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From the Wires
Taco Cabana® and Dr Pepper® team up in Cotton Bowl sweepstakes
The original Mexican patio cafe offering daily and weekly prizes and grand prize trip to AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic at Cowboys Stadium
By: PR Newswire
Nov. 30, 2012 04:02 PM
SAN ANTONIO, Nov. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Taco Cabana®, a subsidiary of Fiesta Restaurant Group™, and Dr Pepper® recently launched a contest for college football fans where a grand prize winner will receive two tickets to the AT&T Cotton Bowl Classic at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, including airfare and hotel accommodations.
Daily winners will receive Taco Cabana and Dr Pepper gear and weekly winners will receive Taco Cabana and Dr Pepper prize-packs including blankets, hats, T-shirts and Taco Cabana gift cards. All winners will be announced on Taco Cabana's Facebook and Twitter page. The grand prize winner will be announced the week of Dec.17.
"We love finding new ways to reward our loyal fans and this giveaway celebrates all the fun of college football and Taco Cabana," said Todd Coerver, interim chief operating officer at Taco Cabana. "Just hit us up on Facebook and enter for your chance to win our daily and weekly prize giveaways."
Fans can enter the contest now through Dec. 16.
To locate the nearest Taco Cabana, visit www.tacocabana.com.
About Taco Cabana
About Fiesta Restaurant Group, Inc.
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Microsoft today announced legal action around the world against online auctioneers who allegedly orchestrated international marketing schemes and sold counterfeit software.
At the centre of its lawsuits is the so-called Blue Edition of Windows XP, a counterfeit version of Microsoft's aging operating system on CD.
In the UK, Microsoft began seven civil cases for alleged trademark infringement against traders on various internet auction sites for selling "high quality counterfeit" Windows and Office software.
Hundreds of buyers duped
Microsoft reckons that these sellers may have sold over 900 individual counterfeits to an estimated value of over £69,000.
Similar legal proceedings - 63 in all - were launched in the US, Germany, France, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand, emphasising the global nature of software piracy.
Despite the rampant sale of counterfeit and pirated software on internet auction sites, none of the actions Microsoft filed today have been brought against eBay or other auction sites.
In fact, says Microsoft, "Certain internet auction platforms, like eBay, proactively cooperate in the fight against counterfeiters."

domain: news


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iPay Technologies affiliate approved for tax incentives
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Jack Henry & Associates Inc., an affiliate of iPay Technologies LLC, which provides transaction processing services primarily for financial services organizations, is considering a plan to expand its customer support center operations in Elizabethtown.
The company announced its potential project at an April 25 meeting of the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority in Frankfort.
The expansion would represent a $1 million investment for the company, and the creation of 40 new jobs, according to its filing with the state.
The KEDFA board granted preliminary approval to Jack Henry & Associates for $900,000 in state tax incentives.
Andrew Robinson covers these beats: Restaurants, retail, government, human resources, technology, automotive (dealers, services), media/marketing/printing, young professionals, West End, East End and Oldham County.
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text: Gov. Bev Perdue has announced that all of the state’s 100 counties saw increases in visitor spending in 2011, including seven counties that had double-digit increases. Domestic visitors to and within North Carolina spent a record $18 billion in 2011, an increase of 8 percent from 2010. For the first time, state tax receipts from visitor spending neared $1 billion in 2011. Visitor expenditures directly generated 187,900 jobs and more than $4 billion in payroll income within North Carolina in 2011. Locally, tourism in Wilkes County generated an economic impact of $62.33 million in 2011. This was a 7.86 % increase from 2010, so Wilkes County ranked 51 in travel impact among North Carolina's 100 Counties. More than 490 jobs in Wilkes County were directly attributable to travel and tourism. Travel generated a $8.85 million payroll in 2011. State and local tax revenues from travel to Wilkes County amounted to $4.65 million. This represents a $67.41 tax saving to each county resident. Area attractions include the Blue Ridge Parkway, Tory Oak, Old Wilkes Jail in historic Wilkesboro, Stone Mountain and Doughton Parks, W. Kerr Scott Reservoir and Rendezvous Mountain Educational State Forest. The visitor spending figures come from an annual study commissioned by the Division of Tourism and conducted by the U.S. Travel Association. The study uses sales and tax revenue data plus employment figures to determine the overall impact of visitor spending in North Carolina.


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PlayStation Partners With Discord, Plans to Integrate Service With PSN in 2022 - NewsWilliam D'Angelo , posted on 03 May 2021 / 1,352 Views
Sony Interactive Entertainment announced it has formed a partnership with Discord to integrate the service with PlayStation Network in early 2022. Sony has also made a minority investment as part of Discord's Series H round.
"At PlayStation, we’re constantly looking for new ways to enable players around the world to connect with one another, form new friendships and communities, and share fun experiences and lasting memories," said Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan.
"It’s in this spirit that we’re excited to announce a new partnership with Discord, the communication service popularized by gamers and used by more than 140 million people every month around the world.
"Together, our teams are already hard at work connecting Discord with your social and gaming experience on PlayStation Network. Our goal is to bring the Discord and PlayStation experiences closer together on console and mobile starting early next year, allowing friends, groups, and communities to hang out, have fun, and communicate more easily while playing games together.
"To bring these experiences to life for our players, Sony Interactive Entertainment has made a minority investment as part of Discord’s Series H round. From our very first conversation with co-founders Jason Citron and Stan Vishnevskiy, I was inspired by their lifelong love for gaming and our teams’ shared passion to help bring friends and communities together in new ways.
"Empowering players to create communities and enjoy shared gaming experiences is at the heart of what we do, so we are beyond excited to start this journey with one of the world’s most popular communication services."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at email@example.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.


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If you still haven’t taken advantage of the Apple back to school sale, you’re quickly running out of time, as the deal ends soon.
The Apple back to school sale offers students free stuff when they buy a new Mac, and this year the company is giving away a free pair of Beats Solo2 headphones with the purchase of a new Mac, or get the wireless version of Solo2 headphones for just $100 (normally $300).
That’s certainly a better deal than past back to school sales that Apple has had, considering that they used to only give students $100 gift cards with the purchase of a new Mac, so getting a free product that’s worth $200 is certainly a much better deal for students.
Of course, a back to school deal like this from Apple really isn’t all that surprising, considering that the company recently acquired Beats and are probably looking for ways to incorporate the new addition into Apple’s existing product lineup.
So if you’re looking for a good back to school deal and haven’t bought a new Mac that you’re planning on buying, now is the time to do so, because Apple’s back to school sale ends on September 18, which is later this week.
The sale began online back in early August, giving students plenty of time to procrastinate like they do and buy a new MacBook before time runs out. However, if you still haven’t taken advantage of the sale, you might want to get on that fairly soon.
The sale allows you to not only get a free pair of expensive headphones, but also take advantage of Apple’s education pricing, where you can get up to $200 off the price of a new Mac, depending on which model you buy.
In order to take advantage of Apple’s back to school sale, you must be a college student, a parent buying for a college student, a teacher (including homeschool teachers), an administrator, or a staff member of any grade level. These users are eligible for Apple’s education pricing, as well as the back to school sale.
Unfortunately, no new MacBooks are expected to release before the end of the sale, but Apple has already refreshed its MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lineup this year. The 2015 MacBook Pro comes with a small performance boost, as well as the new Force Touch trackpad that’s similar to how the screen works on the iPhone 6s and the Apple Watch, where you can tap on the screen to select something, or press down and hold to bring up a shortcut menu of sorts, similar to left- and right-click on a mouse.
Of course, if you already have a capable MacBook and can wait another year or so before upgrading it, that may be beneficial, as the 2016 MacBook Pro could be a big refresh.
The 2016 MacBook Pro will no doubt introduce yet another performance boost over the 2015 model, but the real reason to wait for the 2016 MacBook Pro is because of the new 12-inch MacBook that released earlier this year.
It’s entirely possible that the 2016 MacBook Pro could see a big redesign with an even thinner body than before, and it could include Apple’s USB-C connectors, which are only available on the 12-inch MacBook currently.
The 12-inch MacBook is an entirely new product for Apple, and it’s a rather bold step into the future that Apple is dreaming of, and it’s possible that Apple’s future MacBooks (including the MacBook Air and the MacBook Pro) could be based off of the new 12-inch MacBook in some ways.
Of course, whether or not that’s good or bad for your wants and needs is another question, but if you’re getting a little bored with the current crop of MacBooks, it’s possible that Apple could change things up soon.


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Let’s be clear: Donald Trump is not proposing to raise the price of your avocados in order to pay for a border wall. Well, not right now, anyway. Who knows what he’ll say tomorrow.
The fact that this matter is even in question is a testament to the haphazard and confusing way the Trump administration has decided to make major policy announcements. The story begins with a pool report filed by the New York Times’ Michael Shear, quoting White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who stated that the Trump administration was considering paying for a border wall by "using comprehensive tax reform as a means to tax imports from countries that we have a trade deficit from … at 20 percent."
Shear and others interpreted this as meaning that Trump wants to impose a 20 percent tariff on all goods coming in from Mexico, and then use the proceeds to pay for a wall. That was a reasonable inference given that Trump has proposed even higher tariffs on Mexico in the past. And the implication seemed pretty shocking and hypocritical: Trump wanted US consumers buying Mexican products, like avocados, to pay for the wall, not Mexico itself!
But the reference to “comprehensive tax reform,” and a subsequent statement by Spicer clarifying that he was referring to an “idea that Speaker Ryan and others have floated” for taxing imports — one of a “buffet of options” — confirmed that this wasn’t what Spicer and Trump meant at all. What they meant instead was to suggest they might be willing to support a proposal that’s been floating around Washington for years, and has gained a huge deal of momentum since being embraced by Paul Ryan and House Ways and Means chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) last summer, known as a destination-based cash flow tax (DBCFT) or a border adjustment tax (BAT).
That’s big news — Trump had earlier expressed skepticism about this idea, and Spicer clarified that this was merely one option for paying for the wall that Trump might be open to and not a set policy — but it’s not the same as wanting to make avocados 20 percent more expensive.
A destination-based tax is not a tariff. It’s a proposal to radically change how the government taxes corporations so as to make it much harder to evade taxes by shifting profits overseas. If done well, it could eliminate a lot of the tax shenanigans that companies like Apple and Google use, and raise a lot of revenue that could be used to either lower the corporate tax rate (as Congressional Republicans want) or fund other priorities (like a border wall, as Spicer suggests Trump would be open to).
Proponents don’t think it would raise taxes for companies that import goods like avocados, and so wouldn’t drive those companies to raise prices to compensate. If all goes according to plan, your guac would be safe. Shareholders in corporations would be paying for the border wall (just as they pay the bulk of corporate taxes today), not US consumers.
This is a hugely controversial proposal. It would create some big winners and big losers and is already the subject of incredibly heated lobbying and debate by major business interests in DC. But it’s not an obviously bad idea, and it’s certainly not the same thing as making every Mexican import 20 percent more expensive for no good reason.
Why Congress is interested in border adjustment
Right now, the US taxes companies on their profits, both those earned in the US, and those earned abroad that are brought back into America. But because foreign profits aren’t taxed until they’re brought back to the US, companies have a big incentive to make US profits look like foreign profits to avoid taxes.
For example, suppose that a car company — let’s just call it, uh, General Motors — makes $1 billion in profit manufacturing cars in the US and selling them domestically and exporting them to subsidiaries abroad. That would normally subject it about $350 million in taxes, since the US has a 35 percent corporate tax rate. But GM could instead have its foreign subsidiaries pay $1 billion less for the cars they buy from the US branch of the company. That wipes out GM’s US profits, leaving it with no US tax liability and shifting the profits to the subsidiaries abroad. If those subsidiaries are in countries with a low or nonexistent corporate income tax, that could wind up being a very good deal.
Same goes for companies that import goods. Imagine a company — call it Chiquita Banana — that has subsidiaries in Latin American countries, buys up bananas from banana farmers, and then sells them to the US branch for resale. Suppose it too makes a $1 billion profit doing this. It could then just have its Latin American subsidiaries charge $1 billion more for the bananas, leaving the US branch with no profits and shifting them to Latin America.
These are very, very simplified examples; most corporate tax evasion schemes are vastly more complicated. But in broad strokes, this is how most of it works: You manipulate transactions between US and non-US branches of the company so that the money winds up abroad.
A destination-based tax makes all of this impossible. It makes two big changes:
- Imports would no longer be deductible as a cost when calculating profits and taxes, the way company expenses usually are.
- Exports would no longer be counted as revenue when calculating profits and taxes; only domestic sales would count.
This makes most tax evasion schemes pointless. Want to evade taxes by undercharging subsidiaries abroad for your cars? Too bad: All exports are excluded, so it doesn’t matter for the tax how much you charge foreign subsidiaries. Want to evade taxes by overpaying subsidiaries abroad for bananas you’re importing? Too bad: You can’t deduct the cost of imports, so making them cost more doesn’t do anything.
Indeed, while Republicans in Congress are its main champions today, some Democratic-leaning tax experts have expressed enthusiasm for border adjustment in the past, in large part due to its potential to prevent tax evasion.
Alan Auerbach, an economist at UC Berkeley, worked out a detailed proposal for a border-adjusted corporate tax back in 2010 in a paper for the Center for American Progress and the Hamilton Project, two institutions with links to the Obama administration and the Democratic Party establishment more broadly. The center-left Century Foundation issued a report from University of Michigan law professor Reuven Avi-Yonah in November calling for a similar system.
On top of all of that, when the US is running a trade deficit the new tax on imports raises a lot of money. The Tax Policy Center estimated that the border adjustment in the House Republican tax plan devised by Ryan and Brady would raise nearly $1.2 trillion over a decade. That greatly helps in paying for the sweeping rate cuts most Republicans want, but in theory it could help pay for Republican priorities too — or for a border wall, as Trump now appears to want.
Oh, and one more thing for Wall Street-skeptical readers: this isn’t part of the border-adjustment issue, but the GOP tax plan would also equalize the tax treatment of debt and equity. Currently, it's way more profitable for companies to borrow money than to raise it through investors, which has spurred the creation of the private equity industry and encouraged banks to borrow many times more money than they have. High bank leverage is one of the factors that led to the 2008 financial crisis, and a destination-based cash flow tax would encourage banks to borrow less and so help prevent a repeat of that catastrophe.
Why border adjustment isn’t a tariff
“That’s all well and good,” you might be thinking. “But this looks like it’s still a tariff! It’s taxing imports that didn’t used to be taxed! Worse than that, it’s subsidizing exports too by not taxing those! How is this not going to drive up the price of avocados?”
It’s a fair question, and the fact that border adjustment looks like a tariff is a major reason why Republicans in Congress like Paul Ryan and Kevin Brady are embracing it. They wanted a way to tap into the anti-trade message of the Trump campaign, which appears to have resonated with voters in de-industrialized upper-Midwest states which blame free trade for eliminating good manufacturing jobs. Border adjustment offers them something that looks like a Trump-friendly tariff but free-market Republicans feel comfortable embracing it because most economists don’t think, at the end of the day, that it will boost exports and discourage imports at all.
The reason why is that the dollar and most other currencies are floating: Their value fluctuates with the market. And most economists think currency markets would adjust relatively rapidly in response to a border adjustment tax being enacted.
The new tax on imports would reduce demand for imports from US consumers. When they buy imports, consumers provide foreigners with dollars; doing less of that means fewer dollars being exchanged, and a lower supply of dollars means the value of the dollar, relative to other currencies, will increase.
The tax change also subsidizes exporters. That means US exporters will be able to drop their prices to better compete internationally, increasing demand for exports. That means foreigners buying US exports will need more dollars, which increases demand for dollars and increases the value of the dollar still further.
According to textbook economic theory, this increase in the value of the dollar should totally offset the effects of the import tax and export subsidies. A stronger dollar makes it more expensive for foreigners to buy US goods (since they’re sold in dollars, which now cost more) and less expensive for Americans to buy foreign goods (since they’re sold in other currencies, which now cost less). The former effect offsets the export subsidy by making US exports costlier, and the latter offsets the import tax by making imports to the US cheaper.
Of course, the real world is more complicated than the simplest textbook model, and the currency adjustment process might not always be smooth. But even a more nuanced analysis reaches similar conclusions. “Under more realistic assumptions, a border adjustment could have some economic effects, but those effects would still not include a permanent increase in exports or a permanent reduction in imports,” AEI’s Alan Viard, an economist focused on tax issues, wrote in 2009.
This is why the World Trade Organization allows value-added taxes (or VATs, the form of sales tax used in Japan, Canada, Australia, and every European Union nation) to border-adjust in exactly this way; the WTO believes the adjustment doesn’t give them any trade advantage. Indeed, the destination-based cash flow tax proposed by House Republicans is nearly identical to a VAT, both because of the border adjustment and because it lets companies deduct all their capital investments (stuff like buying machines and factories) immediately rather than over the course of several years.
VATs, being sales taxes, are meant to tax domestic spending, so they’re calculated by taking the money that companies have coming in from domestic sources (that is, excluding money earned from exports) and subtracting the money they pay out to domestic suppliers. Companies can’t deduct imports, because the foreign companies they’re importing from haven’t paid domestic VAT, but the domestic suppliers they buy from have. That means that in the end, imported and non-imported goods are taxed exactly the same.
A destination-based cash flow tax is a VAT with one crucial difference: companies can deduct wages and other compensation to employees, whereas under a VAT they can’t. Taxing wages is the thing that makes VATs regressive, hitting poor consumers the hardest; not taxing them means that a border-adjusted cash flow tax is actually more progressive than the current corporate tax, which is already one of the most progressive taxes the US has. Of course, cutting the corporate tax would make the overall tax code more regressive, but that’s not due to border adjustment.
There are good reasons to worry about a border adjustment tax — but “Trump is sticking it to consumers” isn’t one
So the corporate tax reform Paul Ryan and Kevin Brady are considering — and that Trump is tentatively embracing — would make it harder for corporations to evade taxes, would raise a ton of revenue, and would all else being equal make the corporate tax modestly more progressive. What’s not to like?
Well, a number of things. First, it’s an open question whether border-adjustment would be allowed at the World Trade Organization, or whether it’d be ruled discriminatory. It’s allowed with VATs, sure, but normally not with corporate taxes. This is somewhat arbitrary. A destination-based cash flow tax is basically a border-adjusted VAT (which the WTO is fine with) combined with a wage subsidy (which the WTO is also fine with). But when you put the two together, it becomes sort of sketchy.
That’s why some analysts, like the Peterson Institute’s Caroline Freund, prefer the approach of literally adopting a VAT but simultaneously abolishing payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare. That would have a very similar impact (it’d be more progressive, in fact, since a VAT would hit wages above $127,200 but Social Security taxes don’t) but be on much more solid legal ground.
Border adjustment could also have some major consequences on markets abroad. AEI’s Stan Veuger notes that by making the dollar more valuable and making every other currency less valuable, the change would create a ton of wealth for foreigners with assets valued in dollars in the United States, and destroy a ton of wealth for Americans with assets abroad denominated in other currencies. A decent estimate is that about $2.5 trillion in American wealth overseas would be wiped out, on net. That includes foreign stocks owned by pension funds that teachers and policemen and other workers rely on for retirement, as well as, say, golf courses in Scotland owned by former reality TV show hosts-turned-politicians.
Veuger has pointed out a few other big losers from the plan. One would be US companies that rely on business from foreigners but aren’t “exporters” in a traditional sense. Hotels and real estate companies rely heavily on business from foreigners coming to the US, and a stronger dollar would make their products more expensive for non-US customers. While traditional exporters like, say, Boeing, would get tax-free exports to offset the stronger dollar, revenue earned from a foreigner staying in a US hotel room wouldn’t be tax-free. So hotels and real estate companies that sell houses to foreigners could find themselves worse off in absolute terms.
This same type of problem would affect all exporters as the new tax is phased in, Veuger notes. Currency markets would probably react to the mere passage of a law like this by making the dollar stronger. That would hurt exporters before they have tax-free exports to offset the shift. Finally, Veuger notes that a lot of middle and low-income countries could be hurt by a stronger dollar, as companies in those countries tend to borrow heavily in dollars. A more expensive dollar effectively means those countries' debts would become harder to pay off, potentially hurting growth in countries that need it most.
All these concerns have to do with the “destination-based” part of “destination-based cash flow tax.” But the “cash flow” part is important too. That means that rather than “depreciating” investments — that is, deducting the cost of big purchases of equipment or machinery over the period of years that it’s used for — companies can deduct investments from their tax bill immediately. Proponents think this would encourage investment, but NYU tax law professor Lily Batchelder has argued that it would in fact do the opposite, because of how businesses in practice adjust to tax changes.
The tax reform plan being considered by Congress also involves huge rate cuts, which would swamp any progressivity benefit of the new tax design and mainly benefit the rich. That’s not a necessary feature of any destination-based cash flow tax, but it’s a feature of the one Congress is actually weighing.
These are all serious arguments that raise real doubt as to the wisdom of the border adjustment tax plan. But the debate over the plan has precious little to do with debates about Trump’s plans for tariffs and other crude instruments to muck around with the international trade system. It’s about a whole other set of issues entirely, issues that are fascinating in their own right, quite apart from the price of avocados.


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There has been much of a rumor that Wal-Mart would soon be carrying the iPhone. The rumor that the mega-store would soon be selling the almighty iPhone will finally come true by the end of December. Employees at five different Wal-Marts in the cell phone department were contacted independently and each verified that training was occurring for the iPhone and that a likely timeline for end of December was expected.
The idea of a $99.00 iPhone is still floating around but there has not been any announcement or confirmation that the iPhone will drop to that price. Many analysts believe it is inevitable that Apple will drop the price to $99.00 to help boost sales and expand its user base. It should be mentioned that the $99.00 price point has not been denounced by any party and is still a possibility considering Wal-Mart's budget friendly prices.
Apple currently only sells the iPhone at its retail stores and BestBuy. Wal-Mart will open up new sales avenues which will boost its already expansive user base. Keep an eye out at big blue and let us know if you spot any Apple iPhones at Wal-Mart.


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More than 200,000 illegal cigarettes were seized after premises in the town centre were visited by trading standards officers and specially trained tobacco sniffer dogs. Tony McDonough reports
Counterfeit cigarettes worth more than £40,000 have been seized following a raid by Sefton Council’s trading standards team and Merseyside Police.
Officers acted on information from the public which identified a residential premise in Southport town centre being used to store illicit tobacco for a nearby retail unit. More than 200,000 illegal cigarettes were seized after both premises were visited by trading standards officers and specially trained tobacco sniffer dogs.
The seizure included counterfeit and non-duty paid products which cannot be legally sold in the UK.
Cllr Paulette Lappin, Sefton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regulatory, Compliance and Corporate Services, said: “This incredible discovery would not have been possible without the hard work of our trading standards team and partners in Merseyside Police.
We hope this seizure serves as a stark warning to others that we will always take action against anybody who chooses to trade in illegal tobacco. Sales of illicit tobacco is completely unfair on those traders who sell UK tobacco products legitimately.
“The availability of cheap illegal cigarettes like this needs to stop and we are determined to protect legitimate traders, consumers and the general public. We actively encourage anyone who may be aware of or suspects that counterfeit cigarettes are being sold in the borough to let us know confidentially.”
Community policing sergeant, Andy Dentith, said: “The recovery of more than 200,000 cigarettes will have significantly disrupted the activities of those involved and we ask anyone with any information about suspected illegal activity in the area to contact us.”


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The first shots from Battlefield 3’s Battlelog feature have popped up. The shots were posted over on the German language version of the Battlefield Blog, and the English version doesn’t have these posted as of yet, but hopefully it will soon. EA has said in the past that bringing Battlelog over to BF3 was “mission one”. See for yourself over on BattlefieldO.
Buy our t-shirts, yeah
They're far more stylish than your average video game website tat.


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- ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ delivers a powerfully political episode Thursday 8:30 PM
- Bowser is taking over Nintendo—and the memes make themselves Thursday 7:02 PM
- California aims to strengthen data breach notification law Thursday 5:37 PM
- Feds say college student operated drug business through gaming app Thursday 4:36 PM
- Trump is again using old videos to claim his border wall is ‘under construction Thursday 4:05 PM
- Laura Loomer led a second protest at Twitter yesterday Thursday 3:37 PM
- The eyes have it in these ‘Alita: Battle Angel’ memes Thursday 2:13 PM
- Facebook let advertisers target users interested in infamous Nazis Thursday 1:58 PM
- Dem senator promises to put net neutrality on the ‘political hot seat’ in coming months Thursday 1:28 PM
- Someone figured out that Toothless from ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ looks just like Bulbasaur Thursday 12:44 PM
- Disturbing Snapchat video shows 17-year-old throwing dog on trampoline Thursday 12:16 PM
- How to watch the new Bon Appetit channel for free Thursday 12:03 PM
- Eminem disses Netflix for canceling ‘The Punisher’ Thursday 11:50 AM
- Florida prisons sued for depriving inmates of music they paid for Thursday 11:36 AM
- Chris Hemsworth will become Hulk Hogan for Netflix biopic Thursday 11:29 AM
TL;DR it’s the deals and products online that you actually might care about.
The Daily Dot Bazaar is a curation of the best deals, products and services on the Web. There are a lot of deals out there. We’re highlighting the interesting things you might actually want to buy. Hopefully they will make your life easier. Or at least a little more fun than reading this disclaimer.
Bazaar articles are affiliated, meaning the Daily Dot may receive a small fee for purchases made from featured products. More importantly, the Daily Dot Bazaar is completely independent of editorial and advertising.
Each item is hand-picked by a real human. These are deals and products we ourselves would purchase—some of us already have.
If you have suggestions on deals, products or services, let us know. We want your feedback! You can send it to [email protected]
If you’re here because you called us out in a Facebook comment, welcome! We hope this addresses any concerns about the Bazaar. Thanks for dropping by.
Christine Burkson is the Senior Ecommerce Manager of the Daily Dot. Her work focuses on product reviews, Amazon deals, and online shopping. She previously served as an editor at Mashable, where she helped build the site's viral news section, and Yahoo, where she focused on DIY culture. Her work has also appeared on Bustle.


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ACIMIT (Association of Italian Textile Industry Manufacturers) members are set to display latest Italian textile machinery at ITMA 2019 exhibition. The leading textile and garment technology expo will be held from June 20-26, 2019, in Barcelona, Spain. ACIMIT promotes the Italian textile machinery sector and supports its activity, mainly abroad.
The presence of the Italian exhibitors at ITMA is remarkable, representing the first country in terms of exhibitors’ number and occupied surface. Indeed the Italian exhibitors amount to around 360 companies, with an occupied exhibition area of 30,000 square metres, according to a press release by ACIMIT.
The Italian companies which exhibit in Barcelona are distributed as follows among the different branches; 22 per cent in the spinning/winding section, 10 per cent in weaving, 9 per cent in knitting/hosiery, 35 per cent in finishing/printing, and 24 per cent in the other business areas planned for the show.
“Once again the Italian textile machinery industry will be the protagonist with a large number of participants in the most important international showcase for textile machines. This confirms the vitality of our sector, in terms of quality and technological level that we know how to express,” Alessandro Zucchi, president of ACIMIT said.
During ACIMIT press conference at ITMA on June 21, 2019, the association will award two of the 40 member companies that joined the Sustainable Technologies project. The Italian Green Label Award aims to reward those companies that have been more virtuous over the past years, reducing the carbon dioxide emitted by their machines to a greater extent.


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Hong Kong Tourism Board's Puneet Kumar on what makes it an increasingly popular MICE destination
Outdoor activities, nightlife, dining, culture festivals and neighbourhoods make Hong Kong a traveller's delight.
Banks real winner in Binani resolution: Puneet Dalmia
The resolution plan of Dalmia Bharat IRF consortium achieved CoC approval in 233 days, ...
Why this IIT duo quit their high-paying jobs to sell milk
Lifting the lid on digitizing milk delivery in India, Snapdeal founders-backed Supr...
Proximity marketing network BeaconsTalk Technologies in talks to raise $1mn
nvestors in the Mumbai-based startup include retail and real estate industry professionals from India and the US such as Puneet Bhatia, formerly from Shapoorji Pallonji.
JD(U), NDA win two seats each in Bihar Legislative Council
The RJD and the Congress, which had contested against each other, as also the NDA candidates from the two seats of Gaya graduate and Gaya teachers, drew a blank.
Rajan Anandan & Indian Angel Network backs Bangalore-based healthcare startup PregBuddy
What started with a WhatsApp group initially led them to build a pregnancy application which was the first peer-to-peer instant reassurance platform for expecting mothers based on their location, trimester, language, region and past medical conditions.
Prime Venture Partners invests $750,000 in KredX
Manish Kumar said invoice discounting is a largely unstructured market, which KredX is looking at tapping into using technology, data and statistics.
Kohli, Ishant, Dhawan among 45 Delhi Ranji probables
Indian Test captain Virat Kohli is among 45 cricketers named for Delhi team's Ranji Trophy camp beginning at the Feroz Shah Kotla..
Syndicate Bank CMD Sudhir Kumar Jain remanded in judicial custody till August 29
CBI has filed two cases against Jain accusing him of receiving a bribe of Rs 50 lakh through conduits and abusing his official position.
Capt Pisharody takes over command of INS Rajali
Commodore Puneet Kumar Bahl handed over the charge to Captain Pisharody at the base premises, an official release said.
Havells India inducts three new directors; TV Mohandas Pai among them
The company has inducted TV Mohandas Pai, Puneet Bhatia and Ameet Gupta. Gupta will also be the whole time director of the company.
Garment exports up 16 per cent in September to $1.3 billion
"The garment export industry is sustainably growing and we are significantly at the highest level in US market," Puneet Kumar, Secretary General, AEPC said.
19 fashion trends that are likely to reign in 2019
Diversity, questioning standards of beauty and even the #MeToo movement were mirrored on runways that were as much about showcasing opinion as about fashion.
Prime Venture Partners invests in invoice discounting platform KredX
Founded in 2015, the founders of KredX include IIT and Stanford alumni Puneet Jain, Manish Kumar and Anurag Jain.


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Snowflake Routinely Changes How it Calculates or Presents Key Metrics
New customer count presentation is the third key metric methodology change in the last nine months.
June 6, 2022
In its latest earnings release, Snowflake (SNOW), an enterprise SaaS firm, inserted new language related to how it counts the number of customers it has. Previously, Snowflake included boilerplate language regarding customer count being subject to:
"...adjustments for acquisitions, consolidations, spin-offs, and other market activity…”
But the latest earnings release contains new language signaling Snowflake now intends to present total customer count— and customers spending $1 million or more over previous 12-months— for historical periods reflecting these adjustments.
Assuming Snowflake would not revise its customer count metrics to be less flattering, we're awaiting the 10-Q to compare SNOW's prior period customer count (and customers spending $1M) with revised historical counts in the latest quarterly filing.
Two months earlier, Snowflake revealed in its annual report it recently changed how it handles tax withholdings for employee RSUs which will result in higher earnings per share (EPS) by shrinking the denominator in the calculation:
“In future periods, this change in withholding method is expected to reduce (i) net cash provided by financing activities and (ii) our shares outstanding used to calculate net income (loss) per share.”
Prior to this change, we discovered another impacting Snowflake’s net revenue retention rate (NRR), a key metric that helps investors gauge how much more existing customers are using the company’s platform. Snowflake says it will now include customers it previously hadn’t when calculating NRR:
“...the cohorts used to calculate net revenue retention rate include end-customers under a reseller arrangement. Although the impact is not material, we have adjusted all prior periods presented to reflect this inclusion.”
Investors should once again assume the change will positively impact Snowflake’s performance though it’s not clear any adjustments were necessary. NRR for the years 2020 and 2021 in the previous year’s annual report are identical to those in the latest annual report.
Related: CRM, BRK.B, TYL, SPLK, VRNT, CTSH
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On May 13, 2020, the Appellant asked the Second Circuit to reverse the decision put forth by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which holds that the ADA does not require businesses to offer gift cards in Braille.
August 28, 2020
The Restaurant Law Center, Retail Litigation Center, and others file amicus curiae brief, in support of appellees, in the 5 consolidated braille gift card litigation cases pending before the Second Circuit.
June 2, 2022
The unanimous panel ruled in favor of the businesses with one judge writing a separate opinion that concurred in the judgment but not in the reasoning. The decision was based on a lack of standing; the concurrence disagreed on the standing issue but found that the plaintiffs had not adequately stated a claim under the ADA. The opinion expresses a healthy degree of skepticism about the claims – specifically calling out the plaintiffs’ use of “cut-and-paste” complaints and characterizing them as “Mad-Libs-style” while also pointing out that the 81 complaints filed by the 5 plaintiffs in the cases that were appealed even shared the same typos.


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Let's take a look at the company as it prepares to report earnings after the bell Wednesday, Oct. 16.
FactSet says that analysts expect Netflix to report Q3 revenue of $5.25 billion and GAAP EPS of $1.03.
But the real stock mover for Netflix are the subscriber numbers.
According to TheStreet's tech columnist, Eric Jhonsa, "Netflix guided in its Q2 report for 7 million Q3 paid streaming subscriber adds -- 6.2 million in international markets and 800,000 in the U.S. For seasonally big Q4, the consensus is for 8.04 million international and 1.44 million U.S. paid streaming adds."
Chris Versace, Real Money contributor and portfolio manager for Trifecta Stocks--which owns Disney (DIS) - Get Walt Disney Company Report --and Nelson Wang, tech stocks editor at TheStreet, discussed Netflix as the company prepares to report its final earnings report before the streaming wars really heat up and Disney+ goes live.
"I think it's possible that Netflix addresses the impact of Disney's launching a Disney+...in the third quarter. But I think it's a little bit premature. It's gonna take some time for it to ramp up. So the impact of it will probably not be felt for a little while. I think they'll probably address it in a qualitative way and say, you know, as [Netflix CEO] Reed Hastings noted a couple of months ago that it's gonna be a whole new world when Disney and Apple and all these other competitors enter into the market. But I think it's gonna be a little bit premature now for them to address it in their actual forecast numbers," said Wang.
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The world continues to find new ways to reduce our reliance on plastic with agritech company Papyrus (ASX: PPY) successfully producing the world’s first food packaging that uses 100% banana fibre.
The packaging is a Banana Fibre Clam Shell moulded product which was produced at their manufacturing facility in Sharqiyah, Egypt.
With the successful production of the product, Papyrus now has the ability to scale production where the facility can produce 6,300 clam shells per hour as an alternative to polystyrene or plastic commonly used for food packaging (ie: take away containers).
“This production proves the capabilities of the Company’s technology utilising banana tree waste to manufacture an array of environmentally superior products – ranging from Veneer, Musa liquid fertiliser and Moulded fibre products with a zero-waste process,” said Papyrus Australia Managing Director, Ramy Abraham Azer.
Being able to mass-produce the packaging, Papyrus will now be able to use the samples as examples for prospective customers interested in establishing their own line of banana food packaging from the facility.
As part of their initiatives to minimise waste, the Company also has an offtake agreement in place with the Halim family operation Al Ahram which will also seek to utilise the facility for their own lines of banana food packaging.
Products produced at the facility are made 100% from the abundance of banana tree trunk waste available around the world as world-first, sustainable technology that displaces plastic packaging by providing alternatives from banana fibre.
On average, one hectare of a banana plantation yields 220 tonnes of waste per year. Globally, there are more than 10 million hectares of banana plantain.
- Sales up 40% as Harris Technology leverages eCommerce network to trial new products - January 27, 2022
- Another online casino launched as Pointsbet goes live with iGaming in West Virginia - January 27, 2022
- Yearling sales up 28% as Aussie investment surges following Apiam’s equine expansion - January 25, 2022


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U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to impose a 10% tariff on $300 billion of Chinese imports from Sept. 1, sharply escalating a bruising trade war between the world’s largest economies and jolting financial markets.
The announcement on Thursday extends Trump’s trade tariffs to nearly all of the Chinese goods the United States imports and marks an abrupt end to a temporary truce in a trade row that has hurt world growth and disrupted global supply chains.
Trump also threatened to raise tariffs further if China’s President Xi Jinping fails to move more quickly to strike a trade deal.
“I think President Xi … wants to make a deal, but frankly, he’s not going fast enough,” Trump said.
Trump made the announcement in a series of Twitter posts after his top trade negotiators briefed him on a lack of progress in U.S.-China talks in Shanghai this week.
Trump later said if trade negotiations fail to progress he could raise tariffs further – even beyond the 25 percent levy he has already imposed on $250 billion of imports from China.
Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told reporters on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Nations event in Thailand the additional tariffs were “not a correct way” to deal with the bilateral dispute.
“Additional tariffs is definitely not a constructive way to resolve economic and trade frictions,” he said.
The news hit U.S. financial markets hard. On Friday, Asian stocks took a battering and the safe-haven yen jumped as investors rushed for cover.
Oil prices plummeted 7%, with Brent crude registering the biggest daily percentage drop since February 2016. The benchmark S&P 500, which had been in solidly positive territory on Thursday afternoon, closed down 0.9%. Benchmark U.S. Treasury yields also fell.
Retail associations predicted a spike in consumer prices. Target Corp tumbled 4.2%, Macy’s Inc fell 6% and Nordstrom Inc was down 6.2%.
Asked about the impact on financial markets, Trump told reporters: “I’m not concerned about that at all.”
Moody’s said the new tariffs would weigh on the global economy at a time when growth is already slowing in the United States, China and the euro zone.
The tariffs may also force the Federal Reserve to again cut interest rates to protect the U.S. economy from trade-policy risks, experts said.
Raising tariffs would lower the prospects of a deal rather than expedite it, China’s Global Times newspaper said. Beijing would focus more on efforts to survive a prolonged trade war, Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of the Communist Party-backed newspaper, said on Twitter.
“New tariffs will by no means bring closer a deal that the U.S. wants; it will only make it further away,” Hu said.
Possible retaliatory measures by China could include tariffs, a ban on the export of rare earths and penalties against U.S. companies in China.
So far, Beijing has refrained from slapping tariffs on U.S. crude oil and big aircraft, after cumulatively imposing additional retaliatory tariffs of up to 25% on about $110 billion of U.S. goods since the trade war broke out last year.
China is also drafting a list of “unreliable entities” – foreign firms that have harmed Chinese interests. U.S. delivery giant FedEx is under investigation by China.
“China will deliver each retaliation methodically, and deliberately, one by one,” ING economist Iris Pang wrote in a note.
“We believe China’s strategy in this trade war escalation will be to slow down the pace of negotiation and tit-for-tat retaliation. This could lengthen the process of retaliation until the upcoming U.S. presidential election,” Pang said.


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Air Products’ President of Americas Marie Ffolkes is stepping down after nearly five years in the role.
Ffolkes is leaving the gases industry and has been named the new CEO of TriMark USA, effective 29th January 2020.
TriMark is the country’s largest restaurant supply company and provider of food service supplies, restaurant equipment, restaurant supplies and design services.
Commenting on the move, Ffolkes said, “I am inspired by the opportunity in front of us to capitalise on TriMark’s disciplined approach to value creation, further building the sales channels and maximising brand equity.”
“We will continue to focus on delivering excellence every day for our customers, employees, suppliers, and all other stakeholders.”
Ffolkes joined Air Products in May 2015 and led her large Americas division through a period of significant growth and positive change.
“After four years of dedicated service as President, Americas, Marie Ffolkes is leaving Air Products to pursue other opportunities,” Seifi Ghasemi, Chairman, President and CEO at Air Products, told gasworld.
“We are grateful for her service and contributions to the company, particularly, her focus on creating a collaborative work environment where people can contribute and succeed, serving our customers with speed and excellence, and supporting and giving back to our communities.”
“We wish Marie the very best in her future endeavors.”
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Published: Tue, 15 October 2013
Sean Kelly MEP has welcomed the retention of the 9 per cent VAT rate for the tourism sector announced by the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in the Budget today, following extensive lobbying by the Ireland South MEP on the issue.
Speaking at the European Parliament in Brussels, the Ireland South MEP said: “I know many local business owners in the hospitality sector who will be relieved to learn that the lower VAT rate is going to be retained. I want to thank Minister Noonan for taking my concerns for the tourism sector on board and for retaining the 9 per cent rate.
“I also welcome the decision to reduce the Air Travel Tax to zero with effect from the 1st of April 2014. It is hoped that this initiative will increase tourism figures in Ireland with added routes and increased air traffic volume.”
Mr Kelly had lobbied for the retention of the 9 per cent VAT rate, outlining his views to Minister Noonan, in particular, in recent weeks. As reported by local media in Ireland South, the MEP cited real concerns amongst the SMEs, hoteliers and those in the tourism business in his South constituency.
“The tourism sector has felt the benefit of the lower VAT rate which was designed to support and protect jobs in the sector, and to help tourism and leisure businesses to lower their cost base and attract more customers, so today’s announcement is a very welcome boost.”


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The two most popular channels for advertisers – connected TV and mobile – are affected, with fraudsters stripping measurement provider tags and redirecting them to avoid detection.
DoubleVerify (“DV”), (NYSE: DV), a leading software platform for digital media measurement, data and analytics, recently announced the discovery of “ViperBot,” a sophisticated advertising fraud scheme that attempts to steal over $8 million each month in ad spend across two of the industry’s most in-demand channels: connected television (CTV) and mobile video.
Through ViperBot, fraudsters strip the code that verifies ad impressions and then conceal and redirect this code through real devices to hide the fraudulent activity in an attempt to go undetected. While DV customers are currently protected from the scheme, it continues to spoof more than five million devices and up to 85 million ad requests per day, undercutting ad investments and performance when solutions that can protect against ViperBot are not implemented.
“ViperBot is one of the most sophisticated fraud schemes that DV has ever identified,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO at DoubleVerify. “The dynamic nature of fraud schemes underscores the fact that advertisers need a partner who is laser focused on protecting their interests – and who operates independent of the media transaction to remain neutral when determining the quality of inventory,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO at DoubleVerify. “Efficient and transparent media buying leads to better outcomes for brands. By uncovering ViperBot, we are able to give brands greater confidence in their digital investment while ensuring campaign performance.”
ViperBot relies on both the well-documented occurrence of verification stripping and a new tactic, discovered by DV, called “verification redirection.” Verification stripping is the removal of verification tags previously set by a measurement provider. As this normally causes measurement discrepancies, fraud schemes that rely on verification stripping can regularly be identified by advanced measurement companies. DV, for example, has protected its clients against verification tag fraud for years.
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With ViperBot, fraudsters have taken verification stripping to the next level. Fraudsters are not only removing verification tags from the ad being delivered – they are also reinserting them inside of cheap ad slots running on real devices in an attempt to prevent detection. This makes it difficult for unsuspecting measurement providers to recognise that any fraudulent activity is taking place. Upon identifying the new tactic, DV immediately blocked the falsified impressions and ad requests. Although ViperBot ultimately affected verification tags from all verification providers, DV quickly detected and mitigated the scheme – ensuring protection for DV customers.
“As fraudsters continue to evolve and aggressively target high-value inventory types, measurement providers need to catch up,” said Jack Smith, Chief Product Officer, DoubleVerify. “We’re seeing this happen in CTV and mobile inventory, where higher CPMs make it a more attractive target, but this new redirection tactic can be applied across many environments.”
DV’s technology is powered by the DV Fraud Lab, a dedicated team of data scientists, mathematicians and analysts from the cyber-fraud prevention community. The Fraud Lab relies on a variety of approaches to detect fraud — from AI and machine learning to manual review.
“The DV Fraud Lab is singularly focused on detecting, neutralising and mitigating new threats, giving advertisers much-needed campaign protection and performance,” added Zagorski. “This is in service of our overall mission – to build a better advertising ecosystem for everyone.”


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JCB X Series is a 'real eye-opener'
By Leila Steed02 May 2019
UK-based JW Baron Earthworks (JWBE), a heavy equipment rental and contractor company, has bought the first ever JCB 220X long-reach crawler excavator and dubbed the machine “a real eye-opener.”
The X Series excavator has a 15.6m boom and is capable of powering a range of specialist attachments.
JCB said it spent four years testing the model and its components in order to achieve a higher build quality and an improved level of reliability for customers. The manufacturer said it had been designed to provide operators with maximum comfort, durability and reliability.
James Baron, JWBE’s owner, said, “I am really impressed with the new X Series: the build quality, the high quality components and the cab, which is one of the best in the business. There has certainly been a lot of thought and customer consultation gone into the design and manufacturing process. This machine has been an eye-opener.”
According to JCB, the 20-tonne tracked excavator is tailor made for the services offered by the company. JWBE said the machine would be used on a range of projects including waterway repairs, dredging and coastal protection, as part of its rental and contractor business operations.
Peter Vooght, a JWBE operator, added, “I have to say, it’s very impressive; smooth and refined on the levers and the cab comfort levels are fantastic. They have done a good job with this machine. This is the first JCB on the fleet and I feel quite proud to be supporting a great British manufacturer and its products.”


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By Trevor Mogg
Tesla boss Elon Musk revealed a couple of years ago that he wants to stick some rocket thrusters on the second-generation Roadster as part of a special “SpaceX package” when the electric sports car launches in 2022.
And now he says he wants it to hover, too.
Chatting with Joe Rogan in a podcast released this week, Musk said that his team of crack engineers is currently trying to work out how the Tesla Roadster can be made to hover “without, you know, killing people.”
“I thought, maybe we could make it hover, but not too high,” Musk told Rogan during the chat. “So maybe it could hover, like, a meter above the ground, or something. So if you plummet, you blow out the suspension but you’re not going to die.”
He added that he thought his team could add a thruster “where the license plate flips down, James Bond-style, and there’d be a rocket thruster behind it that gives you three tons of thrust.”Continue reading… “Elon Musk wants the upcoming Tesla Roadster to hover”


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Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam congratulated individuals and organisations honoured with Vietnam Tourism Award 2019 (Photo courtesy of the VNAT) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam’s top tourism awards have been handed out in Hanoi, honouring organisations, enterprises and individuals. The Vietnam Tourism Awards presentation ceremony on July 15 was attended by Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam, also head of the State Steering Committee on Tourism, and Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Ngoc Thien, among others. Over the past 20 years, the awards have contributed to improving the quality of tourism services, building the national tourism brand, and developing tourism into a spearhead economic sector, said Nguyen Trung Khanh, Direct General of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (VNAT). Tour providers, travel enterprises, hotels, airlines, automobile carriers, restaurants and entertainment and tourist sites were honoured. In addition, tourist stops, golf courses, tourism investors, training establishments of human resources in tourism and media agencies were won awards. The top 10 five-star hotels included Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, Sofitel Legend Metropole Hanoi, JW Mariotte Hotel Hanoi, Four Seasons, The Nam Hai and Ben Thanh Rex Hotel. Top five entertainment tourist sites honoured were Sun World Ha Long Park (Quang Ninh), Sun World Ba Na Hills (Da Nang),… Read full this story
- Lanson Place Earns Two Distinctive Accolades in World Travel Awards 2019
- Inaugural ASEAN Tourism Awards Japan presented to excellent tours to the ASEAN member states
- BUSINESS NEWS IN BRIEF 29/11
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Winners of Vietnam Tourism Awards 2019 honoured have 263 words, post on en.vietnamplus.vn at July 16, 2019. This is cached page on Talk Vietnam. If you want remove this page, please contact us.


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To use the strong dollar, travelers should consider prepaying itinerary items, getting a foreign-currency bank account and using the right credit card.
Big online travel agencies are losing customers to sweeter deals offered by hotels and airlines. Car rentals are a different story.
New York to London for $15? That could soon be a reality, at least if Monday's news concerning Irish low-cost airline Ryanair is to be believed.
Most of America's top wilderness and historical destinations offer hookups or lodging to volunteers, creating a rewarding and cheap travel opportunity.
Disney's Hollywood Studios is going in for an extreme makeover, probably starting with its name and replacing all those closed attractions.
As the sharing economy grows, piggyback services assist Airbnb hosts handle financial and booking logistics
The key draw is that the United States offers birthright citizenship -- and the mothers can apply for a green card once their American child turns 21.
Hotel prices are highest in California, Florida and Hawaii, according to a new hotel price index. The cheapest are in Georgia and Alabama.
Timeshares are alluring, yes, but beware: There is much more to these property transactions than meets the eye.
Universal is building more hotels next to its theme parks, and a new water park is planned as well. What is Disney World doing to improve?
Amusement parks are doing great these days - unless you happen to be SeaWorld Entertainment, which posted another disappointing quarterly report Thursday.
Staples' merger with Office Depot, Expedia's purchase of Orbitz and the Dollar Tree-Family Dollar buyout suggest this year will be big for big deals.
Expedia includes Hotels.com, CheapTickets.com, HotWire, Travelocity and eventually Orbtiz. Team Priceline has Kayak, Booking.com and Rentalcars.com.
Thousands of travelers bought first class tickets from Europe to the U.S. for $69, but United Airlines says it's not honoring the tickets.
Road warriors share their six favorite questions to get the best accommodations possible -- and asking to see the room is not one of them.
Apparently, airline passengers aren't buying enough garden gnomes, superhero pajamas and heated cat shelters. SkyMall has filed for bankruptcy.
A new study suggests that states which allow same-sex marriages gain a strong economic benefit through spending on the event, tourism and tax revenue.
JetBlue Airways says it will create three ticket classes beginning in the first half of 2015, and only the top two include at least one free checked bag.
A new survey ranks travel websites, airlines and hotels for familiarity, quality and likelihood of making a purchase.
New programs are speeding up the check-in process for busy travelers, by letting them go straight to their rooms by using their smartphone to unlock doors.
Delta Air Lines says it expected strong margins in the fourth quarter despite widespread concern that the spread of Ebola could curb travel.


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New Jersey continues to make big moves to strengthen the state’s medical cannabis market in anticipation of launching recreational sales in 2022.
The new dispensary licenses will more than double the number of MMJ outlets, which currently stand at 23, according to the state’s website.
“The intent in 2019 had been to award 15 dispensaries but based on our assessment of patients’ access to medicine in the New Jersey market – considering price and location – we believe that would be inadequate,” Jeff Brown, executive director of the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission, said in a news release.
“The number of registered patients go up every month and we are charged by the statute to meet that need.”
New Jersey has 121,111 registered patients, according to the state’s website. The program had 44,000 patients in early 2019.
The expansion comes after a two-year delay caused by legal challenges and after warnings by industry experts that medical marijuana supplies were insufficient as New Jersey expands into an adult-use market.
Regulators awarded 10 provisional dispensary licenses each in the central, northern and southern regions of the state.
It was unclear how many are minority-, female- or veteran-owned, but the scoring weighed in favor of such applicants as well as those with job-creation plans and collective-bargaining experience.
New Jersey also is on the verge of taking cultivation, processing and testing-lab applications for the projected $2 billion-plus adult-use market.
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Existing MMJ businesses, many of which are multistate operators, argue that they are producing enough supply to start selling recreational marijuana products now, but so far, regulators have resisted.
New Jersey’s adult-use law stipulates that recreational sales begin by mid-February 2022, but it’s unclear whether the state will allow sales that soon.


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Presentation by JESS3's President & COO Leslie Bradshaw and Director of Strategy Brad Cohen at Intel's "Be Social: Intel's Global Social Media Conference" in Portland, Oregon July 11th. Leslie and Brad addressed just over 125 Intel employees from 8 countries about "The Art of Social Design".
Having functioned entirely under the “work-from-home” model until January of this year, we cannot speak more highly about what the physical space and proximity has done for our process, results, cohesion and inside jokes. This seems like an obvious statement to make, but as as a scrappy start-up that has been transforming into an established agency over the last two years, it is an important reflection point for us.
Leslie Bradshaw, JESS3's President and COO has been named one of 2011's Most Influential Women in Tech by Fast Company in the "Executives" category. Surrounded on the list by women she has long admired, it is a great honor for Leslie and all of JESS3 to receive this distinction.
After watching a documentary that touched on Steve Jobs’ study of Buddhism and how its teachings affected the aesthetic of Apple products, JESS3 CEO and Founder Jesse Thomas was set on making a technology-themed comic book / zine with Steve Jobs as the protagonist. He pitched the idea to Forbes Managing Editor Bruce Upbin, who immediately understood the power of Jesse’s vision and wanted to collaborate.
Notes Shasta Darlington of CNN: "They are an exclusive group of globe-trotting Internet investors, startup founders and tech junkies. Or you can just call them 'Geeks on a Plane.'" JESS3's Founder and CEO was one of said "geeks" who not only met with numerous entrepreneurs on the trip and throughout South America, but he also served as the trip's executive creative director where he lead the development of the trip's official comic book / "zine" and collateral. Look closely and you can see his signature JESS3 tee in CNN's shots of the trip!
Geosocial is huge trend that continues to entertain us all. As we all know, things change incredibly quickly in the world of the internet, so we decided to update our infographic The Geosocial Universe a few months short of the one year anniversary of its first iteration. Once again, we look to answer the question: Who is the biggest player in the location-based landscape?
JESS3 for GE have teamed up for the Healthcare Associated Infections Infographic which visualizes several statistics related to the spread and burden on the healthcare system created by HAIs. GE hopes to raise awareness about the widespread problem which scientific evidence suggests could often be preventable.
JESS3's latest infographic The Connected Workspace was featured on Mashable.com. Teaming up with our long time content partners Mindjet, we visualized the benefits of social technology using leveraged data from McKinsey. Interesting highlights from the infographic include the finding that social technology could improve the productivity of some workers by 20-25%, and also that only 3% of companies using social tech are "fully networked" and are "benefiting substantially." Our infographic asks an important question to the modern day working class. What sort of social tech does your company leverage?


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Business & Economy
Nissan clarifies status of Qashqai production in Sunderland
October 3, 2019
Nissan has denied reports it is reviewing plans to produce cars at its Sunderland plant in the event of a no-deal Brexit but issued a warning about its future in the North East.
The car manufacturer responded to an article in the Financial Times, which said that bosses at its global level were planning to reassess plans to make its Qashqai model at its Sunderland base.
The Qashqai makes up approximately three-quarters of the production at the North East plant, which employs around 7,000 people.
A Nissan spokesperson said: “While we don’t comment on speculative scenarios, our plans for Qashqai production in Sunderland have not changed.
“Since 1986, the UK has been a production base for Nissan in Europe. Our British-based R&D and design teams support the development of products made in Sunderland, specifically for the European market.
“Frictionless trade has enabled the growth that has seen our Sunderland plant become the biggest factory in the history of the UK car industry, exporting more than half of its production to the EU.”
Nissan has endured a tough time so far in 2019, reporting a 99 per cent drop in profits, as well as outlining plans for 12,500 redundancies, which didn’t include the Sunderland plant.
However, in February, it announced that plans to produce its X-Trail 4×4 model in the region were being scrapped as “a business decision”, fuelling uncertainty about the plant’s future after Brexit.
While Nissan reaffirmed its plans for the Qashqai in its recent statement, the company also issued a warning about its future beyond Brexit.
The spokesperson went on to say: “Today we are among those companies with major investments in the UK who are still waiting for clarity on what the future trading relationship between the UK and the EU will look like.
“As a sudden change from those rules to the rules of the World Trade Organisation will have serious implications for British industry, we urge UK and EU negotiators to work collaboratively towards an orderly balanced Brexit that will continue to encourage mutually beneficial trade.”


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comScore, Inc. published some interesting online sales numbers for Cyber Monday and the holiday shopping season so far.
More than $13.4 billion has been spent online during the season-to-date (11/01-11/30), which is an 18% gain compared to the corresponding days last year.
Cyber Monday (11/26) is so far the highest online sales day with $733 million in sales. Actually the whole week was doing well with an overall sales volume of $4 billion.
Now it makes sense that Walmart extended their Cyber Monday sales to the whole week. I guess they got a nice piece of the online sales action in that week.
Also interesting is that for the first 30 days of the holiday season, 45.5% of all online retail spending came from work locations, edging out the 44.1 percent of spending from home.
Via ComScore. Get the latest Holiday shopping information in our Shopping Tips.


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Pictured: Richard Cross, manager, Southampton Cruise Centre
The Travel Village Group has taken on former Cunard partnership development manager Richard Cross to lead the expansion of its Southampton Cruise Centre brand.
Cross was among several sales staff at Carnival UK who were made redundant in June.
A statement from The Travel Village Group said: “The Travel Village Group is taking a positive approach to the impact the Covid-19 crisis is having on the cruise industry by bringing one of its inhouse brands out of the shadows as a standalone business, but still within the ‘Group’.
“Southampton Cruise Centre now has its own dedicated Abta number.
“The new website, southamptoncruisecentre.com, is also now live, with a sleek, modern design and a quicker, more responsive feel.”
Phil Nuttall, Travel Village Group chief executive, said Cross has been recruited as manager to lead the expansion of the brand.
“I am delighted to be working with Richard once again and he is the perfect fit for our family business,” said Nuttall.
“He is very highly regarded in the cruise industry and his knowledge and passion for cruising from Southampton is a huge benefit to us all.”
Cross added: “We see Southampton as the perfect springboard for growth in 2021 and beyond.
“Our ‘can do’ attitude and personal service is what customers are looking for, even more so now than ever before.
“Yes, it is a tough market and it has been a year to forget for many reasons, but Phil and his team are so positive, and great supporters of the UK cruise industry through Clia and other distribution channels.”
The Southampton Cruise Centre brand was established more than 10 years ago to focus on the port which sees almost two million cruisers depart from the UK each year.
Nuttall has also recruited another cruise industry professional who has been made redundant but is currently unable to reveal the details.
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Cape Town was well represented at Indaba 2012 in Durban from May 12 to 15, 2012.
Exhibitors on the Western Cape Pavilion included Cape Town Tourism members Table Mountain Cableway, Cape Point Partnership, V&A Waterfront, City Sightseeing Bus Tours, Cape Info Africa, Cape By Design Tours, The Westin, Four Rosmead, HGTS Tours, Lagoon Beach Hotel, Sun Tours, Waterfront Boat Company and White Shark Projects.Read more
On Saturday evening, May 12, 2012, Escape to the Cape was announced the national winner of the prestigious 2012 Emerging Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year Award (ETEYA) at the opening ceremony of the Tourism INDABA in Durban. Shaheed Ebrahim expresses his thanks and describes what winning this award means for Escape to the Cape.Read more
Cape Town Tourism representatives at Indaba 2012 have noticed an increased demand for more unexpected or unusual experiences. After interacting with local and international travel trade and media delegates for four days, it became evident that travellers want to do something “unique” when visiting a city.Read more
Cape Town Tourism’s Executive Manager: Tourism Services, Enver Duminy, will speak at a brunch event hosted by Safer Together on Monday, May 14 2012 to discuss the companies’ integrated approach to safety in tourism. He will also refer to the importance of individual and business participation to help improve the safety and security of our visitors, by taking responsibility for tourism safety.Read more
Cape Town Tourism hosted a marketing campaign update at The Fugard Theatre on Thursday April 12, 2012 for our members and stakeholders. The aim was to share the progress that we have made in the past six months and the programmes planned for the next six months.Read more
Congratulations to Cape Town Tourism member Villa Zest on being named the Trendiest Hotel in the World in the TripAdvisor 2012 Traveller’s Choice Awards, as well as to Fair Trade in Tourism South Africa, which has been recognised as one of 10 global sustainable tourism standards and the first in Africa to be recognised by the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.Read more


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Experience Gruesome, Gory Gameplay While on the Couch
Warhammer: Vermintide 2, a gory first-person action game, launched on the Xbox One on Wednesday and a new trailer announcing the launch can be viewed below.
“We are excited to bring Vermintide 2 to the Xbox community,” said Martin Wahlund, CEO of the game’s developer Fatshark. “We are looking forward to take on Skaven and Chaos with the console gamers.”
The Xbox One version of the game includes support for the streaming platform Mixer and the game is also available on Xbox Game Pass. Two versions of the game can be purchased: the Standard Edition for $29.99 and the Premium Edition for $44.99.
The PS4 version of the game is currently scheduled to come out later this year and there’s a beta that PS4 owners can sign up for. In April, the game reportedly reached a milestone of a million copies sold on the PC. Also, if you’re interested in seeing more gameplay for Warhammer: Vermintide 2 then we’ve got you covered on that front.
If you’ve been playing Warhammer: Vermintide 2 on the Xbox One then why don’t you go ahead and tell us your thoughts on it in the comments section below!
SOURCE: Press release
The post Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Is Out Now on the Xbox One appeared first on COGconnected.
CLICK HERE IF MEDIA / VIDEO / TRAILER IS MISSING:
Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Is Out Now on the Xbox One


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Breaking with tradition, Walt Disney Animation Studios will make a sequel to its blockbuster animated film "Frozen," marking a rare instance in which the company will release a theatrical follow-up to one of its movies.
Walt Disney Co. used its annual shareholder meeting Thursday to announce a sequel to "Frozen," the 2013 animated smash hit.
Walt Disney Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Iger kicked off the company's annual shareholder meeting with a bit of "Star Wars"-related news.
Walt Disney Co.’s annual meeting in San Francisco on Thursday comes as the Burbank entertainment giant rides a hot streak.
One of Walt Disney Co.'s most storied princess properties is meeting the company's two newest royals at the multiplex. And the pairing could bring a happy ending at the box office for the Burbank entertainment giant.
Bob Chapek, a 22-year veteran of Walt Disney Co., has been named chairman of the company's parks and resorts division.


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David Quick suggests it is time to ban single-premium mortgage payment protection insurance
The reputation of loan payment protection insurance (PPI) lies in tatters and some tough decisions are needed if it is to ever regain its credibility.
As is often the case, the product itself is not inherently bad. Instead, it is the way it is sold and the perceived high cost and poor value on offer from some suppliers that have led to its fall from grace.
The negative publicity has infected the entire sector of the market, in particular dragging down sales of mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) despite the FSA giving it a general thumbs up.
Clive Briault, the FSA's managing director for retail markets, said after last year's mystery shopping exercise that payment protection insurance "can provide worthwhile cover for consumers" and he added: "We were therefore pleased to see that sales of regular premium PPI sold with prime mortgages are generally compliant."
It was the area of single premium PPI business that attracted his criticism about lack of compliance and his warning that those firms where problems exist "must take urgent action to address them".
In the headlines that followed the FSA's investigation, the positive message about MPPI was totally lost. A recent survey by Paymentshield of more than 1,500 consumers and 250 brokers found, of the 47% of homeowners aware of the regulator's criticisms of PPI, nine out of ten believed that criticism applied to all PPI products including MPPI.
The FSA's failure to differentiate between the good and the bad has important ramifications, and not just for an industry hit by falling sales. At a time of rising unemployment, the unfairly hostile attitude towards MPPI could ultimately lead to many people being unable to meet their mortgage repayments.
At present the FSA and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) are looking closely at the market, raising the hope that something worthwhile can be salvaged from the wreckage.
The PPI market is huge. There are about 20 million policies in force, generating
premiums in excess of £5bn a year for a market dominated by banks, building societies and credit card companies.
This should indicate healthy demand from borrowers who want to guard against the possibility they will not be able to make loan repayments if they lose their income. Instead PPI has become renowned as a fantastic money spinner for the lenders rather than as a sensible protection tool for consumers.
There have been a host of damning reports and statistics. Investment bank Morgan Stanley reported that up to a fifth of banks' retail profits are generated by PPI sales.
The OFT itself found firms offering PPI pay out only 15% of the amount they make in premiums compared to 74% for motor cover and 55% for household.
Financial research company Defaqto said recently that consumers are wasting £350m a year in premiums on PPI policies that don't pay out, mainly due to the policy being sold to someone who would not be able to claim or due to exclusions in the small print.
It is obvious that steps need to be taken quickly to help restore the public's confidence.
The FSA is looking hard at sales practices to ensure that advisers selling the policies make sure they are suitable for borrowers, and to dissuade companies from offering incentives programmes that may lead to high-pressure selling or targeting consumers who are ineligible to make claims after paying their premiums.
But it should go further than this. Banning single-premium PPI - which came in for particular criticism last year - would be a good step.
To begin with, single-premium PPI tends to earn large commission. But also, in many cases, borrowers are persuaded to add the up-front cost of a single-premium PPI policy to the loan. The problem is that borrowers then pay interest on the cost of the insurance as well as on the loan itself.
This is obviously good for the lenders, but totally unfair on the borrower; especially given the fact in many cases they repay the loan early or transfer to another provider and are not refunded the full cost of the premium.
The same happens with MPPI but, if anything, the effect is magnified by the size of the loan and the type of customer. Single-premium MPPI is mainly sold in the sub-prime mortgage market and the higher client risk is reflected in the premiums.
Borrowers in this sector of the market are often just thankful the lender is offering a loan - they can't easily go elsewhere and will willingly sign up for whatever cover they need in order to secure the mortgage. Typically the cost of five years of cover is added to the mortgage at the start of the loan, leading to higher interest payments.
Within the five years the borrower often builds up a good payment record and will seek out a mainstream loan at a better rate. But remortgaging usually means the loss of the premium or, at best, a refund at short-term cancellation rates. Again this is good for the lender, bad for the consumer.
Lenders argue that selling single-premium PPI is a legitimate way to make sure the customer will be able to afford the repayments if the unexpected happens. The reality is that it is making borrowers pay through the nose.
Along similar lines, we have been approached about the possibility of offering a long-term buildings insurance policy that can be added onto a loan. We have refused on the basis that this too is an obvious ploy to win more commission and interest, again to the detriment of the consumer.
The PPI market has been brought to its knees by the bad publicity, but there are now encouraging signs with recent product launches demonstrating the market can be competitive and act in the consumer interest.
The FSA and the OFT should use their investigations as a chance, not only to rid the market of its worst excesses, but to educate and inform the public so that they learn to recognise and refuse these poor deals. IT
' David Quick is managing director of Central Electronic Trading Agency (CETA)


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Amazon’s march forward into brick-and-mortar retail continues with the opening of a second Amazon Go store on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Marion Street in Downtown Seattle.
The store operates on the same high-tech principles as the Amazon Go pilot store that opened in January. With the installed Amazon Go smartphone app, customers swipe in at the point of entry. From there, an all-watching panopticon of cameras and sensors tracks customers as they load their carts with shelved products.
Images collected from the surveillance system are relayed to a central processing unit that adds objects to what can be considered a virtual shopping bag. On top of surveillance, each shelf is meticulously weighed to detect the removal of any product. The customer’s credit card is charged automatically after leaving the store.
Reported by the Seattle Times the new store is notably smaller than the first location, cut down from 1,800 to 1,450 square feet. As a result, the new location will not feature a beer selection or an in-house kitchen.
The second Amazon Go is one of six that the retailer intends to open this year in Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco.


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Kicking back as a career / Life of tester not all fun, but it is all games
George Alcantara, 18, dreams of working as a video game tester, where he could make good money playing games all day.
"I think it would be a really kick-back job," said Alcantara of San Francisco, who was hanging out at the video arcade on Pier 39 Monday night.
Andy Alamano, 24, has that job.
As a lead game tester for San Rafael's LucasArts Entertainment Co., Alamano acknowledges that he works in a kick-back atmosphere, and he likes his $40,000- a-year salary.
Life is not all fun and games for Alamano, though. It's all games -- with little time left for sleeping or eating, at least during the busy months before Christmas. The longest week he has logged was 106 hours, and 60-hour- plus weeks are typical in deadline crunches, he said.
Game fans "think it's all fun," said Ernest Adams, a game designer and industry expert, with a cackle. "In fact, there's quite a lot of sitting in meetings."
This week, about 10,000 video game industry employees like Alamano are hitting San Jose for the annual Game Developers Conference, where they take classes and trade war stories from the trenches of this $9 billion business.
Some developers are already at the San Jose Convention Center taking classes, but most will arrive Thursday, when an expo showing off the latest game technology opens and runs through Saturday. Unlike the flashy Electronic Entertainment Expo, held in Los Angeles to showcase new games every spring, the GDC is a low-key event where developers learn nuts-and-bolts techniques for making better games.
Breaking for lunch at the San Jose Convention Center Tuesday, many employees of the game business look a lot like their customers: in their 30s or younger, wearing jeans and baseball caps, and overwhelmingly male. Many crowd around the Microsoft Xbox consoles set up to demonstrate games.
But a chasm of skills, talent and experience separates game developers from the civilians they resemble, said Jennifer Pahlka, group director of the GamaNetwork, which runs the conference and publishes a magazine for game developers.
"You say, 'There's a bunch of jerks playing Quake III 24/7,' but then you see the same people having these really intelligent discussions, and you see a different side of them," said Pahlka. "Game developers are passionate about their work and think about it on a more intellectual level than you would imagine."
Developers is a catch-all word for the programmers, artists, sound technicians, managers and other people who get together to make a single game. A sampling of the brainy topics developers will take on in San Jose this week: "Geometric Modeling for Sound Propagation," "34 Ways to Create Emotions in Games" and "Revenue Models for Massively Multiplayer Games."
Conference events and conversations with developers reveal an industry that is -- yes -- fun, but becoming more sophisticated, and more stressful, every year.
"There's a lot of responsibility these days," as game budgets swell, said Tim Longo, a lead game designer at LucasArts. In past years, games were created by small teams of people on shoestring budgets, but these days, companies are committing millions of dollars to single titles -- and expecting profits on the same scale.
Longo, 30, started working at LucasArts seven years ago as a game tester with a college degree in theater directing but no experience. Now, he lays out the road map for entire games, then coordinates with artists, programmers and others to see that the plan is realized.
There are benefits to working at a game company -- like after-hours network gaming marathons on LucasArts' local-area computer network.
"Most people here have kick-ass machines. We have a little LAN party after work every day," said Longo. Lately, he and his co-workers have been enjoying the fighting game Battlefield 1942.
Longo considers himself lucky to have gotten into the industry a few years ago. Now that a growing handful of schools offer programs teaching game development, employers are expecting some training or experience from applicants, he said. San Francisco State University, Art Institutes International and the Academy of Art College, all in San Francisco, are among the Bay Area schools with game programs.
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
The industry has its drawbacks. Adams, author of the forthcoming book "Break Into the Game Industry," said the large number of people interested in working in games pushes down salaries. He estimates that programmers and other professionals who make games make 10 percent to 40 percent less than they could be earning in other technology companies -- although the recent downturn has probably narrowed the gap.
It's also a volatile business. Companies ramp up hiring in the months before Christmas and when new consoles are on the market, then let people go for the slow months or years in between. Adams, who lives in Guildford, England, was laid off from the British division of Redwood City's Electronic Arts two years ago, in the slack period when sales of the last generation of game consoles trailed off and the latest consoles, such as the Sony PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, had not yet been released.
"There are a heck of a lot of small companies that make a couple games, then don't get another contract and cease to exist," said Adams, who is looking for a job at this week's conference.
Neither the hard work nor the prospect of unsteady employment deter the growing numbers of people who hope to join the game industry -- especially because many game companies have not felt the pinch of the recession the way other tech firms have.
Sean McCann, a senior studying computer science at Louisiana State University, traveled to San Jose to work as a volunteer at the GDC in order to learn more about the industry he hopes to join. Sitting on the conference center floor wearing his bright green volunteer T-shirt, he related what he's learned so far:
"My only realization has been the cost of living in the Bay Area," where many of the top video game companies are located, McCann said. "Forty thousand dollars here is not the same as $40,000 in New Orleans."


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Up for sale at Gooding & Company’s August 16-17 Pebble Beach auction is a very rare race car that has a very impressive history. According to a June 23 Road and Track article, the very Porsche 917K that Steve McQueen drove in the 1971 movie “Le Mans” will be going under the hammer come August in California.
The article describes how this very Porsche 917K, chassis no. 024, was also the first 917 to ever compete in a race in 1969 at the 1,000 km Spa. Adding to this car’s long list of achievements is the record for the fastest time that it set at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1970.
The car was lost in the world for quite some time after its historic run, only to be rediscovered as a barn-find in the early 2000s. Now, the car has been restored and will hit the auction block for what looks to be an exciting bidding war.
The 917K is expected to garner a higher price than the 1957 Ferrari 250 TR, which set the previous record for an automotive action with a $16.4 million winning bid in 2011, according to the Road and Track article. If this holds true, it will be the most expensive Porsche ever sold at an auction.
Stay with us for more on this historic car as we draw closer to the famous Pebble Beach event in August. And be sure to watch the video below of the car’s restoration and the final lap from the “Le Mans” movie, starring this very car.[aio_button align=”center” animation=”pulse” color=”black” size=”small” icon=”none” text=”View Lot” target=”_blank” relationship=”dofollow” url=”http://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1969-porsche-917k/#tab1″]
[youtube id=”FIdbXsvPZrU” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”] [youtube id=”MDpqLOznAMw” align=”center” mode=”normal” autoplay=”no”]
(Source: Gooding and Company via Road and Track)


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Risk Placement Services Inc. is using its online platform to launch a commercial criminal insurance product covering losses due to fraud committed by internal and external parties, said Rolling Meadows, Illinois-based wholesale broker and chief executive officer in a statement on Tuesday. .
The policy offers standard law enforcement including theft of employees; ERISA fraud; forgery or alteration; inside / outside the premises; computer fraud; money orders and counterfeit currency; money transfer scams; customer property / third party; and limited costs cost the statement.
The policy also provides full-scale social engineering coverage.
Maximum liability limits total $ 5 million, according to an email from a spokesperson.
Police functions include theft coverage and extortion coverage, including cyber threats; a loss aggregation language used for storage; a discovery trigger linked to knowledge of the CEO, CFO and Advocate General; and coverage of costs and costs for compensation of property damaged by robbery.
Coverage also covers pension plans established, maintained or controlled by the insured company.
The policy is available in all 50 states and can be cited, bound and issued online by answering four subscription questions. Catalog


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FACEBOOK users have given a big thumbs down to the social networking site after it emerged their web activity is being tracked - even after logging out.
Australian tech expert Nik Cubrilovic has revealed that when you log out, Facebook merely modifies the cookie, it and in some cases installs new ones that send user information as you continue to surf the web when you log out, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Every time you log in to Facebook it installs what is known as a “cookie” in your browser which tracks your activity on the site, sparking massive online fury.
Deleting cookies – a how to guide
“Even if you are logged out, Facebook still knows and can track every page you visit,” Mr Cubrilovic wrote in a blog post.
“This is not what 'logout' is supposed to mean - Facebook are only altering the state of the cookies instead of removing all of them when a user logs out.”
Whenever you visit a website that contains a “like” or “share” button – or any other Facebook app, your information including your account ID is sent back to Facebook, Mr Cubrilovic explained.
The only way to protect your privacy is to delete all of your cookies.
However all this is of little consolation to angry users vented their fury in online forums, saying their privacy has once again been violated by the social networking site.
One Facebook user @ScreamMinaj wrote on twitter: “Now Loading ... Facebook Is Just Plain STUPID Now -_- *Deactivates Account*”.
Another user @emsexton wrote: “Freaking woah, Zuckerberg. You are out of control”.
A number of applications and plug-ins have surfaced in reaction to Facebook's new makeover and the privacy implications that come with it.
Google Chrome has created an app called Facebook Disconnect which removes the news ticker from your page when you use the Chrome web browser.
Firefox's “ShareMeNot” add-on also prevents third parties from tracking you until you actually click on the “like” or “share” button.
Mr Cubrilovic said the news showed Facebook needed to be more transparent about its privacy settings.
“Facebook are front-and-centre in the new privacy debate just as Microsoft were with security issues a decade ago,” he wrote.
“The question is what it will take for Facebook to address privacy issues and to give their users the tools required to manage their privacy and to implement clear policies - not pages and pages of confusing legal documentation, and 'logout' not really meaning 'logout'.”
Originally published asDISLIKE: Logging out won't stop Facebook spying