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White House and Congress Should Repeal Outdated Law as Costs Continue to Rise
(ARLINGTON, VA) – Today, The White House announced a temporary waiver of the Jones Act in order to ease anticompetitive shipping restrictions dating from 1920. The Biden administration noted that the waiver only applied to a single tanker and they are considering additional waiver requests.
Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity, and Daniel Garza, president of The LIBRE Initiative, issued the following statement:
“The fact that this waiver was necessary goes to show how outdated, protectionist policies like the Jones Act delay the flow of essential goods and raise prices for everyone. This impact becomes even more apparent and harmful during times of emergency, which is why waivers have been issued repeatedly. While this waiver will help address the current fuel shortage, temporary fixes aren’t enough. We urge the Biden Administration, along with congress, to consider the full impact of the Jones Act and work to repeal it as costs continue to rise for struggling American families.”
According to a 2019 study from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a repeal of the Jones Act would produce economic gains for the United States of up to $64 billion. A repeal would introduce competition that would force a reduction in the cost of U.S.-built ships, potentially leading to an increase in demand of 70 percent – expanding the size of the shipbuilding sector from $841 million to $1.43 billion. The Jones Act mandates that all cargo shipped between U.S. ports be transported on ships built in the United States and bearing the U.S. flag, as well as owned and crewed by Americans. By eliminating foreign competition, the law significantly increases the cost of shipping between American ports.
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With National Drug Take Back Day scheduled for April 27 and in light of a new national study revealing that 1-out-of-4 teenagers has misused or abused a prescription medication at least once, CVS Caremark is reminding families that proper management, storage and disposal of their medication can reduce access to drugs by young people in their homes.
CVS Caremark has announced that it will come together with the Boston business community to support The One Fund Boston, established by Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino to raise money for victims and families who have been affected by the Boston Marathon tragedy.
The increased availability of generics combined with CVS Caremark's generic dispensing rate of 77.4% helped reduce spending on traditional medications by 3.6% for the company's commercial clients, according to its newly released annual insights report.
Retail-based clinic operator MinuteClinic, a division of CVS Caremark, and Southern California healthcare system Sharp HealthCare have entered into a clinical affiliation to enhance access to healthcare services throughout San Diego County.
To help raise awareness of senior hunger in Rhode Island, CVS Caremark VP workforce strategies and chief diversity officer David Casey teamed up this week with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and Meals on Wheels of Rhode Island executive director Heather Amaral to deliver hot meals to homebound seniors in Cranston.
MinuteClinic president and SVP/associate chief medical officer of CVS Caremark, Andrew Sussman, traveled to London this week to discuss how MinuteClinic is improving care and access at substantially lower cost, the company has announced.
CVS Caremark has announced that it will highlight how medication adherence plays a vital role in helping older Americans on their path to better health at the 2013 Annual American Society on Aging Conference, which is being held in Chicago this week.
More than 20 athletes from Special Olympics Florida experienced what it’s like to be a major league ball player when they took part in a recent CVS Caremark All Kids Can Baseball Camp during Red Sox Spring Training.
CVS Caremark has announced the extension of its Pharmacy Advisor program to cover an additional five chronic conditions, including asthma, breast cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression and osteoporosis.
CVS Caremark executives expressed optimism Wednesday morning as the company posted record fourth-quarter results, raised its 2013 guidance and continues to work to leverage its distinctive business model to help people on their path to better health amid a rapidly changing healthcare environment.
Continuing to assist those who were affected by Hurricane Sandy, the CVS Caremark Charitable Trust, a private foundation created by CVS Caremark, announced on Friday that it is donating $50,000 to the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund.
Beauty retail veteran Cheryl Mahoney has assumed a new post at CVS Caremark, and the company has brought onboard Alex Perez-Tenessa to serve as VP retail merchandising – beauty/personal care, according to CVS Caremark.
CVS Caremark and the United Food & Commercial Workers have announced that they have signed a cooperation agreement giving CVS/pharmacy employees at approximately 500 stores in the metropolitan Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego areas the opportunity to vote on whether or not they want to be represented by the union.
A patient’s social support network has been associated with improved outcomes and healthier behaviors and now new research sponsored by CVS Caremark has found that practical social support is associated with improved medication adherence.
CVS Caremark executives expressed optimism going into 2013 and outlined its strategic growth framework, which leverages the company’s unique integrated model, during its annual Analyst Day held on Thursday in New York City.

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By Dave Flaherty/The Oshawa Express
A representative from Oshawa’s largest entertainment venue views proposed changes to Ontario’s ticket sale laws as a promising start, but believes more details are needed to shed light on how ticket buyers will ultimately be protected.
William Balfour, director of marketing and groups sales for Spectra Venue Management, which runs the Tribute Communities Centre, told The Oshawa Express details regarding the potential legalisation released in June “are not overly specific” in his view and he thinks questions remain on how it would play out if passed.
Balfour says Spectra has focused on educating customers so they do not become victims of ticket scams, something he says happens all too often.
“At any large scale event, whether it’s Elton John, Selena Gomez or KISS, we always get a ton of fraudulent tickets,” Balfour says. “I hate seeing fans being turned away.”
Balfour says they encourage customers to purchase tickets for events through the centre’s official website or at the box office.
With ticket reselling websites growing in numbers, Balfour says it’s important for the public to know where they are going for their purchases.
He says such websites will employ tactics such as using the Tribute Communities Centre logo to confuse ticket buyers and noted even if someone does a Google search for the venue’s name, customers may end up at a different site due to reselling companies buying Google Ad spaces.
“It’s just about improving customer knowledge,” Balfour says.
Balfour was pleased to see 34,700 respondents to a provincial survey regarding ticket-buying software and ticket price markups, with almost 90 per cent of respondents indicating they wanted the Ontario government to address those issues.
“It’s pretty amazing they had that many respondents,” he says. “It’s a pretty good sample size.”
The survey came as a result of public outcry after many fans were unable to purchase tickets to The Tragically Hip’s 2016 farewell tour.
And while he was unhappy to see so many people disappointed, Balfour says it forced the province to take action.
“It put a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths…with The Hip being Canadian icons, I think it put a spotlight on what happened to fans,” Balfour says.
Among the proposed changes the province brought forward aimed at protecting ticket purchasers include banning the use of ticket bots, forbidding the sale of tickets that are not owned or possessed by the seller (speculative tickets) and restrictions on reselling tickets unless they are verified by the primary seller or the reseller offers a money-back guarantee, all things Balfour says, if passed, would be positive steps.
Primary ticket sellers would also be required to disclose the number of tickets that will be available through general on-sales, as well as the capacity of a particular venue and resellers/online resale platforms would be required to disclose the original face value of a ticket and the precise location, as well as the identity of a commercial reseller.
All ticket selling businesses, such as the Tribute Communities Centre, would be required to indicate the all-in price of a ticket up front, something Balfour says “could be the trickiest part”.
He explained that because there are different charges for purchasing online as opposed to in-person, promotional material for events would likely have to potentially list a number of different prices.
If passed, the proposed legislation would give the government and police authority to investigate and charge violators and would see the establishment of new provincial offences and fines.
Balfour says the legislation could “create a regime of government officials” to keep an eye on the ticket sale industry, however, he points out the changes will be judged by how well they are implemented.
“It’s great to have laws, but if they are not enforced it will be for nothing,” he says.


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Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association chairperson Chen Jiau-hua, second right, speaks at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, urging the National Communications Commission to maintain existing restrictions on indoor mobile phone cells.Dec 22, 2012FULL STORY
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
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Listing from 2016-09-23 to 2016-09-30
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1Typhoon Megi prompts sea warning
2Land alert issued ahead of typhoon Megi
3Jackie Chan replicas axed
4Storm leaves four dead, hundreds hurt
5Doctors find tapeworm larvae in woman’s spine


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Pregnant MAFS star Martha Kalifatidis looks radiant as she shows off her growing baby bump… after opening up about her morning sickness
Married At First Sight’s Martha Kalifatidis looked absolutely glowing as she showed off her growing baby bump in a gallery of Instagram snaps on Monday.
The influencer, 34, showed off her growing belly in a lacy white crop top as she posed with her 31-year-old fiancé Michael Brunelli.
The raven-haired beauty went makeup-free to emphasize her natural beauty as she struck a series of poses in a children’s clothing store.
MAFS star Martha Kalifatidis (left) looked absolutely radiant as she showed off her growing baby bump in a gallery of Instagram snaps with fiancé Michael Brunelli (right) on Monday.
The photos documented Martha and Michael’s day shopping for baby clothes.
“Love you baby and baby,” Veronicas star Jessica Origliasso gushed in the comments, while another fan said she looked “so beautiful.”
Last month, Martha gave candid insight into how her battle with an acute form of morning sickness had affected her pregnancy.
Martha held up a pink baby’s tracksuit as she browsed the baby store
The Adidas set featured the brand’s iconic white stripes down the arms
She said The Daily Telegraph that the diagnosis of hyperemesis gravidarum changed everything, and her symptoms had manifested themselves in countless painful ways.
“It’s like having gastro, you’re hungover, and you’re on a boat. This is anything but fun,” she said.
She explained that she wasn’t diagnosed until a month into her pregnancy, forcing her and Michael to cut their European vacation short.
Last month, Martha gave candid insight into how her battle with acute morning sickness had affected her pregnancy
“I was stuck abroad, severely dehydrated and had to drink regularly,” she said.
Michael echoed her feelings, admitting that “it was hard to watch her go from enjoying this amazing journey overseas to being bedridden 24 hours a day.”
The couple announced in September that they are expecting their first child together.
She told The Daily Telegraph that being diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum changed everything and that her symptoms had manifested themselves in countless painful ways.


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Security firm Trend Micro has become the latest corporate to jump into the startup investment sector with the launch of its new venture capital fund.
The company has announced a $100 million venture fund today. With this fund, it is looking at opportunities in the internet-of-things (IoT) space.
The venture fund aims to nurture a portfolio of startups in emerging ecosystems. The startups can be in domains that are incubating ideas and living at the epicenter of hyper growth markets.
Eva Chen, founder, and CEO of Trend Micro, said,
Trend Micro’s vision has always been to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. The explosion of devices is transforming how the world works, thinks, and acts. It is clear that the ecosystem is still evolving and there is work to do to ensure organisations and individuals can operate and live safely in this new reality.
Along with funding, the startups will also get access to Trend Micro’s global threat intelligence, strategic alliances, as well as 28,000 channel partners.
With this, the company aims “to dive into new areas without disrupting core business resources.” It is looking to make around 15-20 investments per year.
According to Trend Micro’s President and Chief Operating Officer Wael Mohamed, there are already “several” deals in the pipeline, but he has not provided any specific details.
The fund is an “initial” $100 million, implying that it the amount can be increased or topped up after sometime. The company believes that the next wave has arrived with IoT and the fund will help the company in harnessing the opportunity.
Trend Micro was founded in the year 1988, and is currently present in 50 countries – including regional headquarters in Asia, Europe and the Americas. It has a staff of over 5,000 people, and is best known for IT security products that include threat detection and antivirus.


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Singapore Bans E-Scooters From Sidewalks After Injuries, Deaths
Electric scooters will be banned from footpaths in Singapore starting from Nov. 5, with offenders facing fines of up to 2,000 Singapore dollars ($1,471) and jail time of up to three months.
According to the Land Transportation Authority (LTA) in Singapore, an e-scooter is described as having a handlebar and an electric motor, which includes hoverboards and electric unicycles. Because of safety concerns, the LTA will reject existing license applications for these personal mobility devices.
#PSA With effect from 5 Nov, e-scooters will be banned on all footpath. They will only be allowed on cycling paths and Park Connector Networks. pic.twitter.com/BlHOtVw0kN
Senior Minister of State for Transport Lam Pin Min said in Parliament on Monday, “Over the last two years, we put in great efforts to promote the safe use of motorized personal mobility devices.”
Dr. Lam also stresses, “This move is not a complete ban of e-scooters.”
The devices will be confined to only 440 kilometers (273 miles) of cycling paths instead of the 5,500 kilometers (3,417 miles) people could use before, while bicycles and mobility aids such as motorized wheelchairs will continue to be allowed on paths, The Straits Times reported.
Among those affected are food delivery drivers in Singapore, many of whom are petitioning the ban to let the riders have a voice and improve e-scooter usage instead of banning it.
Dr. Lam said that the LTA will work with the major food delivery companies — Grabfood, Foodpanda and Deliveroo — to help their delivery riders switch to motorcycles or bicycles.
Electric scooters have been a popular option for the people of Singapore as the city-state is one of the most expensive places to own a car, and there are currently 100,000 registered e-scooters in Singapore.
However, the widespread adoption caused many injuries, including a 20-year-old rider who was arrested after crashing into a 65-year-old cyclist who later died in September, according to Bloomberg.
Another case was a 36-week pregnant woman who was almost hit by an e-scooter earlier this year. In an interview, she told Today Online, “These riders, they don’t care. They are very reckless and just want to be fast. Many times, they actually play loud music and can’t hear oncoming traffic.”
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Bitcoin in Freefall- Down over 60% in 2018 and there’s no bottom in sight.
I woke up today to a nightmare; Bitcoin dropped below $6,000 overnight and is staying there. Bitcoin in freefall was something Jack Lee didn’t predict; he predicted Bitcoin at about $25,000 as of July. While Bitcoin price history has proven his prediction, even now, isn’t impossible but it seems very improbable. The usual talking heads are offering theory after theory as to why the price of Bitcoin continues to plunge but there’s no way to know who is right or if anyone is right. Bitcoin in freefall is all we know.
Bitcoin in freefall has led me to shutdown my Bitcoin miners. I am running Avalon 741s which, given today’s Bitcoin market climate, makes mining unprofitable. In fact, I would lose money on a daily basis. I wish I was running some Avalon 841s because they would make Bitcoin mining profitable – even at today’s prices. Speaking of which, Bitcoin in freefall has led to a plunge in Bitcoin mining hardware prices too. Bitmain’s flagship S9 Bitcoin miner was never available for lower prices and, heck, totally available. Ditto Canaan’s Avalon 841. Equally noteworthy is that ASIC Bitcoin miners are AVAILABLE. Last year you had to stay up late – perhaps all night – and sit at a supplier’s website on the CHANCE you can buy Bitcoin miners in the few minutes you had before they sold out. See the silver lining in this? Bitcoin in freefall has made it possible for aspiring Bitcoin miners to start their operation for thousands of dollars less — PER UNIT.
As with every other Bitcoin price trend – up or down – Bitcoin in freefall brings a wide range of impossible-to-prove theories such as the recent hacks, Tether price manipulation, etc. etc. In other words, nothing new. To put the current price of Bitcoin in perspective; it’s still 300% higher than it was this time last year. Here’s some more positive perspective; everyone remains bullish on Bitcoin in the long term.
McAfee Says Adios to ICOs – Bows to SEC Threats, Eliminates ICO Activities
When McAfee says adios to ICOs that’s really saying something. He baffled and bluffed Belize law enforcement. He showed guile in Guatemala and returned to the US despite a pretty tight dragnet. But Mr. McAfee realizes when he’s outgunned and outnumbered vis a vis the SEC. This Tweet yesterday says it all…
So what did the SEC say that forced McAfee to Say Adios to ICOS ? Details aren’t available at this time but we suspect a cease and desist letter. Since there aren’t clear laws or policies where ICOs are concerned with either the SEC or the FTC, we can only speculate that Mr. McAfee received a very stern letter from the SEC which probably said something to the effect of “Knock it off!”
McAfee’s cryptic comment about an ICO alternative is intriguing. He has shown a capacity for innovation and brilliance so we can be sure of a fantastic new idea. What it might be and how it could sidestep existing laws remains to be seen. The only thing clear right now is that McAfee Says Adios to ICOs under legal pressure. This should worry everyone and anyone where ICOs are concerned especially the ominous warning from McAfee that anyone doing ICOs “can all look forward to arrest.”
No one should be surprised by a legal crackdown on ICOs. Exit scams have cost investors millions upon millions of dollars through cloned white papers, stolen identities and out-and-out deception from would-be ICO issuers touting their new coin’s usefulness, expected wide acceptance, etc. while promising ICO issuance bonuses intended to entice even the most cynical ICO investor.
While McAfee Says Adios to ICOs he also said he is staying very involved in the cryptocoin markets themselves. He’s still an ardent supporter of Bitcoin and his unwavering support and endorsement of Bitcoin should be carefully noted.
Apple Bans Cryptocurrency Mining – So What?
While this could be considered a trampling on a consumer’s rights to do what they please with their property what’s there’s no big deal that Apple bans cryptocurrency mining. The only possible, feasible mobile-based cryptomining would be for Electroneum and even when ETN was at its peak price it would take decades to mine any serious amount of cryptocoin.
Bitcoin miners aren’t the least bit concerned that Apple bans cryptocurrency mining. Except maybe Electroneum fans. I mean, seriously, it would take a smartphone – or even a top-of-the-line Mac – hundreds of years to mine a single Bitcoin.
Apple is cracking down on cryptocurrency activity on its devices is a laugh. As a public relations professional I see this announcement as nothing more than a PR play as there are no serious repercussions.
During Apple’s ban cryptocurrency mining on both iOS devices and Mac. AppleInsider first spotted the changes to the policy on Monday and nobody understands why Apple bothered.last week, the company released new App Store guidelines that
If a ROOM filled with Apple’s most powerful Macs were working in concert to mine Bitcoin they couldn’t produce one in a solid year. So when Apple bans cryptocurrency we have to contain our laughter.
Heck, if an entire freighter loaded with Apple iPhones were hijacked and diverted to mine cryptocoin the pirates’ third generation of offspring might have enough cryptocoin to buy a sandwich.
This is a ludicrous stance by Apple to maintain their media presence without any realistic impact on cryptocurrency mining one way or the other. Nobody in the world broke into tears or fits of frustration learning the news that Apple bans cryptocurrency mining. No plans were dashed. No dreams were smashed.
And in any case, anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of Linux could easily bypass this restriction on the Mac – but why would that want to? They would lose money every minute a Mac was devoted to mining any cryptocoin these days.
Bitcoin Predictions 2018 – This week has been a bloodbath for the cryptocoin world. Bitcoin will emerge bigger than ever.
Bitcoin Predictions 2018 are becoming crystal clear as many lesser cryptocoins faced slaughter and certain destruction this week. The path of destruction is too vast to fully document but we’ll go with the basics; Monero, Zcash, Dash and other cryptocurrencies were delisted on Korbit and Coincheck. Monero mining was hacked concerning Apple Mac users. Verge faces new competition from VIT courtesy of porn star and Trump accuser Stormy Daniels vis a vis PornHub. Oh and Monero was delisted on Changelly.
And all of this on the heels of a scathing article on cryptocurrency fraud in the Wall Street Journal.
Are you with me so far with Bitcoin predictions 2018?
The current cryptocoin massacre in the press, from cryptocurrency exchanges and hackers are going to leave a lot of cryptocoins permanently maimed if not murdered outright. That’s what makes these Bitcoin Predictions 2018 so sweet; they are so right.
Yes, I am aware of the Bitcoin price manipulation investigation and that’s fine. Bitcoin itself is not under investigation, just a few bad actors who allegedly played the price as they wished.
When the smoke clears and the dust settles Bitcoin will not only remain the king of cryptocurrency, it will emerge stronger than ever. Bitcoin bulls Tom Lee, John McAfee and others are holding to the view that Bitcoin prices will be at an all time high before 2018 closes. As a Bitcoin miner myself watching Bitcoin transactions minute by minute I agree; Bitcoin predictions 2018 are very positive ones with Bitcoin reaching astonishing new highs leaving so many other cryptocoins in the dust. On that note, I predict the collapse of 20% or more of cryptocurrencies on the markets today. Cryptocoin investors are advised to take a conservative stance and stick to safer coins. Cryptocoin speculation is a very risky business these days,
Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index – Cryptocoin is Definitely Mainstream Now.
I caught Michael Novogratz sitting down with Maria Bartiromo on Fox Business just now I froze as I heard about The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index for the first time. What first stunned me was the Bloomberg name. Bloomberg has not been known to be altogether objective on their coverage of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Their involvement along with billionaire Michael Novogratz makes this new offering a cryptocoin investment worthy of close inspection.
Why? Michael Novogratz started investing in Bitcoin when it was just $96 dollars.
The investment philosophy of The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index mirrors that of most mutual funds; devote capital to multiple investments so as to balance risk against reward. As such the fund is currently focused on ten cryptocoins (Bitcoin – 30 %, Ethererum 30%, Ripple at an astonishing 14$ followed by Bitcoin Cash, EOS, Litecoin and others). with plans to expand to including 15 cryptocurrencies in the near future.
Mike and Maria got into a deep discussion of the allocations to the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index and I found myself shaking my head in agreement and appreciation to the approach. While there’s been talk for a long time of a crypto index fund I’m impressed by the implementation and administration of this new cryptocoin index.
The weighted average of the The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index distributes risk and reward very evenly among some of the most recognizable cryptocoins. I’m not particularly fond of seeing Ripple in their portfolio as the flow and supply of XRP can be too easily manipulated. Yet Ripple remains on the radar of many digital currency traders so I can understand the allocated weight of Ripple in their investment mix.
The emergence of this cryptocoin investment index fund is just another sign of things to come. For mainstream investors unsure of which cryptocoins to invest in, the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index may be the best way to go.
Cisco Systems Granted Patent For Mining Cryptocoin – Legendary Network Company Promises Legendary Cryptocoin Mining Solutions
I almost got too excited too fast when I discovered that Cisco Systems Granted Patent For Mining Cryptocoin. As a “retired” CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) I was popping out of my chair by the excitement of imaging legendary Cisco hardware powering cryptocoin mining. I’ve configured and deployed citywide networks of Cisco networking gear and was almost giggling in glee at the prospect of CIsco’s military-grade networking hardware deployed on crypto mining.
Then I got some of the details and was a little less excited. Network colossus and IT stalwart and networking company, Cisco, was granted a new patent a few days ago for a new cloud computing app which will be centered around crowdsourcing and can be applied to cryptomining.
When I think of Cisco I don’t think of cloud computing. I think of EPIC routers like the 3640 or the legendary 7400 series. Or an Armageddon-proof Catalyst switch that can handle the Internet traffic of a small town without breaking a sweat.
[ sigh ]
The patent was awarded to Cisco by the US Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday, and it includes a system that enabling users to allocate their processing power to different tasks. As a result, they will be able to make a new cloud application and use it for various purposes, one of which could be cryptocoin mining.
The company states that the processing power can be shared with ISPs (Internet Service Providers), application publishers among others.
The patent filing states that the model they developed delivers capabilities for scaling processing power, speed, reliability and cost.
Let’s focus on the headline: Cisco Systems Granted Patent For Mining Cryptocoin
The company postulates their new cloud-based solution can be applied to mining cryptocurrencies. The effectiveness of this remain to be seen as there is a never-ending “arms race” for ever faster mining rigs and ASICS that run at ever-increasing efficiency. When I imagined the possibilities behind the news that Cisco Systems Granted Patent For Mining Cryptocoin I imagined a MASSIVE blue-green box that would run 24×7 for years on end minding Bitcoin or another cryptocoin.
As a seasoned Bitcoin miner overseeing ASIC miners 24×7 I don’t see ANY cloud solution beating the basics of cryptocoin mining; run your own hardware on your own network. Time will tell.
Bitcoin ATM Machine Review – They Work But They Could Work Better.
Any Bitcoin ATM Machine Review must start with warning potential users of a Bitcoin ATM Machine to start out with some patience. That’s because of the Bitcoin blockchain and the fact that Bitcoin miners like me need to validate the transaction so expect to wait 30 minutes or more before your transaction is completed.
I didn’t mind waiting a half hour for cash for the Bitcoin I sold. I passed the time pleasantly exploring the finer points of vaping. That’s because the Bitcoin Machine Review is of a machine posted in a vaping store.
Let’s start this Bitcoin ATM Machine Review with the price of Bitcoin at the time I made the sale.
Here’s the actual price of Bitcoin according to Coinbase…
And here’s the Bitcoin price displayed on the opening screen of the Bitcoin ATM Machine…
My initial reaction? OH COOL! The exchange price of this machine is almost $1,000 higher! #WINNING!
Here’s where my Bitcoin ATM Machine Review takes a darker turn. I start to sell Bitcoin and see this…
Wait a minute! WTF?! The actual transaction price is $1700 LOWER than what the opening screen said 30 seconds ago?! WTF? WHY?!
Since the mission was to write a Bitcoin ATM Machine Review I went ahead with the transaction despite the glaring contradictions in BTC Price….
And to be fair to Coin Cloud ATM – The owners and/or operators of this Bitcoin ATM machine I received my funds within about 30 minutes. This delay could not be any fault of theirs; the Bitcoin blockchain and the present workload of Bitcoin miners dictated the delay.
The thing is, I ended up spending $23 in Bitcoin ATM machine fees to get $220. That’s more than 10% and that’s absolutely ridiculous.
I get the fact that Bitcoin ATM machines aren’t so common yet. I understand that there are costs involved in purchasing, deploying, operating and maintaining any ATM machine and through reasons of pure economics a Bitcoin ATM machine will be more expensive than a standard ATM machine today.
HOWEVER – the fact that this machine displayed a higher Bitcoin price on the opening screen and then a lower price when a transaction actually started without any clear or open disclosure of actual fees really sucks. Then bear in mind that if this WERE an ordinary ATM machine there’s no possible way it would charge me a $22 ATM fee on a $220 withdrawal.
It’s cryptocoin shenanigans shit like this that is practically BEGGING for government regulation of cryptocoin.
So this Bitcoin ATM Machine Review is a mixed bag; yes they work and yes they allow you to buy or sell cryptocoin relatively quickly. But as shown here there are downsides too. HUGE downsides. Caveat Emptor!
Coinbase Going Backwards – Elimination of Key Client Services + Needlessly Complicating Merchant Transactions = Disaster
Coinbase going backwards has made life much more difficult the past few weeks. Up until March I could sell Bitcoin and turn it into usable cash in less than 30 minutes right from my laptop. Then Coinbase utterly eliminated PayPal which now means I need to wait DAYS for a bank transfer. In the “good old days” of just last month I could’ve sold Bitcoin on Coinbase, had the proceeds transferred directly to PayPal within seconds and then have the money sitting in my checking account in less than 30 minutes. All I would need to do is agree to PayPal’s pittance of a 25 cent transfer fee via debit card.
But alas PayPal has disappeared from Coinbase altogether which has rendered this quick, inexpensive solution impossible.
But wait it gets better. An email I received from Cheapair just last week is further proof of Coinbase going backwards:
So Coinbase lost a large corporate client and Bitpay wins one. That’s the very nature of the free market at work.
Regular readers will easily recall how I bought a plane ticket with Bitcoin via Coinbase on CheapAir.com earlier this month in a simple, hassle-free transaction.
I am truly disappointed in Coinbase. For so long I’ve been seeing them do so many good things to move cryptocoin forward into mainstream acceptance. Up until recently I have truly been a fanboy. All of the recent announcements of promising new hires not withstanding, it’s impossible not to see that Coinbase going backwards is a real thing. And a real sad thing.
Coinbase going backwards needs to stop. Coinbase gave up so much ground they won by their asinine actions lately. They need to resume forward thinking and decisive action if they hope to maintain their dominant position as a cryptocoin exchange.
As an extension of my thinking I am going to visit a Bitcoin ATM machine here in the Las Vegs valley. I expect an attempted robbery vis a vis their published exchange rate, transaction fees, etc. Expect a full report from me within the next 48 hours. Personally, I expect to give Coinbase an expanded business model as a result. Stay tuned!


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Oil prices have dropped 11% since the beginning of October, leading to a reduction in wholesale prices of fuel, but it has taken some retailers until the 8th November to pass those savings on to the customer. In fact, until 6th November, only one of the big four retailers had lowered their petrol prices, with the other three actually increasing prices slightly.
This led to statements from motoring organisations saying that “every motorist should feel aggrieved”.
The price of oil has fallen from $84.73 to $75.55 in the past six weeks, the direct result of which is a reduction in the wholesale cost of fuel, which should equate to around a 3ppl saving over current petrol prices, and yet three of the big four retailers – Tesco, Morrisons and Sainsbury’s had failed to acknowledge those savings, according to the RAC.
Asda, on the other hand, has already dropped their petrol prices, and introduced a nationwide price cap throughout their sites, meaning that the maximum anyone will pay is 122.7 pence per litre for unleaded, regardless of geography.
Simon Williams, an RAC spokesperson said: “Every motorist should feel aggrieved that the price of a litre of fuel has remained constant throughout October, when it should have fallen by 3 pence”, but perhaps the RAC were a little premature with their statement, given that the large retailers have finally released statements regarding the lowering of fuel prices.
Whilst Asda have already lowered their prices by an average of 2.4ppl, the other three supermarkets have released statements declaring that they’d be cutting ‘up to 2ppl’ from their petrol prices.
Diesel still seems to be staying at higher prices. Mark Todd, co-founder of leading price comparison service, energyhelpline said “When diesel and heating oil prices rise, energy prices tend to follow. The biggest factor that pushes up household energy prices is the price of natural gas which is up around 50% this year. No wonder we are seeing price rises right now. The biggest factor pushing up the price of diesel and heating oil is the oil price which has also been on the rise. While the oil and gas markets are not identical they tend to follow similar patterns driven by global supply and demand and similar producers eg. Russia, Saudi Arabia and the oil giants like Exxon and Shell. So when one goes up don’t be surprised to see the other follow.”
A look at the past month
Ashley Beach, Data Analyst at PetrolPrices said: “From our data we can see that in October there was no change in the average price of unleaded at 131.2ppl, equalling the average price in September. However unleaded did see approximately a penny rise from the start to the middle of both months, and then a decline back to the starting price at the end of the month. Jet saw the largest drop of 0.7ppl in their average price of unleaded, followed by Sainsbury’s with a drop of 0.4ppl.
Meanwhile, the average price of diesel increased by 2.1ppl to 136.4ppl in October and reached an average high of 137.1ppl. For the average diesel car performing at 62.2mpg, that does on average a mileage of 842 miles per month would have cost the driver an extra £1.30 compared to the fuel they spent in September.
However, compared to January this year this saving would be £7.26. As stated before Jet had the largest decrease in unleaded, however, this is contradicted by the fact that they had the largest increase in the average price of diesel of 2.6ppl.
Using the fact that 30.4 billion litres of diesel was sold in 2017 in the UK and this increased by 1% from 2016, we estimate there to be roughly 30.7 billion litres sold in 2018. This averages at approximately 2.56 billion litres a month, with the assumption that each month an equal amount is sold.
PetrolPrices estimated how much more the UK spent on all fuel in October compared to September by brand, using the statistic from the RAC that says 47.2 billion litres of fuel were sold in the UK in 2017, assuming that this statistic will stay the same for 2018 as it has been roughly this for the past two years. We also assumed that each month an equal amount of fuel would be sold. Totalling all of these estimates up, we produced a final figure of £48,515,654.24 proving that motorists spent over £40 million extra on filling up in October compared to September.”
Frozen fuel duty
Last week’s budget brought further relief to the motorist after last month’s high prices– it was announced that fuel duty would be frozen for the ninth consecutive year, and while many motorists still feel that a reduction in fuel duty is the only way forward, we have been conditioned to believe that a freeze in duty is acceptable, perhaps even favourable.
This comes just at the right time, after a long summer of high prices, it seems that the motorist is finally going to get some relief at the pumps, albeit around £1.92 on an average tank of fuel. With that said, all four supermarkets (Tesco is Britain’s largest petrol retailer) will be going head-to-head in a price war, so prices could still yet drop further, even more so if there’s an Asda in the locale.
There are ways that you can benefit further still; as a member of PetrolPrices, you’ll already be aware that you could be saving around £220 each year on your fuel costs, but keeping an eye out for promotions through the supermarkets could save you a further 10ppl, and ensuring that your car is in good mechanical condition would save you further monies still.
Should the ‘big four’ have discounted their fuel at an earlier date? Do you think we can expect to see further discounts at the pumps in the last part of the year? Or will prices increase again? Let us know in the comments.


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Talking to The Wall Street Journal, Epic let loose that the Unreal Engine iPhone Dev Kit powering the recent smash of a hit that is Infinity Blade, will be released to the public come Thursday this week.
The UDK will be made available for free as long as whatever developers create is also made available for free. Should anyone get greedy and start charging for their creations, a licensing fee of $99 (USD) will have to be paid in addition to 25% royalties after the first $5,000 in sales.
“Apple’s App Store is the most vibrant market for mobile gaming,” said Epic’s Mark Rein. “If you’re going to make a game for a mobile device, and you want to make the most money, you’re nuts not to make it for iOS.”
Infinity Blade has since its release been proclaimed to be the faster grossing app on the App Store with a generated $1.6 million in sales in just four days. And thanks to that, it gets DLC’ed.


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The National Sheep Association (NSA) has said it is "astonished" by the government's dismissal of the "detrimental impact" the recently signed UK-Australia free trade deal will have on UK farms.
“NSA is bemused by the continued dismissal by the Prime Minister and some of his Ministers of the detrimental impact the Australia deal will have on UK Farming," said NSA chief executive Phil Stocker.
The association is pressing for an "urgent scrutiny" of the deal by parliament and the Trade and Agriculture Commission (TCA).
"The association presses for proper and urgent scrutiny of the deal by Parliament and TAC in order for the public to be given the full details of how the deal will allow imports of lamb produced to lower standards than those here in the UK,” Stocker continued.
NSA insists that it is essential MPs get a meaningful vote on this deal and that the views of the TAC are properly recognised.
"This will be a test case for democracy in relation to trade deals - crucial because they will be for the long term.
"The next stage of this process cannot be a rubber-stamping exercise otherwise the Government’s support from rural constituencies will fall further.”
The final version of the free trade deal between the UK and Australia was signed in a virtual ceremony by International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan on December 17.
It is now due to be be laid in Parliament for a period of scrutiny.
Once approved by both parliaments, businesses will be able to trade under its terms.
According to the Australian government, as a result of this deal, its farmers will have “improved access to more than 65 million UK consumers” - and many have expressed worry that the deal is 'one-sided', in favour of Australia.
The deal does however, includes measures to ‘safeguard’ British farmers, and Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan has also written to the TAC seeking its advice on the application of some measures.


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Microsoft has made two long-awaited updates to its Surface lineup. On the low-end, there’s the new Surface Go 2, which is slightly larger and substantially faster than its predecessor.
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What do LinkedIn, Twitter, Google and Yelp have in common with goldfish?
Let me give you a hint.
Goldfish are said to have an attention span of 9 seconds, which is, remarkably, one second longer than that of the typical American consumer today. Worse yet, that’s 10 seconds less than it was a decade ago and dramatically less than it was in the 1960s and 1970s.
Unfortunately for LinkedIn, Twitter, Google and Yelp, those consumers with short attention spans make for lousy business. Particularly, when the business model is dependent entirely on ad revenue in an online sea overrun with ad supply and fewer and fewer fish attracted to that ad bait.
The proof is in the news that each of them made over the last week.
LinkedIn, Twitter, Yelp, and Google, are just the most recent examples, but certainly not the only casualties to the attention deficit that consumers exhibit today – and the change in the consumer’s path to purchase that it implies.
And the role of payments in potentially reversing that curse.
Back in the good old days of black and white televisions and rotary landlines, advertisers ruled and the number of channels available to brands to reach those consumers was pretty small. For instance.
In the 1970s – a decade after the “Mad Men” advertising industry exploded, buying an ad on one of the three major network television stations was a surefire way to reach 70 percent of all Americans. If TV was too pricey, a retailer or a brand could buy a print ad in one of the major national newspapers or dailies, or put a coupon in one of the free-standing inserts stuffed into those papers several times a week. Consumers could also browse in the stores in the shopping centers and suburban Malls to discover new brands and buy products – and did. The odds that an advertiser could catch the attention of the consumer were pretty good – there just weren’t that many options for consumers to get information about products and brands.
Fast forward to today.
A USC Marshall School of Business report says that this year, in 2015, Americans will consume more than 1.7 trillion hours of media for an average of 15.5 hours per person per day, not counting what they might consume during work hours. They say that’s equal to about nine DVDs worth of data for each person each day.
And consumers do most of that consuming via their smartphones and tablets – while doing many other things.
Consumers surf the Web while commuting to work. They check Facebook while eating and check posts from their favorite blogger in between meetings. Ninety percent of consumers reach for their phones within 15 minutes of opening their eyes in the morning to check their email. They use their phones to check out product reviews while standing in front of products at a physical store and text their friends while at the movies. Nearly 50 percent of the time that people are watching TV, they’re doing something — texting, shopping online, updating LinkedIn, surfing the Internet, and checking Facebook — on devices connected to the Internet.
These smartphone toting consumers – who are always connected to the Internet – are bombarded by more than 5,000 ads a day. Most of which they ignore. Fifty percent or more of the times that consumers click on ads, they do so by mistake. Advertisers, smart to that, force consumers to endure intrusive ads before getting to the video or webpage they wanted to see. Even television advertisers are hip to the attention deficit disorder of consumers. They’re buying 15 second spots in droves – accounting for 44 percent of all commercials aired – up from 35 percent in 2000.
Advertisers squeeze in ads every chance they get in every single one of the channels, consumers are connected to today, competing vigorously for their 11 second attention span like never before. And diluting their effectiveness.
All this points to the fact that advertising has become a commodity business where advertisers basically allocate advertising dollars across multiple channels, all vying for the attention of a very distracted consumer, with their fingers crossed that they’ll get a decent ROI. The sophisticated ones use software that allocates ads across channels to get the best ROI. That software is brutal and indiscriminate in switching ads between Twitter, CBS, and Facebook depending on where advertisers are getting the most bang for the buck at any moment in time.
Which is totally dependent, of course, on where a distracted consumer’s attention is focused.
But unlike the good old days when advertisers ruled the road because they had a captive audience with access to only a few channels, the consumer is now in charge.
Consumers now have tools, access and the power to decide where and what and how and when they’ll get their information about the products and services that they’d like to buy.
So, what’s an online business that’s dependent on online ads for its revenue source supposed to do?
Well, it all depends.
If they can attract lots and lots of valuable eyeballs and develop creative ways of keeping their attention, they could be OK.
For instance, Tencent, China’s massive mobile messaging platform, blunts its reliance on ad revenue by selling products – premium messaging services, stickers, and games, to its massively engaged and captive audience.
Facebook has managed to buck the bad online ad revenue trend for the moment too because 65 percent of its user base – nearly 1 billion people – check Facebook every single day (up from 63 percent the quarter before), spend time there, see ads and click. Revenue from mobile advertising was 73 percent of Facebook’s total advertising revenue – up from 69 percent the quarter before. In fact, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told investors last quarter that 1 in every 5 minutes spent on a mobile device is spent on Facebook or Instagram.
But even as upward-trending as Facebook’s user engagement story is, Sandberg also told investors that big brands aren’t allocating enough of their ad dollars to their platform.
That’s because big brands still need to be convinced that there are enough engaged consumers on any mobile platform – even Facebook – to make it worth their while. Mobile has only number of places where ads can be placed – the barriers to entry are very low. And a distracted consumer presented with more advertising options doesn’t necessarily translate into a powerful ROI for an advertiser.
For platforms that rely on ad revenue to pay the bills, the situation is more complex. The notion of distracted consumers, the “attention markets” that they represent and the impact on online advertising revenues is addressed in a piece written by MPD Founder David Evans last year. In this piece, Evans makes a pretty compelling case that the situation for sites that make their living solely on the basis of advertising revenues face a pretty dismal — or at least highly competitive — future unless they can find novel ways to break through. On one side of the attention market, no matter how unique their services are, they are ultimately competing for a finite amount of attention and risk losing that attention to the next cool thing. On the other side of the attention market, they are competing to sell access to the attention they’ve collected with every other Larry, Mark and Tom who’s harvested some eyeballs. There aren’t really entry barriers on either side.
So, could understanding the consumer’s new path to purchase and introducing payment into that stream be one way to create a barrier to entry?
Busy and multi-tasking consumers are interested in eliminating as much of the friction as they can from their buying experience. Often, the place that they start their product search is the same place they can actually buy what they need. That means that Google’s biggest competitor for ad revenue and eyeballs isn’t Bing or Yahoo, it’s Amazon where consumers start their search for that new flat screen TV, see a bunch of brands, read product reviews and compare prices and buy, in a single click.
And, why we see Google now embedding payments and commerce experiences inside of its platform. Pony Express will enable bill payment, Google Now will enable commerce via local merchants, Google for Business will enable online order and delivery for local restaurants.
Twitter’s biggest competitor for ad dollars and eyeballs isn’t Facebook but the brands themselves that use email marketing to drive consumers to their sites, where they are presented with offers to load their shopping carts with stuff, pay online and have orders shipped directly to them.
And why Twitter has experimented (not so successfully) with payment via hashtags and “Buy” buttons.
LinkedIn’s biggest competitor for ad dollars isn’t Facebook but content platforms that add value to the professional audience they attract.
And, why LinkedIn paid more than a billion dollars for a training platform a few months ago.
Yelp’s biggest competitor for ad revenue and eyeballs isn’t Google, it’s Open Table where consumers can see a bunch of restaurants and their ratings, make a reservation and in some cities and in some restaurants, even pay using the app. Or OLO or ChowNow that let consumers order pizza online directly from their favorite pizza shops, pay for it and have it delivered – all via the functionality that their apps enable.
And why Yelp is now up for sale. There are now too many competitors that offer businesses on their platform a way to engage consumers by eliminating a step on the path to purchase and monetizing their business through commerce and payment alternatives.
In each of these situations, the business models of the competitors are not driven by ads that feel intrusive, require a distracted eyeball to click through in 11 seconds or less, and an ever-expanding and engaged user base — but by enabling consumers to find and buy things.
A business model that’s based on an actual exchange of value between a brand and a consumer – ending up in a sale and capture of data that reflects both purchase intent and purchase preference.
A business model that leads to a much richer and potentially stickier revenue stream and better ROI for the brand and the commerce platform that enables that exchange of value.
And a business model that reflects how consumers want to buy.
As the consumer’s path to purchase relies more on referrals from social media, targeted promotions from preferred retailers, push notifications based on location and opt in from brands, and direct access via online marketplaces and commerce platforms that are the consumer’s first stop for what they want to buy, ad based business models will be challenged to survive, much less thrive.
Could payments and commerce be the answer?
We better hope so – otherwise we’re left with teaching goldfish how to point and click.


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SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – At Sixteen Acres Garden Center in Springfield some people were out looking to get some fall plants.
“I came out today because I had the day off and it was beautiful and I wanted to find some mums for the front of the house so here I am enjoying the beauty of nature,” said Pat Anzalotti of Hampden.
And there are still plenty of things available that you can put in the ground right now.
“It’s a great time for trees, shrubs, perennials your spring flowering bulbs should go in the ground now so it’s a real good time to plant all of that,” said Andy Grondalski, the Nursery Manager at Sixteen Acres Garden Center.
You can also plant cool weather vegetables like cabbage and kale. It’s also not too late to plant grass seed as well.
“I’ve been told this is the time to redo the lawn and it’ll be beautiful in the spring,” said Jim Madden of Springfield.
“There’s plenty of time for grass seed to come up it’s nice and cool it’s moist in the evenings it’s cool at night the grass seed shouldn’t take long to germinate and come up for you,” said Andy Grondalski.
Right now is also a good time to pick up some bargains. Most things are now 40 percent off.
|– Local Forecast||– Severe WX Text Alerts|
|– Temperatures||– Severe WX Email Alerts|
|– Weather News||– Live Area Webcams|
|– Interactive Radar||– Winter Safety Checklist|


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“As Apple demonstrated its new flagship phone onstage, the $999 iPhone X, the face-recognition unlocking feature failed. Bigly and splashily,” David Pogue reports for Yahoo Finance. “In fact, though, Face ID performed perfectly. It appears somebody at Apple set up the phone incorrectly.”
Pogue reports, “I was able to contact Apple. After examining the logs of the demo iPhone X, they now know exactly what went down.”
“‘People were handling the device for stage demo ahead of time,’ says a rep, ‘and didn’t realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face. After failing a number of times, because they weren’t Craig, the iPhone did what it was designed to do, which was to require his passcode,'” Pogue reports. “In other words, ‘Face ID worked as it was designed to.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The stream of “Face ID failure” articles epitomizes fake news or, if not willful disinformation, a pitiful lack of understanding about how basic iOS security works.
Now, if you’re in a coffee shop, with your hard-to-get iPhone X face up on the table, will it be trying to Face ID everybody who walks by staring at it due to its rarity and inherent coolness? We guess so – unless you have to be holding your iPhone in order for Face ID to start scanning (Apple hasn’t been clear on this). If not, you’ll likely have to enter your passcode in such cases.
And, yes, Apple personnel should have realized what would happen if employees handled the iPhone X demo units. The iPhone X would try to Face ID anyone who so much as glanced at it and caused it to go to passcode lock screen during Federighi’s demo. Luckily for Federighi, it seems nobody triggered the passcode requirement on the backup iPhone X unit.
U.S. Senate Democrat Al Franken wants Apple to provide more information on Face ID facial recognition technology – September 13, 2017
Police: Apple’s new Face ID technology will make it harder for authorities to bypass enhanced security – September 13, 2017
What really happened with Apple’s onstage Face ID glitch: Face ID worked perfectly, as intended – September 13, 2017


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ICE officials respond to Crofton shopping center as part of investigation
By Staff Reports
Apr 04, 2019 at 9:30 AM
A spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed Wednesday that a number of its agents were at a Crofton shopping earlier in the day, but declined to say why.
The spokeswoman confirmed that agents responded to the center as part of an ongoing investigation, but would not offer details on the nature of the response or the investigation.
Area residents posted photos on social media Wednesday morning showing federal agents in a number of vehicles at the Crofton Centre at the corner of Route 3 and Davidsonville Road, and later at a home on Aberdeen Drive in Crofton.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore also declined to comment on details of the investigation.


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A Microsoft lawyer says Google is blocking its attempts to launch a YouTube app on Windows Phone software, after the search giant pulled the application for a second time.
David Howard, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft’s Litigation & Antitrust division, says the firm has worked hard to meet Google’s specifications for the app, and that the search firm seems bent on blocking Microsoft’s attempts to offer users of its smartphones the same experience as they would have on an Android device, or Apple’s iPhone – which both feature a fully functioning YouTube app.
“The roadblocks Google has set up are impossible to overcome, and they know it,” Howard states. He claims the only sticking point in a program to comply with Google’s requests is the lack of HTML5 in the redesigned Windows Phone YouTube app – something Howard says is technically impossible at present.
“[W]e dedicated significant engineering resources to examine the possibility. At the end of the day, experts from both companies recognized that building a YouTube app based on HTML5 would be technically difficult and time consuming, which is why we assume YouTube has not yet made the conversion for its iPhone and Android apps.”
Howard concludes by stating that Google “just doesn’t want Windows Phone users to have the same experience as Android and Apple users, and that their objections are nothing other than excuses.”
Google claims it has removed Microsoft’s app because it breaches service agreements by not complying with a list of upgrades it required the software firm to meet, the BBC reports.


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Big city drivers are chomping at the bit to buy an electric car, despite the significant inconveniences the initial models would be saddled with. A new report from consulting firm McKinsey found that demand in the three “megacities” it surveyed—New York, Paris, and Shanghai—was so high that electric cars could account for up to 16% of new vehicle sales by 2015, up from essentially nothing today.
The first crop of electric cars will come saddled with range limitations, and charging stations will be few or non-existent. That makes big cities, where driving distances are shorter, the perfect laboratory for them, McKinsey says. “There’s a small group of early adopters, people who are really interested in this technology,” the group's top auto guru tells Time. “They'll take some inconvenience.”


text: Short sellers raised their bets against Tesla this month, as the electric car maker’s shares fell by a further 35% . More than half a billion dollars worth of shares were sold short in December, making Tesla the second-most shorted stock as of Dec. 21, according to data from S3 Partners. Short sellers profit when stocks fall. They borrow shares to sell them immediately with a plan to repurchase them when the price is lower to pocket the difference. “Over the last month we saw a resurgence of short selling after a slight lull in November with 3.78 million new shares shorted, worth $520 million,” said the note from Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director of predictive analytics at S3 Partners. Shares in Tesla have declined by 65% this year and 35% so far in December, pushing the company’s market cap below $500 billion for the first time since the pandemic. Tesla was worth more than $1 trillion in October last year. More than 3% of all Tesla shares currently trading are sold short, representing $11.3 billion in total short interest, according to S3 Partners. Only Apple faces a bigger short bet of $16.8 billion. Microsoft , Visa and Alibaba ‘s U.S.-listed shares round off S3’s list of the top 5 most shorted stocks. Twitter bid Short-sellers upped their bets against targeting the electric automaker this year after its CEO Elon Musk announced his big to buy Twitter on April 14. Hedge funds expected Musk to sell shares to fund his $44 billion leveraged buyout of the social media giant. Long-time Tesla bull and investor Ross Gerber told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” that he trusts Musk not to sell shares in the future, but added that it was right for Musk to sell in the past to fund Twitter. “It’s an unfortunate situation but he’s running his finances conservatively, as he should,” said Gerber, chief executive of wealth manager Gerber Kawasaki. He said he had spoken to Musk directly through Twitter “Spaces.” “I’ve trusted him with a lot of money, and he’s done really well for me over a very long period of time,” Gerber added.


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Another COVID-19 venue of concern for the Shoalhaven.
Woolworths has advised it's been notified that a customer with a confirmed case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) was present in our Woolworths Nowra Stocklands store at the following time:
24 August - from 6:30pm to 7:00pm
It said in a statement, as a food retailer, we already have very high standards of cleaning and hygiene in place, and in addition to these high cleaning standards the store had a deep clean.
The wellbeing of our customers, team and communities is our highest priority, and in line with public health advice, we are taking all necessary steps to ensure ongoing safety in our stores.
If you have been shopping in our store at the dates and times listed on the Health Departments website, please follow their advice for isolation or testing requirements.
Image: Supplied & Woolworths Media


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BT expands BT Vision to reach more than 750,000 customers
By Sarah Shearman, mediaweek.co.uk, Thursday, 01 November 2012 12:38PM
BT added 21,000 customers to its TV service in the quarter, trumping rivals BSkyB and Virgin Media, but revenue was down 9% on the year as the telecoms provider was hit by the European debt crisis.
Today (1 November), BT announced that it had added 21,000 customers in its second quarter of 2012, which ended 30 September, meaning BT Vision now has more than 750,00 customers.
Its tally of new customers during the quarter trumps rivals BSkyB and Virgin Media, although overal,l BT Vision is still dwarfed by its rivals.
By comparison, in the same quarter, Virgin Media added 10,700 new TV customers, taking its overall TV base to 3.78 million.
BSkyB, the market leader, added 20,000 in the period, meaning it now reaches more than 10.5 million households.
Overall, revenues at BT were down 9% to £4.47bn in the three months to the end of September, while pre-tax profits at the telecoms group were up 7% to £608m, helped by cost-cutting.
Revenues were hit by the continued impact of tough economic conditions in Europe.
Consumer revenue from its retail business dropped 3% to £1.79bn for the quarter, which it claimed was due to lower calls and lines revenue, partially offset by growth in broadband.
BT noted that the impact of the London 2012 Olympics helped treble BT Wi-Fi minutes to reach three billion minutes in the quarter.
Ian Livingston, BT Group chief executive, said: "We have delivered another solid quarter of growth in profit before tax, despite the economic conditions and regulatory impacts.
"We continue to make significant investments in the future of our business and we are again accelerating our fibre rollout."
He added that the company expected fibre to be available to two-thirds of UK premises during spring 2014, and was recruiting 1,000 engineers to help deliver it.Follow @shearmans
This article was first published on mediaweek.co.uk
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- Sorrell warns of Scotland becoming an 'outlier' and the UK 'diminished' by a Yes vote
- Sometimes collaboration, not innovation, can be the key to winning campaigns
- Virgin Trains spends £8 million on advertising to refocus on its brand
- WPP challenges Govt review
- Domino's Pizza launches TV ad for cheese and smokey bacon stuffed crust
- Hovis appoints Mother to ad account


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Internet giant Facebook is close to being granted an electronic money licence for payment and remittance services, in the company's latest effort to boost mobile services.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved Facebook’s $19 billion acquisition of mobile messaging service WhatsApp, according to reports.
SingTel Group and technology firm Samsung have today announced four joint initiatives designed to enhance mobile data services for customers.
Capacity brings you the latest network news. If you have network developments you'd like us to share, please tweet us @capacitymag or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
AMS-IX has established a PoP with Seattle-based Sabey Data Center Properties in New York.
Zain Jordan has reportedly acquired LTE frequencies for 142 million dinars ($199.8 million) and will launch the service in the country at the end of this year.
Panellists at West Africa Connect 2014 in Dakar, Senegal, have said the telecoms industry in the country needs to focus on collaboration, as the country bids to increase the industry’s importance to stimulate economic growth.
Alcatel-Lucent has been selected by Finnish operator Elisa to upgrade the company’s network towards developing next-generation IP/MPLS capabilities.
AT&T, the second-largest player in the US mobile market, has said it may sit out of the next wave of auctions for airwaves if the FCC persists with rules to reserve bandwidth for smaller carriers.
What will be the most important network technology breakthrough of 2014?
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According to Co.Design, the rise of the internet has brought on more people criticizing logos when they change. Companies need to think long and hard before they make the switch of something that has become synonymous with their overall branding. The news provider reports that this trend of outcry is indicative of just how much people care about logos of their favorite brands. Taking customer reactions into consideration before making a major switch can help businesses get a clearer picture of any branding change success.
It’s all about how a company handles the change, but it doesn’t mean they can’t still proceed with plans. Forbes reports there comes a time when businesses know it’s time for a logo refresh. The news provider suggests if company executives think their logo is outdated and a rebrand could have a positive impact, they might want to consider really thinking about the switch. This can help an old company feel new again.


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Just a quick one – PlayStation Suite is now in open beta, with the SDK open to anyone.
“We are very happy to inform you that the Open Beta phase of Developer Program for PlayStation Suite is now ready,” Sony said in an email to TheSixthAxis this morning.
“Developers around the world can join Open Beta.”
We’re told that the closed beta test has just ended, with participants automatically getting access to the Open Beta. The best news is that you can test and debug games and applications developed with the PS Suite SDK on a normal PlayStation Vita system.
The developer suite can be downloaded from here.


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A Dunedin aquaculture company has relaunched a proposal to farm Bluff Oysters in the Otago Harbour.
Southern Clams, which harvests and exports cockles, announced plans two years ago to diversify its shellfish operations by using the certified growing waters of Otago Harbour to farm oysters.
It involves taking two-year-old oysters raised in Bluff Harbour and placing them in Otago Harbour for up to four weeks until they are ready for market.
The oysters can not be sold in the shell directly from Bluff Harbour because the water quality does not comply with food safety standards.
Managing director of Southern Clams Roger Belton said it will finally be able to submit its consent application to the Otago Regional.
"It's been on hold till we've completed our consultation with other stakeholders in the harbour, that includes both recreational and customary stakeholders and it's been a fairly long process, but we have modified the application, the consent we're seeking in the light of those concerns that have been raised.
"We have relaunched the same application effectively and we're now going to a notify consent process."
Mr Belton said submissions on the oyster farming proposal would close in a month , and he hoped there would be a consent hearing in April.


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United Airlines' Internet nightmare is located at www.untied.com, a Web site that United tried to persuade its creator to shut down because of alleged trademark infringements. The site collects and prints, in detail, complaints about service on the world's biggest airline.
It's a Web page that proudly states: "Untied Airlines is proud to have no relation to United Airlines, which is not responsible for the contents of this Web site, apart from providing the poor service that led to all these complaints."
Open for a little more than four months, the site was created by Jeremy Cooperstock, an engineer who works for Sony Corp. It has collected dozens of complaints about what it calls rudeness, misinformation, incompetence, special-needs mistreatment and refund problems. It even contains complaints by United's best customers, it's Premier Class fliers.
Cooperstock says Epicurious Travel, which rates the nation's airlines on late flights, mishandled baggage, bumped passengers and consumer complaints, lists United near the bottom of its list of domestic airlines. The only airlines rated lower were Trans World Airlines and America West Airlines.
Untied.com is one of many such pages cropping up on the Web in response to what their creators believe is Corporate America's failure to deal with their complaints.
"Our customer relations department monitors the site and tries to fix bad information and answer questions when they can," said Tony Molinaro, a United spokesman. He said repeated efforts to contact Cooperstock have failed.
Redeeming points: Marriott International Inc. has announced an upgrade to its Marriott Rewards program that will allow travelers to earn Rewards points even when they don't stay at a Marriott facility. Program participants will be able to earn up to three points per air mile for each flight on United Airlines or British Airways and up to 1,000 points for each Hertz car rental. However, participants won't be able to claim both frequent-flier miles and Marriott Reward points.
Pricey business trips: Don't look for the price of business travel to decline anytime soon. Just the opposite, in fact, according to a survey by American Express Travel Related Services Co.
The cost of airline tickets for business travelers is expected to rise this year by 15 percent, and next year prices are expected to rise an additional 5 to 6 percent. In addition, the survey estimates corporate hotel rates will rise 4 to 5 percent; car rental costs will rise 5 to 6 percent and the cost of meals will rise 2 to 3 percent.
Overall, American Express said businesses can expect the cost of business travel next year to go up by 3 to 5 percent.
Plugged in: For many business people trying to get work done in flight to the next appointment, a major headache starts with a warning signal from their laptop computer: The batteries are drained.
United says it will join a growing number of airlines that plan to provide computer power outlets at the seats of first-class and business-class travelers on trans-Atlantic, trans-Pacific and U.S. transcontinental flights. Initially the power outlets will be limited to United's Boeing 747, 767 and 777 planes and Airbus A-330 planes, the airline says.
Sizzling winter fare: The airline winter fare sale season kicked off Wednesday when Continental Airlines announced steep reductions on prices for flights to Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Those prices were quickly matched by American Airlines and United.
Under the Continental program, tickets purchased by Thursday will give travelers up to 51 percent off the price of 21-day advance purchase tickets. Fares to Latin America apply to trips through Dec. 5, while reduced fares to Europe are good for travel Nov. 1 through Dec. 12 and Jan. 6 through March 31.


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Sao Paulo | Reuters –– Brazil’s agriculture ministry said on Friday the U.S. is likely to approve imports of Brazilian fresh beef this year, after President Dilma Rousseff visits Washington in June.
Brazil, the world’s top beef exporter, is already a steady exporter of cooked beef that appears in items such as canned corned beef to the U.S.
The agriculture ministry said in an e-mailed statement that the U.S. had promised the first shipments of fresh beef could occur in August. Brazil plans to have “done its part” by the end of May or early June, the ministry said, referring to steps to provide technical data and documentation to the Americans.
Martin Secco, chief executive of beef producer Marfrig SA, said he understood technical and sanitary questions had been resolved.
“The ratification should happen when the two presidents decide to put it on the agenda, and we believe this will happen at the next meeting,” Secco said in a conference call to discuss first-quarter earnings.
President Barack Obama said last month that Rousseff would visit Washington on June 30, raising hopes of closer ties that could increase trade between the two biggest economies in the Americas.
The U.S. has not issued a final rule that would allow fresh beef imports from Brazil into the country, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said in an e-mail on Friday.
A green light for fresh beef shipments to the U.S. could help Brazil gain access to other key markets, such as Japan, China and South Korea, which have banned all beef imports since a BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) scare in late 2012.
The World Animal Health Organization (OIE) has maintained Brazil’s BSE status as a country with an insignificant risk of the disease.
At least one state, Santa Catarina in southern Brazil, has been cleared to ship fresh meat to the U.S. after its herd qualified as free of foot-and-mouth disease without vaccination. Even so, Santa Catarina does not ship fresh beef to the U.S.
In 2014, Brazil exported about 37,000 tonnes of processed beef to the U.S. valued at US$217 million, USDA data shows.
Brazil’s total beef exports were 1.56 million tonnes worth US$7.2 billion. Its top buyers were Hong Kong, Russia and the European Union, according to beef export association Abiec.
— Reporting for Reuters by Caroline Stauffer and Roberto Samora in Sao Paulo. Additional reporting for Reuters by Theopolis Waters in Chicago.


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In Las Vegas, USA, something big is brewing. The spectacular Heineken Thirst Studio Global Sessions Weekend will be taking over the city on 25th – 27th May.
DJmag are throwing all other mix competitions to the dogs as we launch the most exciting worldwide digital DJ battle in history.
Sony's laptop range, the Vaio, are unleashing a cool new music website.
David 'Disco D' Shayman found dead in New York...
The new Origin synthesizer is capable of emulating classic synths, such as the Arp, Moog, Prophet VS and CS80.
We expect the DJmag offices will be innundated with more and more controllers this year, but the M-Audio offering looks set to leave a lasting impression.
The results are in for DJmag's Tech Awards 2006. Which DJ kit is the best? Here's what DJmag readers and our panel of experts said.
Dutch dance act Beatfreakz have had to withdraw their single from the charts after using Superman's logo without permission.


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Sunnyvale, CA, USA, Jan. 12, 2022 -- Playvox, a provider of workforce engagement management solutions for the digital-first and CRM-centric contact center, announced it has acquired Prodsight, a SaaS provider of AI-driven customer interaction analytics.
Prodsight uncovers customer insights by analyzing customer conversations and feedback with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP).
"With the explosion of live chat support, brands are now sitting on a goldmine of customer insights. The only problem is that all of that data is stuck in unstructured free-text form that's challenging to analyze and understand at scale," said Tadas Labudis, Chief Executive Officer of Prodsight. "Customer AI leverages the latest NLP technology to allow brands to analyze millions of customer interactions and detect issues much sooner to prioritize the right fixes faster."
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2022 '17th annual' Global Contact Center World Awards NOW OPEN
Enter your Center, Strategy, Technology Innovation, Teams and Individuals into the ONLY TRULY GLOBAL awards program - regarded by many as being like the Olympics for the Contact Center World! Join the best from over 80 nations and compete for the most prestigious awards out there!
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The acquisition will strengthen Quality Management and Coaching with sentiment analysis and tag management and unlock future enhancements for customers across the Playvox suite over the coming quarters.
"With the launch of Customer AI, Playvox customers will be able to not only manage their customer support staffing, quality, and performance, but also easily leverage cutting-edge AI to automatically tag tickets and gather customer feedback from across all of the unstructured data resident within their customer interactions, for unprecedented insight and ease of operations," shared Louis Bucciarelli, Chief Executive Officer of Playvox.
Posted by Veronica Silva Cusi, news correspondent
Playvox's workforce engagement management (WEM) solutions transform customer care. We deeply understand that exceptional employee engagement produces extraordinary customer experiences, and we love creating tools that help our customers unlock the full potential in every employee and every interaction. Playvox powers the world's fastest-growing brands. Welcome to the digital era of WEM
Published: Friday, January 14, 2022
Contact center quality assurance training and certification


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JDP has released their latest Initial Quality Survey (measuring problems encountered during the first 90 days of ownership) and had one big surprise in store.
While the industry average went down slightly (from 108 problems per 100 vehicles in 2009 to 109 in 2010), this year's results are the first time that the Detroit 3 have come out ahead of imports. The Detroit brands actually improved their quality over last year's results by 4, bringing them to a score of 108. The import brands matched the overall industry average of 109.
Ford was the highest ranked US brand with a score of 93.
JD Power ranks lists the top 3 models in several segments and Ford had a model represented in the top 3 in a dozen segments. They had 3 models that topped their respective segments, tied with Lexus for most top-of-segment honors.
GM had 10 models in the top 3 of their segments.
Chrysler's results were mixed with Ram coming in just shy of industry average with the Dodge car brand (Ram split from Dodge recently, taking the truck lines away from Dodge) coming in as the worst Detroit brand in initial quality.
It is interesting to notice that Toyota's recent troubles have pulled its ranking down significantly falling from 6th place last year to 21st in the 2010 survey. It is significant to mention that IQS has its detractors since any complaint on the survey is listed as a problem (recent high profile examples were Mini dropping low in the list in part due to poor cupholder design). This means that IQS scores can be highly dependent on the level of picky-ness of the customers of a brand during a given year.
Highest in the rankings this year was Porsche with a 83 and lowest went to Land Rover with 170.


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LONDON — Retail sales in Britain rose far more than anticipated during August, official figures showed Wednesday, further reinforcing expectations that the Bank of England will raise interest rates in November for the first time in a decade.
The Office for National Statistics said retail sales rose 1 per cent from the previous month, largely driven by business online and in department stores. The increase was ahead of market expectations for a modest 0.2 per cent gain and means retail sales have risen for three months in a row, the first such sequence since the spring of 2015.
The figures pushed up the value of the pound, as traders think the Bank of England is now even more likely to raise interest rates in November. By mid-morning in London, the currency was up 0.4 per cent at $1.3550.
“The data points to stronger consumer spending, which should support growth estimates and lessen fears of a slowdown in the U.K. economy in the second half of the year, all of which is broadly supportive of an interest rate hike before the end of the year,” said Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital.
Last week, the Bank of England’s policymaking panel hinted that it may raise its main interest rate from the record low of 0.25 per cent in November. The main motivation relates to inflation, which has spiked to an above-target annual rate of 2.9 per cent, largely due to the fall in the pound since the vote to leave the European Union, which made imported goods like food and energy more expensive. Higher inflation is one reason why consumer spending slowed down sharply in the first half of the year.
Though Wednesday’s figures suggest that consumers continue to hit the shops, economists said the outlook remains murky, not least because of the uncertainty surrounding Brexit.
Samuel Tombs, chief U.K. economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, says the outlook for retail sales still looks “challenging” amid low wage increases and a slowdown in the housing market. As such, he thinks the Bank of England will hold off from raising interest rates in November.
“Today’s data are not the final word,” he said.
The mixed outlook for the British economy was evident in the latest forecasts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. It’s expecting British growth to falter next year to just 1 per cent from 1.6 per cent this year, which would make the British economy the slowest-growing among the Group of Seven industrial nations.
“The previously identified growth slowdown is expected to continue through 2018, while uncertainty remains over the outcome of negotiations around the decision to leave the European Union,” it said.
Also Wednesday, the Federation of Small Businesses said Britain’s small businesses are more pessimistic than at any time since the immediate aftermath of last year’s Brexit vote. In a quarterly survey, the group warned that confidence among its members has tumbled amid “unprecedented political and economic uncertainty.”
“Rising inflationary pressure and a weakening domestic economy are the twin drivers of plummeting confidence among small firms and consumers alike,” said Mike Cherry, the organization’s national chairman.


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Editor’s note: Today’s post is from guest columnist, Aleks Zabreyko, Partner, Head of Professional Practice at Connor Group. Here, Aleks offers his views on the firm’s most recent ASC 606 Disclosure Study.
Connor Group has recently released the 3rd edition of its ASC 606 Disclosure Study. The study is based on periodic reports filed by over 300 companies with a market capitalization of at least $10 billion between November 11, 2016 and March 1, 2017.
Three distinct trends are evident:
- Companies provided substantially more extensive and detailed disclosures than in their prior filings, when compared to the previous study released in November 2016.
- Very few companies chose to adopt ASC 606 early. Just four companies surveyed transitioned to ASC 606 in January 2017: Alphabet, Ford, General Dynamics and Raytheon.
- The modified retrospective method proves to be by far the more popular to date, with almost three times as many companies using it than the full retrospective method.
In recent financial statement disclosures, 50% of the companies surveyed indicated they could not yet describe how ASC 606 will impact their financial statements as they had not completed their assessment. However, this is substantially less than the 87% of the same companies as highlighted in our 2016 study. Notwithstanding the progress, many of the companies able to describe the adoption impact were those which concluded minimal material impact from ASC 606. Included in this category were names such as: ABB, IBM, Oracle, Time Warner, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and others.
Most companies chose not to adopt ASC 606 early. Only six companies among those surveyed (the four listed above, along with Analog Devices and Microsoft) either adopted or plan to adopt ASC 606 early.
About 60% of companies, compared to over 90% in our November 2016 study, did not indicate whether they will use the full retrospective or modified retrospective method for transition. Among the remaining companies, the number using the modified retrospective method (93) exceeded those using the full retrospective method (34) by a factor of almost 3:1.
The study also includes example SAB 74 disclosures with varying extent of qualitative and quantitative information provided. The featured disclosures include Ford, Microsoft, T-Mobile, GE, Amazon, IBM, American Airlines and several others.
For more detailed information, download the full study here: ASC 606 (IFRS 15) Disclosure Study March 2017 v6
About Connor Group (www.connorgp.com). Connor Group is a specialized professional services firm of Big 4 alumni and industry executives. We have been deeply involved with ASC 606 for many years, starting with contributing to the drafting process for this new standard through comment letters. Through our deep understanding of the new standard’s provisions and the underlying principles and our trademark practical hands-on approach, we have been leading our clients, who are among the world’s top growth companies, through the implementation and influencing industry-wide accounting practices.


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Search Restaurant Business
Restaurant marketing ideas and trends
See how operators are using the pint-sized images to get a read on consumers.
Select locations of the quick-service chain will offer up to 500 cups of free coffee.
The take-and-bake chain aims to convince patrons that ordering a pie can still count as home cooking.
Super Bowl Sunday was pretty typical for the guys at Firehouse Subs: another day, another media appearance.
Attendees who value networking opportunities at Restaurant Leadership Conference will find more occasions this year to connect with acquaintances.
Here are three social media trends that really took off for restaurants in 2015.
Hooters buys a private island, a QSR gets into drone delivery and more.
Here's a preview of the multimillion-dollar messages that chains will be delivering via the big game.
This month has seen its fair share of restaurant controversy on the web. Here’s how three concepts are choosing to address current and potential snafus with followers.
KFC fans will have a change to grab a variety of KFC-themed merchandise starting at $4.
These emerging chains are the growth vehicles to watch—the ones poised to be major industry players in the coming years.
Food trends and recipes to keep menus fresh
New restaurants and soon-to-open concepts worth monitoring
RB’s exclusive ranking of the highest-grossing independent restaurants
Peter Romeo highlights the moments restaurateurs miss at their own peril
Ideas from the field you may want to borrow


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CUNA Deputy Chief Advocacy Officer Jason Stverak appeared on the Live Richer podcast recently to discuss negative effects of the Credit Card Competition Act. CUNA, Leagues, and credit unions prevented the from moving forward in the previous Congress, despite efforts to include it in must-pass end-of-year legislation.
Rural residents know what it’s like to live far away from physical financiual institution branches, CommunityAmerica Credit Union CEO Lisa Ginter wrote in The Tennessean, but the Credit Card Competition Act would cause losses of credit cards and other financial services.
The real winners under the Credit Card Competition Act would be big box retailers, Scott Zahnle, CEO of Greater Iowa Credit Union wrote in The Des Moines Register, adding that it would be a "disaster for almost everyone it affects, especially consumers."
The Credit Card Competition Act would harm consumers and take money out of their pocket, Eglin Federal Credit Union President/CEO Jerry Williams wrote in The Capitolist, also objecting to attempts to attach the bill to the National Defense Authorization Act.
The Credit Card Competition Act puts credit union service to its members and communities in jeopardy, wrote Dade County Federal Credit Union President/CEO George Joseph in The Floridian, adding the bill would provide a handout to retailers at expense of data privacy and access credit.
CUNA highlighted strong opposition to the interchange bill from Reps. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, and Peter Welch, D-Vt in a letter warning the bill would reduce access to credit, increase security risks associated with credit card use, and limit credit card rewards programs.
Sens. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill. are meddling in banking networks that protect financial data, benefit consumers and provide fast, efficient transactions, wrote Spero Financial Credit Union President/CEO Brian McKay in The Post & Courier.
Kansas credit unions and banks issued a statement of opposition to the Marshall-Durbin interchange, which CUNA Deputy Chief Advocacy Officer Jason Stverak said is part of efforts to educate the public in the bill's harmful effects.


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Tessa Mossing opened her shop, TK Lanes Boutique, in October in downtown Sylvania.
When Tessa Mossing, the owner of TK Lane’s Boutique, designed the layout of the downtown Sylvania shop, she focused on customer experience.
“I think people like to shop in venues. It makes things nicer and easier to find,” she said. When people walk into her shop at 5675 Main St., she said, they peruse in a pattern, starting in seasonal items such as Christmas ornaments, then moving to wine, next kitchen, and then bath.
PHOTO GALLERY: T.K. Lane's Boutique
The shop's 2,500 square feet, is divided by specialty. One corner displays jewelry items priced from $5 to under $30, and the higher-end beaded bracelet line Chamilia. Nearby are purses and the baby department.
The shop, which opened in October, has whimsical themes of merchandise.
A lifelong Sylvania resident, Mrs. Mossing, 48, relied on her former connections as gift sales representative to stock the store with home decor merchandise and accessories.
“I had been in a lot of different boutiques and shops and knew a lot of the companies," she said. "I was familiar with the lines. So it was a good starting point to open.”
Each year, she attends out-of-state gift shows, including the AmericasMart Atlanta, to “see and feel the products” she might purchase.
Shoppers Dolores Martel of Westland, Mich. and her daughter Diane Knoff of Higgins Lake, Mich. were in town for a family event when they discovered the store. Like many who enter, they were surprised.
“This is so cute,” Ms. Martel said. “This is the first time we are in here, but I think we will come back in the summertime and make a day of hitting up all these little shops downtown.”
Krista Scott, of Curtice, Ohio, stopped in the shop to find a gift for a friend's birthday.
"She has unique stuff here you don't see at other places," she said.
TK Lane’s Boutique is named after owner Tess and her daughters Kira and Laina. The shop is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For information, call 419-517-5300.
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Sony Interactive Entertainment has filed a new patent for a "In-game resource surfacing platform" that seemingly describes a new AI assistance technology that will aid players while they're playing games by offering them solutions for when they get stuck on a level or boss. On the surface level, the technology sounds advantageous, but some PlayStation gamers are worried about how the technology could be abused by some of the more greedy players in the industry.
Thanks to Siri and Alexa, assistant AI programs are pretty mainstream, and it's only a matter of time before they are implemented into gaming consoles more intimately. In other words, it's no surprise Sony is researching and developing its own AI assistant technology and implementation methods that may help PS5 gamers when they are presented with a problem in-game they can't solve. This could mean hinting towards something in-game, or pointing to something external, like add-on content. Think of it this way, if you're stuck on a Dark Souls boss, you can ask your PlayStation unit how to defeat said boss. At this point, the AI built into the console will quickly present you with the information you need. It's like Siri, but for your PlayStation.
Now, as you may know, this isn't new technology in the gaming space. For example, Google Stadia included something exactly like this in its initial pitch, but for PlayStation, it's new.
"Often, there may be an in-game resource of the game environment that could aid the user in accomplishing the objective with the character," reads the patent "The in-game resource may be downloadable content (DLC), add-ons, upgrades, items, tips, strategy, communal data, etc. However, the user is not necessarily aware that such a resource exists."
Filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization in 2019, this new patent was published on January 30, and if you want, you can read more about it here. That said, it's important to remember, companies, especially hardware makers like Sony, file patents all the time, and a considerable number of these never jump from the conceptual stage to the consumer market. In other words, we may not see this technology in the PS5 or any PlayStation console ever. However, I wouldn't be surprised if we do see it, and see it soon given how popular AI assistant technology is.0comments
Of course, there's nothing here that's inherently bad. However, the concerns of some is how game makers could exploit the system to shove microtransactions down the throats of players. Right now, microtransactions aren't as invasive and in your face on console as they are o\in many mobile games, but that could change with technology like this. That said, this would also be a completely voluntary feature in the first place. So, if you're worried about this, you could just turn it off or don't use it. But again, we are getting ahead of ourselves, because for now, there's been no word from Sony that the PS5 will come with its own advanced PlayStation Assistant.
H/T, All Gamers.