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The initial focus is on perfecting the technology. Plans call for a prototype system to be ready late this year, with a commercial offering set for the second half of 2001. Flarion officials say they can’t estimate the cost savings of their technology because it depends on network size, traffic volumes and other factors. But they stress that the savings will be significant-enough for that California family to do its Web surfing affordably. With conventional systems, quips Dolan, “I don’t think anybody can afford both the automobile and the connectivity.”
Even presuming it can bring wireless data into mainstream use, Flarion doesn’t expect to get the bulk of the wireless pie. First come the big carriers on conventional networks-the Nortels, Ericssons and Lucents. Flarion must also contend with startups such as San Jose-based ArrayComm, which has its own dedicated data scheme. Still, Dolan foresees winning a major, and increasingly important, portion of the wireless-data business. He envisions a future for data traffic that mirrors the evolution of air freight shipping. Commercial airlines began carrying freight because they saw the chance for extra revenue. But as air freight usage grew, a separate industry sprang up to serve it; freight takeoffs and landings now rival commercial airline traffic. So it will be with data, contends Dolan. Data may have started out on conventional wireless networks. However, he asserts, “The tidal wave of demand that’s about to hit carriers of wireless data will require a Flarion solution.”
Back in the carpeted confines of NVG, everyone hopes Dolan is right. But it’s only one of many seeds being planted, a fact attested to by dozens of paperweight-like deal icons-each commemorating successful financing rounds-covering a long birch cabinet in Tom Uhlman’s expansive office. So far, Uhlman’s people say they’ve examined nearly 250 projects in detail and launched about 25 ventures, though not all have been announced. Not every one has been a winner. Two didn’t make it even to the spinoff stage. One particularly high-profile disappointment was Inferno, an attempt to develop a new operating system partially conceived by legendary Unix and C-programming-language pioneer Dennis Ritchie. The effort failed to live up to its buzz and was ultimately closed-though it has recently been reborn under a different business strategy and may yet find a way to survive.
No doubt there will be others that, as Uhlman puts it, “I wouldn’t call failures, but didn’t meet expectations.” But the New Ventures head isn’t much troubled by that right now. Indeed, he’s on a roll, helping Lucent do what few companies have been able to accomplish: find ways for people like Rajiv Laroia to challenge the status quo and bolster the establishment at the same time. That task may not make for the stay-in-one-job stability of yesteryear, but for big companies and their employees, it can provide a different type of security.
Company Year foundedSelected areas of focusIdeas screened annuallyAnnounced launchesRecent launchesIntel New Business Development Group1998Data services,Internet hosting, networking, digital cameras and toys1002Vivonic: fitness-planning software for handheld market
PassEdge: digital-rights management for Internet streaming videoLucent New Ventures Group1997Wireless, multimedia, e-commerce, networking, semiconductors7525Flarion: wireless data
SyChip: chips for wireless Internet appliances
CyberIQ: Internet traffic and content managementNortel Business Ventures Group1996Internet and networking technologies150NAEntrust: encryption and digital security
Elastic Networks: next-generation DSL
Netgear: network computing
NetActive: digital-rights managementXerox Technology Enterprises1998Internet technologies5012 (est.)Inxight: Web navigation and viewing software


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THE visitor experience in Shrewsbury is weak, a report commissioned by Shropshire Council has claimed.
The draft Visitor Economy Strategy from tourism experts Britton McGrath Associates says tourists find it difficult to find their way to attractions such as The Dingle, The Square and Shrewsbury Castle when they come to the town.
The study found Shrewsbury attracts 2.6 million visitors a year, compared to 41.9 million in Chester and 17.5 million in Durham.
It said: “The challenge here is a lack of identity and focus on unique selling points that Shrewsbury has to offer.
“At the moment, the visitor experience on the ground is weak. There is a lack of welcome or sense of arrival.
“Throughout the town, it is a challenge for a visitor to find the ‘best bits’.
“Across the town, the visitor signage is hard to see or recessive.
“Other cities, arguably with a lot less tangible historic ‘product’ to offer than Shrewsbury, have successfully marketed their assets significantly better.”
The report also criticised the online marketing campaign for Shrewsbury run by Destination Shrewsbury which includes Shrewsbury Town Council, Shropshire Council, Shrewsbury Business Chamber and Tourism Association, and Shop in the Loop.
But Destination Shrewsbury chairman Edward Goddard said: “The Visitor Economy Strategy was commissioned to be an active strategy, not one that would sit on a shelf and gather dust.
“To build a stronger tourism offer and provide an enhanced visitor experience we needed constructive criticism – that is what we asked for, and what we have received.
“The whole point of the project was to identify our strengths and weaknesses so we can develop a viable action plan that will significantly enhance Shrewsbury’s tourism industry.”
Louise Cross, service manager for visitor economy at Shropshire Council, said: “This strategy will focus the efforts of both the private sector and the public sector to ensure Shrewsbury remains a competitive destination that delivers an outstanding experience for our visitors.”
John Hall, from Shop in the Loop, added: “We have a beautiful and historic town, with the best shops of any comparable town in Britain.
“We have been a well-kept secret far too long.”
The draft Visitor Economy Strategy document will go before Shropshire Council’s Cabinet on October 19 for formal adoption.
See full story in the Leader

domain: news


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58.com Inc. (or 58), one of the leading classified services in China, just filed with SEC for an IPO on the NYSE to raise up to $150 million. It’s the second time the company filed for an IPO in the U.S.. The last time is June 2011.
The site has been offering classified information on housing, jobs, used goods, automotive, pets, tickets, yellow pages and other local services since 2005. Earlier this year it introduced the escrow payments solution from Taobao hoping to boost direct transactions on its platform.
The service covers 380 Chinese cities with approximately 4.3 million local merchants being active on its platform as of Q2 2013. Monthly unique visitors were 129.7 million and monthly listings added were 56.4 million in the quarter.
58 developed separate mobile apps for end-users and businesses. In Q2 2013, 39.4% of the average monthly page views were on mobile apps.
Its revenue sources include merchant-facing membership fees and online marketing; the latter includes advertising and paid searches. The company made $10.7 million, $41.5 million and $87.1 million in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively, with net loss of $13.9 million, $83.4 million and $30.4 million, respectively.
It managed to turn a profit, $2.85 million, in the first half of 2013, in which period 60% of the total revenue was from membership fees and 38% from online marketing.
Update: The total revenue in Q3 2013 is $41.6 million, with 58% from membership fees and 41% from online marketing, according to the newly submitted file. It managed to generate $8.5 million in net profit. Paying members were 353,000 as of the quarter.
58 claims that it’s ” the largest online marketplace serving local merchants and consumers in China”, with a 38% market share in 2012, citing an iResearch report. Its direct competitor, Ganji.com, is very close to 58 in market share. One month ago Ganji disclosed that it had raised $90 million in 2012 and wasn’t preparing for an IPO.
The company has raised a total of six rounds of funding since 2006. The total number is more than $180 million.


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Can You Catch Coronavirus From Your Clothes?
While most Americans are crouched in their homes as coronavirus sweeps across the country, essential workers still need to attend their jobs, and trips to the grocery and pharmacy remain necessary. But can the clothing people wear out spread out COVID-19?
If so, what’s the simplest thanks to handle clothes on your return?
That may depend upon exactly what you are doing once you leave the house. for instance , the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) urges nurses and doctors to consider hospitals as “hot zones,” and advises them to get rid of all of their clothing before re-entering their home. an instantaneous shower or bath is additionally advised, with work clothing kept faraway from other clothing until thoroughly washed in hot soapy water.
But for the typical person, the role of clothing in infection risk is far less clear.
I have seen nothing published that means that folks got to strip off clothes, launder and shower right after a visit to the shop , noted Elizabeth Scott, associate dean at Simmons University’s College of Natural Sciences in Boston. Scott is additionally the founding father of Simmons’ Center for Hygiene and Health in Home and Community.
At now , “the focus should remain available hygiene practices, wearing a mask, and not touching the face” for many people, Scott said.
However, Scott said that as a precaution for store employees, sanitation workers or anyone in routine contact with the general public , “It would add up to get rid of outer clothing once they get home, and either launder them or leave them hanging until subsequent shift.” and she or he advised washing hands right after doing so.
Scott also echoed U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advice that “laundering should be done using the very best water setting possible, followed by thorough drying.”
The CDC also advises against shaking out dirty linen, to stop unintentionally circulating any virus within the air.


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IThat was it one of those many inventions that never really caught on. In 1960, viewers of the film “Scent of Mystery” were able to experience the wonders of “Smell-O-Vision”. Mounted under the cinema seats, the system emitted 30 different scents at key moments in the story – from a salty sea breeze to a hint of wine. The system had its quirks. Those on the balcony complained that the smells reached them too late. Others found the scents too weak or annoyingly persistent. More novel than effective, Smell-O-Vision never really caught on in Hollywood.
Nowadays, video games and virtual reality are no longer movies, but video games and virtual reality. Several groups are trying to bring scents into virtual worlds. In an article published this week in nature communication, Xinge Yu from the City University of Hong Kong and Yuhang Li from Beihang University describe two wearable “Olfaction Interfaces”. The first is the size of a patch and is taped to the skin under the user’s nose like a fake mustache. The second, more powerful variant is a flexible face mask.
Both are based on heating tiny flakes of paraffin wax that have been impregnated with various liquid perfumes. The smaller version of the system uses two such tiles; the larger has nine. Researchers claim they can create a scent like mint or green tea in just 1.44 seconds. The nine generators on the mask can be combined to create hundreds of possible smells.
Doctors Li and Yu were launched OVR, a startup based in Vermont. His headset uses a system of refillable cartridges, each capable of producing thousands of scents. The company’s latest product, the “ION3″ will be released later this year and can be integrated into existing game creation tools with minimal effort.
The right smells could make virtual worlds more attractive. Smells are known to be evocative. The part of the brain that processes them is directly connected to parts associated with emotions and memories. But the science is tricky. Unlike colors or tones, which combine wavelengths and frequencies in predictable ways, smell isn’t that simple. Changing a single chemical bond can turn a scent from sweet to rancid. Whether smelly VR will do better than smelly films remains to be seen. But maybe one day users will be able to stop, swipe and smell the virtual roses. ■
Curious about the world? Sign up to enjoy our mind-expanding science coverage Simply scienceour weekly newsletter for subscribers only.


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Snapchat is raiding top competitors for talent, and charging top dollar for ads
This wraps the last week before the 2016 election — more on that Monday. For now though, here are a few of the better stories from this week that you may have missed.
Let’s say, hypothetically, Donald Trump loses the election
There has been much speculation that Trump, should he lose on Tuesday, might consider launching a broadcast network. But even a streaming, so-called over-the-top, service would have costs that the Republican candidate needs to think about. Tech expenditures alone would come to more than $12.2 million annually. And that’s not even including other overhead and content-related expenses. In fact, if Trump were to spend a tenth of what Fox News spends annually ($828 million), he’d still need to get 692,000 subscribers to pay $10 per month just to break even.
Snapchat’s fishing expedition
Snapchat is on a hiring spree as it prepares for an IPO, raiding everyone from Google and Facebook to old media for talent. “I’m not sure I’ve ever seen hiring at this speed or breadth of this support services been paralleled before,” said Maikel O’Hanlon of Horizon Media. Snapchat’s hiring trajectory comes as its business gets more complicated and it faces new competition from other social platforms like Instagram, however.
And Snapchat’s big pitch
Snapchat is also trying hard to woo advertisers. It’s hiring ad sales talent, launched an API and integrated third-party measurement firms. And as a recent pitch deck shows, it’s emphasizing ways its ads can surprise and delight and help advertisers tell stories in the app. The ads aren’t cheap, though: one new feature is available to advertisers who spend $750,000 in a quarter.
Now live on Facebook: Revenue
Publishers are getting creative about how to make money from Facebook Live. Facebook officially opened its doors to branded content this April, letting media owners publish advertorials, either co-created with brands or sponsored by them, to their verified Facebook pages. There’s also the option to run short ad breaks within Facebook Live videos, though this is just running with a handful of test publishers. Now some publishers, like Business Insider and News UK, are starting to see dollar signs.
Publishers’ latest petri dish: Email
Five years ago, email newsletters were an afterthought for publishers. Today, they are a key source of traffic and a laboratory where publishers look for new ways to super-serve what are often its most engaged pockets of readers. Publishers like Thrillist and The Washington Post maintain dozens of newsletters, and the signals their subscribers send can shift the focus of entire writing teams in a matter of weeks.
Spending on newspaper print ads is falling off a cliff. Projected to decline 8.7 percent to $52.6 billion, according to estimates from GroupM, this year’s drop in global print ad spending would be the biggest since the 2009 recession, when world-wide spending plummeted 13.7 percent. Overall, the global advertising market is expected to grow 4 percent this year, though not enough to offset the losses from declining print revenues. Things are only forecast to get worse in 2017. Winter is coming for print publishers. 🌬❄🌨
Check back in Monday for stories on the ways media companies are trying to monetize Instagram and what publishers have planned for Election Day.
More in Media
Meta AI, which first debuted in September, also got a number of updates including ways to search for real-time information through integrations with Google and Bing.
The retail giant paired its insights unit Luminate with Walmart Connect to help suppliers optimize for customer consumption, just in time for the holidays, explained the company’s CRO Seth Dallaire.
In this week’s Digiday+ Research Briefing, we examine BuzzFeed’s plans to pivot the business to an AI-driven tech and media company, how marketers’ use of X and ad spending has dropped dramatically, and how agency executives are fed up with Meta’s ad platform bugs and overcharges, as seen in recent data from Digiday+ Research.


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Speaker Greg Wittbecker, adviser at CRU Group, launched Spotlight on Aluminum: How Long Can the Light Metal Outperform? March 23 at ISRI2022 by highlighting some potential questions on attendees’ minds. These questions included how recycled metals play into the balance in primary metals outlook, how demand may hold up amidst inflationary pressures, whether the market will face demand destruction due to high energy prices, and how the war in Ukraine will impact the situation. Wittbecker and Dhawal Shah, managing director at Metco Ventures, set out to answer some of these pertinent questions. Andrew Vida, vice president at INTRAMETCO, moderated the session.
Wittbecker noted that one major change for the markets is the role of China. For the last 20 years, China was the largest consumer of primary and recycled aluminum markets but that’s no longer the chase. “China is no longer the biggest driver of what moves the [London Metal Exchange] price,” he says. “It’ll be driven more by what’s happening outside of China.” Other issues include the shortage of primary aluminum and the lack of U.S. investment in the primary metal. The last U.S. smelter was built in 1983.
Amid those concerns, people are turning attention to decarbonization and “low-carbon” primary aluminum. When Wittbecker hears that term, his response is simple. “We’ve been trading low-carbon aluminum for a long time, we just called it ‘scrap.’” Recycled commodities are getting attention among original equipment manufacturers that want recycled content in their products. Wittbecker noted that demand for recycled materials will continue rising. “Seeing that happen quickly will depend on sortation,” he explains. “Getting faster at sorting some of the obsolete grades and making them accessible.”
Within China, demand for primary aluminum is flattening out. “China is investing a lot of capacity to process more scrap,” he says. Wittbecker anticipates that while China will no longer demand primary aluminum, its demand for recycled aluminum will grow quickly. “Overall, these are trying times for the aluminum market but good times for the scrap market,” he adds.
Shah highlighted one of the major issues facing the industry is rising inflation. “I think the entire value chain is disturbed,” he says. “I agree that low inventories, high costs, and sanctions against Russia will all contribute to the fact that aluminum is in a tight spot.”
He discussed recycled aluminum flows over the last few years noting big diversions that have occurred since 2018 and 2019. “As a trader of aluminum scrap, I used to buy a lot from the U.S. so much that I started changing the way I pronounce aluminum,” he jokes. But that changed over the next two years as the U.S. turned from selling to buying. Shah says the same pattern is happening in Europe. “Europe has been an exporter of low-grade aluminum but in the last 6–8 months, a lot of its scrap is being processed, consumed, and transported within the EU and exporters have lessened.”
Two major trends that shifted the markets are the number of recycling facilities developing and expanding across Asia and growing government investment in recycled commodities. Shah described projects in India, South Korea, and Indonesia to build and/or expand recycling facilities. “Reducing carbon footprint has spurred the massive surge in aluminum production,” he says.
Shah anticipates government policies regarding higher thresholds of metal purity could affect the recycling business. “Indonesia and Malaysia are setting up higher thresholds for metal purity and new procedures for inspection of imports,” he says. “India is currently creating its own standards for all kinds of recycled commodities both imports and domestic.” He recommended exporters get a copy of the standards once they’re available.
“Overall, new investments and expanded capacity can trigger high demand for scrap,” Shah summarizes. “Countries and companies are looking more inward, which perhaps point toward economic nationalism … more scrap recycling facilities and expansion are happening everywhere. I feel great pride and happiness in being part of this industry.”
Photos courtesy of ISRI.


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THE father of a Polish squash playing champion is serving up a culinary treat to shoppers at Stretford Mall.
Darek Atras has launched a new business cooking up unique recipes which have been passed down through his family for generations.
He has put together a flavoursome menu, with the help of his wife Jola, based on the dishes they grew up with in their homeland and which they in turn served to their own children, Przemek and Monica.
Przemek, 33, is today a champion squash athlete who plays for the Polish national team and runs a top ranked squash club in Krakow. Monica works in administration in Warsaw.
They both always loved family meals at home with their parents thanks to Jola’s delicious cooking. But it was only on moving to Britain in 2015 that Jola and Darek came up with the idea of catering professionally.
Darek, 55, said the business, launched just a couple of weeks ago, is named after his chef wife and the couple have invested in a custom-designed-and-built, fully equipped kitchen kiosk, emblazoned with the ‘Jola’ logo.
They had it shipped over from Poland to Stretford Mall where it is based in one of the central aisles. It enables them to cook up flavoursome feasts fresh to order on site all day long.
The entrepreneurial grandfather-of-three said he had no hesitation launching the start-up cafe project, saying he had a lifetime of experiencing how delicious his wife’s recipes are.
Darek added: “The new venture is truly unique because only Jola knows the full recipes which have been passed down through the women in her family for centuries.”
His wife has also developed a halal version of one of their recipes to cater for local demand.
Darek, who plays squash and tennis as a hobby and helped train his athletic son, ran a successful neighbourhood supermarket business in Krasnystaw, near Lublin, Poland, for 25 years, before the couple moved to Manchester.
They left Poland to seek new opportunities after facing ever increasing pressure from larger hypermarket chains.
Darek worked for the Enterprise vehicle hire firm on first settling here, but his own irrepressible entrepreneurial spirit kicked in when he and Jola realised there was a gap in the local cafe and takeaway market for traditional Polish food.
If successful Darek would love to develop the Jola food outlet as a franchise with more branches across the North West.
Their friend Daniel Klein, who lives with them in Whalley Range and has been helping Darek launch the initial business, said: “In Poland it is traditional for recipes to be passed down the family line between women, from grandmother, to mother, to daughter. Some recipes go back generations and on occasions the current generation may add a new twist or ingredient only known to that particular family.
“That’s exactly the case with Jola. Everyone who knows her loves Jola’s cooking – it just comes naturally to her and so this is the perfect investment for them both.”
Daniel, 30, originally from the Czech Republic, has been helping by dishing out free samples of hot-cooked food to shoppers in Stretford Mall.
He said: “After his years of business experience Darek knows that you can have the best product in the world but it won’t sell unless people know about it, so during the opening weeks we have been offering people free samples of the food to give them a taste of what’s on the menu.”
Stretford Mall manager Gareth Wilkins is thrilled to have the new independent trader join the Mall community.
“It’s exciting times at Stretford Mall at the moment as we have started a £2m redevelopment which will include a bright and modern new entrance on Chester Road. It’s a big step towards creating a more vibrant retail space for the community which will help us to attract big high street names along with other interesting independent businesses like Jola.”
Gareth added: “I succumbed to trying one of the hotdogs for breakfast and I can honestly say it was truly delicious. Jola definitely knows her cooking.
“It’s important to have a good mix of outlets in a shopping centre like ours, well known chain stores supported by an eclectic mix of independent businesses so I am so pleased to welcome something as different as this.
“Darek is so enthusiastic and really has spotted a gap in the culinary market. No one else currently in the Mall or nearby offers a range of traditional Polish takeaway food like this.
“Their enterprise and initiative is commendable. They have done well to seize the opportunity to offer such a new and exciting style of freshly made cuisine to consumers in Trafford. I’m looking forward to watching this young business develop and grow. We all wish them the best of luck for a lucrative future. Hopefully the business will be as big a winner in the culinary world as their son is in the sports arena!”
A hot favourite already emerging is a tasty mushroom base Jola prepares herself to go on baked baguettes topped with cheese, three types of onion, tomato sauce and a choice of meats including salami, chorizo, ham, and sausage.
“The mushroom base has a secret ingredient which makes it all the more tasty, but Jola will never tell what it is,” said Daniel.
They also offer traditional Polish hotdogs with a choice of relishes, halal baguettes, sweet cooked waffles with a variety of toppings, plus hot and cold drinks and cakes.
Darek said it is important to get to know the local market and to be able to adapt to its demands, which is why they introduced a halal option to the menu.
Daniel added: “We have already had a number of Asian customers who asked for a halal option so it’s important that we cater for them.”


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EAST LONGMEADOW, Mass. (UPI) -- The toy industry will be making more and more electronic games in the future, but video entertainment is just a passing fad, says an official of the world's largest and oldest game company.
"Americans love gadgets and this is just another gadget," Michael Moone of the Milton Bradley Co. said Thursday.
"The problem with the toy industry historically is that it overreacts to trends. "It (video) is the same thing that happened with CB radios, 35 mm photography and stereo components," he said.
Moone said people become bored with video games after about a month.
But he said Milton Bradley and the rest of the industry is moving toward electronic games.
He noted that his firm has introduced two new electronic games for this year the Comp IV and Electronic Battleship.
The electronic line now represents about 15 per cent of the sales for the company founded in 1886, Moone said.


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"It's not worth it for us to risk potentially disastrous consequences"
Recently, we heard the news that Nintendo had filed a lawsuit in the US state of Arizona, calling out two ROM and emulator websites for unfair competition and copyright and trademark infringement. It appears that this has helped spark a new level of fear among such...
Currently unusable, but the hacking community seems hard at work
As soon as the Switch arrived in stores we saw the inevitable start of homebrew and hacking efforts as coding enthusiasts see what can be done with the hardware. It often takes a while for discernible progress to be made, but there have been some early landmarks for that community,...
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- “Hogwarts Legacy” is first with over 100,000 average monthly searches in the UK, and over a million worldwide
- “Starfield” comes in second and is set to be released in the first half of 2023 after its original reschedule
- “Nightingale” is third with 20,000 average searches in the UK
“Hogwarts Legacy” is the most anticipated game of 2023, a new study reveals.
Study by an online casino platform CasinoBonusCA analysed a comprehensive list of video games set to be released This year to discover which ones are the most searched and therefore the most awaited.
“Hogwarts Legacy”, set to be released on February 10thThe average monthly searches for the United Kingdom are 109,000, while it is worldwide at 1,230,000. The game was first announced for all platforms in early 2022. Since then, the public has been waiting eagerly for what has been teased as the most advanced third-person game ever created in the most famous wizardry school in world.
Second on the list is “Starfield” with 43,000 average monthly searches in the UK. The game ranks second on the worldwide list with 540,000 average searches.
The game will be released in 2023’s first half, with no date yet. The game will allow players to create custom characters and play in first or third person as they explore The Settled Systems. This area is approximately 50 light-years from our Solar System.
“Nightingale” comes in third with 20,000 average monthly searches in the UK and 264,000 worldwide. The game “will cast players in the role of a Realmwalker, survivors of a magical cataclysm who will explore a variety of dangerous realms, accessible by portals, as they search for the last bastion of humanity, the titular city of Nightingale”.
Further down on the list, “Sons of the Forest” comes in fourth place with 13,000 average monthly searches. The new horror game will be released on February 23rd.rdThe average search for’save me’ is 224,000, which puts it in seventh place on the global list. The story centers around a journey to a remote island, where the player must rescue a missing billionaire. He will also face dangers unlike any other.
The top five closes wiTh “Forspoken”, which gained 12,000 average monThly searches in the UK and 192,000 worldwide.
Games that appear in the worldwide top five, but not in the UK one are “Diablo IV” with 354,000 average monthly searches, set to be released on June 6th and the awaited remake of “Dead Space” with 287,000 average searches, out on January 27th.
|The Top 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2023 (sorted according to UK Stats)|
|Rank||Name||Monthly searches WW||Monthly searches UK|
|4||Sons of the Forest||224.000||13.000|
|6||Skull and Bones||169.000||11.000|
|8||Resident Evil 4 Remake||161.000||8.100|
|9||Dead Island 2||104.000||7.700|
A spokesperson CasinoBonusCA commented on the findings: “The top 10 shows how when part of a franchise, some games will automatically do better in presales and anticipation, but this is not always the rule.
“In fact, while ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ is first in both UK and worldwide lists, games like ‘Starfield’ and ‘Sons of the Forest’ are new releases, testament that good promotion and a genuinely interesting plot go a long way”.


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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if you or your commercial customers are still using R-22 it is time to switch. If there was ever a bigger reason to switch it’s the United State’s Government sniffing around your business and looking for anything that they can to fine your company. This happened to the grocery chain Trader Joes this year. It was announced yesterday that Trader Joes will be settling a suit in court with the Environmental Protection Agency.
The suit declared that Trader Joes failed to track the service records of it’s refrigerant equipment and failed to provide data on their compliance records to the EPA. Even though this just boils down to paperwork and tracking it resulted in Trader Joes violating the federal Clean Air Act. Instead of fighting the lawsuit from the EPA Trader Joes agreed to settle for $500,000. Think about that for a second, $500,000 for not tracking and filing paperwork correctly.
Did I mention that there’s more? On top of the $500,000 fine paid to the United States Government Trader Joes also has agreed to spend two million dollars over the next three years in an effort to reduce leaks and Greenhouse Gases emissions across all of their grocery stores. On top of that Trader Joes is forming a new corporate department specifically for management of refrigerant regulations by the Federal Government. This department will monitor leak rates of their refrigerant units and ensure that they do not exceed over an average leak rate of 12.1%. (The current average for grocery stories is 25%)
In addition Trader Joes agreed to use non O-Zone depleting refrigerants in all of it’s new stores. They could get away with using common HFC refrigerants for their new stores but they also agreed that fifteen of their new stories will use refrigerants with a low global warming potential. (Low GWP refrigerants could be CO2, Opteon Refrigerants, or Solstice refrigerants.) Trader Joe’s compliance and willingness to make these changes shows just how fearful they are of the Federal Government’s EPA.
Similar lawsuits have been filed by the Environmental Protection Agency against other grocery store chains such as Costco and Safeway. If you are a grocery chain manager, or you have customers that are, I would highly recommend they review their refrigerant record keeping, what type of refrigerants they are using, and what plans they have in the future.


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The Pikes Peak-beating I.D. R could be about to claim another scalp.
Sources have told Autocar that Volkswagen could be aiming to take the electric lap record at the Nürburgring with the car. The wider Volkswagen Group took the overall lap record at the Green Hell earlier this year with the Porsche 919 Evo in just 5 minutes 19.55, and has the production car record as well with the Lamborghini Aventador LP770-4 SVJ (6 minutes 44.97 seconds).
In fact, the Volkswagen Group has the four fastest production car times at the Nürburgring, but it doesn't have the battery-powered benchmark, which is currently held by the Nio EP9. The Chinese all-electric hypercar lapped the German track in 6 minutes 45.9 seconds last year, but in simulations Volkswagen has reportedly found out that the I.D. R could easily better that time.
"There’s more to come, we’re sure," a source told the British publication.
Volkswagen would need to tweak the I.D. R in order to beat the record though. Aerodynamic modifications would be needed to adapt the car from hillclimb beater to circuit slayer.
The drive system may also be tweaked – for its Pikes Peak run the car's twin-motor, all-wheel-drive setup developed 670 bhp and 480 lb-ft of torque. Power comes from two interlinked and integrated lithium-ion battery packs which sit either side of the cockpit – that's one element of the car that will almost definitely remain unchanged. In hillclimb trim the I.D. R can already launch from 0-60 mph in just 2.25 seconds an onto a top speed of 150 mph.
Because of its all electric drivetrain, the car is relatively heavy – for a racing car, anyway. It tips the scales at just under 1100 kg, but that clearly hasn't held it back. As well as it's Pikes Peak record, the I.D. R also topped the charts during the hillclimb shootout at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed. For both of those winning runs, former Porsche Le Mans driver Romain Dumas was behind the wheel.
Should Volkswagen opt to take on the all-electric Nürburgring lap record, it'll likely take up the challenge in May. Autocar's source has reportedly revealed that the German manufacturer has already booked the facility for a period in May of next year. We eagerly await an attempt.


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Have you ever wondered what a Chamber face lift looks like? The Greater Maryville Chamber of Commerce was recently awarded a grant by the Missouri Department of Tourism, that allows us to reset, refresh and re-brand our Chamber.
We are excited to work with Steve Chandler, and his team at Chandlerthinks, LLC. in the coming months to give the Chamber a fresh look, but we need your help.
Join us on August 12th, at 5:30 p.m. in the Nodaway County Administration Building, to hear from Steve on best practices for re-branding and marketing any business, as well as offer your thoughts on our community and what the Chambers role looks like to you, our members!
Feedback will be used to create a brand that tells the story of our Chamber, for and by the most important members of our team, our members.


text: UNITED KINGDOM // If you think a Ferrari is too flash or a Lamborghini is too loud, then you'll love the latest news from Tata, the manufacturers of the Nano, the so-called cheapest car in the world. Previously only available in India, Tata Motors has confirmed its intentions to build budget Nanos for the European and US markets. Badged as the Nano Europa, the car should be on sale for around £4,500 (Dh26,900) when it hits showrooms in 2011. So what can customers expect from a car that is more than double the price of the original Nano? The Europa get a longer wheelbase and a more powerful 60hp 1.0L engine, doing away with the current four-speed manual gearbox in favour of a five-speed transmission. Other improvements include a more sophisticated suspension system, power steering, ABS and traction control, as well as an improved interior to match European expectations.


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ABC News (Australia) published this video item, entitled “Asbestos found in imported toys and building materials | 7.30” – below is their description.
It had been hoped a 2003 ban on the manufacture, transport and importation of asbestos would lead to a brighter future, but unions say the threat is ever present because of Australia’s reliance on goods from countries where use is rampant. Angelique Donnellan reports.ABC News (Australia) YouTube Channel
Got a comment? Leave your thoughts in the comments section, below. Please note comments are moderated before publication.


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Posted: 12:59 am EDT
[twitter-follow screen_name=’Diplopundit’ ]
On November 16, Delta announced that it will no longer accept pets as checked baggage, but will continue to transport allowable pets in all cabins of service except Delta One, effective March 1, 2016. Customers may also ship pets for travel within the United States as freight through Delta Cargo. There is only one notable exception to this new policy: Members of the military with active transfer orders will be allowed to transport a pet as checked baggage. Delta says it will continue to accept service and emotional support animals that comply with federal regulations including proper documentation. Below is part of the announcement:
“Many of us at Delta are pet lovers and we know that they are important members of the family,” said Bill Lentsch, Senior Vice President – Airport Customer Service and Cargo Operations. “This change will ultimately ensure that we have a high-quality, consistent service for pets when their owners choose to ship them with Delta Cargo.”
Pets that are transported via Delta Cargo are monitored closely by customer service teams during their travel. While at airports, pets are handled in temperature-controlled holding areas and vans. Also, Delta Cargo enlists professional kenneling services if overnight stays are required.
With the change effective March 1, customers will be able to travel with a pet as checked baggage through Feb. 29. Also, Delta will contact customers with bookings after March 1 that are known to include pets as checked bags.
Guidance for customers traveling with pets can be found at delta.com, but customers choosing to ship a pet with Delta Cargo should note that:
— A separate booking from their flight itinerary is required. Additional fees and charges may apply.
— A pet shipped domestically via Delta Cargo cannot be booked until 14 days prior to departure.
— Pets are not guaranteed to be shipped on a customer’s same flight or flight schedule.
— Shipping a pet requires dropping it off at a Delta Cargo location at least three hours before departure time at a location separate from passenger check-in.
— Picking up a pet will also occur at a Delta Cargo location.
— Delta Cargo will only accept international pet shipments from International Pet and Animal Transportation Association members. International customers should visit ipata.org to find an approved member to assist with their transportation requirements.
A member of the Foreign Service who spoke with Delta multiple times including a supervisor was told the airline will NOT extend the exception to Foreign Service or any other USG employees, only to active duty military members on orders. We’ve verified with Delta, see below:
The Fly America Act, 49 U.S.C. App. 1517, as implemented in the Comptroller General’s guidelines, Decision B-138942, March 31, 1981, requires Federal employees and their dependents, consultants, contractors, grantees, and others performing United States Government financed foreign air travel to travel by U.S. flag air carriers.
As of this writing United and American Airlines still allow travel with pet as checked baggage. Plan ahead!
United: U.S. military and State Department pet exceptions | Select military and government personnel and their dependents may transport their pet dog or cat as checked baggage when they are traveling on official orders.
American Airlines: Traveling With Pets


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The Bank of China has today announced the launch of the special 20-HK-dollar bank notes commemorating the upcoming Beijing Olympics.
A total of 4 million notes will be sold from 16-31 July at 50 designated branches of the Bank of China. The money raised from the sale (after deducting face value and costs) will be donated to charity, with a portion set aside for local sports development.
Stay up to date :Crazy feed
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Photo: Joe Raedle / Getty Images). / Getty Images
The employee shortage across the United States continues despite millions of job openings as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason there are companies that seek to attack this trend with better salary offers, an example of this is McDonald’s that pay your employees up to $ 21 an hour.
For months the fast food company reported that it would increase the salary of its workers to around $ 15 an hour, but the situation has not improved for Americans to feel comfortable to return to workplaces, especially restaurants.
McDonald’s reported that it would increase the wages of more than 36,000 hourly workers in the restaurants they own, an average of 10% during the next few months, it is important to note that the fast food chain has about 13,900 restaurants nationwide owned, the other branches are franchises.
Meanwhile, other restaurants like Chipotle are looking for workers with an average salary of $ 15 dollars per hour and even, managers could earn up to $ 100,000 a year. However, the new salaries would be $ 11 starting up to $ 15, with bonuses starting at $ 200 and $ 750 for apprentices and general managers.
This phenomenon of increases began a few months ago to boost hiring at the national level, many companies in the sector decided that to achieve their objectives they should increase the federal minimum hourly wage in force in the country, which represents $ 7.25 dollars.
Right now, the United States has exceeded 10 million in number of job vacancies to fill. This mismatch is causing companies to increase their salaries with greater intensity, including the most basic positions such as cashiers, delivery men or waiters.
According to official data from the Labor Department, wages in recent months have increased by 4% annually, this due to the reinstatement of several workers who were laid off during the pandemic. Much of the workers are unwilling to return to their jobs with a similar salary prior to the pandemic.
According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, 40% of entrepreneurs who answered a survey in February revealed that they had not found workers to fill new jobs in this new stage of the pandemic.
Faced with this situation, large companies such as McDonald’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Applebee’s and KFC or Amazon have taken completely new and unexpected strategies by offering juicy salaries to fill the vacancies of waiters, delivery men and managers.
You may also like: “We Can Do It”: McDonald’s Campaign to Encourage More People to Get Vaccinated


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The agricultural crisis in China (or, better put, the crisis of the rural society) has been discussed, however not in any official capacity. It had not been until 2004 that the Chinese government declared the development of China’s rural regions to be of top priority in their policy-making.
During the past few years, an increasing number of urban civil society-initiatives have began discussing consumer and rural topics and have succeeded in creating their own programs, like “green food”, or those promoting sustainable agriculture. From a European perspective, the growing exportation of agricultural products into the EU as well as China’s involvement in agriculture in Africa are of particular importance.
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Supported by the Orang Asli Development Department (JAKOA)
Kuala Lumpur, January 14, 2020 – The 2020 school year started on a high note for 674 Orang Asli students who receivedfull back-to-school essentials via the A Brighter Future with TOP campaign.
The Orang Asli focused campaign by TOP, an innovative detergent brand from Japan, has set a record for the number of beneficiaries and the extensive contribution that includes new uniforms, shoes, socks, bags, stationeries, exercise books, workbooks, activity books, art and craft supplies, and musical instruments.
TOP collaborated with the Orang Asli Development Department (JAKOA), to deliver the back-to-school necessities to seven Orang Asli communities deep in the interior of Perak, Pahang and Negeri Sembilan so the children are dressed for success, and the financial pressure on families is reduced.
The campaign is in line with the Malaysian Education Blueprint (MEB) 2013-2025, that emphasises improving outcomes for Orang Asli students through public private partnership that extends to parents and communities to help transform the education system.
JAKOA Director General, Prof Juli Edo said the campaign has positively uplifted hundreds of Orang Asli families by easing their finances, providing motivation for children to stay in school.
“TOP has made the largest single back-to-school contribution to Orang Asli communities from the private sector, ever. It adds value to the existing assistance provided by JAKOA to Orang Asli students. This strategic public-private collaboration has sparked positivity among children, parents and teachers,” Prof Juli Edo said.
TOP,hasheld the campaign for five years to motivate students from underserved communities and B40 households to achieve more by boosting their self-confidence and self-esteem; and to educate them on caring for their clothing so that they are clean, and hygienically laundered. A total of 2,474 students have benefitted to-date.
TOP is famed for its breakthrough Micro-Clean Tech with Anti-Sebum technology developed by Lion Corporation Japan that effectively removes visible and invisible stains for hygienically clean living.
TOP collaborated with leading retailer TESCO to carry out the CSR fund raising campaign from November 15 to December 15, 2019 with 30 cents from the sales of selected TOP products from all TESCO outlets nationwide and Tesco Online channeled towards the Brighter Future with TOP fund.
Southern Lion Sdn Bhd, Marketing Manager (Fabric Care Division) Ms Ling Ai Li shared that public response to the campaign was overwhelming, almost triple the estimated collection, indicating strong support for a brighter future for Orang Asli children.
“From this campaign it is clear that TOP and our customers care for the well-being of Orang Asli children, and are eager to support the Orang Asli community. Our thanks for the support and cooperation from JAKOA, the respective state education, Orang Asli village chiefs or Tok Batin, our retail partner TESCO and to our customers. Together we are making a brighter future possible for 674 children,” Ms Ling explained.
The team from TOP delivered back-to-school essentials to Pos Tenau, holding a laundry workshop for children to share tips on how to clean and maintain their school uniforms at its best, and providing each family that attended a pack of TOP Super White Micro Clean Tech detergent for use at home. The children welcomed the TOP team with a selection of songs in the Semai language.
“The children of Pos Tenau impressed us with their creativity, talent and independence. Their joy at receiving these back-to-school essentials is infectious, turning the presentation into a celebration. Their ability to handwash their own uniforms, even among the youngest students is something all of us should master – they have taken the TOP tagline of Its’s Not Clean Until It is Micro Clean to heart,” said Ms Ling.
The Tok Batin of Pos Tenau in Perak, Yok Komlok A/L Sentor said the community was grateful for the tangible assistance and motivation to its school-going children.
“For parents in our community we look forward to and dread the new school year. Most families have a few children in school, and the costs of their back-to-school needs is very high for us. However, we also want them to receive an education, and feel happy to attend school. When we found out that the Pos Tenau community had been selected for this campaign, children and parents were overjoyed. Thank you for A Brighter Future with TOP!” he said.
Tok Batin Ayof bin Ekal of Kampung Parit Gong, who is also a teacher at SK Putra, Simpang Durian said the contribution was comprehensive, generous and highly welcomed by the Orang Asli community.
“One hundred and ten children from the villages in this area received new uniforms, shoes, socks, bags, stationeries, exercise books and even workbooks. There are also art supplies, and a ukulele. Parents in our community did not have to buy any back-to-school items. TOP and Malaysians have lifted a heavy financial burden from us, and shown that they care for our children,” he said.
To find out more about TOP please visit http://www.southernlion.com.my or call customer care line at 1800-88-0133.
List of recipient Orang Asli Schools, location and number of students:-
|Number of Orang Asli Students
|SK Pos Musoh, Perak
|SK Pos Lemoi, Pahang
|SK Pos Bersih, Perak
|SK Putra, Negeri Sembilan
|SK Pos Tenau, Perak
|SK Sg Mas, Pahang
|SK Sg Mok, Pahang
About Southern Lion Sdn Bhd
Southern Lion Sdn Bhd is a 50/50 joint venture company between Lam Soon (M) Bhd and LION CORPORATION, Japan. It continuously improves the quality of life of Malaysia consumers by offering household products of innovative concepts at affordable prices ranged from fabric care, home care and beauty care to oral care. Southern Lion is the first detergent manufacturer to be ISO 9001 certified.


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Dale Winston, Chairwoman and CEO of Battalia Winston, a leading executive search firm, was interviewed by Forbes.com to comment on former Yahoo! CEO Scott Thompson’s professional future.
Battalia Winston is an established national brand with 50 years in the executive search business. We are consistently ranked among the Top-10, global, retained search firms by Kennedy Publishing Company. Headquartered in New York City, Battalia Winston also has offices in Edison, NJ; Boston, MA; Washington, DC; and Chicago, IL.


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Jiangling Motors plans to build a car factory in Poland to become the first Chinese automaker to establish a European plant, daily Rzeczpospolita reported Thursday.
Representatives of Jiangling, 30% owned by Ford Motor Co, are to hold talks with Polish officials in September concerning the investment, the paper cited the company’s top European official as saying.
The plant would produce 400,000 cars annually, outpacing the largest local producer Fiat Auto Poland, which manufactured almost 362,000 vehicles last year. “Of course, they (cars) cannot be compared to BMW or Volkswagen, but for a small price you will be able to buy one heck of a car,” Rzeczpospolita quoted Jiangling’s Peter Bijvelds as saying.
Analysts expect China to become the world’s second-largest car manufacturer by the end of the decade. Jiangling, based in the central province of Jiangxi, makes and sells light trucks and pickups as well as Ford commercial vehicles and associated spare parts. (Reuters)


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The world of sport is changing rapidly. While the recent corona crisis put a short stop on the development of the industry, the end of the global pandemic seemed to only accelerate all the changes. The relationship between sports fans and athletes and teams is experiencing a dramatic shift. Fans are no longer satisfied with simply attending or watching matches and buying merchandize, they want to and demand to be a part of the sport they support. This new, globalized sports world is transforming fans into true stakeholders in the industry much faster than the organizations and federations might want, or are ready for.
But of course that isn’t true for everyone in the industry. There are a number of organizations, teams and individuals who are at the forefront of leading the sport from the 20th to the 21st century. Most of those industry pioneers will gather next Thursday at the SPORTO conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. And MMAON will be there!
Firstly, to share our experience in creating an interconnected platform for all stakeholders in MMA, but more importantly to gain valuable insight from industry leaders and to support our firm and longstanding partners, the team behind SPORTO.
This year’s SPORTO conference offers a different, “stadium experience” of the leading sports marketing and sponsorship event in central Europe. The conference will once again bring together leading players from the industry, with some eminent guests, representatives of brands, rights holders, agencies, and media from more than fifteen countries. The SPORTO programe delivers a 360-degree insight into the industry trends. Case studies, discussions and in-depth one-on-one interviews create the content at the crossroads of relevant industry areas with a focus on sponsorship strategy and activation, branding and building brand equity, digital communication and innovation, Olympic marketing, fan engagement and other specific topics with one touch point – harnessing the power of sport. This year’s SPORTO agenda involves current topics from the industry, including post-covid recovery, blending of virtual and physical, web 3.0, women’s sport and the sustainability in sports.
We here at MMAON are excited about the upcoming conference and are confident our friends and partners at SPORTO will deliver a true learning experience which will help us make MMAON an even better platform and experience down the line!


text: http://knowskin.com/?mcsf_action=main_css From app reviews to satellite pictures, financial analysts are looking at non-traditional data sources to figure out companies’ prospects. Microsoft has unveiled an AI future. Google has disclosed its $100m man. #techFT is a daily newsletter on technology, media and telecoms. You can sign up here.


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Adyen, a Netherlands-based payments platform, has expanded its partnership with Yandex.Checkout to allow worldwide retailers to accept popular payments methods in Russia and the CIS.
Adyen merchants across the globe will be now be able to offer online payment methods including e-wallets, online banking, and cash via mobile retailers and payment kiosks for Russian and CIS-consumers.
Yandex.Money deputy CCO Anna Kuzmina said: “Adyen has carved out a powerful place in the payment industry by laying down smooth payment rails for the biggest names in tech.
“Russia has been one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets: its volume in the first half of 2017 grew by 22% (compared to the first half of 2016) and reached 498 billion RUB (8,7 billion USD). There are more than 87 mln active Internet users, it’s vital for global retailers to be able to adjust to people’s needs.”
Adyen head of local payments Olivia Sicurani said: “We see great potential in the Russian market, where local payment methods dominate and the e-commerce market is booming. It’s very interesting for Adyen merchant base to start selling to Russia, world’s largest country.
“Thanks to Yandex.Checkout, our merchants can now offer a variety of most popular local payment methods (not only cards) without the need to set up a local entity, via one simple integration with Adyen.”


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Health food chain Holland Barrett has become the first high street store to stock medical cannabis oil in the UK.
According to the Cannabis Trades Association UK, the number of cannabidiol (CBD) users has doubled over the past year skyrocketing from 125,000 to 250,000.
And, demand for the supplement has been met after Holland Barrett started stocking a product by Dutch firm, Jacob Hooy, four weeks ago.
A natural product used by many to ease symptoms of various ailments from joint pain and multiple sclerosis to anxiety and depression, CBD oil does not produce a high as it contains less than 0.2 per cent of the psychoactive tetrahydrocannabinol – as such, it is legal to buy and consume in the UK.
Since hitting Holland Barrett’s shelves sales of Jacob Hooy’s CBD+Oil are up by 37 per cent as people have flocked to


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And sort of names, but not their full names nor any real info about the cards.
A new monster based on “Flame Swordsman”:
A new Ojama:
And a new Superheavy Samurai:
are all confirmed for Premium Pack 2019!
Details will be revealed in V Jump next month! Stay tuned until then.


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All of these you can play with your faucets rewards to earn more satoshi. Broker-less trading platform.


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The Doghouse in the penthouse
TripAdvisor names Fort Myers Beach eatery ninth-best “Quick Bites” restaurant in nation
For The Doghouse on Fort Myers Beach, where Cuban sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers and Mahi tacos are served quickly on the busy pedestrian section of Estero Boulevard downtown, its reputation just received an international boost.
TripAdvisor just named The Doghouse the ninth-best “Quick Bites” restaurant in the nation as part of the website’s 2021 Best of the Best Restaurant Awards.
Right behind Bleeker Street Pizza and NY Suprema Pizza in New York City, In-N-Out Burger in Los Angeles and Blaze Pizza in Orlando in the rankings is The Doghouse – which has been at its location on Fort Myers Beach for the past six years under the ownership of Adam Clark and Jason Unger.
Unger called the recognition “incredible.”
The Doghouse finished ahead of places like the Steak Shack and Island Taco in Hawaii.
“We’ve been here six years. We’re doing well. The feedback we’re getting from our repeat customers never gets old,” Unger said.
Unger said the restaurant’s Cuban sandwiches are its most popular selections, as well as the half-pound Angus beef hamburger. Other items include the reuben sandwich, Italian sausage, Philly steak and cheese, salads, chicken fingers, fries, island jerk chicken and a giant pretzel.
Unger said the menu has been branching out. They are looking to add more seafood items after having stopped carrying lobster rolls due to the rising costs.
There is also a breakfast menu offering eggs, bacon, croissants, English muffins, home fries and a sausage skillet with kielbasa, peppers, onions, mushrooms and eggs.
Unger’s job is a labor of love and sweat, literally. The outdoors setup of the restaurant makes him lose between 20-30 pounds in season. “I put it back on in the off-season,” he said. “It’s extremely hot.”
With five fans going, Unger’s chili, tzatziki sauce, and homemade coleslaw are all made from scratch. He has help from three other workers, including his son Jayden. He said he could use more help.
Unger hasn’t had a chance to bring out his food truck due to the busy summer season. “We are busier than we should be,” for this time of year, he said.
A Detroit native who “couldn’t stand the weather anymore,” Unger has been working in the restaurant business for 26 years. He rents the space from Silver Sands. It’s undergone a number of transformations over the years, but has been standing on Estero Boulevard for decades. Behind it is a cottage.
“Not many people can do what we do, work the hours we work in extreme heat. I love what I do. I love the people,” Unger said.
The awards were announced last week by TripAdvisor, which is considered the go-to website for reviews of restaurants. According to its website, it is the world’s largest travel guidance platform, reaching hundreds of millions of people each month. There are more than 887 million reviews and opinions of nearly 8 million businesses, including restaurants and hotels in 22 languages.
According to TripAdvisor, the 2021 Best of the Best Restaurants Awards are calculated based on the quality and quantity of traveler reviews and ratings for restaurants on Tripadvisor collected for each award subcategory, as well as an additional editorial process.
The Doghouse is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 1207 Estero Boulevard.


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In a sweeping decision, a jury awarded Apple over $1 Billion dollars in damages in a patent lawsuit that claimed Samsung knowingly copied hardware and software designs of the iPhone, and that Samsung's technologies violated Apple's patents. Leo says that if the infringement is willful, and that was what the jury concluded, the judge can triple the damages. On the other hand, the judge could also lessen the fine, or even overturn the findings.
Leo also wonders if Apple can stop Samsung from selling these phones and even current models in the U.S. We'll know next month. Samsung will almost certainly appeal the ruling, though. Samsung says that the decision spells out a loss for the American consumer and will lead to higher prices and limited innovation through competition. Leo doesn't necessarily agree. It may be a victory for Apple, but Leo thinks the consumer might be the loser. The great irony is that companies like Motorola, Google, and even Samsung are suing Apple for similar issues. Leo says the idea of having a software patent is not a good thing in general and patent reform is long overdue.


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Apple has agreed to examine a recovered iPhone at the center of a dispute between the families of two Florida teens who went missing during a fishing trip last summer (via ABC News).
In July 2015, 14-year-old Austin Stephanos and his friend and neighbor Perry Cohen, also 14, launched a single-engine vessel off the coast of Palm Beach County, Florida, on a fishing expedition. The boys never returned, and despite a Coast Guard-led eight-day search of the Atlantic covering 50,000 nautical miles, their bodies were never found.
The recovered iPhone that belonged to Austin Stephanos (Image: Blu Stephanos) Last month, their abandoned boat was discovered by a Norwegian [...]
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) has released a free software update that enables owners of properly equipped 2013-2015 Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles to add Siri Eyes Free capability to the Uconnect 8.4 system.
The new software update is available in nearly 2 million vehicles equipped with a Uconnect 8.4 touchscreen system:
– 2013-2015 Ram 1500, 2500, 3500 – 2013-2015 Dodge Viper – 2014-2015 Dodge Durango – 2015 Dodge Challenger and Charger – 2014-2015 Jeep Cherokee and Grand Cherokee – 2015 Jeep Renegade – 2015 Chrysler 200 and 300
Siri Eyes Free is also supported on 2016 Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, [...]
In den vergangenen Tagen sind verschiedene neue Gerüchte rund um die nächsten Generationen der Smartwatch und des Smartphone von Apple gestreut worden.
Ganzen Artikel auf macprime.ch lesen
Apple executive Phil Schiller gave Apple users a grammar lesson on Twitter yesterday afternoon, explaining that it isn’t necessary to pluralize Apple product names.
Schiller’s instructions came after a discussion on pluralizing „iPad Pro“ between Andreessen Horowitz partner Benedict Evans and iMore analyst Michael Gartenberg. Evans referred to more than one iPad Pro as „iPads Pro,“ while Gartenberg said „iPad Pros.“
Schiller clarified that neither approach was correct. The proper way to refer to more than one iPad Pro is to call them „iPad Pro devices.“


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The Ferrari 458 Italia is the kind of car that you lust after.
Unlike the F430, which was a bit on the ungainly side, the 458 is a sensual product. But, that may change as Ferrari gets ready to up the ante and juice up the already impressive prancing horse.
According to the latest rumors, we've heard that the 458 will be revamped and benefit from forced induction, in form of a turbocharger. This isn't much of a surprise given the California T's recent turbo bump.
After seeing the gains with the California, the latest estimates peg the 458M getting well over 650 horsepower. That's a BIG step.
In addition to the power gains, expect some new body work to appear. Ferrari is known for incorporating technology and aerodynamics developed in Formula 1 to the street. And, if you look closely in these spy shots, you may notice one or two SLIGHT changes in the R&D car. Can you spot them?
**To see the FULL collection of spy shots, click "Read Article" below!
Ferrari is embracing fuel efficiency with a new turbocharged version of the 458 Italia. Rumoured to be badged the 458M, the cleaner but more powerful replacement for the 458 Italia is expected to debut at the Paris Motor Show in October, before going on sale in early 2015, but these spy shots give us an early indication of what to expect.
Ferrari has already fitted a 552bhp 3.8-litre turbocharged V8 to the new California T and it’s the same engine – albeit in a higher state of tune – that’s the firm favourite to make it into the radically overhauled 458M. Replacing the scintillating naturally-aspirated 4.5-litre V8 with a much smaller unit isn’t necessarily bad news – the headline power figure is expected to be around 100bhp higher than the 458 Italia, taking it up to 662bhp, with significantly more torque, too...


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Amid the great digital shift, there are still pockets of commerce — and even entire countries — where cash is king.
As detailed by NPR, though at least some verticals, such as grocery stores, accept card transactions (and thus see at some volume of contactless payments), a significant number of smaller businesses rely on cash to keep revenues coming in.
Against that backdrop, the country’s central bank, the Bundesbank, has issued an additional 17 billion euros more in notes and coins — in other words, the hard stuff — than was issued in February. That compares, noted the bank, with a normalized three to five billion euros in issued hard cash monthly.
All told, cash accounts for 75 percent of all retail transactions within Germany, even taking into account, as the German Association of Money and Bond Services estimated, that a third of all card payments have been done through contactless means in the wake of the coronavirus.
Wallets Full Of Euros
To get a sense of where the cash goes — and how much individuals are holding — thelocal.com relayed the Bundesbank’s findings in English. As the survey found, the average German carries about 107 euros in their wallet, and has more than 1,360 euros in bank safe deposit boxes.
“Self-employed, older people and high-earners were the most likely to keep a lot of cash tucked away,” noted thelocal.com.
For the purposes of the bank’s study, those who were defined as “storing” cash were people who had held on to cash for at least two weeks.
It may seem incongruous that a nation as economically (and technologically) developed as Germany, would bank so literally on cash. But as the Bundesbank found, there are a number of reasons underpinning why individuals keep their purchasing power in pocket. As many as 58 percent of consumers cited low-interest rates as an impetus to keep bills and coins on hand. Roughly 55 percent said that cash, of course, is a widely accepted means of payment. Other respondents said there was a lack of trust in the technology infrastructure in place … and 12 percent said that “hiding assets from the state” as a reason to hold on to cash.
The stickiness of cash comes amid a pandemic that might derail some of the progress seen in the country in shifting toward other forms of payments — particularly card-based payments. As noted in this space just over a year ago, at least when it comes to in-store transactions, as estimated by EHI Retail Institute, 48.6 percent of total value came from card payments, slightly outpacing the 48.3 percent done in cash.
There has, of course, been growth logged in online transactions spurred by COVID-19 as lockdowns and reopening became part of Germany’s landscape. Statista noted in forecasts adjusted to reflect the impact of the pandemic that overall revenues from eCommerce to be the equivalent of USD $87 billion, up 18 percent from the year before. Drilling down a bit, Statista estimated that cards will be 23 percent of eCommerce sales this year, eWallet at 28 percent (up a percentage point year on year).
For the FinTechs looking for greenfield opportunities to transition cash-reliant markets away from, well, cash, the opportunity is there — but so are the challenges (well beyond the spectacular flameout of Wirecard). That may be behind the relatively sedate pace of investment activity in FinTechs there, in terms of aggregated data. As estimated by BusinessFinancing.com, using Crunchbase across more than 10,000 FinTech deals across the years, the US was the home base of more than 1,490 startups, and funding of $58 billion. Germany trailed at seventh place, with 100 FinTech startups and $3 billion in funding.
Within that tally, as reported by PYMNTS in May, German challenger bank N26 closed a Series D funding round of $100 million.


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Latest Tourism in China Stories
CHONGQING, China, July 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Transformers 4: Age of Extinction smashed the 1.38 billion yuan (approx.
HANGZHOU, China, June 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- On June 22th, the 38th World Heritage Conference was held in Doha, Qatar, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal was inscribed
ExpertSender, a global provider of leading email marketing solutions, has announced today that it will support TUI China in tour operator's email marketing activities BEIJING, April
- a slit in a tire to drain away surface water and improve traction.


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Walmart is Adding This Quick Shopping Feature to Dozens of Stores
The process of placing and receiving digital orders at America's largest grocery chain is about to get a whole lot faster. That's because quick-service local fulfillment centers are coming to dozens of Walmart stores, the company announced on Jan. 27.
The fulfillment centers will be used to "fill pickup and delivery orders, make Walmart.com deliveries, and more," Tom Ward, SVP of customer product, wrote in a post on the retailer's website. The automated warehouses, which will be added to or built within stores, can hold thousands of products, including fresh and frozen produce. (Related: Be prepared for these Grocery Shortages To Expect in 2021, According to Experts.)
Whereas an employee would previously have to navigate their neighborhood Walmart to manually collect items from store shelves to fulfill orders, automated bots will now gather them inside the fulfillment centers—but not in all cases.
"While the system retrieves the order for assembly, a personal shopper handpicks fresh items like produce, meat and seafood, and large general merchandise from the sales floor," Ward said. "Once the order is collected, the system stores it until it's ready for pickup. This whole process can take just a few minutes from the time the order is placed to the time it's ready for a customer or delivery driver to collect."
This innovation aims to increase availability, improve efficiency, and speed up fulfillment times on digital orders. Case in point: Some stores will even have drive-thru pickup lanes to make the contactless process even quicker.
Expect more of these fulfillment centers in the future, since Walmart is beginning to scale them now. In addition to food, they'll store other products available to customers online like clothing, electronics, and games.
Walmart tested its first local fulfillment center in 2019 in Salem, N.H. To get the latest Walmart and other grocery store news delivered right to your email inbox every day, sign up for our newsletter!


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Yet another week and yet another leak of the presumed Samsung Galaxy S III… this time through a fresh press image, presumably. Also, the date May 22nd is back in action, being mentioned one more time by the source of this leak. What’s bizarre is the device pictured here, that’s not at all what I expected from the next gen Galaxy S.
As you can see it’s a pretty metallic smartphone with some special indentation on the side, that some may think serves for a stylus or something. Also, that “backwards chin” below the display looks like something that Nokia would do, not Samsung. This pic was uncovered by the guys at Phandroid and one reason to believe it’s fake is that a big company never sends out press invites two months ahead of the event. Keep in mind that the Samsung Galaxy Nexus also had some crazy designs, with a very curved case actually, when it leaked ahead of the official launch.
There’s also the option of an April launch, that was mentioned at some point by a Samsung official saying that a debut in May is too remote from the competition. Keep in mind that the HTC One series is now taking over Europe as we speak, so Samsung has to act quickly. Will they deliver a solid device or a disappointment?


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In October 2014 we held a seminar to discuss the findings of the research with water companies and other stakeholders. As a result of this seminar the following recommendations were identified and we have been working with companies to ensure these are implemented.
Struggling households are still missing out on vital support with paying their water bill despite more help being offered by water companies, the Consumer Council for Water has revealed.
We have published a new report – Living With Water Poverty 2014: Keeping Your Head Above Water – which offers a fresh insight into the pressures facing those on low incomes.
You can read:


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Amazon Fashion launches an AI-activated custom apparel portal that allows consumers to try on t-shirts fitted just for them. The new feature could help Amazon solidify its presence as a fashion retailer and flex its virtual technology capabilities.
The “Made For You” t-shirt portal asks consumers for their height, weight, and body style alongside two images of themselves to help Amazon find the most appropriate shirt size. Consumers can then choose from two types of fabric, eight different colors, and the fit, sleeve length, and neckline they would like. The shirt shop will be available for U.S. consumers only, with each custom shirt priced at $25. The affordable, yet on-demand garment merchandising could help consumers shop from home during the Coronavirus pandemic while meeting their demand for customized clothes.
Made For You could also help Amazon set the stage for future on-demand features while setting itself apart from retail competitors. Many fashion brands—both retail and luxury—are often plagued by widespread returns from consumers who cannot find the right fit for an item. This has caused a mass amount of clothing waste, which drives up costs for the retail industry and the environment, according to a Gartner report. By only making t-shirts when they are ordered, Amazon could help counteract this problem and potentially inspire competitors to follow its on-demand model. As Amazon rakes in $30 billion in apparel sales each year, bringing customization to the masses could help the tech titan sustain those sales and extend its dominance in the online retail space. If the AI-designed technology succeeds in the U.S., Amazon could bring Made For You to consumers around the world, allowing it to become one of the first brands to operate an on-demand model on a global scale.
Amazon released Made For You during a rise in online retail purchases, particularly as the holiday shopping season sees consumers pursuing e-commerce over brick and mortar stores. With the online marketplace seeing a significant rise in clothing and accessory sales since the Coronavirus pandemic began earlier this year, it could appeal to a larger audience of loyal apparel shoppers. The customized t-shirt initiative arrives shortly after the launch of Amazon’s Luxury Stores, where Prime members can purchase couture items with two-day shipping. The addition of another exclusive shopping experience shows how Amazon is leaning into innovative disruptions throughout the fashion industry.
Amazon is known as the marketplace for everything, and with its newest feature, consumers can literally find items made just for them. By releasing virtual fashion technology for the masses, Amazon could drive more consumers to its site and make available a customized option once thought only appealing to consumers paying top dollar.


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Police are looking into a massive Sea to Sky crash that happened on Saturday, September 5, and the drivers of some expensive cars are being investigated.
Even though they're still trying to figure out what happened, they say that at first glance, it looks like a black Range Rover and a silver Lamborghini had some kind of incident on the highway just south of Whistler.
It caused the lambo to "lose control and hit the median, cross over in oncoming traffic, and hit a Toyota crossover coming southbound," according to a press release.
Both cars had people seriously injured inside, including children, who were brought to hospital.
Whistler RCMP says that they're investigating the drivers of the luxury vehicles for "Dangerous Operation of a Motor Vehicle" and they're asking the public for help if they know how the cars were acting on the road before the crash.


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French Tech Hub Seoul’s upcoming event on May 30th-31st will be a bridge for startups between Korea and France. Korea is known for being one the fastest growing tech startup hubs in the world. However France is also on the rise and are looking to come to Seoul to share information as well as develop partnerships with Startups. The French startup ecosystem has had an amazing rise, helped by a new generation of engineers, designers, entrepreneurs, investors, and many other talented individuals. Now they are considered leading sectors in Big Data AI, IOT, BioTech/MedTech, and FinTech. They represented 30% of startups at CES 2016.
French Tech Hubs are all around the world from San Fransisco to Moscow to Japan and now finally to Seoul thanks to French President Hollande and South Korean President Park who adopted an action plan to develop a bilateral partnership. Then president Hollande announced the creation of a French Tech Hub in Seoul in 2016.
French Tech Seoul will merge French entrepreneurs with the Korean startup ecosystem with the overall goal of providing visibility and initiatives which supports startups. Now Korean will have a French/Korean tech community that will be based in Seoul. It will bring together French and Korean entrepreneurs, incubators, public and private companies, and most of all investors! This will be a great entry point for Korean startups that are interested in expanding to the French market or finding other opportunities in France. Now Korean startups will have the chance to expand their business in both the French and Korean ecosystems. Here is a list of partners associated with French Tech Seoul.
Entrepreneurs & startups & startup platforms
-Yello Financial Group
Incubators & Accelerators & Creative Economy Innovation Centers
-AXA Direct Korea
-Renault Samsung Motors
-Samsung Venture Investment
-Korea Business Angels Association
-Associations & Business communities
-Embassy of France to Korea
-INPI: French Patent and Trademark Office
-Korea Institute for Startup Entrepreneurship Development (KISED)
-Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (MCST)
-Ministry of Sciences, ITC and Future Planning (MSIP)
-Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE)
-National Institute for Mathematical Sciences (NIMS)
-National IT Industry Promotion Agency (NIPA)
-Seoul Global Center
For more information please contact.
Jonathan LAUER-STUMM, Economic attaché for Industry & Innovation:
Haerin AHN, Economic attachée for Industry & Innovation:


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New Zitoun Metro Theme
In a recent article that we published, we highlighted the MetroLock lock screen. A recently produced theme by zitoun, who has been working with Cendaryn, has come to light and does a great job matching the design of MetroLock and combining it into one simple and great looking theme. For those of you who found yourself loving the lock screen look, you’ll have to check out this new theme!
Originally posted by zitoun
I’m working with Cendaryn to create a theme which will be nice with the icons “WMP7 Metro” from Cendaryn, Pray2Live & Got. The following theme is not the final release but a first try. Still working with Cendaryn to have news ideas.
Even in its non final release it still looks pretty sharp!
Check out the theme thread for more info!
Want something on the XDA Portal? Send us a tip!
Sony’s Electronics Division is not in its best days, and its smartphone products are seemingly an important cause of this. The Japanese giant’s Xperia line has been on the decline in terms of sales, and these past few months have been particularly damaging to the company due to the Xperia Z4’s market performance. Sony’s Q1 results were also not favorable, as its mobile division lost $184 million and sales slumped 16% year-on-year. Not too long ago we featured a...
HTC's 2015 has been a year marked by a desperate search for revenue. The HTC One M9 launched with its own launcher complete with a Smart Folder in the Sense Home Widget. This automatic pseudo-folder would populate with "suggestions" that were nothing more than thinly-veiled ads. Just over a month ago, HTC began placing advertisements (that can thankfully be disabled) in Blinkfeed. These Blinkfeed ads appeared after Yelp advertisements began appearing on HTC's Lock screen. Users, expectedly, voiced dissatisfaction all...
Samsung has dropped the price of both the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge by €100, making the current retail price of these phones €599 and €699, respectively. Though no new prices have been announced stateside, a cut is expected soon. (more…)


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Eagle Bay have launched Hoops, a years-in-the-making series celebrating wild ferments, barrel-ageing and patience. We chatted to brewer Keegan Steinbacher about the passion project launched with a little help from 3 Ravens.
Spooning Goats was a pioneering craft beer venue – not to mention one of the quirkiest joints in Sydney. And while it fell victim to COVID, the founders' vision lives on at Mixtape Brewing & Bar in Marrickville.
Garage Project and their beers are much-loved on both sides of The Ditch, with the Wellington-based brewery making a mark on a global scale too. Here, Pursuit of Hoppiness editor Michael Donaldson explores their incredible story.
As Blasta turn five this weekend, it's a chance to reflect on a trophy-filled start to life driven by relentlessly high standards. Yet, with huge plans for the year ahead, founder Steve Russell is just as keen to look to the future.
In the heart of Sydney and keen to enjoy some waterside views with a local beer in hand? Well, whaddya know... here's a guide to just that. Join us for a tour of the craftiest spots in Darling Harbour and The Rocks.
Wollongong has always been a manufacturing city but these days it feels like much of that production is beer. The Barrel Shepherd has joined the city's thriving beer scene, bringing with it a unique tale and love for barrels, local fruit and yeast.
Plastic is often a necessary evil in the beer world: it can help keep beer safe but often ends up in landfill. It's an issue being tackled by Bearhug Pallet Wrap, a startup looking to move beer safely while cutting out single-use plastic.
It's been a long road for Spotty Dog but the Tassie brewers who launched their first beer in 2016 finally have a home in Hobart. Co-founder Klimt Donohoe told us all about their new venue and what beer lovers can expect.
If a colouring book featuring 148 beer cans from breweries across Greater Sydney appeals to you, then you're in luck – ex-graphic designer Connor Dempsey has made one to scratch his own creative itch and support good mental health.
The brand may have a dark name and dark labels (and started with a dark beer), but the story of Gallows Brewing is one of sunshine as three friends were drawn back together in gorgeous Coffs Harbour to start a brewing company.


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By Dilara Sarı
The European Union has limits on what it can do to include Turkey into its free trade deals with third parties, says the union’s chief negotiator, adding Turkey’s belief in EU support for free trade with US has a limited reality
The European Union “cannot force” countries to negotiate free trade agreements with Turkey and can only offer so much in light of bilateral agreements, the European Commission’s chief negotiator at the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), Garcia Bercero, told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Turkey’s firm belief in European backup in anticipation of the massive trade and investment agreement between the bloc and the United States has only a limited reality, Bercero said. “At the end of the day, what we can do is that we can talk to countries, we can explain to them why in light of the customs union it would certainly be appropriate for those negations to be conducted, but that’s the limit of what we can do.”


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The Minister, his Parliamentary Private Secretary—my hon. Friend Mike Freer—and I all believe in free enterprise and salute what business does to pay for public services. However, that is not a blank cheque from the Conservative Benches. As the Prime Minister has said eloquently on a number of occasions, we believe in holding business to account and in holding it to high standards. Given what the Chair of the Transport Committee said, there are genuine questions to be asked. Why are Canadian and American consumers already receiving compensation, while UK consumers are not? Indeed, in my view the Government are out of pocket because of the tax revenue they should have received.
We all know that there is a huge need for infrastructure investment for the ultra-low emission vehicles of the future. I know that the Minister is passionate about the subject. He shares my desire to roll out new-energy vehicles—as they are called in China—across the country. That roll-out will require considerable public investment. Volkswagen is Europe’s largest car manufacturer; it is not a poor company. I would like to see UK consumers being put back in pocket, the Government receiving the tax revenue they have lost, and a contribution made towards the infrastructure that this country will need in order to roll out the clean-energy vehicles of the future.
I have great confidence in my right hon. Friend the Minister. He is indeed a friend; he is a fine Minister and cares deeply about his briefs. He will have been as concerned as I was to hear the report that the hon. Member for Liverpool, Riverside put before the House in such an exemplary manner today.


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Marketcircle has released version 5 of its Daylite CRM application for Mac desktops and iOS devices read more »
A look at the cloud software industry pioneer as it heads toward $5 billion in annual sales read more »
The move may be a hedge against a negative outcome in Oracle's intellectual-property lawsuit against Rimini read more »
The move underscores the cloud software vendor's aggressive growth plans read more »
Salesforce.com will focus on six industries, including automotive, health sciences and manufacturing read more »
Global spending on software grew 4.8 percent overall last year read more »more news ..
Salesforce Blogsmore blogs ..
Watch this on demand webinar which explores IT innovation, managed print services and business agility.
Check out our latest articles on Microsoft's next-generation operating system.
Join ComputerworldUK's editor in chief, Mike Simons, and Dell executives in a series of video discussions on how to respond to cyver criminals.
Following HP's dispute with Autonomy, we look back at other HP acquisitions in this Computerworld UK slideshow.
Salesforce In Depth
More acquisitions, an increased cloud push and better connections to the rest of Microsoft's products may be on tap read more »
What the industry's top application vendors are likely to do this year read more »
When startups grow up, their IT must mature as well. Here's how four hot companies are choosing tech that's serious but not stodgy. read more »
Read these tips before you sign anything read more »
Marc Benioff's pitch to become the cloud platform of the future makes sense, it's just not exciting read more »
COO Mohamed Gamil said that if he could start again he’d put everything in the cloud read more »more in depth ..
As we enter 2013, here's a list of of the top open source success stories for 2012 read more »
The time for dabbling in the cloud is over read more »
Mobile business applications will keep your employees connected to the real-time data that helps them make key business decisions. These 10 apps are more than just colourful charts and graphs read more »
The applications, devices and services that have changed the way we do business often started as small-scale alternatives to the status quo. Now we can't survive without them. read more »more slideshows ..
Driving business model innovation read more »
Maximise your private cloud benefits read more »more white papers ..


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Retail adoption of customer oriented IT innovation is widespread and growing. By automating elements of retail business operations, retailers have become increasingly operationally efficient, providing customers with greater value than ever before.
This changing use of IT has been the focus of research by Retail Week and the E commerce Sumit to define what retailers are using technology for. Surmising the opinions of retail leaders, the research has shown a growth in business IT expenditure, with the need to develop omni-channel retail experiences sighted as a key influence. But how is this expenditure being attributed? Are retailers looking to spend money to make money, or investing in modern technology to drive efficiency and reduce business costs?
Where historically seen as a means of improving operational efficiency, it appears that retailers are increasingly using technology to expand the services they can offer customers, with 50% of IT influencers stating that they believe the shift from cost saver to profit maker has already happened; 30% believe that IT has a part to play in both reducing expenditure and generating new revenues.
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One thing agreed consistently is that shoppers are driving this change, as their use and demand for better online retail experiences ensures that businesses must invest in IT to maintain effective customer engagement. With this in mind, the IT department has a wider remit beyond being just the function that keeps retailers up and running, instead they have become pivotal as the driving force behind new business development.
With future retail trends pointing towards innovations such as iBeacon’s and wearable technology, the one thing that we can be sure of in retail is that this era of IT led prominence is not going away, and long may it continue.


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Vice president and senior executive product at CNBC, Steve Lewis stated, “This is a seas change, and it reaches from Main Street where people are building business and the barriers are coming down to fund them, all the way to Wall Street, where there are mature investors looking at these platforms to find out what the next big thing is.”
Crowdnetic has been tracking all of the fundraising from 16 leading portals, including Angelist and Crowdfunder, since September 2013. The portals publish data to Crowdnetic, anonymized, and in real-time include valuable investor commitment information.
“We see what’s being invested in, what kinds of companies those are, and the geographic locations they’re in,” Founder and CEO of Crowdnetic, Luan Cox explained. She shared that there are over 8 million accredited investors, but less that 3 percent have invested in a private deal.
Crowdnetic has also tracked over 5,000 companies that have come online to raise money, and at any given point in time, there are 3,500 active companies on the portals Crowdnetic tracks and publishes data.
The media outlet also revealed that there’s potential to draw enormously important information from the index. Cox noted the information could be one way for companies to make themselves to the public even before they’ve committed to venture capitalist. “Companies are coming online onto these platforms without needing permission from VC.”
Cox revealed that, thanks to the data, Crowdnetic anticipated the rise of wearable thanks to their information. “We were able to add that as a sector in our technology index, then all of a sudden we had something like 300 wearable companies on the platform.”
Have a crowdfunding offering you'd like to share? Submit an offering for consideration using our Submit a Tip form and we may share it on our site!


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Cats Protection are big winners at the tenth annual Charity Retail Awards
05 July 2017
Cats Protection was a big winner at the Charity Retail Awards last week, after claiming the prize of "Outstanding Charity Retailer" for the second year in a row.
The awards are organised and hosted by the Charity Retail Association (CRA), the only body to represent charity shops throughout the UK. This year, for the first time, they were held in Nottingham at the Belfry Hotel.
The prize was won by Cats Protection’s retail team in recognition of their substantial growth, which is far ahead of the sector average, as well as their innovative programme of shop openings. They have opened a further 20 shops across the UK, and refurbished 6 existing units to the Standard Shop format, adding 2 ‘Cattitude’ boutiques in London and Edinburgh.
Lorna Fallon, Cats Protection’s Retail and Trading Manager said: "It’s a great honour to win the Outstanding Charity Retailer of the Year for the second year running. Our dedicated team of cat-loving volunteers and staff have continued to set up modern and colourful shops that catch the eye of shoppers while also offering a diverse range of products and an excellent level of customer service.
"It’s wonderful to be recognised for these efforts and we are very grateful to the judges for picking us out."