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There's nothing pretty about its InControl app tech, but the 2015 Jaguar F-Type Coupe is still an exceptional performer that goes toe-to-toe with some stiff competition and comes away looking like a supermodel.
The following cars represent the most technically advanced available.
We fell in love with the gorgeous curves and excellent performance of the 2014 Jaguar F-Type, but middling tech and a very big price tag have us looking twice at its German competitors.
Jaguar uses a long list of superlatives to describe the F-Type, but is it the automaker's most fun car ever? CNET's Brian Cooley gets behind the wheel and checks the tech.
The sexiest ragtop on the road becomes the sexiest coupe with the addition of a fixed roof and a generous helping of horsepower.
It's got the look, the power and the noise. The new Jaguar F-Type R Coupe is the Jag we've all been waiting for.
When the F-Type was launched last year we were only given the convertible, now the coupe truly gives us a successor to the E-type.
Jaguar unveils its F-Type Coupe at the LA Auto Show. The all-new Coupe comes with three engine choices: two supercharged 3-liter V-6 engines, and a supercharged 5-liter V-8 -- with horsepower ranging from 340 all the way up to 550.
Jaguar follows up the F-type convertible, released earlier this year, with a hardtop version featuring a very svelte appearance.
Although lacking well-integrated connected features, the 2015 Cadillac ATS Coupe makes a worthy rival to its European competition, and should be a top consideration for anyone interested in a sport-luxury coupe.
The 2015 Jaguar XF 3.0 Sport is a no-frills take on the modern sport sedan. Drivers looking for the latest tech should look to competing models or wait for next year's redesign.


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Debit is the favorite, even overtaking credit for department store buys, and alternative payments are coming on.
Americans have their choice of payment methods for most purchases, including credit cards, debit cards, cash, checks and newer forms of electronic payments, such as mobile wallets and wearables. As new forms of payment become popular, our preferred methods of payment have been changing.
What method of payment is the most popular?
In a 2018 survey, payment processor TSYS asked 1,222 consumers which payment form they prefer. Fifty-four percent chose debit cards, while 26 percent selected credit cards, and only 14 percent specified a preference for using cash.1 Consumers’ preference for credit cards decreased by 7 percentage points over the same survey’s results from 2017, while the results for debit cards rose by 10 percentage points.
Over the years TSYS has been conducting its U.S. Consumer Payment Study, debit remains preferred for daily purchases at the gas station, supermarket and discount store. Now, it has also overtaken credit as the preferred way to pay at department stores. Previously, credit was the most popular payment method at department stores, most likely due to people’s preferring credit for higher-value purchases.1
Preferred payment types varied by income, too. The TSYS survey found that people more than $100,000 a year preferred credit cards, while those making less than $100,000 preferred debit.1
Why aren’t digital wallets catching on?
Mobile devices have permeated many aspects of our daily lives, but digital wallet use remains a small factor in the overall payments picture.
Part of the reason could be on the retailer side, with only 36 percent of merchants reporting that they currently accept digital wallet payments in a study commissioned by JP Morgan Chase.2 While 56 percent of large businesses said they accept mobile wallets, only 25 percent of small businesses said they accept them.2
Merchants are not the only slow adopters. In the same study, only 16 percent of consumers said they had used a mobile wallet.2
Some factors cited as hampering the adoption of digital wallets include fears about security and concerns that a merchant wouldn’t accept payments via digital wallets.
Digital security concerns change purchase behaviorIn the wake of many recent high-profile hacking cases, computer security has affected how consumers make purchases.
The 2017 American Express Digital Payments Survey shows that 73 percent of consumers surveyed have made three or more online purchases in the 12 months prior to June 2017. However, 37 percent say they have abandoned an online purchase due to security concerns.3
Nevertheless, nearly half of online shoppers (47 percent) say they’ve increased the frequency of their online purchases over the last year, and 71 percent of merchants say the proportion of their annual sales generated through online and mobile channels increased over the previous year. 3
However, the survey also shows that, security aside, plastic is still preferred – 20 percent of those surveyed are no longer carrying cash and 46 percent say that they rarely or never use cash.3
Frustration with chip cards may increase digital wallet usage
Since 2015, credit cards with embedded EMV chips have become the standard.
According to EMVCo, an international standards organization, which reports over 6.1 billion EMV chip cards in global circulation. EMV adoption rates in the U.S. rose to 52.2 percent in 2016, up from 26.4 percent in 2015.4
However, many consumers aren’t excited about the enhanced security of chip cards.
Mobile payment processor Square found in a 2016 survey that 37 percent of respondents say that waiting in line was their top pain point at stores, more than 87 percent of credit card users reported being frustrated that chip cards were slower to process than those with magnetic stripes. Ninety-one percent of debit card users expressed the same sentiment.5
The trend toward using credit cards as a sole method of payment
In recent years, the percentage of people who use their credit cards as their sole payment method (rather than to finance purchases) has risen dramatically. More than half of all credit card holders use their cards for everyday spending.
According to the FINRA 2016 Investor Education Foundation’s National Financial Capability Study, 52 percent of respondents reported always paying their credit cards in full in 2015, representing an increase of 11 percent compared to the same study in 2009.6
Person to person (P2P) electronic payment trends
Bank of America’s 2018 Trends in Consumer Mobility Report shows that P2P mobile payments are becoming mainstream, especially among younger Americans.
While only 44 percent of total respondents said they used P2P payments, compared to 36 percent in 2017, 51 percent of millennials said they used them, and 37 percent of Gen Xers.7
The bank’s 2017 Trends in Consumer Mobility Report showed that P2P payments are seen as “less annoying” than other forms of payment. For example, 51 percent of respondents found paying via check to be a pain, while 38 percent were annoyed by delayed checks or checks that are never cashed.7
Of those who use P2P payments, 68 percent said the payment was convenient and saved time, and 48 percent were motivated because friends were using it.7
Cash payments dwindle
Early predictions of a quick move to a cashless society have proved premature, but cash payments are still plummeting. According to the 2016 Federal Reserve Payments Study, noncash payments increased at an annual rate of 5.3 percent (3.4 percent in value), between 2012 and 2015. Debit, credit and ACH payments grew while check payments fell during this time period.8
The Fed’s 2018 Annual Supplement to its Federal Reserve Payments Study found that this trend continued, with the number of debit, credit and ACH payments growing, and the number of check payments dwindling.8
A 2016 Gallup poll also found that far fewer Americans are using cash than five years previously. Only 10 percent reported using cash for all their purchases, down from 19 percent in 2011.9
But still, only 12 percent say they never use cash, hardly changed from the 10 percent who said the same in 2011. 9
How consumers are paying their bills
When you think of “preferred payment method,” you might only consider retail purchases, both in-store and online.
But consumers must also select a method of payment when paying bills.
Fiserv, an online bill payment provider, issued its 8th Annual Billing House Survey in 2016, which found that more than 90 percent of households used more than one payment method for paying bills. The average number of payment methods in 2015 was 3.6, up from 2.9 in 2014. 10
More than 33 percent of those surveyed reported paying a monthly bill through their mobile phone, a 22 percent increase over the previous year’s survey.10
However, by far the most popular payment method for bills is the biller’s website, followed by checks and financial institutions’ websites.10
- TSYS 2018 U.S. Consumer Payment Study
- The Intersection of Payments and Commerce in a Digital World commissioned by JP Morgan Chase
- 2017 American Express Digital Payments Survey
- EMVCo Worldwide EMV Deployment Statistics Q4 2016
- What Consumers Think About Chip Cards and Mobile Payments survey by Square, Inc.
- Financial Capability in the United States 2016 by FINRA
- Bank of America’s Trends in Consumer Mobility Report 2018, BoA’s Trends in Consumer Mobility Report 2017
- The Federal Reserve Payments Study 2016, Fed’s 2018 Annual Supplement to Federal Reserve Payments Study
- “Americans Using Cash Less Compared With Five Years Ago” Gallup survey July 2016
- Fiserv Eighth Annual Billing Household Survey 2016

domain: news


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Dave & Buster’s, which is backed by Oak Hill Capital Partners, is expected to price its IPO on Oct. 4 and trade the next day. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies and Piper Jaffray are bookrunners on the deal.
You are browsing the archive for Dave & Buster’s - peHUB.
1) It’s Not a Bubble, People; It’s a Pyramid Scheme, by Connie Loizos
2) Scoop: Peter Wagner Parts Ways With Accel After Nearly 15 Years, by Alastair Goldfisher
3) Halsey Minor Sticks It To Virginia, Again, by Connie Loizos
4) ‘Goldfinger’ Hits $732M On 2nd Mount Kellett Fund, by Gregory Roth
5) Oak Hill To Make Back 40% of Dave & Buster’s Investment in Nine Months–UPDATED, by Luisa Beltran
6) Riding High On Q4 Profit, KKR Expects To Fully Deploy ’06 Fund, by Luisa Beltran
7) J-Dubs Redux: Beaten Abandoned, & Left For Dead, J.W. Childs Is Back, by Bernard Vaughan
Dave & Buster’s, an entertainment/restaurant chain, said Thursday that Starlette Johnson has resigned as president, chief operating officer and director effective Sept. 30. Oak Hill Capital Partners, a PE shop with more than $8.4 billion of committed capital, bought Dave & Buster’s in June.
[UPDATE: The deal has been formally announced. Press release follows story] PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Oak Hill Capital Partners plans to acquire Dave & Buster’s Inc for $570 million from Wellspring Capital Management, according to The Wall Street Journal.The chain, which combines restaurants with video games arcades, had been taken private in 2006 by Wellspring for about [...]


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Cannabinoids, particularly CBD, have taken the limelight with their dramatic life-saving effects in some cases of intractable epilepsy.
An Israeli observational study of 367 people using cannabis for fibromyalgia shows promising results.
Bipolar disorder is rarely considered from the perspective of the endocannabinoid system in mental health.
Could CBD save the lives of babies born with brain damage? A new clinical trial aims to find out.


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Ashley Graham is one of the hardest working people and most booked models in the industry. But the successful mother-to-be, creator of a digital series for Ellen Degeneres and host of the podcast Pretty Big Deal wasn’t always being sought out by brands and audiences. In fact, she was working tirelessly as a plus-size model within a media landscape that wouldn’t yet accept her.
In her Vogue cover story for the publication’s January issue, the 32-year-old reflected on the early start of her career when she was discovered in a mall in Ohama, Neb. at the age of 12. It was then that she started modeling bras for a Midwestern brand and was immediately thrown under the “plus-size” category.
“If you would have asked me then if I felt plus-sized, I would have said, ‘Well, I’m 12 years old and a size 10.’ I had no correlation with that word,” she told the magazine. “And as I grew up in the plus-size industry, it was like everybody was trying to do away with that label — get rid of it!”
But it was the plus-size sector of the industry that led Graham to her biggest break — not that it didn’t come without controversy. Namely, the young model’s appearance in a 2010 Lane Bryant ad that was “dubbed ‘too risqué’” for television.
“It was just me in lingerie and a trench coat going to meet my boyfriend for lunch and, you know, eating an actual meal. And it almost got taken off the air,” Graham explained of commercial — which was eventually kept on-air as a result of people calling it fat shaming. “Because why would a size 16 model in lingerie be banned from television and not a size 2 model?”
Still, Graham said that “it put me on the map...and it started a conversation.” It would be another six years, however, until Graham would debut on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue and finally put the lessons that she’d learned from fellow model Crystal Renn to work.
“[Crystal] would teach me how to flip my hair naked in the mirror and how to pose and how to change my face. But I just never had the opportunity to do those things editorially until I was on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Graham said. “That’s when people started taking me seriously.”
Today, everybody wants a piece of the model who seems to be doing it all and more. Even during her pregnancy, she’s taken on more work to build her business and her personal brand — including a social media movement inspiring women to show off their unedited pregnant bodies and a fitness series called Thank Bod.
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:


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US: Holiday sales growth seen slowing to 4.1%
By Katie Smith | 2 October 2012
US retail sales are expected to increase 4.1% this holiday season but will be tempered by political and fiscal uncertainties, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF).
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Nintendo has released its earnings report for the quarter ending September 30th, 2015, and sales data shows that new IP Splatoon is selling at a very impressive rate. Nintendo reports that the ink-fueled shooter has now sold over 2.42 million units worldwide since its launch in May. Splatoon had sold 1.6 million at the end of last quarter, which means another 800,000 copies were sold in the past three months. This makes Splatoon the sixth best-selling Wii U game to date.
Please spread the word and share this article. Stay safe, and God bless!


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DAYTON — New and used car prices are likely to rise under President Trump's tentative trade deal with Mexico, so now may be a good time to buy a vehicle, according to industry experts.
Analysts said that they’ve seen a shift this summer.
Used car prices typically dip in the summer. But they’re gone up 10 weeks in a row.
President Trump’s tentative trade deal with Mexico is expected to push new car prices and parts higher, according to Autotrader.
The anticipated rise in new vehicle prices mean consumers will be looking for used cars, and that expected demand is causing a shift.
Aariana Mcintosh is looking to buy her first car.
“I’m trying to get a car,” she said. “I’m trying to get a nice one too, but I don’t know.”
She knows what she wants and she knows it won’t be cheap.
“A 2015 Dodge, so that’s not new, but that’s still a nice car,” Mcintosh said. “So it’s going to be expensive — it’s $26,000.”
This long Labor Day weekend car buyers can take advantage of clearance prices as dealerships make way for 2019 models. Car-buying website Edmunds said there is still a good selection of 2018 models to choose from.
“Realistically we have just about anything that anybody could need,” said William Shultz, general sales manager at Matt Castrucci Auto Mall.
Dealers at Matt Castrucci Auto Mall are running incentives.
“To counter any kind of increased prices that are coming up, Nissan has been running a zero percent on all models,” Shultz said. “That may translate over to the customers.”
For Mcintosh, she said she’ll have to act quickly or she fears she’ll have to pay even more down the line.
“That’s a lot more that I have to save up to try to get a car and be more independent,” she said.


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Q. Can you provide us with a history of the Anaheim Plaza? Wasn’t it an indoor mall, then converted to an outdoor center?
– Mario Luna, Anaheim
A. Mr. Anaheim can personally vouch for the fact that it was, indeed, an indoor mall in the late 1970s and ’80s. I never worked there, as many of my friends did, but I do remember spending many hours shopping for back-to-school clothes with my mom at the anchor stores, including The Broadway, Mervyn’s and Robinson’s department stores. (Mr. Anaheim probably spent a few too many quarters – and hours – playing Frogger and Centipede in the arcade there, too.)
But I asked a better source, with more history in Anaheim, Stephen Faessel, 62, a local historian and Anaheim planning commissioner. He remembers going there when it opened in 1955 – the same year that Disneyland opened its gates.
Back then, it was just The Broadway and a few accompanying stores that shoppers had to go outside to get to. And it was a bid deal.
“It had been nothing more than an orange grove before that, so for those of us old-timers in Anaheim, our mouths were agape at this shiny new, modern shopping center,” Faessel said.
About a decade later, Robinsons was added and the mall was enclosed in the 1970s. It flourished for a couple of decades until Robinsons moved out around 1987 – focusing on the growing Mainplace Mall in Santa Ana instead. Anaheim Plaza stores suffered and began closing down for good.
In 1993, original anchor The Broadway closed and the entire mall – other than Mervyn’s – was demolished for redevelopment.
The demolition came despite some community opposition from people who pleaded to save the mall. It was converted to a center for big-box stores, including Walmart. Mervyn’s later became a Forever 21.
“It’s still a nice little neighborhood shopping center with Marie Calender’s, the AAA office and all,” Faessel said. “The shame of it all, though, is that a town like Anaheim wasn’t able to sustain an elite shopping mall.”
Q. Enjoyed your piece on No Doubt last week. I’ve always been curious – where did the band get its name, and did it ever consider any other names?
– Mark Masterson, Cypress
A. Thanks for reading and the kind words, Mark.
No Doubt formed in 1986. Among the early versions of the band, it went by the name Apple Core. The original lineup had co-lead singers, Gwen Stefani and John Spence.
Spence was a dynamic performer with a commanding personality and a favorite saying: “No Doubt.” (For example: “Could you do me a favor?” John’s response: “Yeah, I can do that for you, no doubt.”)
The name stuck.
John took his own life in 1987. After a long break to deal with the tragedy, the remaining band members reformed and carried on in his honor. As the band rose to fame and sold more than 20 million albums, Spence’s favorite phrase has, no doubt, been repeated millions of times.
Mr. Anaheim factoid: With a recently adopted ordinance creating stiffer penalties for people hosting loud parties, Anaheim hopes to cut down on the number of noise complaints. In 2011, police responded to 5,280 noise complaints; 72 locations generated five or more complaints.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3769 or firstname.lastname@example.org


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11.50 +0.01 (0.09%)
Pre-Market: 4:41AM EDT
|Bid||11.25 x 36100|
|Ask||11.73 x 27000|
|Day's Range||11.32 - 11.70|
|52 Week Range||9.47 - 16.62|
|Beta (3Y Monthly)||1.82|
|PE Ratio (TTM)||8.65|
|Forward Dividend & Yield||0.20 (1.81%)|
|1y Target Est||N/A|
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) today provided an update on its operations and outlook at PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI), affirmed its April 2019 guidance for 2019 consolidated copper and gold sales volumes and provided revised estimates for second-quarter 2019. During second-quarter 2019, PT-FI achieved important milestones with respect to its newly commissioned underground mining operations in the Grasberg minerals district in Papua, Indonesia. PT-FI has commenced extraction of ore from the Grasberg Block Cave underground mine, which is the same ore body historically mined from the surface in the open pit.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. today declared a cash dividend of $0.05 per share payable on August 1, 2019 to holders of record as of July 15, 2019 for its common stock.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) announced today an agreement to sell its cobalt refinery in Kokkola, Finland and related cobalt cathode precursor business to Umicore for total consideration of approximately $150 million, plus working capital at the time of close. Under the terms of the agreement, FCX will separate its cobalt business prior to completing the transaction. Umicore will acquire the refinery and cathode precursor business, which represents approximately 60 percent of the refinery’s historical revenues.
NEW YORK, Feb. 28, 2019 -- In new independent research reports released early this morning, Market Source Research released its latest key findings for all current investors,.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) announced today that notice has been issued to redeem on March 27, 2019, all of its outstanding $1 billion aggregate principal amount of 3.100% Senior Notes due 2020 (Notes), at a make-whole redemption price to be calculated in accordance with the terms of the indenture governing the Notes, plus accrued and unpaid interest on the Notes to be redeemed from the last interest payment date of March 15, 2019, to, but not including, the redemption date. FCX will use cash to fund the redemption. FCX expects to record a loss to net income of approximately $3.4 million in the first quarter of 2019 in connection with the redemption.
With global electric vehicle (EV) demand growth creating the potential for tight supplies in battery metals such as cobalt, multinational companies and industrialized nations are working to secure these critical metals as prices are projected to rise. The growing market for electric vehicles has led to much higher demand for battery metals such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. As the largest producer of EVs and largest consumer of battery metals in the world, China is aggressively looking to secure additional supplies of these critical minerals.
FCX expects its share of future cash flows of the expanded PT-FI asset base, combined with the cash proceeds received in the transaction, to be comparable to its share of anticipated future cash flows under PT-FI’s previous Contract of Work and joint venture arrangements with Rio Tinto (Joint Venture).
NEW YORK, Oct. 31, 2018 -- In new independent research reports released early this morning, Fundamental Markets released its latest key findings for all current investors,.
Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (FCX) announced today that it has entered into a Divestment Agreement on previously agreed economic terms with the Indonesian state-owned enterprise PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Persero) (Inalum) in connection with Inalum’s acquisition of shares of PT Freeport Indonesia (PT-FI). As previously reported, Inalum will acquire for cash consideration of $3.85 billion all of Rio Tinto's interests associated with its Joint Venture with PT-FI (Joint Venture), and 100 percent of FCX's interests in PT Indocopper Investama (PT-II), which owns 9.36 percent of PT-FI.


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When a new Subaru Impreza debuts, it's almost a sure thing that a redesigned Subaru Forester, which shares the same basic platform, is going to follow quickly.
Read This Article
Subaru will recall 381 Legacy and Outback models built in 2011 due to a potential fault with their side curtain airbags.
Subaru announces pricing for its popular WRX and WRX STI vehicles.
By this time next year, we may have a new Mazda3, a new Impreza WRX, and even a Subaru hybrid.


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Soft drinks maker Britvic reports better-than-expected 23% rise in profits
Soft drinks maker Britvic reported a better-than-expected 23.4 per cent rise in full-year profit, helped by market share gains, and said trade in the new year had started well.
Britain's second biggest soft drinks maker behind Coca-Cola Enterprises on Wednesday posted a pretax profit of £86.5million on sales 5.6 per cent higher at £979million for the year to September 27.
Britvic was expected to report an average pre-tax profit of £83million for the year, according to a Thomson Reuters poll of 13 analysts.
Fizz: Britvic's profits were brighter than expected at £86m
The company, whose brands include Robinsons, Tango and J2O, raised the final dividend by 23.9 per cent to 10.9 pence and said the outlook was positive, despite limited earnings visibility in British and Irish markets.
'Recent conditions in the British soft drink market have shown some signs of improvement but we take a cautious view of consumer spending. However, we are encouraged by our strong group performance in the early weeks of the new financial year,' the company said in a statement.
Shares in Btitvic, which also has exclusive rights to sell Pepsi in Britain and Ireland, closed at 372.50 pence on Tuesday, valuing the group at around £808million.
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Proving physics isn’t just theoretical black-hole gazing, this year’s Nobel Prize went to a discovery that paved the way for radically shrinking the size of computers. Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg won for uncovering “giant magnetoresistance,” the phenomenon that big electrical resistance variances can be produced from weak magnetic ones. In practical terms? “Without it you would not be able to store more than one song on your iPod!” one scientist told the BBC.
GMR, which the pair discovered in the late 1980s, made it possible to develop sensitive reading tools to pull data off hard drives, the BBC explains, opening the door to laptops, mp3 players and other consumer tech applications. Scientists say GMR’s structures, which consist of very thin layers of differing magnetic materials, represent one of the first real nanotech applications.


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(Update 12/20/16 at 9:53am PT: Netgear told Tom's Hardware in an email that it plans to release "final firmware for all of the affected routers" today. The company also updated its security advisory with additional information about what routers are affected and for what routers firmware updates are now available. Anyone who owns a Netgear router should check the company's website to see if they need to update the device's firmware.)
Netgear announced that it has released beta firmware updates for routers with critical security vulnerabilities. The company also said the problem was more far-reaching than expected, and that a security researcher's warning about the issue from August slipped through its reporting system's cracks.
The security issue could have allowed anyone to completely take over affected routers with a malicious website or advertisement. At first, the problem was thought to be present only in R6400 and R7000 routers; then it expanded to include R8000; and now, Netgear has added other models to the list. As the company discovers more products affected by this vulnerability, at least, it's also swiftly releasing firmware updates to improve their security.
"Acew0rm" on Twitter discovered the security problem in August. They said that they emailed Netgear about the vulnerability but never received a response. The company didn't acknowledge the issue until CERT released a warning to consumers telling them to immediately stop using the affected devices. Four months passed between the first disclosure and Netgear's acknowledgement of the vulnerability, and Netgear knows that's unacceptable.
Here's what a Netgear spokesperson told Tom's Hardware in an email:
This vulnerability, which has come to be referred to as VU 582384 was overlooked in our review process. We initially became aware of this vulnerability last Friday, December 9th, when CERT emailed us, and because we had no record of a prior report, began our standard process of validating prior to making any public statements. Once it had been disclosed that the first notification occurred in August, we conducted a search and confirmed this was the case. Admittedly, this was an oversight on our part. While no security reporting system is perfect, we aim to do better, and are evaluating how to improve our response process.
Netgear has now acted swiftly to address the problem. It's released beta firmware updates for 11 models of its routers in just a few days. If the patch resolves the issue, the company might have plugged a hole in its security that could have put its customers and the rest of the internet at risk. Still, this shows that even companies with the proper systems in place can miss vulnerabilities and demonstrates how hard it is for researchers to make sure their warnings are taken seriously.
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The full list of routers affected by this discovery can be found below:
Netgear is still looking into the issue, however, so customers should be on the lookout for any firmware updates regardless of which Netgear router you use.
Nathaniel Mott is a freelance news and features writer for Tom's Hardware US, covering breaking news, security, and the silliest aspects of the tech industry.
This is something that should have come back in September, considering the vulnerability was known to them back in August.Reply
Did you even read the article? They had no record of a prior report before Dec 9, so it was not known to them back in August. It's been known to them since Dec 9 when CERT notified them.Reply
@Sykozis - Do you honestly think it fell through the cracks.. don't be a fool.Reply
FYI, you have to go after this manually. The firmware updates in the device UI can't "see" the beta .18 release.Reply
Download from Netgear and browse for the file, otherwise it's no joy in Mudville.
19003963 said:Did you even read the article? They had no record of a prior report before Dec 9, so it was not known to them back in August. It's been known to them since Dec 9 when CERT notified them.
Once it had been disclosed that the first notification occurred in August, we conducted a search and confirmed this was the case. Admittedly, this was an oversight on our part.
Yes, they knew about it in August. They disregarded it because their internal processes regarding being informed of such things failed to include or specifically excluded outside sources of such information. In other words: they don't consider communication with their customers as a priority.
This has to do with management style. It is "old school" to only consider internal sources of information for such things unless forced. This was the way management was taught until the last 10 years or so. I know this because I have fought with it for most of my career. Many companies are still stuck in this mentality, even in the tech industry. Cisco, Oracle, Creative Labs, VMWare, and EA are particularly bad about it. Companies like this head off in their own direction, regardless of what their customers want, and then suddenly realize they have become irrelevant.
More pioneering companies have begun to realize that this mentality is what causes big companies to fail to stay up in their markets. They began to take heed of what their customers had to say, and even began to solicit feedback from their customers. Microsoft started it with their constant focus groups, but have lagged behind lately, particularly during Steve Balmer's time as CEO. Bill Gates had the wisdom to work with people and find out what they wanted and how they worked to create an interface that people could use easily. (Thankfully, their new CEO has headed back in this direction.) Since then, others have started this, like Blizzard, which started a very active forum system to listen to their players' feedback.
Netgear has always been a rather isolationist company. They have very little in the way of active support, let alone user feedback. Ever try to get tech support for a bad router? It takes weeks to get a replacement. Do you think they even have any way to submit feedback on bugs? That is why they failed at this. They aren't paying attention, to their customers, the direction of the market, or the quality of their products, and they are going to pay for it in the end.
I gave my Netgear away and never buy that brand again since they refuse to fix the critical(and simple) bug on my jnr3210, now I'm looking at this and laughing, good work Netgear, screw all your customers continuously, you know they are all foolish and will buy your product again!Reply
You would think they would staff someone with a rudimentary knowledge of all thing security related who keeps up. Anyway to test:Reply
I have read that you take a performance hit with ddwrt as it doesn't leverage some of the proprietary network driver stuff as the stock fw does.
Also, if you run the above ps command and see telnetd in there, you may have already been hacked.Reply
pfsense seems to be about the best way to go for a router, unless you want to get into enterprise level firewalls.Reply


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March 02, 2021
There’s a Food and Leisure article on Philstar that says, “Average Filipino spends P23,000 yearly on beer — report.” The article misreads the report. The stats it cites are per capita. So the average is the amount, not the Filipino....
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PayPal will open an applications store this year where developers can offer their wares, the latest step in the company's multi-pronged strategy to deepen its relationship with external programmers.
Early termination fees for mobile phone contracts are necessary to subsidize the cost of smartphones and customers know what they're getting into, mobile carriers told the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in comments filed this week.
At a news conference attended by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a Silicon Valley start-up today took the wraps off a fuel cell designed to enable individual homes and businesses to generate their own...
Sometimes you take a chance on technology even when you can't predict hard returns, hoping that an educated experiment will create business opportunities.
Even though New Super Mario Bros. Wii is still tearing up the sales charts, Nintendo won't stop the Mario love, as the company announced a May 23 release date for Super Mario Galaxy 2. In addition to the late spring release date, Nintendo also showed...
In a talk intended to woo investors, Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said the iPad will win over potential netbook buyers, but not because of specs or features.
Google is being challenged on multiple continents with accusations of monopolistic intentions and unfair business practices. The one-time scrappy start-up has become a monolith in its own right, and now finds itself under the same antitrust scrutiny ...
Apple's ban on sexy apps -- more than 5000 apps were removed from the app store over the weekend because they contained "overtly sexual content" -- has been making headlines, mostly because of the selectivity of the removal.
Apple recently pulled thousands of sex-tinged applications from its App Store for containing "objectionable content" but has quickly come under fire for being hypocritical by retaining some other apps from well-known publishers, including Playboy and...
An Italian's judge's decision today to impose a six-month suspended jail sentence on Google's global privacy counsel, Peter Fleischer, and two other company executives over a video showing the bullying of a disabled teenager has evoked outrage in the...
Google's row with the Chinese government has led it to cancel an event for Android developers in China next week, according to a person familiar with the situation, in the latest show of the dustup's effect on Google operations in China.
Three quarters of Asia Pacific enterprises -- and two thirds of businesses in Singapore - have experienced cyber attacks in the past 12 months, according to new global research.
Apple's iTunes Store hit a landmark on Wednesday with the download of its 10 billionth song.
CA on Wednesday announced it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire for an undisclosed sum a company called 3Tera, a move that industry watchers say will equip the management software maker with tools to offer customers a smoother transit...
At PMA 2010 Sony unveiled a concept model of a compact interchangeable-lens camera with an APS-C sized sensor (24mm x 16mm).
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All 1,600 pharmacists, members of the Irish Pharmacy Union, have been called to discuss a controversial payment system for pharmacies.
Hundreds of pharmacies are expected to shut their doors and as medicines can only be dispensed in the presence of a qualified pharmacist, patients may find difficulty in having their prescriptions filled.
Effectively a one-day stoppage, the action follows HSE plans to cut the margin paid to pharmaceutical wholesalers and save €1.1 billion. It is speculated pharmacists may take legal action against the HSE on the basis it allegedly breached their individual contracts. The HSE paid out more than €600 million to pharmaceutical wholesalers and retail pharmacists last year, according to figures released last Friday. The HSE paid out more than €1.13bn to pharmaceutical manufacturers for drugs provided to patients under state schemes. Wholesalers received more than €200m while pharmacists received €237m in fees and a further €130m in mark-ups.
Union president Michael Guckian said the HSE statistic showed the total fees and margins earned by pharmacists amounted to €367m. He said the HSE decision, effective from March 1, represented a cut of about 30%.
“If the HSE forces its cuts on pharmacists we can expect many pharmacies to close over time across the country,” he said.
Mr Guckian said the average payment to a pharmacy last year was in excess of €200,000, out of which the pharmacist must cover salaries and overheads. Last year, according to the HSE figures, 86 pharmacies received fees in excess of €400,000, 120 received between €400,000 and €500,000 while 226 received between €300,000 and €400,000.


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In an age where mobile carriers run roughshod over their customers while raking in billions, net neutrality has become a rallying cry from users hoping to regain some semblance of technological freedom from their provider's draconian policies and fees. Naturally, left to their own devices, carriers like AT&T
(NYSE:T) and Verizon
(NYSE:VZ) have introduced arbitrary data caps and throttling
-- not to mention are charging ridiculously marked-up fees for text messaging. They've effectively reduced choice (try running Android's (Nexus 5 on Verizon's network) and eliminated true ownership (or removed bloatware from smartphones with locked bootloaders).
So, whenever one of these providers has a new policy to announce, subscribers' immediate inclination is to be wary. And AT&T's new Sponsored Data program justifies such a reaction.
Earlier this week, AT&T touted a new plan wherein advertisers and developers can pay to deliver content to someone's phone without it counting against a customer's data cap. Like with most new sweeping programs, the policy appears at face value to directly benefit the consumer. After all, who wouldn't want to access data without hitting that data limit? But by introducing a pay-to-play system for content makers, AT&T destroys that even playing field where net neutrality thrives.
Nilay Patel at The Verge explains the problem
with a streaming-video example. If a movie can be streamed for $4.99 from both Apple
(NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google
(NASDAQ:GOOG), either company could subsidize the cost of the rental by paying AT&T directly and not have the download count against the subscriber's plan.
"That has huge implications for the free market of the Internet," Patel writes. "[If] YouTube doesn't hit your data cap but Vimeo does, most people are going to watch YouTube. If Facebook feels threatened by Snapchat and launches Poke with free data, maybe it doesn't get completely ignored and fail. If Apple Maps launched with free data for navigation, maybe we'd all be driving off bridges instead of downloading Google Maps for iOS."
And as soon as certain content makers are given preferential treatment over others, there goes net neutrality.
This week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler voiced his concern over AT&T's Sponsored Data plan and its threat against Net Neutrality. "My attitude is: Let's take a look at what this is, let's take a look at how it operates." He added, "And be sure, that if it interferes with the operation of the Internet; that if it develops into an anticompetitive practice; that if it does have some kind of preferential treatment given somewhere, then that is cause for us to intervene."
But while the government agency is taking a more "wait-and-see" approach, California Congresswoman and net neutrality advocate Anna Eshoo is convinced that AT&T is overstepping its boundaries and believes the program should be nipped in the bud. "On its face, the ability for consumers to access 'toll-free' content seems like long-awaited relief from frustrating data caps," she said. "But embedded in programs of this type are serious implications for fairness and competition in the mobile marketplace."
She adds, "The announcement of a sponsored data program by AT&T puts it in the business of picking winners and losers on the Internet, threatening the open Internet, competition, and consumer choice."
Of course, AT&T has a different interpretation of the matter and denies its program violates net neutrality.
AT&T's senior executive vice president of external and legislative affairs, Jim Cicconi, said in a statement, "We are completely confident this offering complies with the FCC's net neutrality rules, which our company supports. AT&T's sponsored data service is aimed solely at benefiting our customers. It allows any company who wishes to pay our customers' costs for accessing that company's content to do so. This is purely voluntary and non-exclusive. It is an offering by that company, not by AT&T."
But contrary to what Cicconi says, this isn't just like a company offering a discount on a paid app or movie. Data caps themselves are already a ludicrous restriction
based on unquantifiable metrics that do nothing but generate bigger profits
for providers. Subsidizing data usage so a product can be accessed without fear of restriction is the very antithesis of net neutrality and the free market. It all but begs the user to access one service over the other due to an unnecessary limit put into place by a superfluous and all-too-powerful middleman.
When one megabyte isn't equal to another, net neutrality is lost. Let's just hope the FCC can come to realize that.
Facebook, Inc. Makes a Mobile Move
Live From CES: Your Next Audi Will Be Obsolete in Two Years
No positions in stocks mentioned.


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The European Commission has opened an antitrust investigation into "potential anti-competitive behavior" related to Facebook's Libra Association created to oversee its cryptocurrency project, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.
The European Union's antitrust probe of Facebook's two-month-old Libra cryptocurrency project focuses on concerns that it would improperly shut out rival payment systems, the news agency said, citing a document it said it had viewed.
Regulators and central bankers have cautioned that there is a need for strict regulation of Libra to avoid disruptions to the international financial system.
At a hearing in mid-July before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, David Marcus, who heads the Libra project at Facebook, said he expected Swiss authorities to regulate the cryptocurrency because the Libra Association is a new Geneva-based international organization.
"To be clear, the Libra Association expects that it will be licensed, regulated, and subject to supervisory oversight. Because the association is headquartered in Geneva, it will be supervised by the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority," Marcus testified.
"We have had preliminary discussions with FINMA and expect to engage with them on an appropriate regulatory framework for the Libra Association," he said, adding that the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, is also expected to play a role. "The association also intends to register with FinCEN as a money services business."
Marcus said that "for the purposes of data and privacy protections, the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner will be the Libra Association’s privacy regulator."
That presumption resulted in a July 17 letter from the Swiss commissioner, Adrian Lobsiger, who said he had not yet been contacted about any such role.
Lobsiger's office said in a statement he expects the Libra Association to conduct an impact assessment of "the data protection risks for the persons concerned and proposed appropriate measures to minimize these risks."
He also asked for an update on the project's status, so he could assess "the extent to which his advisory competences and supervisory powers would apply." His office has given the Libra project until the end of August to provide the requested information, and a U.S. delegation of lawmakers planned to meet with Swiss authorities this week to discuss their concerns.
Earlier this month, data protection authorities in Albania, Australia, Burkina Faso, Canada, the European Union, the U.K. and the United States released a joint statement demanding more transparency from those overseeing the Libra project.
"As representatives of the global community of data protection and privacy enforcement authorities, collectively responsible for promoting the privacy of many millions of people around the world, we are joining together to express our shared concerns about the privacy risks posed by the Libra digital currency and infrastructure," the authorities said.
"These risks are not limited to financial privacy," they said, "since the involvement of Facebook Inc., and its expansive categories of data collection on hundreds of millions of users, raises additional concerns."


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Innovation in the local mobile category was a hot topic at BIA/Kelsey’s DMS ’10 conference earlier this month, and for very good reason. As consumers increasingly adopt mobile, our industry has an unprecedented opportunity to generate new advertising revenue in the space.
Adding to the excitement over local mobile is BIA/Kelsey’s new projection, announced this week, that U.S. mobile local advertising revenues will increase from $213 million in 2009 to $2.02 billion in 2014, representing a compound annual growth rate (RAGR) of 56.9%.
According to BIA/Kelsey, mobile local advertising includes advertising targeted based on a user’s location and/or advertising that is locally actionable. The release notes that “location targeted ads will command premiums over non-local advertising, due to the higher immediacy, consumer buying intent, and conversation levels.”
This news comes just weeks after BIA/Kelsey said that overall, local advertising is growing slightly faster in 2010 compared with previous estimates, and will likely reach $133.3 billion in 2010, up 2.9% over 2009.
I’m excited about the positive growth outlook for local, both generally and in mobile, and the ongoing efforts of our industry to play a central role in its ongoing evolution.


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Walmart bowed to criticism and announced it would stop allowing sales of “All Lives Matter” merchandise.
America’s largest retailer said it had just come to its attention that this phrase “minimized” Black Lives Matter.
“Recently, some associates and customers have raised concerns about ‘All Lives Matter’ products,” the company said in a statement.
“As we listened, we came to understand that the way some, but not all, people are using the phrase ‘All Lives Matter’ in the current environment intentionally minimized the focus on the painful reality of racial inequity … The lives being impacted by ongoing racial injustice are the lives of Black people and people of color, and that’s why we are placing an emphasis there,” the company explained.
The products, mostly clothes, were being sold on the company’s website by third parties, rather than in the Walmart’s brick-and-mortar stores. But the retailer — which also banned the sale of Mississippi’s Confederate-banner state flags last week — are being removed “indefinitely.”
The company also has come under fire for allowing sales of other “Lives Matter” slogans and parodies — including “Blue Lives Matter,” “Irish Lives Matter” and “Homeless Lives Matter.”
However Tuesday’s statement did not say that those products would be removed.
“We are also increasing our scrutiny of various ‘Lives Matter’ products on our marketplace to ensure compliance with our terms and conditions,” Walmart said.
Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC.


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ABP Ananda successfully concludes 9th edition of its marquee food festival ‘Khaibaar Paas’
ABP Ananda, Bengal’s leading news channel, has successfully concluded the 9th edition of its four-day annual food festival ‘Khaibaar Paas.’ The event was organised from January 26 to 29, at EEDF Ground, Kolkata. A confluence of food and culture, this event holds immense significance in Kolkata and is highly anticipated by the locals. Like every year, it grabbed the attention of thousands of enthusiastic and excited Bengali food lovers who gathered in huge numbers to share their love for food.
In ABP Ananda’s ‘Khaibaar Paas,’ the foodies were tucked into a range of different cuisines including Mughlai, Chinese, Bengali, exotic Sea Food, Sweets, street food, Continental, Lebanese, and other variety of snacks. More than 50 restaurants participated in the event who set up their food stalls to display their exquisite recipes and impeccable taste. The influencers and foodies cherished the festival and relished tasting culinary dishes along with creating brand visibility and promoting these renowned restaurants and food outlets in Bengal. Furthermore, to make Khaibaar Paas a one-of-a-kind food event many fun and engaging activities were carried out by influencers, bloggers, and participating restaurants.
Due to the great relevance of the event amongst Bengal’s foodies and food business owners, hundreds of business enterprises shared rich traditional, and contemporary takes on Bengali cuisine. The event also provided a great platform for sponsors and partners to display their offerings to larger audiences.
ABP Ananda’s Khaibaar Paas 2023 was presented by eminent sponsors which included Wild Stone, Dear Govt. Lotteries, Jaya Biscuits, Suman Kacchi Ghani Mustard Oil & Catch Masala. The event was powered by – Proreal Entertainment, partnered with Pran Toast, Wagh Bakri Chai, Mukhorochak, Saha Textile, Alliance Broadband and Mysore Sandal Soap, while its digital partner was ABP Live.
Founder & Editor


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Google claims that they have been successful in preventing people from placing “bad ads” on Google, with the amount of bad ads down by 50%. “Online advertising is the commercial lifeblood of the web, so it’s vital that people can trust the ads on Google and the Internet overall,” wrote Chief Engineer Sridhar Ramaswamy.
According to the Ramaswamy, over 130 Million “bad ads” were removed in 2011. “Like all other internet companies, we’re fighting a war against a huge number of bad actors — from websites selling counterfeit goods and fraudulent tickets to underground international operations trying to spread malware and spyware,” he added. “We must remain vigilant because scammers will always try to find new ways to abuse our systems.”
Quite a few of the “bad ads” on Google that are showing up are unfortunately in the performance marketing industry. Unfortunately, this means that because of the actions of those who ignore the standards, sometimes whole category of ads and whole parts of our industry are summarily banned from advertising on Google.
The following video explains what Google does to prevent more bad ads from showing up.
Did you know that hundreds of Googlers work around the clock to make sure the ads you see on Google are safe? David Baker, Engineering Director at Google, explains more about our fight against scam ads and our process for keeping you safe.


text:
Jodi Robinson, an engineering exec who played a big role developing TV Everywhere apps and digital products for Starz, has left the premium programmer to join Charter Communications as senior VP, user experience design and development.
Robinson will oversee UI design and development for all Charter’s products. She reports to Rich DiGeronimo, Charter’s senior VP, product and strategy.
Robinson joins Charter as it moves forward on a plan to roll out a cloud-based guide/navigation system that will share a similar look and feel across platforms, including tablets, smartphones, browsers and set-top boxes. Speaking at an investor conference on Tuesday, Charter CEO Tom Rutledge noted that the MSO plans to roll out the cloud UI in the spring, with expectations that it will be available to more than half its footprint by the end of 2015.
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The long list of companies that have had to furlough their workers grew a little longer Tuesday when PVH Corp. could hold out no longer.
The corporate parent to Tommy Hilfger and Calvin Klein has been paying its workers in the U.S., Canada and Europe for 30 days even though stores have had to close to slow the spread of COVID-19.
But the company — like many others, including competitors Capri Holdings Ltd. and Ralph Lauren Corp. — is now having to take more drastic measures to conserve cash and weather the storm.
Seventy-five percent of the firm’s North American employees are going to be furloughed or see their hours curtailed. (All told, the company has about 35,000 workers, including 12,000 in Europe and 5,000 in Asia).
Call that something of a baptism by fire for Stefan Larsson, who’s been president of the company since May and is heir apparent to chairman and chief executive officer Emanuel Chirico.
Larsson has been heading the task force at PVH looking into the group’s options around the globe. It’s been a delicate and difficult operation that also includes Chirico; Dave Kozel, chief human resources officer, and Mike Shaffer, chief operating and financial officer.
The group is speaking multiple times daily.
“We just make sure we are clear on what we are up against and how that is changing and that we take the necessary actions now that will enable us to come out strong in the end,” Larsson told WWD in an exclusive interview. “It’s both a human crisis and a business crisis at the same time.
“No one has all the answers in a crisis like this,” he added. “As leaders, we have to lead through this with humility and being radically transparent and at the same time compassionate in how we lead through this.”
The toughest decisions “by far” landed on Tuesday with the furloughs, which come at a time when 10 million people rushed onto the U.S. unemployment rolls in just two weeks last month.
“Even though we are one of the financially strongest companies coming into this crisis, we are not built to stand still,” Larsson said. “We tried to keep our full teams on as long as we possibly could.”
There’s a fine line to walk.
“How do we protect our people in the short term to the maximum possible extent and yet make sure that we get through this crisis and come out stronger so we can protect them in the long term?” Larsson said.
While this is a time of great change in fashion, PVH is looking to bring everybody back.
“Our intention is that this is all temporary through this crisis and then coming out of this, we look forward to the day when we can bring our teams safely back,” Larsson said. “And the decisions we make today are made to make us get through this time and then be able to bring the team back.”
Clearly Larsson, while still new to the job, is now fully part of PVH, seeing the corporate culture up close and in a time of stress.
“Some companies speak about values and then do something different, but in a crisis, you cannot hide, everything is magnified,” Larsson said. “The biggest takeaway for me is that the culture of caring about people and culture equally is really a value and it got magnified over the past few weeks and it makes me really grateful to be part of the team.”
Larsson said he and Chirico speak throughout the day and on their last call each day, they talk about the people of PVH and “what we do to minimize the impact on our team. That’s where we end up when we have our final call of the day.”
In addition to the furloughs, executives are taking pay cuts and PVH is cutting back or eliminating all discretionary spending, including marketing, and is cutting capital expenditures to about $190 million from $345 million last year. It is also closely managing inventories, focusing on cutting working capital, redeploying inventory and consolidating future seasonal collections.
PVH drew $750 million from its better than $1 billion revolving credit facility to beef up its cash position, suspended its stock repurchase program and cash dividend. The sale of the Speedo North America business to Pentland Group was also closed, raising $170 million in cash.
With all of that as some extra financial cushion, Larsson said the company was also driving business recovery efforts, refocusing more on e-commerce and collaborating with key partners, such as Amazon or Tmall in China.
“When we get out of this, it’s going to be…a new normal, a new world,” Larsson said, although he said just what that looks like remains to be seen.
Kozel, who’s been head of human resources at PVH for more than 16 years, did venture a guess about how the COVID-19 crisis would echo out into the future.
“It’s going to change the way people work,” Kozel said. “Today, we’re running a global company out of our [home] offices or living rooms.”
That reality will change the way companies are structured, he said.
While much of the workforce is having to sit out without pay, cuts are also coming to the very top of the corporate org chart.
Chirico sent a “A Note From Manny” message to the global workforce Tuesday saying: “I will not be receiving a salary and our senior leadership will reduce their salaries by 20 percent to 50 percent during this crisis period. In addition, our board members will forgo 100 percent of their cash compensation for the duration of the crisis.”
The ceo is a PVH veteran and has seen his share of crises, but COVID-19 is something new.
“It is having a more extreme and sudden impact on our business than 9/11 and the great financial recession of 2008 combined,” the ceo said, acknowledging people in the “PVH family who are dealing with COVID-19 as a patient, a parent, family member or friend.”
As a global player, PVH is putting together a patchwork approach with its response tailored to each market, taking into account what stage the COVID-19 outbreaks in various countries, as well as local regulations and the various rescue plans set into motion by governments.
• North America: In PVH’s home market, where it has the highest concentration of workers, three-quarters of its store, office and warehouse associates are being furloughed or having their working hours decreased. Medical benefits will continue for furloughed workers. The company’s warehouses and distribution centers are open, but working at a reduced capacity and workers have been given an additional 10 days of paid time off.
• Asia: Offices and stores closed for the Lunar New Year in January and stayed closed until government and health officials gave the green light. Most stores are reopening, but with limited hours and have seen decreased sales and foot traffic. As a result, corporate associates are subject to temporary salary reductions.
• Europe: The company is tailoring its approach to each country based on the various subsidies and relief packages. Most stores are closed and corporate associates are working from home.
• Brazil: Stores are closed and PVH is looking into governmental pay subsidies, working hour reductions and salary reductions.
• Australia: Stores and offices are closed in a government-mandated stand down and almost all associates are furloughed, with some senior executives working from home and voluntarily foregoing pay.
Read more from WWD:
WATCH: How Fashion Is Fighting Coronavirus


text:
As the struggle with the pandemic ended, the hospitality industry was finding its way back.
The wave of the pandemic brought disaster to the business sector, bringing the world economy to shake in an unrealistic way. But do you know the hospitality industry especially faced a significant setback in 2020–2021 all around the world? Despite the fact that the ban has been lifted and we have resumed our normal routine. It may take a while for the industry to proceed forward in terms of business after a lockdown.
As they say, absence makes the heart grow fond. For two whole years, people have stayed inside their homes without any pleasure of dining out or laughing their hearts out with friends. So, when the ban was lifted, people were excited to get back to their routines. And to support the hospitality industry, governments have provided many discounts to encourage customers to enjoy their leisure time outside. But gradually, this excitement decreases as people become thoughtful about their spending on eateries.
Reasons for the decline in dining out
According to the information mentioned by the experts from Palm Chester, people have shown concerns while dining out in restaurants. Customers have become cautious about what they are ordering and what procedure they are using to order. Though the pandemic has passed and restrictions have been lifted, there are factors blocking the excitement of returning to normalcy. Now those aspects can be social, health, and technological.
Due to COVID, the hospitality industry has suffered major scrutiny regarding indoor hygiene and food quality. The proper sanitation of a restaurant, and making sure to provide good quality food leads to more expenses for restaurant owners, hence the increase in the price of food.
Also, another factor could be that customers have become more comfortable while staying at home due to social distancing outside and concerns about hygiene quality.
POST-PANDEMIC DINING HABITS
As we discussed earlier, customers have become more concerned with health and hygiene after the pandemic. Restaurants and cafes are trying their best to regain their earlier frequenter. They decide to introduce innovation and assessing in their already established business to bring profit to the table. And here comes the technological factor, as people have shown an increased interest in online orders and home delivery.
The government had announced major discounts and schemes to cover the loss of the hospitality industry, but that wasn’t enough to bring back interest. As per the research conducted by experts, there is a slight increase in interest in foreign foods such as Italian, Chinese, American, and Japanese to be specific. From April 2019 to April 2022, there is a 177% increase in searches for these restaurants alone in the UK.
Not only have many people go vegan, but they also prefer something light and less greasy as their daily meal. Also, the cultural influence of these countries on the entertainment industry is clear.
In order to earn through this opportunity, many businesses come up with discount card offers for foreign restaurants. tastecard is one of them. They’re food eatery discount cards with various options and have deals on cinemas and other leisure activities.
The tastecard has helped in providing real comfort to people post-pandemic. People’s interests are inclined more toward the Italian side, as tastecard gives a good discount on Pizza Hut restaurants. Not only that, with tastecard you can avail of 2 for 1 or 50% off on selected restaurants as well.
So, for your comforting and exciting weekend, we’ve got you covered. They have other offers where you can pre-book your eatery in order to avoid long waits and have a calm dining experience without any hustle.
The shift after the pandemic between pre and post is quite evident. Things might have shaken up, but all in all, businesses like tastecard came as a blessing in disguise in these tough times.


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A coccyx memory foam seat cushion from Xtreme Comforts has garnered popularity and the love of many online shoppers on Amazon to date. The seat cushion is quickly approaching 4,000 4.5 and above star reviews on the expansive shopping platform. Retailing at $29.99, the company says the cushions are loaded with multiple back-bone health benefits for users.
More information about the popular seat cushion can be found at https://www.xtremecomforts.com/products/ortho-seat-coccyx-seat-cushion.
Xtreme Comforts is the brand behind top-rated comfort and sleeping products on Amazon. Its seat cushion, designed to alleviate tailbone pain and back pain for those suffering from these chronic conditions, has helped hundreds improve their daily living, says the brand.
“The ortho-seat memory foam coccyx seat cushion is ergonomically designed with a U-shaped cut out, creating a coccyx comfort space that allows your tailbone to ‘float’ rather than being compressed against the seating surface, bearing the weight of your body. The contour surface design distributes body weight across the seat, relieving pressure points on your tailbone and back,” says a spokesperson from Xtreme Comforts.
The company claims the seat cushion helps prevent and stop sciatica back pain that comes from poor sitting habits and long sitting hours. Designed to fit perfectly in any office chair, the cushion can also be used as a support when sitting on the floor for protecting the coccyx region from external pressure. The extra pressure, after a long time, is felt as a sharp chronic pain, the company states.
“My mother likes this cushion a lot. It is helping her with a sore spot on her tailbone and, we believe, keeping her from getting a worse sore in that area. We were afraid it was the beginning of a pressure sore (bed sore). She is finding it to be very soothing and comfortable,” comments a satisfied Amazon buyer.
“The seat is very comfortable. It does not slide off of any chair or seat–leather, wood, or upholstered. To provide that comfort, the cushion is two inches thick. Since day one, it has relieved the sciatic nerve pain I had developed in both legs,” adds another happy buyer.
Those interested in finding out more information about the coccyx seat cushion from Xtreme Comforts can visit its official website or Amazon Storefront.
About Us: With a mission to help people suffering from chronic back pain and sleep problems, Xtreme Comforts is a pioneer at building products that help alleviate discomfort, both at home and work.
Name: Karen Barr
Email: Send Email
Organization: Xtreme Comforts
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HP Earnings Up 41% In Second Quarter
Hewlett-Packard yesterday reported a 41 percent gain in earnings, but analysts said second-quarter results could have been stronger if the computer and electronics giant had not underestimated demand for its products.
Palo Alto-based HP said it netted $577 million ($1.10 per share) in its second fiscal quarter, up from $408 million during the same period of 1994. That lagged Wall Street expectations of around $1.11 per share. Predictably, HP's stock fell in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange, closing down 1 1/2 at 69 1/2.
In announcing the results, Chairman Lewis Platt said company officials were pleased with the earnings as well as a 27 percent growth in orders over the previous year. "We're disappointed, however, that our revenue growth was limited somewhat by the effects of several product transitions, as well as by some production and supply constraints," he said.
HP reported solid gains in orders for personal computers and multi-user systems. But the company's popular Deskjet printers posted only moderate growth compared with an outstanding year-ago period, when new products were available early in the quarter.
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Analysts said HP underestimated demand for its computers, and consequently had trouble obtaining enough parts amid the burgeoning market for PCs.
"Their orders came in a lot stronger than their internal forecasts," said Doug van Dorsten of Hambrecht & Quist in San Francisco.
Investors were not overly concerned. "There is a point of view in the investment community that it's not the end of the world if orders exceed estimates," said van Dorsten. "That's a pretty good problem to have."
Platt said the company is "working closely with suppliers to address the availability issues that affected us this quarter. We're also focused on improving our production planning in order to meet demand more effectively."
Despite the conservative forecasting, HP saw its finances continue to surge. The 41 percent jump in net income was accompanied by a 19 percent increase in revenues to $7.4 billion. Orders and revenues increased in each of the company's five divisions.


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In this article, I would like to share ideas on and questions about cigar industry trends. No, we won’t discuss about how nice Habanos are or what the best relative humidity is for storing your cigars.
The question here is, how can the cigar industry have positive social and environmental impacts on today’s world?
First, we will go over the basics to set the context, and then I will discuss the ideas behind the question.
Cigars are constructed of three parts: the filler, the binder and the wrapper. Each part has a specific purpose and can come from different parts of the world.
In the case of the following N°54 from Quai d’Orsay (Habanos S.A.) all parts are Cuban.
Premium cigars are usually hand made by Torcedores : skilled workers that hand roll cigars.
It is known that most cigar tobacco producers are based in Latin America (Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Dominican Republic or Brazil) and less frequently Cameroon, Indonesia or other countries.
In the case of Latin America, cigar companies are based there mainly for historical reasons. After the Cuban revolution (1953–1959), some cigar producers left the country to flee the embargo, continue their businesses and bring their expertise somewhere else. They ended up in countries like Mexico, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic. This is true of brands like Joya de Nicaragua and Plasencia.
The problem is that some of these countries, like Nicaragua or Honduras are known to be “unstable”. In August 2018, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a report titled “Human rights violations and abuses in the context of protests in Nicaragua”. It’s difficult to enjoy a good, quality cigar from these countries knowing that citizens in that country face problems like a lack of freedom of speech, basic human rights, and fair wages.
What lies ahead?
Recently, news reports show that the cigar industry is trending toward using organic tobacco. It seems that the company pioneering this is Plasencia. They started cultivating on certified organic farms and launched a cigar called Reserva Organica.
“The better we take care of our land, better the tobacco gonna end.”Nestor Plasencia
In an interview with JR Cigars, Nestor Plasencia informed that their new cigar, Alma Fuerte, contained organic tobacco leaves. He added: “The better we take care of our land, better the tobacco gonna end.”
It seems that they are the only players in the cigar organic tobacco field right now. Verdadero once produced an organic cigar, but it seems that the brand doesn’t exist anymore.
Is there any hope?
Considering the different problems mentioned above, it is possible to bring existing solutions from other industries and adapt them to the tobacco industry, and more specifically, for the cigar industry.
One of the solutions is certifications. Having a certification system in place would ensure the purchased items respect specific rules regarding contributing to a positive impact (social, environmental, economic).
In the case of social impact, we can think of fair trade certifications for this industry. Certifications of this kind would make it necessary for companies prove to the consumer that the workers involved in cigar production and packaging are being paid adequately, and that the company has a positive impact on the lives of its workers and on local communities.
Tobacco fields and leaves can suffer from diseases and insects. Tobacco growth and production is affected by climate conditions and bad weather can reduce the productivity. In this case, farmers can come into contact with insecticides, herbicides, ripening agents, growing agents to control these problems. But we know perfectly well that these chemical products are harmful to the surrounding ecosystem and negatively impact the health of workers. Environmental certifications would make it necessary for companies to prove that their tobacco production respects the local ecosystem and their workers.
B Corporation created by B Lab, is a certification that is a good example to follow in the case of social and environmental positive impact certifications. These certifications won’t solve all the issues, but they can definitely help workers, communities and consumers, meanwhile companies can still make a profit.
Being able to enjoy a quiet moment with a cigar knowing that you are not contributing in any way to harming the environment and other people is possible, but for now, we must remain patient.
Cover Photo by Yuting Gao


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WASHINGTON -- Bayer will end U.S. sales of Essure, the controversial permanent sterilization device already pulled from foreign markets, at the end of this year, the company announced on Friday.
"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration was notified by Bayer that the Essure permanent birth control device will no longer be sold or distributed after December 31, 2018," said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, in a press statement.
"The decision today to halt Essure sales also follows a series of earlier actions that the FDA took to address the reports of serious adverse events associated with its use," he continued.
Gottlieb noted that sales of the device declined by about 70% following these actions, which included requirements for a boxed warning, a post-market study, and more recently, an informational brochure for patients that included a consent form.
Bayer said its decision was driven purely by the sales decline. "The benefit-risk profile of Essure has not changed, and we continue to stand behind the product's safety and efficacy, which are demonstrated by an extensive body of research," the company said.
Gottlieb said the post-market safety studies will continue and are a top priority for the FDA.
He also noted that women using Essure successfully to prevent pregnancy do not need to have the devices explanted.
Essure, a sterilization device, was marketed to women who have decided not to have any, or any more, pregnancies.
Once inserted in a women's fallopian tubes, the device, made of an expandable nickel-titanium coil with a stainless steel coil inside it, triggers tissue growth, ultimately blocking these tubes and preventing sperm from entering the duct. At least, that is how the device was supposed to work.
Tensions between the FDA and thousands of women who believe the sterilization device is dangerous have been mounting for years.
In September 2015, during the public portion of an FDA advisory committee meeting, dozens of women described a laundry list of symptoms they experienced after receiving the implantable device, including severe abdominal pain, bleeding irregularities, migraines, painful sex, auto-immune disorders, extreme fatigue, psoriasis, perforation of the uterus, and even narcolepsy and cataplexy. Some also said they became pregnant, in spite of the device.
At that time, roughly 5,000 medical device reports -- indicating adverse effects in women who had the device implanted -- had been filed with the FDA.
Bayer removed Essure from all foreign markets in September 2017, also citing commercial reasons.
(See this article for a timeline of major events in Essure's product life.)
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who had complained to the FDA repeatedly about the device, celebrated Friday's announcement.
"Until today, the United States was the only country in the world where you could purchase Essure -- a distinction for which no one should be proud," said DeLauro in a press release.
"I am glad that women in America have joined the ranks of those whose safety will no longer be threatened by this dangerous product."
To date, DeLauro noted, there have been 20,000 documented adverse events.
Women who say they have been harmed by Essure also applauded the news on Friday.
"Seven long years of fighting to get Essure off the market has finally paid off," wrote Angie Firmalino, founder of the Facebook group "Essure Problems" and president of Advocating Safety in Healthcare E-Sisters (ASHES), in a message to MedPage Today.
"Today's announcement that Bayer will be pulling Essure from the market here in the U.S. has brought us all to our knees in thanks, relief, and celebration. Not one more woman will be harmed by this device. We have won, we have finally won," Firmalino said.
Nearly a decade has passed since Firmalino was implanted with Essure. She said she experienced fevers, achy joints, and constant bleeding and ultimately had the device removed, but pieces remained.
The FDA approved Essure, marketed by Conceptus, which was later acquired by Bayer, in November 2002. According to the agency, Essure is estimated to have been used by more than 750,000 patients worldwide.


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- The Indian government has approved 110 out of 111 applications for importing laptops, computers, and IT hardware products.
- Major hardware companies like HP, Lenovo, IBM, Apple, Dell, and others were among those whose applications were approved.
- This decision follows the government’s abandonment of plans to impose a licensing regime on IT hardware product imports.
- Simultaneously, authorities introduced an “import management system” to regulate inbound shipments of IT hardware products.
- The move aims to facilitate the smooth import of essential IT hardware and equipment for companies operating in India.


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Clover to make comeback in local market
Fin24/ Reuters - Apr 4th 2014, 08:57
Johannesburg - Dairy and beverages maker Clover said on Monday it planned to re-enter certain local markets, putting on hold Africa expansion plans as it posted an almost doubling of interim earnings which were lifted by higher prices.
Clover, whose brands include Tropika juices, said headline earnings per share for the six months to December totaled 77.3 cents, a rise of 90%.
Headline earnings are the main profit gauge in South Africa and exclude certain one-off items.
The company said it will raise prices again this year to offset higher operating costs after its margins benefited from an increase in the previous year.
"Compared to the previous corresponding period, this reporting period benefited from selling price increases implemented during January 2013 and July 2013 to recover higher costs driven by inflationary pressures," Clover said.
Chief executive Johann Vorster said higher earnings also stemmed from investments made in the expansion and cost-cutting project Cielo Blu, which involves moving production facilities closer to milk sources in the coastal areas of South Africa.
He also said the company planned to re-enter domestic yoghurt and custard markets.
"We are not looking at expanding anymore than we already have in Africa. The focus going forward will be trying to re-enter the yoghurt and custard market," he said.
Clover ended a partnership with French food maker Danone last year, which was how the South African company had a presence in the local yoghurt market.
Clover declared an interim gross dividend of 16 cents.From Fin24.com
SA dairy exports doing well
16/04/2019 - 15:42
Dairy imports for February were 4 110 tons at a cost of R172 million. South Africa imported mainly from France (28%) New Zealand (28%), Germany (13%), Poland (8%) and Ireland (4%). Dairy imports for this year are low compared to last year, largely due to limited UHT imports. The main dairy products imported in February were whey (34%), milk powder (22%) and cheese (18%). UHT as a percentage of total imports was less than 1%.
Water giants clean up their act in search for alternatives to plastic
16/04/2019 - 14:43
Two of the world’s biggest water companies are thinking outside the bottle about how to hydrate consumers as environmental campaigners take aim at the enormous amount of plastic waste the industry produces.
Brimstone to review Clover acquisition after boycott threats
08/02/2019 - 09:35
JSE-listed Brimstone said that it is reviewing its participation in a consortium seeking to acquire dairy producer Clover, due to protests over the participation of an Israeli company.
SA food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation unchanged
20/12/2018 - 15:33
South Africa’s food and non-alcoholic beverages inflation has bottomed out and will begin an upward cycle in the coming months, supported by an increase in agricultural commodities prices. The headline number will probably increase marginally as we expect the uptick in cattle and sheep slaughtering activity to contain meat price inflation at fairly lower levels in the near term which will, in turn, influence the overall increase.
The signs are here that South Africa has reached its economic crossroad
03/12/2018 - 11:37
While South Africa attempts to shore up its own economy amid high inflation rates and a stuttering inherited financial system, the continent as a whole continues to grow. The big question, though, is whether South Africa will get left behind in terms of international investment if it doesn’t improve its financial situation, and how to avoid this.


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Mumbai, May 21 (IANS) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) global development centre in suburban Goregaon east here Tuesday.
Tata Group Chairman Cyrus P. Mistry hosted Keqiang and his delegation at the centre.
Keqiang was given an overview of the Tata Group’s operations in China with special focus on the Jaguar Land Rover SUV and TCS’s growing investments and operations across the country.
Keqiang interacted with TCS and Tata Group employees in China at the Shanghai Global Development Centre through live video-conferencing.
The Tata Group was the only private Indian enterprise the Chinese premier chose to visit during his ongoing three-day trip to the country. TCS is the first Indian software company to set up shop and is growing significantly in China.
“China is a very important geography for the future growth of the Tata Group and we continue to increase our investments and scale of operations in that country. We have made substantial investments in many sectors across China. We believe that there can be tremendous cross-learning between India and China in the field of technology,” Mistry said on the occasion.
Late last year, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) formed a joint venture with China’s Chery Automobile with an investment of RMB 10.9 billion.
This included a manufacturing plant in Changshu which will be JLR’s first all-new manufacturing facility outside the UK.
The year 2012 also saw China becoming JLR’s largest global market and the country remains at the centre of the company’s global strategy.
Besides providing attractive new products, JLR has invested in sales and after-saltes infrastructure with 163 dealers across China.
In 2002, TCS started operations in China and three years later, it was invited to form a JV supported by the National Development & Reforms Commission to create a large-scale global off-shoring base in that country.
Currently, TCS operates out of six locations in China – Beijing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Dalian – and provides services in nine different languages — English, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Bahasa and Vietnamese.
Commanding a lead position in banking application software in the Chinese market, TCS BaNCS core banking system is being used by 14 banks in China, including the Special Administrative Region Hong Kong.


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The partnership intends to help brands and consumers make more conscious choices in business and purchases, respectively.
The company was included in two major environmental, social and governance indices for the first time ever, and others for consecutive years
In its newly published sustainability strategy called Infinity, the group has laid out long-term environmental and social responsibility goals.
The details on start-up Dirty Labs, Re.Uniqlo’s next steps and the denim factory earning accolades from the World Economic Forum.
“It’s not about making more all the time. It’s not about net sales.”
The independent report ranked brand “rock stars,” “offenders,” “wannabes” and “up-and-comers” and aims to be intersectional.
This year may mark a change of tide for ethical fashion, according to Edited’s latest sustainability report.
The prestige beauty company has reached net-zero carbon emissions in its owned operations. How will it conflate the next defining years?
Founded by Rebecca Prunali, the editorial marketplace offers a high-end selection of eco-friendly beauty and fashion products, as well as dedicated contents.
As part of the Jeans Redesign Initiative, leading brands are releasing denim designed for circularity.
The business imperative for sustainability may be greater than it has ever been — and more urgent.


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If you're in Australia and you've been holding off on picking up a copy of the delightful Dragon Ball Origins, your wait has just been artificially extended: Atari has issued a recall in Australia for every copy of Dragon Ball Origins on store shelves, due to an apparent mis-rating. Origins has been out in the region since December.
The cause seems to be a lazy OFLC: Dragon Ball Origins was given the same PG rating as other recent Dragon Ball games, but Origins features, well, multiple pants-free scenes. The first such scene occurs within the first hour of gameplay!
Atari will reissue the game once it's been re-rated and labeled accordingly. If you've already got it, congratulations! Instant collector's item.


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IVORY COAST – Norfund, the Norwegian Investment Fund for developing countries, has issued a US$10 million financing out of US$20m to Valency International Trading SARL (Valency CIV) to build an integrated local cashew processing hub in Ivory Coast.
Valency CIV is a subsidiary of Singapore-based Valency International Pte Ltd (Valency Group), a diversified, integrated supply chain manager in agri commodities and agri inputs with subsidiaries in 15 countries.
The agri-commodities sourced from African farmers through Valency’s value chain are marketed internationally in 38 countries.
The recent financing comes of the back of US$10m support by Finnish development financier and impact investor, Finnfund.
With the new investments, Valency CIV seeks to construct a cashew processing plant with a capacity of 45,000 tonnes per year on the outskirts of Abidjan,
This is in line with its plans for being a key participant in the cashew value chain in Ivory Coast, reaching up to 5% of the cashew farmers in the country.
The West African country produces about 1 million tonnes of cashews a year and is third largest export commodity, generating an estimated US$ 800m in revenues in 2020 from the export of 660,000 tonnes.
Currently, only about 100,000 tonnes of cashews are processed within the country annually, with the number feared to be dwindling as the processors face stiff competition from exporters of the raw commodity.
Though the share of nuts being processed locally in Cote d’Ivoire has increased in the last few years, in 2020 it stood at only 12%, significantly lower than countries like Mozambique and Ghana. However, the country aims to process half of its cashew output locally by 2025.
“By enabling Valency to develop a vertically integrated cashew value chain through the establishment of local processing, Norfund invests in the creation of sustainable local jobs and promotes local content via ‘value retention’ in the country.
“The investment fits into Cote d’Ivoire’s national cashew processing policy and represents an opportunity to support a competent management team with deep sector expertise and a commitment to build sustainable and responsible sector practice,” Fabrice Mpollo, Investment Manager at Norfund.
Norfund expects to see the employment of a workforce of over 2000, with 25% in permanent contracts at the factory and 75% in shorter term contracts as skilled labor required annually for processing.
Women are expected to fill approximately 80% of the jobs. The investment will also contribute to increased local tax contribution.
“We are very grateful to have a partner like Norfund who shares in our vision and has joined us in our endeavor to establish a strong cashew value chain in Cote d’Ivoire.
“Through this project, Valency will support cashew growers/farmers in the region, enhance sustainability and improve livelihood through addition of skilled jobs.
“The cashew processing plant is in line with our shared vision outlined as part of Valency’s Food Ingredients strategy, and commitment to develop a long-term sustainable business model in Africa,” says Sumit Jain, Chief Executive Officer at Valency International Group.
The Valency Group has already established profitable trading across West Africa and cashew processing business in Nigeria, and the planned investment will be its second on the continent.
This follows similar cashew processing projects successfully executed by the group in India and Vietnam.
Norfund will follow up on this work through taking up a position as Board Observer, in collaboration with Finnfund, its Finnish sister fund, who is providing a loan of the same size under the same terms.
Naana Winful Fynn, Regional Director for West Africa for Norfund said, “We are excited to support the leadership team at Valency International, and this investment marks an important milestone for Norfund, as our first direct investment in Cote d’Ivoire.
“We look forward to continuing to deliver on our mandate to drive development and create additional jobs by investing in and supporting companies in the Agribusiness and Manufacturing, Renewable Energy, Financial Institutions and Green Infrastructure sectors in Cote d’Ivoire.”
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- Find out here what was the condition of the technological world throughout the day
- Here we give you 5 great news from the world of technology
- Get to know the new gadgets
Find out here what was the condition of the technological world throughout the day. Here we bring you 5 great news from the world of technology, by clicking on the links given below, you can read our full news in detail …
Is Apple ready to bring drones? How it will work, disclosed by patents
You must have heard a lot about Apple Car by now. The launch has not happened, but the company is working on it, this news keeps coming in from time to time. However, now the news has come that the American company is working on Apple’s drone.
This new Redmi fitness band will be able to launch in India soon, know the features
The global launch of the Redmi Smart Band Pro and Redmi Watch 2 Lite took place during an event in China last month. Redmi Smart Band Pro will be sold in Europe in the coming weeks. There, customers will be able to buy it for € 59 (around 5,000 rupees). Information has now been received that it will soon be launched in the Indian market as well.
Oppo brings a folding screen smartphone, Samsung will get a competition
The market for folding screen smartphones is still small. Today, Samsung dominates this market. But soon the Chinese smartphone maker Oppo will also enter the folding screen smartphone race.
Introduced Samsung’s new smartphone with a large 5000 mAh battery
Samsung Galaxy A03 Core has been unveiled by the company without any noise. It has been given a single camera on its rear. Furthermore, a 5,000 mAh battery is also provided in the Galaxy A03 Core smartphone. It has been released in two color options.
Potato merchant bought BSNL VIP number for Rs 2.4 lakh, find out what’s special
BSNL has been going through a bad phase since the last few months. Your customers are continually declining. But, due to the VIP number, it always remains in the eyes of the people. Once again, this has entered the discussion. This time, a Rajasthan potato trader bought the BSNL VIP number for Rs 2.4 lakhs.


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Dundrum shopping centre in Dublin has been flooded after more than a month’s worth of rain fell in just a few hours yesterday (Monday).
The shopping centre was evacuated due to severe flooding on the ground floor, as it was overcome with 10cm of water.
Dublin Fire Brigade and the Coast Guard have been overwhelmed by the number of calls they have received from members of the public, according to the Irish Times.
Dublin city council activated its emergency plan after torrential rain led to three rivers bursting their banks. Houses and roads became submerged.
Retailers including Topshop, Warehouse and Banana Republic have stores at Dundrum.