receive up to $200,000 for opening a new store or acquiring a competitor’s store.
The Kansas City retailer recently celebrated its centennial with a blowout sale.
Ace Hardware didn't move the needle much on revenue during the first quarter, but progress occurred in regard to its bottom line.
After some major moves and new talent, the company keeps a focus on product development.
New distribution center brings solid financial benefits, says CEO.
The Chicago-based co-op's garden center business takes on a major new member.


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BeatO raises Rs 8.45 crore from Leo Capital, Blume Ventures
New Delhi: BeatO, a startup for diabetic patients, has raised an institutional funding of USD 1.3 million (Rs 8.45 crore), led by Leo Capital and co-led by Blume Ventures.
BeatO offers a smartphone-based glucometer. Started just over 2 years ago, BeatO currently serves 25,000 active customers in more than 1,500 cities.
The company said it is currently fulfilling over 5,000 transactions a month.
"India is expected to have 100 million diabetics by 2030. This puts tremendous pressure on all stakeholders in the healthcare eco-system both from a cost and well-being perspective to specially cater to this large demographic," BeatO co-founder and CEO Gautam Chopra said in a statement.
With this funding, BeatO plans to strengthen its technology and distribution.
"We will also supplement our existing range of product categories including diabetic snacks and specialty foods," the company said.
BeatO had previously raised an angel round from a few individual investors including Rajeev Chitrabhanu (an early investor in Nazara Technologies) and Vishal Sampat (angel investor).
The statement said BeatO has grown 10 times in revenue within the last one year.


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The police in Rivers State said it has arrested a gang of fraudsters who specialize in generating fake bank alerts. The state commissioner of police, Ahmed Zarki said the five man gang was arrested by men of the IGP monitoring unit in Port Harcourt.
The Commissioner of police told journalists that the fraudsters were arrested while trying to sell off goods they secure d with a fake alert.
Ahmed Zarki advised citizens to confirm all bank alerts. He said, ”Once you receive an alert, confirm from your bank whether the money has been deposited in your account”. He said the fraudsters deceive the owners of the goods that they have paid money into their account when they haven’t. ”They deceive the owners of the goods that they have paid money into their account and at the end of the day, when they went to check in the bank, they found out that there was no money, nothing was deposited. They are experts so whenever you send anything to anybody, make sure when he say he has paid into your account, you confirm it”, he said.
The parades suspects confessed to the crime when speaking with newsmen.


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Is India (really) winning the auto race from Pakistan?
Separated at birth, these twins turned out bitter rivals, often meeting in battlefields. Also, the two have faced off in cricket fields too. However, there is one more field where the two have competed albeit away from the public eye.
The Indian Auto Sector Paints a Rosy Picture, but All That Glitters Is Not Gold
On the face of it, India is going miles. It has become the fourth biggest auto market, displacing Germany. What’s more, it will soon displace Japan to become the third biggest auto market. Commercial and passenger vehicle sales grew by 8.3% (3.99 million) in 2018 in India. These are all verifiable statistics but a closer look at India’s automotive sector and all is not well.
For beginners, the Indian automotive sector is not attractive to foreign car makers as car prices in India are low. To illustrate, the Indian passenger car market is bigger than 3 million. Yet Audi, BMW, and Mercedes sell less 20,000 cars a year in India. The average selling price for passenger cars in India is $7,000, which is one-third the price of passenger cars in developed countries. Another factor which makes India unattractive to foreign automakers is Maruti Suzuki, which had the market share of 54% in November 2018.
India may have beaten Germany but its motorization rate in 2018 was 27/1000 passenger cars, while 570/1000 Germans owned passenger cars in Germany. The Motorization rate in China was 145/1000 passenger cars. An explanation for this disparity is affordability. India has a smaller middle class than China and Germany.
An Average Indian Auto Buyer is “Sentimental”
There is one particular aspect of an average Indian auto buyer that is often overlooked. Tata Nano, which was priced at Rs.100,000 was labelled “the world’s cheapest car”, was not bought by the consumers. Borrowing an American jargon, this model “tanked.” Nissan learned from this and marketed its cheaper brand Datsun “as the choice of rising India.” Branding matters in India.
Read More: 2018 Review: The Big Picture of Pakistan Auto Industry
The Sun Rises from (India’s) West
Moving westward from India, Pakistan is neither the fourth biggest auto market in the world nor would outnumber the Japanese in motorization rate anytime soon. Its motorization rate is also lower than India’s – 17/1,000. But it’s not doom and gloom in Pakistan.
India and Pakistan auto sectors are poles apart when it comes to the foreign automakers. Unlike India, Pakistan attracts heavy investment from abroad. Automotive Development Policy 2016-2021 offers tax incentives to new entrants (car manufacturers). Hyundai, Kia, and SsangYong (Koreans), along with Volkswagen, Renault and Nissan have announced to assemble their vehicles in Pakistan. Moreover, Groupe Renault and Al-Futtaim will bring Renault cars to Pakistan and manufacture and sell them here.
The automobile sector has grown exponentially in the last 5 years. Sales have gone up, leading to investment and expansion. The government through Automotive Development Policy 2016-2021 hopes to break the auto-cartel, improving quality of locally-assembled cars and bring down car prices.
Another aspect, which makes the experience of car buying relatively easier is the option of car financing. This alone has soared car sales in the country. Car financing in Pakistan has become more affordable due to low-interest rates.
All Is Not Good in the Land of Pure?
It is a known secret that the present government is cash strapped.
The dilemma, this and the previous government face, was how to bring vibrancy into the auto sector without depleting foreign exchange reserves. The government can either adopt a liberal approach wherein it follows a liberal import policy, creating competition, at the expense of reliance on foreign exchange reserves. In the alternative, the government can restrict auto imports, which will restrict consumer choices. With the issuance of the latest SRO 52(1) 2019, the government seems to be following the latter approach.
A Positive Outlook – Happy Ending
Motorization rate in India may be higher than Pakistan’s (comparing apples and oranges really), but Pakistan’s motorization rate is likely to increase with an increase in per capita income. According to Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan’s per capita income is $1,629. The Planning Commission predicts per capita income to go up to $4,200 by 2025. Therefore, the outlook is positive.
For this and other automotive related news, stay with PakWheels.


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Cargill Meat Solutions issued a recall of 132,606 pounds of ground beef
18 cases of E. coli have been reported, including one death
Cargill Meat Solutions issued a recall of 132,606 pounds of ground meat due to a deadly E. coli outbreak, the US Department of Agriculture said Wednesday.
Eighteen people have become sick with E. coli illness linked to this meat. One of them died.
The recalled meat, which may be contaminated with E. coli, is from the chuck portion of the carcass and was produced June 21. The USDA inspection mark on the package says “EST. 86R” inside. The products have been distributed nationwide.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, illnesses have been reported in four states: Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts and Tennessee. The sick individuals began experiencing symptoms between July 5 and 25.
Symptoms of E. coli begin between one and 10 days after consuming contaminated food or drink, but most people become sick three to four days after exposure, the CDC says.
Symptoms can include diarrhea that is sometimes bloody, vomiting and fever. Most people recover after five to seven days. Some individuals, about 5 to 10%, develop a type of kidney failure called hemolytic uremic syndrome.
A recall of ground meat products from the same Colorado-based company was announced in August for ground meat products sold at Publix locations. At the time, the company reported E. coli illnesses but no deaths.
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The USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service “is concerned that some product may be frozen and in consumers’ freezers. Consumers who have purchased these products are urged not to consume them. These products should be thrown away or returned to the place of purchase,” said the recall announcement issued Wednesday.
The agency reminded consumers to use a meat thermometer to assure an internal temperature of at least 160 degrees Fahrenheit, which is necessary to kill bacteria that can cause illness.
Correction: A previous version of this story gave the wrong amount of recalled beef.


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Stop and stay a while in downtown Lucknow.
The Lucknow Chamber of Commerce has introduce an innovative option for visitors to find a spot in downtown Lucknow. Bike racks have been installed in various locations to give the public somewhere to rest their bicycles which promotes exercise.
“Our goal was to support a healthier life style,” said Lucknow Chamber of Commerce member Connie Jefferson.
The initiative focuses on the alternative way of transportation and could benefit the town.
“We want to help our fellow business people and bring in more customers that would be on a bicycle and not have to worry about parking their car on the street,” Jefferson said.
The Lucknow Chamber of Commerce put a lot of consideration into the process of placing the bike racks around the town including strategic placing of the racks. This healthier life style movement is just one idea that stems from the chamber.
“It's a part of our beautification program,” added Jefferson.
The bike racks are available and bike riders can lock their bicycles to the structures located in different areas around the town.


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Are Hudson’s Bay Company and Saks Right For Each Other?
It's a deal that may never come to pass, but there are plenty of people who seem to think that Saks could do a lot worse than being acquired by Hudson's Bay Co. (HBC), owner of the iconic Canadian department store by the same name and Lord & Taylor here in the U.S.
If a deal were completed, it would give the American chain several potential entryways into Canada including opening Saks shops inside HBC stores, converting some HBC locations to Saks Fifth Avenue flagships or its Off Fifth discount outlets. As with all deals of this type, synergies and costs savings are being run out as additional reasons for HBC to acquire Saks.
Reports on The Globe and Mail website as well as WWD.com, which cite unnamed sources with knowledge of the dealings, suggest Saks' asking price may be too rich for HBC management's blood even though company chairman and CEO Richard Baker has had a long interest in the department store chain.
The WWD piece points to a top management reorganization last week at HBC as another sign of its interest in Saks. Bonnie Brooks, president of HBC, was named its vice chair, while Liz Rodbell, executive vice president, chief merchant for HBC, was promoted to president.
"He's (Mr. Baker) close to a Saks deal so he couldn't risk losing Brooks and had to promote Liz to stabilize the management," an unnamed source told WWD.
- Hudson's Bay eyes buying Saks –The Globe and Mail(tiered sub.)
- Owner of Hudson's Bay Explores a Deal to Buy Saks – The New York Times (tiered sub.)
- Saks Draws Interest From Hudson's Bay – The Wall Street Journal(sub. required)
- Hudson's Bay Co. Zeroes In on Saks Inc. – WWD.com (sub. required)
- HBC Announces Changes in Executive Structure – Hudson's Bay Company/Globe Newswire/NASDAQ
Is Hudson’s Bay Company the right party to acquire Saks? What do you think HBC will do if it succeeds in acquiring Saks?


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Another day, another deepfake: but this time they can sing. Finally, technology that can make Rasputin sing like Beyoncé New research from Imperial College in London and Samsung’s AI research center in the UK shows how a single photo and audio file can be used to generate a singing or talking video portrait. Like […]
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. Many disruptive technologies are entering the current marketplace: autonomous vehicles, artificial intelligence, blockchain, 3D printing, etc. Each of these technologies is expected to obsolete and displace a large number of businesses with the associated job layoffs and supply chain interruptions. A question of concern is whether these disruptions by themselves or in combination with […]
The greatest unfair competitive advantage for your small business is leveraging this critical shift in how you view the drivers of the future.
‘Sunspring’ might seem like any other budget sci-fi film, but this wasn’t written by a Hollywood scriptwriter.
Blade is the world’s first 3D printed supercar. The beautiful car in the photo above has a chassis that’s made up entirely of 3D printed aluminum nodes and carbon fiber connectors. Kevin Czinger, is the man who built this. (Video)
3D printing innovation is getting faster, even as fast as 150 mph/h. A new fully 3D printed drone took flight and is capable of reaching that record breaking speed. The drone was created through a collaboration between Stratasys Ltd. and Aurora Flight Sciences. (Video)
Is liquid-metal based 3D fabrication or is self assembling/shape retaining models the ancestor of Star Trek’s infinitely amusing holodeck?. According to Roel Vertegaal, from Queens University’s Human Media Lab, programmable matter is based on self-levitating displays, allowing physical interactions with mid-air virtual objects.
The population in Europe is aging. The governments have had to think of some interesting ways to keep people active. Spain and the United Kingdom have started opening playgrounds designed specifically for the elderly. And people seem to be enjoying it! (Video
The x2 Sport Underwater Jet Pack is the world’s first wearable jet pack that lets you fly through the water faster than an Olympic swimmer They are currently available to pre-order on Indiegogo.
A University of Nevada, Las Vegas study has found that the design of a drone doesn’t actually impact people’s perceptions of drones. The study asked 647 people in the U.S. to rate their perception of drones that they saw in pictures, manipulated across four factors – color, propeller blades, legs and propeller safety guards. (Video)
NEC, a Japanese electronics maker, has unveiled a unique input mechanism that allows you to type on your arm using augmented reality. The system is called the ARmKeypad and it combines a set of glasses to visualize the virtual keyboard and a smartwatch to detect how fast you type. (Video)
You are about to have another option at your fingertips to pay for things. Last week, the smart jewelry company Ringly announces a partnership with MasterCard that will allow you to pay for items with the tap of a ring. (Video)


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On Monday this week, the much-hyped price ‘halving’ occurred on the Bitcoin blockchain – the 3rd such halving in its history.
The ‘pizza guy’ spent billion dollars on pizza and gave away another billion dollars, yet he has no regrets about squandering.
Bitcoin Regulation Canada Gemini is a regulated cryptocurrency exchange, wallet, and custodian that makes it simple and secure to buy bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. 14 Mar 2019. The proposals come at a time when issues at QuadrigaCX, once Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, have led to calls for regulatory. "The fundamental question is, is it a really a
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital asset designed to work as a medium of exchange that uses.
by individuals on the bitcoin forum with one notable transaction of 10,000 BTC used to indirectly purchase two pizzas delivered by Papa John's.
""Pirateat40" Makes Off $5.6M USD in BitCoins From Pyramid Scheme".
10 euro wieviel bitcoins Crypto Market Bearish 25 000 usd Wie viel ist . cortines.
Slum Beautiful; Bitcoin Targets USD 10,000; ClassPass is a; The great bitcoin.
Gold On Paper 21 Oct 2019. An alternate way of owning paper gold in a more cost-effective manner is through gold exchange traded funds (Gold ETF). Such investments (. Paper gold – an asset that reflects the price of gold while not actually being gold itself; it's not backed by real metal, so it's considered to be only
Sentiment has also turned bearish on this cryptocurrency pair, which is positioned for a more massive correction on the back of expanding breakdown pressures. While it remains premature to properly.
Bitcoiners all over the world celebrate Bitcoin Pizza Day, a tradition that dates back to May 22, 2010, when one man made.
The bitcoin index value for the end of April 2020 amounted to approximately 8,773 U.S. dollars. The bitcoin price index is an average of bitcoin prices across.
Go long after a bullish price action reversal on the H1 time frame following the next touch of $9,476, $9,146 or $9,041. Put the stop loss $50 below the local swing low. Adjust the stop loss to break.
The cryptocurrency market added $13 billion in value over the past day as bitcoin jumped more than 6% Thursday evening.


text: Tina Pham of Joie Studio creates beautiful letterpress stationery & paper goods. Her most recent blog post really grabbed my attention. On December 15, Tina is participating in a charity event benefiting ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease, a disease my crafty Granny died of. The “Gifts from the Heart” holiday event is being held at a private estate in Calabasas, California, this Saturday, December 15. If you cannot attend the event in person, don't fret. Joie Studio will donate $1 from each sale at the event, as well as online. This is a great opportunity to do some last minute holiday shopping while helping out a cause close to my heart.


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Specialty retailer Brookstone is betting on crowdfunding to help it get gadgets on store shelves at a faster pace.
Under a new partnership with Indiegogo, first reported by Fortune, campaigners on the crowdfunding site can now submit their ideas directly to Brookstone. The retailer will then select campaigns to work with on design, manufacturing, distribution, and eventually, the sales of those goods. Brookstone believes backing an Indiegogo product reduces risk for the retailer. If a campaign is successful, there is already a sense of how great demand can be.
“Indiegogo has democratized the way new ideas are discovered and funded,” says Brookstone CEO Tom Via. “They proved that innovative product ideas can come from anywhere.”
For Brookstone, which is known for its home decor items, tech gadgets, and massage chairs, products funded on Indiegogo are a space that would be particularly appealing. Already, the retailer is backing the rollouts of Cat Ear Headphones (raised $3.4 million on Indiegogo) and a personal beer dispenser called Fizzics ($225,904 raised).
“Just like the way different entertainment folks would look for talent like Justin Bieber on YouTube, you have companies looking for the next entrepreneur on Indiegogo,” Slava Rubin, Indiegogo’s CEO, tells Fortune.
The bet on a pipeline of new gadgets from crowdfunding comes a little over a year after Brookstone sold itself for $135.7 million to two China-based firms. With the change in ownership come hopes of consistency. Seven different executives have served as CEO of Brookstone on a full-time or interim basis since 2009.
Via is the latest in that long line of CEO appointments. The former Toys “R” Us executive has served as CEO of Brookstone for almost a year. He is vowing to stick with the retailer over the long run.
“I’m putting a lock on that door,” Via says. “I am absolutely loving this job. I’m not going anywhere.”
Via acknowledges that Brookstone, with just 290 retail locations, faces big challenges from online rivals like Amazon (AMZN) to compete in the electronics category. But he believes his chain can be successful if it focuses on selling more items that can only be found at Brookstone, and the best way to get in that position is to back a product concept early in the development process.
“Getting into the innovation space earlier, we can increase the number of new and never-seen items we think can be commercial and deliver significant volume,” Via says.
Under his leadership, Brookstone has given less space to the smartphone and tablet case businesses, which the retailer believes are overly saturated and command slim margins because the goods can be easily found online for cheap prices. The wine and bar business is another area that Brookstone has stepped back from.
Via says backing crowdfunding goods like the Cat Ear Headphones is part of a plan to bring over 200 new products to the retailer’s stores during the critical fourth quarter. The hope is that Brookstone will generate positive sales growth for that key period of the year.


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The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE will finally receive the One UI 5.0 update for Android 13 even though it was not initially listed. The company’s announcement revealed when other phones would get the update, which it called “highly anticipated.”
Samsung Galaxy S21 FE will still get One UI 5.0 update with Android 13.
According to a story from Giz China, Samsung recently rolled out the One UI 5.0 update for the Galaxy S22 series flagships with Android 13. After the announcement, the company revealed which phones will get the update.
Interestingly, the Samsung was not included in some of the lists. The Giz China article states that despite not being listed, the smartphone still needs to receive the new One UI 5.0 update.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE did not participate in the previous Android 13 beta testing program
The Samsung was recently released earlier this year and is still eligible for the new major Android upgrade. Smartphone users were not able to participate in the Android 13 beta testing program.
Despite not being able to participate in beta testing, Samsung is still working hard to get the update to the, which was launched shortly before the Galaxy S22 series.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE still comes with some advantages over the Samsung Galaxy S20 FE
The Giz China article notes that some may have thought of the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE as a pointless release, even though it has some performance advantages over the previous Galaxy S20 FE.
Samsung will still honor those who decided to buy the by providing the new One UI 5.0 update for Android 13 despite the S22 being launched shortly before.
The smartphone is still considered to be a 2022 flagship and may get an update next month or next year along with other smartphones.
The update will apparently hit the device sometime in the next month. However, this should still be taken with a grain of salt, as Samsung has yet to issue an official statement regarding its release.
Giz China says that since the smartphone is still a “2022” flagship, they still expect Samsung to receive the update along with other flagships. Many flagships will get the update in January 2023.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is still on track to receive three more updates after One UI 5.0 and Android 13.
The article also mentions that the Samsung Galaxy S21 FE is still due for at least four major updates. These updates include One UI 5.0 and other future updates.
Samsung is still on track to receive One UI 6, One UI 7, and One UI 8 updates with its respective Android 14, Android 15, and Android 16 OS versions.


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The company hired the Interpublic Group firm after a review of 10 agencies, according to a statement posted on McCann Worldgroup’s Facebook page. A Weight Watchers spokesperson confirmed the hire to Direct Marketing News.
“McCann New York demonstrated advanced understanding of how social media can help further build consumer engagement with our brand and our PointsPlus program,” said Lee Hurley, director of online marketing at WeightWatchers.com, in a statement.
McCann has served as Weight Watchers’ creative agency since 2007. The agency also works with brands such as General Mills, Nikon Corp. and Kohl’s.
Financial terms of the contract with McCann were not disclosed.


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We exclusively reported about a Nokia 9 2018 on the HMD product roadmap with an in-display fingerprint senor. Now, this has been confirmed by a trusted source from China, who has been behind many leaks in the past too. The source had leaked the Penta-Lens Camera and new colors for Nokia 6 2018 that eventually came true.
But he also adds that HMD is also trying to maximize the display area on its 2018 flagships and it may result in it sporting a “notch”. We have seen iPhone X sporting an ugly notch earlier and it made many Android vendors following this as the new “cool thing” to do.
Recently Google pushed the first Android P Dev preview build and it supports the display notch. But the million Dollar question here is whether HMD that has so far has done great work in taking Nokia’s design legacy forward should ape an ugly trend.
Anyways, the good news is that we haven’t heard about a notch on any Nokia flagship from our sources yet. So, may be this is a prototype thing and we really hope HMD finds a better way to maximize the display area than introducing the ugly notch that also hinders the basic functions like video watching.


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ViaWest has announced the official opening of its Lone Mountain data center facility in North Las Vegas, Nev.
The cloud computing and managed services provider is celebrating what it says is the colocation industry’s first-ever North American Tier IV Design Certification and will host an open house on Feb. 28 to mark the grand opening of the facility.
We are excited to open such an amazing facility,” said Michael Vignato, ViaWest regional vice president and general manager, Nevada/Southern California. Las Vegas is an excellent location, with low risk for natural disaster and an arid climate that contributes to this facility reaching an expected Power Use Effectiveness (PUE) rating of 1.2 one of the lowest in the industry. Many of our customers now ask specifically to be part of Lone Mountain, wanting to take advantage of the availability and sustainability that it offers. We welcome our new customers as we continue to grow Lone Mountains reach.”
ViaWest first announced the Lone Mountain facility in the second half of 2012, and in October of 2012 the facility earned the Uptime Institute’s Tier IV design certification. The designation certifies that, when built to design specifications, the Lone Mountain facility is completely fault-tolerant and capable of withstanding an unplanned event such as a fire or power failure without any impact to IT equipment, the company said.
Since the facility’s launch in December, a variety of anchor customers have incorporated Lone Mountain into their data management plans.
We have worked with ViaWest in Utah for many years and are excited to expand into the new Lone Mountain location,” said Sjon Benson, vice president of information technologies at Progrexion. Our business has grown tremendously over the past decade, and ViaWest has been a true partner in our growth. Their team is technically excellent and has collaborated with us in our planning to ensure that we have a solid platform for growth.”
The Lone Mountain data center will also be Energy Star and Green Globe certified. It is a 110,000 square foot-facility, which will offer 74,000 square feet of raised floor space upon completion of final build-out.
.@MicroCorp is targeting the "exploding" Southwest partner scene. goo.gl/fb/VFWJ6k
February 15 2019 @ 14:45:26 UTC


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As the continent edges a little closer to making the Africa Continanental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) a reality, Minister of Trade and Development Rob Davies says South Africa will not use this as an opportunity to take advantage of countries with smaller markets.
Only three countries stand in the way of the AfCFTA coming into force after Ethiopia became the 19th country to submit proof of ratification to the African Union (AU) Commission on Tuesday.
A minimum of 22 countries have to submit their ratification instruments to the AU and 30 days after, the agreement will come into effect. Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and The Gambia are the remaining countries who have yet to submit their instruments.
When in operation, the agreement is expected to create the biggest free trade bloc in the world removing trade barriers on goods and services as well as the movement of people among the 55 countries on the continent with a combined gross domestic product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Southern Africa projects that the continent-wide liberalisation of trade will increase intra-African trade by 52.3%. But, on the other hand, African countries whose economies are less developed may struggle to replace income from import tariffs and fees.
Improving Intra-African trade and regional value chains
“The economic gains expected from the AfCFTA agreement are calculated at an aggregate level, however, the fears of significant tariff revenue losses and an uneven distribution of costs and benefits are among the main obstacles to the continent’s integration,” said International law firm Fasken.
The law firm said countries like South Africa and Egypt would not be impacted by the loss of revenue while less developed countries will also have to contend with the costs and outcomes of a more competitive environment such as potential job losses.
Davies told Moneyweb that South Africa will not approach the AfCFTA with the intention of increasing the existing patterns of trade where the country offloads finished goods in smaller economies while those countries do not supply anything in return.
He said he wanted the agreement to be a “tool and instrument to promote a broader transformation of the economy on the continent”.
“When you look at why there is a relatively low level of regional trade, it’s not fundamentally about tariffs, it’s about underdeveloped production structures and infrastructure,” said Davies, “we want this to be seen as something that is going to allow the emergence of regional value chains and not just promote more intra-regional trade”.
Trudi Hartzenberg, executive director of the Trade Law Centre, said more diversified and industrialised countries such as South Africa are the ones who will benefit initially but there were very important developments and growing industry in other countries on the continent that will attract investment as a result of the larger, integrated market that the AfCFTA offers.
Hartzenberg said the agreement will also deal with trade facilitation issues that stifle intra-African trade such as high transport costs, long delays at border posts, cumbersome customs and border procedures, complex paperwork.
“Improving these trade facilitation issues, is perhaps one of the most significant contributions of the AfCFTA,” she said.
Aligning policy with AfCFTA
After the 22 countries submit their proof of ratification to the AU they will go into a negotiation process where each country will submit its trade offers such as tariffs and rules of origin that will apply to certain goods and services.
Tariff negotiations are expected to be bilateral and possibly between member states or customs unions as they have common external tariffs said Hartzenberg. This means the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) will negotiate with the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
The agreement stipulates that more developed countries will remove tariffs on 90% of their goods within five years while the least developed countries have been given a deadline of between 10 and 15 years.
Davies said this was “a highly ambitious arrangement and the jury is out on whether it’s too ambitious”.
Fasken law firm said the agreement is “ambitious” in its efforts to dismantle the barriers and costs of intra-African trade in order to create a more competitive and productive continent and this could be hindered by reluctance by member states to amend their national legislation.
“Policymakers will be required to address those barriers that may come into conflict with the principles of the free trade area. A key example is to make provision for the unrestricted migration of highly skilled workers across the continent,” said Fasken.
At the moment, the 22 countries that deposit their instruments of ratification are the state parties and the agreement will only apply to them while other countries may then accede to the agreement and it will then apply to them too.
Hartzenberg said the continent is also waiting to see what Nigeria will do. The biggest economy on the continent did not sign the agreement when it was initially launched stating that it wanted to protect its local industries from dumping.
“As the largest economy in Africa, this is notable. Indications are that Nigeria may sign soon so that it can participate in the ongoing negotiations, rather than accede to the AfCFTA” she said.


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Thousands of Pounds of Critical Supplies to be Made Available this Saturday as Missed Paychecks Mean both Pets and People are Vulnerable
BOSTON, Methuen and Centerville, Mass. Jan. 17, 2019 – With thousands of federal government employees in Massachusetts not receiving pay as a result of the government shutdown, the MSPCA-Angell is stepping in with food relief so that pets do not go hungry.
The MSPCA plans to distribute thousands of pounds of dog and cat food to furloughed workers beginning Saturday, Jan. 19. The organization also has hundreds of pounds of litter available for distribution as needed.
“The best data we have indicates that about 8,000 federal workers in our state are either furloughed or working without pay and we know many people live paycheck to paycheck,” said Mike Keiley, director of adoption centers and programs at the MSPCA-Angell. “We want to be able to support pet owners in need of help during such a stressful time and we hope this offer of food assistance alleviates at least some of their concerns.”
Furloughed government employees can come to any of the MSPCA’s three animal care and adoption centers in Jamaica Plain, Methuen and Centerville on Cape Cod between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. this Saturday. “We’re offering one free bag of Hill’s® Science Diet® brand dog and one bag of cat food plus a 17-lb bag of cat litter to all who need it,” added Keiley.
The MSPCA also has food for farm animals and small pets such as birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters and more available for distribution as needed.
The only requirement is identification validating recipients’ employment with the federal government.
Keiley and his team worry that many more pets will be impacted, and the demand for more food will grow, if the shutdown continues much longer. “There’s no way to know how long this kind of support will be needed but we’ll do our best to continue helping our community with additional food distributions if we need to.”
For hours and locations of MSPCA-Angell adoption centers closest to them readers can visit www.mspca.org. Anyone in need of food who cannot come on Saturday can email firstname.lastname@example.org to make arrangements for pick-up.
“And anyone who wishes to donate unopened packages of dry and wet dog and cat food is welcome to and we’ll ensure that food gets into the bowls of the pets who need it most,” said Keiley.


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- Adam Jeffries has been appointed to run the entity that will promote the Metaplex protocol.
- A number of strategic advisors, including CoinShares’ chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors, have also joined the studio.
A body formed to drive the growth of Metaplex, an open-source platform for building NFT storefronts, has named former Citadel and Google executive Adam Jeffries as CEO, according to a press release.
Jeffries is joined by a new board of strategic advisors that includes music streaming service Audius; CoinShares chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors; Cultur3 Capital co-founders Alex Yamashita, Mark Streeter and Rolf Hoefer; Dylan Macalinao, co-founder of Saber Labs; and Steve ‘Sweatpants’ Irby, co-founder at Street Dreams Magazine.
Built on Solana, Metaplex is an open-source protocol that aims to help creatives mint and auction NFTs. The project aims to cut out the fees charged by centralized platforms in the NFT space.
“Someone like OpenSea, they’re going to take a cut, and that’s because they provide additional services on top of that decentralization,” said Jeffries. “We control nothing. We set up the ecosystem to empower others.”
Since June this year, Metaplex has supported more than $385 million in NFT sales. There are 1,800 developer teams building tools on the protocol, according to the press release.
The studio aims to boost the Metaplex protocol’s community, steer the development of new tools and making them available on an open-source basis.
“The structure right now is there are two arms to it – the foundation and studios. The foundation’s job is essentially the goal of growing the ecosystem, handling grants, setting up advisors and dealing with fundraising,” said Jeffries. Metaplex Studios, on the other hand, will act as “evangelists” for the protocol, he added.
One of the studio’s main selling points is the fact that Metaplex runs on Solana, a proof-of-stake blockchain that has experienced tremendous growth in recent months.
Most NFT projects run on Ethereum, but heavy congestion and spiralling transaction costs on the network have proven difficult for smaller, lower-priced collections to navigate. “Running on Solana has the benefit of very, very low transaction costs as well as high speeds,” said Jeffries.
But he added that different blockchains have different purposes and that porting assets between them, in the future, will boost the entire ecosystem.
“Maybe you have a super, super high value NFT and your client just feels more comfortable being on Ethereum, you bridge and you send it over,” he explained.


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Google’s Chromebooks coming to India from 17 October
Firstpost.com | 10/10-13 16:11
Chromebooks, the laptops by Google which run on the company’s Chrome OS are going to hit the Indian market soon...Internet connection starts breaking down. Google has also partnered with Tikona and Airtel to provide cellular and broadband offers...
Acer C720 Chromebook laptop, priced at Rs 22,999, comes with freebies
InfotechLead.com | 10/10-13 15:43
Acer C720 Chromebook laptop, priced at Rs 22,999 in India, comes with freebies such as data plans from Tikona and Bharti Airtel...Rs 22,999 in India, comes with freebies such as data plans from Tikona and Bharti Airtel. Acer C720 Chromebook laptop, priced at Rs 22,999 in...
Google to launch Chromebooks in India soon
Cybermedia India Online Limited News | 10/10-13 15:13
Chromebooks are a new type of computer from Google designed to help you get things done faster and
...online experience at home or on-the-go, we have partnered with Tikona and Airtel to provide a range of cellular and broadband offers. So it doesn't...
Google launches Chromebooks from Acer, HP in India, coming on October 17
BGR | 10/10-13 15:11
Google today announced it will launch its Chromebooks in India on October 17...for the first two devices. Google has also tied up with Airtel and Tikona for some data bundling plans. The Acer C720 will be priced at Rs 22,999...
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By now you have probably heard the disconcerting news about the negative economic growth in the first quarter of this year. But in case you have not, here is a recap: according to the latest data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, total GDP in the U.S. declined by 2.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014. A moderate gain in consumer spending during the first three months of this year was not enough to make up for sharp declines in business inventories and net exports.
Data tables and charts on producer prices, trade, plastics production and end market indicators is also included.
January 14, 2015 - January 14, 2015Plastics in Automotive
February 4, 2015 - February 6, 2015Plastics News Executive Forum 2015
June 2, 2015 - June 3, 2015Plastics Financial Summit - Chicago 2015
September 16, 2015 - September 18, 2015Plastics Caps & Closures - September 2015
October 27, 2015 - October 29, 2015Plastics Financial Summit - New York - 2015More Events


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As many of you may have known, Google+ introduced automatic image uploading a while back, but in an update rolling out to users right now, this particular service is being renamed Google Photos and now has its own icon and a bunch of settings to play around with. The Google Photos app is a direct extension of Google+, but also allows viewing of images from Google Drive and Picasa as well — it’s essentially connecting all of Google’s photo sharing services.
If you haven’t yet received the update, we’ve found a way to force the update. We found the MediaUploader.APK from the Nexus 5 factory images. Just install this and Google+ will update to the latest version and the Google Photos icon will appear in your launcher. Enjoy!


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Wednesday, Nov 14, 2018 | Last Update : 04:26 PM IST
Vikas Khanna shares insights into what ticks for millennial in food, benefits of healthy diet and changing trends in eating habits.
14 Nov 2018 1:19 PM
Designers and founders of Toile, Priti Jain and Farheen Rahman share tips for women to look absolutely gorgeous during celebrations.
06 Nov 2018 12:49 PM
Raveena Tandon, Richa Chadda and others speak about ways to make your pet feel safe during the festival of lights.
05 Nov 2018 4:09 PM
While festival brings immense joy to families, it is a time for anxiety and ill health for our furry pets.
05 Nov 2018 2:28 PM
Kanna’s ongoing painting exhibition of Benaras at Jehangir Art Gallery highlights the beauty of ancient India.
27 Oct 2018 1:19 PM
Farheen Rahman and Priti Jain, founder of Toile talk fashion sustainability, travellers market Versatile Vasudha and future plans.
19 Oct 2018 3:25 PM
British writer speaks about becoming the youngest author to make it to the Man Booker shortlist.
10 Oct 2018 3:51 PM
Through various events Pet Fed successfully brings out the true essence of pet keeping.
22 Sep 2018 12:30 PM
Aim of the show is, with the help of scientists and expert psychoanalysts, decode whether an icon is born or made.
21 Sep 2018 1:47 PM
Dystopia deals with different stages person faces in one’s life and how one is affected by childhood episodes and choices in adolescence.
11 Sep 2018 6:49 PM


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Founded in 2011 by Stephen Pair and Tony Gallipi, BitPay is a payment processor that enables businesses to accept bitcoin payments.
After onboarding 10,000 merchants to accept bitcoin with their services in 2013, BitPay raised $30 million in a Series A round led by venture capital firm Index Ventures in 2014.
In May 2016, Bipay launched the Bitpay Visa Prepaid Debit Card, a way of converting bitcoin into spendable fiat money wherever Visa is accepted, available to users in 131 countries.
In addition to payment services, BitPay offers Bitcore, an open source platform for developers to build applications with bitcoin. They also offer a BitPay bitcoin wallet, for beginners to store and manage their funds.
In 2018, BitPay underwent a Series B investment round with participants Menlo Ventures and Aquiline Technology Growth raising $40 million. At the time, they said the funds would be used to expand the business in Asian markets, as well as to acquire regulatory licenses, hire more engineers, and acquire new technologies.
In 2019 the company added support for bitcoin cash and stablecoins USDC (from Circle), GUSD (from Gemini), and PAX (from Paxos). Additionally, in 2019, telecom giant AT&T said it would also accept crypto payments through BitPay, joining the likes of Microsoft, Avnet, Dish, Hotels.com, and Newegg.


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The Federal Trade Commission failed to demonstrate that Facebook holds more than 60 percent of the social media market or that it wrongfully acquired Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled on Monday.
The FTC has 30 days to file a new complaint, but Boasberg said the 48 state attorneys general who also sued cannot refile.
What was the problem? While the FTC initially allowed the company to purchase Instagram and Whatsapp, its lawsuit claimed those buyouts were anticompetitive.
But Facebook, which has millions of online users, countered that it still faces significant competition in the industry and in advertising.
A U.S. House subcommittee is advancing a package of bills to rein in Big Tech and more narrowly define monopolies for online social networking platforms. After the decision, Facebook’s market value topped $1 trillion.
This story originally appeared in WORLD. © 2021, reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.


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Playson and Solverde.pt Strike Deal to Enrich Portuguese Online Casino Scene
In a landmark deal for the iGaming industry, Playson, a rapidly expanding supplier of digital entertainment, has announced a new partnership with Portuguese casino behemoth, Solverde.pt. This collaboration is set to bring Playson’s extensive collection of over 80 online games to Portugal, marking a significant step in the company’s European market expansion strateg
A Rich Portfolio for Portugal’s Largest Online Casino
Solverde.pt, known as Portugal’s most extensive online casino platform, boasts an impressive lineup of more than 2,000 games from over 20 different studios. The addition of Playson’s premium games, including popular titles from its acclaimed Hold and Win series such as 3 Pots Riches, Energy Coins, and Fire Coins, is expected to significantly enhance Solverde’s current offerings.
Following a year of considerable growth across the continent, Playson’s latest partnership with Solverde.pt is a testament to the company’s ongoing commitment to the regulated Portuguese market. This deal not only reinforces Playson’s presence in Portugal but also strengthens its overall standing in Europe’s competitive iGaming landscape.
Leadership Insights on the Partnership
Blanka Homor, Sales Director at Playson, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, “We are delighted to provide our rich games portfolio to Solverde’s online players, reinforcing our commitment to the thriving Portuguese market and our continued expansion across Europe.”
Sérgio Pascoal, Head of R&D at Solverde, echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the importance of diversifying their game offerings and expressing confidence in the appeal of Playson’s slots to Portuguese customers.
This partnership heralds a new era for Portuguese online gaming enthusiasts, who can now enjoy an even broader selection of games on Solverde.pt. With Playson’s innovative slots added to the mix, players are set to experience the latest in gaming features and creative gameplay.
Our Comment on the Partnership
The collaboration between Playson and Solverde.pt marks a significant milestone in the enhancement of Portugal’s online casino landscape. By uniting Playson’s innovative gaming solutions with Solverde.pt’s extensive platform, this partnership promises to deliver an enriched gaming experience to Portuguese players, setting a new benchmark for quality and diversity in the online casino sector.


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June 26, 2013
The cafe is adjacent to the to-go food section.
Stories this photo appears in:
New services, same philosophy at co-op’s redesigned store on Watervliet Avenue
On Wednesday, June 19, the Honest Weight Food Co-Op opened its brand new doors to 2,500 customers at 100 Watervliet Ave.