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Walmart vs. Amazon: A New Era of E-commerce Competition
In the ever-evolving landscape of e-commerce, two giants stand out: Amazon, the longstanding leader in online retail, and Walmart, a traditional retail powerhouse making significant strides in the digital realm. This article delves into how Walmart is attracting new sellers and positioning itself as a formidable competitor to Amazon, creating a dynamic environment that benefits sellers and consumers alike.
Walmart’s Digital Transformation
Walmart has been rapidly expanding its online presence, a strategic move that positions it as a direct competitor to Amazon in the e-commerce space. With its vast network of physical stores, Walmart offers unique advantages, such as convenient pickup and return options, which it has seamlessly integrated into its online platform. This blend of online and offline capabilities is a key differentiator that's attracting new sellers.
Attracting New Sellers
Walmart's approach to onboarding new sellers is markedly different from Amazon's. While Amazon operates on a massive scale, hosting millions of sellers, Walmart is more selective, focusing on quality over quantity. This approach ensures a higher standard of product offerings on Walmart's platform, which in turn attracts quality-conscious sellers and buyers.
The entry process for sellers on Walmart's platform, though stringent, promises less competition and higher visibility compared to Amazon. Additionally, Walmart has been investing in seller support and logistics infrastructure, making it more appealing for sellers looking for a reliable and supportive e-commerce platform.
A Competitive Edge Over Amazon
Walmart’s competitive pricing strategy is another area where it stands out. Unlike Amazon, which has a complex pricing structure and various fees, Walmart offers a more straightforward and often more affordable alternative for sellers. This pricing strategy not only benefits the sellers in terms of costs but also allows them to price their products more competitively.
Moreover, Walmart's reputation for trustworthiness and customer service extends to its online platform, giving new sellers an opportunity to associate with a brand known for reliability and customer-centric values.
Expanding Market Opportunities
For sellers, the rise of Walmart in the e-commerce space means diversification of sales channels. Rather than relying solely on Amazon, sellers now have the opportunity to tap into Walmart’s vast customer base. This not only increases sales potential but also reduces the risk associated with dependence on a single platform.
Additionally, Walmart’s online marketplace is less saturated than Amazon’s, providing new sellers with a better chance to stand out and reach consumers without the intense competition found on Amazon.
The competition between Walmart and Amazon marks a significant shift in the e-commerce landscape. Walmart's strategic moves to attract new sellers and offer a compelling alternative to Amazon's platform create a more dynamic and competitive market. This competition is not only beneficial for sellers, offering them more avenues to increase sales and diversify their online presence, but it also benefits consumers through more choices and competitive pricing.
As the e-commerce world continues to evolve, the competition between these two giants will likely spur further innovations and improvements, making this an exciting time for sellers and consumers alike. The Walmart vs. Amazon rivalry exemplifies the dynamic nature of e-commerce and underscores the importance of adaptation and innovation in this rapidly changing market.


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Pandemic Food Supply and Redistribution Program
The Coronavirus pandemic set off a cascade of events in the US food supply chain as food processing plants have forced to close, and grocery stores and food pantries are struggling to keep shelves stocked. During the COVID-19 crisis The Jahn Research Group partnered with Repositrak to form FoodSource USA, a national initiative to mitigate perishable food waste and redirect it to food banks and pantries. FoodSource USA creates a connection between suppliers and recipients to direct unused perishable foods such as meat, produce and dairy, and facilitates support from government agencies to fund labor from producers and processors. We connect suppliers to processors, and processors to food banks, so they can support their communities. On April 24th, 2020 FoodSource USA launched their pilot program in Kansas with Liberty Fruit and Harvesters. For more information on FoodSource USA, visit the website.

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It’s been only three days since Microsoft’s advertising department unleashed a new ad salvo at Apple’s direction in the form of a commercial for its Surface Pro 4 tablet/laptop hybrid and now it’s posted yet another video to conveniently reiterate its message ahead of iPhone 7’s launch tomorrow. Titled “Power of Touch”, the 30-second commercial doubles down on the ”the Mac lacks a touchscreen” theme.
Not only does Microsoft poke fun of the fact that Macs are long overdue for a refresh (yours supposedly “ain’t fast enough” lately), but also disses the Mac for not shipping with a detachable keyboard or a stylus.
That your Mac “lately ain’t fast enough” is “just a shame” after all those years.
The ad goes on to diss Macs—that is, the MacBook Airs—for their low-resolution screen. Watch the video for yourself and let us know what you think in comments.
I guess we should all sell our Macs right away and rush to buy ourselves one of the Surface Pro 4 devices because they come with an Intel inside and run the full Office suite and other desktop Windows apps. There’s another ad that criticizes the Mac’s lack of a detachable keyboard, a touchscreen and a stylus.
Now, the first Surface ad featuring that singer was quite amusing but the latest ones could have been done better and aren’t very funny, in my personal opinion.
Tell us how you feel about these new Surface ads down in the comments.


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The Yorktown planning board Monday suspended all activities for the , citing lawsuits involving the owner of the land where it is to be built.
Owner Sammy El Jamal, president of Best Buy Rent Properties 202, recently informed the town of a lawsuit attempting to terminate his sale agreement with Retail Store Construction, the applicant for the Costco facility.
"It is disputed that Best Buy Rent Properties 202, LLC and Retail Store Construction Co., Inc did not timely enter into an extension of the contract prior to its expiration on August 31, 2010," El Jamal's letter to the town stated.
Costco's lawyers say this is wrong, citing an extension through June.
El Jamal is also the owner of about 100 gas stations in Westchester, including the Shell gas station on Route 202 in Yorktown and the Mobil gas station across the street from the proposed Costco site. He has expressed disapproval that Costco plans to put up its own gas station and is now refusing to sell his property.
Joe Visconti, president of the Yorktown Chamber of Commerce, said this wasn't about a local business owner and his concerns. It was, instead, about "Big Oil [Mobile] ... telling Yorktown residents what they can and can't do. Competition is what it's all about."
Visconti said the planning board tabling all activities going forward is a step back in the process, and that many people would be upset if Costco does not come into town.
The attorney for Retail Store Contruction, Robert M. Calica, in an April 6 letter to the town said El Jamal "falsely contends" the purchase agreement has expired, saying it was extended to June 30, 2011.
El Jamal is also being sued by his Best Rent partner Majed ("Mitch) Nesheiwat, "for wrongfully interfering with the Purchase Agreement." Nesheiwat wants to compel Mr. El Jamal "to cooperate with the pending zoning applications."
The cases are in Dutchess and Westchester courts.
"The Dutchess County Action arose by reason of Mr. El Jamal's wrongful and self-motivated efforts to trigger a termination of the Purchase Agreement because Costco's plans to include an accessory gasoline station for use of its members and because such an accessory gasoline service station will compete with Mr. El Jamal's own, unrelated retail and wholesale gasoline business," Calica wrote in the letter.
A lawyer for El Jamal, Albert J. Pirro Jr., wrote in a letter dated April 8 that his client does not want the application to be further processed.
"While this matter could have been settled awhile ago if the gas station component was dropped, it is now irrelevant—that ship has sailed," Pirro said.
Al Capellini, the Yorktown lawyer representing the Retail Store Construction, said El Jamal claims he never agreed to a plan for a gas station at the proposed site. Approximately six months after the contract was signed, the lawsuit was brought up, according to Capellini.
"My client has expressed to me that plans were known to all parties involved," he said.
"[Costco] has been put on hold because of the suspension of the processing of the application by the planning board. Delay doesn't breathe success. The lawsuit is an unfortunate occurrence for Yorktown because Costco would be a wonderful addition, but I am hopeful it will eventually come in," he said.
Supervisor Susan Siegel said the town is concerned there are no approvals.
"[Costco] is a potential for a significant source of revenue for the town of Yorktown," she said. "We have a lot at stake. We'll keep abreast with it. The town board has no official position on this."
The only issue that can come up in front of town board members would be Costco's gas station, which would require a special permit approved by board members, Siegel said. Everything else is reviewed by planning board members.
The nearly 19-acre that once housed a hotel and nursery lies about 40 feet below the Taconic State Parkway overpass on Route 202.


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NORWICH, Kan. (KSNW) – Whereas many small cities are struggling to outlive, one Kansas group is flourishing because of a downtown full of companies.
Norwich is a city of about 500 individuals in Kingman County, and the group is defying the chances.
“The city didn’t have a grocery retailer for 15 years,” stated Brent Bradley, proprietor of Eagle Grocery in Norwich.
It’s what each small city wants, however so many don’t have. Brent Bradley opened Eagle Grocery in Norwich and it’s the most recent addition to the thriving downtown.
“We made it just like the city,” stated Bradley, “small and mighty.”
Brent Bradley retains costs aggressive by ordering from a wholesale provider, however to satisfy the minimal required, he has to companion with a grocery retailer in Conway Springs. It’s with that teamwork that retains the city buzzing with enterprise.
“My husband began maintaining bees when he was 10 years previous,” stated Sharon Rowan, proprietor of Rowan’s Honey Store.
The state’s solely honey store was one of many first shops in Norwich, and now attracts clients from throughout Kansas and the area.
“Then I’ll say you’ll want to go down the nook for lunch as a result of we now have an old style soda fountain. Or for those who want t-shirts, go to Brick Home Designs,” stated Rwan. “We move our clients on to one another.”
Karen Poindexter began her enterprise, Brick Home Designs, on the urging of one other retailer proprietor. Then the domino impact took off.
“It’s simply progressively, every constructing has crammed up,” stated Poindexter.
Because the downtown grows, so does help from native consumers.
“Individuals attempt to discover no matter they’re on the lookout for regionally earlier than they exit-of-city to get it,” defined Norwich Mayor Jake Energy.
The group is working collectively to construct a strong financial system and a future for the subsequent era.
“We’re necessary and we matter and we need to survive,” stated Susan Younger, Kingman County Financial Improvement Council. “Nicely finished Norwich!”
Norwich additionally hosts an enormous occasion in April that brings lots of people to city. It’s the drag races on Most important Road. Near 2,000 individuals come for the weekend and are sometimes stunned in any respect the world has to supply.
Get breaking information, climate and visitors on the go. Obtain our Information App and our Climate App on your telephone and pill. Comply with us on Fb and Twitter.


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Apple retains its number one postion on the West European education market, according to the latest marketshare figures from Gartner.
The company once again took first place in Western Europe in the first-quarter, grabbing 17.3 per cent of the education market (all CPUs including servers) and 18.4 per cent share in the combined desktop and notebook markets.
Apple also continues to gain ground in the UK education market, where it's now the second biggest vendor in terms of dektop and overall sales, Gartner's figures explain.
The news is a consolidation of Apple's continuing success within Europe's education sector. It overtook Dell in terms of UK education marketshare last October, and claimed the top spot in European education sales in February last year.
Apple's education market share in western Europe in 2005 was 15.2 per cent, relegating Dell, with 14.7 per cent, to second place.
Apple market share in the UK education market during the fourth quarter 2005 was 12.5 per cent.


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The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American City Business Journals.
The Society of American Florists recognizes Pugh's Flowers for its delivery spin-off.
The Downtown Memphis Commission has put forth guidelines for parking garages to increase safety and comfort.
SCORE, which has 12,000 seasoned business executives who volunteer their time to help small business owners, is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
The Memphis Business Journal held its third Super Women in business awards to honor 25 of the most accomplished and influential women in the business community.
Delta is hoping Memphians will long for warmer weather this winter.
A new data breach at Home Depot could be even larger than Target's earlier this year.
New campaign will include dollar-for-dollar matches up to $300,000
$1.3 billion facility expected to be up and running in two years.
News reports of data breaches and cyber crime are so prevalent now that many simply gloss over them. But, for security experts, the watch is never-ending.
The incomplete Downtown high-rise is now under contract to a new developer.
Overton Square has lined up a new tenant, this time one that isn't a restaurant or retail shop.
Memphis-based AutoZone Inc. has an agreement to buy a large distributor of import replacement auto parts.
Dollar General is upping the ante in its quest to buy the Family Dollar chain.
`Memphis-area DirecTV subscribers might have noticed something missing Monday.
A 50-room south Memphis motel was completely destroyed by fire on Sunday
The University of Memphis football team kicked off it's season Saturday with a 63-0 win over Austin Peay.
The national economy seems to be on the upswing, with 10 million jobs added over the last 53 months.
American Express, Visa, and MasterCard are on-board for a system that will allow iPhone owners to use their devices to pay for items at certain retailers.
September 10, 2014 , 8:30am to 11:00am
5350 Poplar Avenue, Suite 550
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Switzerland-based SmallRivers made headlines earlier this year when it scored funding with Kima Ventures and Econa to turn your Twitter feed into an online newspaper via Paper.li. And now for anyone who wants something looking more like Twitter meets Le Monde or Der Spiegel, Paper.li has just announced the launch of its French and German versions – with Spanish to come next week.
There are currently some 99.7K registered users on the site publishing some 1,000 new newspapers daily. The US currently accounts for 40% of users, however, non-English speaking users also make-up roughly 40% traffic with French and German users leading the way. Currently, some 207 countries are represented in the company’s userbase.
Interestingly enough, when we spoke to the team back in July, the company had been planning to go after the Japanese market first – which was at the time making up the majority of traffic on the site. An Italian version of the site had also been mentioned at the time, in addition to French, German and Spanish.
Along the same lines as Twittertim.es, Paper.li definitely makes Twitter a lot easier to read for anyone who is freaked out by #hashtags and RTs and such. And it’s completely customized content, as the platform does a semantic analysis of URLs in order to provide the reader with the most relevant content. Oh, and for all you Apple-lovers out there, the site has also been optimized for use on the iPad so that you can step back from your laptop and read the paper…er, Twitter.


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Facebook Revenues Downgraded, Weak First Half Cited
Citing its under-performance during the first half of 2012, eMarketer has shaved $1 billion off its previous projection for Facebook's revenues this year. In February, eMarketer predicted Facebook's revenues would top $6 billion this year, but not projects it will grow to only $5.042 bilion, a downward revision of 17%.
The new 2012 estimate nonetheless represents a 35.9% increase over the $3.711 billion eMarketer estimates Facebook took in 2012 revenues.
eMarketer also estimated that advertiisng currently represents 83.9% of Facebook's revenue sources, which declined slightly from 85.0% in 2011.
"In 2013, revenue is expected to increase 31% as Facebook fully rolls out new ad products such as its ad exchange. International revenue is also expected
to climb with the expansion of the company's mobile ad business," the eMarketer report notes, adding that it's downward revision for 2012 revenue projections "does not reflect concerns about
Facebook's mobile advertising business. While the February forecast included the assumption that Facebook would start to sell mobile advertising this year, eMarketer did not expect that it would
become a meaningful contributor to revenue in 2012."


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The summer barbecue season is upon us once again, and food safety is on the minds of many Americans who are taking their meals outdoors.
The United States’ food safety system is composed of a team of thousands of professionals at the federal, state and local levels who work together — largely behind the scenes — to ensure the food on your table is safe to eat. That network has grown stronger than ever before over the past eight years, modernizing to meet growing demand from customers around the world.
USDA has a role to play in ensuring the safety of virtually all foods produced and eaten in America, but our most direct responsibility is to make sure America’s supply of meat, poultry and processed egg products is safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
Our estimates indicate that the total number of illnesses attributed to USDA-regulated products fell more than 12 percent from 2009 to 2015. The policies implemented under the Obama Administration will go a long way in protecting public health. For example, it is estimated that the food safety standards implemented for Salmonella and Campylobacter in poultry will prevent about 67,000 illnesses annually.
In fact, the chicken, steaks, ribs and hamburger you’re grilling today get much more scrutiny than the ones you would have purchased eight years ago. Over the course of the Obama Administration, USDA has made changes to meat and poultry labels, updated our food safety inspection methods, modernized how our laboratories test for things like E. coli and Salmonella and reconsidered all the ways we help safer food reach store shelves.
We’re better now at keeping unsafe food out of commerce, whether it’s made unsafe because of dangerous bacteria, or because of an allergen, like peanuts or wheat. We have launched a sophisticated data system that allows us to pull inspection and testing data for any food company quickly and also connect to a system at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection so we can better track imported food shipments that need our safety assessment.
While an estimated 1 in 6 Americans experiences foodborne illness each year, USDA’s modernization efforts are bringing down the number of foodborne illnesses in USDA-regulated products. The work we have done since 2009 represents some of the most significant changes to America’s food safety system since the 1950s. More effective testing, greater focus on mislabeling, and more rigorous scientific processes are building a stronger overall safety net to detect pathogens and mislabeled product before they reach consumers.
As we begin to look back at our impact on food safety and consumer confidence, here are the top 5 food safety changes we’ve made since 2009:
1. Prohibiting STECs: In the 1990’s, USDA took historic action by declaring that beef contaminated with a common and dangerous strain of E. coli, known as E. coli O157:H7, was adulterated and therefore illegal to be sold in America. E. coli O157:H7 is so harmful in even small quantities because it produces a toxin called shiga-toxin. Prior to this Administration, other strains of shiga-toxin producing E. coli were considered to be a rare public health concern and therefore were not given the same illegal and unsafe status as O157:H7. In 2010, thanks in part to improved technology, CDC reported that the number of human infections from these other strains for the first time surpassed infections with the more common E. coli O157:H7. CDC estimated at the time that shiga-toxin producing E. coli strains other than O157:H7 cause nearly 113,000 illnesses each year, one-third of which could be attributed to beef. Armed with this information, USDA quickly moved to establish a zero tolerance policy for raw beef products that contain E. coli O26, O103, O45, O111, O121 and O145, collectively known as the “Big Six” strains of shiga-toxin producing E. coli. USDA announced the move in 2011, and enforcement to detect these pathogens and prevent them from reaching consumers began in early 2012.
2. Labeling Mechanically Tenderized Meat: Beginning this summer, USDA is requiring meat companies to disclose on packages of beef steak and other whole cuts if a product has been “mechanically tenderized,” meaning the meat was pierced with needles or small blades to break up tissue and make it tenderer. The blades or needles can introduce pathogens from the surface of the beef to the interior, making proper cooking very important. However, mechanically tenderized products look no different than meat that has not been treated this way, so without disclosure on the label, consumers may not know about this higher food safety risk.
Home cooks, restaurants and other food service facilities now have more information about the products they are buying, as well as useful cooking instructions so they know how to safely prepare them. You should be able to spot these labels when you go shopping for your summer barbecues.
3. Targeting Commonly Eaten Foods: In 2012, recognizing a stubborn trend in Salmonella illnesses, FSIS pulled together a small group of its staff with different responsibilities in different parts of the country to develop an all-hands-on-deck plan for tackling Salmonella. As part of that plan, we were able to prioritize development of the first-ever Salmonella and Campylobacter (a lesser-known bacteria associated with poultry) reduction standards for poultry parts, which consumers purchase far more frequently than whole broiler or fryer chickens. In addition, FSIS committed to posting online more data about each company’s performance under these standards, to increase transparency and further incentivize companies to achieve or surpass them. These new standards are expected to prevent 50,000 cases of foodborne illness annually.
4. Modernizing Poultry Food Safety Inspections: In August 2014, USDA finalized the most significant update to poultry food safety inspections since 1957, requiring for the first time ever that that all poultry facilities create a plan to prevent contamination with Salmonella and Campylobacter, rather than addressing contamination after it occurs. Under this update, poultry companies now have to collect samples at two points on their production line and have them tested, which is done in addition to USDA’s own improved testing strategy in poultry plants. This same update introduced the New Poultry Inspection System, a science-based inspection system that, while optional for poultry companies, positions food safety inspectors in a smarter way so that they can have maximum food safety oversight.
5. Testing and Holding Policy: Beginning in 2012, USDA requires meat and poultry companies to hold all product that is undergoing laboratory analysis until the agency’s microbial and chemical tests for harmful hazards are fully complete. This “test and hold” policy will significantly reduce consumer exposure to unsafe meat products, and it could have prevented 44 recalls of unsafe foods between 2007 and 2009 if it had been in place at the time.
Shifting our Focus to Prioritize Prevention
Since the Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906, a century of science and research has helped us know more about harmful pathogens and how to prevent illness than ever before. Today, consumers the world over have confidence in U.S. food and agricultural products because of a comprehensive system of science, data, tough standards, and an experienced team of largely unrecognized public servants who work day in and day out to ensure the safety, quality and transparency of our food system.
In collaboration with other federal food safety partners at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates food products like leafy greens, bakery goods and beverages, and at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which investigates and identifies causes of foodborne illnesses, USDA plays a crucial role in reducing the risk of foodborne illness for all Americans.
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), which by statute is charged with ensuring the safety of our meat, poultry and processed egg supply, consists of a team of 9,600 men and women. They work in one of three food safety laboratories across the United States, maintain a constant presence in more than 6,000 slaughter and processing facilities, and reinspect imports at 122 ports of entry. Still others spend long hours on the road cracking foodborne illness outbreak cases, or they improve policies and piece together telling data trends here in Washington, D.C. They are a committed and talented bunch, of whom the rest of the USDA family is immensely proud.
This team targets their response to tackling four foodborne pathogens that most frequently affect our regulated products: Salmonella, Escherichia coli (E. coli), Listeria monocytogenes, and Campylobacter. Many of the food safety improvements made under this Administration were born of this group’s experience and expertise, but new technology is also making it possible to tackle lesser-known, emerging risks.
Over the past eight years, thanks to them, we have tightened standards for the companies who process and prepare thousands of food products. We have upgraded technology and internal systems to track and report safety issues to regulators and the public in real time. We have knitted together the web of federal agencies overseeing the totality of America’s food safety system to ensure standards are tough on behalf of the consumer, vigilant against emerging risks, consistent and coordinated. And we have introduced new consumer-facing tools that give anyone with a desktop, tablet or smart phone the information they need to guard themselves and their family against food borne illnesses.
For the thousands of Americans who suffer from food related allergies, proper food labels are a critical defense against adverse reactions. Beginning in 2011, FSIS inspectors were directed to take an intensive look at meat and poultry companies’ ingredient labels, and compare them against day-to-day production. USDA initiated 40 recalls for undeclared allergens that year — up from just 18 in 2010 — as we uncovered instances where labels were out of date or suppliers had changed their spice mixtures. In April 2015, food safety inspectors met with management at every meat and poultry facility in the country to go over their labeling procedures, and later that year USDA issued new best practices to help companies avoid costly and risky labeling errors. As a result of these actions, far more mislabeled product is kept out of commerce now than prior to this Administration.
Beginning in 2015, we now require retail outlets that produce ground beef to keep clear and accountable records to help investigators more quickly determine the source of a foodborne illness outbreak and remove potentially contaminated product from commerce. At times, outbreak investigations have been hindered when retail stores produce ground beef by mixing product from various sources, but fail to keep clear records that would allow investigators to determine which supplier produced the unsafe product. This new requirement complements expedited traceback and traceforward procedures announced in August 2014 that enhance the agency’s ability to quickly and broadly investigate food safety breakdowns in the event of an outbreak connected to ground beef.
In addition to tighter regulations for the meat and poultry industry, FSIS has made smart internal changes that are strengthening its ability to prevent unsafe food from reaching American shoppers. For example, the Public Health Information System (PHIS) is a modern, comprehensive data management system that connects data from meat and poultry facilities, ports of entry and our three regional laboratories, input by our network 7,500 food safety inspectors. This has given FSIS a comprehensive view of the nation’s food safety landscape and allows the agency to adapt quickly to address issues that could negatively affect public health. Because of PHIS, FSIS now has a more efficient and robust sampling program, a better understanding of industry compliance and the ability to respond to emerging food safety issues.
Internal updates to FSIS’s three public health laboratories are also greatly improving public health. For example, FSIS’ microbiologists found that by increasing the size of ground beef samples tested in our labs, they could test the ground beef for Salmonella and E. coli at the same time. This means they are able to collect more public health information from each sample taken, and their findings are more accurate.
FSIS, along with its partners at FDA and CDC, has begun transitioning to use Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS), as part of basic foodborne pathogen surveillance and strain identification during foodborne illness outbreaks. Whole Genome Sequencing is a laboratory technique that helps differentiate microorganisms with precision greater than Pulse-Field Gel Electrophoresis, the technique used by all three agencies currently. WGS is more accurate and efficient, and our public health partners have shown that use of WGS can shrink the life span of foodborne outbreaks. FSIS performs both PFGE and WGS on all E. coli, Listeria monocytogenes , Campylobacter and Salmonella isolates, to assess bacterial traits of concern including antibiotic resistance.
In 2011, President Obama signed the landmark Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), which shifted the overall paradigm of federal food safety efforts from one of response to prevention for the first time in more than 70 years. While FSMA does not apply to meat and poultry products, different staff across USDA work in coordination with the Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security to ensure the nation’s food and agricultural systems are fully prepared to prevent food safety risks and vulnerabilities. To support FSMA, USDA has dedicated $6 million toward implementation and research efforts and to help America’s fruit, vegetable and grain growers comply with stronger food safety standards across the board. We’ve also made other changes to align our research and food safety efforts with our federal partners.
Engaging and Educating Consumers
In nearly eight years as your Secretary of Agriculture, I have also witnessed how the federal government has spurred a remarkable rise in consumer knowledge. Armed with ever-increasing resources, global consumers now demand and receive comprehensive information about the growers and production processes and locations of their favorite foods. The same collection of federal agencies responsible for keeping American families safe from foodborne illness has also made it possible for food companies to increase transparency and deliver on that demand. There is no doubt that a well-informed consumer is a force for positive change.
As consumer demand for information and diversity in agriculture has increased, USDA has supported America’s agricultural system with the tools and resources needed to diversify operations and offerings while enhancing sustainability for the long term.
As part of this, we are in the business of educating consumers on the many ways they can reduce the risk of foodborne illness at home. You may recognize our food safety public education campaign — clean, separate, cook and chill — from TV, bus stops, in print or even coming through your radio. This multimedia campaign, developed in collaboration with the Ad Council in English and Spanish, highlights the importance of four basic safe food handling practices to prevent cross-contamination and to ensure proper cooking and chilling.
In 2015, we also launched the Foodkeeper application for smartphones and tablets. The easy-to-use app offers consumers valuable storage advice and food safety information about more than 400 commonplace food and beverage items, including various types of baby food, dairy products and eggs, meat, poultry, produce and seafood. Developed by USDA, the app is intended to help reduce food waste in addition to educating about proper food handling. If there is a question about what the “best by” date means or how to properly prepare and store food, the Foodkeeper app can likely answer it. It has been downloaded over 100,000 times.
Our partnerships have allowed us to reach deeper into vulnerable communities that include populations at higher risk for foodborne illness. Organizations like the National Council on Aging, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American Public Health Association, American Society of Clinical Oncology, AIDS Project of East Bay, National Association for Family Child Care, the Greater Washington Urban League and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation have helped us to spread food safety messages and educational materials to their members across the nation to help keep their families and loved ones safe.
Investing in Public Health Through Research
We believe strongly that the health of humans, animals and the environment is intimately connected. This “One Health” approach is emphasized at USDA and as the work that we do spans across many USDA agencies, we’ve launched a centralized web portal page to better help our stakeholders and the public access the information they need including USDA’s collective body of work on zoonotic agents and conditions — those shared by animals and humans.
Bacteria such as Salmonella, viruses such as influenza, parasites such as Taenia, and non-conventional agents such as the prion that causes bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) can infect animals and humans. Improving our understanding of where pathogens originate and how they interact in the environment is critical to identifying effective mitigation strategies to effectively diminish their occurrence.
The One Health approach is reflected in the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria released by the Obama Administration in 2015. This comprehensive plan identifies critical actions to be taken by key Federal departments and agencies to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotics have been a critical public health tool since the discovery of penicillin in 1928, saving the lives of millions of people around the world. The emergence of drug resistance in bacteria is undermining our ability to treat bacterial infections and perform a range of modern medical procedures. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that drug-resistant bacteria cause 23,000 deaths and 2 million illnesses each year in the United States. Antibiotic resistance also threatens animal health, agriculture, and the economy.
With the help of Federal, industry, commodity and academic partners, USDA is working to identify knowledge gaps and develop effective, practical mitigation strategies to prolong the effectiveness of antibiotics to treat both people and animals.
In addition, USDA consistently conducts and funds food safety research to generate real-world results for both government and the private sector. In 2014 alone, USDA provided more than $112 million for food safety research, education and extension projects to help build a modern public health system.
In a pioneering discovery, a USDA scientist recently found a way to mitigate the use of antibiotics in poultry by using certain food supplements, probiotics, nutrients and vaccines that effectively enhance the immune system and fight common parasitic diseases and bacterial infections. This discovery is a leading example of a scientific breakthrough that is helping us progress our efforts to reduce antibiotic use in the poultry industry and protect the health of both consumers and animals all while saving the poultry industry from an estimated combined loss of more than $5 billion worldwide. For her distinguished work that has undoubtedly led to safer poultry products, I’m proud to report that USDA Agricultural Research Service molecular biologist, Dr. Hyun Soon Lillejoh, earned a 2015 Service to America Medal.
With USDA funding, researchers at North Carolina A&T University have also developed a treatment for peanuts that reduces allergens by 98–100 percent, leveling the playing field for millions of Americans, and nearly 400,000 school-aged children, who suffer from peanut allergies.


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Carvana ($CVNA) wants to get back to business. Badly.
Carvana wants to get back to business so badly, according to a recent HuffPost report, that it is telling staffers if they don't immediately get back to the office, the company will consider them as having "abandoned" their position or "resigned" from their post.
Why a company that operates in the e-commerce space requires staffers to all return to the office - in early May - is a perplexing decision, especially when we see reports in other businesses that do require staff to be present, and in close proximity to one another, experiencing infection rates hovering near 60%.
Regardless of the short-term impact on morale, it also remains unclear what legal liability CEOs would face - to say nothing of criminal liabilities if their decision to re-open resulted in the loss of human lives - when they demand staff return to work.
But a look at Carvana's social chatter, as measured via Facebook's Talking About Count, highlights why the company's leadership was itching to run back to work. By April, chatter around Carvana's brand plummeted to next to nothing - although it already began to rebound.
And when angry consumers want to let a brand have it, between their access to social media, and their abundance of time thanks to the global pandemic lockdown only now being lifted in other countries that have better managed the disease, they had time to really tee off on other brands that let them down, too. So it's not clear how much of the chatter is tied to car buyers, versus how much of it is tied to people who oppose the decision the company made.
Some of Carvana's social chatter may be less tied to happy customers now and more tied to the leaks coming out of the organization.
Based on Carvana's job postings chart, it seems as if dozens if not hundreds of people chose to have the company force their hand and terminate their employment. Because people with compromised immune systems remain particularly vulnerable to the Coronavirus outbreak, it's possible that a number of staffers that didn't return to work simply could not afford to take the risk with their safety (or, their loved ones).
But, as of May 7, Carvana started posting a lot more jobs online - although, still down more than 64% from the peak postings hit earlier in 2020.
App store ratings can be used as a gauge of customer satisfaction - and here, it's been a back-and-forth year for Carvana. In both the Google Play Store - pictured above - and in the Apple Store (not shown), ratings of Carvana's apps have begun to decline slightly in recent weeks, signaling stalling user satisfaction. But, if Carvana's selling fewer cars, it is peculiar that its user satisfaction would start to stall now, especially on two separate app platforms.
Whether or not the end of Carvana's work-from-home program results in better revenue (or, alternately, the loss of human life) remains to be seen - but employers who are ready to force staffers back to their desks should also gauge the value of their online reputation when word of their actions inevitably leaks out.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales, and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue, and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
- Slowing job postings and social attention don't look good for Beyond Meat
- These are the Macy's stores set to come back online
- The Shack is BACK - Shake Shack hiring returns as states plot reopening


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March 27, 2012
[Published originally on March 5, 2012]
As it happens, Motorola released the Android 3.0 Xoom tablet. Samsung offers version 4.0, which unifies tablets and phones. “Without balance you can not make an ecosystem. ” Within this logic fits the fact that many manufacturers such as Motorola’s own Motoblur, Samsung or HTC Sense Hub, provide their own equipment and adaptable interface. “I know it’s controversial, some may prefer the pure system, as it comes, it also helps handled who are not familiar or want to customize. Anything to give consumers more choices seems right. ”
Rubin has revealed that in 2011 12 million tablets with Google software were sold, excluding the Amazon Kindle Fire. They just doubled those sold in 2010.
First came Google Music, Google Books and later, YouTube was acquired… Just after they released Android. Now they need to combine both worlds … “We will add more content, but for now we can not advertise. We have to improve to do business. ”
Android still has some issues to solve: such as hiw you can’t have good Facebook application in tablets? All board members have agreed that what is seen in the 10 inch version does not seem very consistent with the social network. “We will try to mark a path as the application of Gmail or YouTube, which detects the device and adapts, but it is a question for us, but for Facebook it does offer a version for iPhone and one for iPad” . A few hours later the head of Facebook’s Technology has announced its commitment to a web-based, open mobile HTML5.
Rubin says high-end phones today will become the minimum within a window of 18 months. “The important thing is to be brave enough to set trends.” When he arrived at Google, the firms invested in Android because, he says, Google knew that their business model, with free services and advertising revenue, was the only one who could succeed with their vision completely. It is unfair to think that all innovation comes from a company. The evolution is collective. ”
Neither ruled out at some point a launch of a Google e-reader, but it does not seem too logical: “There is already an application in our Kindle Store.”
The future, according to Rubin, is the era postPC. Once you have set in tablets and phones the next frontier is in the home, when you come home and leave the keys, mobile and work. “I feel that if we put Android at home, this will not work. We must be imaginative to join more traveling companions. If not, others will come up with another ecosystem. It is an industry that we want to lead by giving intelligence to home,” he argues. It fits with the line of home automation smart labels, just a day before Sony had introduced its new handsets.
Source: El Pais


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By Byron Acohido, USA TODAY
Scareware has become the scourge of the Internet.
Those deceptive promotions crafted to panic you into spending $30 to $80 for worthless antivirus protection can hit you just about anywhere you turn on the Web. They arrive as booby-trapped Web links in e-mail and social network messages. They lurk hidden, and set to activate, when you click to popular, legitimate websites.
And now scareware purveyors are embedding triggers in places you wouldn't expect: on advertisements displayed at mainstream media websites; amid search results from
"Scareware is becoming a dominating force," says Joe Stewart, director of
Click on a trigger and you'll get caught in an unnerving loop impossible to abort. A scanner window will appear with red-letter warnings listing viruses purportedly infesting your hard drive. A series of dialogue boxes will follow giving you choices that all lead to the same screen: a sales pitch.
Make the purchase, and you get a bogus inoculation. Try to cancel it, and you'll get repeated offers. "It's like stepping into quicksand," says Paul Royal senior researcher at security firm Purewire. "The more you try to get out of it, the deeper you sink."
Scareware has been a prominent part of the Internet since 2004, when a cybergang based in St. Petersburg, Russia, launched the iframecash.biz website and began offering commissions to anyone who helped them spread the SpySheriff fake antivirus program. Hackers began to taint legitimate websites so that pop-up ads for SpySheriff would launch on the PC of anyone who visited a corrupted Web page.
That simple arrangement has evolved into a steadily growing industry that marked a banner year in 2008. By late last year, more than 9,200 different types of scareware programs were circulating on the Internet, up from 2,800 at midyear, according to The Anti-Phishing Working Group.
"These guys are very innovative," says Roel Schouwenberg, senior virus researcher at
Cutting-edge scareware marketing campaigns are being delivered via:
•YouTube and Twitter. The bad guys sign up for a handful of new YouTube or Twitter accounts. In the case of YouTube, crooks recently used about a dozen new accounts to begin posting comments on 30,000 videos, says Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs. The comments enticed users to click on a link that triggered a scareware promotion.
In a variation of this ploy, crooks in late May created new Twitter accounts and began broadcasting tweets declaring "Best video" with a Web link of http://juste.ru, says Schouwenberg. Clicking on the link launched a sequence that replicated the message to everyone on the victim's friends list, then launched a scareware promo.
•Search results. The bad guys create malicious Web pages and fill them with words and phrases that are likely to be popular search queries, such as "American Idol winner" or "NCAA tournament bracket," says Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CTO of security firm
"Search engine optimization" then takes over. SEO is the technology that determines the relevance of Web links to search queries. By embedding a malicious link on a popular website, the hackers imbue their Web page with high relevance. So when the legit site turns up as the No. 1 or No. 2 result for a popular search query, their bad link turns up as the No. 4 or No. 6 result. Anyone who clicks on the bad link gets a scareware pitch.
•Online ads. The bad guys purchase blocks of ad space on popular websites through a legit ad agency, says Roger Thompson, senior researcher at AVG. Next they instruct the ad agency to begin posting innocuous ads. To avoid detection, they only sporadically feed a corrupted ad into the mix. The bad ad looks safe, but carries instructions to route anyone who clicks to a scareware pitch. "It's the most common attack we see every day," Thompson says.
Powerful incentives undergird scareware. Security researchers say the industry is run by no more than a dozen or so top-level suppliers orchestrating the activity of several hundred "affiliate" distributors.
The top-level groups supply bogus scanners and cleanup tools — actual software — and collect payments and pay commissions. Bonuses can be generous. One top supplier, for instance, recently ran a contest offering a $36,000
"The top-level groups incentivize the affiliates and don't get their hands dirty," says Hypponen. "If they get any complaints, they can just blame the affiliate."
Top-level groups typically work with 100 or more affiliates, who can earn commissions many different ways. Last fall, SecureWorks researcher Stewart infiltrated a Russian group known as the Baka Software gang. He accessed documentation showing one affiliate earned $146,525 in 10 days by spreading promotions for a worthless program, called Antivirus XP 2008, to more than 154,000 people, and closing sales to 2,772 of them. Another record showed five top Baka Software affiliates earning weekly commissions averaging $107,604.
"The sheer amounts of money involved in installing just one rogue program are mind-boggling," Stewart says.
A few scareware affiliates have been slowed by regulators. Last fall, Microsoft and Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna filed civil lawsuits against Branch Software, of The Woodlands, Texas, and Alpha Red, of Houston, charging that they were marketing scareware. And last December, the Federal Trade Commission obtained court orders prohibiting Innovative Marketing, of Belize, and ByteHosting Internet Services, of Cincinnati, from selling WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus, all worthless.
The top-level suppliers, however, continue to operate with impunity, mainly based in Russia. And new affiliates crop up every day, full of fresh ideas to spread increasingly invasive promotions, security researchers say.
Consumer trust at risk
In the past two months, AVG's free LinkScanner tool, which prevents users from clicking on malicious Web links, has been flushing out — on a daily basis — more than 30,000 Web pages displaying ordinary-looking ads embedded with hidden scareware triggers. Earlier this year the daily average was roughly 5,000, Thompson says.
The tech giants supplying the infrastructure for Web commerce, and media and social-networking companies capitalizing on Web marketing, are cognizant of the threat posed by escalating scareware, says Mike Zaneis, vice president of public policy for the Interactive Advertising Bureau, a trade association, whose members include Google, Yahoo, Microsoft,
"The industry is very committed to combating these attacks, because consumer trust is vital for us to do business," Zaneis says. "It's what keeps people online."
Yet affiliates continue to demonstrate remarkable ingenuity. Contaminating search results is a complex endeavor. The affiliate group infiltrated by Finjan demonstrated how SEO hacks can result in a high-volume of promotions launched. Over a 16-day period, the group corrupted some 500,000 legitimate Web pages, and got nearly 2 million people to click on tainted search results. "These cybercriminals are motivated by the huge amount of money they can make very quickly," says Ben-Itzhak.
Google spokesman Andrew Kovacs says the search giant works hard to preserve the integrity of search results. "We make constant improvements to our systems," Kovacs says. "This issue is not specific to one company, and we encourage people to be vigilant about checking the URLs (Web links) of the websites they visit."
That's good advice, since scareware purveyors have shown they will strike wherever consumers congregate in large numbers. Take the affiliates who spread booby-trapped Web links via Twitter in late May. Kaspersky researcher Schouwenberg says anyone who clicked on one of their tweeted links got hit with a particularly nasty program. It shut down — and locked out — all other software applications, and insisted on purchase of a two-year license, for $49.95, to unlock the other apps. A lifetime license cost $79.95. "They're beginning to cripple machines to make it more likely that you will pay up," he says.
Pressure for change is growing
As scareware continues to escalate, public pressure for relief from deceptive promotions will increase, predicts John Pironti, a member of the education committee of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, a global organization of auditors and security pros.
Pironti, president of IP Architects, a risk-management consultancy, would like to see more public-awareness campaigns and tighter controls to curtail scareware.
"Commercial industry has pushed us to use the Internet more, and interact in person with them less," he says. "So now they need to take on a bigger responsibility for making things safer."
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Why is a mobile first backbone imperative in 2015?
Technology co-innovation will provide an unprecedented fan experience on NHL.com, while offering the League back office software.
As a member of Microsoft's new Cloud Storage Partner Program, Box will support native integrations for iPad and iPhone as well as online.
Change happens fast in enterprise mobility—here's a few from last week you might have missed.
J.D. Power says sales reps play key role delivering a satisfying purchase experience to tablet and smartphone shoppers.
Holding its first developer conference, Yahoo introduces suite of services.
The latest update to the BlackBerry 10 OS comes with new look and feel and functionality and more apps.
AMB Sports & Entertainment, home to the Atlanta Falcons, partnering with IBM on interactive technologies.
IBM reveals the most commonly held stereotypes regarding Millennials and why everything you thought you knew could well be wrong.
New trends suggest refurbished phones will reach 120 million units by 2017.


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Researchers in Australia announced on Wednesday a successful trial run of next generation blockchain that can reach cross-border speeds of 30,000 transactions per second. Operating on Amazon Web Services' (AWS) cloud infrastructure, the test potentially paves the way for global enterprise-scale applications of the technology. Red Belly Blockchain is a project of Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, in partnership with University of Sydney. According to Sept. 26 statement, the next-gen blockchain provides several improvements including solving the "environmental impact from significant energy use, double spending where an individual spends their money twice by initiating more than one transaction, and throughput, which refers to how many units of information can be processed in a short amount of time." The above refers to Bitcoin's (BTC) resource-intensive network that requires sophisticated computing and vast amounts of electricity. Australian researchers say their network requires less energy while enabling a large number of transactions across nodes located in various time zones. The test tun deployed Red Belly Blockchain on 1,000 virtual machines across AWS' cloud network in North America, South America, Australia (Sydney) and Europe. Faster Throughput For Local Use Cases
"The experiment highlights Red Belly Blockchain's scalability, while retaining fast transaction speeds and high security, making it ideal for faster processing of financial transactions and microgrids that use peer-to-peer trading to transform the energy sector."According to researchers, Red Belly Blockchain uses a unique algorithm that enables scalable performance without an equivalent increase in electricity consumption. Two experiments were conducted using the same technology from July 2017 to May 2018 and these featured a throughput of 660,000 transactions per second. However, it only used 300 machines in a single Availability Zone. The latest test was designed to see throughput on AWS infrastructure on a global scale across multiple time zones. FedEx And Honeywell Join Consortium These and similar advancements are key in increasing adoption among Fortune 1000 companies who operate globally. Earlier this week FedEx, Honeywell and more than a dozen other organizations became new members of Hyperledger consortium. Both conglomerates have massive logistics and supply chains around the world and their membership shows that blockchain will see more enterprise use cases in the near future. The consortium has more than 270 members and its mission is to build blockchain applications for big organizations.
"We believe that blockchain has big implications in supply chain, transportation and logistics," said Kevin Humphries, senior vice president, IT, FedEx Services. "We are excited for the opportunity to collaborate with the Hyperledger community as we continue to explore the applications and help set the standards for wide-scale blockchain adoption in our industry and others."
"Honeywell Aerospace, whose solutions are found on virtually every commercial, defense and space aircraft in service today, is pleased to join Hyperledger," said Sathish Muthukrishnan, chief digital and information officer for Honeywell Aerospace, "We look forward to leveraging the blockchain technology to solve critical customer needs and enable our position as a leading Software-Industrial Company through the Power of Connected."Articles by Marvin Dumont: Goldman Sachs-Backed Circle Launches Stablecoin USDC Diamond-Backed Token Makes Debut On First Exchange FBI And IRS Unmasking Crypto Investors By Paying Firms Regulators Must Lead On Blockchain: IBM Report


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The Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) – comprising eight Pacific island countries that control the world’s largest tuna purse seine fishery supplying 50% of the world’s skipjack tuna – closed its annual meeting with a discussion on ways to control tuna supply and therefore increase the countries’ economic returns.
Key tuna industry players in the Pacific region underlined the need for the PNA to uphold limits on fishing, by introducing a scarcity of tuna onto the global market, thus increasing the price of tuna. Over the past 12 months, tuna prices have fallen, in part due to over-supply but also because of the impacts of the economic crisis on some markets such as the EU. However, Globefish reports that the EU canned tuna market appeared to be better this year, as reflected in higher EU imports.
Pacifical, the global marketing company set up by PNA to trade their Marine Stewardship Council certified skipjack tuna, pointed to the development of the global demand of retailers for sustainable tuna – marketed under Pacifical – which returns a portion of profit to the PNA.
PNA Executive Director, Dr Transform Aqorau emphasised that PNA is “an exercise in self-determination – for Pacific countries to control their resources and make decisions free from foreign influence… the PNA has a role to play in fish supply and creating scarcity and value of tuna.”
The PNA has, no doubt, been able to increase its members’ revenues from fishing fees by implementing a Vessel Day Scheme (VDS), through which it sells fishing days to tuna purse seiner fleets operating in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). However, until now, the VDS does not include a limit on fishing capacity, as it sees the ‘over-capacity’ as an element that triggers increased competition among fishing fleets, ready to pay more for relatively scarce fishing days. Given the limited capacities of PNA members to monitor and control the activities of the increasing fleet, this situation has led to a significant increase in tuna vessels (including newly built) fishing in the PNA area, resulting in more tuna on the global market. Apart from the long-term consequences this could have on the state of the tuna resources in the region, it is crucial that the PNA takes action to limit the number of vessels allowed to fish in its waters, to “organise the scarcity of tuna on global markets”. However, global action is required to diminish fishing capacity, because a limitation on tuna vessels applied in the PNA region is likely to lead to their displacement to other tuna fishing grounds, with probably limited effect on the total quantities of tuna supplied to international markets.


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At the Dubai International Airport.
PHOTO BY EXPAT MEDIA
DUBAI – Filipino expatriates flying home with a flatscreen TV in their checked-in baggage may be a common sight at UAE airports, but is that going to change with the new announcement by the Federal Customs Authority (FCA) on rules regarding what is permissible in traveler baggage?
On Sunday (March 28), the FCA made a fresh announcement on what travelers coming to or from the UAE are allowed to bring, ranging from electronic items and gifts, to cash.
The authority said the rules apply to anyone flying into the UAE or traveling out of the UAE, adding that travelers must adhere to customs policies for a risk-free travel experience.
Can Filipinos still bring home a flatscreen TV? Yes, according to the FCA.
The authority said that permitted luggage includes movie projection devices, radio and CD players, digital cameras, TV and receiver (one of each), personal sports equipment, as well as portable computers and printers.
This is good news for Filipinos as many of the budget-savvy expats love to buy electronics and gadgets as gifts, called pasalubong, to their families.
Electronic goods are among the popular items expats love to bring home as these are generally cheaper in the UAE but can cost up to four times more in the Philippines where there is 12 percent sales tax. Filipino expats in the UAE also want to take advantage of tax exemptions when bringing non-luxury items on their flight home.
Speaking to Expatmedia.net, representatives from Emirates and Etihad said that Filipino travelers are allowed to bring flatscreen TV on flights to the Philippines.
Emirates charges a $75 (Dh276) service fee as long as the weight of the TV is not heavier than 32kg and the maximum width of its box is not more than 300cm. Etihad allows travelers to bring a flatscreen TV of up to 40 inches for free as part of their total baggage allowance on the flight.
Those who love to bring packets of cigarettes into or out of the UAE can only bring a maximum of 200 cigarette sticks, or 10 packs of cigarettes. Tobacco products and alcoholic drinks should not be carried by travelers below the age of 18.
If carrying cash, cheques or jewelry worth more than Dh60,000, travelers are required to disclose this with customs officers.
The Filipino gift-giving concept of pasalubong isn’t only confined to the Philippines. It is normal for Filipinos to bring gifts when they return to the UAE as well. These are usually souvenirs, or traditional food that are rarely available in the country. So, how much gifts can they bring back to the country?
On Sunday, the FCA said that the value of gifts that travelers can bring should not exceed Dh3,000.
The FCA advised travelers to carry a certified prescription for medications they will be carrying, and to declare any restricted substances.
Which items are travelers not allowed to carry? Some of the prohibited and restricted commodities include narcotics, gambling tools and machines, nylon fishing nets, live animals of pig species, raw ivory, laser pens with red light package, fake and counterfeited currency, substances contaminated nuclear rays and dust, publications, pictures, religiously offensive or immoral drawings and stone sculptures, as well as paan substances, including betel leaves.
According to the FCA, the entry of a number of restricted commodities may be allowed following competent authorities’ consent including; live animals, plants, fertilisers and pesticides, weapons, ammunitions, explosives and fireworks, medicines, drugs and medical equipment and instruments, media publications and products, new vehicle tyres, transmission and wireless devices, alcoholic drinks, cosmetics and personal care products, raw diamonds and cigarettes manufactured and processed from tobacco.
In case of restricted commodities, competent authorities’ consent shall be sought, including the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment, Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Health and Prevention, Ministry of Culture and Youth, Federal Authority for Nuclear Energy, Ministry of Industry and Advance Technology, Telecommunication Regulatory Authority, Dubai Police and Kimberley UAE.
Travelers who are caught smuggling illegal items into or out of the UAE will be subject to a fine, imprisonment or both penalties.
The FCA also reminded travelers to refrain from receiving or exchanging luggage or bags from unknown persons in the country of departure without knowing their contents. ICA/Expat Media
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(AllHipHop News) Hip-Hop pioneer GrandMaster Caz just released a new book centered around his lyrics titled “Written! The Lyrics of GrandMaster Caz.”
The new softback book contains 44-songs written by the legendary Hip-Hop pioneer, who was a member of the legendary Cold Crush Brothers.
GrandMaster Caz is also credited with writing the verse that rapper Big Bank Hank used on the groundbreaking single “Rappers Delight,” by Sugar Hill Gang, who ostracized Hank in later years over the theft.
“Written! The Lyrics of GrandMaster Caz” contains verses from the rap star’s notebook, published for the first time in print.
The release of “Written!” comes on the heels of GrandMaster Caz’ high-profile appearance in Ice-T’s documentary “Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap.”
“Its hard to describe the constant outpouring of love and respect that I have witnessed for Caz over the two years that it took to make our movie,” said “The Art of Rap” producer Paul Toogood said. “Caz has been described as The Robert Johnson of rap; very little recorded music by Caz exists due to him being stuck in a restrictive deal for 20 years. The esteem in which he is held by his peers is quite extraordinary.”
“Written! The lyrics of GrandMaster Caz” is in stores now at lyricbbook.com.
In the coming weeks, the book will be available on Amazon.com and select retailers around the country.


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Malawi’s agriculture ministry has sent an offer to marijuana entrepreneur Mike Tyson to become an ambassador for the southeastern African country’s cannabis crop, BBC reported. The retired boxing legend currently runs a marijuana farm in California. Last year, Face2Face Africa reported that Malawi was set to start the... read full story
"Malawi may not go it alone as the industry is complex requiring collaboration. I would therefore like to appoint you, Mr Mike Tyson, as Malawi's Cannabis Branch ambassador,"


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PlayStation has announced a suspension of all their operations in Russia as a result of the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The announcement came via Twitter, and only moments after the livestream for their recent State Of Play ended.
You can read their full statement, here:
“Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) joins the global community in calling for peace in Ukraine. We have suspended all software and hardware shipments, the launch of Gran Turismo 7, and operations of the PlayStation Store in Russia.”
“To support humanitarian aid, Sony Group Corporation announced a US $2 million donation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the international NGO, Save the Children, to support the victims of this tragedy.”
PlayStation now joins the multitude of other entities and organizations that have halted their services in Russia, as a result of the conflict.
Other developers have also been raising funds, to support those suffering from this tragedy.
Source – [Twitter]


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Press RSVP to pressRSVP@jarluxe.org
For Immediate Release
(New York, NY) Tuesday, September 15th 2009 JarLuxe Foundation hosts Fashion Preservation:Luxe during NY Fashion Week: a high profile cocktail reception and fundraising benefit providing business academic programs and scholarships for aspiring minority youth. JarLuxe debuts the Luxury Fashionlanthropist Award (LFA), presented to a highly distinguished Fashion Designer who immeasurably gives in the arena of Charity in front of over 600 of Luxury Fashion’s industry executives, millionaires and celebrities. The LFA Award, designed by UK Diamond Designer Amosu (Luxury Product Designer of Bentley, the Oscars, Canon, and recently- the World’s Most Expensive Diamond Suit), will be presented.
JarLuxe is proud to announce the Honoree of the event: Maggie Norris with the Luxury Fashionlanthropist Award. A former Director at Ralph Lauren, Maggie Norris has elegantly draped socialites Princess Diana, Audrey Hepburn, Kiera Chaplin, and recently, First Lady Michelle Obama. Maggie is a current board member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA), and supports numerous charities including Dressed to Kilt, Fight Against Cancer, Design Cares, and Operation Smile.
Fashion Preservation will be hosted by international supermodel, Debbie Dickinson. A Couture Presentation will include Jaslene Gonzalez from America’s Next Top Model, Elite Agency models and socialites. Special musical performance by solo artist Josh Charles (a collaborator with Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett), who will be performing the hit song “Healing Time” that’s been featured on CNN, Fox, CBS, & NBC. The VIP reception is an opportunity for the echelon to interact with the Honoree, celebs, and media’s elite.
Fashion Preservation is one of the most Fashionlanthropic industry events of the year, and as the pioneer of its kind – the most highly distinct accolade in luxury Fashionlanthropic history. This Fall, $16,000 in fashion academic scholarships will be given to underprivileged minorities attending LIM College. This reception serves to reinforce an elite fashion executives’ success, and also to motivate others to deliver service to a very high standard. By celebrating the best, the LFA Award reception encourages the Luxury & Designer Fashion industry to constantly raise its standards in all of its executions.
Jarluxe’s mission is to serve as a reputable resource in support of minority youth with educational expertise by increasing opportunity for future fashion executive careers. Students involved with JarLuxe Foundation represent Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Laboratory Institute of Merchandising (LIM), Pratt Institute, Parsons the New School for Design, and the School of Art Institute of Chicago. JarLuxe Foundation will constantly work with the New York Department of Education’s high schools and the luxury fashion industry to facilitate impacting events and conferences.
For more information, please visit www.jarluxe.org
6:00pm: Doors Open
7:00-7:45pm Press Op: Elite Press Only.
Press Registrants submit editorial contact information to pressRSVP@jarluxe.org for further instructions.
Press Pre-Approval Required: RSVP Deadline Friday, September 11, 2009
8:00pm Honoree Program
For Detailed Information on Fashion Preservation: Luxe visit http://www.jarluxe.org/luxecharity.html


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NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Starbucks is setting an example for corporate America with its anti-racism coffee break. Facing a backlash over the arrest of two black men at a Philadelphia shop, the chain will shut all of its company-owned U.S. outlets for an afternoon of racial-bias education. The swift response backs up Starbucks’ social goals and offers a lesson to others.
The two men were waiting to meet a friend and hadn’t bought anything when the store manager called police, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “All the other white people are wondering why it’s never happened to us when we do the same thing,” tweeted customer Melissa DePino, who posted a video of the incident.
Executive Chairman Howard Schultz and Chief Executive Kevin Johnson quickly traveled to Philadelphia and met with employees, police and community leaders.
One result is that on May 29 Starbucks will close more than 8,000 U.S. outlets for an afternoon to provide anti-bias training to nearly 175,000 employees. That could cost perhaps $20 million in lost latte sales, based on pro-rated recent sales figures. The company has asked civil rights leaders and officials including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for help developing a curriculum, which it will make available to other companies.
That sounds a bit like a PR gimmick but Starbucks deserves credit for its efforts on a broad front. The company was an early U.S. adopter of social-responsibility reporting. It gets almost all of its coffee from sustainable farms and has set targets for powering all of its worldwide stores with renewable energy by 2020, getting 25,000 employees to graduate college by 2025 and hire 10,000 refugees by 2022.
Not every initiative works. Schultz faced blowback in 2015 when he urged employees to write “Race Together” on customers’ cups to foster a dialogue on the issue. Maybe next month’s training will work better. A retail company that depends on daily interactions with millions of people has to take social currents seriously.
The #MeToo backlash over sexual abuse and harassment cost Steve Wynn the chairmanship of Wynn Resorts recently, while Facebook saw more than $65 billion wiped off its market value last month amid a furor over its data practices. They could learn something from Starbucks about how to tackle a crisis in a viral era.
Reuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.
Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.


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The smartphone with a low-power screen on the back is back, but it ain't cheap.
"ClearMotion," "TruMotion," "Motion Rate 240" and "Effective" refresh rates are not true refresh rates. Here's why.
Yota's new smartphone packs a standard LCD and an e-ink screen that's easier on the eyes.
CNET has exclusive access to the international launch of this quirky Android smartphone, which has a regular LCD screen plus an e-ink panel. Watch live here at 11:15 p.m. PT Tuesday/7:14 a.m. GMT Wednesday.
LED LCD and OLED are the two major TV technologies that will fight for your TV buying dollar over the next few years. Here's how they compare.
Remember that zany smartphone with Android on the front and an e-reader on the back? Well, good. Because it goes on sale this holiday season.
There's been some confusion as to what High Dynamic Range is when it comes to TVs. The same term is used in photography for an eye-catching hyper-realistic effect. That's not what the TV feature does. Here's the difference.
Let's see how Apple's smartwatch fares against the competition.
Citing supplier issues, the Russian phone maker has pulled an about face on plans to bring its unique smartphone to North America.
There are three similar book subscription services on the market -- which is right for your reading habits?


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Program to Connect Company’s Legendary ‘Performance Driven’ Brand with Talented Local Racing Teams Across North America
Southfield, Michigan, October 20, 2011…The legendary Champion® spark plug, filter, wiper and performance chemicals brand from Federal-Mogul Corporation (NASDAQ: FDML) will support a new generation of talented amateur racers through an innovative Web-based video contest that will award $100,000 (USD) in motorsports sponsorships.
Through the “Search for a Champion” contest, Federal-Mogul will award each of five finalist prize winners a $10,000 (USD) motorsports sponsorship and one grand-prize winner a $50,000 (USD) sponsorship for submitting videos that best demonstrate their ability to win a racing championship in 2012. Entries will be accepted from amateur teams in any form of engine-driven racing, whether on earth/dirt, asphalt, snow, ice, water or other course. Judging will be based on viewer voting on the brand’s newly updated www.AlwaysaChampion.com website as well as input from NASCAR® driver and team owner Kevin Harvick. (See www.AlwaysaChampion.com for contest rules.)
The contest was announced by Harvick, driver of the No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet in Sprint Cup racing and official spokesperson for the Champion brand. “I got my start racing go-karts, so I know what a sponsorship can mean to a small race team,” he said. “This program enables Champion to give back to the sport that has helped make it one of the world’s most popular brands by supporting local racers who have what it takes to capture a title in local and regional racing.”


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Published January 08, 2015
New Zealand has reversed course on allowing some designer drugs to be legally sold after a public outcry about the toll they were taking.
A law change Wednesday will ban the sale and possession of all synthetic drugs. That ends the sale of 36 substances, many of which had been designed to mimic marijuana.
The changes come after some people claimed the drugs were addictive and were causing community disorder and violence.
The country last year gained international attention after enacting a novel new law that allowed those synthetic drugs thought to be low-risk to be sold while awaiting pharmaceutical-style testing.
The law still allows manufacturers to sell the drugs if they can prove them safe through testing. But health officials have yet to develop testing protocols.


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After hearing feedback from various customers, Apple has finally decided to revert by apologizing to all its customers for the inconvenience and misappropriation and also for letting them down by providing poor services. Calfornia based tech company also announced a $50 (₹3150) reduction in the cost of iPhone battery replacements, which comes down from $79 (₹4977) to $29 (₹1827) and an iOS software update provides updates on iPhone battery health in the coming year. The tech-company also stated the problem by quoting that the aging lithium batteries delivered power unevenly, which could cause iPhones to shut down unexpectedly and endangering the delicate circuits inside.
Apple gave an official statement on the website by mentioning “We’ve been hearing feedback from our customers about the way we handle performance for iPhones with older batteries and how we have communicated that process. We know that some of you feel Apple has let you down. We apologize. There’s been a lot of misunderstanding about this issue so we would like to clarify and let you know about some changes we’re making. First and foremost, we have never – and would never – do anything to intentionally shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades. Our goal has always been to create products that our customers love, and making iPhones last as long as possible is an important part of that.”
This problem with existing iPhones was recently highlighted by Reddit users, who came to know that when they replaced the batteries in their devices, they returned to normal performance and that’s because of the performance of the batteries used by the customers. It depends on the user capacity of the customer and time span of that product has nothing to do with it.
The American tech company quoted that it intentionally slowed the performance of the older iPhones because, when their batteries wear to a certain level, they can no longer sustain the required current demanded by the phones’ processors and when the processor of the device demands more current than the battery can supply, the phone abruptly shuts down to protect its internal components, as was the case with the iPhone 6S, for which Apple was forced to replace batteries.


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Blink Health LLC, a provider of consumer price discounts for prescription drugs, said it has terminated its relationship with Express Scripts Holding Co., a pharmacy-benefit manager that helped arrange the new price break for Lilly’s insulin.
NYS Entity Status
NYS Filing Date
JULY 19, 2013
NYS DOS ID#
NYS Entity Type
DOMESTIC LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY
2013 - GOLDSMITH HOLDINGS, LLC
AROUND THE WEB
- Blink Health Ends Pact With Express Scripts for Lilly Insulin Price Discounts
Tuesday Jun 13, 2017
- Fit City: Taking Night-Life Cue, Gyms Lower the Lights
By TATIANA BONCOMPAGNI - Tuesday Jun 13, 2017
Cycling, boxing and running studios, as well as some full-service gyms, are using sophisticated lighting systems to heighten the exercise experience.
- The Man Behind Trump’s Voter Fraud Obsession
By ARI BERMAN - Tuesday Jun 13, 2017
How Kris Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, plans to remake America through restrictive voting and immigration laws.
- Rooted in Counterculture, Whole Foods’ Founder Finds an Unlikely Refuge
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and ALEXANDRA STEVENSON - Friday Jun 16, 2017
John Mackey wanted to fight off the activist investors attacking Whole Foods. He found a savior in Amazon, a company blamed for laying waste to retailers.
- ‘Most Interesting Man’ In The World Gives Up Beer For Tequila
By Mary Beth Quirk - Wednesday Jun 14, 2017
When the night reaches that point when you move on from drinking beer to doing shots of tequila, it usually doesn’t bode well for how you’ll feel in the morning. But then again, most of us aren’t the one-time “Most Interesting Man In the World.”Jonathan Goldsmith, who was the face of the beer brand for 10 years before he …
- Critic's Notebook: Foreign Horror TV Shows Are Light on Monsters, Heavy on Mood
By MIKE HALE - Friday Jun 16, 2017
On the streaming service Shudder, foreign series like “Jordskott” and “Penance” offer a classic psychological dread that’s in short supply on American TV.
- Ask the NY Giants: Socks with Sandals?
Tuesday Sep 15, 2015
Professional athletes like members of the New York Giants are the inspiration for the latest (counterintuitive) high-fashion trend: wearing socks with sandals. Photo: Stu Woo/The Wall Street Journal
- Overkill On Hold: Facebook's Delayed Video Plans
Thursday May 25, 2017
Later than sooner, Facebook will become yet another content provider, veering into a business that at the moment seems pretty overfilled.


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2022 CMEF --- New Product Launch
Nov. 16, 2022
The four-day 84th China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) has been held in Shenzhen. Due to the pandemic, the CMEF has been postponed until the fall, and the scale was even bigger than before. It attracted more than 5,000 exhibitors from more than 30 countries around the world, and more than 200,000 visitors came to visit and exchange experience together.
As a well-known brand in the medical field, with the core concept of "Perfection Profession Pureness". Alicn Medical self-developed products stand out in the market, leading the new fashion of medical technology consumption. The whole new upgrade of the Alicn Medical booth, carefully planned by the top design team, the use of minimalist style, a sense of science and technology, comfort and beauty, in the huge venue is very eye-catching, make people unforgettable.
Since Alicn Medical establishment, Alicn Medical has been attending for more than ten years and has become a regular CMEF customer. Alicn Medical released a new generation of temperature monitoring products -- digital thermometer, sharing new health concepts with global users.
With the rapid development of the global medical industry, the research on "human body temperature" has never stopped. As a professional medical device development enterprise, Alicn has been focusing on the research of precise, accurate and fast temperature monitoring products and solutions.
Temperature measurement is an indispensable means of health monitoring, and users are very concerned about the accuracy and safety of the product. For 12 years, Alicn Medical has been cooperating with well-known domestic doctors, experts and scholars, and authoritative institutions to carry out a number of clinical studies. Focusing on the core needs of users, conducting several user surveys and market insights, developing, designing and manufacturing the temperature measurement products favored by users, and promoting the industry to move forward in a more scientific and professional direction.
Temperature measurement products are the main force in Alicn Medical business. Since its establishment in 2010, the products launched by Alicn Medical have won the trust of users with technological innovation and stable performance, and won the recognition and cooperation of well-known customers in the industry. Its self-developed infrared thermometer was selected into the "Shenzhen Innovative Products Promotion and Application Catalog", and was widely used in shopping malls, airports, high-speed railway stations, industrial parks and other public places during the epidemic period.It has made outstanding contributions to the fight against the epidemic. Alicn was also awarded the plaque of "Guangdong Infrared Thermometer Engineering Technology Research Center" by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and is one of the first batch of enterprises on the national epidemic prevention materials white list in Shenzhen.
Alicn Medical has made numerous innovation achievements. It has applied for 12 invention patents, 26 utility model patents, 74 design patents and 10 software Copyrights, and won the Global Design IF Award and Red Dot Award for many times.
Oriented by the market, Alicn has built a perfect medical quality management system, and has been granted ISO 13485:2003, ISO 14001:2015 by TUV of Germany, CE of EU, FDA of USA, NMPA of China, FCC of USA, RoHS, BSCI, REACH and so on.
Alicn always adhere to the ultimate, professional, pure beginner's mind, committed to providing high-quality products and services for global users, create sustainable value for global users.


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The tourism industry in Connecticut is taking a hit. The attractions that drive tourism in the state, from restaurants, to museums, to stadiums and everything in between, are at a standstill.
"It really never has been completely shutdown like this," said Randy Fiveash, director of tourism for the state.
COVID-19 restrictions have turned many of Connecticut's most popular attractions off-limits. The State's Office of Tourism has been working to adapt and still find ways to promote tourism in the state. They have created a list of restaurants still open for take-out, identified social-distance friendly hikes and curated virtual activities for at-home experiences.
Even with the state's efforts to get creative and help boost the industry, Fiveash said that COVID-19 will have an unprecedented impact.
"Tourism in Connecticut is a $15.5 billion industry at its peak and it employs 123,000 people," said Fiveash. "It has been pretty devastating to the travel industry."
The State Office of Tourism is now looking ahead and working on a recovery plan. They are not sure when things will get back to normal, but Fiveash said that it will not happen immediately. Businesses and attractions will reopen in phases and he is not sure where the tourism industry will fall in the phased approach.
"You won't turn this light switch on and all of a sudden it will come back and be normal again," explained Fiveash. "It will be a while before we get back to a new normal, so to speak."
Fiveash said that the state is planning to shift marketing strategies to boost tourism, putting a new spin on some of the usual attractions once it is safe for people to enjoy them again.
"We had another marketing plan that was going to be put in place, but because of this we have restructured everything that we are doing," said Fiveash.
In Downtown Mystic, marketing help is on the top of Amanda Arling's mind. Arling is president of the Whaler's Inn. For the first time in 60 years, they have had to close their doors to visitors because of COVID-19 restrictions.
"What efforts are going to be made to make people realize that we are here and we are looking forward to welcoming people here to Mystic," said Arling.
According to Arling, tourists make up about 90 percent of the inn's clientele. They are hoping to open by June 1, but they are not sure that will happen and are now planning for an uncertain summer season.
"It has been a very surreal experience. I don't think any of us realized quite how extreme it was going to hit our community and in the blink of an eye it did," said Arling. "We are trying to look long-term, look to the future, focus on gift certificate sales and focus on welcoming our friends and our family back when this passes."
Bank Square Books, another business in Downtown Mystic, has also been adapting to COVID-19 changes. They say the local community has been very supportive with window-shopping and curbside pick-up, but tourists usually make up anywhere between 30 and 50 percent of their clientele.
"It will be what it will be. If we have to adjust our business model, we will," said Katelyn Larson, manager of the store.
According to Arling, the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce helped to secure signs for local businesses that read "community strong," and now hang on storefronts across Mystic.
Fiveash said that areas like Mystic, and the attractions it offers, are being impacted across the state. He is confident that the tourism-fueled areas of the state will survive the unprecedented times.
"The Mystic area and Connecticut and the tourism industry are a very, very resilient business," said Fiveash.


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Firm Makes The Forbes List
Monday, October 15th 2007, 9:55 pm
By: News On 6
There's good economic news for a Tulsa company.
Forbes Magazine has included AAON on its annual list of the "200 Best Small Companies." The company is ranked 133rd.
Forbes requires companies to meet certain financial benchmarks to be included on the list.
This is the fourth time AAON has made the list.
AAON makes heating and cooling products.


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By Geoff Strong
A GROUP of about 50 cafes has signed up to do the unthinkable — ask Melburnians to pay for a glass of tap water.
- Cafes to charge for tap water
- Goal to make people water-wise
- Profit used for saving measures
The project, touted as a way to make people water-wise, is backed by the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and will run for a week from December 1.
Money raised from a "token sum" charged during Drink for Change is to be used by the businesses to install water-saving measures, but it has raised concerns that it could be a softening-up step towards making charging for tap water an accepted practice.
And with Melbourne tap water costing between 0.1 and 0.2 cents a litre, some in the industry are worried it could backfire if businesses are seen to be pressuring customers into subsidising their water-saving measures.
One cafe that has signed up is the newly renamed Provenance in Collingwood. New owner David Hynes is enthusiastic about environmentally sustainable dining.
He said water awareness fitted in with his commitment to do things sustainably.
"Whether customers make a contribution and how much will be up to them," he said. "It is my feeling that it will mean a reduction in tips for staff, but the staff said they don't mind if it is for a good cause."
Drink for Change has already recruited high-profile establishments such as Monroes Cafe in St Kilda and Ragueneau in the city.
But the state parliamentary leader of the Greens, Greg Barber, described the program as a feel-good scheme promoted by the chamber, which has already received substantial help from the Government to promote water savings among its members.
"The water-saving measures that this cash is supposedly to be spent on should be required by law," Mr Barber said.
Chamber spokesman Chris James said the campaign had a strong symbolic element.
He said that paying a "token sum" for water would make customers and cafe owners aware of the dangers posed by severe water scarcity and encourage water-saving measures.


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SAP America, Inc., a subsidiary of SAP AG, and Verizon expanded their agreement to jointly market and sell key components of Verizon’s Managed Mobility portfolio (Mobile Device Management and Security and Mobile Services Enablement Platform) so that customers can easily access their on-premise and cloud-based SAP applications virtually anytime, anywhere via Verizon’s business-class cloud. Read the press release.
SAP and Verizon Expand Agreement to Jointly Market Verizon’s Managed Mobility Platform
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Perspective — How much can $52.7 billion impact the U.S. demand for semiconductors?


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The FAANG stocks have been really beaten up in the ugly selling that began in early October - and last week Wall Street showed them no mercy.
Here is a roundup of how the tech stocks performed last week:
It was up 1.68% to $127 a share, after having been down to start Monday morning. Analysts at Wedbush Securities removed Facebook from their "best idea" list. User growth also isn't looking shiny. Facebook's unique user growth was flat month over month in November, according to Goldman Sachs. Average daily minutes per user on Instagram, Facebook's next growth driver, rose only 3% year over year in November.
Apple was down 1.44% Monday. The big concern with Apple is iPhone demand. In its latest earnings report, management said it wouldn't report unit sales anymore, which really hurt investor sentiment. Apple now trades at an attractive 12 times trailing 12-months earnings, and services revenue remains its key growth driver for the foreseeable future. The average analysts price target on the tech behemoth is $217, representing 45% upside.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) - Get Report : Down 10.4% to $1,361 a share. It's off 33.6% from its all-time high of $2,050 on Sept. 4. It was down 3.44% Monday, after the Wall Street Journal reported the Securities and Exchange Commission is pressuring Amazon to report more information relating to revenues.
Netflix Inc. (NFLX) - Get Report : Down 7.5% to $243.11 a share. It's off 42% from its record high of $423, which it touched on June 21, not long before reporting subscriber additions that missed Wall Street's estimates. The stock same back down to earth but still traded at around 250 times trailing 12-months earnings for a while. Its most recent earnings report was solid, but its valuation is now down to a trailing earnings multiple of 87.
Netflix was down 2.03% Monday.


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Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) has had a great 2018.
Even as the other FAANG stocks slumped, the trillion-dollar electronics company has continually satisfied Wall Street with quarter-over-quarter revenue growth. But will Apple’s momentum continue after it reports its fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday?
The consensus, so far, is yes. Apple is expected to post revenue of $61.43 billion (earnings per share of $2.78), an increase of 17 percent year-over-year and GAAP EPS of $2.78, according to analysts polled by FactSet. Investors will be paying close attention to iPhone unit sales, which account for the majority of Apple’s revenue, as well as Mac sales, which accounted for roughly 10 percent of the company’s revenue in Q3.
At today’s hardware event in Brooklyn, Apple’s chief executive officer Tim Cook shared that the company’s Mac business had grown to 100 million monthly active users — a big accomplishment for the nearly 10-year-old product. Cook also showcased the new MacBook Air and introduced the new iPad Pro and Mac Mini.
Not even Lana Del Rey’s surprise performance at the event was enough to rile up Wall Street. Apple’s stock was unreactive today, as is typically the case with hardware spectacles like these. Apple ultimately closed up about .5 percent. That’s a better outcome than its last hardware event in September, which despite the highly-anticipated announcements of the iPhone XS and Apple Watch Series 4, forced the company’s stock down about 1.2 percent on the news.
Year to date, Apple’s stock has risen more than 30 percent from a February low of $155 per share to an October high of $229.
If it fails to meet analyst expectations on Thursday, it’s bad news for the stock market: “Apple is the last domino standing,” Market Watch wrote earlier today. “Its FAANG brethren have all crashed, even the mighty Amazon, which has slumped about 25% from all-time highs.”
Source: Tech Crunch