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Number of stocks trading above 50 times and 100 times earnings at record highs. When this hapened in 2015 and 2016, the Sensex fell 22.6 per cent... ...http://www.rediff.com/money/special/are-markets-ripe-for-a-steep-correction/20170425.htm
Delays in promised service delivery were earlier settled between client and service provider. More organisations now opt for a legal settlement to... ...http://www.rediff.com/money/report/why-are-indian-it-firms-facing-more-us-lawsuits/20170425.htm
Members of the lake expert committee are divided on desilting Bellandur lake. While some members and government officials say desilting of the lake... ...http://www.deccanherald.com/content/608109/panel-divided-over-revival-bellandur.html
Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk took many risks with the technology in his company’s cars on the way to surpassing Ford Motor’s market... ...http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/pushing-boundaries-858
At first glance, Apple CEO might seem a quiet person, but this might not be true when it’s about his company’s policies especially when someone... ...http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trakin/~3/WGydG9hDkvk/
We are here for the people we serve...
Vision treatment deals with these...
Vamanetra DigiHealth focuses on...
Top 10 web development company in...


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At the beginning of 2021, the adidas Forum preferred to replicate its history rather than build off it. A lot has changed, though, in the past year, and the silhouette is soon to deliver a number of simple yet refreshing colorways.
Here, it seems the “Panda” serves as the shoe’s latest inspiration. Black takes over much of the low-top upper, whose paneling has been upgraded with nubuck along the toe, profile, and heel. White contrasts just adjacent, its bright shade bringing attention to not just the leather base but also the side stripes and Trefoil branding.
For a closer look at this versatile addition, check out the official images below. Sizes are sure to appear on adidas.com later in 2022.
In other adidas news, a NEIGHBORHOOD NMD R1 is slated to release next year.
Where to Buy
Make sure to follow @kicksfinder for live tweets during the release date.
adidas Forum Low
Release Date: 2022
Style Code: GW0695

domain: news


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Nothing Phone 2 Pro Specs, Release Date, and Price!
The tech industry is abuzz with the release of the new Nothing Phone 2 Pro 5G Phone. This next-level phone is said to revolutionize the way people interact with their devices and utilize their data. With features never seen before, this phone promises lightning-fast 5G speeds and a state-of-the-art design. It’s no surprise that tech … Read more


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Bakery giant Greggs will be opening its second Cambridge store later this year. The retail chain is getting ready to open the new branch, which will be located inside a unit at Station Square.
The takeaway sausage roll giant is expected to take over the unit on the corner of the road. According to planning documents, it will be in Unit 2 alongside other outlets such as Sainsbury's, Pret a Manger and Caffe Nero.
Greggs currently has one other store in the city centre on Fitzroy Street. They also have stores all across the county, including in St Ives, Huntingdon, St Neots and Downfields.
Read more: Cambridge news
The application, submitted to Cambridge City Council, was approved in September 2021. The new storefront will see the installation of two fascia signs, two projecting signs and four digital promotional screens.
Signage on the store does not confirm when the exact opening date of the new Greggs store will be. However, a spokesperson for the bakery chain said they would provide further details when they have them.
The full application can be viewed in full online on the city council's website. This can be done using the code 21/04166/ADV.
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Hitachi Automotive Systems Americas says it has completed construction of a third production facility in Monroe. The new facility, along with new equipment for the new and existing facilities, represents an investment of an expected $80 million, the company said.
The company said the expansion will add up to 250 new jobs by March 2017 to a facility that currently employees more than 350.
The Monroe facility is situated on 70 acres and has two production facilities with a combined manufacturing floor area of 230,000 square feet. The new building will have a manufacturing floor area of 290,000 square feet.
The company produces valve timing controls and propeller shafts at the existing facilities. Production at the new facility is expected to begin in 2016 and will include new products such as electric power steering systems, variable displacement pumps and others.


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Conference Cancellations Continue
One after another, conferences scheduled for the fall in Athens are being canceled along with the corresponding hotel bookings that go with them. There is no indication that they are simply being postponed.
It is not only the Americans who have changed their plans since September 11. “Not even the Europeans are coming,” says a Greek Hotel Chamber executive. “Hotels in Athens and Thessaloniki (which especially cater to conference tourism during the fall season) are facing a serious problem.”
As well, the executive said that cruise lovers, most of which are American, would spend three or four nights in Athens during their visit, but they will be conspicuously absent this year.
However, the impact of the terrorist crisis has not affected every sector to the same extent. Bookings for conferences, corporate events and incentives have dropped by more than one-third since the attacks on New York, according to Aristotelis Divanis, president of the Greek Hotel Chamber. Occupancy rates in Athens and Thessaloniki hotels have also dropped by a similar percentage.
But the plunge in arrivals from North America and Australia has hit cruise vacations the hardest. Royal Olympic Cruises says that bookings dropped by at least one-half, with the company being forced to cancel two of the company’s 10 programmed cruises.
This exacerbates the company’s difficult financial situation.
In the first half of this year, ROC reported a doubling of its net loss to $22.4 million. Andreas Potamianos, the company’s president, called on Papoutsis to dish out subsidies, similar to the regime applying to hotels, under which they get a refund for 25 percent of their repair and refurbishment costs. Foreign cruise companies such as Renaissance were already forced to shut down.


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Heartland Payment Systems is fighting back against competitors it says are falsely informing customers that they face fines if they continue doing business with the breached payment processor.
Robert Carr, the Princeton, N.J.-based company's chairman and CEO, said in a letter posted on the firm's breach information website that Heartland has sent cease-and-desist letters to some competitors -- which he did not name -- telling them "that their untrue and misleading claims are baseless and unlawful."
"Heartland intends to initiate legal action against them if they do not immediately stop making these claims," Carr said.
It appears Heartland's competitors began trying to pluck customers away from the company after Visa announced earlier this month that it had removed Heartland from its list of Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)-compliant service providers.
The removal prompted some experts to suggest that merchants using Heartland to process their credit card transactions could themselves face fines because Heartland was deemed out of compliance.
But Avivah Litan, vice president and distinguished analyst with Gartner, questioned Visa about this possibility and was told that the payment brand had no interest in fining Heartland as it works toward recertification with the PCI standards. (Heartland has said it expects to be back in compliance by May.)
"Visa issued a statement to Gartner indicating that merchants and other card payment-accepting enterprises can continue to do business with the U.S. payment processors Heartland Payment Systems and RBS WorldPay (another breached processor) without threat of fines from Visa," Litan wrote in a Monday research note.
Visa on Tuesday confirmed this stance to SCMagazineUS.com.
"The PCI DSS compliance status of Heartland and RBS WorldPay will not cause otherwise compliant merchants to be subject to non-compliance fine assessment if all other standing PCI DSS validation requirements have been satisfied," Visa said in a statement.
Carr said that should a card brand attempt to fine a merchant for using Heartland as its processor, the company will reimburse the retailer "in the event the fine is found to be legally enforceable."
The Heartland letter comes on the same day as New York law firm Kirby McInerney announced it filed a lawsuit against the payment processor, charging it with violating federal securities laws. The suit contends that between Aug. 5, 2008 and Feb. 23 -- when the shares of Heartland fell $21.84, or about 80 percent -- Heartland made false or misleading statements and failed to disclose "material adverse facts" about the company's business operations.
Feb. 24 was the date Heartland delivered its fourth-quarter earnings call, on which it discussed the breach, indicating that potentially tens of millions of credit card records were exposed.
"We clearly face some added hurdles in our business as a result of the breach," Carr said on the call.
A number of other lawsuits also have been filed against Heartland.


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Australia Embraces Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain | The Market Mogul
The rise of bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies is creating a revolution in financial markets all across the globe. It has turned investors into billionaires overnight and unleashed a whole new ecosystem of venture capital through the ICO market. It has also run headlong into regulatory grey areas around the world, prompting a variety of reactions from central banks.
The blockchain, the technology behind those cryptocurrencies, is having an even larger impact that is less visible to the general public, though. It’s a flexible and trustless digital ledger that suits a variety of business purposes, and it’s looking more and more likely that it – and not the cryptocurrencies themselves – will be the true game-changer for industries worldwide.
Of course, many of the innovations stemming from cryptocurrency and blockchain development are dependent on how far local regulators are willing to allow the technology to spread. Within the so-called western democracies, there’s one nation that’s looking to claim the crown as the world’s most crypto-friendly country: Australia. Here’s a look at the state of the industry there, and where crypto-technology is popping up.
Overcoming Initial Resistance
When cryptocurrencies first started to gain traction in recent years, there was only one way to summarize the Australian government’s position regarding them – perplexed. Fortunately, that didn’t last long, and the government has moved swiftly in recent months to make sure that the nation would provide a suitable environment for crypto-innovation.
First, the country’s tax laws were amended to make sure that cryptocurrency users wouldn’t be subject to double taxation. Then, politicians from both sides of the political spectrum began to announce their own investments in cryptocurrencies, which is being interpreted as an endorsement of future crypto-friendly policies. The generally positive news emanating from the central government with regards to cryptocurrencies is already fuelling growth in local markets.
Housing Markets Embrace Bitcoin
The Australian housing market was one of the first in the world to embrace bitcoin. That’s significant in a country that counts property as its largest privately held asset. The trend should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Australian real estate, as the local population there has always been quick to embrace new technology. Locally, it’s common for sellers to turn to the internet to find real estate agents, and online realty services have been booming as the market has slowed in recent months. In a buyer’s market, homeowners are proving willing to accept bitcoin for their homes to try to increase their profits as coin values appreciate.
Securities Exchange Bets on Blockchain
Late last year, the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) announced that they would be replacing their transaction clearance system with one based on the blockchain, becoming the world’s first major stock exchange to do so. That decision is a powerful endorsement of crypto-technologies within Australia, and a symbol that traditional financial institutions there are ready to lead the world in blockchain-related fintech. ASX expects that their new system will reduce settlement and clearing costs for trades, and enable their customers to develop new innovative financial services that won’t be available in any other market for some time.
An Australian CryptoDollar
The Reserve Bank of Australia is also exploring options that could lead to the creation of an official national cryptocurrency, pegged to the Australian dollar. There have been reports that a number of local fintech startups have already produced a series of use-cases that they believe will demonstrate the prudence of such a move. If they proceed with the plan, Australia would join a small list of countries like Ecuador, China, Senegal, Singapore and Tunisia that have embraced a cryptocurrency as an official monetary unit, and be among the first major economic powers to do so.
The Asia-Pacific Hub
All of the recent news in the cryptocurrency space in Australia points towards the beginnings of a high-growth industry forming there, which would immediately place the nation at the forefront of the technology in the Asia-Pacific region. As other major nations dither about regulations and integration of cryptocurrencies and the blockchain into their economies, Australia is sending all of the signals to indicate that they have every intention of doing whatever it takes to claim a major stake in what is shaping up to be the next big thing in global economic technology.


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Late last year, Bauer launched its Woman's Day recommended extension, with food columnist and past MasterChef NZ (RIP) winner Chelsea Winter wheeled out in an attempt to transfer some of her cachet to advertisers. And after launching the womansday.co.nz website last month, it's taken that idea into the digital realm for the first time, with Unilever's Persil brand the first beneficiary.
Marketing, advertising & media intelligence
It was officially announced yesterday that Bauer had made some major structural and staff changes. So we had a chat with chief executive Paul Dykzeul and commercial director Paul Gardiner about the thinking behind that strategy.
It's been a big year for Bauer. The APN titles have been brought in to the building, it's canned Creme and passed on Little Treasures. And now it's announced a restructure that will see a host of staff changes and the creation of a new brand solutions division.
This year, here’s what we’re going to do. When our clients say, “What’s the future of media, anyway?” we will bedazzle them. Show them new, more powerful ways to link magazines with digital media and other outlets. New ways to use social media and websites, with competitions, special events, display advertising, viral campaigns, sponsorships, customer incentives and a bunch of other stuff that’s so new and so amazing, we’re not even going to tell you about it yet.
Starring Toyota, TVNZ, Andy Lark, Andy Williams, Jennifer Duval-Smith and Nicholas O'Flaherty, Pandora, Beryl, Harald van Heerde, Bauer, Belowtheline, Kea and More FM.
Changes at MediaWorks Radio, Saatchi & Saatchi, GrabOne, Reckitt-Benckiser, Pfizer, The Pond, Bauer, Thick as Thieves and Marine Vouchers.
Listen: Airbnb user design experience manager Jenny Arden on design building trust, design-thinking and designer-founders
Humans are simple creatures. Put their name on a Coke and they go crazy. Put their kid on the cover of a magazine and mums will clog up the internet. And now Unitec, Special Group, Open and Bauer are attempting to tap into that feverish narcissism once again with U Mag, a personalised magazine that doubles as a customised prospectus and is thought to be a world first.
Some saw the feverish excitement—and feverish media attention—over the arrival of the royal baby as a sad indictment on humanity. Others saw it as evidence of the rising appeal of the British monarchy in New Zealand and around the world. And more than a few local media outlets and their advertisers saw it as a chance to capitalise on all the extra eyeballs, with Bauer Media pulling out all the stops to get its 'Souvenir Issue' onto the shelves five days earlier than usual.
Clemenger businesses on the move in Welly, Bauer looks inside and finds a new advertising director, The Radio Network lures a big radio fish back home, Fairfax hands Lions Festivals baton to Val Morgan, Mark Reekie heads for the islands and Spotify announces new ANZ head of sales.
Mass market weeklies have had a rough time of it in recent years. But ACP has opened an early Christmas present in the form of the recent double issue of Woman's Day, which clocked in at over 200 pages and took the title as biggest ever issue.
Have they got a deal for you: The Shopping Channel brings out the big guns as ACP signs on as partner
There’s been a lot of hype around the launch of the Shopping Channel this week, and there’s no question awareness of the channel was boosted significantly by the appearance of Eva Longoria. But by and large, unlike a certain online trading website that launched this week, the Shopping Channel’s debut seems to have gone relatively smoothly, and both ACP, which announced its partnership with the channel at a gala event on Wednesday night, and Ogilvy, have big plans for the brand.
For a time, it seemed as though men—and quite a few ladies—couldn't get enough of FHM's tall-tales, humour and glamour shots of well-endowed models. But ACP has made the decision to close the magazine after it lost almost half of its circulation in the last six months of 2011 in Australia. And, as of May, it will also be taken out of the market in New Zealand.
Judging by the amount of recruitment news this week, it appears plenty of folk began the year looking for greener pastures. Thick As Thieves has stolen Colenso BBDO's art director Jae Morrison, marketing maven Simone Iles finds a new Post, Wellington Tourism gets some absolutely positive additions to the team, Paul Gardiner crosses the line wearing lycra, Gareth Davies joins RedYeti Films, Fee-fi-fo-fum finds the Ideas Shop, Market Pulse reaches for ignition, Hitchcock directs Flying Fish (no birds in sight), APN Outdoor's Friends in High Places line-up gets a shakeup, The Sweet Shop moves even further into Asia, Prodigy signs Bradstreet boy, and Blair Haeata joins Ngage.
While the mass-market weeklies continued to struggle last year, ACP popped a few corks when Woman's Day finally edged out Woman's Weekly in both circulation and readership after a very long wait. Elsewhere in 2011, special interest magazines largely seemed to hold firm despite the gloomy economy—and the predictions of death from the digitally-focused doomsayers. Sales manager Paul Gardiner goes to town on 2011.
It's taken a helluva long time, but the big news from Nielsen's latest magazine readership data is that ACP's Woman's Day has finally taken over from New Zealand Woman's Weekly (NZWW) as "the number one magazine in every way", with higher readership and circulation figures than its long-standing arch-rival.


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The launch of the Pixel and Pixel XL was one of Google’s biggest achievements in 2016 as the company looked to move away from its Nexus branding and onto bigger and better things. However, Verizon may have underestimated just how well the device was going to perform, if a recent report is anything to go by.
A new report from Fierce Wireless suggests that the demand for the Pixel and Pixel XL is still going strong. In a survey conducted by Wave7 Research, the Pixel accounted for 9.5% of sales across 50 different Verizon stores. These numbers are huge considering the amount of marketing that both Verizon and Google sunk into the new devices.
“Most Pixel XL SKUs are shipping in March and most Pixel SKUs are out of stock as well.”
– Wave7 Research
The problem with this is a good one for Google and Verizon. The carrier is continuing to run low on stock of the device, meaning that Google is being forced to work as fast as it can to get shelves restocked.
Since you can still purchase the Pixel from Google directly, there is still a steady stream of new activations through different carriers. In another survey from Wave7 Research, 39% of sales representatives from AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile “are aware of an average of 2 Pixel activations each.”
Google obviously was hoping to launch a device that would turn mainstream, and it seems that is exactly what’s happening. It will be interesting to see the number of activations and possible sales numbers continue to roll in, but one thing’s for sure – Google couldn’t be happier with the results, so far.


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In the last month of romance, Etsy sellers wooed with aplomb.
- $58.3 million of goods (after refunds and cancellations) were sold by our community in February, 6.3% higher than January’s $54.9 million.
- That represents 2,869,606 items sold for the month, 2.6% higher than January’s 2,797,149.
- 2,240,945 new items were listed in the month, 6.0% lower than January’s 2,384,269.
- 654,501 new members joined the Etsy community in the month, up 1,650, or 0.3%, from January.
- 1.3 billion page views were recorded on the site in February.
The $58.3 million of goods sold (after refunds and cancellations) represents a 62.5% increase from February 2011′s total. At the same time, items sold were up 51%. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Etsy community in February 2012!
Curious about how other months compare? Check out our past Weather Reports for more statistics.


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Pizza chains denounce calorie labeling in stores
(CBS News) Lobbyists for America's biggest pizza chains landed on Capitol Hill Wednesday to deliver a message about proposed nutrition rules.
As part of the health care bill, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wants Americans to know what they're eating, so they're looking to require chains with more than 20 stores to post calorie content right on their menu boards. The pizza industry says that's not a recipe that works for them.
Different combinations of toppings and crusts can drastically change the calorie content of a pizza. Domino's Pizza spokesperson Lynn Liddle said, "There are 34 million different ways that you can make a pizza. That's an actual number, we did the math. Can't really calorie label that on a board." Three billion pizzas are sold in the U.S. each year.
Marion Nestle, professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health at New York University, said, "The idea that the range of calories is so great that it is meaningless, I don't think holds a lot of water or mozzarella cheese at all, because it at least gives you a ballpark figure."
Americans consume on average 2.1 slices of pizza per serving. And there's another issue: unlike the food at most chain restaurants, pizza is often ordered by phone or online, which means customers don't see those menu boards in the first place.
Spokespeople for the pizza industry insist they aren't trying to avoid calorie labeling altogether.
Liddle, executive vice president of Communications for Domino's, said, "We're offering to do this online and in handheld menus that would be in the stores."
There's not much evidence yet whether posting calorie counts affects consumer's decisions. But no matter what gets posted it may be tough to break the American love affair with the simple guilty beauty of cheese, pizza, sauce and dough.
Watch "CBS This Morning" special correspondent Jeff Glor's full report in the video above.
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Council apologises after entire car park ticketed by mistake
A council has apologised after all the vehicles in a car park were ticketed by mistake.
Drivers who parked at Railway Place and Duke Street car parks in High Wycombe this week will have the tickets cancelled, Buckinghamshire Council has confirmed.
The council said the error occurred after a decision was wrongly taken to close off the entire car park when a suspension should have been limited to a smaller area to allow for installation of new EV charging bays.
We are sorry for any inconvenience and upset caused
Councillor Steven Broadbent, Buckinghamshire Council’s cabinet member for transport said: “We want to apologise to the people who parked at Railway Place and Duke Street car parks in High Wycombe this week and who received parking tickets during a closure of the car park.
“Whilst we do enforce parking across the county these tickets should not have been issued and we will be reversing the parking tickets (PCNs) to everyone who received them.
“Only a small number of parking bays should have been closed to install brand new EV charging bays rather than the whole car park and we did not give our customers enough notice of this action.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience and upset caused. Anyone who has been ticketed should take no further action as the notices will be cancelled, and anyone who has already paid the PCN charge will be refunded.”
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Latest HA D&T Perspective
They’re watching you
With the UK now recognised as having the largest number of surveillance cameras trained on its citizens in the world, it could be assumed that the public was used to it.
Delegates at the recent Hospace conference in London heard how this was far from the case, as members of the hospitality sector railed against the introduction of the facial recognition technology currently employed in the retail sector.
Fine for negative review
A couple in the US are facing USD3,500 fine for leaving a negative review on a retailer’s website.
ROI in social media calculated
The hotel sector is now able to factor online reputation into pricing decisions, according to Ideas.
The company has produced a tool which includes reputation management data from online travel agencies, review sites and social media platforms.
Scandic leads in mobile check-out
Scandic Hotels is rolling out mobile check-out across its portfolio, the first such offering for any hotel chain.
The company said that it was “something guests have been waiting for”. It is also likely that the technology will cut costs for the group.
Business travellers favour brand sites
Business travellers have increased their use of brand.com sites over online travel agencies in the past year, according to the latest study from Google.
The corporate market also spends more time than average researching in an attempt to find better value, the study said.
What our subscribers say:
“With concise round up of news each day and quality insights into the major issues facing the industry, Hotel Analyst is a "must read".”
Andrew Gill, Managing Director, BDL Ireland Management Ltd.
“Hotel Analyst provides up-to-date information of current issues in today’s ever changing market which we find as a useful source of information that benefits our company.”
David Nicolson, Regional Director of Finance Europe, Jumeirah
“I have been reading the Hotel Analyst newsletters for a long time now, and have come to appreciate their insight, intelligence, professionalism and unique ability to gauge the movements in global hotel industry. Looking forward to the next issue/s!”
Knut Kleiven, Deputy President & CFO , The Rezidor Hotel Group
“In a busy world where high values are placed on time, Hotel Analyst is one of the fastest, most effective and efficient methods of keeping abreast with developments, news and business issues in the hospitality industry. Its style is innovative and simplistic in terms of getting accurate and important information across in a publication which is always an interesting pleasure to read from many perspectives.”
Tony Potter, President, Braveagle Partnership Ltd
"Hotel Analyst Distribution & Technology is already filling a gap that's been missing for a long time. It's great to see independent thought for this market to help the hotel industry better understand this evolving sector. Hotel Analyst delivers the relevant information to make informed decisions and to understand what is happening in the market.:"
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Franz A. Zeller, Managing Director, Archipelago Hotel & Resort Sdn Bhd


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In Reversal, Wal-Mart Will Sell ‘Morning After’ Pills
Posted on Mar 4, 2006
N.Y. Times: Relenting to pressure from state government officials, Wal-Mart Stores said yesterday that it would begin carrying Plan B, an emergency contraception pill, in all of its United States pharmacies by the end of the month.
But in a move that rankled some women’s groups, Wal-Mart said that it would allow pharmacists who object to filling a Plan B prescription to refer customers to another pharmacist and, in some cases, to another pharmacy.
Wal-Mart, which has 3,700 pharmacies, had been the only major chain that refused to sell the so-called morning-after pill, which can prevent pregnancy when taken within 72 hours of intercourse.


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Pureness handset so why should details about its launch differ? Brand Republic, a magazine focused on advertising, quotes Sony Ericsson's director of marketing, Cathy Davies, saying that the low-spec'd (said to lack GPS, camera, WiFi, and gasp, a touchscreen) candybar with translucent display will go on sale in November for £530 at Selfridges and "design museum shops." And if it wasn't already clear (get it?), SE says that it's positioning the device as "an iconic niche product, not mass-market." In other words, Harrods shoppers need not apply.
[Via Techradar and Pocket-lint]


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Now your Amazon delivery could arrive by MOLE: Vast underground network of pipes could be used for freight to end road congestion
- Mole Solutions is developing the idea as an alternative to road transport
- Would see capsules loaded with goods sent in underground pipelines
- A test track has already been built for a nine month development project
- The project has approved some government funding from DEFRA
A vast underground network of pipes could be used to transport freight and deliveries in a bid to end road congestion and pollution.
The government has approved funding for Cambridgeshire-based Mole Solutions to develop the idea as an alternative to the conventional systems of transporting goods by road.
The plan, called the Mole Urban project, aims to reduce the level of road freight within urban areas by using freight pipelines carrying goods in capsules to edge of town consolidation centres, where they would be collected.
Scroll down for video
One of the Mole Solutions capsules inside one of their pipelines at their testing site in Northampton
A graphic showing how the Mole Urban project would work by sending freight in underground pipes rather than on the road
The firm is now looking to see if the concept could be used within the town of Northampton and if results are positive, a pilot could see underground pipelines installed to transport goods.
The development project is set to last nine months and if successful could be rolled out in other towns, although it is still a long way from fruition.
The proposal, would see the driverless capsules propelled by a magnetic wave produced by linear induction motors.
A track has already been constructed in Northampton to test the capsules with data being collected on commercial and environmental influences.
However, the firm say that even irrespective of the final results for the test case, the process established in the project can be used to assess other locations that have major congestion and pollution problems caused by excess road usage.
The development project is set to last nine months and if successful could be rolled out in other towns
Dr Roger Miles, head of Mole Solutions told the Independent: 'Clean water is taken into homes and dirty water is taken away and we never really see it, while huge amounts of oil and diesel are transported by pipes and underground.
'Now we want to do something similar with freight, delivering goods to buildings and taking away waste.'
The concept has already had funding from the government and is also attracting support from private businesses too.
The company is already one of several businesses that have attracted support from the Transport Systems Catapult, a government-funded centre set up to support innovation in transport.
The Transport Systems Catapult is currently working with the UK Government and over 70 major multinationals on ‘Intelligent Mobility’ inventions with major market potential, including driverless cars, underground sensors and freight pipelines.
The technology comes after Amazon announced they had been carrying out a secret research project which would see packages from the company delivered by drone.
Amazon has approached the British Government about trialling its flying Amazon Prime Air service in the UK. One of its prototype delivery drones is pictured
In December 2013, the internet shopping giant’s chief executive Jeff Bezos says that he wants to use octocoptors to replace postmen and cut delivery times to just 30 minutes.
Customers would have their order dropped onto their front lawn by the machine which would fly through the air from a nearby warehouse with it clasped in a metal grabber.
And last month, it was reported that Amazon is said to have approached the British Government to launch a trial of the technology in Britain.
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Vitamin D, a fat-soluble vitamin, is acquired in the diet from fortified milk or juice, fish oils and supplements. It is also produced in the skin with sunlight exposure, but babies born in winter months do not typically benefit from sun-acquired maternal vitamin D. Now, a new study suggests that babies born in the winter months benefit from maternal vitamin D supplementation, as it makes up for the lack of sunlight.
The researchers of the latest study, published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, say that the high prevalence of osteoporosis makes it suitable for targeted public health interventions to improve bone health.
They note that increasing evidence suggests that early growth and factors in utero or early infancy can affect long-term skeletal growth and peak bone mass. According to the team, weaker bones in infancy and childhood may predispose individuals to osteoporosis at an older age.
In the US, the Food and Nutrition Board at the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies state that vitamin D intake during pregnancy should be at 600 international units (IU) per day – or 15 µg. Most prenatal vitamins contain 400 IU (10 µg) per tablet.
The researchers – led by Prof. Cyrus Cooper and Prof. Nicholas Harvey from the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit at the University of Southampton in the UK – say previous observational studies have linked higher maternal vitamin D levels during pregnancy with increased bone mass in offspring.
However, they add that there is not strong evidence from randomized trials.
Results from the latest study come from the Maternal Vitamin D Osteoporosis Study (MAVIDOS), which is the first randomized, placebo-controlled trial that is designed to investigate the effect of vitamin D supplementation on bone health of newborns using bone density scanning.
For their research, the team recruited 1,134 women from three study sites in the UK between October 2008-February 2014. The women were all between 14-17 weeks pregnant, and they had low to normal levels of vitamin D.
As part of the study, half of the women took a 25 µg vitamin D capsule each day until delivery of the baby, while the other half took an oral placebo capsule daily.
Results showed that there was not a significant difference in bone mass of the babies who were born to women who took vitamin D supplements, compared with those born to women who took the placebo.
Further analysis that took into account the season of birth revealed, however, that babies who were born in winter to mothers who took vitamin D supplements had greater bone mass, compared with babies born to mothers who took the placebo.
Additionally, the researchers found that, among mothers who gave birth in winter, vitamin D concentrations fell from 14-34 weeks’ gestation in women from the placebo group, whereas they rose in women who took vitamin D supplements.
”Babies’ bones strengthen during the last stages of pregnancy. Since sunlight is our most important source of vitamin D, mothers’ levels of vitamin D tend to drop from summer to winter, and babies born in the winter months tend to have lower bone density than those born during the summer,” says Prof. Harvey. He adds:
”The MAVIDOS Trial has given us the first evidence that supplementing mothers with vitamin D during pregnancy counteracts the seasonal drop in maternal vitamin D levels and may help to ensure good bone development in these winter births.”
Prof. Cooper adds that supplementation “is safe and effective in raising vitamin D levels in mothers whose babies are born during winter months.”
Although the study has many strengths, the researchers admit to certain limitations. Firstly, due to stipulations as part of the ethics approval process, they were not able to include participants with baseline vitamin D levels less than 25 nmol/L.
Additionally, their study did not include many non-white women. And finally, the researchers note that bone mineral density scans in newborns are quite difficult to conduct, because babies move a lot and have a low absolute bone mineral content.
Still, their findings are significant. In a linked comment to the study, Prof. Ian R. Reid, from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, notes that during pregnancy, “low maternal vitamin D concentrations have been associated with gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, infants who are small for their gestational age and lower offspring bone mass.”
He adds that “in pregnancy and other contexts, we should be moving to targeted supplementation with vitamin D in individuals likely to have (low vitamin D concentrations) and away from mass medication, which is without proved benefit.”
Medical News Today asked Prof. Cooper about any ongoing research they are conducting, and he said:
“There’s a program of research looking at maternal vitamin D supplementation and offspring bone health and body composition, where we have laboratory research trying to evaluate the mechanism whereby vitamin D supplementation might link to improved bones of the offspring.”
He said their work is pointing to epigenetic influences, and he added that they also have a series of follow-up intervention studies that are looking at whether using behavioral interventions to inform women about dietary patterns during pregnancy changes the outcomes for their babies.
MNT recently reported on a study that suggested low vitamin D levels could increase the risk of leukemia.


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There’s still a lot of information that can be learned about Richard Liu Qiangdong. This is one of the reasons why he decided to give an interview to Weforum.org about his own past and the growth of JD.com. In 1996, Richard Liu Qiangdong graduated from Renmin University of China. His time there had not been completely successful. Richard Liu had attempted to start a restaurant, but it soon failed because as a student he did not have enough time to devote to it. This was a massive failure for his family and himself. He lost money and went into debt.
Eventually, Richard Liu Qiangdong needed to find a way to make ends meet. He had accepted sole responsibility for the survival of his family and his grandmother needed medication. This is when he decided to start a technology company in 1998 entitled Jingdong Mall. When David Rubenstein asked him about where he got that name from Richard Liu painstakingly volunteers that it was a culmination of his then girlfriend’s name and his own. This may be why the company is now simply known as JD.com after they switch to the world of online retail.
JD.com needed to come into existence in 2005 because SARS had become a major concern for the Chinese population. There were many people contracting the disease and it created a lot of fear about going out and doing simple activities like shopping. If Richard Liu did not do something to preserve his business, then it would have gone under that year. His quick thinking in the situation is why JD.com came into existence. He knew that the online retail market was heating up but he did not know that it had a dire need for companies that produced honest products. While JD.com is not a direct manufacturer of anything, they do put a lot of work into the authentication of the products that they offer. Richard Liu Qiangdong tells Weforum.org that he believes this is one of the reasons why JD.com did so well in those early days. They instilled a sense of confidence in their customers that was not apparent in the landscape at the time.
His LinkedIn Profile: https://cn.linkedin.com/in/qiangdong-liu-53423bb0


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At part of the year end accounting that's going on everywhere, Digital Music News has announced some of the results of its Digital Media Desktop Report ($195), developed in conjunction with BigChampagne and PC Pitstop, and created using data from over 1.5 million PCs.
There was good news for Real and MTV, as their respective Rhapsody and Urge offerings doubled their rate of installation on a global basis. DMN credits Urge's success to MTV's "massive entertainment network and audience... that has helped to drive traffic to the Urge application." While MTV's clout certainly matters somewhat, I think the fact that Urge comes installed standard in Windows Media Player could be the biggest factor in its 5X+ increase since its May debut. Rhapsody's 3X+ increase over last year's figures seems more significant:
You'd need to buy the report in order to find out whether Windows Media Player installs rose or fell, but the snippet does say that WMP currently dominates both iTunes and Real with a 67.3% install rate among PC users. I actually thought that number would be higher, considering that it comes pre-installed (you can bet that the install rate of iTunes on the Mac is much higher).
P2P users might also be interested to hear that the report shows Gnutella and BitTorrent on the rise, although other file sharing networks are slipping.


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The servo boom continues in Townsville with another brand set to throw open its doors and get the bowser pumping next month.
But, the new Riverway Drive petrol station is much more than just a place to fill up your gas guzzler.
The Mobil branded site, is actually a Fresh Trading Co. convenience store, carrying the major petrol company’s fuel.
It will be the second Queensland site for Fresh Trading Co. who believe there is big business in convenience.
“It’s an expanded convenience offer, it’s not just chips and drinks,” HR manager Caroline Smethurst said.
“People have changed their shopping habits, they don’t want to go to the Westfield carpark with 600 other cars to get through to get their evening meal and people don’t do big weekly shops anymore.
“We saw there was a gap in the market here (in Rasmussen), there’s quite a lot of traffic and a lot of residential development so we can support the emerging community.”
A further six sites are planned for 2021 between Townsville and Brisbane including a flagship store at Mount Louisa.
That larger format outfit with a professional kitchen, will use local produce to create food that can be sold in the Rasmussen outlet.
The stores stock a range of household essentials, bespoke products from local suppliers and expanded ‘food-to-go’ including Youfoodz and fresh made meals.
Managing Director of Fresh Trading Co, Leon Key, said there are no limitations on what the stores can adapt into range as they are not constrained by major fuel brands.
The RACQ says it’s almost impossible to separate convenience store and fuel retailing as they’re effectively the same industry.
Analysis suggests fuel retailer profits are approximately two thirds convenience products and one third fuel, but that varies.
The opening of the site at Rasmussen follows the opening of a United servo at Cranbrook in August and two new Liberty service stations in Idalia and Hermit Park earlier this year.
Two more Libertys in Thuringowa and Garbutt are scheduled to open later this year while a service station and car wash development at Bushland Beach was given the go-ahead by council in January.
Extracted in full from: https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/news/rasmussen-servo-ready-to-fling-doors-open-and-enter-market/news-story/8871448b8825287f9d7ea24ed3daee06


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The first India manufacturing facility for Kia Motors is coming up over 213.7 hectares of land to produce 3 lakh cars annually, involving an investment of over $2 billion (approximately Rs 12,900 crore).
ANANTAPUR: South Korean automobile giant Kia Motors will roll out its Indiabuilt SP Concept sports utility vehicle (SUV) from its upcoming integrated manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh by mid-2019, said its global president Han-Woo Park.
He was speaking at the framework installation ceremony at Kia Motor’s upcoming facility near Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, along with chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
The first India manufacturing facility for Kia Motors is coming up over 213.7 hectares of land to produce 3 lakh cars annually, involving an investment of over $2 billion (approximately Rs 12,900 crore). It had signed the memorandum of understanding with AP government last April.
The construction work, which is going on rapidly, nearly two months ahead of schedule, is expected to be completed by the end of first quarter of next year with the vehicle production scheduled sometime around middle of next year, said Park. The first model — SP Concept SUV — to roll out from the Anantapur facility was showcased at the Delhi Auto Expo last month. “The SP concept SUV will be built in India by Indian employees and will hit the Indian roads by mid next year.”
The eighth largest global car maker, currently exporting 2.8 million cars to over 180 countries, will mostly cater to the domestic market in India, said Park. “We are here to build more than just great cars. We aim to set a new standard of automotive lifestyle experience by providing Indian consumers with world-class products and services,” said Han-Woo Park, adding that they will invest over $2 billion until 2021, creating about 10,000 jobs.


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Turner is getting stricter about what ad tech vendors it works with.
In the course of about a year, Turner went from using 30 supply-side platforms, ad exchanges and ad networks to sell its inventory to just six. Turner reduced its vendors to make it easier for advertisers to string together user data to run cross-device campaigns across Turner’s brands, said Amit Chaturvedi, evp of revenue operations and product management at Turner.
The vigilance on ad tech is part of a broader strategy that involves Turner trying to capitalize on the ad industry’s growing pot of programmatic ad spend. Chaturvedi declined to provide specific numbers, but he said Turner’s programmatic business, which had little to no revenue three years ago, now brings in more than $100 million a year.
“Last year was about deploying header bidding across display,” Chaturvedi said. “This year is about shrinking the [ad tech] footprint and doing more with fewer people.”
A little over a year ago, Turner had six web developers, product managers and analysts spend a month gathering and analyzing data about all of the places where Turner publishes content and runs ads. The team found that as brands like CNN grew their digital presence to the point of producing content on 60 platforms, the company’s number of ad tech vendors ballooned.
To make it easier for advertisers to organize user data spread across so many distribution points, Turner started reducing vendors. About 15 product managers and analysts spend a few hours each week monitoring and testing ad tech vendors as Turner continues to adjust how many vendors it uses.
One change Turner made is that its 21 brands in North America no longer use different viewability vendors for different platforms. Instead of using one vendor to measure ads on Android apps and another to measure ads on a Roku channel, for instance, each brand now uses the same viewability vendor across platforms to help standardize data. Ever since the company reduced the number of sell-side platforms it uses, it has primarily relied on just two SSPs to sell inventory across all its properties.
Last year, Turner adopted header bidding — which lets publishers simultaneously offer inventory to multiple exchanges before making calls to their ad servers — to bring in more demand to its digital inventory. The media company also restructured its sales division so that each team included a programmatic specialist. By getting the company’s programmatic offerings in front of more advertising clients, Turner doubled the revenue it drove through private marketplace deals. Turner’s next goal in programmatic is to do more with advanced TV and dynamic ad insertion, Chaturvedi said.
Turner is trimming its ad tech partners at a time when some publishers are purging third-party vendors to gain more control over their sites. The Washington Post built its own ad products to replace ad servers, native-ad and video vendors. Outside Magazine purged content-recommendation networks from its website.
For Turner, reducing ad tech fees wasn’t the primary objective of its vendor cutback, Chaturvedi said. Instead, the goal was to bring order to its data, so advertisers could more easily run large campaigns across its digital properties.
“What you don’t want is fragmentation of ad tech plus fragmentation of distribution,” he said. “That is just a really messy situation.”
Why rent-to-own brand Aaron’s tapped Mr. T to enhance brand awareness
Rent-to-own retailer Aaron's is looking to boost brand awareness through bilingual TV spots as well as out-of-home and print ads -- all with a little help from Mr. T.
Member ExclusiveMedia Briefing: Publishers confront crypto’s bear market
In this week’s Media Briefing, media editor Kayleigh Barber reports on how publishers are adapting their blockchain-related efforts amid crypto's bear market.
Cannes Podcast: Jellyfish CEO Rob Pierre believes in prioritizing platform partners as much as clients
Jellyfish keys on two philosophies – no regions or divisions – and the network treats the major platforms as importantly as it does its clients.
SponsoredFor brands, first-party data is unlocking the cookieless ecosystem
Bill Masterson, President, Publishers Clearing House A dominant factor guiding the industry has been that cookies and mobile app IDs are vanishing and will be replaced by some mixture of new and emergent identity solutions. As a result, the market is alive with new and exciting alternatives to replace the third-party browser cookie and mobile […]
Omnicom wraps its Cannes e-commerce blitz with Kroger Precision Marketing deal
Kroger will feed its stock-on-shelf data sets on a daily basis to the Omni marketing orchestration platform that underpins all Omnicom agencies.
Publishers grapple with younger audiences avoiding the news
People under 35 are avoiding the news. At a Reuters event, publishers discussed ways to address the challenge of reaching young people.


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Tops Friendly Markets, based in Buffalo, NY, and Salinas, CA-based Foxy Fresh Produce have jointly launched the "Foxy Dish up Something Fresh" Facebook photo contest. The contest asks Tops customers to submit a photograph of a recipe featuring Foxy Fresh Produce to the Tops Market Facebook page, and be entered for a chance to win one of multiple prizes.
The contest was first announced Aug. 1 in stores at all Tops Friendly Markets locations, with submissions being accepted from Aug. 4-17. The winners of the contest, determined by popular vote, will receive Tops gift cards valued at $200, $100 or $50, with those garnering the highest number of votes receiving the highest valued gift cards.
The contest is being promoted through the Foxy Produce and Tops' social media channels, as well as through in-store displays in the Tops produce departments.
"We are especially excited about this partnership and campaign because we are able to combine our social media efforts, with great in store visibility, keeping Foxy Produce top of mind at the point of purchase," Alethea Prewett, digital marketing coordinator for Foxy Produce, said in a press release. "Then driving those individuals back to our online properties to engage with us there."
The in-store displays and social promotion should drive positive engagement and conversations about both Tops and Foxy Produce, according to the press release.
"We are thrilled about this opportunity for Tops, partnering and bringing our social media efforts together to create an engaging campaign for both our customers," Jill Zak, marketing/social media intern at Tops Markets, added in the press release. "Both brands are excited for the opportunity to reward involved and loyal customers, while encouraging the purchase of fresh, healthy Foxy Produce."


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IMG signs agreement to acquire Australian Fashion Innovators
19 Oct '05
2 min read
IMG, the world's premier sports and lifestyle management and marketing firm, has signed an agreement to acquire Australian Fashion Innovators (AFI) and with it the region's premier fashion event, Mercedes Australian Fashion Week, it was announced by Martin Jolly, IMG's Asia Pacific Managing Director.
The acquisition also includes the management and production of the Mercedes-Benz Start Up program in Australia and New Zealand, the Mercedes-Benz Asia Fashion Award program which is currently held in six countries throughout Asia, the Singapore Fashion Festival and other fashion events around the Asia Pacific region that are in development, including events in India, China and Japan. Simon P. Lock, founder and former CEO of Australian Fashion Innovators, has been named Managing Director of the newly formed IMG FASHION Asia Pacific.
IMG's global clients include the Australian Rally Championship, Jennifer Capriati, Chris Evert, Sergei Fedorov, Sergio Garcia, Gisele, Jeff Gordon, the GRAMMYS, Scott Hamilton, Elizabeth Hurley, the International Olympic Committee, Michael Johnson, Major League Baseball, Manchester United, John McEnroe, Jack Nicklaus, The Nobel Foundation, Oxford University, Arnold Palmer, Itzhak Perlman, Philips, Roger Federer, Ronaldo, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the Royal Horticultural Society, Rugby World Cup, Pete Sampras, Michael Schumacher, Maria Sharapova, Vijay Singh, Annika Sorenstam, Picabo Street, the Sydney Opera House, Liv Tyler, the Spanish Riding School, USGA, the US Olympic Committee, Wembley National Stadium, Venus Williams, Wimbledon and Tiger Woods.
Mercedes Australian Fashion Week's Autumn Winter '06 Collections are staged in Melbourne from 24-28 October 2005. The inaugural Asia Pacific Fashion Forum presented by DHL runs 24-25 October 2005 and is a two-day seminar attended by leading fashion industry figures from around the Asia Pacific region.


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Is there power in the cloud for the energy and natural resources (ENR) industry sector? Absolutely! Bill Ward explains the latest findings.
Here are a few ideas that will change how we use the world around us as we move into a world that hasn’t been explored.
Dr. James Canton, CEO and Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures, gives his take on the future of B2B e-commerce.
This week, Apple made a sweet announcement, Microsoft decided to invest in pixelated fun, and Home Depot and Gmail suffered at the hands of hackers.
Driving is a fairly unproductive activity. Retailers that can leverage this fact to make consumers' lives more efficient and convenient stand to win.
It's time for an electricity Jeopardy! challenge. The answer is location, location, location. What is the question?
Using technology and support from global initiatives, the citizens of Buenos Aires are supporting the fundamentals of good government.
Apple’s most impressive achievement on display at yesterday’s announcement was not a technological feat — although the technology was certainly impressive.
The 49ers are once again expected to contend for the Super Bowl championship. To achieve this goal, the team is relying on technology.
Retailers can see and save everything shoppers do online. The challenge is to quickly turn this data into useful and actionable information.


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FLOKI meme token team to launch regulated bank accounts for fiat transactions
The project will also offer the possibility of creating digital debit cards
22.03.2024 - 16:10
What’s new? Floki developers plan to offer users the ability to create regulated digital bank accounts that can be funded with FLOKI tokens for transactions in dollars, euros, and pounds sterling. These accounts will be serviced through a key partner licensed in the key jurisdictions of Canada, Spain, Dominica, Australia, and the UAE, the project’s team said.
What else is known? The development is part of a broader plan to transform the meme token into a vast financial ecosystem, it also includes issuing debit cards and launching a staking service.
Users will be able to create digital bank accounts and generate Visa or Mastercard debit cards linked to those accounts. Payments will be made using SWIFT, SEPA, and IBAN systems, allowing users to transact and transfer money globally.
The cards will be issued in partnership with a Swiss company regulated by the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
FLOKI developers propose to withdraw 190 billion meme tokens from circulation
The asset reacted to the initiative with an increase of 6,3%
FLOKI is set to launch in 2021, similar to the back then-popular DOGE and SHIB meme coins, which also use a Shiba Inu dog as their mascot. The Ethereum blockchain-based project came about after Elon Musk said he wanted to get a Shiba Inu and name it Floki, which he later did.
The project team is preparing to launch the Valhalla metaverse, it also recently launched the TokenFi asset tokenization platform with the TOKEN native coin.
FLOKI ranks fifth in the meme token ranking and 59th in the overall ranking of cryptocurrencies with a capitalization of over $2 billion, trading at $0,0002138, having lost 6,6% in a day and 17,7% in a week.
TokenFi platform from the creators of FLOKI launches staking on Ethereum and BNB Chain networks
Yields can be as high as 106% if the coins are locked up for four years
In March, market maker DWF Labs announced a $10 million investment in TOKEN; the project will use the funds to develop AI tools for creating NFTs and auditing smart contracts. TOKEN has since surged by 56% and hit a new high of $0,09. Earlier, DWF invested over $11 million in FLOKI tokens, which also led to the growth of its rate.
The founder of the exchange announced his readiness for years of legal proceedings to prove the legality of its operation
Apr 11, 2024
According to Fred Thiel, this event has already been factored into the price as a result of the high demand for BTC ETFs in the United States
Apr 10, 2024
Native tokens for this amount will be placed in the Stride liquid staking protocol
Apr 8, 2024
In the run-up to the event, there was a noticeable increase in the blockchain hashrate
Apr 4, 2024
The pre-market is open on the Getgems platform
Apr 3, 2024
For this to happen, the coin’s trading volume must exceed the $30 billion mark
Apr 2, 2024


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With a total reported attendance of 91460, the NAB Show had 5% fewer tech heads making the pilgrimage to Las Vegas than the previous year. Elsewhere, the smaller MIPTV held in Cannes, France also saw a 5% drop in attendance to 9,500 registered attendees. The popularity of these events may be beginning to slow down, however, the gravity of news is at an all-time high.
While MIPTV focused more on content partnerships and service announcements for new deals, NAB captured the most thrilling news from camera technology to editing software to streaming service announcements. Conferences like the NAB Show shape the future of the streaming industry and give a glimpse into what trends will occur throughout the rest of the year. While these fresh announcements bring new possibilities in terms of content delivery, performance monitoring and player capability, this also means streaming services hoping to remain competitive must keep their ear close to the ground in order to stay ahead of the rest.
Here are the most important announcements in and out of Las Vegas during NAB:
Leading comms company Telstra partnered with CDN Broadpeak to launch the Intelligent Device Optimization (IDO) solution. This technology will allow players to dynamically switch broadcast configurations in real-time in order to keep the most efficient device partnership in use for mobile sporting apps amongst others. This technology will require technological context in order to give streaming services full visibility of what works best as well as why. This means benefiting from an analytics solution like YOUBORA Suite in order to deeply understand what goes on under the surface of your platform.
4G’s latency and connection issues restrict the uptake of mobile, on-the-go gaming for high fidelity AAA games. However, 5G will eliminate the current pain points of cloud gaming, creating an opportunity to reimagine the end-to-end service journey for players and viewers. A panel at NAB explored how 5G will affect Esports enabling new interaction models, consumption formats, and content types. This panel discussed the opportunities for broadcasters, content producers, and service providers to get involved in the rapidly growing industry.
While many claim that we are still a few years away from public access to 5G, the sooner streaming services that work closely with live content start investing in this technology, the better off they will be when 5G becomes commonplace. The appeal of low-latency to consumers goes beyond buffering and join times. Keeping your viewers as close to the action as possible is critical.
As the SVOD war rages on, Disney has finally announced a release date for their streaming service, Disney+. Coming at a price of $6.99 a month, this has already resulted in Hulu dropping their price down to $5.99 a month. With Netflix offering their basic package at the price of $8.99 a month after recently raising their prices, this puts a lot of pressure on other big players to reconsider their pricing strategy.
Disney+ will come with a library of exclusive content after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox earlier this year. This means Disney now own Hulu, ESPN+, as well as their new service which they have said will be bundled together. With the recent announcement of Apple TV coming later this year as well, the problems which non-linear TV looked to dissolve have ended up resurfacing.
Subscribing to HBO, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Disney+ is going to cost a household upwards of $50 a month and that is just for the most basic packages. The great unbundling was intended as a force of good, but now, this complicated and guiled mix of services could result in a resurgence in Pay TV.
Research & Editorial Team on April 16th 2019
As the streaming market matures and user expectations surge, the ability to immediately detect issues and share up-to-date reports across an organization is becoming an essential part of the day-to-day work lives of video industry professionals. In response, NPAW has launched the YOUBORA mobile app,...
As streaming becomes an ever-more established behavioral trend globally, online video providers are faced with a double-edged sword. Demand for online video is higher than ever, but so too is competition for space in consumers’ viewing habits. User expectations are on the rise and, as it is easier...
The outbreak of the COVID-19 virus is drastically changing user behavioral patterns worldwide. As the virus spreads, streaming video providers must contend with sudden changes in variables including rising economic pressures, altered routines, moods, and priorities. We have gathered together a series...


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Gas Prices: Some Relief For Summer Drivers
As the average price of gasoline in the U.S. has marched toward $3 per gallon, inflation worries have grown and consumer confidence has waned. But some relief is now in sight as fundamental supply and demand conditions improve.
The average price of gas in the U.S. eased to $2.88 a gallon for the week ended May 22. That was a 2.2% fall from $2.94 the prior week, which happened to be the highest price outside of a brief two-week period in September after Hurricane Katrina.
Further declines in the average price of gasoline are likely just as the busy summer driving season gets under way. The New York Harbor spot price for gasoline is down nearly 6% since mid-April. The Energy Information Administration sees gasoline prices moderating over the summer with an average second-quarter forecast price of $2.84 and a third-quarter price of $2.69.
The recent turn in gasoline prices is largely a response to an increase in supply. Over the four-week period ended May 19, production averaged 8.97 million barrels a day, the highest level this year. Gasoline imports over the same period hit post-hurricane levels. At the same time, demand for gasoline is leveling off. Demand in the first quarter was up nearly 1% from the previous year. So far this quarter, consumption is about unchanged.
The fact that demand has not fallen despite the past year's surge in gasoline prices illustrates the resilience of consumers. For starters, stronger labor markets are helping to offset higher energy costs. What's more, the impact of higher gasoline prices still looks manageable for most consumers. According to the EIA, the current increase in gas prices from the previous year would lift the cost of a 500-mile, round-trip drive by about $25 for a gas-guzzling vehicle that only gets 15 miles per gallon.
While conditions do look better, several risks remain. Ethanol, which is added to gas in order to reduce emissions, is still at record high prices. Volatility in the oil market because of geopolitical issues and the upcoming hurricane season could stay high. But as long as conditions remain favorable, improved output should allow prices to keep easing.
By James Mehring in New York


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Jay Z‘s Tidal is losing money like folks on the elliptical machine, slow but steady.
Tidal’s parent company Aspiro has reported that they’ve lost a total of $28 million in 2015, the same year Jay-Z bought it. While Tidal has seen its fair share of success from artist of high calibers such as Kanye West, Beyonce, and Prince. Still the streaming service is competing with heavy-hitter streaming services, Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. Tidal has managed to rack in 4.2 million subscribers as of June with their exclusives, but still not enough to go up against their competitors. The Wall Street Journal says that the lost doesn’t included all US financial data. However, Tidal didn’t have a guaranteed source of funding going into 2016. So the likes of them having one going into 2017 is likely none.
Earlier this summer reports began to surface that Apple was in talks to acquire Tidal and merge it with Apple Music. This power move would have saved Tidal’s sinking ship and boost Jay-z’s business power, but it seems that deal never happened. Jay’s pal Kanye even spoke on the topic publicly with a series of tweets.
“This Tidal Apple beef is fucking up the music game.”
1:10 PM – 30 Jul 2016
“I need Tim Cook Jay Z Dez Jimmy Larry me and Drake Scooter on the phone or in a room this week!!!”
1:12 PM – 30 Jul 2016
“Fuck all this dick swinging contest. We all gon be dead in 100 Years. Let the kids have the music.”
1:15 PM – 30 Jul 2016
“Apple give Jay his check for Tidal now and stop trying to act like you Steve.”
2:02 PM – 30 Jul 2016
Sadly, head of Apple Music Jimmy Iovine has never confirmed or denied any talks of purchasing Tidal he did tell BuzzFeed in a interview that Apple is “really running our own race, and is not looking to acquire any streaming services.”


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Black Friday online sales top $1B
Online spending on Black Friday topped $1 billion for the first time ever, and holiday shopping online is up 16 percent from last year so far.
Reston-based Internet tracking firm comScore Inc. says e-commerce sales Friday reached $1.04 billion, up 26 percent from last year. Online sales on a traditionally slow Thanksgiving Day surged 32 percent from last year to $633 million.
So far this holiday shopping season, defined as Nov. 1 through Nov. 23, have totaled $13.73 billion, a 16 percent increase over the same timeframe in 2011.
"Despite the frenzy of media coverage surrounding the importance of Black Friday in the brick-and-mortar world, we continue to see this shopping day become more and more prominent in the e-commerce channel, particularly among those who prefer to avoid crowds at the stores," comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said.
Cyber Monday, traditionally the strongest day for e-commerce sales, should be a record-setter, too. ComScore says it could hit $1.5 billion or higher.
Jeff Clabaugh covers general assignment and provides business coverage for WTOP.
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- Director of Marketing & Communications, Sellinger School of Business & Management Loyola University Maryland | Baltimore, MD
- Business Development Director/Associations McMurry/TMG | Washington, DC
- Director of Graduate Business Program Development, Sellinger School of Business & Management Loyola University Maryland | Baltimore, MD
- Careers at Verizon Wireless Verizon Wireless | Local Opportunities
- Audience Development Account Executive Washington Business Journal | Arlington, VA


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HMRC is reviewing allegations regarding the misuse of the Eat Out to Help Out (EOTHO) scheme following press reports that £250,000 of public money has been fraudulently claimed by 57 franchised Papa John's stores owned by Raheel Choudhary. HMRC has confirmed that an investigation is underway and it will not hesitate to take action against those who have exploited the scheme.
Papa John's GB Ltd has launched an investigation into the misuse of the scheme in its stores, all of which are run by franchisees. The allegations arise from an investigation by the Daily Mail which concluded that, despite Papa John's GB Ltd instructing all franchisees that stores were likely to be ineligible due to the fact they provide takeaway meals, stores processed thousands of discounted meals. Mr Choudhary denies any wrongdoing.
Risk of Fraud for the Hospitality Sector
The highly publicised EOTHO Scheme was launched by the Government to boost the hospitality sector in August after sales plummeted during the UK Lockdown. The scheme saw over 100 million meals claimed at an estimated cost to the Treasury of £522 million.
After the Government announced that £500m was to be set aside to fund the scheme, advisors warned of a risk of fraudulent claims in this and the other hastily implemented business and employee support schemes. As significant sums have been paid out by the Treasury, HMRC is now keen to show that it will actively investigate misuse of the schemes and pursuing enforcement measures where necessary. A HMRC spokesperson has confirmed that the agency "will check claims and take appropriate action to withhold or recover payments found to be dishonest or inaccurate [and] will not hesitate to act against those who attempt to break the rules".
Traditionally, HMRC's investigations target a specific sector of the economy and in the wake of the pandemic the hospitality sector will have attracted the agency's attention, as in addition to benefitting from the EOTHO scheme the sector also had the highest proportion of furloughed workers.
Investigations Gather Pace
HMRC has already charged individuals with fraud connected to the furlough and business support schemes and on 7 September 2020, Jim Harra, the head of HMRC, reported to the Public Accounts Committee that an evaluation of the EOTHO scheme to inform compliance work was already underway between HMRC and the Treasury. The deadline for claims under the scheme passed on 31 September and the sector should now be alert to potential investigations.
In August, HMRC wrote to 3,000 employers to ask them to check for "errors and small mistakes" in their claims for funds from the furlough scheme, but increasingly there may be no grace period for companies to redress wrongly claimed support payments.
The alleged misappropriation of funds by Papa John's originated from reports by whistle-blowers employed by Papa Johns. HMRC has encouraged whistle-blowers concerned about the abuse of the EOTHO scheme to make a report to them. These types of reports are expected to increase with the anticipated rise in redundancies across the hospitality sector.
While the EOTHO scheme was largely hailed as a success by participating restaurants, and with many take-away food services also doing well as a result of the lockdown restrictions, the implications of HMRC investigations and enforcement proceedings into the hospitality sector may be the next challenge for the industry.


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Caterpillar to end on-road dump truck production
Cat back-tracks and cuts anticipated assembly of trucks in Victoria, exiting the business entirely
Caterpillar has announced its decision to discontinue production of its on-road dump trucks and exit the business in response to slumping demand for commercial trucks and construction equipment.
The announcement reverses a previous decision made by Cat to shift production of the line to Japan, and marks another turn in the series of aggressive cost-cutting measures enacted by the company.
Cat has been selling Navistar-built on-road trucks since 2011, but from 2016, was planning to have the parts manufactured in Japan before their export for assembly at its US plant in Victoria, Texas.
The US equipment giant, had hoped to leverage the strength of the Caterpillar brand in bulldozers and excavators to sell the same contractors the dump trucks as part of a consolidated fleet offering.
However, Cat truck sales have averaged only 1,000 vehicles a year, according to recent estimates.
The market’s confidence in Caterpillar slipped further in February after it reported that its sales for 2015 were down by 15% in 2015, making it the third consecutive year that its sales have fallen.
After the report, Cat cut a further 670 jobs from its workforce, including 350 at Caterpillar’s main campus in East Peoria, Illinois, and announced plans to close a further five plants.
In 2015, Caterpillar revealed plans to cut 10,000 jobs worldwide by 2018 and close up to 20 factories.
From June, the company is consolidating its electric power division and the marine and petroleum power division into a single business unit responsible for its entire provision of temporary power.
The company expects 10% lower 2016 revenues of $42bn, more than a third below the company’s peak of $65.9bn four years ago.


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The group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari has disclosed that the N125 per litre petrol price will kick off on Thursday, 19th March, 2020.
Kyari announced this in a statement signed by him following a directive from Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva on Wednesday.
The statement read: “In compliance with the directives of the honourable minister of state for petroleum resources on PMS pricing, the corporation has reviewed its ex-coastal, ex-depot and NNPC retail pump prices accordingly.
“Effective March 19, 2020, NNPC ex-coastal price for PMS has been reviewed downwards from N117.6/litre to N99.44/litre while the ex-depot price is reduced from N133.28/litre to N113.28/litre.
“These reductions will, therefore, translate to N125/litre retail pump price.”
Kyari also noted that the immediate adjustment will come at a cost to the corporation, however, “NNPC is delighted to effect this massive reduction of N20/litre for the benefit of all Nigerians”.
“Accordingly, all NNPC retail stations nationwide have been directed to change the retail pump price to N125/litre.”


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Volkswagen has added a 3D printing center to its Toolmaking unit in Wolfsburg, to make complex vehicle components both for prototyping and then series production. It features new-generation HP-supplied printers with a fast, flexible binder jetting process; this supplements the selective laser melting (SLM) process used earlier, and is said to make metallic 3D printing Read More..
Vietnamese carmaker VinFast, which unveiled its first models at the recent Paris motor show [pictured], has selected the Siemens PLM (product lifecycle management) software suite to underpin its manufacturing and operations. The new company, a subsidiary of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private corporation, is establishing an end-to-end digital strategy as it prepares to bring its Pininfarina-designed Read More..
Swedish product development consultancy Semcon AB is expanding its partnership with fuel cell maker PowerCell, to help it scale up production by deploying robots and automation. The robots are being installed at PowerCell’s facility in Gothenberg, Sweden, following Semcon’s virtual simulations which visualize the entire production process. PowerCell expects to streamline its manufacturing, reduce costs Read More..
Dassault Systemes is planning to acquire Apriso in a move to strengthen its position in manufacturing software solutions. The Paris based maker of 3d design software and product lifecycle management products said it will pay about 205 million dlrs for the California-based company. Apriso is a specialist in operations management software and it is in Read More..


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Big things are happening for Selena Gomez. Hot on the heels of her album Rare, which came out in January, the singer announced she’d be launching Rare Beauty, a makeup brand with a deeper meaning.
On Tuesday, February 4, Gomez posted a video to her Instagram page announcing the new venture: “Guys, I’ve been working on this special project for two years and can officially say Rare Beauty is launching in @sephora stores in North America this summer! Follow @rarebeauty and become part of our beautiful community. Here’s a tiny sneak. There’s more to share AND I can’t wait,” she said in the caption.
Since then Sel stans have been patiently waiting for details, and finally—after much speculation—Rare Beauty is finally available to shop at Sephora and the brand's website. Here’s everything you need to know.
What’s the meaning behind the name Rare Beauty?
The brand name echoes the name of Gomez’s recent album. She’s referred to the album as her diary from the past few years, and many of the lyrics are speculated to be about her relationship with Justin Bieber.
When is Rare Beauty launching?
In her original video, Gomez said that Rare Beauty would be launching in summer 2020, but in an Instagram post in early August, she revealed the brand would be available starting September 3—so you can officially add everything to cart now.
Where can you buy Rare Beauty?
Good news: You’ll be able to pick up Rare Beauty at Sephora with all your other beauty essentials, as well as online at rarebeauty.com.
What makes Rare Beauty different from other brands?
The brand is all about embracing inner beauty, as much as it about self-expression. “Being rare is about being comfortable with yourself,” she said in the teaser for the brand's release, which you can watch above. “I’ve stopped trying to be perfect. I just want to be me. I think Rare Beauty can be more than a beauty brand. I want us all to stop comparing ourselves to each other and start embracing our uniqueness. You’re not defined by a photo, a like, or a comment. Rare Beauty isn’t about how other people see you. It’s about how you see yourself.”
In an interview with Allure published on August 31, Gomez said: “Beauty doesn’t have to be defined by a like or a comment, or your body. The whole time we were creating [Rare Beauty], we were always under the notion that this was going to be also about mental health and creating a safe place for people to connect.“
What products does Rare Beauty include?
In a conversation with Interview magazine published on April 13, Gomez revealed a few more details about the products themselves, which she calls “clean and easy.” The biggest news is she has launched 48 shades of foundation and concealer, plus a “mascara that doesn’t clump,” at the request of Amy Schumer, who was conducting the interview.


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Just when you thought ASOS had everything it could possible sell on its website, it goes and shows us that there was one big thing missing all along…
The online retailer has announced that it is launching its very own makeup collection – and it looks pretty exciting.
Focusing on the idea that ‘your face and body are a canvas’, the brand is releasing 46 shades across liquid lips, matte lipsticks, contouring palettes, shimmery eyeshadows, highlighting chubby sticks and bronzers.
Basically, MAKEUP GALORE.
To stress that the range is all about following how you feel, the products have been given names that ‘reflect versions of who we are and how we’re feeling on the inside’, including Overqualified, Decisive, Current Mood and Uncompromising.
Sadly, ASOS Make-Up isn’t out yet, but the brand has confirmed that it will be released from mid-September, so the products could be dropping any day now.
And you can believe that we’ll be making use of our Next Day Delivery as soon as it does…
ASOS Make-Up will be sold on ASOS.com
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May 25, 2015 Product recalls happen all the time. Just last week, there were 11 not including food products.
May 11, 2015 Businesses in Southeast New Mexico feel the impact of oil prices.
Apr 29, 2015 A visual look at how aid money donated to Nepal is spent.
Apr 28, 2015 How does aid money reach people on the ground?
Apr 28, 2015 Some are claiming the Bank of Japan is manipulating currency.
Apr 27, 2015 Aid workers face challenges after a devastating quake.
Apr 27, 2015 The Tennessee Valley Authority is scaling back its plans for more nuclear power.
Apr 20, 2015 As oil prices fall, so do profits and headcounts at Halliburton.


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Bezos, 56, is now worth $ 189.3 billion – making him more valuable than big companies like McDonald’s, Exxon Mobile and Nike, according to Bloomberg.
The tech mogul has added $ 74.4 billion to his wealth so far this year amid a 73% rise in Amazon’s stock price. The conglomerate has benefited from increased demand for online shopping as lockdowns intended to control the COVID-19 pandemic have shut consumers down from their homes.
Amazon stocks are said to have posted their best daily gain since December 2018 on Monday ahead of the company’s second quarter earnings report on Thursday. Analysts expect revenues for the Seattle-based company to jump 27% to $ 80.7 billion, although profits are likely to have fallen from a year ago amid rising prices. costs, according to Bloomberg.
Bezos’ 11% stake in Amazon accounts for over 90% of his net worth, while the remainder includes his space exploration company Blue Origin, the Washington Post newspaper and $ 4.5 billion in cash and other assets, Bloomberg said.
Other tech titans have also seen their fortunes explode even as the pandemic sparked the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg added $ 14.8 billion to his wealth this year, while Tesla boss Elon Musk’s net worth grew by $ 46.9 billion, including a jump of $ 5.7 billion Monday, according to Bloomberg’s ranking.


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Ahead of the festive season, Stellar Value Chain Solutions has hired close to 5,000 people to meet the expected surge in demand in e-commerce and other segments, such as fashion, lifestyle and retail, FMCG and consumer durables. Stellar is known for pioneering digitally-enabled end-to-end value-chain transformation in India. The Company has created jobs in the metros as well as the non-metro cities across India, including Indore, Lucknow, Raipur, Coimbatore and Jammu. The jobs have come up in the area of transportation, and at its hubs, sorting centres and warehousing facilities, given the added manpower, warehousing space and tech-enabled infrastructure.
The Company has scaled up its hiring in the supply chain solutions segment for serving the e-commerce and retail sectors.
“We’ll help our clients offer superior customer experience during the festive season,” says Anshuman Singh, chairman and managing director, Stellar Value Chain Solutions. The Company has also initiated the process of establishing a new warehousing facility compliant with Built-to-Suit (BTS) norms and state-of-the-art design.
These BTS facilities are fully EHS (environment, health and safety) compliant with fire-fighting equipment, such as fire hydrants and sprinklers, ventilation with six air changes per hour, and skylight on the roof. The warehouse is also equipped with a cloud-based warehouse management system to manage increased volumes of cargo efficiently, in the festive season. Stellar has also set up one-million square feet warehousing facilities in Hosur (Tamil Nadu), and Banur (Punjab) offering fulfilment and distribution services to e-commerce, consumer durables and retail sectors.


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Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Sabre Gets Renewal At Hilton
Southlake-based Sabre Hospitality Solutions, the provider of reservations systems for the hotel industry, said Tuesday that Hilton Worldwide has renewed a multi-year distribution agreement with the firm. Financial impact of the renewal were not disclosed. Sabre said the agreement keeps Hilton's 3700 hotels and 610,000 rooms accessible to its network of 350,000 travel professionals worldwide.


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GLOBAL – Like almost all industries, the off-grid solar (OGS) industry has been adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a 26% drop in sales of off-grid solar lighting products, a new report by GOGLA has shown.
According to the report, first half of 2020 saw sales of off-grid solar lighting products fall to 3 million compared to 4.1 million in the first half of 2019.
Sales of most off-grid solar appliance types also saw decreases despite of their importance in providing essential energy access for millions of households and businesses in developing countries.
Sales were particularly affected by stringent measures to combat the pandemic which were particularly acute in Asia.
Sales of off-grid solar lighting products in South Asia fell to 495,000 units, a 57% decrease, and to 74,000 in East Asia & Pacific, a 49% drop.
A slowdown in sales was also seen in East Africa (11% decline to 1.6 million) where the economic impact of COVID-19 was exacerbated by the worst locust swarms for decades and heavy flooding in key markets.
Sales of off-grid solar solutions however, remained stable in West and Central Africa, with 354,000 and 130,000 units respectively.
The worrying trend though is the continued concentration of funds into a small number of investors raising worries about the sustainability of such a model in future.
Accoriding to the GOGlA report, Between January – August 31st 2020, 75% of investment was made to only 3 companies.
Grant funding was also concentrated, albeit from the investor side, with 3/4 of grant capital coming into the market from a single source.
Perhaps most concerning, though, is the effect of a slowdown in growth on energy access and other development impacts.
Naturally, with less products sold, fewer families are accessing clean, safe electricity and more households are left with expensive or dangerous alternatives such as kerosene.
At the national level, positive impacts on employment, economic opportunity and income generation are being missed.
At the global level, challenges for the off-grid industry could derail efforts to achieve a clean energy transition that leaves no one behind.
Despite the setbacks experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, Off-grid solar remains the fastest, cleanest and most affordable way to unlock hundreds of millions of people from energy poverty.
The report notes that Companies must thus be safeguarded in the short-term to avoid operational and staff losses that cannot be regained easily.
According to GOGLA, to power the COVID-19 recovery and avoid losing 10 years of energy access progress a concerted, ambitious and strategic long-term effort to protect and promote the sector is also needed.


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Palm oil is the world’s most popular edible oil. This versatile tropical oil is found in many products ranging from premium cookies and bars to better-for-you spreads and convenience foods. But what’s exciting is Malaysian palm oil’s positive effect on our health and the environment. This non-GMO oil – American food manufacturers’ preferred choice for replacing harmful partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) – is also the world’s first sustainable edible oil.
Malaysian palm oil: the natural, wholesome alternative to PHOs
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that PHOs, the primary source of trans fats, must be phased out of the U.S. food supply by 2018. Favored for decades by food manufacturers for their ability to extend shelf life and deliver a creamy texture, PHOs are no longer “Generally Recognized As Safe”, or GRAS, for human consumption because they have been shown to increase heart disease risk. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, reducing trans fat consumption in this county could prevent up to 20,000 heart attacks each year.
Palm oil has proven to be the preferred replacement because it delivers many of the sought-after properties of PHOs without the need for hydrogenation. This naturally trans fat-free oil is also rich in vitamin E tocotrienols, up-and-coming nutrients linked to improved brain, heart and eye health. Finally, palm oil is produced without genetic engineering unlike most other commonly used edible oils, such as corn, canola and soybean.
Malaysian palm oil: The eco-friendly choice
Environmentalists, as well as Malaysian palm oil producers – the tropical country that produces most of the United States’ palm oil – are sharing the good news about palm oil’s efficiency and eco-friendliness.
Of all the major oil crops, Malaysian oil palm plantations occupy the least land, but produce the most oil. A single acre of oil palm produces 11 times more oil than soybeans, and 10 times more than sunflower. Palm oil producers have also teamed up with nonprofit organizations to ensure that wildlife such as orangutans, elephants and sun bears can reside peacefully in and near oil palm plantations. This article reports how these groups are working together on conservation issues. In another article, an expert from the Union of Concerned Scientists, acknowledges that, in the fight against deforestation, beef and soybeans are the commodities that deserve our attention.
Malaysian palm oil producers, known for decades for their environmental responsibility, have recently reaffirmed their sustainability commitment with the introduction of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) certification program. This program further demonstrates the country’s pledge to produce only high-quality and eco-conscious palm oil.
We are your resource for information on the health and nutritional benefits of Malaysian palm fruit oil and palm fruit oil bioactives. We provide breaking news and industry research, including the exciting potential for supporting cardiovascular and neurological health.


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The Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), a subsidiary of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), recently signed a service agreement to join the MyKYCBank platform of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). DMCC Executive Chairman and DDE Chairman Ahmed Bin Sulayem GJEPC Chairman Pramod Kumar Agrawal did the honours. The DMCC is the fourth trade body to join the MyKYCBank after the GJEPC, Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) and the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC). The agreement enables DMCC members trading in diamonds, gold and precious stones to join the MyKYCBank platform.
The MyKYCBank platform provides a centralised global platform for companies in the gem and jewelry industry (stakeholders in gold, diamonds, precious stones and jewelry) to complete, manage and share their KYC information so as enable them to meet their obligations under the anti-money laundering AML laws of their respective countries. Commenting about the MoU signing with MyKYCBank, Bin Sulayem said, “As a leading global diamond hub, the Dubai Diamond Exchange and the DMCC are proud to be part of the MyKYCBank and enable our members to join the leading platform and serve business requirements.”
GJEPC Chairman Agrawal said, “The inclusion of DDE-registered companies on the platform will go a long way in addressing the concerns of our industry bankers, and support the trade between the countries. MyKYCBank platform has become a recognition across the world for KYC.” Members can easily share their own KYC data with trade connections as well as banks and other financial intermediaries. Under the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) guidelines, companies in the gem and jewelry industry are expected to undertake due diligence on their counter-parties. India is an FATF member, while the UAE is part of the Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF).
(2019-1-7, Source: The Diamond Loupe)


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Amazon originally launched its Echo speaker back in late 2014, designed as a Bluetooth speaker with the Alexa voice assistant. Inspired by Star Trek's Starship Enterprise, Echo has been exclusively sold in the US so far, but Amazon is starting to bring it and Alexa to international markets. At an Amazon event in the UK this morning, the company unveiled its plans to launch Echo in Europe. Echo will be available in the UK and Germany this fall, alongside a new white version of the Echo.
Alexa's skill set will also be available for developers in the UK and around the world to enable new "skills" and app integration on the Amazon Echo. In the UK, Amazon is partnering with Uber, Spotify, Jamie Oliver, Sky Sports, and more to let Alexa control services and apps through just your voice. Amazon is even working with partners like Sky to broadcast brief news snippets through Alexa, and Jamie Oliver to provide recipes. You can even use Just Eat to generate fast food orders, or ask National Rail to read our your train commute times.
Amazon is opening up preorders for the Echo in the UK and Germany today, priced at £149.99 in the UK and 179.99 Euro in Germany. Amazon Prime customers will be able to get £50 or 50 Euro off Echo preorders if they order within the next couple of days. The Amazon Echo product page shows a September 28th ship date in the UK, or October 26th for Germany. The white Echo is available for $179.99 on September 28th in the US.