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At least four payments companies are set to participate in a consortium formed by Facebook Inc. to launch a cryptocurrency next year aimed at commerce rather than exchange trading, according to a report Friday in The Wall Street Journal. Facebook is expected to officially announce the initiative next week.
The consortium, called the Libra Association, will manage what will be called the Libra coin, the Journal reported, quoting sources familiar with the initiative. Mastercard Inc., PayPal Holdings Inc., Stripe Inc., and Visa Inc. are among more than a dozen companies putting up $10 million each to fund the association, according to the story. One other participant identified by the report is ride-share pioneer Uber Technologies Inc., which relies heavily on mobile payments funded by passengers’ cards on file.
Contacted by Digital Transactions News, a spokesperson for Mastercard said the network would not comment on “speculation.” PayPal, Stripe, and Visa did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Facebook will not comment in advance of its expected announcement. Details remain sketchy, but at least some of the participating companies could serve as so-called nodes on the new network, according to the Journal report. Nodes verify and record transactions.“While it remains to be seen if this will be more than just a high-profile science project, the consortium members give this initiative immediate [credibility] and potential,” says Jordan McKee, research director at 451 Research, via an email message.
Given Facebook’s heft in social media and online commerce, observers see the payments providers’ involvement as at least in part a defensive measure. “First, it’s means of hedging bets,” says McKee. “Considering Facebook has 2.4 [billion] monthly users, card networks and processors don’t want to risk being outsiders on an initiative that could end up becoming an existential threat to their core business. Second, it’s a means of keeping an ear to the ground on Facebook’s crypto plans and having the potential to favorably influence their strategy.”
Others hailed Facebook’s entry as an encouraging sign for digital currencies generally. “Facebook’s move into cryptocurrency is an exciting development for the industry as social and messaging apps like Facebook could make cryptocurrencies available instantly to hundreds of millions of users,” notes Jonathan Levin, co-founder and chief operating officer at Chainalysis Inc., a New York City-based research firm specializing in cryptocurrency.
Unlike the case with most digital currencies, Libra’s value will be pegged to a basket of currencies issued by government entities. This is expected to help the coin avoid the wild swings in value that have plagued Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Such swings encourage buy-and-hold patterns among users and discourage merchant acceptance, since in some cases the value can change radically even as a transaction is being settled. Some digital currencies, called stablecoins, already follow the general pattern of linking value to fiat currencies like the dollar.
The Journal reported Libra has been in development for more than a year and is expected to be used for commerce online, particularly within Facebook’s constellation of properties. That could prove problematic if not managed carefully, Levin cautions.
“The more pervasive use [of] cryptocurrency creates financial inclusion for good and bad actors, and the risk of money laundering needs to be mitigated by all stakeholders, including both these social networks and the partner companies that operate the nodes,” Levin says in an email message. “Transaction monitoring on these blockchains will be needed to meet the expectations of regulators around the world.”


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WirelessHART seminar: international wireless communication standard
An educational seminar on WirelessHART technology presented by the HART Communication Foundation provides information to users wanting to learn more about the international wireless communication standard. The vendor-neutral seminar, Using WirelessHART Technology in Process Industries, includes presentations by industry experts and live demonstrations of WirelessHART technology (IEC 62591 Ed.1.0; EN 62591).
“In addition to gaining valuable information about WirelessHART communication, users actually see firsthand the interoperability, reliability, and ease of use of this powerful wireless technology,” said Ron Helson, HART Communication Foundation executive director. “Not just data from one vendor’s device in another vendor’s software, but devices from nine different manufacturers forming a robust mesh network relaying data from one device to the other and integrating that data with wired solutions.”
During 2011 five seminars have been held in the U.S. and Europe with more than 200 users attending, according to the HART Communication Foundation. Additional seminars are scheduled this year in San Diego, Calif. on Aug. 18, Nashville, Tenn on Sept. 19, Port Arthur, Texas on Oct. 12, and Copenhagen, Denmark on Oct. 27. There is no charge to attend the seminars but seats are limited and registration is required. Users can view the current schedule and register online at wirelesshart.hartcomm.org.
Seminar topics include understanding and using WirelessHART technology in the plant environment and planning and implementing a WirelessHART project. The live demonstrations show the interoperability of WirelessHART gateways, devices and adapters from multiple manufacturers and illustrate the simple process of a single device joining the network.
The seminars are sponsored by Foundation member companies: ABB, Emerson Process Management, Endress+Hauser, MACTek, Pepperl+Fuchs, Phoenix Contact, ProComSol, R.Stahl, and Siemens.
HART Communication Foundation
– Edited by Amanda McLeman, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com

domain: news


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Entertainment retail chain HMV has said that it may cut back on the number of video games it sells, dropping support for older software.
Yesterday it revealed that sales over the Christmas period were down by 16 per cent, with chief exec Simon Fox admitting the company lost share in games to supermarkets and online rivals.
According to a report by The Telegraph, video games make up 20 per cent of the retailers offering, but Fox said that "one of the things we will do is look at what percentage of games should make up as part of the mix."
Abandoning "the long tail of older software" HMV could just focus on new releases, said Fox.
The retailer has £160 million worth of debt. It has made headway in new sales by introducing technology product to its stores, with sales up 51 per cent, primarily due to the trade in headphones.


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Microsoft has unveiled the new Surface, Lumia and Microsoft Band devices, making use of robust and flexible hardware to unlock new Windows 10 experiences.
This includes fast and secured login with Windows Hello1; new Cortana2 experiences that turn Windows 10 devices into a personal assistant; improved touch and pen experiences on Surface; and Continuum for phones, which enables the new Lumia 950 and 950 XL phones to work like PCs3. Showcasing the innovation possible with Windows 10, Microsoft also shared new gaming experiences from Xbox and new details on Microsoft HoloLens, the first fully untethered holographic computer.
Now running on 110 million devices around the world, Windows 10 is off to the fastest start in history — seeing upgrades at three times the rate of Windows 7 in the same time period. With more than 1.25 billion visits to the Windows Store, Microsoft announced all-new universal apps for Windows 10, including Box, Facebook, Instagram, Candy Crush Soda Saga, Flipagram, Uber, and others. These apps add to the existing Windows 10 experiences that will be available on the new Microsoft devices.
“With Windows 10 and these new Microsoft devices, you are at the center of magical new experiences,” said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft. “We’re moving people from needing to choosing to loving Windows, and these devices promise to fuel even more enthusiasm and opportunity for the entire Windows ecosystem.”


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Three decades after fleeing Chicago, Motorola Inc. is heading downtown, setting up a splashy design center overlooking the Magnificent Mile.
Moto bringing R&D center to mag mile
Its Moto-vation: to recruit hip, young city dwellers reluctant to travel the traffic-clogged Kennedy Expressway to the telecom giant's world headquarters in Schaumburg, cell phone center in Libertyville and other far-flung offices in the north and west suburbs.
The company's new digs, on the 26th floor of Illinois Center at 233 N. Michigan Ave., will also place the newly image-conscious Motorola closer to the consumers who use its cell phones and pagers--a business that accounts for about 40% of the company's $27 billion in annual revenues.
The move culminates a long courtship between Motorola and the city of Chicago. After toying with, and abandoning, the concept of a downtown center three years ago, the longtime suburbanite is subleasing 34,000 square feet of space previously leased to CCC Information Services Group Inc. Motorola plans to move 75 employees into the office, most of them transferring from Libertyville, and eventually expand the head count to 140.
"We're placing our people where they can easily access the people and places that energize and facilitate the creative process," a Motorola spokesman says.
The city provided no financial incentives to Motorola, according to sources who say that officials were unaware the plan had been revived until Motorola CEO Christopher Galvin called Mayor Richard Daley earlier this month to inform him of the company's homecoming.
While Motorola will design high-tech consumer gadgets in the Boul Mich facility, its broader purpose is to attract top talent from Chicago's university campuses.
That's key as the electronics manufacturer, long dominated by engineers cloistered in suburbia, vies for a consumer audience that's young, sophisticated and responsive to the whims of fashion. Motorola hasn't come up with a phone that grabbed consumers' imaginations since the StarTac clamshell design of the mid-'90s.
"If a large organization wants to have more real, honest-to-God home runs, they need to provide a comfortable environment for highly innovative people," says Gregg Fraley, a former software executive who's now a Chicago-based creativity consultant. "People who flock to that stuff don't want to spend two hours on the highway going out to Schaumburg."
Motorola's return is a coup of sorts for Chicago officials, who have been working in recent years to reverse the corporate urban flight of the 1970s, when many business stalwarts fled the city for suburban office parks.


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Lisburn-based drinks company CocoMojo has secured new business in China, thanks to assistance from Invest NI.
CocoMojo is one of four local food and drink firms that have won new business in international markets, estimated to be worth nearly half a million pounds collectively.
Congratulating the companies, Alison Gowdy, Invest NI’s Director of Trade said: “This is a fantastic result for Northern Ireland’s biggest manufacturing industry and showcases the increasing appetite around the world for Northern Ireland food and drink.
“We are delighted that our businesses are becoming ever more visible and ambitious in taking their products to growing world markets, with Northern Ireland food and drink exports valued at £1.2billion in the last 12 months.”
CocoMojo’s deal to supply products in China is thought to be worth around £10,000.


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Verifone Inc. has not gone so far out on the electronic commerce limb that it forgot its roots at the point of sale.
In a way, Verifone's latest retail terminal system, CheckPak, is a deepening of those roots.
The system is Verifone's first to include a check reader, which captures customer account data off the magnetic ink line so that the check itself does not have to be deposited.
Verifone is not the first vendor to sell such a device for truncating checks at the point of sale. In fact, it is responding to demand that can be traced to transaction processing companies' promoting check automation services to retailers. These promoters have included companies owned by Equifax Inc. and First Data Corp., and the California-based entrepreneurial ventures Bankserv and E-Funds.
National Processing Inc., the merchant processing subsidiary of National City Corp. of Cleveland, last month became the first to announce it would buy CheckPak, to be part of its CheckThru program.
This stance by Verifone, the leader by a wide margin in U.S. point of sale market share, is sending a strong signal about the persistence of checks and the potential revenues and cost reductions in converting them to electronic debits.
"Everybody talks about (Internet commerce), but in terms of volume and revenue dependence we are still a nation of shoppers wedded to the check," said Robin Abrams, vice president and general manager of Verifone's Americas group.
One of three key regional executives reporting to Verifone chief executive officer Hatim Tyabji, Ms. Abrams is in no way sour on more futuristic facets of the Hewlett-Packard subsidiary's strategy. For example, she sees an "exponential rate of growth" in smart card systems for closed communities like college campuses and sports stadiums, and she said bankers "no longer talk about if, but when" the technology spills over into mainstream banking and credit.
She also contended that if electronic merchandising via the World Wide Web was slow to take hold last year, it was only because retailers were waiting to get through the holiday rush. This year, she said, will be different because "all along they were working on" electronic commerce.
Ms. Abrams conceded the perception in the year since Hewlett-Packard Co. announced its $1.3 billion acquisition of Verifone that the latter's core business was "in the doldrums." Internet commerce got most of the deal- related attention because HP was particularly drawn to Verifone's pioneering in that area.
"In reality," Ms. Abrams said, "we stepped up new products for the U.S. market" in such areas as electronic benefits transfer, a contactless smart- card-like token called VeriPass, and CheckPak and its software, SoftPay.
Verifone's check truncation product includes a horseshoe-shaped MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) reader called the CR 600 attached to an Omni card authorization device. It arose in part from discussions with the company's customer advisory council. "They point out things to be addressed for Verifone to maintain its leadership role in the industry, and this was one of them," Ms. Abrams said.
If Verifone, based in Santa Clara, Calif., was late to this market, it was because customers were not asking for it until recently, she added.
With U.S. consumers and businesses writing about 63 billion checks a year, accounting for an estimated 72% of noncash transactions, "truncation is seen as a revenue opportunity in the retailers' eyes," she said. "They may have been overlooked, but they are not going away."
Verifone said the electronic debit in place of conventional check clearing improves a retailer's cash management and funds availability, while reducing its check processing and handling fees by up to 50%.
"Having accomplished the automation of their back offices and countertops, the retailers may be seeing check processing and the reduction of NSF (insufficient-fund, or bounced, checks) and fraud as the last frontier. Every one of the majors is getting into this," Ms. Abrams said.
"We're very excited that Verifone is making it easier for merchants to use our CheckThru product," said Tom Wimsett, executive vice president of merchant services at Louisville, Ky.-based National Processing Inc.'s NPC unit. "The industry is relying more and more on electronic check processing, and NPC and Verifone are committed to meeting customer needs."
Hypercom Corp., Verifone's closest rival in the point of sale terminal field, announced a product advance of its own last month in Los Angeles at the retailing industry's Marketechnics show.
Hypercom introduced a version of its ICE-interactive customer equipment- line called ICE Multi-Lane, for supermarkets and mass merchandisers.
In November the Phoenix company unveiled a wireless terminal for restaurant-table authorizations called ICE Portable. The next month it launched ICE Peripheral, which functions as a PIN (personal identification number) pad and signature capture device when attached to a T7 Series terminal.
ICE products are built for conventional credit and debit transactions and can include smart card capabilities as desired.
"Our intent with the ICE family is to provide the most flexible POS platform for all current and anticipated customer-activated payment processing technologies while protecting merchants' investment in existing POS equipment," said John Marshall, senior vice president of sales and marketing.
"Thanks to ICE Multi-Lane," he said, the Hypercom technology "can now be easily integrated with standard IBM electronic cash registers."


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It’s a bird... it’s a plane... it’s a pizza drone!
Pizza will soon be raining from the skies over Australia with the release of Domino’s new commercial drone delivery service.
The new system is a world first, allowing Dominos to offer the fastest fast-food on earth.
The long-awaited pizza drone is being successfully trialled in Victoria with plans to expand across the country.
The pizza chopper flies 60 metres in the air to avoid power lines and tops speeds of 30kph.
Once the destination has been reached, a cable lowers the pizza down to the ground and releases the product before the drone returns to the restaurant.
Back yard deliveries will start in Auckland in October, then expand to six more countries including Australia.
Dominos CEO Don Meij said there were exciting times ahead for his business.
“It’s really cool, it’s really interesting, you're going to get a faster delivery we think,” he told 7 News. “I mean, it’s the future and it’s already here.”
The pizza chain has cornered the market by combining technology and food.
It’s also trialling a self-driving delivery robot in addition to its drones.
Con Stavros, Associate Professor of Economics at RMIT University, said the investment was sure to pay off for Dominos.
“This is just another step forward for them,” he said.
“They're really becoming a tech company as much as a pizza company these days which is really exciting.”
The new service will slice delivery times, bypass traffic and reach isolated customers.
The company is also working on ways to expand delivery distances and ensure the pizza arrives piping hot.


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Overwatch has been a staggering success, and the latest numbers prove this even further: Overwatch now has over 20 million registered users.
This is even more impressive when considering that the game released in May, and as of August they had 15 million players, and 10 million players in June. This is also a game which sold out on Amazon within 5 days of its release; the numbers surrounding it have always been impressive.
Constant updates and consistent evidence of listening to players is at least partially to thank for the game’s continued success as the community continues to grow. Blizzard only just released a Halloween set of skins and other customization options, not to mention a specialized tower defense brawl. Evidence of a new hero, Sombra, releasing in the next few weeks has also stoked Overwatch fervor. The gameplay is incredible, but the fact that good costume designs can bring players back in so quickly speaks to the game’s aesthetic quality, as well.
It’s clear that players also are staying with the game for the long haul; one player claims to have reached level 1000 in the game. For context, the player, Tazzerk, also claims that he has played Overwatch about 16 hours a day since the game’s release– that’s around 1,600 hours of gameplay before Tazzerk reached this achievement.
Overwatch is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.


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The first 5G phones have gone on the market in Europe and in the UK operators including Vodafone and EE are planning to offer 5G by the end of the year. While 5G may have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons recently, the technology is undoubtedly set to offer an incredible boost to marketers and publishers’ digital strategies and consumers’ everyday digital experiences.
We’re asking industry experts for their views on what opportunities 5G offers the entire market.
Gavin Stirrat, VP of Partner Services at OpenX, the world’s largest independent ad exchange
There’s no denying that 5G is set to revolutionise the way publishers, brands and consumers interact. From a more dynamic creative experience for consumers to a better reach across various channels, the possibilities are endless.
For starters, 5G is guaranteed to upturn how advertisers think about creative (and those who disagree will see themselves left behind!). 5G could see device speeds increase twenty-two fold from 45Mbps, up to a maximum of one gigabit. It doesn’t take a numbers whizz to realise this is a huge technology upgrade, leading to minimal latency, even in much more demanding rich-media formats.
I’d expect the result to elicit impressive new ad formats with consumer enjoyment of advertising potentially rocketing. It will leave nowhere to hide for clunky, backward ads.
5G won’t just improve ad creative — it’ll also help advertisers reach audiences more efficiently, creating a growing choice of channels available to advertisers to connect directly with consumers. Cloud-based processing enabled by 5G networks will boost speeds and connectivity massively, pushing IoT past its break-even point. Mobile networks will move from the back of the pack in speed terms to right at the front, way ahead of traditional wired connections.
But perhaps the largest impact 5G will have is on the quantity and quality of permission-based data circulating the ecosystem. This data can be used by advertisers to target at a much greater scale than ever before. And that opportunity to look at audiences in a more detailed and granular way will open up the targeting opportunities for brands making ads more efficient and better placed.
5G will no doubt bring with it an era of transformation, with publishers, brands and consumers all set to benefit. Until its launch, we can only guess what the specifics of that will be – but exciting times are certainly ahead.
James Gray, director of Graystone Strategy, which recently launched iD for Carphone Warehouse in Ireland.
5G opens up a wealth of use cases for brands, digital companies and broadcasters.
Developing enriched content strategies is one of the three major reasons why 5G is so exciting for these industries (the others are internet of things applications and the way in which critical machines can be supported).
5G network capacity will improve significantly. We’ll be able to download all kinds of media from short YouTube videos to full length movies and box sets in seconds. The experience will improve and the frustrations we have today ebb away. Areas where there is always congestion — like at stations and airports will be transformed.
This means that brands can get their messages, content and broadcast products out to consumers far quicker and gain revenue as a result.
Major franchises will be able to capitalise on this, and those that have struggled to compete with the box office smash hits like Game of Thrones stand more chance of gaining wider public appeal. There’s also a huge opportunity for the gaming industry to compete in this space as the low latency and broadband equivalent speeds open up gaming away from the home.
On the flip side, this has the potential to impact the ad funded streaming model and changes the dynamic for content providers as “ownership” very much comes into play again – I can download something fast and then watch it at my leisure.
The improved speed and capacity means that richer higher definition experiences are possible, and the promise of fully immersive virtual reality becomes a bit more of a mobile reality.
Three recently launched a Mobile VR fashion show at London Fashion Week but this could extend into experiences at festivals, concerts, and even museums. Imagine a tour of a castle where you can see the battles occurring on the ramparts through VR and AR (augmented reality). This is exciting for brands as they can immerse customers and prospects in their marketing campaigns and make the brand more memorable.


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Source: Jamaica Gleaner
Seprod Limited’s offloading of property in Kingston has netted $762 million, but even absent that gain, the company is on track towards a bumper year.
Seprod sold the former Industrial Sales complex to the Epply Caribbean Property Value Fund, with which it is affiliated. Both entities are members of the Musson Group.
Seprod made operating profit of $3.8 billion over nine months ending September, up from $2.2 billion in the year-prior period.
Earnings climbed to $2.53 billion, or $3.44 per share, from $1.16 billion, or $1.58 per share.
“That is why we were very clear in separating it out of the rest of the numbers. The operating performance is much better. We always expected that, and we see this going forward as one of our best years,” Pandohie told the Financial Gleaner.
“Even with COVID, we have seen an improvement in revenues. The pharmaceuticals are doing well. In addition, a lot of the products in our portfolio are basic products that consumers want to buy,” Pandohie said of portfolio brands like Gold Seal flour, consumer foods Eve, Geddes and NuPak, and a range of milk products, juices and biscuits.
Sales grew by $3.5 billion over nine months to $28.6 billion, a gain Pandohie attributes to the more aggressive sales techniques, with boots on the ground. He adds that the fourth quarter is also shaping up to deliver additional gains.
“Our approach to this pandemic has been ‘go hard or go home’, so to speak. The team has just decided to roll the dice and go out there with total aggression. We believe that there are opportunities opening up and our goal is to come out of COVID-19 better than we went in,” he told the Financial Gleaner.
Notwithstanding the gains, the company’s stock has traded down 1.3 per cent since Monday to $58.74 per share.
Seprod exited its perennial loss-making sugar manufacturing operation at Golden Grove, St Thomas, in July 2019. At the nine-month mark last year, sugar was a $786-million drag on profit, with additional straggling costs of $47 million booked this year.
Pandohie said if the company hadn’t taken the decision to exit the business, Seprod would have been chalking up yearly losses of $400 million.
Amid the sale of the Industrial Sales property, the reforms at the company also sees it building out a larger distribution and logistics operation.
Having acquired Facey Consumer, a deal struck with yet another Musson Group member, Seprod is now spending $2.5 billion to develop what it describes as a ‘logistics campus’, inclusive of new warehousing facility.


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Gotta get them young and Vault comics is making sure they do with new imprint.
It’s easy to see that comic book publishers biggest fans and more importantly, income stream comes from adults, but once upon a time comics were bought by just as many children and young adults so Vault comics is trying to get a piece of that action with a new imprint named Myriad aimed at younger readers.
In 2016 Vault Comics was born with the idea to drive home a fresh new wave of science fiction and fantasy stories to readers that will expand upon the much needed diversity in comic books, both in print and behind the scenes. Several titles with help from VP of branding and design Tim Daniel are currently being developed by Hitman: Agent 47 producer Adrian Askarieh and Silver Fox Entertainment.
Equally important is the gaining of new young readers of all ages and in comes the new imprint Myriad which will be helmed by editor-in-chief Adrian Wassel and Daniel. The Myriad imprint is expected to feature both full-length graphic novels and serialized titles from established creators as well as new voices breaking into the imaginative industry of comics.
Tuesday of this week Tim Daniel made it a point to express that, “Young readers want to make their own heroes — so our heroes must be equally reflective of all of us, representing who we are broadly and as individuals. A seismic shift in readers’ attitudes and expectations requires a myriad of choices — both in format and content. The name of our new line expressly conveys our goal, and what we are delivering to readers.” and continued to say, “Current Vault fans will enjoy the selfsame care and craft in Myriad — and now their kids can, too. The idea is simple: Tell stories just as daring, just as beloved, and just as relevant as those coming out of Vault, but for an even wider audience.” And November 2018 is the time this new vision for our beloved comic book industry will come to fruition.
NEWS WATCH: Vault Comics For All Ages.
User Review( votes)


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Award winning outdoor clothing and accessories brand, Regatta returned to this year’s Kendal Calling festival, giving festival-goers another exciting, and completely free, experience.
The lively Regatta stage fully embraced this year’s ‘carnival of colour’ theme as they introduced Tag Me In, a new addition to their line-up, where revellers could pick up a free t-shirt and get their hands mucky as they coloured their tee using as many different spray paints as they dared!
The activity saw hoards of people flock to the stage to get their hands on their own graffiti tee over the course of the festival, having completely sold out by the Saturday afternoon.
Anyone who tagged themselves at Kendal Calling with their graffiti tee on the Regatta Facebook page was automatically entered to win £500 of kit each day of the festival.
The outdoor clothing brand also housed a fully-fledged shop at the festival for any last minute purchases, which stocked everything from essential waterproofs to tents, chairs and torches.
This year’s Kendal Calling took place from Thursday 28th July to Sunday 31 July in Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District. Headline acts included Rudimental, Madness, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Charlatans and Jason Manford.
Jo Hawkins, marketing director at Regatta, said: “The Tag Me In activity was a huge success and it was a joy to see so many young faces getting involved and fully embracing the festival spirit – even queuing very patiently to get their hands on the Regatta graffiti t-shirts!
“We were really excited to be back at Kendal Calling festival this year as it represents such a wide mix of customers, from young families to millennials who want to look stylish yet stay dry in the, more often than not, wet and muddy fields of a festival.”


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Data Recovery News
Sort by: publishing date popularity
A recent ransomware attack on Capcom, which occurred in late 2020, has affected the personal data of nearly 400,000 individuals.
01 / 31 / 2021 J.R. Johnivan
Apple is beginning the transition away from Intel chips to their proprietary, ARM architecture.
07 / 02 / 2020 J.R. Johnivan
Andrew Yang and the Data Dividend Project want to help consumers get paid for the social media content they create.
07 / 01 / 2020 J.R. Johnivan
An activist group known as DDoSecrets has release nearly 300 GB of data on U.S.-based law enforcement agencies.
06 / 30 / 2020 J.R. Johnivan
Although 5G has yet to be released on a consumer-wide scale, software developers already have big plans for the new technology.
03 / 02 / 2020 J.R. Johnivan
A recent report has some troubling findings regarding the U.S. government's ability to recover from ransomware.
12 / 31 / 2019 J.R. Johnivan


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Boris Johnson made the call as he announced his target of creating 100,000 apprenticeships in London last year was set to be met.
The Mayor and Raymond Blanc said there was huge potential for more food and hospitality businesses to offer training places to build on the 5,000 apprentices working in the capital's food industry.
The Michelin chef is taking on 21 apprentices at Brasserie Blanc restaurants across London and the UK, working in a range of hospitality roles including as chefs and front of house staff.
He said: "It is vital that the restaurant sector has homegrown talent to develop the necessary skill and craft for the future.
"I am self-taught and it was tough - I longed for a mentor to guide me through my career - so I am 100% behind the Mayor's drive to bring so many young people into the business and to give them the best chance to excel."
The Mayor said: "It is absolutely fantastic to have someone of Raymond's calibre spearheading our drive to help the food industry wake up to the power of apprenticeships.
"From restaurants and bars to shops and suppliers, the capital's food industry is a booming trade that has huge potential to give thousands of young Londoners their first big break on the career ladder.
"With 100,000 apprenticeships now under our belt I believe this vibrant sector of our economy can play an increasingly important role in helping to swell that number even further."


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Dell profits surge to £1.4bn
COMPUTING giant Dell posted a surge in annual profits after enjoying its best ever operating quarter.
The world's second-largest PC maker said net profits rose 25% to $2.65b (£1.4bn) in 2003 - helped by a strong fourth quarter in which it saw record product shipments, revenue, profits and earnings per share.
Texas-based Dell said it now expected product shipments to rise more than 20% in the first quarter - ahead of expected industry growth.
This should produce revenues of $11.2b (£5.92bn), up about 17% on the previous year.
Product shipments were up more than 20% in the Americas and 30% in Dell's global operations, which include Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific.
President Kevin Rollins said much of the quarterly growth in the industry was in the desktop and notebook categories, which offer little profitability.
'Dell met its operating targets by pursuing profitable growth,' he said.
The company was boosted by shipments of its PowerEdge servers, which jumped 40% in the fourth quarter against the same period last year. This was more than double the rate for the rest of the industry.
Shipments of Inspiron and Latitude notebook computers were up 40%, also ahead of the rest of the industry.
Meanwhile volumes of Dimension and OptiPlex desktop computers rose 21% - compared with an average 8% increase for other companies, the company added.
Dell specialises in selling PCs by shipping directly to consumers, cutting out retailer costs. It was the number one PC maker until it lost out to Hewlett-Packard.
Dell saw net profits rise 24% to $749m (£395.76m) in the fourth quarter, on revenues of $11.51bn (£6.09bn) - up 18%.
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One of the most popular — and controversial — gifts on wish lists this Christmas were hoverboards. And while many people were delighted to unwrap their brand new self-balancing, two-wheeled scooter, riding their hoverboard turned out to be something else entirely.
It turns out that maneuvering a hoverboard is not as easy as it looks, and people are wiping out on them. To make matters worse, fiendish friends and family members are uploading videos of these wipeouts to social media.
Here's a look at some of the posts gaining traction.
Some folks are truly savoring the moment, by capturing the fall in slow motion.
There are plenty more where these came from — and undoubtedly more will pop up in the near future. There's now even a Twitter account, @HoverboardFail_ devoted to this new type of terrible spill.
Of course, it's not a laughing matter for many. People are actually winding up in the ER because of injuries sustained from falling off of their shiny new boards.
Hoverboards had their fair share of safety critics well before Christmas. Earlier this month, Amazon and other sites pulled multiple types of the product from their stores after reports of hoverboards bursting into flames surfaced.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission is investigating hoverboards and has issued the following safety tips:
- Do not charge hoverboards overnight because of the lithium-ion batteries
- Wear a helmet, knee pads and elbow pads when using one.
- Report any incidents, whether it's a fire or fall, to saferproducts.gov.
If you are going to hop on a hoverboard anytime soon, take full precautions, and maybe don't let mom or dad try it just yet.
Unless your dad is Marty McFly, then by all means...


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On the morning of October 27, sources said that NetEase Cloud Music is planning to report to the relevant state regulatory authorities complaints South Korea SM company adhere to the exclusive copyright model, refused to open up the music copyright licensing matters, or involved in the use of music copyright to maintain a "two-choice" monopoly state.
Sources said SM ignored the explicit request of Chinese regulators that SM refuse to complete the contract with any platform after the exclusive agreement was legally ordered to be lifted, thereby forcibly continuing a discriminatory music licensing policy and maintaining years of high prepaid profits in China, which is the reason for NetEase's complaint.
As early as 2017, the State Copyright Administration interviewed more than 20 domestic and foreign music companies, the main person in charge, to promote the full authorization of online music, wide dissemination, to avoid granting exclusive copyright to online music service providers.
SM company known as "Asia's first entertainment group", its representative artists are oriental god, girlhood, EXO and so on. In January 2019, Tencent Music exclusively signed SM, bringing together the rights of South Korea's three largest head entertainment companies. In 2018, SM has become one of Tencent's music investors, holding more than 100 million yuan worth of tencent music shares, according to public information.
On July 24th the State Administration of Market Supervision issued a penalty order requiring the companies concerned to lift their exclusive copyrights within 30 days. However, according to the China Youth Daily, the current platform to remove the exclusive copyright of the promotion of the action is relatively limited. After two months of overdue completion of only a small number of exclusive copyright settlement, the domestic music copyright opening process is still facing great obstacles.


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Is it possible to get a burn from the Apple Watch?
The other day the wide resonance was received by history of a Danish citizen, who claimed that the Apple Watch become the culprit of serious burns on his wrist. Because so far such precedents was not observed, the incident immediately caused a lot of issues. What happened actually?
As the victim claimed the publication Ekstra Bladet, watch from Apple is so hot, which burned part of the wrist and a little singed strap — Milanese mesh bracelet. Judging by the nature of the injuries, the case really serious.
But is it really? Western edition vengeance replicate the story with the flow “Apple Watch threat to life”. However, according to the official comment of the company from Cupertino, all of this is a real fake.
As representatives of Apple, they checked the watch Dane and not found any problems that could cause such injury. As for the strap, with traces of burning, experts say that it is the result of external mechanical influences. And Apple Watch has nothing to do with it. In addition, the strap does not have any electronic elements.
If you watch really warmed up to this state, the user would take the time to take them off, and Apple Watch have left a couple of embers. In this case this did not happen.
So if Apple’s Watch and you can get burned only if the pre-heat them on a gas stove.


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Pushchairs, scooters and 16 shopping trollies have been fished out of a Middlesbrough beck.
And Environment Agency officers even pulled a CARPET out of Middle Beck during a clean-up operation.
The monster haul of dumped junk was so big it had caused a blockage which officials feared could lead to flooding.
“I’d urge people to ensure shopping trollies stay where they belong – at the supermarket – and to discard of their rubbish responsibly,” said The Environment Agency’s Andy Foster.
“They are ultimately putting their community at risk of flooding.”
“All this debris creates a blockage which is ultimately deemed a flood risk and can affect local residents.
“Every day we’re out and about ensuring anything which is a potential flood risk is removed and the watercourses are running freely.”
The items were pulled from the river in a 200 yard stretch between Homerton Road, Pallister Park, and the debris screen on July 3.
The team removed the items to ensure the beck was flowing freely.


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Nintendo has revealed its latest installed base figures – and can boast six million Wii sales and a phenomenal 20 million DS sales across Europe.
The platform holder also announced its financials for the year ending December 31st 2007, confirming that it has sold over 20 million Wiis and over 64 million DS consoles worldwide.
As of January 2008, Nintendo’s sales figures, released this morning, are as follows:
European Wii sales (sell-through estimate):
Wii: Over six million units
Wii Play: 2.3 million units
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: 1.3 million units
Mario Party 8: One million units
Super Mario Galaxy: 1.3 million units
European Nintendo DS sales (sell through estimate):
Nintendo DS: 20 million units
Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain?: Five million units
More Brain Training From Dr Kawashima: How Old Is Your Brain?: 2.8 million units
Nintendogs: Eight million units


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Burger King, which was founded in 1953, found itself in the center of a class action lawsuit. The fast food giant was accused of overcharging customers.
Although the chain denies any wrong doing, they settled the lawsuit and are now offering refunds to those customers who were overcharged.
Burger King Corporation shared a press release on Dec. 22, 2017 with details about the settlement and instructions on how to claim a refund.
But the court date won’t be until April 3, 2018 to determine if the settlement was fair in the court’s eyes.
The lawsuit stems from customers who were overcharged while purchasing Croissan’wich breakfast sandwiches using a buy-one-get-one-free coupon. BK was accused of inflating the prices of the sandwiches who were using the coupons in order to make more money.
Koleta Anderson of Maryland first filed the suit in May of 2017. Anderson claims she noticed the pricing discrepancy after using the coupon and was charged $3.19 pre-tax.
But when she purchased the same sandwich without a coupon, her total was only $2.16 pre-tax.
She also claims this happened at several other locations where she attempted the exact same purchases.
The lawyer she hired used an investigator to back Anderson’s claims and came up with the same results. Still, BK denies any wrong doing despite settling the lawsuit.
Because of the settlement, anyone who purchased “purchased two or more modified Croissan’wich breakfast sandwiches (without egg, cheese and/or a meat) from a Burger King restaurant, redeemed a BOGO coupon in connection with the purchase, and paid more than the amount that restaurant was charging at the time for a single, unmodified, higher-priced Croissan’wich” can claim a $5 cash payment or a $2 gift card.
Customers who have receipts of proof of purchase can claim the $5 cash refund for each eligible receipt. A $2 gift card option is offered to those with or without receipts.
A valid claim form must be submitted by Jan. 19, 2018 via the settlement website BK’s law office has set up.
Burger King also stated that employees have “implemented corrective changes at the point of sale.”
It does make you wonder, if BKC claims they did nothing wrong, then what corrective changes did they actually make?
Regardless, the settlement is to right a wrong.
Let’s just hope it doesn’t happen again. I will certainly be checking my receipts more closely going forward, everywhere I dine.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.


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Microsoft Uses Sprint Help to Launch New Windows Phone and 2 Other Dow Movers to Watch
Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT): Current price $31.73
In a Friday debut, Sprint introduced the HTC 8XT Windows phone, which features dual front-facing speakers and Beats Audio software. The camera can take multishot pictures and also adjust for low light, according to PhoneArena.com. The device comes with a 4.3-inch WVGA 480X800 display, 1.4-gigahertz dual-core processor, and 8 gigabytes of built-in storage and a Micro SD slot. With the phone, buyers will gain access to Microsoft professional tools and corporate security features, along with 7 gigabytes of SkyDrive cloud storage. The product is now available on Sprint at $99.99 after a $50 rebate and with a two-year contract, according to The Motley Fool.
Chevron Corp. (NYSE:CVX): Current price $127.12
On Monday, Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. said it released emissions after a division was closed at its Sweeny chemical plant in Texas, according to a filing with state regulators there. The ethylene arm was shut down subsequent to its losing a gas-fired turbine compressor, said the filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE): Current price $29.29
Sources told Bloomberg that Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Novartis AG are among the remaining suitors readying offers for Onyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. after the drugmaker turned aside an unsolicited offer of $120 per share from Amgen Inc. The firms inked confidentiality arrangements and hired advisers and might make first-round bids this week, the sources said. Onyx disclosed in June that it is collaborating with advisers on finding offers after its rejection of Amgen’s bid.
Don’t Miss: Amazon’s Growing Cloud Pressures IBM and Oracle.


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Vancouver’s ban on plastic bags, fee on disposable cups, takes effect Saturday
Consumers will be charged an extra 25 cents for disposable cups, and an extra 15 cents for paper bags or $1 for reusable bags.
Starting Saturday, the cost of a coffee or a trip to the grocery store in Vancouver could cost a little more, as the city aims to cut single-use cups and plastic bags.
Under a new bylaw taking effect Jan. 1, the city is banning the use of plastic shopping bags. Consumers will be charged an extra 25 cents for disposable cups, and an extra 15 cents for paper bags or $1 for reusable bags.
The fees were meant to take effect at the start of 2021, but were postponed amid COVID-19.
Businesses will keep the new fees, and are being urged to reinvest the money to switch to reusable alternatives to single-use items.
The new by-laws are important elements of Vancouver’s strategy to reduce single-use item waste. They’re an addition existing by-laws regarding plastic straws, utensils, and foam containers that went into effect in 2020.
According to the city, people in Vancouver threw out more than 82 million single-use cups and 89 million plastic bags in 2018 alone.
The city estimates the cost to collect and dispose of those items runs at about $2.5 million per year, and says many end up in the landfill.
The move comes as the federal government puts forward its own draft regulations to ban six kinds of “harmful” single-use plastics, including straws, six-pack rings, grocery bags and cutlery. Those rules are expected to come into effect by the end of 2022.
Ontario Provincial Police say 13 snowmobilers have died so far this season -- which runs from November to April -- with many falling through ice.
About one-quarter of Canadians suffer from seasonal allergies, with the hardest-hit provinces being B.C., Ontario and Quebec. The season had a slow start but may soon explode.
Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says up to $1.4B of that money will be used to help provinces and territories expand coverage of new and existing drugs that treat rare diseases.
The farms off B.C.'s coast have been a major flashpoint with environmental groups and some First Nations saying the farms are linked to disease that transfers to wild salmon.
'Worrisome' CDC data was released amid an outbreak of the drug-resistant fungal infection, Candida auris, in U.S. long-term care facilities.
A Hamilton public works staff report reveals the city fixed 277 water main breaks across the city in 2022 with most being the result of ground movement.
Nitroglycerin spray is in short supply across the country due to supply issues with raw materials used to make it as well as an increase in demand.
The report audited displays at more than 2,000 restaurants and 800 stores across Canada and says children may be bombarded with messages that make junk food seem appealing.
The move comes after the company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced it would block news in Canada if the Liberal government's Online News Act passes in its current form.
Monday's vote means the city will now look for an alternate location for the controversial Green Recycling and Organics plant, rather than the proposed Fraser Foreshore Park.
Gestational diabetes is on the rise worldwide, but a new Canadian study said the reason for it may be linked to a change in screening methods.


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The add-on provides coverage for repair or replacement of a traveller’s mobile device if it is lost, stolen, or accidentally damaged during their trip.
“We know how indispensable devices like cell phones and tablets have become in nearly every phase of travel: housing boarding passes and tickets, communicating with friends and family, and documenting your travels while abroad," said Amanda Winkle, IMG Chief Commercial Officer. “By partnering with bolt to offer Mobile Device Protection, we are taking another step toward our goal of providing products and services that meet nearly every traveller and expatriate need while away from home.”
If a traveller’s mobile device is damaged while travelling, such as a broken screen or internal overheating, they can quickly and easily get reconnected to their digital life through an integrated claims process. Bolt will help get the device repaired, provide a cash settlement for the replacement cost of the device, or replace the phone.
IMG plans to offer the optional Mobile Device Protection add-on with more of its insurance products in the future.


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Shoppers at Mall of the Emirates will have 40 more luxury stores to peruse from September 1 when it opens a 10,500 square metre extension. Construction on the new wing, built at a cost of just under Dh500 million (US$136.1m), is complete but the retailers are fitting out the new shops, said Shahram Shamsaee, the senior vice president of retail for the developer Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Shopping Malls.
The extension is the latest in a wave of new retail space in Dubai after the opening of major shopping centres such as Dubai Mall and Mirdif City Centre in the past two years. The large supply has resulted in a drop in the average cost of renting new shop space in Dubai, analysts say. Still, Mr Shamsaee said Mall of the Emirates continued to see a steady stream of visitors, along with retailers who want to rent space in the mall. "If we could build that extension three times its current size, it would probably have been taken up by retailers within four weeks," he said. "The demand for space in Mall of the Emirates is by far ahead of any centre in MENA."
Customer traffic at Mall of the Emirates is "slightly up" on last year, said Mr Shamsaee. By the end of the year, he expects footfall to be between 3 and 5 per cent ahead of last year's figures, which were on par with that of the retail boom in 2008. "The centre was going through some major construction of the extension, which can sometimes put some customers off," he said. "To have [that] sort of challenging business environment and construction … it's incredible to be able to generate footfall and returns."
The new extension has been designed in the style of the existing mall, Mr Shamsaee said. After the new wing opens, MAF intends to revamp its food and beverage sections in the mall by removing outdated brands and replacing them with new restaurants, he said. Mall of the Emirates has 466 stores across 220,000 sq metres, as well as Ski Dubai, the Middle East's first indoor ski resort and snow park. email@example.com


text: Kelme concluded a successful business year in 2010, with a 35 percent increase in sales to €12 million. The company company would like to increase sales by another 30 percent this year to a total of €16 million. In the first quarter of 2011, total sales were about €4 million. As part of its international expansion, the company finalized new cooperation deals with retailers in Portugal, Brazil and the U.S. in the first half of this year. The company is also aiming to find new distributors in China, Indonesia, Taiwan and India. Additionally, Kelme is promoting the brand's diversification outside football. It is launching a new line of running shoes for the spring/summer 2012 season. Kelme has also introduced a new product line for the paddle tennis segment, comprising shoes and clothing. More fashionable products have been introduced for the current season, and the Spanish company is marketing heavily its new co-branded line of Michelin shoes.


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Loadshedding will be suspended at 5 am on Saturday morning amid buckling generation capacity Eskom has said. Eskom said load shedding will be suspended…
A lot has happened in the gaming world over the last few days. This weekend saw thousands of night elves, orcs, ogres, paladins and the lot descend on Anaheim, California.
From Warcraft, StarCraft 2 and Blizzard’s new franchise to Hearthstone and freakin’ Metallica, we wrapped up some of the best news BlizzCon 2014 for you below.
StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void got unleashed
As the case is every year at BlizzCon, a new addition to the epic StarCraft 2 Real-Time Strategy franchise was introduced.
While the previous two StarCraft 2 editions gave you control of the Terran and the Zerg, Legacy of the Void — as you can guess — puts you in the Zealot boots of the Protoss.
IGN calls it a play on Battlestar Galactica, and the game features 20 new missions with Artanis from the Templar Caste as the main character.
Interesting times indeed.
Overwatch, Blizzard’s new game was debuted
The so-called Project Titan which Blizzard was busy with since 2007 — and called quits a few months ago — is actually called Overwatch and looks very very interesting.
Blizzard released two trailers, including gameplay, and allowed attendees to get an exclusive hands-on. While it looks very Pixar-esque, early feedback sounds great.
The First Person Shooter MMO is a fantasy take on Valve’s Team Fortress 2.
The 6v6 shooter features (you’d guess) 12 bad-ass heroes from categories such as Offense, Defense, Tank, and Support. Take a look:
We need to hold on to our seats for this one, though Blizzard said it will release it in 2015, with early beta sign-ups on their way.
Someone played Hearthstone and won US$100 000
Blizzard is extremely instrumental in making eSports a big deal. Besides Call of Duty, Dota 2 and League of Legends, StarCraft 2, and more recently the virtual turn-based card game Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft are two of the world’s most popular titles.
Speaking of Hearthstone, the Hearthstone World Championship saw US player Firebat walk away with US$100 000 (R1-million!) after defeating Chinese player Tiddler Celestial with his Druid. Tiddler won US$50 000 (half-a-million Rand). Well done, guys!
Hearthstone South Africa, anyone?
There are new Goblins vs Gnomes cards
The Hearthstone expansion will see the addition of 120 new cards most of them centered around Goblins vs. Gnomes.
The expansion includes new cards like the Exploding Sheep (yay!), and a new card type, called Mech, which essentially beefs up your minions.
Goblins vs. Gnomes will be released in December together with a snazzy spectator mode.
Watch the trailer so long:
Blizzard denounced Haters
Following the gaming slash culture controversy that includes everything and everything from GamersGate to Swatting, Blizzard says that we should stop hating and be all about the good vibes instead.
Read more: Swatting: the prank-call, evolved
This message was made clear from the start of the convention when Blizzard CEO and Founder Mike Morhaime denounced hate and harassment in the gaming community. He said:
Over the past couple of months, there’s been a small group of people who have been doing really awful things. They have been making some people’s lives miserable, and they are tarnishing our reputation as gamers. It’s not right.
“Let’s carry the good vibes from this weekend out into the world all year round,” he added.
What a guy.
Heroes of the Storm detailed
Blizzard gave up some more details about Heroes of the Storm — its first entry into the MOBA arena.
The Dota-like game will feature heroes from Blizzard’s many franchises such as Thrall, Kerrigan, Diablo, Arthas and Zeratul. As well as Jaina Proudmoore and Sylvanas Windrunner.
Here’s its latest trailer:
More Warcraft movie deets
Blizzard divulged the cast of the upcoming fantasy adventure World of Warcraft film. And what a cast it is.
First off, what better name to have in a stand-off between of humans and orcs than Travis Fimmel, who plays Ragnar Lothbrok in the Vikings TV series. He will be playing Lothar from the Alliance.
Furthermore, Ben Foster (The Messenger, Lone Survivor) will play Medivh. Paula Patton (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) will play an orc named Garona, Toby Kebbel (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) to play Durotan, the orc Chieftain of the the Frostwolf clan, and then Clancy Brown (Starship Troopers, The Shawshank Redemption) will play Blackhand, who’s the Horde’s greatest Warchief.
For the full cast list click here.
World of Warcraft expansion coming in strong
The horde is coming — and with that — the latest expansion to arguably the world’s most popular MMO, World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor, is coming within the next week.
Set after the events of Mists of Pandaria, the latest expansion is set in Draenor, the original homeland of the orcs. Its dark, and will feature some of the epic characters from the Warcraft series such as Grom Hellscream, Ner’zhul, Gul’dan, and Blackhand.
Metallica jammed and rocked, like always
Now this is bad-ass.
In an effort to celebrate fantasy gamer geeks’ annual hangout Blizzard had the legendary metal band, Metallica, perform.
If you didn’t find yourself at the event, then you could have opted for virtual tickets. Or, if you didn’t have the time or money, you can just watch it right here, in Full HD:
Feature image via Continue Play.


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Hasbro Names Chairman
Published: July 7, 1989
Hasbro Inc., the toy company, said yesterday that it had named Alan G. Hassenfeld its chairman and chief executive.
He succeeds his brother, Stephen D. Hassenfeld, who died on June 25.
Alan Hassenfeld, who had been president, will retain the title. ''I intend to build upon the foundation that has made Hasbro the pre-eminent company in the toy industry,'' he said.
The company, based in Pawtucket, R.I., makes G.I. Joe action toys, Milton Bradley games and Playskool products, among others.


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Current Chiliz (CHZ) price surge attributed to the launch of live in-game NFTs and rapidly growing ecosystem
Chiliz (CHZ) is the blockchain network behind the Socios.com fan engagement platform, which is focused on the world of sports by helping fans interact with their favorite teams and players.
Data shows that between September 29th and October 31st the price of CHZ spiked 171% with recent developments including the launch of live-in game NFTs pushing the price back towards the swing high.
Live in-game NFTs
Chiliz’s first live in-game NFTs were airdropped for a match between A.C Milan and A.S. Roma that was played on October 29.
The live in-game NFTs are minted as the game proceeds and they are based on key moments in the live matches as they happen and they are dropped in the wallet of the fans that correctly predict the outcome of the game.
The announcement of this new method of distributing NFTs has gathered a lot of traction among fans and the demand for the tokens has continued to rise over the weeks after the live-in game NFTs were launched.
Listing of the in-game NFT tokens builds momentum for CHZ token
The minted in-game NFTs by Chiliz are being listed by Binance resulting in a build-up of CHZ token momentum.
Examples of fan tokens minted on Chiliz and listed on Binance include the ManCity Fan token ($CITY).
Introducing Manchester City @ManCity Fan Token $CITY on Binance Launchpool! Farm $CITY by Staking #BNB, $CHZ and $BUSD Tokens
➡ https://t.co/LvGgKeympQ pic.twitter.com/4V5OP63GFS
— Binance (@binance) November 10, 2021
Fans can earn fan tokens like $CITY listed on Binance by staking BNB, CHZ, and BUSD tokens.
Other exchanges like OKEx have also shown interest in listing the Chiliz minted fan tokens and it could be a matter of time before it starts listing the tokens.
Besides the in-game NFTs (fan tokens), the Chiliz ecosystem has also seen a rapid expansion in the last few months through partnerships with several sports and entertainment companies.
The most recent partnership is the partnership with Kraft Sports and Entertainment that will enable the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL) and the New England Revolution of the Major League Soccer to join the Chiliz and Socios ecosystem.


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The good, the bad and the ugly. The weird and the wacky. As is the That’s tradition, we’ve compiled our 2019 China Year in Review series. So sit back, relax and relive the highs and lows of the last 12 months.
Image via Zara
A promotion for Zara’s new line of lipsticks caused a controversy in February. The series of close-ups of model Li Jingwen’s natural look aimed to emphasize the lipstick, but it was her freckles which drew the attention – and ire – of Chinese netizens. While some saw them as a deliberate attempt to make Asian women look ugly, others applauded the authenticity showcased in these photos, adding that Li’s freckles are actually quite cute.
Image via Sina Fashion @新浪时尚/Weibo
Another hot scandal this year involved several designer brands: Versace, Coach and Givenchy all went viral on Weibo after releasing similar T-shirts with offensive design errors that undermined the ‘One China’ policy.
Image via @艺术馆儿/Weibo
Earlier this year, Uniqlo released a collection with American artist and designer Kaws, and as expected, Chinese shoppers went bonkers. Another cool team-up came from candy brand White Rabbit and perfume creators Scent Library, who debuted an entire line of sweet skincare products.
Image via @vainiuspetkevicius/Instagram
This summer, Jinan authorities began cracking down on the trending phenomenon of the ‘Beijing bikini,’ where men roll up their T-shirts to expose their bellies, citing that it was uncivilized to the point of lowering the image of the city.
Image via @WhiteBazaar白集/Weibo
Vogue came under fire in March after posting a picture of Gao Qizhen, a Shanghai-born model whose looks challenge the conventional standards of beauty, on Instagram. One popular fashion blog on WeChat, called Shiliupo Baogao, wrote that netizens were up in arms over Western fashion brands ‘uglifying’ Chinese people through ‘beauty bullying,’ a form of discrimination where Westerners inflict their own ideas of beauty onto Chinese people.
Image via @badgalriri/Instagram
Riri fans were blessed when Fenty Beauty dropped in September, hitting the shelves of various stores across Hong Kong, Macao and South Korea, also available online at Tmall Global. The wildly popular cosmetics line has been praised for its inclusivity of a wide range of skin tones, which can be summed up by the brand’s motto, ‘Beauty for All.’
7. Dazed Gets a China Edition
Image via @dazedchina/Instagram
British style and culture publication Dazed partnered with Nanjing-based streetwear guru and media platform Yoho! to launch a Chinese edition of the influential magazine. Dazed China spotlights the cultural exchange between the two indie content creators and China’s young trendsetters.
Image via Wikimedia
Earlier this year, Forever 21’s Chinese website announced that the retailer would be ceasing its online operations. Shortly after, Tmall and JD.com released statements that the affordable, trend-savvy clothing store would also be taken off their respective platforms. Additionally, Forever 21 had already closed several of its stores in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Hangzhou.
Image via Xiaohongshu
In 2018, Kim Kardashian West quite literally bared all for her new fragrance line. The perfume bottle for KKW Body certainly doesn’t leave much to the imagination, as it is a mold of her body. This year, Chinese beauty bloggers had a bit of fun with the bottle on social media and e-commerce site Xiaohongshu. The fashion KOLs covered up the cheeky bottles, adorning them with ribbons and other textiles.
For more 2019 Year in Review coverage, click here.


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Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Anton Vaino, First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov, Presidential Aide Maxim Oreshkin, Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov, Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov, and Central Bank Governor Elvira Nabiullina.
* * *
The President’s opening remarks
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon.
Today’s agenda includes a review of the current economic situation in Russia and its main trends. We will discuss what additional measures are needed in the current environment to support Russian businesses, manufacturers, industries and, of course, people.
It is obvious that the pressure from sanctions, yet more pressure from sanctions imposed by Western countries has been the main negative factor for the economy lately. They expected еру sanctions to rapidly produce a devastating effect on Russia’s finances and economy, sow panic in the markets, bring about a collapse in the banking system and create major shortages of goods in shops.
However, we can already say in all confidence that this policy has failed in Russia. The strategy of unleashing an economic blitzkrieg has been ineffective. Moreover, the sanctions affected those who initiated them. I am referring to higher inflation and unemployment and the worsening economic outlook for the United States and European countries, as well as the declining living standards of Europeans and the depreciation of their savings.
As I have already said, Russia has been able to withstand this unprecedented pressure. The situation is getting back to normal with the ruble recovering to where it was in the first half of February, which is attributable to a robust trade surplus, which is an objective reality. In the first quarter, the current account surplus exceeded $58 billion, setting a historical high. Foreign cash is returning to the banking sector and household deposits are growing.
As for the consumer market, retail demand has stabilised after a brief period of panic buying, which does happen in situations like this. Retail chains are restocking their supplies.
Let me note that we were right to refrain from shifting market regulation into a manual, artificial mode. Instead, we gave businesses the liberty to come up with appropriate and effective solutions. These decisions enabled us to keep retail chain supplies flowing and ensure the availability of essential goods in the shops.
I would like to say a few words about the inflation rate. It is stabilising now, but nevertheless you and I know very well that consumer prices have grown considerably in Russia over the past six weeks, by 9.4 percent, which means that yearend inflation as of April 8 was 17.5 percent.
Our colleagues in the Government and the Central Bank should know that we are fully aware of what is happening: the inflation rate is very high. People have felt the impact on their family incomes, they notice how prices have risen, and we must help our citizens deal with this wave of inflation.
In this context, I would like to remind you that a decision has been taken to adjust all social benefits, pensions and wages in the public sector, in accordance with inflation. The parameters of this adjustment are to be prepared by the Government.
Of course, the main condition for a real increase in our citizens’ incomes is the creation of new and well-paid jobs, the acceleration of the economic growth rate, and the development of industry and other sectors.
Overall, the current situation is stable in this regard, as we can see from the electricity production index. This indicator is very good, which points to the dynamic development of the economy. And the number of registered unemployed is relatively low.
We certainly need to constantly monitor the situation in the economy and the employment market and, in general, we need to keep abreast of the developments, as well as take prompt decisions to ensure the stable and confident operation of our businesses and entrepreneurs. Thus far, the Government and the Central Bank have been doing this successfully.
Today I would like to ask our colleagues from the Central Bank and the Government to tell us about their vision for the development of the national economy and the measures we must take to prevent a potentially adverse situation in the economy and setbacks for Russian companies, enterprises and citizens.
Before we move on to the agenda, I would like to mention the issues that I would like to pay particular attention to today.
The first is foreign trade. The restrictions against Russia imposed by unfriendly countries have affected Russian businesses, and, of course, complicated the logistics of exports and imports and created obstacles to making settlements.
It is necessary to provide entrepreneurs with as much assistance as possible in dealing with these issues, including speeding up the transition of foreign trade to rubles and the national currencies of countries that are Russia’s reliable business partners. I want to emphasise that in the new, changed environment, we need to do this much faster. I would like you to report today on how this work is being organised and what results you plan to achieve.
Second, it is crucially important to support domestic demand and prevent it from shrinking. It is necessary to act both through the budgetary system and to provide businesses with greater access to loans. This is the responsibility of the Central Bank. The bank has already begun lowering the interest rate, which will reduce the future cost of loans in the economy.
As for the budget, I know about the discussions between the Central Bank and the Government, taking place amid a fall in lending; nevertheless, the budget definitely should actively support the economy, fill it with financial resources, maintain its liquidity. We have the capacity for that. Of course, one needs to act with caution; the Minister and I constantly discuss this.
Nevertheless, in the first quarter of this year we are witnessing a record level of budget surplus. We require additional solutions here, and they have to be implemented when the economy needs them the most. It is necessary to be cautious, and as I see it, the key condition is that the financial system remains stable at the federal and regional levels. What is our current surplus? I believe it is some 1.1 trillion rubles, and the total surplus in the regions is about 0.9 trillion rubles.
So, I suggest we discuss the budget policy in detail today.
Let us begin. Ms Nabiullina, please, you have the floor.


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This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
Agriculture Secretary William Dar said in a press briefing on Monday, November 4, that illegal shipments seized by authorities at the Port of Manila last October were a clear indication that the virus originated from China.
Last month, shipments from China were declared as tomato paste and vermicelli, but were later discovered to be pork upon physical inspection. Tests then confirmed that the meat was positive for ASF.
Dar went on to say that these products were likely dumped in Rodriguez, Rizal, where local hog raisers fed the infected meat to pigs. (WATCH: Rappler Talk: Dealing with the African swine fever outbreak)
China’s swine herd is down by about 40%, and the shortage has caused prices to soar.
The shortage is being exacerbated by stuttering imports from the United States due to the lingering trade war.
A Rabobank report warned China could lose 200 million pigs during the epidemic, with some farmers fearing that the figures are actually much higher.
Philippine authorities previously said that canned and processed meat from overseas Filipino workers who went home as well as hotel food waste were the causes of the outbreak. Officials did not categorically name countries then.
Government agencies are now eyeing pressing charges against traders. Smuggling probes are within the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Customs. – Rappler.com
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The Bradford-based business, owned by the Tordoff family, reported strong demand across all its brands, which range from Aston Martin to Vauxhall.
John Tordoff, chief executive, said: “We’ve had a great start to 2014 after seeing an encouraging recovery last year with our best-ever September and it’s fantastic that the upturn in consumer confidence is building.
“There’s no doubt that as the economy continues to recover, there is a pent-up consumer demand with customers who had delayed changing their car now deciding that the time is right.”
JCT600 announced the acquisition of Sheffield-based Gilder Group from its outgoing chief executive Garry Scotting in March 2013 for an undisclosed eight-figure sum.
The deal included nine of Gilder Group’s car and commercial vehicle dealerships, two parts depots and a body shop.
The Competition Commission cleared the deal in September.
The acquisition of the Gilder Group is expected to take sales towards the £900m mark, making JCT600 the region’s biggest family-owned business by some margin.
JCT600 has 47 dealerships and 1,800 staff.


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Hong Kong was slow off the fintech starting block, but with government support has made up for lost time. The smart money is on the Greater Bay Area (GBA) initiative, which stands to escalate recent fintech developments.
By: Kate Whitehead
Simon Loong CPA, founder and CEO of WeLab
, was one of Hong Kong’s early adopters. He had 15 years in retail banking behind him when he decided to leave Standard Chartered Bank to set up a fintech company in January 2013.
“When I told my colleagues that I was starting a fintech company they were shocked: they’d never heard of the term,” Loong recalls.
“Six years on and most banks have fintech products. We’ve really seen the ecosystem develop across different categories of fintech.”
In March 2016, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority established a Fintech Facilitation Office (FFO) to help promote fintech in the territory. In February 2018, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan said the government would allocate HK$500 million over the next five years to support its financial services industry, including the development of fintech.
“Some people say that Hong Kong has been lagging behind, but the government has been doing a lot of things and we are now picking up momentum,” says Stanley Sum, director of KPMG China’s CIO advisory practice.
Hong Kong’s longstanding rival, Singapore, was quick to see the potential of fintech and began investing five or six years ahead of Hong Kong, Sum says. It has made good headway with fintech initiatives such as real-time payment platforms. Hong Kong has since overtaken Singapore, but it’s still no match for mainland China.
“The mainland has virtual banks, is almost a cashless society and has really innovative products,” Sum says. “They are far ahead of us and give the impression that Hong Kong is lagging.”
Regardless, Hong Kong can learn from first movers and draw on its expertise as a financial hub.
“We don’t have as many tech people as Shenzhen [in southern China], but we have lots of investors to support the ecosystem and a well-established infrastructure with banks operating on an international scale with a mature securities market,” Sum maintains.
“There is a strong base for creating different use cases for trying different propositions.”
In the past year, Hong Kong has launched new fintech initiatives, from a fast payment system to a clearing network that allows funds to be cleared instantly. The introduction of a virtual bank licence received international attention and Loong’s WeLab was among the first to apply for it.
“Only through having this government support and policy can we encourage more talent to join to make [Hong Kong] more developed and mature,” Loong says.
“Top players in the world are coming to Hong Kong to be part of the virtual bank.”
Having operated fintech companies in Hong Kong, mainland China and Indonesia, Loong says he’s in a good position to judge the Hong Kong Government’s measures and says the city’s regulators are very supportive.
Much of Hong Kong business is now focused on the GBA (Greater Bay Area) initiative, which aims to integrate Hong Kong, Macau and nine cities in Guangdong province to develop the region and expand regional cooperation and growth. Fintech is no different. Sum says it offers a huge opportunity for Hong Kong fintech firms and on a massive scale.
“I foresee a lot of need and new expectations in the fintech services industry – for example, handling cross-border payments and helping companies run operations from a treasury perspective,” Sum says. “There are opportunities not just [for] traditional banks but also fintech companies.”
Another advantage of the GBA initiative is that it will encourage a flow of people and capital around the region, which is expected to drive collaboration. This could be particularly good for Hong Kong, which is short on fintech talent.
“Hong Kong is a financial hub and has that talent, and Shenzhen is a tech hub with tech talent – it’s [about] how we enable collaboration,” Sum continues. “From what I’ve seen in the market, there is a strong need for fintech talent in Hong Kong.”
Savvy Hong Kong fintech firms might be eyeing the GBA, but Loong says it’s important to recognise that the Hong Kong and China markets are very different. WeLab has been ranked by Deloitte as the fastest growing tech company by revenue in Hong Kong and fourth in China. One of biggest hurdles with China was coming to terms with the fact that consumer behaviour is very different.
“Being able to adapt quickly and in an agile fashion is very important [in China],” Loong says. “We run a completely different marketing and branding team in Hong Kong and China [because] having that awareness is important.”
Finance professionals: disrupt or be disrupted


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Triton EV issues Rs 8,060 cr LoI to Bharat Electronics for purchase of battery packs
"Triton Electric Vehicle India Pvt Ltd, a part of Triton Electric Vehicle LLC, USA today issued a letter of intent to Navaratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics for procurement of 300 KW Li-Ion battery packs for its semi-truck project in India at an estimated value of Rs 8,060 crore," the filing said.
New Delhi: Electric vehicle maker Triton Electric India has issued a letter of intent to defence public sector unit Bharat Electronics for the procurement of battery packs for its semi-truck project in India at an estimated value of Rs 8,060 crore, according to a regulatory filing. The 300 kilowatt lithium-ion battery packs are to be delivered by Bharat Electronics (BEL) to Triton in 24 months commencing from January 2023, the filing stated.
"The purchase order for first-off quantity with 100 per cent advance payment has been handed over to BEL by Triton. BEL will deliver the first-off quantity by November 2022. The battery packs will be manufactured at the Pune unit of BEL," the filing said.
BEL has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Triton Electric Vehicle for manufacture of Hydrogen Fuel Cells by BEL with technology transfer from TEV to meet the requirements of the Indian market and mutually agreed export markets.
TEV has set up its R&D centre and manufacturing facility in India. It has recently forayed into Hydrogen-run vehicles and started the journey of manufacturing Hydrogen-run two-wheelers, three-wheelers and buses.
"The MoU aims at tapping the demand for clean energy solutions for various applications including E-Mobility by leveraging government of India's thrust for adoption of clean energy fuels for applications in transport, energy storage etc," the filing said.
The deal — part of a plan in which billionaire Gautam Adani’s clean energy business would have invested $50 billion over the next decade in the emissions-free fuel — remains in limbo, a victim of Hindenburg Research’s explosive short-seller report.
The review is part of an annual exercise undertaken by lenders to evaluate the company's operations and assign capital on the loans. Lenders have progressively increased AEL's loan limits but this is an exceptional year since the group is reassessing funding needs.


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Fresh produce a draw at Farmer’s Market
The Farmer’s Market at Cape Harbour kicked off Saturday, featuring everything from fruits, vegetables and breads, to seafood and desserts.
The event, now entering its fourth year, will be held from 8 a.m.-noon every Saturday until October. The seasonal market offers food and plant vendors, as well as booths with artwork and homemade items, like soaps and peanut butter. On Saturday morning, the first event of the season, Stephen Scott was working a booth for C & J’s Produce.
“It’s a good place, good business,” he said of the market, adding that the customers are nice.
The company serves up a wide variety of produce, from berries to brussel spouts, which it purchases from local vendors, from Ruskin to Lee County to Immokalee. Saturday’s brussel spouts came from North Fort Myers.
“Every weekend it’s all fresh produce,” Scott said.
He added that the top sellers are typically tomatoes and fruit.
Two shoppers browsing the tables Saturday were Doug and Linda Fuller. Owners of a vacation home in the Cape, the couple are repeat visitors to the event, where they have access to local produce that normally is not available until August in their home state of Nebraska.
“Just because you can get all these fresh fruits and vegetables,” Linda Fuller said of why they drop by.
Having picked up some vegetables and bread, she explained that they prefer the market to the grocery store.
“It’s fresher and locally grown,” Fuller said.
Asked how the start of the season compared to prior years, Doug Fuller said there seemed to be more vendors.
“It’s pretty good,” he added.
Cape resident Fran Ribeca also stopped by the market Saturday morning. Ribeca uses the event as an opportunity to get her and the dog out for some fresh air and pick up any needed groceries. She said she usually picks up some tomatoes, onions, peaches and bread, and maybe swings by the pet table if it is set up to grab a treat for the dog.
“It seems kind of small, but it has everything you’re looking for,” she said.
Ribeca also prefers market produce over the grocery store stuff.
“I think they’re less expensive and they haven’t been sitting for a long time,” she said.
In addition to the Farmer’s Market, the merchants at Cape Harbour have their doors open for shoppers.
Cape Harbour is at 5848 Cape Harbour Drive. For more information, call 945-6116 or visit: www.capeharbour.com.


text: New York—Google is still the dominant search engine by a wide margin, according to Hitwise, which released search engine market share data Wednesday. The top three search engines—Google, Yahoo! Search and MSN Search—accounted for 93.5% of U.S. searches in July. Google garnered 59.2% of searches. Yahoo! Search and MSN search captured 28.8% and 5.5% shares, respectively, in July.


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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A man is accused of stealing more than $200,000 worth of jewelry from several Kentucky stores, including some in the Louisville area.
According to a report by LEX18, Michael Reed was arrested Saturday by the Georgetown Police Department. He's charged with theft by unlawful taking or disposition of all others $10,000 or more and possession of burglary tools.
In a Facebook post, police said Reed has been involved in jewelry thefts at Kohl's and similar stores in Louisville, Lexington and Richmond.
The estimated loss from the stores that have been hit in this chain of thefts is believed to more than $200,000.
Reed is currently being lodged in the Scott County Detention Center.
Copyright 2021 WDRB Media. All Rights Reserved.


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Give a Little, Get a Lot More at Christmas
Prince George, B.C. – The Northern Sport Centre (NSC) kicked off its annual Give a Little, Get a Lot holiday campaign at the Parkwood Save-On-Foods this afternoon.
Since the campaign started in 2009, it has raised much needed non-perishable food items and clothing for the Salvation Army, NUGSS Food Bank and the UNBC Women’s Shelter.
This year $2,500 has been donated by individuals and businesses which were put towards a mass grocery shop today.
Surjit Minhas was on hand after getting the ball rolling with a $500 donation of his own.
“My motto is the purpose of life is life with a purpose,” he said. “And that purpose is live for others, we cannot help everyone in this world but everyone can help someone.”
Afterwards, PG Motors supplied a couple of vehicles to deliver the food to its proper destinations.
“You can’t step away from something like this,” said Ron Gallo. “You get asked to help out with families that are in need at this time of the year and you do what you can.”
Other donors for the event included Save-On-Foods ($500), NSC ($500), and Shawn Stewart ($1,000).


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As Valentine’s Day on February 14 approaches, gift shops in the Mansheya area of Alexandria prepared themselves for the occasion with roses, hearts, red lips and flowers amid soaring prices compared to previous years.
Teddy bears now range between LE90 and over LE400, depending on color and size, while doll prices reached LE150.
Gift shop owner Mohamed Nour explained: “Prices are high this year, compared to last year, due to the high price of raw materials used in the industry, in addition to creating new gifts such as letters made of orchid wood.”
Employee Mamdouh Zayed said “I am eager to buy Valentine’s Day gifts for my wife, but prices during the current year are very high.”
Pointing out how even teddy bears can cost over LE400, Zayed said that the price of a whole gift after packaging and adding flowers could surpass LE1,000, which he cannot afford.
Another employee, Sayed Abdel Ghaffar, feared that the soaring prices of Valentine’s Day gifts would harm the market due to weak purchasing power and citizens preferring to buy necessary goods instead.
He lamented as to how gifts once priced at LE100 are now at LE400.
Student Mohamed Muhareb suggested that these useless and expensive gifts should just be replaced with red roses, which symbolize love – the entire purpose of the occasion.
Egypt also celebrates its own variation of Valentine’s Day on November 4.
On November 4, 1988, journalist Mostafa Amin published a suggestion sent to him by some of his readers to specify what Egypt’s Valentine’s Day should be, so that same day was set to celebrate the occasion.
The historical origin of Valentine’s Day dates back to an event that occurred in the third century AD, when Christianity was yet blooming. The Roman Empire under Emperor Clydes II banned soldiers from marriage so they would not be distracted.
Saint Valentine confronted this ruling and held the marriages of young couples secretly until he was discovered and sentenced to death on February 14, 269 AD.
Other tales have the saint being adored by a large number of women, which led to his execution.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm


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Tesla announced at its annual meeting yesterday that it would in fact move its headquarters to Austin, Texas, from Fremont, California. While CEO Elon Musk pointed out that operations in Texas and California were both continuing to grow, he named the lower cost of living for employees in Texas as one of the reasons for the move. Musk himself had relocated to Texas in December. The state is also home to a launch site of one of Musk’s other companies, Space X.
Numbers recently released by Tesla show that the company is in fact ramping up its output massively. Having shot for the moon with its goal to deliver 500,000 vehicles in 2020, Tesla nearly stuck the landing, missing its target by just 450 cars. This year, the electric car maker will surpass that milestone by far, with deliveries in the first nine months of 2021 already exceeding 627,000. Having delivered more than 200,000 cars for the first time in the quarter ending June 30, Q3 deliveries were even more substantial at more than 240,000 vehicles shipped.
When the first Model 3 rolled of the assembly line in July 2017, Tesla had delivered just 183,000 cars in the preceding five years – a number that some of the larger car manufacturers in the world match in a week. The affordable Model 3, marketed as the first mass-market Tesla, was supposed to change that and bring Tesla one step closer to reaching its goal of “accelerating the advent of sustainable transport by bringing compelling mass market electric cars to market”.
And while it took the company nearly three years to make good on its original promise of offering a version of the Model 3 for as little as $35,000, the production ramp-up following the Model 3’s launch in 2017 has been quite impressive.
This chart shows Tesla’s annual vehicle deliveries since 2012.


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While we're all just making random speculation on the next Corvette, here's a new theory. Zero proof, but lots of logic.
At last year's Geneva Motor Show we got our first glimpse of the Spyker C8 Aileron, the stretched and stiffened coupe that could replace the C8 Laviolette later this year. In keeping with its promise to deliver a production version of the C8 Aileron in 2009, Spkyer has released a teaser of its newest hypercar ahead of its reveal in Geneva next month.
It was simply a matter of time before the financial stresses ailing Spyker would filter their way down to product. The result is the unceremonious execution of the stillborn C12 LaTurbie and the Zagato edition. Killing off those two models enables Spyker to put more of its limited resources into two remaining models, the C8 and the upcoming Super Sport Utility Vehicle D12.
As if there hasn't been enough Paris Hilton in our lives, now she's going to be competing in this year's Bullrun behind the wheel of a Spyker C8 Spyder. Bullrun, an eight-day rally and traveling fiesta,, will be running from Montreal to Key West starting on May 11. Paris was part of the 2004 rally (which, of course, she did not win) so she does have some experience with how the competition works.
Citroën announced yesterday that it was introducing two new diesel engines into its C8 people carrier vehicles. The C8 MPVs are already often powered by diesel engines, so this isn't exactly groundbreaking news, but it is good to hear that these new powerplants will be Euro IV compliant (they will emit less than 190g of CO2 per kilometer) and capable of running on up to 30 percent biodiesel. Citroën says the "range-topping 136hp 2.0HDi 16V unit returns 40 mpg on the combined cycle, CO2
- Biggest automotive sales disappointments
- Fastest-depreciating cars in the United States
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The move, which comes as Toshiba gets serious about restructuring after a damaging accounting scandal, would cede some of its production facilities in the southern Japanese city of Oita. Sony would gain an even firmer position as global leader in image sensors used in smartphones and other camera-equipped electronics.
Semiconductors make up the core of Toshiba's electronic devices and components segment, which generated a quarter of the group's 6.65 trillion yen in fiscal 2014 revenue. But nearly all of this segment's profit comes from NAND flash memory. Neither the category known as system LSI -- which includes image sensors -- nor discrete semiconductors have contributed much to earnings.
Improper accounting methods made these and other product lines, including appliances and personal computers, seem more profitable than they are, delaying structural reforms.
Negotiations on the sale have reached an advanced stage. Toshiba is looking to divest its newest production facility in Oita, which can handle 300mm wafers. Its products include CMOS -- complementary metal-oxide semiconductor -- sensors, an area in which Sony excels. Besides production equipment, Sony would take over some employees as well as customer accounts, which include automakers and camera manufacturers.
Toshiba would in effect withdraw from the image sensor market and concentrate its semiconductor investment on its more competitive memory business. It plans to begin mass-producing expanded-capacity NAND flash memory in Yokkaichi, near Nagoya, in the first quarter of 2016. President Masashi Muromachi had hinted that the system LSI and discrete semiconductor businesses would be the first to undergo restructuring once a new management team took over in late September.
Sony would use the acquisition to expand its CMOS sensor production capacity. This past summer, the company announced plans to channel the bulk of about 420 billion yen in equity and debt financing into production as well as research and development of these components.
Sony announced plans early this year to increase monthly output by about 30% by September 2016. It is readying for an anticipated surge in demand for image sensors as two-camera phones catch on.
Toshiba's global market share in CMOS sensors came to just 1.9% last year, compared with 40.3% for Sony, according to Tokyo-based Techno Systems Research. Sony's investments in this business will help it fend off rising competition from Samsung Electronics.


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The EDB entered into a Letter of Understanding (LoU) with the PUM Netherlands Senior Experts with a view to supporting particularly export oriented Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by obtaining services of PUM experts from mainly Europe in the areas of technology transfer, process improvement, product development, capacity building and training needs.
PUM Netherlands Senior Experts, Head Quartered in The Netherlands is a non-profit organization which has been advising businesses in developing countries for almost 40 years. The renewed partnership of EDB and the PUM Netherlands will accrue many benefits to Sri Lankan SMEs. Mr. Cess Van Dijl, PUM Expert signed the LoU on behalf of the PUM Netherlands while Mrs. Indira Malwatte, Chairperson & Chief Executive of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board signed on behalf of the EDB.
This facility will provide PUM assistance for the needs of the export industry at sectoral level and enterprise level to increase Sri Lanka’s exports. EDB invites Product Associations, Exporters and Potential Exporters to send their proposals to the EDB enabling as their designated partner to channel those to PUM Netherlands to obtain suitable PUM Senior Experts.
PUM Netherlands has assisted many export oriented sectors and enterprises through the National Coordinator based in Colombo. One among the beneficiary sectors is the packaging industry in 2014 for 07 companies and in 2016 for 06 companies where experts of PUM Netherlands has immensely contributed for upgrading of the industry. Also, the services of an expert to the floriculture sector was provided through the EDB following which individual companies are being directly assisted by the expert. The unique feature under this scheme is that the government of Netherlands meets the expenses of travel of the expert while the Sri Lanka side has only to provide local accommodation and travel and that no expert fee is charged.


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In 2019, Popeyes released its Chicken Sandwich, which quickly became one of the most popular fast-food items in the country at the time. The sandwich briefly sold out, only to return as popular as before. Since then, other fast-food chains have tried to replicate that success with their own take on the chicken sandwich, resulting in an ongoing competition between the various restaurants.
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Now, Taco Bell has decided to throw its hat in the ring with a new chicken sandwich-themed item.
The Mexican food-themed fast-food chain announced that the Chicken Sandwich Taco will be available starting on September 2. In a press release, Taco Bell stated that it had tested the item at locations in Nashville, Tenn., and Charlotte, NC.