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In the last hour of the trading week last week, Friday April 21, 2023, the stock price of our favorite long-term play, (OTC: NLST) Netlist, Inc., shot up over 31% off the day’s lows, hitting a high of $4.21 on the day.
On what began as a relatively slow day of trading, NLST’s spike in share price would’ve seemed to have come out of nowhere. However, for us, and for those of you who’ve been following us for YEARS now, were pretty sure why. And, we weren’t at all surprised…
Rather, we felt vindicated because we FIRST alerted you all to NLST all the way back in 2021-2022 and we’ve been posting updates about it ever since.
See Exhibit 1-6
January 2, 2022: smallcapexclusive.com/netlist-nlst-is-ready-to-take-off/
So, what caused the 30% pop late last week? Enter tech giant Samsung.
Netlist sued Samsung in 2021, alleging Samsung memory products used in cloud-computing servers and other data-intensive technology infringe its patents.
Netlist said its innovations increase the power efficiency of memory modules and allow users to “derive useful information from vast amounts of data in a shorter period of time.”
A Netlist attorney told the jury that Samsung took its patented module technology after the companies had collaborated on another project, according to a court transcript and were asking the jury for $404 million in damages.
Samsung had argued that the patents were invalid and that its technology worked in a different way than Netlist’s inventions.
The case is Netlist Inc v. Samsung Electronics Co, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, No. 2:21-cv-00463.
With that valuable piece of context in mind, and over an hour after markets closed last week, it was announced that Samsung was hit with a $303 million jury verdict computer-memory patent lawsuit that the tech company had been trying to keep quiet.
However, and as longtime readers of this blog should know, the company that WON the lawsuit was none other than Netlist Inc, NLST.
April 21, 2023 5:19pm
Samsung hit with $303 million jury verdict in computer-memory patent lawsuit
(Reuters) – Computer-memory company Netlist Inc convinced a federal jury in Texas on Friday to award it more than $303 million for Samsung Electronics Co’s infringement of several patents related to improvements in data processing.
The Jury determined that Samsung’s “memory modules” for high-performance computing willfully infringed all five patents that Netlist accused the Korean tech giant of violating.
Please Read The Full Article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/samsung-hit-303-million-jury-211918301.html
First of all, I can’t believe that the title of the news story left was written in the negative “Samsung hit with $303 million jury verdict” and left out the all important fact of WHICH COMPANY WON the lawsuit, when it very easily could’ve been included. These are the kinds of “half truths” that you will not find in my writing.
To cover the WHOLE TRUTH, the title should’ve been something like this:
“‘David VS Goliath:’ Netlist Inc. Awarded with $303 million jury verdict from Samsung in tech patent lawsuit”
You see how my hypothetical title gives MORE information than the actual title about the event?… This way, the title gives the context of the court case between the nimble Netlist and goliath that is Samsung. But, more importantly, it identifies the winner of the lawsuit.
Anyway, I apologize for the tangent. Getting back to NLST…
Why NLST Is A Long-Term Play
While their victory over Samsung was the catalyst behind the 30% pop late last Friday, the court case itself has been an ever present obstacle keeping NLST from moving higher. However, and in SPITE of the court case, NLST had still tallied up TRIPLE DIGIT GAINS of 244% YTD (year to date.)
Now, those are the types of gains that gave us the green light to tell literally everyone, including our own mothers’, about this long term play because, as many of you know, the essence of long term technical analysis is: higher highs; higher lows.
If you see a series of higher highs and higher lows in at least a quarter (3 months) of trading then you’re probably looking at a really solid long-term play to invest in.
Well, since the end of January 2023, we’ve seen a series of higher highs and higher lows for NLST. Share price appears to have found support at around $3.50, which is a level that has acted as resistance in the past. Put simply, higher highs; higher lows.
For a tech giant like Samsung, a lawsuit such as the one with NLST is like a hiccup; uncomfortable for a moment but a totally normal part of the human experience. So, to Samsung, the $303 Million hit was just the cost of doing nefarious business… For Netlist, on the other hand, the lawsuit was like an all consuming black hole of time and money.
In other words, with the jury verdict determined, NLST can start turning more of its resources and attention back to what it does BEST. Back to doing what NOT EVEN SAMSUNG could do.. Which is exactly why Samsung infringed on NLST’s patents in the first place…
Ladies and gents, think about that for 2 seconds…
Netlist does something so complex and so much BETTER than Samsung that the tech giant felt it was necessary to WILLFULLY INFRINGE on several of NLST’s patents!
THAT is why it’s now or never for the shares of NLST… Because they’ve overcome the primary obstacle stopping them from being a household name like Nvidia or Oracle.
The only thing that can stop NLST now is… Not much…
That said, for those of you who are new here or who’ve missed the original alert AND its subsequent FIVE updates then we HIGHLY recommend that you get up to date as soon as possible (links above) because, if the last 30 minutes of trading last week is any indicator of what a post jury verdict Netlist looks like then the NLST train to greener pastures is leaving the station.
Small Cap Exclusive, owned by King Tide Media, has not been hired to publicly disseminate information about NLST via website, email, or SMS. King Tide Media has not been compensated to profile NFTG. A member of Small Cap Exclusive does own shares in NLST, purchased in the open market.


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Illinois limits law enforcement access to IoT household devices data
Starting January 1, 2022, Illinois Protecting Household Privacy Act (PHPA) takes effect. The act prohibits Illinois law enforcement agencies from obtaining household electronic data or directing private third parties to acquire household electronic data without a warrant except when consented to or in specific emergencies. The act excludes personal computers, cell phones, smartphones, tablets, modems, routers, wireless access points, or cable set-top boxes serviced by a cable provider. Therefore, it focuses on virtual assistants, video doorbells, smart speakers, security cameras, and smart appliances that connect to the internet. Illinois is the first state in the US that has passed such legislation.

domain: news


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(Toronto) Sales of light motor vehicles in Canada increased in January by 7.5% compared to the first month of 2022, the specialized firm DesRosiers Automotive Consultants said Thursday.
A total of 98,259 new light vehicles were sold by reporting automakers in January, the research firm estimated.
This result compares to 91,411 vehicles sold in January 2022.
DesRosiers says he sees signs of improving vehicle availability from a growing list of manufacturers.
Unlike 2022, when sales deteriorated in the spring, Andrew King, managing partner of DesRosiers, said the company hopes the market will continue to move forward this year, building on that initial strength.
The total number of motor vehicle sales in 2022 was the lowest since 2009.


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Monrovia, CA-based Trader Joe’s customer-favorite is getting a rate hike. The company has increased the price about 20%, from 19 cents each to 23 cents each.
The cotija cheese that was used to produce the products was manufactured by Rizo-López Foods.
When Trader Joe's announces its annual Customer Choice Awards and I see that BANANAS won … again … I can’t help but feel let down.
I’ve been watching this list since its inception, and every year the produce consumers pick is kind underwhelming when you think of what Trader Joe’s is known for: uniqueness, innovation, flavor, variety, and trendiness.


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Tag Archives: Cave Story 3D
Tue, May 01, 2012 | 08:37 BST
Nicalis’ Tyrone Rodriguez has said Cave Story+ will be heading to 3DS eShop within the next month or so. Rodriguez told Destructoid would be separate from Cave Story 3D and not an update, meaning past purchasers of 3D will have to purchase +. He further teased upcoming updates for the Steam version, noting: “How do online leaderboards for the challenges sound?”
Sat, Oct 15, 2011 | 16:59 BST
It’s been a long time coming, but Cave Story 3D is nearly ready to be released on the Nintendo 3DS. Now, Sudio Pixel and NIS are releasing a new batch of screenshots to tide us over. More »
Mon, Jun 27, 2011 | 23:14 BST
Cave Story 3D has been on a rough ride this year, having already experience a couple delays. Now it’s been pushed back again to November in North America, with no word on how that affects Europe’s release.
Sat, May 21, 2011 | 21:00 BST
“When we started on the project back in December, I really wanted to find a way to make 2D characters also work in 3D space. Being a Cave Story fan myself, I thought other fans would probably appreciate it too. Anyway, we’ve spent a lot of time testing and making sure it works right, but now we have 2D characters in the 3D game. This includes the main character, Curly, all the Mimiga– literally every character and boss in the game as 2D sprites in a 3D world. What you won’t see, due to the fact that it’s a new engine and differences between the hardware, are the environments in 2D or the WiiWare sprites and art.” – Tyrone Rodriguez, producer and music director on Cave Story 3D (via D’toid).
Fri, Apr 01, 2011 | 14:53 BST
NIS America has announced it’s to bring over Cave Story 3D to Europe this summer for 3DS. An exact date wasn’t confirmed, though. It comes as a US release date was announced yesterday as June 28. The platformer launched on PC back in 2004 before making its way to WiiWare and DSiWare, the latter version having not launched in Europe.
Thu, Mar 31, 2011 | 09:46 BST
Cave Story’s WiiWare edition may have taken its sweet time on the launch pad, but the little-platformer-that-could’s 3DS conversion seems to be making up for that in a big way. Speaking with Siliconera, NIS America pegged the game with a June 28 release date. Pretty snappy, seeing as Cave Story 3D was only announced a couple months ago.
If the words “Cave Story” and “3D” aren’t enough to coax your wallet out of its dark, lint-ridden lair, then grab a soul and check out this trailer.


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Here's how a Regina restaurant is adapting to COVID-19 restrictions
Regina's Bushwakker Brew Pub is adapting to new COVID-19 restrictions.
REGINA -- Starting on Thursday, Saskatchewan residents will only be allowed to gather with residents of their immediate household in their home, however, they will still be able to meet up at restaurants and bars.
The provincial government said that’s because COVID-19 exposures in places like restaurants and bars have, for the most part, been limited to staff.
"There have been a few super spreader events in bars where public health protocols were not followed, but we have not seen high levels of transmission," Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, said on Monday.
According to statistics from the province, since the start of the pandemic, the number of household exposures is more than four times higher than those in workplaces, which includes restaurants and bars.
"There is risk, yes, in going to a restaurant, but the numbers would prove that it is far less than hosting people in your own home," Premier Scott Moe said.
Restaurants and bars have been working to adapt to changing restrictions throughout the pandemic.
The current public health orders require establishments to have three metres between tables and limit the number of people at a table to four.
"There’s a lot of leg room now, but what we’re hearing is that customers that are coming, they feel very safe, they feel very comfortable," Grant Frew, bar manager at the Bushwakker Brew Pub, said.
Like many restaurants and bars, business has been slow at Bushwakkers during the pandemic, especially over the past few months with no Christmas party bookings.
Frew called this year "catastrophic" financially due to the pandemic, but he said despite business being down, he’s happy they’re able to remain open right now.
"It’s definitely very difficult to do business in this time," he said. "We do want to respect the mandates of the provincial government and we’re doing our best to comply and so are the customers, so there really is a sense of the customers and staff working together to see this through."
Frew said grant money has helped to "push back the cliff".
"We have been extremely grateful to the federal government and their wage subsidy program, as well as the provincial government has offered a number of grants that has helped keep us alive," he said.
One of the biggest changes for Bushwakkers was its annual Blackberry Mead sale, which was moved online this year.
"That went very well," Frew said. "We actually had a number of customers say they’d never had our mead before because they didn’t want to wait in line and with the curtsied service, this was the first time they had a chance to try it."
Frew said January is usually a slow time for restaurants in the city and a potential shutdown is always in the back of his mind.
"We don’t make any long term plans, even with our ordering for the kitchen, the ordering that I do for the bar, the orders are very small because we don’t want to get caught with a shutdown," he said.


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RZD Logistics organized the first high-speed transport service between Beijing and Moscow, under an agreement with China Railway Corporation signed in June. The train started its journey on July 21, and on July 27 will arrive in Moscow, at Yaroslavsky railway station.
The e-commerce goods (LED light bulbs and office supplies) are transported in a postal-baggage train car of a passenger train. Thus, the cargo will be delivered by railway transport from Beijing to Moscow in 6 days, which is comparable to avia delivery, but cheaper than this type of delivery.
“This is the first shipment in the framework of the Memorandum. This year such shipments may become regular. In 2017 we organized 44% of all Russian transit from China and now we are constantly analyzing the growing demands of Russian and Chinese companies in logistic services. Thus, we are convinced that the new service is very promising”, CEO of RZD Logistics Viacheslav Valentik said.
Under the agreement between China and Russia, RZD Logistics is Russia’s responsible operator, which can use the services of Federal Passenger Company, and China Railway Express responsible for the realization of particular projects.
In June, Russian Railways and China Railway Corporation signed the Memorandum on the organization of high-speed cross-border rail freight shipments between China-Russia-Europe.
The two parties agreed to unite efforts in the development of freight market for regular trade goods; development of logistics services for retail cross-border e-commerce trade, as well as services on the express delivery of cargo across the route China-Russia-Europe.


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also locations severe restrictions on the marketing of e-cigarettes. The Lung Association, Cancer Society, Surgeon General, and each credible scientific body acknowledges the hazards of smoking.
Choosing The Most Effective Electronic Cigarette For You
Previously, diacetyl, which is utilized in food manufacturing as a butter substitute, causes popcorn lung. As a end result, many reported that e-cigs could be doubtlessly harmful. But to date, nobody is known to have contracted popcorn lung from vaping. There are 1000’s of private testimonials about that however the FDA ecigarette laws are not yet prepared to formally declare that e-cigs assist individuals stop smoking. In addition, the FDA has declared that e-cigarettes are tobacco merchandise under the food drug and cosmetic act.
A group assigned to e-cigarettes as a flamable tobacco substitute had been extra likely to remain abstinent at one year in contrast with a group using nicotine alternative merchandise (18% vs. 9.9%). However, a majority of e-cigarette users had been nonetheless utilizing e-cigarettes at the one-year observe-up. Researchers famous the examine was based on a center-aged adult population actively seeking to quit smoking and receiving at least four weeks of behavioral help.


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Courts and regulators have been slowly chipping away at the bricks protecting Apple’s walled garden. We recently covered a new South Korean law that lets developers in the App Store and Google’s Play Store offer alternative payment methods (see “New South Korean Law Mandates Alternative App Store Payment Options,” 31 August 2021).
But that law applies only to apps sold in South Korea, and we would be surprised to see Apple voluntarily expand that program to other countries. However, two recent settlements have global implications.
Settlement in US Developer Class-Action Suit
Apple announced changes to the App Store as part of settling the Cameron et al v. Apple Inc. lawsuit, but the impact seems limited. From what we could glean from Apple’s announcement, much of the settlement involves Apple continuing to do what it’s already doing, such as agreeing to maintain the App Store Small Business Program for at least three years, even though there was no previous indication it would ever end (see “Apple Drops App Store Commission to 15% for Small Developers,” 18 November 2020).
The only two changes that seem notable, if not earth-shaking, are developers being allowed to notify their users about alternatives to in-app purchases in email (but not in apps themselves), and Apple expanding the number of price points from fewer than 100 to more than 500. So you might see apps priced at $1.49 instead of $0.99.
We don’t know how best to interpret this settlement because we have no skin in the game. For a roundup of responses from well-known Apple developers, we recommend reading Michael Tsai’s blog post. In short, they aren’t impressed, which casts a shadow on Apple characterizing the settlement as with “US developers” rather than “the lawyers for a set of developers who don’t seem to represent the opinions of the larger Apple development community.”
Even if Apple’s concessions are minimal, they, along with the South Korean law, show both how much pressure Apple is under and that Apple will respond to developer concerns when necessary.
Settlement with Japan Fair Trade Commission
Apple’s settlement with the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) goes further. In a small but significant change, Apple says it will allow developers of “reader” apps to include in-app links to their websites so users can create and manage their accounts. For instance, the Netflix app could have a link to the Netflix website. What a concept! The change will go into effect in early 2022 after Apple updates App Store guidelines and its review process to accommodate the change.
This change affects one of Apple’s most-loathed policies, the so-called “anti-steering” rule that prevents developers from providing links to external payment systems in an attempt to force them to use Apple’s in-app purchase system. Allowing reader apps to let users link out to account management systems seems like a small and obvious option, but Apple has thus far been steadfast in rejecting apps that present such external links.
What exactly is a “reader” app? In theory, that category includes content-consumption apps like Kindle, Spotify, and Netflix. However, as I pointed out in “Developers v. Apple: Outlining Complaints about the App Store” (13 August 2020), Apple’s definition of a “reader app” is arbitrary. Here’s how Apple defines them in its App Store guidelines:
Apps may allow a user to access previously purchased content or content subscriptions (specifically: magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, and video). Reader apps may offer account creation for free tiers, and account management functionality for existing customers.
But Apple also apparently once counted Dropbox as a reader app since the only option when you opened the app was a login. It now offers various sign-up options. In any case, we expect Apple’s definition to change or at least become more concrete. The question is if Apple will have to get the JFTC to sign off on the new definition or if it’s allowed to make such decisions arbitrarily. JFTC’s statement doesn’t clarify that, but Apple agreed to a review once per year for three years.
On Daring Fireball, John Gruber shared a couple of anonymous anecdotal accounts of developers who don’t trust Apple’s new linking policy and suspect there are strings attached, such as being required to also offer subscriptions as in-app purchases or fearing Apple will invent new reasons to reject their apps for links. It shows how much trust Apple has squandered with developers.
There is also the question of how this intersects with Apple’s program for “premium subscription video entertainment providers,” which allows users of the Amazon Prime Video app to make content purchases within the app without using Apple’s in-app purchase system (see “You Can Now Make Purchases in the Amazon Prime Video iOS and Apple TV Apps,” 3 April 2020). A handful of other video services are included, but not the likes of Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix.
The new linking rule won’t apply to games or in-app purchases, thus doing nothing to resolve Apple’s legal battle with Epic Games, which has exposed to the public a treasure trove of internal emails that reveal Apple’s thinking on many of these matters.
More Bricks at Risk
We suspect Apple will be forced to make additional concessions in the future. India has opened an antitrust case against Apple, targeting the company for forcing developers to use its in-app purchase system. Apple is also fighting a similar battle in the European Union.
Meanwhile, the bipartisan Open App Markets Act proposed in the United States Senate would go even further, allowing third-party app stores and sideloading, letting developers use alternative payment methods, and allowing developers to communicate openly with customers. We have no idea of its prospects for passage, but it’s unusual when Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn and Minnesota Democrat Amy Klobuchar agree on something.
Apple sees where things are going and is taking independent actions aimed at staving off regulation, such as its just-announced News Partner Program, which halves the subscription commission rate to 15% for publishers who offer their content in the Apple News Format. And last year, Apple offered a big concession with its App Store Small Business Program, which dropped the sales commission to 15% for most developers (see “Apple Drops App Store Commission to 15% for Small Developers,” 18 November 2020). But such moves might be too little, too late.
At this point, Apple might be best served by making a dramatic overhaul to its most controversial App Store policies and behaviors, such as allowing alternative payment methods within apps, dropping App Store ads (are they really worth it?), eliminating special deals with big developers, and overhauling the review process to better catch counterfeit apps and not unfairly punish legitimate developers. Apple could also allow streaming game services and emulators into the App Store. iDOS was one of the neatest iPad apps in years, but after initially approving it, Apple changed its mind and pulled it.
Then Apple might have a stronger position from which to resist clunky and likely misinformed regulation that may have unintended consequences. And perhaps then developers would lay down their pitchforks and torches.


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What's the news?
Bugatti has announced a new option for its Chiron hypercar and it's a rather elegant one. Choosing the 'Sky View' option will give clients a pair of glass panels in the roof above the car's cockpit, meaning a glance at the sky is never more than a craned neck away.
These panels are not, however, just ordinary glass. They're made up of a specially laminated, four-layer structure meaning that they're immensely strong - strong enough, in fact, to ensure no loss of stiffness to the Chiron's structure and not to compromise the car's safety in a crash. That's good to know in a machine that can hit at least 420km/h. What's more, they offer an extra 2.7cm of headroom over a standard Chiron, which will be of benefit to taller drivers.
There's no need to worry about sunburnt scalps either - nasty ultraviolet radiation is filtered out, as is infrared radiation, meaning the car won't turn into a greenhouse in the hot desert sun. Those four layers make the glass so thick that it does a pretty good job of keeping out wind noise too according to its maker, and they're tinted, "to prevent dazzle effects and to protect the occupants' privacy."
Bugatti's announcement comes ahead of the Chiron Sky View's official presentation at the Monterey Car Week in California towards the end of August.


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Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, according to information released with the company’s latest earnings report. The number highlights Sony’s current ability to manufacture the console, which has been very difficult to buy since its launch in November.
Demand for PlayStation 4 dropped dramatically year-on-year, with 1.4 million units shipped in the October-December quarter – down 77 percent from the previous year. Sony managed to sell fewer PS4s during the holiday quarter than it did from July to September.
Sony’s gaming industry has generally fared much better than a year ago with analyst Daniel Ahmad remark that it was actually the best quarter in PlayStation history. Revenue rose 40 percent to 883.2 billion yen ($ 8.4 billion), driven in part by PS5 sales. Operating profit rose 50 percent to 80.2 billion yen ($ 763.3 million) due to higher game sales, PlayStation Plus subscriptions and better margins on PS4 hardware.
However, Sony notes that expenses related to the PS5 launch offset some of its profit, and also confirms that the PS5 hardware itself sells for less than it costs. The company said it suffered a loss due to ‘strategic price points for PS5 hardware that were lower than manufacturing costs’.
There is not much to read in PS5 sales numbers before people who want to buy it are able to do so. But at least it looks like the console’s launch is largely comparable to the PS4s; the PS4 also shipped 4.5 million units in its launch quarter.
Microsoft did not release any specific sales figures for the Xbox Series X or Series S last week, but the company did say that Xbox hardware revenue was 86% higher year-on-year.


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Ripple announced today that it has parted ways with MoneyGram, a high-profile customer of both its RippleNet and On-Demand Liquidity international payments products.
The announcement comes two weeks after MoneyGram said it was suspending use of Ripple’s ODL network, which uses XRP to facilitate payments for pennies in seconds, rather than the two-three days minimum and as much as $15 on a $200 remittance transfer. It will now discontinue use of RippleNet, which does not use XRP.
In announcing the end of the partnership, Ripple said in a statement: “We are proud of the work we were able to accomplish in a short amount of time, as well as the impact we were able to achieve in bringing this first-of-its-kind product to market.”
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse added on Twitter that the two firms “are both committed to revisiting” that partnership in the future.
“While the lack of a crypto reg[ulatory] framework has needlessly muddied the waters for U.S. businesses [and] consumers, there’s no denying what Ripple and MGI have achieved together,” Garlinghouse said. “Billions of dollars have been sent and settled across borders through ODL w[ith] XRP.”
SEC lawsuit fallout continues
The move is the latest fallout from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit against Ripple, its executive chairman Chris Larsen, and Garlinghouse. The suit says that the $1.3 billion in XRP sales made by Ripple over the past eight years, with $600 million made by the two executives, were illegal sales of securities.
The agency wants the company, Larsen and Garlinghouse to “disgorge” those profits and pay unspecified fines.
Ripple has pledged to fight the SEC’s lawsuit vigorously, arguing that many other countries’ regulators, including the U.K., Japan, Singapore, and Switzerland, do not consider XRL a security. And that the SEC had eight years to object after Ripple began selling XRP in 2013.
The company and Garlinghouse—and much of the cryptocurrency industry—have long criticized both the regulators and government for failing to make clear what tokens are securities. The sale of securities requires registration with the SEC, a lengthy process. They have also bitterly criticized the regulator for not making clear what makes a token a security, other than specifying—and not formally—that Bitcoin and Ether are not.
“The United States is the only country on the planet that has suggested that XRP is a security,” Garlinghouse said on an interview with Axios on HBO on Sunday, March 7. He added:
“This isn’t just bad for Ripple, it’s bad for crypto broadly here in the United States, and its driving the entrepreneureal activity out of the United States. That bodes poorly for the U.S. crypto industry at large.”
Axios also reported today that Garlinghouse said in an unaired part of the interview that if he was launching a new company in the cryptocurrency today, he would not base it in the U.S.
Garlinghouse added that if Ripple does lose the SEC suit, it will relocate outside of the U.S.—something the company has said it was considering even before the suit was filed on Dec. 22.
And while the lawsuit had had a huge impact of XRP’s price—Ripple owns 55% of the cryptocurrency—it won’t kill XRP itself, according to Garlinghouse:
“Even if Ripple goes away, XRP is going to keep trading.”
Last week, Garlinghouse said that its business outside the U.S. has not been affected by the lawsuit, noting that it has signed 15 new customers in the Asia-Pacific region since the lawsuit was filed.
It’s a different story in the U.S., where the major exchanges suspended trading in XRP shortly after the suit was filed.
They really had no choice in that decision, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell explained on Twitter on March 6.
Continuing to trade XRP would be a “[h]uge asymmetrical risk for exchanges,” Powell wrote, adding that they “[h]ave to assume SEC’s case is in good faith.”
Citing an earlier tweet by Garlinghouse that claimed crypto markets acted “under pressure” in stepping away from XRP, Powell noted that judges tend to come down on the side of regulatory agencies.
He added, “[i]f XRP found to be a security, SEC would say that exchanges should have known.”


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Bitcoin use under scrutiny in Bali amid warnings by central bank over risks
Probe started following Dec 7 ban on use of cryptocurrencies in payment systems: official
Sat, Jan 20, 2018 - 5:50 AM
Some locals in Bali said bitcoin was being used mainly by foreigners on the island, which has a large expatriate community.
INDONESIAN authorities are investigating the use of bitcoin in the holiday island of Bali, amid warnings by the central bank in South-east Asia's biggest economy over the risks posed by virtual currencies, an official said.


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LG introduced its new smartphone, the Q Stylus+. The device aims to provide another dimension to its ‘exceptionally priced’ mid-range smartphones, according to LG. They also say that the phone is aimed to further optimise the role of a stylus to ensure maximum utilisation of the device.
The device has a 6.2 inch FHD+ display with an 18:9 aspect ratio. Unlike the current trend, the device does not have a notch, it sports bezels instead. The device has a 1.5 GHz octa- core processor and has 4 GB of RAM. Running on Android 8.1 Oreo, the LG Q Stylus+ has 64 GB of internal memory which can be extended up to 2 TB.
Breaking another trend, the LG Q Stylus+ has a [...]


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It was with some surprise recently that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased the face mask mandate with the recommendation that "fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance."
That last part is important. If you, as a business owner, still are uncomfortable about exposure to COVID-19 — for your employees and your customers — then you have the right to encourage continued use of face masks within your establishment.
For those businesses that want to dispense with the requirement, it might behoove them to continue other safety protocols, such as sanitizing public surfaces, socially distancing chairs in the waiting area and providing hand sanitizer bottles at the front counter and work areas.
The health experts still are worried that COVID-19 cases might spike again, or another variant might hit the population.
The pandemic may also be an omen that other contagions may be lurking in our future. Just like we expect health agencies to be prepared for the next inevitable pandemic, businesses should also be prepared.
Dealerships would be wise to keep a supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as gloves and face masks, sanitizing cleaners and hand sanitizers in the stockroom. (Remember the panic and shortages of PPE a year ago?)
If you bought special sanitizing tools and equipment, it might be worth hanging on to them, and even using them in the shop periodically.
COVID-19 isn't the only communicable disease around and some customers, and employees, would appreciate not being exposed to germs from others who may have a common cold or the flu.
Those plexiglass barriers at the front counters might be worth keeping as a permanent feature to protect your service personnel, and customers, from sneezing and coughing individuals.
Nothing shows you care more than maintaining a clean and healthy work environment for your employees and a sanitized public space for your customers.


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Less than a week after securing a $25 million Series C funding round for automotive HUDs, DigiLens has introduced a new waveguide display for motorcycle helmets that's thinner, lighter, brighter, and manufactured at a lower cost.
Designed for AR motorcycle helmets, the MonoHUD display is composed of two grating layers (the component of the display that redirects light), which is one less than its previous generation. DigiLens produces the displays with a new inkjet coating process that is more efficient, resulting in increased productivity and, in turn, lower cost. The method also produces a display that offers greater contrast and enables users to see content clearly in daylight.
"The increased quality of the two-layer display and the reduction in manufacturing complexity is crucial for our customers," said DigiLens CEO Chris Pickett in a statement. "It lowers the production costs and allows them to get product to market quicker. We are already seeing several innovative use cases like motorcycle HUDs and are seeking developers to show us what's next."
- Don't Miss: WaveOptics Enlists Waveguide Manufacturing Partner to Help Produce Lower-Cost, Mainstream AR Smartglasses
The full-color display boasts a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels and an AR display field of view of 25 degrees diagonal with an unobscured user field of view of 105 degrees. The display is capable of 8,000 nits brightness and up to eight hours of battery life.
DigiLens has licensed the technology to display maker Young Optics, who is working with Sena, a maker of Bluetooth communications for motorcycles and action sports, to produce a system that connects helmets to a user's smartphone to display speed, gear, fuel and oil level status, navigation, and other information within their field of view.
"We are proud to be working with the world's top motorcycle and technology manufacturers in order to create innovative and cutting-edge solutions," said Sena CEO Tae Kim. "By offering the MonoHUD display alongside our premium Bluetooth technology, we are giving riders a safe and next-generation riding experience and look forward to our continued work with Young Optics and DigiLens."
While the MonoHUD is targeted to a niche market, the advancement is encouraging for the broader consumer market. Innovations from component makers are a critical factor for enabling AR headset makers to design products that are less obtrusive and more likely to gain acceptance among consumers.


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Radio turns up the volume with second consecutive year of share growth
The UK commercial radio industry outperformed the market and grew its share of total ad revenue in the UK, according to the latest Advertising Association/WARC Expenditure Report.
The latest figures were unveiled at the Advertising Association’s Front Foot breakfast event, which was attended by advertisers, media owners and agencies and featured Radiocentre’s CEO Siobhan Kenny as a guest speaker.
The figures come off the back of a bumper year for commercial radio last year, which posted its highest ever total audience of almost 35.9 million people in Q2 2017, beating the previous record of 35.6 million set in Q2 2016 according to RAJAR, the audience measurement body.
Siobhan Kenny, CEO at Radiocentre, said:
“These figures demonstrate that radio is bigger than ever and showing no signs of slowing down with a second consecutive year of share growth. The increasing popularity of voice-activated devices is enabling new audiences to listen to radio via multiple platforms.”
At the event Siobhan also discussed her role leading the AA strategy to drive the uptake of advertising services by small businesses across the UK, with a particular focus on the potential for these businesses to boost growth and productivity in the nations and regions.
Read the figures in full below and the AA/WARC release here.


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RECEIVES THE 2011 COUTURE COUNCIL AWARD
FOR ARTISTRY OF FASHION
Wednesday September 7, 2011
|The Couture Council of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) honored Valentino
with their 2011 Couture Council Award for Artistry of Fashion on
Wednesday September 7, 2011 at a benefit luncheon at the David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, New York City. As has become the tradition, this luncheon heralds the arrival of Fall Fashion Week. The luxury on-line retailer 1stdibs, a generous supporter of the Museum and its activities, sponsored the luncheon.
Dr. Valerie Steele, director of The Museum at FIT, announced, “Valentino was chosen in recognition of his status as a world-historical figure in modern fashion, a man who has dressed every beautiful woman of the past 50 years, from Jacqueline Kennedy to Madonna. Valentino’s concept of beauty is Apollonian in its classicism and perfect taste. Yet red, the color of love and passion, runs like a leitmotif through his career, asserting his passionate love of beauty. In today’s world of an often debased celebrity culture, Valentino’s dresses continue to assert an aristocratic ideal of art and beauty.”
Last year’s luncheon, which honored Karl Lagerfeld and was the first Couture Council Luncheon held at Lincoln Center, was attended by over 500 guests and raised over $600,000.
In 1950, while still an adolescent, Valentino Garavani went to Paris to study at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, having already discovered (at a premiere of the Barcelona Opera) the perfect red that would become a leitmotif throughout his career. In 1968, a year of radical revolt, Valentino presented his immaculate Collezione Bianca of white and off-white dresses whose simple elegance proved that couture was not irrelevant.
Valentino was chosen to receive The Couture Council Fashion Visionary Award by the Couture Council Advisory Committee, an independent group consisting of curators, editors, and retailers. Members include Pamela Golbin, curator of the Musée de la Mode; Akiko Fukai, director and chief curator of the Kyoto Costume Institute; Caroline Milbank, independent curator and author; Glenda Bailey, editor-in-chief of Harpers Bazaar; Hamish Bowles, European editor-at-large of Vogue; Ken Downing, fashion director of Neiman Marcus; Linda Fargo, senior vice president of Bergdorf Goodman; Nicole Fishcelis, vice president and fashion director at Macy’s; and many distinguished others. Dr. Steele serves as chair.
Luncheon chairs for the Valentino Award are Anne H. Bass, Charlotte Moss, Diane von Furstenberg and The Honorable Daphne Guinness, whose personal collection is the subject of an exhibition at The Museum at FIT from September 16, 2011 through January 7, 2012. A number of Valentino’s masterpieces are featured in this exhibition.
The Couture Council, which was created in 2004, has become an integral part of the museum and a recognized authority in the fashion world. Its Artistry of Fashion Award furthers FIT’s deep connection with the fashion industry. Dr. Brown added, “We are very grateful to the Couture Council for the important work it does to support the mission of The Museum at FIT.”
Past recipients of The Couture Council Awards are Karl Lagerfeld in 2010, Dries Van Noten in 2009, Isabel Toledo in 2008, Alber Elbaz in 2007, and Ralph Rucci in 2006. In 2008, Giorgio Armani also received a special award for Global Fashion Leadership.


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- Homophobic pastor blocked from hosting event at Cracker Barrel Today 12:01 PM
- Here’s what’s coming to Amazon Prime in July 2019 Today 12:01 PM
- Biden faces backlash for remarks about working with segregationist senators Today 10:58 AM
- J.J. Abrams’ 20-year-old son is writing Marvel’s new Spider-Man comic Today 10:55 AM
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- ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ is finally coming to Netflix Today 9:07 AM
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This is supposedly only a decade or two away from reality.
It’s the stuff of sci-fi, and it’s here today. Martine Rothblatt is the highest-paid female CEO in the United States. Her company, the satellite radio network Sirius, has some 30 million subscribers. She also started a biotech company upon her daughter’s diagnosis with a rare lung disease. But her next venture is bigger-picture still: She’s created a “mind clone” of her wife, Bina Aspen, and installed it into a robotically animated head that people can speak to and interact with.
We’ve talked to Rothblatt about Bina-48, the robotic version of Aspen before, but the immortality tech is getting more and more sophisticated.
“A mind clone is a digital copy of your mind outside your body,” said Rothblatt in an interview with Bloomberg. You’ll probably recall the film Her or the always-ripe-with-comedic-potential Heads in Jars from Futurama. It’s a little like that—but with a lot more technological heavy lifting to be done.
Rothblatt’s process involves creating a “mind file,” which is nothing less than rendering human thoughts and emotions as computer code. She says that they are, in practical terms, one to two decades away from becoming real and common. “I think the mind clone will look like an avatar on a screen,” she said. Instead of taking a robotic head around with you, you’d only need to fire up an app on your smartphone to interact with a digital copy of a loved one. As long as you’ve got power, your “second self” can theoretically live forever.
But for now, the digital copy of Rothblatt’s wife, replete with emotions and intelligence, is becoming more and more functional. Check out the video below to see it in action.
H/T Bloomberg | Photo via Bina-48/Facebook
Dylan Love is an editorial consultant and journalist whose reporting interests include emergent technology, digital media, and Russian language and culture. He is a former staff writer for the Daily Dot, and his work has been published by Business Insider, International Business Times, Men's Journal, and the Next Web.


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The trucking industry is already in a recession.
That isn’t good, when shipping is the lifeblood of the economy, moving goods along its tar-paved arteries.
That poses a key question for investors: Does freight industry weakness presage a full-blown economic downturn? The answer: probably not.
“The freight industry is currently experiencing a recession, which began in October 2018,” writes Aaron Terrazas, Convoy director of economic research, in a report published Thursday. (Convoy is a new digital marketplace trying to make the traditional truck brokerage industry more efficient, especially when roughly a third of all miles truckers drive are empty, Terrazas says.) Freight volumes have been falling since last fall, he adds.
Fortunately for the stock market, freight recessions are relatively common, and freight weakness doesn’t necessarily mean a larger recession is on the way.
“The freight industry has experienced 12 recessions since 1972, twice as many as the overall economy,” writes Terrazas. “Half of the times that the freight economy has shifted to contraction over the past four decades, the rest of the economy has continued to expand.”
That’s good news for investors, who already are fretting about falling bond yields, the U.S.-China trade war, currencies, and political unrest—to name just a few of the current market risks.
Importantly, the conclusion also flies in the face of some conventional wisdom that freight leads the economy. “[Freight recession] can be an imperfect leading indicator,” adds Convoy’s Terrazas.
Of course, weak freight data impacts some—namely the logistics industry. And weaker freight volumes have been a drag on transportation stocks. The Dow Transportation Index is up 8.3% year to date, worse than the 11% gain of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. What’s more, the Transportation Index has fallen 8% in August, compared with the Dow’s 5% drop. Trucking components of the S&P 500 are up 5.6% year to date, lagging behind the 13% return of the S&P Index over the same span.
Freight brokers operate in the huge U.S. freight business, which generates about $800 billion in sales to move $12 trillion worth of goods annually. Trucking, which, accounts for about 80% of total dollars spent moving freight, is fragmented with many independent truckers and many small shippers. Traditional brokers, such as C.H. Robinson Worldwide (ticker: CHRW), connects them both with cost-effective logistics solutions.
C.H. Robinson’s sales and volumes were down again in July, although the company’s freight volumes still outpaced industry indexes, said C.H. Robinson CEO Robert Biesterfeld on his company’s second-quarter earnings call. He pointed to the trucking industry’s Cass Freight Index, where volumes declined mid-single digits in the second quarter. This suggests the turn in trucking and freight overall isn’t here yet.
Still, after 10 months, the freight industry should be looking better, according to the Convoy report. But “the current economic climate does not suggest it is imminent,” writes Terrazas.
A trade detente would certainly help the situation by boosting Chinese economic growth, but that still isn’t a panacea. “The slowdown in freight demand started last fall—well before the recent escalation in U.S. trade tensions,” Terrazas told Barron’s.
No matter what the catalyst, it will take higher freight volumes for trucking stocks to close the relative performance gap with the rest of the market.


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With the potential to change how 5G is allocated and deployed, shared spectrum has become a priority for this leading telecom chip maker.
Over the last decade, 4G has provided reliable connectivity and speed to millions of mobile users around the world. In doing so, it has provided the foundation required by a majority of the mobile applications we use today.
But while 4G has paved the way for new mediums of mobile communication, it does have limitations. Over the next decade, growing demand for fast wireless coverage will require networks to transmit larger sums of data in near real-time.
Fortunately, the 5th generation of wireless technology (5G) will provide just that.
While early consumer access to 5G networks may be available in the coming months, widespread adoption could take the better part of a decade.
Even so, 5G has become a primary focus for mobile network operators, chip makers, and smartphone manufacturers. According to CB Insights’ Earnings Transcript tool, “5G” was collectively mentioned over 962 times on Q2’18 earnings calls, up 99% from Q2’17.


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AT&T discussing a merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery: report
AT&T is discussing a merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery Inc., multiple outlets reported on Sunday.
The aim of the proposed merger is to combine both companies into a formidable competitor to Netflix and Walt Disney Co. AT&T is trying to build a vast telecommunications network after acquiring WarnerMedia Inc in 2018.
Talks are still ongoing and a deal could be reached and announced by this week, unless it falls apart, Bloomberg reported. Discovery also had acquired Scripps Networks Interactive Inc. in 2018.
CNBC noted that the reported deal will combine Discovery with all of WarnerMedia and will become a new publicly traded company co-owned by both companies shareholders.
The Hill has reached out to AT&T for comment.


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A Dublin-based communications software firm has scored another first to market with a dual-mode technology that supports seamless call hand-off between Wi-Fi and 3G circuit switched networks.
Cicero Networks was recently recognised by the World Economic Forum as one of the 47 Technology Pioneers of 2007.
The company demonstrated the Wi-Fi to 3G service on the newly launched Nokia E65 business smart phone (pictured) at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona this week.
“The Nokia E65 is a sleek, compact, feature-rich device with great battery life which makes it a superb handset for converged voice services,” said Ross Brennan, chief executive of Cicero Networks.
“Operators and enterprises are crying out for this type of device to launch dual-mode services and drive service adoption.”
Brennan said the company was committed to enabling fixed-mobile convergence on the latest mobile devices.
“We are delighted to see value-added applications such as CiceroPhone being implemented on the Nokia E65,” said Sami Ranta, director of Nokia’s business device portfolio.
“Focusing on both ease of use and enhancing enterprise mobility, the Nokia Eseries devices are designed to enable a range of value-added solutions including email and advanced voice functionalities,” Ranta said.
By John Kennedy


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- Vallarie Yiega (Tech Policy Fellow- Lawyers Hub)
- April 19, 2022
- Online Child Protection: A Multistakeholder Approach
Since 2003, every 8th of February the world has celebrated a Safer Internet Day. In particular, over the years, the day has been commemorated across regions with the formation of alliance organizations to promote this day. Nevertheless, the pertinent question that remains and which is significantly critical, is what Safer Internet Day is and what it seeks to achieve. Generally, the goal of celebrating a Safer Internet Day is to make the internet safer for people online, especially children and young people.
While everyone using the internet needs to feel safe online and should be protected, children are more vulnerable. This is because they face challenges such as cyberbullying, sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking. Yet exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic, children's use of the internet has substantially increased. According to UNICEF, ‘children are spending more time online than ever before. And they’re getting there sooner. Around the world, a child goes online for the first time every half second’. This calls for concerted efforts in providing a safer online place for children
During the 2020 Africa Safer Internet Day organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Child Online Africa, a civil organization based in Accra, Ghana noted that there is a need to protect child online safety and manage child internet access threat. Equally important, we are more likely to succeed in safeguarding our children if every stakeholder plays their part. The participation may include creation of awareness, capacity building and implementation of policies. Thus, I argue for a multi stakeholder approach.
Multistakeholder Approach to Online Child Protection.
What then is the multistakeholder approach? This approach refers to action by diverse actors, coordinating with each other to implement specific policy. As a result of the benefits that accrue from this multi-stakeholder approach, many organizations are preferring a multistakeholder approach to ensure there is global impact that is coupled with the local action. Some of the key stakeholders include government agencies, private sector, academia, technical community and civil society organizations.
Multi-stakeholder Approach to Safer Internet in Kenya
This year we have witnessed a myriad of multi stakeholder approaches aimed to build a better and safer internet for Kenyan children. Reports by the Kenya National Bureau of statistics show that approximately 20.6 million children above the age of three use a mobile phone. Subsequently, the growing access to technology and the internet by children has also increased cases of child exploitation online. Therefore, there is need to arrest this situation and ensure a safer internet for children and young people.
So far, in ensuring a safer internet for children, several agencies in Kenya have developed a number of strategies. The Communications Authority of Kenya (CAK) partnered with Usiku Games, to launch Cyber Soldjas game. Usiku games is a company that creates games that make a positive impact on society. Moreover, CAK taking a multi-stakeholder approach includes in the game online reporting channels in partnerships with Childline Kenya, the Cradle Foundation, the Kenya Association of Professional Counselors, Department of Children Service and the Government’s Cyber Incident Response Team.
The Cyber Soldjas, generally, teaches children how to recognize online threats and fight them, and can be played on the phone or tablet. In particular, Cyber Soldjas explores harmful content that should be avoided or reported when you are exposed to it online. The use of games to keep children safe is preferred because it creates engagement among children who are already using smartphones. Increasing their knowledge on conduct, contact and content risks. Thus, children can access safe content and learn how to identify the online threats. Equally important, Usiku games also have other games made in Africa that touch on topics such as contributing to education, financial savings, and positive social nudges.
Cyber Soldjas is recommended for children between four and fourteen years so as to instill moral values with each of the levels that are conquered. To access the game, a user needs to have a working internet connection and a smartphone. A user goes to the CAK website available at https://www.ca.go.ke/play-cyber-soljas/ .When the user clicks the link, they are redirected to the Usiku Games platform. Users can then get a chance to play the game.
The game has five options that appear as levels including catphish, cybercrime, cyberbullying, ID theft and fake news. As the names suggest, each option addresses that particular challenge. Cyber Soldjas relies heavily on metaphors and stimulating the mind. For example with the cyberbullying level, a user can pick up items such as collectibles which have short and important messages. An example is one that states that you need to be kind and not be tempted to hide behind a strange username to tease or joke about someone as it may be hurtful towards them.
Parents and children can access information on online resources which redirect you to ways in which you can get help on child protection whether you are a parent or a child. For the children, the platform provides SMART tips on how to use the internet. For example, telling someone about your concerns, setting your limit in terms of what you are comfortable with sharing online, and being careful about meeting online friends offline. In cases where you need to meet people offline then go with the company of a trusted adult or guardian.
In conclusion, the Internet belongs to all of us and therefore, we should aim to create a stronger, better and safer internet. Moreover, just like in the offline world, children are extremely vulnerable online and we should ensure that we provide sufficient child protection. A multistakeholder approach to the protection of children online is highly encouraged especially in the age of digital transformation where everyone is online leaving no room for children to be left behind.


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JioPhone Next will go live for sale on September 10 as the telecom company promised at the 44th Reliance Industries AGM. The upcoming smartphone was teased back in June. Mukesh Ambani teased the phone and announced a few of its specifications. The phone could have up to 3 GB RAM and will run the latest Android 11 version.
JioPhone Next to Launch on September 10
Mukesh Ambani launched the JioPhone Next smartphone at the 44th Reliance Industries AGM. While launching the smartphone, he hinted at a few of its specifications. Once again, the price of the upcoming smartphone has surfaced online along with some more features and specifications. In partnership with Google, the phone is rumored as the cheapest 5G phone in India. According to the sources, the sale for this smartphone will go live on September 10. The phone will feature Android 11 and is supposed to sport a 5.5-inch LED display.
What is the Expected Price?
The Jiophone Next is rumored to cost INR 3,499. It is also said that the sale will go live on September 10, 2021. Quite some time ago, another leak suggested that buyers will get this smartphone under $50, that is Rs. 3,499. Henceforth, we are assuming that the starting price for this smartphone is under Rs. 4000. Although, Reliance Industries hasn’t specified the exact price for the smartphone. But several leaks on social media suggest that this phone will launch within Rs. 4000.
JioPhone Next Specifications and Features
The new Jiophone Next smartphone will feature the latest Android 11 Go edition. It will sport a 5.5-inch LED display and is supposed to have either 2GB or 3 GB RAM. Besides that, it can have at least 16 or 32GB of eMMC 4.5 internal storage. As far as the camera is concerned, it might have 13 megapixels back camera and an 8 megapixels front camera for selfies and video calls.
Moreover, it will have a dual sim facility and will also support 4G VoLTE. The phone is expected to have a battery backup of 2,500 mAh. Some other leaks suggest that the phone will come with Bluetooth connectivity version 4.2. Besides that, it will also have a 1080p video recording feature and GPS connectivity. Users will also get a pre-installed Duo Go and Google Camera Go.


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When the coronavirus lockdown hit London in March, Curt Collins was in the same position as almost every other small business owner.
Collins Former Wear was forced to lay off 45 employees and he and his wife, Rebecca, were left scratching their heads.
“We were just coming on to prom and grad season,” he said. “What do we do here?”
They decided to launch a line of clothing branded with a Canada Strong logo to support small businesses and front-line workers.
“We took it to our design and marketing team and they really knocked it out of the park,” Collins said.
The Canada Strong clothing line is sold online at collinsclothiers.com/canadastrong and since its debut last month, response has been tremendous.
Collins said small businesses who direct customers to buy products on the Canada Strong website get 10 per cent of the sale for the referral, while another 10 per cent goes into a fund for small businesses and front-line workers.
The clothier also partnered with London Health Sciences Centre and hospitals in Hamilton and B.C., so the hospitals get 20 per cent of all Canada Strong purchases via their websites.
Canada Strong also has teamed with local businesses and groups, including Highland Country Club’s TLC Foundation, Source for Sports, Nash Jewellers, Provincial Glass and Mirror, Coulter’s Pharmacy and Home Health Care and Valu-Mart.
And Couriers Plus is offering free delivery for local orders, Collins said.
“We are just trying to get businesses involved to get some sales revenue going through the community,” he said. “The original plan was to help spread the word about small businesses. . . . We wanted to bring attention to all the small businesses that are struggling with rent and staff and everything else.”
But the effort has grown well beyond what the family-owned business expected.
“We just added a sock line two weeks ago — one of the doctors at the hospital helped design them — and we’ve sold over 3,000 pairs,” Collins said. “We have eight staff back and we’ve made over 2,500 masks.”
What started out as a local effort has gone national.
“We have businesses from British Columbia calling us, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick,” Collins said. “We just shipped a bunch of hoodies to a company in Newfoundland.
“There’s no end to who’s jumped on board and it’s just amazing to see.”


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He chose to locate in Jena, a small city in the eastern state of Thuringia, on account of its tradition of scientific innovation but also, he says, because “it’s a really nice place to live.”
Industries / Machinery & Equipment
The good news came after the container ship “Ever Given” had been stuck in one of the world’s major waterways, disrupting global supply chains, for a week. A team of tugboats, led by the German-made “ALP Guard” finally managed to free the massive shipping vessel, which is roughly the size of New York City’s Empire State Building.
The European Space Agency ESA has commissioned a study from Bremen company EHB and its subsidiary Rocket Factory Augsburg to predict the future demand for space transportation systems as of 2030.
Thuringia stands out as a blockbuster investment location in Europe’s heartland, even in years as turbulent as 2020.
SKAN AG Group celebrated the groundbreaking ceremony for the next big expansion of its corporate site on the premises of the former lignite mine Görlitz/Hagenwerder in October 2020.
Infosys, 247TailorSteel, OrCam Technologies, DPD: the state NRW maintains a consistently high level of foreign direct investments.
Additive manufacturing – aka 3D printing – has the potential to revolutionize the way things are made. It’s a hugely growing sector around the world, nowhere more so than in Europe’s industrial powerhouse Germany. Check out our new video to add layers to your understanding of this crucial market.
Medical products „Made in Germany“ are used worldwide. In the corona crisis, German medtech companies have proven that the industry is able to react very quickly to extraordinary situations and meet global requirements at short notice. The German government is strengthening this innovative power through targeted stimulus. Watch our video to learn more.
Starting on Nov. 10, Germany Trade & Invest will be taking part in the virtual Formnext Connect trade fair. You can stop by for a chat with one of our advisors and take part in a free expert session on Nov. 11.
South Korea’s Hyundai Robotics has opened up its first Continental European office in Ismaning, just north of Munich.


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Couple of weeks ago, the Motorola Moto E4 was spotted receiving FCC certification. Now, the smartphone has appeared on Geekbench which indicates that the company may be possibly testing the waters before officially unveiling the Moto E4.
According to Geekbench listing, the Moto E4 is running on Android 7.0 Nougat OS. It is powered by MediaTek MT6737 chipset that includes a quad-core processor working at 1.25 GHz. The SoC is coupled with 2 GB of RAM. In one of the recent leaks, the Moto E4 was speculated to come with 4 GB of RAM. However, since it supposed to launch as a low budget device, it is unlikely to feature 4 GB of RAM. On single-core test on Geekbench, the Moto E4 has recorded a score of 551 and on multi-core test, it scored 1,514.
Speculations have it that the phone would be featuring a 5-inch screen that will support a resolution of 854 x 480 pixels. For photography, it is expected to feature 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. It is expected to include a 2,800 mAh battery. The Moto E4 Plus is rumored to house a 5,000 mAh battery. The rumor mill has also revealed its leaked renders in the previous week.


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The Euro 2012 soccer tournament is only in the quarterfinals, but Adidas is already laying claim to victory.
The German apparel and footwear brand, which keeps its North American headquarters in North Portland, on Thursday said it expects to reach a record-high $2 billion in sales from its soccer business this year.
That, according to CEO Herbert Hainer, is enough to help Adidas for at least one more year fight off Nike Inc. as champion of world soccer brands.
“Adidas can already be sure of defending its title as the most successful football brand in Europe and the world,” Hainer said in a news release. “Adidas is leading the way at the UEFA EURO 2012 in every respect – in terms of product sales, brand visibility and innovative strength.”
According to Reuters, Adidas' market share stands at 38 percent while Nike — which generated $1.8 billion in sales from soccer in 2011 — is a close second at 36 percent.
Meanwhile, down on the field, Nike’s making proclamations of its own.
Charlie Brooks, Nike’s director of communications for global football, on Wednesday posted on Twitter that 61 percent of all goals during Euro 2012’s first round were scored by players wearing Nike boots. The next nearest brand — which Brooks didn’t identify, but is more than likely Adidas — can lay claim to just 17 percent of all goals.
Brooks went on to add that 48 percent of all players in the tournament, based on minutes played, are wearing Nike compared to 37 percent for the brand’s nearest competitor.
Adidas has one thing on Nike though — balls.
The company said it will sell more than 7 million of its “Tango 12” soccer balls made for Euro 2012.
Its sales numbers this year from soccer are also expected to surpass its performance from the 2010 World Cup year ($1.8 billion) and the last UEFA Euro tournament in 2008 ($1.6 billion.)
“The UEFA Euro 2012 has once again underlined that the contribution of Adidas to the world's most popular sport resonates extremely well with players, consumers and fans,” Markus Baumann, Adidas’ senior vice president for global football, said in a news release. “We will utilize this momentum in order to further expand our global market leadership in football.”


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Although the coronavirus outbreak is yet to impact the US directly, Wall Street has seen several days of bearish trading lately over rising worries that it could soon escalate into a global pandemic. Even as officials try to reassure markets that the impact of the virus on the US economy will be minimal and short-lived, prolonged weakness in US stock markets could see a spillover effect on denting consumer spending in the country.
A dip in consumer sentiment could have a significant impact on US’s economic growth, and could threaten to derail US’s longest ever recorded economic expansion. As the mood in the markets turns cautious and authorities have started issuing warnings to American citizens to prepare for a possible spread of the virus into the US, consumers are likely to turn more hesitant to make key purchases.
Traditionally, there has been a direct correlation observed between market volatility and consumer spending in the US. In December 2018, SPX fell 2.9% lower and in the corresponding month, the Commerce Department noted a 3% MoM decline in core retail sales. On Tuesday, S&P 500 closed 7.6% lower, causing losses up to $2.1 trillion to investors in a short span of just four days.
Consumer spending can also be affected by possible disruptions to global supply chains as a result of the extended shutdown across several regions in China. Although some factories have reopened, it will take some time for production to bounce back to normal levels across the country, a leading manufacturing hub for multinational companies.


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The World Bank has revised upwards by 0.5 pct its 2018 growth projection for Serbia to 3.5 percent.
At the same time, this institution reduced its global growth projection by 0.1 percent to 3.0 percent.
Compared to June, World Bank’s latest Global Economic Prospects report retained its 2019 projection of 3.5 percent growth for Serbia, as well as the 2020 and 2021 projections of 4.0 percent.
At the same time, the report revises downwards the global growth forecasts for 2019 and 2020 by 0.1 pct to 2.9 percent and 2.8 percent, respectively.
- Serbia eyes 8 bln euro of fresh Chinese investment
- PepsiCo And Coca-Cola Battling It Out For The Serbian Water Market
- Turkey's Halkbank opens 34th branch in Serbia
- Business Serbia’s Soko Stark opens new R&D lab
- Air Serbia resumes regular flights between Belgrade and Kyiv
- Direct Air Serbia flights to Egypt starting June
- Fiat to manufacture SUV model in Kragujevac?
- Russia lifts import ban on stone fruit from Serbia, North Macedonia
- Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport posts Q1 2019 profit
- Zero compromise in fight against grey economy


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Sweatcoin app promises money for exercise, but critics warn it'll drain your battery
Sweatcoin, an app that promises to reward you for simply exercising, has shot to the top of the app downloads chart despite criticism about the rewards on offer and the amount of battery it uses.
Sweatcoin monitors your physical activity through your smartphone or Apple Watch, then assigns reward points that can be spent at retailers including Graze and Fitbit.
The company, which is based in London and launched in 2015, has just secured $5.7m (£4.1m) in funding from a number of venture capital firms.
But the app has received mixed reviews and users are critical about the offers available. The firm says 1,000 verified steps earns 0.95 sweatcoin.
Offers begin at 10 coins. Under the free membership model a maximum of five sweatcoins can be earned a day, which is equal to 5,000 steps.
Upgrading to the next level of membership, where you can earn 10 sweatcoins a day, costs five coins a month. A total of 10,000 steps is the equivalent of almost five miles.
One of the deals on offer at sweatcoin
The downside is that only outside steps are counted. The app will not count any steps taken indoors, which includes running on a treadmill at the gym. Sweatcoin says it is working on an algorithm to fix this, but that at the moment there are too many ways to cheat the system.
Users may also be wary about downloading an app that tracks your movements and location. Aside from potential privacy concerns, the app is likely to drain the battery on your phone if running in the background all the time.
One reviewer said: “The app markets itself as a way to earn money or free rewards for your steps but the offers are so bad that it’s not worth using the app and draining your battery. I’ve had the app for four months now and haven’t redeemed a single reward.”
The offers are updated daily. One of the offers today is a Fitbit Flex in exchange for 375 sweatcoins, which is likely to take at least a year-and-a-half to accrue. The majority of the rewards range from 15 to 400 sweatcoins.
This article originally appeared in our sister publication, iNews.


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This week on TLDR, we’re looking back at some of the top stories of 2018 so far. Today: the ups and downs of the tech economy, including cutbacks by tech giants, a string of big IPOs, and the resurgence of an iconic gaming brand. Watch above.
[Editor’s Note: TLDR is GeekWire’s tech news rundown show, hosted by Starla Sampaco. Watch today’s update above, subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube, check back weekday afternoons for more, and sign up for TLDR email updates below.]


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[China] DeHe Biotech, a China-based supplier of microalgae raw materials, believes that consumers are increasingly aware of the benefits of microalgae and that the industry has a “strong” future.
Founded three years ago, the company uses artificial light instead of sunlight to grow its strain of microalgae, which is able to produce the antioxidant astaxanthin.
Felix Chai, DeHe Biotech CEO, told Jules Scully at Vitafoods Asia 2018 how the company aims to build a global B2B platform of microalgae products for use in functional foods and drinks as well pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products.
“Microalgae has been used in supplements for many, many years,” he said. “Recently more and more consumers are aware of the benefit that microalgae can bring. So more and more applications are developed in food, functional food, functional drinks.
“For example, I have a customer who is developing astaxanthin chocolates. We also have customers who develop microalgae noodles… More and more applications have been discovered with microalgae as an active ingredient.”
He added: “Astaxanthin is known for its super antioxidant function. It cleans up the free radicals inside your body. So when you consume astaxanthin it will help to clean up your blood vessels.”
The company, which cultivates its products indoors, highlighted the sustainable benefits of growing algae.
Chai said: “Microalgae is a plant, it needs CO2 and sunlight to have photosynthesis, so the end product of the process is oxygen, which everyone needs. The end product of the waste of production is really just water, which can be recycled and used.
“When we extract astaxanthin in this case, we extract it from the algae and the leftover of the algae can be used in feed for animals. So everything is consumed; nothing is wasted. This is considered as a very sustainable way of producing the product… It actually helps the environment.”
View original article at: DeHe Biotech believes microalgae has a ‘strong’ future
Contact Algae World News for algae industry advertising and other opinions: [email protected]


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He jotted down the recipe, featuring bourbon and peach bitters, lemon, sugar, mint, an aperitif wine and a strip of orange peel. He asked a friend to ...
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Nephin Whiskey Company launches US$150k crowdfunding campaign
Co Mayo based Nephin Whiskey Company has launched a campaign on crowdfunding site Indiegogo in a bid to raise US$150,000 – which, ...
The Spirits Business
Stephanie Bridge, assistant brand manager for anCnoc, said: “Given the popularity of anCnoc as a contemporary, easy drinking malt whisky, we are ...
New York Post
He'd always been partial to scotch, which is distilled with malted barley, and he figured putting an American spin on a malt whiskey would set him ...
International Business Times UK
Meanwhile, although whisky exports have risen 60% since 2000, the industry has used the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) to promote the drink from ...
Glen Gribbon, Director of Blends for Edrington, said, "The market for Scotch whisky is growing internationally. We believe that Edrington's expertise in ...
The Scottish Highlands: Home to golf courses as fine as its whisky
So what better way to enjoy a week of golf than in the home of single malt whisky – the Scottish Highlands. Nairn is a pretty seaside village nestling on ...
BULLARD (KYTX) - An east Texas world world two veteran now has his name and face on a bottle of Kiepersol bourbon. James Hines was a Navy ...
Swede inspiration: national identity and the hard stuff
It might seem natural for a whiskey manufacturer to be preoccupied with vintage, but it still strikes anyone I mention it to as slightly odd when, before ...
Bottles up: Williamson's first distillery set to open
THOMPSON'S STATION – For the first time in 100 years, whiskey is now ... At first, only a “new” un-aged whiskey, made from an oatmeal stout, and a ...
Whiskey galore in the Liberties as Irish single malt booms worldwide
The Dublin Whiskey Company has announced plans for its new whiskey distillery and visitor centre in the capital. The company will be investing over ...
Moscow's food safety regulator, Rospotrebnadzor has been working hard this past week, closing seven more McDonald's restaurants over apparent ...
The Spirits Business
Heaven Hill Distilleries has launched an older limited edition Elijah Craig 23 Year Old Single Barrel Bourbon in select markets throughout the US.
Bourbon export growth good news for US East Coast ports
Growing global demand for bourbon, a solely U.S.-produced liquor, is giving U.S. East Coast ports a sweet, down-home surge in containerized cargo.
Templeton Chairman Tells Des Moines Register
The Chuck Cowdery Blog ⋅ Chuck Cowdery
Templeton's many lies and obfuscations have been widely reported within the whiskey community, but recently Iowa's largest newspaper, the Des ...
HF Bottle Shop Casey Teague With the official toasting whiskey of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, 1792 Ridgemont Reserve; named in part for the year Kentucky entered the Union as the fifteenth state.
The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), which represents the industry, said it does not hand over any money for hiring rooms in British embassies and ...
Meal Beach in Shetland, just south of the village of Hamnavoe, is a stretch of isolated white sand so remote that it is rarely visited by anything other ...
Adding water to your malt is OK (in fact, it's positively encouraged) and whisky cocktails are no longer just for the Mad Men – ladies like them as well.


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China Takes Strict Control Over Consumer Credit, Forbidding it to Enter the Real Estate Market
It is reported on September 20th that the Guangzhou branches of PBOC and CBRC have jointly issued a statement about consumer credit regulation, forbidding it to enter the real-estate market. According to the statement, consumer lenders/institutions should not issue consumer loans over RMB 100,000 yuan or with terms longer than 10 months.
In fact, apart from Guangzhou, local authorities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Jiangsu have all ordered a stricter due diligence against consumer financing, trying to stop capital to flow to the real-estate market in the disguise of consumer finance. Statistics from PBOC indicates that newly added consumer short-term credit has reached RMB 1.06 trillion yuan from January to July of 2017, with an annual growth of RMB 713.7 billion yuan. Market analytics pointed out that large volume of the consumer credit or credit-card loans have been used to purchase of houses (mostly in speculative way), which is against the government’s order of real-estate market regulation. While almost all the first-tier cities have issued consumer credit regulation and related document, the market is still waiting for the further reactions from the second and third-tier cities. (Source: 01Caijing)
Ant Financial-backed Online Lender Qudian Files for an IPO in the US
This Monday, Chinese micro-lender Qudian filed for an Initial Public Offerings on the New York Stock Exchange, according to a SEC document. As presented in the prospect, Qudian is planning to raise up to $ 750 million. JP Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup, CICC and UBS Investment Bank will underwrite this deal.
Founded in April 2014, Qudian is a Fintech company driven by big data technology with a special focus on small credit products. According to the prospect, Qudian has attracted 47.9 million registered users up to 2017 (Q2) with monthly active users of 28.906 million. Till June 30th 2017, Qudian has generated over ¥ 60 billion trading volume. (Source: Jiemian)
[clickToTweet tweet=”Ant Financial-backed Online Lender Qudian Files for an IPO in the US #OnlineLending” quote=”Ant Financial-backed Online Lender Qudian Files for an IPO in the US #OnlineLending”]
Huawei Pay is on the Way to the USA
Like Samsung and Apple, the world second-large smartphone manufacturer Huawei is also starting to promote its own mobile payment platform-Huawei Pay, which is now an exclusive service in its home market China. Early this week, Huawei is reported to file a patent application to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). At present, the application has already been accepted and waits for further investigation. It seems that Huawei Pay is on the way to the US market. Considering the relative lack of presence in the US, it would be smarter to launch the mobile payment service alongside with some hardware (e.g. Mate 10 smartphone). (Source: Sohu)
Interactive Brokers Announces a Strategic Investment in Chinese Fintech Startup Tiger Brokers
On September 21st, Chinese online brokerage Tiger Brokers announced to receive a strategic investment from Interactive Brokers. Fintech investment fund of CreditEase also took part in this round of funding. Previously, Tiger Brokers has already attracted the attention of several decent high-profile investors (e.g. Jim Rogers from Wall Street, Xiaomi Technology, Zhen Fund, China Growth Capital, and etc.).
Founded in 2014, Tiger Brokers is dedicated to providing an online platform for retail/institutional investors in mainland China to trade stocks from the US and Hong Kong. In 2016, Tiger Brokers achieved over RMB 120 billion turnover. At present, Tiger has expanded the investment access to investors in more than 200 countries and regions. In the future, Interactive Brokers is expecting to cooperate with Tiger in more spectrums like fintech, internationalization and compliance. (Source: Lieyunwang)
[clickToTweet tweet=”Interactive Brokers Announces a Strategic Investment in Chinese #Fintech Startup Tiger Brokers” quote=”Interactive Brokers Announces a Strategic Investment in Chinese #Fintech Startup Tiger Brokers”]
China Publishes the First Test Standard for Trusted Blockchain
On September 19th, the Trusted Blockchain Summit (2017) convened in Beijing. The summit was held by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), and co-organized by Data Center Association (DCA), Fintech Committee of Payment & Clearing Association of China, Professional Committee of Blockchain Application of China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing. Experts from Digital Currency Institute of PBOC, Microsoft Research, 8btc and local regulatory authorities also participated in this conference.
In the summit, Data Center Association published China’s first test standard for trusted blockchain and other important topics, including:
- Content of the test standard;
- Results of trusted blockchain test;
- Establishment of Tursted Blockchain Association and Trusted Blockchain Open Laboratory;
- Cases and examples of blockchain application;
- Discussions about blockchain technology development, regulation and industrial self-discipline.
WeiyangX is the most influential website focusing on fintech in China. The site covers the latest news, industry data analysis, business practices, and in-depth fintech cases in fintech. WeiyangX is incubated by Fintech Lab. Founded by Tsinghua University’s People’s Bank of China (PBC) School of Finance in 2012, the Fintech Lab is the first and leading research entity dedicated to leading best practices, promoting interdisciplinary innovation, and encouraging entrepreneurship in the field of fintech through scientific research and innovative project incubation.


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(NASHVILLE) – Today, State Senator Ken Yager (R-Kingston) announced that four communities in Senate District 12 – LaFollette/Jacksboro, Wartburg, Jamestown, and Spring City – will receive Retail Academy Grants from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD). The goal is to provide these cities with the resources and education necessary to enhance their retail landscape and improve their economy as a whole through the Retail Academy program that will take place on July 22, 2019, in Nashville.
“The Retail Academy is a great opportunity for these communities to learn best practices to attract new retailers and how to provide resources to support existing local businesses,” said Senator Yager. “This program will help boost the local economies and ultimately increase the overall quality of life for citizens of these communities.”
TNECD offered these grant opportunities to communities across the state with a population of less than 25,000 to help the selected communities increase revenue from retail. This grant application applies to one of three programs offered: Retail Academy 101 (101), Retail Academy 201 (201) and Retail Academy 301 (301). The courses build on each other, and 101 must be complete before qualifying for 201. Similarly, 201 must be completed before qualifying for 301.
LaFollette/Jacksboro will receive a grant to complete Retail Academy 101, a $10,000 value. Retail Academy 101 is a program developed from a leading national retail advisory firm, Retail Strategies. The program assists communities in strengthening their overall retail landscape.
Wartburg will receive a grant to complete Retail Academy 201, a $5,000 value. This course will cater to specific property marketing. Retail Strategies will work with communities to identify the top three properties to market at conferences and in outreach efforts.
Jamestown and Spring City will each receive a grant to complete Retail Academy 301, a $7,500 value. This program will focus on downtown retail development. It will use Facebook surveys to crowdsource local consumers’ opinions to help local leaders and retail real estate professionals understand what people want in their downtown areas. The insights collected from local shoppers help local leaders and retail real estate professionals lease, manage, and market a retail property more efficiently.
“Tennessee ECD is doing a great job to help rural communities spur economic development. I was glad to support the applications for this program, and I look forward to seeing the benefits that will result from the opportunity,” added Yager. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 06/04/2019-6AM)


text: Michael Gartenberg is currently the analyst in residence for iMore.com. However, before that, he spent three years as Apple’s Senior Director of Product Marketing, reporting directly to SVP Phil Schiller. Michael tells the story about how he got his gig with Apple. After years of working at various tech industry research firms, he was always on the periphery of Apple and working with Apple executives, especially Greg “Joz” Joswiak and Phil Schiller. Then, one day in 2013, he got phone call from Joz, and it didn’t sound like it was going to be a schmooze session. Michael was alarmed. What could he have done wrong? But Joz wanted to invite Michael to Cupertino for an interview. Listen as Michael tells me how he got hired and what he did at Apple for three years.


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The About New York column on Wednesday, about backstage rituals for the play “Lucky Guy,” in which Tom Hanks is making his Broadway debut, misstated his age in some editions. He is 56, not 57. (He will be 57 on Tuesday.)
A picture caption with an article on the Square Feet pages on Wednesday, about thriving retail businesses in Tarrytown, N.Y., misstated part of the name of a cafe and coffee roasting shop owned by Mike and Alicia Love. As the article correctly noted, it is Coffee Labs Roasters, not Coffee Lab Roasters.
Because of an editing error, an obituary on Thursday about Douglas C. Engelbart, a visionary scientist who invented the computer mouse, described incorrectly in some copies his reference to “the bug.” It was the cursor on a computer screen, not the mouse. (The cursor was also called the CAT.)
The Times welcomes comments and suggestions, or complaints about errors that warrant correction. Messages on news coverage can be e-mailed to firstname.lastname@example.org or left toll-free at 1-888-NYT-NEWS (1-888-698-6397). Comments on editorials may be e-mailed to email@example.com or faxed to (212) 556-3622.


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Corporate Social Responsibility
McDonald’s shuts down Russian operations, continues wages for employees in Ukraine
McDonald’s is joining a growing a chorus of corporations that are suspending operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine.
“The conflict in Ukraine and the humanitarian crisis in Europe has caused unspeakable suffering to innocent people,” said CEO Chris Kempczinski in an email to employees and franchisees. “As a System, we join the world in condemning aggression and violence and praying for peace.”
Kempczinski said the number one priority “has been – and will remain – our people.”
Full salaries continue for Ukrainian employees
The restaurant chain said it is continuing to pay full salaries to its employee in the Ukraine and has also donated $5 million U.S. to its Employee Assistance Fund.
This support will continue to grow, he said.
62,000 employees in Russia will also be paid
Kempczinski called the situation “extraordinarily challenging for a global brand.”
“In Russia, we employ 62,000 people who have poured their heart and soul into our McDonald’s brand to serve their communities,” he said. “We work with hundreds of local, Russian suppliers and partners who produce the food for our menu and support our brand. And we serve millions of Russian customers each day who count on McDonald’s. In the thirty-plus years that McDonald’s has operated in Russia, we’ve become an essential part of the 850 communities in which we operate.”
But the company’s value cannot ignore the “needless human suffering unfolding in Ukraine,” he said.
“McDonald’s has decided to temporarily close all our restaurants in Russia and pause all operations in the market. We understand the impact this will have on our Russian colleagues and partners, which is why we are prepared to support all three legs of the stool in Ukraine and Russia. This includes salary continuation for all McDonald’s employees in Russia.”
Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC Russia) will continue its full operations, just as RMHC Ukraine is partnering with local hospitals and providing humanitarian aid throughout the country.
“As we move forward, McDonald’s will continue to assess the situation and determine if any additional measures are required,” he said. “At this juncture, it’s impossible to predict when we might be able to reopen our restaurants in Russia. We are experiencing disruptions to our supply chain along with other operational impacts. We will also closely monitor the humanitarian situation.”
McDonald’s owns 84 per cent of its Russian restaurants. In a recent financial filing, the company said Russia and Ukraine contributed nine per cent of the company’s revenue last year.
– with files from the Associated Press
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- Saskatchewan launches program to attract technology professionals
- Political polarization is affecting mental health


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Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Inc. plans to offer 4.5 million common shares in its IPO at a price of $8 per share.
The company plans to apply to have the common shares listed on the NYSE MKT. It does not plan to consummate the sale of any shares until it has received subscriptions and payment for at least 1,125,000 shares and will maintain subscription proceeds in a segregated account until such time.
Shuttle, a specialty pharmaceutical company founded in 2012, plans to become the first U.S. pharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of innovative first-in-class drugs for sensitizing cancers to and protecting normal tissue from the effects of radiation therapy.
The company estimates that the net proceeds from the IPO will be about $35.8 million if all 4.5 million shares are purchased, after deducting offering expenses. It expects to use the net proceeds to fund preclinical and clinical trials of product candidates, continued histone deacetylase small molecule technology platform development, working capital and general corporate purposes, as well as potential acquisition or in-licensing activities.


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Criminals can beat your burglar alarm with a click of an electronic hacking device available for £109 on Amazon
- Thieves using the £109 hacking gadget can deactivate wireless burglar alarms
- Called YARD Stick One, the gadget is a hand-held USB stick with a small antenna
- The Mail on Sunday purchased the YARD Stick One from Amazon
Criminals can switch off burglar alarm systems at the touch of a button using an electronic device sold on Amazon, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal.
Thieves using the £109 hacking gadget can deactivate wireless burglar alarms within seconds by jamming the signal from battery-powered sensors around the home that would otherwise sound a siren, allowing them to discreetly gain entry.
Called YARD Stick One, the gadget is a hand-held USB stick with a small antenna that plugs into a laptop. Although the use of jamming devices in Britain is illegal, the device is freely available on Amazon with next-day delivery.
Criminals can switch off burglar alarm systems at the touch of a button using an electronic device sold on Amazon, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal
The Mail on Sunday purchased the YARD Stick One from Amazon and also bought a £149.99 ERA miGuard Wi-Fi alarm system from electronics store Maplin in order to carry out tests.
Customers can turn on the miGuard alarm using a remote control in person or remotely over wi-fi with a smartphone app.
When the device is triggered, it sounds an alarm at the property and sends a notification to the smartphone app, so homeowners are alerted remotely.
The MoS installed the alarm system in a house and, with the homeowner’s permission, used the YARD Stick One to jam the miGuard alarm from outside within a matter of seconds.
This was done by downloading a freely available computer code script – which gives the device instructions – and simply clicking a button on the laptop. It meant the alarm did not sound when we entered the property, nor did it send a notification through the smartphone app.
Thieves using the £109 hacking gadget can deactivate wireless burglar alarms within seconds by jamming the signal from battery-powered sensors around the home that would otherwise sound a siren, allowing them to discreetly gain entry
Ken Munro, founder of Pen Test Partners, which carries out cyber-security testing, said: ‘This issue won’t be confined to this brand alone as many wireless burglar alarms work in the same way.
‘It’s likely there are tens of thousands of wireless burglar alarms out there in people’s homes that are susceptible to this kind of attack.
HOW MoS PROVED HOMES ARE OPEN TO CYBER ATTACK
The ‘burglar’ plugs the YARD Stick One into a laptop and, using a software script easily found and downloaded from the internet, jams the alarm system in moments.
‘Manufacturers should upgrade their security so this doesn’t happen. Consumers should look for “two-way” systems, which means the alarms can detect jamming attacks like this one.’
The use of a jammer is an offence under the Wireless Telegraphy Act.The MoS carried out its investigation in the public interest and alerted the manufacturer.
ERA said it did not know of any instances of the firm’s wireless alarms being jammed and that newer models with external sirens have been fitted with advanced jamming detection capability.
It added that the alarm tested by the MoS was less susceptible to jamming because it has no external siren and intruders would be unaware of its presence.
Michael Ossmann, founder of Great Scott Gadgets, said: ‘YARD Stick One gives wireless security researchers the ability to investigate a wide variety of weaknesses in digital radio systems including burglar alarms.’
Amazon declined to comment but a Maplin spokesman revealed that due to hacking concerns, MiGuard G5 alarm kits will be sold with an additional wireless intruder alarm from now on.
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