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Saturday, April 10th, 2010
With the majority of the American auto industry in shambles, Ford Motor Company has made heroic efforts in marketing to both maintain its company image and stay financially afloat. In executing these plans, however, Ford has gone beyond mere brand maintenance to a company well on its way to a ...
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Tomorrow we won't see those private jets landing in Washington again. No guys in expensive suits wearing beggar hats will get off. Instead the car manufacturers are driving their Hybrids into Washington to set a signal.
Banks screwed up over the last 15-20 ...


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GAINESVILLE, Fla. — While consumers are aware of genetically modified crops and food, their knowledge level is limited and often at odds with the facts, according to a newly published study by a University of Florida researcher.
Last year, Brandon McFadden, an assistant professor of food and resource economics at the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, published a study that showed scientific facts scarcely change consumers’ impressions of genetically modified food and other organisms.
Consumer polls are often cited in policy debates about genetically modified food labeling. This is especially true when discussing whether food that is genetically modified should carry mandatory labels, McFadden said. In conducting their current study, McFadden and his colleague, Jayson Lusk, an agricultural economics professor at Oklahoma State University, wanted to know what data supported consumers’ beliefs about genetically modified food and gain a better understanding of preferences for a mandatory label.
So he conducted the survey to better understand what consumers know about biotechnology, breeding techniques and label preferences for GM foods.
Researchers used an online survey of 1,004 participants that asked questions to measure consumers’ knowledge of genetically modified food and organisms. Some of those questions tried to determine objective knowledge of genetically modified organisms, while others aimed to find out consumers’ beliefs about genetically modified foods and crops.
The results led McFadden to conclude that consumers do not know as much about the facts of genetically modified food and crops as they think they do.
Of those sampled, 84 percent supported a mandatory label for food containing genetically modified ingredients. However, 80 percent also supported a mandatory label for food containing DNA, which would result in labeling almost all food.
“Our research indicates that the term ‘GM’ may imply to consumers that genetic modification alters the genetic structure of an organism, while other breeding techniques do not,” McFadden said.
As participants answered questions designed to measure their knowledge of scientific data on genetic modification, respondents seemed to change their statements about the safety of genetically modified foods, McFadden said.
The study is published in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal.
By: Brad Buck, 352-294-3303, email@example.com
Source: Brandon McFadden, 352-294-7654, firstname.lastname@example.org

domain: news


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Why an Activist Hedge Fund Cares Whether Apple’s Devices Are Bad for Kids
Friday, January 19, 2018
On January 6, 2017, JANA Partners, a New York–based activist hedge fund, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) sent a letter to Apple’s board of directors that may change the future of activist investing. Citing a substantial body of expert research, the letter stated, “We believe there is a clear need for Apple to offer parents more choices and tools to help them ensure that young consumers are using your products in an optimal manner.” Overuse of iPhones by children and teenagers, the letter pointed out, has been linked to lack of attention in the classroom, difficulty in empathizing with others, depression, sleep deprivation, and a higher risk of suicide.
Jana and CalSTRS together own $2 billion in Apple stock, so it’s no surprise that the letter received worldwide attention after it was publicized by the Wall Street Journal. What was surprising, however, was the unlikely partnership between JANA and CalSTRS. The term “activist hedge fund” connotes to many a “corporate raider” who creates short-term profits at the expense of other stakeholders and long-term investors. But CalSTRS is one of the world’s leading asset owners on the importance of integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into investment decisions — investing as a way of maximizing returns while making the world a better place — so why would it be interested in partnering with an activist hedge fund?
The truth is that the worlds of activism and impact investing are converging much more swiftly than most people realize — and this union holds enormous promise for those who wish to see the creation of capital markets that support sustainable economic development. JANA is perhaps most public among activist investors about this shift, having recently announced that it is raising an impact fund to extend its Apple campaign to other companies with the help of an influential advisory board that includes Sister Patricia A. Daly, OP; Sting; Trudie Styler; and myself. But it is reportedly not alone.
Photo courtesy of Kārlis Dambrāns.
- impact investing


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Google’s Pixel 2 XL was launched in the midst of this year. After the launching, the users were experiencing some issues which are blue tint on the display while tilting the device and now a new issue was discovered, where the touch doesn’t work on the edges of the display.
The issues overcoming on Pixel 2 XL are going higher day by day with more complaints from the device users. A Pixel 2 XL user has reportedly posted a video on the forum, showing an issue where the touchscreen responsive issue while playing Call of Duty Heroes game. Another user has shown a video which shows the “Display tester app” doesn’t show up the response on the edges.
Although, Google is trying to fix these issues they are getting more day by day. Now, Google is trying to solve all the problems by rolling out an OTA update in the coming weeks, which will make it better. Orrin, Community Manager at Google, responding to the issue, said:
Thanks for all the reports here, and to those that sent up additional info. The team has been investigating, and this will be addressed in a future OTA update.


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The RAF, which won Channel 4’s annual £1m Diversity in Advertising award, mocks the gender stereotypes that all too frequently appear in mainstream advertising after new research found 40% of the most watched ads feature women in cliched roles.
Kraft Heinz is suffering from a number of self-inflicted wounds, from underinvestment in its brands to a failure to adapt its portfolio to modern tastes, leading to a parlous financial situation.
PSA Group, which manufactures brands including Peugeot, Citroen and DS Automobiles, wanted to re-engage local garages with the brand as it looked to boost its share of the £21.6bn aftermarket sector.
While brands from Visa to Coca-Cola fought for a piece of the women’s football action during the summer’s World Cup, now is the time for clubs to capitalise on the attention to achieve a sustainable future.
The marketing campaign taps into Japan’s unique cultural identity while heroing England’s symbol, the red rose, but the mobile giant is determined to ensure it doesn’t “fall into” easy stereotypes.
Marketers who incorporate data into storytelling to explain the ‘how’ as well as the ‘what’, ‘who’ and ‘why’ will have a far greater chance of engaging listeners.
Marketing Week reveals the top 10 marketers in the online and disruptor sectors, part of our Top 100 Most Effective Marketers project.


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EBay continued to wander aimlessly during the quarter. Even though Q2 revenues exceeded the market’s expectations of $1.99 billion, they were down 4.5% over the year to $2.1 billion. Earnings for the quarter came in at $0.37 per share, falling 14% over the year but again managing to beat expectations of $0.36.
PayPal’s revenues of $0.70 billion contributed 32% of the quarter’s revenues and grew 11% over the year. Payment volume of $16.7 billion grew 12% over the year with US volumes growing 9% and international volumes growing 16%. In key metrics, global active accounts grew 20% over the year to 75.4 million. PayPal is opening its platform to third-party developers and will be the first global payments platform to do so, which should lead to innovation by third-party developers that John Donahoe claims will be “analogous to the iPhone.” This is a good strategy. Integrating the payment platform, especially for social gaming, virtual goods and related areas, so that it can be effectively integrated into apps, would help.
But things don’t seem to be going well for eBay’s marketplace segment. According to a recent Nielsen report, eBay traffic declined in April and May, both sequentially and over the year. In fact, page views for May fell a whopping 32% from a year earlier. Why am I not surprised?
EBay’s marketplace revenues fell 14% over the year to $1.3 billion. While transaction revenues fell 14% over the year, marketing services revenues fell 10%. The international business contributed 57% of marketplace’s revenue during the quarter and on a constant currency basis, international revenues were down 5% over the year. While fixed-price GMV excluding vehicles grew 19% on a fixed currency basis, auctions GMV excluding vehicles remained under pressure, and fell 17% in the quarter. Vehicles GMV fell 25% during the quarter on a fixed currency basis in reaction to the slowing economy. Obviously customers prefer straight-up retail to auctions.
While the site was revamped to improve the search experience, eBay is not doing enough to attract users, especially users who are willing to spend. The company is improving their search platform, and earlier this month they finished building the infrastructure that will allow cataloging eBay items for search to be more easily scalable. EBay is also posting more fixed-price listings.
Overall, though, their site experience still cannot compare with the personalized feel that Amazon offers. Additionally, Amazon seems to be pursuing a dedicated online retail strategy. Their recent takeover of Zappos, the online shoe seller, for $928 million is a clear indication of their awareness of the need for a verticalized web offering.
Last year, I suggested that the acquisition of Zappos by Amazon could help expand the latter’s margins, which many claim have failed to grow as anticipated. So, while eBay sits on $2.6 billion in cash at the end of the quarter, its competitor has gone ahead and picked up a business that is expected to have nearly $1 billion worth of gross merchandise sale value and that has a loyal customer base. Analysts had estimated Zappos’ revenues for 2008 at around $625 million — a 22% fall over the 2007 revenues of $800 million and far short of their $1 billion revenue target for 2008. However, Zappos did manage to remain profitable with EBITDA of $40 million for 2008. There are reports that they had tried to go in for an IPO but that their main investor, Sequoia Capital, had pushed for a sale instead. Possibly the falling sales were the reason behind Sequoia’s backing out.
If eBay were to also look at online verticalization as a strategy, they would find plenty of opportunities. Take Blue Nile, the online jeweler, for instance. Blue Nile’s annual revenues are under $300 million and the company’s low-fixed cost, low-inventory model is likely to pay off as the jewelry industry consolidates. Figleaves.com, the largest online retailer of branded intimate apparel, is another opportunity: clothing remains the biggest online retail industry. However, if I were to take a guess, I am sure Amazon will get to them faster, while eBay dithers.
EBay could also look at acquiring vertical search engines such as Retrevo, Wize and TheFind to drive traffic and enhance their user experience with innovations like TheFind’s image search and matching engine, or Wize’s scoring engine. While Wize and Retrevo focus on consumer electronics, TheFind is all about lifestyle shopping. The user experience these sites offer has a unique value proposition and could also be great new entry points into eBay’s shopping engine. Acquiring them would help eBay move Shopping.com up the value chain and also circulate a large amount of the ad dollars within the company. No matter what, eBay needs to play, not just sit around sucking its thumb.
EBay should look at getting out of their communications business and into pure retail. Instead, they continue to grow Skype. Though Skype had a good quarter with revenues growing 25% to $0.17 billion, it still does not fit in with eBay’s portfolio. On a constant currency basis, Skype’s revenues grew 43% over the year with registered users growing by 42% to nearly 481 million. Skype-to-Skype minutes grew by a whopping 72% to more than 25 billion during the quarter. Skype out minutes grew 57% to 3 billion. Skype’s margins also expanded 480 basis points to 23.6% for the quarter. With numbers like those, companies such as Google could very well be interested in picking it up, and eBay could put some of this money from the sale of Skype to good use.
Earlier in the year, there were indications that John Donahoe’s turnaround strategy for eBay included spinning off Skype through an IPO. But there has been no action to that effect. In 2007, eBay took a $900 million write-down on account of Skype, thus acknowledging that they had significantly overvalued it. It seems as though the dispute with Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom over the peer-to-peer technology that Skype licenses for its software is delaying the IPO.
Prior to the lawsuit (eBay sued Skype’s founders to prevent them from taking the technology they still own following the licensing dispute), Donahoe was looking at a $2 billion market price for Skype, in line with the market’s valuation of $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion. As of now, any potential buyer would have to wait for the suit to be settled before putting money in, and the IPO would also likely attract fewer investors.
EBay definitely has a tough time ahead. While Amazon continues to eat into its market share, there are players such as Craigslist that are undercutting eBay’s pricing structure. EBay’s Q3 outlook for revenues of $2.05 billion to $2.15 billion with EPS of $0.34 to $0.36.
The stock is trading at $21.47 with a market capitalization of $27.63 billion. While it has recovered from its 52-week low of $9.91, unless the company indicates where they are going, I would not touch the stock with a ten-foot pole.


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By Ryan Yousefi
J.P. Taravella Drama Club invites the community to clear out their unwanted goods for a sale supporting the school’s drama club.
The Community Yard Sale and Craft Show is held on Saturday, February 25, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at J.P. Taravella High School.
The sale, located in the school’s west parking lot on the corner of Riverside and Coral Springs Drive at 10600 Riverside Drive, is planned for both the community and business vendors to sell household goods, clothing, handmade crafts, and other unwanted items. All profits from the sale of items at the event will be kept by those who purchase a vending space.
Vendors interested in having a table at the event may purchase a spot from JPT Drama. Spaces are sold for $20 before the event and $25 on the day of the sale. Spaces are limited. Only cash will be accepted.
For more information, please email firstname.lastname@example.org or contact Mara at 954-290-2825.
Got News? Send it to Tamarac Talk. Don’t miss reading Margate Talk, Coral Springs Talk, Coconut Creek Talk, and Parkland Talk.
- Ryan Yousefi has lived in Coral Springs for over 30 years. He has worked as a writer for multiples outlets over the years, including the Miami New Times where he has covered sports and culture since 2013. He holds a Bachelor's Degree and a Master's Degree in Business Healthcare Management from Western Governors University.
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In case you missed it: Something we have been keeping our eye on over the past two years is the continued effort of alcohol brands to blur categories, taking inspiration across industries and reaching deep into their arsenal in hopes of garnering the public’s affection (or maybe a bit of press).
With consumers continued enthusiasm for experiential drinking opportunities, it is of no surprise that some of the industry heavy hitters are concocting category defying product assortment.
Last year we saw Jameson’s Caskmates IPA using beer-soaked barrels to age their whisky in; Nude Coffee’s Beerista, Glenfiddich’s Winter Storm and Jack Daniel’s Chapel Down. This year has seen the beginning of the evolution as wine emerges as the inspiration of the moment. On the more commercial end, Crispin launched a wine inspired range, the new “spritzer” from Stella hit the market, while several Rosé vodkas his the market from brands such as Hangar One, Three Olives and Effen, which offers a more boutique appeal with some killer packaging design.
While some brands are looking to marry categories, in hopes of hitting it big with the next new concept, others like Rebel Rabbet and Empirical Spirits are tinkering with the ingredients and fermentation process to inspire product innovation of new spirits.
What are your thoughts on category mash-ups and cross industry inspiration?
Let us know in the comments below.


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Fortune Magazine is making waves in the NFT space with its exclusive NFT drop, featuring a limited edition artwork collection created in collaboration with acclaimed digital artist pplpleasr.
- Fortune Magazine’s entry into the NFT market demonstrates the growing recognition of NFTs and digital art in mainstream media.
- The collaboration between Fortune and acclaimed digital artist pplpleasr highlights the potential for partnerships between traditional media and digital art creators.
- Fortune’s NFT drop may encourage other media outlets to explore NFTs and digital art as new avenues for audience engagement and revenue generation.
Fortune Enters the NFT Market with Limited Edition Artwork
Fortune Magazine has made history. They entered the NFT market with an exclusive NFT drop. Basically, the drop includes limited edition artwork created in collaboration with acclaimed digital artist pplpleasr. This collaboration marks a significant milestone for mainstream media’s embrace of NFTs and digital art.
Moreover, the Fortune NFT drop features 256 limited edition artworks. Each piece is based on the magazine’s August 2021 cover. The cover design highlights decentralized finance (DeFi) and its impact on the financial world. Not to mention, the NFTs have a unique design, showcasing different colors and visual effects.
Currently, the NFTs are available for purchase on the OpenSea platform. Essentially, the auction started on August 11, 2021, and ran for 48 hours. The bidding for each NFT started at 1 Ethereum (ETH). Positively, the proceeds from the auction are set to be divided between Fortune and the artist.
Collaborative Effort with Artist pplpleasr
Fortune’s decision to collaborate with digital artist pplpleasr is a testament to the growing recognition of digital art as a legitimate art form. Pplpleasr is known for her work in the crypto and DeFi space. Given that, She has previously created animations for major projects like Uniswap and Yearn Finance.
Additionally, Fortune’s collaboration with pplpleasr is not only a celebration of digital art. Also, it is a recognition of the significance of the NFT market. Certainly, Fortune’s move into the NFT space could pave the way for other mainstream media outlets to explore NFTs and digital art as new avenues for engagement and revenue generation.
In conclusion, Fortune Magazine’s exclusive NFT drop represents a major milestone in the adoption of NFTs by mainstream media. By partnering with a renowned digital artist and creating unique, limited edition artworks, Fortune is making a bold statement about the value and potential of NFTs in the world of art and media.
Subscribe to the NFT Lately newsletter to receive news covering the latest NFT-related drops, releases, reviews, and more.


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Mahindra Two Wheelers has recently showcased its soon-to-be launched products at a dealer preview and here are the spyshots of the Mahindra Centuro disc brake variant and the Mahindra Rodeo UZO 125 scooter. The company has announced that it will launch four new products this year and these two are expected to be joined by the new 110 cc G101 (codename) scooter and the Mojo.
Mahindra Centuro Disc Brake Variant
The new top-end variant of the brand's best selling model will come with a front petal disc brake. Codenamed o1-D, the Centuro Disc Brake retains the same 110 cc air-cooled engine that outputs 8.38 bhp and 8.5 Nm torque, coupled to a 4-speed transmission. The motor delivers an ARAI rated fuel economy of 85.4 km/l.
The introduction of a disc brake variant is expected to improve the sales volume of the commuter and Mahindra is reportedly preparing its Pithampur plant to cater to the increased demand.
Competitors: Hero Passion Pro, Honda CB Dream Neo, TVS Star City, Bajaj Discover 100 M
Expected Price: INR 47,000 to 50,000, ex-showroom
Mahindra Centuro Disc Brake Variant - Image Gallery
Mahindra Rodeo UZO 125
The Rodeo UZO 125 is nothing but the Rodeo RZ which is spruced up with a dual tone color theme. The vehicle on display was finished in black as the primary color with loud orange decals throughout the body. The black seat gets contrast orange tubing while the front and rear wheels are painted in orange and black respectively.
The Rodeo UZO 125 is likely to offer more dual tone themes when it goes on sale. The 125 cc engine producing 8.04 bhp and 9 Nm torque is expected to continue unchanged.
Competitors: Suzuki Swish, Suzuki Access, Honda Activa 125
Expected Price: INR 48,000 - 50,000, ex-showroom
[Spy images from Rush Lane]


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Posts on Reddit, the MacRumors Forums, Twitter, and Apple Support include reports of iPhone 13 customers having touch sensitivity issues on their new phones. Users report problems with tap to wake, where the iPhone doesn’t respond after a tap on the screen to wake, and other instances of system-wide and in-app touch inputs not responding.
Anyone’s iPhone 13 not registering touch events consistently? Is that an app thing, an iOS 15 thing, or my iPhone 13 thing
— Arnold Kim (@arnoldkim) September 29, 2021
Bugs seen on iPhone 13 Pro Max/iOS 15 so far:
• Non-functional camera (app opens, camera feed does not)
• iPhone doesn’t wake on touch
• iPhone unlocks but swipe up to open fails (screen unresponsive)
• Mail app freezes
• Watch not recognized
Other than that, it’s great!
— Mikey (@mikeycampbell81) September 29, 2021
Isolated cases of touch screen sensitivity issues on the iPhone 13 would narrow it down to possible hardware malfunctions for some models of the new iPhone; however, reports of touch issues occurring on older devices after updating to iOS 15 suggest it’s likely a software bug instead.
@Apple I do the IOS 15 update and my touchscreen is struggling… never had that happen. Followed the steps to “fix” still the same issue…. Like it was almost to the point where I have to forcefully push in my screen just to text or watch a YouTube video!
— Jessie H. (@jessiesaysu) September 22, 2021
@AppleSupport there’s some problem with touch sensitivity of my iPhone 12 Pro Max since update to ios15.
It doesn’t respond to a single touch as it used to do, like touching to play a YouTube video or touching when iPhone is locked.
Now I’ve to touch 4-6 times.
— Abhishek Gupta (@AYPgupta) September 26, 2021
Same issue here intermittently, even closing apps and reopening doesn’t work sometimes, so have to power off the phone to get it to register touch input again. Please note and fix the issue
— kailos (@kailos321) September 24, 2021
Since its release slightly over a week ago, iOS 15 has been tormented with problems, including bugs related to the iPhone 13 and the Apple Watch, device storage, Apple Music, and widgets, on top of possible security vulnerabilities. Apple has promised to release a software update to address various issues currently impacting iOS and iPadOS 15 devices. Apple may release iOS 15.0.1 sooner rather than later to address the issues, though it may alternatively decide to just release iOS 15.1 instead when it completes beta testing later next month.
YouTuber and Apple beta specialist Zollotech noted in his latest video recapping the changes in the newest iOS 15.1 beta that the issue seems to be fixed, according to his limited time with the latest software build.
Apple has officially retired Beats Updater, the software utility that lets users update the firmware of their Beats Wireless headphones, earphones, and speakers.
Beats Updater allows users to plug their Beats product directly into the USB port of their computer to check for firmware updates online, but with Apple’s growing tendency to deliver over-the-air updates to wireless products via iOS …
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro arrived in October 2020 in a range of color options, with entirely new hues available on both devices, as well as some popular classics. The 12 and 12 Pro have different color choices, so if you have your heart set on a particular shade, you might not be able to get your preferred model in that color.
iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12
The iPhone 12 mini and iPhone…
To commemorate the tenth anniversary of the iPhone, Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller sat down with tech journalist Steven Levy for a wide-ranging interview about the smartphone’s past, present, and future.
The report first reflects upon the iPhone’s lack of support for third-party apps in its first year. The argument inside Apple was split between whether the iPhone should be a closed…
A bug in the built-in Calculator app in iOS 11 is getting some major attention this week, despite the fact that it’s been around since iOS 11 was in beta testing.
At issue is a calculator animation that causes some symbols to be ignored when calculations are entered in rapid succession. You can try it for yourself: Type 1+2+3 and then the equals sign into the Calculator app quickly.
With the launch of Apple’s iPhone 13 lineup believed to be just a few weeks away, we have compiled all of the coherent rumors from our coverage over the past year to build a full picture of the features and upgrades coming to the company’s new smartphones.
For clarity, only explicit improvements, upgrades, and new features compared to the iPhone 12 lineup are listed. It is worth noting that…
Serif today announced across-the-board updates for its popular suite of Affinity creative apps, including Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, and the Apple award-winning Affinity Publisher for Mac, all of which were among the first professional creative suites to be optimized for Apple’s new M1 chip. “After another year which saw record numbers of people switching to Affinity, it’s exciting to…
After a long wait, YouTube for iOS is officially gaining picture-in-picture support, allowing all users, non-premium and premium subscribers, to close the YouTube app and continue watching their video in a small pop-up window.
In a statement to MacRumors, YouTube says that picture-in-picture is currently rolling out to all premium subscribers on iOS and that a larger rollout to all US iOS…


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Target Corp.’s decision to run its own website after outsourcing it to Amazon.com Inc. for a decade is helping the retailer better integrate the in-store and Web experience. Although, the transition did not come without a cost: Target experienced two major outages in September and October of 2011, shortly after it moved the site.
Target is among a growing number of companies including General Motors Co., to take back previously outsourced information technology operations in order to maintain better control. For Target, the move frees up the retail giant to experiment with new services such as same-day delivery or the Cartwheel service as well as allow for real-time access to retail data. These types of services are designed to make the customer experience at Target unique, according to executives. Target is betting that the combination of online and in-store technology will counteract the competitive threat from Amazon.com. Over the last 18 months, Target has tried to combat so-called showrooming where customers look at products in the store but buy online from a rival.
“It was absolutely the right decision to make sure we are in control of all aspects of our technology and our guests’ shopping experience,” Target CIO Beth Jacob told CIO Journal. Knitting together online and in-store guest experiences will be crucial to creating a seamless customer experience, she said.
Target executives say that since taking the website in-house, they’re now better able to glean real-time data from both web and store operations, something that before was difficult, if not impossible. “It gives us the ability now to see more broadly across the experiences of our guests, whether they’re on the phone, online or whether they’re actually in the store,” said Nate Swanstrom, vice president of multichannel and marketing at Target. The company has focused on a service architecture that lets it access information across the company inside all of its applications and platforms. “That’s difficult to do when you’re outsourcing the experience to another party,” he said.
Between 2001 and 2011, Target had outsourced its web operations, including the software to run the site, the warehouse operations and the call centers to Amazon Services, the division that helps other retailers build branded eCommerce sites and offers fulfillment and shipping services. (Amazon Services is a separate division than Amazon Web Services, which offers cloud computing services to other companies.) Target’s completely re-engineered website went live on August 23, 2011 with improved search and navigation, improved security, and personalized product recommendations.
Just weeks after the launch, the retailer experienced the first website outage the day it started selling a limited collection of the Italian design label Missoni for Target. In the following six weeks, the site crashed again with Target CEO Gregg Steinhafel addressing the issue on an investor conference call, reported Minnesota Public Radio. “Those challenges are painful, in the moment,” said Ms. Jacob. Yet, the team used it as a learning experience and focused on making sure the site was stable and performed well. Over the last year, the site has been stable, said Ms. Jacob.
As the focus of retail shifts to blending online and in-store experiences, it’s even more important to Target that they have control of the website. “It’s one Target; it’s not an online sale, mobile sale or store sale,” said Ms. Jacob. The opportunity is to pull together all of these experiences, she said. “Target is in a tremendous position to be able to offer the guest the shopping experience of the future,” she said.
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A company with at least two but fewer than 250 employees is considered an SME. There are approximately 84,500 such entities in Finland.
On Monday, the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) published a survey showing that up to 41 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Finland are preparing to carry out layoffs, and 10 percent consider it possible that they may go bankrupt next year.
The prospects for the country's SMEs in 2023 are in many respects almost as gloomy as they were at the end of 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, 35 percent of SMEs estimated that demand would decrease, and the same percentage of the respondents anticipated that investments would shrink next year. Up to 25 percent of companies engaged in international operations predicted that foreign trade would decline.
As a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the increased raw material and energy prices force companies to be cost-effective and consider adaptation measures. Smaller businesses find themselves in the tightest spot as the consecutive crises have exhausted their financial buffers, said Jari Huovinen, the EK's leading expert.
The genius strategists European leaders:#Europe was complaining about its growing dependence on #Russia's energy. But now Europe is totally dependent on Washington’s economy and security stability.https://t.co/oYP8AH8i6h
However, what brings hope for next year is that, in addition to adjustment measures, many companies are also renewing their operations and intend to invest and recruit, Huovinen said.
The outlook for next year is gloomy all across Finland, especially in the country's eastern and northern regions, where, respectively, 44 percent and 43 percent of the companies expect demand to shrink. A company with at least two but fewer than 250 employees is considered an SME. There are approximately 84,500 such entities in Finland.
The EK is the largest employers' association in Finland. Its member companies contribute over 70 percent of Finland's gross domestic product (GDP) and over 95 percent of its exports.


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Toy Fair New York Takes Home Top Honors
May 22, 2020 | Toy Fair New York, the largest toy show in the Western Hemisphere produced by The Toy Association, has been recognized by two leading awards programs for both its 2019 show and its 2020 show marketing campaign in collaboration with T3Expo Marketing.
Toy Fair New York 2019 was listed as one of the Top Trade Shows of 2019 by Trade Show News Network (TSNN). That year’s event was the 33rd largest industry trade show in the U.S., based on overall net square footage, boasting 1,039 exhibitors, 12,820 attendees, and 447,458 net square feet of exhibit space.
In addition, Toy Fair New York’s 2020 “Welcome to Fun City” campaign was recognized by the Academy of Interactive & Visual Arts’ (AIVA) Communicator Awards with two awards for “Best Integrated Campaign.” It was presented with an Award of Excellence for the business-to-consumer subcategory and an Award of Distinction for the promotional campaign subcategory. The Communicator Awards honors creative excellence among creative professionals and recognizes projects that exceed industry standards in quality and achievement. Entries are judged on their merits against a 100-point scale of excellence; Excellence winners receive a score of 90 or above and Distinction winners receive a score of 70 to 89.
“We are so thrilled to be recognized by these leading awards programs,” said Marian Bossard, The Toy Association’s executive vice president of global market events. “It is proof that the excellent work we at The Toy Association do with our partners at T3Expo to grow and promote the industry and our global events is resonating. As you can see from the pool of winners on both lists, we are in excellent company among some of the biggest names in global events.”
Renewal applications for Toy Fair New York 2021 are due May 31. Once complete, general applications will open. To get a jumpstart on 2021 business, members are also encouraged to attend Toy Fair Dallas from October 6 to 8 and join the Association for three virtual Toy Fair Everywhere market weeks, taking place in July, August, and September, designed to help keep business moving forward amid the pandemic. All three shows are expected to draw buyers, exhibitors, manufacturers’ reps, inventors, and other industry professionals to explore playthings from global toymakers.
TSNN’s list of top U.S. trade shows are determined based on a show’s net square footage. To learn more about TSNN, visit www.tsnn.com. Winners for The Communicator Awards are hand-selected by the AIVA, an invitation-only group consisting of top-tier professionals from media, communications, advertising, creative, and marketing firms. To learn more, visit www.aiva.org.


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For at least two decades, New York magazine has printed advertising in the back of the publication divided into categories like ''Travel,'' ''Boats'' and ''Yachts'' and ''Entertaining.''
And for just as long, sections called ''Role Play'' and ''Massage'' have appeared alongside ads for interiors and ''Exteriors'' and ''New York Kids.''
A typical ad in the Role Play section might read: ''Asian Oriental supermodels. Outcall only.'' Or ''Passionate private nurse.'' Or ''Classic romantic relaxation. In/out. Midtown West.'' A Web site advertised in the section promoted the charms of Amber, ''available for outcalls'' at $500 an hour: ''I am intellectual and very sensual. Let me do all those delightful, intriguing things your wife or girlfriend won't.''
Of course, local magazines must cater to their readers, and the advertisements in mainstream publications have become as accepted as public service announcements in taxicabs.
The Village Voice publishes several pages of ads each week for escort and massage services. The New York Observer prints as much as two broadsheet-size pages each week. Elsewhere, magazines like Philadelphia and Boston publish ads for escort services.
Perhaps it is worth revisiting the issue if only because of the recent pledge by New York magazine's parent company, Primedia, which last week completed a merger with the Web site network About.com, to sell or block sites that contain explicit sexual content.
If those sites are unacceptable, why is it acceptable, at a time of concern over the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted disease, to publish advertisements like this one in New York magazine last week: ''Sue & friend: Midtown, expensive, and worth it.''
Executives of Primedia and New York magazine did not return phone calls seeking comment. But people who defend publishing the ads could argue that New York is a sophisticated city and that the advertisements do not explicitly mention prostitution.
Thomas S. Rogers, the chief executive of Primedia, who made the decision to evict the sex-oriented sites, was quoted in The New York Post last month as saying that Primedia, because it owns youth magazines like Seventeen and television networks like Channel One, which is shown in about 25 percent of the country's middle schools and high schools, ought to consider ways to avoid directing consumers to pornography. But he did not mention New York magazine.
An About.com spokeswoman, Suzanne Gibbons-Neff, offered this response: ''New York is an adult magazine. If you applied these standards to every magazine on the rack, you'd have to keep kids away from all of them.''
Other magazine publishers have barred advertisements for massage or escort services, among them Emmis Communications, which owns five regional publications, including Atlanta and Los Angeles magazines, and Texas Monthly.
Kate Healey, a spokeswoman for Emmis, said the company banned the ads two years ago.
But Liz Miller, the publisher of Los Angeles, said she had decided, at about the same time as Emmis executives, to drop the ads on her own.
''It was really at cross purposes,'' Ms. Miller said, ''to have massage ads in the classified section and Chanel and Ferragamo in the front of the magazine.'' She said that while the magazine did lose some revenue at first, advertisers who had shied away from a section that included sex-related ads eventually filled the void.
Arthur L. Carter, the publisher and owner of The New York Observer, said he had accepted such advertisements because New York and sex go together like pastrami and rye.


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Americans borrowed less for a 10th consecutive month in November with total credit and borrowing on credit cards falling by the largest amounts on records going back nearly seven decades.
The dramatic declines raised new issues about whether consumers will cut back further on spending, making it harder for the economy to mount a sustained rebound.
The Federal Reserve said total borrowing dropped by $17.5 billion in November.
That decline was the biggest amount in dollars terms since records began in 1943. That represents an 8.5 percent fall from the October level. The borrowing category that includes credit cards fell by $13.7 billion, a record decline in dollar terms. The drop was 18.5 percent from November.


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Chick-fil-A to open next week in Melrose
Calling all Chick-fil-A lovers: Only one more week until you can get your Chick-n-Minis fix on Eighth Avenue South.
The Atlanta-based restaurant chain with a cult-like following in the South will debut its newest Nashville location on May 22 at the former Krystal site at 2619 Eighth Ave. S., according to the Chick-fil-A Melrose Music City Facebook page. The opening was pushed back one week due to construction delays.
The restaurant operated by Susan Riley will host the traditional “First 100” promotion, where 100 customers will be awarded free Chick-fil-A for a year. Winners of the long-standing event — which is known nationwide for drawing large crowds and people camping out rain or shine — get a digital offer card pre-loaded with 52 Chick-fil-A meals that includes a chicken sandwich, waffle fries and a drink.
The First 100 Campout registration will begin at 6 p.m. on May 21 (you cannot arrive earlier than 5:30 p.m.) and the campout will end at about 6 a.m. on May 22, when the first 100 adults in line will win their free Chick-fil-A. Read up on the official rules here.
Chick-fil-A has been rapidly growing its Middle Tennessee presence in recent years, with new restaurants in Spring Hill, on Nolensville Pike and in Midtown.
The company last year debuted a first-of-its-kind concept at 1622 Church St., which has no dining room and no drive-thru but is focused heavily on catering and delivery to serve the growing demand for food to go. That kitchen is more than twice the size of a normal Chick-fil-A restaurant to handle large amounts of volume.
Reach Lizzy Alfs at email@example.com or 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.
Putting down roots:5 food trucks that have hung their shingles in Nashville area
Music City's best:The 5 best places to get French fries in Nashville


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Known worldwide for the PC versions of the game, including Special Force 2 (under Asiasoft) and S.K.I.L.L (under Gameforge), developer Dragonfly and publisher 4:33 Creative Lab recently announced the start of registration for Special Force Mobile in South Korea. Back in 2013, there was a Special Force mobile game in development as well, but unfortunately it did not manage to launch.
The 2 companies have touted Special Force Mobile as having “solved” the control problems faced by other mobile FPS games, though it is unclear how they did so. A unique feature to the game is the ability to hide behind objects to get away from incoming fire, which is rare in mobile games of the same genre. There will be different modes for both PVE and PVP, and also single and multiplayer.


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By Shruti Verma Khare New Delhi, Apr 13 (PTI) Balaji Telefilms plans to invest up to Rs 400 crore in its over-the-top subscriber video on- demand platform ALTBalaji which becomes operational from Sunday. "ALTBalaji is a first of its kind subscription service with original content in local languages. Total investment that we plan to make in ALTBalaji is Rs 300-400 crore," Balaji Telefilms Group CEO Sameer Nair told PTI. ALT Balaji will go live on web and its app from Sunday with six shows initially and promises a new show every fortnight.
"We are covered for next six months of content pipeline. We are working on interesting concepts and will not showcase elitist content ... we are a mainstream service," ALTBalaji CEO Nachiket Pantvaidya said.
When asked about the revenue Balaji Telefilms expects from this venture, Nair refused to comment.
He, however, said: "We are looking at reaching break even in 3.5 years when we have 4 million subscribers in India and abroad".
Sameer Nair had earlier said by 2025, he expects ALTBalaji to be bigger than both its TV and movies businesses.
ALTBalaji, which will offer multiple genres like thriller, comedy, dramatic love stories and kids programming, will initially charge Rs 30 per month. First five episodes of every show will be available free for viewing.
The ad free, subscription based platform plans to offer more than 250 hours of original, exclusive content to its subscribers. PTI SVK MR


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Apple's annual report says 91 children worked at its suppliers in 2010, and 137 workers were poisoned by n-hexane
Apple's annual report says 91 children worked at its suppliers in 2010, and 137 workers were poisoned by n-hexane.
Apple found more than 91 children working at its suppliers last year, nine times as many as the previous year, according to its annual report on its manufacturers.
The US company has also acknowledged for the first time that 137 workers were poisoned at a Chinese firm making its products and said less than a third of the facilities it audited were complying with its code on working hours.
Apple usually refuses to comment on which firms make its goods, but came under increased scrutiny last year following multiple suicides at electronics giant Foxconn, one of its main suppliers.
Last month, anti-pollution activists accused the firm of being more secretive about its supply chain in China than almost all of its rivals.
The report says Apple found 91 children working at 10 facilities. The previous year it found 11 at three workplaces.
It ordered most to pay the children's education costs but fired one contractor which was using 42 minors and had "chosen to overlook the issue", the company said. It also reported the vocational school that had arranged the employment to the authorities for falsifying student IDs and threatening retaliation against pupils who revealed their ages.
Apple said it had strengthened its checks on age because of concerns about the falsification of ages by such schools and labour agencies. It also audited 127 facilities last year, mostly for the first time, compared with 102 in 2009.
The report shows a marked decrease in compliance on working hour requirements of a maximum 60-hour week with one day off. In 2009, only 46% met the standard; last year that fell to 32%.
Only 57% were compliant with its code on preventing working injuries and 70% or fewer met standards on air emissions, managing hazardous substances, and environmental permits and reporting.
But there were some signs of improvement in other areas. Compliance on wages and benefits improved from 65% in 2009 to 70%.
The report also says that 137 workers at a Suzhou supplier were poisoned by n-hexane, a hydrocarbon, last year. Previous reports had indicated 62 employees were affected and Apple had declined to answer repeated queries about the incident.
A spokesperson said it had "provided more transparency" regarding the company and Foxconn given recent concerns.
The report said Apple was "disturbed and deeply saddened" by the Foxconn deaths. Apple's chief operating officer, Tim Cook, and other executives went to Shenzhen to see the facilities and the firm commissioned an independent review of conditions.
"I think it is positive that after such a long delay Apple has finally acknowledged the [n-hexane] problem," said Ma Jun of the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs, one of the organisations that criticised the US firm last month.
But he added: "This report shows that Apple is still not ready to accept public scrutiny ... We have listed the names of some Apple suppliers but there is no mention of them [here]."
Debby Chan, of Hong Kong's Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour campaign, said there was no way for others to monitor the behaviour of suppliers because Apple would not identify them or even say how many it had.
"I regard this report as a means of image-building rather than ensuring compliance with labour rights," she added.
Apple said that immigrant workers in countries such as Malaysia had been reimbursed $3.4m (£2.1m) in "exorbitant" recruitment fees since 2008 thanks to its checks. It has also increased efforts to crack down on the use of potential conflict minerals and expanded social responsibility training.
It is unusual in publishing its audit report and said 40% of the facilities audited last year said Apple was the first company to check them for social responsibility compliance.
The report also said that 99% of facilities met its freedom of association requirements.
But independent unions are not allowed on the Chinese mainland and Geoff Crothall, of Hong Kong's China Labour Bulletin, said: "It is Henry Ford-style freedom of association: You can have any union as long as it is [in] the All-China Federation of Trade Unions."


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Facebook is creating an app for television set-top boxes that would work on the likes of Apple TV, according to the Wall Street Journal.
We have seen a move recently to more platforms trying to replicate the success of Netflix.
For instance, the BBC has said it wants to reinvent its catch-up platform iPlayer by turning it into a more on-demand service. Whole series could soon be able to download before they are aired on traditional TV.
Why has Netflix been so successful?
What started as an on-demand DVD mail service by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in 1997 is now one of the most successful .com ventures in the world. And you can still order DVDs in the post.
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1. It’s profits are climbing
When the platform announced its earnings results for 2016 in January, it revealed a 56 percent rise on profits year-on-year to $67m.
This sent Netflix’s shares up eight per cent in after-hours trading.
2. It knows how to make good shows
High profits mean more original content.
And this is paying off for the platform. At the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, it won four awards: outstanding performance by and ensemble in a drama series for Stranger Things; outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series for Orange Is The New Black; and the acting awards for outstanding performance in a drama series for Claire Foy and John Lithgow in the $130m series, The Crown.
Netflix said it produced 600 hours of original programming in 2016, around 126 original series of films, which was more than any other network or cable channel.
This is set to rise to 1,000 hours this year, so we can expect to see more of those awards coming.
3. It’s available in 190 countries
The universability factor is one thing that keeps Netflix at the top of the list.
It is now available 190 countries, after adding 130 countries to its roster in 2016, and has a global customer base of 93.8m.
More than 5m households subscribe to the streaming service in the UK, and it reaches about 49m people in the US.
4. Offline streaming will make it bigger
An edge that the likes of iPlayer and Sky Go previously had over Netflix was the ability to download content to watch offline.
That has all changed now that the streaming platform introduced this offering to its users in November 2016.
However, it is still only available for certain shows such as original productions like Orange Is The New Black. It might be a while before everything on Netflix is available to watch offline.
5. Films are set to get bigger
When Netflix’s original film The Fundamentals of Caring debuted at Sundance last January, before being released on the platform in June, it was signal that movies are going to be a big part of the agenda – giving the platform increased value.
As part of this year’s roster, we will see films like Bright, featuring Will Smith, Okja which will see Tilda Swinton and Paul Dano team up for an adventure story from South Korean writer-director Bon Joon-Ho and Mute from David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones set in the seedy underworld of a near-future Berlin.
What about the other platforms?
Netflix isn’t the only streaming service out there but it is certainly one of the biggest. How do the other platforms compare against it?
For instance, Amazon Prime Video. There are around 54m Amazon Prime account holders in the US but according to a survey by CutCableToday, almost 20 percent of members say they had never used the video service.
Prime does have big shows like Mr. Robot and Transparent, which have both picked up Golden Globe and Emmy awards. But for some reason, people aren’t accessing these series as much as Netflix users are.
Hulu Plus, which is only available in the US, streams more current-running episodes than Netflix or Prime. However, it only has nine million subscribers, way behind the other two.
And there’s also Sling TV, which like Hulu Plus is only available in the US currently.
This platform, which launched in 2015, was the first multichannel live TV service that could be streamed over the internet. It also offers subscribers the chance to watch on-demand shows too.
Apple is reportedly wants to launch its own Sling-TV like streaming service too, showing that there is definitely interest in this kind of TV-watching. According to a report last February, the service has around 600,000 monthly subscribers after only a year.
Though Netflix’s world domination is set to slow down over the next year, it seems like more good things will come from the service and other platforms, whether that’s social media networks like Facebook or traditional TV like BBC, will seek to replicate its success.


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|President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (centre) visits the Mỹ Tịnh An Dragon Fruit Cooperative in Chợ Gạo District, Cần Thơ Province. — VNA/VNS Photo
TIỀN GIANG — President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Wednesday commended the diversity of the collective economic sector in Tiền Giang Province, which has contributed to local socio-economic development and poverty reduction.
Speaking at a working session with representatives of the Mekong Delta province over the collective economy, Phúc said many successful models have been duplicated and formed a development trend in the locality.
He stressed that along with the State-run economic sector, the collective sector has become a firm foundation of the national economy.
Tiền Giang has seriously implemented Resolution No 13-NQ/CP that is intended to improve the efficiency of the collective economy, and has drastically restructured poor-performing establishments.
However, the President said, Tiền Giang’s socio-economic development, particularly the collective economy, has yet to match its potential, with few big brands and limited participation in value chains.
He urged the province to try to make better use of its advantages, including the proximity to the biggest economic centre of the country that is HCM City, while working to boost smart agriculture and industry in support of agriculture.
It was reported that last year and in the first quarter of this year, 23 new cooperatives were set up in the province, raising the total number to 247 so far with 87,301 members.
The cooperatives have generated jobs for 30,634 labourers, each with a monthly income of around VNĐ6 million (US$262), and posted a combined turnover of VNĐ2.65 trillion.
While in Tiền Giang, President Phúc made a field trip to Mỹ Tịnh An Dragon Fruit Cooperative in Chợ Gạo District, which has operated in line with Global Gap standards. — VNS


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What role does a service station have in selling software subscriptions?
Accounting software company MYOB thinks that the petrol pump can play a big part in making its wares more attractive, by sending information about transactions straight into a general ledger.
Sending transaction data into MYOB is a new trick the company has made possible by inking with prominent vendors. As explained to CRN yesterday by MYOB’s general manager of products David Weickhardt, the company has worked with the likes of plumbing supplies company Reece and service station chain Caltex.
The service works by linking such vendors’ ERP systems to MYOB’s back end. When buyers make a transaction, they can link it to their MYOB implementation and potentially even arrange for client codes to make the journey too. With that data to work with, MYOB thinks it could automate billing – all a tradie’s purchases for a single client or job would appear on an invoice for that cusotmer!
Weickhardt said that kind of automation is appreciated by tradies and by the accountants and book-keepers that make up much of MYOB’s channel, as the latter aspire to advisory services rather than entering data garnered from shoeboxes full of receipts.
MYOB is comfortable it’s cooked up an idea that end-customers and channel alike will admire, but is now turning its attention to promoting the concept. Weickhardt said the company was recently approached by Caltex about how to communicate the offering.
The logic is simple: Caltex wants more MYOB users to fill up at its service stations, because offering the convenience of automated billing will help it sell more stuff. MYOB wants current and potential end-customers to have in-your-face reminders of the convenience its software offers when they shop. Natalie Feehan, MYOB’s executive general manager for marketing and direct sales, told CRN she feels that at-the-pump presence will also translate into “talkabilty” for the company’s products.
The kind of buzz should, in turn, nourish MYOB and its channel. And in a weird way, also make petrol stations, plumbing supplies shops and hardware stores an important part of its overall channel strategy.


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PITTSBURGH Add seven swans, six geese and five golden rings to the list of Christmas gifts that cost more than they did a year ago.
And if you get all 364 items repeated throughout “The Twelve Days of Christmas” carol, you'll pay 6.1 percent more this year, according to the annual Christmas Price Index compiled by PNC Wealth Management.
That comes to $107,300.
“The rise is larger than expected considering the modest economic growth we've had,” said Jim Dunigan, managing executive of investments for PNC. He noted the government's Consumer Price Index rose 2 percent in the 12 months before September.
Thrifty shoppers may find some reasons for cheer. Six items mentioned in the song haven't gone up in price: maids-a-milking, ladies dancing, lords-a-leaping, calling birds, turtle doves and the partridge. The eight maids-a-milking still cost just $58 because the minimum wage hasn't risen.
Dunigan said the 2011 drought caused the prices of some birds to soar, partly because of corn and other feed costs.
“The geese were up 29.6 percent, and swans were up 11 percent,” Dunigan said.
The $15 partridge is the cheapest item, and swans the most expensive, at $1,000 each.
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A GRAND masquerade ball and auction is being held next month to celebrate a South Cheshire family support charity’s 10th anniversary.
Crewe-based Home Start, which improves children’s life chances by supporting their parents and carers at difficult times, has provided a lifeline for families since 1998.
To mark the milestone a masquerade ball and auction will be held at Crewe Hall on November 14. Organisers are hoping the event will coin in up to £5,000 for the charity and people are invited to buy tickets.
Home Start organiser Sue Jacevicius said: “It would be great if people could come and join us to celebrate this special occasion and help raise much-needed funds.”
Tickets are priced at £45, which includes a drink on arrival, three-course meal, a live band, disco and auction with top lots including a weekend for two in Paris
There are 150 tickets available for the event, phone Home Start on 01270 252719.


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“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop ISP’s from breaching customers privacy via advertising technologies.”
Details of Petition:
“We petition the Prime Minister to investigate the Phorm technology and if found to breach UK or European privacy laws then ban all ISP’s from adopting it’s use. Additionally the privacy laws should be reviewed to cover any future technologies such as Phorm The UK’s three largest ISP’s, Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk are all in talks with a view to introducing the Phorm technology. This would result in the browsing habits of the
Thank you for the e-petition on internet advertising technologies and customer privacy.
As your petition states, some Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have been looking at the use of Phorm’s Webwise and Open Internet Exchange (OIX) products. However, the only use of the technology so far has been the trials conducted by BT.
Advertisers and ISPs need to ensure that they comply with all relevant data protection and privacy laws. It is also important that consumers’ privacy is protected and that they are given sufficient information and opportunity to make a clear and informed decision whether to participate in services such as Phorm.
Phorm, formerly known as 121Media, is a Delaware, United States-based digital technology company known for its advertising software. Founded in 2002, the company originally distributed programs that were considered spyware, from which they made millions of dollars in revenue. It has since stopped distributing those programs after complaints from groups in the United States and Canada, and announced it was talking with several United Kingdom Internet service providers (ISPs) to deliver targeted advertising based on the websites that users visit.


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Google's voice search feature now supports 8 more Indian languages
Google now supports voice search for 119 languages.
In order to help users search for content online by simply speaking into their Android phones,
Tech giant Google has now added voice search capability for eight additional Indian languages.
Currently, in India, the voice search feature in Google is available in English and Hindi only. However, the search feature will now get other languages like Gujarati, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Tamil as well.
"Globally, we now support voice search for 119 languages. We are introducing support for 30 new languages today, of which eight are Indian languages," Google Technical Program, Manager Daan van Esch told the press. "Starting today, speakers of these languages will be able to use their voice to dictate queries -- both in Gboard on Android as well as in Search through the Google App."
In order to perform a voice-based search, users will need to set their language in the voice settings menu in the Google app. Users can just tap the microphone icon (usually on the home screen of Android smartphones) to start a voice search.
Lately, Google has been ramping support for Indian languages across its various products like Maps and Search. This might particularly be due to a large number of the new users coming online are Indic language users.
Esch described that Google has worked with native speakers to collect speech samples. Further according to him machine learning models were trained to understand the various sounds and words, thus translating words from sound to text in the process. "Voice input for each of these languages is expected to get better over time, as more and more native speakers use the product," he added.
Earlier this year, Google announced the launch of new products and features to help create more language content and address the needs of new users coming online. So this move basically comes as many users prefer to use voice to dictate a message as it is convenient and also faster than typing.
Meanwhile, a report by Google-KPMG states that an estimated 536 million Indians are expected to use regional languages while remaining online by 2021 as compared to about 199 million users who are expected to access the web in English. This growth will be driven by increasing affordability of devices and data charges as well as the availability of more local content, the report noted.
Interestingly, the report has also pointed that apart from Hindi, Marathi and Bengali users are expected to drive volume growth, while Tamil, Kannada, and Telugu users are expected to be among the most digitally engaged through 2016 to 2021.
"Voice search in these new languages will be available in Google Search on iOS as well. These will soon be extended to other Google apps and products, including the Translate app," the company said.


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The next game from Cliff Bleszinski and his new studio, Boss Key Productions, will be a free-to-play science fiction shooter for PC, provisionally called "BlueStreak," the designer said on Twitter this afternoon. The game will be published by Nexon.
Bleszinski had been hinting for a week he had news to share of his next game project. This news is not so much of a shocker; in December, he said he wanted to make a first-person arena shooter. "It will be a PC experience that will hearken back to a certain type of game that we cut our teeth on, if you know what I'm saying," he told the podcast Pointless.
Details are forthcoming, but gamers shouldn't expect "a fake CG trailer showing "Gameplay" because that's not how @bosskey does it," Bleszinski added on Twitter.
Full disclosure: Cliff Bleszinski's brother, Tyler Bleszinski, is the founder of Polygon sister site and Vox Media progenitor SB Nation.


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WASHINGTON — The U.S. Association of Importers of Textiles & Apparel, defending a lawsuit that challenges the government’s authority to impose certain quotas on China, argued in court papers that the statements of three top Bush administration officials were “irrelevant and improper.”
In a response filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, USA-ITA lawyers said the written remarks by Grant Aldonas, undersecretary for international trade at the Commerce Department; Josette Sheeran Shiner, deputy U.S. trade representative, and John B. Taylor, undersecretary for international affairs of the Treasury Department, should be stricken from the record on grounds they are an “irrelevant and improper presentation of new evidence on appeal.”
USA-ITA lawyers said the Court of International Trade in Manhattan, which is considering the suit, did not “abuse its discretion” in issuing a preliminary injunction barring the government from considering or accepting the threat-based China safeguard petitions.
Justice Department lawyers argued in the appeal that the trade court erred on several key issues in determining to impose an injunction. The government also has argued that USA-ITA does not have the right to challenge the government’s deliberations and the trade court does not have jurisdiction to consider the lawsuit. The government also said the federal interagency Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements is exempt from the procedural requirements of the federal Administrative Procedures Act because its decisions involve foreign policy.
The legal tug-of-war being played out in courtrooms in New York and Washington stems from an action brought by the USA-ITA, which sued five federal agencies in the Court of International Trade in Manhattan on Dec. 1. The group alleged that the government violated its own published regulations, as well as the Administrative Procedures Act, when it agreed to accept safeguard petitions based on the threat of market disruption because of expected surges of Chinese apparel and textile imports.
There are two pending decisions: the government’s motion to dismiss the entire lawsuit before the trade court, and the government’s motion at the Court of Appeals to stay the injunction. At the center of the debate is a safeguard mechanism to which China agreed when it joined the World Trade Organization, which allows an importing nation to impose one-year quotas when it determines Chinese textiles and apparel exports are threatening to cause or are causing market disruption.
"I think that all anyone really wants in life is to have people understand us for who we actually are, despite everything," says Ruth Negga. The actress talks "Preachers" season 2 and more on WWD.com. #wwdeye (📷: Dan Doperalski)
"That's something that resonates with me too because I'm so locked into a number. If I go over that number it completely ruins my day so it's nice to get detached from the number on the scale." - Chelsea Handler on Kelly LeVeque's book "Body Love." #wwdeye (📷: John Salangsang)


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Lifelogger Technologies Corp (OTCMKTS:LOGG) is one of the highly traded OTC companies in past few months. Its stock price first gained in last October and touched $0.70 a share and then plunged below $0.4 in January 2015. On Friday’s trading session, LOGG stock prices jumped 1.94% to close at $0.550.
Lifelogger Technologies can be termed as a rising wearable video and software firm. As the company states, it is creating an innovative product which can click, access and save life’s memories made possible through true POV ‘wearable’ video camera. Lifelogger states that is in the completion process of the hardware design. It is working with a prominent firm that operates in the market of consumer electronics cameras.
The change in technology
The production of its lead product is expected to begin in 1Q2015. There is a need to transform the existing cloud based platform into a new advanced platform that will showcase all the features including social sharing, 3D video timeline, Face detection, video stabilization, live streaming, OCR, Custom in video tags, voice detection, Geo tagging and many more.
The financial highlights
As per the last 10Q submitted in November, Lifelogger Technologies Corp (OTCMKTS:LOGG) have less than $250,000 in the reserves. The market of wearable camera devices has grown in past few years with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Glass Initiative and GoPro Inc (NASDAQ:GPRO) products. The later company is one of the rising names in the wearable cameras market. The company made a strong debut on NASDAQ platform with stock prices surging to $100 per share for IPO price of $28.65.
The product highlights
The new wearable camera offering of Lifelogger is supposed to have several advanced features. The device can be used in support with any Android and IOS devices, and connect with the cloud-based software. The future is of technology firms and Lifelogger aims to become a key part of the growing industry.


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According to the source, Huawei’s CEO has confirmed that the company’s Emotion UI (EMUI) 6 skin will ship on top of Android 8.0, this goes for both Huawei and Honor-branded smartphones. This was to be expected considering that Emotion UI 5 came pre-installed on Huawei’s and Honor’s Android Nougat-based smartphones. Now, in addition to that, the source also claims that EMUI 6 will offer enhanced user experience compared to EMUI 5, which will be quite a feat considering that both EMUI 5.0 and EMUI 5.1 run really smooth on pretty much every Huawei and Honor-branded phone that currently runs either of those versions of Emotion UI.
The source claims that Yu Chengdong, Huawei’s CEO, confirmed this news during his speech at the 2017 China Internet Conference which was held in Beijing. He also added that the company is already working on Android 8.0 update for its devices, just so that the company can push it out as soon as possible. Mr. Chengdong also said that EMUI 6 will be smoother than MIUI 5, though he did not talk about any specifics, nor did he share a single feature that will come with Emotion UI 6. EMUI 5 actually packs in a ton of features from stock version of Android Nougat, so we’re expecting EMUI 6 to resemble EMUI 5 to a degree, but to come with some new features that will be introduced in the final version of Android 8.0 aka Android O.
Google had released several developer previews for its upcoming version of Android, and we have a pretty good idea as to what to expect. Google has refined the notification shade even more, and will give you some new options to go along with changes they’ve announced in previous versions of Android, while the company also worked on improving battery consumption of the whole OS. Android O will basically be a refinement of Android Nougat, so EMUI 6 will probably be the same for EMUI 5, but we’ll see. Final build of Android O aka Android 8.0, is expected to arrive in the near future, as Google will probably release it before Google Pixel 2 device(s) even launch, so it is possible that some Huawei-branded handsets will get EMUI 6 update before the end of this year, though Mr. Chengdong did not confirm that just yet.


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Users have put in the open a bug in Android that is crashing the Os after setting a certain image as the wallpaper. The issue was first reported on Twitter, and the bug has since been verified by 9to5Google and Android Authority
Never set this picture as wallpaper, especially for Samsung mobile phone users!
It will cause your phone to crash!
Don't try it!
If someone sends you this picture, please ignore it. pic.twitter.com/rVbozJdhkL
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) May 31, 2020
According to several users on Reddit and Twitter, as well as Partha Sarathi Tripathy in our comments section, the issue is caused by the color profile of the image, which exceeds the bounds of what Android can handle, causing a crash.
Devices from Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Nokia, Xiaomi are affected.
Setting the photo as your wallpaper causes a handset’s screen to immediately start turning on and off, making it unusable. Rebooting a phone won’t fix the issue. You will have to restart your phone into safe mode and delete the image file as a potential fix.
While the issue affects up-to-date phones running Android 10, it’s not actually new. Users have been reporting similar problems for a couple of years.
Experts say the main issue is that “SystemUI only handles sRGB images for the wallpaper and doesn’t have any check against non-sRGB wallpapers. This can lead to a particular crash in the ImageProcessHelper class” this then leads to the soft brick. Read more


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- For abonnenter
Shoppers Need a Reason to Go to Your Store — Other Than Buying Stuff
The holiday season highlights the increasingly intense battle between physical stores and online websites. Given the large number of casualties this year — from Toys R Us to RadioShack — retailers must finally wake up to the core terrain over which they’re fighting: customers’ time.
Online retailers offer consumers time well-saved.


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WASHINGTON — A federal judge is siding with public health groups suing the Food and Drug Administration to begin reviewing thousands of e-cigarettes on the U.S. market.
The ruling handed down Wednesday in district court states that the agency shirked its legal duty when it postponed reviewing all U.S. vaping products by several years.
tap here to see other videos from our team.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups filed the federal lawsuit in Maryland last year. The groups say the lack of FDA oversight has led to an explosion in underage vaping by teenagers, threatening to hook a generation of Americans on nicotine.
“It is now the FDA’s responsibility to take immediate action to protect our kids and require manufacturers to apply to the FDA if they want to keep their products on the market,” the groups said in a statement.
E-cigarettes are nicotine-emitting devices that have grown into a multibillion-dollar industry in the U.S. despite little research on their long-term health effects, including whether they are useful in helping smokers quit cigarettes.


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Is Thutmose on your radar? If not, you’re sleeping! The steadily rising rapper caught our attention back in 2017, and he’s been delivering a consistent output of quality music since. Today marks the release of his brand new Don’t Wake Me EP, and it’s another display of Thutmose’s brilliant versatility.
This particular release focuses on Thut’s more R&B-inspired sound. While Thutmose is fully capable of flexing on us his with bangers, Don’t Wake Me reveals a more warmhearted, sensitive side of his creativity.
Stream the brand new EP below from Thutmose and enjoy!


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‘Upcycling’: Growing Trend in Aviation
Taking aircraft materials from trash to fresh and waste to worth, airlines around the world have come up with their own creative ideas to deal with discarded aircraft parts.
Creative artworks, lifestyle furniture and backpacks – who knew that one day, all these items will be created from old aircraft parts. Over the past decade, it seems that a new trend has taken off in the aviation industry. Instead of recycling or discarding materials, several airlines have joined the initiative to ‘upcycle’ various old items of the aircraft.
This growing practice has been referred by some as “breathing life into aircraft parts”. Not only is it eco-friendly and sustainable, but it also allows customers to experience a part of the airline, like a merchandise.
During 2011, IATA identified that recycling discarded models of aircrafts has become a crucial issue. According to Aircraft Fleet Recycling Association (2011), up to 12,000 aircraft could be scrapped in the next 20 years. Back then, up to 85% of the aircraft was recycled.
While we see many airlines making it to international headlines on this topic, the creativity of these carriers have been extremely impressive.
Most recently, Etihad Airways announced its partnership with local artists to transform useless old plane parts into material for new works. These parts include carpet and fabric rolls, emergency equipment, sidewalls and windows, and Economy and Business class seats- all of which were used to design art installations for the airline. “By collaborating with artists from the local community, our goal is to not only showcase talent within the region, but to further encourage sustainable innovation that’s good for the environment,” said Terry Daly, Executive Director Guest Experience, Brand & Marketing.
In 2019, Lufthansa, the largest German airline unveiled its ‘upcyling collection’, a series of lifestyle accessories and home furniture made from scrap airplane parts. “Each upcycled product preserves something of the spirit of D-AIPA, taking Lufthansa style and the history of the legendary Airbus A320 into the future,” said the airline. The airline’s newly launched collection allows aviation fans to own a part of a Luftsana Airbus A320, through designer items like the Slat table lamps made from an actual slat of an aircraft, and the wall clock made from an aircraft’s window.
Another airline, Delta, one of the major airlines of the United States gives people the chance to “own a piece of Delta history”. The airline had come up with the idea to donate retired uniforms to people in need, recycled or transformed into new, upcycled products through Delta’s partnership with Looptworks. Their new collection of upcycled goods includes backpacks, travel kits, passport covers, other bags and accessories.
Back in 2017, “intrapernuers” Anaïs Mazaleyrat and Jérémy Brousseau identified a market for products based on Airbus parts targeted for aviation fans. The duo founded an online shop “A Piece of Sky”, where a selection of armchairs, coffee tables and lamps, all made out of Airbus parts were up for grabs.
There are more on this list: Boeing partnered with American manufacturer of sports equipment Russell Brands to give life to carbon fiber by turning them to sports gear and Southwest Airlines transformed their leather seats into shoes and soccer balls.


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Tweet, tweet, pass: Twitter unlocks a budding verbalize opportunity for cannabis startups
Hashish startups hold to navigate some rough waters: They can’t accumulate entry to federal funds or work with ancient banks, and so that they’ve to catch customers across a fragmented market while adhering to native legal guidelines. But in any case on the selling front, a brand unique Twitter update would perchance well signal soft crusing forward.
Twitter up to this level its selling guidelines to enable cannabis companies — including those selling merchandise containing THC and CBD, as smartly as to linked equipment — to advertise on the platform below a strict space of guidelines in states where those merchandise are upright. Twitter is the principle necessary social media firm to enable these companies to advertise.
Twitter’s selling substitute has been hit tough since Elon Musk took over closing year. It’s no shock, then, that the firm is attempting to diversify its income funnels. Multiple cannabis companies told TechCrunch that this would possibly be huge for the industry that has except now been locked out of the discontinuance selling channels.


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New York Atty. Gen. Eric T. Schneiderman is launching an investigation into price gouging in the wake of Hurricane Sandy after receiving hundreds of recent complaints from consumers paying exorbitant amounts for gasoline, food, batteries and other necessities.
Reports of long lines at gas stations, pumped-up prices for hotel rooms and $10 bottled water have run rampant in the aftermath of the super storm.
Schneiderman also said that the costs of generators, food and even taxi rides have surged.
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New York law prohibits “unconscionably excessive price” during an “abnormal disruption of the market,” according to Schneiderman.
Before Sandy made landfall, the attorney general had issued an open letter to vendors across the state warning them that price inflation of necessary goods and services during a crisis is illegal.
"Our office has zero tolerance for price gouging," he said.


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Forget Tinder, Grindr otherwise Rely: A community municipal government inside the northern China’s Hebei province are building a database regarding singles kissbrides.com you could try this out in the city out of Luanzhou to help you enable them to fits with their finest big date.
This new group assistant of your town of Luanzhou revealed Friday one the new municipal regulators is mapping investigation towards city’s single women and you can boys, and also delivered a form one asks solitary teenagers so you can create regulators structured-dating factors, according to Paper, an excellent Chinese digital papers which is administered of the Shanghai Panel away from the newest Chinese Communist People. Luanzhou’s certain local government providers must collect personal information regarding the unmarried youthfulness, along with its intercourse, profession, financial status and relatives background, in order to improve the brand new databases.
The local formal including revealed that the metropolis had stepped up the trouble in the fits-and then make having civil servants and you may workers on condition-owned enterprises by the holding two classification dating functions this season. And also the bodies often host an added digital dating people on the the last day of 2021 through the small-clips platform Douyin, brand new Chinese new from TikTok.
Cellular gaming’s stunning slump was dragging down the video game industry
Cellular games money often refuse the very first time in history this season, researching the market agency Newzoo now says in a revised outlook having the fresh new 2022 globally games age industry is expected to price of the 4.3% – some other very first while the Newzoo began recording the brand new – the firm try forecasting a great 6.4% e spending on better away from an excellent 4.2% elizabeth purchasing.
Into Get, Newzoo try predicting annually from progress towards game industry, having its outlook predicting over $200 mil inside globally online game globe expenses using a practically 6% rise in the new mobile betting industry to a $103.5 billion. But come early july, just like the warning signs came up concerning outcomes of rising cost of living and you may an effective really serious downturn regarding electronic adverts field, analysts and you can sector scientists started initially to assume a great unprecedented grew at the staggering prices because of too-much shelling out for and you will day invested to try out video games. Specifically, mobile playing refused in the first 1 / 2 of the entire year getting initially ever.
Mobile playing enjoys typically offset the losings during the console and you will Desktop computer betting possesses started the biggest and you can quickest-increasing markets in the business for a long time. However, this year’s refuse age spend about U.S. will continue to decline as the users compete with one another monetary uncertainties and you can another type of article-pandemic typical,” said Alarm Tower gambling understanding direct Dennis Yeh last week. “Since there is however an effective elizabeth funds usually go beyond 2021 levels, worsening headwinds keeps firmly managed to move on this new talk away from the concern away from by the simply how much.”
An excellent confluence away from circumstances has generated an exceptionally tough time for game developers, and not soleley cellular of them. For starters, people are spending less for the betting due to rising prices enhancing the price of informal goods. Enough high-profile system and Desktop computer video game have experienced waits this season, creating a return to development in 2023.
An effective Chinese area try carrying out a federal government-paid ‘Tinder’
“Some of the people of your own decline through the get back off experiential purchasing, highest pricing from inside the relaxed purchasing categories such as for instance food and power, the fresh unclear supply of online game console equipment and you may specific jewelry instance gamepads, and a less heavy launch record from games, yet others,” explained NPD video game director Pad Piscatella back into elizabeth sector.
On top of that, the latest digital ads parece rely for revenue is additionally which have a good tough seasons, partly while the Ios privacy changes have actually made it far more tough to song the effectiveness of the new created adverts by which many mobile builders one another to get new registered users and also generate income off their app companies. (Of numerous mobile online game make it players to earn electronic money by the enjoying ads prompting them to put up competing online game.)


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Could the EV maker pose a threat to traditional truck companies?
After an arduous journey filled with delays and empty promises, the Tesla Semi has finally entered production. At the time, little was known about Musk's latest product, save for the fact that the first examples will head to PepsiCo on December 1. The beverage corporation is just one of several blue chip customers that have placed orders for the Semi.
But at the company's third-quarter earnings call, Elon Musk unveiled some interesting tidbits about the Semi. Most importantly, Tesla aims to increase Semi production and has shared a goal for 2024. "We will be ramping up Semi production through next year...we're tentatively aiming for 50,000 units in 2024 in North America," said Musk.
The outspoken CEO was reticent to give an exact figure for the Semi, but said it costs "a lot more than a passenger vehicle...a few heavy trucks of this nature would be worth several Model Ys," he added. While 50,000 doesn't sound like that big of a number, it's very impressive when you consider the American semi-truck market.
According to Statista's latest figures, Peterbilt dominates the Class 8 truck market, and, in 2020, the company sold nearly 72,000 vehicles in America alone. In 2019, that figure was higher still, at just over 100,000 units. Given the immense interest in the Tesla Semi, Musk is clearly confident his electric hauler can make a dent in this segment.
Frankly, we'd be surprised if it doesn't. The Semi may be an entirely new way of hauling things and, yes, electric power does mean drivers would have to stop and charge. But, fleet managers will quickly forget about these drawbacks once they realize the savings to be had.
Tesla claims that in just three years, operators will save up to $200,000 in fuel bills. What's more, fewer moving parts means cheaper and less frequent maintenance. It's not like charging the big Tesla will be a pain, either. The company claims a range of up to 500 miles and says the Semi can get 70% of its range back with just a 30-minute charge.
Hopefully, the Semi has spurred the Tesla team to finish development work on the constantly delayed Cybertruck (which Musk made some bizarre promises about) and the long-awaited Roadster replacement. The automaker says the former will arrive as soon as next year, a whopping five years after it was first unveiled to the public.
In the meantime, expect to see the Semi hauling goods up and down America's interstates. It should be quite a sight to see, with that slippery body and futuristic design. Hopefully, they prove reliable - we've already spotted a broken-down pre-production model, which isn't exactly a good look for the new truck.


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There's a new nighttime event coming to Dublin Zoo and it sounds amazing
We cannot wait for this.
Looking for something to quell the boredom (and the coldness) of those long, Winter nights ahead of us?
As it turns out, you won't need to look further than Dublin Zoo because they've only gone and announced the details of a special nighttime event set to launch in November.
And it sounds incredible.
'Wild Lights' is described as a "magical night-time spectacular event" that includes illuminated sculptures and giant colourful lanterns - inspired by all things wildlife and nighttime.
According to Dublin Zoo, attendees will...
"Follow the enchanted trail where you will discover the dazzling array of beautifully crafted giant silk lanterns, then be wowed by the Chinese performers and Chinese craft market while enjoying Chinese foods and warm drinks."
And judging by some of the images, we do not want to miss this.
'Wild Lights' will run from November 3, 2017 to January 7, 2018, and promises to be a "truly unforgettable experience."
Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am and must be pre-booked to gain entry to the event.
They'll set you back €20 per adult and €15 per child.


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In an age of streaming media, we're still a culture of digital hoarders.
That may partly explain why on Tuesday, Apple introduced an iPad with 128 gigabytes of storage capacity, twice as much as any previous model.
But will the average tablet owner need that much space?
For casual users, tablets are media-consumption devices. We use them to watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, play games and read books and magazines. All those files take up memory on your internal hard drive.
Today's high-resolution photos and videos are increasingly hogging storage, too. It's easy to see how someone with a lot of downloaded files might eventually run out of room on a 64GB tablet.
But 128 gigabytes? That's the equivalent of about 100 DVD-quality movies, 30 Blu-ray movies, 30,000 songs or 40,000 photos, according to this graphic by a computer store in the United Kingdom.
Everything else about the iPad announced Tuesday is the same as the current fourth-generation models: a 9.7-inch Retina display, a dual-core A6X processor, a FaceTime HD camera, 2 gigabtyes of RAM and an estimated 10 hours of battery life.
So the new device, which goes on sale February 5, is all about giving users more storage space.
That's why Apple is targeting the 128GB iPad at professional users such as architects, doctors or audio engineers, who often work with large files (and can afford pricey gadgets).
"Companies regularly utilizing large amounts of data such as 3D CAD files, X-rays, film edits, music tracks, project blueprints, training videos and service manuals all benefit from having a greater choice of storage options for iPad," Apple said in a news release announcing the new iPad.


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The Happiest Place on Earth may soon be welcoming visitors again. On Wednesday, Disney CEO Bob Chapek announced that Shanghai Disneyland will reopen on May 11. Following the announcement, Disney Parks Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pamela Hymel shared new plans Disney is exploring for reopening its US locations, which closed indefinitely in March.
One of the new safety measures is phased reopening. This means Disney will begin by gradually and partially reopening certain locations, meaning retail and dining areas will likely open before theme parks.
If you've ever been to a Disney theme park, especially during peak days, you know how packed it can get and how crucial FastPasses are. On a normal day at Disneyland, park attendance is 65,000 people, according to Walt Disney Imagineering director Kim Irvine. So physical distancing and capacity measures are major focuses as Disney prepares to reopen. Dr. Hymel says that Disney will implement physical distancing guidelines based on guidance from health authorities, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and appropriate government agencies.
The new measures will likely include a guest capacity based on state and federal guidelines. Disney is also exploring ways technology can help with social distancingexperiments in this arena include using virtual queues at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Other new measures include increased cleaning of high traffic areas. Disney will follow guidelines from the medical community and the government for enhanced screening procedures and prevention measures; this means guests will likely need face coverings. Disney Parks have already implemented new measures such as installing hand sanitizers and hand washing stations. Disney is also planning on providing new training for cast members.
While Disneyland and Disney World are accepting reservations starting June 1, there still isn't an official reopening date for either park. Overall, Disney has been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic. According to the Associated Press, its second quarter profit dropped 91 percent, and the company said its costs from the pandemic cut its pretax profit by $1.4 billion.
Shanghai Disneyland has sold out all tickets for May 11. The theme park said that all tickets were snapped up in a matter of minutes after sales commenced at 8 am on Friday.
Advance ticketing and reservations are required to enter the park during the initial phase of reopening. The park has not officially announced the number of visitors allowed at this stage. Bob Chapek said on Wednesday that it will start running at a capacity far below the government's suggested cap of around 24,000 visitors.
The park said that it will introduce a bevy of measures including social distancing, mask wearing and enhanced disinfection to ensure the safety of visitors.


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Australian mining firm Northern Minerals (NM) has concluded a long-term offtake agreement for heavy rare earth carbonate from its Browns Range pilot plant with the trading arm of German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp.
"Northern Minerals is one of the few suppliers of rare earths outside China," Thyssenkrupp Materials Trading chief executive Wolfgang Schnittker said. The dysprosium-rich Browns Range mining project in western Australia sent its first shipment of heavy mixed rare earth carbonate in December 2018 and is targeting production of 1,200 t/yr from its pilot plant.
The agreement with Thyssenkrupp is for 100pc of the offtake, including stockpiled material, and includes flexibility for NM to supply heavy rare earths as separated products.
The new deal replaces an offtake agreement with China's Lianyugang Zeyu New Materials, which has been terminated.
Heavy rare earths dysprosium and terbium are needed in the production of high-performance rare earth magnets, which are used in consumer electronics, electric vehicle engines and other automotive applications.
"With this shift [to electric vehicles], both car and component makers are accelerating plans to invest further down the production chain in order to secure surety of supply," NM chief executive George Bauk said.