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Bathgate is to get a new Lidl store.
Councillors overturned officials’ advice and backed proposals to redevelop the site of the old Bathgate open air market in the town’s Whitburn Road.
The new store will replace Lidl’s existing retail unit just off Whitburn Road deemed too small to re-develop.
James Riley speaking for Lidl told West Lothian’s Development Management committee the firm had disagreed with planners’ suggestions for a redesign.
“We hope to persuade members to adopt our scheme,” he said
Objections from planning officers centred on the new store occupying the western edge of the market site with a car park for 117 spaces in front of the store accessed off Whitburn Road.
Guidelines suggest new town centre developments should mirror traditional frontages - store fronts presenting onto streets rather than carparks.
A revised plan changed the position of the store to put more frontage onto Whitburn Road, but that would have cut the number of parking spaces to 92.
Lidl was resolute in sticking with its original proposals which it said were important in terms of road safety and in terms of sustainability.
The new store matches a model being rolled out elsewhere in West Lothian and Scotland, with a larger floorspace and an instore bakery. The store will bring 20 new jobs.
Councillor Harry Cartmill asked what people in Bathgate would say five years from now if the council rejected the proposals simply because it did not fit design recommendations.
“Lidl has been a good servant to Bathgate and I’m minded to support this,” he said.
Councillor Pauline Clark said: “It’s going to be very similar to what’s in the area already. I think it’s great to have another Lidl store and would look forward to shopping there.”
Councillor Stuart Borrowman said: “I think we should be pleased that someone wants to invest in Bathgate. I don’t think there’s any detriment to the town. I don’t see a problem with this.”
Council leader Lawrence Fitzpatrick added: “I think it would be a benefit to Bathgate.”
Councillors voted 6-2 in favour of the new build.
Lidl UK’s Regional Head of Property, Gordon Rafferty, commented: “We could not be more delighted to have received planning permission, and look forward to getting started on construction.
"I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the local community for their continued support, and very much look forward to opening our doors and offering our fresh, quality, great value products in the not too distant future.”


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Can Bitcoin Ever Be Money?
Wednesday, 10 February 2021
By Greg Canavan
[3 min read]
I’ve been talking about risk management lately. With markets stretched to the upside, it just seems like the right thing to focus on.
In the same way that during a bear market, when stocks are good value, you should be looking at what you’d like to buy when the trend turns, you should have one eye on the exits when ‘hot’ stocks cool off.
That’s not the way some people roll though. Take Elon Musk. He’s just put US$1.5 billion into Bitcoin [BTC]. Well, not personally. It’s Tesla’s money. Musk founded Tesla and owns an 18% stake.
As James Kirby wrote in The Australian yesterday:
‘Tesla’s decision to sink $US1.5bn ($1.9bn) of company money into the digital currency bitcoin is historic. Whether history will judge it brilliant or crazy is another question — for now we will just have to regard it as momentous.’
Yep, let’s stick with momentous for now, and let history judge this one.
What’s momentous is that one of the most overvalued companies in the history of the stock market decided to put a chunk of its cash into one of the (potentially) most overvalued currencies in the history of the stock market.
I say potentially because when it comes to bitcoin, no one knows its correct value. It’s in price discovery phase. The market is still trying to work it out.
But we can equivocally say that Tesla is massively overvalued. It’s got a market capitalisation of $830 billion and trades on a price-to-earnings multiple of 288 times FY21 forecast earnings. It has a price-to-book multiple of 37 times, yet only has a forecast return on equity of 20% in FY22.
So you’re paying 37 times the value of the company’s equity, despite that equity only generating an expected 20% return in the future. Even allowing for the benefits of compounding (assuming all earnings are reinvested) it’s still a very hefty price to pay.
Tesla’s equity capital at the end of 2020 was around US$22 billion, with cash and cash equivalents of $19 billion. So in effect, you’re paying $830 billion for $3 billion in genuine equity value.
Of course, that US$19 billion in cash could go into productive investment that would generate long-term returns for shareholders, and no doubt much of it will. But the board just decided to sink US$1.5 billion of it into bitcoin.
If I’m a shareholder, I’m asking why?
Is digital, free market decentralised money a better bet than the core business?
One would hope not.
The obvious reason for the decision is to promote the use of bitcoin and encourage Bitcoiners to pay for their new Teslas in the digital currency.
And on that front, it could well be a genius move. The only problem would be in getting bitcoin holders to unhodl and part with the currency.
Which brings me to the issue of whether bitcoin is effective money or not.
When something is rising in value so quickly (or is just volatile in nature), it is not an effective form of money. You need to be able to buy and sell knowing that the value will be stable from one day to the next.
The whole reason bitcoin came into existence was because of the instability of the fiat currencies governments mismanage and force us to use.
Realistically, it cannot perform the function of money until the price discovery phase is over and volatility leaves the market. Ironically, volatility leaving the market will increase the value of bitcoin as money. But volatility is what keeps attracting new entrants!
Where this price discovery phase takes us is anyone’s guess. There is only a fixed supply of bitcoin. The remaining tokens are becoming harder to mine. And the taps in fiat currency land continue to gush at a rapid pace.
This is why predictions of $100k, $250k and $1 million per bitcoin are not divorced from reality.
But it does raise the question of whether something with its characteristics can ever be money? Money with a fixed supply is deflationary. Maybe in a crypto-based future monetary system that is OK. But in the current set up, it’s not.
That’s the reason why gold was demonetised in the 1930s. As a limited supply asset, it didn’t perform the function of money very well as people began to hoard it. It became a store of wealth more than a unit of exchange.
Money is meant to move around, not remain inert.
It’s interesting to note that up until that time, gold was a decentralised form of money. It was money in the hands of the people.
But then the government forced people to turn in their gold. Gold went from the hands of the people to the vaults of the commercial banks. Now, it is in the vaults of the central banks. Over a few decades, gold was centralised so governments could take full control of the monetary system.
And look what they’ve done to it.
The system has become so broken that the free market has come up with a new form of decentralised money. But, like gold, it’s too valuable to be used as money.
Which makes the whole bitcoin thing fascinating. Like gold, bitcoin may not be very good money. But right now, it’s looking like a pretty decent store of value.
Editor, The Insider

domain: news


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Pace of Home Sales in the U.S. Inches Up, Inventory DropsFebruary 19, 2021
The seasonally adjusted pace of existing-home sales across the U.S. inched up a revised 0.6 percent in January to an annual rate of 6.69 million sales, which is 23.7 percent higher than at the same time last year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
At the same time, listed inventory levels across the U.S. ticked down 1.9 percent to 1.40 million homes, which is 25.7 percent lower than at the same time last year (versus 50 percent higher in San Francisco).
And while the median existing-home sale price dropped 1.9 percent from December ($309,800) to January ($303,900) it was 14.1 percent higher than at the same time last year, driven by a dramatic change in the mix of what sold.
Comments from Plugged-In Readers


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November 30, 2022. It’s a date that will go down in history. It’s not just the day that ChatGPT launched publicly. It’s the day that artificial intelligence (AI) effectively went mainstream – and the world hasn’t stopped talking about it since. It has dominated news cycles, generated hype and created more buzz than any technology in recent memory.
The Big Question for Customers
Practically every customer I meet right now wants to know what the AI boom means for their businesses. How can they use AI to improve their productivity and decision-making? What can they automate to save costs? What will the impact be on the workforce of the future? What are the moral and ethical issues around AI?
One of the world’s leading AI experts, Nina Schick, knows more than most about the potential impact of AI on our businesses and our lives. Her background is in geopolitics, where she’s seen first-hand how technology is emerging as a massive influence at global level. So, when she first encountered generative AI in 2017, she knew it was a game changer, and founded a generative AI advisory firm. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to meet with her earlier this year.
Her view is simple: generative AI is a vehicle that’s going to change the future. ChatGPT is only the very beginning. The outputs are going to become significantly better, and they will change every business in the world. But what’s important to realise is that it’s not only about improving efficiencies within the enterprise. It’s going to fundamentally change labour markets and entire economies, which raises far bigger philosophical questions about how we use AI.
What’s interesting is that AI itself is nothing new. At varying levels of sophistication, it’s been built into the systems that are weaved into our everyday lives for several years. From healthcare, to self-driving cars, from financial investments to marketing and from smart assistants to manufacturing robots, embedded AI automates, conserves resources, predicts, and allows for new business models to be developed and actioned.
The Game Changer – Generative AI
Generative AI is a game changer, though. Unlike previous “mainstream” forms of AI, which are mostly about labelling or categorising data, generative AI is about generating or creating new data in practically any digital format. And while we have barely dipped our toes into what it can do, what is clear is that generative AI has the potential to reshape society and business in ways we are only beginning to understand. In fact, Ms Schick predicts that over 90% of online content will be ‘created’ by AI by 2030.
The fear is that left unchecked, AI can become a tool for dodgy practices, like deep fakes. Or that it ends up creating an even bigger economic and digital divide between developed and emerging markets. That’s why it’s critical that we put guard rails in place. Regulators are already turning their attention to AI, with the EU preparing a framework on AI that puts an obligation on those who use it – and that’s going to be all of us – to do so in a way that is trustworthy, responsible, and ethical.
What’s interesting is how big tech firms have responded to generative AI in the past six months. They were all working on AI projects anyway. Then suddenly, Microsoft made a $10 billion investment into OpenAI and brought ChatGPT into its operating system and search engine. Google itself has strategically reoriented, boosting its AI research capabilities and building its own chat bots.
SAP is collaborating with Microsoft, IBM and others on a range of joint generative AI offerings to help solve customers’ most fundamental business challenges. It recently also announced investments into three AI startups – Aleph Alpha, Anthropic and Cohere.
Practically every tech company is releasing models into open source in the belief that they’ll be more influential in the long term because these models will become a fundamental part of the entire ecosystem. These are companies that move markets – and they’re all vying for a slice of the wider enterprise data market.
The question that businesses are increasingly asking is how they can have a ChatGPT-like product in their company, trained on their own proprietary data for their own use cases. Think customer service, sales, marketing – everything can have some layer of automation. The number of use cases that is emerging is simply astounding.
It’s not just highly skilled engineers using generative AI to accelerate design of aircraft components. It’s companies using their own data to write product descriptions in their brand voice and creating SEO copy. It’s biotech companies that are enabling new drug discoveries. It’s any business being able to run both structured and unstructured data through a generative model that can extract insights for you. The impact is profound.
Of course, the big questions remain. Is AI going to augment me or automate me? It’s going to be both. Will the machines get so intelligent that they take over and we lose agency? Hypothetically that’s possible, says Ms Schick. But it’s not realistic. And by focusing on that narrative, we forget that we have agency. We get to decide how these technologies are integrated into our companies and society.
“I’m not a pessimist. Because I think the top line here is change. And I think the story of our lifetime is that we’re going to experience more tech-led change than the entirety of humanity that came before us. So ultimately, this isn’t a story about technology. This is a story about humanity,” she says.
And that’s something we should all be trying to embrace.


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Hindustan Unilever profit up 6.2 percent, beats estimates | Reuters
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, maker of products ranging from Lakmé cosmetics to BRU coffee, reported a 6.2 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of its Pears and Dove products. Net profit rose to 11.83 billion rupees ($184.57 million) in the quarter ended March 31, compared with 11.14 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said on Wednesday
Hindustan Unilever Ltd, maker of products ranging from Lakmé cosmetics to BRU coffee, reported a 6.2 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by strong sales of its Pears and Dove products. Net profit rose to 11.83 billion rupees ($184.57 million) in the quarter ended March 31, compared with 11.14 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said on Wednesday.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated a profit of 10.80 billion rupees on average.
Revenue from the company's personal care segment, which houses brands such as Vaseline and Pond's, rose about 8 percent to 40.75 billion rupees.
($1 = 64.0950 rupees) (Reporting by Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)
This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Find latest and upcoming tech gadgets online on Tech2 Gadgets. Get technology news, gadgets reviews & ratings. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison.
Exclusive: Hand wash stations provider United Site up for sale for $4 billion after COVID-19 boost - sources
By Joshua Franklin (Reuters) - Portable toilets vendor United Site Services Inc is exploring a sale that could value it at around $4 billion, including debt, as its hand wash stations business sees strong demand during the pandemic, people familiar with the matter said on Friday. Platinum Equity LLC, the buyout firm which owns United Site Services, has hired investment bankers to advise it on a sale process, the two sources said, requesting anonymity as the matter is confidential. United Site Services was valued at just $1.15 billion when Platinum Equity acquired the Westborough, Massachusetts-based company four years ago, according to credit ratings agency Moody's Investors Service Inc
By Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and John Revill ZURICH (Reuters) - Credit Suisse said it will sink to a fourth-quarter loss after setting aside hundreds of millions of dollars more than previously expected on Friday for a legal dispute over property debt in the United States. Chief Executive Thomas Gottstein, who took the helm at Switzerland's second-biggest bank last February, said in December he wanted to start the new year with a "clean slate" on legacy matters and has set aside some $850 million to address disputes dating back to the financial crisis. The bank had already set aside $300 million in connection to a decade-long dispute with New York-based municipal bond insurer MBIA regarding a U.S.
By Lucia Mutikani WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. economy shed jobs for the first time in eight months in December as the country buckled under an onslaught of COVID-19 infections, suggesting a significant loss of momentum that could temporarily disrupt the recovery from the pandemic


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SARS and the possibility of a flu pandemic have together made security – and access to buildings – critical issues for hospitals.
It’s led some of them to look to technology that offers more reliability than swipe cards.
Enter contact-free card systems.
Two Toronto-area hospitals have switched from a magnetic swipe card system to Verex smart card readers, with Mifare technology, to read and write to contact-free smart cards.
Trillium Health Centre and the New Women’s College Hospital both selected Mississauga-based Veridin Systems Canada Inc. to deploy the system. Veridin integrates security systems for buildings, using card access, video surveillance and alarm systems.
The smart cards are to be used by hospital employees. The Verex system was already installed at Trillium but branded under a different name with a national service provider, according to Veridin CEO Colin Doe.
For Trillium, it meant a switch from their previous service provider as a result of addressing a reliability issue.
“The number one issue was the software wasn’t communicating properly with the field panels,” said Doe.
What this means to clients, he said, is that whenever they’re updating their software – adding or deleting users, for example – the information isn’t readily available at all times.
“In a facility like Trillium, reliability is very important because they have to know they can access the system whenever there’s an issue.” Doe described magnetic stripe access control as “an antiquated system. It’s really not used any more.”
The Mifare system is being used strictly for security at Trillium, according to Doe.
“Every employee has a Mifare access card, and on that card is their photo identification, as well as their critical information that needs to be known at a glance,” he said.
The Mifare technology offered the best level of security available, said John Fodor, manager of security and parking services, Trillium Health Centre.
“The original system incorporated swipe card technology, and in terms of maintenance the card readers tended to fail a lot more, so we wanted to go to a contactless system,” said Fodor. “It’s more reliable, and you also have a lot more information that can be stored on a smart card.”
The bit size of the data on the card is so large it would take “a few thousand years” to break the code, according to Doe. “It’s an encrypted code only readable by the card reader assigned to that card.”
Facilities that are added to the card is provided with access code numbers so that can’t be duplicated anywhere else, he added. “This makes the cards that much more secure.”
The card has credentials built into it to allow or deny employees access into different areas of the building, depending on their authority level, said Doe.
“The thinking for the future is that smart cards can incorporate other features to make the facility a one-card facility for various uses such as logging on to the computer and paying for parking and cafeteria items.”
The Mifare installation at Trillium took about a year, providing 3,000 employees with new access cards which they received department by department.
“We had to identify key doors in the facility that everyone used,” Doe said. “We put smart card readers at those doors in addition to the magnetic stripe readers already in place, which allowed them to use either, and gradually everyone was photographed and given their access cards.”
Doe said they’re in the final stages of completing a similar project for the New Women’s College Hospital, a new project that, unlike the Trillium installation, doesn’t involve addressing other problems.
“The only issue with them is not everyone will have their access cards right away because there’s 1,500 people and it’s hard to get that many people in one room for their photo badges,” he said. “It has logistical challenges, but so far it’s been going well.”
The Women’s College system was to come online in mid-July.
Ken Ferguson, manager of safety and security services at the New Women’s College Hospital, said the system was selected because of the ease of use and flexibility of the software.
“In an older facility like ours, where there’s a lot of wires, control cabinets and different things mounted in hub rooms and electrical closets, we’d run out of space,” said Ferguson. “The brains of the smart card system were more compact. It didn’t take up tons of feet on my wall, and that was a bonus to choosing the Verex system.”
He added that it’s also not a proprietary system, a deciding factor in the selection process. 062630
Lisa Williams ([email protected]) is a senior writer with InterGovWorld.com.


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PV Sindhu is a big name in Indian sports. She is the first ever Indian woman to win an Olympic silver medal, the current world No 5 in the badminton women’s singles rankings, just 22 years of age and someone who is yet to peak in her playing career. Sindhu is the new poster girl of badminton in India, displacing Saina Nehwal, who in spite of being world No 1 less than 18 months ago, has since slipped down the pecking order following a knee injury.
Sindhu has also become a big brand after her Olympic silver win last August. An Economic Times report published on Monday said that she is second only to Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli when it comes to earnings from brand endorsements. Sindhu charges brands anywhere between Rs 1 crore and Rs 1.25 crore for a single day of endorsement-related activities, according to Baseline Ventures, the sports management firm that represents her. That valuation is second only to Kohli, who charges Rs 2 crore per day, according to the report.
Kohli is one of the best batsmen in the world at the moment. He is swatting records like flies and, in cricket crazy India, he has assumed a position in the public eye that was previously reserved for legends of the sport such as Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni. For Sindhu, who does not play cricket, to be second-best to Kohli in market value, is a huge deal.
But is that really the case? It sounds brilliant on paper – here’s a 22-year-old woman playing a sport apart from cricket, and is now rubbing shoulders with Virat Kohli when it comes to market value. What a story!
Industry experts, however, have a different story to tell. Scroll.in spoke to at least half a dozen professionals in sports marketing, brands and management, who either completely refuted the figures that were quoted in the ET report, or expressed their doubts over it. The opinions on the reported figures ranged from “slightly unrealistic”, to “absolutely nowhere near what she should command”, to just “trash”.
“I personally don’t think [the figures are] right,” said Deepthi Bopaiah, executive director at GoSports Foundation, a non-profit organisation that supports athletes such as gymnast Dipa Karmakar and para-athlete Deepa Malik. “I don’t know if Sindhu is paid that much, but I don’t think she is. I think it’s a long-term deal for which she is charging that much and not for a single appearance.”
While Bopaiah was unsure about the figure, she did say that whatever the case, it was nice to see someone other than a cricketer get the limelight.
“That number [of Rs 1.25 crore] is a stretch,” said Nitin Khanna, founding partner of Sportoid, a sports management firm which, according to its website, has managed leading cricketers. “It is more than a few cricketers in the Indian team [command],” he said. “That’s why it is difficult to believe.”
To better understand these figures, let’s first figure out how these endorsement deals work. Athletes usually get paid by a brand to commit themselves to that company for a certain amount of time in a year. It could be for half a day, one day, two days, four days, and so on, in a year. In that time, the athlete is at the brand’s disposal and could be asked to take part in a number of activities, such as shooting advertisements, or appearing at promotional and meet-and-greet events, where a celebrity interacts with the public.
The value of endorsement deals depend on how you structure it, said Neerav Tomar, managing director of IOS Sports and Entertainment, a sports management company that represents the likes of Nehwal, cricketer Suresh Raina, and boxers Mary Kom and Vijender Singh. Tomar did not want to comment on Sindhu’s endorsement fee, but revealed how much his own athletes command. “Mary Kom and Vijender Singh are both in a bracket of about Rs 75 lakh to Rs 1 crore for two days on an annual basis,” he said. “Suresh Raina is in the bracket of Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.25 crore for two days per annum. Saina Nehwal is in the bracket of Rs 1.5 crore. These are realistic figures.”
What about the other Indian medallist at the Rio Olympics, Sakshi Malik? A communications professional who works closely with Malik, but did not wish to be identified, expressed surprise at the figure commanded by Sindhu. “Sakshi and Sindhu both did very well, but I don’t think Sindhu did drastically better than Sakshi to get that kind of money,” he said. I think [Baseline is] lying and also making other athletes feel very undervalued and that’s very sad. How do you tell Sakshi Malik that I don’t think anyone is getting a crore a day? Is the silver medal really worth a crore a day?”
Creating a buzz
But why would a sports management firm lie about its client’s valuation? Quite simply, to try and set a high price for its client in the market. “A lot of agencies inflate rates to create a buzz [around the athlete],” said a sports talent management consultant who did not wish to be identified. “They are doing that so that her market value for the next brand or deal they get is automatically higher. Marketing professionals and sports agents do this often.”
The inflation strategy is also used by companies and agents to filter the right brands for their clients. It helps them determine which brands can afford their client and which can’t. “If I am representing PV Sindhu, I don’t want every brand to be with her,” the consultant said. “I would probably want the top five potential high-end brands who think that Sindhu is the property they should invest in for the next 10 years. A top-end brand would definitely want to be involved [regardless of the price].”
Another case in point would be Virat Kohli’s reported record-breaking Rs 110-crore eight-year deal with Puma. Industry experts said it’s unlikely the cricketer will get the entire amount. “It could be Rs 110 crore with different riders, which include license fees, merchandising revenue, bonuses if he becomes world No 1, scores 10,000 runs, etc,” said an industry expert. “Many times, the deal is structured in such a manner that the potential will be Rs 110 crore. But you need 20 different things to happen for that potential to be reached. Everyone is party to it because it essentially inflates the total value.”
One of the reasons why this inflation strategy works is because the sports marketing industry in India is still niche and has no structure to it. “Someone who is experienced [in the industry] is quoting whatever they feel like,” the expert said. “They don’t have measurable instruments or measurable marketing activities that can help derive a player’s value. Or a trajectory of growth – if you invest in this player, this is the growth trajectory you will get. It’s a huge gamble.”
No one to question
Do the people who gamble get away with it? It can’t be so easy, right? Surely, the brands would know what’s going on? Not quite. “Sports marketing is generally a very disorganised market,” said another industry expert. “No one questions anyone. Everyone is looking for these stories of very high values – how the [Indian] market is at par with international figures and how Indian athletes have arrived and such. It feeds into the larger narrative and not too many people are asking any questions about the authenticity of the information.”
No one questions anyone. Not even the media. The media is ready to publish a story that sounds great without verifying it, experts said. “It’s just people using the press for marketing, that’s all. Everyone is doing it. Startups are doing it for valuation. They tell the media that some company is interested in buying them. If someone is willing to publish it without looking at the paperwork, why wouldn’t they feed the story? Many of the companies have deals with journalists and news publications. Sometimes the news publications are shareholders in these companies. You can read between the lines as to what the interests and the conflicts are.”
It’s unbelievable to imagine that something that is ethically so wrong seems to be going on in broad daylight. But then again, if it’s a private company indulging in this inflation, who is going to refute it? “The only way it can happen is if it’s a public company, which has to list all its material contracts and this [inflation] amounts to a misstatement or something,” said an expert. “But in a private company, if you’re selling me something for Rs 10 and you’re telling the world you’ve sold it for Rs 50, who is the harmed party?”
At the end of the day, it’s all about the hustling. The best player agents are the best hustlers. “If [an agent] is saying [the athlete’s value is] Rs 1 crore, he can actually crack down on a brand, put them under pressure and say that you have to pay Rs 1 crore for the athlete,” the expert added. “It’s nothing more than a hustling game between agents.”
Legally, companies or agents who inflate their clients’ market value are in the clear. The laws aren’t very defined and the whole industry is so disorganised that no one has bothered to look into it. “Legally, it will always be argued that there is nobody harmed, so if there’s no harm, there is no foul,” said Nandan Kamath, principal lawyer at LawNK, a sports and intellectual property law firm.
But this inflation could potentially cause a disruption in the industry.
“If it is true that there is deliberate misstatement of figures, it ought to be a concern because it affects the integrity of the industry. Other athletes are also watching and may end up having expectations not grounded in reality and that puts pressure on the system,” Kamath said, which brings us back to the conundrum that Malik’s team would have in explaining Sindhu’s endorsement fee to her.
“Also, the sports industry is subject to external competition in the endorsement space and inflation may just mean some brands opt out of sport and use Bollywood or other options instead,” Kamath added.
Inflation of market value could also have its ramifications on the athletes themselves. “It leads to misallocation and possibly under-allocation,” Kamath said. “In many cases, it actually may not be doing any favour to the athlete or the industry.” The perception of value is potentially putting the athletes out of reach of genuine parties. “That is why Sindhu has only three or four brands,” said a sports talent manager, who requested anonymity. “There are no TVCs (television commercials), no campaigns running. It affects the athlete overall. You have to be realistic in setting the athlete’s value.”
However, Baseline Ventures, the firm that represents Sindhu, told Scroll.in that the shuttler is already endorsing 10 brands. “There are three deals that are yet to be announced out of the 10,” said Tuhin Mishra, managing director and co-founder of Baseline. “I cannot talk about that because it is not in the official domain. Until the brands announce it themselves, it would not be ethical on my part to be talking about it.” According to reports in the media, Sindhu currently endorses Bank of Baroda, Myntra, Moov, and Ojasvita.
When told that industry experts were refusing to buy Sindhu’s endorsement fee that he had quoted, Mishra was dismissive of their comments. “People can say whatever they want,” he said. “We do not want to get into that kind of discussion. A lot of people, without having basic knowledge about how these things operate, start commenting on it, which is fine.”
In fact, Mishra told Scroll.in that the values quoted in the ET report were outdated. “I am just on my way to meet with a client, and the values being discussed are much higher than what have been quoted. What value was quoted [in the ET report] was an earlier quote, it is outdated.”
Is he telling the truth? Are the others quoted in this story telling the truth? It’s his word against theirs and, unfortunately, there’s no way anyone can do a fact check.


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Motorola is now preparing for the official Android 4.4.2 KitKat update on Droid Ultra and Droid MAXX after the company sent out invitations regarding soak test to certain users. It is expected to be released via Over the Air process and will deliver fixes on several issues after upgrading to Android KitKat.
Motorola Droid Ultra and MAXX Update
Motorola Droid Ultra and Droid MAXX might get its latest firmware update soon after the company begins soak testing. Reports found out that Motorola has already sent out invitations to users to participate with soak test of Android 4.4.2 KitKat update for the two smartphones.
Once released, it will deliver Android 4.4.2 version to level up both Droid Ultra and Droid MAXX to par with other top Android smartphones in the market, and various bug fixes found on the initial build of Android KitKat.
The current update available for Droid Ultra and Droid MAXX is Android 4.4 only and since then, it has been stuck on Verizon Wireless. Users did get the latest features but some minor bugs and issues were also found on the firmware.
At this point, Motorola is somewhat suffering delays regarding releases of Android 4.4.1 and Android 4.4.2 that are both intended to polish the initial version of Android KitKat.
Android 4.4.2 KitKat Features
Android 4.4.2 KitKat concentrates on fixing the majority of issues found on the camera app that was plaguing Nexus 5, primarily. However, other benefits can also be found in this version which will help optimise, enhance and improve overall system performance of any compatible Android device such as Droid Ultra and Droid MAXX.
Here is the list of changes on Android 4.4.2 KitKat based from Moto X official firmware update:
-????????? Wireless printing service to support printing of photos, Google documents, Gmail messages and other contents using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other hosted services such as Google Cloud Print and HP ePrinters.
-????????? Improved battery life which contains the necessary fix for bugs causing shorter battery life after upgrading to Android 4.4 KitKat.
-????????? Fixed email sync delays on email client services such as Microsoft Exchange in terms of data synchronization.
Photo Source: Motorola


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As I continue on my journey to follow the trail of Foodtastic Inc., one of the leading restaurant franchisors in Canada and based here in Montreal, I discovered Big Rig Kitchen and Brewery on Iris Street in Ottawa.
We have been touting the much-anticipated arrival of Milestones Restaurants, a leading Canadian restaurant chain, to Quebec for a few years now. Well, thanks to the team at Foodtastic, this exceptional dining experience has arrived at Fairview-Pointe Claire.
“Copper Branch is the largest vegan restaurant brand in the world, and we are happy to welcome it into the Foodtastic Family,” said Peter Mammas, President, and CEO of Foodtastic. “We look forward to working with all our new franchisees and emerging through this pandemic with a revitalized leader in the plant-powered restaurant space. This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of acquiring quality Canadian brands with growth potential.”
When Montreal-based Foodtastic purchased the Milestones Grill + Bar restaurant chain (https://www.milestonesrestaurants.com) last summer, with plans to finally debut franchises in Quebec, I got pretty excited.
Foodtastic, a highly successful multi-brand restaurant company, is owned by brothers Lawrence and Peter Mammas.


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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Behind the scenes of the Greensboro Urban Ministry there is a lot going on. Volunteers pack emergency food bags for about a hundred families every day and thousands of pounds of food go out from the organization's Gate City Boulevard location.
The nonprofit also uses two trucks and a van to pick up food, and they're not in the best condition.
"By God's grace it's still going, it has a quite few hundred thousand miles on it," that's Myron Wilkins, executive director at the Greensboro Urban Ministry.
One of their trucks is on its last leg. It has a tattered roll-up door and needs a new transmission. "We may get to the place where the truck totally breaks down," Wilkins said.
If that were to happen, it would seriously hurt the organization and the needy families who depend on food donations. Right now it's just not in the budget to buy a new truck, the organization is hoping the community will help them get on a set of better wheels.
The organization gets fresh meat and vegetable donations from several Guilford County grocery stores, but the trucks don't have refrigeration, so drivers have to load everything into coolers and make several unnecessary trips.
Food Lion donates groceries every day to the nonprofit, so when the corporate office heard about FOX8's story and the need for a new truck, within just a few hours they donated $2,500 to Greensboro Urban Ministry.
"Being able to have this gift really sets the stage for us to be proactive and be able to replace this truck before it goes out and having to react and it's becoming an emergency," said Lane Brown, Director of Development and Communications for Greensboro Urban Ministry."


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Writer: Lu Xiaoming
Airburg (空气堡) recently unveiled its new ventilation system Nex-360A which the company claims to be the world’s first Apple HomeKit-enabled one of its kind. Users can use Siri or Apple’s Home App to control their Airburg at home.
The company has closed a $10 million financing round led by Lightspeed China Partners with participation from ZhenFund in August 2016.
Founded in 2014, Airburg is specialized in air particle detectors and ventilation systems. In response to the severe haze in China, particularly in its northern region, a number of companies have rolled out indoor air purifiers and the like.
However, said Yuan Xukun, CEO of Airburg, air purifiers have three defects in addressing the most severe haze, namely, the unsatisfactory purification effect, the limited purification scope and the stuffiness in an enclosed space when used.
Unlike air purifiers, the solution Airburg offers is a ventilation system that can exchange the foul air indoors with the filtrated fresh air from outdoors.
Ventilation systems have gained popularity in the rest of the world, as it is capable of inducing movement of fresh air into an enclosed space while keeping carbon dioxide and other air pollutants in a low concentration.
Such system is also installed in many movie theaters and hotels in China, supplemented Yuan. He also believed for an ordinary family, the traditional ventilation system not only suffers from a limited role in purifying air but also causes damages to home decoration as it needs piping for installation.
Moreover, the traditional ventilation system only offers maintenance instead of guaranteeing its effects in use. In contrast, Airburg, in a bid to fulfill its commitment of lowering PM2.5 to below 25μg/m², provides the “all-year-round” result-oriented maintenance service including real-time monitoring of indoor air quality.
As for noise reduction, the maximum noise level of air purifiers is 66 decibels per international standard, while Airburg has managed to lower this figure down to below 40.6 decibels, and even to 23.2 decibels for a common workplace.
In terms of marketing, Airburg sells its products on almost all popular e-commerce platforms and a few offline stores across 25 cities. Yet the offline efforts are dominated by partnership-based promotion. Users may learn about Airburg’s ventilation system from the screens that display air quality in business premises including kindergartens, gyms, and coffee shops, among others. Also, the company placed its brand in the hit TV series Ode to Joy II in China earlier this year.
Airburg’s hardware products are priced at a middle-to-high level, with the charged filter screen service following up. Yuan revealed that the company has been making profits since the launch of its ventilation system at the end of 2015.
In the next, Airburg is planned to bring more models of ventilator to the market that are fit for large homes, commercial establishments, vehicles, among others as well as two new models of air particle detector.
To upgrade its service model, Airburg has launched the “rental service” of its ventilation system for commercial use, covering educational institutions, offices, commercial properties, etc., as a way of minimizing the initial investment made by such commercial customers in this regard.
Facing 100-odd competitive brands in the market including foreign large ventilation system brands and domestic emerging ones, how to establish a brand image and expand sales channels is probably a priority for Airburg’s future efforts.
Mi Qun, co-founder and partner of Lightspeed China Partners, the lead investor of the funding, noted that their bet on Airburg was attributed to the fact the ventilation market showed explosive growth in the last two years and their optimism about Airburg’s strong product R&D capability, proper business model and sound market performance. Xu Xiaoping, founder and co-investor at ZhenFund, himself a user of Airburg ventilation products, indicated his belief in the potentials of Airburg’s products and user experience.


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Kate Henshaw is smiling to the bank.
Apart from being a brand ambassador for Samsung West Africa Mobile, the Nollywood star was recently announced as the brand ambassador for Electronics and Home appliances for the consumer electronics and digital convergence technologies company.
At a press conference held today Wednesday 5th June 2013 in Lagos, the star is seen smiling in a black LBD with silver detailing. Although we can’t see her heels, she styled the frock with silver drop earrings, silver rings and black-and-silver ring.
Her ambassador look was completed with wavy locks and fresh faced makeup.
A huge congratulations to Kate.


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Samsung Galaxy A90 5G has surfaced on Geekbench.
The listing confirms rumoured specifications of phone.
VIVO V19: HELPING YOU TAKE THE PERFECT SHOT FOR THOSE PERFECT MOMENTS
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Samsung Galaxy A90 5G has surfaced on Geekbench, reaffirming rumours of the device being powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset. The phone sports a model number SM-A908N, which suggests flagship level specs like Snapdragon 855 SoC, 6GB RAM, and Android Pie. However, Samsung has never used flagship processor on a mid-range device before, but with the availability of 5G connectivity on flagship chips only, like the Exynos 9820 and Snapdragon 855, it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Galaxy A90 5G comes with a flagship SoC under the hood.
Moreover, what’s slightly odd is the inclusion of 6GB RAM, since the Galaxy A80 was recently released with 8GB RAM. However, there is a possibility that the Galaxy A90 5G might come in two variants: one with 6GB RAM and the other with 8GB RAM. However, the presence of 5G could make it an expensive device, and as SamMobile claims, “offering options for storage and RAM would allow Samsung to keep the retail prices a bit more palatable.”
Other rumoured specifications of the handset include a 4,500 mAh battery, a 6.7 inch FHD+ Infinity-U Super AMOLED display and “exclusive tilt OS” technology, all of which might put the A90 5G close to flagship level pricing. The 4G variant (SM-A905) is expected to feature the same screen size but is rumoured to feature a higher resolution. The phone may also feature a triple camera setup with 48MP, 12MP, and 5MP sensors. However, it might not come with a slider design. While it could launch with Android 9 Pie onboard, the smartphone should get updated to Android Q after the launch.
As for the release date, the phone might be launched sometime after the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 goes official in early August. Stay tuned with Digit for more updates.
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Ubisoft fans rejoice because cross-play is seemingly on the horizon for some of the company’s biggest and best PvP games.
As confirmed by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, crossplay is definitely being worked on at the moment, meaning it’s hopefully coming sooner rather than later.
During a recent investor call, Guillemot announced [via Gamesindustry.biz]: “Our goal is to put crossplay on all the PvP games we have, over time. That’s well on the way.”
Unfortunately for us, Guillemot didn’t offer up anything more on the matter, so we don’t actually know which games Ubisoft is hoping to get cross-play live on first.
However, taking a look through Ubisoft’s back-catalogue of PvP games, it’s looking like a safe bet that Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor are going to be amongst the first.
Although lots of people embrace the way that cross-play can unite players regardless of their chosen platform, others criticise the idea as it can unbalance a game.
It’s widely accepted that players who choose to game with a keyboard and mouse have more control than those who choose to play the same game on a console controller. This can mean that PC gamers could have the edge in a lot of multiplayer titles, unless developers can put in a fix to help with balance.
In other Ubisoft news, it’s been announced via The Hollywood Reporter that a Far Cry television series is in the works, as well as a series based on Watch Dogs.
In an interview with Ubisoft Film & Television managing director Helene Juguet, a “cybermystery series aimed at tweens” has been confirmed for Watch Dogs. It’s expected to therefore be a lot more teen-friendly for the younger audiences.
Juguet also announced that Ubisoft Film and Television has partnered with Netflix’s Castlevania producer Adi Shankar for a new series based on Far Cry Blood Dragon, the DLC for FC 3.
Reportedly entitled Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Vibe, the show will also be aimed at young-adults, and will form a multiverse with other Ubisoft IPs.
Featured Image Credit: Ubisoft


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The first commercial version of The Copenhagen Wheel is now for sale. Synching between a smartphone app and an add-on wheel unit, you’ll be turning your bike into an electric hybrid in no time. Next up hopefully, finding a way to harness some of the energy for a phone charger.
For the 50th anniversary of the Sting-Ray, Schwinn has created 500 special-edition models celebrating the designer and former Vice President for Engineering, Research and Development, Al Fritz. Available at the beginning of December in select retailers.


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A man was filmed happily eating a shish kebab in front of animal rights activists as they protested outside several New York City stores.
The man, who has not yet been identified, was filmed eating his shish kebab in front of the Nike store in New York City on Saturday, where animal rights groups were protesting the company’s use of animal products.
He came off the street and started eating his meal in front of the activists, according to @ViralNewsNYC, at which point a woman confronts him and tells him: ‘You’re disgusting. Who do you think you are? You’re a coward, you’re just a f****** coward.
‘You’re a piece of s*** and you’re embarrassing,’ the woman continues. ‘What am I going to do? Nothing, you’re going to die on your own.’
The video then cuts to another woman in a hat berating the man, asking him if ‘it feels f****** good?’
An unidentified man was filmed eating a shish kebab in front of animal rights activists as a woman confronts him and tells him he is a ‘coward’
Another woman then starts berating the man, asking him if it ‘feels f****** good’ to eat meat in front of a bunch of vegans
‘You and your small d*** and your p**** way of killing animals and it feels good in front of the vegans, huh?’ she yells at the man, who starts nodding and makes a show of licking the remaining meat on his shish kebab.
‘You have all the blood on your face and on your hands,’ the woman continues to scream. ‘It feels good with your small d***.
‘Shame, shame, shame,’ she yells as she walks away.
The video has now been viewed over 564,200 times, garnering more than 16,800 likes on Twitter.
Many online applauded the man eating a shish kebab in the now viral video
Many of the people who responded seemed to applaud the man, who was seen wearing a white t-shirt and sunglasses as he walked around Manhattan on Saturday.
One man said he deserved a beer to go with his shish kebab, while another said he deserves an Alex Stein award, referring to a conservative comedian who often trolls progressive liberals.
A third Twitter user said he would do the same if he lived in New York City, writing: ‘I’d bring 50 of my buddies and have a giant BBQ.’
He then went on to call the unidentified man a ‘stud.’
The confrontation came as PETA, the animal rights organization held a planned demonstration in front of the Nike, Dior and Louis Vuitton stores to protest their use of animal products
The activists were filmed spilling fake blood in front of the Louis Vuitton and Dior stores
The confrontation came as PETA and other animal rights organizations marched through Manhattan in their annual Animal Rights March.
As hundreds of protesters made their way down to SoHo, they stopped at the Nike, Dior and Louis Vuitton stores to protest their use of animal products.
There, they were filmed spilling fake blood in front of the Louis Vuitton and Dior stores, as they chanted ‘Shame on you for what you do’ and ‘Christian Dior, animal abuser.’
They also held a sign outside of the Dior store reading: ‘Fur is dead,’ and went on to protest at the Nike store, where they chanted ‘kangaroos are not shoes’ and ‘massacres we do not condone; leave the kangaroos alone.’
At the end of the night, the protesters made their way to Central Park, where they met with a New York City councilmember to discuss his efforts to do away with the city’s carriage horses.
The purpose of the march, according to Ashley Byrne, the director of outreach communications with PETA was ‘to celebrate the success of our movement’ and ‘to take a stance together against speciesism’ — which she described as ‘the idea that humans are superior to animals and we have the right to use them for our purposes.’
Byrne also told DailyMail.com that while she has not actually seen the video of the man eating a shish kebab, ‘it’s not unusual for some people to throw a tantrum. It’s nothing activists haven’t seen.
‘We are provoking people to think,’ Byrne said, ‘and if that thought makes them uncomfortable good.’


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Earlier this month there were reports that YouTube for Kids is getting a new Whitelisted version and today, the company is rolling a bunch of new features that fall in line with the reports. Parents now get the ability only to show human-approved content.
Starting this week, YouTube for Kids team will offer collections from trusted channels on a variety of subjects from arts & crafts and music to sports, learning, and more. This also allows parents to select only the channel collections and topics they want their kids to access. You can go to the profile settings and select from available collections such as Sesame Workshop and PBS KIDS.
Later this year, parents will get a new feature that will allow them to specifically handpick every video and channel available to their child in the app. Starting this week turning search off will limit the YouTube Kids experience to channels that have been verified by the YouTube Kids team, meaning that search off will not include recommendations from the broader YouTube Kids corpus.
YouTube also said that it would continue to fine tune the YouTube Kids app to make it better and improve its filters for this more open version of our app.


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Disney to launch streaming services for films, live sports
Entertainment giant seeks to bypass cable services and Netflix by streaming sports and movies itself, including Toy Story 4 and a sequel to Frozen
With new streaming services in the works, Disney is trying to set itself up for a future that’s largely been framed by Netflix: providing content you want to watch, when you want to watch it.
The Magic Kingdom is launching its own streaming service for its central Disney and Pixar brands and another for live sports. That would allow it to bypass the cable companies it relies on – and Netflix – to charge consumers directly for access to its popular movies and sporting events.
“They’re bringing the future forward. What they talked about were things that looked inevitable, at some point,” says Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Weiser. But it’s less clear if Disney will be able to make big bucks from it, he adds.
This is important as the decline in cable households and the shift to smaller, cheaper bundles pressures the profitability of Disney’s cable networks. Fewer subscribers and fewer viewers mean less money. In the nine months until the start of July, cable networks’ operating income fell 13 per cent from the year before, to US$4.12 billion.
Starting in 2019, the only subscription streaming service with new animated and live-action Disney and Pixar films will be Disney’s own app. That will include Toy Story 4 and the sequel to the huge hit Frozen.
Older movies will be there too, as well as shows from the television channels Disney Channel, Disney Junior and Disney XD, and original programming and films. That could be hugely attractive for families with young children.
Disney is ending an exclusive earlier film deal with Netflix, and the streaming giant’s shares tumbled in after-hours trading. Netflix today has grown into an entertainment juggernaut in its own right, however, as it focuses more on its own exclusive programming.
Netflix already seemed to be bracing for the potential loss of the Disney movie rights when it announced its first-ever acquisition – the purchase of Millarworld, a comic book publishing company that will develop films and children’s shows based on its portfolio of characters.
Disney might bring more of its properties – particularly its Marvel superheroes and the Star Wars franchise – under its wing, and could even offer them as separate streaming services.
Chief executive Robert Iger says Disney is considering whether it should continue licensing Marvel and Star Wars movies to outside services like Netflix, move them into the Disney app or develop individual services for them.
The Disney service will be available in “multiple markets” around the world, taking advantage of Disney’s global name recognition.
Disney had already said it would be launching a streaming ESPN service. It’s not meant to compete with the company’s TV channels.
The sports service is coming in early 2018, a little later than previously announced, and will show baseball, hockey and soccer matches, tennis and college sports through ESPN’s popular mobile app. Notably, ESPN will not be streaming professional American football or basketball, at least initially.
Customers will also be able to buy fuller streaming packages from the baseball, hockey and soccer leagues, and watch them on the ESPN app.


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One more sleep until Disney launches its $1billion Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction. The company released its first image of the new attraction that will launch on Friday.
Josh D'Amaro, the president of the Disneyland Resort showed the attraction on an Instagram post. He said: So proud to introduce you to the inhabitants of Batuu! I want to thank this amazing team for their incredible dedication and passion. Yesterday’s Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Cast rally was unforgettable. This photo is one for the ages! “ (sic)


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Better Touch Better Business
In 2011, the Spanish machine tool industry paid attention to the Chinese market
The Spanish machine tool industry continues to maintain its position as one of the most important machine tool powers in the world, ranking eighth in the world (third in Europe). More than half of the production is exported, and its markets include Germany, France and Italy. However, China's role in this market has become increasingly important, becoming one of the top ten targets for Spain's exports in 2005, ranking seventh. In addition, Spanish Machine Tools' presence in China has become increasingly important since the signing of important sales agreements with several Chinese customers, with more and more afm members strengthening their sales channels in China (wholesalers, agents, owning license or own the product). This is the result of afm promoting and promoting trade relations with China, afm organized some events in 2006, such as participating in the ccmt2006 trade fair in Shanghai, with 8 members participating in the exhibition, and the upcoming trade mission in June. But these are not comparable to the project of Tianjin College, and the vocational training center in cooperation with proschools is about to be put into operation (proschools, a partner institution of afm, started operation in December 2003). This project opens up a new channel of cooperation between the two countries on machine tool training and trade. All this proves that China has been treated as one of the priority markets by the Spanish machine tool industry.


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At CES 2013, Panasonic revealed the largest OLED TV to date. This 56-inch set dwarfs previous OLED TVs, which were mostly on the small end.
iPhone production could begin as soon as August with a screen as much as 30 percent larger than the current iPhone 4S, according to reports of Apple's plans.
The recession is squeezing solar energy firms. These four could thrive.


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Sunday, January 31, 2010
2011 Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe to Take on the BMW 1 Series
With the death of the CLK, Mercedes-Benz is missing a smaller entry level coupe in its lineup. The E-Class coupe is nice, but definitely not cheap with a starting price north of $48K. Mercedes is reportedly working on a new C-Class coupe which will be launched for the 2011 model year.


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It’s THE hot topic in the games business: Ever since the announced takeover of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, PlayStation players have been concerned about whether the popular Call of Duty shooter series will continue to appear on their platform in the future. Despite several corresponding statements from Microsoft, there are still doubters – and Xbox boss Phil Spencer now wants to finally take the wind out of their sails.
Above all, in the person of Xbox boss Spencer, Microsoft had repeatedly emphasized that it wanted to leave Call of Duty on the PlayStation for a longer period of time once Microsoft approved the purchase of Activision Blizzard. He constantly adjusted the choice of words after all statements were quickly criticized by the PlayStation camp.
First, he referred to an ongoing deal with Sony that will tie Call of Duty to the PlayStation for years to come. After Sony was critical of the longer-term future of the franchise on its own console, Spencer recently added that Call of Duty will continue to exist on the PlayStation as long as there is a PlayStation for which it is also released could.
But conspiracy theorists have questioned that, too. After all, Spencer could also simply mean that Call of Duty on the PlayStation could only be published in the context of a mandatory Xbox Game Pass subscription – or as part of a version available exclusively via streaming. One way or another: Residual doubts always remained among PlayStation fans – but Spencer now wants to clear them up for good.
Spencer was once again addressed directly on the subject via The Verge’s decoder podcast, after Sony itself described the Xbox boss’s previous statements as “inadequate in many ways”. As a result, he now assures with regard to future PlayStation availability: “A native Call of Duty on the PlayStation, without any link to a mandatory Game Pass, not via streaming. If you want to have a streaming version of Call of Duty, you can we do that as well as on our own consoles.”
He points out that Modern Warfare 2 is currently doing great on the PlayStation. That’s another reason why he says: “The next game, the next, the next, that, next, the next and so on … natively on the platform, without a Game Pass subscription. Sony doesn’t have to adopt the Game Pass on its platform either, to make that happen. There’s nothing hidden about it. We want to keep bringing Call of Duty to PlayStation.”
While that statement is very clear, according to Spencer, there is simply no contract that can be written to say “forever”. But it was open to his statements to reach a really long-term agreement with Sony and the regulators, so that they feel comfortable with it.
Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0 – Launch-Trailer
The release of Warzone 2.0 is imminent and Activision is celebrating it with a big trailer.


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99% Of Drivers Overestimate The Chance Of EV Cars Running Out Of Charge Say The AA
The AA says that most drivers are overestimating the chances that an EV car could run out of charge. In a poll of over 14,000 drivers, on average motorists thought that almost two thirds of all EV vehicle breakdowns would be down to the vehicle running out of charge.
Some key reasons for this misconception could be underestimating the UK’s EV charging infrastructure which is expanding rapidly and the average vehicle range. Most of the newest EV cars have a range of over 130 miles, many offer over 150 miles and some even offer a range of over 200 miles now.
According to AA statistics, of 13,000 breakdown call-outs for electric vehicles in 2020, just 4% were for vehicles that had run out of charge.
The AA also say that this figure has been coming down rapidly over the last few years, presumably due to the rapidly expanding number of charging points available in the UK and the longer range the latest new EV cars offer.
The AA say that this is the most common myth about EV cars and in fact the main reasons for call-outs to EV cars is much the same as traditional petrol and diesel cars. These include punctures/tyre damage and a depleted 12v battery.
The 12v battery in a traditional petrol or diesel car is used for the ignition to start the engine. In an electric car you still have the small 12v battery along with the much larger one that powers the vehicle, the 12v in an EV car powers up the onboard computer as there is no ignition as such.


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The Chinese company Dacom, which released clone AirPods wireless headphones with chip W1, plans to begin selling the device in the international market. The company has already registered the device to the Federal communications Commission (FCC), in the future, the headset will appear in other countries.
Earphone Dacom, created in the image and likeness of AirPods, debuted in November of last year, and still sold only in the Japanese market and also in online stores. The product is produced by Chinese company, reminiscent of the design of the headset and picked up the Apple case for charging.
On closer inspection it is noticeable that at TWS Guofen7 modified form of headphones, attached lining and a button for pairing with the mobile device. As for the interior features, the headset is not equipped with touch sensors a La the AirPods that determine whether an in-ear headset and when necessary stop the music.
Guofen7 TWS support audio signals over the Bluetooth channel at a distance of 20 m and is able to hold a charge for up to 6 days in standby mode. Also with the help of headphones, you can answer calls.
The main advantage of Chinese replica AirPods. Chinese version of the Apple earbuds sell for $20 at a time, as the original headphones cost $160.


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In a recent diplomatic move, Ghulam Qadir, Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of Pakistan in China, led a delegation to Beijing to explore potential partnerships with TDD E-commerce Company, a subsidiary of IBI Guolian. This initiative marks a significant stride towards the joint development of a digital trading platform tailored specifically for the chemical industry. The partnership aims to accelerate the digital transformation of the sector, aligning with the economic and technological aspirations of both nations.
During their visit to TDD’s facilities, the delegation gained valuable insights into the company’s operational model, business scope, and technical capabilities of the Guolian Cloud. This exploration highlighted the immense potential for a synergistic collaboration in creating a comprehensive digital trading service platform. Discussions centered around the establishment of a localized B2B e-commerce platform and a China-Pakistan digital supply chain service system, with the goal of optimizing operations and fostering innovation within the chemical sector.
Ghulam Qadir emphasized Pakistan’s forthcoming plans to establish economic zones and industrial parks, aimed at attracting and supporting enterprises by providing a conducive business environment. He lauded TDD’s efforts in digitalizing the chemical industry and expressed keen interest in leveraging their expertise for the benefit of various industries in Pakistan. Liu Zhai, CEO of TDD, outlined the company’s global strategy and its focus on integrating the chemical industry’s value chain in Pakistan as a crucial aspect of its cross-border e-commerce expansion.
With TDD’s participation in the Pakistan Coating Show 2024 and its ongoing market research on the local chemical industry, the groundwork for a promising partnership is being laid. Both parties are committed to organizing visits, exchanges, and collaborations to enhance bilateral trade relations and contribute to the global supply chain. This initiative is poised to set an example for international cooperation in the digital era, advancing the goals of the Belt and Road Initiative and fostering economic growth in Pakistan and China.
The collaboration between Pakistan and TDD E-commerce Company represents a forward-thinking approach to digital transformation in the chemical industry. By harnessing technological innovation and fostering international cooperation, this partnership has the potential to reshape the sector, offering new avenues for growth and development.
#SupplyChainNews #ChemicalIndustry #DigitalTransformation #PakistanChinaPartnership #ICTTMNews


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MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Supreme Court has sided with a group of restaurant servers in a case that deals with people who "dine and dash."
The case goes back to 2010 when a group of people who worked at the now-closed Drink bars in Uptown and downtown Minneapolis claimed the owner used their tips and wages to cover customers who left without paying.
The workers testified in the trial that failing to make the payments could get them fired.
The good news is that dining and dashing doesn't happen very often, but it does happen. The question is how does management handle the loss?
When you're waiting on tables, you're busy. The last thing you want to worry about is a customer leaving you an empty plate and an unpaid bill.
Ellen Gustafson is a waitress at the Longfellow Grill in Minneapolis.
"We don't have to pay here, which is really nice, because it's not really anything that we did wrong, usually. In my opinion, it's never been something that I did wrong," she said.
That restaurant is one of seven places owned by Blue Plate Restaurant Company.
Stephanie Shimp is the owner.
"There is loss and it is a cost of doing business. We don't make our servers pay for that. I don't think it is the right thing to do," she said.
The Black Forest Inn has been in business in Minneapolis for nearly five decades.
Owner Joanne Christ said they've never asked the servers to cover the loss.
"Sometimes there are people who are planning it. Planning not to pay, waiting for the opportune moment to dash out the door. And we do have employees who dash right after them," she said.
Both owners said they try to get ahead of the problem by training their staff to be vigilant and to watch out for one another.
Sometimes what appears to be "dine and dash" is really just human error.
"I think people make mistakes a lot of times. We've had guests come back or call and say, 'Oh no, I've made a mistake!'" Shimp said.
Restaurant owners say they factor it all in as a cost of business, they simply absorb it.
On a much smaller scale, it's like what retailers do to cover the loss created by shoplifters.
In the State Supreme Court ruling that deals with the servers at Drink three years ago, the case will now go back to Hennepin County District Court to decide how much those servers will get paid.
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It’s still not here, but ITV did today stage a press launch hailing its eager-awaited web revamp as “the most comprehensive commercial website offered by any major broadcaster in the world.” The UK commercial TV market leader’s new ITV.com originally was slated for a March roll-out, then an event was penciled in for today – and it was known the £20 million ($40 million) project would center on video-on-demand plans. Yet what the network unveiled today was not the full public website — “which will go live to consumers within weeks” — but a media launch in which it put more flesh on the bone. Details from a press release:-
— New technology: A new EPG will send reminders via SMS and email. Links to the media player will be displayed on every web page.
— Live streaming: ITV.com will simulcast the network’s four commercial TV channels.
— 30-day catch-up: The entire schedule, according to Times of London, will be available for free. Only Champions League soccer matches, which ITV had already offered at a price, will be pay. No word on regional.
— Web-only content: Videos, previews, live chats, interviews, “on-set blogs” and unseen scenes will be made by a 40-strong multimedia team in a “360-commissioning” process. Sounds like ITV wants to ramp up online in the commissioning and production process from the start; it recently scored a success when it opened its Emmerdale prime-time soap opera up to viewer suggestions, creating interactive drama narrative. Made-for-broadband content will include a documentary, Web Lives.
– Broadband games: They’re resurrecting classic 80s and 90s gameshows like Blockbusters, Catchphrase, Countdown and Family Fortunes. Could prove successful if the sales of those shows’ DVD game equivalents last Christmas were anything to go by.
ITV CEO Michael Grade said the new site will be “a major step in ITV


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Clorox turns down acquisition proposal from Icahn Enterprises
OAKLAND, Calif. — Clorox has turned down an acquisition proposal from Icahn Enterprises valued at $76.50 per share, the company’s board of directors announced Monday.
Clorox’s board, in consultation with its financial and legal advisers, concluded that the offer "substantially undervalues the company and is neither credible nor adequate," Clorox chairman and CEO Don Knauss wrote to Icahn Enterprises chairman Carl Icahn, adding that Clorox is committed to continued stockholder value creation. The company received the offer July 14.
"Clorox has leading brands that are well-positioned in their categories and continuing to gain market share," Knauss said. "In fact, on an all-outlet retail basis, our U.S. brands have gained significantly more market share than any other branded consumer products company, or private label, in our categories over the last three years."
PepsiCo Beverages Canada unveils 7UP EcoGreen bottle
MISSISSAUGA, Ontario — PepsiCo’s Canada operations has introduced its first soft drink bottle made from 100% recycled PET plastic.
The company said that its 7UP soft drink will be available in the EcoGreen bottle in Canada. With the introduction of the 7UP EcoGreen bottle in Canada, PepsiCo Beverages Canada will reduce the amount of virgin plastic used by approximately 6 million lbs. over the course of one year.
"After three years of research and development, we have cracked the code to commercially develop a soft drink bottle made from 100% recycled PET plastic, and Canada has proudly led the way," PepsiCo Beverages Canada president Richard Glover said. "Consumers want products and packaging that reflects their desire to protect the environment, and PepsiCo is committed to delivering on that with this kind of world-class innovation."
Barbara’s expands Puffins, Snackimals lines with peanut butter, chocolate flavors
PETALUMA, Calif. — Barbara’s has expanded its all-natural products line with new peanut butter and chocolate items.
The brand has introduced new peanut butter and chocolate Puffins, as well as Snackimals in peanut butter and chocolate flavors. Peanut butter and chocolate Puffins cereal is available in a 10.5-oz. package, while both of the new Snackimals flavors are available in a 7.5-oz. resealable pouch or convenient grab-and-go 2.125-oz. bags. All of the new products are free of hydrogenated oils, artificial additives, flavors and preservatives, refined sugar, trans fats and high-fructose corn syrup.
"Peanut butter and chocolate are classic flavors that make a great combination," Barbara’s VP marketing Kent Spalding said. "Today’s consumers, especially moms, are looking for all-natural products without the ‘bad stuff’ like high-fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, preservatives and hydrogenated oils. With the new additions to our popular Puffins and Snackimals lines, we’re excited to offer families more delicious options that are free of unhealthy ingredients."


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KATADATA - Indonesian government is considering to open up its modern retail sector to foreign investors. Head of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) Franky Sibarani said at the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs office on Monday (1/18) that many foreign investors are interested to invest in the sector.
If the proposal is approved, it will be included in the revision of the Presidential Regulation No. 39 of 2014 on List of Business Sectors Closed to Investment and Business Open with Condition to Investment. According to Sibarani, foreign investment will help increase the capital of local retailers.
Until now, three types of modern retail are still closed to foreign investors. They are department store (2,000 square meters of floor space), supermarket (1,200 m2) and minimarket (400 m2). Even if the government later decides to open the sector, it will not allow 100 percent of foreign ownership. “If it was opened, (foreign ownership) will be limited to 33 percent. Local (retailers) can partner with foreign (investors) to increase their investments. But it has not been decided yet,” said Sibarani.
The government’s plan to open up modern retail sector to foreign investors may stir controversy. After all, the Ministry of Trade which is responsible for the sector is against the plan. Director General of Domestic Trade Srie Agustina said that the government should encourage foreign investment in the production sector instead. “Small retail sector should only be opened to local players,” she said.


text: This is largely dependent on the life stage of a company, which can greatly impact compensation, as well as work-life balance, risk, and upside. Raised £7.5 million funding Founded by Stefan Boronea, and Vadim Toader, Proportunity is a … The startup that lets staff set their own salaries Staff always welcome a pay rise – but what’s the best way to assess how much that increase should be? Based out of London, Proportunity has developed a solution aimed at tackling this problem. Apply today! A startup's funding impacts the CEO's salary, the report found. 555 Startup jobs in London on totaljobs. First time entrepreneurs launched 196,146 new ventures in the British capital last year, according to StartUp Britain , a government-backed campaign to support aspiring entrepreneurs If a business took in between $5 million and $10 million, startup owners would get $62,150 per year. Search Startup jobs in Tokyo with company ratings & salaries. Best Cities for Jobs 2020 NEW! The company also raised 3.2 million pounds ($4.2 … Cybersecurity salaries revealed: How much 24 companies including CrowdStrike, FireEye, and Palo Alto Networks pay analysts, engineers, and other roles — with pay as high as $350,000 An analysis of newly-released federal pay data reveals salaries at 24 major cybersecurity companies, many of which are still hiring aggressively. Compensation … Search 30 Start Up jobs now available in London, ON on Indeed.com, the world's largest job site. Each six months they go through this process: Each six months they go through this process: Each person provides a business case and a proposed salary increase. Find your new job at the best companies now hiring. Roughly, for every additional $1 million raised, a startup CEO will take home between $4,000 and $5,000 more in annual salary. Apply to Chief Financial Officer, Chief Credit Officer, Director of Finance and more! TL;DR: Startup founder salary to figure out how much you should be paid as a founder in the early days Whether you are bootstrapped or raised a series-B, you are probably wondering what your founder salary should be In March 2019, the average salary for Startup jobs in London rose by £8,898 (32%). At London based startup, Smarkets, employees set their own salaries differently. Overview For the fourth consecutive year, Hired is releasing its annual State of Salaries report — and, once again, the results reveal that tech salaries in US markets are … The UK startup ecosystem is booming. London's startup ecosystem is probably best known for its connection to FinTech. Sprinkle in London's booming financial industry, prominent media sector, and some of the world’s biggest advertising firms, and you have a recipe for an inspiring startup hub. Their healthy, ready-to-eat breakfast pots help busy people save time in the morning. Figures released by recruitment event Silicon Milkroundabout and job search engine Adzuna.co.uk have revealed that the average advertised salary has jumped … Note that in this report, the definition of “tech workers” refers to software engineers, designers, product managers, and data analytics roles. The first comprehensive startup salary survey in Germany shows that Berliners earn higher salaries and experience more job satisfaction. (Bloomberg) -- Israeli cybersecurity startup BrandShield Ltd. plans to go public on London’s AIM exchange via a reverse merger with Two Shields Investments Plc, according to a statement.BrandShield, a seven-year old firm that detects and counters online fraud and phishing attacks, has seen sales surge during the Covid-19 pandemic. The London-headquarted startup’s customers already include pub Revel pulls electric mopeds after failing to make a dent in Austin’s car culture Dec 04, 2020 Kirsten Korosec Here is Sifted's list of the top players and why they matter. But depending on the sector, your startup might also be well located in other UK cities like Manchester, Birmingham or Edinburgh – which are As the UK tech sector continues to grow, it looks like startup salaries are also on the rise. About Oatsu: Oatsu has launched the UK’s first plant-based, gut-friendly overnight oats. “We’re not in this to take big salaries and make big money,” says Julian Jung, founder and CEO of Tablelist, which is based out A free inside look at Startups.com salary trends based on 17 salaries wages for 14 jobs at Startups.com. - A higher startup age also drives salaries … Venture Capital Associate: Job Description, Day in the Life, Salaries and Bonuses, Recruiting, Promotions, and Advantages and Disadvantages. Berlin startups have an extreme gender pay gap! 3 Startup employees have shared their salaries on Glassdoor. 176 open jobs for Startup in Tokyo. Read on to find out how much Startup jobs in London pay across various industries and compare against other locations in the UK. 12 Startup CFO jobs available on Indeed.com. Since launching their online store (www.oatsu.co.uk) in April, this London-based start-up has sent out 1,500+ breakfasts across the UK, is now stocked in coffee shops across London and Essex, and […] Glassdoor has salaries, wages, tips, bonuses, and hourly pay based upon employee reports and estimates. Salaries posted anonymously by Startups.com employees. Displayed here are Job Ads that match your query. LVMH Salaries trends. With customers at the heart of our decisions, Robinhood is lowering barriers, removing fees, and providing greater access to financial information. Salary negotiations can often be a fraught exercise of push and pull between employees and their managers – or worse, an end-of-year review may pass by with no mention of pay. Cybersecurity salaries revealed: How much 24 companies including CrowdStrike, FireEye, and Palo Alto Networks pay analysts, engineers, and other … Apply to London Startup jobs now hiring on Indeed.co.uk, the world's largest job site. 49 salaries for 43 jobs at LVMH in London, UK Area. How much do Startup employees make? But what are the startups you need to follow in 2020? The average advertised salary for startup jobs now stands at over £40,000, according to new research. Our startup jobs salaries range from around £20,000p/a up to around £60,000p/a. Displayed here are job ads that match your query. London is one of the leading cities in the world for fintech, and therefore it was no surprise fintech is one of the top sectors (48 startups with this tag). Salaries posted anonymously by LVMH employees in London, UK Area. Select your job title and find out how much you could make at Startup. In London, the average salary for tech workers has dropped over 17% (GBP) since 2015; and in 2017, London companies were 7% less interested in hiring candidates from outside the UK. Among full-time startup employees in Berlin, the median salary for males is €3,333, while females reported a median salary of €2,500. But whether you want to found your startup in this or a different industry, check out this infographic first! The average salary in London, UK, rose from £37,078 in the previous year to £39,476 in 2017, according to the UK's ONS. Illustrator // Robinhood - London Startup Jobs About Robinhood Robinhood is democratizing our financial system. Sifted Take If you’re not from London (or one of 38 other major cities around the world) chances are you might not have heard of the transport and journey planning app Citymapper. Here's how the UK’s capital compares to other global cities on the issue of average annual pay. Search and compare average salaries by company, job title, and location. Cambridge’s vibrant tech scene is likely to continue growing as the coronavirus pandemic causes companies to relocate outside of London. Please note that all salary figures are approximations based upon third party submissions to Indeed. During the early days of entrepreneurship, I found it difficult to relate to others in London on the common struggles startup founders experience. We also tag companies based on whether they were selling to consumers (61 startups), businesses (60 startups) or enterprises (20 startups). Indeed may be compensated by … f you’re pursuing a job at a startup company, one of the most important factors you’ll need to consider is compensation, which is commonly structured differently than at more mature companies. Startup jobs in London, 9 urgent job vacancies! Get instant job matches for companies hiring now for Startup jobs in London like Software Development, Management, Product … Read the full London Startup City London is still buttoned-up. influence on salaries, with Berlin respondents in receipt of higher mean salaries across all experience levels than non-Berlin participants. Displayed here are job ads that match your query. The average salary for Startup jobs in London is £82,500. London has long been seen as the startup epicenter of the world outside Silicon Valley.


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The scorching startup makes use of artificial intelligence to generate practical voice recordings of written textual content, which opens up big potential in the publishing and audiobooks sector. India and the US are set to ink a permanent partnership that spans each the Earth and beyond into area. India will sign the Artemis Accords, which are non binding and involve civil area exploration and use.
After Bill C 18 passes, the tech giants wouldn’t have obligations beneath the act. The invoice guarantees to “enhance fairness” in the digital information market and help usher in extra money for shrinking newsrooms. Tech giants have been accused of disrupting and dominating the advertising business in the past. The investigation found that HiSilicon sells its chips to 3rd get together distributors who then promote them to the government. The chips have not been independently audited or licensed and could potentially include vulnerabilities that could compromise the security of the customers. Over the next few months, Squarespace will integrate GOOGLE DOMAIN into its own platform and continue to assist present customers.
Apple’s Fight Over Apple Pictures: Why The Tech Firm Might Force A 111-year Old Fruit Company To Alter Its Emblem
The most vital development in well being care will probably be across the knowledge units that folks have of their heads. I suppose all of us agree that the well being care system just isn’t consumer pleasant. Our work is mission pushed and that can actually motivate you when you present up every single day. According to the statement, the combined company will work to enhance care delivery capabilities, decrease costs, enhance levels of engagement and allow broad entry to prime quality care for Medicare Advantage clients.
Eu Business Chief Thierry Breton Defends Information Rules Criticised By Big Tech
Every day we get up, drink some espresso, get ready for work and verify on the latest tech. So here’s a handful of tales from around the tech world condensed to fit into that first cup. These are issues you should know before you step foot out of your door (or in entrance of a webcam) and into the actual world this morning.
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The group demonstrated the ability to create secure qubits utilizing Majorana particles and topological insulators. There is a partnership between a South Korean gaming firm and an automotive high fashion icon. You can get your hands on both the Veyron 16.four Grand Sport Vitesse and the La Voiture Noire with extra secret color themes unlocked. You will get a themed ornament and a parachute after this replace. From June 20 to August 6 solely, these vehicles might be obtainable. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, has been calling for tighter regulation of synthetic intelligence for months, however the creator of ChatGPT has been lobbying the EU to cut back regulations.
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI are involved in the investigation. One of the largest data hacks in US historical past poses a serious danger of id theft and fraud for the victims. The hackers were in a position to gain access to names, addresses, dates of delivery, Social Security numbers and driver’s license numbers. The affected states and prospects Sharp Pixel have been notified by MoveIt. Cloud computing has changed the way in which information is processed and analysts now have access to tens of millions or billions of inputs that can not be interpreted manually. According to the WEF, ninety seven million new jobs will be created by the 12 months 2025.
The rising sustainable focus is driven by said national goals, a wider business conversation and changing buyer demand. A majority of respondents believe that sustainable expertise options and tracking and reporting on CO2 impact will turn into the norm throughout the subsequent three years. Capgemini signed a share buy agreement to amass a leading cloud and digital providers supplier in Japan. Capgemini will have the ability to build its cloud and digital capabilities within the nation to fulfill client demand for its finish to end companies, because of the acquisition. He focuses on Linux and open supply applied sciences. He is a reviewer of open supply software program.
The samples had been despatched to the businesses. The storage drives shall be in several sizes. They are going to make plenty of storage drives in the second half of the twentieth century. It could take some time earlier than we see telephones with the firm’s UFS 4.zero on store cabinets. The later the tech organization is brought in, the harder it goes to be to develop really progressive know-how options and combine them successfully.
4,200 MB/s sequential read speeds and a pair of,800 MB/s write speeds are available in the mannequin. As you’ll be able to see, the usual write speeds of the 2 corporations are very totally different. Meta is currently undergoing a check that will block information for as much as 5 % of its Canadian users, while Google ran an analogous check earlier this 12 months. Meta had beforehand advised that it will comply with the bill by ending news availability on Facebook andInstagram for Canadian users. The Online News Act will take impact before Meta pulls local news from it is web site. The invoice will come into force six months after it gets royal assent.
Notably, it is also a US-led effort to return humans to the moon by 2025. However, it will extend its scope to past moon and also target exploration of Mars and beyond. Finally, degree three is reached when it turns into potential to engineer a scaled, programmable quantum supercomputer that is ready to outperform classical supercomputers in problem-solving.
There are three main milestones that the corporate wants to beat earlier than it could remedy problems that current computer systems can’t. The media has reported that a gaggle of hackers are threatening to release confidential data from the platform if the corporate does not pay them a sure amount of cash. The hackers have posted on a darkish internet leak web site the BlackCat ransomware gang and have allegedly stolen eighty gigabytes of compressed knowledge from Reddit in a knowledge breach that happened in February.


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Vietnam’s shrimp exporters mull future prospects
06:00 | 05/06/2020 Trade
(VEN)- The Covid-19 pandemic has affected many sectors including Vietnam's shrimp industry, and despite some positive indicators, the prospects of this major Vietnamese export are unclear yet.
Vietnam faces quality, safety requirements for exported masks
06:00 | 04/06/2020 Trade
(VEN) - Facial mask production and exports have provided a lifeline to Vietnam’s garment and textile sector amid the Covid-19 pandemic. However, businesses need to fully meet the requirements of the import markets and obtain certificates if they are to expand export volumes.
Forecast amended for textile, garment exports
06:00 | 30/05/2020 Trade
(VEN)- In the first quarter of 2020, exports and imports by the Vietnamese textile and garment sector declined 9.07 percent and 16.59 percent, respectively, and the trade surplus in this sector dropped 0.62 percent compared with the same period last year.
Demand for home fitness equipment skyrockets
06:00 | 28/05/2020 Trade
(VEN)- The quarantine and social distancing restrictions resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, including closure of all gyms, have pushed up demand for home fitness equipment.
Oil and gas group weathers dual epidemic and oil price crisis
13:00 | 25/05/2020 Trade
(VEN)- Despite difficulties and challenges, the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) has taken advantage of new opportunities for effective prevention and control of the Covid-19 pandemic while maintaining production and business and prepare for new development stages.


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A new TransUnion analysis found that consumers made an estimated $72 billion more in payments on their credit cards than purchases between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010. This is in contrast to the belief that charge-offs (where creditors write off debt that they deem is uncollectable as a loss) were the primary driver of lower credit card balances.
“Many people in the financial services industry believe charge-offs have been the leading factor in declining credit card debt since the start of the recession,” said Ezra Becker, vice president of research and consulting in TransUnion’s financial services business unit. “In fact, some have stated that charge-offs account for the entire change in card balances over the past two to three years. In reality, the dynamic is more complex. Our analysis shows that consumers have made a concerted effort to pay down their credit cards during these uncertain economic times.” Source: TransUnion Press Release


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Shares of CVR Partners LP (NYSE:UAN) have been assigned a consensus broker rating score of 3.00 (Hold) from the two brokers that provide coverage for the stock, Zacks Investment Research reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating.
Analysts have set a 1 year consensus target price of $11.00 for the company and are anticipating that the company will post $0.17 earnings per share for the current quarter, according to Zacks. Zacks has also assigned CVR Partners an industry rank of 226 out of 265 based on the ratings given to related companies.
Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Cowen and Company lowered their price objective on shares of CVR Partners from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, October 14th. Zacks Investment Research cut shares of CVR Partners from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th.
CVR Partners (NYSE:UAN) opened at 8.01 on Monday. CVR Partners has a 1-year low of $7.11 and a 1-year high of $16.12. The company has a market cap of $585.71 million and a PE ratio of 8.61. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $8.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.38.
CVR Partners (NYSE:UAN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported ($0.18) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.03 by $0.21. The business had revenue of $49.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $53.50 million. CVR Partners’s revenue for the quarter was down 26.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.17 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that CVR Partners will post $0.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.
CVR Partners, LP owns and operates nitrogen fertilizer business. The Company produces and distributes nitrogen fertilizer products. Its principal products are urea-ammonium nitrate (NYSE:UAN) and ammonia. The Company’s products are manufactured at its facility in Coffeyville, Kansas. The nitrogen fertilizer plant processes approximately 1,400 tons per day of pet coke from its crude oil refinery and third-party sources. The Company’s facility includes an ammonia unit, a UAN unit and a gasifier complex. The primary geographic markets for its fertilizer products are Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Colorado and Texas. It markets the ammonia products to industrial and agricultural customers and the UAN products to agricultural customers, retailers and distributors. In addition, it operates around eight rail loading and around two truck loading racks for UAN. It also operates approximately four rail loading and around two truck loading racks for ammonia.
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