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Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, a jury has ordered Oculus to pay ZeniMax $500 million over misappropriated virtual reality code, Tesla Motors Inc has officially changed its name, OnePlus has been caught cheating in benchmark tests and more.
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A Texas jury has awarded ZeniMax $500 million in the company's case against Facebook-owned virtual reality firm Oculus (Polygon). The jury found that when John Carmack of id Software - a ZeniMax subsidiary - went to join Oculus after he'd been independently mentoring Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, he brought ZeniMax's intellectual property with him in the form of VR technology he'd been working on at id. Although the jury found that no trade secrets had been misappropriated, it ordered Oculus to pay $200 million for breaking a non-disclosure agreement, $50 million for copyright infringement, and $50 million for false designation. Palmer Luckey personally has to pay $50 million and co-founder Brendan Iribe has to pay $150 million. ZeniMax has also told Polygon that it may seek an injunction to stop Oculus selling its VR systems, saying that: "We will consider what further steps we need to take to ensure there will be no ongoing use of our misappropriated technology, including by seeking an injunction to restrain Oculus and Facebook from their ongoing use of computer code that the jury found infringed ZeniMax’s copyrights."
Tesla Motors Inc has officially been renamed as simply Tesla, as the company's focus expands to have a greater emphasis on clean energy generation (Quartz). The change was made yesterday in an official filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Meanwhile The Verge has obtained the Florida Highway Patrol's full report into last year's fatal crash involving a Tesla in Autopilot mode, for which the company was found not to be culpable.
Chinese smartphone makers OnePlus and Meizu has been caught cheating in benchmark tests by XDA-Developers (TheNextWeb). The OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T and Meizu Pro 6 were all found to have been configured to automatically ramp up their CPU performance when they detected that popular benchmarking tools were running. The OnePlus 3's processors by default idle at 0.31 GHz in most apps, but as soon as a benchmarking tool is detected, its big processor's speed increases to 1.29 GHz and its small processor clocks up to 0.98GHz. OnePlus acknowledged the issue and said that "in order to give users a better user experience in resource intensive apps and games, especially graphically intensive ones, we implemented certain mechanisms in the community and Nougat builds to trigger the processor to run more aggressively. The trigger process for benchmarking apps will not be present in upcoming OxygenOS builds on the OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T."
Facebook users on Android and iOS are about to receive a feature update to help them make new friends (TechCrunch). The new Discover People feature will encourage users to add an introduction to their profile and then suggest lists of people they might want to get to know, based on mutual factors such as events attended, employer and location. Facebook has confirmed that, while all users will be getting the new feature, it has not yet been fully rolled out worldwide.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed wearable tech that could help avoid crossed wires and miscommunication, and reduce the impact of social anxiety (WIRED). Using artificial intelligence to detect the "tone" of a conversation based on speech patterns, the researchers were able to use a wearable band to “classify the overall emotional nature of the subject’s historic narration”. More simply, the band could spot signs of sadness, anger, boredom and so on from a person's voice. The project, by Tuka AlHanai and Mohammad Mahdi Ghassemi at CSAIL, is one of many aimed at ‘social coaching’ designed to help people with chronic social disorders become more comfortable with the complexities of communication.
Join hundreds of healthcare, pharmaceutical and technology influencers at WIRED Health on March 9 at 30 Euston Square, London. The first speakers include the co-inventor of CRISPR and the entrepreneur tackling the fragmented health records system.
Nasa's Cassini spacecraft has sent back a stunning set of images showing the icy rings of Saturn in intimate detail (Space.com). The pictures, taken from an orbit that grazes the planet's rings, has revealed features such as clumping particles known as "straw" and structures called "propellers", which are created by trapped moonlets caught in the rings' matter. Cassini is currently halfway through a series of 20 ring-grazing orbits, after which it will shift position and make 22 further orbits between the rings and Saturn itself before it makes a final, fatal plunge into the gas giant in September.
A map created by The Eco Experts has revealed the "most toxic countries in the world" (WIRED). The data was compiled and cross-referenced to take into account a number of factors including the number of deaths caused by air pollution and overall carbon dioxide emissions. The results are intended to be an indication of the dangers to the environment and population of the 135 countries involved in the study. The maps show that Middle-Eastern oil-rich countries dominate the top ten spaces on the list. Saudi Arabia is recorded as being the most toxic, with the highest recorded air pollution on the list. The UK ranks 81st for toxicity, behind countries such as Germany and the United States, however, it is listed as having the 37th highest carbon dioxide emissions.
A glitch in a new Switch advert from Nintendo Portugal has revealed the hybrid console's developer menus, usually never seen by users (Kotaku). The company failed to edit game footage in over an image of a Switch dev kit console, revealing that the dev kit has 64GB of storage to the consumer version's 32GB, and menu options for network, sound, application and controller settings. In further Switch news, Nintendo has revealed that an annual subscription to its online multiplayer gaming service will cost between 2,000 and 3,000 Yen - that's between £14 and £21 - and the Switch looks set to gain VR support in the future.
Code buried in the current Steam beta client reveals that the digital download client may be about to get a long-awaited facelift (VG247). The Steam Database fan hacker team found mockups of a completely new user interface for the client, along with new section tabs for apps, comics, games, TV, movies and music. Although parts of the Steam client - notably the areas for navigating your game collection - are in dire need of an update, it's not clear how far off any new user interface may be, as Valve is famous for taking its time to get things right.
A group of fans spearheaded by actor and producer Erika Rodgers have released an action-packed short film based on The Witcher series of games, directed by stunt specialist ActionLeo (Kotaku). There's not much plot to speak of, but the combat, special effects, costumes and actors - including online favourite Maul as Geralt of Rivia - are incredibly close to CD Projekt RED's hit RPGs. For those hoping for more cinematic Witcher action, an officially licenced feature film based on Andrzej Sapkowski's original books is reportedly in production by Polish director Tomek Baginski and is supposed to be due out this year, although updates have been thin on the ground.
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Sending a manned mission to Mars has been the goal of national and international space agencies for decades. What once seemed like science fiction could become science fact, with Nasa administrator Charles Bolden saying in 2015 “we are farther down the path to sending humans to Mars than at any point in Nasa’s history”. The current target is for astronauts to leave for the Red Planet in the 2030s. But rocketing human beings to a planet that - depending on its orbit - can be 249 million miles away from terra firma, comes with its own complications.
This month's issue of WIRED is all about the end of the world. We meet the people building the contingency plans that will prepare us for asteroid strikes, nuclear fallout and the rise of tyrannical world leaders. We sit down with Neil Gaiman, journey to China's 'global village' and put pasta makers through their paces. Out now in print, iPad and iPhone. Subscribe now and save.


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Santa Clara, Calif. – March 14, 2005 – Tensilica, Inc. today announced that it has signed an agreement with NEC Electronics America, Inc. that will enable NEC Electronics America to distribute Tensilica’s Xtensa V configurable processors directly to NEC Electronics America’s ASIC customers. Through this partnership agreement, Tensilica aims to expand its customer base while NEC Electronics America augments its strong intellectual property (IP) portfolio for its system-on-chip (SoC) customers.
“As a leading integrated device manufacturer, it is important that we offer our customers not only state-of-the-art semiconductor process and manufacturing capabilities, but also provide a broad IP portfolio that includes the latest interface, memory, and processor core technologies,” said Phillip LoPresti, associate vice president and general manager, Custom LSI strategic business unit, NEC Electronics America. “The Xtensa processors are a welcome addition to NEC Electronics America’s ASIC IP library. Their customization capabilities make them ideal replacements for blocks of logic that previously would be handcrafted in Verilog or VHDL. By using processors instead of logic blocks, our customers will benefit from the inherent programmability, reduced verification time and much faster design times.”
Under the agreement, Tensilica’s Xtensa V processors are directly available to NEC Electronics America’s customers under one licensing agreement along with the ASIC chip production. NEC Electronics America will be able to provide a complete solution for companies pursuing high-volume projects that demand the flexibility of a configurable processor in a feature-rich, high-density ASIC technology with world-class support.
“This agreement is an important step forward in broadening the distribution of our configurable processor technology to a wider number of systems companies and fabless semiconductor suppliers,” stated Steve Roddy, Tensilica’s Vice President of Marketing. “NEC Electronics America has a strong customer base, particularly in networking and consumer electronics markets, and a solid reputation for supporting their customers with the best available ASIC technologies. We’re proud to be part of their IP portfolio.”
Tensilica was founded in July 1997 to address the growing need for optimized, application-specific microprocessor solutions in high-volume embedded applications. With a configurable and extensible microprocessor core called Xtensa, Tensilica is the only company that has automated and patented the time-consuming process of generating a customized microprocessor core along with a complete software development tool environment, producing new configurations in a matter of hours. For more information, visit www.tensilica.com.
# # #
Tensilica, and Xtensa are registered trademarks belonging to Tensilica Inc.. All other company and product names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Tensilica’s announced licensees include Agilent, ALPS, AMCC (JNI Corporation), Astute Networks, ATI, Avision, Bay Microsystems, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, Broadcom, Cisco Systems, Conexant Systems, Cypress, Crimson Microsystems, ETRI, FUJIFILM Microdevices, Fujitsu Ltd., Hudson Soft, Hughes Network Systems, Ikanos Communications, LG Electronics, Marvell, NEC Laboratories America, NEC Corporation, NetEffect, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph (NTT), Olympus Optical Co. Ltd., S2io, Solid State Systems, Sony, STMicroelectronics, Stretch, TranSwitch Corporation, and Victor Company of Japan (JVC).

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The Destructoid Show holds up a single banana
On today’s Destructoid Show, we did a whole bunch of extra-serious journalism about video games.
For starters, we have some facts and also some rumors about the upcoming reveal of the next Xbox. Boxart for Call Of Duty: Ghosts has surfaced, along with an entirely predictable release date. Because there weren’t enough bad things to say about them, EA has laid off an estimated 10% of its employees. Meanwhile, Nintendo has announced that it won’t be holding a press conference at E3 this year, and that Satoru Iwata has taken the position of CEO for Nintendo Of America. That long-in-development XCOM shooter-reboot has been officially renamed The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, and it’s coming out in August.


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Toyota and Intel have agreed to jointly research a new automotive infotainment platform with connected car elements and advanced, safe usability.
Although the details remain vague, Toyota and Intel will begin working together on a new cabin tech platform, which not only should cover the basics, such as navigation and phone systems, but also reach through the CAN Bus to interact with vehicle subsystems.
At a meeting with journalists in San Francisco, Staci Palmer, general manager of Intel's automotive division, emphasized developing in-vehicle interfaces that would minimize distraction for the driver. Palmer pointed out that Intel has conducted studies into human machine interfaces (HMI), which will help the company develop the new system with Toyota.
Toyota is currently launching its new Entune system, which uses a paired smartphone's data connection to power several apps, such as Pandora and OpenTable, integrated into the car's infotainment system. Kenichi Murata, Toyota general manager of electronics development, said that the result of the partnership with Intel would be a new system, but one that would include similar functionality to Entune.
Intel has made automotive microprocessors for the last couple of decades, but has only been offering its Atom processor as an automotive infotainment solution for the past five years. Current BMW and Mercedes-Benz infotainment systems run on Atom chips. Intel is also a member of the Genivi alliance, which is working on a common infotainment platform for cars.
The partnership gives Intel the possibility of earning substantial new automotive business, as Toyota is one of the biggest automakers in the world. Intel previously announced similar development efforts with Hyundai and Kia.
Palmer said Intel is working to convince automakers of the need to include processor overhead in infotainment systems, thereby allowing for the possibility of software upgrades.
Toyota and Intel will be looking to the new technology to power vehicle-to-vehicle communications, which can lead to better traffic data and safety systems. Rules regarding vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems are currently being developed by the Department of Transportation, and should be implemented by the end of the decade.
Toyota refused to offer a timeline for the results of the partnership.


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We were amongst the first one who had reported that Saif Ali Khan will be having his own Netflix Original series, titled Sacred Games, which is going to be produced in partnership with Phantom Films.
In an official statement, Saif, who will be playing the role of Sartaj Singh, an eminent character in the series which is an adaptation of Vikram Chandra’s novel of the same name, said “Content in the digital space is taking over the existing dynamics at a rapid pace — the crown in the digital empire lies with Netflix, and it’s extremely satisfying to partner and participate in the first original series from India to be showcased on Netflix,”
We were already jumping on our seats when we got the air of the news, and things got all the more exciting when Netflix India made an official announcement on their Twitter account by tweeting:
The news was, in fact SO BIG that they actually announced it twice!
Just when we thought that things couldn’t get better, our Mr. Know-It-All Khabri Keeda dropped a yet another piece of exciting news with regards to Sacred Games.
As per KK, Netflix India has roped in none other than our own Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, Nawazuddin Siddiqui to play the antagonist in the series. We will give you a moment for that to sink in.
Isn’t that exciting? Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui sharing the screen space on your portable devices? Guess you have a very valid reason to get yourself that Netflix subscription now, if you haven’t already.
We just can’t wait for an official announcement from the team!


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Recognizing the dramatic poultry consumption changes over the last few decades, CMS Technology (CMS) has launched an alliance with the University of Georgia (UGA) with a dedicated focus on secondary processing. As a leader in poultry science, UGA is partnering with CMS Technology to focus on research and innovations around secondary processing in order to further enhance food safety in the poultry industry.
“Americans do eat significantly more chicken, and ensuring the process that brings us that food source is as safe as possible is an extremely important issue,” said John Meccia, chief executive officer of CMS Technology, a specialty chemical company focused on the development and delivery of antimicrobial solutions for food, packaging and material applications.
Shifting consumer trends include a significant rise in per capita poultry consumption, from 58 pounds annually in 1980 to approximately 100 pounds today – with more than 80 percent coming from the consumption of broilers. While 50 percent of broilers were purchased as whole birds in 1980, nearly 90 percent of broiler meat is now in the form of cut-up parts or further processed chicken. These trends have meaningful implications for food safety and mitigating pathogen risks.
“Given the considerable demand for cut and ground poultry as opposed to whole birds in today’s market, secondary processing has become a central component of the supply chain in the poultry industry,” said Dr. Scott Russell, professor of poultry processing and products microbiology at UGA. “This alliance will help foster new and improved intervention strategies to reduce pathogenic and spoilage bacteria in the poultry industry.”
UGA and CMS will undertake tests and experiments, many with industry participants, to help enhance food safety central to the consumption of poultry. Additional partnerships are anticipated in related areas such as processing equipment and packaging.
The findings will be available to industry participants and the public.


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The ACCC’s recommendations to significantly improve electricity affordability for consumers and businesses are out in the form of its final Retail Electricity Pricing Inquiry report.
And it’s scathing of government and past government inactions and adds that policies associated with the objective of reducing carbon emissions have been problematic.
The report found that significant take up of rooftop solar PV has seen both benefits and costs for consumers as state governments implemented very generous solar feed-in tariff schemes that paid consumers many multiples of the value of energy produced by their systems.
“The substantial cost of the schemes continues to be spread across all electricity users.”
It says there has been a failure to facilitate an orderly transition from carbon-intensive generation technologies to cleaner ones.
The Report makes 56 recommendations as a result of investigations which have been underway for the past year and three months.
ACCC Chair Rod Sims says wholesale and retail markets are too concentrated; regulation and poorly designed policy have added significant costs to electricity bills; retailers’ marketing of discounts are inconsistent and confusing and most have left many consumers on excessively high ‘standing’ offers.’
“The National Electricity Market is largely broken and needs to be reset. Previous approaches to policy, regulatory design and competition in this sector over at least the past decade have resulted in a serious electricity affordability problem for consumers and businesses.”
Further, the report found that Australia’s 2.2 million small to medium businesses could save an average of 24 % on their electricity bill.
Key recommendations include:
• Premium solar feed-in-tariff schemes should be funded by state governments and the small scale renewable energy scheme should be phased out, saving non-solar consumers $20-$90 per year.
• Voluntary write downs of network overinvestment, including by the Queensland, NSW, and Tasmanian governments (or equivalent rebates). This could save consumers at least $100 per year.
• Restructuring of Queensland generators into three separately owned portfolios to improve competition.
• Once created, the Queensland Government should ensure that the three portfolios are separately owned and operated to maximise competition in the wholesale electricity market. The sale of any portfolios should be in line with recommendation
• Government support to make bankable new investment by new players in generation capacity to help commercial and industrial customers and drive competition.
• Abolishing the current retail ‘standing’ offers (which are not the same between retailers) and replacing them with a new ‘default’ offer consistent across all retailers, set at a price determined by the Australian Energy Regulator (AER).
• Improving the AER’s powers to investigate and address problems in the market and increasing penalties for serious wrongdoing.
Mr Sims says the recommendations require some difficult decisions.
‘As sound economic reform usually does. Despite poor decisions over at least the past decade creating the current electricity affordability problem, it now falls to current Commonwealth and state governments to make the difficult decisions to fix it.”
“We must move away from narrowly focussed debates; addressing affordability requires change across a broad front.”
The ACCC estimates its recommendations, if adopted, will save the average household between 20 and 25 % on their electricity bill, or around $290-$415 per annum.


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Your pets too need special care during the coronavirus outbreak, says Thomas Salzano a professional pet trainer and a famous blogger. Coronavirus outbreak has created a situation of lockdowns where you are requested to stay home. But it is difficult for those who have pets like dogs and cats that are habitual of moving out with their masters.
You need to be very careful with the food supplies for your pets as mostly all grocery shops have shut down. Although the coronavirus isn’t making pets sick as the advice from the public health officials across the country have asked to postpone the nonessential medical procedures that include pets and animals too.
This again gives a strong reason to keep your pets safe and healthy during the coronavirus outbreak.
Thomas Salzano as a pet lover requests all not to abandon your pets due to the pandemic and also provide your pets with a balanced diet so that the chances of them falling ill reduces.


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About 42% of GameStop's overall gross profits come from its secondhand business, compared with half that level for new games. "When you consider that most retailers operate on single-digit margins, it's astronomical," said Evan Wilson, an industry analyst with Pacific Crest.The big contribution to the bottom line is due to the margins on used products -- typically the used games are sold for double what the store gives the former owner (and that payment is in credit toward future purchases). Thus GameStop averages 48% on used product, compared to 20% on new games and a miserable 7% on new consoles.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
GameStop makes money on used games
GameStop, according to Wall Street Journal, is making a large part of its profit from sales of used games.


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The CBD Boom on Wall Street
CBD is a booming market, with consumer research groups predicting a growth from the current $1 billion to a projected $23 billion by 2023. But which direction is the market going, and what does this mean for consumers? Why are so many turning to cannabis oil for pain?
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The world’s largest online art gallery and community Deviantart has revealed the site is collaborating with the non-fungible token (NFT) market Opensea so as to detect potential NFT infringement. Based on Deviantart, the solution offers the flexibility to scan public blockchains to determine potential artwork infringement listed on NFT markets and it alerts Deviantart artists.
Deviantart Scans Public Blockchains for Potential NFT Infringement
The online portal Deviantart is a popular online artwork gallery that was launched on August 7, 2000, by Angelo Sotira, Matthew Stephens, Scott Jarkoff, and a few other contributors. In 2021, Deviantart boasts around 65 million registered artists and roughly half of a billion digital artworks hosted on the website.
For the reason that inception of the Deviantart community, the project has worked against removing probably infringing artwork submissions. Deviantart says that it has collaborated with Opensea and it’s scanning the realm of blockchain-based NFTs.
“We’ve expanded the scope of our system to determine close to matches of the the minted non-fungible token (NFTs) submitted throughout the Web,” Deviantart’s blog post particulars. “We monitor public blockchain occasions involving normal NFT tokens varieties (ERC721 and ERC1155) to determine potential artwork infringement.” The Deviantart workforce’s NFT blog post provides:
We realized our technology might be utilized to assist safeguard deviants on emerging NFT platforms and tested the same machine learning model that powers Deviantart Shield on NFT listings. The model recognized NFTs that originated from art work submitted on Deviantart, where the minter was not essentially the owner of the unique work, alerting to potential artwork infringement.
Deviantart’s NFT Tool Beta Trial Sees 86% of Detected Circumstances Leading to Profitable Identification of Potential Artwork Infringements
Deviantart particulars that artists who want to be protected under the Deviantart Protect umbrella can submit their artwork to the site. The NFT scanning characteristic checks blockchains for NFT-related exercise so as to discover near-identical matches of any registered Deviantart artists’ content material.
The workforce defined in a note to Bitcoin.com News that after the first two months of the beta launch, 86% of the infringement circumstances detected were successfully verified as matches. The Deviantart community and artwork collection website aren’t the only NFT and blockchain protection attempt.
A current report signifies that Alibaba’s NFT market permits content material creators to copyright work by way of the market’s blockchain IP service. Microsoft lately revealed a white paper that describes an Ethereum-based software designed to fight pirated online content.


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KARACHI: The sluggish trend remained continued in the local cotton market on Saturday. Market sources told that trading volume remained thin because textile sector is not taking interest in buying of cotton amid increasing threats of lock down during the third wave of coronavirus.
Cotton Analyst Nassem Usman told Business Recorder that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has exempted up to June 30, 2021 the importers of cotton yarn from payment of customs duty.
According to a notification issued by the FBR on Thursday, the federal government has waived the whole of customs duties on import of cotton yarn (other than sewing thread) containing 85 percent or more by weight of cotton, not put up for retail sale; cotton yarn (other than sewing thread) containing less than 85percent by weight of cotton, not put up for retail sale and cotton yarn (other than sewing thread) put up for retail sale. This notification shall remain in force till June 30, 2021.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had withdrawn customs duty on import of cotton yarn in order to facilitate the value-added exporters.
It is pertinent to mention here that the regulatory duty was already withdrawn in December 2020 on the recommendation of the commerce ministry.
Now the value-added manufacturers and exporters can import cotton yarns at zero-percent customs duty.
Regional Committee for Cotton and Textiles, led by former President FPCCI and Chairman of the Businessmen Panel Mian Anjum Nisar, called on Muhammad Asim, in-charge of Monsanto and Bayer Crop Science Regulatory Science Team Pakistan at his Lahore office.
The difference in cotton production between Pakistan and India of Monsanto Technology and how the significant difference in the volume of cotton production between Pakistan and India came into effect in the meeting.
Pakistani cotton production has not been even a quarter of the Indian cotton. India using Monsanto technology increased its cotton production from 10 million bales to 40 million bales and Pakistan still has 5.6 million bales of cotton.
During the meeting, the committee was briefed on the details of Monsanto’s dealings with the Pakistani government in different periods since 2007 and said that their affairs in Pakistan could not move forward if the legal requirements were not met.
Muhammad Asim also briefed about the affairs of Snefa, a company set up by five major textile groups in Pakistan. Chairman Anjum Nisar said that due to the decline in cotton production we are losing billions of Dollars in foreign exchange which is a tragedy.
He said he would try to take the matter further by talking to the government and Snefa. Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry will make every effort to increase cotton production.
Mean While, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has requested the government to review its decision of 10 holidays at Eid-ul-Fitr as such a decision will massively hit the country industry’s production and subsequently exports.
The industry is of the view that Covid-19 related restrictions should be announced and implemented separately whereas Eid holidays should not be more than four days i.e. from May 13 to May 17 instead of a long stretch of 10 days. This will practically shut down Pakistan’s business sector from May 8 to May 17, 2021.
According to APTMA’s patron–in-chief Gohar Ijaz, in Bangladesh, the textile industry that provides single-source economic growth in its rapidly developing socio-economic environment has announced only three holidays for Eid. He said the country is expected to face production loss of $ 850,000 per day during holidays.
Naseem also told that government should take initiative of growing cotton in the desert areas with the support of Chinese scientists under China Pakistan Economic Corridor.
According to final fortnightly report of Pakistan Cotton Ginners Association (PCGA) for the cotton season 2020-21 released to media on Monday, Punjab arrival figures stood at 3.5 million or 3,509,798 bales while Sindh contributed over 2.1 million or 2,136,169 bales. PCGA could not release fortnightly reports during Apr 2021 due to the pandemic and the final report released Monday does not carry last year’s statistics for the month of April. The PCGA report says, “Data was not collected last year on May 1, 2020 due to Covid-19”. Hence, final report does not show comparison of today’s statistics with last year’s data.
However, PCGA’s mid March 2021 report does indicate the shortfall then stood at 34.16 per cent compared to corresponding period i.e year 2020, when arrivals were recorded 8.57 million bales. Cotton production plunged new low this year prompting the governments to take initiatives to revive past production patterns and move forward to touch new highs. Vice President, Pakistan Central Cotton Committee (PCCC) Dr Muhammad Ali Talpur had said a few days ago that a proposal was under consideration by the govt to announce cotton support price to encourage farmers.
More Over, reports being received from the fields suggest that the measures so far taken by the Punjab government have failed to attract growers towards sowing cotton this year. The acreage and production of cotton in the province has been on the decline for the last many years.
An official of the provincial agriculture department said that reports of cotton sowing, which began on April 1, are not promising. The crop has been sown on 10-12 per cent less area compared with that of last year, he added.
Currently, the crop is mostly being sown in Bahawalpur, Multan, Lodhran, Bahawalnagar and Rahim Yar Khan districts, while Khanewal, Layyah, Sahiwal districts are lagging in this respect.
Punjab is to sow the crop on 1.6m hectares of land to produce 6.07m bales. The agriculture department has issued a schedule for sowing of registered cotton varieties and advised the growers to complete sowing of registered Bt cotton varieties between April 1 and May 31.
The Bt cotton varieties recommended by the department include IUB-13, MNH-886, BS-15, Niab-878, and FH-142. Growers have been advised to consult local experts if they plan to sow other registered Bt cotton varieties keeping in view the environment of their district to get better production.
They have also been advised to cover 10pc of their lands with non-Bt varieties so that attacking pests do not develop resistance against Bt varieties.
The spot rate remained unchanged at Rs 11300 per maund. The Polyester Fiber was available at Rs 200 per kg.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021


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Google's Nexus 7 tablet manufactured by Asus has seen strong sales
since its debut with reports indicating a million Nexus 7 units are being shipped every month. Well, it looks like the two are coming together again for round 2.
Google and Asus will be bringing the second generation Nexus 7 tablet in May (the Google I/O event) with several upgraded features, reports Digitimes
. The tablet is likely to feature a full-HD display, a thinner frame and retain the first-gen pricing between $199-$249. It will also come with the latest version of Jelly Bean.
Also, citing "sources from the upstream supply chain", the site mentions that the combined sales of the first and second generation Nexus 7 tablets is expected to reach 10 million units in 2013. They further mention that ending this month, total Google Nexus 7 shipments will surpass six million units, "with the US$249 model being the best selling model".
Earlier this month, we heard rumours of a Nexus 7.7
being developed as a sequel to Google's current Nexus 7 tablet. The leaked specs include a 7.7-inch WUXGA display (1920x1200, 294 PPI), 720p HD rear and front cameras, an NVIDIA Tegra 4 processor, 2GB RAM and internal storage options of 8/16GB.
The tablet is expected to be priced starting $299 for the 8GB model. Though there aren't any mentions about which version of Android the two devices will be powered by, we're assuming Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie. Is this a separate tablet from Google? We'll find out soon enough.
Google unveiled the $199 Nexus 7 tablet
back in June last year. The tablet comes with 7-inch IPS display screen with a 1280x800 resolution and is powered by 1.3GHz Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. Other features of the tablet include 1GB RAM, 1.2-megapixel front camera and 4325mAh battery.
Initially, a variant of the tablet with 8GB storage was being sold for $199, but the model was recently discontinued in favour of the 16GB
variant at the same price. Google also added a 32GB variant
of the Wi-Fi only tablet for $249, while a 3G variant with 32GB storage was also introduced for $299
The tablet made its India debut
in November 2012 for a launch price of Rs. 19,999.
Apart from the Nexus 7, Google is also rumoured to be working on a new Nexus 10 tablet
that is likely to replace the Exynos 5 processor and Mali-T604 GPU as found in the original Nexus 10 tablet. The second generation Google Nexus 10 tablet may feature a quad-core processor and new 8-core Mali-T678 GPU.
The original Nexus 10 was launched in October last year, which marked the search giant's entry into the 10-inch tablet arena. other specs of the tablet include a dual-core Cortex A15 processor with 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, 5-megapixel rear and 1.9-megapixel front cameras, NFC, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and a 9,000mAh battery.
The entry-level Nexus 10 (Review
) is priced at $399 and began selling in November 2012 in the US, Britain, Australia, France, Germany, Spain, Canada and Japan. The other variant is a 32GB Wi-Fi only Nexus 10 that costs $499.
Google Nexus 7 in pics


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Leveraged Loans Primary Market Issuance Falls to Zero after Christmas Weekend
The issuance of US leveraged loans fell to zero last week. However, in the previous week, ~$4.9 billion in dollar-denominated senior loans were priced.
What Will Drive Growth in the Industrial Semiconductor Market?
The demand for industrial semiconductors will be driven by the LED (light-emitting diodes) lighting sector, security, energy management, and medical devices.
Microsemi Bids for PMC-Sierra for the Third Time
Microsemi has made a third offer for the acquisition of PMC-Sierra, increasing the cash component. The revised offer values PMC-Sierra at $12.05 per share.
Skyworks and Microsemi Compete to Acquire PMC-Sierra
On October 5, 2015, Skyworks Solutions announced that it is looking to acquire peer company PMC-Sierra for $2 billion in cash.
Microsemi Offers $2.2 Billion in Competition for PMC-Sierra
Microsemi, a manufacturer of high-performance semiconductors, made a cash-stock offer of $2.2 billion to acquire semiconductor company PMC-Sierra (PMCS).


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Is packaging for the elderly the next untapped market?
from Food Navigator
From Sept. 28:
Food packaging is designed with elderly shoppers in mind more than ever before, though experts said there is still huge untapped potential. The world’s population is becoming older, with estimates of more than one billion people fitting into the over-60s bracket within the next 20 years. As a result, food packaging for elderly shoppers has become a buzz topic. Easy-to-open packages for consumers with age-related mobility issues such as arthritis, as well as bigger and clearer print are among some of the methods adopted for seniors.
7701 Las Colinas Blvd., Ste. 800, Irving, TX 75063


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A recent survey of the attendees at the Cloud Computing Expo in New York City revealed varying opinions on cloud-based storage and backup solutions. About 72 percent of respondents said they can recover data backed up to online storage within 24 hours, and over one-third stated that they value the cloud for disaster recovery, as it provides easier access to data and is more affordable than hardware solutions.
While cloud-based services were the most popular server backup solutions, it was primarily small and large business decision-makers that said they have adopted the cloud, with medium-sized organizations still utilizing other services. Both smaller and larger companies utilize the cloud for various reasons. Many big business respondents are focused on improving access for a dispersed workforce, while smaller organizations turn to the cloud for its low costs.
Seventy-three percent of businesses overall revealed that they have already adopted some form of cloud computing for online backup and other reasons, with 38 percent having utilized the cloud for three or more years. Non-cloud users reported varying success with their data backup solutions, with 62 percent stating that they can recover their files within 24 hours of loss, and one in eight reporting that it would take them over a week to do so.
Ultimately, data protection is a key focus for any business, but the approach seems to be drifting more toward the cloud every day. By being prepared for a disaster, a business is ensuring that it not only can recover its data, but do it quickly, reliably, and in a cost-effective manner – three benefits that the cloud provides.


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I-Shop Concrete Slims Down with Eye to Closing
Web shop Concrete, Inc. is down to a skeleton staff, and founders are looking to close the company once it finishes its current projects, according to a source close to the Silicon Alley-based firm.
Like most interactive shops, Concrete — previously known as Concrete Media — offered services including branding, strategy and design work, as well as software engineering and infrastructure management. The firm was once well-known for its media work, with popular sites like Bolt and Girls On having once been a part of Concrete’s portfolio of properties. Girls On was eventually sold to Oxygen Media, and Bolt was spun-off with an eye toward an IPO, plans for which were shelved several months ago.
Despite efforts to downplay its media connections and focus on nuts-and-bolts work — symbolized by the dropping of “media” in its name — the firm, like others in its space, has suffered as a result of the slowdown in spending on Internet marketing, and the shakout among dot-com clients.
At its height, Concrete employed about 250 in New York and San Francisco. That number was down to 50 at the beginning of the week, according to the source. But at present, Concrete is reportedly down to 15 staffers, most of whom are involved in finishing up current projects and transitioning clients’ hosted applications to other servers.
Clients include ScreamingMedia, Avon, and EdificeRex.com.
According to the source, the firm might also be planning to sell its assets, including its name.
Chief executive and co-founder Aaron Cohen was unavailable for comment at press time.
CollegeClub.com Launches Ad Campaign
Student Advantage’s CollegeClub launched its first network television ad campaign this week, designed by San Diego, Calif.-based Big Bang Idea Engineering.
Student Advantage, which provides marketing services to companies looking to target college students, inherited the broadcast media relationship with NBC through its acquisition of CollegeClub.com. The ads are designed to drive traffic to the CollegeClub.com site.
The spots, “Shave” and “Moho,” promote CollegeClub.com as the online solution for various problems faced by college kids, such as an unruly roommate or paying for their education.
The commercials will air includes NBC primetime and late night, including shows like “Friends,” “Will & Grace” and “The Tonight Show.” The ads will air in seven markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Providence, R.I., Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Raleigh Durham, N.C.
The campaign will be phased out in summer, and will resume in fall to take advantage of students returning to school.
Engage Launches Engage Echo in Europe
Online ad network Engage debuted its Echo product in Europe on Thursday.
Similar to DoubleClick Boomerang, the Andover, Mass.-based company’s Echo product allows an advertiser to “retarget” ads to people who have visited its Web site. Echo also allows advertisers to segment users — anonymously, using Engage’s profile database — based on their behavior on the Web site.
For instance, Echo could send an ad to all users who visited an advertiser’s site but did not make a purchase.


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A newly opened mine near the city of Sundance raises the prospect of a new industry for Wyoming. The project's owners believe they'll have the infrastructure to compete with China.
rare earth minerals
Today, China delivers 97 percent of the world’s rare earth elements and uses 60 percent to 70 percent. How it came to monopolize the rare earth supply chain is a complex story.


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Pam Surinsirirat, president of BioWoman's North and South America divisions, reported sales to salons and beauty professionals during the two day trade show grossed more than $56,000.
Surinsirirat said she expected the warm reception during the Premier Orlando International Beauty Event.
"BioWoman beauty products are the number one seller in Thailand and throughout much of Asia," Surinsirirat said. "Thai woman are regarded the world over for their beautiful skin and hair and their love of nature," she said.
"Despite minimal advertising in the U.S. markets, BioWoman has created a great deal of anticipation here and in Europe as well," she said.
BioWoman products are all natural based, made from herbal and botanical extracts and essential oils, Surinsirirat said.
Surinsirirat said BioWoman only launched its U.S. distribution program recently. So far, BioWoman products are available in 35 exclusive salons and five states. Surinsirat said she expects to expand distribution to all 50 states within the next two years. BioWoman launched in Thailand in 1998.
"Our plan is to expand slowly and sustainably in the U.S. relying on word-of-mouth referrals, trade show representations and industry publicity," Surinsirirat said.
"We feel the beauty products industry is saturated with mass advertising claims, and think it is wiser to let our products speak for themselves," she said. "That takes longer, but it lasts longer too," she said.
BioWoman is a member of the University of Central Florida Business Incubation Program located on Budinger Avenue in St. Cloud.
About the UCF Business Incubation Program
Since its founding in 1999, the UCF Business Incubation Program has helped more than 160 emerging companies (including more than 100 current clients) create over $800 million in annual revenue and more than 1,600 new jobs with an average salary of $59,000. With nine facilities across the Greater Orlando community, the Business Incubation Program is a collaboration in economic development between the University of Central Florida, Orange County, the City of Orlando, Seminole County, the City of Winter Springs, The City of Sanford, Lake County, the City of Leesburg, Osceola County, the City of Kissimmee, City of St. Cloud, Volusia County and the Florida High Tech Corridor Council. Please visit www.incubator.ucf.edu.


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- Rising new covid-19 cases raise fears of lockdown measures being re-imposed
- 40,000 new daily cases in US, Texas halts reopening plans
- US consumer confidence & personal spending miss forecasts, adding to downbeat tone
- Australian Dollar US Dollar exchange rate (AUD/USD) set to gain 0.15% across the week
The Australian Dollar is falling lower versus the US Dollar, paring gains from the previous session.
At 14:15 UTC, AUD/USD is trading -0.4% at US$0.6850. The is at the lower end of the daily traded range as a resurgence in new coronavirus cases in the US threatens to halt progress in the reopening of the US economy.
Risk aversion is dominating the US session, with riskier assets, such as equities, and riskier currencies, such as the Aussie Dollar, slipping lower.
The US recorded an all-time daily high of 40,000 covid-19 cases on Thursday, with a recent surge in California, Florida and Texas leading the way. Texas has halted its aggressive reopening plan in order to bring infections and hospitalisations back under control. Investors fear that this could happen in other states knocking the fragile economic recovery off course.
Rising cases aren’t just occurring in the US, parts of Europe, and Australia are also experiencing climbing infections, unnerving investors. The markets have remained relatively buoyant despite lingering concerns and this is because the overriding assumption is that the Fed will ramp up assistance if the economy starts to crack.
There was no Australian data released today, leaving the currency to be driven by sentiment.
US domestic data added to the downbeat tone. US personal spending underwhelmed, rebounding by 8.2%, less than the 9% jump forecast. This was still a sharp increase on April’s record -12.6% drop.
US consumer confidence also came in short of expectations at 78.1 in June, missing forecasts of 79. Whilst this is only a slight difference it is an extremely important one. Confident consumers spend more money, which is essential for the US economy to recover quickly. A nervous consumer is unlikely to spend so freely and will hold back the economic rebound leading to a more drawn-out recovery.


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Android One, the program which got introduced at the Google I/O 2014 event where smartphone manufacturers could come up with low priced standardized handset and they will never have to wrry about the OS updates, as Google will be taking care of the same.
Already Micromax, Karbonn and Spice got the approval from the software giant during the conference, however it looks like few more native manufacturers are all set to join the queue.
Yes, reports are in that Celkon Mobiles has inked a partnership with Google, along with Intex for the Android One devices. However, it's not sure when the first commercial Android One based phone will be launched in India. Meanwhile, we have already seen the prototype from Micromax at Google I/O.
Moreover, what is even more surprising is that according to Chia-Lin Chang, president of global sales and CFO, HTC, the Taiwanese company is also considering to join hands with Google for the same program in an attempt to boost its dropping market share in developing nations.
There is not much information about what hardware Google will be opting for the Android One devices, but since it is a low-end smartphone which will be cheap as well, you can expect a decent hardware with stronger software backing.
Stay tuned to GizBot for more updates!


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Future of bitcoin and top bitcoin start-ups in India
The recent Supreme Court judgement uplifting the ban on cryptocurrencies has transformed the state of the market upside down. Since, then the market has witnessed a slow, yet steady growth and the prospects look quite promising.
Now, that the market is open for investors there has been much speculation as to which bitcoin trading platform one should go for. To our surprise we saw that start-ups are highly enthusiastic about this space probably as much as the investors.
There are many Blockchain trading platforms which have come up in the last couple of months and if must say the trend is picking up very fast.
So, let us get to know about these start-ups in more detail and see what it is like trading on them:
It is a full service Blockchain trading platform which lets you trade on over 100 cryptocurrencies. It has made use of a highly sophisticated ad advance software which is a perfect fit for modern-day trading. With intuitive features and IoT and AI functionality it has established itself as one of the most renowned and advanced trading platforms. Though it has been in the market since 2011, the recent Supreme court order has made it much more popular among Cryptocurrency traders. To add to its benefits is the list of services it provides like: Blockchain development, consultancy, and advisory services all on the cloud. The company has been doing very well till now and has garnered remarkable faith for itself.
A start-up in the cryptocurrency space which has garnered a lot of popularity. It came in the market in the year 2015 and has since been on a very progressive development track. It lets the users develop Blockchain apps for both advisory and trading purposes. Along with the platform itself lets the traders engage in cryptocurrency development and trading which includes prominent currency names like Ethereum, Hyperledger, Stellar, Quorum, EOS, Tron, and R3 Corda etc. it is a well-known and reliable Blockchain start-up.
This is primarily dedicated to Blockchain solutions and development for the banking sector. Founded in the year 2016, by two engineers Rohan Nagpal and Shinam Arora, Primechain Technologies has since now collaborated with 27 banks across both national and international.
It has its prominent audience in India and Middle East and has associated with prominent banks of this region. Naming he network of block-chain system-based banks it has associated with BankChain it has created a unique and separate market for itself. Starting from verification, authentication, and storage of electronic records it provides a bracket of full-fledged block-chain based solutions to industries like capital markets, healthcare, governments, pharma, manufacturing, insurance, aviation, shipping, and defence.
Another start-up in the Blockchain solutions that has made it to the list of ‘Top 100 Most Influential Blockchain Company’ in the world is the Auxesis Group. Though it is relatively new to the industry, it has still built quite a good reputation for itself.
Founded in the year 2015 by Kumar Gaurav, Auxesis provides its effective and efficient services like: AuxLedger, AuxCE, AuxPay, Darwinsurance, and Token Bazaar to small enterprises. It has its clients spread across various segments like: Supply chain and logistics, Insurance and banking market, Capital, and export market. The future holds good prospects for this one.
A relatively new yet prominent entrant in the market is Sofocle by Nidhi Chamria and Ravi Chamria. Started in the year 2017, this Noida based start-up has achieved significant strides in the Blockchain solutions market. Its range of blockchain solutions include trading, exchanges, and blockchain product developments. Along with that it also provides wallet consultations and advisory consultations on contracts and private blockchain products.
One of its most prominent products which have made a significant name for themselves in the market are:
- SofoCap a supply chain financing solution
- SofoChain a dedicated product for supply solution
- SofoInsure a unique and autonomous claim processing solution-based system
Taking the Sofocle name ahead, the company’s products have captured a significant number of the target segment and is doing well.
It is a highly valued company that lets developers build and manage blockchain applications at a significant scale. The company was founded in the year 2015, by Raunaq Vaisoha, Anil Dukkipatty and Sahil Kathpal and with its continuous efforts and significant success it has managed to raised millions of dollars of capital by several angel investors. The company has a backing of several highly renowned and big investment players and hence the future looks very good for it. This is a result of its high-quality services and hassle-free processes which has made it a favourite of developers and hence investors as well. has successfully combined AI and blockchain technology to make user-friendly and secure products which has made it a feasible platform for developers.
Somish is one of the pioneer’s companies in Blockchain development technology and hence quite a popular one. It has been in product development since the beginning but recently only it took a different approach and ventured in building automation using the latest and the most sophisticated technology. This got it popularity from all over the world and the company has become a go to go destination of various national and international Blockchain developers. Since its inception the company has successfully expanded its reach and has been serving clients of a magnitude spectrum including aviation, insurance, crisis fund distribution, subsidy distribution, bill discounting, and tokenised fund transfer. It even has a dedicated subsidiary which is wholly working on providing blockchain solutions to decentralised governance projects.
With this rapid rate of growth and development, India is going to be the next Cryptocurrency Hub. Let us just wait and see what future holds for these companies working in this space.


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- YouTube will charge for videos without advertising. Google's daughter comes with an app for new subscriber channels without ads.
A fee of $ 9.99 (€ 8.80) per month users remain safeguarded from ads. However, for Apple users, which is $ 12.99, to reimburse the cost of the app purchase via iTunes. Next week the site, according to private counts 800 million unique users per month, with the sale of these subscriptions.
Through watching app
On the canal, part of YouTube Red, subscribers are given from October 28 presented ad-free music videos. For example, the Swedish YouTube icon Pewdiepie will provide their own series on the channel.
YouTube Red replaces Google Music, but allows access to the same amount of videos, according to the search engine. The app should provide the opportunity to personalize the flavor quickly, like Google does online search results. Pandora also offers a service that already.
Next year Red YouTube offers services that give access to the self-produced videos of recent years by Google.


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Martyn Jones and Jim McLarenMorrisons, Britain’s 4th largest retailer, is trialling prototype technology in its Aberdeenshire meat plant which will see Scottish farmers become the first in the world to receive detailed quality performance data on every sheep via the animals’ electronic ear tags.
The retailer is working closely with Quality Meat Scotland, the Scottish red meat industry body, and ScotEID, the Scottish Government funded livestock traceability company, to test new equipment in its Turriff abattoir. If successful, it will put the final, missing piece in the jigsaw that can help farmers take advantage of EID to make breeding decisions at farm level based on performance evidence.
Morrisons Agriculture Manager, Louise Welsh, said: “As Scotland’s largest processor of lambs we are delighted to work with the industry to develop an in plant system that can take an accurate supply of performance data from the individual carcase right back to farm level.
“We’re confident we can crack this and help our farmer suppliers maximise the potential offered by the introduction of EID tagging. Not only can it improve their efficiency, it can also help further improve the quality of the lamb that we sell in our stores.”
Jim McLaren, Quality Meat Scotland Chairman, said: “This initiative, which advances the technology to a stage where individual ear tag numbers can be linked to carcase weights and grades, is a major step forward for farmers interested in finding out what their returns are from specific breeds or breeding lines.
“This will help to improve the efficiency of the Scottish sheep industry and producers’ bottom lines by giving them information they have never had easy access to previously.”
Ian Watson, Chairman of Farmstock (Scotland Ltd), Scotland’s largest lamb cooperative and major supplier to Morrisons said: “This is really exciting news and without doubt has the potential to transform the way we manage our sheep breeding programmes. If Morrisons’ trial is successful, for the first time Scottish sheep farmers will be able to select breeding stock that are consistently delivering high quality lambs at the abattoir.”
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Good morning and welcome to the BusinessLive Breakfast blog on Monday, 22 July.
I'm Jonathon Manning and I'll be here with you every morning to give you a round up of the most important events taking place in the commercial.
Around 40 UK pubs are closing every month as bars battle against continued pressure in the sector.
New research has found that a total of 235 pubs in Britain have closed in the first half of 2019, with their demise blamed on increased costs and competition from cheaper drinks in superarkets.
Many pubs are being demolished or turned into offices or homes.
And in other news, Iceland has failed to hit its target of cutting plastic entirely from its stores.
The retailer has been forced to recover its bananas in plastic bags and has ended its trial of a plastic-free store in Liverpool after sales plummeted.
If you'd like to contribute to the blog, you can contact Jonathon Manning via Twitter at @JonnyAManning or drop me a line at firstname.lastname@example.org. You can also keep in touch with the BusinessLive team on Twitter at @businesslive.
Everything you need to know...
That’s all from me this morning in the Business Breakfast BLog. I’ll be back tomorrow with more news from across the region.
We’ve got tonnes of great stories for you to check out today. Why not start with these:
South West: New company battles plastic waste from toys
A new Devon-based business is trying to reverse the negative impact of mass-consumerism by making it easy for people to make a more ethical choice when shopping for gifts.
Good Things have a range of products which are all ethically sourced from around the world, such as beach playsets which have been made from sea plastics.
The business is the brainchild of female entrepreneur, Lucy Willougby - after spending time in Costa Rica, Nepal and Tanzania and working with people to set up small businesses, Lucy was inspired to let the world know about the products she found and the projects they support.
I spent time in Tanzania working with people in rural areas and supporting them as they started small businesses. I realised just how significant this livelihood can be. With a regular source of income, parents were able to send their children to school and afford urgent healthcare.
Supporting enterprises which help people earn a decent wage can be life-changing. We often buy gifts for people at the last minute and I thought that, if I can offer a range of unusual and fun gifts which are kind to the environment and fair for the people who make them, then the positive impact goes far beyond the person receiving that gift.
Read more about her business here.
British dividend payouts soar
British companies paid out a record amount to shareholders in the second quarter of this year but underlying growth was weak, according to a new report.
UK dividends rose 14.5% to a record £37.8bn, the latest UK Dividend Monitor from Link Group has found.
The fresh high is £4.4bn more than the previous record, which was set two years ago.
However underlying growth of 5% was weaker than expected and largely driven by exchange rate effects.
Meanwhile the headline figures were flattered by some exceptionally large one-off dividends.
Michael Kempe, chief operating Officer of Link Market Services said:
Investors are being dazzled by eye-catching specials and exchange-rate trimmings, but the UK’s dividend clothes are starting to look a bit threadbare underneath.
As the world economy slows, and a looming Brexit exacerbates the underperformance of the UK economy, corporate profits are under pressure and that is limiting the scope for dividend growth.
Metro Bank in talks to sell loan portfolio after accounting blunder
Embattled lender Metro Bank has confirmed that discussions are taking place over the sale of its loan portfolio.
The affirmation to investors follows reports that the high street bank is closing on a £500m deal to offload its mortgage book to a US hedge fund.
Metro Bank has been eyeing up ways to improve its financial position following a torrid few months in the wake of a major accounting error.
US hedge fund Cerberus Capital Management is tipped to snap up the loan portfolio, according to Sky News.
Cerberus has had a long connection with Metro Bank and has sold the lender more than £1bn worth of assets including a £520m deal for its buy-to-let portfolio in February 2018.
In a statement to investors, the bank said:
The company regularly assesses various opportunities in the market and accordingly confirms that discussions regarding the potential sale of a loan portfolio are taking place.
There can be no certainty at this stage that an agreement will be reached.
A further announcement will be made if and when appropriate.
The news comes just days before Metro Bank is set to provide its latest interim results announcement on Wednesday.
In the past 18 months, Metro Bank’s share value has tumbled by almost 88% following governance concerns and the major accounting blunder.
In January, the lender, which had 67 branches in London and the South East, said it had under-reported the risk element on some loans by almost £1bn.
It later revealed a hit to profits and suffered a subsequent sharp decline in share price as it warned that it was short of the capital needed to grow.
The bank’s shareholders approved a £375m equity raise in June which allayed immediate cash flow fears.
However, the retail bank’s need to fundraise prompted renewed speculation about the tenure of Vernon Hill, its founder and chairman.
Jeremy Hunt urged to scrap Entrepreneur's Relief
Jeremy Hunt has been urged by a national body of accountants to scrap the Entrepreneur’s Relief tax incentive claiming it does not work.
Entrepreneur’s Relief can be used by any sole trader or business partner who have owned their own company for at least two years and allows them to only pay 10% capital gains tax when they sell their business.
But the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) argues that most business owners are unaware of Entrepreneur’s Relief and that encourages them to sell their firm and it does not encourage entrepreneurism.
Now the group is calling on Jeremy Hunt to scrap the tax relief if he becomes Prime Minister.
Phil Hall, AAT Head of Public Affairs & Public Policy, said;
The Government is absolutely right to want to encourage entrepreneurialism but despite the name, this isn’t successfully achieved through Entrepreneurs Relief. AAT has long recommended that this expensive, misguided, ineffective relief be scrapped, and that the savings be invested in other entrepreneurial activity, for example, measures that encourage small businesses to scale-up rather than sell-up.
If Jeremy Hunt is serious about wanting to encourage entrepreneurialism, committing this £4bn of relief to helping small businesses grow and prosper would be a far better investment for UK plc than actively encouraging business owners to simply sell-up.
Iceland's bananas create woes for plastic-free dreams
Iceland boss Richard Walker has admitted the group still has a “mountain to climb” on its plastic-free pledge after it was forced back to the drawing board on two key trials.
The eco-friendly supermarket had to reintroduce plastic packaging across its bananas this summer - equating to 10 million plastic bags a year - after its paper band replacement failed to live up to hopes.
In May, Iceland also scrapped a plastic-free greengrocer trial that was running in Liverpool after just three months following a 20% plunge in sales as loose produce and alternative packaging failed to resonate with local shoppers.
But Mr Walker - managing director of the frozen food chain and son of founder and chairman Sir Malcolm Walker - has come out fighting despite the challenges in its promise last year to eliminate plastic from its own label products by 2023.
Speaking to PA, Mr Walker opened up on the problems the group has faced and said he has not given up on the ill-fated trials.
It is launching its latest efforts for new plastic-free banana packaging this week, with a trial across 20 stores from July 24.
It is also planning a new plastic-free greengrocer initiative that will run across more than 30 stores later this year, which will be focused on pre-packed produce rather than loose items in response to customer feedback from the failed trail.
Mr Walker said:
This is all part of the process - we’ve got to keep experimenting.
It’s good to be upfront and open about the challenges.
We’ve still got a mountain to climb - and we’re still all on our own. No other supermarkets are following our lead.
The group’s initial efforts to replace plastic packaging on the bananas ended up causing up to 20% shrinkage of the fruit and they would snap off or go rotten, Mr Walker admitted.
He added the sales drop in the Liverpool greengrocer trial showed initial efforts were not sustainable.
But despite the recent challenges, the group has already taken out 1,500 tonnes of plastic across the supply chain, kicking off with the replacement of black plastic ready meal trays.
Mr Walker admitted:
It’s damn hard work and it’s costing us a lot of money.
He said as a private business the firm is able to focus money and effort on these initiatives, but has to be mindful of the impact on the firm.
“We can’t do anything that will endanger the success of the business, because there’s 25,000 jobs depending on it.
He said whatever initiatives they launch cannot push up prices and put off customers.
Amey design hub in Cardiff to create 60 jobs in city centre
Infrastructure consultancy Amey has opened a new design hub in Cardiff.
The new hub, located on Callaghan Square, will create 60 new jobs in Wales, out of a total of 500 jobs at the peak of the Cardiff Valleys transformation works over the next four years.
The announcement was welcomed by the Welsh Economy and Transport Minister Ken Skates at the official opening yesterday, Thursday, July 18.
Mr Skates said:
The opening of Amey’s new design hub in Cardiff, and the 60 jobs it will create, is part of our wider £5bn investment in the Wales and Borders Rail franchise and of our determination to transfer this investment into economic growth and job creation.
I know that Amey plans to draw on the pool of engineering talent in the South Wales area, and I welcome the company’s commitment to creating high quality jobs in the heart of our capital city .
This is the beginning of an exciting venture and I look forward to the future successes our pioneering partnership approach will bring.
Read more here.
New laws will clamp down on workplace 'gagging clauses'
The Government has announced a crackdown on the use of workplace “gagging clauses” to cover up allegations of sexual harassment, racial discrimination and assault.
In recent months, legislators have come under pressure to protect victims of workplace abuse from being silenced by bosses after a number of high-profile cases.
Last year, Sir Philip Green was accused of using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to stop several former employees from speaking out about bullying and sexual harassment at his Arcadia retail group.
Many businesses use NDAs to protect commercially-sensitive information but company bosses have come under scrutiny for their alleged use of the clauses in response to abuse allegations following the “me too” movement.
Business Minister Kelly Tolhurst has said that the government is now launching new laws to protect workers from their employer’s NDAs to hide potential abuse and discrimination.
She said the Government will not tolerate the use of the confidentiality clauses to “silence and intimidate victims to stop them speaking out”.
The new legislation is intended to, for the first time, ban NDAs from being used to stop people disclosing information to the police, doctors or lawyers.
Currently, NDAs cannot prevent people from whistleblowing in the public interest.
The crackdown will ensure that employers make clear the limitations of the confidentiality clause in plain English, the business minister said.
It will also provide more advice to individuals over the clauses and introduce new enforcement measures to deal with agreements which fail to meet the legal requirements.
Ms Tolhurst said:
The vast majority of businesses comply with the law and use NDAs legitimately - from protecting commercially-sensitive information to preventing information being shared with competitors.
As we have seen in the news recently, there are a handful of employers using NDAs to cover up criminal acts in the workplace, including sexual harassment, assault and racist discrimination.
The new legislation will stamp out misuse, tackle unacceptable workplace cultures, protect individuals and create a level playing field for businesses that comply with the law.
Rebecca Hilsenrath, chief executive of the Equality & Human Rights Commission, said:
Harassment and discrimination should never go unanswered and unchallenged just because victims are prevented from speaking out.
This new legislation will help to end ambiguity about employees’ rights and stop the misuse of NDAs to protect corporate and personal reputations and obstruct justice.
FTSE and pound update
The FTSE-100 index opened at 7508.70.
The pound at 8am was 1.2510 dollars compared to 1.2498 dollars at the previous close.
The euro at 8am was 0.8971 pounds compared to 0.8978 pounds at the previous close.
Significant skills shortage in engineering means right workers could 'be forever employed'
The boss of a North West mechanical engineering firm has said there is a significant skills shortage in the sector, and that there are always jobs available.
Steven Hunt said firms like his suffer from a talent pool that is “too small”, and that those who choose to go into the sector - and possess the right skill set - will be “forever employed”.
His firm Steven A Hunt & Associates, which is based in Liverpool, celebrated its 30th year in business last week.
The firm is involved in a number of major projects, including the new Rutherford Diagnostics HQ in the city’s Knowledge Quarter, and has worked on a whole variety of developments over the past three decades in Liverpool and further afield.
But Steven, who is 55 and from Huyton, said despite it being a large, well-paid sector, university students often don’t even know it exists.
He said a major issue is that many aren’t aware of other professions involved in construction aside from the architect.
Read more about the skills gap here.
40 pubs vanish every month as bars are hit with rising costs
Around 40 pubs in the UK are closing every month after rising costs and cheap drink sold in supermarkets add pressure to the industry.
Research from real estate data company Altus Group found that 235 pubs have closed in the first six months of 2019.
Many community pubs have been demolished or have been converted into offices of houses .
However, the closure rate has dropped dramatically compared with the first half of 2018 when 76 pubs disappeared each months.
But the number of pubs in England and Wales liable for business rates still fell to 41,301 on June 30, representing a fall of 1,149 pubs over the past 18 months.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UK Hospitality, said it is positive that the rate of closures has slowed down but too many pubs have already been forced to close. She said:
Cost pressures, principally extortionate business rates, are pushing too many pubs to the margins and high streets are being squeezed.
We have heard various members of the Government say they wish to stimulate investment in high streets and support businesses.
If they are serious, then they need to tackle these increasing costs - otherwise, more pubs will close.
Alex Probyn, president of expert services at Altus, said that Government measures to support the future of pubs may be having an impact.
Since legislative changes in May 2017, pubs looking to respond to the changing market have been able to expand their food offer without the cost and uncertainty of having to apply for planning permission.
Meanwhile, local communities, through the community right to bid provisions, now have a say on the future of their local by the listing of a public house as an asset of community value, which results in an automatic removal of the permitted development rights for its demolition or change of use.


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Lego Dimensions is coming to an end a year early, sources from within developer TT Games say.
Although the cancellation has yet to be officially confirmed by the publisher, Eurogamer reported that multiple sources have said the series is wrapping up early.
This cancellation is occurring two years into a planned three years of support for the game, and before all of the game's expected content is released.
Dimensions launched strong in 2015, and TT quickly released multiple expansion packs for franchises such as Doctor Who, Portal, Scooby Doo and The Lord of the Rings.
TT Games slightly adjusted its approach in its second year, launching a similar number of franchises, but with less packs per IP.
The developers of World of Tanks are launching a dedicated Australia/NZ server on November 1, but it will only be available part-time.
This server will only be available from 6pm to 12am AEDT, which is 8pm to 2am NZT.
Publisher Wargaming said the server will provide ANZ players with faster ping rates and greater connectivity.
Activision has successfully patented a system it hopes will convince more people to purchase items via microtransactions in multiplayer games.
As reported by Rolling Stone's Brian Crecente, the technology is not currently in any games, and according to Activision it is an "exploratory patent".
Activision usually populates multiplayer games by looking at player factors including skill level, Internet latency, availability of friends, and more.
Sony has announced it will be publishing indie games on the Switch and PC.
Sony's Music Entertainment division has created a new indie publisher called UNTIES, with which it hopes to "penetrate the ever-expanding video game market with indie games".
UNTIES will be publishing games for the PS4, PC and Switch, with its first title, turn-based tactics game Tiny Metal, set to be released on November 21.
EA is shutting down Dead Space developer Visceral Games, the publisher announced today.
In a blog post, EA executive VP Patrick Söderlund wrote that Visceral “will be ramping down and closing” and development of the Star Wars game it had been working will move across to EA’s worldwide studios, led by FIFA series lead EA Vancouver.
Söderlund said the title had been a story-based, linear adventure game, but that player testing, feedback and “shifts in the market” have resulted in EA deciding to “pivot the design”. It is unclear in what direction they are pivoting, but EA’s history and trends in the market might indicate the game could adopt a games-as-service model.
Outer Rim is space combat game in the vein of Wing Commander and X-Wing that is currently being crowdfunded by a New Zealand developer.
The game has been developed over several years by one man, software engineer Gus Matheson, and is already in its final stages of development.
Matheson has launched the Kickstarter to fund the final stages of development, hoping to make a final push to launch the game in March next year on PC and Mac, with a Linux version hopefully coming later.
Some employees of developer CD Projekt RED have been negatively reviewing the studio online, raising discussion around working conditions and prompting a response from the company heads.
The battle of reviews has been happening over the past several weeks on career website Glass Door, with some employees writing scathing critiques of working conditions in the studio, while others are defending it. CD Projekt RED currently has an aggregate score of 3.1/5 on the site.
One review, titled “Chaos!” and posted on September 28, gives the company one star. In the review, the anonymous employee bullet points cons about the company, including “Managment [sic] is incompetent”, “Fake goals”, “Lies” and “Low salarys [sic]”.
Doom is coming to the Nintendo Switch on November 10, id Software announced today.
In a video interview, id creative director Hugo Martin and executive producer Marty Stratton announced the release date, and answered a few lingering questions about the port.
The pair said Doom on Switch will be feature complete, except for SnapMap, which id previously announced would not be part of the port. Otherwise, players can expect all single player and multiplayer content from the game, and all released DLC content, bringing the multiplayer offerings to 18 maps and 12 modes.
Creative director of the Dragon Age series Mike Laidlaw is leaving BioWare after 14 years with the developer.
Laidlaw worked on some of BioWare’s most beloved games, including Jade Empire and Mass Effect. However, it was with the Dragon Age series that he made his real mark, working as lead designer on the first two games and most recently as creative director on Inquisition.
BioWare has not yet announced a new Dragon Age title, but there have been hints the studio is working on a new entry, including a job listing and comments from writer Alexis Kennedy earlier this year. It is unclear how Laidlaw was – or would have been – involved in this new game, and if his departure will have any effect on the project.
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Wednesday, June 22, 2016
IMF warns US over high poverty; Instagram hits half billion users; LG's mosquito-repelling TV
1 IMF warns US over high poverty (BBC) The US has been warned about its high poverty rate in the International Monetary Fund's annual assessment of the economy. The fund said about one in seven people were living in poverty and that it needed to be tackled urgently. It recommended raising the minimum wage and offering paid maternity leave to women to encourage them to work.
The report also cut the country's growth forecast for 2016 to 2.2% from a previous prediction of 2.4%. Slower global growth and weaker consumer spending were blamed. US economic growth slowed to an annual pace of 0.5% during the first three months of the year, down sharply from 1.4% in the last three months of 2015.
But the stronger labour market meant that overall "the US economy is in good shape", said the IMF's managing director Christine Lagarde. May's unemployment figures showed the rate at an eight-year low of 4.7%. The report called on the US to invest more in education, as well as implement better social programmes such as childcare to help poorer Americans get jobs.
2 Instagram hits half billion users (Jill Treanor in The Guardian) The photo-sharing app Instagram now has 500 million users, reaping the benefits from the growth of selfies and the propensity for celebrities such as Kim Kardashian to share images with a wider audience.
Launched in 2010, it was bought by Facebook for $1bn when it had 30 million users. Kevin Systrom, one of its founders, said: “500 million is a milestone very few companies get to. This scale is not a badge on our uniform, but a signal of our ambition. If we can have a billion or a billion and a half on Instagram, we get closer to capturing every experience in the world.”
More than 80% of its half-billion users are outside the US, the company said, and that 300 million used the app every day. Earlier this year, Instagram caused controversy by introducing a system that changed the order in which photographs were posted.
3 LG’s mosquito-repelling TV (Emily Price in San Francisco Chronicle) LG’s newest television will repel mosquitoes for you. Available in India where it was also designed, the TV uses sound to repel mosquitoes from the room. The set broadcasts a noise only hearable by the bug, that is so unpleasant they’d prefer to stay away rather than interrupt your binge-watching session.
Beyond working as a digital form of bug spray, the line of 1080p high definition televisions have built-in 20W sound as well as built-in games. It also offers Bollywood and Cricket modes for an enhanced experience watching those types of programming.
The sets start at 31-inches in size, with pricing beginning at around $400. The same bug-repelling technology is also being used in some other appliances made by LG, including air conditioners and washing machines.


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by The Underwear Expert
The new Papi campaign by Greg Lotus marks the first collaboration between the brand and the photographer. The brand has long had its eyes on Lotus, who has done work for Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair,GQ, L’Uomo Vogue and W magazine. The photos were shot on location in Miami Beach at a private mansion, showing off yachts, bedrooms and more gorgeous scenery.
Jorge and ...
Miami – President and COO, Alan Zelcer of Isaco International, is pleased to announce collaboration with the talents of photographer Greg Lotus for the launch of their papi underwear brands new in store campaign.
“Lotus’ work can be found regularly in the pages of Italian Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ, L’Uomo Vogue, and W magazine...


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Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa Appoints Elyse Graver as Regional Sales Manager
DESTIN, Fla. (October 10, 2013) ? Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort & Spa, the largest full-service beachfront resort on Northwest Florida?s Gulf Coast, has announced the appointment of Elyse Graver as the resort?s newest regional sales manager. Based in Plano, Texas, Graver will direct the resort?s sales efforts into the Texas and the West Coast territories.
?Texas has long been a key leisure market for the resort and we are looking to build upon this success by? providing enhanced connectivity to our meeting planners in Texas and to the West We believe Elyse has the skill and experience needed to bring the resort together with planners who are eager to place their meetings in such a memorable location,? said Gary Brielmayer, Hilton Sandestin Beach general manager.
A 20-year veteran of the hospitality industry, Graver has for the last 12 years worked as an independent hotel contractor representing resorts, full-service and select-service properties for all major hotel brands, including Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt and Sheraton. A graduate of the University of Kentucky, Graver also worked as the corporate sales manager for Bristol Hotels for nine years.


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The increase in PPCs ebitda was despite cement sales falling by 1015 in the Southern Africa region as a lack of construction activity in SA and other countries and an increase in cement.
Everite Building Products Everite Building Products has been associated with the South African building industry since 1941 Producing a wide range of materials that satisfy the needs of the commercial industrial and residential market sectors Everite is renowned for its comprehensive range of Nutec Roofing and Cladding Solutions and includes fibrecement roofing cladding ceilings and.
Mar 07 2019nbsp018332Cement prices rose by Rs 2425 per 50kg bag in February NEW DELHI The recent hike in cement prices amid rising demand has made investors take a relook at the sector which has gone through a rough patch in the recent past Many brokerages and independent analysts say the price hike will help improve margins and increase profitability of cement manufacturers over the next two.
This report focuses on the manufacture of clay bricks and concrete masonry units an important component of the building and construction industry Statistics South Africa StatsSA figures show that the building and construction industry recorded an income of R395bn in 2014 and that the formal and informal clay brick sectors employed.
Pricing information Regional price assessments published daily or weekly enabling you to keep track of trading prices understand price driversfluctuations and set a benchmark for contract price settl ements ICIS offers reports on over 180 commodities across the.
Dangote Cement is Africas leading cement producer with 40mt of capacity operational including three plants in Nigeria an import terminal and Ghana and recently opened factories in Ethiopia Zambia South Africa Senegal and Cameroon It is a fully integrated quarrytocustomer producer with production capacity of 2925 million tonnes in Nigeria.
Cement companies in Cameroon have all announced the ambition to extend their factories and step up annual production to about seven million tonnes by 2018 but price remains disturbingly high.
Cement manufacturing is the source of 5 of global CO2 emissions The cement industry is a natural producer of CO2 60 of emissions are due to the transformation of raw materials at high temperatures the quotdecarbonationquot of limestone 40 result from the combustion required to heat the cement.
Nov 21 2019nbsp018332JSElisted cement and lime producer PPC is adamant that the cement industry in South Africa needs to be protected from unfair competition in the form of.
Sep 17 2015nbsp018332This statistic illustrates cement demand in Africa and the Middle East between 2009 and 2019 US cement prices 20072019 Global emerging market forecasts in cement industry.
With South Africas commitment to tackling climate change the Carbon Tax Bill came into effect on 1 June 2019 For AfriSam the Carbon Tax will pass onto our customers from 1 July 2019 Companywide AfriSam continues to be committed to creating a sustainable life for our future generations reflecting our belief in Planet as one of.
Feb 14 2019nbsp018332At the time a fierce price war was taking place in the South African cement industry and Lafarge was unhappy its South African subsidiary market share had dropped by more than 15.
Jul 11 2019nbsp018332Local cement producers are making submissions to the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa Itac to impose tariffs on cement imports from China and Vietnam in.
In Q3 2017 Dangote Cement alone raked 93 of the entire profit made in the Nigerian Cement Industry within the period under review The company has been growing in leaps and bounds and is on a mission to become the number one cement manufacturer in not just Nigeria but also Africa at large See current prices of other building materials in Nigeria.
The White Cement Market is expected to register a CAGR of 5 during the forecast period Further segmented by Product Type Type I Cement Type III Cement and Other Product Types Application Residential Nonresidential Commercial and Infrastructure and Geography AsiaPacific North America Europe South America and Middle East amp Africa.
Turner Morris provides a variety of highquality concrete and hydraulic mixers for use in the construction industry View our range here Turner Morris provides a variety of highquality concrete and hydraulic mixers for use in the construction industry View our range here 27 011 221 3700.
Partnerships that take the industry forward Lafarge actively engages with the entire construction chain to form partnerships that drive innovation By working together we are able to discover practical solutions that answer new challenges and meet emerging needs.
Jan 15 2020nbsp018332South Africa is expected to struggle in 2020 due to weak economic growth rising cement imports and a new carbon tax China moderating growth The Chinese cement market has grown at its best rate in six years during 2019 driven by strong housing demand at the start of the year.
The East Africa cement market reached a volume of 286 Million Tons in 2019Cement is an economical highquality material that is widely utilized in the construction industry across the globe It is a fine powder made by heating a ground mixture of clay and limestone at a high temperature.
Jul 07 2020nbsp018332THE rollover in the European benchmark third quarter ferrochrome price announced by Johannesburglisted Merafe Resources this week was a reflection of the increase in South African supply following COVID19 lockdowns Merafe which is in joint venture with Glencore said the European benchmark price for the quarter was agreed at 114 cents per pound.
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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Losses from Twitter Inc. twtr and eBay Inc. ebay pulled the tech sector into the red Wednesday following disappointing reactions to those company's latest earnings reports. Twitter fell more than 11% to $37.75 a share, while eBay was down more than 6% at $51.06. The Nasdaq Composite Index comp which includes many leading tech stocks, fell almost 23 points to 4,083.
Twitter, eBay losses drag on tech stocks
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FastForward Innovations Ltd (LON:FFWD) has said its portfolio company EMMAC Life Sciences, in which it holds a 2.3% stake, has been selected as a supplier for an upcoming medical cannabis trial in France through its partnership with homoeopathic products maker Boiron.
In an announcement late on Tuesday afternoon, EMMAC said the trial, the first of its kind in France, will allow 3,000 patients access to medical cannabis as a treatment option for certain ailments including chronic pain, epilepsy, oncology and spasticity under tightly controlled conditions.
The company said the French Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) has selected EMMAC’s 20/1 and 10/10 oral solutions as second-source treatments which will be available to patients and healthcare professionals as part of the two-year trial.
It added that the partnership will combine Boiron’s expertise in plant-based medicine with EMMAC’s “uniquely controlled European supply chain” to deliver pharmaceutical-grade cannabis medicines that “meet the strict requirements of product quality, safety and traceability”.
"We are proud to have been selected to be part of this important trial. Alongside Boiron, we are pleased to share our international experience to advance the industry's understanding of the benefits of medical cannabis”, EMMAC chief executive Antonio Costanzo said in a statement.
“The selection of our products by ANSM is testament to EMMAC's scientific knowledge and rigour, as well as our ability to provide products to the highest standards of compliance, safety and quality", he added.


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LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan is giving online retailer Amazon $4.5 million to ensure it opens another facility in the state.
The Michigan Strategic Fund approved the incentive Tuesday for the e-commerce powerhouse to open a fulfillment center in Macomb County’s Shelby Township. Seattle-based Amazon plans to create 1,025 full-time jobs at the $40 million facility.
It is the third time in nine months that the state has authorized a grant to open an Amazon fulfillment center, which is a giant warehouse where items are stored, packaged and shipped. The other centers will also be based in the Detroit area — in Romulus and Livonia.
Economic development officials say Amazon chose the Shelby Township site over competing sites in other Midwestern states and Canada.
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PRS launches a special 35th Anniversary SE Custom 24 in Faded Blue Burst
Limited to under 3,000 units and “expected to sell out quickly”
Image: PRS Guitars
PRS Guitars has launched the 35th Anniversary SE Custom 24 in a new Faded Blue Burst finish.
These instruments come in a limited run of less than 3,000 units, and like the previously introduced Black Gold Wrap Burst variant, are “expected to sell out quickly”.
The model, which commemorates the brand’s 35th anniversary this year, was first introduced last October. It takes after the PRS Custom 24, while borrowing several features from the Paul’s Guitar model.
The guitar’s body construction combines mahogany in the back with a carved maple and flame maple veneer top. This is matched with a 24-fret maple neck with a rosewood fretboard for a completed scale length of 25 inches. The fretboard also features the brand’s signature bird inlays in abalone.
Pickups on the guitar are a duo of TCI “S” humbuckers, with two mini-toggle switches that allow players to engage either or both pickups as true single-coils. According to PRS, the tones that guitarists can expect from the vintage-inspired pickups are “both big and nuanced, so players can easily find their sweet spot.”
As for hardware, both the tremolo system and machine heads are PRS-designed and come in nickel.
The first run of the 35th Anniversary Custom SE 24, now sold out, was limited to just 3,500 units. Said Jack Higginbotham, PRS Guitars Chief Operating Officer, on revisiting the model: “I am glad we are able to offer this second run of instruments.”
“We had high hopes that this configuration would speak to players and deliver a lot of value,” he said. “Judging by how quickly we sold through the first offering, I would say those hopes were verified.”
Check out a demo of the Black Gold Wrap Burst variant below:
The PRS 35th Anniversary SE Custom 24 lists at $999.
Learn more at prsguitars.com
For more guitar gear news, click here.
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