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Culture Ministry and NGO partner to save indie book stores
Along with those who love social media, many in the Kingdom are also determined to create a culture of reading, especially among the young. Hence, the Ministry of Culture and the Book Studies Foundation are collaborating on a project to save and promote the country’s dwindling population of independent booksellers.
“Promoting a reading culture should start at a young age, and we need to have specialists help develop content and printing techniques,” said Sirote Jiraprayoon, a former executive at the Asia Books chain. He is now the owner of The Booksmith and Papersmith, two independent book stores in northern Chiang Mai and Bangkok.
According to the Bangkok Post newspaper, the number of independent, or “indie” bookstores has dramatically decreased from almost 1,000 a decade ago to about 100 today as large chains and publishers have expanded into e-commerce platforms and slashed prices.
Recognizing the trend, the Ministry of Culture and the Book Studies Foundation have launched the Book Passport, a project that aims to build a network between booksellers and bookworms. By doing so, they hope to boost book sales and instill a reading culture among the young in the Kingdom.
The project currently has 51 independent bookshops participating. Its goal is to encourage people to frequent bookstores. Customers who spend $9 will get a Book Passport and a Covid-19 diary. The passport allows bibliophiles to earn miles when they visit new bookstores, and they can use the miles to win prizes on Facebook.
“Bookshops have become like libraries where those who have no money come to read books and acquire knowledge,” Makut Onrudee, National Artist in Literature, who founded the Book Studies Foundation, told the Bangkok Post.
“Today, we have information available right at our fingertips, but not everyone has access to the internet. Bookstores are important because they help prevent those who have little to no education become victims of false information. Bookstores only sell books that have been proofed by editors and passed rigorous checks,” Makut said.
Photo courtesy of https://www.m-culture.go.th/th/article_view.php?nid=91002


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As is the case with most cable companies Comcast is both an ISP (internet service provider) and a network service provider. They have their own TV and streaming media interests to maintain. Comcast’s plan was to slow traffic for anyone, but their own service unless the outside parties paid a premium fee. Once again Comcast had a defense: they claimed that this was to help keep the network from being clogged up as user demands for bandwidth increased and also to help fund improvements without needing to increase subscription rates. Once other ISPs saw the money in this many became very interested and joined with Comcast to help push this through.
Now it seems the FCC is agreeing with them and is allowing many cable companies to setup fast lane access for which other service providers will need to pay for. One of the first to jump on this has been Netflix who is reported to already be paying Comcast for better service. While the FCC sits back claiming this is a good thing others are not convinced.
The critics of this move feel (rightly) that this will hurt consumers in both the short and long term. There is no guarantee that having fast lanes will benefit anyone but the ISP. We all have watched as service rates continue to go up while service speeds stay relatively the same (there are a few exceptions). You can bet that just because a company is getting money from Netflix or another streaming media company they are not going to pass on a chance to raise individual and business rates. Meanwhile Netflix and others will raise their rates to cover the extra costs. This is not a big deal for a monster like Netflix, but it can and will kill off smaller companies that cannot afford the better (faster) access speeds.
This latter item is the most concerning as competition is what helps innovation. If there is little to no chance for a small company to enter with a better product because of these new fast lane fees then innovation will suffer.
So how does someone fight this? Well if you are like Google you announce that there will be no fast lane fees. You let people know that everyone’s traffic will be treated equally on your service. It is true that Google Fiber is a very small presence right now, but this move will also get consumers asking for their communities to be next on the list for their high-speed fiber service. It is a win for Google and in reality a win for innovation and a more open and free internet. Google allows content providers to not only peer up, but also to colocate in their facilities for free.
After all video streaming is not really an issue in the way that major ISPs are claiming. They simply want a way to recoup revenue from their customers using someone else’s service. As Jeffrey Burgan, Google Fiber's director of network engineering stated, “it’s really a win-win-win situation. It’s good for content providers because they can deliver really high-quality streaming video to their customers. For example, because Netflix colocated their servers along our network, their customers can access full 1080p HD and, for those who own a 4K TV, Netflix in Ultra HD 4K. It’s good for us because it saves us money (it’s easier to transport video traffic from a local server than it is to transport it thousands of miles). But most importantly, we do this because it gives Fiber users the fastest, most direct route to their content. That way, you can access your favorite shows faster. All-in-all, these arrangements help you experience the best access to content on the Internet — which is the whole point of getting Fiber to begin with!”
This type of competition can be huge when other companies start to see their customers leave or demand the same type of service… after all, nothing speaks louder than your dollar.
Tell us what you think

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2 women nearly run over by freight train
Angela Wallace, of the Association of Professional Organizers, recommends containers and labels for getting clutter organized.
Before heading back to California, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an agreement in Mexico that he hopes will have be a lasting legacy for worker rights.


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October is National Pizza month. While many think of pizza as a food for couch potatoes, not athletes, there are ways to make pizza a more nutritious choice.
This variation of a typical pizza / cheesy bread is extra spicy for those looking to heat things up.
Dino Pavoni, owner of drive through pizza restaurant Simply Slices, Inc is planning on offering franchises.
The Champaign-Urbana area can look forward to a new mobile pizza business launching soon. Dave Saam will be working with his wife, brother and father to bring Dragon Fire Pizza to the area.
Homemade pizzas always seem to have that extra special flavor.
In Fort Collins, Colorado several new pizza places are slated to be in town by the end of the summer.
At the C2E2 comic and entertainment convention that took place in Chicago April 25th through the 27th, guests got to meet comic book artists, actors and authors. They also were given the opportunity to sample some unique pizza.
Veggies are hard to fill into dishes as it tends to often be the cause of a bland taste or a bitter one at times
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Yu'ebao's revenue goes down——
Instead of "post-90s" saving money "retaliation"?
Our reporter Chen Guojing
With the decline in Yu'e Bao's income, the "post-90s" not only did not escape from Yu'e Bao, but began to save money in a "retaliatory" manner? The "Yuebao Post-90s Post-90s Savings Report" (2020 version) recently released by the China New Economic Research Institute and Alipay shows that in the first half of the year, post-90s love to save more: the average amount of money saved per capita increased by nearly 40% compared with 2019. What's interesting is that "post-90s" tend to start saving from a small amount of money, and 60% of the savings are less than 20 yuan each...
Saving money with Yu'e Bao has also become a saving habit of the "post-90s". Data shows that among the 700 million Yu'e Bao users, 134 million are "post-90s." There are 174 million "post-90s" in China, which means that about 3 out of every 4 "post-90s" in the country are using Yu'e Bao to save money.
At present, the 7-day annualized rate of return of currency funds such as Yu'ebao has fallen to around 1.5% from a level of above 2% at the beginning of the year. Even so, it did not affect the pace of saving money for the "post-90s". In the context of the enhancement of Yu'e Bao's “saving money effect”, many young people who are accustomed to using Yu'e Bao have directly transformed into “basic people”. According to Alipay data, as of July 13, the number of new "basic people" on Alipay has more than doubled year-on-year in the past month, and more and more young people have achieved "advanced" financial management on Alipay. Some analysts believe that the flow of funds from Yu'ebao into the stock market is also an important reason for the clear decline in the share of money funds in June.
The report also shows that "post-90s" girls are more inclined to save more money, which is on average 20% higher than that of boys; 60% of users who hold funds on the Alipay platform are men, and women tend to choose more than men. A more robust financial management method.
After saving money, what plans does the "post-90s" have? Alipay data shows that "post-90s" have the habit of saving money for their goals, and the most users make travel as their goal to save money. Affected by the epidemic, many “post-90s” save money to prepare for travel after the epidemic; the resumption of movie theaters also provides a new way to switch from saving money to consumption.


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American cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex said Monday that they are creating a new platform of digital assets based in Malta. The company has created a subsidiary to manage its business outside the United States, said in a statement.
Bittrex Malta said on its web site that they plan to apply for a license from the Maltese authorities.
As additional benefits, the tokens listed in the Maltese Bittrex will be available for international partner exchanges Bittrex, provided that they comply with local laws.
“Thanks to our trading platform based in the United States, and our growing network of partner exchanges around the world makes Bittrex blockchain technology and digital assets more accessible to the global community,” said CEO bill Shihara.
From this point a global business Bittrex will be in the hands of the newly created branch Bittrex International. Chihara explained that the company, a subsidiary of the company which is Bittrex Malta, will be responsible for the promotion of blockchain technology outside of the United States.
This announcement from Bittrex appeared a few days after the platform has provided the USD with Cardano (ADA) and the zcash for (ZEC). FIATA trade on Bittrex will be available in March and includes also pairs with BTC, ETH, XRP, ETC, USDT and TUSD.
As for the Maltese market, Bitrex, it seems, is taking another step on the blockchain stage of the island. It is reported that cryptobiina exchange acquired a 10% stake in the Maltese blockchain of Palladium, which in July released the first initial offer on the convertible coins (ICCO), in cooperation with the Bittrex platform and e-Sports Unikrn.


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2014 Red Bull Global Rallycross Schedule
Media Day April 2nd, Los Angeles
May 17-18, Barbados
June 7, X Games Austin, Texas
June 21-22, Washington D.C.
July 19-20, New York
July 25-26, Charlotte, N.C.
Aug. 2-3, Detroit
Aug. 22-23, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Sept. 19-20, Los Angeles
Sept. 26-27, Seattle
Nov. 5, Las Vegas
Yokohama Tire Sponsorship :
Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC) is expanding its 2014 motorsports program to new arenas. The tire maker announced today it has signed an agreement to be the exclusive tire supplier of the Red Bull Global Rallycross (GRC) series. All competitors will race on specially-designed Yokohama ADVAN® race tires.
“This is a major move for us,’” said Andrew Briggs, Yokohama director, marketing, product planning and motorsports. “GRC is a rapidly growing motorsport with global appeal to a young, passionate fan base, making it an ideal platform to showcase the technology, strength and competitiveness of Yokohama.”
Colin Dyne, CEO of Global Rallycross, said, “Yokohama is world-renowned for its full line of tires and rich motorsports history. We’re glad to have Yokohama aboard and look forward to an exciting season of rallycross racing.”
AndrettiTV.com and Cinsay to Live Stream HD Video of Red Bull Global Rallycross Media Event:
AndrettiTV.com, powered by Cinsay, to live-stream HD video of the Red Bull Global Rallycross Media Day in Santa Monica, CA. Viewers can watch the official series presentation as it happens, share on social media and purchase branded race merchandise within the live-stream video.


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South Korea’s LG Electronics announced an exit from Phone-making business so as to focus its resources to other areas.
The company will get rid of handset business unit by 1st of July but continue offering aftersell services to LG phone users.
“Amid the market situation, the company has decided to use internal resources efficiently and focus on competitive businesses for future growth,” the company reported in a statement.
The company announced that it will reallocate its 3700 staff to other LG business affiliates such as home appliance and automotive parts manufacturing unit.
LG leaves behind a legacy in phone business with some of the most celebrated phone brands dating back from 1995. From Cyon in 1998, LG Chocolate Phone (2005) selling 20 million units globally, LG shine phone (2008), KP100 and KG270, Optimus G in 2012 and 3G Phone in 2014.
LG was the largest phone manufacturer globally until 2008 when Apple’s IPhone came into play.
LG’s Phone business began facing downhill fall from 2015 when it released its V10 in 2015 model as the gadget saw criticism for technological deformity.
The release of LG Velvet and LG wing in 2020 also did not surpus a 100,000 unit sale.
In 2020 LG had a 2.2 percent of global phone market share according to Strategy Analytics.
As reported by The Elec, in 2021, Apple ranked first in brand loyalty. This was followed by Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi and then LG. In market share, LG is ranked 10th.
This trend vividly show the cut-through competition that LG had been facing before its board of directors announced to bow out of phone making business.


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Stay in the know and receive the latest international franchising news, insight and investment opportunities
In his new role, Wooden will oversee the organization’s European, Middle Eastern, and African footprint.
Keep up to date with the latest Global Franchise News sent straight to your inbox. Sign up here.
FOCUS Brands, the parent company of household names like Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, and Jamba, has announced the appointment of Sean Wooden to vice president, managing director of Focus Brands International.
In this role, Wooden will oversee Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EUMEA). His vast management experience from within the hospitality space, coupled with his knowledge of European and Asia Pacific markets, made him the ideal choice for the position.
“With confidence, I can say that Sean’s proficiency in brand management, franchising, and operations around the world will arm him with the necessary tools to conquer new challenges and play a pivotal role in reaching sizable expansion goals for several brands within the FOCUS Brands portfolio,” said Beto Guajardo, president, Focus Brands International.
Starting his career as head chef at Hilton Portsmouth in 1990, Wooden subsequently held a number of senior management roles including director of business development at one of Hilton’s largest convention properties, as well as several hotel general manager roles.
He soon elevated to senior director of brand performance support for the Hilton Hotels & Resorts and DoubleTree by Hilton portfolios across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Soon after, Wooden was given the opportunity to move to Asia Pacific as vice president, brand management, to form a regional team to implement the company’s global strategic initiatives.
To date, FOCUS Brands has a portfolio of more than 6,000 restaurants, cafes, ice cream shoppes, and bakeries in the U.S., District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and over 50 additional countries around the world.
Green Home Solutions has signed four multi-unit deals to propel rapid expansion in the Midwest17 Sep 2021 | Read Article >
The strategic deal will further cement Scorpion’s position in the franchise marketing space17 Sep 2021 | Read Article >
The president gets candid about how to modernize established franchise brands17 Sep 2021 | Read Article >
The educational franchisor has signed its largest ever deal to bring 50 locations to Ontario by 202515 Sep 2021 | Read Article >
Mr Jeff appoints Peter Stern, a 20-year industry veteran as its managing director in the U.S.15 Sep 2021 | Read Article >
For further information on the Tiger Bills franchise please submit your details below.


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Square Enix has announced today that a limited pop-up experience will be arriving in London next month opening on November 3rd celebrating the renowned RPG series in its 30th anniversary year. Final Fantasy has been evolving with each title releasing since its inception and for one weekend up until Sunday 5th November, fans will have the opportunity to play legendary games from the series and browse through the store and purchase special, limited edition merchandise from the series.
Exclusive to the London pop-up experience, visitors will also have the chance to obtain one of three mug designs with the purchase of any themed drinks at the store. The exclusive Moogle, Chocobo, and Cactaur designs will be available in limited quantities throughout the three-day event and if you’re a fan of the series, we urge you to grab them while they’re hot!
Across the three-day event, fans of the series will also be able to sample the highly anticipated upcoming title to the series – DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY NT – This will be a perfect opportunity for fans who weren’t able to sample the title back at EGX to come down to the pop-up experience and experience it for themselves.
If that hasn’t hyped you enough by now, Square Enix has also announced that on Friday 3rd November, producer Ichiro Hazama for the DISSIDIA: FINAL FANTASY NT title will be in attendance while on Sunday, 5th November, legendary producer & director of the FINAL FANTASY XIV game, Naoki Yoshida will also be in attendance. Tickets are probably going to sell-out like hotcakes!
So how does one apply for a ticket to attend the pop-up experience? Well, Square Enix has specified that ticket details will be available soon on their social media pages, we’ve dropped their links below so you’ve got it bookmarked and ready to go!


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Scania brings its flagship model, the V8 R 730 Topline, to Scania Winter in Trysil, Norway. Altogether a wide range of 17 vehicles will be available to test and drive.
From the P 360 4×2, complete distribution truck with its very robust five-cylinder, 9-litre 360 hp engine, to a fully loaded 60-ton R 520 6×4 timber truck with the legendary 16.4-litre V8 Euro 6 engine, Scania will dominate the wintry roads around Trysil.
One of the main features will be the Scania Transport Laboratory, STL, one of its trucks with astonishing performance results. This Scania Euro 6 truck has almost 1.3 million kilometres on the clock.
Scania is taking a lead in the wearable technology market with the release of the new Scania Watch. The device clearly demonstrates how companies can benefit from the trend to fuse fashion with technology.
“Wearables” is the term used for clothing and accessories that incorporate computers and other advanced electronic technologies. It’s a hot new trend, yet experts say many organisations are struggling to find ways to use it to add value to their goods and services.
To assist its driver trainers, Scania has developed an innovative tablet application that replicates all data from the instrument panel.
The new WICkit – Wireless Instrument Cluster – includes a durable tablet and a recently-developed device which wirelessly relays data from the control system and transfers information to the tablet.


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If you’d prefer a sexless week to a phoneless one, you’re in good company: A third of Americans agree with you, a survey finds. Some 70% of Americans would turn down alcohol for a week rather than leave their phones behind, and 55% would kick their caffeine habits, Mashable reports. We’re a little more reluctant to give up our toothbrushes, however, with only 22% willing to make that weeklong sacrifice, the TeleNav survey finds.
The poll also finds some big differences between smartphone users and those with standard cell phones. Some 26% of smartphone people will whip out their phones at meals, while only 6% of regular cell phone users would do the same. And compared to their cell phone-using counterparts, smartphone users are twice as willing to forego hot showers for a week to keep their devices. And if you thought Apple was the biggest tech fashion statement, think again: Only 35% of iOS users see their phone as a reflection on their “sense of style,” compared to 50% of Android users and 43 % of BlackBerry users. Click through for more phone stats.


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Johannesburg - South African new vehicle sales held up relatively well in April 2018, considering the month marked an increase in VAT, emissions taxes and ad valorem duty, although in fairness this taxation triple whammy did not radically affect vehicle prices.
Nonetheless, April did see a 3.6 percent year-on-year improvement in overall vehicle sales, which totalled 36 346 units, but this was still a whopping 26 percent lower than the March 2018 sales, where pre-emptive buying ahead of April’s tax hikes boosted the numbers.
ALSO READ: Here’s how April’s tax hike hit car prices
“It’s encouraging to note that dealer channel sales have been up for the first four months of the year,” Mahoney added. “The slow performance of the rental segment, particularly over the first three months of the year, has weighed heavily on the overall market performance.”
Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine said April’s growth rate was as good as could be expected for the new vehicle market this year.
Nonetheless, it was passenger car sales that led April’s modest growth, increasing 6.4 percent year-on-year to 23 928 units, according to Naamsa, while bakkies and minibuses declined by 1.2 percent to 10 580 units.
The bakkies still dominated the top end of the sales charts, however, with the Toyota Hilux (2679) and Ford Ranger (2372) taking the top two overall spots, considerably ahead of Isuzu’s KB, which took third place with 1071 sales.
Volkswagen’s Polo twins continued their stranglehold of the passenger car market, with the older-generation car (2143) taking a slight lead over its newer sibling (1907). Hyundai’s Grand i10, which recently dropped down the price ladder with the introduction of a 1-litre derivative, took a solid third place with 1013 sales.
Below we’ve listed the 10 best sellers in eight of the key segments. Keep in mind that Mercedes-Benz vehicles are excluded from the list as the company does not report individual sales figures, while the Jeep numbers are also excluded as FCA figures are only expected mid-month.
|VW Polo Vivo||2143||2736|
|Hyundai Grand i10||1013||1032|
|BMW 1 Series||96||169|
|BMW 2 Series||67||103|
|BMW 5 Series||50||87|
|BMW 4 Series||44||80|
|BMW 7 Series||7||5|
|Opel Crossland X||81||49|
|VW Tiguan All-Space New||114||0|
|Toyota Land Cruiser200||96||136|
|Range Rover Sport||62||147|
|Land Rover Discovery||49||94|
|Range Rover Velar||49||72|
|Mitsubishi Pajero Sport||44||24|
|Nissan NP300 Hardbody||448||745|
|Hyundai H100 Bakkie||219||285|
|Toyota Landcruiser PU||192||262|
|Mahindra Scorpio Pik-Up||130||196|


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2 Billion Bluetooth Devices Remain Exposed to Airborne Attack Vulnerabilities2 Billion Bluetooth Devices Remain Exposed to Airborne Attack Vulnerabilities
One year after Armis disclosed 'BlueBorne,' a large number of Android, Linux, and iOS devices remain unpatched.
September 13, 2018
One year after security vendor Armis disclosed a set of nine exploitable vulnerabilities in Bluetooth, some 2 billion devices — including hundreds of millions of Android and iOS smartphones — remain exposed to the threat.
Armis disclosed the vulnerabilities — collectively dubbed "BlueBorne" — last September, describing them as an attack vector for adversaries to take complete control of Bluetooth devices. At the time, the company estimated some 5 billion Bluetooth-enabled products, including laptops, phones, smartwatches, and TVs, were impacted.
Since then, the vendors of many of these products have issued patches and software updates addressing the flaws.
But Armis estimates that at least 2 billion devices remain just as open to attack via BlueBorne vulnerabilities as they were one year ago.
Nearly half of the still-vulnerable devices, 995 million, are Android devices running either the Marshmallow or even older Lollipop versions of the operating system. Another 768 million are running either unpatched or unpatchable versions of Linux, 200 million are running various versions of Windows, and 50 million are iOS devices, the company said in a report Thursday.
That so many systems remain vulnerable to BlueBorne one year after the vulnerabilities were disclosed is not especially surprising, says Ben Seri, vice president of research at Armis. "When we first announced BlueBorne, we knew there were two primary challenges to addressing this type of exposure," he notes.
One of them is that many of the impacted devices — such as older, unsupported Android and iOS products — will never get patched, remaining at risk until the devices are discarded. Similarly, many systems running Linux, such as industrial equipment and medical devices, can be very difficult or impossible to patch.
The other challenge is the time it takes for device vendors, carriers, and enterprises to deploy patches — even when available — for such vulnerabilities. Google, Microsoft, and Linux groups, for instance, quickly issued patches for the flaws, but many of the others in the respective ecosystems have not, Seri says.
The BlueBorne vulnerabilities exist in Bluetooth implementations in Windows, Android, Linux, and iOS before Version 10. The flaws allow attackers to take complete control of vulnerable devices, steal data, distribute malware on them to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks, and spy on users.
Armis describes the BlueBorne flaws as enabling airborne attacks, where one infected Bluetooth device can be used to broadcast the malware to other devices over-the-air. In order to infect a device using BlueBorne, an attacker does not have to pair his or her own device with the target device, nor does the target device even need to be in discoverable mode.
"Airborne attacks bring new, frictionless attack capabilities," Seri says. Unlike traditional methods, users don't need to click a link or download a file to enable an attack. "Spreading through the air from device to device renders the attacks much more contagious and allows them to spread with minimum effort."
Such vulnerabilities also give attackers a way to jump air-gapped internal networks, such as those found in several critical infrastructure and industrial systems settings, he says.
Despite the prevalence of vulnerable systems, so far there is no evidence that attackers have actually exploited the flaws to do any of the things Armis has warned about. But the lack of evidence does not necessarily mean attackers aren't exploiting BlueBorne flaws.
"If attackers were to use airborne attacks, such as BlueBorne, how would this be detected?" Seri asks. "There would be no log that would show a Bluetooth attack taking place" in endpoint security products, firewalls, and network security products.
Bluetooth is completely unmonitored at many organizations, so for adversaries, attacks using BlueBorne would be a coveted vector since they would be completely under the radar, he says.
For enterprises, such vulnerabilities highlight the limitations of relying solely on device makers and carriers to address vulnerabilities in the operating systems and software stacks on their products. "It is critical to note that BlueBorne impacted not just IoT devices, not just the Amazon Echos, but [also] any device with Bluetooth — which means desktops, laptops, and potentially servers," Seri said.
Theoretically, at least, any device approved to be on a network could be compromised, and the attacker could then penetrate deeper into an organization.
"Enterprises should understand where connected devices are at use in their environments — both sanctioned and unsanctioned — [and] be able to track their actions and gain control over them in order to prevent the threat of attacks," Seri says.
Organizations need to be aware that any new communications method or protocol will always be a target for attacks and should expect to see attacks against Bluetooth vulnerabilities for years to come, adds Lamar Bailey, director of security research and development at Tripwire.
Auto updates, where available, are the best method for patching against known security issues so long as there is a process for thoroughly testing the updates before deployment. "Any one vendor or provider who pushes an update and bricks a bunch of customer devices will have a very bad day, and it will cause a financial impact," Bailey said.
Black Hat Europe returns to London Dec 3-6 2018 with hands-on technical Trainings, cutting-edge Briefings, Arsenal open-source tool demonstrations, top-tier security solutions and service providers in the Business Hall. Click for information on the conference and to register.
About the Author(s)
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Tech industry squeezed by U.S.-China rift: "The music is going to stop"
The new round of efforts to slow China's access to semiconductor technology the U.S. announced last month went further than many people expected. And the Biden Administration isn't slowing down, with more restrictions seen as likely.
Why it matters: The tech industry once drove a wider movement to tie the world's economies together. Now it's becoming a victim of larger forces that are tearing them apart.
Experts say it's also a cautionary tale for companies who still have a big dependency on China, either as a market for their products or as part of their supply chain.
- "The music is going to stop at some point," Martijn Rasser, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), tells Axios. "Instead of one chair getting pulled out, it’s going to be a lot of chairs."
Driving the news: The most recent round of sanctions, announced Oct. 7, focused largely on chips, with some additional restrictions on supercomputing.
- The new rules go further than past ones to limit China's access to chips and to chipmaking technology, as well as preventing U.S. citizens from working on key technology that is sold to China.
- Since then, the U.S. has made overtures to Japan and European allies seeking to get them to follow suit and also suggested that additional restrictions on China's access to other key technologies could also be in the offing.
"We are going to continue to look at not just what we did with semiconductors, but other areas that the Chinese are using to threaten the United States and its allies." Commerce undersecretary Alan Estevez said at a CNAS event last month, per The Washington Post.
State of play: The restrictions on chips are being billed as critical to national security. They aim to thwart Chinese military objectives, prevent the use of technology to further human rights abuses and prevent the U.S. from becoming economically dependent on China for key emerging technologies.
But the impact of the moves has been far broader, as they seem to push the long-term U.S.-China economic trend known as the Great Decoupling toward a deeper rift.
- Administration officials have stressed they're not seeking complete economic separation.
- But the restrictions have nonetheless sent companies in both the U.S, and China scrambling to chart strategies that don't rely on cross-border supply chains.
Of note: The new rules' limits on the work of American personnel added a fresh front to what had been an effort focused largely on preventing China from getting either leading-edge chips themselves, or the advanced equipment needed to make such chips.
- The U.S. is hoping that blocking China's access to U.S. expertise will impede China's effort to build off the gear they already have in their possession. "That’s going to do a lot to degrade their overall capabilities," Rasser said.
Flashback: Relations with China shifted considerably under the Trump Administration, which engaged in both a tariff war as well as targeted actions aimed at Chinese telecommunications giants Huawei and ZTE.
- The pandemic, meanwhile, served as a reminder of the risk of being dependent on China for so many different goods, as highlighted by early shortages of masks and other protective gear.
- Although the Biden Administration has chosen different areas to take action, it has embraced and extended its predecessor's recognition of China as a military and economic threat.
What they're saying: The administration's tough posture has won praise from those who have long urged deeper restrictions on China, such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
- "The administration's decision is strategically coherent, absolutely necessary for our long-term security and competitiveness, and judicious in its application," he said in a statement to Axios.
Meanwhile, most tech companies have remained silent, beyond acknowledging they will comply with whatever sanctions are imposed.
- A few companies most directly impacted by the latest sanctions have been forced to quantify the impact as part of their earnings reports.
- For example, Milpitas, Calif.-based chip gear maker KLA said the new rules will cost it $100 million in this quarter alone.
The big picture: While many chip companies have significant markets in China, plenty of other big tech companies don’t.
- Apple is an outlier: China provides most of its manufacturing but also serves as a significant market for the iPhone and other products.
- Like many other companies, Apple has begun shifting some manufacturing to India, Vietnam and other locations.
What's next: The U.S. may look to impose new restrictions on China's access to quantum computing technology, which threatens to break traditional encryption, Rasser said.
- Artificial intelligence is tougher to regulate, but the U.S. could look to place restrictions on some types of algorithms, he said.
And then there's TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media giant. Just this week, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr told Axios he favors an all-out ban on the service in the U.S., something Rasser says looks increasingly likely.


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Koho Monetary, a web-based monetary providers supplier, has raised $210 million in enterprise capital because it tries to increase its providers to supply a brand new various for payday loans in Canada, The Globe and Mail reported Tuesday (Feb. 1).
Koho’s cellular app offers a no-fee financial savings account, and it has grown its consumer base to over 500,000 because the pandemic. The app lets customers accumulate financial savings in a way that’s akin to an everyday high-interest financial savings account, however no charges are charged.
Customers are capable of spend funds with a pay as you go card, and the corporate makes its income from transaction charges earned from retailers. Per the report, this new funding will see Koho shifting extra to lending merchandise that can provide free advance entry to 1’s subsequent paycheck, a number of days earlier than payday.
By means of a partnership with Automated Knowledge Processing (ADP), customers can even have the ability to entry as much as 50% of their paycheck at any time, with zero curiosity.
Based on CEO Daniel Eberhard, the expansion exhibits that there’s extra demand for methods to handle cash and digital choices for individuals who don’t need to go to a bodily constructing.
“About half of Canadians live paycheque to paycheque, ready two weeks to receives a commission,” Eberhard stated. “We would like to have the ability to assist people entry the cash they’ve already created and never have to show to payday lending or tackle extreme debt.”
The funding spherical was led by new investor Eldridge, which is a Connecticut-based holding firm that invests in know-how, insurance coverage, asset administration, mobility, sports activities and gaming, media and actual property, amongst different industries.
There have been additionally commitments from returning buyers TTV Capital, Drive Capital and Portage Ventures, a wing of Energy Corp.’s alternative-investing arm Sagard Holdings. The spherical additionally featured investments from Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, Round13 and Enterprise Growth Financial institution of Canada.
In different early payday information, Revolut rolled out a partnership with U.Ok. employers to supply related providers final fall, PYMNTS reported.
Learn extra: Revolut Intros Payday Early Wage Access For UK
The service, referred to as merely ‘Payday,’ permits staff to attract down a few of their wages as they earn them, immediately getting the funds to their accounts.
Revolut founder Nik Storonsky stated the corporate believes in “the significance of creating monetary well-being accessible to all, and this consists of specializing in the affect of economic stability on staff’ psychological well being.”
NEW PYMNTS DATA: 70% OF BNPL USERS WOULD USE BANK INSTALLMENT OPTIONS, IF AVAILABLE
About: Seventy percent of BNPL users say they’d rather use installment plans offered by their banks — if only they were made available. PYMNTS’ Banking On Buy Now, Pay Later: Installment Payments And FIs’ Untapped Opportunity, surveyed more than 2,200 U.S. consumers to better understand how consumers view banks as BNPL providers in a sea of BNPL pure-plays.


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Pega released a new report that looked at consumer attitudes towards artificial intelligence indicates that, despite the fact that AI technologies are growing, consumers are lacking an understanding of how they benefit from AI. They are more likely to trust a real person to help them make decisions.
“Our study found that only 25% of consumers would trust a decision made by an AI system over that of a person regarding their qualification for a bank loan,” said Dr. Rob Walker, vice president, decisioning and analytics at Pega. “Consumers likely prefer speaking to people because they have a greater degree of trust in them and believe it’s possible to influence the decision, when that’s far from the case. What’s needed is the ability for AI systems to help companies make ethical decisions. To use the same example, in addition to a bank following regulatory processes before making an offer of a loan to an individual it should also be able to determine whether or not it’s the right thing to do ethically.”
Because of this, Pega announced the launch of the Customer Empathy Advisor, which is an AI tool that seeks to incorporate empathy and ethical-decision making in the framework of AI technologies.
The trust issues with AI are pretty serious, as 40% of respondents agreed that AI has the potential to improve the customer service of businesses they interact with. 30% felt comfortable with businesses using AI to interact with them. 9% said they were “very comfortable” with the idea.
There is some cynicism in regards to the businesses they do business with. 68% of respondents say that organizations have an obligation to do what is morally right for the customer, beyond what is legally required. Despite this, 65% of respondents don’t trust that company are looking out for customers interests.
54% of respondents said it’s possible for AI to show bias in the way to make decisions. But I suppose this could help with human assistance as well.
70% of respondents prefer speaking to a human over an AI system or chatbot when deal with with customer services. 69% of respondents agree that they would be more inclined to tell the truth to a human than to an AI system.


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Tyson Foods is a US consumer staples company.
It annually exports the largest percentage of beef out of the United States.
During recessions the demand for food still remains and sometimes discount retailers enjoy a surge of new customers seeking lower prices. The CEO of Tyson Foods, King, has said that their sales volumes are benefitting from competitors increasing prices.
Their price elasticity remains below historical levels
So, as we head into year end and speculation starts to grow about when the Federal Reserve will announce a pause in rates it could be worth looking at a consumer staple company like Tyson Foods.
Notice how, over the last 15 years, between November 17 and December 09 the company’s shares have gained 11 times for an average of 6.89%.
Major Trade Risks:
The major trade risk here is that previous seasonal patterns are not guaranteed to repeat each year and any negative news for Tyson Foods could invalidate the outlook.
Remember, don’t just trade it, but Seasonax it!


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In January, the overall price trend of praseodymium and neodymium products was still weak. Since the north China market significantly lowered its prices in early January, pessimism in the rare earth market has spread, and sellers have been selling goods at low prices. The price of praseodymium and neodymium is already at a low level. Due to cost support, there is not much room for its price to continue to decline. At this time, the Chinese New Year is approaching, and the downstream still needs to carry out procurement and stocking before the Chinese New Year. The quotations of the sellers are getting stronger. Beginning in mid-January, praseodymium and neodymium prices began to stabilize.
As rare earth price trends continue to be weak, mineral product prices are not optimistic either. Entering 2024, mineral product prices have also been falling. As the profit margin of mineral products continues to be compressed, ore sellers continue to be less willing to lower prices. The supply of low-priced rare earth minerals has tightened, and the price trend of rare earth products has begun to stabilize across the board.
As of now, the Chinese New Year is approaching, logistics operations have been suspended, and rare earth upstream and downstream companies have also begun to take holidays. Entering February, the trading atmosphere in the rare earth market has become increasingly quiet. It is expected that rare earth prices will continue to operate stably in the near future.


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U.S. private sector expands fast
Topics: U.S. PRIVATE SECTOR
The upturn was driven by a sharper increase in service sector output, as growth of manufacturing production was unchanged.
Adjusted for seasonal factors, the IHS Markit Flash U.S. Composite PMI Output Index posted 53.1 in January, up from 52.7 in December, to indicate the quickest rise in output since last March.
The increase in output was solid overall, despite the pace of growth remaining below the series long-run trend.
The composite index is based on original survey data from IHS Markit’s PMI surveys of both services and manufacturing.
New business across the private sector continued to rise in January, albeit at a softer pace.
The upturn in client demand softened slightly as both manufacturers and service providers registered slower expansions of new orders.
In fact, goods producers recorded the least marked improvement in demand since last September, with growth easing further from November’s ten-month high.
Meanwhile, new export orders placed with U.S. private sector firms dipped into contractionary territory at the start of 2020.
Nevertheless, firms expanded their workforce numbers at a faster rate in January.
Employment grew for the third successive month and at the quickest pace since last July.
The rate of job creation accelerated to a six-month high at service providers, while manufacturers registered the slowest rise in workforce numbers since last September.
Meanwhile, price pressures across the private sector remained historically subdued, despite the rate of input cost inflation picking up to a sevenmonth high.
Higher operating expenses were commonly linked to stronger increases in raw material prices and wages.
Average output charges rose at only a marginal pace, with the rate of inflation easing from December’s ten-month high.
At the same time, output expectations across the private sector improved at the start of 2020, with optimism reaching a seven-month high in January.
The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit Flash U.S. Services PMI Business Activity Index registered 53.2 in January, up from 52.8 in December.
This signalled a solid increase in service sector output that was the fastest since last March.
Although the pace of output growth accelerated, the expansion in new orders moderated slightly.
The upturn in sales was the third in as many months, and signalled stronger client demand compared to the second half of 2019.
Service providers were buoyed by further business activity growth and increased their workforce numbers, and at a quicker rate.
Service sector firms signalled an improvement in business expectations, as the degree of optimism reached a seven-month high.
However, business confidence remained well below the series trend Finally, the rate of input price inflation quickened to the sharpest since last July, despite being historically muted.
In an effort to remain competitive, services firms raised their output charges at only a modest pace.
Manufacturing firms noted a slower improvement in operating conditions in January, as signalled by a slight dip in the IHS Markit Flash U.S.
Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) 1 from 52.4 to 51.7 in January.
Notably, the latest upturn in the health of the sector was the softest since last October.
Although output continued to rise at a moderate pace, new business growth was only marginal as both domestic and foreign client demand softened.
Furthermore, new export orders for the first time since last September, though only slightly.
Nevertheless, goods producers continued to increase their workforce numbers at the start of 2020, albeit at the slowest pace for four months.
The softer rise in employment coincided with signs of easing capacity pressures, with January seeing the first fall in backlogs for four months.
At the same time, price pressures eased across the manufacturing sector in January.
A weaker increase in cost burdens occurred alongside only a fractional rise in factory gate charges. ■


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Zachary Perret, CEO at Plaid, a San Francisco-based Fintech firm, says that there have been significant changes in the digital financial services sector during the past 6 months. He confirms that there’s been a major shift in consumer behavior with more consumers preferring to use digital services instead of visiting physical business locations.
Perret, whose comments came during a recent CNBC appearance, notes:
“We, at Plaid, work with many [Fintech firms] like Square and Chime …we’ve also seen a huge uptake when it comes to banks [that are now offering more digital financial services.] We … got to partner with JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs… We’ve also seen a meaningful increase in the number of consumers using digital financial applications to live their day-to-day financial lives.”
A recent survey conducted by Plaid reveals that nearly 70% of US residents say that Fintech has “become a financial lifeline” during the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 80% of respondents said that they now manage their finances entirely online, without having to visit a physical branch. Meanwhile, 73% view Fintech as the “new normal” in a post COVID world.
“What we’ve seen is that consumers have fundamentally shifted the way they think about interacting with their finances. Historically, many people thought that they had to walk into a bank branch to do most things in their financial lives. Actually, the results of our survey say that the [majority of our customers] can manage their money in the future entirely without a [physical] bank branch.”
“Importantly, that does not mean entirely without a bank. Actually, banks are core. However, the way that they’ll interact with the banks going forward…It’ll be more over the Internet, more on their phone. People these days have a finance folder on their iPhone or Android…historically, [it’s] not the way how everyone had interacted with [financial platforms.] But these days we’re seeing almost every consumer in the US using digital financial products.”
Commenting on Chime raising more funds recently to reach a $14.5 billion valuation, Perret noted:
“Fintech itself and the digital financial services industry is having a really incredible moment right now. When you look at the usage of these applications, it went up on the order of 70% during the early [days of the] pandemic. When you see growth like that in applications, of course, the valuations will follow. But seeing things like Chime being valued at more than $14 billion, Robinhood being valued at more than $10 billion, and other companies like Stripe for example … all of which are, by the way, Plaid customers. Being at these very high valuations…it’s incredibly exciting for the future of digital financial services.”
As reported earlier this month, banking challenger Branch and Fintech Plaid are helping US consumers make informed financial decisions with real-time data insights.
Open Banking style benefits are now available to blockchain platform Ontology users, after its integration with Fintech Plaid.
In August 2020, US Fintech Qube Money announced its integration with Plaid to improve customer budgeting. In January 2020, Plaid had jumped to the top of the news cycle when Visa (NYSE:V) announced in January that it was acquiring the Fintech for $5.3 billion.
Plaid’s services enable consumers the ability to share their financial information with thousands of apps and services such as Acorns, Betterment, Chime, Transferwise, and Venmo. Plaid has emerged as a key service in the financial services sector. At the time of the announcement by Visa it was reported that one in four people with a US bank account have used, or are using Plaid to connect with a fintech, including crypto firms like Gemini, or traditional financial services firms.
Additionally, Plaid is a key driver in the transition to open banking and data access. Earlier this year, Crowdfund Insider interviewed Plaid’s Policy Lead John Pitts to learn more about his perspective on Open Banking and Fintech in general. Before joining Plaid, Pitts spent more than five years at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and thus has a unique Fintech policy perspective.
Pitts had stated:
“Every company is a Fintech company. We’ve seen tech companies adding financial services (think the Apple Card of Google Pay) at a rapid clip. Plaid is currently discussing how it can help 25% of the Fortune 100 companies with their financial services strategies. At the same time, financial services companies making big bets on digital and building out the data infrastructure that is necessary to support those strategies.”


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Capcom's next-gen Bionic Commando console game might have been a "miss" both critically and at retail, but most were in agreement that its digital download counterpart, Bionic Commando Rearmed, was an astounding success. So gamers should be excited to learn that a sequel, Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, is headed to Xbox LIVE Arcade and PlayStation Network.
The sequel finds Nathan Spencer going head-to-head against a new enemy, General Sabio, a "technologically sophisticated" bad dude looking to launch a fatal missile attack. Spencer will use all of his usual tricks to put an end to the menace, including his Bionic Arm, which can now be upgraded and enhanced throughout the game.
But the big news here is that for the first time in a Bionic Commando side-scrolling title, Spencer now has the ability to jump. That's right, I said it -- dude can bend his knees and jump. This simple move (often taken for granted in traditional side-scrolling games) has the potential to change the feel of the series, offering more freedom and possibilities.
In the premiere trailer for the game, we see Spencer attempting to use his Bionic Arm to reach a platform that's just out of reach. Using the jump, he simply hops up before releasing his arm to latch on. Capcom is also promising new "physics-based puzzles," but it's unclear what that means within the context of the game.
Rearmed 2 brings back to the same composer behind the sick remixed soundtrack of the original, and will feature cut-scenes designed by Massive Black, best known for its recent work on inFamous, BioShock 2, and God of War III. And just like the first title, you'll be able to experience it all with a friend in the game's two-player cooperative mode.
Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 is being developed by Swedish developer Fat Shark, and is set for an early 2011 release.
When it was unveiled that the ability to jump would be in Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, some of you freaked out. Just a tad. Well, maybe considerably more than that. But now many of us have tried jumping, and there's been a mor...more
In 2008, Capcom rebooted the Bionic Commando franchise with two remarkably disparate approaches. On one end of the spectrum was the third-person action retail title, Bionic Commando, which found ex-Faith No More singer Mike P...more
Similar to the PlayStation Network release of Final Fight: Double Impact, so too does Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 on PSN have DRM which requires an Internet connection upon booting up the game. The difference is that this time,...more


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Stats NZ said earlier this year that farm costs were at their highest level since they started keeping track in 1993.
Stats NZ data showed that food prices went up 10.1% year-on-year in October, which was the biggest increase in 14 years. Fruits and vegetables grew by 17% on their own.
But companies still make money even though their farmer suppliers have to pay very high prices and consumers are being pushed from all sides.
Here’s a look at some of the biggest food exporters and why they keep doing well despite pressures at home.
Alliance Group Limited was a farmer-owned co-op that had eight sites in New Zealand where it did freezing work. They sent meat and by-products from animals that ate grass to Europe, North America, and Asia.
This week, the group said that its pre-tax profit for the year ending September 30, 2022, was just over $117 million, which was a record.
Their profit was up a huge 186% from the year before, and it was based on a record-breaking $2.2 billion in sales.
The co-op would give its farmer shareholders a profit share of $11.3 million and give each qualifying stock unit holder a bonus share worth $10 million.
Fonterra is a well-known company, and this year they reported a normalised profit after taxes of $591 million, which is 1% more than they made last year.
They made $23.4 billion as a group, which is 11% more than last year.
This year, the company paid its farmers a record farm-gate milk price of $9.30 per kilogramme of milk solids. The farmers gave them 1.478 billion kilogrammes of milk solids.
The company said that New Zealand benefited from their profits because milk price payments alone put $13.7 billion back into the economy this year.
Zespri is known for being the largest local exporter of kiwifruit. They also sold to markets nearby.
This year, the company said that net sales of kiwifruit around the world went up by 12%, to just over $4 billion.
After taxes, their net profit was $361.5 million, which was more than last year’s $277.1 million.
Zespri sold more than 200 million trays of both New Zealand kiwifruit and kiwifruit from other countries.
The world’s operating income was $4.47 billion, which was 15% more than last year.
The company and kiwifruit growers had been having problems with the quality of the fruit, and it was expected that these problems would last into the next season.
Silver Fern Farms
Silver Fern Farms Limited is a New Zealand-based company that sells meat all over the world.
It was owned equally by Silver Fern Farms Co-op Ltd, a group of 16,000 New Zealand farmers who raise sheep, cattle, and deer, and Shanghai Maling, a Chinese food company.
The company was the biggest one in New Zealand that processed and sold livestock.
Last year, they made a net profit of $51.3 million before taxes and $103.8 million after taxes.
About 6000 people worked for the company.
Last year, their books showed that they made $2.7 billion in sales and paid out $46.7 million in dividends.
Why are they able to make money in this economy?
Matt Montgomerie and Margaret Bei, agriculture analysts at Forsyth Barr, said there were a number of reasons why some companies did well even though the economy as a whole was getting worse.
Montgomerie said that New Zealand agriculture as a whole focused on high-quality goods that were still in demand around the world and that exports helped these businesses.
Bei said that rising prices and the weak New Zealand dollar were positives, but that companies had also faced a lot of problems in the past year, especially with rising wages and costs.
Montgomerie said that most agriculture food companies sold finished products, like meat, or raw materials, like whole milk powder, that were used as ingredients in other products.
Montgomerie said that even though the economy is uncertain, the demand for these products should be strong by nature.
If the agricultural sector keeps doing well, it should help rural areas because many companies hire locally. Bei said that this helps local economies in a big way.


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NBU worsens inflation forecast for 2018 to 8.9%
The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has worsened the inflation forecast for 2018 to 8.9% from 7.3%, according to the central bank's website.
"The National Bank predicts that in 2018 inflation will remain high: 8.9% total inflation and 8.2% underlying inflation," the report said.
According to the National Bank, inflationary pressure will be due to a number of factors. Among them is the transfer of growth in prices of raw products, which was observed in 2017 (primarily for meat and milk) to the prices of products with a high degree of processing, growth of public income and, accordingly, a higher consumer demand against the background of higher social standards and wages in the private sector, the increased external vulnerability of the Ukrainian economy due to delays in cooperation with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The National Bank also notes high inflationary expectations of the population and businesses caused by the current growth rates of consumer prices and volatility in the currency market in recent months, as well as the rapid growth of world oil prices, which leads to higher fuel prices in the domestic market.
At the same time, the NBU notes that consumer inflation in 2018-2020 will be gradually declining and will reach the target level in mid-2019.


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TODAY’S TWO MINUTES HATE….Here’s the latest reason to hate credit card companies: Shop at Wal-Mart, obviously a sign of financial distress, and your credit limit gets lowered. Hallelujah!
This is from American Express, which has now decided to hunker down and simply lie about their habit of doing this. Compare and contrast the following news accounts. When Kevin Johnson returned from his honeymoon last year he got a letter from Amex saying, “Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express.” Here’s what they told the Atlanta Journal Constitution about this in December:
“We’re just doing this to manage risk,” said Lisa A. Gonzalez, an American Express spokeswoman. She declined to say which retailers or mortgage companies are associated with consumers with higher default rates. She said it makes sense to examine these factors because “customers who have loans outstanding with certain lenders or customers who make transactions with certain merchants tend to have a higher proportion of credit issues or a higher probability of default.”
And here’s what they told the New York Times this week:
“The letters were wrong to imply we were looking at specific merchants,” said Susan Korchak, a company spokeswoman….Now, the company says that there never was such a list. So what about the language in its letters to cardholders, which calls out particular “establishments” where cardholders had shopped, I asked. Well, apparently that was all just a big misunderstanding, despite the number of people who must have been in on drafting the notes in the first place.
So: a month ago monitoring your transactions with “certain merchants” was a legitimate way of managing risk. This month the story is that they were never doing it in the first place. You betcha.


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3 of 5Image
The display could be used to allow consumers to access film information. More than one user can interact with the technology at once. Touching the screen could bring up cinema listings and film clips.
This technology was trialled at the Virgin Store in New York's Union Square, for three months. The window of the shop was made interactive, the goal being to draw shoppers into the store by displaying Virgin's wares.
"It's a good way to turn some advertising into display, and encourage interaction," said Mike Redding, director of development for Accenture. "You can start measuring the level of engagement of the crowd."
Accenture has also investigated military command and control scenarios. "Imagine immersing people in this information," said Robert Hasson, business development leader for communications at Accenture. Commanders can manipulate terrain information and monitor real-time troop movements. "You have to have integration on the back-end of your data sources, but you'd need good data sources and intelligence gathering to create a proper command centre application," Hasson added.
Accenture has "shown this technology to the military in the US, and they're interested. However, it is just a conversation at this point," Hasson told ZDNet UK. Officers could overlay strategy and projected troop movements, and use that as a basis for commands.


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What Does DJI Mavic Mean in Westport IN 47283
Together with the Phantom and encourage ranges, the OSMO happens to be a person in their most recognisable releases. Giving stabilised footage at around 4K quality, you might be guaranteed fantastic movies (and also 12MP stills) via the Zenmuse X3 which will come as typical Together with the gimbal.
Not Every person who wants a drone are going to be super stoked about having to lug a huge ol’ carrying circumstance all-around. For those individuals, there’s the DJI Spark. It’s super compact, to allow them to stuff it into their bag without having Considerably extra bulk.
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Westport, CT Jeffrey Dunne, David Gavin and Travis Langer of CBRE’s National Retail Partners represented the owner, CapFor Westport, LLC, in the $30 million sale of 1365 Post Road East (Rte. 1). The team was also responsible for procuring the purchaser.


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Those punitive measures are not meant to prevent Iranians from accessing personal communications over the internet, such as instant messaging, chat, email, social networks, web browsing, blogging and media sharing.
But digital subscription services, like online gaming, are not necessarily covered by those exemptions.
A company selling an online service to users in Iran could potentially land in hot water with the US Treasury if the user opening the account has been slapped with US sanctions.
“It appears that Riot Games is being prudent with this decision,” said Brian O’Toole, a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council and a former senior adviser with the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that administers and oversees sanctions.
“If Riot were to argue that its services were authorised, then it would have to identify any person who met the Government of Iran definition and deny them an account, as well as any who were designated [sanctioned] under counterterrorism and other such authorities,” O’Toole tells Al Jazeera. “This would be exceedingly difficult as there is little to no identity verification used in gaming profiles.”
It is not just online gaming – companies across different industries are increasingly weighing the potential risks of selling online services to customers in Iran.
San Francisco-based GitHub, the world’s largest software code-hosting service, severely restricted users from Iran in late July. Cloud computing services giant Amazon Web Services also disabled Iranian accounts this year.
Riot Games is not the only game developer or publisher to block Iranian users from its list of eligible service recipients.
Epic Games, which developed the online phenomenon Fortnite, has blocked its online store to Iranians.
Apex Legends, a major game developed by Electronic Arts (EA), was blocked in February but was later unblocked after calls by Iranian fans.
Iran-based gamers can were temporarily unble to access California-based Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft.
Epic Games, Riot Games, EA and Respawn Entertainment – the development studio behind Apex Legends- did not respond to Al Jazeera requests for comment.


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The role-playing game franchise Dungeons and Dragons states that it will not allow artists to use artificial intelligence technology to draw their cast of wizards, druids and other characters and settings.
D&D art is meant to be imaginative. But at least one axe-wielding giant struck some fans as too odd, prompting them to take to social media to question whether it was man-made.
Hasbro-owned D&D Beyond, which makes online tools and other companion content for the franchise, said it only learned on Saturday that an illustrator it has worked with for nearly a decade has used AI to create commissioned art for a to create an upcoming book. The franchise, which is operated by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast, said in a statement that it has spoken to this artist and is clarifying its rules.
“He will no longer use AI for the work of the Wizards going forward,” read a post on the D&D Beyond account on X, formerly Twitter. “We are revising our process and updating our artist guidelines to clarify that artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their art creation process for D&D development.”
Today’s AI-generated art often features telltale glitches, such as distorted limbs, which has caught the attention of skeptical D&D fans.
Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast did not respond to requests for further comment Sunday. Hasbro bought D&D Beyond last year for $146.3 million. The Rhode Island-based toy giant has owned Wizards of the Coast for more than two decades.
The graphic in question is in a forthcoming hardback book of monster descriptions and lore called Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. The digital and physical versions of the pack will be sold on the D&D website for $59.95 and is scheduled for release on August 15th.
The use of AI tools to support creative work has sparked copyright and labor rights concerns across a range of industries, fueled the Hollywood strike, prompted the music industry’s Recording Academy to revise its Grammy awards protocols, and prompted some visual artists to Suing AI companies for starting their work without their consent to create image generators anyone can use.
Hasbro rival Mattel used AI-generated imagery to come up with ideas for new Hot Wheels toy cars. However, it was not said if this was more than an experiment.
https://torontosun.com/news/world/dungeons-and-dragons-tells-illustrators-to-stop-using-ai-to-generate-artwork Dungeons & Dragons is asking illustrators to stop using AI to generate artwork


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The highly saturated and competitive hair care category has experienced only modest increases in recent years, but industry observers predict the category will grow double-digits through 2017, thanks in large part to niche items and products that target emerging segments.
(For the full category review, including sales data, click here.)
After experiencing a sales lift of just 7% between 2007 and 2012, likely due to a weakened economy, the hair care category is projected to grow by about 13% through 2017, reaching an estimated $7.9 billion, according Mintel Group’s April 2013 research report on shampoo, conditioners and styling products in the United States.
Driving growth are such niche items as shampoo alternatives and hair oils, as well as products that target such emerging segments as anti-aging and men’s grooming.
“Consumers are motivated by value in the hair care category, but they are willing to pay for improved performance, as well as compelling new product benefits,” Mintel stated. “Driving growth and encouraging consumers to ‘trade up’ in the category will likely revolve around niche items and emerging segments.”
Shampoo — the largest segment in the category — will likely see future growth stem from price increases and value-added benefits, like anti-aging. There’s also been a rise in hair care solutions that target women experiencing hair loss.
Shampoo alternatives also are generating great interest, as some women look for time-saving solutions and less damaging alternatives to shampooing, such as dry shampoo and cleansing conditioners.
In fact, earlier this year Mintel reported that in 2008 dry shampoo introductions accounted for just 1% of global shampoo launch-activity. But by 2012 the segment accounted for 3% of global shampoo launch-activity, and 2013 was on track to surpass 2012 levels.
Conditioner is the strongest-performing segment within the category, according to Mintel, but opportunities exist to further grow the segment by successfully targeting men. Today, women are the biggest users of conditioner.
The styling products segment, on the other hand, has experienced weaker sales likely due to a trend toward more natural hairstyles, as well as limited discretionary spending among shoppers.


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Are you ready for your transactions to be processed at lightning speed?
Great news: we’re bringing the Lightning Network to Paxful. Built on top of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain, Lightning will allow you to transfer BTC in a matter of seconds and with much lower fees.
It’ll seamlessly blend into the Paxful platform and be integrated with the Paxful Wallet, allowing the Lightning experience to be essentially the same as it is now—only faster and cheaper, allowing you to trade and pay for goods and services at even faster rates.
To break down the announcement, we turn to Ray Youssef, Paxful CEO and Co-Founder and Elizabeth Stark, Lightning Labs CEO and Co-Founder:
Tell us about Lightning Labs—what the goal is, notable features of the Lightning Network, etc.
Elizabeth: Our goal at Lightning Labs is to bring bitcoin to billions of people. We are building the technology to make this possible with instant, high volume transactions on the Lightning Network. We build the infrastructure, and developers build the end-user applications that bring it to the users.
Why is it so easy today to send a photo in any application to anyone around the world, but it’s so difficult to send money or value? Lightning fixes this by enabling people to send global transactions and embed them in the internet. Lightning is a software layer that operates on top of the bitcoin blockchain, like a decentralized Visa for bitcoin transactions.
At its core Lightning enables two categories of applications: use cases that were not previously possible, such as internet-native payments, and access for those that previously did not have it, such as what we’re seeing in emerging markets today.
What struck you to tap the potential of Lightning? Which features of the Lightning Network are most valuable to Paxful users?
Ray: Scale, scale, scale. The Lightning Network is the cheapest option for Bitcoin micropayments, which will massively amplify Paxful’s work around leveraging how Bitcoin can be used as a means of exchange rather than a speculative asset. The Bitcoin Network is capable of handling 5 to 10 transactions per second but Lightning has the potential to process hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. This meets the demand for Bitcoin transactions while still keeping fees low. Also, Lightning’s ability to transfer micropayments is huge for Bitcoin adoption, as this will continue to push Bitcoin to be used as a means of exchange.
Why does Lightning matter to emerging markets? The larger financial industry?
Ray: Speaking to emerging markets, in countries like Nigeria and Kenya, we’re seeing people use Bitcoin for everyday uses like remittances and payments. Take Joseph Ebuka for example, a Paxful Peer in Nigeria that buys art pieces with Bitcoin. Most of his earnings are in crypto and it’s more convenient for him to pay for goods and services with Bitcoin. However, for Ebuka and countless others, micropayments on the Bitcoin Network can come with high fees. Lightning wipes these issues out. On Paxful, transaction fees via the Lightning Network will be set at a low cost, virtually free compared to alternatives. This has global implications as Bitcoin now becomes a strong financial contender for everyday transactions.
Elizabeth: Emerging markets are essential to the goal of bringing bitcoin to billions. They are the future, and in many cases have adopted technology faster than the developed world. For example, 32% of Nigerians have adopted bitcoin according to surveys, and 50% of the country’s population is 18 or under. They’re leading the world in terms of the future of bitcoin.
Access to financial services is also key. Just last week, El Salvador launched its legal tender law, where bitcoin is now officially a form of currency in the country. Only 20-30% of people in El Salvador have access to a bank account, but many more have access to a smartphone and can use bitcoin.
Lightning is also key to helping users earn bitcoin, as we’ve seen with applications like Stak in Southeast Asia and Latin America, and the numerous gaming companies that have emerged where players are able to earn money in tournaments.
Finally, there are many people around the world living in an environment of inflation, capital controls, and other financial obstacles. Bitcoin provides a way out for these people, and Lightning makes it more scalable and accessible to all. It enables anyone around the world to earn and spend money without the fear of inflation, high international transfer fees, and other ways in which wealth is devalued.
What is the Lightning Network solving? How can it boost the adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Ray: For a $10 transaction on Paxful via the Lightning Network, the transaction fee—which, in this case, is 10¢—is over 97% cheaper than the transaction fee through the Bitcoin network. That ushers in the ability to send Bitcoin payments like you do on Venmo. This gets us one step closer to Paxful being an invisible bridge for Bitcoin transactions and that’s when adoption will rocket: when the underlying technology takes a backseat within the user experience and the product experience becomes seamless.
Elizabeth: We believe deeply in solving real problems for real people, and the use case of cross-border transactions is a great one. Today people could pay up to 10% or more with existing solutions. Bitcoin provides an alternative, and over Lightning, the transactions can be instant with very low fees.
There’s also a network effect that goes along with the adoption of bitcoin and Lightning. The more people that use the technology, the more useful it is for others to use, and we’re seeing that play out now with the increasing adoption in emerging markets.
What is the potential for changing how Bitcoin is viewed?
Ray: It’s industry-shaping. By and large, Bitcoin is viewed as a speculative asset globally. We need to change that. There’s a place for HODL mentality within the Bitcoin community, but we also need to be inclusive for Bitcoin’s other use cases such as remittance, wealth preservation, and payments. Paxful’s early integration within the Lightning Network brings the industry a massive leap forward. We’re enabling Bitcoin adoption to scale by making micropayments a reality and that will benefit everyone: users, merchants, businesses, lawmakers, and economies. It will also show that Bitcoin is a reliable, cheap financial option for exchange. Some businesses may be hesitant, but we believe this has a bigger impact for the wider industry—not just now, but in the future.
Elizabeth: With Lightning, users won’t even know they’re using Bitcoin and Lightning, much like users of the internet don’t know they’re using TCP/IP. People will be able to natively and seamlessly send money in any application on the internet, similar to how they can send photos today. Bitcoin can be the protocol that underpins transacting on the internet, from cross-border payments to payments embedded in chat apps to gaming to supporting artists and creators.
Lightning can make bitcoin so ubiquitous that it underlies the way we transact on the internet. In effect, Lightning enables the internet of money. But the vast majority of users may not know it, and it will just work.
What opportunities can the network unlock in the future?
Ray: Bitcoin is the future of finance and the industry needs to get onboard. The core of the Bitcoin whitepaper spoke about leveraging a financial system for the masses—not for the wealthy, but for everyday people. Businesses need to start enabling products and services that fulfill this dream. I look forward to seeing a world where economies cater to the financial needs of the lower and middle classes. Where U.S. immigrants have an affordable option to send funds abroad, South Americans easily transfer their wealth into digital currency during times of inflation and African businesses can pay their workers at mass in Bitcoin. Paxful’s integration on the Lightning Network is pushing that mission forward and we will remain steadfast until our dream is realized.
Elizabeth: Billions of people don’t have access to credit cards today, and bitcoin over Lightning can play a major role in increasing access to digital payments. We’ll see even greater connectivity globally with more equal access to a monetary system much like how the internet provided greater access to information and educational resources. Bitcoin and Lightning will do in 10 years what the internet did for information — make it more accessible and democratized.


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Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Hospital workers OK contract agreement
SEATTLE -- Members of a labor union representing about 4,000 nurses and other employees of Swedish Medical Center approved a contract agreement in voting that concluded Monday night.
Increased health insurance costs for some employees and future changes to retirement benefits were approved by 96 percent of voting members of Service Employees International Union Local 1199NW. The changes will affect nurses, technical workers and support staff.
Swedish had sought to more broadly increase how much workers pay for insurance, but settled on smaller increases in premiums for dependents only.
- Lyft Testing Netflix-Like Subscription Packages for Riders Wibbitz
- Lexus Is Getting Into the Luxury Boat Business Fortune
- Start-Up Offering to Preserve & Upload Your Brain, But There's a Catch Buzz 60
- Amazon Unveils 'Spheres' Green Space In Seattle Associated Press
- Tariffs could affect Maine businesses WMTW
- Triad CEO provides tips on how women can maximize business potential, finances WXII
- Lending business changes policies in wake of Florida school shooting Fox5Atlanta
- The Booming Business of eSports Cheddar TV
- Inside essential oils marketing, a billion-dollar wellness business with plenty of critics Mic
- Millennials fell for scams more than grandparents last year Fox29
- International reaction to Trump's tariffs Euronews
- EXCLUSIVE: Facebook Takes on LinkedIn With New Jobs Tool Cheddar TV
- Amazon Acquires Smart Doorbell Maker 'Ring' for a Reported $1 Billion Wibbitz
- Apple Admits it Uses Google's Cloud for iCloud Wibbitz
- A look into the shipping container home business Fox29
- Airbnb Appeals To Luxury Market With 'Airbnb Plus' Buzz 60
- The Shocking Amount Americans Spend on Impulse Buys in Their Lifetime Buzz 60
- US Marijuana Job Growth Could More Than Double By 2021 Buzz 60
- Amazon Offering Cash Back to Customers Who Shop at Whole Foods Wibbitz
- Volkswagen Sets Record for January Sales Wibbitz
It also sought to replace the current pension with a system similar to a 401(k), but agreed to phase in the new system for new employees starting next year.
Although SEIU hoped to prevent the change in retirement altogether, the union did win a promise from Swedish that it would never try to push employees hired by the end of this year into the new plans, said Diane Sosne, president of the local.
Toys 'R' Us closing two stores in region
Toys "R" Us Inc. announced plans Tuesday to close two Western Washington stores in early spring. Toys "R" Us started holding inventory liquidation sales Saturday at locations in Federal Way and Bellingham.
Monday, the company announced it would close 87 stores in coming months as part of its reorganization after being taken private last year, but it plans to convert 12 of those into Babies "R" Us stores.
West Monroe Partners opens local office
Chicago-based West Monroe Partners has expanded into the Seattle market with a new downtown office to serve the regional economy, the business and technology consulting company said Tuesday.
Two former Washington Mutual Inc. executives, Tom Bolger and Jennifer Bohn, were named co-directors of the five-person office. By the end of 2006, West Monroe Partners hopes to have up to 15 employees in Seattle.
President Dean Fischer said the Seattle market plays well to his company's strengths, especially with financial, international trade and supply chain issues.
Insurer sells building for $39.6 million
Farmers New World Life Insurance Co. sold the five-story office building, located at 3003 77th Ave. S.E. Under the sales agreement, Farmers will lease the building, which serves as its headquarters, for 15 years.
$94 million buys apartment complexes
BlackRock Realty Advisors of New York has paid a total of about $94 million for two luxury apartment complexes on the Eastside.
The Seattle office of CB Richard Ellis, which represented former owner JPI of Texas, announced the sales Tuesday.
In Redmond, JPI sold the 230-unit Jefferson at Marymoor complex for more than $44.9 million. In Issaquah, the 247-unit Jefferson at Talus sold for about $48.3 million. BlackRock is a pension fund adviser.
Wal-Mart created 125,000 jobs last year
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, created 125,000 jobs last year and raised the average hourly pay for full-time workers 4.4 percent to $10.11 as it opened more urban stores.
Average wages in cities including San Francisco, Denver, Boston and Atlanta exceed $11 an hour, the Bentonville, Ark.-based company said in a statement Tuesday.
Wal-Mart issued the report after a year in which the company was criticized by labor groups, politicians and religious leaders over what it pays its workers.
Boeing part of bid to get Army work
Raytheon Co., The Boeing Co. and International Business Machines Corp. have formed an alliance to jointly bid for Army computer services work.
The five-year services program has a value of as much as $20 billion, Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon said Tuesday in a statement. Raytheon, which had total sales of $20.2 billion last year, will lead the team.
Air One going with Airbus for new planes
Air One, Italy's second-largest airline, plans to buy 30 Airbuses worth about $1.8 billion at list prices to expand and to replace older and smaller Boeing aircraft.
"Air One will buy 30 A320s that will gradually replace the 30 Boeing Co. 737 it now operates," Air One spokeswoman Antonella Covello said Tuesday.
Air One's current fleet includes Boeing 737-200 and 737-300 aircraft that seat 120 to 136 passengers. The new Airbus planes each will seat 150 passengers.
The Airbus order will be announced at a news conference in Rome Thursday.


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Adoption of IATA's New Distribution Capability (NDC) is growing throughout the industry. According to IATA, 36 airlines were using some form of NDC as of early June, and another 80 were expected to come onboard in the near term. GDSs, technology providers and even agencies are also being certified to send and receive NDC messages.
IATA has said from the outset that NDC will enable airlines to personalize offers and sell all their products, including ancillaries, through travel agencies. But that promise does face some impediments.
The concept behind NDC is a simple one: an XML messaging standard designed to be easier and more flexible than the existing Edifact standard that NDC is designed to replace. However, while the concept might be simple, its implementation is not, and it tends to vary by airline.
In March, a Phocuswright report by analyst Bob Offutt titled "New Distribution Capability (NDC): It's Only Just Begun," cautioned that while NDC is a "common data standard ... airlines could be on different versions of the NDC standard or have different interpretations of how to use the standard. This has made each airline implementation unique."
Nevertheless, the pace of adoption is picking up after a slow start, according to Daniel Friedli, the managing director of the travel industry consulting firm Travel in Motion.
Friedli, who was master of ceremonies at a two-day NDC Summit organized by American Airlines in late June, said that most major carriers are making use of NDC to some extent.
Alexandre de Juniac
But IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac said the organization wants to see more widespread application of NDC technology, even by carriers that are already employing it.
"We have a lot of companies but not enough volume," he said of NDC-supported distribution.
Like Offutt, Friedli said technical problems are slowing adoption of NDC. Notably, he said, airlines aren't selling interline tickets through NDC-supported connections.
"As long as these problems aren't completely solved, we're not going to see the skyrocketing of adoption," Friedli predicted.
Among the airlines that are using NDC, American has been a leader. In fact, Cory Garner, the airline's vice president of sales and distribution, asserted that IATA adopted much of the NDC standard from technology American was using a decade ago.
The airline currently has NDC-enabled direct connects with 60 travel agencies, he said. And all of the U.S-based OTAs use NDC connections with American in some form. Combined, those connections account for approximately 4 million ticket sales per year, about 10% of American's U.S. point-of-sale travel agency volume.
When American announced last month that it would offer a $2 per segment incentive to agencies to book through an NDC-enabled connection to the airline, several agencies quickly said they would participate. Among them was HRG, whose global travel services director, Ian Windsor, said that participating in initiatives like American's are important.
"Customers need to be able to buy in whichever channel best suits them, and you can't force everything through the same channel," Windsor said. "And I think an open-channel way of doing it, this 'omnichannel' that people talk about, it's the way the business is going to be going forward."
He added: "It's not for me to say 'embrace it or lose it,' but I do think there will be an element of, you have to at least be involved in the conversations that dictate where the future is going to be and have a say in it rather than just sit on the outside and say, 'No, it's another fad, it's not going to happen.' Because I seriously think this one is going to happen, and people are going to find out the hard way if they don't join in the conversations."
Windsor said that going forward, HRG is committed to building direct connections with airlines.
W Travel, a travel management company (TMC) based in New York, is also committed to NDC. In fact, it recently became the first TMC to achieve NDC certification from IATA, which certifies airlines, travel agencies, aggregators and IT providers at one of three levels. Level 3 denotes the highest level of compliance.
W Travel CEO Sarosh Waghmar said that the Frosch affiliate currently has an NDC connection with American Airlines, and it is looking to establish further direct connections with other airlines. W Travel is Level 2 certified and on track to reach Level 3 certification by the end of the year.
Waghmar said that investing in NDC is a priority for W Travel because it is about giving W's clients the best options possible.
"We are betting on this," he said. "We believe that customers come first, and from a TMC or technology perspective, it is painful to use the existing way of booking a ticket and pushing out ancillaries. It's broken, right? You can [only] do so much in the GDS."
Waghmar said he believes NDC will improve agents' workflow and help present clients with more relevant, personalized offers.
"Through NDC, [the workflow] matches a product and offer for who it is, when it is and what they are consuming; that's the magic that will happen," he said.
Still, direct connects remain controversial among many travel agents who prefer the more unified workflow offered within the GDS environments.
Moreover, some airlines aren't taking the gentle, incentive-based approach that American has embraced. Two years ago, the Lufthansa Group shook up the agent channel when it began imposing an $18 distribution fee on bookings made within a GDS. The move was an effort to drive more distribution into direct channels as Lufthansa sought to get away from the full-content agreements that the GDSs have been able to extract from airlines.
This November, British Airways and Iberia will follow suit with a $10 one-way fee on GDS bookings. When the carriers' parent company, IAG, announced the fee in May, it emphasized that it has invested substantially in NDC over the past few years and that agents can book via NDC-enabled direct connections.
"My forecast is that this will be the future, not to have full content through the GDS," said Harry Hohmeister, a member of Lufthansa's executive board and a former head of the company's worldwide distribution strategy.
The direction many travel agencies and airlines go with NDC could ultimately be determined by how quickly the GDSs develop the capability to use the standard for displays and sales of the full suites of ancillary products offered by airlines. Currently, the vast majority of ancillaries sold through the GDS are for seat assignments. Notably, American made its $2 per segment incentive offer valid even for NDC-supported bookings through the GDSs.
Across the industry, NDC implementation is still in its relatively early stages, according to David Doctor, Amadeus' vice president of provider offer management.
"We're going through the process, all the parts and players, of learning about it," Doctor said.
Amadeus itself has been able to integrate XML connections (NDC is an XML standard) since 2007, when it started to do so with low-cost carriers. The company currently holds the highest level of NDC certification from IATA as an IT provider. Its distribution business, or GDS, is working to achieve certification.
According to Doctor, Amadeus currently has NDC-type connections with United and Delta for ancillaries, and it plans to work with American after the carrier announced its ability to offer NDC product bundles within corporate booking sites. The carrier also said it hoped to work with GDSs to present its full suite of ancillary products, but for that to happen, GDSs would be required to have Level 3 NDC certification, which none yet have.
On Sabre's most recent financial earnings call with analysts, CEO Sean Menke discussed the three levels of NDC certification and what each entails.
According to Menke, Level 1 certification is attained when a GDS has the ability to offer ancillary shopping, something Sabre does today with American; Sabre is Level 1 certified. With Level 2, the airline creates the inventory and pricing on an offer, but Sabre still handles order management. With Level 3, Menke said, order management is shifted over to the airline.
When it comes to NDC implementation, Doctor said Amadeus would proceed in such a way that it addresses the needs of travel agents.
"Adoption is really driven by creating the least disruption, and what we're trying to do when we address NDC is find a way to make it least disruptive for the agency community," he said. "That's the way we feel will, No. 1, be better for the agency community; No. 2, will also drive better adoption, which is obviously something that we believe the airlines want, as well; and No. 3, it allows, once you have adoption, to get all those additional benefits out into the marketplace, which is better for the industry as a whole."
Travelport is working to achieve Level 3 NDC certification by the end of the year, according to Ian Heywood, the global head of product and marketing for the GDS. While he said incorporating NDC into Travelport wasn't particularly complicated, making sure the portal could function with both Airline Tariff Publishing Co. and API interfaces was complicated, and airlines use a mixture of both.
Wade Jones, president of Sabre Travel Network, also said NDC brings some complexities with it.
Speaking at Sabre's recent TTX technology conference, Jones said, "There are things that we have to figure out from a standards perspective, from a commercial model perspective, but we already have NDC connectors for branded fares, paid seats, ancillaries, and we certainly believe in the opportunity to do dynamic pricing, dynamic availability, packaging, personalized offers."
Menke said that complexity is further driven by the fact that NDC standards are constantly changing. Sabre's goal is to prioritize what to develop around NDC so as not to develop "one-off solutions for specific carriers."
He also said the complexity that comes with NDC will likely only emphasize the importance of GDSs in the distribution landscape. Most agencies do not have the technology or financial investment required to make direct connections with airlines, further driving the importance of GDSs.
"I think what we will continue to find is that the best way of actually selling products and services is through the GDS, but we need to continue to invest in capabilities to be able to do that," he said.
Jones also emphasized that contrary to industry assumptions, Sabre -- which is Level 1 certified as both an IT provider and an aggregator -- is not anti-NDC.
"We have been and will continue to be advocates for new technologies, APIs, messaging protocols that enable our customers to do the things they want to do," he said. And NDC and XML as a standard is one of those things. So we are supportive. It would be silly for us not to be."
If the GDSs don't innovate fast enough, they might well face competition from the non-GDS, NDC-supported marketplaces that are now emerging, such as Ireland-based OpenJaw and German startup Flyiin, both of which offer several NDC products that provide shoppers with price comparisons and offers from multiple airlines.
Offutt also mentioned another NDC innovator, Air Black Box, which has developed a product that enables airlines to cross-sell another airline's product line in its online sales channels.
It also has an NDC product, AirADD, that "allows for the easy alignment and sale of ancillary products, irrespective of how disparate or unique they may be."
Offutt wrote, "The airline is completely in control of branding, pricing, presentation and bundling. This means that airline A can sell airline B's ancillaries to airline A's customers on airline A's website with airline A's branding and approach."
Offutt said that NDC as a whole is beginning to gain momentum. In his Phocuswright report, he wrote, "Travel agencies (brick and mortar or online) and TMCs, it is time to lead, follow or get out of the way; if you don't, the result will be declining market share."