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Jeff Weinstein, Editor in Chief of HOTELS magazine, talks to David about the paradigm shift that will have to take place within hotels when they start to resume normal business. He believes the need for some kind of distancing will remain until such time as a vaccine is widely available. This will require a significant re-think of operations, resulting in technology playing an even greater role than before, and in F&B becoming more limited.
Jeff also expects consumers to look for security, safety and comfort, requiring big and small brands, alike, to pivot their messaging and demonstrate a greater sense of humanity and care.
David Keen 0:08
Hi, this is David at QUO. We’ve worked for the last 20 years with many of the world’s best known travel brands. During this unprecedented global crisis, our world of travel has changed, possibly irreversibly. This series will see us speak with many global leaders to understand how they see the future of travel.
David Keen 0:43
Jeff Weinstein editor in chief of HOTELS magazine from Chicago. Welcome to The Future of Travel. Thank you, Jeff for joining.
Jeff Weinstein 0:52
My pleasure, David Thanks for having me.
David Keen 0:55
Jeff how’s things in Chicago.
Jeff Weinstein 0:58
It’s Tuesday morning, I think. Every day seems to now blend together. It’s a beautiful day, a beautiful morning here. You wouldn’t know that the hotel world was on fire! But it is.
David Keen 1:12
How do you feel that, both locally in Chicago and Illinois and more across the US, the depth of crisis in the economy is beginning to surface?
Jeff Weinstein 1:28
Well, it’s kind of a conundrum. The stock market is just opening this morning. Everybody’s talking about first quarter earnings being, you know, just terrible, but the market is trending up this morning and over the last week or so, there’s been a big rebound in the market. And the IMF came out with a statement this morning talking about the deepest recession since the 1930s is ahead of us. But we’ve got a market that’s, kind of, I don’t want to say bullish, but it’s hanging in there. That is not the case for hotels. Occupancies are mostly single digits. For those that are open, there are still a lot of hotels, open, but occupancies are very weak.
David Keen 2:19
Across the whole country, Jeff?
Jeff Weinstein 2:21
Yeah, pretty much across the country for you know the big markets: La, Chicago, New York. You know they’re suffering heavily— furloughs everywhere—and a lot of people are out of work in the business. And everybody’s kind of looking for that, you know, that moment where they can kind of see the light. And I’m not sure we’re seeing it yet. There’s a bit of a battle now going on between the White House and the state’s governor. The White House wants to open for business in maybe six weeks—early May. The governors are kind of fighting back saying, you know, “We don’t feel that might be the time yet.” They think it might extend, maybe, through the end of May—I don’t know—or longer.
Jeff Weinstein 3:12
It’s hard. It’s really hard to get clarity and with that lack of clarity comes a lot of uncertainty from travellers—business traveller, leisure travellers—who are staying home. And when they’ll get back out, is anybody’s guess. Business travel will likely come back before leisure. But again, timing to be determined. You know, yet to be clear here in the States. That’s for sure.
David Keen 3:43
When travel does come back and business and leisure to come back—from the people that you’re talking to in the US and around the world—are you getting a feeling of everything’s going to be different? Are people realising that there is a new reality?
Jeff Weinstein 4:03
Absolutely. Everybody is grappling with how to come back. And I think a lot of it has to do with operations—that need for some sort of distancing will remain. I think until we get a vaccine, until everybody is really confident—and that’s probably a year off, maybe sooner. Let’s hope so. Once business comes back, slowly but surely, how a GM manages his team and manages guest relations is going to—it’s going to be a new paradigm. At least for the near term, you know, maybe for a couple of years until we really get past this.
Jeff Weinstein 4:53
You know, at the ACE Hotels and the Hoxtons and all these wonderful social brands, you know, I don’t know how much people are going to want to hang out side by side, and have coffee and work on their laptops. So that’s going to change the paradigm.
Jeff Weinstein 4:53
And I think operational procedures are being reconsidered. Technology will play a greater role even in luxury. And F&B is certainly going to be more limited. So there’s a lot to be figured out, and I don’t—you know they’re going to find their way once they get back in business and people start checking into their hotels again. I think they’ll figure it out, kind of as they go, but certainly a level of distancing is going to be the new reality. That whole idea of lobby social that has been so pervasive over the last couple years—you know, what’s going to happen there?
David Keen 5:53
Philosophically, you and I are old enough and long enough in the tooth to remember several crises that have happened –both in Asia, in Europe and in the US, over the last 25 plus years. During the crisis, we always say, oh I recall that we willalways say, “It’s not going to be the same when we come out of this.” This time it’s different though, no?
Jeff Weinstein 6:26
Yeah, I agree with you. You know, historically, we’ve had very short memories. After 911, I was amazed how quickly business came back. How strong it was—so fast. This is a different animal. And again, I honestly believe that business will come back. The way we’ve known it, but I think it’s just going to take that much longer, and that vaccine is going to make all the difference. Once everybody gets inoculated,—and it’s going to probably be mandatory. When they had polio here in the States in thethe 40s and 50s, everybody lined up and took their shot. And it really, you know, we need something like that to create confidence.
Jeff Weinstein 7:12
Until then, there’s going to be you know a fair amount of intrepid this out there that people are going to hesitate, they’ll be more staycations there’ll be fewer conferences, you know, and they’ll adapt. But the industry will adapt. Unfortunately, not everyone is going to make it. Especially owners who are not as liquid as they need to be or less leverage than they’d like, you know, there’s going to be some trading that’s going to take place. It’s gonna be unfortunate for some owners. But the big brands I think will make it through. Their liquid enough. They’ll hang in there. They’ll get through this.
David Keen 7:54
So many questions, Jeff, but you just mentioned ‘Big Brand’. As you’ve heard me say and we’ve been talking about it over the last week 10 days during the podcasts. I’m talking about the bridge between the analog age, and the digital age, and I’m using the virus as the bridging point or —the recession, I guess, and the virus—as the bridging point. You mentioned just before the the big brands, and we’re talking about a new reality and a new normal with reference to both loyalty—and initially loyalty—wouldn’t big brands come out the same way as they’ve gone in?
Jeff Weinstein 8:42
Not near-term. Everybody’s looking for security, for safety, for comfort. Does a big brand stand for that? I don’t know the answer. They certainly stand for loyalty because people love to collect their points, and send their parents to Hawaii for their 50th anniversary with all the points they’ve collected. Big brands stand for standards and then and a surety of what you can find from one city to the next. Whether they’re going to stand for comfort, I think people are going to be looking for something they really trust.
Jeff Weinstein 9:31
Brands give you certainly look you know that that extra amenity but I don’t know if how much that stands for trust, so I’m guessing their messaging is going to—and I know it already is—evolving, so that they can, you know, tell the guest that, “We’ve increased our hygiene. We are being vigilant about everything related to your safety and security and your health.” So that’s going to be the message change from the big brands to make sure that their guests don’t go somewhere smaller or don’t come at all. But eventually it will change. Eventually it will go back.
David Keen 10:15
It’s interesting that you say that. I’m not convinced. I believe that that—and as I as I’ve said to you there’s a very long tale in this—and nd in that long journey, in that long tale, I think that’s as you’ve quite rightly acknowledgedm, there are going to be some that clearly do not survive. But those that survive, it seems to be percolating already to the top of those, as you’ve kind of indicated, of those with purpose.
David Keen 10:51
The consumers—the travellers that are able to travel, they have a massive supply to choose from. There’s very limited demand and a huge supply. So it is our belief that the brands that are nimble enough to develop purpose, and portray purpose and deliver purpose through experience, are those that are going to survive. I’m not sure that—I don’t know but—the question is whether the big brands can deliver that and be nimble or agile enough to do so.
Jeff Weinstein 11:30
I don’t know that they, many of them have brands with, you know, quote/unquote ‘purpose’. Honestly, there are very few brands out there that have that level of purpose, that level of humanity, that level of care.
Jeff Weinstein 11:56
And maybe that creates the new opportunity. Maybe some of these properties that are gonna have to turn, are re-imaged to be one, you know, that’s more about care and taking care of people in a way that is, you know, different than what we’ve experienced, and I don’t want to say that Marriott doesn’t care, and Hilton doesn’t care. Both of those particular companies have great leadership, and I think actually, the industry will benefit from the leadership of the likes of an Arne Sorenson or Chris Nassetta, because they’re smart enough and strong enough leaders to realise how they need to message different and how they need to go to market differently and show more care.
Jeff Weinstein 12:49
So, it’s going to create a new opportunity, because I agree with you. People are going to look for comfort. They’re going to look to feel really good and safe and warm in a hotel environment going forward. So either it’s got to go beyond the message. They have to deliver. It’s not impossible to do it. But there’s going to be a shift in operations to reflect that. There has to be.
David Keen 13:14
Right, and I think, to the point of Arne Sorenson, no one in the entire hotel industry has delivered in the way that he delivered his speech to his teams to his employees. It was about two weeks ago that that video speech was the most emotive empathetic, caring message of almost any leader we’ve had in a long time.
Jeff Weinstein 13:40
That touched me like nothing has touched me in my 25 years of covering the hotel industry. You know he was honest and real, and we need more honesty in reality, you know that’s what the customer wants. It’s quite clear how obvious everybody is responded to that video it’s the whole industry is like, that was a magical moment.
Jeff Weinstein 14:01
So we need more of that. We need more of those magical moments, and it can be done. It’s hard when you have a huge system. It’s really hard to pull that off but that’s the direction we need to go. But going back, I honestly—you know—we all have short memories in this industry, and I think, you know, it’s going to take two years maybe. But I believe the industry will come back strong, and a lot of the ideas and concepts that were being delivered over the last couple of years, they will come back. And a lot of the way the hotel industry has been transforming itself over the last five years ten years, all of those ideas will continue to grow. I believe it. I think, you know, people will get comfortable again. It’s just going to take a while longer than we want.
David Keen 14:49
I think that’s very fair and I tend to agree. I think the extent of change may be greater. On a similar subject, if we think about the OTA, and I’m fascinated to hear your opinion or what you’ve been hearing on how this crisis may or may not affect the OT. Remembering again that the consumer is king, that they’re going to be looking for purpose, they’re going to be looking for different elements in our, or different attributes of a hotel before they before they choose. Do you think that’s going to affect the OTA business?
Jeff Weinstein 15:29
Um, you know there’s been some—some consumers have been stung, you know, with refunds and the like that were booked through OTAs. So I think they’ve had some bad PR the last month that I don’t think that they can overcome that simply. But every time I hear a CEO speak or an industry leaders speak, they say “This is, you know, our opportunity to reset and show less reliance on OTAs, and bring business more directly.” And, you know, that’s great. In fact, we’re just assigning the story right now, where we’re reaching out to the revenue managers of the world, to the hoteliers who are who are preaching this opportunity.
Jeff Weinstein 16:22
I want to know how they’re actually going to do this. How does that look? How do you bring your owners back and say don’t give as much inventory to the otas. This is our opportunity. I don’t know how they’re going to operationalise that. I’m very anxious to find out how that how that was going to turn out. You know, an owner that’s dying for business still hanging on by a thread is going to take any opportunity they can to fill a room. So how the brands, or how smaller hotel companies are able to get more direct booking through a message to the consumer other than you know the little bit they’ll save by booking. You know the extra amenities they’ll get by booking direct. I’ll be very curious to see how that plays out. We’re going to start reporting on that this week, and we’ll probably have a story on it, you know, probably by the end of the month, about the way forward to potentially reset the relationship between hotels and OTASs. I’m not quite sure that I have the answer yet.
David Keen 17:41
Fascinating. Yeah, I sense that that’s a huge story–
Jeff Weinstein 17:46
Yeah, it is a big story.
David Keen 17:49
— that’s going to unravel over the next few months. And remember, we’re only five-and-a-half weeks in. You know, we’re talking about fundamental shifts in our industry, five-and-a-half weeks into a crisis that frankly can—will extend. I mean things will open, but they’re not going to come back for three, four, five, six months and, or as you say, unless there’s a vaccine created even even more quickly.
David Keen 18:20
Jeff we’ve been talking for a while. I want to ask you one or two more questions. Development in the US right now, I mean, we’re seeing in Asia, no curtailing so far. Not much slowing, a little bit of a pause, but not much slowing in development of new products. What are you seeing?
Jeff Weinstein 18:43
Projects that are, you know, far enough along are going to get completed. New development, new deals getting done here, it’s going to take a while for it to ramp up—you know, it will ramp up. I expect you’ll see more trading than new deals getting done. It’s an opportunity for the brands to capture some new, new properties that are, you know, going to drop out and find new ownership and the brand might change hands based on the new ownership.
Jeff Weinstein 19:25
Smaller select service deals can still get done. You know, the banks are going to be very reticent. There’s not a lot of lending that’s going to go on in this space for a while. So it’s, it’s pretty abrupt. And I don’t know, I think maybe within six months, if everything starts keeps trending and this thing calms down, I think, lenders will start to maybe open up the purses a little bit. And the new deal flow will slowly start coming back. But right now, unless it’s shovels in the ground, I don’t see much new being announced, that’s for sure.
David Keen 20:11
Jeff, last question: We are, after all, in the service industry. When we talk about hospitality—yet Marriott’s furloughed 75%. Hilton’s done probably about the same. Everyone else is getting rid of as many people as they know how to get rid of, or at least laying them off or laying them low or whatever it is. We’ll start this change where we come back. We’re talking about much greater technology. Are we looking at a fundamental shift in the way we’re going to deliver services and industry?
Jeff Weinstein 20:48
Hopefully it’ll be gentler and more caring. I think people who have been furloughed are going to run back to their jobs when they feel safe. Just to have a job. Unfortunately, a lot of people—the line level people—are really going to be suffering through furloughs because they might not have as much in the bank as the corporate office or the owner. So I think they’ll come back—they’ll run back to work when they can. And it’s going to be up to the managers, the GM, and you know brand leadership to motivate.
Jeff Weinstein 21:34
I don’t think it’s going to take too much to motivate people. I think they’re, you know, just simple human contact again is going to be a motivator. Again, if they feel safe and they feel they can—you know with a bit of a distance maybe—but you know still face-to-face. That’s going to be a huge motivator for anybody, you know, just to get out of their houses and back, you know, into the world and face-to-face meetings.
Jeff Weinstein 22:04
That’ll motivate hospitality workers. Hopefully the people who are working in this industry are in this industry for a love of service. I know that’s not always the case, but in a lot of cases I’d like to kind of, you know, feel that way about this business. And hopefully a lot of the people who are giving service, who have been service providers in the hotel industry will do it even more empathetically and more genuinely, and be thrilled to be back to work.
David Keen 22:41
Jeff Weinstein, editor in chief of HOTELS magazine, and one of the great sages of our industry: Jeff, thank you so much for being on the future of travel,
Jeff Weinstein 22:53
Wow, thanks David for having me. Good luck to everybody out there, and look forward to seeing you, David, soon.


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Bengaluru: The city’s Cyber Crime Police Station (CCPS) has been receiving cases of a new modus operandi, where sellers on websites fraud people by delivering them fake products instead of the plush ones they ordered. Victims of this “gifts scam”, as it is being called have lost from Rs 2,000 to Rs 10,000 , with around five cases being filed per day.
People are being scammed on websites as well as a popular Facebook marketplace where exorbitant and high quality products are advertised but the buyers receive fake, low-quality or copy products. In response, police did raid a go-down but no constructive steps have been taken as shutting down the alleged websites or finding the miscreants.
“Two days ago, a go-down was raided at Ramanagara where fake products were stored. They would advertise good-quality products and cheat customers with fake ones. This year, two cases were cracked – the second one by the CID cyber cell,” says K N Yeshvanth Kumar, cybercrime inspector in-charge of the Cyber Crime Police Station.
The buyers are being duped on various purchases, Essesse Satheesh, a product developer accounts- “I purchased a second hand Apple Watch but received a fake and lost Rs 16,000.” Another buyer wanted to file a complaint to the police, to see the site shut down, “I had lost only Rs 2,000, but more than getting my money back, I want to inform the police that the website Mindhole.com is fake and that others should not fall for it”.
Bengaluru has only one cybercrime police station with a tally of 8,200 cases this year, and in 2018 CCPS registered 5,036 cases and officials says that this number could easily go up to 10,000 if more cyber crime police stations are not introduced in the city; to open more of these has been repeatedly proposed to no effect.
Since 2017, only 3,000 of 12,000 cases have been disposed. “The numbers may seem alarming but that is because one station caters to the whole city. The CCP stations will come in soon but cannot say when,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Sandeep Patil.

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(KLTV) - The credit monitoring service Equifax has just reminded us all how not to handle a crisis that affects millions of people.
You will recall that Equifax was the victim of a criminal data breach where hackers gained access to personal information on 143 million Americans – roughly half of the country.
This break included access to driver's license information and social security numbers and other credit-related data. Hackers can use this to steal identities resulting in fraudulent purchases. This is a big deal, and if you have credit cards or loans, it is good idea to take some steps to freeze your credit to help block potential fraud moving forward.


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Uber lost the fight to keep running self-driving vehicles in San Francisco, California, but the company found a very cheeky way to move the autonomous Volvo’s out of the city. The piloted trucking firm Otto loaded the modified Volvo XC90s on its big rigs and drove the high-tech SUVs to their new home in Arizona, according to Curbed.
Uber bought Otto in 2015 for roughly $680 million. The company is working to create autonomous trucks that could haul goods with little or no input from a human driver. The firm can equip existing big rigs with $30,000 in lidar, radar, cameras, sensors, and special software that already makes long-distance transport a nearly automatic undertaking.
Otto recently proved the tech in a flashy stunt when one of its trucks hauled 50,000 cans of Budweiser beer 120 miles (193 kilometers) from Fort Collins, Colorado, to Colorado Springs. An accompanying video even showed the driver getting into the back and reading a magazine while the rig handled the journey.
Uber began testing its autonomous tech in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, earlier this year, and even started offering customers rides in these vehicles in September. However, the project evoked immediate controversy upon starting in San Francisco after a dashboard camera caught one of the SUVs running a red light. The ride hailing company claimed that a human driver was at the wheel at the time.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles also said that Uber didn’t have the necessary permits for testing 16 models with autonomous technology in the state. The company argued that because someone was always at the wheel, the Volvo’s weren’t technically self-driving. Regulators didn’t agree. “Twenty manufacturers have already obtained permits to test hundreds of cars on California roads. Uber shall do the same,” the DMV said in a statement.
Uber will begin using the autonomous XC90s in Arizona in the coming weeks. The company won’t yet say where the test will happen.


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Chinese businessmen bring jobs
Mayor's associate says packaging firms eventually to employ up to 60
STOCKTON - Sporting a lapel button bearing the message "Let's put Stockton on the map," Mayor Anthony Silva greeted two businessmen from China on Friday afternoon and said the men soon will be bringing business and new jobs to the city.
"This is a foot in the door," Silva said as he stood in the rear courtyard of the downtown waterfront hotel where he has lived for the past couple of years. "They're going to go back, tell their friends that there's a friendly city in Northern California, and then (more businesses) will take a tour and sign up."
The two businessmen identified themselves as Tony Liu and Shu-Quing Dai, owners of companies that manufacture packaging that is used for produce and baked goods. N. Allen Sawyer, a Silva associate who has a business that imports goods from China, said the plan to bring the companies to Stockton has been finalized.
He said the companies initially will distribute their products through Best Logistics, which operates out of the Port of Stockton. By the end of the year, Sawyer said he expects the companies to begin manufacturing operations in Stockton, at a site yet to be determined.
Executive Vice President Erin Jenkins of Best Logistics confirmed that her company has ongoing dealings with Sawyer and that meetings are planned for next week with the Chinese businessmen. According to Sawyer, the businesses will bring 30 to 60 jobs paying wages up to $20 an hour.
Liu said he frequently travels to the United States on business but added it was his first visit to Stockton. Sawyer said he has been working with Liu for months. He said when he initially discussed the possibility of bringing business to the city, Liu expressed concern about Stockton's reputation for crime.
But Friday afternoon, when asked for his impression of Stockton, Liu said, "Nice people. Beautiful city. Everything's convenient. Good location."
Silva acknowledged Stockton has endured not only crime but bankruptcy in recent years. He said the city is emerging from its troubles and added, "The last piece of the puzzle is jobs, economic development. We have the perfect opportunity to show people we have a business-friendly city."
Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or email@example.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/phillipsblog and on Twitter @rphillipsblog.


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In a special festive edition, Charles Miller invited Chloe Tartan and Jack Davies, researchers at nChain, the London Bitcoin SV and blockchain development company to look back and reflect on a year of achievements for the BSV ecosystem.
The clever idea from Lawry Trevor-Deutsch resulted to Blockchain Domes Heat Station which he operates for United American Corp near Montreal, Canada.
Connor Murray of TrueReviews.io realizes the power of Bitcoin SV by launching an online review platform that enables businesses to incentivize more reviews for their businesses and for users to earn Bitcoin and tokenized rewards for good reviews.
Founder and CEO Ho Tsiming explains how the auction mechanism works in RateSV, allowing users to become mini-entrepreneurs or even fully-fledged tycoons.
A startup called Bitboss has developed software that will sit inside the machines and allow gamblers to collect their winnings on their phones.
Chief Marketing Officer Ivy Dang explains the basic concept of the CityonChain platform and value that Bitcoin SV gives to "city owners."
In supply chain, efficiency is utmost important, that's why UNISOT founder Stephan Nilsson offers businesses a Bitcoin SV blockchain solution to address inefficiency.
UptimeSV co-founder and lead developer, Dean Little sees the work that Uptime will do as a way to increase the value of the whole Bitcoin SV ecosystem.
Bitcoin Association China Manager, Lise Li believes the potential success of Bitcoin SV in China where people use their mobile phones to pay for everything.
Alex Fauvel took time out at the recent CoinGeek Conference in Seoul to discuss his plans for an on-chain solution that allows more effective, secure management of individual identity.
The integration of blockchain technologies into mainstream business, both as money and for data recording, continues apace.


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Biotechnology company focused on extraction and standardization of quality controlled psychoactive compounds from plants and fungi HAVN Life Sciences Inc. (CSE:HAVN) (OTCMKTS: HAVLF) announced having harvested its first crop containing psilocybin mushrooms from its growing and production facility in Jamaica.
The company says it will be exporting the psilocybin it harvested to Canada for it to be tested for safety and quality control through its lab partner Delic Labs. The company is working on this project of harvesting psilocybin mushroom in Jamaica with GMP manufacturer P.A. Benjamin in Kingston as its partner.
“This is the moment we have been tirelessly working towards. We’ve been aggressively meeting the targets in our strategic roadmap and having this last piece in place with DELIC Labs will enable HAVN Life to become the first and top choice for product supply globally,” said HAVN’s CEO, Tim Moore.
On the other side, Delic Labs expressed how delighted it is to work with HAVN Life on this projet particularly testing psilocybin mushrooms which are considered exciting and challenging with major medical potential.
“Delic Labs is delighted to partner with HAVN on some of the world’s first psilocybin mushroom testing. Our lab has significantly built out its analytical and research capabilities to offer quality and safety testing to the psychedelic industry,” said the company’s CEO, Dr. Markus Roggen.


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NIGERIA has moved 15 spots in the World Bank’s study Ease of Doing Business ranking from the 146th previous position in 2018 to 131 out of 190 economies.
The Doing Business Index is an annual ranking that objectively assesses existing business climate conditions across 190 countries based on 10 ease of doing business indicators.
The indicators include improvement in the sharing of credit information, strengthening minority investor protections, ease of paying taxes and electricity amongst other things.
Nigeria’s advancement on the economic chart comes a few weeks after the World Bank ranked it as one of the top 10 countries with improved economies in the world.
The ranking revealed that governments of 115 economies around the world launched 294 reforms over the past year with a total of 107 of such reforms coming from in Sub-Saharan African to top the list.
The report indicate that this has reportedly made it easy for the domestic private sector in the countries to engage in business activities while creating more jobs and expanding commercial activities and higher income.
The other seven economies where business climates improved the most were Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Togo, Bahrain, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and Kuwait
Meanwhile, China and India made the top 10 list of governments that have done the most in the past year to improve the ease of doing business in their countries.
Notwithstanding the ongoing trade war between China and United States, the Chinese economy made the top 10 list for the second year in a row.
The Asian country gained ahead of France to take the 31st spot in the ranking, also moving up 15 places just as Nigeria.
Similarly, India, also made it on the most-improved list for the third year in a row, moving up by 14 spots to 63 on the global rankings.
This feat by India has been attributed the country’s abolition of filing fees, lowering the time and cost of seeking construction permits and making trade easier with port improvements and an improved electronic platform for submitting documents.
New Zealand continues to top the global rankings, while Singapore, Hong Kong, Denmark, and Korea are right behind with the United States, Georgia, the United Kingdom, Norway and Sweden completing the top 10 list.
The study, however, does not measure the full range of factors, policies and institutions that affect the quality of an economy’s business environment or its national competitiveness as it affects the ease of doing business.


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Vertically integrated cannabis company Sunniva Inc. (CSE: SNN) (OTCQX: SNNVF), together with Cannabis Strategic Ventures, Inc. (OTC: NUGS), today announced the signing of a cannabis concentrate extraction services agreement between CP Logistics, LLC (“CPL”), Sunniva’s wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, and Pure Applied Sciences, Inc. (“PAS”), Cannabis Strategic’s wholly owned subsidiary. Per the terms of the agreement, CPL will perform white label services producing high quality, ultra-purified cannabis extracts out of its Sun-Oil Facility in Cathedral City, California, for PAS under the Pure Organix™ brand name, which was recently acquired by Cannabis Strategic. The agreement is for a 12-month term that may be renewed for an additional 12 months at the request of PAS. “As one of the highest quality producers in the marketplace, we believe we are in an excellent position to provide brand product manufacturing services for Cannabis Strategic,” Tony Holler, CEO of Sunniva, stated in the news release. “Both of our firms share the vision of becoming leaders in providing clean, medical grade cannabis products to consumers. We welcome Cannabis Strategic to our growing portfolio of customers.”
To view the full press release, visit http://nnw.fm/7hPWl
About Sunniva Inc.
Sunniva, through its subsidiaries, is a vertically integrated cannabis company operating in the world’s two largest cannabis markets – Canada and California – where we are committed to delivering safe, high-quality products and services at scale and creating trusted Sunniva branded cannabis products. Our vision is to become one of the lowest cost, highest quality vertically integrated cannabis producers in the markets we serve by building large scale purpose-built current cGMP designed greenhouses and expansion of retail locations, offering better quality assurance with cannabis products free from pesticides, providing better customer access to cannabis education and sourcing better therapeutic delivery devices. Sunniva’s management and board of directors have a proven track record for creating significant shareholder value both in the healthcare and biotech industries. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.sunniva.com
About Cannabis Strategic Ventures
Cannabis Strategic Ventures is based in Los Angeles and is focused on supporting entrepreneurial growth within the fast-growing legal cannabis sector. The company, recently completed a name and symbol change from Cascade Energy, Inc. Cannabis Strategic Ventures offers outsourced personnel solutions that are tailor made to match the growth dynamics of cannabis cultivators, manufacturers, dispensaries, and other cannabis marketplace participants. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.CannabisStrategic.com
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This week Starbucks and Costa Coffee were named the top brands in social media engagement in the UK. A major factor giving these companies an edge is their consistency of social activity. While brands have historically tapered content on the weekends, these brands push content every day . Additionally, they use their social outlets as more than just a tool for handling negative customer experiences.
Coffee chain giants Starbucks and Costa Coffee are leading the way when it comes to engaging with UK social media users, according to the latest Food and Beverage Social Media Benchmark from eDigitalResearch.
Measuring the number of 'likes' on UK based social media pages the coffee giants come out on top, each attracting over one million followers and moving them up to the top of the league table.
However, the benchmark also measured the reach of some global brand pages. Global brand pages, a feature introduced by Facebook back in 2012, allow brands to show localised content for different markets from one central account. Results found that out of the 50 top food and beverage brands that eDigitalResearch measured just four - McDonald's, KFC, Pizza Hut and Nando's - are currently running their global social media activity via this method, with the world's biggest fast food chain McDonald's managing to attract the highest number of international followers with over 44million.


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Wirex, a bitcoin wallet platform today announced the completion of $3 million in Series A funding obtained from the SBI Group, the Japanese financial services firm.
The company plans to inject the capital into the development of new features, licensing and security, as well as to support expansion plans. The Wirex hybrid banking platform currently offers pre-paid virtual and plastic cards that can be topped up with both fiat and cryptocurrencies.
New features in the works include contactless bitcoin payments, contactless cards, additional currencies, and new Bitcoin-based financial products. Wirex Limited will also continue to invest in platform security and stability, and improving user experience.
Pavel Matveev, co-founder of Wirex Limited said:
“Japan is a key market for bitcoin-compatible financial products and services, and one of our fastest-growing customer base. We are delighted to have this strategic partnership with the SBI Group. Together we can push bitcoin adoption in the Asia-Pacific region to the next level.”
Japan is widely regarded as one of the forerunners in cryptocurrency adoption, usage, and regulations. In 2015, the SBI Group, established the FinTech Fund to invest in promising FinTech-related companies and technologies.
Co-founder of Wirex Limited Dmitry Lazarichev also commented:
“The SBI Group has a clear vision and in-depth understanding of blockchain and cryptocurrencies. We have been selective in the process of looking for the right investor, and finding the best possible fit is important for us. Our customers will greatly benefit from this collaboration.”
Wirex serves over 500,000 customers in more than 130 countries and is in the process of obtaining an e-money license in the United Kingdom. The company has offices in London, Tokyo, and Kiev and boasts on average 23% month-over-month growth rate.


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The World Health Organization wants global elimination of artificial trans fats by 2023
It's the first time the WHO is calling to wipe out a major factor behind non-communicable disease
The World Health Organization wants to eliminate artificial trans fats from the global food supply and has a step-by-step strategy on how to do so by 2023.
On Monday, the WHO launched an initiative called REPLACE that will provide guidance for all countries on how to remove artificial trans fats from their foods, possibly leading to a worldwide eradication.
“This initiative is meant to lead countries in establishing legislation to eliminate the trans fats,” said Dr. Francesco Branca, director of the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland.
Artificial trans fats, or trans fatty acids, are made when vegetable oil hardens in a process called hydrogenation. Those hydrogenated fats can be used in fried foods, snack foods or baked goods, and in products such as vegetable shortening, stick margarine, coffee creamer and ready-to-use frostings. They don’t spoil as quickly as other fats, but they can have some harmful health effects, such as raising levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol and increasing risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
“There are countries where the risk is particularly high. In South Asian countries, they have very, very high risk of heart disease and high intakes of trans fats,” Branca said.
“There are some Latin American countries, but they’re already taking action. Mexico was a country where the intake was very high,” he said. “South Africa was having problems, but then they established legislation. It is happening in more countries in the Middle East, but the information we have is limited.”
REPLACE stands for review dietary sources, promote use of healthier fats, legislate, assess changes, create awareness and enforce.
The REPLACE package is the first time the WHO is calling for the elimination of a big lifestyle factor driving non-communicable disease, as indicated by Dr. Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the WHO, while speaking during a telebriefing on Monday.
Non-communicable diseases, also known as chronic diseases, tend to result from a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioral factors, such as diet, according to WHO. Cardiovascular diseases, associated with consuming a diet high in artificial trans fats, are an example of a non-communicable disease.
“Non-communicable diseases are the world’s leading cause of death,” Adhanom said during the telebriefing.
“WHO is committed to supporting countries to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases.”
‘Only your heart will know the difference’
Dr. Tom Frieden, president and CEO of the public health initiative Resolve to Save Lives, led efforts to remove artificial trans fats from restaurants in New York as the city’s health commissioner between 2002 and 2009. He knows firsthand the process of taking such action.
Resolve to Save Lives, a partner of the WHO and a part of the nonprofit Vital Strategies, plans to provide assistance to countries to support the REPLACE strategies in eliminating artificial trans fats.
“What we found in New York City was that industry wasn’t really willing to fight us on this,” said Frieden, former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Artificial trans fats are “easily replaceable,” he said. “You don’t need to change the taste or cost or availability for great food. Only your heart will know the difference – and that’s why the call of the initiative to become trans-fat-free by 2023 is so very important.”
In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has determined that partially hydrogenated oils – the main dietary source of artificial trans fats – are no longer “generally recognized as safe.” In 2015, the agency gave food companies three years to cut artificial trans fats containing partially hydrogenated oils from processed foods or to petition for a specific use of partially hydrogenated oils, sometimes known as PHOs.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, a Washington-based trade association representing more than 250 food, beverage and consumer product companies, issued a statement Friday in response to the WHO’s efforts.
“Food and beverage companies have worked diligently and successfully to reduce the use of PHOs, and these actions have reduced PHO-related trans-fat use by close to 98%,” said the statement from Leon Bruner, the association’s executive vice president of science and regulatory affairs and its chief science officer.
The association “filed a food additive petition in October 2015 that seeks FDA approval for specific, limited uses of PHOs that are both safe and important for the production of safe food products. FDA continues to review GMA’s food additive petition,” the statement said. “It is important to remember that, even with the actions by FDA and announcement by WHO, there will always be naturally occurring trans fat in the diets that include meat and dairy products such as milk, butter and yogurt.”
Naturally occurring trans fats are produced in the gut of some animals, and foods made from these animals, such as milk and meat products, may contain small quantities of these fats, according to the American Heart Association. Artificial trans fats are created in an industrial process.
“Really, I think it takes legislation to make a big change like that in terms of overall population health, along with policy and nutrition education,” said Lynn James, a registered dietitian and senior extension educator at Pennsylvania State University Extension who is not involved in the new WHO initiative.
“In many developing countries, they’re trying to Westernize their diets,” James said, and in the United States, “we have been a leader of – when we talk about the Westernized diet – preparing processed foods. Hopefully, we’re going to be a leader again towards eating more whole foods, such as the healthful Mediterranean diet.”
A Mediterranean-style diet involves plant-based meals of vegetables, fruit, beans and cereals. It includes plenty of fish and some poultry, but foods not included in this diet (or included in small amounts) include red meats, sweets, eggs and butter.
“When you move away from eating foods containing processed trans fats, you are also eating less sodium and added sugar, further decreasing risk for coronary artery disease, type two diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease,” she said.
The United States isn’t the only country that has implemented trans fat legislation.
In 2004, Denmark became the first country in the world to regulate the content of artificial trans fat in certain food products, nearly wiping it out of the Danish food supply.
In the three years after that policy was implemented, deaths attributable to cardiovascular disease decreased on average by 14.2 per 100,000 Danes annually, according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2015.
Once legislation has been established in a country, the WHO’s Branca said, there must be suitable replacements of artificial trans fats made available to food companies in that nation.
“The WHO recommends to use oils rich in unsaturated fat, such as soybean oil or sunflower oil,” he said. “We need to make sure the supply of these oils is adequate for countries to use in this context.”
‘I’m confident that industrial trans fat will be eliminated’
Trans fats played a role for the food industry, said Christopher Gardner, director of nutrition studies at the Stanford Prevention Research Center and a professor of medicine at Stanford University, who is not involved in the new WHO initiative.
For instance, “they helped keep the icing on the top of a cupcake solid and prevented it from rolling off the cupcake. When trans fats get removed from the food system, the companies don’t stop making cupcakes. Instead, they find another form of saturated fat or a fat that has the properties of saturated fat,” he said. “That other type of fat may be slightly healthier than trans fat. But whatever type of fat or fat substitute it is, it won’t turn junk food into health food.”
Join the conversation
All in all, the elimination of industrial trans fats can prevent millions of premature deaths and chronic diseases worldwide, said Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the WHO initiative.
For those public health benefits to occur, however, “the WHO has no enforcement capacity, so actions will need to be carried out by national and local governments, but WHO guidelines have credibility worldwide,” Willett said.
“The food industry is not monolithic. Some parts of the industry eliminated trans fat proactively once the evidence became clear that this was harmful, but other parts of the industry are likely to resist unless they are legally forced to remove trans fat from their products,” he said. “In the long run, I’m confident that industrial trans fat will be eliminated.”


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Facebook plans to add a neighborhood-centric mini social network called “Neighborhoods” to its platform. The social networking site is currently testing this new feature in Calgary, Canada.
Facebook‘s Neighborhoods allows a user to interact with other users located in the same vicinity. The user can create a separate profile and share limited information on this mini social network.
Although this is a new outing for Facebook, hypersocial networking isn’t really a new concept. NextDoor, founded in 2008, has previously vouched for the feasibility of a hypersocial network.
As of now, Nextdoor operates in 11 countries, including the US. Bloomberg reports that the company is also looking to open its shares for the public with a valuation in the range of $4 to $5 billion.
A Sneak Peek Into Facebook Neighborhoods
Recently, Matt Navarra, a social media industry expert, revealed some screenshots of the Neighborhoods feature on Twitter.
The screenshots, among other features, show that the user will have to grant location permission to use Facebook’s new addition. The social media giant also mentions it up-front that “Location Services” will be used for showing more relevant ads.
Navarra also shows the profile creation menu where the user can share his details like bio, interests, favorite places in the neighborhood, etc. This profile will be visible to other nearby Facebook Neighborhoods users and those living in localities the user has selected to share information with.
One of the screenshots confirms that users will have to abide by Facebook’s “Community Standards” while using this new feature as well. This is a good prompt in the wake of allegations aimed at Facebook for its lukewarm response to groups that instigate violence.
In the past, hypersocial networks such as NextDoor have received criticism for various reasons, including racially profiling the users. It will be interesting to see how Facebook Neighborhoods looks to dodge this bullet.


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News | 10 min read
80amps seeks to ignite growth
February 10, 2014
News | 10 min read
February 10, 2014
At business incubator 80amps, a high-end purse creator, a company that has come up with an organic, low-calorie soft drink line and a business that produces jingles for commercials all sit side by side.
The companies’ desks, at least, are side-by-side.
The business owners are just as likely to be scattered on couches or gathered around a beer keg in the kitchen.
They are among the nine businesses at the fast-growing business incubator, which moved in December to the Manchester area in South Richmond from Carytown.
80amps occupies the second floor of the Aragon Coffee Building, a red brick warehouse on West Seventh Street. The James River and downtown skyline are visible from the roof, while the building’s western windows look out over Legend Brewing Co.
Business incubators are programs designed to help entrepreneurs launch companies.
Some, like 80amps, provide office space to the startups along with support services and advice. Many also offer small amounts of funding for a company in return for a piece of ownership in the company.
80amps is one of three incubators in the region. Another is Lighthouse Labs, which graduated its first class of companies in the fall and will reopen for applications again this spring. The Dominion Resources Innovation Center in Ashland coaches and supports businesses in the energy and technology sectors.
80amps invests in each business, taking a share of that company’s equity in return for a mix of cash and professional services. The cash portion of the investments is generally a convertible debt.
That means 80amps receives regular debt payments from those businesses. The debt can later be converted to shares in the company if it raises subsequent rounds of investment capital or reaches a certain valuation.
The size of each investment and the structure of each deal vary according to the needs of each company, 80amps officials say. Some businesses require more cash, while others need specific help with marketing or product development.
Most entrepreneurs say they are willing to give up a bit of ownership to get help with their startups.
Charles Valentine, Carrington Williams and Matt Knight sought out 80amps in June — six months after creating Lumiary, a computer application that gathers data from a variety of online platforms to allow small businesses to track online sales, inventory and social media activity.
The business partners were seeking experts in marketing and design.
“The (80amps partners) have that creative and design expertise more than other incubators we looked at,” Valentine said. “We liked the people here, and they got what we are doing.”
80amps exists side by side with Boost Partners, a marketing and strategic development agency founded by Eric Martin in July 2011.
Boost works with Fortune 500 companies, such as Coca-Cola and Verizon, to help them develop products, launch marketing strategies or make operational changes.
After years of working with big businesses, both at Boost and in other roles, Martin said he became convinced that startups would benefit from the same focus on creative insights and better execution of business strategies.
“Innovation is about the application of your insights, not just having an idea,” Martin said. “People forget that you have to build something physical or develop a service.”
Martin also is co-founder of the Galant Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, where he is still on the faculty. His previous roles include nearly seven years at Gemini Consulting, a national consulting company where he led the communications and technology practice.
In March, 80amps received a major investment from The Martin Agency. Eric Martin, who is not connected to The Martin Agency except through the partnership, said the ad agency was looking for a way to develop employees’ ideas that didn’t fit neatly into the agency’s work for advertising clients.
“This draws people here and gives them another creative outlook,” Martin said.
Boost and 80amps share several staff members.
One is Hilton Graham, a director who oversees communications, development and account management for 80amps and Boost. Graham closed his public affairs and lobbying business in May to join Boost and 80amps.
“I’d spent almost 15 years running public affairs campaigns,” he said. “Running a campaign and starting a business are amazingly similar. Both are about getting an audience to buy into your concept.”
Graham said 80amps is different from many business accelerators and incubators because it doesn’t have a specific timeline for businesses that join. There’s also no requirement that the companies leave within a certain time period.
“We help them with executing their business plan and work with the companies day in and day out until they are successful,” Graham said.
Another 80amps partner is Charles Merritt, who was recently named to Forbes magazine’s 30 under 30 list of the most influential marketing professionals younger than 30.
Before becoming a partner at 80amps, he ran marketing campaigns for Kayak, an online travel website, and Jetsetter.com, another travel site. Merritt also is a graduate of the VCU Brandcenter.
“I came back to Virginia after leaving Jetsetter and hiked 700 miles of the Appalachian Trail,” Merritt said. “I got off the trail when I got into the Brandcenter, and that’s when I met Eric.”
Merritt, a native of Richmond, said he had planned to leave the area again after graduating from the Brandcenter.
“But this was work I really wanted to do.”
Business incubators have grown in size, complexity and numbers during the past 30 years.
The National Business Incubation Association estimates there were 12 incubators across the country in 1980. That number grew to 900 by 2001 and 1,250 by 2012.
Those incubators supported more than 49,000 startup companies during 2011, the last year for which comprehensive data are available, the association said.
The group also reports that seed or ventures accelerators — incubators, like 80amps, that make investments in the companies they support — have been a fast-growing type of incubator.
Although these types of incubators have been growing, the most-common type of incubator is one supported by a college or university.
Denton Freeman, who has a doctoral degree in immunotoxicology, joined 80amps and Boost Partners to advise clients working in the biotech sector.
But she’s also owner of one of those member businesses as she works to resurrect Poesis, the high-end handbag company she ran for several years before closing her retail store and wholesale operations in 2007.
She decided to restart the company because customers who saw her around town kept saying they wished they could still buy one of her purses.
“This time we’re focusing on a customized product, which women want, and just doing online retail instead of bricks and mortar,” Freeman said.
That wasn’t her original plan when she first went to work at Boost and 80amps. But she said Martin encouraged her to consider reviving the business after she told him about encounters with customers.
Freeman has struck a deal with a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based manufacturer and is now looking for a CEO or partner to run the business so that she can continue to focus on her 80amps and Boost work.
Poesis had a store in Carytown, and its purses were sold by 200 stores across the country.
One handbag was carried by the Phoebe character on the NBC series “Friends.” Sarah Jessica Parker from “Sex in the City” also carried Poesis purses.
The first 80amps office was in Carytown, but as the incubator added companies, it quickly outgrew that space, which opened in March 2013.
The incubator’s founders came up with the name because it refers to the amount of current in most “starter engines,” which are electric or hydraulic motors used to activate an internal combustion engine.
The new location is an open space with brick walls, large windows, and original wooden floors and ceilings. When 80amps moved in, it added a kitchen and conference room.
Graham said the space is perfect for startups, which have a small number of employees who often need to gather around one or two desks to troubleshoot a problem. But it also has proved beneficial for Boost’s corporate clients.
“Sometimes we have clients that need to get out of their normal environment when faced with a challenge,” Graham said. “So they move in with us for a period of time.”
80amps is very cautious when it considers an investment in a company, Merritt said.
The incubator wants to focus on companies where the skill sets of 80amps’ partners can make a difference, he said.
“We look for things where advertising and marketing are advantages,” Merritt said. “So consumer goods and technology businesses are a natural fit,” he said. “And we look for teams you believe in, just like any investor does.”
Another 80amps member is Coffitivity, a website that lets people pipe the noise and bustle of a coffee shop into their headphones, via a computer or mobile application.
Coffitivity co-founders Ace Callwood and Justin Kauszler were interns at Boost Partners after they graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2012.
The website has won recognition from several national technology publications since Coffitivity launched it in March 2013.
It became so popular, in fact, that the nascent website’s servers crashed. The founders quickly realized they might have a business on their hands, and they also knew they needed some advice and coaching.
“80amps was the first place we turned to when Coffitivity blew up,” Callwood said. “Eric (Martin) had already taken us under his wing.”
Callwood also works as the coordinator for entrepreneurship at the VCU School of Business. He regularly brings students from his program to the incubator, allowing them to meet business owners and work on their own business ideas under the tutelage of experts.
Martin said the mix of people around 80amps each day — students, entrepreneurs and corporate clients — is critical to a company’s development.
“You want a space for collisions between people that are unexpected. That’s good for innovation,” he said. “And we have space to get away, do your work and immerse yourself in your company.”
The companies at 80amps
Business incubator 80amps is working with nine companies. The identities of two companies have not been disclosed. Here are the others:
Adrenaline Junkie: Designers of an apparel brand for sports enthusiasts.
Coffitivity: Developed an online program and mobile app that allow users to stream the noise of a coffee shop and mix it with their music.
Euphörix: Creators of an herbal drink billed as a “mood elevator.”
Lumiary: A technology startup creating an online platform to allow small businesses to track online sales, inventory and social media activity.
Poesis: High-end purse creator.
Veri: Creators of an organic, low-calorie soft drink line that is already sold in Europe.
Vinyl Mint: An online marketplace where businesses can hire musicians and sound designers to create sounds, jingles and voiceovers.
Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch. Used by permission.


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Gun dealers say it’s affecting the sale of certain gun models. Ammunition for 9mm and .380 weapons are becoming scarce and when you can find it, the price has gone through the roof.
Kevin McKinney brought his family to the gun range Monday night. Both Kevin and his wife enjoy the sport of shooting. They even own their own guns.
But Monday’s target session could end up costing $30 to $50 , because of the skyrocketing cost of ammunition.


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by Matilda Charles
The Bureau of Labor Statistics issued a food prices report comparing this year to the last year. While they acknow- ledge that prices of food are continuing to rise, they claim that the rate of that increase has slowed. They say that the cost of groceries went up only 4.9 percent from last year.
I’d like to know where, exactly, they do their shopping—because I’ll go there.
We can point the finger of blame in several directions, per the nightly news —the wars, wildfires, droughts, avian flu —but I point that finger in one additional direction: greed.
I have a thick stack of grocery re-ceipts, batched by date, so it’s easy to check the prices that I paid a month ago, six months ago, a year ago, etc. Along with a handy online calculator, I can see that one particular item I commonly buy rose in price from $4.27 to $5.95 just in the past several months. That equates to a 39 percent increase in price. It’s not even a fancy cut of meat—it’s bread.
I have to wonder if the food companies don’t watch the news and de-cide to see just how much we’ll put up with, like the frog in the pan of in-creasingly heated water. How long before we jump out?
By jump out, I mean refuse to buy. Granted, we can’t avoid buying food, but we can refuse to pay for higher priced items. For example, I’m experimenting with a way to cut my grocery bill that is simply this: I buy whatever brand is the cheapest. If I want a can of beans, maybe the store brand is the cheapest, maybe it’s a flavor I haven’t tried before, maybe it’s on sale. Whatever it is, I buy the cheapest.
Eventually the food companies will wise up and realize that we won’t be held hostage by their high prices.


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“When Apple released its ‘Genius’ ads during the Olympics late last month, some Mac fans were not impressed. But one firm that tracks brand perceptions thinks Apple had good reasons for the campaign,” Ian Sherr reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Those familiar with other Apple ads were surprised by the more conventional ‘we’re here to help’ approach. A particularly harsh reaction came from Ken Segall, whose LinkedIn profile says he worked for an ad firm on Apple’s ‘Think Different’ campaign. ‘These ads are causing a widespread gagging response, and deservedly so,’ he said in a recent blog post,” Sherr reports. “So what was Apple thinking? YouGov’s BrandIndex, a daily tracking and survey service, thinks the answer might lie in shifting demographics.”
Sherr reports, “The service noticed that beginning in May of last year, the popularity of Apple’s brand began to grow among those 35 years old and up. By October, BrandIndex said Apple’s popularity among that demographic had grown to its highest level in at least four years. From early 2008 through mid-July 2011, by contrast, Apple scored higher with the 18-34 age group, the firm said. The increased popularity among older consumers could have influenced Apple’s decision to put out the ‘Genius’ ads, BrandIndex said. ‘It appears that the 35+ demographic, which includes Boomers 50 and over, may need more product hand-holding than the younger group–hence the Genius,’ BrandIndex said, adding that Apple’s decision to run the ads during prime-time Olympics coverage, where the audience is easily over 35 years old, made sense as well.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote when these ads debuted:
Obviously these ads are not targeted at the typical MacDailyNews reader and therefore might, upon first viewing, seem simplistic or even stupid. These ads are not at all stupid, they’re simply talking to people who speak a much more basic tech language than we do. When it comes to these ads, we are all paleontologists being forced to watch Dinosaur Train.
MacDailyNews readers, you are hereby absolved from watching these ads. They are not for your consumption. Pay no attention to these ads whatsoever while you share them repeatedly with your parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and anyone else you know who might be in the market for their first real personal computer.
Every Mac user, especially the longtime Mac users who’ve been to the edge and back, should welcome new Mac users whether they know exactly what they’ve just purchased or have much yet to learn.
To take a line from a very early Mac TV ad (second ad below), “The real genius of Macintosh is that you don’t have to be a genius to use it.”
The ad title “Basically” says it all. These ads are appealing to a very basic target audience – the broadest possible target audience – and therefore represent a rather significant milestone:
Apple has finally returned to marketing the computer for the rest of us to the rest of us.
Steve Jobs’ ultimate goal, to take back the computer business from Microsoft, is being realized. These ads are a part of that effort. Apple’s Mac has regained its strength to the point where it can fight for the wide personal computer market again. Microsoft, if they were cognizant, should be shaking in their boots. It’s 1984 all over again and, for the Mac at least, that is a very, very good thing.
Apple’s ‘Mac Genius’ ads disappear from Olympic TV broadcasts – as planned – August 7, 2012
Apple’s new Mac Genius ads preach to new customers, not the choir – August 1, 2012
Ken Segall: Apple’s new Mac ads are causing a widespread gagging response – July 31, 2012
Apple debuts three new Mac ads: ‘Basically,’ ‘Labor Day,’ and ‘Mayday’ (with video) – July 29, 2012


text: Fire breaks out at garment factory in Ludhiana, firefighting operations underAni16 June 2019A major fire broke out a garment factory in Punjab's Ludhiana. Around 50 tenders arrived at the spot to douse the flames. The cause of the fire is not ascertained yet. No casualties or injuries have been reported so far. More details are awaited.


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SOUTHERN PINES - Robert VanderVoort suffered a crushing heartache when his mother, stepfather and sister died within 18 months of one another.
VanderVoort, a Moore County native, had put a career as a landscape architect on hold to care for his ailing family members. When they passed more than five years ago, he knew he had to carve a new path for himself.
"That was kind of devastating," he said. "When that was over, I thought, well, now is the chance to do something different if there ever was one."
In 2009, he became the first Moore County farmer to start a program that allows neighbors to buy "shares" of his crops before the growing season begins. In exchange, they get a portion of his produce.
The concept - called community-supported agriculture or CSA farming - has been popular in Asia since the 1960s and is now spreading across North Carolina and the United States.
"There is a huge demand and interest in locally grown food. People are wanting to support local farms and know where their food comes from," said Debbie Roos, an agricultural extension agent for the Chatham County Cooperative Extension Center.
Since 2001, Roos has seen the number of community-supported agriculture programs grow in North Carolina from 35 to more than 100.
"I think people really enjoy having that connection with their farmer," said Roos, who runs a website called Growing Small Farms. "It's a value-added service. It's even different than going to a farmers market. You're usually getting the farmer's best and earliest crops ahead of other customers. It's about the freshness; you can't get that unless you grow it yourself."
Sowing the seeds
Shortly after his family members died, Robert VanderVoot enrolled at Central Carolina Community College, where he earned a certificate in sustainable agriculture. He said he was driven by a desire to eat fresh food and by a connection to the land.
VanderVoort had one small problem, though. He had no land to till.
That changed the day he drove by an empty lot near a set of railroad tracks in Southern Pines. He tracked down the landowner, knocked on her door and asked if he could rent her property as farmland.
The seeds for VanderVoort's Half Acre Farm were sown.
To prep the land, VanderVoort ordered 3 cubic yards of composted manure that he spread with a wheelbarrow to build 12 plant beds measuring 4 feet wide and 100 feet long.
"I didn't do very well with my tomatoes that year," he said. "I grew heirlooms, and there was a bird that would just sit on the top of the trellis and every time a new tomato came out he would put one peck in it. It was just like, 'Why are you doing this to me?' "
Learning the business
Once his farm was established, VanderVoort set up a booth at the Moore County Farmers Market, where he learned yet another lesson in the business of farming.
"One of the biggest things I learned has nothing to do with production," he said. "If you're selling at a farmers market, you're in retail and you have to be there every week because that's how you build up a retail business.
"I used to come when I had stuff, but if you wait until your tomatoes come in, that doesn't happen until July and people have already picked their farmer."
VanderVoort, 49, later realized he could market his crops, which are grown without pesticides or petroleum-based fertilizers, through a community-assisted agricultural program.
Last month, he began offering a fall CSA - from Sept. 13 through Dec. 20 - in which subscribers pay $22 for a box filled each week with whatever is fresh on the Half Acre Farm.
VanderVoort delivers the boxes to a retail shop in Southern Pines, where a dozen families pick them up.
VanderVoort said his CSA began with six subscribers and doubled in two years. He picks the produce about 24 hours before delivering the boxes so the food is at its freshest.
"I tend to grow odd vegetables," he said. "I've got a radish that you don't eat the root; you eat the young seed pods. We call them 'rad pods.' You can call it an edible podding radish, but that's a mouthful."
VanderVoort, who holds a master's degree in landscape architecture from North Carolina State University, continues to do some work in that field, but he devotes much of his time to tending his Half Acre Farm and teaching classes on sustainable agriculture through Central Carolina Community College.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there are more than 12,000 community-supported agriculture farms nationwide.
The N.C. Department of Agriculture does not keep comprehensive statistics on CSA farms but lists about 100 of them on its website, NCFarmFresh.com, an online directory of pick-your-own produce operations, roadside markets and farmers markets.
"We've been working with CSAs, I would say, for at least six to seven years," said Kevin Hardison, marketing specialist with the N.C. Department of Agriculture. "A lot of your growers are using CSAs as part of their farm marketing strategy."
A benefit of starting a CSA, Hardison said, is that farmers can receive payment early in the season, which helps them with up-front costs.
"So you know what you have to come up with," he said. "You know what you have to plant for."
VanderVoort's CSA is the only farm of its type in Moore County. A similar program, called Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative, offers subscriptions for locally grown food to the public. The cooperative is owned and controlled by farmers, distributors and customers.
The Cumberland County Cooperative Extension, the N.C. Farm Center for Innovation and Sustainability, and Sustainable Sandhills are conducting an online survey to determine if a subscriber service similar to the Sandhills cooperative's would be supported in Cumberland County.
"We're promoting for people to buy more food that's locally produced for a lot of reasons," said Kenny Bailey, an agent with Cumberland County Extension. "It contributes to the local economy. Another thing, too, is the consumers will be getting a better quality product than what you would buy from a supermarket chain because the food is produced here. It's harvested when it's either ripened or mature, and it's not put on a truck and hauled 3,000 miles before it arrives to the consumer."
Community-supported farming does not come without risks.
"Whoever comes into a CSA as a consumer should realize that there is a potential that farm could fail due to flood, drought. There's a wide range of possibilities that could hurt that farm," said Hardison of the N.C. Department of Agriculture. "But for the consumer, it's a benefit to them that they know and can trust where their food is coming from."
That was one reason Angela Saunders, a Moore County resident, began subscribing to VanderVoort's program. This is her family's second season of buying a share in his Half Acre Farm. Saunders also belongs to the Sandhills Farm to Table Cooperative.
Through such programs, she is able to build relationships with farmers and ask questions about how the food is grown. And, she said, the food just tastes better.
"I feel like we've gotten to where we're eating so much food out of season," Saunders said. "And when you're buying from the grocery store, everything seems to taste the same, and that's because it's been shipped from such a long distance."
Besides, Saunders said, she enjoys the wide and unusual variety of vegetables VanderVoort grows, including edible gourds, daikon radishes, Swiss chard, tomatillos, mustard greens and herbs.
"He's actually a great resource for learning," Saunders said. "He will email us recipes and instruct me about saving seeds. He introduced me to a new vegetable - the trombetta squash, which is an Italian squash. It was phenomenal. Something I don't think I would have ever been introduced to before."
Growing diverse produce is a must for the CSA farmer, VanderVoort said.
He describes it as insurance. If his crop of peas, for example, doesn't yield as much as predicted, he has backups in place.
"I don't know a farmer who runs a CSA that if there was a complete crop failure, they'd say there was nothing in the box," VanderVoort said. "They would be begging, borrowing and stealing from other farmers to put something in the box."
Although operating a CSA is rewarding, VanderVoort said, it can be be difficult and demanding
"If you're doing a CSA, you're basically promising people you'll have five or six different vegetables a week for the next number of weeks," he said. "You can't just give them a whole box of tomatoes. It would be hard for somebody that was just starting production to go into a CSA."
Educating his customers is part of the fun of running a CSA, said VanderVoort, who hopes more people will grow a passion for cultivating their own food.
When VanderVoort teaches a class on sustainable farming through Central Carolina Community College at the Harnett County and Pittsboro campuses, he combines classwork with hands-on learning, including visits to sustainable farms.
The Harnett County satellite campus, between Sanford and Lillington, has a farm that includes an apple orchard and a hoop house for helping to extend the growing season.
"When you're taking care of plants, it's rewarding. You're nurturing them, and they grow. But I don't guess it's for everybody," VanderVoort said. "You'd have to be the kind of person who really wants to do your own thing. The factory mentally is not going to work. You don't just show up and chug along until quitting time. You have to think about it when you're not at work."


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EDINBURGH, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--pureLiFi, the light communications technology company, announces it will be making its first product publicly available in Q1 of 2014. The company at the forefront of research and commercialisation into Li-Fi has established a number of partnerships with key industry segments as it closes out 2013, a year in which it has completed a number of significant research and development milestones in an industry expected to grow from $100 million to $6 billion by 2018.
2013 highlights include:
- pureLiFi’s first product, the Li-1st, went to Beta release in Q3 of 2013
- Delivering the world’s first commercially available bidirectional optical wireless communications system achieving high-speed internet in both the down and uplink
- Demonstrating that Li-Fi technology can work with both direct as well as indirect or reflected light
- Constructing the world’s first public Li-Fi demonstration at the Bexley Business Academy in London and increasing deployment of the technology
pureLiFi will continue to design, develop and deliver Li-Fi components to the OEM market in 2014, with more Li-1st units being shipped to selected industry customers in Q1. To advance time to revenue, the company’s product roadmap will be delivering successive products that will provide full networking capabilities while accelerating miniaturisation.
The company remains focused on leveraging its knowledge, partnerships and position in the marketplace to expedite the market adoption of the technology and to grow the Li-Fi industry. Creating an ecosystem of effective partners is critical to foster growth in the emerging Li-Fi market.
pureLiFi's partner, the University of Edinburgh recently launched the Li-Fi R&D centre for research which aims to further enhance and encourage research and development in Li-Fi, pooling expertise from fields that are essential for the creation of a Li-Fi industry. pureLiFi is positioned to cooperate and lead the commercialisation of these research efforts. An ecosystem of diverse partners is rapidly expanding and pureLiFi products are set to penetrate a number of market verticals during 2014.
Professor Harald Haas, who is behind the Li-Fi R&D centre, the Chief Science Officer and co-founder of pureLiFi, said:
“pureLiFi’s core strengths and assets are its knowledge and experience in the technology, along with the skills to design and build Li-Fi products, all supported by an expanding IP portfolio. 2014 will see even greater leaps forward in Li-Fi research and the Li-Fi industry. We are well positioned to achieve significant growth as the market expands worldwide.”
About pureLiFi and the Li-Fi industry
1. pureLiFi (formerly known as pureVLC) is a light communications technology company formed in 2012 as a spin-out from the University of Edinburgh to create OEM components, including Li-Fi drivers and receivers.
2. Visible Light Communication (VLC) is the use of light to transmit data wirelessly. Li-Fi - a term coined by pureLiFi’s Chief Science Officer, Professor Haas – is a technology based on VLC that provides full networking capabilities similar to Wi-Fi, but with significantly greater spatial reuse of bandwidth.
3. Li-Fi is the only 100 per cent secure wireless access technology that is safe to use in electromagnetic sensitive environments and can provide localisation capabilities.
4. Li-Fi is important because Wi-Fi faces a spectrum crunch in the coming years, and Li-Fi offers a solution to the problem of finding the extra spectrum required.
5. Markets and Markets research says that the total value of sales in the Li-Fi industry is set to increase from $96 million in 2012 to over $6 billion in 2018.
6. The Li-1st is the world’s first commercially available high-speed, bidirectional optical wireless system that can operate with a range of commercially available LED luminaries. It provides an IP enabled ceiling unit and a desktop device that can be connected via USB to client devices.


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Conflicting reports of whether Neo would be introduced at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo in L.A. next week have been circulating recently.
Andrew House, president and global CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment, told the Financial Times on Friday that his company "is developing an upgraded version of its PlayStation 4 gaming console that will offer ultra-high definition 4K resolution and richer graphics."
But House added that no additional details, including pricing and availability, will be discussed during Sony's presentation Monday evening at the widely anticipated conference.
He did tell the Financial Times that the high-end product will be more expensive than the current PS4, which sells for $350.
The new console is expected to be for advanced gamers interested in 4K content with high resolutions and larger frame rates, but existing PS4 users (about 40 million people) reportedly won't have to invest in new products. By October, every PS4 game will be required to support both systems.
"All games will support the standard PS4 and we anticipate all or a very large majority of games will also support the high-end PS4," House told the Financial Times. "It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4."
While there's no talk of when Neo will hit retailers' shelves, this new development could hamper sales of the standard PS4, giving competitors like Microsoft (MSFT) - Get Report an edge. That company is said to be introducing something new at E3 -- reports range from new Xbox consoles to streaming micro-consoles.
Jeffries analyst Atul Goyal said in a research note Friday morning that Sony's dominance will probably not be threatened.
"What could competition (Microsoft) do that would take away Sony's momentum? Well, the video game cycle is a loop from which it's difficult to escape," Goyal wrote.
"If a platform is doing well, it attracts more developers, who develop more games creating a richer game library. And that in turn drives more demand for the platform and the loop goes on. ... Today, there are more than (40 million) PS4 users, as compared to (20 million) XBOne users. There isn't much that Microsoft could do."
Sony shares closed Friday at $28.03, a decline of 2.6%. Microsoft finished the day at $51.48, a drop of .3%.
In addition to advances in 4K with Neo, Sony plans to release its own virtual-reality headset in October. Next week at E3 the company will hold demos of some of its VR products and plans. Goyal said that if they are successful, this could set Sony apart at the expo -- and in the market.
"While Sony can show some VR games on the stage, the real deal is going to be demos on the floor," he wrote. "If (the) demos are convincing, then Sony stock could start a steady rise toward the October VR launch."
While a price has not yet been released for Sony's new Neo, gaming blogs have been suggesting about $400.


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Apple started to fight with Epic Games due to Fortnite’s bypassing its own payment system, and Apple closed the App Store account of Epic Games. The company stated that Unreal Engine will not be affected by this situation.
One of the biggest events that has been on the agenda of the technology world recently was the fight between Epic Games, the owner of Fortnite, and Apple. Fortnite somehow managed to bypass Apple’s payment system, as a result, it was removed from the App Store.
In a statement, Apple announced that Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, also closed its account in Apple’s app store App Store during the ongoing legal war.
Apple closes Epic’s App Store account
Apple has closed the App Store account of Epic Games and announced that Unreal Engine, which is used by many application developers and also belongs to Epic Games, will not be affected by this event. According to the statement made by the company, iPhone users will not be able to download Fortnite and other Epic Games games through the App Store.
Players who have already downloaded Epic Games’ games will be able to continue playing the game without any problems, but will not be able to make any in-game purchases through the Apple payment system. The federal court said on Monday that Apple could block Epic’s games but could not take action that could damage the Unreal Engine.
Apple said it will allow Fortnite to be in its store if Epic Games removes the in-game purchase that Apple’s payment system bypassed. However, Epic dismissed it, saying it would “turn a blind eye to Apple’s monopoly of in-app payments on iOS”.
Apple said, “The court has suggested that while the case is pending, Epic must comply with the App Store guidelines they have consented to over the past 10 years until they uncover it.” The company said that the App Store rules were broken many times with Fortnite updates, and this is not fair for other app developers on iOS.


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Computer Systems News - Page 4
Origin has just built the world's "fastest" custom gaming PC into a driveable Tesla, would you like to take your gaming PC on the go?
Above we have a video released onto the Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) YouTube Channel, and as you can see from the video, Origin PC has taken custom gaming PC building to a whole new level. Origin PC has created a custom gaming PC that is inspired by MKBHD's Tesla Model S. The car is actually a toy for kids and built by Radio Flyer. Origin PC noticed that under the hood of the Tesla was an empty space (just like the normal Tesla), and thought - "why don't we throw a gaming PC in there?".
Origin PC didn't just throw any gaming PC in there; they decided to go very high-end. Under the hood we have an AMD Ryzen 3900X CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition GPU, ASRock X570 Phantom Gaming-ITX/TB3 motherboard, 32GB (2x16GB) CORSAIR Dominator Platinum RGB 3200MHz RAM, 2TB Force Series Gen.4 PCIe MP600 NVMe M.2 SSD, 2TB Seagate BarraCuda HDD, and a CORSAIR SF Series SF750 - 750 Watt PSU. Woah.
If you are a steamer, or are interested in streaming, then you have most likely heard about a dual PC setup. But have you ever seen a dual PC setup as crazy as this one?
Introducing ORTHRUS, a custom water-cooled dual-system PC that is rocking most of the best hardware you can get right now. This build was done by Harris Heller, a well-known Twitch streamer and a full-time content creator on YouTube and other platforms. Harris decided to take his original dual system streaming set up and jam all that delicious hardware into one convenient case.
So what kind of hardware are we looking at here? First off, the case is the Phanteks Enthoo 719. Inside of that case is two motherboards, a full-size ATX for the streaming PC, and a mini ATX for the gaming PC. The streaming PC is running a Ryzen 7 3800X with an RTX 2080 SUPER, and the gaming PC is running an Intel i9 9900K with an RTX 2080Ti. Water-cooling wise, Harris decided to go with EK Water Blocks for water blocks and NZXT for the AIO coolers. If you are interested in more about how Harris built this PC, check out the above video and his channel.
Over the years, Raspberry Pi's has only gotten better and better, but this year could very well be the best year yet.
Back in June last year, we saw the launch of the Raspberry Pi 4, which sported massive upgrades when comparing it to the first model of Raspberry Pi, which released back in 2012. Now, in celebration of the Raspberry Pi's eighth birthday, they are dropping the prices of the Raspberry Pi 2GB of RAM variant.
According to the blog post, due to the drop in RAM prices, Raspberry is now able to bring down the cost of the Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB of RAM to just $35 from $45, which is the same price as the original Raspberry Pi when it launched. When comparing the Pi 4 to the original Pi from 2012, it has 40x the CPU performance, 8x the memory, 10x the I/O bandwidth, can support 4x the number of pixels on screen as well as dual screens, and finally, has dual-band wireless networking.
Introducing Daisy, the tiny microcomputer that sports all of the necessary equipment for coding your musical instruments.
The company behind this little device is Electrosmith, and according to their announcement, Daisy comes with the following features. Two channels of line-level audio, MIDI connectivity, an in-built micro USB port, 64MB of SDRAM, and latency under 1ms. It doesn't stop there though; Daisy also comes with programming languages such as C++, Arduino, Max/MSP, and Pure Data.
At the moment, Daisy is available on Kickstarter and comes in at the cost of $29, which I think is a damn good price considering all the features that come with it. If you are interested in checking out the other things that Daisy can do, head on over to the Kickstarter page here. On a side note, Electrosmith also believes that Daisy would be a great addition to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) research and education. Quite a nifty little device Electrosmith, fantastic work!
Corsair's new ONE PRO i200 compact workstation-grade PC has been announced, packing in some seriously kick-ass components into something near impossibly small.
The new Corsair ONE PRO i200 packs a high-end 14-core, 28-thread Intel Core i9-10940X processor and flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card. Corsair also installs a huge 64GB of quad-channel VENGEANCE DDR4 memory that can handle virtually anything you throw at it when it comes to workstation use.
Corsair also packs in a super-fast 2TB M.2 NVMe SSD that will ensure you have super-fast loading times, and super-fast read/writes for everything you want to do. Corsair's new ONE PRO i200 workstation is not just a kick ass workstation PC, but it would be an insane gaming PC that would handle everything you throw at it all the way to 4K 60FPS gaming.
Apple debuted its new high-end Mac Pro last year, which can be configured with some pretty wicked-fast hardware and can pack up to an insane 1.5TB of RAM and cost up to $50,000. That 1.5 terabytes of RAM is meant to be used for professionals and content creators, but what about Google Chrome?
Jonathan Morrison used his fresh new Mac Pro with 1.5TB of RAM and put it to the test, opening up countless Chrome tabs that started with around 2000 tabs chewing up 75GB of RAM. From there, over 5000 tabs were opened and Chrome was using over 170GB of RAM. But after leaving the system overnight, Morrison came back to see over 6000 tabs open and Chrome RAM usage hitting 857GB.
The testing continued, with Chrome pushing up past 1TB of RAM, into the max territory of 1.4TB of RAM -- simply insane. In the end, Morrison's new Mac Pro packed with 1.5TB of RAM eventually saw Chrome crash -- shocker -- but other apps within macOS were operating normally. A testament to Apple's own macOS, and a snicker towards Google and its web browser Chrome.
I hope Jonathan purchased those $400 wheels for his new Mac Pro, too.
Apple made headlines in the PC gaming world with teases of its new gaming-focused Mac that could cost $5000, but what if that new gaming-focused Mac was powered by an AMD Ryzen CPU and AMD Radeon GPU.
According to code snippets found in macOS Catalina 10.15.4 beta, a bunch of AMD APUs were spotted, teasing that Apple could be using AMD technology inside of a future Mac. These APUs could be perfect for low/mid-range MacBook and MacBook Air laptops, but it could scale as high as Ryzen and Navi-powered gaming Macs, too.
AMD is offering up their Ryzen CPUs much cheaper than Intel does with its range of Core processors, and given the troubles Intel is going through mixed with the mega success AMD is going through right now, Apple making this change would be a serious move for the entire tech industry. It's all rumor mill stuff for now, but I'll keep a close eye on how this progresses over 2020.
We now live in a world where foldable displays and smartphones are a reality, with Samsung already on the market with their game-changing Galaxy Fold -- but what is Apple doing about that?
According to a new patent filed by Apple, we could expect a revolutionary new Mac in the future that is built from a single sheet of glass. As you can see from the patent, it is curved into a display at the top and keyboard and track pad at the bottom. We should expect the display, camera, and sensors in the top half of the new Mac -- while the wedge at the bottom (in the image below) would most likely house the internals of the system.
Apple would have one of the most interestingly designed PCs on the market with this new patent, but considering how many years the company is behind everyone else that is already experimenting with foldable tech... don't expect the foldable iMac any time soon. I'd give it at least another 2-3 years before we see something this radical from Apple on the desktop.
AMD is kicking off the new decade with a collaboration with Corsair on its new Vengeance gaming PC, which is powered by all-AMD goodness packing a kick-ass Ryzen 7 3700X processor and Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.
Corsair has its new Vengeance 6100 series systems with the Vengeance 6180 and Vengeance 6182 gaming PCs packing AMD Ryzen 7 3700X, meaning we have 8 cores and 16 threads of CPU power. Both of the new Corsair Vengeance 6100 series PCs also include the Navi-based Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.
Since it's a Corsair gaming PC, the cooling is handled by Corsair using their in-house H100i RGB Platinum AIO cooler, which is then installed into the Corsair Crystal Series 280X RGB case. You'll also find the rest of the components to be from Corsair too, with 16GB of Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO DDR4-3200 RAM, a Corsair RM650 PSU, and a 2TB HDD.
Toshiba research scientists have created a new algorithm that is capable of sifting through extremely large number sets ten times faster than laser-based quantum computers.
The two Toshiba research scientists are Hayato Goto and Kosuke Tatsumura, and back in 2015, Goto originally created the idea for the new algorithm after noticing how some parts of a complex system can go through a bifurcation process once new inputs are implemented. It took Goto a further two years to implement the new algorithm, which has been called "Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm". Goto then partnered with Tatsumura, and with his knowledge, the researchers were able to make the new algorithm scalable.
After some time tweaking the design process, the researchers were able to get the algorithm to not only work on a traditional computer with off the shelf components but also a cluster of server CPU's and field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Using an FPGA, the reports of Toshiba's new algorithm is to be up to ten times faster than a laser-based quantum computer. Toshiba plans on selling the "Simulated Bifurcation Algorithm" to stock trading companies, social networks, and manufacturing companies. Toshiba is aiming this new algorithm at solving companies' combinatorial optimization problems.


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Carnival Corporation has announced that an agreement which was first announced with italian ship builder Fincantieri in 2015 has now been completed.
Royal Caribbean’s upcoming cruise ship Harmony of the Seas is voted Most Eagerly Awaited New Ship For 2016. Cruise Hive readers voted for the ship more than any other new ship coming in 2016
Carnival Corporation has announced it is is the final stages of ordering 4 new cruise ships for three of its brands
P & O have announced their much waited news today. The on sale dates for their new ship Britannia. She goes on sale for past passengers in Caribbean, Baltic and Ligurian tiers on the morning of 26th March and on general sale at 8am on 27th March. Itineraries range from
Costa Cruises upcoming cruise ship the Costa Diadema made another major milestone in it’s construction process. The ship has had it’s large yellow funnel and the name section hull installed. These two areas of the ship are the first of many main parts which will come together over the coming


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Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed the Maharashtra FDA’s order cancelling the licence of pharma giant Johnson & Johnson to manufacture its baby powder from the Mulund plant.
A division bench of Justice Gautam S. Patel and Justice Shivkumar G. Dige termed the Food & Drugs Administration’s action as unreasonable and therefore “arbitrary” – while setting it aside, paving the way for J&J to resume production and sell its baby powder.
It observed that it is not reasonable that the moment one sample from a batch is found to be of substandard, the company’s manufacturing licence is cancelled.
“This seems to us to be extremea and there’s nothing to show that FDA has consistently adopted such a stringent standard with other J&J products or other manufacturers,” said the judges.
In a drastic move on September 15, 2022, the FDA Joint Commissioner had cancelled J&J’s licence to manufacture baby powder products and also told the company to recall its market stocks, after which the company challenged the decision in the high court.
J&J had come under the FDA radar in November-December 2018 after random checks in Pune and Nashik when it collected samples for testing.
When an October 2018 batch sample was tested again after 11 months (September 2019), its pH level was found to be higher than the permissible levels, but J&J was informed about it in January 2020 and asked for a re-test.
However, the FDA issued a show-cause notice to J&J after over a year in February 2021, gave a hearing in July 2022, and ordered cancelling of its manufacturing licence in September 2022.
Observing that while a watchdog like FDA is necessary, Justice Patel and Justice Dige said that proceedings cannot be protracted with a “harsh delay” like this for weeks and months, and the watchdog must do its job properly to guard and protect the interests of the consumers.
The judges also frowned at “the now usual excuse of Covid” on the delays for a test on a sample collected in October 2018 – well before anyone could imagine Covid – and the delays continued until 2022.


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The meta gems for most DPS classes -- the ones that provide 3 percent increased critical damage -- had their requirements changed in patch 4.0.3a to "Requires more blue gems than red gems." This was very unpopular and made these meta gems far less attractive -- possibly even no longer worth using.
Happily, Blizzard has announced that it's changing back to the old requirements in a future patch.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it; nothing will be the same! In WoW Insider's Guide to Cataclysm, you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion (available Dec. 7, 2010), from brand new races to revamped quests and zones. Visit our Cataclysm news category for the most recent posts having to do with the Cataclysm expansion.