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In 2008 adhering to the economic crisis, a paper titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Money System” was published, outlining the ideas of a repayment system. Bitcoin was birthed. Bitcoin obtained the focus of the world for its use of blockchain technology and also as an alternative to fiat money and products. Called the following ideal modern technology after the internet, blockchain used services to issues we have failed to address, or ignored over the past couple of decades. I will certainly not delve into the technical aspect of it but below are some short articles and also videos that I advise:
Exactly How Bitcoin Works Under the Hood
A gentle intro to blockchain technology
Ever ask yourself how Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) really function?
Quick ahead to today, 5th February to be specific, authorities in China have simply unveiled a new collection of regulations to ban cryptocurrency. The Chinese federal government have currently done so in 2015, but several have actually prevented through foreign exchanges. It has actually currently gotten the almighty ‘Excellent Firewall of China’ to block accessibility to foreign exchanges in a proposal to stop its people from executing any type of cryptocurrency purchases.
To know even more concerning the Chinese federal government stance, let’s backtrack a couple years back to 2013 when Bitcoin was getting appeal amongst the Chinese citizens and also prices were skyrocketing. Worried about the price volatility and conjectures, individuals’s Bank of China and 5 other federal government ministries published an official notification on December 2013 entitled “Notification on Fighting Financial Threat of Bitcoin” (Link is in Chinese). A number of points were highlighted:
1. As a result of different aspects such as minimal supply, anonymity and absence of a central issuer, Bitcoin is not a main money but an online asset that can not be used in the open market.
2. All banks and monetary companies are not enabled to provide Bitcoin-related financial services or participate in trading task pertaining to Bitcoin.
3. All business and internet sites that supply Bitcoin-related services are to sign up with the essential federal government ministries.
4. Because of the anonymity and cross-border attributes of Bitcoin, organizations offering Bitcoin-related services should apply preventive measures such as KYC to prevent money laundering. Any kind of questionable task consisting of scams, betting as well as cash laundering should to be reported to the authorities.
5. Organizations supplying Bitcoin-related services ought to enlighten the general public about Bitcoin and the innovation behind it and also not misguide the public with misinformation.
In layman’s term, Bitcoin is classified as a virtual commodity (e.g in-game credit scores,) that can be purchased or sold in its original kind and not to be traded with fiat currency. It can not be defined as money- something that functions as a circulating medium, a device of bookkeeping, and also a store of worth.
Despite the notification being dated in 2013, it is still pertinent with regards to the Chinese government stance on Bitcoin and also as stated, there is no sign of the banning Bitcoin as well as cryptocurrency. Rather, law as well as education and learning concerning Bitcoin and also blockchain will contribute in the Chinese crypto-market.
A similar notification was provided on Jan 2017, once again stressing that Bitcoin is an online commodity and also not a currency. In September 2017, the boom of first coin offerings (ICOs) brought about the posting of a different notice labelled “Notification on Preventing Financial Danger of Released Symbols”. Soon after, ICOs were banned and also Chinese exchanges were explored as well as at some point shut. (Knowledge is 20/20, they have actually made the right choice to outlaw ICOs as well as stop purposeless gambling). One more strike was dealt to China’s cryptocurrency community in January 2018 when extracting procedures dealt with severe crackdowns, mentioning too much electricity consumption.
While there is no official description on the Web3 Stocks suppression of cryptocurrencies, funding controls, prohibited activities as well as security of its people from financial danger are some of the major factors mentioned by experts. Without a doubt, Chinese regulatory authorities have actually implemented stricter controls such as abroad withdrawal cap and also managing international direct investment to restrict resources outflow and guarantee domestic investments. The anonymity as well as convenience of cross-border deals have additionally made cryptocurrency a favorite methods for cash laundering as well as fraudulent activities.
Considering that 2011, China has actually played a vital role in the speedy fluctuate of Bitcoin. At its optimal, China represented over 95% of the worldwide Bitcoin trading quantity and also three quarters of the mining operations. With regulators stepping in to control trading and also mining procedures, China’s prominence has actually reduced significantly in exchange for security.
With countries like Korea as well as India following suit in the suppression, a shadow is currently casted over the future of cryptocurrency. (I will reiterate my point below: countries are controling cryptocurrency, not prohibiting it). Without a doubt, we will certainly see more nations participate in the coming months to control the troubled crypto-market. Undoubtedly, some type of order was long overdue. Over the past year, cryptocurrencies are experiencing price volatility unusual as well as ICOs are taking place literally every other day. In 2017, the total market capitalization increased from 18 billion USD in January to an all-time high of 828 billion USD.
However, the Chinese community are in remarkably good spirits despite crackdowns. Online and also offline neighborhoods are growing (I personally have actually participated in quite a few events and also saw some of the firms) and also blockchain startups are growing throughout China.
Major blockchain firms such as NEO, QTUM and also VeChain are obtaining huge attention in the country. Start-ups like Nebulas, High Efficiency Blockchain (HPB) and Bibox are likewise obtaining a fair amount of traction. Also giants such as Alibaba as well as Tencent are additionally exploring the abilities of blockchain to enhance their platform. The checklist goes on and on but you get me; it’s going to be HUGGEE!
The Chinese government have actually also been welcoming blockchain modern technology and have actually stepped up initiatives recently to support the production of a blockchain community.
In China’s 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020), it required the development of promising innovations consisting of blockchain and also expert system. It also prepares to reinforce study on the application of fintech in policy, cloud computer and huge information. Also individuals’s Financial institution of China is also examining a prototype blockchain-based electronic money; nevertheless, with it likely to be a centralized digital currency slapped with some file encryption technology, its adoption by the Chinese citizens remains to be seen.
The launch of the Trusted Blockchain Open Laboratory as well as the China Blockchain Innovation as well as Sector Advancement Discussion Forum by the Ministry of Market as well as Information Technology are several of the various other efforts by the Chinese federal government to sustain the growth of blockchain in China.


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Criminals are finding fresh ways to hack ATMs and other card readers, leading to a 10% increase in such fraud last year, a FICO report states. Customers should monitor accounts for discrepancies and should be careful when using ATMs.
ATM card fraud up as criminals find new ways to hack devices
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The website Android Police is reporting that Google is getting ready to ship a pair of Android Wear smartwatches under its own brand. This bodes ill for the health of Android Wear.
The whole point of Android Wear was to create a software platform that OEMs could basically plug into hardware, but only about a half-dozen companies — all of them pretty big, but at least one of them captive at the time — bit. In the past year, Google teamed up with Intel (which also is famished for market share in the mobile market) to build a hardware platform to go along with the software. That helped; more companies built devices on the combined platform.
But it’s not like Android Wear has lit the world on fire. It’s clearly gotten better over the last couple of years, to the point that the user experience matches or surpasses the iOS/WatchOS combo. Look at the numbers, though: Apple and Samsung lead the smartwatch market, the former with WatchOS and the latter with Tizen. Android Wear may be the OS for all the vendors lower on the power curve, but the curse of a power curve is that the top couple of vendors are the ones with all the market share.
The watches that Android Police write about will have fully circular displays (no “flat tire” on the interface and be integrated with Google Assistant. One model will have LTE and GPS capability, and will therefore be larger than the other due to power needs.
No pricing or availability was leaked.


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Google Inc. is building a music-download store that would work closely with its Google+ social network
and could launch
it within the next two weeks, according to people familiar with the matter.
Users of Google Music, as the service is tentatively named, could recommend
songs in an online library to Google+ contacts, who in turn would be allowed to listen to those songs once free of charge
. The songs would then be available
for sale as MP3 downloads, probably for around the usual 99 cents each.
Digital-music services from Spotify AB and Research In Motion Ltd., too, have recently begun using social network
ing as a word-of-mouth marketing vehicle
. It is too early to know how successful these efforts are at recruiting new customers and retaining existing ones, people in the music industry say, but they add that early signs are encouraging.
Spotify AB和Research In Motion Ltd.的数字音乐服务最近也开始使用社交网站作为口碑宣传工具。音乐界业内人士说，这些举措在吸引新客户、留住老客户方面能有多成功，这一点还有待观察。但他们也说，初步的迹象令人鼓舞。
Google's online library is already up and running
under the name Music Beta. A free service, it lets users upload their music collections to remote
servers, from which they can then listen to their music from any Internet-connected device.
Executives at Google have told people in the music industry that they plan to start the music-download service this week or next week, even though they are unlikely
to secure the rights to sell music from at least two of the four major label groups in time. The song-recommend
ation feature would work only for music released by record labels with Google agreements in place.
Launching a music service without the participation
of all four major label companies can be risky. Users can get turned off quickly if they can't find an artist or a song they want, and the majors distribute
more than 87% of the music sold in the U.S.
The issue is important enough that most online music services, from Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store in 2003 to Spotify this year, have waited to launch
until they had the four of the big music companies on board.


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U.S. broiler meat stocks in cold storage at the end of June totaled 637 million pounds, a five percent increase from the end of June 2012. However, in its August 16 Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook report, the USDA forecast a drop in frozen stocks of broilers during the second half of 2013.
While overall broiler stocks were up on June 30, there was some variation in cold storage levels for different broiler products. Stocks of whole birds were up 18 percent, and leg quarters, thighs and wings were all up significantly. However, lower cold storage holdings of breast meat, legs and thigh meat helped offset those larger gains.
Cold storage levels for broiler products are expected to be below 2012 levels for the end of the third and fourth quarters as falling prices for many broiler products will help increase consumption. The USDA anticipates that chicken products will also face downward price pressure for the second half of 2013 as production picks up in response to anticipated lower feed costs.


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Digital ad company Taboola was up 5% Wednesday morning. This is on the first day of trading after there was its merger with ION Acquisition Corp. 1, a special acquisition corporation.
ION shareholders voted to approve the business combination in a special meeting Monday. The transaction will generate $526 million upon closing, and shares will begin trading on the Nasdaq Wednesday under the ticker “TBLA.”
“There’s no Google for the open web, there’s no Facebook for the open web, there’s no big company serving publishers on the open web and giving advertisers access to that open web, and Taboola wants to be that company,” founder and CEO Adam Singolda said in an investor presentation earlier this year.
“As I think about our business, I think of Taboola as a search engine but in reverse,” he said in the presentation. “Instead of expecting people to type things they know and look for information, like travel information, news, or products, Taboola is providing them with recommendations for content and things they might like but just never knew existed.”
The Company is Now Seeking More recommendations on Devices.
Devices can be anything from cars to connected TVs. The recommendations can prove to be very useful to the people and the initiative had been liked by everyone. The merger might as well be a blessing to take the company a step forward towards the future.
“Over the next 10 years, I think that especially as younger audiences will interact with different [devices], we want to use all of this index of the content we have globally … and surface it wherever you might be,” he said.
Thanks for reading our article Taboola’s Shares Rise 5% In First Day of Trading After SPAC Merger. Continue reading and have a good day.


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A Builder of Success: Joel Carmany Named TLMI Converter of the Year
A lot has changed in the 34 years since Joel Carmany bought a fledgling label business near Orlando, Fla. What was then a six-employee company that was only producing hot stamp labels has grown into one of the largest label printing companies in North America, pioneering the latest printing technologies and innovating new label applications.
But, at the core of all of the growth and success Consolidated Label has experienced in the last three and a half decades, is the one element of the business that has remained constant since the company’s humble beginnings — a dedication to understanding its customers’ needs and adapting to them as they evolve.
“Our whole strategy was then and is today, customer driven,” Carmany says. “That’s how we got to where we are. We’re always looking at the customer and saying, ‘What do they need, how can we make this pain free and make it easy for them to buy and get labels?’”
An Engineer Enters the Label Industry
In 1984, Carmany, a native mid-westerner, found himself in Florida looking for work. He had an industrial engineering degree from the University of Dayton and 15 years of experience working for General Electric in Illinois. A year prior, GE had sent Carmany to Orlando to be the VP of sales for a startup in robotics and vision systems. When that startup didn’t pan out, Carmany explains he was faced with a choice. He could either stick with GE, but would have to move back north, or he could remain in Florida and venture out on his own.
After a brief stint exploring the job market, Carmany decided that the best move for his future would be to go into business for himself, and began working with business brokers to target a business that would be worth buying.
At first, Carmany says, printing was not on his radar, as he perused companies spanning the gamut from vertical blinds to lawn mowing. However, while still on the hunt, Carmany located a listing for a business broker called Consolidated Investments and decided to reach out.
“I decided to go to his place of business and came to find out that he was no longer a business broker,” Carmany recalls. “He had a company called Consolidated Label and he was thinking in the back of his mind that he might sell his business. He had just never taken his listing out of the Yellow Pages for Consolidated Investments.”
During the initial meeting, Carmany discovered that there was a lot to like about the label business. He liked that it provided repeat business. He liked that it was a technical business. And he liked that Consolidated Label was small and an affordable entry point.
So, the two men worked out a deal and by October, Carmany was a label business owner.
Building a Business
Though an engineer by trade, Carmany explains that in his early days at the helm of Consolidated Label, his experience in sales and marketing was his biggest asset. He knew that in order for the company to grow, there would need to be a heavy focus on increasing sales.
However, at the time he took over, Consolidated Label only had one salesman, who worked for the company part time. The salesman’s name was George Caras, and while he had an old school approach — carrying all of his customer files in milk crates that he stored in the trunk of his car — he was a tenacious salesman and had a knack for building relationships. To many customers, Carmany recalls, Caras was affectionately known as “Uncle George.”
“After going on a few sales calls, I quickly realized this guy knew everybody and he could get in any door at any time,” Carmany says. “Uncle George could get into any back door, even if it was closed. He was good at establishing friendships and rapport with customers.”
Recognizing Caras’s skills, Carmany brought “Uncle George” on board full time, and began expanding Consolidated’s account base. With sales on the rise, Carmany then focused his attention on improving Consolidated’s manufacturing processes and upgrading its technology.
At the time, Carmany says Consolidated Label had just two Markem hot stamp presses and hadn’t even made the leap into flexography. His first press purchase was a three-color Mark Andy 830, which was followed up a few years later with a Propheteer flexo press. And as more business came in the door, Consolidated made its first physical expansion, leaving its original 1,200-sq.-ft. facility for a new 7,000-sq.-ft. building in 1988.
With the added capacity, Carmany began hiring more sales reps and placing them in strategic locations. He started by expanding in Florida, positioning a rep in Tampa and another in Miami. By 1995, the company had moved again, this time to a 32,000-sq.-ft. building. At this stage, Carmany began thinking nationally, adding sales people outside of Florida for the first time and increasing his fleet of flexo presses, starting with Rotopress and then becoming a Nilpeter shop after Nilpeter’s acquisition of Rotopress.
As the company continued to grow, Carmany expanded the building to 70,000 sq. ft. But in 2014, he says it was time to “make the big move,” and Consolidated Label acquired a 170,000-sq.-ft. building on 24 acres, remodeled the property, and in all placed a $13 million investment into the facility it now occupies in Sanford, Fla.
Innovative, Organic Growth
In an industry that’s continually impacted by mergers and acquisitions, Consolidated Label has remained among the outliers, with Carmany deciding early on that he wanted his company’s growth to be organic. He explains that with his strong background in sales, he could use that acumen to spearhead the company’s growth, while keeping all of the company’s finances in house.
“You have to put out a lot of money [for an acquisition], you have to pay multiples of EBITDA and it’s a risky business,” Carmany says. “Most of that is always being financed by private equity. So you don’t work for yourself anymore, you’re working for these private equity guys.”
The approach has worked, Carmany explains, as Consolidated Label and the ecommerce business Online Labels will reach approximately $95 million in combined sales, compared to the $225,000 Consolidated was pulling in when Carmany took over.
While there are now several Internet-based label printing providers, Carmany explains a significant part of his company’s growth was its foresight to be an early player on the Internet. He says that Online Labels, which is run by his son Dave, was launched in 2000, right when online retailing began to hit the scene.
“We’ve been able to grow on the Internet and with [Consolidated’s] sales force,” he says. “It’s been a two-pronged approach in our focus.”
But along with Consolidated’s sales strengths and online entrepreneurialism, Carmany says staying in tune with the wants and needs of his customers has been a key catalyst in Consolidated being a pioneer of new technologies and label and packaging applications.
For example, the company was an early adopter of digital printing, and now runs three HP Indigo digital presses, including an HP Indigo 8000, which it added in 2017. Additionally, Consolidated has expanded its product offerings beyond traditional labels, making the technological investments needed to produce shrink sleeves and small-format flexible packaging. In total, Consolidated Label runs 18 presses daily, around the clock.
“We always look to our existing customers as the idea engine for new products,” Carmany says. “If we already have a relationship with an existing customer who needs products we don’t currently carry and they’re willing to work with us to develop that product, then it’s a natural move to go in that direction.”
A Desire to Give Back
One of the most tangible results of Consolidated Label’s success is its unprecedented, and still active, streak of 16 consecutive years of winning the TLMI Eugene Singer Award for Management Excellence. The award is given to four winning companies each year at the annual TLMI Converter Meeting, with each winner representing company size categories spanning small, mid-range, medium and large companies.
Consolidated has won the large company category for 10 years in a row, after making the jump from medium. According to TLMI, the criteria for winning the Singer Award are measures of growth and profitability ratios that the association calculates as part of its annual Management Ratio Study.
“The reason why we won the award is because we really focus on the individual stats that make the business and give us the bottom line,” Carmany says. “We’re constantly looking at our labor costs, our material costs, our productivity, our employees per sales dollar, our account margins and how can we improve them, and how we can continue to be more efficient in our operations.”
As Carmany has become one of the leaders of the North American label industry and within TLMI, he says it has become important for him to share what he’s learned over his nearly 34 years in business. He recalls that when he first joined TLMI in the mid 1990s, he had the opportunity to learn from some of the more experienced members, and even tour the production facility of a long-standing member.
Because of how beneficial these relationships were early in Carmany’s career, he says he has made an effort to pay it forward with a willingness to answer questions his colleagues in TLMI may have, and has even opened Consolidated’s doors to other converters.
“I think early in life you are a taker and later in life, you should be a giver,” he says. “That’s been my philosophy.”
Robert Parker, owner of San Diego-based Label King, has been one of the recipients of Carmany’s desire to give back. Parker says he first met Carmany at a TLMI meeting and was immediately impressed with how friendly he was and his willingness to provide advice to a newcomer. Since that first encounter, Parker says Carmany has become someone he can look to as a mentor and has been instrumental in helping him build Label King.
“He was kind enough to take me under his wing and give me a lot of fantastic advice for my own business,” Parker says. “That just shows the kind of person that he is. What he gives back to the industry is fantastic — and I know I’m not the only one. It’s invaluable to people who seek that.”
Since joining TLMI, Carmany has taken on multiple speaking engagements, sharing his insights on panel discussions at TLMI meetings and during Labelexpo, along with three years of service on the board of directors. As an established figure within the association, Carmany’s insights are always highly regarded, says Nick Calvetti, president of Amherst Label and a TLMI member.
“Everybody looks to him for leadership,” Calvetti says. “He’s a great visionary and seems to have a knack for anticipating what needs to be done and what’s going to happen in the future.”
Beyond the label industry and despite the distance, Carmany has stayed active in supporting his alma mater, the University of Dayton. In particular, he maintains his involvement with the school’s entrepreneurial program and is a contributor of ideas for various educational programs. He says he’s even been a speaker at — and donated money to — a program hosted by the university, similar to the television show “Shark Tank,” which gives out grants for business ideas and business development.
But, when looking back at all of the success that Consolidated Label has experienced over the years, Carmany says what makes him particularly proud is the dedication of the entire team at Consolidated. He says that without the commitment of Consolidated’s staff, many of which have been with the company for more than 20 years, the company would not have been able to reach the heights that it has.
“When you have a dream of building a company, the best thing you can hope for is that your dream has become their dream,” Carmany says. “That is the true way of growing a business. I can’t say enough about our people and how much effort they put in every day to make Consolidated Label what it is."


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Apple Slaps Lawsuit on NSO Group Over Pegasus iOS Exploitation
The troubles for Israeli surveillance software maker NSO Group continue to pile up with news that Apple has filed suit to ban the company from using its software, services or devices.
The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday in Northern California, seeks to hold NSO Group accountable for hacking into Apple’s iOS mobile platform with so-called zero-click exploits to spy on researchers, journalists, activists, dissidents, academics, and government officials..
The Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple also announced it would contribute $10 million to researchers and academic outfits exposing cyber-surveillance abuses.
“To prevent further abuse and harm to its users, Apple is also seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices,” Apple said in a statement accompanying the lawsuit filing.
Apple accused NSO Group of creating “sophisticated, state-sponsored surveillance technology that allows its highly targeted spyware to surveil its victims.”
[ READ: Apple Ships Urgent Patch for FORCEDENTRY Zero-Days ]
“These attacks are only aimed at a very small number of users, and they impact people across multiple platforms, including iOS and Android. Researchers and journalists have publicly documented a history of this spyware being abused to target journalists, activists, dissidents, academics, and government officials,” Apple added.
The company said its legal complaint provides new information on NSO Group’s FORCEDENTRY, the iOS exploit that was caught by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab installing the Pegasus spyware tool.
Apple said Pegasus was then used to attack a small number of Apple users worldwide with dangerous malware that hijacked sensitive data from iPhone and Android devices. Apple accused NSO Group’s attack teams of creating Apple IDs to send malicious data to a victim’s device — allowing NSO Group or its clients to deliver and install Pegasus spyware without a victim’s knowledge.
Apple also announced it would be contributing $10 million, as well as any damages from the lawsuit, to organizations pursuing cyber-surveillance research and advocacy. The company said it would also support Citizen Lab with pro-bono technical, threat intelligence, and engineering assistance to help with their anti-surveillance research.
Related: Apple Ships Urgent Patch for FORCEDENTRY Zero-Days
Related: New iOS Zero-Click Exploit Defeats Apple ‘BlastDoor’ Sandbox
Related: Apple Adds ‘BlastDoor’ to Secure iPhones From Zero-Click Attacks
Related: Secretive Israeli Exploit Company Behind Wave of Zero-Day Exploits


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Wide Open Agriculture (WOA) has secured a non-dilutive AUD$5 million grant from the Western Australian Government’s Investment Attraction Fund to establish a production facility for Buntine Protein enhanced oat milk.
The facility will be located in Western Australia and will initially produce oat milk in various formats using the Company's proprietary lupin-based plant protein, Buntine Protein, with initial production to potentially begin this calendar year, with further expansion anticipated across 2024 and 2025.
The new facility is projected to potentially increase WOA's domestic production capabilities, enhance manufacturing efficiencies, and reduce costs, while enabling the company to navigate evolving consumer beverage markets effectively.
Recently, WOA has also successfully manufactured an RTD prototype of its Buntine Protein oat milk – which it describes as a nutritional, versatile, and sustainable alternative to traditional dairy milk and other oat milks.
Located strategically adjacent to the Buntine Protein pilot plant, the new facility is expected to produce a range of Oat milk in 1 litre and Ready to Drink (‘RTD’) formats, featuring the Company’s lupin-based Buntine Protein as an ingredient.
When fully operational, WOA will gain the ability to introduce a novel beverage into global markets, rivalling traditional dairy in protein content, yet maintaining a coveted creamy mouthfeel.
The new facility is also anticipated to bring about significant cost reductions. These savings would likely stem from enhanced manufacturing efficiencies, improved supply chain operations, and reductions in tariffs on exports to key markets such as SE Asia. Beyond cost savings, the facility should also speed up the new product development process for future product releases.
Wide Open Agriculture CEO, Jay Albany said the grant was not only a financial boost, but was also a testament to the viability and potential of WOA’s high protein oat milk.
“As we move forward, we're more excited than ever to see our plans materialise, harnessing this opportunity to champion a new era of sustainable, innovative, and delicious plant-based nutrition,” said Albany.
WA Premier Roger Cook said, "We’re backing local companies to manufacture here in WA, to value-add, and to take on the world in developing high-tech products for the future.”
The full AUD$5 million grant will be disbursed in stages based on the achievement of defined milestones and fulfillment of reporting requirements. The terms of the Financial Assistance Agreement (FAA), require that Wide Open Agriculture match each grant instalment with equal funding, contributed in parallel with the allocations from the Western Australian Government’s Investment Attraction Fund.
The first critical milestone involves the successful execution of the FAA. Following that, other milestones include obtaining the necessary regulatory and planning approvals for the construction and operation of the plant-based milk plant. Upon the successful completion of all the prescribed project milestones, the company will have accessed the total grant sum.
Completion is anticipated to occur by June 2025.


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(4 stars with 4343 User Ratings)
Download World of Tanks Blitz and earn 252 points toward a paid app of your choice or iTunes Gift Cards.
This offer is only available for those in US, Canada, Australia, Singapore, and United Kingdom via the AppSaga Reward Platform.
Online multiplayer team battles can be surpringly fun as you band together with a group of players and strategically defeat another group. World of Tanks Blitz brings that concept to tank battles.
In World of Tanks Blitz, you’ll need to maneuver your tanks behind rocks, walls, and other…(Read More)
Let’s get one thing straight: as much as many of us may not necessarily appreciate it, the Kardashian empire is one that’s successful, and that success has carried over into our beloved iOS world. Word from TMZ is that the latest game put out by Kim Kardashian for the iPhone and iPad is taking in…(Read the full article)
Hot, New Games This Week (July 18): Sword & Poker Adventures, Guardians of the Galaxy, Castle Doombad: Free to Slay, & More!
Every week, hundreds of games are released on the App Store. However, it can be difficult to separate those poorly made games from quality games that are worthy of your attention. We have selected 5 games released earlier this week that we feel best represent the hottest new games on the App Store. The new…(Read the full article)
Rumors Report: iWatch to come in Three different Models, Two different Sizes, and a Release later this year
As we get closer and closer to the Fall season, rumors of iPhones and new devices abound. Today that doesn’t change, except for the fact that more than likely it will ramp up excitement for a possible new iWatch. Reports coming from Taiwan’s The Economic Daily—which has had pretty decent reliability on reports in the…(Read the full article)
(4 stars with 603 User Ratings)
It’s not often that a game gets a popular release on Android before iOS, but every so often that can be the case. In fact, it’s exactly what happened with Ingress, but not for long as Google has officially released the game on iOS.
Ingress is a popular game brought on by Google’s own Niantic Labs in which augmented reality sits at the center of…(Read More)
If you’ve been a big Google Maps fan, you’ll be pleased to find out that the recent 3.2.0 version update brings with it the ability to display detailed search results, as well as Gmail appointments right on the map. If you’re out and about doing a search for a new restaurant or business, you’re going…(Read the full article)
We’ve been hearing about the new build of the next iPhone, and how it’s supposedly going to feature the long-awaited sapphire screen that’s scratch resistant and extremely durable. Now we have the chance to see that supposed screen in action in a new video from YouTube user Marques Brownlee. The video shows
Korean Federal Trade Commission issues ruling that could have global impact on App Store refunds for Apple
We’ve all probably been there before: we buy an app from the App Store and we soon find out that getting a refund on said app is a painstaking and annoying process. You have to contact Apple directly and have a representative open up a case, and then send it in to be either denied…(Read the full article)
As the summer heat rages on, so are the new game releases on the App Store. This week, Capcom’s popular Monster Hunter Freedom Unite roars into the App Store. Fates Forever, a beautiful and addicting MOBA game, has also been released. Other notable games this week includes Civilization Revolution 2 and MTN. Continue reading for…(Read the full article)
During the summer the rumor mill surrounding the next iPhone tends to hit a fever pitch, and today we have one man’s vision of what all those rumors added up might look like, so be ready to go nuts. The photos you’re looking at are brought to you by Ukrainian designer Mark Pelin, and they…(Read the full article)


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APEC Young Entrepreneurs’ Summit 2011
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 17 October 2011
Honourable Deputy Minister Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Please allow me to first express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to Malaysia – and to MITI, SME Corp, the International Malaysian Chamber of Commerce, and the APEC Business Advisory Council – for inviting me to speak at the first-ever APEC Young Entrepreneurs’ Summit.
It’s an honor for me to be at this summit and to speak alongside the Honourable Deputy Minister Dato’ Mukhriz Tun Mahathir on the challenges entrepreneurs face in the Asia-Pacific region and how APEC is working to help create a business environment that is conducive for them to prosper. In this economic climate, start-ups and small businesses face tremendous challenges due to their size and lack of resources – including difficulties in accessing new markets and capital. .
Over the last few years, APEC has taken concerted actions – and concrete steps – to address these challenges by fostering a more facilitative business environment, helping entrepreneurs grow and prosper and bolstering the region’s small, medium and micro-enterprises.
This 3-day summit is an extension of that work. It is also an excellent opportunity for entrepreneurs and small business owners to not only network with colleagues and venture capital companies, but also for APEC to learn about the key issues and concerns that directly impact young entrepreneurs in this region.
I am also pleased to learn about how this summit closely aligned its goals with APEC’s priorities – including the Growth Strategy, APEC’s Regional Economic Integration agenda and the APEC SME Working Group’s 4-year Strategic Plan. This summit brings to the fore APEC’s key priority work areas, giving them prominence and adding significant value to our future work including in the area of inclusive and innovation-driven growth.
Business and the APEC agenda
Engaging business is, and always has been, one of APEC’s top priorities. In fact, APEC is the only organization of its kind that reserves a seat for business at all of its meetings. APEC created the APEC Business Advisory Council – or ABAC for short – specifically to ensure that a business perspective is injected into the APEC process. Through ABAC, the business community can voice business sector concerns.
ABAC presents business-focussed recommendations directly to APEC Leaders in an annual open-dialogue session. One of those recommendations that came from business sector was for the establishment of a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific – or FTAAP. The FTAAP has since become one of APEC’s key priorities and is regarded as “a major instrument to further APEC's regional economic integration agenda.”
More recently, ABAC has put a strong emphasis on food security. After discussions about its direction, the APEC Policy Partnership on Food Security was created in September 2011, which brings together private and public sector representatives. APEC’s approach to food security is based on the commitment to market-led economic growth, free and open trade and investments, and sustainable development of the region’s agricultural sector. And it is clear that without food security, it will be very difficult to sustain a “Conducive Business Eco-system.”
The Economic Situation and Outlook
Amidst concerns about a slowdown in the US economy and a sovereign debt-crisis in the Euro-zone, the IMF in its most recent World Economic Outlook published in September has lowered the global growth rate to 4% from 2011 from 4.3% in its last report in June. The US economy is expected to expand by just 1.5% in 2011, down from 2.5% in its earlier forecast. Europe is also predicted to slow considerably with 2011 growth downgraded from 2% to 1.6%. Developing economies, on the other hand, are expected to expand by 6.4% in 2011 and 6.1% in 2012.
It should be noted that unemployment has increased in many important markets. Indeed, growth is not as robust as it once was in some of the most important markets in the world such as Japan for some time, and the EU and the US more recently. As the global economy becomes more inter-twined, shocks and imbalances in other markets affect this side of the world.
Exacerbated by high unemployment rates in the United States, we have seen people demonstrating on Wall Street in New York and demanding for more equitable distribution of wealth. While food and commodity prices have somewhat eased to 14% below the most recent peak in July 2008, prices are still 9% above levels recorded in December 2010 and the high costs continue to pose a threat to lower income households, adding to rising social and economic tensions.
APEC 2011 Priorities
This year, APEC is focusing on three priority areas: (1) strengthening regional economic integration and expanding trade; (2) promoting green growth; and (3) advancing regulatory cooperation and convergence in the region.
Significantly, APEC Trade Ministers at their meeting in Montana in May this year also identified three “next generation” trade and investment issues on which to focus this year. They are: (1) facilitating global supply chains; (2) enhancing SME participation in global production chains; and (3) promoting effective, non-discriminatory and market-driven innovation policy.
Work has been done in these areas to improve the flow of goods and services within the Asia-Pacific and to help SMEs internationalize. A recent workshop was conducted in Montana last May where participants shared strategies on how SMEs can better engage in cross-border trade – for example, by banding together to seek overseas opportunities. APEC’s small businesses and entrepreneurs will no doubt be among the main beneficiaries.
Furthermore, APEC has recognized the role that women play in the economy. Just last month, headlined by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the APEC Women and the Economy Summit brought together the region’s senior private and public sector representatives for a dialogue on fostering women’s economic empowerment in APEC economies.
The summit resulted in a declaration that seeks to improve women’s access to capital and markets, build their capacity and skills to better accrue the benefits of global trade, and boost their representation in leadership roles in both the private and public sectors. Indeed, Minister Y.B. Senator Dato’ Seri Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, Minister of Women, Family and Community Development got a huge round of applause after her intervention when she spoke about Malaysia’s progress in this area.
With these priorities and actions in mind, APEC resolved to ensure that future economic growth in the region is more inclusive and balanced, and that its benefits are spread more widely across gender and economic lines.
APEC’s work on bolstering SMEs
If you would allow me to share some history with you, over a decade ago, APEC established the SME Working Group to promote small business development and to help SMEs better engage in international trade. The group has made great strides in its endeavor to support the development of the region’s small businesses.
Among numerous projects, the APEC SME Working Group has held a series of capacity building seminars since 2007 that dealt with access to credit, trading across borders, and employing workers. These projects are implemented under the SME Working Group’s Strategic Plan, and this Plan will continue to guide the work of the Group through 2012. APEC’s Policy Support Unit monitors these projects’ outcomes and evaluates their impact for the purpose of learning what future strategies might be deployed in this area.
APEC’s work on facilitating a “Conducive Business Ecosystem”
Over and above helping SMEs directly, APEC is also helping to create a more favorable environment for small businesses to thrive. In the words of today’s roundtable session, we have been working to promote a “Conducive Business Eco-system.” In fact, APEC addresses these structural changes and reforms because they are essential to achieving sustained economic growth and advancing regional economic integration.
In 2004, an ambitious 5-year work programme called the Leaders' Agenda to Implement Structural Reform (LAISR) was put in place. The agenda covered five areas including: regulatory reform, competition policy, public sector governance, corporate governance, and strengthening economic and legal infrastructure.
Progress on these areas was reviewed last year in the context of developing a new structural reform agenda that expands on earlier work.
In 2010, APEC Leaders endorsed the APEC New Strategy for Structural Reform (ANSSR) that aims to promote balanced and sustainable growth by fostering transparency, competition and better functioning markets in the Asia-Pacific. In addition, this new strategy emphasizes a social dimension that includes enhancing opportunities for women and pressing for more education and SME development.
An APEC Policy Support Unit study found that structural reforms in key infrastructure industries resulted in lower prices, increased consumer choice, and improved efficiency and productivity. It projected that more competition could lead to gains that would be almost twice the size of the gains from further liberalization of merchandise trade. The study also estimated that further reform in the energy, telecommunications and transport sectors of the APEC region will generate US$175 billion a year in additional income.
APEC Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) Action Plan
Fostering a favourable business environment is especially important for SMEs because inefficient trade rules negatively impact small scale operations. To help SMEs, APEC adopted the Ease of Doing Business Action Plan to make doing business in the region 25% cheaper, faster and easier by 2015, with an interim target of a 5% improvement by the end of this year.
To do this, APEC is focusing on five priority areas: (1) starting a business; (2) getting credit; (3) enforcing contracts; (4) trading across borders; and (5) dealing with permits.
Awareness-building workshops have been conducted on each of the priority areas. Through these workshops, APEC economies are strongly encouraged to undertake regulatory reforms to reduce the cost and complexity of doing business, from modifying taxation to simplifying licensing procedures. Currently, APEC is providing more customized capacity building measures in economies that have sought specific assistance on their reform efforts.
A quantitative assessment on APEC’s progress towards the 5% target by the end of 2011 is currently being finalized. The study is based on the World Bank’s Doing Business indicators from 2009-2010 – the latest data available. The assessment shows that APEC’s improvement is equivalent to 2.8%, exceeding the pro rata benchmark. It appears that APEC is therefore on track to meeting the 5% target by the end of this year, which is big accomplishment given the state of the global economy.
Advancing regulatory cooperation and convergence
Just as important, APEC is promoting greater regulatory cooperation and convergence among its members – a key priority for APEC in 2011.
Together with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OCED, we developed the APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist in 2006 which served as a voluntary tool that member economies could use to assess their respective regulatory reform efforts – for example: regulatory quality, competition policy, and market openness.
In 2011, APEC commissioned a baseline study that provided a snapshot of where APEC economies’ regulatory systems are today with regards to their adoption and implementation of Good Regulatory Practices – or GRPs. The study reviewed how GRPs are applied across the APEC region in 3 areas: (1) Internal coordination of rule-making activity; (2) Regulatory impact assessment; and (3) Public consultation mechanisms. The study identified patterns where practices meet good international practices and areas they did not.
The study indicates that all APEC economies have made visible progress in applying GRPs in domestic regulatory activities – and about half of APEC economies have adopted explicit strategies for regulatory reform. Significantly, all APEC economies have some kind of regulatory review underway. However, more work needs to be done to merge trade and competition authorities with mainstream regulatory policy making.
In Malaysia, for example, one program offers businesses the ability to apply online for licenses and permits in all sectors of the economy. The Business Licensing Electronic Support System (or, BLESS) enables the applicant to track progress, making the regulator accountable to the public and expediting the application process. In its current phase, BLESS covers the manufacturing, construction and hotel sectors.
Another structural reform enacted by Malaysia reduces the time it takes to resolve commercial disputes. With added human resources and the adoption of information technology, the courts can process cases in less than half the time it took prior to 2007.
These examples and others from around the region demonstrate APEC members’ intent to create a higher quality regulatory environment that reduces the emergence of unnecessary technical barriers to trade and creates favorable business conditions.
APEC takes myriad actions to support business, in particular SMEs and young entrepreneurs, to facilitate a more conducive and favourable business environment. What I have shared with you today is just a glimpse of the on-going work that APEC is undertaking to advance its free and open trade and investment agenda.
APEC shares the business community’s concerns about sustained economic growth in the region and we continue to work towards our mission of advancing free trade for Asia-Pacific prosperity. The outlook for the APEC region remains a positive one; and there are tremendous opportunities that lay ahead of us for success in the globalised world.
I am confident that this Summit will be of great benefit to you, and to us at APEC as well. This is indeed a great opportunity for all of us to share our knowledge and to work closely together towards a more integrated and prosperous region.
Other Executive Directors
Dr Rebecca Fatima Sta MariaPresent
Dr Alan Bollard2013 - 2018
Ambassador Michael Tay2009
Ambassador Juan Carlos Capunay2008
Ambassador Colin S. Heseltine2007
Ambassador Toan Trong Toan2006
Ambassador Choi Seok Young2005
Ambassador Mario Artaza2004
Ambassador Piamsak Milintachinda2003
Ambassador Alejandro de la Peña Navarrete2002
Ambassador Zhang Yan2001
Ambassador Serbini Ali2000
Ambassador Timothy James Hannah1999
Ambassador Dato' Noor Adlan1998
Ambassador Jack A. Whittleton1997
Ambassador Armando Q. Madamba1996
Ambassador Shojiro Imanishi1995
Ambassador Rusli Noor1994
Ambassador William Bodde Jr.1993


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Amazon Disruption Continues
Amazon in recent times has amassed a reputation for being disruptive to traditional firms and industries, and rightly so. The company has up-ended the traditional brick-and-mortar retail model, and the company’s ambitions do not end there. Rumours of Amazon’s desire to enter the U.S. healthcare value chain reached a fever pitch when Amazon.com Inc., Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase & Co. recently announced that they were creating an independent company that will attempt to reduce healthcare costs for their employees, and potentially all Americans in the future.
Back in 2017, rumours of Amazon’s plans to disrupt U.S. healthcare sent tremors through the industry, with the share prices of pharmacy benefit managers (PBM), retail pharmacies, and drug distributors trading down on the news. Over the ensuing months, we have seen a spate of deal activity, as the industry consolidates in an attempt to stave off the Amazon threat.
CVS, one of the largest retail pharmacies and PBMs in the U.S., announced that it was going to merge with Aetna, one of America’s largest health insurers. The deal aims to provide more touchpoints for Aetna’s members to receive care, potentially preventing expensive hospital visits. At the same time, this helps drive foot traffic to CVS’s retail stores. No doubt, the risk of Amazon at some point selling and distributing drugs was a motivator behind the merger.
More recently, the Wall Street Journal announced that Walgreens Boots Alliance, another large US retail pharmacy chain, had made a takeover approach for drug distributor AmeriSourceBergen. Whilst it’s early days, and there has been no formal announcement of Walgreens making a takeover offer, the deal could be to cut off a route to market for Amazon, given AmerisourceBergen’s deep ties with drug manufacturers and pharmacies.
There seems to be no sign of Amazon letting up in its attempts to expand into industries outside of its core retail operations. However, there is still a question mark over to what extent Amazon can turn its core competences around technology and logistics into a meaningful competitive advantage in the healthcare arena. The U.S. healthcare industry is notoriously complex, and it may be one of the most difficult industries yet for Amazon to disrupt.


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Stockholm, February 23, 2021 - Internet Vikings, a European global cloud hosting provider from Europe, has announced the launch of a cloud hosting platform in Singapore.
SoftSwiss Game Aggregator statistics further highlight that cryptocurrency is currently actively used by the whole world, with increasing interest in Canada, Russia, and Latin America.
Advanced betting solution provider UltraPlay has announced the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer starting of Q1 2018.
NetEnt and Ve have signed Mr Green to the companies’ pioneering igaming media buying programme.
Lotto Hero is set to go live with its first operators after next week’s ICE Totally Gaming exhibition.
Alessandro Fried, answer pressing questions about Neuron Gaming platform, soon to be showcased at ICE with booth S1-320 from the 6th to the 8th February.
Pay N Play was the first product on the market to streamline the gaming sign-up process while still helping operators to stay compliant.
Wazdan will be focusing on hosting a range of activities on their stand at ICE, with two new titles Magic Target Deluxe and Fruit Mania Deluxe.
Leading slots provider Magnet Gaming has agreed a deal to supply its full suite of content to casino aggregator Iforium via its Gameflex platform.
Bangkok will host a major international conference dedicated to blockchain, cryptocurrencies and ICOs – Blockchain & Bitcoin Conference Thailand.


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New technologies that tap sustainability, convenience and health trends could dramatically change the structure of food supply chains in the near future, Rabobank has predicted.
Technologies and innovations such as 3D printed food, wearable technology and smart shopping tools had the potential to “drastically change the market,” the Dutch-based bank’s food and agribusiness research and advisory department’s new report, What’s Cooking in Tomorrow’s Kitchen, claimed.
“Traditionally static consumption patterns have undergone a transformation, and we believe there are now three prevalent consumer mindsets for food buying: sustainability, convenience and health,” said Rabobank analyst Jelle Groot.
“Understanding these mindsets and using appropriate innovations could have a game-changing effect on food processors’ businesses.”
Sustainable innovations tipped for widespread growth over the next five to 10 years include alternative ingredients such as algae and insects. However, the bank warned there could be challenges regarding scale, cost competitiveness and consumer acceptance. Companies would also have to carry out “significant” R&D, marketing and promotion to develop products at a price shoppers would be prepared to pay.
The report highlighted online shopping and smart shopping tools as innovations that reduced time, effort and energy.
And it predicted health innovations such as wearable technology, self-tracking apps, 3D printed food and hand-held food scanners were “set to rise in popularity” and could be widespread in two to five years.
“Technologies such as wearable devices and smart shopping tools are already changing consumer mindsets and demands,” Groot added.


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Now that AT&T and DirecTv have combined into the largest cable operator in the US, it's time for marketing to push the synergies. The latest offer is to current DirecTv customers to switch their cellular provider to AT&T Wireless for huge cost savings. According to Multichannel, a customer could save $500 per line (A $300 credit to switch plus a $200 credit toward a new phone). A family of four could find themselves saving $2,000 by switching.
In another move, customers that are unable to purchase DirecTv, because of their apartment complex or inability to obtain the signal, could be eligible to order the NFL Sunday Ticket from AT&T. Per FierceCable, "Live streaming Sunday Ticket packages start at $50 a month for four
months and are accessible via computers, tablets, smartphones or
connected devices (Xbox One/Xbox 360, Windows 10, Sony PS3/PS4, Roku and
Chromecast)." WOW, a standalone NFL package; sign me up!


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Save A Lot Re-Opens in Carlisle, KY
Local store owners bring high quality food to community
May 18, 2023 // Franchising.com // CARLISLE, KY - Save A Lot, one of the largest discount grocery chains in the U.S., today announced it’s coming back to the Carlisle community. The store, located at 2473 Concrete Rd, marked its grand opening on May 17, giving local residents the opportunity to experience Save A Lot’s outstanding quality and value. The store closed two years ago after sustaining flood damage from record rainfall in the area.
To celebrate the grand opening, the morning kicked off with a ribbon cutting at 9 a.m. Save A Lot CEO Leon Bergmann will join Saver Group store owners Dale Combs and Chief Operating Officer Keith DeFisher along with the Nicholas County Chamber of Commerce to mark this exciting event for the community. Following the ribbon cutting, customers can enjoy a cookout in the parking lot from 10 a.m.– 3 p.m. sponsored by Heiner’s;
During the May 17 event, the store is doing giving aways to the first 100 customers each day through May 23.
“We are excited to bring the Save A Lot banner back to Carlisle,” said Larry Noe, Saver Group Owner. “My business partners, Dale and Wendell Combs and I understand that residents deserve high quality food at a value price point that works for them. We think the Save A Lot brand helps us deliver that to our neighbors here and we can’t wait to have people experience this new option in town.”
“We’re thrilled to have the Saver Group bring back the Carlisle store to their list of hometowns that get to experience once again what the Save A Lot brand is all about,” said Leon Bergmann, Save A Lot Chief Executive Officer. “We know the Save A Lot brand brings unmatched value and quality to over 800 communities nationwide and can’t wait for the Carlisle community to experience that again for themselves.”
Save A Lot believes that all neighborhoods should have access to fresh, high quality food options. Stores focus on offering everyday low prices on great tasting, high quality private label brands as well as national brand products, USDA-inspected meat cut fresh in store, farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, and other non-food items.
The Carlisle store is open Monday – Saturday from 8 a.m. – 9 p.m. and Sunday 9 a.m. – 8 p.m. Customers can learn more by visiting SaveALot.com.
About Save A Lot
Founded in 1977, Save A Lot is one of the largest discount grocery store chains in the U.S., with approximately 800 stores in 32 states. True to its mission of being a hometown grocer, Save A Lot provides unmatched quality and value to local families. Customers enjoy significant savings compared to traditional grocery stores on great tasting, high quality private label brands, national brand products, USDA-inspected meat, farm-fresh fruits and vegetables, and other non-food items. For more information visit www.SaveALot.com and follow Save A Lot on Facebook (facebook.com/savealot), Twitter (@savealot), and Instagram (@SaveALotFoodStores), or for more information on becoming a Save A Lot independent retail operator, visit ownasavealot.com.
SOURCE Save A Lot
Public Relations & Community Engagement Manager
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Moving back in time, it can be seen that India has made a remarkable upthrust in the mobile phones' market in a very short span of time. Most of the share of the Indian market was priorly dominated by the big brands such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, etc. who catered a wide range of mobile phones and smartphones targeting a perk up in sale through all commodity if customers. To break this monotony, Karbonn Mobiles has brought their new product, Karbonn A1 which is a Android 2.2 smartphone enabled with 3G functions with all sort of advance features of a smartphone. Karbonn A1 price Rs 6,999.
Karbonn A1 is e cheaper in price in comparison to other mobile phones available in the Indian market which can go as less as one third of the price of the other leading brands, making it the cheapest mobile phones in India. The company is going through speculations that, they are spending over $5 million for the publicity of their smartphones to collect good sales in the coming festive season. Before this, they eventually brought their campaign in the India-England test series which later was expanded. The strategy towards these publicity campaigns is to aware the Indian customers, precisely the urban young lot, with the new range of Karbonn mobiles emphasizing on the new Karbonn A1 Android enabled smartphones which is priced much lower than any other smartphone available in the Indian mobile phone outlets.
Mr. Shashin Devsare, the Executive Director of Karbonn Mobiles said about the commercial planning that they wanted to display their smart phone with utmost glorification and the want to initiate from the stands from which iPhone neglected to come up and that is publicity. They want to convey the details of the tempting features available with Karbonn A1. Karbonn Mobiles is targeting the common people for their sales and not a pedigree of only high class customers with their Karbonn A1.


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Archive for the ‘Articles’ category
From pet food to dating to rentals, 88mph has a range of startups under its wing.
The Easy Taxi Nigeria app links customers with reputable drivers in Lagos and Abuja.
Better farming methods and political commitment are ways to improve the agricultural industry.
“We want to build houses and get supply of houses into this middle-income market.”
“I was very frustrated seeing fellow youth who were not lucky enough to get an education suffering.”
“Gloo.ng is an outpouring of affection to my wife, and by extension, to all our target users,” says founder.
Increasingly more tourists are visiting African countries to receive healthcare.
Offering courses in a variety of subjects, Beni American University students access all material online.
Restaurant company plans to launch its Mugg & Bean coffee shop chain in Nairobi.
The single-largest investment and business opportunity in Africa will be its rising consumer market.
“If you have an idea and are passionate about it, just do it,” says founder of The District.
Local and international hotel brands are growing operations in Nairobi.
Translating indigenous African languages requires a careful approach.
What is sustainable investment and why is it critical to commercial success in Africa?
Domino’s is another US fast food brand entering the African market.


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Facebook Launches Portal Auto-zooming Video Chat Screens For $199 $349 'LINK'
Click Here --->>> https://urllie.com/2tsmGH
The entry-level Portal includes a 10-inch, 1280-by-800-pixel display; Portal+ has a 15-inch, 1920-by-1080 pivoting display. Both devices are available to pre-order in the U.S. from Facebook at portal.facebook.com, as well as Amazon.com and Best Buy. Facebook also is offering a $100 bundled discount if you purchase any two devices (so two Portal devices will be cost $298).
Facebook has launched a couple of new smart devices which enable AI-powered video calling in your home. The Facebook Portal and larger Portal+ can be described basically as smart speakers with screens, with features competitive to the Amazon Echo Show. As well as facilitating immersive chats with Facebook friends and family in groups of up to seven, the device offers voice control plus Alexa, various apps, and the promise of privacy and security. 1e1e36bf2d


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15 shops gutted in Noakhali fire
A fire burned down around 15 shops in Noahat Bazar area of Sadar upazila in Noakhali early Wednesday.
The fire originated around 11:00 pm from a shop of oil and gas in Taher Mia Market and soon engulfed adjoining shops.
On information, two firefighting units from Maijdee and Laxmipur Fire Service and Civil Defence rushed to the spot and doused the fire after two hours of frantic efforts, said senior station officer of Maijdee Fire Service and Civil Defence Azizul Haque.
Taher Mia Market manager Morshed Alam said around 15 shops, including a rice mill, were gutted down that damaged around Tk 1 crore.
Shop owners suspect that the fire might have originated from an electric short-circuit.


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Ubisoft Inc. this week released the Walkthrough Trailer for Assassin’s Creed Syndicate for Sony Corp.’s Playstation 4, Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox One and the PC.
The trailer features a four minute walkthrough from melee combat to vehicle options.
Weapons include the kukri knife, brass knuckles, sword cane, and brand new rope launcher to scale buildings.
The PS4 and Xbox One SKUs will be released Oct. 23. The PC SKU will be sold in the fall.


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CEAT's consolidated net profit declined 19.6% to Rs 51.72 crore on 10.6% fall in net sales to Rs 1573.41 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.Consolidated profit before tax (PBT) stood at Rs 63.07 crore in Q4 March 2020, declining 19.1% from Rs 78 crore posted in Q4 March 2019. Total tax expenses declined 17% to Rs 1135 crore in Q4 March 2020 over Q4 March 2019.
Consolidated EBITDA stood at Rs 203 crore in Q4 March 2020, rising 22.29% from Rs 166 crore in the same period last year. EBITDA margin rose to 12.9% in Q4 March 2020 from 9.4% in Q4 March 2019.
The company said it has made provisions for unusable semi finished inventory and raw materials aggregating to Rs 13.27 crore due to abrupt stoppage of production facilities. The company further said it has not capitalized further borrowing cost due to temporary suspension related to ongoing capital project, contract manpower cost and export detention aggregating to Rs 2.67 crore. These costs have been disclosed as exception items.
Commenting on company's performance, Anant Goenka, managing director said, "We have focused on cash flows and cost control during these times. In Q4, our EBITDA margins have shown improvement despite the disruption caused by COVID-19. We have resumed operations at most of our factories and with the ease in restrictions and lockdown, we are gradually seeing a pick up in demand as well."
Shares of CEAT were up 4.04% at Rs 802.25 on BSE. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 28 May 2020.
CEAT, the flagship company of RPG Enterprises, is a tyre manufacturers and has a strong presence in global markets.
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Illustrations by Oliver Weiss
The growing cannabis business has created entrepreneurial opportunities for some alumni, while others address the potential consequences.
Up until a couple of years ago, Ernie and Callie (Rice) Craumer, both Class of ’77, were leading suburban lives in Greenwich, Conn. Ernie worked in finance, and Callie ran her flower shop when she wasn’t shuttling the kids between schools and sports. Fast forward to 2019 and things have changed: the Craumers and their daughter Caitlin ’05 now live in Colorado, where they sell marijuana from a pair of cannabis dispensaries.
Their store in Niwot, an affluent community near Boulder, has an astonishing number of products. There are, of course, several strains of marijuana buds and the usual accessories. But there is also an array of edibles and other cannabis-infused products: 15 types of gummies, 78 vaping cartridges, a dozen drinks, 24 different mints and hard candies, 15 topicals (salves, bath oils, soaps, and massage oils), and 32 kinds of chocolate.
“If someone predicted that I would end up selling weed, I would have called them crazy,” says Caitlin, who captained Colgate’s swim team and previously worked at an advertising agency in Manhattan.
The other surprise is the customers. Yes, there are some young men and women who could be described as “stoners,” but they’re the exceptions. The Craumers say the average age of their customers is 48. “They don’t come here because they want to get messed up,” Callie says. “They come because they want to take the edge off, to feel better, or to do something about pain, sleeping, stress, or anxiety.”
Whether you think the legalization of marijuana is a godsend or an epic disaster in the making, it’s a movement that’s taken on tremendous, possibly unstoppable, momentum now that 10 states permit its recreational use. Legalization has also set off a frenzy of entrepreneurship — and Colgate alumni are playing an outsized role.
Some of the Craumers’ best-selling chocolates are made by a company called 1906, which was founded by Peter Barsoom ’92. After spending 20 years working for several financial services companies, he decided to set out on his own in 2014. Barsoom thought about ventures involved in health care and cryptocurrency but settled on legalized cannabis because of its growth potential. “Going from prohibition to regulated markets is a historic opportunity,” he says. Barsoom named his company for the year when a federal law was enacted that ushered in the era of cannabis prohibition.
Barsoom’s specific strategy is centered on solving what he believes to be the three biggest problems with most edibles: “They taste terrible, you don’t know how they’re going to make you feel, and you don’t know when they’re going to make you feel that way.” By selecting particular strains of marijuana as well as other plants (some of them herbs used in Chinese medicines) for each of his products, Barsoom says, all of them are fast acting and each one has a singular benefit: “Midnight” helps people sleep, “Go” enhances energy, “Love” leads to sexual arousal, “Chill” promotes relaxation, and “Bliss” just makes you happy. A box of six chocolates costs $24 — more than most edibles, but Barsoom says that’s not a problem because his main target markets are women and seniors. “We see our competition as being a bottle of wine,” he says.
Barsoom has raised $16 million in investment capital, and 1906 has become one of Colorado’s fastest growing edibles companies. He’s now working to expand into several other states and broaden his product line to include beverages, baked goods, and tablets. “Over the next five to ten years, there are going to be billion-dollar brands in the cannabis industry,” he says, “and we expect to be one of them.”
More than 80 percent of 1906’s sales take place by way of LeafLink, an online marketplace founded by Ryan G. Smith ’13 that sells 44,000 different cannabis products to more than 3,000 retailers. The Craumers buy a substantial majority of their products through the company. “I don’t know how we could operate without LeafLink,” says Callie, who didn’t know about the firm’s Colgate connection until she was interviewed for this article. With 62 employees, LeafLink facilitates more than $1 billion in transactions on an annualized basis — about 16 percent of legal wholesale cannabis transactions nationwide.
Smith’s entrepreneurial career began early. Growing up in Manhattan, he used eBay to sell everything from preowned cell phones and ski clothes to, on one occasion, a single sneaker. If his parents couldn’t find something at home, they assumed Ryan had sold it. As a first-year at Colgate, he joined Thought Into Action (TIA), the alumni-led incubator program that coaches student entrepreneurs, and he founded several ventures, starting with one that sold eco-friendly paper made from tropical plants. He also launched a real estate information service, which he continued to run after graduation. After Smith sold the business in 2014, he was in the market for a new idea.
LeafLink came together after Wills Hapworth ’07, a founder of TIA who now works as its alumni executive director, introduced Smith to Zach Silverman, another young entrepreneur who had recently sold a company. When Smith and Silverman met for coffee at Grand Central Station, they spoke in the shorthand that’s commonplace among the city’s bustling community of young entrepreneurs. “I want to do a marketplace for an industry that’s totally underserved,” Smith said. It was clear to Silverman that Smith was talking about a web-based system for facilitating business-to-business transactions. When Silverman suggested a marketplace for cannabis, Smith pounded a fist on the table and declared, “That’s perfect.”
With Smith as CEO and Silverman in charge of technology, they formed a company and started spending time in Colorado, where recreational use had recently been legalized. Business dealings between dispensaries and their suppliers were even more inefficient than the partners had imagined, mostly conducted via phone calls and texts. “When we asked if they’d like to have a simple way to do business,” Smith says, “they reacted enthusiastically.”
LeafLink is based in Lower Manhattan and Los Angeles, where employees sit in open spaces, at long tables with large monitors. The offices are usually as quiet as a library because of the work involved with building and maintaining the company’s website. A display case in the Manhattan office contains a selection of cannabis products, but all of the boxes are empty because none of them are legal in New York. In fact, marijuana itself does not play a role in LeafLink’s office culture. Smith says it’s not a cannabis company as much as it’s a technology company and that employees are no more likely to consume marijuana than those at other tech firms.
LeafLink has raised $14 million from investors and has expanded into new states as quickly as they legalize. The legal patchwork is a mixed blessing. Because products can’t be shipped across state lines, the Craumers can only buy and sell Colorado-created products, Barsoom needs to set up a manufacturing facility in each of the states where he sells 1906 products, and LeafLink can’t function as a single marketplace. On the other hand, the extra burdens have hindered tobacco and liquor companies and other large firms from entering cannabis businesses. But Smith says it’s only a matter of time before major players jump into every corner of the industry, including LeafLink’s, so he says he’s in an all-consuming race. “The industry is growing fast, but we have to grow even faster to make sure our market penetration grows.”
Of course, not everyone believes a rapidly expanding cannabis industry — or legalization itself — is a good idea. Colgate’s Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience Scott Kraly, who studies how psychiatric medications and recreational drugs affect human behavior and the brain, is among the skeptics. He says legalization should not have been even considered without far more research into the risks of cannabis use.
“Legalization is happening because of a change in attitudes, not science,” Kraly says. “People are saying, we’ve legalized alcohol even though we know it’s harmful, and tobacco is legal even though we know it’s harmful. Marijuana isn’t as harmful as either of them, so why not? Let’s go with it.”
Kraly says marijuana is relatively safe in terms of addictiveness and that it may well have altogether less significant dangers than either alcohol or tobacco but, he says, it was a mistake to base legalization on impressions of relative risks. And while there has been surprisingly little research on the medical impacts of recreational marijuana, he says, some risks are known. “People pooh pooh the notion that pot is a gateway drug, but there is some evidence that it actually does play that role,” Kraly says. “Say a fifteen-year-old tries pot and he likes it. If he gets away with it, he’s going to be more willing to take further risks” with more dangerous substances. The impact on adolescents is a particular concern because legalization will inevitably increase their access to marijuana, especially edibles, and research shows that significant cannabis use can permanently damage still-developing brains. “What’s happening in Colorado is a grand social experiment,” Kraly says. “What ends up happening there will tell us whether legalization was a good idea or a bad one.”
In addition to potential health risks, there are other dangers to consider. A Colgate alumnus who is a police officer in a state where recreational marijuana is allowed says the evidence is already mounting — starting with dangerous driving. “People are getting into their cars after smoking pot and driving their kids to preschool, and they think that’s OK,” he says. In fact, driving while impaired is illegal, but enforcement is difficult. “We don’t have a breathalyzer for pot,” the officer says.
A policeman for almost 20 years, this alumnus declined to be named. “I work for a police department in an incredibly liberal city,” he explains, adding that he could lose his job for sharing his views about legalization. That reflects another problem, he says: There’s been such a rush to legalize that voters and legislators haven’t paid enough attention to voices like his. As a result, he says, there is insufficient appreciation for how legalization constrains law enforcement. “I can’t tell you how many times a marijuana investigation led to the detection of other crimes —burglaries, firearm violations, and major drug dealings. So now we have one less tool.” Like Kraly, this alumnus says legalization has come far too quickly: “We jumped into the deep end with all our clothes on when we should have tried putting a toe in first.”
Debbie Rush ’86 has also considered the ramifications of changing cannabis laws. For the last 30 years, she’s been working in the Bronx as a lawyer for the Legal Aid Society, the nation’s largest provider of legal services to indigent defendants. She says the aggressive policing and mandatory sentencing laws that resulted from the “War on Drugs” have had a catastrophic impact, particularly on minority groups.
“Marijuana laws have had a hugely disproportionate impact on blacks and Hispanics because they are arrested at much higher rates,” she says. “If you’re a white male smoking pot in Central Park, you’re not going to be arrested. If you’re a black guy in the Bronx, there’s a good chance that you’ll end up in handcuffs.”
At every stage, she says, people of color have been dealt with more harshly. In addition to being searched and arrested more frequently, they are more likely to be sent to prison, and their sentences are longer. And for anyone who has been found guilty of marijuana possession, the collateral damage can be profound. “Since marijuana is a drug under federal law, you have a drug offense,” she notes. “That makes it difficult to get a job, and if you want to go to college, you can’t get federal student loan money. For someone to be unable to go to college because they’ve had a single joint is insane, but that’s the law.” In recent years, the New York Police Department has changed its approach. First-time offenders are generally not prosecuted. But Rush says a second offense can still lead to a criminal record.
The Complications of Legalization
Andrew Livingston ’12 has been pushing for legalization since he joined the Colgate chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy his first year. At the end of his sophomore year, he told his parents that he hoped to turn the campaign for legalization into a career. And he has. Immediately after graduation, he became a full-time activist in Colorado, where voters approved legalization a few months later. He then became the director of economics and research at a new law firm, Vicente Sederberg, which is entirely devoted to serving clients involved with cannabis.
Today, the firm has 75 employees. Its office just outside of downtown Denver mostly looks like that of other mid-sized law firms, but there are some obvious differences: almost no one is over the age of 45, and you can find marijuana-inspired artwork in many of the offices.
Livingston, who is not a lawyer, assists lobbying groups that are working to influence how laws and regulations are written in states considering legalization. For commercial clients, he develops financial projections showing how various cannabis markets are likely to develop. The legal part of the industry, $8–10 billion today, will grow to $40–60 billion in the next six years, he predicts. He believes the illegal trade, which he estimates at $30 billion, will eventually disappear. “People aren’t going to do business with illicit dealers when they can go to a store where they are more likely to get quality products,” he reasons. (The police officer disagrees, noting that the taxes imposed on legal marijuana give black-market pot a substantial price advantage.)
While Livingston is pleased by the move toward legalization, he isn’t completely satisfied. Why, he asks, are there bars for consumers of alcohol but nothing similar for pot users? Answering his own question, he points out that while most of the legislators who legalized alcohol after Prohibition did, or wanted to, drink, pot legislation has been mostly written by nonusers. “Sixty percent of Americans are in favor of legalizing cannabis, but only ten percent are users,” he says. And because lawmakers are motivated less by enhancing user happiness than the pursuit of tax revenue, no one is talking about creating pub-like options for marijuana consumption. As a result, he says, “The culture of cannabis use hasn’t really changed. It’s no longer underground, but it’s not really above ground either.”
Laws are also complicated by the division between marijuana and hemp. Marijuana contains tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is what causes psychotic highs. Hemp contains cannabidiol (CBD), which does not have a psychoactive effect, but is said to alleviate pain, insomnia, anxiety, and depression, among other problems. Although there is little scientific research to support any of the claimed benefits, CBD products are proliferating. The legality of CBD is also murky. Unlike products that have THC, those with CBD are now permitted under federal law, but they are still restricted by some states and municipalities.
Jonathan and Leah (Werner) Schultz, both Class of ’96, are developing CBD-infused soft drinks. After Colgate, they spent 14 years living in Cleveland where Jonathan worked for a bank before the couple started a small software company. Because they could run that business from anywhere, they moved to Denver in 2012. Two years later, they purchased Backyard Soda, a producer of carbonated drinks that were sold only in Denver. With Jonathan responsible for product management and production, and Leah handling the bookkeeping and social media, Backyard Soda products are now sold in more than 100 retail locations throughout Colorado and in several other states.
Now they’re working to create CBD-infused sodas with three flavors that are designed, in part, to overcome the “hempy” taste that is characteristic of CBD extracts: ginger lime, mango jalapeno, and pomegranate orange blossom. “I think infusing soda with CBD is a potentially huge opportunity,” Jonathan says.
As it happens, Jonathan’s Colgate roommate, Reed Lewis ’96, is already making CBD products. Lewis moved to Snowmass, Colo., shortly after graduation. Thanks to the Colgate sweatshirt he frequently wore, he met Dick Kelley ’68, the owner of a popular liquor store, and after working in the store for a few years, Lewis ended up buying it. He later added a specialty food shop, and that’s where he sells his own creations: CBD-infused teas and chocolates.
All of Colgate’s cannabis entrepreneurs are eager to expand, but the Craumers warn that their industry is more difficult than it may appear, in part because of challenges unique to the industry. For example, after they bought a building in Niwot’s main retail district in 2014, it took a stressful three years to secure the permits they needed to operate a dispensary. More than 1,000 letters were written in opposition. While a substantial majority of Coloradoans are in favor of legalization, the Craumers learned that no one wants the commercial consequences to be located nearby. Once the dispensary opened in 2017, marketing efforts were complicated by regulations that allow advertising only in publications that can be shown to have predominately adult readerships.
Their pair of dispensaries now has more than $5 million in annual sales, and they’re profitable. Within a few years, the Craumers hope to add at least three more dispensaries. But they, too, have reservations about cannabis use, at least when it comes to themselves. None of them is a regular user. “I tried it in high school and college, but I didn’t like it that much,” says Callie. “I still don’t. I prefer chardonnay.”
G. Bruce Knecht ’80 is a former senior writer and foreign correspondent for The Wall Street Journal. Author of The Proving Ground: The Inside Story of the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race and Hooked: Pirates, Poaching and the Perfect Fish, he has also written for the Atlantic Monthly, the New York Times Magazine, and Condé Nast Traveler. He lives in New York City.


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The general public has been conditioned to presume that healthier foods are generally more expensive than less healthy foods, so much so that it may be causing an overcorrection in guarding against “cheap and unhealthy” foods by convincing us that “cheap and healthy” food rarely exists.
According to findings published in The Journal of Consumer Research, many people believe that healthy food needs to be expensive, and that a high price tag will even convince consumers that a certain food is healthful.
The study also notes that the perception is difficult to change, as participants in the study had to read more about the products they were told were healthy (yet inexpensive) to convince themselves it was true.
“It’s concerning. The findings suggest that price of food alone can impact our perceptions of what is healthy,” says Rebecca Reczek, co-author of the study and professor of marketing at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business.
This perception could be leveraged by food manufacturers to convince consumers that their products are healthier simply by hiking the prices. The FDA has taken to combating this partly through redefining the term “healthy” for food labels. Their goal is to help consumers better understand what’s inside the foods they are buying and consuming, and to eliminate the myth of healthiness being connected to price.


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With its eye on the burgeoning mobile advertising market, Internet giant Google said Monday that it will buy the AdMob mobile advertising network for $750 million in stock.
San Mateo, California based AdMob places ads for clients such as Ford Motor, Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble on many mobile phone platforms – most notably the iPhone.
Google, which is pushing aggressively into the mobile market via its Android mobile phone operating system, popularized online advertising with pay-per-click search ads. The company says AdMob will bring more mobile choices for its advertisers.
“We believe that great mobile advertising products can encourage even more growth in the mobile ecosystem,” Google said in a blog post announcing the deal.
AdMob focuses on display ads on mobile Web browsers and advertising within apps on smartphones.
The mobile advertising market is in its infancy. Forrester Research estimates revenue at $391 million for 2009 and projects growth to $1.2 billion by 2014.


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Bringing manufacturing jobs back to the United States from overseas makes sense for any products, commodities, and other materials considered essential to our national defense, social wellbeing, and economic survival. As I had stated in a previous article (link below), according to the Reshoring Initiative (reshorenow.org), over 1,800 companies employing 224,000 people are projected for U.S. reshoring and foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021. Plus, 80% of the projected jobs involve high- and medium-high technology, outpacing those involving low- and medium-low-technology.
SOUTHERN STATES ARE ATTRACTIVE
Let’s look at states where a high percentage of jobs have been/are being reshored. With the addition of Texas, half of them are in the Southeast and on major transportation corridors. What’s significant about this region when it comes to reshoring and FDI in manufacturing should be an eye-opener for any state recruiting such businesses. And for RAM pros everywhere. (More on that later.)
States in the cited region are home to numerous “Work Ready Communities” (workreadycommunities.org). They’re also quite aggressive with incentives for recruited companies. Consider four of these states:
1. North Carolina saw the most reshored and FDI companies (68), in the first half of 2021 (with an average of 83 jobs per company). What’s also interesting is the fact that 6% of the state’s population is enrolled in Career Technical Programs (CTE) in high school and community colleges/technical schools.
2. Texas is similar to North Carolina, with 6% of its population enrolled in CTE programs. It recruited 39 reshored and FDI businesses to the state in the first half of 2021 (with an average of 89 jobs per company.)
3. Tennessee reflected a somewhat different trend with 49 reshored and FDI companies in the first half of 2021 (with an average of 206 jobs per company). Note: Although only 3% of Tennessee’s population is enrolled in CTE programs, the size of recruited companies typically indicates a commitment to training a local workforce with the state’s assistance.
4. Alabama recruited 12 reshored and FDI companies to the state in the first half of 2021 (with an average of 436 jobs per company). Boasting one of the lowest unemployment rates in the U.S. (3.3% in June 2021), Alabama has over 4% of its population enrolled in CTE programs.
BTW: The top five (on the top-10 list of) reshored and FDI industries and their number of projected U.S. jobs in 2021 are: transportation equipment (54,972 jobs); chemicals (37,233 jobs); computer & electronic products (36,635 jobs); medical equipment & supplies (28,086 jobs); and electrical equipment, appliances & components (13,762 jobs). The remainder of that list includes: machinery (14,002 jobs); primary metals products (5,632 jobs); food & beverage (5,589 jobs); fabricated metal products (1,762 jobs); and apparel & textiles (1,102 jobs).
OF INTEREST TO ALL
As noted early in this newsletter column, these statistics on manufacturing-related reshoring and FDI should not just be of interest to states (including governors, legislators, economic developers, career- and technical-education programmers, and other entities). There are several good reasons why.
First, jobs really are coming back to the United States. Second, jobs tend to return to states with robust CTE programs and/or a strong commitment to technical-training infrastructure. Third, data is showing that recently reshored and FDI companies were not primarily large manufacturers, as many people had assumed. Smaller, entrepreneurial or boutique manufacturers are also finding new homes in the USA.
Some of the best news, though, is that all these businesses rely on skilled workers for their high- and medium-high technology jobs. And that means they all need strong RAM professionals in their ranks.TRR
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bob Williamson is a long-time contributor to the “people-side” of the world-class-maintenance and manufacturing body of knowledge across dozens of industry types. His vast background in maintenance, machine and tool design, and teaching has positioned his work with over 500 companies and plants, facilities, and equipment-oriented organizations. Contact him directly at 512-800-6031 or email@example.com.
Tags: reliability, availability, maintenance, RAM, asset management, supply chains, skills crisis, workforce issues


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The following companies had unusual price changes in Chilean trading. Stock symbols are in parentheses and prices are as of the close in Santiago.
The Ipsa index rose 0.1 percent to 4,057.82. The MSCI Chile index retreated less than 0.1 percent to 2,174.28.
Empresa Nacional de Telecomunicaciones SA (ENTEL CC) rose 1.5 percent to 9,895.9 pesos. Chile’s second-largest mobile telephone operator announced it would merge with local data, fixed-line, cable TV and Internet provider Grupo GTD.
Almendral SA (ALMEN CC), Entel’s controller, advanced 3.9 percent to 71 pesos, the steepest gain in 16 weeks.
Ripley Corp SA (RIPLEY CC) fell 0.8 percent to 451.74 pesos, its fifth day of losses and its lowest price since Oct. 18. Chile’s third-largest department store operator has retreated 4.1 percent in the last two days after announcing Nov. 25 third-quarter profit that trailed analysts’ estimates.


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Tourism related to leisure cycling is worth half a billion pounds a year to the British economy according to new figures released by VisitEngland.
The tourism body, which compiled the data alongside sister agencies VisitScotland and VisitWales, says it’s the first time the value generated by a wide range of leisure activities has been quantified.
The figures were revealed at the annual ABTA Convention, taking place this year in Costa Navarino, Greece.
They reveal that leisure cycling generates £520 million a year to the tourism industry, ahead of golf (£456 million), fishing (£274 million) and watersports (£317 million).
But those figures are dwarfed by the money spent by people going to watch live sporting events, at £3.2 billion, while visitor attractions top the chart with £3.8 billion generated by domestic visitors alone.
Wales brings in £52 million annually from leisure tourism related to cycling and mountain biking, while in Scotland it’s unsurprisingly golf that punches above its weight, with domestic spend of £90 million.
VisitEngland chief executive James Berresford said: “This new research is welcome news, confirming the huge contribution that the variety of leisure activities in this country make to the economy.
“Trips motivated by activities such as walking and cycling generate a massive associated spend, as people are willing to travel around the country to take part in them and that is something businesses can tap into to drive growth by offering new and exciting experiences,” he added.
Although in some parts of the UK popular with cyclists such as North Wales, Surrey and the New Forest there is small but vocal opposition to organised cycling events – with acts of sabotage such as sprinkling tacks on the road an all too common occurrence – the figures do highlight the benefit that bike riders, and their spending power, bring to the tourist economy.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.


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Australian-owned StayWell Hospitality Group is to grow its Park Regis and Leisure Inn brands in the UK following a deal with Fiveways Hospitality.
A master licensing agreement between the two parties will see the announcement of four new hotels in the UK over the next two years as part of StayWell's plans to open 100 hotels worldwide within the next three years. The properties will join the company's first UK hotel, the 272-bedroom Park Regis Birmingham, which opened in March 2016 following a £100m development.
Simon Wan, chief executive of StayWell, said the UK and Europe as a whole presents "a great opportunity" for the company's Park Regis (upscale hotels in prime locations) and Leisure Inn (operating in the economy sector) brands.
"Fiveways Hospitality has a well established reputation and our partnership will deliver not only opportunities for further growth for StayWell in new destinations and cities but also offer top-shelf operational support to our hotel teams within the region," he explained.
Fiveways Hospitality managing director, Stuart Broster agreed that the brands' future within Europe looks bright following the formalisation of the partnership agreement.
"We are delighted to be part of a growing global company such as StayWell Hospitality Group," he said. "Europe is crying out for new hotel brands which are competitively priced and this is exactly what Park Regis and Leisure Inn will offer."
StayWell currently has 35 hotels in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, United Arab Emirates and the UK.
As well as managing the Park Regis Birmingham, Fiveways operates a wider portfolio of branded hotels and independent properties such as Down Hall in Hatfield Heath, Essex, and Pelham House in Lewes, East Sussex.
Simon Wan, chief executive of StayWell and Stuart Broster, managing director of Fiveways Hospitality