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NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is bringing its speedy delivery to Whole Foods.
The online retail giant plans to roll out two-hour delivery at the organic grocer this year to those who pay for Amazon’s $99-a-year Prime membership. It is the company’s biggest — and most expected — move since it bought the organic grocer last year.
Right after taking over Whole Foods, Amazon made a splash by cutting prices on bananas, yogurt and other items. It also began selling Kindle e-readers in some of its 470 stores, and started selling Whole Foods-branded food on its site.
But rivals have been preparing for the day Amazon would expand grocery delivery at Whole Foods.
Walmart, the country’s largest grocer, is making it easier for customers to order groceries online and pick them up at the store. Target bought grocery-delivery company Shipt late last year. Kroger, the nation’s largest supermarket chain, has been promoting store pickup for online orders and doing trials of home delivery.
In fact, Shipt and Target Corp. also announced Feb. 8, that they too will begin offering same-day delivery of more than 55,000 groceries, essentials, home, electronics, toys and other products across twelve Southwest cities, including the Dallas, Fort Worth area.
“Same-day delivery was at the top of our list when we were thinking about ways to make shopping at Target even easier,” John Mulligan, Target executive VP and COO, said in a news release. “Shipt’s personalized, customer-focused approach fits perfectly with our commitment to deliver a convenient, exceptional experience and we’re excited to begin offering same-day service in the Southwest.”
According to the release, beginning Feb. 15, Shipt will deliver from Target stores in the following metro areas:
Texas: Austin, College Station, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, greater Houston, Killeen, Temple, and greater San Antonio
Arizona: Phoenix metropolitan area
Oklahoma: Oklahoma City, Tulsa
Amazon offers free two-hour delivery through Prime Now from select Whole Foods Market stores, including the new Fort Worth store. The company says customers can go to www.primenow.com or download the Prime Now app, to enter their zip code to determine if they are in the delivery area. Customers who are not in the current delivery area can sign-up to be notified when the service is available in their area.
One of the biggest hurdles for the growth of grocery delivery is that many people want to pick out their own eggs or fruit, said Darren Seifer, a food and beverage industry analyst at NPD Group.
“There are always going to be people who want their bananas a little green,” he said.
Amazon.com Inc. said deliveries started Thursday in Austin, Texas; Cincinnati; Dallas; and Virginia Beach, Virginia. The service will expand nationwide this year.
Shoppers will be able to order meat, seafood and other grocery items through Amazon’s Prime Now app and website. Items will be pulled from Whole Foods stores, bagged and then delivered by Amazon drivers. Amazon, based in Seattle, said there’s no extra fee for two-hour deliveries above $35, but one-hour delivery will cost $8.
Whole Foods already offers delivery in some cities through a partnership with delivery service Instacart, which will continue. – FWBP Staff contributed to this report.


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Since their inception, cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technologies have been touted by their promoters as both secure and anonymous. Unfortunately, as a number of recent breaches by hackers into blockchain-based cryptocurrency exchanges have shown, this is not the case.
Blockchain technology, which relies upon a decentralized control system, as opposed to a centralized electronic money or centralized banking system, serves as the heart of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. In a blockchain system, the transaction can be validated and secured without the presence of trusted intermediary parties, with the security due to the fact the blockchains are designed to be inherently resistant to modification of data.
However, there have been some glaring examples of blockchain breaches by hackers, resulting in the theft of millions of dollars of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Most recently, in January 2018, in the single largest incident to date, hackers stole over US$530 million of the XEM token belonging to 260,000 customers from Coincheck, a Japanese cryptocurrency exchange and wallet service.
Key to the relative ease that the hackers breached Coincheck’s defenses was that the XEM tokens were stored in hot wallets directly connected to external networks. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin perceived by Coincheck as being more valuable were stored in cold wallets, which are typically removable media such as USB drives or other external hard drives and are securely stored offsite.
The Coincheck attack participated a shake-up within the Japanese crypto sector. The Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA), which had begun regulating and licensing cryptocurrency-related business in 2017, launched onsite inspections of the country’s 15 unlicensed cryptocurrency exchanges. The FSA has handed out business improvement notices to Coincheck and six other crypto firms and issued temporary cease trade orders to two more. Coincheck which had begun business 2014 and operated on an unlicensed basis, has since said it will apply for licensing under the FSA. The exchange is currently the target of two class-action suits by cryptocurrency traders who lost tokens in the attack.
For more information, please call Barbara Hendrickson at BAX Securities Law (416) 601 -1004.
This publication is not intended to constitute legal advice. No one should act on it or refrain from acting on it without consulting with a lawyer. BAX does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy or currency or completeness of the publication. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior written permission of BAX Securities Law.

domain: news


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GJSCI to hold first India Jewellery Excellence Symposium in Mumbai
today Nov 25, 2019
The Gem and Jewellery Skill Council of India will hold its first ever India Jewellery Excellence Symposium in Mumbai from January 8 to 9, 2020. The conclave will include 22 seminars on the jewellery industry.
The upcoming IJES will bring together Indian and international gem and jewellery experts to discuss technological advances in the industry and present on manufacturing and business best practices, the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council announced on its website. The event will be adapted from the Santa Fe Symposium and aims to carry on its legacy as it closes its event after 24 years.
“We believe that knowledge is important, and we aim to up-skill the manufacturing processes and train our people so that India can eventually start supplying to top global brands,” the GJSCI’s chairman Sanjay Kothari said, reported by the GJEPC. “We need to up our game and be globally competitive. Our ultimate goal is to see India flourish.”
Topics that will be covered over the course of the event include blockchain, human resources practices, technological innovations, and Six Sigma methodology. The event will also facilitate on-on-one sessions to allow businesses to speak with industry experts. Each participating business will be allowed to bring five delegates and attend seminars.
After the events concludes, a book will be released to document the collected data from the conclave. The event also aims to promote the government’s “Make in India” and “Skill India” initiatives which seek to increase domestic production and exports.
Copyright © 2019 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.


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The global vehicle manufacturer Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V.(FCA) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary FCA Italy S.p.A and other Italian companies in the FCA Group has signed a 3-year, $7.1 billion credit facility with Italys largest banking group Intesa Sanpaolo.
- The facility will be 80% guaranteed by SACE, Italys Export Credit Agency, under the Italian Governments Liquidity Decree, as overseen by the Ministry of Economy and Finance – MEF, and the Ministry of Economic Development MISE.
- The funds under the facility will be available upon issuance of the SACE guarantee.
- The proceeds will be dedicated exclusively to FCAs activities in Italy and to support the more than 10,000 small and medium enterprises that make up the Italian automotive sector. The facility will be guaranteed by FCA N.V.
The prominent deals and expansions by FCA and Maserati are mentioned below:
March 2020: FIAT Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) announced that it will invest $400 million to transform an idled transmission plant in Kokomo, Indiana, to build the GMET4 engine. FCAs 2.0-liter Global Medium Engine inline four-cylinder turbo is currently offered on the Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Cherokee of the company.
February 2020: Italian luxury brand Maserati has announced an investment of $1.29 billion for hybrid and EV program, which includes electrification and autonomous driving technologies. Maserati announces that the GranTurismo and GranCabrio models will be manufactured in Mirafiori. The hybrid Ghibli is scheduled for release this year, while the electric GranTurismo and GranCabrio are set to commence production in 2021.
December 2019: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot S.A. have signed a 50/50 merger agreement of their businesses to create the 4th largest global automotive OEM by volume and 3rd largest by revenue.
November 2019: Maserati has announced an Innovation Lab, located on via Emilia Ovest in Modena, Italy. The Maserati Innovation Lab is a state-of-the-art facility where the cars of today and tomorrow are developed.
October 2019: FCA announced that it plans to build a new Battery Hub at Mirafiori complex in Turin, Italy, as part of its overall e-mobility strategy. The new assembly center will be created in a specially designed building, with the potential to expand in the future.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) a London based World’s leading automobile manufacturer. The company designs, manufactures, engineers, and sells vehicles and related parts, services, and production systems globally. The FCA operates around 102 manufacturing facilities and about 46 R&D centers worldwide.
The Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has dealers and distributors network in approximately 140 countries of the world. It provides job opportunities to approximately 200,000 people worldwide. The company’s automotive brands include Abarth, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat Professional, Jeep, Lancia, Ram, Maserati. The FCA’s business also includes Mopar (automotive parts and service), Comau (production systems), and Teksid (iron and castings).


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Recall Alert: Porsche 911
Porsche Recalls 2010 911 GT3 Models For Rear Wheel Hub Issue
Dec 13, 2012
Porsche has announced the recall of 2010 model year 911 GT3s, built between May 15, 2009 and February 11, 2010. At issue is the rear wheel hub assembly, which may be prone to failure under certain driving conditions. Some 455 Porsche 911 GT3 models are affected by this recall.
The recall also specifies that the maintenance intervals outlined in the owner’s manual may not be frequent enough to prevent rear wheel hub failure. A revised maintenance schedule will be published and sent to owners as part of this recall campaign.
It isn’t clear if rear wheel hub failures have led to any accidents or injuries, but such component failure can result in a loss of control, increasing the likelihood of a crash. Porsche dealers will replace the rear wheel hubs on affected cars at no charge to owners, and Porsche will distribute the revised service schedule as part of the notification letter.
Expect the recall to begin later this month, but owners with questions or concerns can reach Porsche’s customer service at (800) 767-7243, referencing recall number AC05. Alternatively, owners can get the latest information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Vehicle Safety Hotline, reached at (888) 327-4236.
Nitro Year: 2007 (1 of 91,815 sold in 07)
Nitro Model: R/T 4X4 Stone White
CAT-BACK Exhaust, CAI, Projector Head Lamps
Fully-Equipped w/all factory options


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They’re the team that built a brand with the phrase “Health 2.0″ before the world barely recognized v 1.0 in healthcare. This week, those folks that brought you the Health 2.0 Conference unveiled the Market Intel database of over 3,000 companies, trying to make sense out of a very blurry and fast-morphing market landscape. I […]
As people take on self-service across all aspects of daily living, self-care in health is growing beyond the use of vitamins/minerals/supplements, over-the-counter meds, and trying out the blood-pressure cuff in the pharmacy waiting for a prescription to be filled. Today, health consumers the world over have begun to engage in self-care using digital technologies. And […]
65 million people know that food journaling works for losing weight, that it’s engaging to do on a well-designed app, and that health is social. MyFitnessPal (MFP) has the distinction of being a top health app used longer by more people and more effectively than probably any other mobile health tool. Under Armour, the athletic […]
The Field of Dreams works in nostalgic plotlines about baseball, but as I’ve pointed out since the advent of consumer-facing health technologies, there’s no Field of Dreams effect in health care when it comes to consumer health engagement. U.S. health consumers aren’t using the patient portals that health care providers have built as part of […]
With the goal of driving a digital health platform for well-informed, effective self-care, the nation’s largest retail pharmacy chain and prominent consumer-facing health information portal are allying to move from serving up pills and information to health “care.” Walgreens and WebMD launched their joint effort on 2nd October 2014, a few weeks after CVS/pharmacy re-branded […]
About Jane & Health Populi
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn is a health economist and management consultant that serves clients at the intersection of health and technology.
Her clients include all stakeholders in health, including providers, payors and plans; companies in biopharma, medical devices, financial services, technology and consumer goods; non-profits and NGOs. Jane's lens on health was best described by Dr. Regina Benjamin, U.S. Surgeon General, who says that health is where we live, work, play and pray.
California Healthcare Foundation White Papers
- Consumers blame insurance and pharma for health costs, but love their primary care doctors October 22, 2012
- Patients want online communication with doctors, and more clinicians are listening July 26, 2011
- Patients want to see the notes their doctors write about them: the power of transparency in health care October 2, 2012
- ePatients: a connected, collaborative, creating community September 30, 2010
- Doctors who write right: Gawande, Topol and Wachter put people at the center of health/care March 30, 2015
- Transparency in health care: not all consumers want to look March 24, 2015
- The Affordable Care Act As New-Business Creator March 19, 2015
- What Mavis Staples taught us about health at SXSW March 17, 2015
- News Round Up – July 20 | Dr Nick van Terheyden: […] This review of Kaiser’s myHealthMa...
- andrew Stoll: Have you ever heard of Smart Choice MRI? They are...
- Honor Spock’s Logic – Follow the Science | Dr Nick van Terheyden: […] my good Friend Jane Sarasohn-Kahn highli...
- The Affordable Care Act As New-Business Creator | Health Populi: […] consumers take on more financial risk in...


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The 2015 Certified Organic Survey provides vital data to assist farmers, suppliers, policymakers, plus those in the private sector in planning the production and marketing of new programs and products to help sustain industry growth.
It’s that time of year again. The other day while interviewing a beekeeper in his almond orchard the signs were there; barren almond trees with nary a leaf had buds on them that would soon explode into delicate, white blossoms that by Labor...
Imidacloprid the first of four neonicotinoids to be assessed by the government
Federal and state regulators looking at impacts these insecticides have on bees
Public will have opportunity to weigh in on potential restrictions


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BOSTON—WCVB-TV, the Hearst-owned ABC affiliate in Boston, has filed suit against Aereo for copyright infringement. Aereo is the start-up that’s redistributing broadcast television signals to mobile devices without the consent of broadcasters. Several in New York have already sued the company in that city.
Boston became Aereo’s second market on May 15. Aereo is delivering 28 channels in the market, including the local PBS, CBS, ABC, NBC, CW, Fox, ION, Univision and Telemundo affiliates, for $8 to $12 a month with 20-40 hours of cloud-based DVR-type storage.
Atlanta, a third market, remains in beta, (though expected to launch commercially any day). Chicago is on deck for the fall, with several more metropolitan areas slated for launch later this year. Aereo’s founders, including its backer, Barry Diller, contend that the service is not subject to copyright requirements a la retransmission consent law because of its technology.
Copyright, and thus retransmission, is based on a public performance comprising one-to-many. In this way, a cable or satellite TV provider takes a broadcast signal and redistributes it to multiple subscribers. Aereo claims to be renting tiny individual antennas to individual subscribers, making the delivery method akin to a private performance and thereby not in violation of copyright law.
“Aereo has no right, under any license or statue, to retransmit WCVB’s copyrighted programming,” the station’s filing states. “Other companies, such as cable, satellite and other telecommunications distributors obtain the consent of WCVB and pay WCVB to retransmit WCVB’s signal containing its programming. Aereo, by contrast, retransmits that same programming to its paying subscribers without permission from WCVB, in clear violation of federal and state law.”
Radio frequency engineers have questioned Aereo’s technical methodology, which is the basis of its claims that it is not violating broadcaster copyrights. The tiny antennas, however, have not been subject to federal or third-party testing. WCVB’s suit also notes that Aereo is technologically altering the station’s signal for delivery to smartphones and tablets, which do not decode ATSC digital television signals. Altering the signal is, of itself, a copyright violation in that altering content creates a “derivative” work.
“Such a creation of derivatives works from WCVB’s audiovisual works constitutes infringement of WCVB’s exclusive rights under copyright law,” the suit states.
WCVB has asked the court for an injunction and a finding of copyright violation. Injunctions have been denied both in the federal district and appeals courts in the New York case, which now awaits the copyright decision.
The Boston lawsuit coincides with Aereo’s launch through a third-party software maker, MediaMall Technologies, which is incorporating Aereo’s app in its PlayOn platform. PlayOn will provides Aereo access to a variety of gaming consoles and Android devices.
July 9, 2013: “Aereo Launches on PlayOn Software”
MediaMall Technologies said Tuesday that its PlayOn software will now make Aereo local TV channels accessible to Aereo TV users on select gaming consoles, set-top boxes and Android devices. ~ from TWICE
June 28, 2013: “Aereo’s Unlikely Proposition”
“Anyone who has taken antennae 101 knows that tiny pieces of metal separated by tiny distances act as one piece of metal.”
April 23, 2013: “Aereo to Launch in Boston May 30”
Beginning May 15, consumers who have pre-registered with the service will receive a special invitation to receive the service. After May 30, Aereo will make membership available to all eligible consumers across the Boston designated market area, which includes more than 4.5 million people in 16 counties in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Boston is the second city to launch as part of Aereo’s expansion announced in January.
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Hilo Man Arrested, Charged in Store Burglary
A Hilo man has been arrested and charged by the Hawai’i Police Department in connection to a robbery that occurred Wednesday.
Police responded to a report of a robbery outside a department store at a shopping center on Puainako Street in Hilo at 11:46 a.m. on Wednesday.
A man had reportedly entered the store and concealed merchandise in his backpack, before exiting the store without paying for the items. A 23-year-old store employee approached the suspect, he struck the employee in the head with a closed fist and left the area on foot towards a shopping center across the street.
The victim did not require medical assistance according to Police.
Officers located the suspect in the parking lot of the second shopping area. He was arrested after further investigation and taken to the Hilo police cellblock. There, he was identified as 26-year-old Lance A. Ulep. Authorities say Ulep was wanted on a bench warrant for violating probation in another case.
Ulep was charged Thursday at 8:20 p.m. with second-degree robbery, third-degree theft, third-degree assault and second-degree criminal trespass.
Bail for Ulep was set at $6,250. He was released into the custody of Hawai’i Community Correctional Center.


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Wallpaper founder Tyler BrÃ»lÃ© is launching Spruce, a global unisex bi-annual fashion magazine, aimed at the 30-plus age group, at the end of August. The first issue cover, shot by Joachim Baldouf, comes in two versions; male and female, which will be sold alongside each other. Similarly, male and female fashions are displayed in the same features rather than segregated.
The sale of the independent brand consultancy will see it retain its creative independence and management, while it has also revealed plans to expand to Shanghai.
The car manufacturer’s I.D Buzz Microbus bears a striking resemblance to is original camper van made popular during the 1960s Hippie era, but is now all-electric.
The annual design festival is back for its fifth edition this October, and will feature Pentagram partner Naresh Ramchandani, Buzzcocks’ record sleeve designer Malcolm Garrett and an exhibition on Lucienne
A patent filed by the company reveals a mobile with thermal elements embedded into the screen, which would heat it up and fill any cracks if it became damaged.


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Cloning has attracted attention in recent years as an efficient way to produce quality beef and pork. But some consumers are concerned about the safety of products from cloned animals, following many reported cases of stillbirths and newborn deaths.
Stillbirths is a term that means the animals can't give birth properly, and their offspring dies inside the womb or during the process of giving birth. Claiming that meat from such animals is safe? You eat it, not me. In fact, let the experts eat it, and then we can all study their health and how they feel. I'm sure the experts will volunteer cheerfully: we can even film them as they shout "Oishi!" like the actors do here on TV all the time.
And why are cloned animals often sick or deformed? You can read about the causes of stillbirth on wikipedia, but I warn you, it is not for the weak-at-heart. Neither is this quote from The Yomiuri:
While the report acknowledged that fetal death and mortality rates among cloned animals are much higher than non-cloned animals, it said this was because cloned animals with problems tended to die early.
And by the way, meat consumption is never safe for the planet - it requires huge amounts of water and grain to produce meat. Rainforest in the Amazon is being clearcut so farmers can raise cattle, or grow soybeans for feed. Not a very smart way to feed the people on Earth.
Japan's Food Safety Commission, which operates under the Cabinet Office, reached the view that "cloned animal meat is safe to eat" on Thursday, after a panel of experts advised it on the safety of meat from cattle and pigs cloned from skin and other cells. Such food products have yet to be put on the market in Japan, and there are no labelling rules. Oh, and in case you wondered, in January, 2008 the Bush administration's experts also concluded that cloned meat is safe and does not need to be labelled.


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Having pulled in more than six million players in less than a week, Starfield is Bethesda’s biggest game launch of all time. Some of those players are already poking at the game’s limits by creating mods and speedrunning it. One has found another way to break the game, namely by building a ship that enemies can’t figure out how to consistently hit.
The player, who goes by Morfalath, figured out that the enemy AI targets the center of your ship. By building a spacecraft that’s essentially a hollow cube with a few missing edges, they created what they claim is an “unbeatable ship.”
It’s as if the enemy AI thinks you have a glowing red weak spot in your ship’s midsection even if the vessel’s “stomach” is completely missing. In a video of a dogfight that Morfalath shared, the unusual ship catches an errant shot or two on its frame, but the butt-ugly design appears to outfox even high-level enemies.
Meanwhile, even though Xbox execs claimedStarfield would be Bethesda’s least buggy game launch ever (despite the publisher’s long track record of its title having glitches when they first arrive), players have captured a litany of very strange moments. Perhaps you’ll see characters who have a missing head save for their eyeballs and mouth, or maybe you’ll encounter individuals who rudely butt into conversations. Starfield might not have had as disastrous a debut as Cyberpunk 2077 in terms of bugs, but some of them are pretty funny nonetheless.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/butt-ugly-starfield-ship-defeats-the-enemy-ais-perfect-aim-142746608.html?src=rss


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4 companies using blockchain for social change
Millions of people around the world lack high-quality access to financial services. They have to pay middlemen extremely high fees to do something as simple as transfer money. This is particularly problematic when workers from African countries or other underdeveloped nations go overseas to work and send money to their families back home. According to a study of how blockchain is being used for good, sponsored by the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford Graduate School of Business, “Foreign workers worldwide send an estimated $500 billion worth of remittances back to their home countries each year.” But high fees paid to middlemen eats into the amount of money their families receive.
BitPesa uses blockchain to solve the problem. It operates in seven African countries, including Kenya, Ghana, and Nigeria, where it slashes charges on transferring money — only 1 to 3 percent for the transfer, compared with a typical charge of 10 percent. The money also gets transferred more quickly, in as little as one to 24 hours, compared with two to 14 days. Rather than use traditional ways of transferring money, BitPesa uses a blockchain-based settlement process, which allows it to cut costs and transfer money more quickly and efficiently.
Plastic that ends up in the ocean is one of the worst environmental dangers facing the sea. Plastic bags, straws, bottles, and other plastic debris kill millions of marine animals every year and affect almost 700 ocean species, according to a National Geographic report. The problem is so serious, it notes, that the head of the United Nations Environment Programme called it an “ocean Armageddon.”
Plastic Bank is trying to help solve the problem using blockchain. It pays people using blockchain-secured digital tokens to gather the plastic and bring it to Plastic Bank recycling centers. Plastic Bank, in turn, recycles and sells the plastic. In this way, not only does Plastic Bank help clean the ocean of plastic, but it also provides a secure source of income to poverty-stricken people.
When you give money to a charity, do you know exactly where it goes? Are you sure it’s spent wisely? Do you know what results it has produced?
Typically, the answer to those questions is no. That’s the problem BitGive is trying to solve. The nonprofit uses a blockchain registry to provide transparency into where money goes when you give to charities.
In BitGive’s five years of existence, it has worked with the Water Project in Kenya to build wells to give people access to fresh water and Save the Children to provide typhoon relief in the Philippines, among other charities.
Blockchain venture capitalist Matthew Roszak, who founded the Chicago Blockchain Center and is on BitGive’s board of directors, explained the importance of BitGive to the Chicago Tribune this way: “If you’re able to build a blockchain workflow and really see accountably what’s happening to the dollar…from donor to recipient, and be able to account for the nails and two-by-fours being used to build a school or what have you, then my sense, in turn, is if you have that kind of transparency, people wind up giving more.”
Was the fish you’re cooking for dinner caught in a sustainable way? Does the wool in the sweater you’re thinking of buying really come from where the label says it does—and is the material really wool? Was child labor used to manufacture it?
Provenance aims to help consumers know what has happened to goods along every step of the supply chain, starting with the original raw materials and following it to the point of retail. It does that by using a blockchain-based ledger that records information about goods throughout a product’s supply chain. A label is affixed to each product that lets anyone with a smartphone see the product’s entire supply chain history.
Both businesses and consumers can benefit: Businesses gain the trust of consumers, and consumers get transparency into the supply chain. And overall, with such transparency, the hope is that goods will be produced in a more ethical, environmentally focused manner because consumers will favor products made that way.
Provenance claims that more than 200 companies have used its service, including the U.K.’s largest consumer cooperative, the Co-Op, and global consumer goods company Unilever.
This article/content was written by the individual writer identified and does not necessarily reflect the view of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company.


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Tue, Jun 26, 2012 | 18:28 BST
Toyota Scion FR-S and Twin Ring Motegi DLC released for GT5
Sony has announced the Twin Ring Motegi circuit pack and the Scion FR-S ’12 will be released for Gran Turismo 5 tomorrow via the usual PS Store update. It will be free of charge. Hit up the PS Blog for more information.


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Check out all the on-demand sessions from the Intelligent Security Summit here.
Updated at 2:46 p.m. PT with Facebook’s comment.
Facebook has purchased 750 patents from IBM to help it battle Yahoo’s recent patent-troll lawsuit.
A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat that there was “a purchase” but declined to give any further details.
Yahoo filed suit against Facebook on March 12 over alleged ongoing patent infringement. Yahoo claims Facebook is infringing on four advertising patents, two privacy patents, two customization patents, one social networking patent, and one messaging patent.
Facebook said it was “disappointed” with Yahoo and that it will defend itself “vigorously against these puzzling actions.”
In these types of lawsuits, the traditional course of action is to mount a defense with your own set of patents. With ownership over a strong set of patents, you may be able to convince the suing company to settle or cross-licence patents.
Facebook battled 22 patent suits against it last year. Facebook’s buying 750 patents from IBM, which controls a decades-old patent warchest, could be a sign that it is actually concerned about Yahoo’s claims.
On the other hands, it could simply be a sign that the still-young but soon-to-go-public social media company is beginning to take its patent situation seriously as the lawsuits pile up. Facebook has only 56 patents, with 503 filed and pending.
hat tip: Bloomberg.
Illustration: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat
Original Knight’s shield: FXQuadro/Shutterstock
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact. Discover our Briefings.


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Mai Ikuzawa, founder and creative director of Maiow, has left the company to pursue personal projects. Her departure coincides with a shift towards a more strategic creative and branding proposition at Maiow. Sally Townsend has been hired from Viacom Outdoor as new business director and Bill Hunt, from guerrilla marketing agency Cunning, joins the company as strategic planning director.
The design studio has created an abstract logo of a bridge reflected on water to represent the charity, which looks to protect and maintain England and Wales’ waterways.
A show at the Lettering Arts Centre in Suffolk will delve into the art of alphabets, tracing the history of communication design from ancient symbols to the sophisticated systems we
This year’s week-long celebration of design will see installations by Kellenberger-White, Studio Frith and Waugh Thistleton Architects, plus a refined, “playful” visual identity by Pentagram’s Domenic Lippa.
Weird World Cup is a project that sees 20 illustrators create humorous artworks, which will be sold online to raise money for education charity Football Beyond Borders.


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Thinking of getting a new job in 2016? Job-hunting site Glassdoor has the inside scoop on which companies to target.
It scanned its massive database of employer listings to find the 50 companies with the most satisfied workers, according to employees who submitted ratings and reviews on the site.
Reviewers rated their companies on a five-point scale: 1.0 = very dissatisfied, 3.0 = OK, 5.0 = very satisfied.
Scroll down to find out where the big names like Facebook, Apple, and Nike ranked — and to see which smaller, up-and-coming companies made the cut this year.


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New figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the volume of retail sales rose by 0.3% in February when compared to January
This was the first monthly rise since October, while there was no change in the annual figure.
The CSO said that when motor trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales fell by 0.2% last month compared to January, while there was an annual increase of 1%.
Breaking down the figures, they show that other sales in non-specialised stores rose by 0.6% while sales in food, beverages and tobacco stores grew by 0.5%.
Sales of books, newspapers and stationery fell by 2.6% while electrical goods sales eased by 1.2%.
Commenting on the figures, Merrion economist Alan McQuaid said that the retail sales data for the first two months of the year are a clear indication that consumers still remain very cautious.
''It is hard to see a major upward rise in personal expenditure in the coming months given the ongoing uncertain economic/financial climate,'' he said.
He added that the introduction of the property tax together with the still high level of unemployment will impact negatively on overall retail sales this year.


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New Delhi: The recent stir over Speak Asia Online, a survey group that seemed to be offering easy money to close to two million Indians, has caught the attention of the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA). The government said it’s investigating Speak Asia after news channel Headlines Today alleged fraud by the firm.
“It is too soon to come to any conclusion regarding the alleged fraud,” said D.K. Mittal, secretary, MCA. “However, we are now working closely with RBI (Reserve Bank of India) and Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and investigating.”
Mittal declined to comment on how Speak Asia got its India licence.
However, a senior official at the survey group said: “Currently we are only regulated by Singapore. We had written a letter to RBI while setting up shop in India and we were given to understand that we needn’t fulfil any other requirement.”
Speak Asia made its application through a bank, the official said.
According to the senior official, Speak Asia did not seek the approval of the Registrar of Companies while setting up operations in India and also did not obtain the approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, which is necessary for any overseas company establishing a business in the country. According to Speak Asia, the company does not fall under the purview of the two agencies.
As for its Singapore status, parent Speak Asia Online Pte Ltd is listed as “non-compliant” by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority of the island nation.
This was because of a delay in submitting documentation, said Manoj Kumar, chief executive officer of Speak Asia India.
“We are compliant with all laws of Singapore and there is no case pending against us or our top management, either in India or in any other country. In the case of accreditation and compliances, the company is currently rated ‘non-compliant’. This is due to a delay of about 10 days in providing our minutes of the AGM (annual general meeting) for the last accreditation cycle. Our financial year ends on 31 May and we will be able to fulfil even this compliance requirement soon,” Kumar said.
Speak Asia Online, a marketing services firm based in Singapore, works on a multi-level marketing (MLM) model that rewards its members on taking surveys and referring more members to take them. However, Speak Asia said it was not an MLM firm and didn’t identify itself as a direct selling company either.
“In the case of Speak Asia, consumers’ earnings are not dependent only on adding more people, but also on the services they provide in the company’s other marketing service activities,” Kumar said. “An MLM company would make it compulsory for its members to recruit other people in order to earn. Which is why only 3-5% of people enrolled in any MLM company actually make money.”
Speak Asia has no direct clients for which it conducts surveys. A senior official at the survey group refused to divulge details of direct clients and said a major portion of the business came from aggregate panellists.
Currently, Speak Asia has close to two million members in India and since January 2010, when it started services, has clocked a revenue of $80.5 million (Rs 360 crore today) over the last three quarters. According to a press release, 1.2 million panellists have received over $52 million over this period through bank transfers via RBI-authorized foreign exchange channels.
This income has been generated by the filling up of surveys, giving online opinions on advertisements watched and income accrued from referring other panellists. The company has till date invested over $9 million in various marketing, training and business development programmes.


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The Christmas window display by Inverurie’s award winning boutique Vanity has become something of an internet sensation.
The boutique on Inverurie’s West High Street featured a startling display including a “Christmas tree dress” that has generated interest across the world wide web, receiving comments from as far afield as the United States.
Cheryl Rogerson of Vanity said, “We posted the picture on Facebook which received an amazing reaction. On Facebook alone we received over 1,300 likes, over 30,200 had seen it and over 100 had shared it.
“Again we received Re-Tweets on twitter from Yvie Burnett the famous singing coach, STV, local and afar businesses and also a company from America e-mailed us to say they had seen our window and loved it!”
Cheryl added, “People popping into the shop as they walk by just to say how beautiful and stroke of genius it is. I couldn’t have wished for a better reaction!”


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James Derk is the computing editor of the Evansville (Ind.) Courier.
NOT YET, BUT HAND-HELD DEVICES ARE BEING DEVELOPED
Consumers are growing accustomed to using hand-held communication devices - cell phones, pagers and small computers. As usage grows, the demand for news from these devices may increase.
Planes, trains and automobiles . . . phones, pagers and hand-held computers. It's no secret that the use of wireless personal communication devices is exploding throughout the world. Just look around you to see that people are more "in-touch" today than ever before - at the airport, on the train and on the highway.
Any doubts about the importance of wireless communications vanished in March when the PanAmSat Corp.'s Galaxy IV satellite went belly-up, knocking out service to 90% of the country's 50 million pagers. Everyone from physicians to pet nannies struggled to find alternative communication methods until service could be restored.
But despite great strides in technology and the march of journalists onto the Internet over the last five years, few of us use wireless devices as a source of news content. To be sure, there's a burgeoning niche market for wireless content delivery - stock quotes, news headlines and sports scores sent to digital pagers, for example - and that's becoming big business for CNN and other "pager content providers." Still, we have yet to see the great revolution of the "digital tablet newspaper" that many predicted we'd have by now.
Instead, today's users appear to be enamored by "palm" devices such as 3Com's line of PalmPilot devices that can send and receive e-mail, keep schedules and hold addresses. More than 3 million PalmPilots have been sold already, giving the unit a 66% market share in the hand-held segment. The Palm III, at $399, has been flying off the shelves since its introduction in March, thanks in part to its ability to "beam" content to other nearby Pilots using infrared technology.
Its success has launched a series of competitors, including two different lines of hand-held computers running versions of Microsoft Windows CE -- one with a keyboard and one that uses a stylus like the PalmPilot. The main benefit of the units is size; they measure 4 inches by 7 inches and weigh only about a pound. As prices have been dropping (some units can be had for $100), more and more content providers have been looking at the devices as potential receivers for news content.
Commerce Is Expected Before News
Once providers finish wiring areas for fast Internet access, experts expect such "Internet Appliances" to really take off in popularity. Many people will use them to buy products on the Web, which will spur additional product development.
Electronic commerce transactions on the Web will increase 40-fold and the number of users will quadruple by 2002, predicts Frank Gens, senior vice president of International Data Corp., a prominent Internet research firm in Framingham, Mass. Gens boldly predicts that the appliances will be so common that by 2001, PCs will lose their position as the dominant Internet-access devices as the market is flooded with hand-held computers, network computers, WebTV, gaming consoles and so forth. IDC further estimates that these new generations of simple but powerful consumer Internet-accessing appliances will account for nearly half of all Web access devices shipped in the U.S. in four years -- up from an anemic 4% today. IDC said bandwidth -- seen as the key limit to rapid growth of the Internet -- will be widely available and competitively priced by then. People won't have to "dial-in" to the Internet; the network will simply exist on the device.
The question for newsrooms: Can the devices evolve into the "electronic tablets" the newspaper industry tested about a decade ago? No way, says Roger Fidler, the father of the digital tablet and former director of Knight Ridder's famed experiment into digital tablet publishing. …


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Today the iPhone 7 will be unveiled for the first time by Apple in San Francisco, probably.
While there’s been no official confirmation the phone will be launched at the event, everyone knows it’s going to happen.
Taking place at 10am local time, which is 6pm BST, there have also been murmurings that a new Apple Watch will also be on show.
The phone will then likely go on sale the following week but how much will it cost to bag yourself one of them?
Well, past inclinations of the iPhone have never been cheap and that isn’t going to change this time round.
In the UK the iPhone 6 cost around £539 for the 16GB model at the time of launch. TechRadar reports that the 7 will cost the exact same. However, Apple have binned the inefficient and unmanageable 16GB device this year so you’d be paying the same price for a 32GB phone this time round.
So effectively you’d be getting a considerable amount more bang for your buck.
Still want more storage? The 64GB is expected to cost £619 while the 128GB would set you back a sizeable £699.
Again, this has yet to be confirmed but the definitive pricing will probably be made available over the coming days.


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ESPN Migrates Winter X Games To France Next March
ESPN will take its Winter X Games franchise outside the U.S. for the first time next year.
Teaming with Canal + and Tignes Ski & Snowboard Resort, the event will be held in Savoie in the Northern French Alps from March 10-12, 2010.
There will be eight different competitions over three days, including ski and snowboard superpipe and slopestyle for men and women, as well as a Snowmobile demonstration.
The event, taking place just a few weeks after the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, figures to attract a number of competitors from the Games.
"Working with CANAL + and Tignes, and drawing on more than 10 years experience of running the Winter X Games in the United States, we are excited to bring winter action sports fans in Europe the best action sports event they will see in 2010," said Rick Alessandri, ESPN senior vice president and managing director, X Games, in a statement. "This first event outside the U.S. reflects the continued global growth of the X Games franchise as well as the progression of action sports in Europe."
Noted Canal + Events CEO Jean Louis Dutaret : "We are delighted to work with ESPN and the X Games team to bring the Winter X Games to Europe. CANAL + Events and the ESPN events team will draw on all their experience to ensure this is the biggest and best winter sports event in Europe in 2010. As with soccer, rugby and many sports, CANAL + Group will consider X Games as a global project, including TV, Internet and mobile. In a Winter Olympic year, and only a few weeks after athletes have competed in Vancouver, fans in Europe will again be able to watch the top names in the world compete head to head."
The smarter way to stay on top of the multichannel video marketplace. Sign up below.


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March of the robots
AI and Robotics continue to fascinate and amaze – and cause concern. We commented in February on Richard and Daniel Susskind’s work on the Future of the Professions, and recent news continues to reinforce their thesis.
Manufacturing has long been home to specialised robots, but the rate at which workers are being displaced is increasing. In China, Apple’s key supplier Foxconn is replacing 60,000 workers with robots at its manufacturing hub, in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, cutting its workforce from 110,000 down to 50,000. Thirty five companies in the region spent a total of 4 billion yuan on artificial intelligence last year. Some commentators worry that these mass layoffs will cause further social unrest in China.
Home robots began with vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers, and these areas continue to advance: Dyson’s 360eye has 360° vision and can tell where it has yet to clean. But now the idea of robots as companions is advancing. Asus’s Zenbo is a voice-controlled companion, whose touchscreen face shows its emotions, can entertain kids and control the lights.
© Ritchie Tongo/EPA
Priced at $599, it can help seniors enjoy a connected digital life and safeguard their health and well-being, be a fun and educational playmate for children, and a household helper. Zenbo can connect to and control many smart home and traditional devices. The company also launched ‘Zenbo Developer Program,’ an ecosystem aimed at developers that covers various domains, namely education, entertainment, healthcare, convenient living and smart home.
Softbank is testing Pepper, a personal companion robot.
Even more humanoid and running on wheels, Pepper claims to be able to read emotions (not just emoticons!) and be able adapt his behaviour accordingly. It is being trialled in 140 SoftBank Mobile stores in Japan
The whole area of elderly care is ripe for robots of this kind, including soft ones as the FT reports. Professor Nadia Thalmann at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has built “Nadine”, a very lifelike humanoid robot that can recognise people and starts up conversations based on previous chats. We may not be ready for this just yet, as several newspapers called her (sic) “creepy”, but Nadine is probably the first of many. Japan is very advanced in this field: Dinsow for example has made a real impact, cheering up an 84-year old care home resident. Are there ethical and moral issues in here that we need to consider?
Google has also unveiled a personal assistant it says will let people control their homes, book movies, search the internet, ask follow-up questions about an Italian restaurant and sort through dog pictures using voice commands. Google Assistant’s main physical form is a small, white, buttonless speaker called Google Home.
So what will be left for people to do? The Bank of England predicts that up to 15 million jobs are at risk of automation across the UK economy including professions such as law and accountancy. In response Kenneth Baker’s Edge Foundation is calling for radical action to prepare young people for through education to develop skills that robots cannot easily replace – flexibility, empathy, creativity and enterprise.
Written by Huw Williams, SAMI Principal.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily of SAMI Consulting.


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La Madeleine French Bakery & Cafe plans to open some 10 test locations inside Walmart stores, the fast casual announced this week.
The move comes as big chains, such as McDonald’s and Subway, retreat from locations in Walmart and other retailers, saying those locations don’t generate enough revenue to make such a partnership feasible.
The first la Madeleine Express restaurant is slated to open in Garland, Texas, in July, with more opening in the Dallas-Fort Worth area not long after, the chain said.
The small-footprint express units, ranging from 980- to 2,200-square-feet, will serve grab-and-go options as well as a dine-in menu. They will also have a retail area for customers to buy soups, jams, sauces and more. The chain is adding some menu items, like pizzas, that have been created specifically for the Walmart units.
Typical la Madeleine restaurants are about 5,000 square feet.
“We’re very excited about Walmart’s curated food service experience for customers,” la Madeleine CEO Lionel Ladouceur said in a statement. “We look forward to making it even more convenient for the DFW community to enjoy the la Madeleine experience, while also introducing our French comfort food to Walmart shoppers that are looking for more diverse dining choices.”
La Madeleine, which has been around since 1983 and has 86 locations in nine states, has been experimenting with new store formats recently, opening its first drive-thru earlier this year.
“If you want to stay in business, you just need to go there,” Ladouceur said at the time. “We really think this is the future of our brand.”
The pandemic has accelerated a move by many big chains to leave their retail locations behind. In addition to McDonald’s and Subway, Dunkin’ has shuttered Speedway locations and Starbucks has said it’s largely abandoning its mall units.


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Francis entered the Waldensian temple in Turin on Monday on the second day of his visit to the land of his ancestors in northern Italy.
Pope Francis said on Sunday the mistreatment of migrants escaping war and injustice "makes one cry" as he visited the northern Italian city of Turin.
Francis made the appeal during the first-ever visit by a pope to a Waldensian house of worship, starting the second day of his two-day visit to Turin.
French car maker PSA Peugeot-Citroen is teaming up with Bollore SA to jointly produce and sell electric cars, as well as promote car-sharing schemes worldwide.
Since joining Juventus in 2001 in a then world-record deal worth a reported 52m euros, Buffon has gone through thick and thin with the Turin giants since.
The co to be listed will be the Dutch holding company of Ferrari, CEO Sergio Marchionne said at the launch of a re-styled Fiat 500 hatchback.
While he is there, however, the agents who have sold him so often across the globe are working to ensure his return to the Argentine club Boca Juniors.


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Jan 29, 2018
Boots rolls out cheaper morning-after pill across UK
Boots says it now stocks a cheaper morning-after pill in all of its UK stores, three months after failing to meet its initial target of doing so. Boots said it had wanted there to be a "Sufficient and sustainable supply" across the UK. The morning-after pill can be taken in the days after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy. The British Pregnancy Advisory Service had raised concerns that the cost of the pill was too high in Boots and other pharmacies. In July, the branded progestogen-based drug was being sold at Boots for £28.25, and its non-branded alternative was only £1.50 cheaper. Boots had pledged to stock the cheaper drug after it was criticised for its initial stance of saying that cutting prices could incentivise the use of morning-after pills.
Make a complaint about Boots by viewing their customer service contacts.


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USDA announces plans to reduce port congestion
Published: June 23, 2022
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced several initiatives aimed at reducing congestion at major ports across the country.
First, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a plan to increase production capacity for chilled and frozen agricultural products at the Port of Houston.
This will involve the rental of additional chassis for the positioning and storage of containers waiting at the port, allowing the port to make the most of its reefer container capacity.
Using funds from the Commodity Credit Corporation, which were allocated to deal with market disruptions, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) will cover 50% of the cost of leasing chassis to the Port of Houston during the first year of its five-year lease for 1,060 additional chassis. .
The USDA is also expanding its partnership with the Northwest Seaport Alliance (NWSA) with improved access to a 16-acre temporary temporary storage site for refrigerated containers at the NWSA site in Tacoma.
The Farm Service Agency (FSA) will also pay $200 per dry container and $400 per reefer container to help with the logistical costs of moving containers and temporary storage.
Vilsack said, “America’s farmers and ranchers depend on a reliable and efficient transportation system to get their products to market.
“As part of the Biden-Harris administration’s creative approaches to making the port work better, we are working with supply chain partners to adapt and overcome the challenges facing agriculture. Through these investments, we continue to deliver on our promise to strengthen the supply chain and support American-grown foods and fiber.


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Ride-hailing companies Uber (UBER 2.06%) and Lyft (LYFT 1.80%) were some of the most highly anticipated tech stock IPOs in recent history -- and they have ultimately been a letdown since making their public debuts during the first half of 2019.
That doesn't mean ridesharing is doomed, though, and investment in transportation technology is still going strong. Case in point: Boeing's (BA 0.19%) Aurora Flight Sciences and Volkswagen's (VWAGY 0.49%) iconic racing brand Porsche announced they will be working together to develop "a concept for a fully electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle." Here's what Porsche executive Detlev von Platen had to say about it:
Porsche is looking to enhance its scope as a sports car manufacturer by becoming a leading brand for premium mobility. In the longer term, this could mean moving into the third dimension of travel. We are combining the strengths of two leading global companies to address a potential key market segment of the future.
Third dimension? That's referring to movement not just on the road, but in the skies as well. Does that mean you'll be getting a flying license in the near future? Hardly. This concept vehicle is aimed at the ride-hailing and transit industry, so don't get any grand ideas of hurtling through the air in a Porsche-badged flying car anytime soon. Nor does this mean you should rush off and pick up beleaguered Boeing or Volkswagen stock -- the former beat up by the 737 MAX tragedies and the latter because of Dieselgate -- in your brokerage account.
The line forming behind the flying car
Boeing and Porsche would certainly like to be trailblazers if flying "cars" are to be a thing, but they're hardly leading the way in this. Most notably, Uber has been working on an air-based transit vehicle and supporting service it is now calling Elevate. 2023 is the slated launch, although it is sure to be in very limited markets. Uber Copter -- just like it sounds, a helicopter "hailing" service -- is also up and running right now.
There's also a German start-up called Lilium working on building a vertical-takeoff-and-landing "jet." Its first flight already took place earlier this year. Another small German company, called Volocopter, raised investment funds from Volvo and its Chinese parent company Geely Automobile Holdings (GELYF -1.92%) for a flying taxi. There's also California-based Joby Aviation and Kitty Hawk, the latter of which also signed an agreement with Boeing to work on flight technology.
Why dump money into this?
Boeing especially should have a vested interest here. While mired in controversy at the moment, the aviation leader is taking interest in flight technology through its start-up division and other subsidiaries -- including through Aurora with its Porsche venture. But the space is getting crowded when a market for flying vehicles, flight electrification, and air-based ridesharing is nowhere in sight. So why are companies and institutional investors pouring money into an industry that doesn't even exist yet?
According to Porsche: "A 2018 study by Porsche Consulting forecasts that the urban air mobility market will pick up speed after 2025. The study also indicates that urban air mobility solutions will transport passengers more quickly and efficiently than current conventional means of terrestrial transport, at a lower cost and with greater flexibility."
Put simply, this whole ride-hailing thing could eventually challenge transportation in ways we haven't seen yet. Moving people around locally in cars is just the beginning. Movement of goods and delivery via autonomous and energy-efficient vehicles is just starting to ramp up. Same goes for mass transit. And the airline industry could also eventually get a run for its money if flight technology advances far enough.
All of that means business amounting to hundreds of billions -- even trillions -- of dollars every year across the globe. Porsche and Boeing want in, even though they don't see things taking off (no pun intended) until 2025 or later. If you're thinking of investing for the flying cars, though, don't. You'll be waiting awhile for some results.


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LINCOLNSHIRE, Ill. — Camping World Holdings has announced that its financial results for the third quarter fiscal 2018 will be released after the market closes on November 6, 2018. The company will host a conference call at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to discuss the financial results.
Investors and analysts interested in participating in the call are invited to dial 800-263-0877 (international callers please dial (646) 828-8143) approximately 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. A live audio webcast of the conference call will be available online at http://investor.campingworld.com.
A taped replay of the conference call will be available within two hours of the conclusion of the call and can be accessed both online and by dialing (844) 512-2921 (international callers please dial (412) 317-6671). The pin number to access the telephone replay is 8521808. The replay will be available until November 13, 2018.
For more information, visit www.CampingWorld.com.
SOURCE: Camping World press release


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WaveCrest Appoints New Chief Technology and Security Officer
CORAL SPRINGS, FL., and GIBRALTAR (PRWEB) March 23, 2017
WaveCrest, a digital payment solutions provider for global corporations and governments, announced today that Steve Bishop has been named Chief Technology and Security Officer.
Driven by its MyChoice Corporate solution, WaveCrest enabled more than $1 billion of payment transactions in 2016 and the company expects its growth to accelerate as it ramps up investments business wide.
Bishop’s initial focus will be on ensuring that the company’s payments infrastructure—including its proprietary transaction authorization and fraud management engine—is enhanced to support the company’s anticipated volume growth. He will also be responsible for developing robust tools and controls to help both business partners and individuals better utilize and secure their accounts.
Bishop brings a proven track record for building technology solutions for the payment processing industry, including card issuing, acquiring, and bank-to-bank clearing services. His background in progressive compliance systems, risk management, loyalty systems, mobile and web technologies, and specialized payment and data processing for purpose-specific needs, makes Bishop perfectly suited to execute WaveCrest’s technology and security strategy.
In recent years, Bishop has provided advisory and consultancy services to boards and executives of several established companies and start-ups in both the payments and consumer-incentive loyalty market. In his capacity as an advisor and consultant, Bishop introduced new product strategies, designed and built technology platforms, performed business development and sales activities, and streamlined development and back office operations.
Prior to his consulting activities, Bishop served as Chief Information Officer at WaveCrest, Chief Technology Officer at FIS Prepaid Solutions and Chief Technology Officer at WildCard Systems. During his tenure at WildCard, Bishop designed and built one of the first open-loop prepaid processing platforms.
“I am delighted that Steve has re-joined us at a time when our focus is on the next stage of our growth,” says WaveCrest CEO Brent Almeida. “Steve’s deep knowledge and experience in this industry will be invaluable in guiding our technology teams to develop innovative fraud prevention tools.
“Steve’s expertise also enhances our team’s ability to develop robust systems that will support and protect our customers while ensuring platform stability through a period of transformational growth.”
Bishop’s enthusiasm for WaveCrest’s focus and commitment to continuously improving its customers’ experience and security made his decision to return easy.
“I am very excited about being involved in expanding on the opportunity,” Bishop says. “We will continue to focus on offering business partners an efficient and safe means of funds distribution through a wide variety of payment instruments and channels.
“This focus exemplifies the advancement of a valuable and vital need rarely provided in our industry, both regionally and globally.”
Read the PR Web article here


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Wallop – Microsoft’s MySpace?
Microsoft funded Wallop is preparing to launch in an effort to enter Microsoft into the “hey MySpace, we’re cool too” category along with Orkut & 360. Despite Techcrunch’s Michael Arrington saying that Wallop is not another “me too” social networking offering and CNET claiming that “the Wallop approach will center on trying to help people find ways of expressing themselves online that more closely match the way they interact in the real world. Photos, videos and other user-generated content are a part of the company’s approach.“; I believe it’s going to be a bit difficult for Microsoft’s Wallop to shed the “Johnny Come Lately” image.
Greg Sterling adds that “Wallop” means “to beat soundly; thrash.” If that’s what Wallop aims to do to MySpace and the myriad other social networks launching almost daily it will have to fulfill against the high expectations of the marcomm above.
Launching later this year, Wallop solves the problems plaguing current social networking technologies and will introduce an entirely new way for consumers express their individuality online. For example today’s social networks have difficulty enabling people to interact in a way similar to the way they would in the real world.
I also wonder if Wallop is going to follow Friendster or Orkut suit and attract a totally different audience than originally intended : Friendster is popular among Filipinos and Orkut is something around 80% Brazilian and is fueling the direction of Google in the vibrant Brazilian Internet market.
Which country or counter culture will embrace Wallop?
And what do I think about social networking and MySpace (outside of its marketing appeal), this clip of a Daily Show episode which I found on YouTube helps to sum it up:


text: According to the NYT, the US IRS has gotten approval from a Federal Court to get taxpayer information from PayPal. The information sought is about American taxpayers who have bank accounts, credit cards or debit cards issued in more than 30 countries that are reputed to be tax havens. This is part of a wider effort to stem tax evasion. PayPal is just another means that those with money stashed offshore can spend it in the US. See: I.R.S. Asks PayPal for Taxpayer Data - New York Times.


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Mumbai – Gold importers in India, the world’s biggest buyer of the metal, waited for prices to fall further as the yellow metal was trading near its lowest level in more than three weeks due to a stronger rupee, offsetting firm global markets.
At 2.18 p.m., the most-active gold for October delivery on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) was 0.18 percent lower at Rs 31,254 per 10 grams, after hitting a low of Rs 31,213, a level last seen on September 3, due to a firmer rupee.
“Levels of 31,200-31,300 look attractive… from a hedging perspective, the rupee has gained bullion players’ confidence,” said a dealer with a private bank importing bullion.
The rupee plays an important role in determining the landed cost of the dollar-quoted yellow metal.
Global gold edged up from its two-week low, but a stronger dollar capped the gains.
The festival and wedding season is underway in India, and will continue till November, before tapering off in December.
Gold imports to India are likely to fall by as much as 26 per cent, or by 200 tonnes to 250 tonnes, in 2012 as record high prices hit consumer budgets.
Silver futures also edged lower following the yellow metal.
The most-active silver for December delivery on the MCX was 0.14 per cent lower at Rs 62,570 per kg.
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Thanks to the terrible traffic that tends to build up along Interstate 70 during ski season, Colorado’s Department of Transportation passed new snow tire regulations last year. There are two different laws that will be implemented according to weather conditions.
Code 15: Passenger Vehicle Traction Law
This law will be in effect for the majority of winter weather. Under Code 15, all passenger vehicles must have one of the following:
Code 16: Passenger Vehicle Chain Law
During the worst winter storms, Code 16 will take effect. This law requires all passenger vehicles to have traction devices such as chains or Auto Socks.
If you are tired of getting the runaround and being treated like you haven’t got a clue, we invite you to try Colchin Automotive instead. Give us a call at 303-431-5421 for all of your automotive needs!


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Valeant raises offer for botox maker Allergan to $49.4bn
Increased bid falls short of expectations and stock in both companies falls
A drop of Allergan Inc Botox is seen on the tip of a needle. Valeant’s new offer included a contingent value right that could be worth an extra $7.6 billion. Photograph: Bloomberg
The battle for Botox-maker Allergan took a new twist yesterday when Canadian drugs firm Valeant sold off its skin fillers business, giving it the firepower to raise its offer to nearly $50 billion (€37bn).
Valeant raised $1.4 billion (€1bn) by selling the North American rights to a range of cosmetic and medical skin fillers to Nestlé, the Swiss firm famous for Nescafe and Kit Kats, and immediately put the money into its offer for Allergan, raising its bid to $49.4 billion.
Valeant’s new offer included a contingent value right that could be worth an extra $7.6 billion, but the increased bid fell short of expectations and stock in both companies fell.
“I was actually surprised [Valeant] didn’t go higher,” said David Amsellem, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “Clearly they are going to continue to be aggressive, making a full-court press to get this done.”
Allergan had rejected the previous surprise $47 billion offer from Valeant and activist investor Bill Ackman in April.
The latest move comes a day after Allergan went on the offensive and sought to discredit Valeant by raising questions about its business model and the true value of its stock.
The Canadian drugmaker, known for skincare products and generic drugs, raised the cash component of its offer for Allergan by $10 to $58.30 a share. The stock component remained 0.83 of a Valeant share for each Allergan share. This values Allergan at $166.16 a share, up from $153 a share.
This is still less than the $180-$200 a share investors are looking for, according to Reuters.
However the new offer includes a contingent value right – a right to receive additional benefit – worth up to $25 per share related to the sales of Darpin, Allergan’s experimental eye drug that is seen as a potential competitor to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’s successful medicine Eylea.
“Allergan shareholders want this deal to occur, but they want a higher price and the optionality on Darpin,” Valeant chief executive Michael Pearson said in a New York meeting with shareholders of the two companies. “We think the offer we made this morning addresses both of those concerns.”
Allergan, which employs 800 people at an eye-products plant in Westport, Co Mayo, said it would consider the new proposal. – (Reuters/Guardian news Service 2014)


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NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Eric Porat, a New York-based on-line entrepreneur and the founding father of One Purchase Media invests in Filecoin’s ICO funding –which has raised over $250 million thus far. The mission formally launched its primary web on October 15, 2020. Filecoin’s ICO, which started in 2017, shortly garnered hundreds of thousands in funding by way of CoinList, a joint mission between Filecoin developer Protocol Labs and startup funding platform AngelList.
The launch day introduced a big inflow of Easy Agreements for Future Tokens purchases (claims on tokens as soon as the Filecoin community goes stay), and fairly just a few know-how points because of the hurry by accredited traders over-running the CoinList web site.
Solely essentially the most accredited traders had been in a position to take part on this chance, names together with: Union Sq. Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Andreseen Horowitz.
The Blockchain information storage community Filecoin formally accomplished its preliminary coin providing, elevating greater than $257 million over a month of exercise. Porat is trying ahead to the corporate’s future development.
“I am actually stoked in regards to the future potential of this mission. Filecoin will revolutionize the trade, as a result of it supplies a decentralized community for digital storage by means of which customers can successfully hire out their spare capability, after which obtain filecoins as cost,” Porat defined.
The second quarter of 2020, as a complete noticed a record-breaking stage of exercise, with roughly $797 million raised by means of this sort of funding mannequin, in response to the newest State of Blockchain report.
Filecoin is an open-source, public, cryptocurrency and digital cost system meant to behave as a blockchain-based, cooperative digital storage and information retrieval technique. Filecoin customers pay to retailer their recordsdata on storage miners. Storage miners are computer systems accountable for storing recordsdata and proving they’ve saved the recordsdata accurately over time. Filecoin permits anybody who needs to retailer their recordsdata or receives a commission for storing different customers’ recordsdata can be part of.
An unprecedented variety of crypto-currency exchanges have on-boarded Filecoin together with however not restricted to Gemini, Binance, BKEX, Gate.io, Coinlist and Kraken. For most of the main custodians to partake in Filecoin mainnet’s launch additional solidifies the mission’s legitimacy and worth this utility brings. Porat believes this mission will revolutionize the worldwide storage economic system.
About Eric Porat and One Purchase Media
His newest enterprise, One Purchase Media, is an promoting community that sells focused and non-targeted visitors with a versatile billing system. The corporate was created as an answer to advertisers’ largest ache factors — getting their merchandise in entrance of prospects.
SOURCE One Purchase Media LLC


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"Together, we can advance our shared vision of a healthier, more-sustainable planet", Nooyi said.
In one of her final acts as chief executive officer of PepsiCo, Indra Nooyi is betting on a razors-and-blades kind of business model to reanimate revenue growth that has been waning due to weak demand for traditional sugary soft drinks. SodaStream chief executive officer Daniel Birnbaum has shifted the Israeli company's focus from making at-home soft drinks to producing carbonated water.
Under the deal, announced before the market opened, PepsiCo has agreed to acquire all outstanding shares of SodaStream for $144.00 per share in cash, which represents a 32 percent premium to the 30-day average price. SodaStream makes machines that carbonate home tap water.
He adds: "SodaStream is highly complementary and incremental to our business, adding to our growing water portfolio, while catalysing our ability to offer personalised in-home beverage solutions around the world".
More recently, the Israel-based company reinvented itself as a fizzy water company popular with younger and more health- and environmentally-conscious consumers, who want to drink less soda and use fewer plastic bottles.
Morningstar analyst Sonia Vora said acquisition fit well with PepsiCo's push for "more natural and nutritious offerings", but added that it was unlikely to significantly boost earnings because of SodaStream's small size.
Earlier this month, SodaStream reported its strongest results in company history, a 31 percent year-over-year jump in revenues to $172 million, an 89 percent leap in operating profit to $32 million and an 82 percent climb in net profit to $26 million.
Nooyi is stepping down from the top job at PepsiCo later this year, but the move shows that Pepsi's CEO-elect, Ramon Laguarta, will continue focusing on healthier alternatives.
In 2015, SodaStream shut down a plant in the West Bank following a boycott campaign that included targeting Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson after she advertised its product.
Three years ago, the firm shut down its West Bank factory amid global boycott calls and opened a sprawling new factory deep in Israel's Negev Desert instead.
Goldman Sachs and Centerview advised PepsiCo, while Perella Weinberg Partners gave advice to SodaStream.


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Released more than two decades ago, the iPod followed in the Walkman’s footsteps and helped revolutionize the way people listen to music. This product line includes many great Apple devices such as the original iPod, iPod nano, iPod Shuffle and of course iPod touch.
The first iPod touch was released in 2007, the same year as the first iPhone. It has most of the same hardware and software as the original iPhone, except it lacks the ability to make voice calls. Since then, the iPod touch has had many revisions. The latest iPod touch was released almost 3 years ago, in 2019, with an almost unchanged design from its predecessor.
It’s no surprise that this popular product line is coming to an end since the iPhone keeps getting better at music playback and Apple Music services are better than ever, including audio support. Spatial Audio.
It’s surprising how long it took Apple to discontinue the iPod touch because the company has made it so clear its unwillingness to update the product. Sales of the iPod touch also declined years ago and there was a lack of user interest in the product line, especially as it became too expensive to invest in when compared to other product lines.
For its part, Apple is not too sad in killing the iPod – one of its once monuments – after directing users to many products capable of playing music. Although most of them now no longer have a headphone jack. However, the iPod will certainly always have a special place in many people’s hearts.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vtc.vn – Read the original article here


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Sony's Xperia line has grown once again today, and this time the newest member of the family has selected the 13th letter of the alphabet as its identifier. That device up there is the Sony Xperia M, an entry-level Android smartphone that will be offered in both single-SIM and dual-SIM variants.
On the Xperia M's face is a 4-inch 854x480 touchscreen with Sony's typical on-screen Android navigation keys, and around back there lives a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash. Sandwiched in-between those features is a 1GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 processor, 4GB storage (2.8GB user-accessible), 1GB RAM and a microSD card slot that can be used to add up to 64GB of additional memory. The side of the unit also features a dedicated shutter key.
Sony expects the single-SIM Xperia M to launch in black, white, purple and yellow, while the dual-SIM variant will be available in black, white and purple. Jelly Bean will come preloaded on both models, though the single-SIM model will feature Android 4.1 at launch, while its dual-SIM sibling will come packing Android 4.2. Expect both units to begin rolling out around the globe in Q3 2013.
The Xperia M looks like a respectable little entry-level smartphone, and while there's no word yet on exactly how much it'll cost at launch, it seems likely that phone will be fairly affordable. One thing that we do know is that the single-SIM model will be available in yellow, which ought to help it stand out a bit in the crowd of entry-level Android hardware. Stay tuned for more on Sony's Xperia M launch plans.


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Festival goers can prepare themselves for a terrific experience when the 15th South African Cheese Festival is celebrated at Sandringham, Stellenbosch from 30 April to 2 May. The festival is known as the biggest outdoor culinary event in Southern Africa and received the platinum award for Best exhibition in Southern Africa in 2015.
With the Cheese Festival in the spotlight, cheese lovers can look forward to a collection of more than 30 tons of cheese, new product offerings, exquisite entertainment and, of course, good food, wine and music. Cheese is the focus of the festival and visitors can taste and buy the widest variety of cheese, from well-known types like Cheddar, Gouda and feta to the more exotic, hand-made boutique and artisanal cheeses.
For more information, contact Agri-Expo at 021 975 4440, email firstname.lastname@example.org or visit their website www.cheesefestival.co.za.
Porchia Adams, corporate communication manager at Agri Expo, gave more details about this year’s festival in an interview with Lise Roberts on RSG Landbou. To listen to this interesting interview, click HERE.
Published on Mon, 18th Apr 2016 - 11:36


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5 Small Businesses With Ethics
The term “ethical company” can seem like an oxymoron since a financial crisis that revealed some of the dirtiest secrets in the mortgage and housing industries.
But not every company has grown so large and so greedy that the only thing its executives can think of is how high and fast they can boost their share price. In fact, there are a host of companies that see it as their mission to be more than profit generators…
Online retailer Headsets.com, which sells wireless headsets for office use, has a policy in which three-year employees get a free week of vacation added to every week of paid time off. After five years of service (and every five after that) employees get a one-month paid sabbatical—provided that their job responsibilities are covered while they are out.
CEO Mike Faith says the perk was something he believed in right from the start of the 15-year-old company. He got the idea while working for a small computer-supplies company in the U.K. years ago. There employees were required to take two weeks of vacation consecutively.
“We encourage people to take the time off to either refresh and come back, or find a new job if they want,” he says. “I always bought into the theory that to have a real rest is really important.”
Say what? The company actually encourages its employees to use the time to look for another job?
It’s true. The exercise offers unhappy workers the chance to find an appropriate workplace fit and allows Headsets.com to weed out less-loyal and possibly unproductive employees, Faith explains:
“People can get stuck in jobs forever without that chance to break out and look for something new. We believe that giving people the choice is the right thing,” he says.
In terms of hard costs, Faith says that the sabbatical in effect cost the company about 2% of the employee’s total cost to the company. The pros outweigh the cons, he says.
The perk is a “big morale booster” and a good marketing tool for the company, Faith adds—especially the job-seeking nudge. “People tend to talk about it,” he says. “It generally works out well for us and if someone really thinks they’re better somewhere else, it’s best to go and do it. It keeps us on our toes as well.”
So far about 15 people have taken at least one paid sabbatical. Of that group, two employees have been at Headsets.com long enough to take two paid sabbaticals and two others have left the company after using the time to find a new job, he says.


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Displaying items 37-48 of 269 » View chicagotribune.com items only< Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-23 Next >
Google took its first step into the music subscription service market Wednesday, announcing All Access -- a Spotify and Pandora competitor. The Silicon Valley giant said All Access, a part of its Google Music service, will allow users to combine their...
Tags: Music, Radio Industry, Radio, Google Music, Marketing
Strip away the $61,345 price tag and ignore all of its competitors, and the 2014 Acura RLX isn't a bad car. It's a quiet, luxurious and stylish front-wheel-drive sedan that sits at the top of the lineup for Honda's premium brand. Unfortunately, the...
Tags: Lincoln, Audi, Lexus, Passenger Cars, BMW
ReutersApril 30 (Reuters) - Wall Street securities analysts revised their ratings and price targets on several U.S. companies, including Walt Disney and Microsoft, on Tuesday. HIGHLIGHTS * Walt Disney : Evercore raises price target to $68 from $58; rating...
CNN Films is stepping up its acquisition efforts. One week after landing the television rights to the Penny Lane documentary “Our Nixon,” the network has acquired domestic television broadcast rights to the Sundance film selection “...
NEW YORK (AP) — When Apple launched its iTunes music store a decade ago amid the ashes of Napster, the music industry — reeling from the effects of online piracy — was anxious to see how the new music service would shake out. "The...
KickingTiresMost significant changes: Suspension and steering changes Price change: None On sale: Now Which should you buy, 2013 or 2014? 2014 Nissan can still claim it sells the least expensive new car in the U.S. because it didn't change the......
Tags: Auto Trends, Nissan, Sound Recordings, Vehicles, Passenger Cars
Got a graduate? Get them something good: Wicked Audio EVAC headphones Wicked's over-ear EVAC headphones wrap superior sound in soft, cushiony comfort, making it a great pick for music lovers destined for the hustle and bustle of campus life. The...
Harry Shearer is wondering what went wrong. His Sunday morning satire program, "Le Show," is syndicated to about 100 public radio stations nationwide and is also available on shortwave radio, NPR Worldwide and as a podcast on iTunes. Yet the station...
La vigésimo cuarta edición de la Conferencia Billboard de la Música Latina, que comienza el lunes en Miami, ofrecerá tres días de paneles y sesiones de preguntas y respuestas a cargo de artistas y las figuras más influyentes del medio. "Este panel reúne...
Twitter Inc. says its new music service helps users discover songs and artists. But the music industry isn't sure it's something to sing about just yet. The #Music app recommends songs based on the artists Twitter users follow. It also shows what...
Tags: YouTube, Advertising, Wiz Khalifa, Apple iPhone, Facebook
KickingTiresThe Honda Civic has returned from a rather snoozy 2012 rested and ready to excite. Cars.com reviewer Joe Bruzek says Honda's return to the drawing board for 2013 has paid off, most notably on the inside. High-quality materials and impressive......
The Hartford CourantWestern Digital's WD TV Play has your number. You're 18 to 55 years old, technologically savvy, a Windows user with movies and music in assorted formats and assorted resolutions on a PC or external hard drive. You're a stream-your-own-content kind of...
May 15, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
May 11, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Apr 30, 2013 |Story| Reuters
Apr 30, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Apr 25, 2013 |Story| Petoskey News
Apr 24, 2013 |Blog| Cars.com
Apr 25, 2013 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Apr 23, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Apr 19, 2013 |Story| South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Apr 19, 2013 |Story| Los Angeles Times
Apr 26, 2013 |Blog| Cars.com
Apr 15, 2013 |Column| Hartford Courant
Original site for Pandora Media, Inc. topic gallery.


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Says Shark’s CEO at the UN Women, Coca-Cola launch of the NEXT LEVEL and 5BY20 joint initiatives to support women’s economic empowerment
Mrs. Eyvonne Bright-Harding, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Shark’s Entertainment Incorporated, a Liberian-owned business, says in order for women to thrive in business, they need a combination of hard work, financing and policies designed to advocate and support women entrepreneurs in the country.
Those policies, she said, must be fully implemented and monitored to demonstrate that they are having an impact in society.
“We all know that governments, especially in such gatherings, are quick to advocate policies, but are weak on implementation. It makes no sense to have laws on the books when the government entities entrusted to implement them fail to do so,” she said.
Mrs. Bright-Harding made these remarks yesterday, May 31, when she served as guest speaker at the official launch of the partnership of the NEXT LEVEL and the 5BY20 joint initiatives to support women’s economic empowerment, held at the Monrovia City Hall.
Other partners included the Liberia Coca-Cola Bottling Company (LCCBC), UN Women, Gender Ministry and the Swedish Embassy in Liberia.
It can be recalled that in 2014, the Legislature passed the Small Business Administration Act, which guaranteed 25 percent of all government procurement contracts for Liberians. Of the 25 percent, five percent is reserved for women-owned businesses.
Based on that, Bright-Harding said since the act was passed, Liberian women have received US$8 million in contracts compared to US$30 million for men. Most of the contracts awarded to women were for catering and traveling services.
“We need diversity of women businesses,” she said in reference to the Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC), adding: “We must ensure that women are bidding for other contracts besides catering and travel services.”
Mrs. Bright-Harding is also the CEO of Shark’s Ice Cream and Catering, the largest producer of ice cream in Liberia, located on the James Spriggs Airfield road on the edge of Sinkor. She has established outlets in central Monrovia and other parts of the city. However, efforts to have Shark’s Ice Cream sold at supermarkets have been undermined by biased placement of her products in favor of imported alternatives.
She said women are involved in construction and engineering businesses. “Why aren’t they in the running for government contracts?” she asked while noting that research has shown that women will continue to drive Africa’s economy.
“When men and women become more equal,” she said, “economies grow faster, fewer people remain in poverty, and overall well-being increases. And raising female employment to male levels can have a direct impact on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate by as much as 34 percent in some countries.”
She said some countries’ productivity can increase by as much as 25 percent, if discriminatory barriers against women are removed.
Mrs. Bright-Harding said when women are empowered to earn income, accumulate assets and increase their economic security, they improve industrial capacity and spur economic growth by creating new jobs, as well as expanding the pool of human resources and talents available in a country.
“We must also develop a mentoring program that will enable successful female entrepreneurs to mentor younger women.
“Women in business must support each other. For example, for my catering business, I buy pastries and desserts from women who have expertise in that area. I buy the fruits for some of my ice cream flavors from women’s association such as the Bentol Mothers Association,” she said.
“The business climate in Liberia is still an ‘old boys’ club, so women must support each other, but not tear each other down.”
She said Liberian women entrepreneurs need to catch up with digital and technological advances and asked them to use Quickbooks or other accounting software to track their income and spending. Small scale entrepreneurs need to be introduced to smart phones and access the internet so they can trade on their own, she said.
She, therefore, urged the government, international organizations and others to support women entrepreneurs to be the drivers of their own enterprises.
After commending UN Women and Coca-Cola for their commitment to women’s economic empowerment, she said: “We’ve seen how the government is not good on implementing polices, so we need to assert ourselves, be bold and confident so that we can be successful in our enterprises.”
Mr. Ramon Garway, program manager for UN Women, who spoke on behalf of Mr. Peterson Magoola, the Country Representative, said UN Women remains strategically positioned to respond to the needs of women entrepreneurs, and is also committed to strengthen partnership with institutions in the private sector to improve and diversify livelihood options for market women.
He said partnerships are important levels for sustainable development, and empowering women contributes to building sustainable communities. “We know that a woman’s income immensely benefits their children’s education and other family needs. Empowering women entrepreneurs will benefit communities and future generations,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the general manager of LCCBC, Mrs. Amanita Kamara, Human Resource for Business Support Manager, said the 5BY20 is the Coca-Cola Company’s global commitment to enable the economic empowerment of five million women entrepreneurs by 2020.
Specifically addressing the most common barriers women face when trying to succeed in the marketplace, she said that the initiative offers women access to business skills training courses, financial services and connections with peers or mentors.
She said since its inception in 2012, the brand has been able to economically empower over 2,000 women through several activities.


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Monaco taps Jumio to verify new cryptocurrency wallet customers
Jumio has been selected as a partner by payments and cryptocurrency platform Monaco to provide customer onboarding, “Know Your Customer” (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks as Monaco scales toward its goal of “Cryptocurrency in Every Wallet.”
Monaco enables users to buy, exchange, and spend fiat and cryptocurrencies at interbank exchange rates.
“As a leader in compliance and user experience, Monaco’s goal is to streamline the identity verification process without compromising accuracy,” said Kris Marszalek, Co-Founder and CEO of Monaco. “Jumio’s AI-powered technologies fit with our priority of creating smooth and simple user journeys, keeping our users happy and increasing client retention by taking the complexities out of the online verification process usually associated with regulatory KYC and AML compliance.”
Asia Pacific markets are increasingly allowing financial services companies to shift to modern, online identity verification processes leveraging technologies such as machine learning and biometrics, according to the announcement.
“KYC is one of the biggest pain points in the financial industry in Asia Pacific. The process is costly and laborious, and hugely duplicative,” said Frederic Ho, Jumio’s vice president of Asia Pacific. “We’re thrilled that Monaco is leading the way by being one of the first companies to leverage online identity verification during the onboarding process to simplify KYC. What’s more, they deliver a fundamentally better user experience while benefiting from more accurate fraud detection.”
Jumio recently opened an office in Singapore, and announced a partnership to provide customer onboarding for precious metal financial services company Goldmoney.
AML | biometrics | cryptocurrency | Jumio | KYC


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PET Engineering is now one of the most well-known specialists in packaging design of PET containers worldwide and counts brands such as Pepsico, Nestlé Waters, Carlsberg, Heineken and Coca-Cola among its global customers. This result was possible thanks to its truly innovative approach, never seen in the field before, which integrates design, engineering and industrialization making the company obtain 18 awards for its creative and fully feasible packaging. This winning approach generated the interest of Sidel Group that finalized the acquisition in October 2018.
“Packaging has a critical impact on the whole supply chain efficiency and therefore is a key enabler for our brand promise – Performance through Understanding – and for the strategy behind it. The acquisition of PET Engineering last year has been generating a solid value for the Group” comments Pavel Shevchuk, Executive Vice President Services, Sidel.
So, PET Engineering celebrates its 20th Anniversary as part of Sidel - one of the three business groups of Tetra Laval, with more than 40,000 machines in operation in 190 countries and 170 years of proven experience and innovation - and it’s ready to live the coming years bringing to the Group more business opportunities, offering customers a single interface for any need related to food & beverage packaging design and development.


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ACI Worldwide, an electronic payment solutions provider, announced on Tuesday a call for submissions for the 2015 ACI Innovation Awards, which recognizes developing solutions and technologies in the payments industry.
“Innovation keeps us at the leading edge of payments,” Craig Saks, the executive vice president and chief product officer at ACI Worldwide, said. “We closely collaborate with our customers to deliver transformative solutions that empower them to thrive; and the ACI Innovation Awards are a fantastic opportunity to showcase the best of the best.”
Now in its sixth year, the awards ceremony—formerly the ACI Excellence Awards—will include five categories: retail banking, wholesale banking, retailer, biller and risk management solutions.
The awards are free to enter and are open to ACI customers that have developed a new technology or undertaken an innovative project that is built around an ACI solution.
Winners will be selected by a panel of industry analysts and experts. The deadline for all submissions is Nov. 4. To submit an entry, visit the awards page on ACI Worldwide’s website.


text: According to the Beijing News, on October 21st, at the 6th World Internet Conference “Innovation and Breakthrough of Industrial Internet”, Zhang Jianfeng, chief technology officer of Alibaba Group and president of Alibaba Cloud, said that the core digital technology includes four. Point, the first is that cloud technology has intensively integrated all of the company's IT facilities. The second is data-based intelligent technology. The third is mobile, including 5G, a collaborative office platform represented by nails. The fourth is IoT, the first time connecting the online world with the physical world. The comprehensive coordination of human and physical objects, this is a basic platform, there are some extended technologies, including blockchain, etc., which ultimately constitutes the "1+N" platform.