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According to a former environment secretary, there will be a shortage of some fruits and vegetables for three to four weeks.
Additionally, George Eustice insisted that there was "nothing much" the government could have done to stop supermarket shelves from being empty.
The government and business have attributed the squeeze to unfavorable weather in Spain and North Africa.
Thomasina Miers, a chef and restaurateur, cautioned that the food system was "completely broken.".
Due to shortages, major UK supermarkets have been restricting the sale of fruits and vegetables, and customers have reported finding empty shelves in some stores.
Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, salad bags, broccoli, and cauliflower are in short supply.
Producers have issued a warning that shortages may persist through May, with the situation getting worse as UK farmers postpone crop planting due to high energy costs.
However, Mr. Eustice stated during an appearance on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg program that he anticipated the issues to last "three to four weeks.".
He attributed the issues to a "cocktail of weather events" and added that food prices were inextricably linked to energy prices, which increased as a result of the conflict in Ukraine.
Additionally, he claimed that there was "not much the government could have done differently in recent months" and "nothing they can do right away" to stop the issues affecting supply chains.
For the supply of some vegetables to resume after the disruption, Mr. Eustice said supermarkets must "work to get it right.".
He did admit that "longer term" action was required.
"We should be committing to onshore production, so we should be trying to build that here," he said, referring to the glasshouse production of cucumbers and tomatoes.
However, Ms. Miers, who is in charge of the Wahaca restaurant chain, demanded that the government's policy on food be revised. .
We are sitting on a time bomb, she declared, calling the UK's food system "completely broken.".
"If we think cucumbers and tomatoes are bad, we are looking at way worse in the next decade," she said in a foreboding tone. ".
Ms. Miers urged increased investment in regenerative agriculture as well as the use of technology to assist farmers in switching to more environmentally friendly food production techniques.
Mr. Eustice, however, defended the government's track record, saying: "We now have nearly half of farmers in what we call Countryside Stewardship doing exactly the sort of regenerative agriculture that Thomasina talks about.


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As we see many “niche” brands from the AFL to NLL struggle with the economy and being able to justify brand spends, the NHL has gone the opposite way and seems to be doing all the right things to build marketshare, buzz and connect with fans on a national and international level. Now in no way is the NHL a niche..it remains one of the five largest sports brands in North America and arguably in the world, and it should stand for all things hockey. However as recently as a few years ago, many were questioning hockey's plans and marketability. Although not totally restored, the league took the smart approach by embracing the digital space, connecting with brands who appealed to their core audience and could effectively activate and creating a key event (The Winter Classic) which broadcasters, partners and the casual and ardent fan could connect with. Put on top of that the aggressive outreach of select teams to recapture their market and commissioner Gary Bettman's work to be more accessable with the media and fans, and the result is an NHL brand which is firm and growing and can now concentrate on being all things hockey, much like the NBA is pushing to be all things basketball. A good summary of the brand resurgence was done by Media Post. In this economy the NHL smartly has been able to retool and look to the future of the sport, and as a result will be in a much better position with partners and fans when the economy overall starts its regrowth.
Some other good reads…John Feinstein in the Washington Post has a great piece on The Palestra, and its value to college hoops…Jerry Crowe in the LA Times has a good look back at boxing legends Carlos Palomino and Armando Muniz…ESPN.com has a good piece on how the University of North Carolina produces such a great lineage of college hoops…and the New York Times has a look at the struggles of women's cycling to gain recognition.

domain: news


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If you fancy upgrading to one of Intel’s next generation of CPUs next year, then it looks like you’re going to be forced into a buying a whole new motherboard too. The rumour cauldron has been bubbling over with details about Intel’s new Sandy Bridge CPUs, which are apparently going to bring two new sockets with them.
Over at the XtremeSystems forums, JCornell claims to have got hold of an engineering sample of a 2.4GHz dual-core Sandy Bridge chip. As well as posting a photo of the chip, he’s also posted a CPU-Z screenshot, showing some of the specs. The chip has a 100MHz base clock, and also supports Hyper-Threading, so it can handle up to four simultaneous threads.
The CPU has a block of 3MB of Level 3 cache sits on top of two 256KB blocks of Level 2 cache. Interestingly, the CPU-Z also shows two new acronyms in the list of Instructions – AES and AVX.
Of course, this might be easy to fake, you might think, but yesterday another source confirmed many of the details above, while also bringing us plenty more information. The new gossip-mining Taiwan correspondent at fellow UK tech site bit-tech has managed to snare a whole load of information about Sandy Bridge, a lot of which corresponds with JCornell’s pictures.
Let’s start with the new socket, which bit-tech says will be called LGA1155. Yes, that means that it’s only one pin short of LGA1166, but the sockets are apparently not compatible.
This isn’t just because of the extra pin, but because the orientation of pin 1 has changed, and because the socket notch has been moved slightly to the right, being positioned 11.5mm from the centre, compared with 9.5mm on LGA1156 CPUs. If you look at the photo on XtremeSystems, then you can see that the CPU’s notch is in exactly the right place to verify this.
According to bit-tech, the LGA1155 Sandy Bridge CPUs will be fabricated on a 32nm process, but the chip packages will now integrate everything onto one 32nm die. Comparatively, today’s Clarkdale chips have the graphics processor, PCI-E controller and memory controller in the same CPU package, but they’re on a separate 45nm piece of silicon. The chips will apparently use a dual-channel DDR3 memory controller, as used in today’s Core i5 chips.
The site also confirms the existence of AVX and AES, saying that they stand for Advanced Vector Extensions and Advanced Encryption Standard. But hold on, didn’t we say two new sockets? We did indeed. We already knew that Intel planned to introduce at least one new CPU socket next year, but Intel apparently has yet another socket planned for a further branch of Sandy Bridge called Sandy Bridge E, where E probably stands for Extreme.
Called LGA2011, the socket has 645 more pins than the current top-end Core i7 socket – LGA1366. According to bit-tech, the CPU will come with a four-channel DDR3 memory controller and will also introduce us to PCI-E 3, commanding 32 lanes that can either be split across to 16-lane slots or four eight-lane slots.
The word is that LGA1155 Sandy Bridge samples could possibly start popping up at the end of this year, although it’s more likely to be in the first quarter of 2011. Meanwhile Sandy Bridge E chips are expected to appear later on 2011, which is pretty handy given that the socket number is exactly the same as the year.
This is of course all at the rumour stage at the moment, but with two sources confirming many of the same facts, including photographic evidence and CPU-Z screenshots, we reckon this probably isn’t far from the truth.


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Qbert and the Thud Rumble crew unveiled their brand new updated design for the Invader DJ mixer, which includes a built-in computer and interface.
What happens when a DJ develops their ideal portablism device? Introducing the 7PS (short for 7" Portable Scratcher), a fully-working prototype product by French designer Lauris Honoré.
An update to Traktor Pro is coming in February and will have a dramatic new UI option: parallel waveforms. S4 MK3 users will also get some love in the form of standalone mixer functionality. Keep reading for details!
Native Instruments just announced their new app, Traktor DJ 2, is coming to iOS, PC, and Mac. There's Soundcloud GO+ library support, and a few other features that we know about so far. Learn what we know in this article.
Ready for a new version of MIDI? It's been three decades, but the first MIDI 2.0 prototype devices are about to be tested together this week at NAMM 2019.
In an upcoming update to Serato DJ Pro, most new TR drum machines (TR-8, TR-8S, TR-08, or TR-09) will be able to automatically sync with the DJ software's BPM.
Finally, a solid video demo showing how Denon DJ's gear can control Resolume visuals dynamically. Every control on the mixer and SC5000s can be mapped to effects in Resolume - powerful stuff and something other companies should really try…
Denon DJ shared some photos on Instagram that seem to be revealing a standalone Engine unit - and we suspect it will be an XDJ-RX2 competitor. It might even have four decks.


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Android Data Recovery, an amazing recovery tool, permits you to restore Android data such as contacts, SMS, call history, photos, audios and more, and save them to your Android devices with a few simple steps. No need to be anxious when the data loss from internal or external memory card
2015 Q2 the intelligent machine Rank: apple ranked only third
In time for the year, IHS Technology sent the 2015 second quarter domestic shipments of smart phones, the local operations of this data has not a small growth of domestic manufacturers. Apple ranked among the third volume in the second quarter, the first twenty-two are domestic manufacturers.
According to the data show that Apple’s market share in China in the second quarter to further improve to 12%, ranking third, millet and Huawei ranked first (18%) of the second (16%), respectively; Andrews camp as the world’s first brand Samsung relegated to fifth position, VIVO places 10% of shipments rose to fourth place.
This form from the current perspective, domestic manufacturers still maintain a strong stance in the country, including millet, VIVO, new combinations of such OPPO replacing the original “China cool linked” status. With the transformation of Huawei communications technology and marketing on the Internet + smooth transition era.
International brands, Apple released a new machine since the autumn, so the second half of the shipments can be expected to increase substantially. But Samsung although resorted to this kind of innovation for S6b edge in the first half, the market reaction was still mediocre. This frequent new domestic manufacturers are not unrelated.
International section, according to research firm TrendForce data, second quarter shipments were Samsung ranked TOP5 (26.8%), Apple (16.4%), Huawei (7.6%), millet (5.9%), LG (5.8%).


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Last week, I found myself working on a strategy for MySpace. Yes, MySpace. The newest iteration of the old school social site ended its invitation-only private beta, coinciding with new co-owner Justin Timberlake launching his first single in over five years. The completely reimagined UX has gotten coverage by everyone from Mashable to Forbes.
Just the week prior, I was checking out rave reviews for the new iPhone app for Flickr, launched as part of Yahoo’s latest attempt to return to digital relevance. It was a well-timed launch, coming just before the current front-runner in photo sharing platforms, Instagram, took a major misstep with their latest terms and conditions.
Last fall, former social news powerhouse Digg relaunched from a completely new codebase, after a couple of unsuccessful attempts to reclaim the site’s former server-crashing glory.
However, if you’re responsible for providing digital strategy, including social media strategy, can you afford to ignore them? As marketers, how do you weight the opportunities presented by the relaunch or repositioning of companies attempting a comeback? Is it different than determining when to jump on the bandwagon for an entirely new, unproven entity?
As I’m working through these questions myself, here are a few thoughts that have emerged.
1. Remember their resources. It’s fun and fashionable to write off has-beens. The punchlines come so easily for unsexy brands you associate with a younger, less sophisticated version of yourself. But remember that Microsoft took a bath on their Xbox video game platform for years and ended up taking over the lead in the space from Sony, Nintendo, and Sega. Companies that were huge once, unlike fresh new startups, have the resources to weather a few failures on the way to their end goal. And even current darlings have their own embarrassing moments (**cough**Instagram**cough**Facebook**).
2. Remember their relevance. All successful social platforms started out with a small, devoted niche audience. Even if the current crop of contenders don’t return to their former mainstream glory, they may find a stable, sustainable core audience. If that core audience is relevant to your business, they may actually be a more effective channel for certain efforts than they were at their height.
3. The Situation is Always Fluid. Aside from being a good opportunity to work in a Firefly reference, I’d like to remind my fellow marketers that the situation now is in many ways the same situation we were facing five or six years ago. Technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace. Human reaction to those new things is … highly variable. Remember the month when everyone was certain that the next big thing was going to be the “Twitter killer”? Whatever new app could show it was more stable than the notoriously fragile microblogging platform… Plurk, Pownce, Jaiku and probably a dozen others cropped up like kudzu on the Georgia hills. Most, if not all, actually offered a better experience than Twitter. And the public reaction was an overwhelming “Meh.” Then again, Pinterest shot from “What the heck is that girly site full of cake pictures?” to a top-referring (and revenue-driving) social site at what seemed like ludicrous speed.
It can be tempting to either write off a relaunching platform, or try to catch the bandwagon at an earlier, more lucrative stage on the second lap. Only you know your own company’s needs, risk tolerance, and available resources to devote to emerging (or in this case, re-emerging) channels. Yes, you’ll have to take the time to investigate the new versions of these older platforms to determine if there’s a potential good fit. It’s your responsibility to to address all new opportunities as they come up, and use critical thinking to determine if they make sense based on your current business landscape.
Even if those new opportunities are wearing a logo you’ve seen before.


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The futuristic world filled with robots that society has fantasized about for decades started to feel like it had arrived in 2017. While you didn’t see clusters of robots walking down the street yet, we saw robotic innovations break into the mainstream, bridging the gap between science fiction and tangible.
No more being jealous of iPhone users. Want to keep texting someone even though you don't have your phone on you? You can now send and receive Android text messages on your computer -- but you'll want to set it up before you lose your phone.
The project will document the learnings from each Pop-Up Newsroom to allow anyone in the industry to build on the findings. Pop-Up Newsroom aims to unlock best practices for collaboration between news organisations and technology companies
Subscriptions to online reporting from the Nikkei-owned London-based business newspaper start at $350 per year, and readers are buying. Ridding said two-thirds of the FT’s 900,000 subscribers are digital customers, and subscriptions have overtaken advertising as the chief source of the company’s revenue.
What makes the $2,499 Skydio R1 special is that it doesn’t need a pilot - it flies itself. The drone uses 12 of its 13 on-board cameras to rapidly map the environment around it, sensing obstacles and people as it quickly plans and readjusts its flight paths. You can just launch the thing and go for a walk.
The Taiwanese company known best for manufacturing iPhones, Foxconn, will soon be the company behind some of the best known routers and other computer accessories. Foxconn will pay $866 million to acquire Belkin, which also owns the brands Linksys and Wemo.
Siren is a digital personality created using real-time motion capture. Created by prominent firms in the gaming industry: Vicon, Cubic Motion, 3Lateral & Tencent (a major investor in Ubisoft). She comes to life using live mocap tech that can make her body and finger movements be captured & live-streamed.
What Cambridge Analytica did with Facebook data wasn’t a “breach,” it was a consequence of privacy policies that are as obscure as they are lax. Cambridge Analytica, a firm that boasted of being able to parse and influence the electorate through psychographic algorithms derived from that data.


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Blockchain reaction: Tech plans for critical mass
Blockchain technology has the potential to streamline and accelerate business processes, increase cybersecurity and reduce or eliminate the roles of trusted intermediaries (or centralized authorities) in industry after industry.
Banks, traders, exchanges and regulators are involved in many pilot projects and have launched multiple industry consortia to study blockchain’s use.
In a New York City neighborhood, a private experimental blockchain helps homeowners share solar-electric power generated on their rooftops without the local power utility’s involvement.
The blockchain reaction will pull in different industries at different times with differing levels of disruption, bringing both opportunity and risk.
Understanding the nature of that pivot, and the tax, legal and policy questions it will raise, will take time and preparation.
We anticipate critical mass in financial services technology in a 3- to 5-year time horizon, with other industries following quickly.
What if blockchains remake work, life and play the way the compass changed seafaring, internal combustion engines changed transportation or penicillin changed medicine?
One reason the blockchain reaction is racing toward critical mass faster than previous disruptive technologies is that it is arriving in the midst of the digital transformation already sweeping through most sectors of the global economy.
Consequently, despite the obstacles still to be overcome, businesspeople and governments are preconditioned to recognize blockchain’s potential. Tech companies have already established much of the digital infrastructure required to realize blockchain business visions.
The “embedded finance” scenario
In financial services, the first round of blockchain pilots is exploring more efficient ways to provide today’s services, such as transferring equities or other financial instruments in blockchain environments with potentially faster settlement and far lower transaction costs.
But the long-term blockchain vision is of markets that run by themselves, with finance embedded directly into the natural activities occurring within those markets. In such an environment, the finance industry will look very different than it does today.
Automotive ecosystem with embedded finance
One possible near-future “embedded finance” scenario involves a blockchain hosting all-inclusive records of an automotive ecosystem. Ownership, financing, registration, insurance and service transactions could all be tracked together.
Such a blockchain would make it possible for a manufacturer of driverless cars, for example, to place its cars in a ride-hailing company’s fleet. Every time the car is paid for a ride, a blockchain smart contract with embedded financing delivers a revenue share to the manufacturer.
The manufacturer may never need to “sell” a car to a consumer; it may not need bank financing, depending on the long-term cash flow resulting from its share of every transaction entered into by its products.


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Tecmark search director Stacey MacNaught will head to Dublin later this month to give her next major talk on content marketing.
She will appear at the Learn Inbound conference to discuss content promotion tactics – including social, outreach and paid media channels – and reveal how to turn one-time viewers into regular content consumers.
Her talk – “Amazing Content Isn’t Enough: Content Promotion to Win and Retain Audiences” – will be one of three major presentations on 22 July.
She will also join Koozai founder Ben Norman and Verve Search CEO Lisa Myers on stage for a live Q&A session.
Stacey most recently spoke at SAScon in Manchester, where her hour-long talk received a strong reception.
You can view the slides from that presentation or download the accompanying 34-page ebook.
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About the Author
A former journalist with experience in radio, TV and a decade in national newspapers, Neil now focuses on communications and results-driven copywriting.Visit Neil's Page
Savvy businesses who rely on local search will already be well aware that the key to getting new customers into their stores is by increasing their online visibility; making sure they can be ‘seen’ by anyone who happens to search for ‘jewellers near me’ or ‘closest cinema’. Thankfully there has also been a number of […]
Have you ever struggled with idea generation? There is a constant demand to stay ahead of competitors in any industry you might find yourself in. One of the fundamental ways of doing this is to remain innovative; challenging your business with new answers to existing questions and adapting to major changes within your own industry […]
Despite online sales soaring for most big multi-channel businesses, it has been predicted by Accenture that the “brick-and-mortar store will continue to make the largest revenue contribution until at least 2026”. This directly ties to the importance of local search, allowing businesses to be found easily online, which translates to a store visit and subsequent […]


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Ace Hardware Named one of America's Best Employers in 2019 by Forbes
Ace Hardware Corporation, the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world, is pleased to announce it has been named one of America's Best Employers in 2019. Forbes, along with market research company Statista, ranked Ace Hardware at number 193, up from the company’s spot at number 330 in the 2018 report.
“It is a great honor to be recognized as one of America's Best Employers,” said Kane Calamari, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer, Ace Hardware Corporation. “We are committed to our people and the employee experience, and this ranking reflects the hard work of so many throughout our organization.”
The Forbes list ranked the 500 best large employers in the United States, with the results based on anonymous surveys of employees working at businesses with over 1,000 employees. To compile the report, Statista surveyed 50,000 Americans on whether they would recommend their employer to others, while also nominating organizations in industries outside their own.
In addition to this ranking, Ace Hardware was recognized as one of the 2018 Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation by the National Association of Business Resources. For the second consecutive year, Ace Hardware also ranked among the top 10 employers for the Chicagoland area in The Chicago Tribune’s 2018 Top Workplace list.
To read more about the report and America's Best Employers visit Forbes.com.
For more information about career opportunities at Ace Hardware, please visit https://www.acehardware.com/careers
Ace Hardware is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world with more than 5,200 locally owned and operated hardware stores in approximately 70 countries. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., Ace and its subsidiaries operate an expansive network of distribution centers in the U.S. and have distribution capabilities in Ningbo, China; Colon, Panama; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Since 1924, Ace has become a part of local communities around the world and known as the place with the helpful hardware folks. For more information, visit acehardware.com or newsroom.acehardware.com


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Katie Cincotta They've cut the size of the HTC One, made it $288 cheaper, but the mini is no shrinking violet.
Pete Pachal The HTC One max's enormous screen, fingerprint scanner and new software improves on the experience of the HTC One.
Salvador Rodriguez HTC has unveiled the HTC One Mini, a slightly smaller version of its flagship smartphone.
Rich Jaroslovsky For now, the HTC One is the state of the art in Android phones.
Katie Cincotta The teaming of HTC One and McLaren's new driver is not without serendipity.
Paul Sandle Taiwan's HTC has unveiled the new smartphone that it hopes will help it to make up ground lost to Samsung.
Katie Cincotta The choice between the iPhone 5 and its HTC rival comes down to personal preferences in our one-on-one match-up.
Sinead Carew HTC has unveiled two smartphone models running Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 software slated for release in November.
HTC has announced a new edition to their Desire line of smartphones at consumer electronics show IFA in Berlin, Germany, which opens to the public Friday.
Ben Grubb Australians will soon be able to get their hands on the fourth 4G smartphone to hit the Australian market, the HTC One XL.
Adam Turner LTE versions of Samsung and HTC's flagship smartphones to be unveiled this week.
John Davidson By the time you read this, I might already be dead. I’m on a 30-Day Nokia Challenge, and it’s killing me.
Adam Turner Following in the footsteps of graphics cards, Android handset makers have been caught tweaking their devices to boost benchmark results.
David Pogue We can draw three lessons from the arrival of Apple's two new iPhone models, the 5c and 5s.
Pete Pachal The Moto X has up to 2000 customisations - including one made out of wood.
Sinead Carew, Alexei Oreskovic and Salvador Rodriguez Motorola has unveiled a new smartphone that consumers can personalise with a choice of colours and materials.
Katie Cincotta There's only one real fault with Nokia's first seriously good smartphone - the content.
New phones are continually coming out. Which should you buy? Here's a summary of recent phone reviews, including the new Moto X phone from Motorola.
Lia Timson Vodafone is standing by its ''superfast 4G network'' claims, despite Telstra's threats to challenge it in court.
Farhad Manjoo When you buy an Android smartphone, you're getting a bastardised phone replete with software that has been altered by many players along the way, usually in a clumsy, money-grubbing fashion.


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As late US President Ronald Reagan might (again) say, “there you go again.” Militants of widening bans on Chinese tech sold in the US have again locked DJI drones into their sites as security threats – with the crosshairs this time belonging to the senior Republican commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
On Tuesday, commissioner Brendan Carr urged that DJI drones and other products be added to the FCC’s Covered List, which prohibits government funds to be spent on goods produced by blacklisted companies. Appointed by former President Donald Trump, and a leading advocate of cracking down on what he calls security threats posed by Chinese companies in the US, Carr likened DJI to the telecom giant Huawei. That company was slapped with US bans in 2019 on fears its mobile phones and infrastructure could soak up vast data flows from individuals, businesses, and government administrations using them.
“We do not need an airborne version of Huawei,” Carr wrote. “DJI drones and the surveillance technology on board these systems are collecting vast amounts of sensitive data – everything from high-resolution images of critical infrastructure to facial recognition technology and remote sensors that can measure an individual’s body temperature and heart rate.
“Security researchers have also found that DJI’s software applications collect large quantities of personal information from the operator’s smartphone that could be exploited by Beijing,” he continued, offering a list of arguments for why DJI shouldn’t be trusted – including oft-cited allegations the company assists China’s government in spying on its own citizen, and in persecuting its Muslim minority population in Xinjiang province. “Indeed, one former Pentagon official stated that ‘we know that a lot of the information is sent back to China from’ DJI drones.”
To utterly exhaust what is an already tired expression, we’ve seen this movie before.
Carr’s appeal follows a series of anti-DJI offensives amid worsening US-China relations. Last December the company was added to the US Department of Commerce’s Entity List, effectively prohibiting government administrations from using its UAV. Despite different leaked documents earlier this year claiming DJI drones posed no security threats to administration operators – who, to boot, complained that approved alternatives were more expensive and less effective in use – the company remains on the banned scrolls.
In response to those, however, US drone industry lobbies redoubled their accusations of data piracy and product dumping they allege allowed DJI to establish its market domination. For over a year now, each new suggestion the company’s drones aren’t anything to worry about has served as inspiration for reinvigorated counterattacks.
Security protection – and economic protectionism – become a bipartisan anti-DJI platform
That Carr is leading a new push by urging DJI be added to the Covered List along with Chinese tech companies ZTE, Hytera, Dahua, and Hikvision isn’t a surprise. As FCC commissioner, he has championed an array of measures that would make business hard, or impossible, for Chinese companies working in sensitive US sectors. Previously, he served as a legal advisor to FCC chairman Ajit Pai, whose tenure was marked by an anti-regulation drive that weakened the agency from within, and by his controversial commitment to ending enforcement of net neutrality.
Yet the anti-China front now frequently labeling DJI drones safety threats to the US isn’t an exclusively conservative formation, but rather active on both sides of the ideological aisle. Indeed, last month a Republican member of the House of Representatives locked arms with a Democratic partner in urging their peers and the public against any notions of removing DJI from the Entity List. More general denunciations of China, and calls for the US to protect itself from security and economic risks Chinese companies pose, have been frequent and loud from both parties.
Carr’s plea adding another voice to that chorus, therefore, indicates DJI, its drones, and other Chinese businesses are more likely to see even more reruns of this same movie in the foreseeable future than they’d care to sit through.
FTC: DroneDJ is reader supported, we may earn income on affiliate links


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Senior Product and Investment Strategist at Global X ETFs, David Tuckwell, has highlighted the significant potential for growth in the cybersecurity industry in an era of unprecedented global connectivity.
Tuckwell noted that cybercrime's global underworld is valued at US$300 billion and that Australia experiences a cyber attack approximately every seven minutes. From 2021 to 2022, a surge of 38% in global cyber attacks was observed, costing organisations an average of more than $4 million in intrusion costs.
At a time when cyber threats are increasingly concerning, October being Cybersecurity Awareness Month serves as a reminder of the investment opportunities linked with the cybersecurity space. Tuckwell argued that these opportunities, which can be effectively harnessed through ETFs, are especially relevant to Australians given local exposure to recent data breaches. The increase in cyber risks has elevated cyber awareness and led more companies to acquire advanced technologies aimed at addressing modern cyber threats.
A favourable investment opportunity lies in supporting companies working to counter cyber threats. This could strengthen the cybersecurity ecosystem and investor portfolios simultaneously. Incorporating cybersecurity businesses into a diversified portfolio could lead to growth opportunities while also mitigating risk. Following are a few such promising stocks.
Zscaler (ZS) is a cloud-based cybersecurity company focusing on providing secure internet access. Zscaler's cloud-native approach allows scalability and adaptability in the booming cloud security market.
CrowdStrike (CRWD) is a cybersecurity company specialising in endpoint protection and threat intelligence. Its artificial intelligence and machine learning-based cloud platform detects and responds to cyber threats in real-time.
Palo Alto Networks (PANW) offers a wide variety of security services comprised in a comprehensive security platform. Palo Alto Networks' stability and growth make it an attractive investment in the cybersecurity sector.
Okta (OKTA) is a company that specialises in identity and access management solutions. Okta's scalable platform is expected to encounter increased demand with the growing adoption of cloud-based applications.
Varonis Systems (VRNS) focuses on data security and analytics. Amid rising concerns about data security and privacy, Varonis can help organisations protect their sensitive information.
Fortinet Inc (FTNT) is a cybersecurity firm offering security products and services. The company's comprehensive security solution platform is particularly appealing to businesses seeking multifaceted cybersecurity solutions.
Global X recently launched the Global X Cybersecurity ETF (ASX: BUGG) for investors seeking exposure to the above companies and more, thus strategically aligning with the important megatrend of cybersecurity, expected to gain momentum in the coming years.


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Samsung posted its quarterly economic studies, and the numbers for the April-June 2022 period glimpse remarkable. The Korean corporation revealed its income was KRW77.2 trillion ($59.2 billion), which is 21% extra than it was for the very same time period of 2021. Working profit was KRW14.1 trillion ($10.8 billion), which is 12% additional YoY.
Wanting at profits in distinct segments, 50 % of the elevated gross sales arrived from the Mobile Practical experience (MX) division exactly where top quality goods (namely the Galaxy S22 sequence) were being a ton far more ideal, in comparison with the predecessors in 2021.
The toughness of the US dollar towards the Korean received benefited Samsung’s part trade, raking in an extra KRW1.3 trillion (just about $1 billion) in revenue.
Nonetheless, macroeconomic uncertainties are anticipated to persist and the DS Division (Gadget Options, which includes memory chips, semiconductors, and foundry processes) will concentration on high-benefit-additional portfolio solutions, including expanding recent nodes and new apps.
The cell company in particular is getting huge expectations about its new foldables that will arrive on August 10. Expectations are profits to surpass that of the Galaxy Be aware sequence, locking the doorway and throwing the crucial on the hopes of seeing a Note smartphone in the long run.


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Long John Silver’s Cans Trans Fats
Nutrition has claimed more ground in the war on trans fats, as fast food chain Long John Silver’s has agreed to discard the use of the ingredient. This move comes after many had been calling the seafood fare the “worst restaurant meal,” thanks to it’s high fat content. As an online culinary arts student, it may interest you to know how trans fats are being eradicated from restaurant dining.
The devil himself
Trans fat (aka trans fatty acids) are created when hydrogen is added to liquid vegetable oils, making them more solid. Restaurant chains buy this easy-to-use oil because food can be fried in it several times before the oil has to be changed. It’s cost effective and efficient. Furthermore, many people like the taste.
Unfortunately, taste isn’t everything. Trans fats increase your body’s bad (LDL) cholesterol levels and lower your good (HDL) cholesterol levels, thus increasing your risk for heart disease, stroke and diabetes. While most trans fats are created via the industrial production method, they can occur naturally in meat and other animal products. However, research has not shown whether natural trans fats are as bad for health as processed varieties.
Trans fat and Long John Silver’s
According to National Public Radio, the Big Catch meal at Long John Silver’s – it includes fried fish, french fries and hush puppies – had 33 grams of trans fat, which is more than two weeks worth of the daily recommended intake as stated by the American Heart Association.
However, the fast food chain has made some changes to their menu and will no longer use trans fat. Long John Silver’s announced on Jan. 22, 2014, that it would only use 100 percent soy-bean oil from now on.
“We are very pleased to improve the health profile of our entire menu,” Mike Kern, Long John Silver’s chief executive officer, said in a news release.
The restaurant also offers baked fish options.


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Firm unveils smart solutions for SMEs’ growth, productivity
In a bid to give business owners seamless control over their investments while also increasing productivity, BetaSms, a Lagos based mobile marketing agency, has unveiled a set of industry-leading business oriented applications, WasherMEN and iPerfect to drive business growth in the country.
According to the Managing Director, Ajibola Awojobi, the apps would give small and large business owners more control, encourage lean operations, reduce overhead costs and generate more profit to keep businesses afloat.
Awojobi, at the launch of the two innovations, said the use of applications to run businesses is the gateway to automating workflows and reducing workforce in areas such as sales and marketing, sending SMS reminders, developing and sending marketing campaigns targeted at new and existing customers while also addressing customer feedbacks.
He said in the next three months, BetaSms would be launching 37 new products to help businesses achieve their desired results and goals.
Describing the WasherMEN app, the Managing Director said the app is a laundry management software that has the capacity to handle both commercial and industrial activities, saying that the app comes with features such as auto sending of SMS for laundry collections, delivery, invoicing, inventory management and reporting.
He added that as unemployment rate continues to grow, the WasherMEN presents a unique opportunity for teeming unemployed youths to be gainfully employed while having a lean start-up that can be financed by their personal savings or support from family and friends.
“WasherMEN was built after we noticed an increased number of Laundry Startups had become increasingly dependent on SMS to notify customers for pickup of their clothes. We decided to create more value for such by building the application to ensure smooth running of their businesses” said the Managing Director of BetaSMS, Ajibola Awojobi.”
Also speaking at the event, the Sales and Marketing Director, BetaSMS, Kolade Adegoke, stated that iPrefect is the latest and most complete school automation software built for every educational institute which aims to improve management’s understanding and interaction with students all through their duration in the school.
In his words: “These applications are solutions that will enable business owners to keep an eye on all their ventures, regardless of their location. They are readily available and will run on a subscription basis at a pocket-friendly price. They can be boarded to their BetaSms dashboard on request within few hours.”
The firm explained that student behaviour tracking and analytics, and student profile management, for instance, are strong value propositions for all business owners running any learning institute.
As machine learning algorithms advance and data set grows, the behaviour tracking and analytics feature not only notifies the school of any anomaly in the student’s behaviour but also tracks occurrence and events as well as suggest immediate corrective measures to help nip in the bud any unsavoury behaviour, the firm added.
“We decided to create this solution because of the incessant complaints of missing students’ files and records as well as difficulty in tracking students’ performances and behaviour. This solution will help keep records for various institutions, simplify the enquiry processes and help instil discipline amongst students” said Adebimpe Ayoola, Head of Communications.
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Are retail stocks a good buy?
The rise in interest rates has hit shares in high-street chains. But you may still pick up a bargain. By Clare Francis
The general retail sector has beaten the FTSE All-Share index since March. It is up 48.8% compared with a rise of 39% for the All-Share. Over the past three months, however, the sector has lagged. It is up 1.5% compared with a 4.3% increase in the index.
The dip has been blamed on the rise in interest rates, which has dented consumer confidence.
Shares in Marks & Spencer, French Connection and Austin Reed all slipped last week. Many analysts believe retailers will continue to underperform next year.
Jeremy Batstone of Fyshe Horton Finney, a stockbroker, said: “Consumer spending and high levels of borrowing have supported the retail sector, but the future is less certain.
If house prices continue to climb, further interest-rate rises seem likely.


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Staffordshire local authorities are saving nearly half a million pounds a year on running costs using a single customer relationship management (CRM) system across all 10 organisations. The Staffordshire...
Just as Uber transformed the business of hailing a ride, so wide area networking is being turned over by SD-WAN
The government knows that data is important, but enacting change needed a shift in both culture and structure
New privacy rules a 'mammoth task' for fleet drivers and managers
Hynix warning over smartphone sales slowdown indicates end of memory-chip price spike


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Sunset+Vine is to produce and stream a companion show to this year’s Booker Prize event.
The live stream will be presented by popular book enthusiast and YouTuber Jack Edwards, and will be available to watch on The Booker Prize YouTube page, as well as Jack’s own account, from 9pm on Sunday 26th November.
Edwards will kick off the show speaking to attendees on the red carpet, before discussing the nominations with special guests and culminating in the announcement of the Booker Prize 2023 winner.
Sunset+Vine will also be working with Booker Prizes’ team on a coordinated social content strategy to maximise impact on other platforms, as well as creating bespoke content for the event.
Raj Mannick, Head of Digital at Sunset+Vine, commented: “The Booker Prize is the pinnacle of fiction writing and we’re delighted to partner with them to engage a new generation of literature fans. Our unparalleled experience in live sport coverage and creating social content for some of the world’s biggest brands will allow us to bring a fresh approach to help the Booker Prize reach new audiences and grow an already engrossed community.”
Paul Davies, Head of Editorial at the Booker Prize Foundation, added: “We’re so excited to be working with Sunset+Vine on an ambitious and entertaining live companion programme to this year’s Booker Prize ceremony. With Sunset+Vine’s unparalleled experience in producing live coverage of the world’s biggest events, and with Jack Edwards’ huge following on YouTube, we can’t wait to bring this year’s winner announcement to the widest possible audience of book lovers.”
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Valley Natural beauty Provide opened its doorways in 1922 and is now main towards its fifth era, celebrating 100 decades in company. They specialize in promoting wholesale to barber shops and splendor stores all through South Texas.
And the important to their achievements?
“We pride ourselves in offering our customers great service,” stated Joe Edward Lopez, salesman for Valley Attractiveness Provide.
Valley Magnificence Provide has been owned by family members all these yrs.
“It is really exciting to know that my excellent-grandpa started off this,” claimed co-Terri Lee, operator of Valley Beauty Offer. “He mainly came from nothing at all, and for this to be five generations in business enterprise is amazing.”
“My sister Terri and I are fourth-era, we have the fifth-generation listed here,” claimed James Lopez, co-proprietor of Valley Beauty Source. “We’ve uncovered from the preceding generations, as we’re teaching the fifth-generations, and they are finding up really nicely and we just carry on to shift on.”
About the a long time, they’ve noticed their truthful share of challenges, such as the pandemic.
“It changed the way we do points, wherever we had to present curbside company,” stated Lee. “Beauty retailers are not necessary, so we had to provide to people’s residences, some people today have been performing from their household.”
“We arrived down on a great deal of selling prices to support the salons cope and get back on their feet,” explained James Lopez.
They are now focusing on changes – all to make the company greater.
“Improve is incredibly tricky,” Lee stated. “When you go from an more mature era and the more recent generation are trying to inform you how issues need to be finished, or instruct you how factors are going now, it is kind of tough simply because issues have been completed the exact same way for so lots of several years. Even so, know-how is shifting and we need to alter along with it, so we are now learning from our fifth technology.”
And that discovering will carry on — for generations to occur.
Valley Attractiveness Supply: Designed in the 956.


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A digital exhibition of EMC/EMI filters for regenerative drive applications and more
Following the cancellation of the SPS 2020 event in Nuremberg due to the Corona virus pandemic, Schaffner is featuring new products at an easy to navigate, up-to-date virtual exhibition stand. The company will be presenting its latest LCL filters (FN6840) and also its new versions of EMI/EMC Filters (FN3840).
The virtual exhibition will also feature the launch of a new IEC inlet (FN9274) for medical or isolated power supply applications, which the company says offers product designers 2 MOPP (Means of Patient Protection) safety protection "out of the box", eliminating the requirement for any further EMC or isolation components.
To visit the virtual exhibition, users complete a simple online form to receive joining instructions before the 24th of November. The form can be found here or on the Schaffner home page.


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ST. LOUIS – Every year as the leaves turn and the first holiday decorations appear on store shelves and retailers begin promoting their pre-Black Friday sales, companies start hiring seasonal workers.
Like landscaping companies in the spring and outdoor recreation businesses in the summer, in the fall retailers like Walmart and Best Buy are bringing in a wave of new hires to help manage the holiday rush — as well as companies that stock up. carry
But this year, due to uncertainty about holiday sales, some retail employers are reluctant to ramp up hiring as much as usual. Employment in shipping and warehousing “hasn’t really grown the way it has over the last two years,” said Charles Gascon, chief economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Part of that may be because carriers have retained more workers and haven’t had as many layoffs in the past few years, he said.
People also read…
“Employment levels, overall, are higher, so there may not be a need to hire at the same levels as before,” Gascon said.
And on Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. added 263,000 jobs in November, with the unemployment rate at just 3.7%. So it may be difficult to find workers because other sectors of the economy are hiring and the labor market is tight.
Dan Shafer, executive vice president of the Midwest Truckers Association, said “everything has gone downhill” for the trucking industry this year because of customer concerns about supply chain issues.
“So you’re not seeing an increase in terms of employment,” Schaeffer said. It’s a little more balanced throughout the year instead of peaks and valleys.
Schaefer said the industry has not seen as much seasonal turnover over the past two years as it has had to respond to depressed demand in the construction industry and shift critical resources to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the past, logistics companies have used Labor Day as a barometer to help predict the number of trucks, employees and warehouse space needed for the upcoming holiday season, he said. In the past few years, the measure has “fallen by the wayside,” Schaeffer said.
Economists also said the trends may reflect larger changes in industries.
Glenn MacDonald, Distinguished Professor of Economics and Strategy at the John M. Washington University.
Now, he said, “we’re just constantly moving things around. … I can hardly drive a minute without seeing that Amazon smile.”
The 2022 holiday season is full of uncertainty for businesses. Heading into the season, many retailers were concerned that inflation would dampen holiday sales. As consumers spend more on gas and groceries, they may be less willing to buy clothes and gifts.
In September, Walmart said it planned to hire 40,000 seasonal and full-time workers, up from 150,000 a year earlier, according to Reuters. In November, the National Retail Federation forecast that retailers would hire between 450,000 and 600,000 seasonal workers, down from 670,000 last year.
“A lot of retailers were a little stingy with their hiring,” said Jerome Katz, a professor of entrepreneurship at St. Louis University’s Chaifetz School of Business.
But over the Thanksgiving shopping weekend, customers showed up in force. According to data from Adobe Analytics, consumers spent $11.3 billion on Cyber Monday, an all-time high and a 5.8 percent increase over last year.
“It turned out that people showed up and were shopping, you know, making up for lost time,” Katz said. “I think (retailers) were happy to be proven wrong.”


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ACCC To Crack Down On Unsafe E-Commerce Products
Australia’s consumer watchdog, the ACCC, has announced it’s targeting the safety of products sold on the internet, as part its 2018 product safety review.
Spurned by the “explosion” of online shopping, the regulator is cracking down on unsafe e-commerce products this year, ensuring items don’t “fall through the cracks”.
The ACCC will also review 66 compulsory safety standards and bans, and assess the compliance of Australian businesses.
The regulator affirms its creation of each years’ product safety priorities follows significant data analysis surrounding product injuries and deaths.
In addition to eight other critical safety issues, the ACCC is pushing for a general safety provision to be introduced into Australian Consumer Law.
ACCC Chairman, Rod Sims, asserts a general safety provision is important, as most consumers are unaware its not illegal to sell unsafe products in Australia:
“Most consumers are surprised to learn that it is not illegal to sell unsafe products in Australia. Indeed they purchase products with the expectation that they are safe,” Mr Sims said.
“Consumers put their trust in suppliers and known brand names as we are generally not in a position to assess hidden safety hazards at the point of sale ourselves.”
“Despite our best efforts, and yours, consumers are tragically injured and killed by unsafe products every year.”
“Why do we need a general safety provision? We need it because our current product safety laws are essentially reactive. They normally only come into play after a problem has occurred”.
Mr Sims also claims that Australia’s product safety standards is significantly behind the likes of the UK, EU, Singapore and Canada.


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Update: After originally targeting a Late-March release, Funcom have now cemented its re-tooled MMO 'Secret World Legends' in for a June 26 release.
Now set to arrive in the heat of Summer, Secret World Legends represents another shift for Funcom's 'shared world' MMO. First released in 2012 to critical acclaim, the title suffered under the weight of the the crashing MMO market and struggled to find continued success.
Going from a subscription-based service to a single payment MMO, Secret Worlds Legends is Funcom's latest attempt to keep the game going strong. Opting for a full free-to-play format this time around, the update revamps many of its core systems to appeal to the hopeful influx of new players and those who'd rather plow through its Lovecraft-style story on their own.
Original Story: We heard about their plans through Funcom's 'Year End' earnings report, but it's finally time to hear the real deal. The Secret World is relaunching as Secret World Legends this Spring.
For those unaware, The Secret World is one of Funcom's latest - and greatest - attempts at tackling the MMO genre. While it didn't come with the same launch issues as their earlier attempt with Age of Conan, it didn't have much staying power outside of those who truly marvelled in its cryptic illuminati-esque storyline.
Shifting from a subscription model to a 'Buy once play forever' scheme a couple of years ago, Funcom isn't through with their attempts to really shine a spotlight on a game many consider to be one of the best instances of a story-based MMO to this day. “Over the course of five years, The Secret World has created a truly memorable RPG universe that stands out to this day for the uniqueness of its dark setting and tone," said Rui Casais, CEO of Funcom.
Speaking through the supplied press release, the game's Executive Producer Scott Junior said “One of our biggest goals in relaunching the game has been to reimagine the core gameplay experience in a way befitting a modern-day action RPG,” Essentially that means tweaking the combat to feel "more natural", restructuring the early portions of the game for newer players and improving how missions and quest chains bounce off one another.
Being a relaunch, it's coming with enough tweaks and changes to warrant a beta test period. Head over to its new official website at 'SecretWorldLegends' to learn a little more of its otherworldly lore and slot yourself in for a potential beta slot.


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INVESTLY has hired a new chief executive to lead the business as it looks to scale up by providing a white label offering to larger partners.
Wayne Hughes has over 35 years of experience working in senior roles with well-known financial services brands such as Demica and Bibby Financial Services. He takes over from founder Siim Mavel, who now holds the role of chief data officer.
Last month, the peer-to-peer invoice finance provider launched a white label technology platform, so that large origination partners can offer invoice discounting to their customers without having to develop the technology in-house.
Investly said it has shifted its development focus from direct marketing to businesses to partnerships with large originators and technology companies.
“Working with the significantly larger pools of customers of our partners opens up further tools for data driven credit decisioning, fraud prevention and automation,” said Mavel.
“I will be carrying our long-held vision towards machine assisted credit decisioning engine in our next phase of growth as chief data officer. Credit intelligence will be key in becoming a market leader and sustaining healthy credit model.”
Read more: Invoice finance: The business lifeline
“Much market and media commentary has emphasised the disruption of established banking and financial service models through the rollout of B2C offerings focused on disintermediation of the incumbents,” said Hughes.
“I believe the true value exists in cooperative B2B relationships between fintech partners and existing market participants. Investly is incredibly well placed to continue establishing mutually beneficial partnerships across the industry.”
Read more: Invoice finance continues to grow
Investly said it will continue to serve all of its existing and new inbound business customers in the UK and Estonia, the two markets where it operates.
Investors can earn annual returns ranging between 11 and 13 per cent by funding invoices in the two countries, with an average term of 30 days.


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BANGKOK, June 30 — Thailand’s central bank signalled today that Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy would avoid recession this quarter, and said manufacturing and consumption “started to show signs of recovery” in May.
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) issued its rosy assessment while releasing a set of data that showed the economy, battered by months of political tensions, continued to generate weak data in May — during which the army took power.
The central bank, which earlier this month slashed its 2014 growth forecast nearly by half to 1.5 per cent, said gross domestic product in April-June would be up more than 1 per cent from the previous three months — meaning there will not be a second consecutive quarterly contraction.
For January-March, Thailand reported a 2.1 per cent contraction from the previous three months.
“Overall economic activities in May 2014 picked up slightly from the previous month,” the central bank said in a statement today. “Manufacturing production and private-sector spending started to show signs of recovery.”
Putting down a floor
Don Nakornthab, a senior BoT official, said that in the current quarter, the economy was expected to shrink 0.4 per cent from a year earlier, compared with the first quarter’s annual contraction of 0.6 per cent.
Analysts believe the military’s intervention may have put a floor under the country’s deteriorating conditions and shored up consumer confidence by defusing the threat of an escalation in political violence, but mending its deep-rooted political and economic malaise will take time.
The army government has quickly disbursed overdue rice payments to farmers, but it is not clear if spending in rural areas has recovered as a result, and if any post-coup rebound in spending would be enough to keep the economy from slipping into recession in the second quarter.
Likewise, the government has announced plans to fast-track stalled spending such as on major infrastructure projects, but even projects that get the green light soon are not expected to contribute greatly to growth until 2015.
Other key drivers of the economy also remain weak. Officials are counting on improvements in exports — which equal more than 60 per cent of the economy — and tourist arrivals, but it may be months before numbers show gains.
Waiting for better numbers
A business sentiment index the BoT uses — while improved to 48.6 in May from 44.3 in April — remained below 50, and hence companies’ confidence remains fragile.
Private credit rose 7.8 per cent in May from a year earlier, slowing from 8.6 per cent growth in April.
Credit Suisse said in a research note earlier today that it remained cautious on full-year growth prospects this year, predicting expansion of 1.1 per cent compared with the BoT’s recently-lowered 1.5 per cent forecast.
“We do not expect a very significant recovery in domestic demand this year,” it said, adding that exports could start to rebound if global growth accelerates in the second half.
Among other data released today, the central bank said Thailand had a current account deficit of US$664 million (RM2.1 billion) in May, slightly larger than April’s deficit.
Exports ‘remain sluggish’
Also, it said May exports declined 1.2 per cent from a year earlier — less than the 2.1 per cent fall the Commerce Ministry announced last week.
The BoT said its index on private consumption rose 0.5 per cent in May, compared with April, and was down 0.3 per cent from a year earlier.
Its private investment index was up 0.6 per cent, and down 2.9 per cent on year.
On seizing power on May 22, the army said it was needed to restore order and get the economy going after nearly seven months of political deadlock that hurt tourism, domestic demand and confidence.
Benjamin Shatil, economist with JP Morgan in Singapore, said that the May data looked “consistent with a stabilisation in activity and we expect that 2Q GDP will show a solid rebound after several quarters of lacklustre growth. However, we think that the high household debt situation, alongside moderate credit growth, is likely to dampen the recovery in consumer spending to an extent.”
Similar to other economies in the region, the Thai export sector “remains sluggish but we look for some acceleration in the second half of the year”, Shatil said. — Reuters


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Play-to-earn games are introducing new paradigms of true digital ownership to the gaming industry—and beyond.
- Play-to-earn could bring digital identity, assets, and ownership into players’ hands as the gaming industry is becoming decentralized.
- This is how modern video games may introduce new paradigms that lend themselves to a wide variety of emerging digital environments and forms of value creation.
- These games are also spearheading a recent development: the increasing convergence of the physical and digital worlds.
This article is written by two university graduates. Surprised? Didn’t think so. But what may be more intriguing is how we each paid our tuition. One followed a ‘conventional’ route: a combination of student loans, summer jobs and the good fortune of parental financial support. The other played video games.
Long before esports—the industry of competitive video gaming—was broadly recognized as a profession, popular PC games like ‘Diablo II’ (2000) or ‘Runescape’ (2001) created fully-fledged digital economies, in which the best players were able to make a living simply by being good at the game. Indeed, Moritz Baier-Lentz, one of your coauthors, was able to finance his undergraduate and graduate education by completing in game challenges and selling the resulting rewards for real money—at some point, more successfully than any of the other 13 million active players worldwide.
However, the early 2000s were a ‘Wild West’ of digital assets, virtual ownership, and online identity—and video game marketplaces and transactions were never fully legitimate and secure, making stories like this a case study in crafty individual entrepreneurialism more than a viable professional pursuit.
Enormous growth of gaming industry, built on centralized systems of value
Today, almost 3 billion people around the world play video games, and there is an entire infrastructure around professional gaming— one that has created significant opportunities and wealth for top players. The very best of them are considered athletes: employed as salaried team members, sharing in prize money at tournaments, and commanding lucrative sponsorship agreements. Others monetize live streams of themselves by playing games on viewership platforms like Twitch or YouTube Gaming.
Video games now represent a $336 billion industry, according to BITKRAFT Ventures, accounting for a wide spread of software, hardware, and intellectual property. As gaming has grown to become the world’s largest media category ahead of linear TV, on demand entertainment, film, and music, certain characteristics have developed with it. Importantly, almost all game based economic activity is centralized, giving developers and publishers the rights to everything going on within their games. The business case for this is to capture the billions of dollars generated from the sale of in game content, digital items, and subscriptions—but it also means that the vast majority of players themselves have few ways to share in the value without following the route of professionalization.
This historically custodial model of ownership and profitsharing has persisted as the industry has grown—but it might be on the cusp of transformation, with the arrival of so-called ‘play-to-earn’ games. This type of video game allows players to ‘truly’ earn and own digital assets that they can then sell outside of the game at their own discretion.
Play-to-earn could bring digital identity, assets, and ownership into players’ hands
If individuals are to allocate serious time, attention, and personal investments to digital environments, establishing trust in the durability of their digital presence and goods—as well as their economic robustness—is paramount. Early implementations show that this is indeed achievable with blockchain technology, which, using cryptography, can ensure digital trust and a decentralized storage of value.
Blockchain is already being applied to a broad range of sectors from finance to art—and video games are no exception. Play-to-earn games rely on blockchain technology, including in the form of non fungible tokens (or NFTs), as the foundation for value creation. An NFT is a digitally secured claim of ownership for a unique, non interchangeable digital asset. In practice, NFTs can take many shapes inside virtual worlds: characters, items, land, decorative personalization features such as digital clothing, and more. People ‘earn’ the most valuable items by playing the game very well, and can sell them for real-world money at their own terms.
The true innovation lies in the decentralized integrity and security of these digital items, which—for the first time—can transcend the traditional proprietary, custodial ownership and discretion of a company or even government. As an example, instead of relying on the permission or rules of publishers or other third parties, in game resources from play-to-earn games can be sold freely on marketplaces both inside and outside of the game.
Recently, countless examples of communities have sprung up, highlighting the potential of play-to-earn games in building a new economy. Most notably, a video game called ‘Axie Infinity’ shows that this is more than just a pipe dream. The popular play-to-earn environment, which advanced from 4,000 to 2 million daily active users within few months, has become especially popular in the Philippines and Venezuela. For players in countries like these in the Global South, the income they can earn inside this digital world is far more significant than what their local physical economy can offer.
In addition, ancillary ‘scholarship platforms’ like Yield Guild Games, which enable and educate players in emerging economies to participate in play-to-earn games, have attracted major investment and themselves become billion-dollar companies in a matter of months—eclipsing many of the most popular video games in value. By globalizing the market for game based NFTs in this way, play-to-earn games and their surrounding platforms are examples of frictionless economic opportunity and meritocratic participation across geographies. It’s 2021, and it seems that the world has never been flatter.
For now, it is worth noting that play-to-earn games do not inherently and fully eliminate the centralization found in games: they still require the authority of the publisher to define, issue and constrain the asset that eventually is traded as an NFT. Rather, the greatest promise of play-to-earn games is in their potential to decentralize marketplaces for the creation, ownership and exchange of digital assets, as well as the potential created when these marketplaces are connected to the traditional economy and fiat currencies—allowing players to transfer their digital time, effort and earnings into disposable income in the physical world.
Owning and participating in core pieces of these new worlds brings great financial returns to those who believed; many of whom will be from emerging markets who were quick to move on the opportunities available.
For the players themselves, the play-to-earn model may represent a new and flexible way to make money. But beyond questions around financial reporting and taxation, it also reflects some of the perils associated with the digital economy, which risks creating “humans as a service”: limited job security, precarious relationships between firms and employers, and a lack of social safety nets. Given that freelancers are already overrepresented in the creative economy, these will all be considerations that policymakers will have to take into account.
This is just the beginning: Play-to-earn gaming as the job board for the ‘Metaverse’
While play-to-earn is still an emerging niche, it could redefine more than just the gaming landscape. In fact, we make the case that it has the potential to change how people interact with and perceive traditional socioeconomic structures like financial institutions, marketplaces, and governments. This is because play-to-earn games provide a proof of concept for a self-sovereign financial system, an open creator economy, and universal digital representation and ownership that lend themselves to a wide variety of emerging digital environments and forms of value creation.
In fact, it seems that play-to-earn games are spearheading a larger trend at play: the increasing convergence of the physical and digital worlds. And with that, the emergence of the legendary ‘Metaverse’—which has been as much at the center to the recent academic debates as it has been the stuff of rejuvenated corporate agendas, most prominently that of Meta (née Facebook). Enticed by visual impressions drawn from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel ‘Snow Crash’ or movies like ‘Ready Player One’, most discussions of the Metaverse center around technical details, functional attributes, or end user implementations in the form of high fidelity 3D and extended reality headsets.
But instead, the Metaverse may quite simply be the point in time for human society in which digital identity and assets are more meaningful than their physical counterparts. Through this lens, our transition to the Metaverse becomes a socioeconomic shift as a consequence of technology and connectedness. As humans, we value objects and experiences we live in a world and a moment in time in which those objects have been assigned value by society. The Metaverse marks the moment in time in which digital assets, experiences and relationships are assigned an even bigger value than our physical surroundings.
And for many people—from the United States to Venezuela and the Philippines—this transition may have just begun.


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Regulators in Maine are investigating concerns about marijuana-related advertisements at a sports arena.
The Portland Press Herald reports several parents whose children play sports at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee in Lewiston have complained about the ads.
State laws prohibits advertising marijuana that will reach people under the age of 21.
Parents complained about one ad for Strawberry Fields Apothecary that featured marijuana leaves over red strawberries.
The ad was removed but other text-only signs for two other local dispensaries remain.
Colisee owner and general manager Mike Cain told The Sun Journal he is working with Strawberry Fields to change the advertising so it does not mention marijuana.
A spokesman for the state's Office of Marijuana Policy said Saturday that the agency would review the situation.


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The ‘pub-like’ atmosphere of one of Cambridge’s newest eateries has seen it rocket to the top of an online review league, beating a twice-Michelin starred restaurant.
The Urban Shed only opened on King Street in February, and has already risen to the top spot in Tripadvisor’s rankings for the city.
The website collates reviews from the public, and with 32 out of 35 rating the shed as excellent, this week it overtook the double Michelin-starred Midsummer House on Midsummer Common, and Bottisham’s Ristorante Il Piccolo, in third and second place respectively.
Simon Morrice, one of the café’s co-directors, said he was delighted with the result.
“We didn’t really know we were on there until it got pointed out to us a month ago that we were number two”, he said.
“We thought that was hilarious, as we’re just a coffee house, but we have been tracing it since.
“We are consistent, which is very rare in Cambridge, but apart from that we are real people. We are here every day and we get to know people as they come in, it’s almost like a pub atmosphere.
“The regulars have their own cup and their own locker, and they just come in and take their cup and we fill it for them. We’re not interested in just being a generic place.”
He started the venture with his brother-in-law and fellow chef Billy Balaam, also employing three part-time members of staff.
One major attraction is the café’s unique ‘up-cycled’ style, with the mismatch of furniture all repurposed from other places, and all up for sale.
Mr Morrice said: “It’s about reusing good things before they go in the bin. We are very keen on recycling, and we have a barnfull of stuff waiting to be used.
“We want a sustainable business we could make a living from; we’re not interested in becoming millionaires, and that’s what we’ve got. We are a local place for local folk.”
The café is open seven days a week, and has recently branched out into dinner parties and catering for functions.
For more information see www.theurbanshed.com


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” Apple’s New Headquarters Will Be Powered Entirely By The Sun“
On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the company’s plans to build a 130-megawatt solar farm to power its stores and facilities located in California. Speaking at a technology conference hosted by Goldman Sachs, Cook said Apple will work with First Solar to build the $850-million plant, which will be sited on 1,300 acres in the interior of central California’s Monterey County. Apple’s two campuses in Cupertino, several hours’ drive north of the plant, as well as a data center and the state’s 52 Apple stores will all get power from the development, according to Cook.
The announcement is the second major solar commitment made by Apple so far this month. Earlier in February, Apple announced it was building a massive solar-powered global data command center in neighboring Arizona. The planned investment of $2 billion will include a 70-megawatt solar farm to power the facility.
Apple currently has three solar farms; two in North Carolina and one in Nevada. In 2013, Apple began using 100 percent renewable energy to power its data centers, a goal not yet achieved by Amazon, Google and Facebook.
“We know at Apple that climate change is real,” Cook said on Tuesday. “Our view is that the time for talk is past and the time for action is now.”
Cook also said that the California solar project, which is the company’s biggest solar deal to-date, will lead to major savings for Apple, though he stressed that the company is doing it because “it’s right to do.”
Apple’s California solar farm, called the First Solar California Flats Solar Project, is the largest solar procurement deal by a company that’s not a utility. It is also the first wholesale commercial and industrial power-purchase (PPA) agreement for First Solar, which signed a 25-year PPA with Pacific Gas and Electric.
“Over time, the renewable energy from California Flats will provide cost savings over alternative sources of energy as well as substantially lower environmental impact,” said Joe Kishkill, Chief Commercial Officer for First Solar, in a statement. “Apple is leading the way in addressing climate change by showing how large companies can serve their operations with 100 percent clean, renewable energy.”
Shares of Arizona-based First Solar, a leading photovoltaic company with over 10 gigawatts installed globally, surged nearly five percent after the news of the Apple deal.
In 2013 Apple hired Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA from 2009 to 2013, as vice president of environmental initiatives. Last summer, Apple released its 2014 Environmental Responsibility Repor t. The report states that the company’s carbon footprint from energy use dropped by nearly a third from fiscal year 2011 to 2013, even as energy consumption increased 44 percent. According to the report, carbon emissions from the company’s manufacturing partners – often located oversees in countries like China – remain the largest portion of Apple’s carbon footprint, an area the company is “committed to addressing.”
The fact that much of Apple’s emissions come from partners overseas underscores a difficult truth for the company: that beyond Apple’s headquarters in renewable-energy friendly California exists the globalized economy that the company depends on for sourcing, manufacturing, shipping, selling, and using their products. This environment is not easily controlled. Apple can set a leading example by building solar farms, but when it comes to the companies that Apple relies on for supply chain purposes like Foxconn and Pegatron, change is harder to enforce.


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Veronicas Twin Jess Origliasso Getting Naked For PETA? : Ecorazzi
They recently hit nude at body-shamers by sharing their lengthy origliasso list online. And feisty identical twins Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, 31, who form The Veronicas, have once again slammed their online critics for equating health with a certain body type.
Feisty identical twins Lisa and Jessica Origliasso, 31, who form The Veronicas, have once again slammed their online critics for equating health nude a certain body type.
The Brisbane-based beauties also assured their fans that they live an extremely healthy lifestyle, growing jess own organic produce and avoiding processed junk. It comes after The Veronicas released the album photo shoot for their latest single, In My Blood, which depicts the pair completely naked and smothered in purple glitter.
Ruby Rose Nude And Hot Sexy (89 Photos)
After uploading the new image to the band's Facebook page, the petite songstresses received a barrage of insults from online trolls commenting photos their figures.
I'll pay for origliasso food,' wrote one home made bondage toys in a particularly harsh comment. Lisa and Jessica decided to make light of the situation and take up the offer of a free meal by giving photos user a shopping list of their daily food intake. It comes after Jess Veronicas nude the album photo-shoot for their latest single, Nude My Blood, which depicts the pair completely naked and smothered origliasso purple glitter.
The Veronicas Jess Origliasso Nude Photo Scandal
Their extensive list included '10 organic red potatoes, 1 bunch organic kale, 2 bunches organic asparagus and 4 organic avocados,' just to start with. After finishing with the list, Lisa and Jessica added: But you would prefer we just 'eat a cheeseburger' right? Jess and Jessica decided to make light of the situation and take up the offer of a free meal photos giving jess Facebook user a shopping list of photos daily food intake.
The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. Saturday, Sep 15th 5-Day Origliasso.


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226w ago - We've heard numerous PS3 price drop and PS3 backwards compatibility rumors several times over the last few months, but today SCRAWL is reporting the following (albeit unofficial) confirmation from their local Sony Rep, to quote:
"Over at my local GameStop (where I work), our Sony rep stopped in earlier today to update the PlayStation 3 kiosks and check in with us.
I decided to ask him about all the rumors going around on the PlayStation 3 slim. When I asked him about whether or not is coming he told me this:
"All I'm going to say is this: both a price drop and a firmware update with backwards compatibility are coming soon."
Directly from the mouth of a Sony rep. GamesCom is next week, folks. Don't be surprised if you hear the announcement."
226w ago - We did say today was alleged PS3 Slim ad day earlier, right?
Another has now surfaced from alexval78 at French site PS3Gen (linked above) which purportedly shows an ad for a 'new PS3 console at a new price' slated for September 1, 2009 and allegedly costing €299 Euros.
To quote, roughly translated: "Carrefour catalog contains active bids on Thursday 27 August to Tuesday September 8. Through its pages, our member was surprised to see an announcement regarding "a new console and a new award, announced on our beloved PS3!
As you can see, the layout is still that of the current PS3, but the offer is clear: Carrefour will offer for sale a new PS3, with a reduced price of €100, beginning the first of September next. This is certainly the improved version of the monolith as we know it as the Slim PS3."
226w ago - According to trade publication MCVUK (linked above), supplies of the PS3 are running dry in the UK channels.
This adds merit to rumors that the PS3 is going to get a price cut and also that the emergence of the PS3 Slim is imminent.
To quote: Rumors and speculation have been rife for many weeks now, but MCV can reveal that Sony is clearing PS3 hardware stock from the channel ahead of what is expected to be a new price point introduced from early September.
A press conference at the Gamescom event in Cologne next Tuesday (August 18th) is expected to provide details of the price cut - and possibly the launch of the rumoured redesigned PS3 Slim.
But ahead of that, UK retail has already begun to comment on the current lack of hardware stock on the market.
Two of the UK's leading national retailers have confirmed to MCV that they have been told not to expect any further supplies of the console until later this month or early September.
226w ago - It appears the rumor from last week was accurate after all.
We now have a date for the Xbox 360 Pro model, with the shot (below) from a Meijer catalog due on August 30, 2009 and indicating the XBox 360 Elite is in line for a Pro-sized price cut to $299.
To quote: You'll remember, of course, that the origins of this rumor - Ars Technica's ever-reliable Microsoft mole - are that the 360 Pro is being phased out, taken off the market entirely, and that the 360 Elite will have its price slashed to that of the Pro to compensate. This will leave only two 360 consoles to choose from: the cheap, hard drive-less Arcade and the 120GB HDD Elite.
This will leave only two 360 consoles to choose from: the cheap, hard drive-less Arcade and the 120GB HDD Elite.
'Lo and behold, according to this catalog, that move looks like it'll take place a couple of weeks from now. So long, 360 Pro model.
226w ago - Over the last few weeks we've heard from Belgium, French, Spanish and now Italian retailers reporting that PS3 price drops are in the works to make room for a new PlayStation 3 Slim console's arrival.
Today an employee of a large Italian retailer has confessed the following on NeoGAF under the username zallaaa, to quote:
"I can confirm the discount for Italy. I work for a big consumer electronic shop and we just received some bundles (80gb PS3 + Pacific Rift) that will be priced 299€.
Also I got an almost official confirmation that the discount is for emptying the channel for the slim version which should land the 30th of August (at least we should receive it on the 30th). 399€. The color is not sure, but silver it seems."
That being said, hopefully all of these reports will be confirmed on August 18th during Sony's 3-hour conference at GamesCom in Cologne.


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Both will be available separately on the PlayStation Store and in a two-in-one physical pack. They're now for PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.
Available for PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch, the two role-playing titles will release on PS5 courtesy of publisher NIS America.
Whether it's a character's death or utter despair, these moments left a lasting impression.
This is following the August launch of Hajimari no Kiseki in Japan.
Turbo options, 480 frames per seconds, and much more included in PC release.
Try out PC-exclusive features like higher frame rates and high-speed mode today.
Nihon Falcom's latest financial report indicates a drop in sales year-on-year.
Nihon Falcom's JRPG is coming to PC.
If you're looking to get lost in a game, then these titles should more than suffice.
NIS America is holding a panel at PAX South about porting from console to PC and mentions the RPG.
No word yet on when the pre-launch demo will be available for Switch.
The critically acclaimed sequel will arrive in Spring 2020 for the US and Europe.
More remastered versions of titles for the PS4 are also planned.
Rean Schwarzer and Class VII embark on a new journey.
Series fans will be delighted with the strongest outing yet.
October is jam packed with some of the biggest games of the year.
The demo is currently live for Europe but should hit North America later today.
A new trailer gives us an idea of the story beats mixed with some combat.
Everything you need to know about The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 3.
The RPG hits a snag on the way to the west.


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Siri Chief Architect Joins Roku to Lead Tech Development for Smart TV Service
Roku has hired the former chief architect of Siri, Brian Pinkerton, to help develop new software and technology. Pinkerton served at the top of Apple’s Siri team for three years before jumping to the TV set-top device and platform company. Nabbing Pinkerton suggests Roku has some ambitious plans that will benefit from his experience with natural language processing and AI interfaces, just as a new wave of AI-assisted smart TV options are starting to appear.
According to Pinkerton’s new staff bio on Roku, he joined the company to “lead technical innovation and strategic software development.” The brief background mentions his three decades of work in tech, especially “human-centered problems in computer systems and natural language processing.” The bio does leave out his 10 months as chief technology officer for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, though his LinkedIn page expounds upon how he essentially took it from an idea to a team of almost 100 people and completing an acquisition.
Pinkerton does have a lot of experience in artificial intelligence with regard to search and user interactions, however. Before joining Apple, he was the vice president of search for Amazon, heading up A9.com, Amazon’s first Silicon Valley base after growing beyond Seattle. Siri is often used as a search tool, so joining Apple as the chief architect for the voice assistant was a logical next step. Still, it does seem like he will be doing more than just voice interactions for Roku, which has been keen to expand its range of technological features, including recently adding support for Apple AirPlay and the HomeKit smart home platform. Roku has also been pushing to grow its streaming platform, the Roku Channel. Roku taught its voice assistant to understand Spanish and extended Alexa and Google Assistant support on its platform to new countries earlier this year. The company is also partnering with more TV manufacturers to integrate the software into their products, especially entry-level smart televisions.
Smart TV Competition
While Roku’s specific plans for Pinkerton are not clear yet, the general goal of augmenting its smart TV platform with better AI search capabilities and improved NLP fits with a recent flurry of new and improved smart TV virtual assistants. Google and Amazon have both recently released new set-top devices for Chromecast and Fire TV, respectively, and added additional features to Google Assistant and Alexa for smart TV users. Internationally, Roku is facing new competition in several countries. Last month saw Russian search engine giant Yandex taking a page from its American rivals by adding its Alice voice assistant to its smart TV platform. At the same time, Australia’s largest television subscription service, Foxtel, upgraded its smart TV service by adding TiVo’s voice search platform. European telecoms are looking at a similar idea from a different starting point. SFR in France and Vodafone in Spain debuted smart speakers with unique voice assistants over the last few weeks that can act independently yet are deeply integrated with their smart TV platforms.


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Builders FirstSource Acquires Trussway
Builders FirstSource, Inc., the nation’s largest supplier of structural building products and value-added components and services, today announced it has acquired Trussway, a leading provider of pre-fabricated roof and floor trusses as well as value-added building components and services, including for the multifamily sector, with annualized sales of approximately $340 million.
“We are thrilled that Trussway will now be an integral part of Builders FirstSource. Since 1972, Trussway has been a supplier of choice to customers due to its ability to routinely deliver high quality products and services,” said Dave Flitman, President and CEO of Builders FirstSource. “The addition of Trussway expands our footprint with our roof and floor truss offerings, including for multifamily customers, and enhances our value-added portfolio to better serve our customers and accelerate growth. We are excited to welcome the Trussway team, with its long-standing customer relationships and track record of profitable growth, into the Builders FirstSource family.”
Headquartered in Houston, and with 1,000 employees nationwide, Trussway benefits from customer relationships across the ecosystem of owners, developers, general contractors and framers. Trussway serves more than 340 customer accounts in the U.S., and its average relationship with its top 25 customers is over 10 years. Trussway’s innovative in-house estimating, design and engineering approach will be complementary to BFS, and the Company anticipates it will lead to synergies across its portfolio. As part of the acquisition, Builders FirstSource is adding Trussway’s integrated network of six strategically located manufacturing facilities across the U.S.
“Trussway is honored to be a part of the BFS family," said Jeff Smith, President and CEO of Trussway. "For 50 years, Trussway associates have worked hard at building this company into a leading truss manufacturer. We look forward to bringing, and building on, our high intensity approach to safety, quality, service, production and customer satisfaction with the BFS Team."
The purchase of Trussway will be funded through cash on hand and the Company’s ABL.
Rothschild & Co. served as financial advisor to Trussway and Latham & Watkins LLP served as its legal counsel. Alston & Bird LLP served as BFS’s legal counsel.


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Slovakia advises that the government has extended a general lockdown until Jan. 24 in response to a significant number of new COVID-19 infections. There will be impacts to collection and delivery of domestic and international mail.
Slovakia’s post advises that, in order to combat the resurgence of the COVID-19 pandemic, on Dec. 16, the government announced a new lockdown, which will come into effect on Dec. 19, and last at least until Jan. 10, 2021. The lockdown restrictions introduced throughout Slovakia include the mandatory closure of non-essential shops and certain other services.
Slovakia’s post will continue to provide postal services, but will operate with a reduced workforce and subject to the new lockdown restrictions and safety guidelines. The processing and delivery of all types of inbound and outbound mail (letter-post, parcel-post and EMS items) will continue to be affected, and the post is unable to guarantee compliance with the agreed standards. Therefore, the force majeure situation declared before remains in place until further notice.
Slovakia’s post advises that the government has declared a three-week partial lockdown effective Oct. 24. Postal services will continue with restrictions and impacts to workforce and post office hours. Items normally requiring an addressee’s signature upon delivery will be handed over without signature. These measures will affect processing and delivery of all types of services, including outbound and inbound mail, with an impact on quality of service. The force majeure remains in place.
Slovakia’s post advises that collection of signature on delivery has resumed. Deliveries will not be made to customers who are quarantined. Items are delivered to an outdoor location if possible, and recipients are required to observe certain social distancing rules. Delivery staff will not deliver items to individual apartments. In addition, standard collection arrangements have resumed but with a longer collection period. Slovakia’s post is able to send mail only to countries within the European Union (with a few exceptions) and to a number of other countries that include the United States. Details can be found at www.posta.sk/stranky/obmedzenia-a-upravy-v-medzinarodnej-poste.
Slovakia’s post advises that it has taken measures to eliminate customer interaction at the doorstep and meet physical distancing requirements in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19). It has suspended collection of a signature on delivery for inbound registered letters, which are now placed in the addressee’s mailbox and details recorded in delivery books. If this is not possible, items will be stored at the delivery post office. The same applies to ordinary mail, including small packages. An exception are inbound registered items with value-added services. These deliveries have been suspended and items will be held at the post office. Additional measures also are in place. Domestic operations, including mail delivery, continue under these adapted conditions.
Slovakia’s post is able to send mail only to countries within the European Union (with the exception of Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Malta and Spain), and to Belarus, Canada, Serbia, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States. It will continue to accept letters and packages sent to destinations for which transport capacity is available. Transit mail cannot be accepted to any destination country unless bilaterally agreed upon.


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The burger chain Shake Shack says it has obtained new funding and will return a small-business loan it got to help weather the coronavirus crisis.
Shake Shack has laid off or furloughed hundreds of its employees and needed the assistance, its CEO Randy Garutti and its founder Danny Meyer said in a statement seen Monday.
But the company was able to get extra funding late last week through an “equity transaction” and decided to “immediately return" the $10 million paycheck protection loan it obtained through the CARES Act.
It said, “we’re fortunate to now have access to capital that others do not. Until every restaurant that needs it has had the same opportunity to receive assistance, we’re returning ours."
The letter said shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic threaten $800 billion in U.S. restaurant spending and are a severe challenge to both Shake Shack and to Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group.
Pedestrians walk past an American fast casual restaurant chain, Shake Shack store in New York City. (Photo Illustration by Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Shake Shack has 189 restaurants in the U.S. that employ nearly 8,000 people. It said it is still operating many outlets while closing its dine-in facilities. Union Square Hospitality Group, with more than 2,000 employees, suspended its business in March. Like many big companies, both qualified for the government loans, the statement said, because their outlets employ fewer than 500 workers each.
Funding for the small-business loans has fallen far short of what is needed. The Trump administration and Congress expect an agreement Monday on an additional aid package of up to $450 billion to boost the small-business loan program that has run out of money and add funds for hospitals and COVID-19 testing.
“We urge Congress to ensure that all restaurants no matter their size have equal ability to get back on their feet and hire back their teams," Garutti and Meyer said. “Fund it adequately. It’s inexcusable to leave restaurants out because no one told them to get in line by the time the funding dried up. That unfairly pits restaurants against restaurants."


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The UK and Ireland’s largest trade union, Unite, has called for a mandatory two-metre social distancing to be put in place for those working in the food industry.
It has urged George Eustice, the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), to introduce the measure to protect those working on production lines in processing plants during the coronavirus crisis.
Bev Clarkson, Unite national officer for the food industry, said: “The lack of the mandatory imposition of the two-metre rule by government is a problem currently nationwide. Ministers need to make the two-metre rule mandatory, as matter of urgency, across food processing, and also in the retail sector
“As a society, we have quickly recognised that food production and the retail sector are key areas in maintaining adequate food supplies and keeping people’s morale high.
“I have been in contact with all the meat suppliers where we have union recognition. Some of the employers are introducing social distancing wherever possible, however they are saying that because the government has not stated that it is mandatory within the sector then they are not implementing it on production lines.
“We have strenuously put it to them that if they do not implement it on production lines then the virus could spread rapidly throughout the factories.
“I have put a number of proposals forward, such as slowing the lines down enabling them to pull people off the lines and do it on a rotation, as well as putting perplex screens up.
“I have been informed that production is up by at least 40% on all meat poultry sites because of the increase in demand, however, I pointed out that if the virus spreads in the factories then they won’t have enough staff to continue the production.”
just-food has asked Defra for a response.


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Good and bad news for AT&T Q2
July 22, 2016
By Chris Forrester
AT&T managed to see net growth of new subscribers on its DirecTV DTH pay-TV service expand by an impressive 342,000 subs. That’s the good news. The bad news was that its U-Verse TV users switched off at the rate of 391,000 during Q2. In other words, overall there were still net losses of 49,000 amongst its pay-TV users.
However, AT&T said that y-o-y it had now added more than 1 million net subs to DirecTV, and more than 80 percent of AT&T’s video users are now using its DirecTV service.
AT&T CFO John Stephens said that he expects “millions of people who don’t now subscribe to video and prefer a streaming service to be impressed.”
“We feel great about our customer base. With regard to that, we’re willing to invest dollars to retain and attract additional quality customers, whether here in the United States or in Mexico and Latin America,” he added.