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A robot armed with precision laser beams that can kill 100,000 weeds per hour is now rolling off the production line.
The next-generation farm equipment combines robotics, AI and laser tech and has been developed in the US to help boost food production and reduce the use of damaging herbicides.
The farm robot, the 2022 LaserWeeder from Carbon Robotics, attaches to the back of tractors for use on large-scale specialty row crops such as broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, chard, cilantro, kale, lettuce, onions, spinach, and tomatoes.
The Seattle-based company was founded by Paul Mikesell in 2018 and its high-power lasers were designed to eradicate weeds through thermal energy without disturbing the soil.
This paves the way for a regenerative approach which leads to healthier crops and higher yields, according to its maker, and the tech also reduces labour costs and offers a sustainable alternative to herbicides and an economical path to organic farming.
The 2022 LaserWeeder features 30 industrial lasers capable of weeding 15 to 20 acres of crops in one day, and the latest model, launched in February, builds on the range, with a self-driving model launched by Carbon Robotics in 2021.
"We’ve proven the effectiveness of our laserweeding technology including healthier crops and soil, decreased herbicide use, and reduced chemical and labor costs."
Carbon Robotics said it worked closely with leading vegetable growers to design the 2022 model so it integrates into existing farming infrastructure and covers more ground.
“We’ve proven the effectiveness of our laserweeding technology and the immense benefits it offers farmers, including healthier crops and soil, decreased herbicide use, and reduced chemical and labor costs,” Carbon Robotics CEO and founder Paul Mikesell said at the launch earlier this year.
“To best serve farmers’ needs, we’ve adapted the design of our product, but will still leverage our proven laser weeding technology. Our mission has always been to provide farmers with the most effective tools, and the strong demand for LaserWeeders is evidence we’re helping them solve a serious problem.”
The 2022 LaserWeeder features 12 cameras and 30 industrial lasers, creating an average weeding capacity of two acres per hour. AI technology enables the robot to instantly identify, target, and eliminate weeds using thermal energy while rolling, and its patented lighting system enables the LaserWeeder to operate day or night in almost all weather conditions with millimetre accuracy. The robot is fully adjustable for crop row widths. Adjustments for transitioning between different crops can be made via a touchscreen without leaving the comfort of the cab. The LaserWeeder is towed by common row tractors with a three-point hitch.
Who funds it
To scale manufacturing, the company recently raised a $27 million Series B in 2021 from Anthos Capital, Ignition Partners, Fuse Venture Capital, Voyager Capital, Bolt and Liquid2 Ventures. This latest round brought the company’s overall funding to $36 million.
Is it ready to roll
Carbon Robotics’ 2022 LaserWeeder had a sell-out US launch in February, with pre-orders for 2023 now open.
The company also launched a self-driving model called the Autonomous LaserWeeder in April last year.


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ATS Euromaster says fleet customers have already placed 80 per cent more forward orders for cold weather tyres for winter 2012/13 compared to last year, with the switch to winter rubber beginning in from1 October 2012.
The nationwide tyre specialist expects its total cold weather tyre sales this year to increase by sixty per cent over 2011 volumes. Last year already saw the company’s winter tyre sales jump by nearly 200 per cent compared with 2010, when ATS Euromaster launched its winter tyre offer for car and van fleets.
Peter Fairlie, group sales director at ATS Euromaster, says: “Demand is strongest from the fleet sector, where businesses and public sector organisations have experienced the benefits of cold weather tyres for two winters running.
“Every major fleet customer which asked us to fit cold weather tyres last year is maintaining that commitment this winter – some are even rolling the policy out to additional assets. This growth demonstrates that once managers and drivers have experienced the benefits of winter tyres, they don’t want to be without them,” he adds.
Last winter the Met Office recorded 147 separate days between 1 October 2011 and 31 March 2012 when temperatures dropped below 7 degrees Celsius during prime commuting hours in 10 major UK cities (measured from 7am till 9am and 4pm till 6pm).

domain: news


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Rage 2 won’t just have cars to drive, it will also have flying vehicles, developer Avalanche Studios told IGN at QuakeCon 2018.
In fact, it turns out we already saw an extremely brief glimpse of one of these flying vehicles back in Rage 2’s E3 extended gameplay trailer. Here is that moment looped, barely a second long:
Click the play button in the video above to watch the whole thing.
I asked Rage 2 game director Magnus Nedfors if the vehicle was “properly flying” or more like a hoverbike, and he said it’s likely somewhere in between. “It’s not a jet plane, it’s a little thing that you fly around. But yeah, it’s proper flying,” he explained.


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By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A center city clothing store is collecting unwanted fur coats to help injured and orphaned wildlife animals.
“So, essentially, it’s about giving furs back to the animals,” says Mike Shaffer, manager of vintage clothing store Buffalo Exchange, near 17th and Chestnut Streets.
He says the program is called “Coats for Cubs,” and you can donate old furs — real ones, not fake! — now through Earth Day, next April 22nd.
“Oftentimes customers find that the furs they have in their closets are old or damaged or outdated,” Shaffer explains, “so they can be used to aid in animal rehabilitation by providing bedding to orphaned animals or animals that have been injured. Rehabbers from across the US report that furs provide a natural environment for the animals, as opposed to towels or blankets.”
Since 2006 Buffalo Exchange stores nationwide have collected more than 8,000 used fur coats, which are given to animal rehabilitation organizations.
“They will typically cut them into patches and create bedding for the animals,” Shaffer says.
More information is at www.buffaloexchange.com.


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The British Retail Consortium has called for the government to negotiate a zero-tariff agreement that minimises regulatory checks.
The BRC has today launched a report called A Fair Deal for Consumers: EU Trade Roadmap, which outlines the retail industry’s priorities for the upcoming government negotiations with the EU.
The roadmap calls for pragmatic solutions on future compliance and regulatory checks that will apply from January 2021. The BRC said that without these, consumers will face higher costs and reduced availability of goods.
In the report, it outlined key mitigations that could reduce the impact on consumers and retailers:
- Zero tariff trade deal
- Cooperation with the EU to minimise trade friction
- Coordination on VAT, customs and excise procedures
- Advance information on new checks and paperwork
- Timely construction of necessary infrastructure at UK ports
Companies may be required to produce VAT and excise documents, freight documents, health and veterinary paperwork, export health certificates, “exit and entry” summary declarations, and “safety and security” permits.
The BRC said in a statement: “The government must establish import and export processes along with the infrastructure needed to conduct necessary checks.
“Staff will need to be hired and trained to carry out these checks. IT systems must be adapted and tested. Holding facilities for lorries, particularly at Dover and Folkestone, will need to be constructed.”
Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, added: “The issue is simple – higher tariffs and extensive checks will harm consumers, retailers, and the UK economy. The government must set about to negotiate a zero-tariff agreement that minimises checks and red tape otherwise it will be consumers who suffer as a result.
“The introduction of excessive or avoidable checks would mean businesses face a mountain of paperwork to be filled out by an army of newly trained staff, coupled with exhaustive checks on thousands of lorries every day. And the result for consumers would be higher costs and reduced availability on the shelves.”


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Mail service temporarily derailed
Services have been restored on the Tiscali mail service after one of the pop3 server processors died yesterday, says M-Web.
Video iPods in SA within two months
The new video iPod is expected to reach South African shores in six to eight weeks, says reseller Digicape.
The killing fields
A fair amount of Dungeon Siege II may lead to finger cramp as the role-playing game slowly declines into a one-sided hacking event.
More iPods by year-end
In today`s technology roundup: More iPods by year-end, earthquake predictions via CPU, and Paypal acquires payment portal business.
Anti-trust regulators investigate MS
In today`s technology roundup: Anti-trust regulators investigate Microsoft, Google fixes scripting flaw, Yahoo steps into podcasting, and Sony unveils new SmartPhone.
Gaming expo rAges ahead
"No hitches" and "significant growth" were the order of the day at the rAge gaming expo held over the weekend.
Trojan attacks MS Office
In today`s technology roundup: Trojan attacks MS Office, cheaper Windows for India, Yahoo rivals Google`s digital library, and Cisco finds Nemo.
rAge opens tomorrow
Johannesburg`s rAge gaming expo is ready to kick off tomorrow, with the 700 network LAN seats sold out.
Bagle attacks via spam
In today`s technology roundup: Bagle attacks via spam, Firefox gets patched, AOL upgrades spyware protection, and broadband adoption in US slowing.
VOIP is next hacker target
In today`s technology roundup: VOIP is next hacker target, hackers hit Google`s sponsored links, Cisco and Macromedia go Web conferencing, and Sun releases upgraded servers.


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The Food Standards Agency said products affected in the United Kingdom were mainly processed foods in which egg is one ingredient among many others, mostly used in sandwich fillings or other chilled foods.
In France, about 250,000 affected eggs have sold in the country since April and authorities say products containing eggs from contaminated farms will be taken off the shelves. While some European countries' eggs containing Fipronil residues have been sold as fresh eggs, this is not the case in the UK.
This is more than 33 times the 21,000 first estimated, the Food Standards Agency has said.
The U.K. raised its estimate of eggs contaminated by the unauthorized pesticide fipronil, with the outbreak believed to have affected some products made by major supermarkets.
Almost 250,000 eggs contaminated with an insecticide have reached shops in France and a lot of them have already been eaten, the French farm ministry said on Friday, adding that it saw minimal health risks from the incident.
"The Centre for Food Safety is now inspecting eggs coming from Europe closely, no matter at the import, or at the retail level", Chan said.
The FSA also said it had no evidence that eggs laid in the United Kingdom are contaminated or that Fipronil has been used inappropriately here.
Fipronil, which is found in eggs, is used to destroy fleas, lice, ticks and cockroaches. The FSA has advised that this is unlikely to pose a health risk - but we are withdrawing these products from sale on a temporary basis as a precautionary measure'. Poultry farmers in the Netherlands have alleged that a substance that they bought from a Dutch-based farming company Chickfriend is what has caused introduced Fipronil into the eggs.
The insecticide can damage people's kidneys, liver and thyroid glands if eaten in large quantities.
The European Commission on Friday listed Italy among the 15 EU countries that imported contaminated eggs or egg products originating in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Heather Hancock, Chairman of the Food Standards Agency, said: "I'm confident that acting quickly is the right thing to do".
Similarly, early last month, a small quantity of liquid pasteurised egg - with a "use-by" date of July 20 - was supplied to a number of food businesses for use in bakery products, the FSAI added.


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WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Committee on Small Business, delivered the following statement today at a hearing titled "Putting Americans Back to Work: the State of the Small Business Economy":
"Since the financial crisis, this Committee has been closely following the health of the small business sector. This has included holding hearings here and throughout the country, as well as addressing the problems we found through legislation. Now, the economy has begun to grow again and a recovery is underway. However, it is clear that there is a long way to go and entrepreneurs are still struggling on many fronts. This hearing will help us understand how much the small business economy has changed and what, if anything, we should do here in Congress to address it.
"This recovery started in mid-2009 and, according to the Federal Reserve, appears to now be strengthening. GDP has grown for six consecutives quarters and exceeds the 2007 end-of-year peak. Today, the U.S. economy is larger than ever and consumer spending was growing at an annual rate of 4.4 percent for the last quarter of 2010.
"As a result, many small businesses are more optimistic than they have been in a long time. This new-found confidence is seen in the most recent NFIB Optimism Index, which is at its highest point since December 2007. Surveys by NSBA and Gallup also showed that small business confidence was increasing.
"Small firms are also finding easier credit conditions – as confirmed by both the Federal Reserve and the Thompson Reuters/PayNet Small Business Lending Index, which we'll hear more about today. This is a very positive development since small businesses have been all but locked out of capital markets for a long time.
"This positive news is tempered by the challenges we see in the labor market. With losses of more than 8 million jobs in 2008 and 2009, the four consecutive months of positive job creation we have seen are simply not enough. The unemployment rate has declined significantly, but we are still not seeing the level of employment gains we need to achieve a full recovery. According to research, small firms have shed jobs at a more rapid pace than larger firms. In addition, they have chosen not to add employees even though they needed to, citing the uncertainty they face about sales revenue and cash flows as the top reasons for not doing so.
"This issue – job creation – is the most important facing Congress today and small businesses are instrumental to the solution. Responsible for generating 64 percent of net new jobs over the last 15 years, small firms have typically driven employment gains after recessionary periods. We saw this in the early 1990s and again in 2001.
"It is important that while we seek to encourage entrepreneurship of all types, we focus on businesses that tend to dramatically increase job creation. These are high-growth firms, typically undertaken out of a market opportunity, rather than out of necessity. Such firms need plentiful capital, the ability to access a highly-skilled workforce, and a business environment conducive to risk-taking. They can grow in size rapidly and in doing so can add tens or even hundreds of employees in the course of months.
"With that said, small businesses of all sizes and stripes remain absolutely critical to our economic health. During today's proceedings, I am looking forward to hearing both anecdotal accounts as well as empirical evidence about the state of the economy and its impact on small firms. By doing so, this Committee can identify the bright spots, as well as where entrepreneurs are facing the greatest challenges. As a result, we will be better informed as we try to tailor policy solutions regarding these problems. In advance of the testimony, I also want to thank all the witnesses who traveled here today for both their participation and insight into this important topic."
SOURCE Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY), Ranking Member of the House Small Business Committee


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Farm subsidies will be at the core of Word Trade Organization talks in Cancun, Mexico, next week. But there will be no shortage of agendas. The U.S. says it will seek more sales opportunities for its farm goods. Britain's trade minister promises to put the interests of poor countries first. And developing countries working together are sure to press the United States and European Union on everything from farm trade reform to pharmaceutical access.
It's a sticky business. Part of the problem with negotiating WTO agreements is that consent must be unanimous. That's a tall order with 143 nations involved. Even so, trade ministers are on their way to Mexico to give it a try. John Nichols provides this preview.
Near the end of World War II, leaders from 44 nations gathered in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire to discuss ways of stabilizing world currencies. The talks ultimately led to the establishment of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the precursor of the World Trade Organization, an accord known as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade or GATT.
Established on the premise that more trade would boost the global economy, GATT served as a forum for countries to reduce tariffs on imports.
In 1995, GATT expanded the scope of its oversight, set up shop in Geneva, Switzerland and changed its name to the World Trade Organization, or WTO. Today, the WTO is the only international organization overseeing trade in several areas including: goods such as automobiles; services like banking; and intellectual property including patent rights. The WTO also serves as a forum for settling trade disputes.
Robert Zoellick: "One thing's for sure, we don't have any leverage if we're not sitting at the negotiating table pushing people to open up their markets..."
As the Bush Administration's chief trade negotiator, Robert Zoellick is the man who will represent the United States interests in Cancun. He claims a major portion of his mission is the expansion of American agricultural markets abroad.
Robert Zoellick: "Last year we exported about 53 billion dollars of our agriculture produce, this year maybe up to 56 billion dollars. So, if you have an economy like the United States that is already a mature economy, the growth potential really is abroad."
Exporting countries, including the United States, want other member nations to make significant cuts in subsidies and import tariffs. But importers, including the European Union and Japan, have been reluctant to cut their price supports, claiming they need to protect their domestic producers.
Pascal Lamy is the European Union Trade Commissioner.
Pascal Lamy: "We know where we have to converge for Cancun to fly."
The U.S. and the European Union initiated their own private talks hoping to come to terms on some of the biggest issues in agricultural trade. In August, the two "superpowers" of trade announced they had reached an agreement to reduce subsidies and tariffs. The agreement, while vague on specifics, represents a considerable effort by both parties to bridge a significant gap between American and European positions prior to next week's gathering in Cancun.
Robert Zoellick: "About one in three acres in America is planted for export. Our barriers are relatively low so the question is, can we lower other people's barriers to help get more exports? And also deal with some of the large subsidy problems around the world, particularly with the European Union and Japan."
Developing nations, which now make up the majority of WTO members, are pressing hardest for global cuts in farm subsidies and tariffs that make their products less competitive in other markets.
Demonstrators: "Hey hey, ho ho, we don't want no GMO..."
Another thorny issue between the U.S. and the European Union centers on the E.U.'s self-imposed five-year moratorium on approval of biotech imports. The U.S. claims the moratorium is illegal and has petitioned the WTO to form a settlement panel to resolve the trade dispute.
While the U.S. and the E.U. appear to have made progress on curtailing subsidies, other reforms with other nations may be elusive.
The U.S. has long advocated capping tariffs at reasonably low levels. But Japan and the European Union favor percentage-based, across-the-board cuts that could leave high tariffs in place. Japan, for example, currently imposes tariffs on rice imports that are in the neighborhood of 500%.
Robert Zoellick: "Japan is mainly there to try to protect very high rice tariffs and some limitations on things like beef where we've opened that market somewhat but the Japanese remain very grudgingly. So, the nature of a negotiation is give and take on all sides. The goal is to try to get these negotiations done by 2005. So, the point here would be, can we narrow the differences?"
Since any agreement reached by the U.S., Japan or the European Union would have to be approved by the other 143 members of the WTO, it appears likely the negotiations will continue. For Market to Market, I'm John Nichols.


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2013 Nonwovens Sales: $127 million
John Lewis, president, Southern Felt; Mike Konesky, vice president, sales and marketing, Southern Felt
South Carolina, U.S., UK, China, India
Needlepunch, thermal bond, chemical finishes
Filtration, technical felts, laundry products
This will be the last time Andrew Industries appears in Nonwoven Industry’s Top Companies Report. In February 2014, the company was sold to Lydall, a Manchester, CT-based nonwovens producer, in a deal valued at $83 million. At the time of this purchase, Andrew reported its 2013 sales at $127 million.
For now, Lydall is keeping Andrew in tact, creating a third division, known as the industrial filtration division, to its business. Executives say the acquisition strengthens its position as an industry-leading global provider of filtration and engineered material products and diversifies the company’s end markets and geographic revenue base.
Prior to the acquisition Andrew was a leading global manufacturer and supplier of nonwoven filtration felt media and filter bags for industrial air filtration applications. In the U.S., these products were sold under brands Southern Felt while in Europe they are known as Andrew Webron and in Asia as China Felt Company.
The acquired business consists of operations in the U.S., the UK and China along with approximately 500 employees.
“The acquisition of Andrew Filtration expands our global footprint, adds complementary and new technologies as well as substantial scale that provides a platform for long-term growth and better positions us to deliver meaningful shareholder value,” says Lydall CEO Dale Barnhart.
Andrew’s core market, the industrial air filtration market has been strong compared to prior years as improvements in the domestic housing market drove demand for bag filters in the cement and asphalt industry. Additionally, strong demand for automobiles has given life to the steel and aluminum industries, driving demand for filtration.
Recent investments at the company include a new needlepunch line in September 2012. This new line gave the U.S. division—known as Southern Felt and based in Augusta, GA—the ability to produce a full range of technical filtration needlefelts as well as industrial felts. The new line has added six million square yards annually.
Meanwhile, Bondex, Andrew’s thermal bond business, has added new laminating and coating capabilities, giving the division better exposure in the electrical insulation market.
Looking eastward, Andrew’s Chinese arm was known as as China Felt, which comprises two manufacturing sites. Its first, located in Qingpu, was established nine years ago and enlarged with a second needlepunch line in 2011; the second site, in Wuxi, was acquired from Ahlstrom in 2011 and soon after upgraded with a state-of-the-art needlepunch line specifically for PTFE filter media.
Throughout Asia, the company has differentiated itself through innovative products, high quality felts and excellent customer service. Growth has also come from tighter environmental standards, which have created demand for filter felts.
Elsewhere in Asia, Andrew India, a converting operation begun in 2012, is now operational, producing a full range of filter bags from both needlepunch felts and woven fiberglass. Lamination equipment has also been commissioned giving Andrew India the capability to offer ePTFE laminated felts, wovens and spunbonds. Before being acquired, the company had announced a long-range plan to add a needlepunch manufacturing line there.


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This publication features lifestyle stories around cannabis use and experiences, including emerging trends in wellness, travel, food and drink, pop culture, and cannabis-related brands.
ECentralSports targets the emerging premium
on-trend esports and egaming market.
Unparalleled esports and egaming content that speaks to key consumers about trends, news, lifestyle and happenings in the $150 billion market.
Established as the news, lifestyle, and entertainment weekly in Vancouver for 50 years, the Georgia Straight is an integral part of the active urban West Coast lifestyle with over 1.081 million readers per week.
The shift to streaming services was already hurting the indie music institution's bottom line when the pandemic hit
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Here are the stores our readers picked as the city's best in our annual Readers' Choice poll
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This Black Friday weekend, shop local – and online – with these Toronto-based deals
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A New York-based company has acquired the clothing brand, which sought creditor protection in June
Oct 03, 2020


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iPhone 15 Pro Max is the latest model in Apple’s flagship line of smartphones. It is designed for content creators who want to make high-quality videos.
It is equipped with the 6.7-inch LTPO Super XDR OLED display and Dynamic Island. It also has a periscope camera, which gives it improved zoom compared to what is on other models.
Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max is equipped with the latest technologies and features that make the iPhone apart from other models. The powerful processor of the iPhone 15 Pro Max delivers lightning-fast performance and battery efficiency that makes it a fantastic option for gamers and power users.
The iPhone 15 Pro’s back-to-back Super Retina XDR display offers the most immersive experience for viewing. It’s ideal for watching movies, browsing on the internet and playing games. The camera includes the wide-angle lens as well as an ultra-wide and a telephoto one. The smartphone’s LiDAR scanner technology enhances lighting in low light and improves the experience of augmented reality.
According to reports, the new iPhone 15 Pro will feature an innovative arrangement of battery that can boost the speed of charging and extend battery life. Additionally, it will have USB-C ports rather than Lightning ports and a more rounded body design.
iPhones are excellent for taking photos, but there’s always room to improve. One major change expected for this year’s Pro models is a new camera sensor. One rumor claims it will sport the main lens with 8 pixels that will reduce distortion when used at wide angles, while another says it will use the dual layer technique that increases the saturation signal per pixel.
The iPhone 15 Pro Max is reported to come with a bigger sensor, which will improve its low-light capabilities. According to reports, it will use the Sony IMX90 that is nearly 1 inch wide, which represents an increase of 11 percent in comparison to the 1/1.28-inch IMX803 which the iPhone 14 Pro and 15 Pro are currently using.
There are other significant changes, including the launch of a new periscope-based zoom lens, which could boost the optical zoom to 5X or even 6X. Periscope lenses utilize the prism or mirror that is angled that shifts light to an additional lens to zoom that takes less space than conventional telephoto cameras.
There’s been a lot of buzz from Apple enthusiasts over the brand newly released iPhone 15 Pro Max. It’s believed that it will support the recording of video in 8K, making the phone on the same level as its rivals. It’s a great thing for content creators who rely on their smartphones to create HD videos.
There is also speculation that the back camera is set to receive an upgrade. The current model has 48 megapixel Sony sensor, but the next-generation model is expected to feature the Sony IMX903 sensor. It will be able to triple the saturation signal. The result will be brighter as well as sharper pictures, particularly under low light conditions.
Another major upgrade is reportedly that it will include a periscope zoom lens. The iPhone will be able to iPhone to achieve as much as 6X zoom which is a substantial increase from the 3-fold zoom on previous models. This is a more sophisticated type of zoom that uses lenses or prisms to expand the lens, with minimal area inside the chassis.
Regarding style, in terms of design, iphone 15 pro max is believed to be getting a significant upgrade. It’s likely to remove key features, such as the Lightning port as well as the mute switch to solid-state buttons that have dedicated motors with haptic technology. The company is also expected to move to the realm of long zoom with a new periscope camera.
The button that mutes is believed to be a Action Button, similar to the one that can be customized on the Apple Watch Ultra. This button could be used to take on multiple tasks that range from turning off the flashlight, to enabling shortcuts.
The phones’ bezels are reportedly getting smaller. There is speculation that Apple may use a novel process of low-injection pressure molding to reduce the thickness of its bezel. Also, it is believed that the iPhone 15 Pro and Max will have a frame made from titanium, which is much lighter as stainless steel. Apple may offer a variety of colors for this Titanium Frame, including raw titanium gray, and deep blue.


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If you’re behind in paying your bills, or a creditor’s records mistakenly show that you are, a debt collector may contact you. You have the right to be treated fairly by debt collectors. They can't use abusive, deceptive or unfair practices to collect from you. That includes making harassing phone calls. But according to the Federal Trade Commission, that’s just what the world’s largest debt collection operation did.
The FTC recently settled a case against Expert Global Solutions and its subsidiaries (including NCO Financial Systems) for calling consumers again, and again, and again. The companies called many times a day, or for weeks on end. They called:
Expert Global Solutions and its subsidiaries even left voicemails for other people that gave the debtor’s name and said that the person owed money. What’s more, the companies never verified the accuracy of the disputed information, even after the consumers said they didn’t owe the debt.
So now, Expert Global Solutions has to pay the price for breaking the law, to the tune of a $3.2 million civil penalty, and play by the rules going forward. That civil penalty is the largest the FTC has ever obtained against a third-party debt collector.


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One of the leading smartphone manufacturers- Apple has publicly announced that their new iOS version – 11 will support reading of NFC tags, which means that this technology will be available on millions of new mobile devices.
NFC technology will become shortly a standard that is built in all new smartphones, same as Wi-Fi, camera and Bluetooth. This will definitely lead to improvement in the data exchange between people, who use smartphones.
Some of the most popular applications of this technology will be to deploy them in the marketing industry as well as to make digital labels for products and packaging, check information and access certain data with a built-in NFC chip.
According to last analysis, by the end of 2017, more than 250 million iPhone devices will use NFC technology.
This will be a big growth in the NFC devices market and in contactless business cards market, which will ease a lot the exchange of contact information between people. Rarely, there is such a huge leap in the technology market, but this is precisely because Apple has been selling its devices with a built-in NFC reader for more than a year, and the only thing they need now to make the technology usable is to update the software of their iOS.
According to the documentation, provided by Apple, their devices will support reading of NFC chip from type 1-5, which basically includes all type of chips, developed by today, including Mifare Ultralight, NXP Ntag and SLI chip series. All these information guarantees that your e- business contactless cards will not have a problem to exchange information with the latest iPhone devices. Concerning devices with older iOS version, we will print your card with QR Code with your contact info encoded in it, which can be scanned with the iPhone’s camera.


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McDonald’s Breaks Ground on New Riverton Location
By Victoria Fregoso and Ernie Over
(Riverton) – A crowd gathered on Federal Boulevard across from City Hall in Riverton Thursday morning to break ground for the new McDonald’s restaurant. “We are officially starting a new store location for McDonald’s,” said Bob Luck, Owner of the McDonald’s in Riverton. The new store is expected to open by August. Watch the video below to see the ground breaking and hear from Bob Luck.
“We’ll have a state-of-the-art store at our North Federal location,” said Luck. ”We’ll have all the newest bells and whistles from McDonald’s plus a PlayPlace that will include a toddler section and an older kid section with four levels,” Luck said. “Our store decor will be modern and bold and I think people will really like it. The outside of the building will be really sharp.”
Luck said the new store is a 45-87, meaning it will be 45 feet wide and 87 feet long, not including the play land area out front. It’s McDonald’s latest design for a store, he said.
Luck said the new store will also have more employees that the present store on West Main, which will be closed and ultimately razed. “We have close to 50 employees now including workers and supervisors, and we’ll be adding between 10 and 20 new positions,” Luck said. The new store will feature a two lane drive through, similar to the Lander store.
The new design of McDonald’s restaurants will be visible both inside and outside of the store, with the interior design and ordering process reflecting the future of McDonald’s Restaurants worldwide and the latest in food preparation and cooking equipment. “Our new low-oil fryers will use 50 percent less oil and will be frequently filtered throughout the day for a fresher and cleaner tasting product,” Luck said. He also noted the restaurant will have the McCafe brands along with blended ice products and smoothies in addition to the regular McDonald’s fare.
“I’m really excited about this new store, it’s in a highly visible area, we’ll have better ingress and egress for cars and parking and I think it will work out well,” he said. Luck noted that the new location will have state-of-the-art security and camera systems inside and out and that an Energy Management System would reduce the restaurant’s energy consumption.
After the new restaurant opens, on the site of the former V-1 gas and propane station across the street from Riverton City Hall, Luck said the old restaurant will be “de arched” and any resemblance to a McDonald’s restaurant will be removed. “We’ll remove all the equipment from the store and most likely will demolish the site and sell the property.”
General contractor for the project is Epic Construction of Centennial, Colo, a firm that erects new McDonald’s buildings around the region. “We will be using local sub-contractors as much as possible,” Luck said.
“Of course we’ll have a big grand opening when the restaurant is finished, with prizes and giveaways and such,” Luck said.
Riverton City and McDonald’s officials were present for the groundbreaking, including Mayor Ron Warpness and McDonald’s Riverton store manager Alicia McKee and Luck’s area supervisor Jim Matthews. Representatives with Central Wyoming College and the Department of Workforce Services were also there to show support.


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Intrinio announced today that it has raised $5m in a Series A Financing Round led by Nyca Partners (Nyca), with participation from existing investors, Engage, Bascom Ventures and VilCap Investments. Intrinio democratizes market data – enabling fintech developers to efficiently incorporate vast amounts of data in their applications in minutes. This investment will allow Intrinio to expand its product development, data coverage, and market penetration to further make an impact on the fintech developer and institutional investment landscape. Nyca Investment Partner Tom Miglis will join Intrinio’s Board of Directors.
Financial data platform poised to aggressively expand and continue providing the most affordable, accessible data to financial programmers
Nyca Partners invests and cultivates the next generation of Fintech companies that integrate technological innovation directly into the global financial system. It boasts a team with strong experience in financial infrastructure, and is led by Hans Morris, a former senior executive at Citigroup and President of Visa.
Intrinio was founded by Rachel Carpenter and Joey French, fintech developers whose original start-up was thwarted by the exorbitant pricing of data. After this experience, they created Intrinio to break down this barrier by building a data platform that reinvents the way data is sourced, cleaned and distributed. Intrinio’s transparent pricing and flexible licensing options are a breath of fresh air in an industry that has resisted technological innovation for the sake of preserving profit margins. Over the past few years, Intrinio’s platform has begun to redefine data delivery for both the largest financial institutions and the smallest fintech innovators.
“Our team continues to build the best data infrastructure possible for programmers and data scientists since they are the future of the financial industry. Our model bypasses traditional vendors, delivering instant, a-la-carte, and powerful data feeds straight to the hands of innovators. This is all supported by powerful infrastructure that streamlines the data supply chain and presents a massive opportunity for financial institutions to rethink data sourcing and governance.”
At Intrinio, data scientists collide with CPAs and entrepreneurs in an environment that fosters consistent innovation which creates features that are for developers because they are by developers. Access to the data is instant, and uniquely a-la-carte or bundled, giving users the choice. This year as Intrinio expands and continues to serve programmers and institutions, the future of fintech is increasingly – “Powered by Intrinio.”
“Intrinio is solving the cost and complexity conundrum of market data feeds which are critical for innovation. Rachel and Joey identified this roadblock and solved it for themselves and are now making it easy and cheap for others looking to build their financial tools. Expensive market data killed lots of good fintech ideas, and Intrinio can help them flourish,” said Hans Morris of Nyca.
Intrinio is a financial data company on a mission to power fintech innovation by providing affordable, high-quality data to developers and engineers from fintech companies, large institutions, hedge funds, startups, and universities. The Intrinio platform consists of an application programming interface (API) supported by over 300 types of financial data feeds that can be easily integrated into applications, websites, widgets, algorithms, and next-generation financial tools. To learn more, visit www.intrinio.com.


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It’s early Saturday morning. As Efren Avalos unloads large crates of potatoes, his eyes wander around Center Street in search of customers. Every week, Avalos drives about two hours from Avalos Organic Farm to Downtown Berkeley to set his stall up by 10 a.m. so that he can make enough sales to keep the farm alive.
“I basically been born in a family of farmers,” Avalos said. “My parents and my brothers, all of them are farmers in Mexico so since I was a little kid I was working in a farm and I’m still doing it.”
Like most of the vendors who line the streets to sell produce at the Saturday Downtown Berkeley Farmers’ Market, Avalos has a deep and extensive knowledge of the land. Knowing when to plant, what is in season, how to care for the plants, how to harvest and when to harvest is just basic knowledge to these farmers.
Even without the wax coating typically applied to supermarket produce to make them appealing to the eye, the fresh tangerines piled in crates glisten in the morning sunlight. The Mediterranean-style climate we are blessed with allows our farms to produce a wide variety of fruits and vegetables all year.
Our food system is a massive food supply chain: Seeds are planted and turned into crops, which are harvested, exported, delivered and sold; these crops are then made into food which is ultimately eaten. As consumers, it may initially be hard to visualize the complexity of this process; it is even harder to see our food system’s flaws.
“We take (our food system) for granted … until vulnerabilities are exposed,” said Joanna Normoyle, a farmer and co-owner of Orchard X, a small perennial farm in Esparta, California.
Armed with a passion for the outdoors and fruits, Normoyle and her partner took over Guru Ram Das Orchards just over five seasons ago and renamed it Orchard X. Like Avalos, Normoyle comes from a family of ranchers, and uses her extensive knowledge of ecology to harvest and sell produce throughout the seasons and to adapt to major environmental and social challenges like the coronavirus pandemic.
Around March of 2020, shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic began, demand for food far outstripped supply, prices skyrocketed and food — one of the most basic needs of all — quickly became unaffordable to many. This exposed the many vulnerabilities in the systems our society relies on, especially our food system which was set up to sell in bulk and to big companies.
Our supermarkets scrambled to adapt when COVID-19 hit. When everyone was at home, our system had to bend without breaking to meet consistently feed consumers.
“What matters is having farms that can respond with a kind of resiliency,” Normoyle said. “The only way you get that is by having institutions like farmers’ markets that help support those farms that are resilient and who can be small and agile.”
“(Most) grocery stores are open every day,” said Allison Williams, a vibrant and welcoming vendor for Smit Farms. “Especially when selling all that produce, it can go bad really fast.”
There are nine Safeway grocery stores within a five-mile radius of UC Berkeley. Unlike farmers’ markets, supermarkets are open to the public daily and have their produce sitting on shelves around the clock. When produce goes bad on farms, the crops get returned to ground to nourish the soil and create compost. However, if supermarkets deem food bad, it gets thrown in the trash.
If you have ever had the pleasure of visiting a farmers’ market, you would know that the flavor of the fresh produce sold there is unmatched. Grocery store chains are simply unable to rival the crispness of syrupy stone fruits in the summer or the sweetness of freshly picked carrots in late fall. “The food you get from the farmers aren’t processed,” Avalos said.
If the difference in taste is so drastic, though, then why are we not supporting small farmers and eating seasonally?
Quite simply, our food system is not built in a way that encourages us to. Americans are used to getting our food fast and cheap. McDonald’s is the number one restaurant chain worldwide, pointing to how foundational fast food has become in global food culture. Fast food companies allow us to pay significantly less than it costs to produce our food by taking shortcuts at multiple stages within the process, including paying low wages and keeping a limited menu. We should keep in mind, however, that the cost of food production is far more than monetary. There is the cost of our current food system on the environment and on our health.
We should keep in mind, however, that the cost of food production is far more than monetary. There is the cost of our current food system on the environment and on our health.
Our food system focuses on maximization and high yield. The United States produces the highest yield of corn and soybeans in the world, achieving this in no small part through monocropping. Monoculture, the cultivation of a single crop, lowers initial costs, but there is a trade off of resulting soil erosion, lack of biodiversity and resultant reductions in soil fertility. This method of agriculture also runs the risk of wiping out an entire harvest due to lack of polyculture or intercropping, which is the simultaneous planting and cultivation of several crops.
As a single person within this system, it is easy to feel helpless, but it is important to keep in mind that systems are ours to create and remake.
“Systems can’t be controlled, but they can be designed and redesigned,” wrote Donella Meadows, a key proponent of the idea of systems thinking, in her article titled “Dancing with Systems.”
The systems that run our day-to-day lives, whether it be our economic system or our food system, are greater than us and cannot quite be controlled. However, they can be influenced. With slow changes, there can still be a push toward beneficial advancements.
Start by simply trying something new. Go to a grocery store like Berkeley Bowl or the farmers’ market on Center Street and pick out a fruit or vegetable that is unfamiliar. Try it. Have your friends try it. Add variety to your diet and expand your perspective on how you see your food.
“It makes me happy to eat fresh local, seasonal food,” said Sarah Deck, a local farm lover who hawks goods for Solano Mushroom. Deck has been working with local farms for more than 15 years, selling their produce at farmers’ markets around the Bay Area. Her knowledge of fungi and vegetation allows her to not only sell mushrooms to consumers, but also cultivate her very own garden.
As college students, many of us are overwhelmed by the amount of knowledge thrown at us every day. Learning bite-sized pieces of information about our environment and food can allow us to take baby steps towards having a better understanding of our food system.
Even equipped with the best information, however, the decision to choose cheaper produce options at major grocery chains over pricier items from our local farmers is extremely tempting. We often find ourselves on a budget and can’t help but wonder whether buying an organic apple from Smit Farms instead of one from Walmart really makes an impact. While it may not change the world right away, it’s certainly a start.
Farmers in the Bay Area have been supporting local restaurants for years. Smit Farms, which hawks its produce weekly at the Berkeley Farmers’ Market, also delivers fresh fruits to restaurants like Chez Panisse. Chez Panisse was founded by Alice Waters, a talented chef who wanted to cook solely with seasonal produce from local farmers. Her purpose is two-fold. Her restaurant supports these businesses, and the quality of the produce lends itself to the unrivaled flavor of the food Chez Panisse is famous for. When restaurants began to shut down due to the coronavirus, local farmers lost a chunk of their business. In this time of instability, the people who patronize farmers’ markets have become more crucial than ever.
This new reliance on selling to farmers’ markets has changed the way these farms make their income. Buying your Fuji apples from Smit Farms instead of Walmart now helps that farm thrive further into the future.
“It’s important to me to know where my food is coming from and to get as much of it as close to where I live as I can,” Deck said. Her sentiment is one that many might not be able to echo: Most of us don’t know where we get our food from. We trust an untrustworthy system to consistently provide us with nourishment and never really question it.
Most of us don’t know where we get our food from. We trust an untrustworthy system to consistently provide us with nourishment and never really question it.
Now that you may be interested in stepping up your support of the vendors at the farmers’ markets, you may not know what to do with their produce. Over the next few weeks, I will guide you through what’s in season and what to cook with ingredients from farms that vend within the Berkeley area. Together, we will get educated, learn to be flexible and adapt to the seasonal changes that influence our diet.
“I feel really committed to regional food systems,” Normoyle says. “To me, that means having places to get food when big disruptions happen in the world; knowing that you have access to the resources in a network close to you is really important and going to become increasingly important as climate changes.”
I hope you will join me for this edible journey.


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The US has threatened to rethink connectivity and information sharing with any nation using Huawei equipment in any part of their 5G infrastructure. Washington first declared the company a “national security threat” in 2012, when it alleged that the equipment of Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE contain back doors that may enable Beijing to spy.
With nations around the world racing to roll out super-fast 5G internet services, the US appeal to boycott Huawei has intensified. Washington has completely blocked the world’s largest telecommunications company – and biggest manufacturer of 5G technology – from its own 5G networks and demanded other countries follow suit.
Some countries have been persuaded by the cybersecurity concerns raised and also blocked Huawei. Others are still deciding what to do while they carry out their own security reviews. Many have brushed aside US fears to work with Huawei’s advanced 5G technology.
In Southeast Asia, the choice is often more a matter of economics than geopolitics.
By the end of March 2019, Huawei had signed 40 contracts around the world to supply 5G gear. Of these contracts, 23 were in Europe, 10 in the Middle East, six in the Asia-Pacific region and one in Africa.
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The vacant former Motorola Mobility campus headquarters in Libertyville has been acquired by a Washington, D.C.-based commercial real estate company that plans to remake the space into an "innovation campus."
BECO Management Inc. said Monday it purchased the five-building, 1.2-million-square-foot complex on 84 acres of land for $9.5 million.
The investment, development and management company said it plans to spend $50 million on a "comprehensive renovation" of the campus to lure several new tenants to the space, which will be ready for them to move in by late summer or early fall of 2015.
The company plans to call the site "Innovation Park, Chicago-Libertyville."
A Motorola Mobility spokesman confirmed the price and that the deal closed, but declined to comment further.
The campus formerly housed 2,000 Motorola Mobility employees before they relocated to Chicago earlier this year. The site comes with commercial office, distribution and logistics and laboratory space, as well as a cafeteria, gymnasium and daycare center.
BECO said the campus could include a bicycle sharing program, food trucks and on-site massage therapists.
The real estate company said it plans to model the site at 600 N. U.S. Highway 45 after Innovation Park-Charlotte, in North Carolina, which it bought and renovated four years ago.
The 12-building former IBM campus had 1.8 million square feet of space and was 70 percent vacant when the company bought it, said Jeffrey Lee Cohen, chief executive of BECO Management. Today, the space is 95 percent leased, anchored by companies such as AON Hewitt, Allstate, Wells Fargo and Siemens.
"The Innovation Park concept has resonated with the market, particularly larger enterprises seeking more than four corners of plain office space," Chris Epstein of BECO Midwest said in a statement. "We believe the former Motorola Mobility site and the Village of Libertyville are the perfect launch pad to expand this offering to the greater Chicago area."
BECO founding partner and chief executive Jeffrey Lee Cohen said the decision to buy the Libertyville campus was made after plenty of market research.
"A lot of executives and middle management live there," Cohen said in an interview, adding that there are plenty of big businesses in the suburbs already. "The real estate is excellent. The kind of community we're going to build is going to make a really unique situation in Chicago. We feel like we'll find tenants who want exactly what we're going to offer right where we're going to offer it."
Cohen said this is just the second "very large" campus the 25-year-old company has bought and renovated. He said the company will be looking for tenants who need 10,000-20,000 square feet to 200,000 or more.
"We feel like we can hit a broad range," he said.


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America's obesity struggles have made international headlines in the last several years, and with the new year have come countless slim-down resolutions.
With the vast weight loss industry, people's search for the magic bullet to drop pounds often leads them to buy products with the best, and possibly exaggerated claims.
And now some health-care professionals are voicing concern over one infomercial suggesting easy weight loss without having to work hard through diet and exercise.
"There's no secret remedy that has been buried for all these decades. I promise you, if there were something good, we'd all know about it. It would be on the front page of the newspaper. We'd all be using it and they wouldn't have to promote it on television," said George Washington University Weight Management Program medical director Arthur Frank.
Yet, commercials promising weight loss with a mere pill pop continue to woo customers' wallets and fuel the $55 billion U.S. weight loss market, according to Marketdata Enterprises.
One popular product whose commercials regularly air late at night may not be delivering on its promises, according to at least one dissatisfied customer.
"I believe it's money wasted," said one woman who said the diet pill Lipozene was ineffective. "I didn't see the results that I thought I would be getting." She asked that her identity be concealed.
The price isn't cheap. One month's supply cost ABC News $81.77.
"When you're looking to lose weight and you're putting your hopes into a product, you want it to be a viable product," the woman added.
Lipozene makes incredible claims and has generated much hype. Its infomercial suggests people can eat what they want without changing their lifestyles and still lose weight.
"It's a miracle, I swear it is," says one person quoted on the commercial. "I just ate what I wanted and I lost weight. & Being able to lose the weight without having to really work hard is really fantastic. I loved it."
Frank said he finds these claims troubling.
"I get very worried; I get very concerned when they say that you don't have to change the way you eat, and you don't have to change your lifestyle," Frank said. "Then I say, 'No, no, no. That doesn't work. It doesn't make any sense.'"
Weight loss experts said it's nearly impossible for Lipozene to work. The pill essentially is a fiber pill and its ads mislead, they said.
"This type of an infomercial does raise false hopes," said David Heber, a professor of medicine and UCLA Center for Human Nutrition director.
The pill's active ingredient is glucomannan, which is supposed to expand in the stomach and fill it up so people eat less. The ads claim the pill's effectiveness is "backed by 12 clinical studies."
Heber said the studies deal with glucomannan, but not Lipozene, itself. The research also included an additional element that was not hyped in the Lipozene infomercial.
"All of them had diet and exercise included. You can't simply lose weight without diet and exercise," Heber said.
Only in small, hard-to-read print at the bottom of the infomercial does the same information appear in the Lipozene infomercials.
The Obesity Research Institute, which is the company behind Lipozene, may sound official, but it's really just a privately run company. ABC News traced the company to an Encinitas, Calif., house.


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Meredith has tapped two of its own to lead its brand-licensing business. Toye Cody and Sondra Newkirk have been promoted to the role of vice president, brand licensing, effective immediately.
Cody and Newkirk will spearhead different areas of the division.
Cody, who joined Meredith Brand Licensing in 2008 and Meredith Corp in 2004, will take on the company’s relationship with Walmart. Through Walmart, Meredith sells hundreds of Better Homes & Gardens-branded home and outdoor products, through both the retailer's stores and website.
Cody has been working with Walmart since 2011. She and her team currently collaborate with the retailer on product selection, design, packaging, merchandising and marketing details.
Newkirk is set to lead all other business within the brand-licensing division. That role includes overseeing approximately 35 partnerships across 11 Meredith brands, such as between Bellisio Foods and EatingWell, Real Simple and Bed, Bath and Beyond. Newkirk has worked with Meredith’s brand licensing since 2006 and was its executive director prior to her promotion.
Tom Witschi, president, Meredith Consumer Products, stated Cody and Newkirk are “seasoned professionals with deep brand-licensing experience and relationships with our partners.”
Cody and Newkirk take over for Steve Grune, who is stepping down from his role as vice president of brand licensing, a role he’s held since 2018 to pursue new interests. Grune joined Meredith in 2012 as the founding publisher of Allrecipes before becoming group publisher of the Parents Group in 2016.
Meredith’s brand-licensing earns royalties based on more than $25 billion in sales, the company reports.


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WHO Updates Mobile Phones and health fact sheet
The World Health Organization (WHO) updated its factsheet on mobile phones and health in October 2014 and has not changed its overall position that mobile phone use does not cause adverse health effects.
“A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established for mobile phone use,” the updated factsheet continues to say.
Minor changes to the WHO’s factsheet included an update to the number of global mobile phone subscribers from 4.6 billion in 2009 to 6.9 billion in 2014.


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ishanjain writes: BioWare(TM) announced today Dragon Age: Origins — Awakening, the first official expansion pack to Dragon Age: Origins. The game has already been awarded as one of the best role playing games of 2009 by many critics and have already created a large fan club. The new expansion will
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SUDBURY, ON – A brewpub that opened in Sudbury last autumn has announced that it has closed its doors due to the financial impact of the COIVD-19 pandemic.
Optimist Brewery & Kitchen was launched in October, 2020 by John Arnold and Stacey Cameron, who upgraded their Taphouse Northern Grill & Pub with renovations and the addition of a brewhouse during the initial pandemic-forced closure last spring and summer.
In an announcement posted on social media late last week, the owners said that COVID-19 “hit the economy hard with particular pain to the hospitality and restaurant industry,” and that “Optimist was not immune and the road to recovery has proven to be insurmountable.”
The statement also noted that they “are proud of the brand and vision we created”, and thanked “partners, loyal patrons and fantastic staff who have stuck with us through the years.”
For more details, see the full announcement on Instagram.
Source & Photo: Optimist Brewery & Kitchen


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The Reserve Bank has looked past a tightening housing market, international trade tensions and frustrated consumers to deliver an upbeat assessment of the Australian economy, as the Morrison government pins its hopes on some of the central bank's optimism translating to an imminent national economic report card.
The Coalition will face its penultimate economic test before the next election when the national accounts are released on Wednesday. Analysts are predicting a fall to 3.3 per cent annual growth following weaker company profits and key business indicators in the three months to September.
A solid result would allow the Coalition to campaign credibly throughout summer on its economic management, while Labor would latch onto any sign the economy is slowing to appeal to stretched consumers.
In Tuesday's relatively upbeat analysis, Reserve Bank Governor Philip Lowe said "the Australian economy is performing well," before pencilling a growth rate of 3.5 per cent for 2018 and 2019 that would slow in 2020 as resource exports wound down.
The central bank kept the cash rate at 1.5 per cent for a record 28-months on Tuesday. It has not signalled an intention to cut in the near future - saying the next move is likely to be up - despite house prices in Sydney and Melbourne falling at their fastest rate since the last recession.
Prices have fallen by 9.5 per cent in Sydney and 5.8 per cent in Melbourne since their peak last year, rattling the nerves of recent homeowners and turning the housing market into an election issue.
Tempering rate cut expectations is the historic rate of growth of both capitals. CoreLogic figures show prices remain 41 per cent higher than they were five years ago in Sydney and 38 per cent higher in Melbourne.
Historically, the RBA has helped to lift investment by cutting rates after prices have declined rapidly. On Tuesday, it noted that "credit conditions for some borrowers are tighter than they have been for some time, with some lenders having a reduced appetite to lend".
ANZ economist Felicity Emmett said the RBA had so far been able to play down the implications of falling house prices, with the view that stronger growth in household income would provide enough support to consumer spending.
"But with house price weakness accelerating, wages slow to pick up and consumption softening, the outlook may not be so rosy," she said.
Capital Economics economist Marcel Thieliant said he believed the RBA was being too optimistic.
"That’s because the wealth effect from falling house prices will encourage households to live within their means," he said.
Sluggish wage growth and household consumption were compounding those concerns, but overall, Dr Lowe said gradual progress was being made.
"Business conditions are positive and non-mining business investment is expected to increase," he said.
He warned risks to that outlook included a "slowdown in global trade, partly stemming from ongoing trade tensions," and elevated household debt levels.
"One continuing source of uncertainty is the outlook for household consumption," said Dr Lowe.
"Growth in household income remains low, debt levels are high and some asset prices have declined."
Business indicators released on Monday foreshadowed an expected a 0.6 per cent rate of growth in the third quarter after company profits and inventories came in just below expectations.
That would see annual growth slow from 3.4 per cent to 3.3 per cent.
In a positive sign, the current account deficit, the value of goods imported exceeding the value of goods exported, narrowed in the last quarter from $12.1 billion to $10.7 billion.
Markets have only priced in a 60 per cent chance of a rate hike in 2020, suggesting rates are likely to remain on hold for the rest of next year.


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Oct 21, 2013 01:53 PM EDT
It has long since been a complaint about Android that the software is fragmented amongst users. Due to hardware restrictions, manufacturers' skins, and carriers' testing and editing, most people didn't have the latest version of Android. Most Android doubters believed this would be the death of the OS, since IOS has a 95 percent adoption rate, and even windows is strict with the timeliness of their mobile updates. However, these times they are a-changing, and even in the past nine months Google has completely turned around and started sending out updates to more devices and shifting the ratio of software versions in Android smartphones and tablets everywhere.
In the past nine months, Gingerbread dropped from 48 percent to 28 percent with Ice Cream Sandwich dropping from 29 percent to 20 percent. Jelly Bean grew from 10 percent to 49 percent, which marks the first time in a long time that the latest Google software has been running on almost half of all Android devices. Of course Jelly Bean consists of 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3, the oldest of which was released in mid-2012, so that figure is not nearly as exciting as it sounds. Nevertheless, Google is making progress towards a future of most devices running the latest version of the mobile OS. The only things holding them back are cheap prepaid phones sold in emerging markets with hardware limitations, and the occasional alterations done by manufacturers and carriers -- although Samsung and HTC are making strides towards getting Jelly Bean 4.3 out to their flagships by the end of this month.
Another important part of the story is the rumor that Android Kitkat will be able to function on devices with as little as 512 RAM. If true, the next iteration of Android will open doors for older devices to be able to access the newest version of Android, effectively defeating fragmentation for now -- or at least fighting it off for a while.
As far as fragmentation goes, we're anything but worried. Maybe at Android’s worst it was a problem (Jelly Bean didn’t break 10 percent until over a year and a half after its release), but now the future looks bright for our favorite operating system.
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Facebook will purchase about 650 former-AOL patents from Microsoft for about $550 million, the company announced today.
Microsoft took over 925 U.S. patents and patent applications from AOL earlier this month, along with a license to about 300 additional patents that weren’t for sale. Now Facebook will take ownership of a majority of those patents and retain a license for the remainder of the portfolio. These patents could aid Facebook in two infringement suits it is currently engaged in with Yahoo, and could protect the company from future intellectual property disputes.
Facebook did not provide details on which patents it acquired from Microsoft, but they are likely related to social networking, messaging, advertising, privacy and customization, which are the key areas Yahoo is targeting in its lawsuit against Facebook. The social network is also involved in a counter-suit against the portal company.
Building an arsenal of patents could also be useful in preventing litigation with other companies. In March, Facebook bought 750 software and networking patents from IBM for an undisclosed sum. Before that, the social network had only 56 patents and 503 applications in the U.S., according to a regulatory filing.
Yahoo’s attacks raised issues in the tech community about how and when patents should be exercised. Many saw Yahoo’s suit as a cheap shot against a pre-IPO Facebook, not unlike the one Yahoo brought against Google just before it went public. As such, Facebook’s countersuit seemed positioned as a statement about the frivolity of patent litigation. And last week, Twitter promised it would only use patents defensively, unless the company acquires permission from the inventor to legally apply the patents otherwise.
Under the agreement announced today, Microsoft will retain ownership of about 275 AOL patents and applications, a license to the 300 patents AOL did not sell in its auction this month, and a license to the 650 patents and applications Facebook now owns. This is yet another extension of a long partnership between Facebook and Microsoft. The corporation was an early investor and advertising provider for the social network. The companies now offer integrated services through Bing, Skype, Office and other features.


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Inside America’s Broken Supply Chain
POV: Thomas Pulley
It’s scary out there – and not just because Halloween is approaching. Typical products are getting hard to find. Shipping prices are soaring shipping. Local stores are shelves sparsely stocked. If you’ve managed to not notice the immense shipping woes currently affecting the US and much of the globe you must be a self-sustaining sovereign nation.
Shippers have not been able catch up or even keep up with the logistical problems initiated by the global pandemic. Container ships are stacking up outside of Southern California ports, containers are being left at railyards due to trucker shortages, and truckers are having to wait hours to be able to pick up goods and leave these shipping yards. The problem isn’t going to fix itself, nor is there any light at the end of the tunnel with woes expected to continue into and throughout 2022. The Washington Post article, Inside America’s Broken Supply Chain, outlines how and why product costs and shipping costs have increased exponentially within the past year. Looking ahead, experts anticipate that logistical issues will continue to mount and overwhelm our ports and railyards. During a time of immense strife and uncertainty it’s important to stay calm, remain kind, and remember we are all in this together. At least until zombies start rising…. Happy Halloween.


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Star Trek Online has some of the best-looking starships in the quadrant. But players have never been able to touch, feel, and display their customized Galaxy-class cruisers, Romulan Warbirds, or Klingon Bird of Prey scouts from the Cryptic Studios-developed online game. That’s changing thanks to a new partnership between publisher Perfect World and Eucl3d, a 3D-printing company.
Perfect World announced the news Friday in a blog post. Right now, the parties haven’t released any pricing details, but the ships will be 12-inches long. It’ll work through a button inside the game (though it will take you outside to pay for it; you can’t use in-game currency to pay for it). In a visit yesterday to Cryptic Studios, lead designer Al Rivera and art lead Samuel Wall showed me a prototype, a Federation shuttle that looks a lot like the Delta Flyer from Star Trek: Voyager. It weighed more than I thought it would, and while it was a little rough, you could see many details, such as small vents and running lights.
Star Trek Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (think World of Warcraft, but in space with Klingons, Romulans, Ferengi, and even the Borg) gives players a great deal of room to put their own stamps on their vessels — you can fiddle with colors and lights, nacelles (the long engine-like parts on many starships), the saucers and hulls, and so on. With the free-to-play online experience launching earlier this month on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One and the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the show’s debut on CBS in 1966, adding a few little ships like these feels like a fitting tribute.
Just don’t display them anywhere near Captain Picard when he wigs out.
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January 22, 2019
SafeCharge opens an office in Shenzhen, extending support to its customers in Asia and speeding up development in China
In addition to its Asian offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, SafeCharge has opened new office in the financial heart of Shenzhen, increasing its China presence while actively building strategic partnerships with domestic players
SafeCharge (AIM: SCH), the partner of choice for businesses who demand more from payments technology, today announced the opening of its new office in China less than four years after launching in the country. The new office is based in Shenzhen’s PingAn International Finance Center, a 115-storey supertall skyscraper in the Futian business district. This latest expansion marks SafeCharge’s growing footprint across the APAC region, where it already has offices in Singapore and Hong Kong with an overall team of nearly 20 people.
“Considering the increasing business with Chinese merchants and the closer relationships with Chinese payments giants Alipay, Tencent and Unionpay, establishing local customer support is a natural next step as we provide the highest quality of service to our partners,” explains Yoav Chernitz, China Business Development Director at SafeCharge. “Demand more is SafeCharge’s motto: we deepen our presence in China in order to deliver more to our customers, to interact more with them and to align our product development more with Chinese customers’ unique requirements”.
“A strong presence in China is key to support both Chinese clients aiming to expand their business internationally and for non-Chinese companies looking for effective channels to deal with Chinese customers,” adds Willy Kwa, Regional Director APAC at SafeCharge. “All customers want the same, no matter where they are located: they want to be supported closely, especially when they are entering unknown markets”.
Thanks to its comprehensive business relationships with Alipay, Tencent and Union Pay, SafeCharge aims at developing further support for Western clients accepting payments from Chinese customers and marketing their product and services to local customers.
“China is taking a leading role in the global economy, specifically in the field of e-commerce and payments innovation” says David Avgi, CEO at SafeCharge. “Besides providing local support to new Chinese international players, we have expanded our footprint in China to learn and develop strong partnerships as we believe Chinese companies will play a very important role in the future of fintech innovation.”


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The Nashville Sounds announced today a one-time opportunity for fans to purchase the Remastered Opening Day Bundle ahead of next Friday's on-sale date of single-game tickets. The fifth anniversary of First Tennessee Park begins on Thursday, April 4 at 6:35 p.m. when the Sounds host the Iowa Cubs.
Fans can choose between a Corner section seat in sections 101-104 and 122-124 or a Select section seat in sections 105-107 and 119-121. This offer is available online only here. Limited quantity available and prices do not include tax.
The Remastered Opening Day ticket bundle includes:
- Choice of a Corner section ($50) or Select section ($55) seat
- All-you-can-eat picnic including hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ pulled pork, chips, cookies, etc. in the Pepsi Pavilion (1.5-hour service)
- Soda, water, and tea
- Commemorative 2019 Remastered Opening Day T-shirt
- Commemorative Sounds Remastered vinyl record featuring music by Krazy Kyle (1 of 500 pressed)
Included for all fans on Opening Day is the weekly Throwback Thursday presented by Budweiser. Fans can purchase Pepsi fountain soda and select Budweiser products at a discounted rate. Stick around for a postgame fireworks celebration to begin the 2019 campaign.
On Friday, March 8 at 9:00 a.m., single-game tickets to all 70 Nashville Sounds home games in 2019 will be available for purchase. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the First Tennessee Park ticket office, online at www.nashvillesounds.com, or by calling 615-690-HITS ext. 2.
The 42nd season of Nashville Sounds baseball officially begins on Thursday, April 4, when the Sounds host the Iowa Cubs at 6:35 p.m. Season ticket memberships for the 2019 season are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.
This story was not subject to the approval of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues or its clubs.


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[news=http://slyck.com/newspics/TV3.jpg]New TV Makes Playback Of Movie Downloads Even Easier
September 11, 2005
Not so long ago, before DVD Writers became available and inexpensive, one of the most popular methods of transferring movies from the PC to the living room was to re-encode them into formats such as VCD or SVCD, allowing them to be burned onto a CD-R disc for playback on a stand-alone DVD player.
As the price of DVD media and DVD writers fell, burning movies to DVD began to make more sense, especially with the advent of cheap stand-alone DivX/XviD compatible DVD players, allowing several movies to be burned to a single DVD disc without the need to re-encode.
Portable technology has given us more methods of transferring those movies from the PC to the TV, such as handheld multimedia players which can plug directly into a TV, and the addition of USB sockets to some DVD players, allowing playback of movies stored on memory ‘sticks’. Now the next generation of HDTV sets promises to make TV playback of those files a whole lot easier!
In a recent press release HP have announced the demonstration of an “advanced digital media technology for its high-definition televisions (HDTVs) that will give people direct access to digital content - from movies to photos to music to personal videos - that's currently stored on their PCs”. The prototype communicates through wired or 802.11a and 802.11g wireless networks, potentially giving instant access to any multimedia content stored anywhere on the home network.
According to Tim Bajarin, president of analyst firm Creative Strategies, "More than 50 percent of American consumers are storing digital video or music on their hard drives, and 25 percent of U.S. households rate the ability to view digital photos on a large-screen display as extremely important,". He adds, "With all that digital content, there is a growing consumer demand to find a way to efficiently manage and ultimately simply enjoy that content through a single source”.


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Samsung and Google have jointly announced that next week’s planned debut and launch of both the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android Ice Cream Sandwich during CTIA have been delayed to an unspecified date before November.
Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall. We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.
Samsung and Google initially teased the launch of both products in press invites sent last month in the build up to CTIA next week, with the plan to debut both the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (nee Nexus Prime) Â and Android Ice Cream Sandwich, the next major version of Android meant to bridge the mobile and tablet versions of Android together.
Specifications for the Galaxy Nexus include a first of its kind 4.65-inch Super AMOLED HD display at 720p, dual-core 1.5GHz Exynos processor with a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU, 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video capture and a larger than average 2,050mAh battery with support for GSM/CDMA and LTE, suggesting that the phone Â will be launched on Verizon Wireless in the US as the substitution for the Galaxy S II.
Update: Samsung and Google have released another joint statement:
“We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing,”


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Wednesday, 17 December 2008 16:37
NEW YORK — The New York National Boat Show opened over the weekend, and there has been mixed reaction to the earlier dates.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008 16:33Joseph A. Mentz was named general manager at Fort Lauderdale-based ACR Electronics, replacing Paul M. Frank.
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:19
The National Marine Manufacturers Association is relaxing its model-year policy for the upcoming winter boat show season to help exhibitors move some of their previous year inventory.
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:17
New York Gov. David A. Paterson wants to raise taxes on boats and other luxury items in order to close the state’s budget deficit.
Tuesday, 16 December 2008 16:16
Seatec 2009, the seventh annual international exhibition of technology, subcontracting and design for boats, yachts and ships, will again feature the Yacht Engineering Forum.
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The singer Beyoncé has just revealed the name of the designers responsible for the costume in her world tour The Mrs. Carter Show. The selected ones were Dean and Dan Carter, the two brothers behind the Italian brand Dsquared2. Beyoncé asked them to get inspired by their Spring Summer 2013 collection "Glamazon", a tribute to the iconic top models in the 90s like Cindy Crawford or Christy Turlington.
Here you can find some designs from the Dsquared2 collection which has been the source of inspiration for Beyonce's costume. We have to wait a couple of days to see the result, since the tour starts the day after tomorrow in Belgrade.


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GoDaddy has announced that it will be shutting down its Cloud Server Business. Clients have until December 31, 2017 to find another hosting solution. GoDaddy also announced that it will be selling off its PlusServer business to another company.
Additional details can be found by clicking here and visiting ZDNet.
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The big three cloud providers all posted huge growth, more than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic.
Market leader Amazon Web Services was still able to gain pace, despite its size making double-digit growth harder. Close second Microsoft Azure also shot up significantly, as did distant third Google Cloud.
Overall, Amazon saw $113.1 billion in revenue in its latest quarter, up 27 percent year over year. Its cloud division brought in $14.8bn, up 37 percent.
That's better than the last Q2, when it grew by 29 percent - which at the time was boosted by the Covid move to cloud.
There had been fears that AWS would struggle to maintain such growth as its huge revenues make it harder and harder to show relative gains. But Amazon's new CEO, and former head of AWS, Andy Jassy said that the company had "seen AWS growth reaccelerate."
In an earnings call, CFO Brian Olsavsky said: "AWS set more revenue quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year than any quarter in our history. We are now at $59bn annualized run-rate business and that's up from $43bn at this time last year."
In its latest quarter, Microsoft posted revenues of $46.2bn, up 21 percent. Net income hit $16.5bn, up 47 percent.
Within that, Azure saw 51 percent revenue growth (but that drops to 45 percent when currency fluctuations are taken into account).
"In constant currency, Azure revenue growth should remain relatively stable on a sequential basis," CFO Amy Hood said.
Google Cloud posted similar relative growth (but smaller in actual terms due to its diminutive size).
Alphabet as a whole posted revenues of $61.9bn, with a net income of $18.5bn - with growth of 62 percent and 166 percent, respectively.
Cloud grew to $4.6bn, up 54 percent year-on-year. It went from a loss of $1.4bn last year to $591 million this quarter. In Q1 of this year GCP lost $974m against $4bn revenue.
"We remain focused on revenue growth and are pleased with the trends we are seeing," CFO Ruth Porat said. "Across Cloud, we will continue to invest aggressively, given the opportunity we see."
Oracle, which announced its 'Fiscal 2021 Q4' results last month, breaks its cloud results up less clearly than its rivals. The company announced its 'Cloud license and on-premise license' revenues were up nine percent to $2.1 billion, while its 'Cloud services and license support' revenues were up eight percent to $7.4 billion. Its total quarterly revenues were $11.2 billion.


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Retail professionals have lengthy appeared the alarm system on shopping malls in the United States.
But shopping malls are not going vanished, they are simply adjusting to a brand-new setting. In reality, lots of have actually reported durable tenancy degrees and also larger groups than prior to the pandemic, according to a current market evaluation fromCoresight Research
In a record released in June, Coresight discovered foot website traffic in top-tier shopping malls was up by 12% in 2022 contrasted to 2019, while website traffic in lower-tier shopping malls was up 10%. The research study company specifies “top-tier” focuses as those situated in upscale locations “where a typical shopper has an annual income of over $200,000” and also which often tend to include more recent brand names and also high-end sellers.
Between 2020 and also 2022, these shopping malls reported a yearly development price of 5% with $7.5 billion in overall income in 2014, according to the record. While lower-tier shopping malls delayed somewhat behind in income– reporting just $6.4 billion– they experienced a bigger development price of almost 9%.
On standard, top-tier shopping malls were greater than 95% rented in 2014, while room in lower-tier shopping malls in less-affluent areas had to do with 89% rented. Coresight discovered the numbers still delay somewhat behind pre-pandemic degrees, however stayed encouraging.
“Occupancy rates are the No. 1 indicator of a mall’s health,” claimed the firm’s CEO Deborah Weinswig, including that any kind of number over 92% is thought about excellent.
Brandon Isner, CBRE’s Head of Retail Research for the Americas, claimed tenancy prices of 100% are not always an objective for shopping malls aiming to remain affordable and also appealing, and also shop closures do not immediately suggest the shopping mall layout remains in problem.
“For people who go to the malls, they’re going to want some fresh new stores every once in a while. Take into account the Bed Bath & Beyond retail space that’s being vacated as we speak – it’s turning out that’s actually kind of a good thing for retail,” he claimed. “The landlords are happy to get back those spaces because they can charge a higher rent. And for your retailers that might have wanted to get into those centers for a long time — because a lot of those are also located in great trade areas — this gives them an opportunity to enter the market.”
“Traffic is up and sales are up,” claimed Kirsten Lee, executive vice head of state and also supervisor of high-end leasing at Brookfield Properties, which handles greater than 130 shopping mall throughout the United States. “In many of our centers, we have a waiting list of tenants to get in.”
It’s not simplyBrookfield Other premium home designers like Macerich, Simon Property Group and also Taubman Centers “have reported high demand for retail space in recent quarters,” Coresight discovered. Earlier this month, Tanger Outlets revealed that its forthcoming shopping mall in Nashville, Tennessee, is currently 95% rented.
A minor turn over in occupancy, aided by a tiny margin of empty retail room, indicates homes can remain on top of patterns and also include one of the most lucrative sellers. “The mall should be a living breathing, organism,” claimedWeinswig “And brands have their own life cycle.”
Over the previous years, the development of shopping has actually prompted concerns that on the internet purchasing would eventually change the physical shopping mall experience, specifically for a generation that matured submersed in an electronic landscape.
While shopping has actually been transformational, “the idea that it was going to kill brick and mortar retail didn’t take into account the entire equation,” claimedIsner
The shopping mall as a retail idea lives and also well, with sellers rotating to fit the needs of an electronic age. Rather than scrambling with brick-and-mortar shops for preeminence, each purchasing layout is strengthening the various other. Omnichannel advertising and marketing, where a brand name has both a physical and also on the internet existence, has actually been a significant element driving shopping mall development, according toCoresight
“Retailers today have that advantage where they can use digital solutions to build (their) brand rather than just throw stores everywhere like they did in the 70s, 80s and 90s,” claimedIsner It indicates brand names can be careful regarding where they open up physical areas, and also concentrate on top-tier shopping malls with an energised customer base.
“We have a handful of brands that are opening up in the outlet space that were formally digitally native brands,” claimed Tanger Outlets CEOStephen Yalof He included that when brand names open physical areas, clients go there to check the items, “and then you get to make a better choice when it’s time to actually make the purchase.”
Meanwhile, some digital-only brand names have actually started starting a business in shopping malls in order to increase their reach at a reduced price. Warby Parker, Allbirds and also Wayfair are simply a handful of on the internet firms that have actually opened up or revealed that they will certainly be opening up standard retail areas.
“These types of brands realize that they were spending more per customer in acquisition online than they were to build a brick-and-mortar store and have that experience for their customer in a major metro market,” claimedLee
Gen Z customers are a significant market for sellers aiming to remain appropriate, according to experts, and also these customers are leading the fee in restoring the shopping mall experience. A socially mindful generation really knowledgeable about environment modification, Gen Z is likewise more probable to sustain brand names focusing on sustainability. According to June information from the International Council of Shopping Centers, 56% of Gen Z customers “are willing to spend more to purchase sustainably sourced products.”
“A lot of luxury retailers are pretty environmentally conscious, or at least trying to overachieve in those areas and that can be attractive to the younger generations,” claimedIsner “That can be an ‘in’ with regard to gaining new customers.”
Despite Gen Z having actually matured with the net at their fingertips, more youthful customers are likewise regular mallgoers.
“Social gets them in the door, but they’re not shopping online,” claimed Lee, keeping in mind that 78% of Gen Zers and also 70% of Millennials comply with high-end brand names on social networks. “They are wanting an in-store luxury experience. They may have researched this product online but they want to go into a store, have a very knowledgeable sales staff help them and possibly even buy more while they’re there. That in-store experience is so critical.”
According to the ICSC, 73% of Gen Z customers claimed they checked out a shopping mall in the previous month, contrasted to 65% of Millennials and also 48% of Gen X participants. But it’s not constantly to get even more things.
“There has been a rise in ‘experience-focused’ tenants in shopping malls that offer experiences like go-karting, trampolining, virtual reality, and arcades,” claimed ICSC vice head of state StephanieCegielski “Many also offer food and drink, enabling visitors to be able to spend time together for longer periods without having to leave to grab a bite outside of the venue. On the other hand, entertainment operators can also help bring additional foot traffic to surrounding businesses, such as driving visitors to nearby restaurants after they finish playing.”
Almost two-thirds of Gen Z customers likewise state they most likely to shopping malls for the social facet, except any kind of particular item, according to the ICSC. In 2020, shuttering shops stimulated forecasts that the pandemic would certainly be the last nail in the shopping mall’s casket. But a post-pandemic culture has actually shown starving for public rooms.
“Covid taught us that we are absolutely wired for community,” claimedLee “We have been doing this since the beginning of time, we want to be together. We have set up common areas of commerce for people to trade and meet, whether it was the town square or a bazaar.”
Properties offering premium eating, purchasing and also amusement tasks will certainly remain to be essential retail rooms, according toCoresight The shopping mall remains to advance and also redefine its offerings however, in the meantime at the very least, it is much from out-of-date.
Read the complete short article here


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Classic car fans can look forward to fresh small screen content in 2019, following the announcement that UKTV has commissioned a brand new show, Lazy boy Garage, for its entertainment channel Dave.
Set to shown from February, Lazy Boy Garage, follows three friends into the world of international car ‘flipping’ – where cars are quickly resold for profit – at Roadhouse Motor Co. in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Dubbed ‘lazy boys’ because they don’t leave the garage, motoring journalists Jonny Smith and Tom ‘Wookie’ Ford join garage owner Tim Glover in hunting down classics from abroad to recommission, relying on social media and a network of international fixers to aid their search.
Presenter Jonny Smith said: “It’s a great concept – can you use the internet to bring the whole process to you? Buying via Skype, arranging shipping, and the car lands in the UK without you seeing it in the metal. Is it possible to make a profit?”
Executive producer Gareth Cornick added: “We’ve got a brilliant team of presenters – Tim’s our mechanic, Jonny brings years of classic car knowledge to the process, and Tom’s experience meant he was the perfect person to drum up interest in the finished cars on social media. For the viewers it will be an exciting, fun, eye-opening show that the Boys hope might inspire a new generation of car flippers! ”
Ten of the unusual imported classics involved in the show were sold at a specially organised sale in Stamford on December 2. The cars include rarities such as a SEAT 133, a Ford Taunus 2.0 V6 Ghia from Austria, Renault 4 van and a two-door VW Jetta, plus tidy examples of a MkI Fiesta and a Mk2 Escort estate. They were all auctioned with no reserve.
With some slow sales early on, bidding picked up for the final few lots – much to auctioneer Tom Ford’s relief. “There are some cars where it’s been close – the tension’s built by the fact we have no idea what we’re going to get for the cars.” At least one of the cars sold for less than the investment, though that was balanced by some of the more successful projects! Gareth Cornick believes that sales would have been stronger had the cars been road-registered for the UK. “Unfortunately, the time the DVLA would have taken would have eaten too far into the overall production schedule – we will consider it for the future but for this series we just didn’t have time.”
We won’t spoil the surprise by bringing you the final results, but rest assured there are a few interesting figures in there. It’s a certainly an intriguing premise for a car show and we’re looking forward to tuning into Dave from February to check it out.


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The iconic rapper and non-fungible token investor, Snoop Dogg, has announced ready plans to launch a new NFT collection next week. The music singer has partnered with country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus and the Avila Brothers.
Snoop Dogg To Drop New NFTs Next Week
The iconic rapper first hinted at plans to lunch a new collection dubbed “A Hard-working Man” earlier this month. The highly anticipated NFT collection is scheduled to launch next week on February 21, 2023.
Snoop Dogg has teamed up with Animal Concerts, a pioneer in virtual world events. The hip-hop star is set to launch new NFTs that will serve as membership cards for IRL events, concerts, comedy, celebrations performances, meetings, and poker games.
The new ‘A Hand-working Man’ NFT collection will feature a limited edition of 9,999 unique NFTs. The NFT collection will give holders direct exposure to the virtual world event and exclusive celebrations.
According to the whitepaper, the NFT collection will give users more special benefits, including sharing a virtual event with Snoop Dogg and Billy Ray, digital concerts, gaming bundles, and multiverse gear giveaways.
Other Snoop Dogg Metaverse And NFT Ventures
The American hip-hop star reportedly joined the crypto industry sometime in 2014. For the past eight years, Snoop Dogg has made significant investments within the digital collectible and the nascent metaverse sector.
In April 2022, Snoop Dogg partnered with Clay Nation to launch a new NFT collection on the Cardano blockchain. Clay Nation x Snoop Dogg NFT series featured a limited edition of 10,000 digital artworks.
In June 2022, Snoop Dogg partnered with gaming platform The Sandbox to sell “The Snoopverse Early Access Pass,” which gave buyers access to experiences in The Snoopverse, his own branded virtual world within The Sandbox platform. The music singer has invested in many other NFT projects.
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Fight Out - Next 100x Move to Earn Crypto
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