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Postmedia Joins Ad Boycott of Facebook, Instagram Amid News Fight
In a move against Meta’s Canadian news blocking decision, the Postmedia Network announced last Friday that it will “pause” its direct advertising on Meta-owned platforms.
This action aligns Postmedia with numerous other groups, including the federal and Quebec governments, who are similarly boycotting Facebook and Instagram, with others such as Bell Media similarly joining in as well.
The federal Heritage Minister, Pablo Rodriguez, declared on Wednesday that his government would cease ad purchases on Facebook and Instagram while Meta continued to block Canadian news on its platforms.
This response was triggered by Meta’s reaction to the newly passed Online News Act. Echoing the federal sentiment, the Quebec government announced an identical stand, with Premier Francois Legault affirming that “no company is above the law.”
Introduced in June, the Online News Act mandates tech companies to negotiate commercial arrangements with news publishers, sharing revenue for news stories appearing on their platforms. However, companies that do not feature Canadian news stories are exempt. In an effort to circumvent this legislation, Meta started to block Canadian news from its platforms, and Google mentioned plans to do the same.
Andrew MacLeod, President and CEO of Postmedia, emphasized in a press release the importance of the new law. “The reactions following the passing of the law underscore its critical need at this time. We aim to collaborate to ensure all parties can negotiate fairly, level the playing field, and safeguard journalism in Canada,” he said, reports the National Post, which is part of Postmedia.
Postmedia, owner of more than 130 brands in the Canadian news sector, joins all significant Quebec media companies, including CBC, in boycotting Meta.
Media giants Quebecor, La Presse Cogeco, and CBC announced on Wednesday their decision to halt advertising on Facebook and Instagram until Meta agreed to unblock Canadian news. The Montreal Chamber of Commerce followed suit, and its CEO appealed to other businesses to join in sending a “clear signal” that “no company is above the law.”
Postmedia declined to disclose the amount it spends on direct advertising with Meta. This pause applies only to ads for Postmedia-owned brands, excluding ads placed by Postmedia for its own advertising clients.
Meta’s decision to block news from Facebook and Instagram drew sharp criticism from Rodriguez, who called Meta’s approach “unreasonable” and “irresponsible.” Meta spokesperson Lisa Laventure announced on Thursday that their news blocking would extend to all Canadian users “in the coming weeks,” citing the inability of the regulatory process to modify key problematic features of the legislation.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party of Canada is still advertising with Meta, alongside Bell Canada, while Rodriguez and other Liberal MPs still are leveraging Facebook and Threads to reach out to constituents.


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Updated from 1:03 p.m. EDT
is dipping its toes in the retail waters as it seeks to overcome sluggish sales and an evolving PC market.
In a deal announced Thursday, Dell will team up with the
, the world's largest retailer, to sell certain models of its desktop PCs.
According to Wal-Mart's announcement, Dell will sell two different desktops, both priced below $700, at more than 3,500 Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores in the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico beginning June 10.
The move represents Dell's most significant step yet to evolve beyond its famous direct model, which bypasses retail outlets.
"Our customers have been asking us for additional ways to purchase our products and we plan on delivering that," said Dell spokesman Bob Kaufman. He described the Wal-Mart deal as the "first step" in the company's evolving global retail plan.
Shares of Dell finished Thursday's regular session down 1.4%, or 37 cents, at $25.89.
The move comes as Round Rock, Texas-based Dell looks for ways to right its ship. The company has seen its sales stall for the past several quarters and has lost the No.1 spot in the worldwide PC market to
In January, founder Michael Dell resumed the chief executive role and
recruited a slew of marquee executives from other companies.
One of the company's biggest problems, analysts say, has been its strategy of shunning retail outlets and selling PCs exclusively through online and phone orders.
The direct model once allowed Dell to turn the industry on its head and crush the competition. But with growth in the PC business increasingly coming from overseas markets and notebook sales, both of which are better suited to a hands-on retail store experience, Dell has found itself at a disadvantage.
Dell has recently experimented with quasi-retail efforts, such as setting up kiosks in shopping malls that showcase its products, as well as
opening a couple of 3,000 square-foot Dell retail stores in Dallas and New York. None of these actually stock inventory, however, meaning customers can order a product for delivery but can't drive home with a new PC.
Dell has also partnered with
in recent years, selling some of its products through the big-box retailer.
"Dell is a proven electronics brand and adds a new complement to our other high quality desktop selections, and we're very excited to now bring our customers new access to a product they want, with the ability to purchase a Dell right away," said Gary Severson, Wal-Mart's senior vice president of U.S. Entertainment and Electronics.
It remains to be seen how effective the latest Wal-Mart partnership will prove. For one thing, Thursday's announcement only contemplates desktop sales, whereas notebook PCs are the fastest-growing part of the business and the type of product that would really benefit from going retail.
Also, the deal is limited to stores in the mature North American market. It's in emerging economies, such as China and Brazil that Dell really needs to go retail.
Of course, Wal-Mart has stores in those regions as well. And if the North American experiment manages to mitigate Dell's aversion to retail, it could pave the way to something really significant.

domain: news


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Chrissy Teigen Has Some Choice Words for Her Unruly Skin
Just because she’s a supermodel doesn’t mean Chrissy Teigen’s skin is always flawless.
Yesterday, the 33-year-old mom posted a series of videos on her Instagram Story that will make every woman say “same.”
You see, Teigen is currently working on a secret project in Morocco. (Jealous.) So, she filmed a video before going into hair and makeup, documenting the small chunk of skin that “wanted to leave [her] face” when she woke up.
“What is this? This guy has other plans. He says, ‘Hi Chrissy, I’m a piece of skin, and I just wanted to leave your face,’” she says in the video (screenshot above), referring to a small red mark next to her eyebrow.
Teigen posted an additional video to confirm that she won’t let her irritated skin get in the way. The clip features the model getting her hair and makeup done, saying, “I see you, little guy, trying to come through.”
This isn’t the first time Teigen has documented her skin care woes on social media. Not only is she a sheet mask queen, but she also regularly vents about how “angry” her skin gets when it’s that time of the month.
We feel you, Chrissy.


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New Delhi: Maruti Suzuki has sold more than 1.2 lakh units of its Dzire compact sedan in the first eight months (April-November) of FY20, claims the automaker in a release. The sedan claims to have crossed 2 million units sales mark recently.
Maruti Suzuki further claims that the Dzire compact sedan dominates its segment with more than 60 per cent market share. This segment has the other models like Honda Amaze, Hyundai Xcent, Ford Aspire and Volkswagen Ameo as well. Hyundai's upcoming Aura sedan will enter the same segment upon launch.
Maruti Suzuki has introduced the third-generation model of the Dzire compact sedan in May 2017, which brings a host of changes inside out over the previous generation model. The sedan is popular among the fleet operators besides private buyers.
Commenting on the sales mark for the car, Shashank Srivastava, Executive Director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Limited, said, “Over years, Dzire has created a niche for itself amongst compact sedans. Gaining widespread acceptance, Dzire was conceptualised keeping in mind the customer demands. Currently, more than 70 per cent Dzire customers are predetermined buyers who wish to upgrade to the sedan life."
He also added, "Further, nearly half of new Dzire customers have it as their first car. We are extremely grateful to our customers for their tremendous trust in brand Dzire. This trust has helped Dzire to become the country’s highest-selling car in this fiscal year.”
The police confirmed that the car was not cut open by the rescue team and that it was the impact of the crash that caused the split in the vehicle. They added that since the fuel tank is just under the seat and the fuel lines run below, no rescue worker would dare to cut open the floor to save the passengers.
While Yezdi is expected to add the much-needed volumes to Classic Legends' domestic business, the revival of BSA bikes offers a tremendous potential of scaling up the business in developed and mature motorcycle markets.


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Office-worker productivity is likely to take a hit once Windows 10 lands, after Microsoft decided to include Candy Crush Saga alongside the preinstalled classics Minesweeper, Solitaire and Hearts.
The freemium match-three game, which propelled British developer King Digital to record heights with users addicted enough to pay to keep playing, will be bundled with Windows 10.
King’s other games, including Pet Rescue Saga and Papa Pear Saga, will also be ported to Windows 10, allowing cross-play with users on iPhone and Android devices.
The classic Microsoft Minesweeper was removed from Windows 8, but makes a return in Windows 10. Whether Candy Crush can cut it with such classics of time-wasting and procrastination remains to be seen.
For King it is welcome news. Despite announcing $569.5m in first quarter revenue, above expectations of $553.8m, shares in King Digital slid 12% in after-hours trading on forecasts of a decline in gross bookings – money spent by players ignoring costs such as app store fees – for the second quarter.
Being bundled with Windows 10 can only help King’s shares – but at what cost to world productivity?


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Why your next performance saloon car will be a hybrid
There’s no escaping it, electric powertrains will definitely be a part of our automotive future, starting with next-gen supersaloons
A part from LaFerrari, P1s and 918s, the idea of any degree of electrified powertrain is one to fill an evo reader’s heart with dread. It’s a shortcut to anaesthetising the cars we love. The internal combustion engine – especially a meticulously engineered petrol example – is too much an integral part of a performance car’s soul to be supplemented by a boot full of Duracells and AC motors.
But the industry now thinks otherwise. But whereas just five years ago electrification was the means mainly to emissions gains, today the message has changed and electrification and performance are being discussed as acceptable garage buddies. And it’s the original performance Q-car – the supersaloon – that’s the likely first candidate to get a shock to its system.
‘When Frank van Meel [CEO of BMW’s M division] first told me that the new M5 was going to be four-wheel drive I thought, ‘this isn’t going to work, not in an M5’. Then I drove the first prototype and knew it was the only option. Is it still an M5 with four-wheel drive? Absolutely. So when you look to the next generation of M-cars, and the technology we have to consider, yes I think they could have some form of electric powertrain.’
Robertson’s comments echo those of a number of other European manufacturers, such as Audi, AMG and Porsche, which have started, or are already working on, electric powertrains to deliver a performance advantage rather than purely an emissions benefit. That such a move would help all the aforementioned to meet ever-tightening emissions targets is a welcome by-product of course, but not as welcome as the instant performance boost such hybrid powertrains can deliver, especially as cars continue to pile on the kilos despite advances in lightweight construction technologies.
The engineers need to tread carefully, though: the continued success of M is vital to BMW. In the UK and US both M and M Sport models account for large slices of the sales pie: the latter takes over 50 per cent of UK sales. So although electrification is under serious consideration, as long as M remains such an integral cog in the BMW machine, the company won’t risk alienating existing loyal customers in order to attract new ones. Any future M division product with hybrid power still needs to be an M-car, stresses Robertson.
It’s a similar story at Audi. Its forthcoming RS7 will be offered with both a conventional internal combustion engine – think twin-turbos, eight cylinders and north of 600bhp – and a 700bhp hybrid system, similar to that used by Porsche in its Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid. Porsche, of course, is also working towards a fully electric performance saloon in the shape of Mission E. First unveiled as an electric concept, the Mission E will become a production reality in under two years, offering a range of performance options from 400bhp to over 650bhp via a pair of electric motors and a two-speed all-wheel drive transmission. And all starting from under £70,000. It’s one of the few cars we suspect keeps Elon Musk awake at night. If he actually sleeps, that is.
Not wishing to be left out of the new- wave arms race, Mercedes is readying a pair of super sports saloons that will both feature an electric powertrain variant. The headliner is the four-door AMG GT, scheduled for a September 2018 launch following its debut at the Geneva motor show. Set to be available with a range of engines including AMG’s current twin- turbocharged 4-litre hot-vee V8s, it will also feature an 800bhp petrol-hybrid powertrain badged under the company’s EQ Power+ brand.
Positioned as a stand-alone model to rival Porsche’s Panamera, this four-door GT will sit above the E63/S in Mercedes’ supersaloon hierarchy. Sitting below the AMG-powered E-models will be the new CLS53, the first model to receive Mercedes’ new petrol-hybrid engine. The combustion engine is a twin-turbo 429bhp 3-litre straight-six and features both a conventional exhaust gas- driven turbo and an electric auxiliary compressor. Added to this is an EQ Boost starter-alternator providing an additional short-term 21bhp electric boost, along with a further 184lb ft of torque, and this also feeds the 48V electric system. The results see the 1980kg CLS53 hit 62mph in 4.5 seconds and top 168mph. AMG has also confirmed there will be no CLS63.
Beyond this, AMG’s CEO Tobia Moers told evo at the CLS53’s global reveal that the future of the performance car and the supersaloon in particular needs to adopt an element of electrification. “By 2020 electrification will be key to performance cars - not just for the performance we are expected to deliver but to meet emissions and efficiency targets it . These will dictate that we have to some form of electric powertrain for our cars” explained Moers.
“EV will provide us with the performance we need an AMG to deliver” continued the AMG boss. “There is room between the 60kw motor we have in the (CLS)53 and the 800kw motor that we have in Project One. This car is providing us with so much important detailed information.
“The V8 is still the heart of an AMG, but it will need some level of electrification for us to be able to continue with it. But there’s some time between now and 2020 when I think we have to introduce such technology.”
A big-lunged, heavy-hitting petrol engine has been the key component of any supersaloon since BMW installed the straight-six from its M1 supercar into the shark-nosed E28. And as the sector has evolved and new rivals entered the field, so the perceived necessity by manufacturers to launch more and more powerful evolutions has become an all-consuming addiction.
More power – and in the world of turbocharged engines more torque – has required stronger (heavier) suspension, and larger (heavier) brakes and wheels, in order to fit the bigger tyres (you get where this is going) needed to provide the required levels of grip. And when you start adding 500lb ft+ of torque it seems (heavy) four-wheel drive transmissions are also a must have today. Combine this with the addition of electrified powertrains and the weight problem increases and according to AMG it’s not just the battery, but the motors too. Another reason why Project One will help the Affalterbach firm to accelerate its development time when it comes to the next generation of supersaloons.
With all this in mind, it’s little wonder manufacturers are turning to hybrid technology to find their next performance advantage. But we can’t help thinking that a more intelligent, broader thinking approach to lightweight engineering would not only deliver some of the efficiency gains required, but improve the thrill factor, too.


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In a circular, the government announced that the change would be in effect from January 1 of this year.
"Government are pleased to enhance the rates of Dearness Allowance payable to the State Government Employees in the 2018 Revised Pay Scales from the existing 31% to 35% of Basic Pay with effect from 1st January 2023," the release from the state government said.
In addition, the new Siddaramaiah-led government also announced that the rate change would be applicable to pensioners too.
"Government are also pleased to enhance the rates of Dearness Allowance from the existing 31% to 35% of the Basic Pension/Family Pension with effect from 1ª January 2023 to the State Government Pensioners/Family Pensioners as well as Pensioners/Family Pensioners of the Aided Educational Institutions whose Pension/ Family Pension is paid out of the Consolidated Fund of the State," the release adds.
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Goods and services tax (GST) tax notices to online gaming companies are in accordance with legal provisions, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) chairman Sanjay Kumar Agarwal said on Thursday, ruling out any immediate review.Abu Dhabi’s IHC Set to Exit Two Adani Cos, Signs Definitive Pact
Abu Dhabi-based International Holding Company PJSC (IHC) said on Thursday it is selling its stake in Adani Green Energy and Adani Energy Solutions, less than 18 months after the strategic investment company invested ₹15,400 crore in three Adani group companies.Festive Fever may Light Up Ecomm Sales by 16%
Online sellers, major brands and ecommerce platforms are gearing up for robust sales through the festive season, as the online shopping ecosystem shakes off a relatively muted first half of the year, industry executives said.
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Would you like a guilt trip with your caffeine fix?
In recent years, there has been a rapid rise in socially conscious, environmentally friendly blends in cafes around the nation. But is it meaningful or just marketing spin?
As it turns out, a simple cuppa has never been more complicated.
“There’s an increasing awareness among consumers about the economics and environmental impacts of coffee production in developing countries,” Curtin University Professor George Curry said.
“Accreditation bodies have seen a rapid uptake in Australia and New Zealand. They generally have an environmental aspect and try to improve the return to farmers or tackle issues of child labour and that sort of thing.”
While many coffee farmers are keen to seek accreditation if they can afford the fees, the certified blends haven’t been as successful as some cafe owners would like.
“We’ve tried [accredited coffee] but the quality just isn’t as good as even an average blend, and certainly not as good as our premium blend,” Caffissimo managing director Mike Barr said.
“When Fair Trade first came out, we embraced it, but the demand went and people maybe realised it wasn’t as good and maybe their social consciences waned a bit.”
West Perth Caffissimo franchisees Alida and Michael Cubbage are regular winners of best coffee awards and agreed the socially responsible beans just “don’t taste very good”.
“The people who still ask for these beans, for me to roast it, understand there’s a compromise in how nice it is and they’ve learned to live with it. The quality is lacking,” coffee roaster Mr Cubbage said.
Mrs Cubbage said they’re comfortable with their decision to not offer accredited coffee as she said their business is socially responsible in other ways.
“We more than make up for it. We give a lot to the community, we do community projects and we continue to give a lot – I’m OK with that,” she said.
“The consumer demands good tasting, full-bodied coffee and we need to supply that.”
According to Professor Shashi Sharma, of Murdoch University, up to 140 litres of fresh water was needed to produce the average cup of coffee.
He said access to fresh water was “a critical issue for the food and beverage industry”, as well as the communities who relied on coffee production for their livelihoods.
“It does not make much sense when water-poor developing countries engage in production of water-intensive crops such as coffee for export purposes,” Professor Sharma said.
“In a way they export their extremely scarce resource – water.
“Inefficient agricultural practices and technologies are causing adverse impacts on the environment and reducing productive capacity of food production systems.”
If customers don’t mind sacrificing taste, choosing accredited coffee can make a difference to the farming communities and the environment.
“The premium farmers get by selling certified coffee that can make a big difference to their livelihoods, but there are a lot of other positive things that are delivered along with it,” Professor Curry said.
“For example, agriculture extension and research, training to improve yields and efficiency. Quality tends to go up too because farmers are paying more attention to the process.”
But experts pointed out there were other ways consumers could reduce the environmental impact of their daily caffeine hit.
“Coffee consumption is estimated to be around 12,000 cups per second. About 20 per cent of these drinks are consumed in single-use disposable cups,” Professor Sharma said.
“Use of reusable cups would be extremely environment friendly. We need to be wise, optimise coffee drinking, use reusable cups and minimise waste.”
Unfortunately, reusable cups don’t seem to be catching on with consumers either.
“They’re great ideas in theory, but in the practical environment of the cafe, they tend not to work,” Mr Barr said.
“That’s what happens, people come up with very good ideas, but the trouble is keeping the momentum going.”


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Walmart pulled a TV ad Thursday morning after complaints that the commercial insensitively recalled the death of Eric Garner, a black man who died after a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold.
The ad, for a Walmart-branded cell phone plan powered by T-Mobile, shows a black man giving his daughter a cellphone. To thank him, the daughter affectionately wraps her arm around his neck and starts taking selfies while the dad mutters, "I can't breathe."
The ad seems pretty innocuous, but "I can't breathe" were Garner's last words after NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo put him in a chokehold while arresting him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes in July. On Wednesday, a grand jury on Staten Island declined to indict Pantaleo, setting off a wave of protests across the country. "I can't breathe" has become a rallying cry for many of those demonstrations.
A viewer tweeted at Walmart after seeing the ad during NBC's "The Voice" Wednesday night.
Deisha Barnett, a Walmart spokeswoman, told The Huffington Post that the ad began airing over the summer, but she was unsure whether that was before or after Garner's death. The ad was in circulation until Thursday morning, when the company removed it in response to tweets complaining about the ad.


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#Molly Maid exhibiting at National Franchise Exhibition
The Molly Maid franchise has announced that it will once again have a presence at the National Franchise Exhibition. The cleaning company has enjoyed huge success over the years and this year, has celebrated its 25th anniversary.
Molly Maid is a franchise which continues to grow and is known as one of the most successful of the cleaning franchises currently available. At the National Franchise Exhibition, Molly Maid will be showing visitors how they can benefit from running a domestic cleaning business. There will be question and answer sessions and also competitions for visitors to take part in.
For anyone interested in starting up a franchise, this exhibition is great for finding out what franchising involves. Potential franchisees can get advice and information about what it takes to be a franchisee and what the process involves.
As well as this, the Franchisee of the Year Award Winner, Molly Maid franchise owner Sandra Redmond will be at the exhibition to tell visitors exactly how she achieved such great success and will offer advice and information on becoming involved in the Molly Maid franchise.
For anyone who is interested in starting their own franchise and in becoming involved in Molly Maid specifically, this exhibition will give information on the training and support offered when it comes to franchising.


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The Department of Labor’s Producer Price Index, which measures wholesale prices for goods producers, showed that inflation rose 0.6% in October, and matched the record annual increase of 8.6% set in September.
The Associated Press reported that producer inflation increased by 0.6% from September to October, influenced mostly by high gas prices. Excluding those price increases and food prices, inflation rose 0.4% from month to month and 6.8% from last year.
CNBC reports that the year-over-year increase is the highest figure recorded by the Labor Department in 11 years, whose records go back as far as November 2010. The outlet reported that the increase was in line with Dow Jones estimates and indicate the continual pressures being put on the economy. CNBC reports:
Elevated demand for goods over services again led the inflation story, with the price rises for final demand goods accounting for more than 60% of the index’s increase. Goods prices rose 1.2% compared with just a 0.2% increase for services, while construction prices jumped 6.6%.
One-third of the increase in goods prices came from soaring gasoline, with prices rising 6.7%. Beef and veal prices represented the other side of the ledger, posting a collective decline of 10.3%. The index for light motor trucks, a key driver of inflation this year, moved lower as did residential electric power.
On the services side, more than 80% of the increase in final demand services price increases came from autos and auto parts, which increased 8.9%.
The Labor Department is expected to release the Consumer Price Index later this week. CNBC reports that the figures are expected to show a 0.6% month-over-month gain in prices for all goods and a 5.9% year-over-year increase. The Federal Reserve has attributed the rise to “supply chain shocks tied to the coronavirus pandemic,” and officials believe the increases will dissipate gradually and inflation will return to the bank’s target of 2% annually.
The figures come as American consumers continue to be hammered by inflation. The Daily Wire reports that gas prices have risen by $1.25 since October 2020. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview Sunday that she hopes prices at the pump won’t climb above $4. Energy prices for home heating are expected to spike as cold weather sets in. In the same interview, Granholm told Bash that she expects Americans to pay more to heat their homes this year. “It will be more expensive this year than last year,” Granholm said.
Moreover, with Thanksgiving and Christmas fast approaching, consumers are looking at the most expensive meal ever. As reported by The Daily Wire, supply shortages and increased production costs have driven up prices of everything from aluminum foil to turkey to dinner rolls and cranberry sauce. The situation is made worse by the fact that Americans’ real wages are continuing to decline as wage growth continues to be outpaced by inflation.
The Biden administration responded to inflation concerns Saturday. During remarks on the economy, President Biden blamed inflation on COVID-19 related issues and argued that his “Build Back Better” agenda would lower inflationary pressure.
The Daily Wire is one of America’s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.
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VARV supports banning the sale of real animal fur in the City of Richmond.
Fur farms breed and confine animals in tiny, filthy cages where they suffer intense stress and unimaginable cruelty. They are beaten, bludgeoned, electrocuted, and skinned alive. Trapping animals in the wild is no better — animals are trapped in cruel leg hold traps where they can suffer for days in excruciating pain — starving, until a trapper returns to shoot or bludgeon them to death. Coyotes are known to attempt to chew off their own legs trying to break free. Many other animals are unintentionally caught and killed in these traps, including household pets. California has enacted a ban on the sale of fur. Several countries such as Norway, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, and the U.K. have taken steps to close fur farms. With public awareness and innovative alternatives on the rise, many popular designers have stopped using all animal fur. There are ethical alternatives to fur which are not only stylish and warm but environmentally friendly. Over the past couple of years, the two most notable fur retailers in Richmond have either moved out of the city or have gone out of business, which makes now an ideal time to ban the sale of the cruel product. This would set a precedent that Richmond is an animal friendly city to anyone who would like to sell fur here in the future, without financially disrupting businesses currently in operation.
Banning the sale of fur


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—Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.
Researchers suspect that carbs promote the production of serotonin, a feel-good brain chemical. In a study from the Archives of Internal Medicine, people who followed a very low carbohydrate diet for a year—which allowed only 20 to 40 grams of carbs daily, about the amount in just 1/2 cup of rice plus one piece of bread—experienced more depression, anxiety and anger than those assigned to a low-fat, high-carb diet that focused on low-fat dairy, whole grains, fruit and beans.
Researchers at Brigham Young University in Utah followed the eating habits of middle-aged women for nearly two years and found that those who increased their fiber intake generally lost weight. Women who decreased the fiber in their diets gained. Many carbohydrates contain dietary fiber, which is actually an indigestible complex carbohydrate.
Research suggests that increasing your soluble-fiber intake (a type of fiber found in carb-rich foods like oatmeal and beans) by 5 to 10 grams each day could result in a 5 percent drop in “bad” LDL cholesterol. Similarly, people who eat more whole grains (think brown rice, bulgur, quinoa) also tend to have lower LDL cholesterol and higher “good” HDL cholesterol.
Swapping refined grains for whole grains may help reduce total body fat and belly fat, according to research in the Journal of Nutrition. In the study, adults who ate about 3 servings of whole grains a day had about 2.4 percent less body fat and 3.6 percent less abdominal fat than those who ate less than a quarter of a serving.
After overweight women followed a “low-carbohydrate” diet for a week (they were told to completely eliminate carbohydrates from their diets) they did worse on tests of working memory (i.e., why did I walk into this room?) and visuospatial memory (remembering locations on a map) than their counterparts who followed a “low-calorie” diet, based on American Dietetic Association guidelines, in a study from Tufts University.
Eating a breakfast made with “slow-release” carbohydrates, such as oatmeal or bran cereal, 3 hours before exercise may help burn more fat, according to a study from the Journal of Nutrition. Here’s why: in the study, eating “slow-release” carbohydrates didn’t spike blood sugar as high as eating refined carbohydrates, such as white toast. In turn, insulin levels didn’t spike as high and because insulin plays a role in signaling your body to store fat, having lower levels may help you burn fat.
Next Slideshow: 6 Carbs to Add to Your Diet to Help You Stay Slim »


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Safeway Stores announced Thursday that Be-Lo Foods will be moving into the supermarket Safeway will be abandoning Saturday.
However, Robert T. Wich, the head of Be-Lo, said the deal has not been completed. He acknowledged he has been trying to work out a deal for the store, but "nothing has been signed," he said.
Be-Lo operates a supermarket on Route 30, about three miles from the Safeway store, which is in the center of town on Route 33. Wich said that moving to Safeway's store, which is larger and newer than the Be-Lo, "would give us an opportunity to substantially increase our store size and give us a bigger share of the market."
The 30,090-square-foot Safeway store opened in 1977.
Ted Trimmer, Safeway's manager, said that most of the store's 25 employees had been placed in jobs in the Richmond area, where the nationwide chain operates about 25 supermarkets.
Trimmer, however, added that a few employees "feel it's too far to drive" and will not be staying with Safeway.
Anne Cockrell, the company spokeswoman who announced the sale to Be-Lo, said the West Point location was shut down because "it was a store that was losing money."
A Food Lion store opened here just over a year ago. "When competition came into town, there was not enough room in West Point for that many grocers," Cockrell said.
The West Point Safeway closing follows the shutting down of five stores in Virginia in 1988, and the closing of stores in Gloucester County and Newport News in 1987. Also scheduled to be closed Saturday are stores in Fredericksburg, King George County and Manassas.
The California-based company, which operates 1,150 stores in the United States and Canada, began a retrenchment two years ago to reduce a debt of more than $4 billion that was taken on in part to fend off a takeover attempt.
Be-Lo operates 38 stores in Virginia and five stores in North Carolina.
At the West Point store Thursday, preparations to shut the site were under way. Signs in the window announced the closing.A steady flow of customers passed through hunting for bargains.
Trimmer said that the merchandise not sold will be taken to other Safeway stores.


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Hyundai Motor’s Czech Republic factory to reopen as scheduled next week
The largest automaker by sales in Korea said Friday that its auto assembly plant in the Czech Republic will reopen on April 14 as originally scheduled. The company said the operation rate for the factory will be determined based on the European market’s demand.
The Czech Republic factory is one of the four manufacturing bases in Europe for Hyundai Motor Group. Kia Motors’ factory in Slovakia, where the coronavirus outbreak is not as widespread compared to other countries, resumed operations last Monday.
According to Hyundai Motor, the Czech Republic factory will manufacture less than two-thirds of its original capacity to meet the lowered demand for new cars in the global market. The company is planning to cut the number of shifts and run the factory for shorter hours to make fewer cars for the European market, which saw the demand for new cars dip around 80 to 90 percent last month compared to a year earlier.
Hyundai Motor Group is extending holidays for its other manufacturing bases in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The automaker group’s factories in Russia and Turkey have been closed since late last month, and when these two factories will reopen remains unclear.
The Turkey factory is scheduled to remain closed until the end of this week and resume operations Monday, but the company could extend the holidays in the face of the pandemic. Hyundai Motor has not a set date for its factory in Russia to resume operations.
The company’s factory in Brazil is closed until April 26, while its plant in Alabama will stay shut until May 3. Kia Motors’ plant in Mexico will close until April 24, and its factory in Georgia is shut until April 26.
BY KO JUN-TAE [firstname.lastname@example.org]


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Roughly 18 months after developers began revamping Colony Square, Midtown residents will finally see some of the iconic area’s new look.
A new 10,000 square-foot urban park, dubbed The Grove, opened Friday along the 14th Street corridor to the public, developer North American Properties announced in a press release. The park includes 40-foot trees, Spanish steps, tables and chairs and will be the gateway for restaurants Main & Main and the iPic dine-in theater.
North American Properties broke ground on the transformation in October 2017 with the intentions of repositioning the iconic space as an office and retail gathering hub. In 2016, the firm conducted about 200 interviews to see what the community wanted.
The revamp comes as Midtown has seen increased development in the past few years with the addition of hotels and a 70,000 square-foot Whole Foods, the largest in the Southeast. Renderings on the updated look were not available.
The Grove has an open container policy and includes community events such as Groovin’ in The Grove, a new live music series taking place every Friday this summer, according to the release.
“We are no longer in the business of building buildings; instead, we are focused on the space between the buildings – the street-level environments that naturally foster human connection and community,” managing partner of NAP Mark Toro said in the release.
Just ahead of the park’s debut Chick-fil-A reopened Thursday in its new location above The Grove. Building 400’s lobby is also now open. Starbucks will open its new location inside Building 100 later in May.
Other establishments reopening include C-Cycle, a secured bike house for Colony Square Tenants and The Establishment will reopen with an expanded patio and new outdoor bar overlooking The Grove. The outdoor bar, called Tight Squeeze at Establishment, is slated to open in the summer.
An all-women artist team, which include Lauren Pallotta Stumberg, Molly Rose Freeman, Lela Brunet and Laura Vela, will be at Friday’s urban park opening to paint a 2,915 square-foot mural on the north wall of 5Church facing Peachtree Street, according to the release.
The mural, called Moon Goddess, is a tribute to Aurora, the Roman Goddess of the Dawn. Aurora symbolizes the power to bridge two worlds: one of darkness and one of light. The artists will paint live 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.


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Unity has entered into an agreement to acquire Parsec, the company behind the game-centric remote desktop app of the same name, for a grand total of $320 million in cash.
The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 of this year, and Unity notes in a press release that the deal helps move both companies closer to their “expanded cloud vision” where creators aren’t restricted by location or the hardware they have on hand.
Elsewhere in the announcement, Unity notes that the deal, and Parsec’s particular audience, offers it an opportunity to “drive shared momentum with [Parsec’s] customers through targeted cross-selling and bundled solutions”.
As lightly mentioned above, Parsec is a provider of remote desktop and streaming technology that keeps a particular focus on video games and creators working in spaces like game development. Its technology allows game developers and other creators to remotely connect to their office hardware with low latency and ultra-high-definition desktop streaming, and help overcome that particular complication of remote working.
“With the workplace becoming more flexible, teams expanding and collaborating across multiple locations and creators leveraging a myriad of new devices, it’s clear that the creative process will evolve from on-premise devices to flexible and cost-effective cloud architectures,” reads a statement from Marc Whitten, SVP and GM of create solutions at Unity.
“Parsec has addressed the unique requirements to support this type of high-performance processing no matter where creators are, showcasing technology that is both highly innovative and prescient. We believe Parsec is a rocketship and we’re very excited to support their future growth.”
This latest acquisition follows closely on the heels of Unity’s July acquisition of SpeedTree.


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Appian provides a low-code development platform that accelerates the creation of high-impact enterprise software applications – from idea to app in 8 weeks with a guarantee.
UK Government offers SMEs cyber security support
Research commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), revealed that the number of cyber attacks hitting businesses has increased over the last year.
The Information Security Breaches Survey found some attacks caused more than £1 million of damage.
It showed 87% of small firms experienced a security breach last year, up 10% and 93% of large organisations had also been targeted.
To help guard against these attacks, which can cost a small business 6% of its turnover, government is offering further funding and guidance.
The Technology Strategy Board has extended a scheme to allow small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to bid for up to £5,000 to improve their cyber security.
BIS is also publishing a guide to help small businesses improve their cyber security and make it part of their business risk management process.
Universities and Science Minister David Willetts said: “Keeping electronic information safe and secure is vital to a business’s bottom line.” “Companies are more at risk than ever of having their cyber security compromised, in particular small businesses, and no sector is immune from attack. But there are simple steps that can be taken to prevent the majority of incidents.”
“The package of support we are announcing today will help small businesses protect valuable assets like financial information, websites, equipment, software and intellectual property, driving growth and keeping UK businesses ahead in the global race.”
For more information click here


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In the latest chain of events, Delhi High Court delivered its verdict on the Future Retail’s plea to sell assets to Reliance Industries. In a major setback to Future Retail, the Delhi High Court on Monday, 21 December, refused to impose restrains on Amazon from addressing regulatory bodies against its asset sale with Reliance Industries.
The resolution dated August 29 was declared to be neither void nor contrary to law. The plea by Future Retail was announced to be maintainable. Also, the representation of Amazon to SEBI and CCI was declared to not be illegal. No interim injunction can thus can be granted by the High Court with regards to this matter.
The order was made public by Justice Mukta Gupta in the suit by Kishore Biyani-owned Future Retail Limited after Emergency Arbitrator of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) curbed Future Group from taking any decision in furtherance of the transaction with Reliance Retail, reported the Bar and Bench.
Earlier this year, Reliance had declared the acquisition of retail businesses of Future Group for Rs 24,713 crore, and at the time, it was known that Amazon’s shareholding in Future Coupons would continue. Amazon was not acceptant of the clause that the 2019 deal it signed with Future prohibited the Indian company from selling its retail assets to certain companies. Amazon had also secured an interim award against the transaction between RIL and the Future group after Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) put the transaction on hold.
The Future Group had sought a plea to hold back Amazon from dabbling in the Reliance Retail-Future deal.


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This week is certainly a joyous time for Assassin’s Creed fans. Not only was new downloadable content for Revelations released yesterday (Click here for our review), but now, Ubisoft has announced that details of the upcoming Assassin’s Creed III will be released in a matter of days. In fact, some of those details may have just been leaked.
On the series’s official Facebook, page, an admin posted that a “major announcement from Assassin’s Creed is only days away,” along with a note that fans should stay tuned to the series’s official website tomorrow. While Ubisoft provided no other details, they did update the page’s cover art to a previously unseen image, which can be seen above. It would seem that snow will play some sort of role in the next game’s setting.
Now for the next big piece of news. An anonymous Best Buy employee has allegedly sent Kotaku an image of concept art from the upcoming game, which was supposedly taken from a piece of promotional material sent to the company (Which confirmed a March 5 reveal of the game and pre-order bonuses, go figure). The image can be seen above, and seems to confirm that the game will be set during the American Revolution, with the main character possibly being of Native American descent. Judging by his weaponry, the game will introduce tomahawks as a usable weapon type.
Regardless of where the game is set or who it stars, it is sure to carry on the series’s addicting gameplay– while hopefully changing things up this time around. Assassin’s Creed III will be released on October 30 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.


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By LUIS FIELDMAN
Wednesday, June 20, 2018
AMHERST — Organizers of the Amherst Food Co-op will make important announcements on the direction of the startup project at their third annual member-owner meeting this Sunday.
The meeting take place at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment from 3 to 5 p.m. at 845 West St. The meeting is open to the public and organizers will introduce a newly elected director to its 430 members, as well as provide updates and announce future plans.
Longtime Amherst resident and licensed nutritionist Arleen Thomson was recently elected to the board of directors. Co-op co-president Alex Kent said he encourages people to run for a seat on the board as there will be two vacancies after the meeting.
Additionally, keynote speaker, Bonnie Hudspeth of the Neighboring Food Co-op Association, will deliver an “energizing” presentation on volunteer participation and explain why it can take a long time to open a co-op.
“We will be making an important statement on redirectioning and revisioning,” Kent said. “We are in the process, I can’t share the details, but our goal remains to be a full-service co-op grocery store, owned by community members and owners of the store. That remains clear.”
Kent also said they want to hear about people’s wants and needs. In the future, they are planning on hosting listening sessions with downtown businesses, organizations and low-income sites to learn what people would want from a new community space.
At the meeting on Sunday, participants will be given the opportunity to form listening circles and talk about how food is important to them and how it connects them to the community.
“The focus is more on the co-op’s place in the community rather than its place as a grocery store,” Kent said.
There is already a lot of competition established in the Hadley and Amherst area, he said, with many of these stores, such as Atkins Farms, Whole Foods, and Maple Farm Foods, offering the sorts of foods that co-ops have historically offered.
“That’s a competitive market,” he said.
Even in the midst of abundant healthy food available at traditional grocery stores, due to high pricing, there are still members of the community that do not have full access to those healthy options. Part of the mission, Kent said, is to expand access to healthy food for the whole community.
“With retail grocery stores there can be anywhere between 1 to 3 percent profit, that’s razor thin profit margins,” Kent said. “We realize that there is a really important aspect of food and social justice that the co-op is focusing on.”
A pay-it-forward program where member-owners would agree on a small surcharge on their groceries would help subsidize shopping for those with financial need, according to Kent.
This means a surcharge of 3 percent on $50 worth of groceries would be $1.50 to help subsidize the price for someone else. Both accepting the surcharge and accepting the subsidy would be on a volunteer basis. An online survey conducted by the co-op showed 87 of member-owners were in favor of the program.
“We are planning to give a preview of what we are thinking of,” Kent said of Sunday’s meeting.
Visit https://commonsharefood.coop/ for more information.
Luis Fieldman can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org


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In recent years, states have been trying to find loop holes in that decision in efforts to gain funds from successful online retailers such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com
Earlier this year, Cnet reported that 16 states were enforcing or thinking about enforcing sales taxes for online retailers. The NY Court of Appeals decision on Thursday, November 4th, is a victory for online retailers that could possibly settle the debate over internet taxes.
In the past decade, states have tried to justify their tax collecting laws by claiming that online retailers such as Amazon and Overstock unreasonably deprive the states of funds and make it unfair for competing local retailers that must collect taxes.
Both online shoppers who pay sales taxes and those who don't will be anxiously awaiting the decisions to come that may decide once in for all what role taxes should play in online shopping.
What do you guys think about these laws? Let us know in the comments below.


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The multibillion-dollar intercourse toy industry has adopted its first world safety standards amid a increase in gross sales, however intercourse specialists warn the voluntary scheme just isn’t sufficient to guard shoppers.
Australian retailers comparable to Wild Secrets and Adulttoymegastore have reported booming sales for sex toys comparable to vibrators all through the pandemic, particularly throughout lockdowns. Globally, the industry was price $US33.64 billion ($44.86 billion) in gross sales in 2020, in keeping with Grand View Research, but there have been no safety standards till now.
In September, the International Organisation for Standardisation revealed its first design and safety requirements for sex toys after a two-year project.
The ISO challenge was kicked off by Swedish surgeon Martin Dahlberg who realised he was more and more performing operations to take away intercourse toys lodged within the rectum.
“At our hospital about 40 per cent of instances of retained international objects are because of intercourse toys,” Dr Dahlberg mentioned in an announcement. “I contacted the [Swedish] client safety company in early 2018 to seek out out if there was any regulation within the intercourse toys market, however there was not. Yet, a number of potential accidents may result from the flawed use of intercourse toys.”
NSW Health doesn’t have figures on accidents by trigger and there was no improve in the kind of accidents that might be related to intercourse toys.
To adjust to the brand new ISO standards, producers of intercourse toys should use “body-safe” materials within the occasion of contact with the genital and anal areas, use a design to minimise the chance of harm throughout affordable and predictable use, and supply enough data.
Vanessa Millie Rose, an Australian medical sexuality coach licensed by the American College of Sexologists International who has beforehand labored at main grownup retailers, mentioned the ISO standards had been “higher than nothing” – however being voluntary, they did little to guard the overall client.
“There are main intercourse toy retailers in Australia which might be knowingly promoting merchandise which might be unsafe, because of their design or supplies, and these are amongst their greatest sellers,” Ms Rose mentioned.


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Lucy Powell comments on reports that John Lewis could close more of its high street stores
Lucy Powell MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, commenting on reports that John Lewis could close more of its high street stores, said:
“This news is really worrying for John Lewis employees and is yet another blow for our struggling high streets.
“The pandemic has accelerated changes to the way we shop, but the Government continuing to disadvantage bricks and mortar shops over online companies is cranking up the pressure and leading to businesses collapsing that may otherwise have had a bright future as our country recovers.
“Unless the Government puts in place a proper long-term plan for our high streets, including real action to help level the playing field and to ease the weight of debt piling up on businesses, we will see more shops vanishing and our high streets hollowed out.”


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- Canned peaches: New Zealand launched an anti-dumping investigation. Recently, the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment issued an announcement stating that in response to an application submitted by a New Zealand canned peach manufacturer on August 31, 2022, the canned peaches originating in or imported from China with a total weight of no more than 5 kilograms were initiated. Anti-dumping investigation. The customs code of the products involved is 2008700900.
- South Korea’s auto exports reached US$5.4 billion, a year-on-year increase of 31%, setting a new record for the first time in four months. Both export volume and export value have achieved double-digit growth for five consecutive months. The total auto exports in the first 11 months reached 48.7 billion U.S. dollars, and the annual export volume this year is expected to exceed the 50 billion U.S. dollar mark for the first time.
- WTO: Ruling that U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs violate the rules. The expert group of the WTO dispute case “China v. U.S. Steel and Aluminum 232 Tariff Measures” recently released a report, ruling that the relevant U.S. measures violated WTO rules.
- Russia: Announced a 35% tariff on some imports from “unfriendly countries”. This policy is valid until December 31, 2023. The goods involved include personal care products such as shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste and shaving cream and detergents imported from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Poland. This tariff policy also applies to civilian weapons and ammunition imported from the above-mentioned “unfriendly countries”.
- Vietnam: Textile and garment exports face difficulties in the first half of 2023. According to a recent report by “Vietnam Economic News”, the latest textile and garment industry outlook report predicts that due to the deterioration of the macroeconomic situation and the pressure on consumer spending, coupled with the continued inflation of the major export market in the United States, Vietnam’s textile and garment industry is expected to export. scaled down in the first half of 2023. Since October 2022, the retail sales of clothing and footwear in Vietnam’s main export markets have experienced negative growth, indicating that the country’s textile and clothing enterprises will face new challenges.
- Counterpoint: It is predicted that the global smartphone market will grow by 2% year-on-year in 2023.
- Recently, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF), container imports will drop by 15% in the first quarter of 2023. Meanwhile, the monthly forecast for January 2023 is 8.8% lower than in 2022, to 1.97 million TEU. This decline is expected to accelerate to 20.9% in February, at 1.67 million TEU.
- Ctrip: From December 7th to 11th, domestic passenger traffic recovered to about 40% of the same period in 2019, and the overall search popularity has recovered to 80% before the epidemic. After the notification of the cancellation of the communication itinerary card was issued, from 00:00 to 13:00 on December 12, the search interest for products such as inter-provincial travel, transportation, and vacation during the Spring Festival travel season increased by 12 times compared with the same period last week, and the search volume for air tickets was basically the same as before the epidemic. . Up to now, the top five cities where the Spring Festival travel flights are most popular are: Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya, Shenzhen, and Chengdu.
- The three major operators, China Telecom, China Unicom, and China Mobile, have successively stated that they will, in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, delete the data related to the user’s itinerary synchronously after the “communication itinerary card” service is offline at 00:00 on December 13, so as to ensure the security of personal information in accordance with the law. .
- Bureau of Statistics: In 2022, the total output of summer grain, early rice and autumn grain in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) will reach 1,373.1 billion catties, an increase of 7.4 billion catties or 0.5% over the previous year, setting a new high. This is also the eighth consecutive year that the total grain output has remained above 1.3 trillion catties. Among them, the grain output was 1,266.5 billion catties（6332.5billion kg）, an increase of 1 billion catties over the previous year.
- China is rapidly entering the newbuild LNG tanker market as Korean shipyards are filled with orders and local and foreign shipowners are turning to other shipyards for purpose-built vessels. Three Chinese shipyards have won nearly 30 percent of orders for 163 new gas carriers this year, a record order.
- The first global digital trade fair opens. On December 11, the first four-day Global Digital Trade Expo opened in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, attracting more than 800 digital trade companies from home and abroad to participate.
- On December 10, PICO, a VR technology company under ByteDance, officially opened its first flagship store in the Klang Valley Center of Malaysia, which became another milestone for VR domestic products to go overseas. With the help of cost-effective, high-quality and branding, domestic VR products have recently become popular among overseas consumers. From 2021 to 2026, the compound annual growth rate of China’s AR/VR market will reach 42.2%.
- Air India is close to ordering as many as 500 jetliners from Airbus and Boeing worth tens of billions of dollars. The orders include 400 narrow-body planes and more than 100 wide-body planes, including dozens of Airbus A350s and Boeing 787s and 777s.
- Samsung Electronics Foundry Department: By 2026, the global semiconductor 3nm process wafer foundry market will increase by more than 20 times from this year’s US$1.2 billion.
- Fomalhaut Techno Solutions: According to the dismantling report of Samsung’s latest folding machine Galaxy Z Fold 4, the cost of its components is estimated at $670, which is less than 40% of the sales price and 46% of the hardware cost of the iPhone 14 Pro Max.
- Wal-Mart: On Black Friday, the sales of Wal-Mart’s international sellers climbed nearly 8 times, and the number of products sold and orders increased by more than 6 times; It has risen more than 5 times.
- eBay: Recently, eBay officially launched the Green Monday (Green Monday) promotion (the second Monday in December). Created in 2007, the event is one of eBay’s biggest sales days of the year and one of the most important online shopping days in the retail industry.
- Evergreen Marine announced its results, and its revenue fell 29.29% year-on-year. Recently, Evergreen Shipping announced its results. In November this year, it achieved operating income of NT$36.094 billion (approximately US$1.148 billion), a year-on-year decrease of 29.29% and a month-on-month decrease of 20.93%.
- Tata Group plans to open 100 Apple stores in India. On the 12th, according to the Indian Economic Times, Croma, an electronic product chain store owned by Infiniti Retail, a subsidiary of the Tata Group, will become an Apple authorized distributor and open 100 stores in shopping malls, commercial streets and other places to exclusively sell Apple products. Stores are between 500-600 square feet.
- Lululemon announced its results, with net revenue of $1.9 billion in the third quarter, an increase of 28% compared to the same period last year. Profit rose to $255.5 million. In the third quarter, 23 new stores were opened, and by the end of the third quarter, it had 623 stores worldwide.
- South Korea: South Korea’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety recently warned South Korean pharmaceutical companies of an impending disruption to the production and supply of domestic cold medicines. Since the import of raw materials for cold medicines such as antipyretics may soon encounter difficulties, it is believed that it is necessary to preemptively prevent the interruption of the production and supply of cold medicines. Companies are urged to secure raw materials (for cold medicine) and ensure there are no shortages.
- President of the European Commission von der Leyen: Although the EU has taken many measures on the natural gas issue, it may still face a natural gas gap of about 30 billion cubic meters next year.
- German Federal Statistical Office: In October, the production price of agricultural products rose by 37.9% compared with the same period last year, of which plant products rose by 26%, and the production price of animal products increased by 46.8%. In October, grain prices in Germany rose by 33.8% year-on-year, and prices of animal husbandry products rose sharply. Among them, the price of milk rose by 56.3% year-on-year, and the price of eggs rose by 35.7% year-on-year.
- British Financial Times: Scientists have made a breakthrough in the field of nuclear fusion, and the US Department of Energy plans to announce this major milestone on Tuesday local time. It is reported that scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States have made a breakthrough in the research of controllable nuclear fusion, realizing for the first time the net energy gain of the fusion reaction, that is, the energy produced is more than the energy injected.
- German Chancellor Scholz: The government plans to ease the manpower shortage and the crisis of the pension system by accepting a large number of immigrants.
- Germany: The economy grew by 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in the third quarter.
- US: The Fed is expected to raise interest rates again in mid-December.
- Greece: Lowered economic growth forecast for this year and next. The Greek Ministry of Finance recently submitted the final version of the 2023 budget draft to the parliament. It is expected that the Greek economy will grow by 5.6% this year and 1.8% in 2023.
- Indonesia raised the minimum wage by about 7.5% in 2023. Among them, the region with the highest minimum wage standard is the Jakarta Special Administrative Region, reaching 4.9 million rupiah (about 314 U.S. dollars), an increase of 5.6%; the lowest is Central Java Province, which is 1.96 million rupiah (about 126 U.S. dollars). The increase is 8.01%.


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Fewer than 400,000 units of Google's well-regarded Nexus 4 phone, made for it by LG, have been produced, according to analysis by owners of the phones on the XDA Developers forums.
The users discovered that the phones' IMEI numbers, which uniquely identify a phone, followed a simple rising sequence. At the same time, other data from the phones allowed them to calculate the date and country of manufacture.
The figure palls against the broader picture of smartphone production, where in the third quarter of 2012 a total of 170m were sold worldwide, with the figure expected to near 200m for the fourth quarter. According to figures from the research group Gartner, LG produced just under 14m phones in total in the third quarter; that suggests that the Nexus 4 has only been a tiny part of its production capacity. For comparison, Finland's Nokia shipped a total of 4m Windows Phone devices in the third quarter - a figure that was seen as failing to make any mark on the market.
According to the calculations of users at XDA-Developers, a site that is very popular with Android users and developers, roughly 70,000 devices were made in October, 90,000 in November, and more than 210,000 in December, making an estimated total of 370,000 units since it first went on sale from Google.
The use of serial numbers to estimate production has a long heritage: it was used by Allied mathematicians in the Second World War to calculate German tank production, and more recently by iPhone owners to calculate how many iPhones had been sold in the first nine months of 2008. (Both turned out to be remarkably accurate.)
Google has been offering the Nexus 4, which has specifications equivalent to top-flight phones such as Samsung's Galaxy S III, at prices that seem close to the wholesale cost. But that has frustrated a number of would-be buyers, who found the Google Play store through which it was being offered either sold out or unresponsive.
LG is expected to ramp up production this month as it begins pushing out the device to more carriers and retailers - but they will charge a higher price.
Google has repeatedly declined to say how many Nexus 4 units it has ordered from LG. It had not responded to a request for comment on the latest estimates by the time of publication.
The purpose of the Nexus brand is to show off Google's "pure" version of its Android mobile operating system. Previous versions have not been big sellers, but have sold respectably: figures revealed in the court case between Apple and Samsung in 2012 showed that the Galaxy Nexus, the 4's predecessor in 2011, had 512,000 shipments in the US from its launch. Samsung subsequently argued in court that the Galaxy Nexus sales were "so miniscule" that they did not constitute a threat to Apple's iPhone, and so should escape a sales ban. The first Nexus phone, the Nexus One, sold fewer than 150,000 devices in its first month.
However the excitement around the Nexus 4 suggested that it had been a broader hit. The figures from XDA-Developers suggest otherwise.
If Google had flooded the market with millions of Nexus phones, that could have upset relations with carrier partners and other Android handset makers. But the apparently low volumes produced should mean that only a minority of the most eager Android users will have the phones - satisfying Google, which wants users who will make the most use of the phones to repay its investment, while not annoying carriers or handset makers.
But even so Google has been overwhelmed with demand, forcing its UK managing director Dan Colbey to make a fulsome apology - although he blamed LG, saying that handset supplies had been "scarce and erratic".


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This morning Shanghai-based insurtech company CareVoice launched what it claims is the first AI voice-based virtual health assistant for insurers and employers in Greater China.
Insurance members can use the AI system to help triage their symptoms before going to see a doctor. The latest technology is integrated with the CareVoice platform and will let users check their symptoms, access self-care content and help guide users towards relevant medical specialities. Part of the idea is to help users avoid unnecessary consultations.
The technology comes out of a partnership between CareVoice and San Francisco-based virtual care assistant Sensely. The US-based startup offers services to providers and payers. Sensely’s specializes in speech recognition technology, text to speech capabilities, a chatbot, data integration and images and videos.
“The CareVoice has a great mobile-based solution for insurers that is a perfect fit, allowing us to bring our Virtual Health Assistant to China’s fast growing private insurance market. In addition, we are glad to partner with a great team that possesses an international background and a deep understanding of the Chinese market,” Adam Odessky, CEO and cofounder of Sensely, said in a statement.
CareVoice has already made partnerships with some of the largest insurers in China.
“While our joint product team is completing the localization, we are very glad that we have already partnered with two insurers, AXA- TianPing and Ping An Health, to launch this consumer-centric innovation to the Chinese market, which will drive a better healthcare experience for their members,” Sebastien Gaudin, CEO and cofounder of CareVoice, said in a statement. “We can rely on Sensely’s leading technology and solid evidence in terms of both member satisfaction and payer cost savings in order to fuel our value proposition to insurers and employers.”
In January the company announced that it landed $2 million in funding led by Haitao Capital and SOSV. The Chinese startup plans to use the funding to further develop its mobile and SaaS platforms for insurance companies. It also wants to expand its footprint in private insurance markets and companies.
The company was founded in 2013 under the name ‘KangYu,’ which means ‘health voice’ in Mandarin, according to its website. In addition to the latest technology, the company gives users lists of hospitals, doctors and treatments. It also lets user rate and review doctors and hospitals. The goal is to help consumers chose the best care for their needs. Recently the company has began to expand to Hong-Kong.
Voice assistants have becoming increasingly popular in the healthcare space. In fact Amazon’s Alexa has now been paired with several apps that help patients triage their needs. For example, in September 2017 the Mayo Clinic launched a new platform for the Amazon Alexa, where the consumer can voice his or her concerns to receive answers to dozens of everyday health issues or other self care instructions.


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A new edition of Adolf Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf is now a best seller in Germany.
The latest version of the Nazi leader’s notorious manifesto sold out in January, a week after hitting bookstores for the first time since his death, according to USA Today. Each copy of Hitler: Mein Kampf: A Critical Edition costs about $64, or €59, the Associated Press previously reported.
The new edition, produced and printed by the Munich-based Institute for Contemporary History, contains almost 2,000 more pages than the original and includes critical commentary, according to the AP. It was second on the nonfiction-book list this week, behind The Secret Life of Trees, according to Der Spiegel magazine’s best-seller list.
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John P. Eakins Jr. John P. Eakins Jr. of Mt. Laurel passed away suddenly on Sunday, Oct. 7, 2012 at Virtua Hospital, Marlton, N.J. He was 62.
Arts and crafts retailer A.C. Moore is recommending that its shareholders vote in favor of a merger with craft distributor Sbar’s in a deal the company calls “fair.”
Board members of A.C. Moore, the struggling arts and crafts retailer, Tuesday endorsed a plan to sell the company for $40.8 million.
After months of speculation, A.C. Moore, the financially troubled arts and crafts company that started in Burlington County, N.J., 25 years ago, announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement to be acquired by an affiliate of Sbar’s, one of the largest crafts distributors in the United States.


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In 2010, China had 420 million citizens connected to the Internet. Just six years later, that figure has soared past 710 million, according to an official government source.
Defining Internet users as anyone who has gone online at least once in the past six months, the China Internet Network Information Centre (CNNIC) also says that more 20 million Chinese have started using the Internet since December alone, a 3.1 percent rise, as the country continues a determined push to get its citizens online.
There are now more than twice as many Internet users in China as there are citizens in the US—of whom just under 287 million are online. Around 11.5 percent (37 million) of Americans remain stubbornly offline, while China, with its population of 1.38 billion, now has just over half of its citizens using the Web. As you'd expect, the country's massive rural population is the sticking point; less than a third of these are Internet users. The rest either have no knowledge of computers, or no interest in them.
China's Internet development seems to have skipped straight to the mobile phase, too—according to the CNNIC, 92.5 percent of the country gets online using their mobile phones. It said: "The social lifestyle formed by the mobile Internet was further developed and the Internet Plus project facilitated the government and companies diversifying and mobilising their services."
The Chinese tech sector is booming, with firms like Alibaba, Weibo, and Baidu all worth billions of dollars and attracting considerable western investment. The Beijing government maintains strict central control, and routinely blocks websites it considers seditious or sensitive using its so-called "Great Firewall of China." Few of the western Internet giants have presence in the country's online market, and heavyweights like Google, Facebook, and Twitter are outright banned, allowing homegrown Chinese versions to flourish—and allowing tighter government control.
Listing image by Wikimedia Commons


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The United States household sector continues to struggle, but help will soon arrive in the form of a higher US dollar. A stronger dollar will increase the purchasing power of households, prompting a surge in imports, but it won’t come without its risks. A higher exchange rate may also weigh on US production and, in the process, prove detrimental to the US recovery.
US retail sales fell by 0.3 per cent in September, missing market expectations, to be 4.3 per cent higher over the year. Household spending has been subdued throughout the September quarter and is unlikely to contribute significantly to real GDP growth.
Based on the relationship between retail sales and real household consumption, we can expect household spending to grow by around 0.3 per cent when the September quarter national accounts are released later this month.
To put that in perspective, that is around the same pace as growth during the weather-affected March quarter earlier this year. It’s a significant blow for the US economy and its growth outlook, which only recently was upgraded significantly by the International Monetary Fund.
Sales of motor vehicles accounted for around half of the decline in spending during September. Motor vehicle sales were down 0.8 per cent in the month but have remained particularly strong over the past year.
Spending on building materials also declined, while the US housing market continues to concern analysts. The only major gains during September were for electronics and appliances and food services.
An interesting characteristic of the recent economic recovery and the improvement in the labour market is that is really hasn’t translated into strong household spending. Over the past two years, nominal retail sales have only been growing at an annualised pace of 3.8 per cent, well below the pre-crisis trend.
One part of the story is that job growth continues to be concentrated in low-paying part-time positions. In some cases, employment is providing only modest gains over existing unemployment benefits.
Unfortunately, high-paying jobs lost during the recession have been replaced by lower-paying jobs during the recovery. According to a report by the National Employment Law Project, lower-wage sectors accounted for 22 per cent of job losses during the recession but 44 per cent of employment growth through to February this year.
Employment growth will eventually translate into higher wages and household spending, but it remains uncertain when this will occur. As spare capacity eases, businesses will need to compete to find the best talent and that will flow through to higher wage demands and eventually higher inflation.
Household spending should also receive a boost in the near to medium term by a stronger US dollar. The dollar has increased significantly against the US’ major trading partners in anticipation of the Federal Reserve completing its asset purchasing program at the end of this month.
A stronger US dollar won’t offer much support to US exporters, but it will increase the purchasing power of households. Expect consumption to surge as US households take advantage of a range of cheaper goods.
The obvious problem with a dollar-driven surge in household spending is that it is not clear whether the US economy wholly benefits. Sure, the purchasing power of households improves but US production may take a turn for the worse and job growth could ease. It is difficult right now to determine how susceptible the US recovery is to a change in the broader economic climate.
The recovery has proved resilient in the past: overcoming a federal government shutdown last October, the end of emergency unemployment benefits in January and the Fed’s taper. On that basis, I remain reasonably optimistic about the US recovery.
But it’s an optimism that is increasingly plagued by caveats, and that’s a concern. The end of the Fed’s asset program marks the biggest challenge yet for the US recovery and the taper tantrum experienced thus far indicates that markets do not share my optimism for US fundamentals.
How this develops over the next few weeks and months will go a long way to determining whether the Fed begins to raise rates in the first half of next year or whether they are forced to wait until 2016 (or potentially introduce a fourth round of quantitative easing).


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Thought for today:
Kodak's travails provide multiple lessons: You’ve undoubtedly seen the news that legendary companyKodak is in se...
This guy nails it. If the business model is built around a high-margin consumable -- disposable diapers, razor blades, or even gasoline -- reconfiguring the business to be self-sustaining from low-margin products is a pretty big challenge. Witness the newspaper business, where the high-margin consumable is printed advertising, which has all but evaporated to the web.
Many of the same media outlets doing Monday-morning quaterbacking on the decline of Kodak are much closer to the same sort of drop-off. Let's see them create a sustainable business model around a digitally delivered product.


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After weeks of build-up and speculation, Black Friday is here! With all the mega deals and strategies now in place, it’s time to capitalise on the biggest online shopping event of the year!
As the action unfolds, PerformanceIN will keep you up to date with the key takeaways and statistics from around the globe as it happens.
Great start for Thanksgiving
Kicking things off in the US is, of course, Thanksgiving which has made a fantastic start according to stats from Adobe. Bargain hunters have flocked online to start their holiday shopping with Adobe reporting, as of 2pm Pacific time, $2.1 billion had been spent online, up 20.2% on the same period a year ago. Prior to that, Adobe said $470 million has been spent online at 10am, a rise of 14.5% compared to sales figures from the same time last year. Overall, sales patterns are largely on track to hit Adobe’s prediction of $4.4 billion in sales today.
Retailers in full gear
Meanwhile, Black Friday is no doubt the biggest shopping event of the year for retailer brands across the globe. One brand in particular which has been preparing for the busy day is FitFlop, who’ve just launched a new out of home campaign for the Wonderwelly across London’s transport network. Plus with up to 60% off via their website, it’s a no brainer to get yourselves some great footwear at a bargain price!
Updates from affiliate
Over at Awin, as they bring more live updates from Black Friday and Cyber Weekend, some key findings has shown some promising results. Stats from the Commission Factory team in Australia, show that numbers up 65% on last year as of 8.30pm last night, while cashback & loyalty performance was up by 38% year-on-year.
In addition, the network has tracked 30 transactions every second – and on course to track more than 2 million sales over Black Friday.
Meanwhile, interest in Black Friday as one of the focal points of the sales year is burgeoning across Europe with many consumers across the continent now adopting the date en masse – but it’s not the only important sales period.
According to recent Rakuten Marketing research conducted among 200 UK marketers, while nine in 10 are still orientating campaigns around major sales moments in the year, 31% of marketers focus their marketing campaigns around the Black Friday and Cyber Monday period. However, the event is actually surpassed in terms of focus by Christmas (53%) New Year sales (43%) and – surprisingly – Summer sales (42%).
Elsewhere, Skimlinks has reported a total number of clicks of 2.27 million as of 2.23pm — +20% from last year which they had 1.88 million.
Global trends and consumer behaviour
Different trends are being reported across Europe as Black Friday continues to unfold. According to a survey by marketing consultancy firm Simon-Kutcher & Partners, 70% of Dutch shoppers think Black Friday discounts are fake but also found that 1 in 5 of those surveyed still planned to buy something on the day.
Meanwhile, Awin has reported the amount of money being spent from German shoppers on the day has quickly grown. This year sales revenue is expected to increase over the weekend by another 22% to €3.1bn.
In the UK, spending intentions from shoppers are on the rise according to data from vouchercloud — which found at the average amount of £132 will be spent per person is set to spend £132 this weekend. At 52,487,600 people in the UK above 18 (no-one surveyed under 18), and with 37.9% of people making no sales, we’re at 32,594,799 people according to the survey — scaling up to £4.3 billion worth of UK sales potential this Black Friday Weekend.


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DXO labs have been accumulating a lot of data for their DXO RAW convertor, lens correction software and just recently decided to release their findings to the public. The new site is located at http://www.dxomark.com/. The database now consists of a number of popular cameras and lenses and you may wish to check the site out to compare your favorite brand with others. Please keep in mind that the database is only reflecting scientific measurements and does not include subjective information such as comfort, layout of controls, reliability, etc. However, it should provide the “pixel-peepers” lots of new ammunition to argue pros and cons about the various cameras now available! The site is free!
- Fotobug - Episode 257 - Safe at Home Photography!Due to the covid-19 virus, we decided to put together some suggestions of things and themes you can photograph while staying safe at home! Most of the recent photography news also involves the virus. Adobe announces free at-home Creative Cloud service for students and educators impacted by the outbreak. World Press has cancelled the 2020 Photo […]
- Fotobug - Episode 257 - Safe at Home Photography!
Jim’s Flickr images


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‘Meet and greet’ for horticultural innovators
The GreenTech trade show was held on the RAI exhibition grounds in Amsterdam from 12 to 14 June 2019. For Klasmann-Deilmann, it was the second time we had been present at this event together with our partner Maan BioBased. And, as before, this was because of our joint activities in distributing the Growcoon.
The GreenTech is an annual opportunity for the international horticultural sector to meet, and for the trade to find out about the latest innovations and advances, especially in the technical field. Almost 12,500 visitors from 114 different countries came. And we scored a real success with the Growcoon.
The Growcoon took centre stage
Our main thematic focus was on the use of the Growcoon in modern cultivation systems such as hydroponics, vertical farming and a combination of the two. For many interested visitors, this was an ideal point of entry into intensive, professional-to-professional discussions with our international sales team at the venue. Fittingly, there was a new Growcoon brochure, advertising material, a new virtual-reality film – and even the exhibition stand was bathed in a magenta glow: ‘Purple is the new green’.
Growcoon product manager Franziska Watermann was happy with how the trade fair went: “The tremendous rate at which Growcoon is taking off in the USA shows how much potential this product has. And the commercial-horticulture sector in Europe and elsewhere is also showing increasing interest in our Growcoon. So it’s good to make full use of all the communications options at our disposal. The GreenTech event is a real opportunity here, because visitors and potential customers from all over the world visit our stand. And all of them take at least one completely new idea back home with them.”
“Besides the Klasmann-Deilmann team members from Geeste and Schiedam staffing the stand, colleagues from Singapore, China, France, America and Belgium were also present. A big thank you to everyone for your fantastic support,” stressed Carmen Mecklenburg (Head of Corporate Marketing).
GreenTech provides an ever-growing platform for the trade, and so Klasmann-Deilmann has already booked its spot for the 2020 event.


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'Halal' sushi crops up as Japanese restaurants woo Muslims http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060207/kyodo/d8fkikc85.html
"Curry sushi" and "Hainanese chicken rice sushi" are some of the exotic new hybrids of sushi that have emerged in Singapore, where Japanese food is hugely popular and some local companies have tinkered with the Japanese dish to tease local taste buds.
But an even bigger trend now is "halal sushi" as a rising number of Japanese restaurants adopt strict Islamic rules on food preparation to woo the minority Muslim population in the city-state and grab a slice of the wider Muslim market in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
More Japanese restaurants have recently applied for "halal" certification from the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, or MUIS, an agency of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports that advises the government on Muslim affairs.
They join the growing number of restaurant operations that have gone "halal" to target Muslims, who account for 15 percent of the country's 4 million population.
"Halal" means permissible or lawful in Arabic and provides assurance that food does not contain ingredients that Muslims are forbidden to consume, such as alcohol, pork and meat from cattle and poultry that have not been slaughtered according to Islamic ritual.
When it comes to Japanese foods, this inevitably requires the omission of mirin, a kind of rice wine that is a major condiment of Japanese cuisine, including sushi.
Currently, at least five restaurants and other food outlets have been certified halal by MUIS. Most of them obtained the certification last year.
They include Junshin Sushi, a locally-owned company that produces and supplies sushi each day to luxury hotels and food caterers in Singapore, Oishi Pizza, which delivers Japanese-flavored pizza to homes and offices, and Ramen Ten, a local Japanese restaurant chain.
"Last time, we overlooked the halal market, but nowadays there is a bigger demand for food that does not contain pork or lard. The result may not be seen overnight but it can be tremendous in the long term," Junshin Sushi's manager Jason Ong said.
What spurred these Japanese restaurants to go halal is the rising affluence of the minority Malay and Muslim populace, which has become more eager to try out foreign cuisines.
As a result, several halal Chinese, Thai and Korean restaurants have sprouted here in recent years. They follow the trail of American fast-food giants in Singapore, which already received halal certification as far back as the early 1990s when MUIS first introduced the certification scheme.
Yoshinoya, a Japanese food chain that has been in Singapore for the last 8 years and currently has 16 outlets here, is planning to obtain halal certification this year, said Lisa Chai, a spokeswoman for Wing Tai Holdings, a diversified Singapore property group that runs the local Yoshinoya outlets.
However, the number of halal Japanese food operators is just a fraction when considering that there are up to 200 Japanese restaurants in Singapore.
Those in the food industry say the main hindrance is the difficulty of finding substitutes for some of the ingredients that have to be dropped.
Companies that went halal say they had to spend months conducting research in their kitchens and scouring for alternative seasonings and sauces that do not contain ingredients taboo to Muslims. Besides that, they also cannot serve alcoholic drinks such as beer, sake or wine in their restaurants.
On the other hand, a large number of Japanese processed food manufacturers have gone halal to target the larger, predominantly Muslim markets of Southeast Asia and the Middle East. They include big food brands such as Pokka, Yakult, Meiji, Koka and Nissin.
Nowadays, food products with the halal logos from MUIS or other Islamic authorities in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and even China and Australia swamp supermarket shelves in Singapore, where a consumer is more likely to find products with these logos than without. For example, all the major brands of fresh milk, fruit juice and instant noodle in Singapore carry halal logos.
Some small and medium-sized Japanese companies have also jumped on the bandwagon. One of them is Foodtech Products, part of the Lacto Japan Group, which opened a small factory in Singapore recently to produce "halal" exotic cheeses, including wasabe-flavored cheese, for the Southeast Asian market.
Halal restaurant operators and food manufacturers have to comply with very strict conditions to ensure their products are not tainted with non-halal ingredients.
In year 2000, Japanese food seasoning giant Ajinomoto Co. caused an uproar in predominantly Muslim Indonesia after it was discovered that the company had used pig enzymes in its flavor-enhancing product.
A restaurant that had pork on its menu in the past and would like to go halal must undergo a simple ritual cleaning for its kitchen and utensils. It must commit to ensure that every raw material used does not contain any banned ingrediants and usually has to obtain a guarantee even from its food suppliers.
It must also employ at least one Muslim worker to keep an eye on compliance. Also, staff in the company are not allowed to bring non-halal foods into the premises even for their own meals. MUIS also conducts surprise checks and the certificates have to be renewed each year.
Despite all the hassle, companies say the rewards are usually sweet.
Oishi Pizza, which sells pizza with wasabi and teriyaki flavors, saw sales surge by 20 percent after it went halal. The chain plans to increase its outlets to 12 from the current four, and is eyeing to expand to Malaysia and Indonesia. Ramen Ten says it plans to expand its outlets to Indonesia, Brunei and the Middle East in the next three years.
Over the last four years, the total number of halal certificates issued by MUIS has almost tripled to nearly 8,000 last year from only 2,800 in year 2000. They include 1,000 certificates issued to restaurants.
There are about 1.8 billion Muslims in the world and experts say there is keen competition among countries for the halal food market, which experts estimate is worth US$150 billion a year.


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The Christmas season will be celebrated differently, so the company hopes that its fans will reinvent and redefine Christmas in their own way, “said Natalie british cell phone number Redford, Pepsi UK Marketing Director, as reported by DesignTaxi.
Pepsi’s break with traditions
Prepared together with the Truant agency, the Pepsi ad shows the breaking of these traditions to show that there is another alternative, taking into account that we do not know what the Christmas celebration will be like this year. In fact, throughout the spot, different objects that are well reminiscent of Christmas, such as a sleigh, disappear to give way to other more ‘current’ such as a hench sound system.
“We wanted to give Christmas a complete makeover and turn traditions around with our new campaign . Music has always been at the heart of Pepsi Max and this latest collaboration continues our legacy by creating a platform for two of the UK’s emerging talents. t2ó is awarded the MediaMarkt account With MediaMarkt , the agency gets an important client from the retail sector that it will help in its Digital Marketing strategy, which will include; from the implementation of technologies, to data analysis and media activation.
t2ó adds another large account (in addition to that of Freepik, Adamo or Druni won in recent months) and is preparing for a course full of work UK Phone Number Database and new projects , among which is the development of its new offering of services within the positioning towards which she has evolved as a Marketing, Sales and Digital Strategy Consultant.
For Francisco Valiente, CMO of MediaMarkt Spain, “t2ó brings together everything we were looking for at this time full of changes that we are facing. His experience and knowledge of the digital sector have been key to making this decision. We are sure that this new alliance will help us as we need, because we start from the trust we place in t2ó and its capabilities ”.


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Continued decline in Italian equipment market
By Chris Sleight12 November 2013
The Italian construction equipment market was down-24% in the first nine months of the year, compared to the same period last year, according to manufacturers’ trade association UNACEA.
Sales totalled 4,091 machines in the first three quarters, compared to 5,386 in January – September 2012. Crawler excavator sales were down -24% to 585 machines, wheeled loaders fell -29% to 341 machines and backhoe loader sales were down -39% across the rigid, articulated and all-wheel steer categories.
In the compact equipment sector, mini excavator sales dropped -24% to 2,030 units, skid steer loaders were down -13% to 316 pieces and compact tracked loaders were down -19% to 193 machines.
The only area which saw growth was the niche, for Italy, product of articulated dump trucks (ADTs), where sales in the first nine months of 2013 were up to 19 haulers, compared to eight in the same period last year.
UNACEA vice president Giampiero Biglia said, "Taking in consideration the weakness of Italian construction market the demand for construction equipment remains stuck and without specific growth measures from the government, we do not foresee any improvement by the end of the year. Moreover, regarding exports the fragility of the European market cannot be balanced by the developing countries’ demand. From this perspective we estimate a flat production on 2013, on the same level of 2012.”


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Xinhua Winshare Plans to Sell New A-SharesJoshua Fellman
Xinhua Winshare Publishing & Media Co. plans to issue as many as 98.7 million new A-shares and list all of its domestic stock in Shanghai as the bookseller looks to use proceeds to help fund projects including store upgrades.
Xinhua Winshare didn’t disclose how much it planned to raise, saying the issue price of the new stock will be set later, according to a Hong Kong stock exchange filing yesterday.
The company identified 1.42 billion yuan ($228 million) in five projects to be partly funded by the proceeds, including a logistics-network construction project, as well as the shop upgrades and expansion. The offering will contribute 1.18 billion yuan toward those endeavors, according to the filing.
“The A-share issue, if completed, will open a new financing channel for the business development of the company, and provide financial resources to implement the projects,” Xinhua Winshare said in the filing.
The share sale is the first for Xinhua Winshare since its initial public offering in May 2007, when it raised HK$2.14 billion ($274 million), according to data compiled by Bloomberg.


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An iPhone SE updated with 5G is less than a year away, according to a trusted Apple analyst. Because of its lower price, the model could put high-speed cellular wireless connectivity in the hands of far more people.
Apple’s first products to incorporate Mini LED display technology might not make it onto store shelves until 2021 due to development delays related to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report Thursday from industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Those products could include everything from iPad’s to iMacs and laptops.
The sub-$400 iPhone supposedly coming the first quarter of next year will have improved wireless performance thanks to a liquid crystal polymer antenna, according to the well-respected analyst who’s the source of many details about this unannounced handset.
It’s often called the “iPhone SE 2” but allegedly won‘t have much in common with that earlier model aside from an affordable price tag.
Apple may be waiting a bit longer than some of its rivals to go 5G, but it will reportedly jump into this cutting-edge networking standard in a big way next year. There will be two 5G iPhone models introduced in 2020, according to a respected analyst.
Creative Pros across the web are salivating after a recent rumors claimed Apple is preparing to launch a 16-inch MacBook Pro. Details about the machine are scarce, but it could be the most amazing new Apple releases in 2019. It could also be a disaster.
CultCast host Erfon Elijah is out with a hilarious and informative new video that takes Apple to task for precious missteps on the MacBook Pro line. He also warns Apple that there are 8 things MacBook Pro-lovers are especially anxious about.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro could be a disappointment if it messes up these features:
When it comes to iPhones, it appears bigger is much better. The iPhone XS series debuted on Friday, and a respected analyst reports the larger of the two is selling far, far better than its smaller sibling.