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Apple catches up with iPad mini demand, new orders now listed as 'in stock'Apple's supply of its hot-selling iPad mini appears to have finally caught up with demand, as the smaller iPad is now listed as "In Stock" on the company's online store.
A glance at the Apple Store on Tuesday revealed that all models of the iPad mini Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi + Cellular, 16 gigabytes through 64 gigabytes are now listed as "In Stock." Until Tuesday, the devices had been listed as shipping within one to three business days.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the company's quarterly earnings conference call that demand for the smaller iPad had significantly outstripped supply. Cook estimated, though, that a balance would be achieved some time before the end of the March quarter.
Upon its release at the end of October, the iPad mini saw considerable demand, with the white and silver model selling out in hours. Apple revealed later that it had sold three million iPad mini units in its first weekend of availability.
In January, availability for all models stood at about three to five days. That was an improvement from one-week shipping estimates from December.
On Topic: iPad
- iPad's dominance continues to fade in shrinking tablet market, latest IDC data shows
- How to choose between a new iPod touch and an iPad mini 3
- Rumor: Apple to launch 'end-of-life' iPad mini model and 'iPad Pro' in 2015, forego 'iPad Air 3'
- Led by enterprise sales, global tablet use predicted to approach 800M by 2018
- Rumor: Apple 'cautious' in placing orders for late 2015 launch of 12.9" 'iPad Pro'


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We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
Retail chain Toys R Us will reportedly close another 200 stores in addition to the 180 locations previously announced. The Wall Street Journal reports, citing sources familiar with the matter, that the nation’s largest toy seller has also “walked back from a promise” to provide severance for its employees.
The total number of store closings, including those announced in January, would be around 380. Layoffs could be in excess of 9,000. The Journal noted “a disappointing holiday sales season” as part of its report on the additional store closings.
Read the full story at Polygon.com

domain: news


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Marie Brizard Wine & Spirits reports full-year 2022 revenues rose 7.8%. Growth was driven by international sales, which were up 11.7% in 2022 from a year earlier.
The company noted that in the U.S., Sobieski sales fell. The U.S. vodka market is "persistently competitive, with strong promotional pressure." But despite the Russian attack on Ukraine, Europe saw growth, particularly in the Bulgarian and Lithuanian markets.
Fahd Khadraoui, CEO, said: “In 2022, we successfully continued our growth, particularly on international markets, despite an unprecedented economic climate characterised by high inflation and shortages of certain raw materials.
"Our revenues reflect healthy growth driven by three factors: 1) the lifting of all COVID restrictions, 2) our policy of increasing prices, primarily in international markets, and above all 3) a quality/price ratio that positions our brands as a safe haven for consumers during this period of widespread surging inflation. Unfortunately, the current challenging macroeconomic environment appears set to continue into the beginning of this year. We must therefore opt for a proactive pricing policy and remain cautious regarding the development of the Group’s business over the coming months.”


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TORONTO — Unprecedented pent-up demand for travel in 2023 has created unprecedented pressure on travel inventory – so much so that for top destinations like Europe, the message shouldn’t just be ‘Book now’, but ‘Seriously, book NOW’.
Tour operators tell Travelweek that inquiries for Europe getaways this spring, summer and fall have soared as consumers rush to lock in their travel plans, amid this first full recovery year post-pandemic.
“The demand for Europe as a safe and interesting destination is huge from all over the world and space is definitely booking up much earlier than usual,” says Laurielle Penny, Managing Director, Worldwide Quest.
And “prices are definitely higher” than most people are expecting, as much as 20% higher than spring/summer 2022, she adds.
At Worldwide Quest, Penny says bookings are very strong for Sicily, Tuscany, Paris, Spain, Iceland, and Croatia. “As alternatives, we’re suggesting travellers look to Eastern Europe (Czechia) and also to Morocco – but book this early too!”
Penny is also encouraging clients to “be adventurous and consider options outside Europe. Southeast Asia and India offer tremendous value right now.”
For Air Canada Vacations, the big sellers so far are Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal. And ACV’s Flight & Hotel sales “have seen a big demand right across Europe,” says Managing Director, Nino Montagnese.
Asked about pricing, Montagnese says ACV managed to negotiate excellent rates, “however those are for early bookings. The demand is high and prices are rising.”
He adds: “Prices are only going to go up the closer we get to departure. If clients are holding out for better prices, they shouldn’t. Encourage Europe customers to book now.”
ACV released its ‘Travel Agent Toolkit for Europe’ last month, to help its travel agent partners make the most of the Europe travel boom. Montagnese recommends that agents use the Travel Agent Tool Kit to manoeuvre through ACV’s product and booking systems. The final word? “Air Canada Vacations has the best product we’ve ever had, book with confidence and do not wait for better prices, they will go up!” he says.
Another leader in Europe travel, Transat, is also reporting sky-high demand. “Over the past few months, we have seen a sustained appetite for travel and our bookings indicate that this will also be the case for this summer,” says spokesperson Bernard Côté.
More specifically, Côté says, Transat is seeing an overall increase in interest in the French provinces from Montreal, including Toulouse, Lyon and Marseille. “Our direct flight from Quebec City to Paris is also enjoying great velocity with travellers from the eastern part of the province.” Air Transat is the only carrier to serve eight French cities nonstop during the summer season.
Spain is strong too for Transat, and Amsterdam, and London. The coronation of King Charles III in early May could deter as many travellers as it attracts, but the spring timing of the big event leaves the summer months wide open for a very strong travel season.
Côté says that with Transat’s Hello Spring! Promotion, a good selection of low-cost roundtrip flights to Europe are currently available for departures in May/June.
Over at Gateways International, Talia May, Director, Marketing & Operations, says Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain are all selling well, with France and UK close behind. And while not a European destination, Morocco is as popular as ever.
We asked May how soaring demand is impacting availability. “All our programs are fully customized to the client’s specifications. We work hard with travel agents to put together just what the clients wants, but confirmations are very difficult to secure as requested. Many revisions are required due to lack of hotel space, guides and even drivers for transfers,” she says.
“After COVID restrictions began to relax last spring, we thought things were busy but this is truly unprecedented, for lack of a better word. Our local partners at destinations in Europe have literally advised us that they expect to be sold out by mid-spring for the remainder of 2023 — utterly shocking,” adds May.
To read the full article, check out the March 30 edition of Travelweek here.


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Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC have smashed a syndicate of alleged fraudsters who specializes in credit card fraud.
The arrested suspects, Daniel C. Stephen, Nestor Ezeani, Sonny Okwaraji, Sylvester E Otuwa and Jeff Ogbonaya, allegedly masterminded the theft of $257,822.16 American Dollars from a new generation bank.
The alleged fraudulent transaction was reported by the Bank through a petition, alleging that the bank received a mail from VISA International on suspected 60 credit card transactions.
The EFCC in a swift action moved and arrested the five suspects at 7th Avenue FESTAC, Lagos.
They were arrested with several credit cards in their possession, which they use in loading money before transferring them to other banks.
Some of the suspects have made useful statements while investigations continue.
They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.


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Take large dollops of snow. Add inch-thick ice. Put in deep-freeze (in any state from Kentucky to Maine), add a shortage of snow shovels and rock salt, and you have a recipe for helplessness.
Most hardware stores have sold out of the tools of winter, as most tool makers are turning out rakes and hoes for the gardening season. "Our major season for making snow tools is May, June and July," said John Stoner, a vice president at True Temper Hardware in Camp Hill, Pa.
Even if True Temper wanted to make more shovels, he said, it would take at least eight weeks before shoppers would see one.
Rock salt is even rarer than shovels -- more than 95 percent of it goes to highway authorities and town governments. That means that not much rock salt is sold in bags in supermarkets. And what there was has pretty much disappeared from the shelves.
Not surprisingly, there has been a run on Kitty Litter. It won't melt the ice, but it does improve traction. And with the cat box stuff, the typical shopper does not have to compete with towns and highway authorities. JOSHUA MILLSContinue reading the main story


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Urban Outfitters posts 46% rise in Q4 earnings
Despite sales declines related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, Philadelphia-based lifestyle group Urban Outfitters, Inc. managed to achieve a 46.2% increase in its fourth-quarter earnings, which totaled $28.57 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, up from $19.54 million, or $0.20 per diluted share, in the same period in the previous year.
As previously reported, in the fourth quarter ended January 31, 2021, the company’s net sales fell 6.9% year over year, from $1.17 billion to $1.09 billion.
Comparable retail segment sales decreased 7%, reflecting reductions in store traffic caused by the coronavirus crisis and related occupancy restrictions. Declines in in-store sales were only partially offset by the retailer’s solid double-digit e-commerce growth.
Broken down by brand, comparable retail segment sales decreased 6% at the company’s flagship Urban Outfitters banner and 11% at the Anthropologie Group, but increased 6% at Free People. Quarterly wholesale revenues dropped 7%.
The retailer was able to achieve bottom-line growth thanks to its expense management in the quarter, when its selling, general and administrative expenses reduced 9.6% year over year. According to the company, this decrease was largely due to “disciplined store payroll management and overall expense control,” which made up for increases in spending on digital marketing.
In the full fiscal year ended January 31, 2021, the group’s net sales fell 13.4% to $3.45 billion, down from $3.98 billion in the previous year. Annual net income totaled $1.24 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, compared to $168.10 million, or $1.67 per diluted share, the year before.
Over the course of the year, the retailer opened a total of 20 new stores and permanently closed 10. Six franchisee-owned locations were also shuttered. The company currently operates more than 630 retail locations in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Speaking about the group’s future in a release, CEO Richard A. Hayne struck an optimistic tone.
“As we begin our new fiscal year, we are encouraged by the positive sales results all three brands delivered in North America quarter-to-date,” he said. “We’re particularly excited by the recent uptick in demand for ‘going-out’ type apparel and believe this bodes well for our spring and summer seasons.”
The company did not provide detailed financial guidance for the current quarter or fiscal year.
Copyright © 2022 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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Anything and everything in Media from across our archives.
New News by the Centre for Advancing Journalism
How to Adapt and Adopt: The Challenge of News Media in a Citizen Empowered Age
Question Marks and Commas Make For Classic Cinema
Punctuation can tell you a lot about a person, but at Slate Nathan Heller has traced the rise and fall of film director Woody Allen all through his use of the humble comma.
"Bafflingly mispunctuated" poster from Woody Allen
Heller argues that Allen’s films were at their best when the titles used more punctuation, citing What’s New Pussycat?, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? and…
Booksellers and Readers Have Reason to Hope
(Click to watch video.)
It was standing room only at our recent Meanland event on future directions for books and bookshops. Chaired by incoming Meanjin editor Sally Heath and featuring presenters Chris Flynn, Corrie Perkin, Jo Case and Michael Webster, the discussion canvassed a wide array of anxieties and hopes for the future of books and the shops that sell them. Despite the rapid…
Spineless Wonders Bravely Wanders Into the Fray
There’s a new Australian publisher in town. Congratulations to Spineless Wonders, who have just published their first book, Julie Chevalier’s Permission to Lie. Why ‘spineless’? According to the website, “because [our stories will] be delivered to readers via smart phones and laptops. Spineless Wonders stories are for any person, anywhere, who has a digital device and a little time on their hands… And…
Explore these other subjects, across our site.


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pBali, France, and even, Caribbean are passandeacute; when it comes to destination weddings. New-age couples are opting to get married on the move,... ...http://www.luxpresso.com/news-lifestyle/off-beat-wedding-venues/16102695
New Delhi [India], Oct 27 (ANI-NewsVoir): With Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB reports of e-Commerce market in India to... ...https://in.news.yahoo.com/g-d-goenka-university-introduces-specialized-course-online-080134105.html
After fighting it out on the roads, cab aggregators Uber and Ola are set for a face-off outside railway stations. According to a proposal, users... ...http://smartinvestor.business-standard.com/market/Marketnews-421251-Marketnewsdet-Soon_hop_from_a_train_to_a_cab_via_IRCTC_app.htm
New Delhi [India], Oct. 26(ANI): To cater the need and enable successful communication, both internally and externally, BroadVision, Inc., a... ...https://in.news.yahoo.com/broadvision-launches-digital-business-platform-vmoso-153037752.html
IRCTC, which is India’s largest ecommerce portal with $3 billion annual revenues as close to 10 lakh tickets are issued per day on their website.... ...http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/trakin/~3/--xbfoC6p0k/
IRCTC Online Passenger reservation...
Its all about IRCTC and its services
check IRCTC PNR Status online by...


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Coca Cola shared the logo with its consumers, including in Romania, in “Share a Coca-Cola” campaign.
For the first time in brand’s history, Coca-Cola offered its consumers the logo, challenging them to surprise the dear ones with a bottle customized with their name, in a campaign where the most popular names, including 150 Romanian ones, replaced brand’s emblematic logo.
In Romania, online and offline, young people shared Coca-Cola. Only on Facebook, they sent friends over 480,000 virtual cans, via www.shareacocacola.ro. Also, Coca-Cola inspired consumers to offer a joy reason to the loved ones, with 8,500 Romanians having the surprise to see their names projected on the huge screen placed on Cocor store in Bucharest.


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Why Do Doctors Still Recommend You This Toxic Drink?
From popular sodas to flame retardants, brominated vegetable oil or BVO is coming under harsh scrutiny by the FDA and other scientists looking to see what this ingredient can do to us. Before beginning, it is seriously worth noting that Coke and Pepsi are both going to be removing BVO from their drinks. Whoo!
BVO is used in sodas with fruit flavors – Mountain Dew and Fanta are two of the most popular – to keep the flavor from separating from the sugar water it’s added to. BVO is still used in the United States, despite its ban in foods and drink in Europe and Japan.
Before we go into the really hidden effects of BVO, consider the stories heard from doctors about gamers. Gamers often drink a soda every hour and can have up to three and a half liters of it within six hours. Often they will not be eating anything during their gaming binges, so their bodies are absorbing every drop of soda that enters into their body. However, these gamers have been reported going into a hospital for treatment of skin lesions, nerve disorders, and memory loss. These are all common symptoms of overexposure to bromine.
A study done in the 1970s suggests that BVO is building up in human tissues, as it does in mice tissues. The mice also experienced behavioral and reproductive problems. However, since these studies are dated and over three decades old, some scientists are calling for the re-examination of BVO’s side effects. This could have strong repercussions in the food industry.
RELATED ARTICLE: Sweet and Dangerous
Currently, BVO is on the FDA’s “interim” list. It was yanked from the list of foods and additives safe for usage in all amounts when the mice studies turned up their data. The final status of the substance was going to be decided after further studies were done. These studies were never done, and BVO remains safe to use in amounts up to 15 parts per milliliter.
However, there is another place that BVO is lurking – and it really shouldn’t be lurking there at all. It’s a popular prescription drink called Oral Glucose Tolerance Beverage, or Glucola. It’s prescribed to pregnant women to monitor glucose during pregnancy. Many doctors prescribe this because they may not know better, or they may simply be ignoring that there are better alternatives to this.
Glucola has sugar water. That’s pretty much all it is. However, the artificial colors and preservatives in the prescription give it an incredibly long shelf life. Among other ingredients, it contains dextrose, sodium hexametaphosphate, and 10% sodium benzoate. It’s no better than soda!
Fortunately for pregnant women, there are other options for pregnant women on Glucola. Eat bananas or a non-GMO variety of jellybeans. A study found that 28 jelly beans gave the same effect. Another alternative to Glucola is to simply monitor blood sugar with a glucometer. This is by far the healthiest alternative. However, it is best to consult with your doctor about these alternatives first.
RELATED ARTICLE: 7 Signs Your Blood Sugar Is Out Of Whack
Many women report a “crash and burn” feeling after their daily dose of Glucola, and it can easily be averted.
Furthermore, in 2012, Sarah Kavanagh started an online petition to have BVO removed from Pepsi products. She was 15 at the time. Her story starts innocently. She had just bought some Gatorade for her and her brother. However, she is a vegetarian and checked the label. Not knowing what BVO was, she decided to google it because she knew it probably didn’t come to from an animal. As soon as she saw the possible side effects – which include neurological disorders and altered thyroid hormones (which is where all your iodine goes, by the way) – she threw the product away and began the petition.
Three years later, after over 20,000 signatures on the petition and other pressures from the surrounding food conscious public, the company finally decided to pull BVO from their products.
Among the reasons it took so darn long to get Pepsi to pull this from their food has already been explained above: the FDA has not yet done more research into the effects of BVO on the body after the interim rulings in 1977. After decades of not being able to change that ruling, the FDA has finally spoken up about why those studies have not yet happened.
Their spokesperson, Patricia El-Hinnawy, noted that any change in the ruling for BVO’s interim status in 1977 would require the use of the already incredibly limited funds that the FDA has access to. To be honest, she added that BVO is not a public health protection priority at this time for the FDA.
This needs to change! Glucola for pregnant women? Teens getting BVO in their daily dose of soda and gamers going to the hospital? It’s not right.


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SOMERVILLE, NJ - Aminy Audi, the owner, CEO and matriarch of the iconic Stickley Audi Furniture brand, stood outside their newest acquisition at the corner of Davenport and Main streets Tuesday night, enjoying the moment, surrounded by a crowd of 50 or more well-wishers who had come to be a part of the ribbon cutting and opening celebration for their new store.
Accompanied by her son, Edward,with store manager Mark Aziz close by, she took the time to speak to the community and her new neighbors, realizing that the moment was as special to her and the extended Stickley Audi family as it was to the elected officials, merchants and others who had gathered outside the store at 130 W. Main St.
She spoke of the vision of those who are succeeding in branding the borough as Somerset County’s Downtown; she praised the building owners, landlords and merchants who increasingly epitomize the strong sense of community that serves as the foundation of a strong local economy.
She thanked the town for its warm welcome, and left no doubt that the Stickley Audi family is anxious to become an integral part of the downtown community and contribute to the ongoing resurgence in the downtown district.
“The vitality is truly amazing,” she said, leaving no doubt that this location, their third store in New Jersey, will endeavor to attract customers from throughout Somerset County and beyond, generating spillover traffic and business throughout downtown.
Lastly, she turned and spoke directly to the family that had sold the store to Stickley Audi in April, 97-year-old Lloyd Silverman, the founder of Lloyd’s Furniture which had occupied the space since 1950, and his son Jeff Silverman, who started work at the store in 1954 when he was six-years-old, sweeping the floors every Saturday.
“We have a big pair of shoes to fill,” Audi said.
“They’ve done a beautiful job, the younger Silverman said once inside the 13,000 square-foot showroom, standing with his wife Ghislaine greeting friends and former customers.
His father shook hands and reminisced with former Mayor Brian Gallagher and others.
“Oh, this is just wonderful, it really looks great,” he said.
Grand Openings on Main Street have been the norm the past several years as the borough’s resurgence as "Somerset County’s Downtown" continues to unfold.
The Stickley Audi opening raised the bar with a high degree of prestige and sophistication and recognition from a national retailer that the town and the surrounding community will come through the door and contribute to its success, according to Borough Councilman RanD Pitts, a longtime downtown merchant and owner of the Evolve clothing store, one block east of the new furniture store.
Stickley Audi’s presence also affirms the vision of a vibrant, eclectic downtown shared by Gallagher and other elected officials, longtime merchants like Pitts and Rick St. Pierre, owner of Verve Restaurant and Bistro and president of the Downtown Somerville Alliance merchants association.
The store had been undergoing an extended “soft opening” since it first opened its doors after July 4th.
“We are very excited about the acquisition of a building that is steeped in history and is well recognized as the home of Lloyd’s Furniture,” Audi said at the time of the sale in April.
Neighbors across the street include The Edge Luxury Apartments, a Starbuck’s and the highly-acclaimed Wolfgang’s Steakhouse, with other locations in New York City, Hawaii, Beverly Hills, Tokyo, the Philippines, Korea and Miami.
“What they bring to the table is out-of-town clients and marketing, all of which helps my store,” Pitts said. “It says something that Somerville is at that level where we are pulling in that kind of business.”
The distinctive lines of Stickley Audi furniture are based on the simplistic, utilitarian designs of the Stickley brothers who began manufacturing furniture in 1903 in upstate New York, helping to give rise to the Craftsmen movement that shaped American industrial artistry for several decades,extending to lighting, pottery, metalware, tiles and other household items. It enjoyed a revival in the 1980s, with Barbra Streisand purchasing an original Stickley sideboard for $363,000.
The Audi family purchased the failing furniture company in 1974 and today employs 1.600 people.
The Somerville store is the 17th store in the group and third in New Jersey; other New Jersey locations are in Paramus and East Hanover. Stickley Audi furniture, all made in America, is also sold by 125 distributors.
Aziz, who has been in the retail furniture business for 25 years, joined Stickley Audi a few months ago. He is also responsible for running the Stickley Audi store in the Chelsea section of Manhattan and expects to commute between the two locations.
Aziz says it was love at first sight when he came to Somerville.
“The sense of community is unparalled,” he said. “It’s the kind of place where you want to spend as much time as you can.”
“Somerville is a very vibrant community and is a perfect fit for Stickley, Audi & Co.,” Audi said.
“Somerville is as much as we were expecting it to be, the residents, the merchants, everyone has been so nice, that’s the biggest takeaway,” Aziz added.
The store is open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. with the exception of Sunday, noon- 5 p.m. and extended hours until 8 p.m. Friday.
Further information is available by calling (908) 947-0471.


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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- The Bombay Co. said late Wednesday that its same-store sales fell 5.6 percent in March, citing difficult year-over-year comparisons, and said it sees its first-quarter loss coming in at the high end of its forecast.
The home furnishings retailer said revenue for the 5-week period ended April 5 rose 6 percent, to $50.7 million from $47.8 million.
Sales for the nine weeks ended April 3 rose 5 percent to $86.2 million.
Analysts are currently looking for a loss of 9 cents a share on sales of $128 million, according to Thomson First Call.
Shares of Bombay ended Wednesday's session up 4 cents at $7.84 ahead of the announcement.


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York Book and Paper Fair marks 58th event
Join more than 60 book dealers for the 58th York Book and Paper Fair, to be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 20 at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in West Manchester Township. The longest-running book fair in Pennsylvania, it showcased its first international vendor this spring with deFreitas Books of Montreal, who will return this fall.
“In the past we’ve seen things like signed first editions of Mark Twain’s works included among the leather-bound antiquarian offerings,” organizer Pam Lewin said in a press release. “And then there will be tables bending under the weight of reading copies of mid-20th century paperbacks… most priced at $2 to $3.”
Prints, posters, maps and ephemera will also be featured, along with comic books and pulp magazines from the '20s, '30s and '40s.
One new exhibitor will be Darrell Schweitzer, a recipient of the World Fantasy Award and a world-renowned expert on the Cthulhu Mythos. Other authors in attendance include Joseph David Cress, author of "Murder and Mayhem in York County”; and Patricia Earnest Suter, author of "Peter Montelius: Teacher and Printer."
Admission is $5. For details, a full list of exhibitors and a coupon for discounted admission, visit www.yorkbookandpaper.com.


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Emotions were heated and tempers flared this week at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago as the Secure Remote Payments Council held a symposium to address the problem of fraud and card-not-present payment transactions, according to reports about the event. Several speakers from throughout the payments industry voiced their concerns about the issue at Monday’s session. Digital Transactions has some highlights:
Terry D. Dooley, senior vice president and chief information officer of Iowa-based Shazam, one of the few electronic funds transfer networks still owned by financial institutions, agreed that EMV is coming to the U.S., the last industrialized country where chip cards aren’t already in use or being rolled out. But he criticized the idea of “one or two entities” dictating things. Dooley’s specific issue was preserving PIN-based authentication on chip cards. Visa’s proposed system would rely on so-called “dynamic authentication” using one-time transaction identifiers, and some U.S. banks favor chips coupled with signatures for authentication rather than the chip-and-PIN system common in Europe. Dynamic authentication “is good,” but still can be spoofed, according to Dooley. “You shouldn’t be told how you’re going to implement security,” he said.
Dooley followed a blistering attack on “false gods” of payments delivered by Annmarie D. “Mimi” Hart, chief executive of MagTek Inc., a Seal Beach, Calif.-based vendor of hardware and software systems for bolstering the security of magnetic-stripe card transactions. Her main target was the PCI Security Standards Council, which administers the Payment Card Industry data-security standard, with which card-accepting merchants, processors. and issuers must comply. She claimed the PCI Council is more interested in perpetuating itself than actually eliminating fraud. “After all, no fraud means no PCI,” she said, adding that, “it has and will continue to stifle innovation.”
EMV is another of Hart’s false gods. She said an EMV card costs five to 10 times as much as a mag-stripe card and still transmits data in the clear (unencrypted), meaning that a chip-card-accepting merchant would not be excused from PCI compliance. Mag-stripe cards also are capable of dynamic authentication, according to Hart, who also warned against the industry being forced onto “a centrally dictated path.”
Most other speakers agreed that EMV, despite its faults, eventually would displace mag-stripe, though no one could say when or exactly how. Robert O. Carr, chairman and chief executive of merchant acquirer Heartland Payment Systems Inc., predicted the mag stripe would be around for another 10 or 15 years. “I think the cell phone is going to cause the demise of the mag stripe,” he said. While many observers have noted that mobile devices have their own vulnerabilities when used for payments, Carr said the security issue “is manageable.”


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Giuliana Rancic debuts new fashion line Friday on HSN
Giuliana Rancic, reality TV star and host of “E! News,” will launch her first apparel collection Sept. 21 on HSN.
G by Giuliana Rancic includes apparel and outerwear including a faux leather ponte cascade jacket, pencil skirts, chic dresses, leggings, skinny jeans, blouses and faux fur vest. Prices range from $29.90 to $129.90.
“Creating G by Giuliana Rancic is my dream and I am so excited to bring my collection to HSN,” Rancic said. “My designs are all about fit, function and of course fabulous style … three things that every woman needs in their wardrobe.”
A portion of total sales will be donated to Bright Pink, a national non-profit that focuses on the prevention and early detection of breast and ovarian cancer in young women while providing support for high-risk individuals.
Rancic will be showcasing her new collection from 8 to 10 p.m. CST during the finale of HSN’s Fall Fashion Ultimate Trunk Show presented by ELLE magazine. The collection is online now at www.hsn.com.
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If Facebook‘s new Graph Search feature has you thinking a little harder about what you’ve “liked” for fear that an ironic dalliance in years past could come back to embarrass you, here’s one more thing to worry about. Facebook is now recycling users’ Likes and using them to promote “Related Posts” in the news feeds of the user’s friends. And one more thing, the users themselves have possibly never seen the story, liked the story or even know that it is being promoted in their name.
This was brought to my attention through a story by Minneapolis developer Craig Condon in which he accuses Facebook of “impersonating people without their consent.” See video above for his lucid documentation of the phenomenon, including the use of a fabricated account as a demonstration tool. In his own case, he had liked the irreverent media empire, VICE, and as a result, a rude post showed up on his mother’s timeline below a heading “Craig Condon likes VICE” and a divider with a slug that said “ RELATED POST.” His mother, of course, urged him to take the post down—but he couldn’t because he had never posted it!
It’s hard not to see this as intentionally manipulative and misleading on Facebook’s part. It has already made a preliminary $20 million settlement over its use of Sponsored Stories, but that’s not the worst of it. A story from ReadWrite by Bernard Meisler documents a boatload of cases where friends had supposedly liked brands that the writer couldn’t imagine them ever liking. Some of these friends were no longer even alive! Needless to say, when he went to these friends (or friends of friends in the case of the deceased) and asked if they had liked a particular brand, none said that they had. A Facebook spokesman maintained that all likes are the result of liking activity and possibly “those people ‘liked’ something by accident, by inadvertently pressing a button, perhaps on the mobile app.” Meisler (and I) find this explanation highly questionable. It does certainly seem like something fishy going on with Likes on Facebook.
Jim Edwards wrote a post a few months ago on Business Insider about how Facebook generates Likes in ways other than a user clicking a Like button. It turns out that Facebook also adds likes any time a user messages a link to a “likable” page. This automation in combination with fake bot accounts that can pump out these messages effectively create a method through which Likes can be bought. And even if your message that accompanies a link contains negative sentiment, Facebook still counts it as a Like. All publicity is good publicity, I guess. A recent “glitch” has even led to these robo-likes being counted twice!
Read the full story over at Forbes


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Electronic Arts has announced a new partnership with Koei Tecmo and Omega Force under the EA Originals Label “to develop and release the next great hunting game.” This is a new IP taking place in fantasy feudal Japan.
Yosuke Hayashi, Executive Vice President of Koei Tecmo Games, shared the following statement regarding this collaboration:
“It’s an honor to be partnering with EA Originals and to have the support of a team with such an incredible track record of releasing groundbreaking new games. The EA team fully embraces our creative independence and have become invaluable partners offering both development and publishing support. Adding the global resources of EA with our own will help us introduce a new kind of hunting game to a global audience of players and expand our reach into global markets. I’m really looking forward to the day that gamers from around the world can play this new game.”
Jeff Gamon, General Manager of EA Partners, shared the following statement about the partnership:
“Building on the incredible success of EA Originals, which includes the recent releases of It Takes Two and Knockout City, we’re thrilled to be partnering with the amazingly talented Omega Force team. They’ve elevated the hunting genre to the next level, merging their proven talent for combat gameplay with unexpected and innovative mechanics. We can’t wait to introduce their groundbreaking new adventure to the world later this month.”
More details on this title will be revealed later this month. For now, a teaser image was shared, viewable below:
This post may contain Amazon affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate Noisy Pixel earns from qualifying purchases.


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Black Friday is highly overrated
Myths about the day after Thanksgiving have been exposed. And, no, it's not the biggest shopping day of the year.
When you're born without the shopping gene, Black Friday is nothing to get excited about. But, according to a new post at dealnews.com, even if you love to shop, it's not all it's been cracked up to be -- certainly not a reason to fight crowds at 4 in the morning.
In fact, the benefit of camping out is No. 3 on dealnews' list of 15 Black Friday myths that don't match the facts:
These days, more and more Black Friday deals are available online as well as in-store. Couple that with the fact that many Black Friday doorbusters are either matched or beaten later in the season, and you can only conclude that it's not worth camping out for Black Friday specials. At most stores, being first in line to go in at 5 a.m. only guarantees that you'll get shoved around as the 500 people behind you are also let in.
Among other Black Friday myths that are busted:
- Black Friday starts on Black Friday. Actually, you can find many Black Friday deals online on Turkey Day, and some are quickly sold out. You'll also find BF deals online that don't appear in the sales circulars.
- BF is the busiest shopping day of the year. No. That would be the Saturday before Christmas.
- BF prices are always sale prices. Dealnews says: "In the past several years, retailers have been caught red-handed jacking up prices before Black Friday, then lowering them with supposed discounts that leave the price higher than it was before." Shocking, we know. You can avoid this trap by knowing what stuff really costs. Start tracking prices now. They may very well go down after Black Friday has come and gone.
- BF is the best day to buy a new TV. It may be the best day to buy a TV made by some company you've never heard of, but the top brands likely won't be at their lowest price that day, dealnews says.
- If you want to return BF purchases, the store is OK with that. Numerous sources report that stores are tightening their return policies and demanding personal information like an e-mail address, phone number or credit card information so they can track "serial returners" -- SmartMoney says fraudulent returns cost stores $9.6 billion last year -- and also send you ads and sell your info to marketers.
Also, SmartMoney tried to return items to numerous stores and rarely got cash. Store credit is more common.
The strangest myth on dealnews' list: BF doorbusters are free. Not so. "If you find a free TV on Black Friday, please send us a photo of it alongside your pet unicorn," dealnews said.
What are your Black Friday plans? Will you be home in bed or standing in line, waiting to get through the doors?
More from MSN Money:
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Analyst warns that it will not be out until next year
The iPhone X, which is already late, probably will not see the light of day until next year, according to a leading financial services company .
TSMC is to make 70 to 80 percent of Qualcomm's new-generation power management ICs (PWM IC).
Your battery and security is toast
The genius programmers at Apple have hit on yet another way of making their iPhone harder to use.
It should have been a single key operation
At the Bloomberg Global Business Forum, Carlyle Group co-founder and CEO David Rubenstein asked Microsoft founder Bill Gates to account for one of the most baffling questions of the digital era: Why does it take three fingers to lock or log in to a PC?
ARMs up its Tianhe-1A CPU-GPU hybrid
The National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) has, boosted the Tianhe-1A CPU-GPU hybrid that was deployed in 2010 with some nice new ARM processors and possibly some Matrix2000 DSP accelerators.
Wants you to pay for it any way
Fruity Cargo Cult Apple has admitted that its new Apple 3 watch is borked but it is going to sell it to Apple fanboys at the end of the week anyway.
Alexa on board
The dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell on earth yarn that Amazon is about to release a set of smart glasses.
18.9 billion price tag
Toshiba’s board has finally flogged its Nand flash memory chip unit to an international consortium led by the US private equity group Bain Capital in a $18.9 billion deal designed to rescue the Japanese conglomerate from delisting.
Putin running a similar operation to the US
WikiLeaks, which has lately appeared to be the mouthpiece for Russian intelligence, has suddenly turned on its Kremlin masters.


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Facebook Inc., the social media conglomerate is all prepped up to launch its new audio-based products in today’s event i.e., Monday the 19th of April. According to several sources, the company is categorising its new products under the umbrella name of “Social Audio” and it may be the next big thing in the social media industry.
The conglomerate is most likely to take on the audio chat platform, Clubhouse which was launched about a year ago and reportedly enjoys more than 10 million active users per week. Yes, you read that right. The platform is an invite-only application and certainly reveals the potential of audio-based products in today’s time.
Other than this, Facebook is also rumoured to be partnering with Spotify to push forward its podcast delivery and distribution services, as reported by Recode and Reuters.
Last year, Facebook launched its video conferencing product called Rooms and this year, the company is planning to revamp and introduce an audio version of Rooms that will be a direct rival to Clubhouse. Rooms Audio chat feature will let a large group of users to listen to speakers and interact with them on something called a “virtual stage”.
Facebook is known as a social media conglomerate for a reason and as it dives deeper into newer product launches, the company seems to be rebuilding itself and readying itself for the future and market challenges that may come with it. The first one is Clubhouse because of its phenomenal user base and Facebook will do anything in its power to claim the application or put out its own better version, similar to the original one.
Other than this, Facebook Inc. is also working to launch a product that will let users record brief audio voice notes and post them directly on their newsfeed. The company is also reportedly in talks with Spotify for enhancing podcase discovery.
In a recent highlight, earlier this month, Facebook also started the public testing of its Hotline platform where users can combine audio and video elements. Users can speak and ask direct questions from their audience. It is basically a Question and Answer platform which was introduced as a part of Facebook’s social media experiments, as mentioned in a report by Reuters.
The social media giant is also planning to launch the audio version of Rooms for messenger application that will directly take on Twitter’s Spaces and Clubhouse. Facebook Inc. is diving deep into social audio. Let us wait on what the company has in store for us. Stay tuned for the latest updates on the Facebook Live Event today.


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Wikipedia donate with bitcoin
Wikipedia announced that they now accept Bitcoin payments for their.The nonprofit whistle blower site, which to a large extent relies on donations,.
Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation have been toying around with the idea of accepting Bitcoin for donations for the past several months.
Wikipedia, the decentralized community-powered encyclopedia, is now accepting donations in bitcoin, the decentralized community-powered cryptocurrency.Open-source Video Game Development Engine CRYENGINE Now Accepts Bitcoin Donations.It all started when Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia, set up his first account with Coinbase.
Bitcoin - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaSr Engineering Manager - Authentication at Target (Brooklyn Park, MN, United States).The folks over at Wikipedia are always in need of money in order to run their collection of servers, and university students ought to be the ones.
Nama tersebut juga dikaitkan dengan perangkat lunak sumber terbuka yang dia.Unlike traditional currencies such as dollars, bitcoins are issued and.Bitcoin is the first digital currency to eliminate the middleman. Use your bitcoin to invest, shop, donate or give away.Instead, Wales is thinking about sharing a Bitcoin address on social networks and in various popular Bitcoin discussion groups, such as the Bitcoin subreddit.Bitcoin is accepted by many merchants, websites, individuals and companies for different reasons.It is interesting to note that Bitcoin, likewise for Wikipedia,.
As a legit 501(c) charitable organization, Wikimedia Foundation cannot accept 100% anonymous donations.Without the support or our individual and corporate donors, we would not be able to offer our incredible programs to hundreds of thousands U.S. middle schools...On July 30, 2014, Wikipedia added Bitcoin as a donation option among the 13 different payment methods.Wikipedia Co-Founder Jimmy Wales Accidentally Starts A Bitcoin Donation Campaign For Wikipedia.If you wish to support Wikipedia you can now do so with bitcoin.
Donate - MozillaWiki
Wikipedia Co-Founder Starts Bitcoin Donation Campaign - JOSIC
DailyTech - Wikipedia Scores $140,000 in Bitcoin DonationsYou can send your Bitcoin donation to the following address: 1NRoPQsm8by5iWyMMmHQy3P5takur3kYgG.
The Wikimeda Foundation, which operates Wikipedia, Wikiquote, and other free resources, has finally started accepting Bitcoin donations.
Donate Bitcoin to Power-Up the InternetWe accept cryptocurrency donations to help keep the sites running.
Many sent small amounts of Bitcoin to show Wales that Bitcoin should become a new payment option on Wikipedia.


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March 11, 2009
SpeculatingStocks.com Stock Pick: Glu Mobile, Inc. (GLUU)
Stock Price: $0.55
Glu Mobile, Inc. is a global publisher of mobile games. Its portfolio of top-rated games includes original titles Super K.O. Boxing!, Stranded and Brain Genius, and titles based on major brands from partners including Atari, Activision, Konami, Harrah's, Hasbro, Warner Bros., Microsoft, PlayFirst, PopCap Games, SEGA and Sony.
GLUU is trading at a market cap of only around $16 million and operating in the mobile application publishing market, which we expect to become a big industry in the near future. GLUU has grown revenues from $46.1 million in 2006 to $66.8 million in 2007 to $89.8 million in 2008.
GLUU is down due to their last earnings report; however, the company is restructuring and moving forward. As of GLUU's latest balance sheet, they had cash and cash equivalents of $19.1 million.
Insider purchasing of GLUU has been strong including over $29,000 of purchasing by an officer in Glu Mobile earlier this month between the $0.45 and $0.55 range.
GLUU is a relatively undiscovered stock, but moves fast on buying volume as it did earlier this year when it made a run to $0.96 from the $0.35 level.


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WALLDORF — One in five shoppers in the United States regularly buys groceries online, and two in five have bought groceries online in the past, a recent survey shows.
The findings of the study, commissioned by Brick Meets Click and announced by SAP SE (NYSE: SAP), show that retailers face enormous pressure to adjust internal and customer-facing business strategies to keep pace with rapidly evolving consumer demands.
“The tide is rising,” said Bill Bishop, chief architect of Brick Meets Click and primary author of the new study. “Active users spend an average of 16 percent of their weekly grocery dollars online, and that grows to 64 percent on weeks they do a major online grocery trip.”
Other key findings of the survey include:
- The percentage of U.S. households that bought groceries online in the past 30 days has nearly doubled in just two years: 21 percent in 2015 versus 11 percent in 2013.
- Online grocery trips are different from in-store shopping. Three themes dominate online grocery shopping:
- Specific product shopping
- Major grocery shopping
- Subscription-based shopping
“A digital core is the foundation of a retailer’s digital value network,” said Lori Mitchell-Keller, global general manager of consumer industries for SAP. “Retailers that operate a true digital enterprise can empower the workforce and deliver a better user experience that goes beyond a mobile smartphone or tablet. They can respond to shoppers in real time — with a 360-degree view of the customer.”
To learn more about the results of “How Consumers Are Using Online Grocery and What It Means for Retailers in 2016,” based on responses from 12,000 U.S. shoppers, click here.
Stacy Ries, SAP, +1 (484) 619-0411, firstname.lastname@example.org, ET
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
Top image via Shutterstock


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The robotics automation sector is, says data compiled by International Data Corporation, the world’s fastest growing industry. The data company forecasts global spending on robotics systems and drones to hit $210.3 billion by 2022, with an average compound annual growth rate of 20.2% over the four years from 2018.
But robotics is a huge industry, and can be broken down by software, hardware and field of application. For any potential investor in the robotics sector, an important insight is where, of all the possible routes into robotics spending, the money is flowing. Of course, it doesn’t mean that more niche robotics technologies and applications won’t develop into strong, profitable and growing businesses. But given the longer average timelines or robotics investments when compared to other technology sectors, such as SaaS (software as a service) products, for example, there is some logic in looking at technologies targeting large, proven markets that offer a big upside.
So where is the money trail leading in robotics? To answer that question, let’s look at the sub-sectors within the sector attracting the most spending and investor attention, as well as the biggest deals done so far in 2019.
DCI’s data analysis forecasts that between spending on robotics systems and drones, the former will prove to be the larger of the two categories over the next few years. Overall spending on robotics systems is forecast at $103.4 billion over 2019 with a much smaller sum of $12.3 billion spent on drones. However, drones is the category showing higher growth rates – a 30.6% compound annual growth rate compared to 18.9% for robotics systems.
IDC also forecasts two thirds of the spending on robotic systems will be on hardware with industrial and service robots accounting for 30% of all spending across the industry. The lion’s share of software spending will be on ‘command and control applications’ and ‘robotics-specific applications’. Services spending in the sector will be spread across systems integration, application management, hardware deployment and support. Growth in software spending will be ahead of that on services or hardware – 21.7% to 19% and 18.2%.
Almost half of spending on robotics systems, $50.2 billion, will be focused on those applied in discrete manufacturing. Process manufacturing, resource industries, healthcare and consumer products will account for most of the rest. The value of robotics sold into the wholesale, retail and construction industries will see the highest rates of growth at 31.4%, 29.6% and 28.1% respectively.
Dr Jing Bing Zhang, IDC’s worldwide robotics research director, believes:
"Industrial robotics continues to top the technology investment priorities of manufacturing organizations across all major markets surveyed by IDC in 2018. While the looming trade war between the United States and China is likely to dampen the market growth slightly in the near term, we expect the growth trend to pick up from 2020 onward."
John Santagate, the company’s commercial service robotics research director adds:
"The worldwide market for commercial service robotics will continue to grow at a rate of 20% per year for the coming five years. This growth is due to continued innovation in ease of use as well as the drive for flexible automation across industries. We expect to see growth driven by increased adoption of autonomous mobile robots and collaborative robots being deployed as a means to deliver improvements in capacity, productivity, and efficiency."
On the market for drones, customer insights and analysis research director Stacey Soohoo contributes the insight:
"The market is working to simplify the use and integration of drones with efforts ranging from enabling new drone applications through improved technological capabilities to understanding the regulatory implications of drones and the viability of these applications. Drones are developing new skills, coupling 3D mapping and fully autonomous navigation capabilities with rapid improvements in battery performance and air-traffic management systems. Drone adopters continue to search for a safe, cost-efficient, and repeatable drone solution that can be easily implemented in a variety of situations and use cases.”
90% of spending on drones is expected to be on hardware, with the consumer sector accounting for slightly over 40% of all spending on the technology.
Perhaps surprisingly, robotics used in welding are expected to represent the biggest percentage of spending by use case, followed by assembly-line robots.
Source: International Data Corporation
And what about the biggest investments in robotics over 2019? The largest so far has been $2 billion invested into Intuitive Surgical, which is developing surgical robots. The investment was made via a share buy-back – an ideal exit opportunity for early investors.
The next three biggest investments, $1.15 billion, $1 billion and $940 million respectively, were all made into the autonomous vehicles sector. The largest was made by Honda, which acquired a stake in Cruise, GM’s self-driving unit, followed by two Softbank Vision Fund investments into Uber and Nuro.ai.
A $600 million investment by SK China into AI and IOT start-up Horizon Robotics is the meat in the sandwich before another two big investments into autonomous vehicles technology. Those were Amazon’s $600 million investment into Aurora Innovation and Baidu’s $450 million investment into Weltmeister Motor. The Vision Fund also invested $300 million into service robots company Cloudminds.
There have also been investment deals worth over $100 million into drone delivery company Zipline, LiDAR technology developer Innoviz Technologies, Think Surgical, again surgical robots, Beijing Auto AI Technology, a Chinese AI company, machine learning start-up Black Sesame Technologies and Exoskeletons developer Ekso Bionics.


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MIT engineers have come up with a conceptual design for a system to store renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and deliver that energy back into an electric grid on demand. The system may be designed to power a small city not just when the sun is up or the wind is high, but around the clock.
The new design stores heat generated by excess electricity from solar or wind power in large tanks of white-hot molten silicon, and then converts the light from the glowing metal back into electricity when it’s needed. The researchers estimate that such a system would be vastly more affordable than lithium-ion batteries, which have been proposed as a viable, though expensive, method to store renewable energy. They also estimate that the system would cost about half as much as pumped hydroelectric storage — the cheapest form of grid-scale energy storage to date.
Read more at MIT News


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Fifth National Rural Grocery Summit
The K-State Rural Grocery Initiative is pleased to announce the Fifth National Rural Grocery Summit. This event will be held on June 6-7 at the Hyatt Regency in Wichita, Kan. We will gather together and discover ways to strengthen our rural grocery stores and the communities they reside in.
Eight percent of rural Americans – approximately 4.75 million people – live in areas without access to nutritious foods. Known as “food deserts,” research has shown a strong correlation between those who live in these areas and chronic, diet-related diseases such as obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease.
A local grocery store is a vital source of healthy food for these rural communities. A store present in these areas has been shown to correlate with lower rates of obesity and diet-related disease. Regrettably, many local grocery stores struggle to keep their doors open.
Due to the repercussions the loss of a grocery store represents, Kansas State University and a comprehensive range of partners are working to support rural communities and their grocery stores. The Fifth National Rural Grocery Summit will include people from all walks of life; store owners, citizen leaders, food suppliers, academic researchers, policy makers, and funders. Our objectives include providing new avenues of thinking, discuss the latest models for providing healthy food, and provide the opportunity to network and chart a path towards the future.
We hope you will join us to discuss how to best sustain our rural grocery stores and improve the health of our rural residents.
To register for this event, please visit conferences.k-state.edu/ruralgrocery/registration/. For questions regarding registration, contact Kansas State University Global Campus at (785)-532-5569 or 1-(800)-432-8222.
If you have any questions regarding program content, contact Dr. David Procter at (785)-532-6868, email@example.com.


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New York-based cannabis tech company LeafLink laid off 80 employees this week, or roughly 29% of its staff, according to MJBizDaily.
“Unfortunately, as the cannabis industry continues to face headwinds and the current macroeconomic environment, we needed to take the next step in our evolution to continue supporting the industry,” a LeafLink spokesperson told MJBizDaily.
LeafLink is far from the only company in the marijuana trade to cut staff in recent months. The trend began earlier this year and has snowballed as the broader economy has tightened, with consumers cutting spending and many companies chopping headcounts as either a precautionary measure or in direct response to falling revenues.
Massachusetts-based Curaleaf laid off 220 employees in November, California-based Weedmaps laid off a quarter of its staff earlier this month, and Florida-based Trulieve laid off several employees last month.
Even that list is just a portion of the layoffs:


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At Bellevue Square, from March 27th – 29th, the Spring Runwaywill return to the Bellevue Collection . Fashion retailers from Bellevue Square will show off their latest styles in the free runway shows that will go on throughout the weekend. Also during the duration of the weekend, a variety of prizes will be provided to patrons by Bellevue Square retailers.
As a part of the Spring ’09 Runway on April 3rd, Silhouettes of Style – the luncheon and fashion show, benefitting the Performing Arts Center Eastside (PACE) – will take place at The Westin, beginning at 11am. The event plans to raise $50,000. The guests of the event are promised to be treated to a full runway fashion show with new spring styles. The event is organized by the Act Two Guild, which is made up of over 30 women whose goal is to support the future 2,000-seat performing arts center on NE 10th St & 106th Ave NE. The project, having been pushed back a couple of times, is now scheduled to be complete in 2012.


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In separate bulletins on Monday, Fb and Google each confirmed a formidable stage of tone-deafness to considerations about their dominance and lack of consideration to privateness points.
Why it issues: Large Tech is making an attempt to persuade officers within the U.S. and Europe that it may well clear up its act and desires solely modest regulation. This is not serving to.
What’s occurring: Fb launched two dwelling video chat gadgets, generally known as Portal, whose almost sole function is to be a microphone and digicam within the dwelling, ostensibly for video chat.
- The system has Amazon’s Alexa and streaming music assist, however lacks options present in different sensible shows.
- The largest criticism, although, was the truth that it is made by Fb — an organization that has some “belief points,” lately, to place it mildly. (It did make some extent of touting Portal’s built-in privateness options.)
- Context: Fb had been reportedly set to introduce Portal in Could, however pushed it again amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal and attendant considerations.
Google, in the meantime, disclosed that its developer instruments had made an enormous chunk of Google+ knowledge publicly accessible, however the Wall Avenue Journal reported that it had identified about it because the spring and determined to not notify the general public.
- Google tried to melt the blow by saying it does not know of anybody accessing or misusing the information and, in the meantime, stressing that few folks use Google+ anyway and most achieve this for less than quick intervals of time.
- Context: Per WSJ, Google sat on the details about the bug, fearing that going public would immediate larger regulatory oversight and lump the corporate in with Fb and Cambridge Analytica. On Monday, Google introduced plans to close down the patron model of Google+ over the following 10 months.
What they’re saying about Google+:
- Daisuke Wakabayashi (NYT) “Google have to be thanking its fortunate stars that Google+ failed so spectacularly — saved them from coping with the identical points that Fb needed to cope with. More and more clear that Google+ had lots of the similar vulnerabilities apart from the truth that nobody was utilizing it.
- Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.): “At this time’s report confirms that Google’s claims to worth shoppers’ privateness seem to be nothing greater than empty discuss. Google should clarify its unwillingness to reveal this breach and the FTC should conduct a fulsome investigation. However to actually finish this cycle of damaged guarantees, we want a nationwide privateness framework that protects shoppers and empowers the FTC to carry corporations accountable.”
What they’re saying about Fb’s cameras:
- The Verge’s Nilay Patel: “I really like the wacky hardware design of the Portal Plus, however there isn’t any method I’m placing a Fb digicam in my dwelling.”
- MarketWatch’s Therese Poletti: “The worst tech system of the 12 months is right here.”
- Enterprise capitalist Niv Dror posted a tweet that was simply an animated avatar of Mark Zuckerberg peering out of the pc.
The underside line: You may suppose that 2018 would have taught the tech giants a factor or two about the way to be delicate to safety and privateness considerations. You would be fallacious.
Go deeper: Axios’ Sara Fischer writes on the world regulatory implications.


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Android Fragmentation is a hot topic because of the slow roll out of Android 4.0
The discussions regarding Ice Cream Sandwich and the extremely slow roll out of Android 4.0 continue to drag on. Here we are moving towards the end of the 5th month of the year and Android 4.0 has yet to break into double digits for usage. This is really magnifying the situation far more than it would otherwise become due to the slow uptake on getting access to Android 4.0. All of this does not look like it is going to be resolved anytime soon. The proliferation of the problem continues and may get a lot worse as the next version of the Google OS, Jelly Bean, begins to grow closer to its arrival.
With Android 4.0 having a 4.9% share across all Android versions, based on Google’s own developer site, at the beginning of the month makes for a problematic situation. It would appear that this issue is going to continue for a while due to all the various steps in getting Android from Google to the manufacturers, then the wireless carriers and finally to the consumers. Where the problem lies along this path is a being debated and one consideration is the role wireless carriers play in the delay. It is really starting to look like there is no quick fix. This is talking about how tough it is for consumers to get an update in a timely manner.
Then there are the companies which develop the apps which run on all the Android devices, or at least a good size percentage of them. Based on information coming from Open Signal Maps, things become exponentially worse for developers. Based on the information they are providing, there are 3,997 unique Android devices which they have to code for. That number seems to be very high and shows you just how difficult it becomes when your app has to take a manufactured device into consideration and handle the associated code. It gives you an idea of the high volume of items which must be addressed.
Others are pointing out similar problems with the high number of devices which are capable of running Android and then the issue of a number of different versions of Android which must be support on each device. It makes for something which seems to be approaching the absurd, though there will be some who disagree with that statement. The idea of Android Fragmentation getting resolved this year is far fetched, but one which continues to prove itself out each and every day as ICS moves slowly to devices. When the next OS finally arrives, will there still be Android phones waiting to get Ice Cream Sandwich? It sure looks like that will be the case.
Do you see any solution to this growing problem?


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The presidential election theme is in full swing here in New York, with the biggest display of campaign fervor at the Mercedes-Benz Bluetec diesel unveiling. As the ML320 Bluetec rolled onstage, a crowd toting "Vote for Bluetec" signs and wearing "Vote for Bluetec" lapel pins rushed on amid patriotic red, white and blue balloons and streamers.
The message is that there really are no red states--everything from coast to coast is blue (as in Bluetec diesel). Furthermore, says Mercedes-Benz CEO Ernst Lieb, "blue is the new green," meaning that Mercedes diesel ML-, GL- and R-Class models represent the leading edge of a new way of improving fuel economy for Americas drivers.
"The campaign begins today," said R&D boss Thomas Weber. "I am a man on a Bluetec mission."
We assume that once Mercedes entire U.S. lineup is available with Bluetec diesels, Mercedes leadership will declare "Mission Accomplished."
Our advice: Leave the aircraft-carrier PR stunts to the real politicians.


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Funding Circle cofounder Samir Desai has unveiled a brand new U.Ok. fintech startup known as Tremendous Funds, a enterprise he based again in February however which little or no was identified about up till now.
Reviews emerged a number of months again that Desai had raised round $30 million for this new firm, and immediately this has been confirmed. Tremendous has raised £22.5 million (roughly $27 million as of immediately) in a spherical of funding led by Accel, with participation from Union Sq. Ventures, LocalGlobe, and a slew of angel buyers.
Whereas Tremendous isn’t opening for enterprise till later this 12 months, the corporate has now instigated a waitlist for customers and companies eager to be first-in-line for when issues formally get off the bottom — it will embody an early-access program.
So what, precisely, does Tremendous do? Nicely, on the patron facet, customers are promised cashback on purchases they make by way of the app, from garments and electronics, to flights.
On the model facet, in the meantime, Tremendous companions with companies with the promise of accelerating their gross sales, and these manufacturers pay Tremendous a fee, a part of which is shared again to the client.
So in impact, Tremendous guarantees to assist its prospects (companies) lower out the monetary “middlemen” funds processors, who typically cost as much as 5% on prime of each transaction.
It’s price noting that Tremendous presents its personal funds answer as an choice which apparently has no charges, and if a model decides to help this, Tremendous provides cashback to the client immediately. If the model doesn’t provide Tremendous as a fee choice, or if the client chooses to not pay with Tremendous, then the client might have to attend as much as two weeks.
Presumably, the cashback and fee charges fluctuate relying on what fee methodology the client makes use of.
On prime of that, Tremendous additionally guarantees to assist manufacturers keep away from expensive buyer acquisition and promoting charges — they don’t pay for that includes their merchandise within the app, they merely pay a fee for any gross sales that Tremendous generates.
Desai cofounded small-business lending platform Funding Circle again in 2009, and remained CEO till he stepped down final September with the corporate’s shares sitting at greater than half their IPO worth. Whereas he’s nonetheless a non-executive director at Funding Circle, Desai stated that he now needs to deal with serving to companies and customers keep away from exorbitant ecommerce expenses — that is notably pertinent at a time when the U.Ok. teeters on the point of a recession.
“Companies and customers have for too lengthy been stung by enormous charges on the web, in lots of instances with out even realizing,” Desai stated in a press release. “We imagine that the straightforward Tremendous app can save customers and companies billions a 12 months. At a time of excessive inflation and will increase in the price of dwelling, redistributing the large income of fee and digital promoting corporations again to prospects, will considerably enhance individuals’s lives.”


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PARIS — The economy hasn’t dulled the luster of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.
The French luxury conglomerate on Tuesday reported better-than-expected first-half profit growth of 7 percent as its star Louis Vuitton brand delivered strong double-digit increases in most geographic zones, excluding Japan.
"You start one way as a baby, but why shouldn't you be able to choose your own path as opposed to culturally people telling you which way to go?" - Thom Browne at his men's spring 2018 show, where he celebrated gender fluidity. #pfw #wwdmens (📷: @delphineachard)
"I think that all anyone really wants in life is to have people understand us for who we actually are, despite everything," says Ruth Negga. The actress talks "Preachers" season 2 and more on WWD.com. #wwdeye (📷: Dan Doperalski)


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Pandora has been re-thinking its licensing, inking direct deals with labels and publishers over the past two years. Despite those changes to the audio company’s licensing structures, SoundExchange will still be managing Pandora’s payouts to artists from the free tier. Glenn Peoples wrote a blog post explaining the details of Pandora’s ongoing relationship with SoundExchange.
The article seems focused on explaining royalties to artists, and allaying any concerns about their revenue. “Even as licensing agreements change, artists’ share of royalties from Pandora’s ad-supported radio service, the company’s greatest generator of royalties, and the way artists receive those royalties will remain the same as they ever were,” Peoples writes. Pandora will pay rights-owners for use of recordings in the ad-supported radio service through SoundExchange, same as always. Pandora’s royalty obligations for use of recordings in the ad-free services (Pandora Plus and the upcoming Pandora Premium) will be handled differently.
Pandora accounts for a large share of SoundExchange’s business. In 2014, it was more than half of its collections. Most recently, SoundExchange posted Q3 2016 payments up nearly 30% on-year to $263.5 million.


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GANDER, N.L. — The Fed Up Gander Business Action Group is seeking a better way to do business in the central Newfoundland town.
Group member Kerry Noble said for years there has been ongoing difficultly with town staff in moving business ventures forward, particularly in the development sector.
The group, which was officially formed in January and represents 25 businesses, is speaking publicly – there’s even an electronic billboard ad and a blogpost page – in an effort to try to catch council’s attention.
Their common concerns, determined through a survey of its membership, revolves largely around the town’s involvement in development projects, such as permitting and revisions.
There’s also concern surrounding the appeal process.
“In a nutshell, there’s not an appeals process that allows a business person – the developer, the contractor – to get past the staff,” he said.
Noble said in a roundabout way, a disputed decision between a business and town staff that goes through a department committee or council gets referred back to town staff.
“I understand council has to consult with staff, they are the full-time people, and I’m sure they are doing a great job,” he said. “But what we’re saying is when we hit a brick wall we need a legitimate appeal.”
If not, he said, it’s either give up or take the matter to court – something that is done at the expense of the involved business and taxpayers.
He feels there is difficulty in working with the town and it’s reflecting poorly in enticing new business to the area.
“It’s been difficult. If it weren’t this organization” wouldn't be here, he said.
“The Town of Gander might say it’s only a small group of businesses, but this is the group of businesses that have built Gander in recent time.”
More than anything, Noble said, the group wants Gander to listen to businesses.
In the middle of it is the Gander and Area Chamber of Commerce. While in a difficult position, as both the town and Fed Up Gander businesses are members, president and CEO Hazel Bishop said it’s trying to help find a solution.
“We have to make sure their needs are met fairly, to try and come to some amical resolve,” she said.
‘Has to be rules’
Gander Mayor Percy Farwell acknowledged meeting with the group, and he is interested in what businesses have to say when it comes to concerns about doing business in Gander.
When it comes to the town’s involvement in business matters, such as permitting and development regulations, he said it’s about protecting Gander and its people.
“If you’re trying to have a progressive, well developed community, there has to be rules, regulations and agreements to be followed,” he said. “We don’t want to be, nor are we resourced, to do the design work for developers … if what we get is not compliant with the required standards, which is in place for the protection of the community, then yes there will be revisions.”
Speaking to the appeals process, Farwell said it does seek the guidance of its staff, determining the rationale behind a decision.
“We have to make decisions not based on an individual case, but what makes the best sense for the town in general,” he said. “No matter how many appeal processes you have, (there will still be cases) where you still don’t get your way.”
Farwell said this can be a frustrating process, and if there’s concern, he encourages dialogue.
The town is currently revisiting its business-related regulations and will be working with the Gander and Area Chamber of Commerce for outreach to area business to get a sense of what needs to be done. It will also be engaging business outside of Gander, which conducts work for the town, about their experiences as well.
“We know we don’t have perfect regulations. We’ll never have perfect regulations, especially if that means everyone is happy,” Farwell said. “We have to look at the greater good, we have to treat everyone fairly and consistently.
“Nobody here is anti-business,” he added.


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- In less than a year, more than 1 million users have signed up for "BangNiTou," a smartphone-based investment advisory product run through Vanguard's joint venture with Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group.
- That's according to a release from BangNiTou on Thursday, just four days after Vanguard said it would drop its own pursuit of a mutual fund license in China.
- Foreign financial institutions received a long-awaited green light last year to take full ownership of local Chinese businesses in futures, mutual fund management and securities.
BEIJING — Vanguard's experiment with financial technology in China is showing early signs of success.
In less than a year, more than 1 million users have signed up for "BangNiTou," a smartphone-based investment advisory product run through the American mutual fund giant's joint venture with Alibaba-affiliate Ant Group.
That's according to a release from BangNiTou on Thursday, just four days after Vanguard said it would drop its own pursuit of a mutual fund license in China. Instead, the company plans to focus on its partnership with Ant.
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Ant operates Alipay — one of the two dominant mobile payment apps in China — on which BangNiTou sits.
The Vanguard-branded product means "help you invest" in Chinese and launched in April 2020. It is a form of robo-advising, automated financial planning that uses data analytics to determine how a customer should invest based on factors such as age and income.
While such automated investing products have surged in popularity in the U.S., the concept of personal finance — whether through human or automated advisors — is still far less common in China. Most locals save heavily for an investment in the housing market or for medical treatment in the case of severe illness. That's partly the result of limited rollout of health insurance, stock market volatility and high minimums for fund investment.
For BangNiTou, the minimum investment is 800 yuan ($123), roughly 10% of the officially reported average monthly wage in cities.
In July, Vanguard told the Financial Times that new customers were allocating a significantly higher amount, about $1,575 on average for a total of $315 million in assets across 200,000 users. Updated figures weren't available.
Ant holds the majority stake
"While BangNiTou's number of users has been increasing rapidly, the fund investment advisory market in China is still at a nascent stage with significant potential for further growth," Peter Zhang, CEO of the Vanguard joint venture with Ant, said in a statement.
Foreign financial institutions received a long-awaited green light last year to take full ownership of local Chinese businesses in futures, mutual fund management and securities. It's not clear what rules might apply in financial technology, or fintech.
Vanguard's joint venture with Ant launched in late 2019. Ant holds the majority stake at 51%, according to Chinese business database Qichacha.
The Alibaba-affiliated company claims about 1 billion users worldwide. It became an early player in China's wealth management industry with its Alipay-linked money market fund "Yu'e bao," which had around 1.7 trillion yuan in assets under management at its peak in early 2018.
Late last year, Chinese authorities abruptly suspended Ant's plans for what would have been the largest initial public offering to date. Beijing has subsequently increased its regulation on fintech and said the industry should be subject to the same rules as banks.


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Space tourism provider Blue Origin is set to begin selling tickets for suborbital spaceflights aboard their New Shepard vehicle as early as next year.
“We expect to start selling tickets in 2019,” said Blue Origin Senior Vice President Rob Meyerson speaking at the Amazon Web Services Public Sector Summit on June 19. The announcement was accompanied with few other details with Meyerson declining to elaborate on ticket prices.
During an interview on May 25, Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos went further stating, “We don’t know the ticket price yet. We haven’t decided.” This is in stark contrast to the likes of Virgin Galactic who began selling spots aboard their SpaceShipTwo vehicle more than a decade ago. To date, over 700 customers have at least made an initial deposit towards their spot aboard a SpaceShipTwo flight.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard vehicle made its most recent test launch in April this year. The test was a major step for the provider with the vehicle reaching its operational altitude of 107 kilometers (66 miles). The provider is also currently recruiting for an Astronaut Experience Manager. The successful candidate will be tasked to, “Develop a thorough understanding of astronaut needs and desires, both existing and potential, and using that knowledge to help delight customers”


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Once veganism was widely associated with animal rights activists, the health conscious and the religious. But now more and more people are dabbling with a vegan diet, albeit temporarily. Why?
To a committed carnivore, adopting a vegan diet – no meat, no fish, no dairy, no eggs – sounds like a dramatic step.
But a growing trend for giving up all animal products doesn’t involve going vegan forever. Nor does it even require being morally opposed to eating meat.
In fact, it might only last a matter of weeks.
More people are pledging to go vegan for seven or 30 days, according to the Vegan Society. There were 40% more people signing up to this temporary menu in the first two months of 2013 compared with the same period in 2012, it says.
Most famously singer Beyonce and her rapper husband Jay-Z went vegan for 22 days as part of a “spiritual and physical cleanse”.
And this year a new campaign – Veganuary – has already seen 3,200 people commit to go vegan for the first month of 2014, organisers say.
Many of these part-time vegans aren’t against eating animal products in principle. But they might have taken inspiration from well-known figures who have adopted the vegan lifestyle full-time, such as Oscar-winning film director James Cameron, former US president Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
There are also 150,000 full-time vegans in the UK – so about one in 400 – according to the Vegan Society. The ratio goes up to roughly one in 150 in the US, according to the Vegetarian Resource Group, which puts the total figure at two million. Like vegetarians, they don’t eat meat, poultry, fish or by-products of slaughter – vegans don’t eat eggs and dairy products either.
But it’s those who dabble in the diet rather than follow it full-time who are coming to prominence like never before.
Each temporary vegan might have very different motivations. Some might seek to shed the signs of Christmas indulgence, others might see it as a good way to detox.
According to Juliet Gellatley, director of the vegan and vegetarian group Viva, it mostly comes down to two main reasons – health concerns, and greater awareness about how animals are treated.
“People might be prone to heart disease or want to get their cholesterol down,” she says. “Or it might be because they’ve seen something on factory farming. But once people turn to veganism, they usually open their minds to the other issue too.
“The third factor, which is more unusual, is environmental reasons such as global warning or deforestation,” she says.
It’s a tale that rings true with young professional Rachel Hollos, a global marketing director from London. She says her main motivation for going vegan for a month was the health benefits.
“I have read a lot of articles about how we don’t really need dairy products and how cow’s milk contains lots of hormones, which puts our own hormones out of sync,” she says.
Publicity surrounding a PETA investigation into angora farms also got her thinking.
Rachel says the vegan diet “differs substantially” to her normal diet, which typically includes lots of fish, eggs, goats milk and yogurt. The switch has been easy during the week – when she’s able to cook meals at home and prepare packed lunches – but difficult when eating out at weekends.
“I definitely feel like I’ve got more energy and feel less bloated, but I also feel very hungry most of the time.”
Advocates for the diet insist this latter sensation is not what veganism is about. Gellatley says hunger is easy to avoid if new vegans plan their meals carefully. Porridge, pulses, lentils and beans all help keep the stomach feeling full, she says.
Someone whose belly hasn’t been rumbling is 32-year-old Luke Graham from Cardiff, despite burning lots of energy in his job as a personal trainer. He says his motivation to sign up to Veganuary was “half ethics and health, and half experiment”.
A vegan diet is all about planning, he says. “I used to put a slab of meat and veg under the grill most nights. Now my cupboard is full of pulses, which has taken some adjustment,” he says.
So far Luke is finding his energy levels are fine, unlike when he tried going vegan about 10 years ago, which he says “made him look like a 12-year-old boy”.
“I need to be strong and in good shape for my job and I was worried going vegan was contrary to this. Last time I tried it, I didn’t really understand much about nutrition. Now writing nutrition plans are part of my job,” he says.
Viva’s Gellatley says there’s been a shift in attitude when it comes to men going vegan. “Before many would say there’s no way they’d give up meat. They were traditionalist, loved their steaks and roasts, (and were) macho about it. But now more moneyed, powerful men are coming out and saying vegan is the healthier way,” she says.
It’s not even always about cutting out meat and dairy for weeks at a time. The VB6 diet, which advocates eating a vegan diet before 18:00, became the fad diet to follow after New York Times food writer Mark Bittman published his book last year.
There are also any number of raw food, juice cleansing, soup slimming diets that involved cutting down on animal products.
But there is also some evidence to suggest that veganism isn’t just for January. The UK market for meat-free products such as tofu, burgers, and imitation chicken fillets was put at £625m in 2013, up 21% from five years earlier, according to Mintel.
The free-from market – which includes dairy free and wheat-and gluten-free products – went up by 72% between the same period.
And the first German all-vegan supermarket chain, Veganz – offering more than 6,000 vegan products – is due to open in London later this year.
There may be other reasons why people are moving towards plant-based diets. The horsemeat scandal led to more than half of UK consumers changing their shopping habits, according to consumer group Which?
Others argue celebrity-backed campaigns such as Meat Free Mondays – which Sir Paul McCartney helped launch in a bid to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint by cutting out meat – have also contributed to a club of “meat reducers”.
But Gellatley believes there’s been a “seismic shift in attitude” towards going vegan, “which is no longer seen as alien”.
“People aren’t necessarily going vegan, but they seem to admire those cutting it out a bit more – they are more apologetic, saying, ‘I know it’s not good for my heart’,” she says.
And the 21-year veteran of veganism says she doesn’t take issue with the apparent disjunction between the principles of veganism adhered to by some devotees and the more casual attitude of the occasional dabbler.
“Any change is positive in my view. Anything that pushes that shift to eat less animals rather than more is good.
“Plus very few people go straight to a vegan diet. Some change overnight, but we get emails from people every day saying they gave up red meat, then white meat, then fish, then diary etc. Most people go vegetarian before vegan. It’s about opening hearts and minds,” she says.
For Rachel, the vegan diet is only for January. She says she will add fish back into her diet in February, and possibly add organic white meat later.
“The vegan diet has really made me think about what I put into my body and I’ve come across lots of nutritionally beneficial and tasty recipes which I’ll continue to cook.
“I think there is common sense in a lot of the theories and it’s a definitely a worthwhile challenge,” she says.
The part-time vegan might well become a permanent fixture.


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Macroeconomic imbalances could lead to the implosion of the U.S. dollar in the next one to two years, says economist Stephen Roach. Crypto assets could rise in value as a result.
The U.S. dollar will crash, says Yale professor and former Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia Stephen Roach.
“A dollar crash may happen over the next year or two, maybe more. The crash is inevitable,” says Roach. He expects the U.S. dollar to depreciate by 35% against other leading currencies.
“Lethal” combination: economic crisis and protectionism
According to Roach, macroeconomic imbalances in the US have already been a problem for some time, but the corona-crisis has now made things worse.
“We are going from bad to worse,” says Roach.
He points to low domestic savings rates and increasing budget deficits. The COVID crisis has increased unemployment, resulting in less saving and less consumption. Also, the stimulus programs put an extra burden on the national budget in addition to already high levels of debt.
At the same time, American policy is becoming increasingly protectionist and is trying to decouple from the rest of the world. Roach calls this a “lethal combination.”
Stagflation like in the 1970s?
A dollar-crash could become a challenge for investors. Although export companies profit from a weaker currency, Roach considers the effect to be marginal. Instead, he sees the danger of rising inflation, because US-companies would have to buy goods from abroad at higher prices.
Roach draws a comparison with the economic situation in the USA in the 1970s. At that time, the American economy was suffering from a stagflation crisis, meaning consumer goods prices were rising while the economy was no longer growing.
Even a possible change of government after the presidential elections in November could hardly change this, says Roach. Policymakers never had to deal with anything close to this disruption.
Crypto-markets could see higher demand
Roach also says that cryptocurrencies could benefit from a dollar-crash. Yet, he believes the asset class is still too small to completely absorb adjustments in the global currency market.
Especially Bitcoin has in the past benefited from devaluations of the U.S. dollar. Given that the daily trading volume in the forex market is more than $6 trillion, even a small percentage of the money flowing into crypto-markets could boost prices massively. Additionally, investors would sell dollar-linked stablecoins and switch to other crypto-assets.
Also, if the dollar-crash weighs on U.S.-equities, it might trigger a global selloff similar to the recent shockwave caused by the COVID-virus. As crypto-assets have proven their recession-resilience, the next stock market crash might result in rising crypto demand. Thus, if Professor Roach is right with his crash prediction, crypto-asset-prices could appreciate significantly over the next two years.


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Abuja – An official of the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC), Mr Luqman Mamudu, says the country is not losing revenue under the automotive policy contrary to speculations in some quarters.
He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday, that the speculations were the handiwork of those still opposed to the policy for their selfish interests.
Mamudu, who is the council’s Director of Policy and Planning, said that the policy would boost government revenue, especially with the recent hike in vehicle import tariff.
“Before the NAIDP, the duty on vehicles below 3000 cc was 20 per cent and most vehicles imported into the country fall under this category.
“In the past, only cars above 2000 cc attracted 35 per cent. But with the policy, the duty on all cars is now 35 per cent.
“Commercial vehicles attracted 10 per cent before the policy, but now, all fully built commercial vehicles attract 35 per cent.
“The so called concessionary import granted assemblers is 20 per cent for commercial vehicles and 35 per cent for cars. So, where is the loss of revenue?’’
The director argued that even the duty on semi-knocked-down (SKD) kits imported by assemblers for commercial vehicles were in some cases as high as 10 per cent.
According to him, only completely-knocked-down (CKD) kits with very high employment potential along with equipment imported to build vehicles attract zero per cent.
Mamudu said that the concessions granted to assemblers under the policy were carefully selected to make the industry fairly attractive to local and foreign investors.
“This is a point that the NADDC has tried to explain to other stakeholders, including the Nigeria Customs Service, especially some individuals in its past management.
“The concessions granted to assemblers were carefully selected to ensure that local and foreign investors find it fairly convenient to invest in a very capital intensive industry.
“This is without loss of revenue to government or excessive increase in prices of products coming out of the assembly plants.’’
He explained further that vehicle assembly at SKD level was a global provision to allow easy entry into the industry by investors.
As investors’ confidence grow in the market, according to him, they then graduate to the labour intensive operations at CKD level.
“Basic as SKD operations seem, they represent almost 18 per cent value added for cars and about 60 per cent for commercial vehicles, especially when you have to build bodies locally,’’ he added. (NAN)


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DEARBORN, Mich., May 10, 2021 – Ford’s smartest, most innovative truck yet will be all-electric and called F-150 Lightning. The all-new F-150 Lightning will be revealed May 19 at Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn and livestreamed for millions to watch.
The F-150 Lightning brings stunning innovation, technologies and capabilities to the F-Series, America’s best-selling vehicle, combined with the power, payload and towing capability that is the hallmark of all Built Ford Tough trucks.
All-electric F-150 Lightning
The reveal takes place at 9:30 p.m. EDT, May 19, from Ford World Headquarters and will be broadcast live with 30+ ways to watch across physical and digital destinations, including the Ford Facebook and YouTube channels, Twitter, key national publications as well as 18 impactful out-of-home locations such as Times Square in New York City and Las Vegas Boulevard.
Added Farley: “The truck of the future will be built with quality and a commitment to sustainability by Ford-UAW workers at the Ford Rouge Complex — the cathedral of American manufacturing and our most advanced plant.”
Production of the F-150 Lightning begins next spring at the all-new Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center.