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Big credit card companies MasterCard (MA) and Visa (V) Report earnings results on Thursday. MasterCard will announce its fourth-quarter results before the market opens. Visa will begin its fiscal 2023 results after the closing bell. MA stock fell Thursday following the report. Visa stock rose shortly after the announcement.
A backdrop of rising interest rates could be positive for large credit card processors. But those interest rates are weighing on consumers, who are wary of a possible recession. Wells Fargo analyst Donald Fandetti expects these conditions to make most of 2023 a challenging environment for consumer finance company fundamentals, wrote in a mid-December research note.
But reducing travel-related risks and revenue outside of consumer credit cards is improving the company’s differentiation. Also, additional payment flows outside of consumer cards should extend Visa and MasterCard’s growth, KeyBanc analyst Josh Beck noted on Jan. 9.
On Tuesday, MA stock and Visa shares went up and down sharply amid a trading crash on the New York Stock Exchange. Both hit the “circuit breakers” and stopped momentarily. MA stock ended the week up 1.6% on Wednesday, while V stock rose 0.3% over that period.
MasterCard’s total dollar volume grew 14 percent in the first three quarters of 2022, to $6 trillion. The company’s cross-border volume rose 51 percent year over year, generating $4.8 billion in cross-border payments.
For the fourth quarter, MasterCard’s adjusted earnings per share rose 13 percent to $2.65 to $5.8 billion on 12 percent revenue growth. That just beat 9.4% revenue growth to $2.57 billion, beating Wall Street expectations for 10.9% revenue growth to $5.79 billion.
For Q4, total dollar volume grew 8 percent to $2.1 trillion. Cross-border payments rose 31% to $1.8 billion and transaction processing fees rose 12% to $3.3 billion.
The results represent seven consecutive quarters of revenue growth and eight consecutive quarters of revenue growth. However, earnings gains have slowed over the past four quarters. And sales growth has slowed over the past seven quarters, falling from 36% growth in Q2 2021.
MA stock was down more than 1% in premarket trading on Thursday after rising 1.2% on Wednesday. Mastercard’s stock is up 20% over the past three months and is up 10.5% over the past year. Stocks are rising to their highest levels since last February.
Visa collection, revenue effects
For the fourth quarter, Visa processing volume increased 10 percent year over year and the number of transactions processed increased 12 percent. Global trading revenue grew 52 percent to $2.87 billion, with the company’s cross-border volume up 36 percent.
Visa’s first-quarter fiscal 2023 revenue and earnings are expected to increase for the seventh straight quarter in a report Thursday afternoon. Earnings rose 11 percent to $2.01 to $7.7 billion on revenue growth of 9 percent.
In mid-December, Visa announced a commitment to invest $1 billion in Africa over the next five years to grow its operations and strengthen relationships with governments, financial institutions, businesses and other strategic partners. Visa said the investment will help create an inclusive economy on the continent and make digital payments more accessible.
Visa stock rose less than 1 percent ahead of earnings on Wednesday. V stock is up 10% in the past three months and 9% over the past year.
You can follow Harrison Miller on Twitter for more news and stock updates. @IBD_Harrison.
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United kingdom tourism field in peril as overseas people stay absent | Travel & leisure
Past year’s boom in British summer holidays was not ample to conserve hundreds of tourism companies, in spite of enhanced domestic bookings to popular locations such as Cornwall and the Yorkshire Dales.
A survey by the Tourism Alliance of 1,927 tour operators, lodges, sights, language faculties and other journey and hospitality companies serving overseas tourists located that 11% think they are “very probably to fail” in 2022, and a whole of 41% assume they are “quite possible to fail”.
The initially 3 months of 2022 are searching bleak, with cancellations soaring in the wake of the Omicron variant. Pretty much a 3rd of companies surveyed have missing at the very least half of bookings produced for domestic holidays amongst January and March this yr.
With much much less government guidance offered just after the end of the furlough plan, a quarter of people surveyed mentioned they had no additional income reserves, and just above half reported they would run out within two months.
Previous summertime observed crowded beach locations and marketed-out seaside resorts, but that masked an over-all fall in domestic tourism away from coastal and rural locations, according to Kurt Janson, director of the Tourism Alliance. The alliance includes much more than 60 trade associations that collectively depict 303,000 United kingdom journey businesses.
“There’s traditionally been a substantial volume of domestic tourism in towns and cities, and a ton of small business travel and conferences, and all those sectors have accomplished extremely poorly,” Janson explained. “Businesses that depend on international travel have carried out badly – language universities, situations, conferences. And mainly because reserving situations for these factors are longer, they will just take for a longer time to recuperate.”
Janson was specifically worried about tour operators serving overseas visitors. “They are liable for about 60% of overseas readers to the United kingdom and if they are not out there endorsing the Uk as a destination, inbound tourism will take a very long time to get better. We require them out there, battling for our corner of the marketplace.”
A person sign of the struggles experiencing the tourism sector arrived past 7 days, when the Hungarian federal government claimed it would yet again delay a plan that would have observed as many as 60,000 college students checking out the United kingdom this summer.
“It would have been a enormous boost,” mentioned Huan Japes, membership director of English British isles, the trade entire body for language schools. “We applied to get 550,000 pupils coming, but we have hardly risen earlier mentioned 100,000 a 12 months considering that the pandemic.”
Janson said the figures confirmed it was not likely that the government’s tourism restoration strategy would meet its targets. It hopes to see a bounceback to 2019 amounts of domestic tourism by the end of the calendar year, and of abroad tourism by the close of 2023.
The United kingdom was starting to be much less competitive as an international destination, Janson mentioned. People could no lengthier reclaim VAT when they left, other international locations were investing far more on marketing and advertising, and EU site visitors now desired passports to enter the British isles.
Tourists from China and Center Japanese international locations ended up keen to store in spots like Bicester Village, but have been now a lot more probable to decide on France due to the fact they could get a tax refund when they still left. (The Uk scrapped the VAT reclaim plan at the conclude of 2020.) “The govt has mainly explained to people readers ‘don’t arrive in this article – go to Paris instead’,” stated Janson.
He claimed the government urgently essential to boost the Uk as a place. Ireland is spending £33m. Australia will devote £250m in the subsequent a few many years, and the US is about to approve a £185m funds to rebuild its tourism industry.
Joss Croft, main govt of trade entire body UKinbound, explained: “These figures lay bare the devastating effect the pandemic proceeds to have on the UK’s inbound, outbound and domestic tourism field, together with the whole offer chain. We are seeing eco-friendly shoots, but the crippling border limitations and ever-changing govt direction keep on to stifle restoration.”
From 1 April, inns, dining establishments and other hospitality corporations will have to get started spending enterprise charges once again, as well as VAT at the full 20%, adhering to the reduction to 12.5% during the pandemic.
Kate Nicholls, chief govt of UKHospitality, mentioned maintaining the decreased price would bolster the tourism trade, rather of raising price ranges for staycationers and abroad visitors.
“The principal driver for inbound tourism is selling price, and journey to the Uk is really cost sensitive,” she claimed. “A 1% fall in the value of a getaway in the Uk provides a 1.3% raise in inbound tourism profits for the financial system.”
Bernard Donoghue, chief executive of the Affiliation for Main Customer Sights, claimed: “Tourism was strike first, strike hardest and will take the longest to get well, and all those sights and organizations which are usually remarkably dependent on inbound holidaymakers, who have been absent for approximately two decades, will acquire the longest to get better of all. Our industry shed, on typical, £200m a day in 2021.”

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The travel industry wasn't the only one affected by the volcano that erupted in Iceland. Mobile-phone vendors and suppliers adjusted shipping methods to get handsets from Asia to Europe. Some McAfee corporate clients most likely cursed the company after a security update crashed the computers of hundreds of thousands of users. If you're a financial and technology wonk, then read on for highlights on this week's earnings reports from major IT vendors. Facebook's efforts to make the Web more social may result in some lost user privacy. But perhaps the site should bolster its security first. A hacker claims to have the log-in information to more than 1 million accounts, a security research company said.
1. Few answers after McAfee antivirus update hits Intel, others: A buggy antivirus update from security vendor McAfee caused corporate customers' Windows XP machines to endlessly crash and reboot. Hundreds of thousands of machines were affected, including those used by chip maker Intel, a U.K. IT outsourcing company, and local government and police forces in some U.S. states. McAfee on Thursday attributed the snafu to the update misidentifying a Windows file as a virus.
2. Facebook wants the Web's default to be social: Facebook used its developer conference to announce application development platform changes that either make the Web more social or decrease user privacy, depending on your perspective. Facebook and other Web sites will integrate user information and use this data to offer a more personalized Web experience. A person visiting a Facebook partner site would see content based on the preferences previously stated on Facebook. The social-networking site is also releasing iFrame plug-ins that will allow Web developers to place Facebook functions, such as the "Like" button, on their sites, allowing Facebook and its partners to know the type of content a user prefers. Analysts said Facebook could pull off this endeavor, but questioned if the measure would turn off some users over privacy concerns.
3. Phone manufacturers learn to cope with ash cloud: In addition to airlines, the ash cloud caused by an Icelandic volcano also affected the IT industry. Some cell phone manufacturers, which ship their products from Asia by plane, developed innovative routing methods after the ash cloud shut down European air space for several days. A Swedish phone retailer had the phones flown to countries with open airports and then used trucks to complete the shipment. A European mobile-phone service provider said the air cargo conundrum hindered the availability of two already popular handsets, while a Taiwanese phone maker said the volcano's overall impact depends on when planes can resume flying in Europe.
4. Wall Street Beat: Tech earnings shine: This week brought a plethora of quarterly earnings reports from several IT and telecommunications companies. Apple produced impressive numbers, boosting quarterly profit by 90 percent and increasing iPhone sales by 131 percent compared to last year's second quarter. Microsoft announced third-quarter revenue that increased by 6 percent from the same period last year, while IBM's 16 percent rise in its first-quarter revenue bodes well for the overall IT industry. Verizon Communications, eBay and AT&T, among other businesses, also issued earnings information.
5. Adobe tosses in Flash towel after Apple limits iPhone dev: The prospect of running Flash applications on Apple's iPhone or iPad officially died this week when Adobe Systems, Flash's developer, said it is ceasing work on a tool that would bring the popular multimedia software to the devices. The companies have clashed over Flash for a while, but the situation intensified recently. Apple banned developers from using cross-platform compilers, tools that could be used to port the software for Apple's mobile devices. In a blog post, an Adobe employee responded to Apple's new developer terms with some choice words. Does the iTunes Store sell dirges?
6. Gov't regulators slam Google's privacy efforts: In a letter, government regulators from 10 countries, including France and Germany, warned Internet-based companies to respect privacy laws when introducing products or face fines and other punishments. Google received most of the privacy regulators' ire for the launch of its Buzz social-networking service, which users complained lacked adequate features that allowed them to control how their data was shared with other users. Facebook also received some flak. One official involved with the letter said Web companies should view the missive as a final warning before governments intervene to protect people's privacy.
7. Fate of network admin Terry Childs now in jury's hands: A jury will now decide if a former San Francisco city network administrator is guilty of breaching California hacking laws for refusing to hand over administrative passwords during a 2008 dispute. Closing arguments in the city's case against Terry Childs finished on Monday. The trial has lasted for almost six months and featured testimony from the city's mayor and Cisco Systems' chief security officer. If convicted for disrupting the city's computer systems, Childs faces five years in prison.
8. Microsoft, Oracle differ on cloud visions: Oracle and Microsoft discussed the prospects of cloud computing in the enterprise and, perhaps not unexpectedly, both software vendors advocated a hybrid model of cloud and in-house computing for the most effective results. While the companies agreed on using cloud computing as needed, they differed on execution. Microsoft talked up its public cloud products, like its Azure online OS, while Oracle plugged its offerings that allow businesses to build internal clouds.
9. 1.5 million stolen Facebook IDs up for sale: Security researchers revealed this week that they recently discovered a hacker who is selling the user names and passwords for 1.5 million Facebook accounts. Hackers use the compromised accounts to scam and spam the account holders' friends. Depending on the number of friends a person has, the hacker is selling the account information for the bargain price of US$25 to $45 for 1,000 accounts. The security firm couldn't confirm the legitimacy of the accounts, and Facebook didn't respond to a request for comment. But if the hacker's wares are valid, one out of every 300 Facebook users is vulnerable.
10. Apple's iPad selling well overseas ahead of official launch and Illegal satellite TV in China brings CNN to the masses: Asia's clandestine electronics market also proves interesting, and here are two items to back that claim. The iPad is proving popular with Taiwanese consumers although Apple has yet to launch the product internationally. One Taipei vendor claimed to order 300 of the tablet PCs from a U.S. retailer that specializes in obtaining hard-to-find merchandise for foreign vendors. Satellite television is booming in China, despite government efforts to control who has access to this service, which offers content that the state bans domestic broadcasters from airing. While this market is technically illegal, the country's growing middle class has adopted the technology.


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CBD comes from hemp, a type of cannabis plant that doesn’t get you high. It’s cropping up in everything from lattes to baked goods, with proponents saying it can help treat a range of conditions. But there is only one FDA-approved CBD medication and experts warn that other uses are not backed up by research.… Continue reading What You Need To Know About CBD Oil, The Health Craze Getting National Buzz | NBC Nightly News
CBDs are cannabis-based products. While they don’t get you high, sales are soaring for various creams, patches and sprays containing chemical compounds found in marijuana and hemp. We ask Dr. Margaret Haney, Director of the Marijuana Research Laboratory at Columbia University Medical Center if they work and if they’re safe. » Subscribe to CNBC: About… Continue reading Is CBD safe?


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Consumer expectation drops amid fiscal cliff concerns
The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index declined slightly for the second-consecutive month in December and now stands at 65.1 after dropping more than 6 points from the month prior, according to a release from the Conference Board Thursday.
The Expectations Index, which is a measure of confidence in the short-term future economic situation, decreased from 80.9 in November to 66.5 percent in December.
In the release, Lynn Franco, who is the director of economic indicators at The Conference Board, cited uncertainty in the looming fiscal cliff as the reason for the sudden drop, which was similar to what happened in August 2011 during debt ceiling discussions.
Consumers’ assessment of the current conditions improved in December, however. People surveyed who said business conditions were “good” during the month rose 2.5 percentage points (17.1 percent from 14.6 percent), while those who considered current conditions “bad” decreased to 27.3 percent from 31.2 percent in November, according to the report.
To read the full report, click here.


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Apple Pay-Visa Vulnerability May Enable Payment FraudNeither Firm Has Fixed Issue, Researchers Say
Researchers at the University of Birmingham and University of Surrey say they have uncovered a vulnerability in the Apple Pay-Visa setup that could allow hackers to bypass iPhone’s Apple Pay lock screen, perform contactless payments and get around any established transaction limits.
The vulnerabilities were detected in iPhone wallets where Visa cards were set up in "express transit mode," the researchers say. The transit mode feature, launched in May 2019, enables commuters to make contactless mobile payments without fingerprint authentication.
Threat actors can use the vulnerability to bypass the Apple Pay lock screen and illicitly make payments using a Visa card from a locked iPhone to any contactless Europay, Mastercard and Visa - or EMV - reader, for any amount, without user authorization, the researchers say.
Information Security Media Group could not immediately ascertain the number of users affected by this vulnerability.
"The weakness lies in the Apple Pay and Visa systems working together and does not affect other combinations, such as Mastercard in iPhones, or Visa on Samsung Pay," the researchers note.
The researchers, who come from the University of Birmingham’s School of Computer Science and the University of Surrey’s Department of Computer Science, found the flaw as part of a project dubbed TimeTrust. The project is funded by the U.K. National Cyber Security Center, and the findings will be presented in a paper at the 2022 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.
Visa and the university researchers did not immediately respond to ISMG's request for comments.
No Fix Issued
The details of this vulnerability were disclosed to Apple in October 2020 and to Visa in May 2021. The researchers say that both parties acknowledged the seriousness of the vulnerability, but have not come to an agreement on who should implement the fix.
"Our work includes formal modelling that shows that either Apple or Visa could mitigate this attack on their own. We informed them both months ago but neither have fixed their system, so the vulnerability remains live," the researchers note.
According to an Apple spokesperson, the vulnerability is a concern connected to Visa systems and Visa does not believe that this kind of fraud is likely to take place in the real world, given the multiple layers of security in place.
"We take any threat to users’ security very seriously. In the unlikely event that an unauthorized payment does occur, Visa has made it clear that their cardholders are protected by Visa’s zero liability policy," the spokesperson tells ISMG.
John Bambenek, principal threat hunter at Netenrich, a digital IT and security operations company, says the unfortunate reality is that organizations tend to be more concerned with liability and who is to blame than their customer’s security.
"It gets even worse when controls can be implemented at either side to protect users, so it allows organizations to devolve into patterns of blamestorming instead of one of solving problems. The only real solution to this problem is the inevitable lawsuit when fraud happens, when the banks’ lawyers step in to ask the courts who is liable. Then it's up to the judge decide," Bambenek tells ISMG.
Uncovering the Vulnerability
The researchers say they used simple radio equipment to identify a unique code broadcast by the transit gates, or turnstiles. The code, dubbed "magic bytes," unlocked Apple Pay, the researchers say.
"The team found they were able to use this code to interfere with the signals going between the iPhone and a shop card reader. By broadcasting the magic bytes and changing other fields in the protocol, they were able to fool the iPhone into thinking it was talking to a transit gate, whereas actually, it was talking to a shop reader," the researchers note.
They say the method "persuades the shop reader that the iPhone has successfully completed its user authorization, so payments of any amount can be taken without the iPhone’s user’s knowledge."
In addition, the vulnerability allows for bypass of contactless transaction limit, allowing unlimited EMV contactless transactions from a locked iPhone, the researchers say.
Andreea-Ina Radu, who led the research from the School of Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, says the project is a "clear example of a feature, meant to incrementally make life easier, backfiring and negatively impacting security, with potentially serious financial consequences for users."
The attack against Apple Pay transport mode is an active man-in-the-middle replay and relay attack, according to the researchers.
It requires an iPhone with a Visa card set up as a transport card. If a nonstandard sequence of bytes, called magic bytes, precedes the standard ISO 14443-A WakeUp command, Apple Pay will consider this a transaction with a transport EMV reader, the researchers note.
The researchers used a Proxmark - which acts as a reader emulator - to communicate with the victim’s iPhone and an NFC-enabled Android phone - which acts as a card emulator - to communicate with a payments terminal.
"The Proxmark and card emulator need to communicate with each other," the researchers say. "We connected the Proxmark to a laptop, to which it communicated via USB; the laptop then relayed messages to the card emulator via WiFi." According to the researchers, the Proxmark can directly communicate with an Android phone via Bluetooth, and the Android phone will not require rooting.
The researchers found that the attack requires close proximity to the victim’s iPhone, which can be achieved by holding the terminal emulator near the iPhone while its rightful owner is still in possession, by stealing it or by finding a lost phone, researchers note.
Ioana Boureanu, a researcher from the University of Surrey’s Center for Cyber Security, says that the research shows how a usability feature in contactless mobile payments can lower security. "But we also uncovered contactless mobile-payment designs, such as Samsung Pay, which is both usable and secure. Apple Pay users should not have to trade off security for usability, but at the moment, some of them do,” she adds.


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Event Industry Associations announces new Diversity and Inclusion hub
Event industry associations, the Association of Event Organisers (AEO), the Association of Event Venues (AEV), and the Event Supplier and Services Association (ESSA), have announced the launch of their new Diversity and Inclusion hub.
The hub contains a variety of resources signposting articles, podcasts, case studies, blogs and other materials, which aim to recognise, value and promote diversity, tackling inequality as we evolve to a consciously inclusive, welcoming and progressive industry.
Michael Adeniya, portfolio director of Phacilitate and cross-association D&I working group chair said: The D&I working group has seen tremendous engagement from members who want to see better representation and inclusion in the events industry. We're delighted to make the resource hub available, not just for our members but for the entire events industry to have access to educational resources in a range of protected characteristics. We will continue to add to this resource and welcome any suggestions on enhancements.
An Events Industry Alliance spokesperson said: Our industry is so dynamic and its audiences so diverse. As the industry goes through some of the biggest changes in its history, we have a real opportunity to effect positive and exciting change that will see our industry thrive. With a journey that's very much at the start, there is much to be done around the education piece - the hub will play a crucial role in that. We invite members to continue to share ideas with us on the sorts of resources they'd like to see.
To view the D&I hub for each association, click on the following links:
Please note that the Events Industry Alliance is the umbrella company for AEO, AEV and ESSA.


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- Nike's stock hit lows Wednesday following a tweet from celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti implicating the athletic apparel company in a major "scandal."
- Shortly after the tweet, Avenatti was arrested in New York on charges related to an alleged attempt to extort Nike for as much as $25 million.
- Separate charges against Avenatti were filed in Los Angeles, accusing him of wire and bank fraud.
Shares of Nike fell more than 1 percent on Monday following a tweet from California-based lawyer Michael Avenatti alleging Nike's involvement in a "major high school/college basketball scandal." But the stock recovered after the celebrity attorney was arrested on accusations he had attempted to extort millions from the athletic apparel company.
Avenatti, who represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her lawsuit against President Donald Trump, tweeted that Nike's "criminal conduct" involved the highest levels of Nike and "some of the biggest names in college basketball."
About 15 minutes after the tweet, Avenatti was arrested in midtown Manhattan for his alleged involvement in a scheme to extort Nike for as much as $25 million. He also faces separate federal charges in a case in Los Angeles where he is accused of wire and bank fraud. In the second case, he allegedly embezzled his own client's money to pay his expenses and debts and used phony tax returns to obtain millions of dollars in loans.
Avenatti's co-conspirator is high profile criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, people familiar with the matter told NBC News. Geragos is currently defending actor Jussie Smollett, who is being prosecuted by Chicago authorities for faking a racially charged attack on himself. He also represented football player Colin Kapernick in his fight against the National Football League.
"Nike will not be extorted or hide information that is relevant to a government investigation. Nike has been cooperating with the government's investigation into NCAA basketball for over a year. When Nike became aware of this matter, Nike immediately reported it to federal prosecutors. When Mr. Avenatti attempted to extort Nike over this matter, Nike with the assistance of outside counsel at Boies Schiller Flexner, aided the investigation. Nike firmly believes in ethical and fair play, both in business and sports, and will continue to assist the prosecutors," said a spokesperson for Nike.
Nike's stock fell to $80.89, its low for the day, after Avenatti's tweet. The stock, which has a market value of $128.1 billion, has since recovered some of its losses and is trading at about $81.78. Earlier Monday, Nike shares traded as high as $83.22.
The criminal complaint details Avenatti's scheme to threaten economic and reputational harm to Nike if it did not pay him between $15 million and $25 million, and his client, an Amateur Athletic Union coach, $1.5 million. Avenatti said his client had evidence that one or more Nike employees made payments to the families of top high school basketball players.
That complaint added that Avenatti, 48, had threatened to hold a news conference exposing the damaging information on the eve of Nike's earnings release and the NCAA basketball tournament.
Avenatti is due to be presented in Manhattan federal court on Monday.
The athletic apparel company reported a top and bottom line earnings beat on Thursday. Nike shares are up more than 10 percent year to date.


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People are more likely to buy local due to the pandemic. The last few months have shown us how important it is to have a strong local supply chain to keep things running smoothly when the borders close. While some consumers continue to buy local out of environmental concern, others have started to buy local to support their regional and national economy. With an unemployment rate that has skyrocketed due to COVID-19, this issue has become more crucial than ever.
As businesses must adapt their practices to ensure their longevity, business text messaging provides a competitive edge1.
Shopping habits have changed since the start of the pandemic. Despite a decrease in total consumer spending and a steep fall in in-store sales, online sales in the US have surged2. Across the border, close to 3 Canadians out of 10 now go online to purchase items they used to get in store3.
It’s crucial, however, that local businesses make their remote purchasing process as easy as possible to compete with online retail giants like Amazon. Incidentally, brand loyalty has been weakened throughout the pandemic. According to a survey of 2,000 Canadian, American and British consumers conducted in March 2020, 40% of respondents said they would turn to less familiar brands if products are unavailable4. For local businesses, this creates both a risk and an opportunity. Some may risk losing clients if products become unavailable, while others may take the opportunity to attract new customers by meeting the needs of their community.
Did you know that even shops that do not have an e-commerce or transactional website can sell goods and services remotely? Once an order is placed by SMS or over the phone, the local seller can send an electronic payment request to the customer by text messaging. Customers can then make their payment through the secure payment portal from their smartphone, tablet or computer at their convenience. Once done, they will receive an automatic payment confirmation.
If need be, the seller can also give full or partial refunds remotely.
With the health measures in place, there is an increased demand for contactless mobile checkout. With a text messaging platform, small business owners can offer mobile checkout without having to invest in a terminal or other costly equipment. Not to mention that there’s no limit on how many customers can make purchases at once. No more waiting in line at the checkout and no need to worry about respecting social distancing measures.
To learn more about the difference between online payments, e-payments and mobile payments, read this article Mobile Payment Terms and Concepts Explained.
For local farming, produce freshness is a major selling point. Health measures have made food delivery services more popular than ever, making it necessary for sellers to provide efficient pickup options5. Unlike emails, where exchanges tend to go on over several days, text messaging is short and quick, making the ordering and confirmation process much faster.
Furthermore, text messaging can be used to notify customers when fresh, seasonal produce is available. Some farmers automatically send out a weekly order form to their customers. This reminds customers to prepare and submit their order on time. A simple text reminder also helps ensure customers are home at the scheduled time to receive their deliveries.
For farms that offer organic produce boxes, sending out a weekly text containing that week’s produce allows customers to plan their meals accordingly. As a matter of fact, 60% of Canadians have been spending more time in the kitchen since the start of the pandemic. Consequently, nearly half of Canadian adults are looking up new recipes more often than before6. This is a great opportunity for farmers to send their customers recipes that showcase their farm’s seasonal produce.
They can just add a hyperlink to their text message, linking to their website or to one of their social media posts. Farmers could also strike up a partnership with a local food blogger or chef. This would help customers avoid letting that unknown veggie from their produce box go to waste or encourage them to try new flavours by adding unusual products to their order.
In accordance with the health measures in place, sellers must limit the number of people in the store and sanitize between each customer. A good way to spread out customers and reduce wait lines is to take visits by appointment.
Text messaging is an invaluable tool when planning these visits in a non-intrusive manner. Sellers can send a message to the customers on their mailing list to let them know they’re reopening. Interested customers can text back a keyword if they want to schedule a visit to the store. Sellers can then direct them to their website or give them a choice of available time slots. The day before the scheduled visit, an automatic message set up by the seller will remind the customer of the visit and request a confirmation. This makes it possible to schedule the number of employees needed based on the number of visitors expected.
Maintaining excellent customer service while dealing with the comings and goings of seasonal staff can be a challenge for some sellers. With text message archival, all employees are equipped to provide efficient customer service. They can, for example, read the entire history of the customer’s exchanges with the company. This also helps provide seamless customer service when replacing employees who are on vacation or leave.
In addition, if a dispute arises between a customer and an employee, the supervisor and owner have access to the entire conversation. This allows them to, if need be, rectify any miscommunication that took place.
Are you hesitating between using your personal phone for business or using a business text messaging solution? Read the article on what you should consider when using a personal cell phone to communicate with customers.
Buying local goes hand-in-hand with a sense of community. Local artisans have the advantage of living in the same area as their customers. In addition to being familiar with regional habits and customs, which sets them apart from their multinational competitors, they also experience the same events as their customers. A communication channel as efficient as text messaging provides optimal reactivity. A prompt response to local concerns or an exclusive partnership announcement shows the seller’s commitment to communicating with its customers.
In addition, if an unexpected event occurs, artisans can communicate directly with their customers and partners. Whether it’s a power outage, blizzard or backorder, they can quickly notify all those concerned by text message and prevent any unnecessary travel.
Using text messaging is the perfect solution for local businesses trying to bounce back after the pandemic and promote their expertise. Whether it’s to offer remote purchasing, provide secure payment options, ensure efficient delivery, maintain exemplary customer service or increase their ability to communicate quickly with their customers and suppliers, sellers are adopting business text messaging to get that competitive edge.
Discover all you need to know about business textingDownload now


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Mazda’s arresting MX-30 crossover will hit bounded showrooms in the aboriginal bisected of 2021 with a best of petrol or electric propulsion.
The clear bunched SUV is set to be pitched as a exceptional archetypal for contemporary burghal motorists with a amusing conscience. Mazda says it is too aboriginal to altercate prices or blueprint for the car, which costs added than a similar-sized Mazda3 or CX-30 overseas.
Wearing the “Mazda Experimental” name originally alien for the MX-5 roaster, the new MX-30 will be a aura archetypal of sorts for the brand, with eye communicable architecture and its best absolute assurance suite.
While the Mazda3 or CX-30 are accessible with supercharged “Skyactiv-X” engines able of high-compression active after defective atom plugs to burn fuel, the petrol MX-30 makes do with the aforementioned axiological agent as the cheapest Mazda3.
The 2.0-litre four-cylinder agent with 114kW and 200Nm has “mild hybrid” functionality, according to Mazda, but captious barter ability see through 6.4L/100km claimed ammunition abridgement that uses 80 per cent added ammunition than a Toyota Corolla Hybrid.
Mazda expects the majority of barter to accept the petrol version, admitting some may authority out for a committed electric archetypal due mid-year.
Powered by a 107kW/271Nm electric motor active the advanced wheels, the EV is fuelled by a 35.5kWh array with a claimed 224km of active range. That’s beneath than baby electric cars such as the Mini Electric, Nissan Leaf or Hyundai Kona, which is why Mazda business administrator Alastair Doak says “it’s actual abundant an urban-based car”.
Families are absurd to approach against the MX-30, which has a coupe-like fastback roof and pillarless “freestyle doors” agnate to the BMW i3 bear or long-discontinued Mazda RX-8 sports car. The advanced doors charge accessible afore rear cartage can access or avenue the vehicle, authoritative it catchy on the academy run.
While it’s not as applied as accepted models, the MX-30 has clear looks central and out. The berth appearance apery leather, acceptable cork and recycled artificial in abode of accepted materials. New touchscreen controls for the airconditioning accompany adapted disciplinarian aids in a berth set to feel accustomed to loyal customers.
The cast doesn’t apprehend to advertise cogent numbers of the MX-30.
Mazda Australia managing administrator Vinesh Bhindi, says it will allure barter attractive “something different, article that’s unique, to add to their experience”.
“This is a actual focused offering,” he says.
“If anyone is cerebration this is a boilerplate alms — a car that is aggregate to everybody, you’ve got the amiss lens on.”


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Geoffroy van Raemdonck has spent his career at global fashion companies such as Ralph Lauren Corp. and Louis Vuitton.
But it will take more than an eye for style to fix the problems at
Neiman Marcus Group Ltd., a quintessentially American luxury
department-store chain hoping to relive its former glory. Van Raemdonck,
who becomes chief executive officer next month, is taking over a
retailer facing heavy losses, an industrywide traffic slowdown and --
worse -- nearly $5 billion in debt.. . . more


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Lagos – Leading phone manufacturer, Nokia, in partnership with Etihad Airways and Etisalat Nigeria, has announced a pre-order promotion for its latest Windows smartphone, the Nokia Lumia 1020, which will be available in the country later this month.
Chris Brown, Nokia West Africa, general manager, said the pre-order promotion would give customers the opportunity to purchase the devices online before it finally arrived in Nigeria later this month.
Brown added that all customers who pre-ordered and paid for the device from Etisalat's website would be entitled to special discounts on airfares to several destinations on Etihad Airways.
Describing the device, Chris explained that the Lumia 1020 was an improved version of the Nokia 808 smartphone launched in 2012. The Nokia Lumia 1020, running on Windows 8 operating system is the ultimate camera phone, boasting a whopping 41-megapixel camera sensor combined with a Xenon flash, focus assist light and Nokia's Pro Cam app, which makes it the most advanced and powerful camera smartphone.
The device is powered by a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor, 4.5- inch 1280x768 (334 ppi) AMOLED display, 2GB RAM, 32GB storage and a 2000MAh non- removable battery. It also supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC and support for 4G LTE networks.
“We are creating better smartphones that allow both lifestyle as well as business consumers capture important moments in pictures with our Pureview technology. To enable our customers have seamless experiences while using this device, we have partnered with Etisalat Nigeria to enable our consumers can leverage their great 3.75G network services."
Speaking on the partnership, Lucas Dada, director of Business Segments at Etisalat Nigeria, said, “With the growing demand for smartphones in Nigeria, we decided to collaborate with Nokia and United Arab Emirates flag carrier, Etihad Airways in a first-of-its kind strategic partnership. These organisations share our vision of developing and growing the Nigerian market as well as offering customers best value for every kobo they spend. To this end, our partnership with Nokia for the launch of the Lumia 1020 Smartphone bundled with our easyflex5000 2 for 1 offer is yet another evidence of our commitment to revolutionize the broadband space.”
- CAJ News


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Mark Maasai lands new gig after TV break
Former TV journalist Mark Masai has landed a new gig after taking a TV break.
The renowned news anchor recently quit TV after more than a decade and a half.
He is renowned for his eloquent style of reading news alongside a catchy smile.
He promised to make a comeback soonest and appears to have kept his word as on January 17, 2023, he was spotted performing the Master of Ceremony role at an event in which Tecno launched a new phone.
Donning a dark suit and matching shirt, the media personality captured the attention of those in attendance at the event with his mastery of the Queen’s language as he introduced sports legend Kipchoge Keino, who was the chief guest.
Kipchoge was recently named brand ambassador of Tecno Phantom x2 series.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s give it up for our very own World marathon record holder and Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge as he makes his way to his seat. Let’s celebrate him with joyous hearts as he makes his way in,” Masai announced to the crowd.
Besides the MC gig, the reserved TV journalist has also launched an online show where he discusses topical issues include human interest tales.
Also present at the Tecno event was Caroline Mutoko, a renowned media personality.
Kipchoge hailed the mastery of the new phone, saying he will use it to record himself during his training sessions and thereafter share some of the pictures with his followers.
The phone has a 65mm focal length, 2.5x optical zoom retractable portrait lens, Phantom X2 Pro 5G revolutionizes image-making in the smartphone industry.
The innovative lens empowers users to capture portraits comparable to professional camera shots with just a pocket-sized device.
Available in an Eco-Friendly Edition featuring a pioneering microfiber back cover made from recycled plastics, the X2 Pro 5G also raises the bar for sustainable design in the industry.


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Instead of increasing the capacity of Bitcoin blocks, Lightning enables the settlement of instantaneous micropayments that are currently not possible to execute due to the settlement times of transactions.
All of these incentives will create an economic environment suitable for this alternative currency, similar to fiat currency.
Litecoin price prediction March 17 narrow range! | BITCOINBitcoin has managed to garner significant public interest from around the globe.
Bitcoin Analysts Are Competing for Highest Price ForecastOn a serious note nobody can exact predict the prices year by year.Not because of any dark-web drug-dealing or Russian ponzi scheme, but for an.So far, a little over 16 million have been unlocked from the code and put into circulation.
Vinny Lingham aka ‘The Bitcoin Oracle’ Maintains a $3,000Bitcoin was designed to appreciate in value by the way it is created.Segwit, Lightning and Tumblebit are all scalability solutions initially introduced to facilitate larger amounts of transactions primarily to deal with the increasing user base and transaction volume of Bitcoin.
The wild card in cryptocurrencies is the role of Big Institutional Money.Hopefully, that will help you wrap your head around these high quadruple-digit Bitcoin price forecasts.One reason for this is the two-time reduction of new Bitcoin coming into the market.
Bitcoin Price Predictions: 10 Year Outlook - Bitcoin
So, with rewards falling, the incentive to mine will dwindle, demand will fall, and so will prices.
Investor Predicts Bitcoin Price to be $500K by 2030Banks will start selling Bitcoin-based financial products and services.
Bitcoin Price Prediction 2017, 2018 for 2019, 2020 Etc
The Winklevoss Twins partnered with multi-bln dollar auditing and financial services firm State Street to help the SEC acknowledge the legitimacy of their ETF.
Predictious - The Bitcoin Prediction MarketWarning: Investing often involves high risks and you can lose a lot of money.Want a good projection of the future price of Bitcoin in 2017 and beyond.However, there are six major events that could lead to a surge in the price of Bitcoin in 2017.These include the activation of Segregated Witness, hereinafter Segwit, the.
Projecting The Price Of Bitcoin | Zero HedgeHigh profile investors and traders will be able to purchase and own Bitcoin through stock markets and regulated platforms.Buz Investors Bitcoin Price Prediction After years of volatility, the Bitcoin price forecast is finally on.If governments and local authorities continue to impose heavy capital controls and impractical financial regulations, more individuals and businesses will seek out for alternatives like Bitcoin.What Bitcoin mining literally means is to solve the mathematical puzzles, which Nakamoto created, in order to unlock bitcoins.The price of Litecoin is trading in a narrow range between 3.3 and 3.Since the launch of the network back in 2009, bitcoin has been one of the most lucrative investments in the world.
A digital asset based on a free market principle can go through very volatile price swings.
Bitcoin.com ChartsThis article compiles views of different industry experts and entrepreneurs and puts forth a prediction for the bitcoin price in 2016.Meanwhile, a number of businesses in the U.S.—like Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE), Microsoft Corporation.For every mathematical puzzle they solve, they get to keep a portion of the unlocked bitcoins as a reward.Analysts from firms including Goldman Sachs are increasingly forecasting sky-high bitcoin prices.It is quite difficult to depict actual variation of Bitcoin price because this crypto currency depends on several factors.
With high liquidity and transportability, Bitcoin will appeal to a wide range of users, particularly to people located in areas such as China or Venezuela that have strict cash outflow regulations.Once these two Bitcoin ETFs are approved by the SEC, this would lead to mainstream adoption and investment from traditional investment firms as well as high profile traders.


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A continued rise in exploit-based attacks, particularly against Java, and an increasing sophistication in mobile threats characterized the first half of 2013, which saw its share of interesting developments in the world of digital security.
As more and more people use their mobile phones to do their online banking, money transfers, and so on, cyber crooks wielding banking malware are increasingly turning to targeting mobile users.
The latest Java Development Kit update (JDK 7u40) includes a number of bug fixes, new security features and changes, and among them is one that has been long overdue: a whitelisting option for protecting endpoints.
As predicted at the end of 2012 and proved by the ever expanding use of exploit kits, vulnerabilities in popular and widespread software such as Java and Adobe's Acrobat Reader and Flash top the list of the most exploited by cyber crooks.
When we discuss exploit prevention, we often talk about ‘targeted applications.’ This term refers to end-user applications which can be exploited by hackers for malicious purposes.


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VegaWallet’s co-founder believes that Dash is the ideal cryptocurrency for payments due to its instant settlement capabilities from InstantSend and ChainLocks.
Wire Transfer: 3-5 Days
Paypal: 21 days before money can be freely moved.$Dash: Instant
Tell me again how there are no real use cases for $crypto in payments 🤭
— ₿allou (@MrBallou) November 20, 2019
In a recent post on Twitter, Jacob Ballou, co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of cryptocurrency wallet and merchant solution VegaWallet, compared payment finalization rates between various financial services including PayPal and bank wire transfer, many of which can take as little as three days and as many as several weeks to permanently settle, against Dash, which settles permanently within a couple of seconds. Ballou elaborated that while much of this advantage is true of several other major cryptocurrencies, which he supports, Dash’s technology is uniquely suited to the instant settlement payments use case:
“This post is based off of actual real-world encounters I have had within the last 30 days. If you do not do a lot of business with PayPal/other services, then expect a long hold on your account. I can obtain a Dash wallet to receive payment or get it funded in a few clicks.
While this is true with other crypto as well, I mainly focused on Dash because it is something I deal with for payments and can personally vouch to how fast it has become. I’m a firm believer in Bitcoin and Ethereum, but everything has its use cases.”
The VegaWallet platform has been a strategic partner for Dash, first adding the coin to its platform thanks to the BitGo integration from 2018. VegaWallet also leveraged a new partnership with CoValut to advance Dash as a use case for cannabis companies.
Dash’s two-level instant settlement can prove to be a payments game changer
The combination of two separate mechanisms by Dash, InstantSend and ChainLocks, provides an extremely secure instant settlement experience for payments. InstantSend, activated by default for all transactions earlier this year, locks in transactions in under two seconds on average by a quorum of masternodes, a group of advanced and incentivized nodes. ChainLocks, also activated earlier this year, users the masternode network to lock in blocks as permanent, creating a permanent and irreversible transaction record about 2.5 minutes after sending a payment. The combination of these two features means that transactions are extremely secure within seconds, and are reliable even if one of these two security measures fails for some unforeseen reason.
Dash’s unique setup enables a host of instant settlement payment use cases, remittances for example. Recently, Mexican cryptocurrency exchange Cubobit released RemeZaZa, an exclusively Dash-powered remittance platform that allows end recipients to receive funds spendable within five minutes from initiating the payment.


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Thousands Of Counterprotesters March On Boston Commons Against White Nationalists
1 month ago - By Refinery29
This is a breaking news story. It will be updated throughout as new information becomes available. An estimated 15,000 counterprotesters converged on downtown Boston to denounce white supremacy and Nazism a week after the unnecessary violence that occurred in Charlottesville, VA. Chanting anti-Nazi slogans, the droves of demonstrators made their way through the city to the historic Boston Commons, cutting short an organized "Free Speech Rally" organized by the Boston Free Speech Coalition. According to The New York Times , the rally was planned before the events in Charlottesville...
Read more ...
Boston 'Free Speech Rally' Overtaken by Thousands of Counterprotesters
1 month ago - By TMZ
The "Free Speech Rally" in Boston Saturday has turned into a massive demonstration by counterprotesters - thousands and thousands of them - condemning the alt-right, white nationalists, racists, fascists and neo-nazis. Exactly one week after the...
Read more ...
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Upgrading to a new phone can be plagued with ambivalence. Sure, it's exciting to upgrade to your phone to something new and powerful, but it can also be painfully expensive.
Not so much Black Friday week. If Verizon is your carrier of choice, you'll be able to snag a new phone from Google, Apple, Samsung or LG for up to $400 off starting on Thursday. And the best part? You won't even have to trade your old device in.
Verizon is also serving up discounts on the new Palm device, Fios plans and more.
Here are the deals, all of them starting on Thursday, Nov. 22nd.
$400 off flagship Android and Apple phones.
Need an upgrade? Verizon has something for everyone: Samsung, Apple, LG and Google fans alike. Starting on Thursday (online) and Friday (in-store) flagships will sell for $400 off of their original price. Naturally the standard two-year contract applies -- but that's still a pretty swell deal.
Check out all the phones included in this offer:
The above phone deals will run until midnight on Friday. If you miss out, you'll still be able to get $200 off most of those phones on Saturday and Sunday -- but it looks like the iPhone X will be excluded from that deal.
$150 off the Palm
The new Black Friday, Verizon is making it a little more affordable, knocking $100 off the total price when added to another line.isn't exactly a phone -- it's an accessory that connects to your phone. Yes it's confusing. Still, it's an intriguing device, but a bit expensive at $300. For
Verizon is also offering a handful of discounts and bonuses for new Fios customers. You can see the full details on their site right here.
CNET's Holiday Gift Guide: The place to find the best tech gifts for 2018.
: The best discounts we've found so far.


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Leaked Galaxy A7 is Samsung’s thinnest smartphone so far
Samsung’s already announced two Galaxy A-series devices, but the most exciting entry in the lineup is still under wraps. It’s called the Galaxy A7, and it’s set to become Samsung’s thinnest smartphone so far, according to specifications revealed by TENAA, China’s telecommunications regulator.
In addition to a 5.5-inch full HD (1080p) display, the Galaxy A7 boasts a 64-bit, eight-core Snapdragon 615 processor clocked at 1.5GHz, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB of internal storage. It also has a 12-megapixel camera on its back and a 5-megapixel camera on its front, and it sports the same metallic frame that’s becoming commonplace on new Samsung devices.
According to the TENAA filing, the Galaxy A7 measures just 6.3mm thick — that’s 1.8mm thinner than the Galaxy S5, and 0.6mm thinner than the iPhone 6. The handset’s slightly smaller brother, the Galaxy A5, measures 6.7mm thick — but its beefier form factor does not mean beefier specs; the Galaxy A5 has a smaller 720p display, and a less impressive processor.
Both the Galaxy A7 and the Galaxy A5 look almost identical, however, with the slight size difference the only thing setting them apart.
It’s unclear when Samsung may be planning to bring the Galaxy A7 to market, but if the South Korean company is already getting the device approved in China and perhaps other markets, too, it shouldn’t be too long before it gets its official unveiling.


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Walmart and Home Depot released their latest earnings reports before opening bell this morning, both posting results that were better than expected. Shares of both retailers moved higher in premarket trading this morning.
Walmart reported earnings of $1.03 per share, including a positive impact of 4 cents per share from a lease adjustment, and revenue of $117.41 billion for the third quarter of fiscal 2016. In constant currencies, Walmart’s revenue was $122.4 billion, a 2.8% increase from last year. Analysts had been expecting earnings of 98 cents per share and revenue of $118.1 billion. In last year’s third quarter, the big box retailer posted earnings of $1.15 per share and $119 billion in revenue.
Home Depot reported earnings of $1.35 per share on revenue of $21.82 billion. Analysts had been expecting earnings of $1.32 per share and $21.77 billion in revenue. In the same quarter last year, the home improvement retailer reported earnings of $1.15 per share and $20.52 billion in revenue.
Historically, the Chinese market has been relatively isolated from international investors, but much is changing there now, making China virtually impossible for the diversified investor to ignore. Earlier this year, CNBC pointed to signs that Chinese regulators may start easing up on their scrutiny of companies after months of clamping down on tech firms. That Read More
Walmart sees solid growth
International net sales amounted to $29.8 billion. In constant currencies, sales were $34.7 billion internationally led by Canada and Mexico. The retailer recorded about a 10% increase in e-commerce sales and gross merchandise volume. Walmart said challenges in some of its key international markets pressured these metrics.
Walmart’s comparable store sales in the U.S. increased 1.5%, marking the fifth quarter in a row in which U.S. comparable sales were positive. The retailer said traffic improved by 1.7% and its customer experience scores kept strengthening. Comparable store sales for the Neighborhood Market locations rose by about 8% with newer stores showing the strongest growth.
The company’s management also narrowed their full year guidance for fiscal 2016. They expect earnings of $4.50 to $4.65 per share, which implies earnings of between $1.40 and $1.55 per share and includes currency headwinds of about 16 cents per share. The previous full year guidance was for earnings of between $4.40 and $4.70 per share.
Shares of Walmart moved higher by as much as 2.7% to $57.87 per share n premarket trading this morning.
Home Depot’s comparable sales rise
Home Depot said its net earnings result included a negative impact of 1 cent per share for expenses related to the data breach in 2014. The company’s same store sales in the U.S. grew 7.3% in the U.S. during the third quarter. Globally, comparable store sales grew 5.1%.
Management at Home Depot now expects sales for the full year to grow by about 5.7% and comparable store sales to increase by about 4.9%. They project about a 14% increase in earnings per share, which would bring the metric to about $5.36.
Shares of Home Depot rose by as much as 2.97% to $124.39 per share in premarket trading this morning.


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Last October, Dark Horse PR gave the word to Entertainment Weekly that Faith Erin Hicks (The Nameless City) and artist Peter Wartman (Over the Wall) would be taking over Avatar: The Last Airbender comics in 2018.
"Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of my favorite things in the world," Hicks said in a statement. "I'm totally not kidding: I remember watching the series finale over ten years ago when I was a struggling animator, wishing I could work on a show that was even ten percent as thoughtful and compelling as Avatar. I was so in love with the world and characters. Even now, there's nothing that has filled my heart quite like Avatar, and I'm so honored to contribute to the real thing."
We didn't get anything concrete until now. But at the ComicsPRO retailer advocacy event held in Portland last week, Dark Horse Comics told the assembled retailers that Avatar: The Last Airbender would be getting into net series in the fall. Here are Wartman's new designs of Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Toph.
Retailers present were also reminded that any store that orders 10 copies of Frank Miller's Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius #1, Black Hammer: Age of Doom #1, and Blackwoods #1 will qualify to make the initial order of that title fully returnable.


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Chrysler’s Ram Truck Brand is introducing an all-new ‘Outdoorsman’ model for its 2011 light and heavy-duty pickups that’s aimed at truck owners who like to play hard outside when they’re not working hard with their trucks.
“We asked Ram Truck customers -- boaters, campers, fishing enthusiasts and hunters -- what features would they like to see in a truck,” said Fred Diaz, President and CEO – Ram Truck Brand, Chrysler Group LLC. “They answered ‘more capability, more room for my gear and ready to hit the trail. And make it affordable.'”
According to Chrysler, Ram heavy-duty owners are heavy outdoor enthusiasts. 47 percent hunt, 57 percent fresh water fish, 33 percent salt water fish, 36 percent own power boats and 37 percent tow camping trailers. Overall, 62 percent of full-size pickup truck owners hunt, fish or camp.
The Ram Outdoorsman combines off-road capability and trailer towing hardware in one package. Standard trailer-towing upgrades, interior and exterior convenience, lighting enhancements, all-terrain tires and underbody protection are combined with a rugged exterior appearance to highlight the new Ram Outdoorsman.
Ram 1500 Outdoorsman owners can add an optional gun rack / fishing rod combo holster that fits in the half-ton truck’s unique optional RamBox side saddle cargo box storage bins. The Mopar RamBox Holster ($205 option) can secure two rifles or shotguns, or it can be rotated 90 degrees to hold up to six fishing rods.
Outdoorsman buyers who select a Ram 2500 or 3500 truck will get a standard integrated trailer brake controller, which connects the truck’s electrical and brake systems with the trailers.
Exterior features include two-tone paint with Mineral Gray rocker panels and wheel lip moldings, scratch-resistant steel bumpers, black door handles and a large ‘Outdoorsman’ badge for the cargo box sides.
Ram Outdoorsman is available in 1500, 2500 HD, and 3500 HD single rear wheel, Regular Cab; Quad Cab, Crew Cab and Mega Cab; four-wheel drive and two-wheel drive; and short- and long-wheelbase models. It replaces the TRX4 trim level in the 2011 Ram Truck lineup. It will join the other Ram trim levels, which include: ST, SLT, Big Horn / Lone Star, Sport (1500 only) Laramie and Power Wagon (2500 only).
Prices for Ram Outdoorsman models start at $28,350, including destination charge. It will go on sale in the third quarter 2010.
[Source: Ram Trucks]


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BNP Paribas and IFC team up for agri facility
IFC and BNP Paribas have launched a risk-sharing facility to help agricultural firms gain access to financing in Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.
The facility will provide US$100mn for up to three years to support the financing needs of agricultural firms through the IFC’s global warehouse finance programme. IFC and BNP Paribas will partner to provide borrowers with short-term loans against the value of their produce, using warehouse receipts or similar stock-financing instruments.
“With IFC’s partnership, we will be able to expand lending to our clients in the agricultural sector in Sub Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe, providing them with much-needed liquidity,” says Cinzia Maurer-Tatti, global head of the transaction bank group at BNP Paribas.
The programme will also enable the increased production of export commodities, including cashews, cocoa, and coffee, to spur trade and economic development in low-income countries such as Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, and Uganda. It will boost the availability of critical cereals like corn, rice, and wheat to promote local food security, the IFC says in a statement.
IFC started its global warehouse finance programme in 2010 to increase working capital financing for farmers, traders, and exporters in emerging markets by leveraging their own production. The programme is expected to reach up to 208,600 farmers across emerging markets in all regions and contribute to food availability for 7.5 million people by 2014.


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With over 250 artisans across 10 states, how Ritu Oberoi plans to weave in handloom sarees into our wardrobes
For Sarees is an online platform that showcases the collection of sarees by weavers and handlooms from across India.
After working as a sales professional in the media and advertising industry for several years, Ritu Oberoi decided to take a sabbatical and travel across the country.
“While travelling to craft villages, I was startled to see so much of skill and talent, but people struggled to sell these products beyond certain exhibitions. I had been an ardent saree lover myself and could relate to a similar struggle of buying pure handlooms in metros. I could understand the gap in the handloom industry,” says Ritu.
Using all of her sales experience and training, Ritu decided to start For Sarees in 2018 in Mumbai to help bridge the gap. The company aims to be a socially-driven business enterprise that works closely with weavers and artisans in rural India, bringing skillfully crafted sarees and other products to urban consumers.
“Our artisans are our core team and our projects are designed to solve two big problems the industry faces – creating rural employment and women empowerment. We have our ongoing projects in Kutch, Chanderi village, Shantiniketan, Yadadri , Ajrakhpur , Sambalpur, Chaubundi in Rajasthan, Burdwan, and many more villages across the country.”
For Sarees has been running a Kantha project for over two years in villages near Shantiniketan (West Bengal). It aims to empower women artisans and provide additional income to their household.
Sales to fashion
“Since I am not from the fashion industry, it took me a lot of study and initial research to get started. But once the project took off, it has been an enthralling experience each day,” says Ritu. She adds that at the age of 41, she had felt that the corporate job had given her enough training and expertise for her to start up. Her last role before her sabbatical was that of an Account Director, Ad Sales at ABP News Network.
“From a white-collared job to doing grassroot work, it was a huge transition. And since I wasn’t from the industry, it took a lot of research, study, and determination to build up the brand as well as the community,” says Ritu.
The task for the team has been to ensure a stable monthly income for these artisans. It was also important to ensure that there were no middlemen in the entire chain as it provides a better income for the artisan and a better price for the end consumer.
“We also work hard to bring products from each range for the consumer so that the notion that handloom products are expensive is broken. We are proudly associated with 250 weaver families (ancillary workers not included here) spread across 10 states and working on multiple clusters in each state, and our projects indirectly impact many others,” says Ritu.
Each handmade product has a different cost and production timeline on the basis of the intricacies involved. The minimum time to make a handloom saree is one week. The intricate motifs may take up to three weeks, from yarn to saree.
For Sarees aims to popularise handlooms in urban cities through various social media campaigns. This ensures the space and the recognition that handloom products deserve. It is also looking to further create employment in rural areas where there’s immense skill and talent.
Working closely with artisans
“We also work with artisans very closely to upskill them with latest trends. Our Shantiniketan project empowers and works with women from nearby villages who are well equipped with art of making kantha sarees. They are the backbone of our much popular cotton kanthas made for the working women in metros,” says Ritu.
Also, as a development project, For Sarees have been engaging artisans to produce new products by intervening at the design level.
“During the lockdown, we co-created a unique charpoy handicraft that’s selling superbly well on social media as a home décor/balcony accessory. These are just a few ways to engage the artisans when there are few projects and still ensures that their incomes don’t suffer. We are optimistic about the fact that online shopping would be most preferred in the post-COVID-19 world, and we are preparing ourselves for same,” she adds.
The team is looking to add other product categories like stoles, scarves, home decor, and utility gifts. For the handloom sarees, the team targets to work with five new clusters each year and onboard more weavers from the existing clusters so that they can offer a variety to their repeat customers.
The core customers are mostly women working in corporates across the globe in the 30-35 age group. The products range from Rs 1,200 - Rs 12,000, as per the intricacy of the art and craft involved.
“I have a vision to popularise the Indian traditional crafts in urban and modern setups. And we have proudly done so with For Sarees. Also, what sets us apart is our effort to organise developmental projects in the clusters while creating handloom marvels,” says Ritu.
Edited by Kanishk Singh


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Manufacturers with no history of cybersecurity prowess are now launching products that connect to the Internet and the cloud. It’s time to define this new category of manufacturing, because it will soon cover a good portion of the industry.
Whether they like it or not, many manufacturers are now in the business of cybersecurity. Increasingly, their products are identified not just by serial numbers but by IP addresses. And as any home computer user knows, anything with an IP address must be secured, lest the cyber-prowlers break in. The world of cloud computing is a scary place, rife with dark alleys and unsavory actors. It’s a new world for most of these manufacturers, and it raises the stakes on their liability.
Sure, some of the nameplate brands in this new world of cloud-connected products have experience with cybersecurity: BlackBerry, Dell, Apple, to name just a few. These companies have the knowledge and infrastructure to support security efforts for connected products, since protection of digital information is in their DNA. (That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re good at it—see articles here and here—it just means they have a head start and need not fund entirely new security operations within their organizations.)
Other manufacturers with no cloud computing experience must now wade through a morass of cybersecurity and product protection concerns. Needless to say, this is not their core competency.
Take Sony. The maker of the popular PlayStation gaming console operates the PlayStation Network, which allows a gamer in Omaha to play Final Fantasy against a fellow gamer in San Diego. Earlier this year, the PlayStation Network suffered a mind-boggling cyber-attack that exposed the personal information of more than 70 million users, including, in some instances, their credit card details. Not two weeks ago, Sony endured another hacking attempt, though this one was more limited in scope.
The company no longer makes innovative, isolated electronics; it makes products that connect to the cloud, and that makes them vulnerable.
Soon enough, many more manufacturers will confront this new world of cybersecurity challenges. Carmakers may be next. Automobiles are more communicative than ever these days, and that chattiness—through Bluetooth transmissions, GPS calls, and services such as OnStar—makes them vulnerable to digital intrusion. Check out Businessweek’s recent article on researchers who successfully hacked a car and gained control of functions such as braking.
Or consider something even more intimate: a medical device that lives in your body—a pacemaker or artificial limb, for instance—and connects to the cloud to report its status and the status of its patient. The Food and Drug Administration recently issued guidelines to such manufacturers to help them secure the devices they sell. On the organization’s FAQ page, one finds the question, “Why is FDA concerned about security of networks?” Its answer:
FDA is concerned about the security of networks because vulnerable OTS software can allow an attacker to get unauthorized access to a network or medical device and reduce the safety and effectiveness of devices that connect to those networks.
This new world of connected-product development demands adjustments by manufacturers. They must develop new competencies in cloud security or partner with trusted parties with the needed expertise. They must create a new sort of disaster-recovery plan that defines effective responses to cyber-attacks and the loss of customer information—and even the potential for customer harm. They must adjust their concept of liability, too. Warranty management must be understood in the context of all possible threats against a connected product and its owner.
This emerging world also demands that we categorize manufacturers in new ways. Discrete and process labels were easy to understand, and “hybrid” captured those companies that combined elements of the two. Now we have what we might call “connected manufacturing.” This combines the traditional skill set of the manufacturer with new competencies born of the cloud.
You may not be a connected manufacturer today, but five years from now you might be. Consider the ramifications now and plan for a future in which you manage product lifecycles further into the field than ever before.


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Facebook signalled a major push into augmented reality and launched a VR app for communicating with friends at its F8 conference yesterday.
Speaking at the developers event in San Jose, California, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook’s new Camera Effects Platform, which is designed to giving developers the power to build AR tools.
“If you take one thing away from today, this is it: We are making the camera the first augmented reality platform,” said Zuckerberg in his F8 keynote.
The Facebook boss described the previous rollout of camera functionality across all of Facebook’s apps as “act one”. Act two, he said, is “giving developers the power to build for augmented reality in the first augmented reality platform: the camera”.
Starting with ‘basic effects’, Zuckerberg showed images of Snapchat-style photo overlays like facemasks, but said that as an open platform users will be able to create their own and “instead of having 10 to 20 options to choose from, you’re going to have thousands”.
The Camera Effects Platform includes two products. Frames Studio lets users design frames that can be used either with profile pictures or in the new Facebook camera. AR Studio can be used to create masks, scripted effects, animated frames and other AR technologies that react to movement or interactions during live videos. Frame Studio is available globally, while AR Studio is now open for beta applications.
Discussing the use of AR in a general sense, Zuckerberg described the power of overlaying digital content onto the real world via glasses or contact lenses and said that doing so would “make our physical reality better”.
“You want to watch TV, we can put a digital TV on that wall and instead of being a piece of hardware, it’s a US$1 app instead of a US$500 piece of equipment,” he said.
“Think about how many of the things we have in our lives actually don’t need to be physical, they can be digital, and think about how much better and more affordable and accessible they’re going to be when they are.”
At F8 yesterday, Facebook also launched a new virtual reality app, Facebook Spaces, which is designed to let users hang out in virtual environments “as if you were in the same room”.
The app lets users interact, share 360° videos and photos and “relive personal memories from your own Timelines, or even make new ones,” according to Facebook.
Facebook Spaces is available in beta now for Oculus Rift and Touch and can be downloaded from the Oculus Store.


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Thousands of hotels and hospitality businesses around the country are gearing up to take advantage of the Federal Government’s spotlight on small business.
Starting immediately and schedule to continue until the end of June 2017, businesses turning over less than $2 million annually can immediately claim a write-off for capital purchases under $20,000.
This can be applied to as many individual assets as the business chooses, and is being lauded by business associations as an ‘opportunity to freshen up tools of trade’.
The $20k figure is not a rebate, but it is a massive hike in the figure allowed for businesses to claim as a cost-of-business deduction. A purchase of that amount would represent around a $6,000 tax rebate, which will be refunded at the next tax return rather than over usual depreciation periods of three of five years.
The deduction cannot be claimed for the purchasing of stock or certain items that have specific depreciation rules, such as proprietary software for a business.
It is widely hoped that businesses will take the opportunity to get the immediate tax break by securing purchases they may have been putting off, in turn giving a further boost to retailers and suppliers.
Manufacturers of high-ticket hospitality equipment approaching the threshold stand to benefit from the initiative, as business owners seek to optimise the quick savings.
Refrigeration and air-conditioning units, furnishings and even gaming machines are all eligible, and suppliers report already a rise in enquiries since the Government’s announcement on 12 May.
“Anyone who’s been thinking about updating their gaming assets should definitely be talking to their tax advisor,” Russel Gartner, Bally Technology’s vice-president of sales said to PubTIC.
“Hoteliers that qualify for this small business incentive can take advantage of our Equinox deals that are on offer until 30 June.”
Part of the global Ali Group, Moffat in Australia supplies innovative products to “meet changing competitive markets” and says they have plenty of choices for hospitality businesses.
“We have a series of commercial kitchen equipment products that fall into [this] price bracket and would provide a great benefit to pubs,” said general manager of sales and marketing, Michael Lillico.
“Hoteliers should look to take advantage of the opportunity to add to their offering.”
While the budget has not yet been approved by the Senate, the current bi-partisan support for small business makes the outcome infinitely more likely than the budget disaster of 2014.


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2018 Stephan Weiss Apple Awards honored Iman, Jimmy Nelson, and Joel Towers
Press Release – NEW YORK – October 25, 2018 – Commemorating her late husband Stephan Weiss’ legacy and his lasting influence on the vision behind the Urban Zen Foundation, fashion icon Donna Karan hosted the 2018 Stephan Weiss Apple Awards on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 at the Stephan Weiss Studio in New York City. Stephan Weiss was a prolific artist and sculptor, the “Apple” refers to Weiss’ larger than life bronze apple sculpture which resides in the Millennium Garden at the Hudson River Park in New York.
The evening began with specialty Casamigos cocktails, where Donna Karan was joined by Bernadette Peters, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger, Christie Brinkley, Alexa Ray Joel, Helena Christensen, Deborra-Lee Furness, Keith Richards and Patti Hansen, Christy Turlington Burns, Russell James, Stefano Tonchi, Tiki Barber, Carol Alt, ABC News’ Dr. Jennifer Ashton, Rosanna Scotto, Lauren Bush Lauren, Andrew Saffir, Daniel Benedict, David Kratz, and Zainab Salbi.
The evening continued in the Stephan Weiss Studio, with remarks from Founder of Urban Zen, Donna Karan,
“My husband, Stephan, connected the dots in his art and his life, always seeking to make harmony out of chaos. And throughout his life, he connected the dots between family and friends. He is the inspiration for why I do what I do every day….When I started Urban Zen, I wanted to create a community where we all come together to discuss the issues and deliver solutions. And that’s what we are here tonight to do-to connect the dots, connect to each other and create a community just as Stephan did.” – Donna Karan, Founder of Urban Zen
The awards celebrate luminaries and change makers who are making a difference in the three areas to which the Urban Zen Foundation strives to inspire change and awareness: preservation of culture, healthcare, and education. Past honorees have included President Bill Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Dr. Mehmet Oz, The Honorable Hillary Clinton, Nadja Swarovski and the late Sandy Gallin.
This year’s award ceremony honored Iman, IMAN Cosmetics CEO & Philanthropist; Jimmy Nelson, Photographer & Storyteller and Joel Towers, Executive Dean, Parsons School of Design and will celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Urban Zen Foundation.
“Urban Zen is what the universe had in store for Donna…and thankfully for us. Urban Zen Foundation believes in inspiring change in the areas on health and well-being and it starts with community. But most importantly, it is a tribute to love – by taking care of those heroes who are the caregivers worldwide to take care of us holistically as a whole…mind, body and soul.” – IMAN
“I spent 50 years living, traveling, experiencing, loving, crying, hugging, searching for these people and I present them to you today. These are their pictures. This is their story.The beauty the way they look down on all of us, they have something to give us. And if you’re talking about giving, I’ve never met someone who has given more than Donna.” – Jimmy Nelson
“Design enables human action. It’s purposeful. It magnifies capacity. It reveals and conceals who we are. There is literally nowhere on Earth that hasn’t been altered by the intentional action of human beings– which is to say, by design. It is a challenge in our time to design better. We must honor the past, design the present, and preserve the possibility of the future.” – Joel Towers
Donna Karan promoted her mission of addressing change by having guests pose with VOTE signs.
Since its inception, the Urban Zen Foundation has made great strides in realizing its mission. Some of its most significant achievements and highlights throughout the past 10 years, include:
- Conducting a landmark study at Beth Israel Medical Center, which showed a marked reduction in the intake of pain and nausea meditations among those patients using UZITs, resulting in an estimated cost savings of closer to $1 million on a 24-bed patient.
- Training more than 850 healthcare professionals in the Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) program, including 250 UCLA staff members.
- Expanding the scope of the UZITs work to provide care in a variety of areas of care, such as oncology, cardiology, hospice, rehabilitation, labor and delivery, and more.
- UZITs have conducted more than 50,000 documented sessions and brought care to patients, their loved ones and healthcare professionals at hospitals and care centers nationwide.
- Creating a wellness and youth empowerment initiative with Sow A Seed (SAS) to bring transformative benefits of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness to at-risk and impoverished youth, orphans, school children and hospital patients throughout Haiti. This initiative provides service to 15,000 children annually and continues UZF commitment to providing funding and art and educational services to schools throughout Haiti.
- Collaborated with some of Haiti’s most talented artisans to design the Naturally Haiti Collection, which created 750 jobs, trained over 200 artisans and resulted in $1 million in orders.
- Co-founded the DOT Center (Design, Organization and Training) in Port-au-Prince in partnership with Parsons School of Design and Haitian artist, Paula Coles. The DOT is the first multi-discipline artisan vocational training and production center in Haiti and provides ongoing education, product development and commercial support for Haitian artisans.
- Established a design fellowship program, providing 10 scholarships to Parsons graduates to apprentice in Haiti and created 500 new jobs and training opportunities for artisans through the D.O.T. Center.
- Worked with artisans from 20 different countries to provide design innovation and product development and connect local artisans to a worldwide marketplace.
About Urban Zen
Urban Zen is a luxury lifestyle brand based on the philosophy of its founder, Donna Karan. Inspired by the cultures of the world, Urban Zen is a destination offering ready-to-wear, accessories, furniture and home décor as well as soulful global artisan treasures. The retail experience is a place where you can discover timeless clothing, designed to be dressed up or down and travel with. Available in-season. The brand supports the Urban Zen Foundation, dedicated to preservation of culture, integrative healthcare and education. Urban Zen has three stand-alone stores located in New York City, Sag Harbor, and LA and is also available online at Urbanzen.com.
About Urban Zen Foundation
The Urban Zen Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness and inspiring change in the areas of Health, Education and Preservation of Culture. Founded by Donna Karan in 2007, UZF believes that creating, connecting, communicating and collaborating is the key to change. To achieve our mission, we develop and manage training programs, provide funding and partner with like-minded organizations for lasting, meaningful results.
ABOUT DONNA KARAN
Urban Zen Creator: Fashion icon and humanitarian Donna Karan founded Urban Zen in 2007. The foundation was established to raise awareness and inspire change in the areas of preservation of culture (past), bringing mind, body and spirit to healthcare (present) and education (future). She is an advocate for artisans around the world who collaborates regularly with traditional artists through the Urban Zen Foundation. For years, the fashion icon and humanitarian has creatively collaborated with international artists in Haiti, Bali, and other locations around the world, to make jewelry, accessories, clothing, and home goods, which are entirely handmade and thoroughly designed. Going through her husband’s battle with cancer led her to develop the groundbreaking Urban Zen Integrative Therapy (UZIT) Program integrates eastern healing modalities with western science, with over 850 certified therapists of varying levels working throughout the country. A world traveler, a lifelong yogi, as well as mother and grandmother, Karan considers Urban Zen the realization of her dream not just to dress people, but to address them as well.


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As you walk through any farm show there are always a few items that catch your eye and at this year’s Wisconsin Farm Technology Days one of those is the new Massey Ferguson 9560 combine. Kevin Cobb says the special Stars & Stripes graphic is in tribute to the tenth anniversary of AGCO production in Hesston, Kansas. Under the graphic is a completely new combine featuring a new, more efficient system along with a new 7-cylinder engine with innovative cooling system.
More than just an “eye-catcher”
July 19, 2012 By Leave a Comment


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Australian packaging company Pact Group has appointed Deutsche Bank to review strategic options including a stake sale, people familiar with the matter said.
Pact – which has annual turnover of around 1.2 billion Australian dollars (US$ 1.2 billion) – manufactures and designs plastic and metal packaging for products in a raft of industries including industrial chemicals, household consumer, food, beverage and personal care.
Pact’s executive chairman is Raphael “Ruffy” Geminder, the partner of Fiona Pratt. The Geminder family wholly owns the company, which was originally part of the late Richard Pratt’s paper, recycling and package empire, Visy.
Earlier this year, both the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and New Zealand Commerce Commission approved Pact’s acquisition of packaging and logistics solution group Viscount Plastics.
In 2010, Pact purchased smaller Australian rival Brickwood Holdings and New Zealand’s Tecpak Industries.
Pact, which has more than 3,200 employees, abandoned plans for a A$1 billion initial public offering in 2010.


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By Joe Young
Beer sales have increased nationally for the first time since 2008, according to the Beer Institute, possibly signaling a recession recovery at last.
In areas of the U.S. where the unemployment rate is low, beer sales have remained strong as the local and national economies have not prevented affluent consumers from enjoying a cold lager or flavorful microbrew.
http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.as … 4db8fe2876
According to this article, more beer sales are a result of a better economy. I don't know if more beer sales equates to a better economy but many Kentucky towns are going "wet" for the first time with beer sales since Prohibition and their economies are improving
by rhamson2 years ago
Two trains of thought are being bantered back and forth. Does a raising of the minimum wage create job loss and lower profits and more unemployment or does it increase disposable income thereby jump starting the economy...
by jomine6 years ago
Most American companies sell their products to the third world. But indigenous companies are mushrooming in third world, and finally a stage will reach that the markets will be saturated and there won't be any space to...
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With the arrival of the new Audi A8, Audi also announced a new naming scheme that would badge the vehicles based on their horsepower, rather than the engine size. The good news is that the somewhat controversial naming scheme is not coming to the United States.
The new naming scheme would replace badges, like 2.0T and 3.0T with two numbers that would range from 30-70 based on how much power the engine generates. The two numbers don’t directly state how much power is under the hood and instead they just represent a range. For example, the 30 marked models generate between 109 and 129 horsepower, while the models with the 45 badge generate between 227 and 248 horsepower. It’s just a little confusing. Luckily at the debut of the 2019 Audi A7, Audi representatives revealed that the naming system will not be used on Audi’s U.S. models.
The updated naming scheme is needed more in Europe than the United States, since there are more gasoline and diesel options to choose from. Here in the United States, most of Audi’s models are only offered with a few engine options that are easily distinguished by the engine size.
Source: Car and Driver


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Today, Microsoft will unveil its next-generation Surface PCs and devices, and if the rumors are any indication, fans are going to be quite pleased. I’ll be covering the virtual event with Leo Laporte on TWiT, and here’s how and when you can tune in to watch it all unfold.
What: Microsoft Fall 2021 News Briefing. Microsoft is expected to unveil a new generation of Surface PCs and devices, and to discuss the coming Windows 11 launch.
When: 11:00 am ET/8:00 am PT
See you then!


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Im posting this in here because I cant find a forum for the specific device. And I feel this is where its most likely to be seen.
Im thinking about picking up the LG Optimus Logic. Its like 80 bucks and runs off AT&T towers. I have a prepaid Optimus Net wich I like a lot but Sprint coverage isnt as good as I would like. My questions are does anyone have this phone?
Since officially announcing their new top of the line LG Optimus G handset, LG has been busy giving us peeks at the device. These teasers have included images and videos like the one that surfaced earlier this week about the phone’s camera capabilities. Add another clue to the list, this time in the form of a TV commercial for the Korean market.
The really-long-named LG Optimus True HD LTE has already launched in Korea, Japan, the U.S. and Canada. LG is now expanding the reach of this device to Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
The handset includes a 4.5-inch 1280 x 720 True HD IPS display, 8MP camera, 1.5GHz dual-core processor, and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Wait. What?
Last night we reported that the LG Optimus G Nexus will launch in November, and now we have some more details. Apparently devices were handed out last week for testing and one source, who is not a Google employee, divulged some information to Android and Me.
Telstra says its newest Android handset, the LG Optimus, is an “entry-level” model designed to appeal to “first-time smartphone owners”, but its pricing, cap and Telstra features suggests the Vodafone’s HTC Legend is firmly in its sights.


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VOV.VN - Local export firms have encountered a range of difficulties due to the domestic price of cashew nuts being between 15% and 20% higher in comparison to the export price, according to figures released by the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Vietnam exported US$390 million worth of fruits and vegetables in April, representing a month-on-month rise of 7.9%, but down 15.6% against the same period last year.
VOV.VN - Aside from enjoying a range of opportunities through the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), local seafood businesses will also face a number of hurdles relating to technical barriers, stricter quality standards, fierce competition on prices, and requirements of origin traceability, according to insiders.
VOV.VN - China has recently imposed a number of stringent requirements on goods imported from Vietnam, which requires Vietnamese farmers and businesses to improve their product quality during the entire production process before sending goods to export.
Farm produce traders and retailers in foreign markets tend to impose stringent requirements on origin traceability to fight fraud and bolster goods quality control, which hinders Vietnam’s exports of these products, reported Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper.
VOV.VN - The EU is now the country’s second largest export market taking key commodities such as seafood, garments and textiles, footwear, and wood and wooden products.


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W.S. Darley, a company that manufactures and supplies public safety equipment, will now provide SkyeBrowse 3D modeling software as well as its drone offerings to first responders and public safety agencies.
This partnership comes at a time when it’s critical for first responders to spend as little time on scene gathering information and evidence as possible, as being on the front lines puts them at high risk for contracting COVID-19, according to a news release. The fast 3D modeling software makes it possible to create 3D models of a scene in a few minutes, even for users who don’t have drone or 3D modeling training.
“As more and more agencies are developing UAV programs, there continues to be a growing need for mapping solutions, W.S. Darley COO Peter Darley said, according to the release. “Partnering with SkyeBrowse will allow agencies to rapidly create 3D models utilizing their existing equipment with minimal training. Our team was blown away by the ease of use, low cost, and unmatched support of the SkyeBrowse product line. All of which are crucial for the public safety market.”
The SkyeBrowse app can be downloaded from the App Store. Licenses will be available for W.S. Darley customers immediately. W.S. Darley will also provide SkyeBrowse licenses along with DJI drones in bundles.