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Information is news of present events happening around the globe. This can be given through a variety of media: print, television, radio, news channels, paper, or via the written testimony of experts as well as witnesses to current occasions. Information can also be an useful text, as in the scientific news that discusses recent advancements in scientific research as well as modern technology. Information is as a result a thorough term that can cover a vast array of topics as well as events from national politics to criminal activity as well as sports. It is therefore an indispensable aspect of our day-to-day lives.
The value of news is evident in the huge number of papers released all over the world. And these publications are distributed widely both for the business and also non-commercial advantage of the people. News includes tales and also other fictional creations that are created to existing current events and also considerable events in a completely well balanced and also detailed way. There are a number of international companies which, for the objective of educating the general public, problem day-to-day news reports, in addition to a number of local papers which release a selected amount of story every day.
The significance of information prolongs past the large print magazines. It has an extensive impact on the way people and governments manage their daily affairs. Information related occasions are the leading source of details for citizens of major countries. News pertaining to wellness, education, criminal offense, worldwide events, as well as extra is flowed and talked about extensively by several newspapers throughout the world.
News can also impact exactly how an individual or a country checks out an occasion. For example, one newspaper may report that a particular celebrity has actually been charged with a crime. The news will state all the appropriate details concerning this event, and it will certainly discuss what the ramifications are for the person, his/her household and/or the country as a whole. The paper will certainly have taken fantastic like ensure that all the facts have actually been validated, and also will highlight the legal as well as monetary implications of the situation, and also will certainly offer a detailed account of the criminal instance, the accused’s protection, and any other pertinent story. In some circumstances, the police or law enforcement authorities have released a news release concerning the apprehension or costs, without naming the individual of the rate of interest.
Many individuals are often delicate about the point of views and also sights which they reveal in the public arena. Particularly if they are commenting on any story, it is extremely important for them to ensure they are giving a purpose, objective, and also non-biased representation of the story. People utilizing the internet can easily share themselves, and they can typically be subject to intense personal as well as even professional criticism from persons on different sides of the dispute. News relevant forums are becoming extra prominent places for information lovers. Discussion forums allow people to share their sights concerning a wide variety of topics, as well as gain useful comments from others.
Information can also influence the rates of particular products. A high profile story can cause a fundamental product to enhance in value. This could be useful for those who intend to benefit from the situation. However, for the majority of us, it can be negative, due to the influence on the cost of standard goods.
With numerous brand-new innovations being presented daily, several news items have the potential to spread out rapidly and also thoroughly. As an example, the Arab Springtime uprisings, as well as the eruption of the Chinese earthquake are instances of fantastic newspaper article that ordered the world’s attention. Initially, these products were reported improperly, by outlets accommodating the global media. This caused a large amount of complication, as well as the understanding was that these products had no considerable effect on the securities market. As the global media began to verify the information, the assumption changed, and also these items were extensively reported.
Although the Arab Springtime as well as Chinese Securities market crises were large-scale events, story have the potential to have an also bigger impact on the marketplaces. Some specialists think that the September 11th terrorist attacks might have been prevented had actually safety and security procedures been stuck to. Therefore, financiers that have actually been influenced by the assaults lost a huge amount of money, and also many stocks fell in the wake of the situation. Had the info on these supplies been disseminated better, many of these financiers may have prevented disaster. As story spread with various networks, and were ultimately picked up by financiers worldwide, the result could have been much greater.
Scientific research news reflects developments in the round of science. News on area launches, discoveries made busy, and historic wedding anniversaries are some of the famous features of company information. New clinical journals are released periodically to notify the visitors about the cutting-edge research being done. News concerning the human body and health topics are also circulated under business sections of papers.
Company news aids entrepreneurs and businessmen understand the marketplace scenario better. It includes tales and functions on mergers and acquisitions, funding investments, and also stock exchange fads. News provides an insight on the policies and programs introduced by federal government and also economic sectors to boost company tasks. Information related to education, labor, migration, nationwide safety, and also real estate issues are also distributed under business area.
The business area additionally gets a major coverage. News items consist of the most recent in property, residence structure, consumer durables, and also durable goods. Health subjects such as clinical scientific research as well as health insurance obtain hefty circulation amongst business oriented individuals. A day-to-day upgrade on financial information is also sent to all customers. Business directory sites are thoroughly covered by the service section.
Sports and video games maintain the sporting activities fanatics interested all the day. News pertaining to cricket rating, player injuries, and news on suits, teams, as well as players is extensively flowed amongst the b2b specialists. News on food and also dishes is likewise distributed amongst the business market. Travel details and overview to preferred locations are several of the hot items distributed widely among business section.
The sporting activities section is raising in popularity amongst all areas of culture. Information on horse racing, golf, tennis, soccer, auto racing, and also cricket is thoroughly reviewed by the company section. A different information category is devoted to sporting activities information. Consumer durables as well as associated write-ups get a noticeable place amongst service information. nigeria newspapers
Today, one can obtain information on virtually anything with the web. One can discover the latest information on his favored web sites. The best component regarding this news site is that it supplies initial hand experience. A typical information site would certainly have news from throughout the nation, yet a news website run by an entrepreneur would certainly offer news from the area where he runs. He would remain in a placement to recognize the best bargains prevailing in that region.


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Spanish online casino games developer MGA Games has announced that a large selection of some of its most popular titles will be going live in Portugal via the PokerStars.pt domain from prominent iGaming operator Flutter Entertainment.
The Barcelona-headquartered innovator used an official Wednesday press release published by European Gaming Media and Events to state that the debut is to encompass its ‘most successful and international productions’ including the CSI: Miami, Dream 3 Team and Samantha Fox video slots. The firm declared that the launch will moreover embrace ‘100% localized slot games starring well-known Portuguese characters’ such as Fanny Rodrigues, Salvame Naranja, Paulo Futre and Chakall.
MGA Games is currently celebrating its 20th birthday and described the PokerStars family as ‘one of the most recognized and established casinos in the online gaming industry’ that has been accessible for iGaming aficionados in Portugal since 2016. The developer furthermore pronounced that the London-listed operator, which was known as Paddy Power Betfair until undergoing a name-change early last year, opted to begin offering its mobile-friendly titles after recognizing ‘the differential value’ they will provide to such players in the nation of approximately 10.3 million people.
Read a statement from MGA Games…
“Our games containing highly competitive content are produced to high-quality standards and are adapted to the public in each country. The introduction of the new MGA Games content for Portugal will happen progressively and at a good pace, anticipating game releases every week.”
MGA Games asserted that its ‘portfolio of premium products offers a wide variety of titles’ that are already being utilized by well over 40 online casino operators from around the world including in the jurisdictions of Spain, Malta and Colombia. The innovator proclaimed that its games additionally come complete with ‘sequential loading technology’ alongside its own Triple View system for adaptive menus that permit competitors ‘to view and play the game in any position and from all types of devices.’
One of the first online casino titles from MGA Games that will likely to appear in Portugal via PokerStars.pt is the five-reel and ten-payline Chef Chakall Viking’s Conquest video slot, which is themed around the imaginary adventures of real-life Argentinian celebrity chef Eduardo Andres ‘Chakall’ Lopez. This three-row game is the latest from the developer’s popular Viking’s Conquest series of innovations and was launched at the end of July in order to allow aficionados to bank cash prizes of up to €12,500 ($14,600) by tackling four exclusive miniature games replete with chest, hammer and treasure chest symbols.

domain: news


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Olympics-Pokemon Go creators strive to launch game in Rio ahead of Games
RIO DE JANEIRO Aug 3 (Reuters) - Creators of Pokemon Go said on Wednesday they were doing everything possible to release the blockbuster mobile game in Brazil in time for the Rio Olympics which start on Friday.
The official Twitter account for Pokemon Go tweeted that it was working hard to roll out the game in South America's largest nation and told fans to "stay tuned."
A representative for Niantic Inc, which developed Pokemon Go for mobile devices, declined to comment on the exact timing of the game's release in Brazil. Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd owns 32 percent of the Pokemon Company, which owns Pokemon's intellectual property.
Some in Brazil have questioned how Pokemon Go players will stay safe. Robbers in other countries have targeted distracted mobile phone players, and Brazil's steepest economic recession since the 1930s has been stoking crime and straining public finances. There have been threats of police strikes on the eve of the games.
In the United States, some players have been drawn down dark alleys and into dangerous neighborhoods in search of the imaginary creatures, only to be targeted by criminals. Players have also been involved in car accidents.
The game can work anywhere in the world using GPS but it is not officially available for download by local users in Brazil.
Athletes who have arrived at the Olympic village have expressed disappointment about the game not being widely available.
U.S. diver Abby Johnston tweeted July 26 that the worst thing about the Olympic village was she could not play the game.
Pokemon Go is available in 35 countries. Players use their mobile devices to search various real-life locations in hopes of finding and capturing virtual Pokemon characters such as cuddly yellow Pikachu. Continuación...


text: KANYE West is being sued for $20 million by a company claiming he “stole” their technology to use for his Yeezy brand and Sunday Service shows. The rapper, 43, is accused of getting MyChannel Inc to work for him for six months without paying them, while promising to invest $10 million into the company. According to court documents obtained by E.W. Scripps, MyChannel, Inc. is suing West for allegedly breaching the parties’ oral partnership agreement, preventing MYC from earning millions of dollars in fees, encouraging the Black-owned business to invest millions of dollars of its resources and time in ventures, failing to make a promised investment, and violating their non-disclosure agreement.It says West began using its services in Spring 2018 to boost sales on his Yeezy line of shoes and clothing. West allegedly promised the company a $10million investment at some point in the future, as well as other promises that reportedly never came to fruition. The suit claims West never intended to deliver on the promises, and also claims he stole technology from the company to use for his Sunday Service concert series.According to the company, West took an exit after only six months of work without paying the money. The musician had used the services of the company specializing in video and e-commerce technology, to give a boost to the sales of his shoes and clothing line called Yeezy. To ensure the deal goes through, the company had put it in its own fund worth $7million on the rapper’s apparel brand with the employees investing over 10,000 hours of work.


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Honda Recalls Older Odysseys, Pilots and Acura MDXs
Honda has announced a recall of more than 870,000 minivans and SUVs for an ignition switch malfunction that can allow the vehicles to roll away even after the keys have been removed.
The recall involves Honda Odyssey minivans and Honda Pilot SUVs from the 2003 and 2004 model years. The recall also includes Acura MDX SUVs made from 2003 to 2006.
All of the affected vehicles have automatic transmissions. Honda said the defect involves wear to the ignition interlock feature that could allow drivers to remove the key before the transmission shift lever is put into park.
If the vehicle is not in park and the parking break is not set, the vehicle could roll away.
Forty-three complaints about the problem have been filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Owners reported 16 crashes due to the problem, with two people injured.
Honda is encouraging owners of the affected vehicles to take them to an authorized dealer as soon as they receive notification of the recall. The company said the notices will be sent in early February.
More information is available at www.recalls.honda.com and www.recalls.acura.com, or by calling (800) 999-1009 for Honda owners or (800) 382-2238 for Acura owners, and selecting option 4.


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, a global technology platform, is looking to grow its team in India and recruit more than 350 people across Software Engineering
, Product Management
, Experience Design and Data Engineering roles in 2021 - 2022.
The hiring will take place across software engineering, product design, product and programme management, data science, risk analytics and business analytics streams at entry, mid-level and senior roles, according to a statement.
The company plans to leverage the large pool of skilled technology talent available in India and invest in growing key tech capabilities that will drive innovation for their global products and platforms. Aligned with its strategy of being an AI-driven expert platform, Intuit is focused on scaling its robust team in India to cater to its 100 million customers worldwide, the statement said.Saurabh Saxena
, Site Leader & Vice President - Product Development, Intuit India
, said, “Our teams in India play a pivotal role in helping Intuit remain ahead of the curve as we focus on enabling our mission of powering prosperity around the world. We are looking to hire engineers and product leaders who will embrace our customer-driven innovation mindset as we solve consumers and small businesses' most pressing financial problems.”
“We are looking for talent with capabilities in artificial intelligence/machine learning, data science, cloud, open-source, natural language understanding (NLU) and other key areas to deliver against our strategy,” Saxena added.
A majority of the hiring will be focused on scaling engineering innovation happening across products, the statement added.


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Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza & Grill will send a little love home with diners this February as it offers Valentine’s Day pizza kits from Saturday, Feb. 1, through Sunday, Feb. 16. A portion of the proceeds from the Valentine’s Day kits will benefit the American Heart Association.
Starting Feb. 1, pizza-lovers will be able to purchase the Valentine’s Day pizza kits at any of Sammy’s five Las Vegas locations: Centennial Hills at Durango and the 95 freeway, Rainbow Blvd at the 215 freeway, Flamingo Rd at the 215 freeway, Green Valley Parkway off of the 215 freeway and Sahara at Rainbow Blvd. Each kit is priced at $6.50 for a traditional crust, $7.50 for a whole wheat crust and $9.50 for a gluten-free crust.
Each kit includes the dough of choice, pizza sauce, cheese and basil leaves, all the ingredients needed to impress loved ones and create heart-shaped pizzas at home. Furthermore, a pepperoni add-on is available for $1 more. For every Valentine’s Day pizza kit sold, Sammy’s will donate $1 to the American Heart Association (AHA) to help combat heart disease in America. Sammy’s employees will also show their support for AHA by wearing National Red Day pins on Friday, Feb. 7.
Sammy’s fans can also enter the “Show Us Your Heart” contest by snapping a photo of their heart-shaped masterpiece. Pizza-makers should share their photos to Instagram with the hashtag #IHeartSammys and tag @sammyswpizza for a chance to win dinner for two at any Las Vegas location. The winner will be announced on Friday, Feb. 21.
For more information about Sammy’s Valentine’s Day Pizza Kits, please call 858.456.8018 or visit their website at www.SammysPizza.com. Be sure to follow Sammy’s Restaurant, Bar & Grill on Twitter and Instagram @SammysWPizza and @SammysGVP, and become a fan at www.Facebook.com/SammysWoddfiredPizza and www.Facebook.com/SammysGVP. Eat well. Feel good.


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Fired group home site manager charged with stealing from clients
LEOMINSTER — After a lengthy investigation, an Orange woman was summonsed to court in late October for allegedly stealing nearly $12,000 from five residents of a group home for adults with developmental disabilities, according to police and court documents.
In early December 2019, representatives of the Community Resources for Justice and Disabled Persons Protection Commission contacted police about their suspicions that Kathleen Weatherly, 33, of East Road, Orange, had taken money from several clients at the group home that operates in the city, police said.
Originally hired in 2012, one of the nonprofit’s representatives told a detective that after Weatherly’s hiring and exceptional work she steadily had her responsibilities increased until finally she was promoted to site manager at the Leominster group home.
However, Weatherly’s work, for reasons unknown the representative told the detective, began to deteriorate and she was stripped of her responsibilities at the home, police said.
The group home representative said because of Weatherly’s understanding of the home’s finances, she would have known how to manipulate the “books” in a way to hide any financial improprieties.
After an audit of the home’s books by the organization, it was discovered that Weatherly had been withdrawing portions of Social Security payments to five of the home’s clients, police said, noting in the report that the sums of $2,051, $3,472, $2,124, $1,741, and $2,511 could not be accounted for.
When the detective spoke with Weatherly, she said she did maintain the books, which were audited, and there never was a discrepancy and were “all in order.”
However, there were charges made for the defrauded clients at a pharmacy in Westminster that could not be accounted for and Weatherly couldn’t explain the charges, the detective reported.
As a result, Weatherly was charged with one count of larceny over $1,200 and when arraigned on Oct. 24, she pleaded not guilty, and was released on personal recognizance to reappear in court on Dec. 2 for pretrial hearing, according to court documents.
Two women charged with scheme to fraudulently sell cellphones
LEOMINSTER — After an investigation in April into Apple iPhones being sold for only sales tax, two of the employees of a third-party vendor that offers contract cellphones from major carriers inside Walmart were charged with larceny, according to police and court documents.
Police were contacted by Walmart security and OSL, the third-party vendor, in April that they had information that two OSL employees, Glory E. Hernandez, 22, of Meadowbrook Lane, Fitchburg, and Jianna N. Alford, age unknown, of Leominster, had been selling at least two cellphones a week for sales tax only between January and mid-March resulting in a loss to the vender of over $55,000, police said.
Walmart and OSL began investigating the pair after security noticed a spike in their individuals sales of 48 iPhone 11 Pro Max phones that were valued at $1,150 each , police said.
When a detective interviewed Alford, she told him that she and Hernandez had been contacted by someone known as “peezy” who offered them a chance to make extra money. Alford said she accepted the offer because she needed extra money.
Alford told the detective how the scheme worked. Peezy would call one of the women and tell them someone, who he would identify, would come into the store with a photo ID and “buy” the phone for the sales tax amount and either Alford or Hernandez would activate the phone and the “buyer’ would leave.
On that same day, whomever had “sold” the phone to the buyer would be paid $200 cash in the parking lot after work, Alford told the detective.
She also told the detective she had seen Peezy at least once, didn’t recognize him and said that Peezy had mentioned he was from New York,
Combined, Alford and Hernandez netted $9,800 from the illegal sales, police said.
The detective did not interview Hernandez.
Both were summonsed to court on a single charge of larceny over $1,200 by a single scheme, according to court documents.
When originally arraigned in August, both pleaded not guilty, and were released on personal recognizance.
Both will return to court on Dec. 10 for a preliminary hearing, according to court documents.


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This year, Duff Willey would have celebrated Willey Ford's half century as a family-owned car dealership.
Willey's grandfather, Marion, founded the business outside Salt Lake City in 1949. Willey's father, Don, succeeded Marion. Finally, Duff Willey became owner and president of the dealership.
But last November, the dealership became part of Ford Motor Co.'s Utah Auto Collection, with Duff Willey as CEO. And Willey Ford is no longer family-owned.
'This business is changing,' he says. 'It's not a matter of if, but when.'
A few years ago, Willey, 43, sensed change as he began following news about the spread of publicly owned dealership groups - and their penchant for purchases.
'Early on,' Willey says, 'It became apparent to me that Salt Lake City, as one of the top 50 markets in the United States, would become a target.'
Then Ford, with a plan of its own, began talking with several dealers in Willey's area. Ford wanted to consolidate them into one large group.
So, 'I started asking myself a lot of questions,' Willey says. 'I wondered about my survivability if I wanted to remain in the car business.'
By no means was Willey desperate. In 1998, Willey Ford averaged 140 new and 60 used vehicle sales per month. 'We were very profitable,' Willey says. 'We had good people.
'It was a matter of assessing the environment; what was happening in the marketplace. Could we continue to grow in the same fashion we were accustomed to? I don't think so.'
At the time, Willey was the only family member who was active in the business. Neither of Willey's two sisters was involved. His father had remained an inactive partner.
He turned to his sons, Walker, now 17, and Buzz, 14. 'I looked at those two and wondered about their future,' he says. 'What did the future look like for the Willey family?
'I realized I had to be part of something different,' he says. 'Something was going to happen, whether I chose to get involved or not.'
The choice was emotional, of course. But, Willey says, 'A friend told me that after 49 years, what really mattered most was preserving the assets my family had built.'
Willey received offers from other publicly traded groups. Had Ford not made its gesture, he says, he would have pursued those other options. When Ford wanted to talk, 'I think everybody was willing to listen,' says Willey. 'We felt like there was some real benefit to be gained, and we could all be a part of it. As we discussed it, we thought: If we were going to have a partner, why not Ford?'
Eventually 12 dealers in the Salt Lake City area sold to Ford. All have retained stock; 10 have remained active in the business. Knowing no other trade, Willey was far from ready to leave the auto business. And, 'It was not my intent to sell and head out to the golf course,' he says. 'It was important for me to have some kind of role.'
That role, he says, is 'to succeed. Not only to sell and service, but to succeed.' In that way, it is 'no different than when I was at Willey Ford,' he says. That is: Succeed or lose your job, since Willey has no contract with Ford.
There have been changes, certainly, especially in Willey's relationships with his former rivals. 'To take a group of people who had been strong competitors, to get them together, to work together, it's amazing, just amazing,' he says. 'Though we are all in the same business, now the challenge is to create a culture that is common and very good.'
As for Willey's daily routine, 'clearly there is a difference,' he says. 'We had a very close group of people (about 110 employees), with day-to-day interaction. Now, there are about 1,000 employees. I miss that day-to-day contact.'
Willey was concerned about the transition's impact on this close-knit group.
'Dealerships ... for most of us, we've spent so many doggone hours there, it's like a family,' he says.
The challenge, Willey says, was 'trying to relate to them that what we're doing is best for them, that employees really understand what we're doing.'
Even though Willey now leaves home earlier and returns later than he used to, he is at peace with his choice. He enjoys the challenge of being a pioneer, he says.
Adds Willey: 'My wife has never seen me so happy.'


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Strict rules force marijuana shops to create alternative advertising buzz
More than 150 marijuana retailers have been approved to open in Massachusetts, and operators are walking a fine line as they try to make themselves appealing to potential customers in an increasingly competitive market without running afoul of the state's advertising regulations.
The industry-specific restrictions and the costs of advertising have led to a broad array of strategies for cannabis companies here, from the more traditional billboard and digital media advertising to approaches that look more like political campaigns.
"We understand the fear of big tobacco, right, we understand that. We don't want that either. But we don't want to be treated like we're them. We're not them, we're absolutely not," Sieh Samura, co-owner and CEO of Yamba Market in Central Square, said. "We're actually local businesses. We want to be able to promote and market our products and serve our communities and audiences like others."
The Cannabis Control Commission's regulations give marijuana establishments the right to "engage in reasonable advertising practices that are not otherwise prohibited ... that do not jeopardize the public health, welfare or safety of the general public or promote the diversion of marijuana or marijuana use in individuals younger than 21 years old or otherwise promote practices inconsistent with" the state's cannabis laws.
For nearly all forms of advertising – television, radio, podcast, internet, mobile app, social media, billboard and print ads – the commission requires that the company placing the ad can prove that adults 21 or older make up at least 85 percent of the audience, a standard that works to limit advertising opportunities and forces companies to reach customers in new ways.
'It really is about storytelling'
Ture Turnbull and Wes Ritchie, the co-founders and co-CEOs of Tree House Cannabis, are preparing to open marijuana retail shops in Dracut and later in Pepperell. They became friends years ago when they were working as aides in the State House, an experience that they are tapping into for Tree House.
"It seems like a lifetime ago, but a lot of the values and, honestly, the respectful relationships come from that space, and our ability to navigate what is a highly regulated industry," said Turnbull, who worked for the Joint Committee on Tourism and Cultural Development, Sen. Stephen Brewer and Rep. Denise Garlick.
Ritchie, who worked for Rep. Tom Sannicandro and Sens. Dianne Wilkerson and Barbara L'Italien, pointed out that "cannabis is creating a moment for billboards" in Massachusetts, with numerous highway signs pointing drivers to the nearest retailer. But that's not the approach Tree House Cannabis plans to take.
"We're looking at the blocking and tackling of going beyond billboards and what we really can do," Ritchie said. "What every cannabis company has to do – on top of opening your business and making it through the regulatory process – is engage in a really thoughtful way to find out what's OK, what's not, and put a lot of time and resources into ... making sure it's absolutely compliant with the really strict regulations. We are totally focused on going beyond billboards in a way that other folks are not."
That includes partnerships with local organizations and artists as well as a stage built into the retail floorplan, where local musicians can perform or producers can answer questions about their products. It also includes affinity marketing, like sponsoring local LGBT softball leagues this summer.
Expensive, one way or another
For Samura, who is preparing to open Yamba Market in Cambridge's Central Square, the storytelling begins with his company's name.
"The word 'yamba' comes from an African word 'mariamba,' and 'mariamba' actually became the root word for 'marijuana' in the Americas. So the word yamba is still used throughout the world and in West Africa," he said. "And that's how I see cannabis. It's one of these cultural things that people from all different cultures can relate to, and what we're trying to do at Yamba Market is say that cannabis is for everyone."
Before he began working to open a retail store, Samura was involved in the cannabis community as a medical marijuana caregiver and as an advocate for consumer rights and equity in the industry. His constant presence within the community earned him the nickname "Chief."
Samura said maintaining his ties to the community has helped him get word of his new store out without relying on more traditional advertising practices that are prohibited or impractical for businesses like his.
"It lends itself to some of what we call guerrilla marketing and less traditional ways," Samura said. "So that's what the smart cannabis companies are doing."
Advertising is also expensive, whether it is done well and within the state's regulations or if it is done poorly and violates the CCC's rules.
"As the environment is more restrictive for advertising, it makes it more expensive," Samura said.
Mentioning the possibility of a CCC fine for violating the regulations, he added, "I cannot afford a fine, I can't afford to get banned from Facebook. I need all the juice I can get ... for a company like mine, when we're looking at how to market ourselves, this just makes us more creative."
'A hyper growth path'
Marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, and the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates traditional television and standard radio, generally frowns upon broadcasters accepting marijuana ads regardless of the plant's legal status in the broadcaster's state.
So when the wildly popular Felger & Mazz show on 98.5 FM The Sports Hub goes to commercial break, listeners in their cars hear ads for weight loss programs and drain cleaners. But people who listen to the web-based podcast version of the show later on hear Sports Hub personality Jim Murray pitching a cannabis delivery service.
Getting cannabis in Boston has always been a hassle, but Lantern has changed the game. I can now get my cannabis discreetly delivered right to my door the same day I placed my order," Murray says in an ad for the cannabis delivery company that began as an independent subsidiary of alcohol delivery service Drizly.
The Interactive Advertising Bureau said last month that the cannabis sector, which includes CBD, "is on a hyper growth path" thanks to the spread of legalization efforts, an influx of investment money and mainstream products backed by icons like Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and Martha Stewart.
"The result? Pervasive availability, rapid de-stigmatization, mainstream consumption, and a new growth opportunity for advertisers," the firm said.
Seattle-based ad agency PrograMetrix said digital audio – things like streaming music or podcasts – is particularly popular with "high-value cannabis and CBD consumers between the ages of 21 and 34" and that "with the continued rise of podcasts and streaming music services in recent years, digital audio's market share is expected to continue increasing."
A 2017 survey of more than 150,000 podcast listeners conducted by Midroll Media found that 60 percent had purchased a product after hearing it advertised on a podcast.
Massachusetts cannabis companies can also get their names out there by selling branded goods such as hats, T-shirts, lighters, grinders and rolling trays. Branded goods do not include marijuana or marijuana accessories like pipes or bongs, and branded goods may promote only the licensee's brand name – not marijuana itself – under the commission's regulations.
Laws and regulations
Restrictions on advertising exist for other products, like alcohol and tobacco, and have been envisioned as part of the legal marijuana landscape for years.
The 2016 ballot law that legalized non-medical marijuana in Massachusetts and the Legislature's 2017 rewrite included language directing the Cannabis Control Commission to include "reasonable restrictions on signs, marketing, displays and advertising with respect to marijuana, marijuana products and marijuana accessories, including prohibiting marketing or advertising designed to appeal to children."
The commission restricts advertising for medical and adult-use cannabis licensees, prohibiting television, radio, podcast, internet, mobile app, social media, billboard and print ads "unless at least 85 percent of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older as determined by reliable and current audience composition data."
If regulators request it, licensees have to turn over the audience composition data that demonstrates the advertising is in compliance. but the commission does not pre-approve ads or advertising opportunities. A commission spokesperson said the agency responds to inquiries about advertising compliance and looks into alleged violations as needed.
Commission rules also require that any cannabis advertising includes the statement "Please Consume Responsibly" in a clearly visible spot and at least two of five cautionary statements provided by the commission, such as "There may be health risks associated with consumption of this product" and "This product may cause impairment and may be habit forming." A detailed safety warning is also required.


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To celebrate its calendric namesake, convenience store chain 7/11 gives out free Slurpees – its signature ice and syrup drinks – to all comers. This year, though, religious Jews lost out – because July 11, the day the chain celebrates, came out on Shabbat.
Not to worry. In order to accommodate its many Orthodox customers, the chain added an extra freebie day for those who patronize 7/11's under rabbinical supervision.
According to the YeahThatsKosher web site, which keeps track of such things, “7Elevens in West Hempstead, Hewlett, Great Neck in Long Island, NY as well as in Oakhurst, NJ (Deal), and College Park, MD will be offering free small Slurpees on Sunday 7/12 in recognition of the local Jews not being able to take advantage of the promotion on the day before.”
The site also lists the flavors of Slurpee that are rabbinically endorsed, at all 7/11s. Kosher certification at 7/11s relates mostly to the coffee and other beverages sold by the chain.


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Almost a decade and a half ago the Smart ForTwo ruled the microcompact segment when it was first introduced back in 1998.
Read This Article
There's an age-old argument among car enthusiasts that you have to sacrifice horsepower to get higher miles-per-gallon and vice versa.
Smart has never been the success story Daimler, Mercedes-Benz's parent company, hoped it would be.
You’d be mistaken in believing they don’t sell Smart cars here anymore.


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Frozen rivers slow salt deliveries
PEORIA, Ill -- The salt shortage in Michiana and across the country has worsened.
Most of the road salt is shipped on huge barges but frozen rivers are making it more difficult to ship the product from companies to city road crews.
"There's no ice cutters or anything by the Coast Guard or the Corps that breaks it up. It's just the tow boats and the traffic keeps the channel open, and when the ice gets too thick they just start pulling over and waiting until Mother Nature helps us out," said boater Mike Zerbonia.
Another big headache for budget managers around the country is as the demand for salt increases, so does the price.
Counties report paying three times the normal price for road salt.


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Beaver’s post service will bring festive cheer
MEMBERS of the Bradford on Avon Beavers are getting ready to launch their Christmas stamp and postal delivery service.
Around 90 boys and girls aged six to 14 years who belong to the Scout Group will use the stamp to deliver Christmas post within the BA15 postcode area.
Residents will be able to put the stamps on Christmas post to send to friends and relatives living in Bradford on Avon, Monkton Farleigh, Turleigh, Winsley and Westwood.
The stamps cost £2.50 for a book of ten and have been designed by six-year-old Jacob Mace, whose winning artwork was chosen from the entries submitted. Jacob said that he chose to draw a robin because it is his favourite bird.
They will be on sale from all of the Scout Group’s members and in shops throughout the town. Postboxes will be available at Sainsbury’s, the town centre Co-op, the Co-op store on Winsley Road, and village shops in Winsley and Westwood, as well as Bradford on Avon Town Council offices from Friday November 22. The post will be collected on Saturday, December 14 and the Scouts will start delivering the festive greetings on Sunday, December 15.
HUNDREDS of people have turned out to help plant 5,000 trees for the Woodland Trust at the Avoncliff Wood near Freshford. Around 260 were ex...
A Wiltshire adventurer and her fiance have recently returned to the UK having completed the entire 2,653-mile walk from Mexico to Canada. Re...


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NEW YORK, S.C. — Qonsent and Givsly Bring Performance Giving to Marketers
New partnership offers a seamless solution to engage consumers in cause-related marketing campaigns, provides critical measurement tools to marketers
NEW YORK — July 27, 2022
, the first consent enablement and consumer trust platform, today announced a partnership that will embed its technology into Givsly
’s Good Advertising platform, a purpose-based advertising and marketing platform for social impact. The partnership will provide a seamless way for brands to build programs and cause-based elements that increase business and ROI.
Brands can easily audit the true impact of customized campaigns, business performance, and consumer sentiment on these programs through the platform. This approach also creates a trusted exchange between consumers and brands that allows consumers to consent to have their data used for a greater good while proactively tracking their contributions to nonprofits and causes.
Joshua Lowcock, Global Chief Media Officer at UM
said, “It’s increasingly important to the public that brands respect a customer’s personal data and give back to the community. The partnership between Qonsent and Givsly gives marketers the ability to deliver transparency on an ongoing basis and make privacy compliance as well as social responsibility an easy part of everyday media activity.”
Givsly’s advertising and marketing solutions, which are already integrated with more than 335 nonprofits—such as the American Cancer Society
, Rise Against Hunger
, Feeding America
, Charity Water
, Best Buddies
, Girls Who Code, Inc.
, and others—allow advertisers to weave cause marketing, sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion into the way they do business. Advertisers can choose a charity from Givsly’s Good Advertising network and incorporate it directly into their creative campaigns.
“In April, we conducted a study that proved our thesis that ‘Good Advertising’ giving back can be leveraged at the top of the funnel to drive consumers towards purchase. Campaigns with purpose also deliver better performance. Campaigns leveraging Good Advertising are seeing an average 20-50% increase in click-through rate (CTR),” said Chad Hickey, CEO, Givsly. “By integrating first-person consent, we’re allowing companies to adhere to consumers’ data privacy concerns and laws while still celebrating the impact that every one of us can make in the world. Whether helping at your local soup kitchen, building a playground in your local park, or donating to a cause near and dear to you, we can make an impact for a cause we believe in. And now, just by engaging with content and advertising, we’re making it even easier.”
For every advertisement a consumer watches or engages with, the brand can donate through the Givsly network while tracking the overall impact of ongoing campaigns. Brands can also embed a donation or giving element to any business aspect—from webinars and employee engagement to advertising and business meetings.
“Technology has reshaped nonprofits and charitable giving by helping brands build corporate responsibility programs that can truly tie to the organization’s goals and bottom line,” said Jesse Redniss, CEO and Co-founder, Qonsent. “By partnering with Givsly, we’re enabling the first performance giving platform that allows a seamless way for nonprofits, brands, and consumers to engage in charitable causes. At the same time, it provides consumers with transparency into how, when, and where their data will be used in exchange for donations to causes they care about, which also solves the data compliance issue for brands.”
Qonsent’s technology enables secure and transparent sharing specifically for the intended causes and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. The dynamic Qonsent mechanism means users can track how their data is being used and turn data sharing on and off with a simple tap.
Givsly is a purpose-driven advertising and marketing solution that drives better business results through giving back to communities. By utilizing Givsly’s suite of solutions, users are able to drive business outcomes while achieving social and environmental expectations. Since its launch in April 2020, Givsly's platform has generated over a million dollars in impact to more than 335 nonprofits. The software was recognized in Fast Company's "World Changing Ideas Awards” 2021.
Qonsent was founded in 2021 by leading visionaries from the media, marketing, technology, legal, and security industries to help companies build ‘privacy by design’ and ‘privacy by default' into products and processes to create a better experience, relationship, and value exchange with consumers. The services offered by the company encompass both B2B services and consumer-facing solutions that integrate with company offerings to remain compliant with PII data laws, including real-time ID validation, SmartQontracts, and customized offers through a Qonsent wallet. Qonsent is setting a new industry standard around Performance Privacy and Performance Giving with its platform, which bridges the current market gaps for brands, advertisers, publishers, creators, enterprises, and consumers.


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Instagram and YouTube stars play a huge role in the Finnish developer’s marketing strategies.
On September the 26th, Finnish mobile developers Seriously launched a quite unique campaign for their game Best Fiends. The World’s Biggest Mobile Treasure Hunt, as the campaign was called, was a race to find the personal sticker of a number of YouTube personalities like Rosanna Pansino, CaptainSparkelz and CutiePieMarzia.
Each YouTuber posted a video with a clue for where to find their specific sticker, and the campaign had a huge impact on the game’s figures, Philip Hickey, VP, Marketing and Communications at Seriously, says:
“We saw our biggest ever download day (over 250,000 downloads in one day) and our biggest ever download week. Best Fiends trended on App Stores all over the world, and we grew our daily player base 40% in one weekend to over 1,600,000 daily active users and these numbers are holding steady. We also reached our biggest revenue day to date of over $100,000.00,” he says.
On the same day as Seriously launched their treasure hunt, they also partnered with Instagram on the social medium’s new product, Marquee. Marquee lets companies create ads on the popular photo and video service and partnering up with them made a lot of sense, Philip Hickey explains:
“We love to be the first to try new marketing channels out. Overall, Instagram is a great place to grow our community and an interesting place to keep an eye on from an advertising and user acquisition space,” he says.
At Seriously, they are trying to make the best of alternative marketing channels. Aside from Instagram, the Finns have put a real effort into using YouTube. And that idea came from talking to their competitors, Seriously’s CEO, Andrew Stalbow, recently wrote in a blogpost on medium.com:
“Before we launched our first game a year ago, we asked our competitors which marketing channels didn’t work for them. And YouTube came up a lot. Given that well over half of YouTube’s views are on mobile, we took that as a challenge, and decided to focus a significant amount of our marketing energies there,” he explains.
As far as working with the stars of YouTube goes, Philip Hickey’s main advice for other developers hoping to make use of them is quite simple:
“It’s important that the YouTube star is a natural fit for the game. Many of the stars we have worked with like PewDiePie, Rosanna Pansino and
DanTDM are big fans of Best Fiends and that resonates well with our audience. Rosanna Pansino has featured Best Fiends as one of her favorite iPhone apps and is currently on level 307!”
With 8,000,000 views in the first five days of The World’s Biggest Mobile Treasure Hunt and 125,000 subscribers to their Instagram-account, one thing is for sure: this is not the last time that Seriously experiments with alternative marketing.


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Most of London's pub landlords seem delighted to be able to reopen after the Government's lockdown-easing announcement today (June 23)
But they've also told us how it's not going to be an easy task trying to serve customers with the one-metre social distancing rule in place while keeping staff and customers safe at the same time.
“We are so excited to get open,” said pub landlord James Fitzgerald.
He runs the Thatched House pub in Hammersmith and its sister pub the Duchess.
He said: “I am just so happy we have a date. I can’t see anything negative.”
The Prime Minister’s announcement that pubs, along with hairdressers and restaurants can reopen on July 4 with social distancing reduced from two metres to one metre means businesses are gearing up to welcome customers back.
And Mr Fitzgerald hopes things will “get back to normal fairly quickly”.
But it will mean there will be a one-in and one-out rule at the toilets to ensure social distancing and the Thatched House will only have space for 100 customers - instead of the usual 280.
Mr Fitzgerald said there will be more seats in the garden at the pub in Dalling Road to help cope too.
But one thing will remain after lockdown. The pub has been selling food and plants to the community.
“We absolutely love selling plants. It’s brought in people who would not normally come in. It’s really helped put us on the map, said Mr Fitzgerald.”
Meanwhile in Soho pub manager Ellie Grainger said she thought capacity at the Lyric pub will be down from between 50 to 80 to about 30 customers.
The Victorian pub in Great Windmill Street has been repainted during lockdown.
Ms Grainger said June is normally the pub’s busiest time as it coincides with Pride month.
Normally the pub takes £30,000 to £40,000 a week. Now takeaways are helping it tick over with takings of £14,000 a week,
“The biggest thing is social distancing and everybody is very wary of the details. We are getting a bit of freedom back," she said.
At Covent Garden’s Porterhouse, pub manager Fiona Hughes is waiting for more details to help plan.
She said Covent Garden - which is normally a tourist hot spot - is very quiet but the pub in Maiden Lane has been doing some takeaways.
And Fulham restaurant boss Gianluca D’Aversa said he thought the relaxed distancing rules meant there could be 70 per cent capacity.
He said he will be changing the menu at La Pizzica in Fulham Road.
“We are missing our customers and can’t wait to welcome them back,” he said.
There will be fewer tables and hand sanitiser as customers come in. And would-be diners who refuse to give their details for track and trace won’t be able to eat there.
He added: “We are positive about it. We were positive when it started and we have kept the same attitude.”
If you have a story for us, please email our reporter firstname.lastname@example.org


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Vitamin C Could Be A Cancer Treatment
New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows the potential of vitamin C as a treatment for cancer. This initial research, done on mice, shows that the size of cancerous tumors can be reduced with intravenous injections of vitamin C. While this same effect in humans has yet to be proven, the preliminary results of this study offer the interesting possibility of using vitamin C as a drug.
The body regulates vitamin C and how much of it is absorbed, making it virtually impossible to overdose. Researchers have found a way to get around the body’s control system by delivering the vitamin C intravenously, which bypasses the digestive system.
The tests have shown that certain types of tumors are immune to vitamin C, but discovering why that is, and which types of tumors are immune will require additional research.


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Rumours are rife on the XDA developers Forum that Windows 10 Mobile could finally be dropping at some point today.
Evan Blass started it with a post over at @evleaks, saying that Microsoft will announce and start rolling out Windows 10 Mobile from today. While there’s not much else to go on at the moment, he did also say that legacy devices will be included in the update, though they will need to be manually updated instead of it being automatic.
‘ Evan Blass (@evleaks) March 16, 2016
We’ll keep you posted if any big news drops later today.
For more on Microsoft, visit What Mobile’s dedicated Microsoft page.


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The cost of living has risen exponentially over the last couple of decades, which has seen many households fork out even more cash for some of the basic items like bread, butter and milk. Motorists are now also paying record prices for diesel and petrol, forcing belts to be tightened to keep head above water.
Many older folk will often speak about times when they could buy a bread and bottle of cooldrink for less than R1, and still have change left over. That is almost unthinkable in this day and age, where the price of everything has increased due to excessive inflation the country has experienced over the years. The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine also plays a significant part in the rise of products across the world.
Statistics South Africa said: “With much focus on the war in Ukraine and the impact that this might have on grain supply, price movements in the bread and cereals category will be closely watched in the near future.”
The lower income earners and unemployed are the worst affected by these increases. Households now prioritise value for money over quality to make everything last longer, all while also keeping the shopping bill within the confides of the monthly budget. Imagine if the clock could be turned back to when having a R100 in your pocket then, could be compared to being a millionaire.
These are some of the common household items you can buy today for R50 or less:
- 750g Mayonnaise
- 2kg Brown sugar
- 400g tin of Pilchards or Vegetable curry
- 2kg Parboiled rice
- 3kg Potato bag
- 2-litre Low fat milk bottle
- 500g tub of butter
To earn that extra bit of cash every month, some people either start their own small business from home/after hours or do freelance activities on the side.
Gumtree, with the use of SA Inflation‘s web calculator, lists the price of common items back in the 90s compared to now:
Now that you’ve got the knowledge, it’s time to shop! Head to gumtree.co.za or your Gumtree app (click for Apple & Android) and don’t forget to use your location settings to find local automotive vehicle information close to home.


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By the way, Eventex Awards is organizing its 13th annual awards this year, and the winner will be announced on May 16, 2023.
M2Communications in the finals of the Eventex Awards
In extremely strong competition from one of the most globally recognized competitions in the field of Event & Experience marketing – in which 761 registered projects from 49 countries competed – the M2Communications agency was nominated with the projects Wine Vision by Open Balkan and Cupra Hero – interactive video.
The first international wine fair Wine Vision by Open Balkan was held in September 2022 under the auspices of the governments of Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania and gathered over 350 exhibitors from 20 countries. This complex event, which offered visitors a completely new wine experience, managed to make it to the finals of the Eventex Awards in the Fair category.
The Cupra Hero project – an interactive video, which the agency M2Communications realized for the client Porsche SCG, was included in the finals of the Interactive Storytelling category. This was also the first interactive video digital campaign in the region based on the convergence of the gaming industry and video technology, which creatively presented the Cupra car brand on our market.
The beginning of the “Aorta is not only in the heart” campaign
In cooperation with the Association of Cardiovascular Surgeons of Serbia, we launched a campaign called “The aorta is not only in the heart” with the aim of preventing abdominal aneurysms.
The “It’s a thin line” campaign has officially started in six markets of the Western Balkans
The campaign was designed and implemented by the M2C creative team, with the basic idea of pointing out the dangers of crossing the tracks through a strong and impressive approach.
“Year of progress and business improvement”
Miro Antić, CXO M2Communications, for Advertiser Serbia:
“Despite the challenges, we have achieved: multiple growth in all fields, and we have also strengthened the agency’s capacities through professional training and work on raising the company culture to a higher level.”


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The property advisor said it has seen a 133% increase in hospitality businesses on the market in the first half of 2016 when compared with the whole of 2015.
It cited areas such as Bridlington for its £25m leisure centre and plans for a £8m Premier Inn, and Scarborough, which is due to receive a £1.7bn potash mine creating 1000 jobs, a £14m water park, a multiplex cinema and a £45m sports village and football stadium complex.
Christie & Co said this level of investment will continue to fuel the tourist economy, and pointed to figures from VisitEngland which revealed Scarborough is now the second most visited destination for holiday trips in the UK outside of London.
The commercial property market has mirrored this increase in activity following double-digit growth in the average sale price of pubs, restaurants and hotels in Yorkshire and across the rest of the UK last year.
Oliver Brown, business agent at Christie & Co’s Leeds office, said: “The continued investment in Yorkshire’s coastal towns, and increasing strength of the region’s tourist industry, makes the region a highly desirable place to own a business.
“Industrial, leisure and infrastructure development is experiencing a flurry of activity, suggesting many long term benefits of a commercial presence in this area.”


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Adults in Estonia have never smoked as little as now. A survey of the Estonian Institute of Economic Research also reveals that people support tougher restrictions on smoking.
Estonia’s people smoke less than ever before
While Marje Josing, the director of the institute, released a scathing assessment of the government’s alcohol and excise tax policy, there are mainly good news regarding the tobacco policy, she opened the press conference on the tobacco consumption survey. By the way, while the previous survey on alcohol and cross-border trade had been commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the present one was commissioned by the Ministry of Social Affairs - writes postimees.ee.
Josing began with a personal recollection from the early 1990s when she joined the Institute of Economic Research. “It was impossible to see anything during the meetings in the office of the then director of the institute. There were so many smokers,” she recalled.
Many situations considered quite normal 20 years ago – smoking in the office, aboard aircraft, in restaurants – are no longer thinkable today. This shows the improvement of the people’s attitudes and awareness, Josing said. It also shows that the state’s quite straightforward policy of restricting the sale of tobacco and access to it has been efficient, she added.
Twenty-two percent of Estonia’s adult residents or slightly more than one fifth were smokers in 2016. To compare, the share of smokers was 26 percent in 2014, but as high as 34 percent back in 1979.
It is interesting that while smoking has significantly declined among men within the past 20 years, it has remained at roughly the same level among women.
Estonia’s residents smoke generally less that the EU average. Those who do are not as intensive smokers as in Europe. While we consume fewer regular cigarettes than the rest of Europe, experimenting with alternative tobacco products, especially with e-cigarettes is more active as could be expected from an e-country. For example, 11.2 percent of the population tried e-cigarettes. Altogether more than one fifth of the population has used e-cigarettes, which ranks Estonia fourth among the EU countries.
Considering that a pack of average-price cigarettes cost 3.23 euros in 2016, a smoker consuming one pack per day spent 1,175 euros on cigarettes annually. This sum is comparable to a comfortable trip abroad or more or less average net salary. But when comparing the price of an average pack of cigarettes with a pack of smuggled cigarettes, the latter are much cheaper – approximately 1.92 euros.
As the price gap is noticeable, the share of smuggled cigarettes in the market is still very high at roughly 20 percent. Compared with 2015 when the subject was studied last the market of illegal cigarettes has actually increased by one percentage point.
Purchasing cigarettes abroad has also increased: while 13 percent of smokers brought cigarettes from abroad in 2015, the share was 27 percent in 2016. Active cross-border trade with Latvia has clearly increased the percentage.
Josing said that people mainly visit Latvia because of cheaper alcohol, but cigarettes are also bought there more frequently. “As a trend it is of course disturbing. It should be monitored,” she said, adding that Estonia could raise its tobacco excise if there were no cross-border grade.
“Since the smuggled cigarette market has increased and cross-border trade as well, we should be careful and not rush with raising the excises,” she explained.
One of the conclusions of the survey was that tobacco products are easily accessible in Estonia.
According to the register of business activities, there were 2,555 retail sellers of tobacco products in Estonia in July 2017. The number of tobacconists increased by 48 within a year.
Read more news of Tallinn on our site.


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PARIS – French grain group Soufflet, which is building a malting factory in Ethiopia, reveals its plan to satisfy malt demands created in the growing brewery industry.
Beer consumption in Ethiopia has tripled over the past six years – forcing the country to import 100 million euros worth malt annually.
The trend is expected to increase even more while malt production in the country remains constant – 50, 000 tones per year.
Christophe Passelande, director general at Malteriest Soufflet, said the country has to import the product to satisfy 70 percent the malt demand created by the growing brewery industry.
The country invested 50 million Euro to import malt in 2018 alone. Soufflet’s estimates show that the bill may increase as high as 90 million euro in 2020.
He said with the demand can not be satisfied with the current malt factories operating in the country alone. Assela Malt Factory and Gondar Malt Factory are only supplying 30 percent of the total malt demand of breweries.
“But together with them, the demand can be satisfied once our factory starts production,” Passelande said while speaking The Daily Monitor at the company’s major malt factory in France.
Soufflet plans to complete the construction of its malting factory in Bole Lemi Industrial Park in the final quarter of 2020 and will have an initial production of 60,000 tons, the company said.
Ethiopia is the largest barley producer in Africa. Soufflet’s plant, company’s overseas countries manager Jean-Francois Fevre said, is located close to many of the barley fields in the country.
“We started to deal directly with barley growers ahead of time – two years ago,” said Fevre who revealed the factory’s plan to use all its raw material locally.
The company says, together with agricultural transformation agency, it is reinforcing the agricultural, technical and commercial development of various barley growing areas including south, west, south-west and north of Addis Ababa.
The plan is to enable 40,000 farmers produce 80,000 tons of barley by 2020, when the factory, which is being constructed at cost of 70 million euro in two phases, will not face input for production.


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In the April 2021 issue of the esteemed international lifestyle magazine Monocle (No.42), influential Filipino fashion retailer Mark Gonzalez talks about the state of fashion retail in the Philippines with a happily positive outlook.
“The market is healthy,” he tells the publication. “People are ready to accept certain ideas and concepts.” And here’s more good news. “In terms of retail development, we’re looking at flagship shops opening at the end of the year. Louis Vuitton is expanding, Celine is coming, Fendi has just opened a flagship and so has Dior,” Gonzalez says. “These are huge investments. So the money is here. It’s all happening.”
It’s a statement that’s not exactly attuned to what one might imagine happens during a crisis brought about by a pandemic but Gonzalez’s observation is shared even by Anton Huang, the man behind the presence of Gucci, Ferragamo and Prada in the country. Huang is the president of Stores Specialists Inc., considered to be the biggest retailer of luxury brands in the Philippines. “Our core customer base has proven to be resilient,” he told Business Mirror in October last year, “as seen in the performance of key categories in our portfolio during this pandemic.” (Gonzalez tells ANCX his Monocle interview took place just a month or two ago.)
Gonzalez and Huang essentially share the same core patron—albeit one group’s sense of style isn’t exactly shared by the other— which explains the former’s confident statement. The affluent are still not averse to spending when it comes to high-value items. Which is good for the brands in Gonzalez’s portfolio, littered as it is with names such as Comme des Garçons and Balenciaga, Y-3 and Off-White. In his multi-label Univers d’homme et femme store in Rockwell, he continues to carry Thom Browne and Junya Watanabe, the always coveted Jil Sander and fashion cognoscenti favorite, British designer Craig Green.
In the Monocle story, his second feature for the magazine in 10 years, Gonzalez also spoke about the Filipino dresser, and that while many of them still do tend to wear the same things, a younger generation is now more open to new ways of dressing. He adds that “the market is more open and has changed so much because of the internet and because travel became accessible.” For his business, he says “the validation came when our customers started seeing our products abroad and began to recognize their value.”
Twenty five years after opening his maiden shop, Gonzalez remembers the early years of being an operation that represented non-mainstream brands. “We were in debt for the first five years but we stayed true to ourselves,” he told Monocle. And the fashion retailer continues to reap the benefits of keeping to his vision. In 2017, he was chosen to be among Business of Fashion’s 500, a definitive list of people shaping the international fashion industry. Meanwhile, he himself has a few things to look forward to this year: five more shops to add to his 21 retail businesses. Clearly for Gonzalez, the future is not bleak and grey—it’s bright and Off-White.


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What can save the music industry? We've asked the question on this website a dozen times in several different ways and your responses are pretty much always the same: lower CD prices—closely followed by better music.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may issue a general amnesty to the music fans who have amassed libraries of favorite tunes by downloading them over the Internet, according to information leaked to Billboard, the Hollywood Reporter, and other publications the first week of September.
If the new satellite radio products are any indication, the format has a bright future. During the first week of September, Kenwood and Antex Electronics announced new Sirius satellite receivers, and XM Radio has already dropped the price on its recently introduced "XM PCR," a controller that lets you listen to XM via your computer.
"At a mere $65,000," Martin Colloms states, the Wilson Audio Specialties X-1/Grand SLAMM loudspeaker system "could be regarded as something of a bargain." MC then goes on to explain himself in great detail. The "longest, most thorough speaker review we have ever published!" notes John Atkinson, wiping the sweat from his brow.
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may spend the rest of its associated life in litigation—as either as the initiator or the recipient of actions intended to determine who can use its products, under which circumstances they can do so, and how much they should pay, assuming they are allowed to use them.
Although the CD was successfully released into the music industry gene pool 20 years ago, several companies are still tinkering with its DNA in order to assist record labels in restricting how consumers use their discs.
It's been a rough year for the music industry—and possibly an even rougher one for audiophile labels. The Dorian Group, however, seems to be thriving. Parent company to Dorian Recordings, the Dorian Group announced last week its acquisition of Reference Recordings. During its 25 years in business, RR has consistently garnered praise from audiophiles for the sound quality of its recordings, and has scored eight Grammy nominations and two Grammy awards.
To combat lackluster CD sales and online file trading, some record labels have been adding bonus DVDs to new releases to get consumers to buy them instead of downloading the data. DVD-Audio proponents, in an attempt to counter Super Audio Compact Disc's single-disc hybrid SACD/CD strategy, have been trying to figure out how to combine CD functionality and DVD-A onto one disc.


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Even though I admit that I have a perhaps questionable soft spot for Mitsubishis, according to research conducted by Mitsubishi, I’m not necessarily the target of their latest effort. The new Eclipse Cross has been on sale for a year now, but already Mitsubishi is noticing that it’s...
Tag Archives: Mitsubishi
You may have heard the commercials before. Mitsubishi is claiming to be the creator of the best selling plug-in SUV in the whole world with the Outlander plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). It's a bold claim. Though, in a sense, it really isn't. The fact of the matter is, Mitsubishi can likely...Read more
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Mitsubishis, but explaining why has always been a bit difficult. It's not as if their styling is particularly enticing or that the way they drive is at all thrilling (Lancer EVO excluded, of course). Perhaps it's the 'rooting for the underdog'...Read more
By Kevin Harrison I first drove the Mitsubishi RVR about two years ago and and I started the review essentially suggesting that the RVR was both good and bad. Among the bad, a non-user friendly and uninspiring interior layout, as well as a noticeable and frustrating lack in power. It seems,...Read more
By Kevin Harrison Mitsubishi is either really smart or they are desperately lagging behind the times and to be honest, I still can't figure out which is closer to the truth. You see, the small Japanese automaker is still kicking in our market, despite the fact that it makes some questionable decisions. Take...Read more
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has just released its results of a new crash test on compact SUV's, and the result for some popular compact SUV's isn't good. The Ford Escape, Hyundai Tuscon, Kia Sportage, Jeep Patriot and Buick Encore all received a rating of 'poor' in the new...Read more
It is my sad duty to report that Mitsibishi has decided to stop producing the best car it makes: the EVO. Autocar's Matt Prior recently had a sit down chat with Mitsubishi's global product director, Gayu Eusegi, where...Read more


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Europe has been somewhat slow to jump on the EV bandwagon, but that appears to be somewhat changing as Bloomberg reports sales of electric vehicles rose nearly 38 percent in the first quarter of the year. That’s versus 2.9 percent for all last year.
We need to note though that, in total numbers, sales of battery-powered cars at 32,627 units in the first quarter of the year (2016 Q1 23,703 units) represent only a tiny fraction of total deliveries in the EU that reached 1.89 million vehicles in the same time.
The European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (EAMA) says all major EU markets saw increases in sales of alternative fuel vehicles with the largest gains coming from Spain (87.4%), Germany (67.5%), and the United Kingdom (29.9%). Electric vehicles in particular saw large increases in the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.
Bloomberg credits the Renault Zoe as one of the models that is winning over converts as it proved popular in Germany and Spain. However, BMW recently pointed out the i3 has a 22% percent share of the electric vehicle market in Germany and a 17% share across Europe.
The increase in electric vehicle sales in being credited on several different factors including government incentives, the expansion of a fast-charging network, and the fallout of Volkswagen’s dieselgate scandal. Furthermore, consumers are finding new and updated electric vehicles with longer ranges which are helping to alleviate concerns about range anxiety.
Speaking of the latter, the new Zoe is priced at €23,600 ($25,950) and can travel up to 400 km (248 miles) on a single charge.


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Do mobile devices really need multi-core chips?
Today's mobile apps don't benefit from dual-core or quad-core processing power
Some of the latest mobile operating systems, such as Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango), aren't designed to support dual-core processors, analysts noted. At the same time, they said, most smartphone and tablet applications don't need and can't benefit from dual-core or quad-core processing power, except for some video and games.
Given that fact, Microsoft and its partner Nokia practically dismissed dual-core smartphones that are running Android and are built by various makers, including Samsung and HTC.
To emphasize the point, Microsoft set up a challenge at CES where Windows Phone Evangelist Ben Randolph bet $100 that his Windows Phone, an HTC Titan, would operate faster than any other smartphone in running apps, searching the Web and other functions.
From about 20 challengers, Randolph said he lost just once, against an iPhone 4S, in the time it took both phones to send a tweet. He paid the winner in cash.
Randolph and Greg Sullivan, a Windows Phone senior product manager, said the focus of Windows Phone is on how it works best with users, not on the phone's processing speed. Windows Phone 7.5's marketing slogan, in fact, is "Put People First."
"Dual-core is much less critical to a phone, and most new smartphone users can't tell what it does," Sullivan said in an interview. "Is there software to take advantage of it? That's the question."
Sullivan said it's inevitable that Windows Phone and other mobile operating systems will advance to dual-core processors in coming years, just as many more tablets will advance to quad-core processors. Bloggers and reviewers, including JR Raphael at Computerworld, said quad core did matter in the Asus Transformer Prime tablet, announced in November, because it provided better performance for simultaneously running multiple apps.
Still, Sullivan said dual-core and quad-core processors, so far, will primarily appeal to tech industry insiders and mobile device enthusiasts. "It's like the car hobby mentality of the guy who wants a dual overhead cam engine. But I'll argue that with a smartphone, users can't define what dual-core is."
On the other hand, some tablets that were introduced on the value of dual-core, like the BlackBerry PlayBook, do zip through applications and downloads, said ABI analyst Kevin Burden.
"Quad-core on a tablet is not important now, but the question is where the technology is going," Burden said. For all its other problems, the PlayBook is "snappy" in performance, he added.
The biggest drawback with faster processors on smartphones and tablets is going to be how quickly they drain battery power, something that's not entirely known on tablets such as a just-announced $249 7-in. tablet from Asustek, the Asus ME370T, that runs Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) using a quad-core Tegra 3 processor from Nvidia.
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Nike has been extremely innovative with the Nike Air Force 1 lately, announcing a Flyknit version, adding Irisdescent options on NikeID, and swapping materials to give a modern look and feel. However, Nike has decided to bring back that 90s feel with the NikeLab "Varsity Purple" colorway that was originally released in 1993.
The sneaker truley sticks to its original shape, from the "Nike Air" branding all the way down to the stitching. This colorway is part of the upcoming "Color of the Month" Pack Nike has set in place for the Air Force 1.
No specific release date has yet been announced; but retail will be $140. Stay tuned with SneakerShours for an update once the release date is revealed.


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Users and analysts have predicted that prices for voice and data networking services will fall as MCI prepares to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early next year.
MCI officials have sought to dispel such talk since US Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur Gonzalez approved the company's financial reorganisation plan last month. Chief executive officer Michael Capellas said after the ruling that MCI already faces "a brutal pricing environment".
Capellas vowed not to start a price war with rivals such as AT&T and Verizon Communications, although he added that MCI "will protect our territory, and we will be competitive".
Vinton Cerf, senior vice president of technology strategy at MCI, said that it would be "silly to initiate a price war and make up revenues in volume", adding that as voice revenues fall for all telecoms suppliers, MCI will put even more emphasis on IP network services and "increase the range and function of products and services we offer".
But several analysts said there is room for MCI, which is still legally known as WorldCom, to drop prices, and some users also see cost reductions ahead.
Jack Pavelko, lead telecommunications analyst at chemicals maker BASF, said MCI's emergence from bankruptcy would put pressure on competitors to drop their prices as well, but he lamented such a possibility.
"Already, we get no customer service from carriers, and now they'll be fighting over fractions of pennies," he said, referring to the per-minute cost of long-distance voice services.
"Not in my lifetime will I ever work with MCI. They deflated prices for three years, and their emergence from bankruptcy will push the market into further chaos."
BASF spends about $28m a year with Sprint and AT&T for voice and data services. MCI made a short presentation at BASF last month, but Pavelko said he was unimpressed by the sales pitch.
Howard Anderson, senior managing director of YankeeTek Ventures, and founder of The Yankee Group market research firm, said that demand for long-distance voice services is diminishing and that some users can already get prices of one cent per minute.
"You can't get much cheaper than that," Anderson said. "There might not be an actual price war, but as MCI emerges, it will start more competition on pricing. MCI is still respected."
AT&T spokesman John Heath said that whatever MCI does on pricing for a wide range of voice and data services, AT&T will keep pace.
"We've been able to compete with MCI very effectively when they were cheating in the past, and we'll continue to do so," Heath said.
Matt Hamblen writes for Computerworld


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By Salvador Rodriguez
Among the important cargo on-board the SpaceX Dragon capsule is material to create Silly Putty as well as ice cream. And it's not that freeze-dried "astronaut" kind.
The ice cream is tagging along on the space flight that launched on Sunday night from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The capsule is expected to reach the International Space Station on Wednesday.
The ice cream is encased in a GLACIER refrigerator — an ultra-cold freezer that stores samples at temperatures as low as minus 185 degrees Celsius.
According to CollectSpace.com, the Dragon is carrying vanilla with swirled chocolate sauce ice cream from Blue Bell Creameries, which is based in Texas and popular in Houston where NASA's Lyndon B. Johnson Space Centre resides.
This isn't the first time that Blue Bell ice cream has gone into space. It previously went up in 2006 when it flew inside the Atlantis space shuttle.
Also onboard the capsule is material to make Silly Putty, the malleable substance used as a toy.
Students from Lincoln Middle School and Santa Monica High School designed an experiment that will look at whether Silly Putty can be made in space, and if so, how it differs from the regular, Earth-made version of the toy.
The experiment is among 11 chosen from a pool of 1125 experiments proposed from around the country, according to Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.
What will happen? Well, according to SSEP Community Network, the students hypothesise that it will be possible to make Silly Putty in space but they expect its viscosity and bounce to be different from the Silly Putty we know.
Los Angeles Times


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UAE telecom companies have announced special packages including mobile data, TV, telephone, internet and even video calls.
In order for customer to receive the above, Etisalat’s eLife Family value TV pack, Internet and telephone, they will have to visit nearby business center. The same applies to home telephone and internet packages.
Etisalat offers free subscription to internet (video) calling plans for people of determination on two apps, BOTIM and C’ME. The Telecommunications Regulatory, has recently tweeted special privileges by Etisalat and du for people of determination.


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Gold rush hikes price to two-year peak
FEARS of more Enronstyle disasters lurking in US markets have prompted investors to scramble for the relative safety of gold, sending the price of the precious metal to a two-year high overnight. Bullion hit a peak of $299 an ounce in late US trading, up from $292 in London on Tuesday, helped by further strong buying from Japanese retail investors. It was trading at about $297 today.
Dealers said the market was also encouraged by evidence that leading producers were unwinding forward sales programmes, a move that will help to alleviate the oversupply problem.
Gold has lost its lustre as a store of value in recent years as institutions have viewed the US dollar as a better hedge against financial uncertainty. Low inflation and heavy selling by central banks, including the Bank of England, has also contributed to the erosion of its traditional role in markets.
'If the price can get above $300 it could get pretty interesting,' one dealer said. Others pointed to the need of many traders to cover short positions once the price topped that level.
The surge underpinned some of the biggest rises on the stock market today - Anglo American, which owns half of Anglo Gold, gained 30p to 1221p and BHP Billiton added 9p to 399p.
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Redemtech sale to Arrow Electronics finalized
The Hilliard-based company in August announced plans to sell Redemtech Inc., also of Columbus, as it looks to expand its Micro Center electronics retail operation.
Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Redemtech will retain its 400 employees and operate under its current name.
The segment is expected to generate $60 million in sales this year, a fraction of Micro Electronics’ $1.84 billion in 2011 revenue. Micro Electronics is one of Central Ohio’s largest private companies.
Englewood, Colo.-based Arrow Electronics (NYSE:ARW) serves industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing through a global network of more than 390 locations in 53 countries. The company reported revenue of $21.4 billion in 2011.
Evan Weese covers funding and capital for Columbus Business First.
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Now open: 2021 National University Wood Challenge
The Australian Government, through the National Forest Industries Plan, Growing a Better Australia – A Billion Trees for Jobs and Growth and in conjunction with Forest & Wood Products Australia, has launched the 2021 National University Wood Challenge. The challenge will award grants, of up to $20,000, to each finalist team. The grants will be used to fund the building, testing and prototyping of valuable and innovative products created from wood and wood fibre residue.
The challenge is aimed to identify pathways toward smarter use and value adding of our forest resources and to enhance community understanding of forestry. Within the Australian forest industry, there is a high volume of ‘lower value’ fibre that has great potential to be converted into high value products once market demand can be generated.
The challenge hopes to identify and support teams of university students and academics across a range of disciplines, in order to increase the diversity of ideas and products proposed. Each team must have at least one member of the university’s academic staff and at least one student with a maximum of five team members, from the same university.
The grant funding will support the finalist team’s initiative to create a novel and innovative product that will provide value, in the global setting. The entries will be judged by a panel comprising the Chairs from each of the current National Institute for Forest Product Innovation centres. The winning team will be announced in November with an additional $10,000 in prize money to further develop their proposed prototype or project.
Entries Close: July 25, 2021
Finalists announced: August 10, 2021
Prototypes to be submitted: October 31, 2021
Learn more here


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AMD recently unveiled its Redwood graphics processor as part of the new Mobility Radeon HD 5000 lineup for notebooks. Soon, according to Fudzilla, Redwood will make an appearance on the desktop, too. The site has word that AMD will introduce a Redwood-based Radeon HD 5670 graphics card on Thursday, January 14.
The 5670, Fudzilla says, will have 400 stream processors, a 128-bit memory interface, either 512MB or 1GB of GDDR5 memory, and DirectX 11 compatibility. While the site also talks of 20 texture units, that figure seems unlikely—the Juniper chip that powers Radeon HD 5700-series graphics cards only has 10 texture units for its 800 stream processors.
In any case, some European e-tailers have already jumped the gun on Radeon HD 5670 listings. Price search engine Geizhals.eu lists cards starting at around €80, which strongly hints to sub-$100 pricing in the United States. (€80 technically works out to $116, but European prices tend to be higher than across the pond.) Geizhals also quotes some specs of its own: a 775MHz core clock speed, a 1,000MHz memory speed, and a dual-slot cooler. We'd advise taking that information with a grain of salt, naturally.
AMD told us about Redwood last year when it unleashed the Radeon HD 5870. At the time, the plan was to introduce two GPUs in the first quarter of this year: Redwood for the mainstream market and Cedar to serve the value market.


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SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore analysts slashed forecasts for 2009 economic growth -- and now expect a severe recession -- as the global slowdown hurts demand for the city-state's exports.
The country's gross domestic product will likely shrink 4.9 percent this year, according to the median forecast of 20 economists in a quarterly survey released by the central bank Monday.
But they expect a recovery by 2010, when the economy is seen expanding 3.3 percent.
In the previous survey in December, analysts had expected the economy to contract 1 percent this year.
Analyst expectations for this year have worsened in almost every GDP category. They foresee manufacturing falling 10.3 percent in 2009, financial services dropping 7.7 percent and wholesale and retail trade down 5.6 percent.
Construction, buoyed by a $13 billion government stimulus package announced in January, is the only sector analysts expect to grow this year, up 8.2 percent.
Analysts said the economy will likely shrink 8.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, down from their 3.4 percent forecast in December, said the central bank, known as the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Non-oil exports, which account for about two-thirds of GDP, plummeted 35 percent in January as demand from the U.S, Europe and Japan dried up. Analysts expect non-oil exports to fall 17.5 percent this year, down from a forecast of a 9.0 percent drop in the previous survey.
The economy fell a seasonally adjusted, annualized 16.4 percent in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter. The government expects the economy to contract between 2 percent and 5 percent this year.
The inflation rate will likely decrease to 0.2 percent this year from 6.5 percent last year while the unemployment rate jumps to 4.4 percent from 2.6 percent, according to the analyst survey.


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The economic recession doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. With consumer spending down, many retailers are offering great deals to entice customers back into their stores. Here are some deals to look for to make the most of the recession.
The Cruise Lines International Association docked 14 new ships with various carriers this year, and it hopes to increase ridership 5 percent from last year.
With the struggling stock market and people pinching pennies, cruise lines are reducing rates to meet those goals.
Several cruise lines are offering 25 percent to 50 percent off on selected voyages, selling two-for-one deals and letting kids sail for free.
Although most cruise lines have Web sites, usually the best deals can be found through local travel agents.
One great way to stimulate the local economy and save some money on produce is to buy local and in season from the Farmers’ Market.
The Lawrence Farmers’ Market offers more variety and quality than produce a grocery store, said Tom Buller, market coordinator. He said certain foods also can cost less when purchased locally and in season than at the grocery store.
“Plus,” he said. “You’re supporting people in your area, so those dollars cycle in community to other local businesses.”
Last year, 80 local farmers sold their produce at the Farmers’ Market, Buller said.
The Downtown Lawrence Farmers’ Market opened April 11.
Clothing retailers are having a hard time getting items off the shelves before clothes have to be moved to the sales rack. This has made shopping the sales rack a more lucrative treasure hunt than ever.
After you’ve searched through the sales rack, you could try going to thrift stores such Plato’s Closet, 3514 Clinton Parkway, which purchases name-brand clothing from people and sells the clothes at the store.
“We have a lot of really great product in the store right now because people need money and sell whatever they can to get it,” said Anjelica Burris, the store’s Lawrence manager.
Online buying is potentially the easiest way to save money when looking for specific items.
Prices on Web sites like eBay, Craigslist and Freecycle are frequently less than those in a retail store.
Another site to try is Overstock.com, which is like a giant sales rack online. It catalogs overstocked items from various retailers and offers them at low prices.
Patrick Byrne, Overstock chairman and CEO, said the best sales right now are on home furnishings and home improvement equipment, which he attributed to people spending their vacations at home this year, also known as staycation.
“The more cost-conscious the consumer is, the better it is for us,” Byrne said. “We’ve done the hard shopping for the consumers.”
Sets and coupons
Retailers want to sell you as much as possible, which means they’ll be arranging more gift sets at lower prices and offering more coupons.
Look for gift baskets at your favorite retailers, and watch for new and better coupons in the paper and online.
Remodeling can be a great, cost-effective way to spice up your staycation.
Construction and manufacturing have lost 222,000 and 425,000 jobs, respectively, since last December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In order to pick up some of the slack, most construction companies will offer lower prices and better deals on some remodeling projects.
Shop around various construction companies in town to find your best deal. The other plus to this is investing in the Lawrence economy.
It’s no secret that Big Automotive isn’t doing so hot. So one way to take advantage of the recession, should you have the funds, is to buy a new car.
“The incentives on new cars are better than they’ve ever been,” said Jeff Hornback, general sales manager of Dale Willey Automotive, 2840 Iowa. “Dealers are also willing to take slimmer margin on cars just to sell them.”
Again, shop around. Now is the perfect time to buy that fantasy car you’ve been dreaming about for a fraction of the cost.