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Switch hopes to raise half a billion dollars through IPO
Tue 26 Sep 2017
Leading data centre provider Switch is hoping to raise up to $500 million (approx. £372 million) through its initial public offering (IPO).
The Las Vegas-based firm is offering around 31 million shares at a cost of between $14 and $16 each. Should the shares be sold at the higher end of this range, the market value of the company would rise to nearly $4 billion.
Switch’s announcement of the terms of the IPO means that if the offering raises as much as is expected, it will be the third largest technology IPO of the year, following social media leviathan Snap’s $3.9 billion listing and U.S. broadband provider Altice USA’s $2.2 billion sale.
The offering is being led by a number of major institutional investors, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Bank of Montreal, and Wells Fargo & Co. A source close to the proceedings told Bloomberg that JPMorgan will be the ‘syndicate trading manager’, giving it greater responsibility for the process.
Switch produces data centre hardware and provides data centre management solutions. According to its website, it manages to be both of higher quality and better value than its competitors, thanks to the innovations and patented designs of its reclusive CEO, Rob Roy.
The firm’s website states: ‘Rob Roy designed, patented and manufactures 80% of his data centre modules completely eliminating 60% of the mark-up inherent with building a data centre.’
This strategy appears to have been successful, with the company reporting profits for the past four years, with net income of $73.5 million on revenue of $265.9 million in 2015, and income of $31.4 million from revenue of $318.4 million last year – suggesting a period of growth and expansion for the company.
Though notoriously protective of its assets, it was announced earlier this year that Switch had issued licenses to Schneider to use its patented technology. However, the generosity only extended so far, as it threatened legal action against firms that used its technology without permission.


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Searching for the next must-have handbag, Maurices is staging a contest inviting designers or aspiring designers to submit a sketch.
The specialty retailer’s contest, called Project Handbag, starts today and runs through Feb. 11. Details about entering are on maurices.com and FashionIndie.com.
“This is going to be fun and engaging, and it opens up an opportunity for young, aspiring designers,” said Lisa Rhodes, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for the Duluth, Minn.-based chain, a division of Dress Barn Inc.
Her advice to contestants: “Really keep in mind Maurices’ target customer. She is a savvy, fashion-conscious gal, twentysomething, living in small towns. She could be a college student, or starting her first job, but she is juggling a whole lot of things. She may be a new wife. Stress and chaos is a big part of her life. She follows trends, but is not the trend leader.”
For the bag itself, quality is important but it should be versatile and not expensive, Rhodes said. “It should be fashionable to wear with jeans or out to dinner, so it fills a fast-paced, fashionable lifestyle. We’re looking for it to be under $50.”
Fashion Indie will narrow the entries to 10 finalists. Sketches of the selected bags will then be posted on FashionIndie.com and maurices.com from Feb. 14 to 25 to allow consumers to vote on their favorite bags. The top three vote-getters will advance to a third round, where a panel of fashion experts will select the grand prize winner, who will be spotlighted at a media event in New York on May 7.
Maurices will mass produce the winning bag and sell it in stores starting in September. “With over 600 stores, there will be a minimum of 10,000 units,” but there could be several times that amount if the bag gets manufactured in different colors, Rhodes added. She said the designer will be identified on the winning bag, possibly with a tag or logo saying “designed exclusively for Maurices by….” Aside from the exposure, the winner gets a $500 Maurices shopping spree.
“We have thousands of readers and aspiring designers within our network who have been waiting for an opportunity like this to come around,” Daniel Saynt, founder of Fashion Indie, said in a statement.

domain: news


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Results For "Videowall"
2 News Found
Samsung Electronics launches virtual ‘Visual Experience Showcase 2020’
In OOH Solutions By M4G Bureau - July 07, 2020
The virtual tour showcases QLED 8K, outdoor, videowalls, and LED signage along with the MagicINFO solution, demonstrating the benefit of Samsung technology
Samsung to stop production of 46/55” videowall products
In OOH Solutions By M4G Bureau - March 24, 2020
No key reason cited for the move


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Huge capital flows have been raining into the startup industry of the country. This is followed by a dry spell that occurred in the country during the last year. Last week, Flipkart had announced that it would raise around $1.4 billion from the overseas investors. It is now time for another startup to follow the funding league. Paytm – a fintech startup promoted by Vijay Shekhar Sharma too hopes to raise around $1.2 – $1.5 billion for its company.
The startup has been in talks with the Japan’s SoftBank for the last 3 months. The deal can foresee the company buying shares from the current investors of Paytm. The shares can be bought from the founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma and SAIF Partners.
There could be several lucrative options once the fund raising gets approved. It could escalate the valuation of Paytm to around $7-$9 billion. Until March, this valuation was around $6 billion. However, the valuations of several leading companies have downgraded in the recent times. Recently, Flipkart’s valuation went down from $15.2 billion to $11.6 billion last week. Ola too witnessed around 40% drop in the valuation. This happened to $3 billion from the previous $5 billion.
Paytm is keen on raising funds from SoftBank. This will help the company to reduce the control of Alibaba Group. Alibaba Group is the largest stakeholder in the company. In addition to this, to get SoftBank as the largest shareholder can also allay the concerns of the government. For SoftBank, the collaboration with Paytm can expand its presence in the e-commerce market of the country.
The founders of Snapdeal and the Japanese investors are currently in conversation. They are communicating with Flipkart to sell the company. Last week, SoftBank funded Flipkart in return for a stake. There are several rounds of fund infusion taking place in One97. Thus, the Japanese investors will have a significant presence in the e-commerce market of the country.
SoftBank has been planning since last year to sell Snapdeal to Flipkart. It also plans to sell FreeCharge to Paytm. These have taken in return for the stake ownership in these companies.
The funding is supposed to help Paytm in accelerating the expansion plans. This will occur prior to the launch of the payments bank services.


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Kingdom Come Deliverance update 1.15 for PlayStation 4 and XBox One released. According to the official Kingdom Come Deliverance version 1.15 patch notes, the latest update contains various bug fixes and gameplay improvements. In addition, Kingdom Come Deliverance patch 1.15 update also includes stability and performance improvements.
Previously, a big update was released with the Band of Bastards DLC and a long list of bug fixes and gameplay changes. Unfortunately, since this patch, many players were experiencing a number of issues when trying to play the game. The new Kingdom Come Deliverance version 1.15 is expected to fix these issues. Check out more details below.
Kingdom Come Deliverance Update Version 1.15 Patch Notes
- Added fixes for crashing issues with Kingdom Come 1.15.
- Fixed players reported glitches.
- Added fixes for framerate drop and freezing issues.
- Added fixes for stuttering/lag issues.
- Kingdom Come update 1.15 for PS4 added performance and stability improvements.
- Gameplay improvements added with Kingdom Come Deliverance 1.15.
- Added other minor fixes and changes with Kingdom Come version 1.15.
Kingdom Come Deliverance update 1.15 is now available in PS4 and Xbox One.


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The South African wine industry is experiencing one of its most exciting phases in history.
Overall wine quality has increased dramatically over the last five years, international recognition is at an all-time high and the consumer is now spoilt for choice, with a wealth of new producers, varieties and styles.
Though winery input costs have risen and the continued drought may mean a significant drop in yield, the battered Rand has helped exports and aid profitability. The South African wine offers tremendous value locally and abroad, but premium South African wines are surging in price, widening the gap to everyday beverage wines.
So what are some of the trends emerging in 2018? We spoke to Roland Peens, Director of Wine Cellar – fine wine merchants – about his five top trends and predictions for the Nectar of the Gods…
Rosé could not be more trendy and the growth of the premium Rosé category continues around the world. It has however taken some time in South Africa as we have had to shake off the semi-sweet, poor quality, bright pink image. Rosé can be a by-product of red winemaking in order to make reds more concentrated. It can also be a blend of left-over red and white wines.
Sauvignon Blanc is back
Sauvignon Blanc has been hurdled by Chardonnay and Chenin Blanc as the leading white varieties over the last decade in South Africa. Usually offering a crisp acidity, tropical flavours as well as green pepper notes, South African Sauvignon Blanc can be rather watery however, offering less excitement than other varieties. But, older vines, lower yields and more authentic winemaking can make for serious, long ageing versions.
Drought will affect prices
Three years of drought in the Western Cape is going to severely impact yields in 2018 as water quotas are slashed and the vine struggle to keep up production. This will not only decrease volumes but also push up costs in years to come. Expect entry-level wines to become more expensive as stocks are diminished and the drought continues. Economically and politically this is a major concern as large volume wineries operate at marginal profitability levels.
Buy the great vintages En-Primeur
As entry-level wines will be affected by the drought, SA’s premium wines will also be affected, but in a different way. Lower yields and smaller berries make for more concentrated and perhaps better quality wines. Farming and production costs will, however, continue to push SA’s premium wines up faster than inflation. With relatively small volumes for South Africa’s top wines, especially gaining huge international following, demand will be bigger than supply. The model of ‘En-primeur’ or buying pre-release, will become more popular for the highly-demanded great vintages. Buying pre-release not only allows you to secure your purchase early but also speculate on the price if you think it may appreciate on release. As the quality of the fine 2017 vintage gets realised, expect there to be strong demand to buy 2017 ‘En-primeur’ already in 2018.
Online Retail Boom
South Africa is still behind in online retail with mature markets like the US or UK buying 5 times more of all goods online than SA. As the internet gets faster, transactions more secure and e-commerce more efficient, expect to buy more of your wine online. It is great to peruse the bottles on a shelf, but expect lower prices online, more information, no lugging of heavy wine boxes, shopping in your nighty and of course, no parking issues…


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Mozilla is all set to release the first beta of Firefox 5 tomorrow. But here is how you can download and taste the beta version before the official release by Mozilla using Firefox Aurora’s “Channel Switcher” option.
Google I/O conference showcased many of the upcoming products by Google. Well the most expected product Google +1 button is set to release in few weeks from now. But Google has already provided us an experimental site for trying +1 button on Google Search.
Mozilla has now confirmed that Beta 12 will be the last beta version of Firefox 4. And here comes one more latest update. Mozilla is aiming to finish Firefox 4 release candidate by February 25. It may available for download by February end.


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Bitbond is an up-and-coming small business lending platform powered by blockchain regulated by German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, also known as Bafin. The firm helps connect entrepreneurs — mainly online vendors in areas such as fashion and electronic retailing — with investors for small value loans. The company has extended loans to companies in many Asian countries including India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Bitbond CEO Radoslav Albrecht spoke to BAR on the recent global cryptocurrency regulations and how they might stifle innovation where it is needed most – the developing world.
By Tsering Namgyal
Q1: How would the FATF AML/CFT regulations on crypto assets be implemented across jurisdictions?
A: It’s going to be difficult for the proposed regulations to be implemented across jurisdictions, especially since the level of security features on identity documents varies worldwide. Proof of identity requirements often disadvantages the users who stand to benefit most from cryptocurrency access. That said, we should use regulations like this as an opportunity to lobby for the better provision of identity documents, so we can compliantly engage wider swathes of the global population.
Q2: FATF is hitting where it hurts – which is transparency in what is anonymous transactions thus far. How challenging would it for crypto exchanges, crypto fund managers and custodians to comply with these rules?
A: Businesses that provide on- or off-ramps between fiat and cryptocurrency in most cases already are regulated, and thus compliant with AML/CTF regulations. That said, these measures should only apply to companies that are holding user assets, like exchanges or custodians. Software or hardware providers who merely provide the infrastructure that allows users to hold digital assets but don’t provide storage as a managed service should be exempt from AML/CTF regulations. We’re pioneering the adoption of these regulations with our newly-announced partnership with Gibraltar Stock Exchange. This collaboration is a step in a new direction for both parties, and we hope to create a framework for others to follow. It is in everyone’s interests that user assets are protected, but regulators need to be mindful of the burden their measures put on what are still fledgling businesses.
Q3: How would companies like Bitbond preparing to comply with FATF regulations? How long do you think it would take for these rules to be implemented, if implemented at all by the industry?
A: As Bitbond is already a regulated financial services provider, we ensure that our users are verified under AML/CTF requirements, so we comply with regulations that aim to improve control and ensure the security of financial services as well as cryptocurrencies. It’s no easy process, and the regulators should be careful that they don’t force innovation out of the industry by being too hardline in a space that is still undergoing rapid change.
Q4: Could FATF achieve AML/CTF goal with softer measures?
A: There’s always space to improve regulation, through a collaborative process. The newly proposed rules read a bit like an overreaction. There could be a better differentiation between the multiple types of service and software providers in the digital assets space. I think for this to happen an even deeper understanding of how digital assets and the ecosystem of service providers around them work is necessary. For this to happen both, regulators and the companies operating in the space have to work together closely. Regulators have to continue to be open to take feedback from the industry while startups should dedicate the time to engage in these conversations.
Service providers that do not hold or manage a user’s private keys should not have to comply with these regulations, as they have more in common with software providers than financial services. There’s no recourse for these businesses to comply when they don’t control their customers’ funds.
Q5: What would be potential implications of these new rules?
A: On the one hand, it will hopefully encourage businesses to consider customer needs and safety, and the regulatory framework they’re operating under – after all, it’s easier to build a compliant business if the rules you’re complying with are clearly laid out. More established market participants will find it easier to cooperate with businesses that operate within a transparent legal framework that they comply with.
However, if these regulations become an overkill, extending beyond what is necessary and create a high bar for businesses to comply with, then the rules become counterproductive. Not only would this drive some parts of industry underground, it could serve to stifle innovation, as business leaders or developers may err on the side of caution instead of taking risks that could revolutionise the way our financial systems operate.


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Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here.
To Facebook, Or Not To Facebook?
Facebook has lost some advertisers since CEO Mark Zuckerberg refused to remove posts by President Trump that glorify violence. Agencies including Pearmill and Verasoni Worldwide are advising clients to suspend campaigns while protests continue, The New York Times reports. Hundreds of companies hit pause on Blackout Tuesday, including major brands. Nike and Anheuser-Busch cut budgets by more than $100,000 in early June, according to Pathmatics. The web browser Braze pulled a $60,000 Facebook campaign planned for this summer. And Basecamp, a business software company, stopped advertising on Google and Facebook. But don’t expect the holdouts to last. “It’s hard,” said Lutchi Gayot, a small business owner. “Facebook ads are keeping small businesses alive. If you’re not on Facebook, you don’t exist.”
Ad industry trade groups are trying to scuttle a proposed amendment to the California Consumer Privacy Act that would require companies to honor data opt-out requests made by users in regards to browsers, plug-ins and device IDs, even if those requests didn’t apply to a specific company. All browsers now offer data privacy and ad-blocking features by default, often giving people an option when they download the browser or app what kinds of data sharing they’ll allow. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra says those decisions “communicate or signal the consumer’s choice to opt out of the sale of their personal information.” The ad industry orgs are pushing for the current standards to hold, with people opting out of data collection company-by-company, instead of via the browser or device settings, MediaPost reports.
Changing Horses Midstream
Hulu’s programming and ad sales teams have been partially absorbed by Disney’s streaming operation, and “Hulugans,” as employees call themselves, are bristling at the loss of independence, The Information reports. The fiercest holdouts come from Hulu’s engineering team, which doesn’t relish being subsumed by Disney’s streaming tech division (formerly BAMTech, a 2017 Disney acquisition). One potential compromise is for Hulu to continue serving its own ads through separate technology, while the BAMTech group hosts the video streams. Hulu is also not the first streaming service to be corporatised by new telco owners (cough … HBO … cough). But scaling Hulu in the United States and internationally is critical to Disney’s streaming revenue plans, so an integration will happen soon.
But Wait, There’s More!
- EU Watchdog Sets Up TikTok Task Force – Reuters
- New Google Confirmed Clicks Plan Could Depress Publisher Revenues – Digiday
- WPP Launches Remote Internship Program – release
- Amazon Rivals Struggle To Nab Business During The Pandemic – WSJ
- IAC’s Dotdash Shows Why Commerce Is Key For Digital Publishers – Business Insider
- 605 Launches Attribution Solution For Television Campaigns – release
- Facebook News Launches In United States With Local News And Video – TechCrunch
- Inscape Rolls Out New Audience Panel, Eclipses 15M Opt-In TVs – release
- Mobile World Congress Organizer To Cut 20% Of Global Workforce – Bloomberg


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Airbnb hosts have had enough.
The hostel industry is in crisis, and Airbnb is the culprit.
In just two years, Airbnb has grown from a small online rental service into the world’s largest and fastest-growing housing platform.
In New York, Airbnb is destroying the nightlife.
“It’s a mess,” says Ryan Richey, who hosts the monthly night-show on The Night Show.
“I think the night shows, they’re a lot more expensive than the hotels that they’re renting out.
I mean, the average Airbnb booking on Sunday nights, the typical reservation for a night show, is $400, $500.
They don’t want the night to go to waste.” “
What’s going on is the hotel and the host, they want the same thing, and they’re getting it.
They don’t want the night to go to waste.”
Airbnb has a complicated relationship with the city.
The company’s founder, Pierre Omidyar, and his wife, Jana, have donated a $5 million fund to help local governments recover from Hurricane Sandy, which hit the region in October, 2012.
Airbnb has also given New York city more than $30 million in subsidies over the years to build a $500 million residential complex, known as The Empire State Building, and it also hosts some of the country’s largest music festivals.
Airbnb’s rise has been rapid and sudden.
In February 2014, it was estimated that Airbnb was in its fourth year of operating in the United States.
By November 2015, it had nearly doubled its global revenue.
And the company’s popularity has been on a roll, with over 3 million listings in the US as of January 2019, and a projected 3 million more listings by the end of 2020.
Airbnb is not the only one, of course.
Companies like Expedia, which operates a hotel and Airbnb platform, also have come under fire.
In December, the company was fined $5.5 million by the Federal Trade Commission after it refused to remove listings on Airbnb, despite receiving a court order from the city of New York.
In April 2018, Airbnb agreed to pay $10 million to settle a lawsuit from Airbnb hosts against the company.
Airbnb also faces a lawsuit over the way it treats hosts in cities around the country.
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Airbnb was forced to shut down its app to make room for the cleanup.
And Airbnb faces a separate lawsuit by New York hosts that alleges that it has a conflict of interest by renting out its property and selling it to hotels and condominium owners.
The lawsuits are pending, but the hosts believe they have a powerful legal case.
“The people who are complaining to Airbnb are basically just disgruntled Airbnb hosts,” says Richeys.
“They feel they have been exploited, that Airbnb has been unfairly treating them unfairly.”
Airbnb’s growth is largely fueled by its ability to connect people across the country with people who want to live in the same house.
According to a report released by Airbnb in October 2017, hosts make up the majority of Airbnb’s revenue.
Airbnb hosts are the people who actually pay for guests to stay in their homes, and most Airbnb hosts make less than $50,000 per year, making them relatively affluent compared to the average household in the city, which makes up about 4.6 million people.
In order to keep the company afloat, hosts are offered incentives, such as a flat rate on their home, and in some cases, access to luxury perks like complimentary wifi, luxury apartments, or even a private jet.
But while Airbnb is making a lot from hosts, they have little say in how the company operates.
The platform’s terms of service prohibit hosts from using Airbnb’s service to make money, but also allow hosts to host their own business and charge a flat fee for guests who stay at their home.
That’s because hosts are technically not hosts, which means Airbnb can’t take the revenue and then use it to make more money.
That makes Airbnb vulnerable to lawsuits from hosts who want their properties taken down.
And if the lawsuit does eventually go to court, Airbnb will almost certainly be able to win, as it already has.
“There’s a whole class of people who feel that the city is doing the wrong thing, that the people that have been making money off the Airbnb platform have not been doing well financially,” says Alex Segal, a lawyer with the New York-based law firm Segal & Minkin.
“And that’s the issue that Airbnb is trying to get away from.”
Airbnb, of which Segal is a partner, has a long history of trying to use its platform to profit from its hosts.
In 2015, Airbnb started charging a flat monthly fee for listings in cities across the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United Arab Emirates.
This fee has been in place since 2013, and was designed to incentivize hosts to put their homes


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Fresh from opening its popular Nexus 7 tablet up to a bunch of new international markets, Google is said to be just six weeks away from launching a 3G-compatible version of its tablet device, according to Paul O’Brien at MoDaCo.
O’Brien cites a “well placed insider” who informed him that Asus, Google’s manufacturing partner, is cranking up its efforts “in preparation for [3G device] launch in around 6 weeks”. While the speculation is entirely…speculative at this stage, the rumor stands to reason and would make a great deal of sense for Google.
The Nexus 7 tablet has sold well since its debut in June. Indeed, last month, analysts predicted that the company could sell up to 8 million units by the end of 2012, that’s more than double the number the search engine giant predicted.
One of the main pieces of feedback from reviewers and early adopters has been the Nexus 7?s lack of 3G connectivity. Indeed, adverts have drawn mixed responses for showing the device being used closed to homes but in outdoor settings.
Clearly adding 3G, and indeed any kind of cellular connectivity, would make the device all the more usable and appealing in the US and other markets worldwide. At this point it is suggested that this would be the sole change, with no other hardware tweaks; there’s no mention of LTE.
Google seems unlikely to go down the carrier distribution/partnership route, so — if O’Brien’s insider proves correct — any 3G device would likely be sold unlocked, giving both customers and Google total flexibility.
We reached out to Google for comment and were told that the company has “nothing to announce at this time.”
That lack of comment is hardly surprising given the nature of the claim, but we can assume that the company is preparing some kind of renewed push given the activity its rivals are expected to make in the coming months.
Indeed, the timing of this rumor is interesting since both Amazon and Lenovo have announced recently that they will be releasing improved devices shortly to take on the Nexus 7. Amazon’s Kindle Fire is expected to be announced later this week and there’s rumors that it will have 3G connectivity — making it a strong competitor to the Nexus 7’s current grip on the shrunken tablet market. Both are flanked byLenovo’s IdeaTab 7-inch device, which also has the ability for 3G data. Of course, there is also speculation that Apple is planning on announcing its own 7-inch mini-iPad soon.
Via: The Next Web
More: Business Insider, Modaco, Ubergizmo, Android News, Mashable!, 9to5Google, SlashGear, T3 News, Pocket-lint, BGR, The Verge and PhoneArena


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Newsletter – May 4, 2020
AIR FREIGHT UPDATES
Air Canada posts billion dollar loss in Q1insidelogistics.caMONTREAL – Air Canada recorded a net loss of $1.049 billion in the first quarter of 2019.The company today reported first quarter 2020 EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) of $71 million compared to first quarter 2019 EBITDA of $583 million. Read more here.
E-commerce faces tough cargo capacity shortage because of bellyhold relianceaircargonews.netIATA and the Universal Postal Union (UPU) have warned that the e-commerce sector is facing a shortage of air cargo capacity because of its reliance on passenger operations.The two organisations said that the coronavirus outbreak had created a surge in e-commerce demand as more people shopped from home, while air cargo capacity has been slashed due to a 95% reduction in passenger flights which are typically used to transport mail. Read more here.
Philippines Suspends International Flight Arrivals For A Weeksimpleflying.comThe Philippines has placed a week-long suspension on inbound international flights starting from 08:00 on 3rd May as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The move was put in place as a result of congestion at international airports after 20,000 Filipinos returned home via repatriation flights. Read more here.
CANADA BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES
It’s a recession, says C.D. Howe Instituteinsidelogistics.caTORONTO – The C.D. Howe Institute’s Business Cycle Council says Canada has entered a recession due to the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.In a report released Friday, the council said the economy peaked in February before the steps taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus brought the economy to a standstill. Read more here.
INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS – GOVERNMENT UPDATES
Insurance Group Warns of Potential Cargo Crime Wave as Freight Builds Up Due to Pandemichandshippingguide.comWORLDWIDE – Insurance group TT Club has issued a stern warning regarding the accumulation of cargo building up around the globe as the coronavirus outbreak plays havoc with transport systems. The Club points to the lag between the large-scale sourcing regions of China and other parts of Asia and the consuming markets of Europe and North America which it says has caused significant blocks of freight to be stuck in less secure facilities in both exporting and importing nations. Read more here.
Could surging Chinese imports signal a full freight recovery?freightwaves.comTotal U.S. maritime shipment volumes have grown to higher levels they were at prior to the COVID-19 pandemic that shuttered China’s production. The pandemic was starting to become a significant public health concern for China right around the time of their biggest holiday of the year, the Lunar New Year aka Chinese New Year (CNY). Import volumes from China typically slow for about four to six weeks following the holiday due to factories shutting down and taking time to ramp back up, making it difficult to tell just how much impact the virus was having on production. Read more here.
COVID-19 long-term impacts: Increased automation, remote workingfreightwaves.comThe COVID-19 impact on supply chains has been total, as it ended up playing havoc on demand and supply equations, while also creating uncertainty in available capacity for hauling freight. But as more and more countries flatten the pandemic’s growth curve, demand is expected to increase in the coming months. And as Chinese industries get back on their feet, volumes will decidedly grow as well. Read more here.
Warehouse, sample sales shift online amid pandemicinsidelogistics.caVANCOUVER – Last year, more than 2,000 shoppers descended on a Toronto pop-up store, looking for deals at undergarment maker Knix’s first warehouse sale. It was a success: the company sold out of most items during the three-day event and needed to double its staffing. Read more here.
Global Oil Demand Starts a Long, Painful and Uncertain Recoverybloomberg.comFew have a better watchtower over oil demand than Joe Gorder, chief executive officer of major U.S. refiner Valero Energy Corp. But this week Gorder didn’t even need his business insight to know that fuel consumption was starting to recover in America.He only needed to look at the streets of San Antonio, the Texas city where he’s based, to see traffic emerging after weeks of lockdown. Read more here.


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U.S. Sens. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Bob Menendez of New Jersey have joined forces on a bipartisan bill to help small businesses get started.
Their bill, known as the Startup Jobs and Innovation Act, would simplify tax requirements for small-business owners and increase tax deductions for equipment.
The existing tax code is tough on small businesses, said Menendez, a Democrat.
“The code is confusing at best. Most of it has been written with big business in mind,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with that, but major corporations can afford high-priced tax lawyers to minimize confusion but a new startup has all it can do to figure out the system.”
Republican Toomey, a former restaurant owner, said a small increase in tax deductions can make a big difference.
“Things like increasing the deduction of the startup expense. I know that helps,” he said. “I know when I was operating my restaurants, the ability to expense the cost of a new walk-in cooler — or a new refrigerator or dishwasher or whatever it might have been — that makes a difference in being able to purchase those items.”
The bill would double how much a small business can deduct for overhead costs as well as keeping a soon-to-expire tax write-off that covers new equipment for startups.


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DIRECTOR'S DEALS: Lord Alli, 51, Koovs chairman invests £6m in the firm
Minted: Lord Alli's fortune is estimated at £201m
Entrepreneur Waheed Alli, one of the few openly gay Muslims in British public life, has ploughed nearly £6million into Koovs.
Lord Alli, 51,whose fortune is estimated at £201million, set up the online fashion retailer in 2012 in a bid to replicate the success of Asos in India and beyond.
Alli, who joined the Lords as a Labour life peer in 1998, bought 23.8million shares in Koovs for 25p each. He now owns 36.7m Koovs shares worth around £10million.
The latest share purchase was part of a move by the company to raise £21.9million for expansion, by selling a total of 87.6million new shares.
Alli, born in Croydon to a father from Guyana and a mother from Trinidad, met his partner, TV producer Charlie Parsons, in the 1980s and they set up 24 Hour Productions.
It merged with Bob Geldof’s Planet Pictures to form Planet 24, which produced The Big Breakfast.
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While the Biden Administration brags about how inflation is declining, consider purchasing a car or a house where increased prices combine with spiking rates to cost consumers over a thousand per month, every single month. It’s no surprise almost two thirds of the country lives paycheck to paycheck and credit card debt is at an all time high.
Recently, President Biden has been insisting that inflation is on the decline, suggesting that we’ve seen prices peak and can expect relief in the months ahead. Earlier this month, the President issued a statement following the release of the March Consumer Price index. “Today’s report shows continued progress in our fight against inflation with the 12-month inflation rate at the lowest level since May 2021. This progress follows last week’s news that our job market remains historically strong. Inflation has now fallen by 45% from its summer peak. Gas prices are down more than $1.40 from the summer, and grocery prices fell in the month of March for the first time since September 2020. In recent months, we have also seen price declines for items like used cars, smart phones, and other electronics. While inflation is still too high, this progress means more breathing room for hard-working Americans – with wages now higher than they were 9 months ago, after accounting for inflation.” There is some nominal truth to this. The Consumer Price Index peaked in June 2021, when prices rose on average by a whopping 9.1% year over year. Since then, it has declined fairly steadily to 6.0%. Reasonably good news, until you stop to consider two things. First, the 6.0% figure does not suggest a decline in prices. Prices still rose year over year since last March, three times higher than the target figure of 2%. Second, these price increases have occurred while interest rates have also risen to the highest level in recent memory and in an economy highly dependent on credit, the average consumer is paying far more than inflation alone would suggest, especially for big ticket items.
The automobile market presents a case study of this principle in action and the actual numbers are staggering. In March, the average payment for a new car reached $730 per month, the highest on record according to Edmunds. The average for a used car is $556, an increase of $147 per month or 26.4 percent in less than three years. Given the rise in interest rates only began in earnest last year, we can expect this trend to continue. Some evidence for this can already be gleaned in the percentage of payments over $1,000 per month. In January 2019, these high payment buyers represented a scant 5% of the overall market, but barely for years later, they now account for 17% of new car sales. Further, these buyers are paying these higher amounts for a longer and longer time period. In 2004, less than 1% of car loans were for six years or over. Today, that number is 30%. Needless to say, the impact is felt most severely on lower income purchasers. “The pressure is most extreme on the lower credit consumers, because not only are they dealing with the interest rate move and inflation and vehicle prices, but they may also pay a premium because their credit is not as good,” explained Jonathan Smoke, chief economist at Cox Automotive. The average buyer choosing a 70 month loan with an outstanding balance of $28,700 will end up paying back $39,606 in interest alone, also according to Cox. A family making the median income in the United States will work for 43 weeks straight to purchase a car, almost a full year, especially if you account for after tax income.
The rapid increase in interest rates is having a similar impact on the housing market, where the average payment on a 30-year fixed mortgage is $3,048 and on a 15-year fixed, $3,976. The median tells a better story at $1,672, but this is based on data from 2021, long before the interest rate spike. In 2021, the average mortgage rate was well below 4% for a 30-year fixed, but over the course of the past year it has risen to just below 7% for a well-qualified buyer, while many are still paying 8% or higher, translating into a huge increase in monthly costs. How much? The monthly cost for a $200,000 home loan in 2021, including principal and interest, was $806, but today payments on the same exact loan are up to $662 per month higher, or approximately $7,900 per year in interest alone on a relatively small loan in a metropolitan area. Incredibly, these rates could go even higher for the average buyer beginning on May 1, thanks to little publicized rule changes instituted by the Biden Administration under the Federal Housing Authority. Next month, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will institute new “loan-level price adjustments” that will reduce rates for those with “riskier credit backgrounds,” in other words those who probably shouldn’t be purchasing a home in the first place in the wake of the 2008 mortgage meltdown, while increasing them on those with better credit, all in the name of “equity”. As The New York Post recently described it, “A little-noticed revamp of federal rules on mortgage fees will offer discounted rates for home buyers with riskier credit backgrounds — and force higher-credit homebuyers to foot the bill, The Post has learned. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will enact changes to fees known as loan-level price adjustments (LLPAs) on May 1 that will affect mortgages originating at private banks nationwide, from Wells Fargo to JPMorgan Chase, effectively tweaking interest rates paid by the vast majority of homebuyers.” In other words, the Biden Administration believes well qualified buyers can afford more than the current $662 per month premium on a mortgage as a result of spiking interest rates, and rather than taking steps like reducing government spending and streamlining regulations to reduce inflation overall, they are more than willing to have you and your family pay more.
The combined effect is like nothing I’ve ever seen in my adult lifetime, only heard about as a child in the wake of the stagflation that crippled the county in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Between your house and your car, people taking out new loans, which in the housing market would generally be younger, non-affluent individuals, you are likely to be paying a truly astounding $800 per month higher than you would’ve barely two years ago. This is, of course, in addition to the increase in prices on everything else. Electricity prices alone were up 14.3% just last year, and gas prices were up even higher. Experts expect an additional increase of 10% on energy this year alone even if inflation continues to slow. USA Today reported in January, “Economists say consumers should expect their electric bills to continue rising at a fast pace as liquified natural gas, a key fuel for generating electricity, remains in short supply in the U.S. and companies’ operating costs rise. Average U.S. electricity prices could rise at a 10% clip again this year and possibly next, predicts Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, even though economists have forecast overall inflation to ease to between 3% and 4% by year-end.” Gas prices are also expected to climb again for the summer driving season, especially after OPEC announced an unexpected production cut last month. Super was back to over $4 per gallon in New Jersey as of this weekend, and if past is prologue, we can expect to hit $5 by Memorial Day. Moody’s and other economic firms estimate the average cost of inflation per family to be about $433 per month, though some put the figure as high as $717, but once interest rates are included into the equation, the actual number for anyone buying a house or a car, much less both, is up to double that figure, for a truly brutal $1,500 per month, close to what used to be the median cost of a mortgage in the US in its entirety.
Therefore, it is not remotely surprising that high-interest credit card debt is also on the rise. Earlier this year, the personal finance website WalletHub reported that credit card debt surged $180 billion in 2022, the highest ever recorded for a single year and almost half the total ($86 billion) was added in the fourth quarter alone. The average household owes $9,990, up 9% from late 2021. “Everything seems to cost more. People are paying more for food, housing and gas. Generally, it’s the practical stuff that gets people into credit card debt,” explained Ted Rossman, credit expert at CreditCards.com. “It’s all contributing to increased balances.” Not surprisingly, credit card interest rates have also risen to record highs of 20.4%, meaning just like car loans and mortgages, consumers are spending more and more of their income simply on interest payments. The average family making the minimum payment and paying the average rate will spend about $2,000 on credit card interest alone in a single year. This is especially troubling when 64% of consumers were living “paycheck to paycheck” at the end of 2022, an increase of 3% of 2021, representing some 9.3 million people who rely on incredibly high interest credit cards for unexpected expenses.
Overall, it is impossible to see how this is sustainable. It’s a classic death spiral, where inflation drives people to borrow and interest rates increase the cost of borrowing by well over $1,000 per month for some families. There are, of course, those who believe relief is in sight given inflation has slowed, but to this observer at least, that seems to be either wishful thinking or political spin. The Federal Reserve fully intends to continue increasing interest rates, likely another .75% which would drive up borrowing costs even further long before they start to come down. Unless anyone thinks the Reserve will decrease rates overnight, we can assume that these elevated rates are the new normal for at least the next three years or more, considering any rate reductions will likely occur in increments of .25% or at most .5% applied on a quarterly basis. The impact on the average family and the overall economy will be almost incalculable at that point, literally tens of thousands of dollars per family, if not more. At this point, everyone should be asking themselves: How much more can you afford? Perhaps most incredibly of all, a significant minority of voters do not appear inclined to hold President Biden accountable for this sudden change in their financial affairs, at least so far, even though 100% of these potentially cataclysmic happenings have occurred while he was in office. According to Real Clear Politics, his average approval rating is 43.8%, not setting the world on fire, but not abysmal either. This is baffling because politics has generally been governed by the old adage that people vote with their pocketbooks, meaning the vast middle of the electorate is neither Republican nor Democrat. They vote based on what they see with their own eyes and its impact on their family. Here, the impacts could not possibly be worse, indeed have not been worse in generations, and yet the President remains a slight favorite in next year’s election. We are truly in uncharted territory and can only hope he enters a well-deserved death spiral of his own soon.


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Monday, August 13, 2012
Nike Air Max Hyperposite Release Date
We’ve seen three colorways for the upcoming Nike Air Max Hyperposite and all have wondered when they will finally release. Well it looks they will dropping this weekend on August 18th, 2012 with a retail price of $225. The Three colorways you can expect to release are Dynamic Blue/Reflective Silver-Fireberry, Charcoal/Atomic Green-Black, and Black/Bright Crimson.


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Hardware maker Asus is about to release a new tablet which works on Android 3.1.
The outfit currently runs a 10 inch tablet running Android 3.0 called the Eee Pad Transformer, and a 12 inch tablet running Windows 7 Home Premium called the Eee Slate EP121. Both will get an upgrade with the Android tablet getting 3.1, while the Windows range including the Eee Slate EB121 which will run Windows 7 Professional.
The French site Blogee has seen the Transformer running Android 3.1, although this looks like this is just a test build for now. What it does show is that Asus has received the 3.1 code and is working to bring out products that use it.
Android 3.1 brings better support for hardware graphics acceleration, new scrollable home screen widgets, and an improved Recent Apps tasks switcher, among other things.
The Eee Slate EP121 has a 12.1 inch, 1280 x 800 pixel display, an Intel Core i5 processor, and a solid state disk.


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Chancellor Phillip Hammond’s release of the 2018 Autumn Budget revealed a number of changes for small business owners. Below is a brief summary of some of the changes small business owners should be aware of.
Personal Tax Allowance
The personal allowance will be rising to £12,5000 for basic taxpayers and £50,000. This is a big win for tax payers who are likely to have significantly more in post-tax income.
Using tax to support bricks-and-mortar shops
With the highly publicised ‘death of the high street’, a Future High Street Fund has been proposed that could benefit shop owners. Within the budget their would be a budget worth over £675million.
Save up to £8,000 in tax as a small business owner
Cuts to business rates for the smallest of small businesses have been announced. Businesses with a value of £51,000 or under will see their bill cut by a third over a two-year period. This is likely to lead to savings of up to £8,000.
Green taxes on UK taxes
The worldwide push for improvements to the environment has lead to the proposal that companies manufacturing plastic that is less than 30% recyclable will face a levy. There have also been mentions of plastic cup taxes.


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As Microsoft and Yahoo do the tango, but fail to consummate anything, Google continues to erode their shares of the search engine market. According to Hitwise, Google’s share increased from 68.29 percent to 69.17 percent in June. Yahoo’s share dropped from 19.95 percent to 19.62 percent. Microsoft dropped from 5.89 percent to 5.46 percent. Their sampling is based on 10 million U.S. Internet users
Google it seems has little to worry about from the Dynamic Duo anytime soon.
It seems that Yahoo’s recent rejections of a Microsoft offer with a short deadline, has spurred on investor Carl Icahn to proceed with his attempt to replace Yahoo’s current board, including Chief Executive Jerry Yang.
In a note written to Yahoo shareholders Icahn said, "Our company is on a precipice and our board seems ready to take the risk of seeing it topple".
Yahoo Chairman Roy Bostock and Chief Executive Jerry Yang wrote, "We are prepared to let you, our stockholders, not Microsoft and Carl Icahn, decide what is in your best interests and we look forward to the upcoming vote".
Recent gains that Yahoo stock had made on hopes that Ichan could broker a deal fell 4.2% on Monday’s trading.
It seems the showdown is on for the August 1st shareholders vote. You can catch more details here.
Will Yahoo be assimilated? Is resistance futile? Sound off, and tell us what you think!
Yahoo rejected the proposal in a press statement citing several grounds for the decision. It believes that the terms of the proposed search-operation buyout are unfavorable for the company’s stockholders. However, it has softened its earlier stance a bit and now appears to favor a full sellout at $33/share, as originally proposed by Microsoft but rejected by it. The fate of the reigning Yahoo Board of Directors, and consequently, the deal will now be decided on August 1 – board election Day.
In the world of online searches, there's Google and then there's everyone else. Take a peek inside Merriam-Webster and you'll find Google officially recognized as a verb. Of course, M-W hasn't exactly been stingy when it comes to including tech terms, but when you dominate the market with a 68 percent slice of the pie (and close to 90 percent depending on geographic location), perhaps you're entitled to alter the English language.
By comparison, Yahoo, the second most popular search engine behind Google, only accounts for about 20 percent of searches, according to Hitwise statistics. That leaves a considerable gap to close, and to help them do it, Yahoo has begun calling on start-ups to lend a hand. It's a scratch my back and I'll scratch yours approach, whereby Yahoo is willing to open its search technology and data centers, giving start ups with limited funds a way to develop a search service from the ground up. Yahoo will then sell ads on those search engines and share the revenue.
Yahoo execs are calling the new strategy Boss, or build your own search service. How it ultimately pans out remains to be seen, but in the meantime, Google is still the real boss of the internet. Can the search giant be toppled?
Of course, the respective owners of the images will have a right to refuse a request from Getty. Getty is going through a rough financial patch and this move is clearly a gambit to get out of it. Getty had very recently introduced a cheap web images package for only $49, a move that drew flak from photographers.
It appears as though that most of the images that Getty will buy from Flickr users would be used for its cheap web images package. All Flickr users will have to sign a contract with Getty images before they can be recompensed for their work. The payment will be based on size and use of the image. Getty will launch a new Flickr-branded image collection for selling images acquired from Flickr members.
Carl Icahn should feel at home in boardroom coups, after having fashioned a few of them. Along with experience, he has tenacity and a never-say-die attitude, which is rearing its head in the aftermath of Microsoft’s deal with Yahoo. While some people attribute the breakdown of (doomed-from-the-start?) talks between the two tech giants to company culture clash, Icahn is trying his best to agitate Yahoo stockholders into a revolt against the company’s board. Icahn’s fresh missive to Yahoo stockholders claims Microsoft is still interested in buying Yahoo’s search engine business or the entire company.
He reports to stockholders that Microsoft's CEO has personally conveyed his distaste for the current Yahoo board, and so, wouldn’t enter any negotiations with the incumbent board. Ballmer wasted no time in confirming Microsoft’s interest in “a major transaction with Yahoo, such as either a transaction to purchase the "Search" function with large financial guarantees or, in the alternative, purchasing the whole company." But he made it amply clear that negotiations would be resumed only after a new board of directors is elected.
Yahoo wants Microsoft to prove its seriousness and make an offer immediately, if it’s interested in a deal. The company warned in its response that it doesn’t believe a deal – with a new board in place - would be in the best interest of Yahoo stockholders.
The battle between Adobe's Flash format and Microsoft's competing Silverlight software to deliver rich internet applications (RIAs, not to be confused with the RIAA, an entirely different beast in every sense of the word) to your browser may come down to which technology search engines are better able to index. Adobe recently announced a new initiative with Google and Yahoo towards making the Flash file format (SWF) more easily visible to each site's respective spiders, leaving Microsoft noticeably missing from the group pow-wow.
But one company is taking notice of Microsoft. Find out who it is and what they want after the jump.
Yahoo has been holding Hack Days since December, 2005 and is steadily increasing the frequency of such events besides taking them to different countries. If last year London and Bangalore played host to the event, it will be Taiwan’s turn in September, 2008. Hack Day participants have to make web apps within 24 hrs using Yahoo’s own homegrown API. Hackers don’t walk away empty-handed as there are various prizes for them. A splendid way of scouring for talent!
Developers concerned about indexing have thus far been hesitant to incorporate Flash into websites because of the challenge involved in making the content searchable. This despite the fact that more than 98 percent of internet-connected computers have Adobe's Flash Player installed. Search engines are able to index static text and lnks within Flash SWF files, but as Adobe points out, "rich internet applications and dynamic Web content have been generally difficult to fully expose to search engines because of their changing states," a problem which also exists in other RIA technologies.
To help get over that hurdle, Adobe announced a new initiative with Google and Yahoo to make Flash files more indexable-friendly by search engines. For its part, Google says it developed an algorithm that explores Flash files in the same way a surfer does, "by clicking buttons, entering input, and so on." Any text visible to a website visitor while interacting with a Flash file is also visible to Google's algorithm. And while Yahoo isn't quite as far along as Google, the collaboration with Adobe means it's now a matter of when, not if, SWF applications become more searchable.
Missing from this latest announcement is any mention of Microsoft and its MSN Search. It remains unclear whether Adobe purposely excluded the Redmond company, which owns Silverlight (a competitng format to Adobe's Flash), or if Microsoft chose not to participate. But regardless of Microsoft's level of involvement, expect to see more Flash content, whether you want it or not.
Microsoft, still flush with search-tool cash after being scorned by Yahoo, has purchased natural-language search provider Powerset in a deal announced July 1st. Powerset will join Microsoft's core Search Relevance team and remain intact in its current San Francisco office.
To find out why Microsoft needs Powerset's technology, and to catch up on other ways that Microsoft is fighting against Google's dominance, catch me after the break.


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Laos has introduced a new decree introducing strategic excise tax adjustments on various products.
We examine the strategic relations between Laos and Russia after the leaders of both countries met during the Far Eastern Economic Forum.
Malaysia and Laos aim to enhance cross-railway cooperation to improve trade through a Memorandum of Collaboration.
Laos has successfully trialed a digital currency prototype—the Digital Lao Kip—in cooperation with Japanese fintech company SORAMITSU.
All companies incorporated under Lao law will be subject to corporate income tax, value-added tax, and personal income tax.
India is keen to push for the expansion of the Trilateral Highway to Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam and increase trade with ASEAN.
Laos has been a consistent recipient of Chinese investment for some time and is transforming the country into a land-linked nation.
The Laos-Vietnam railway is a proposed railway project aimed to further boost Laos’ ambitions to become a regional logistics hub.
Laos Issues Tax Obligations for Non-Resident E-commerce and Digital Platform Providers, Joins Other ASEAN Markets
The taxing of non-resident e-commerce and digital players in Laos is part of a continuing trend in ASEAN.
Laos has reduced its value-added tax (VAT) rate as part of the government’s support of the post-COVID-19 economy.


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Movie tie-in augmented reality apps have already been released for films like Spider-Man: Homecoming and Marjorie. To take a step further, Sony Pictures has now created an Augmented Reality app called ‘Ghostbusters World’ that includes ghosts that are featured in Ghostbusters movies, comics, video games, television shows, and theme parks, along with new ghosts being created exclusively for the game itself.
Sony Pictures has released the trailer for this much anticipated and undoubtedly innovative game on Friday, 24th February 2018, the demo of which shall be available to those attending MWC in Barcelona starting on Monday, 26th February 2018.
Ghostbusters World shall utilize Google’s ARCore mobile augmented reality (AR) platform, information regarding which has also been released on Friday.
‘Ghostbusters’ is the perfect brand and best content to utilize AR technology. – Jamie Stevens, Executive VP, Sony Pictures Entertainment
Ghost Corp, FourThirtyThree, and NextAge shall be credited along with Sony Pictures Entertainment Consumer Products for creating the game, the title for which is still in development with 4:33 Creative Lab.
The Ghostbusters Universe is rich in characters and Ghostbusters World is the perfect medium to get to know these characters in a whole new dimension. The Pokemon Go style game will apparently have gamers out and about to battle and capture hundreds of ghosts from all dimensions of the franchise. – Ivan Reitman, Director/Producer
Developer Niantic, having started the mobile AR gaming trend with Pokemon Go, is also working on another mobile AR game, tentatively titled “Harry Potter: Wizards Unite,” centered on the Harry Potter universe.
Ghostbusters World will be officially launched at Game Developers Conference in March and will be available on Android and iOS platforms.


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follow link While in many parts of the world cards and online payment are “king”, Amazon has adjusted its methods to its Kenyan customers. The e-commerce giant is now providing a cash option to pay for items.
Acquistare Pillole Di Caverta “Amazon is tapping into e-commerce customers in Kenya who want to pay for goods in cash.
follow url The e-commerce giant has rolled out a service that will allow customers to purchase goods and then pay for them at a local Western Union retail agent. During checkout, a special QR code will be generated that will be used to verify the customer’s identity and matched to the order confirmation for payment. Dubbed Amazon PayCode, the cross-border payment option has been launched in Kenya in Africa, along with nine other countries in Asia and Latin America.”
http://gc-s.net/?q=%C3%96ver-disken-Tadalafil-utan-recept Kan jag få Cytotec utan recept Click here to learn more:https://qz.com/africa/1553014/amazon-western-union-let-customers-buy-in-kenya-shillings/


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Modern Terminals Celebrates its 50th Anniversary
Modern Terminals Limited today (5 September) celebrated its 50th anniversary of operations in Hong Kong. The Company welcomed the first container vessel TOKYO BAY at Berth One at dawn on 5 September 1972 and opened the first purpose-built container terminal in the city. Since then, the terminal operator has been offering quality services to its customers. In the past 50 years, Modern Terminals has handled over 140 million TEUs at its facilities in Hong Kong.
Senior management of Modern Terminals Limited and shareholders’ representatives toast to the continued success of the Company.
Mr Stephen Ng, Chairman, Modern Terminals Limited (centre) with the Company’s director Mr Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, CEO of Jebsen & Co. Ltd. (extreme right); representatives from China Merchants Port Group Co., Ltd. Mr Erik Yim, Vice Chairman (second from right) and Mr Xu Song, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager (extreme left); and Modern Terminals Limited’s Group Managing Director, Mr Horace Lo (second from left).
Please click the below link for Modern Terminals’ 50th anniversary video with its important milestones in the past 50 years.


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Francesca James, Co-founder of the StartUp Awards National Series and founder of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, discusses latest partnership with Clerco, to help find and fund founders within the community.
We’re delighted to announce that we’ve partnered with Clearco the world’s largest e-commerce investor revolutionising the way founders grow their businesses. This week, Clearco announced the launch of the Clearco Founders Fund for the UK, and we’re working with them to help fund the next generation of online businesses across the British Isles.
Over the past five years, Clearco has funded 7,000+ online businesses without taking equity, all by democratising access to capital and backing founders based on merit, not connections. Clearco’s portfolio looks totally different from the typical VC. Clearco has had an undeniable impact on changing the face of the investment world – currently, 50% of the company’s global portfolio is female-founded companies—which is 25X more than the VC industry average. Furthermore, in 2021, 35% of Clearco’s funding went to BIPOC founders, compared to 28% for traditional VCs. Through this new initiative, which we’re proud to partner with, Clearco will provide even more visibility and opportunities for these overlooked companies to grow.
“The Clearco Founders Fund is another major step in Clearco’s mission to fund great businesses without bias,” said Co-founder and President of Clearco, Michele Romanow, “We know that innovation exists in all corners of the world and with the Clearco Founders Fund, it not only provides a window for founders who are typically overlooked by traditional VC, but it gives opportunity for industry leaders of all backgrounds to support the entrepreneurs they believe can make a difference in their industries and beyond.”
I couldn’t be more delighted to be partnering with The Clearco founders fund as a scout. We’ve built a community of some 50,000 businesses via The Great British Entrepreneur Awards and The National Start-Up series in addition to celebrating their achievements, our mission is to support them in their endeavours all year round, with access to capital being a key part of that.
Partnering with Clearco helps us to open so many doors for entrepreneurs and I’m proud to be able to support growth focussed companies and founders I truly believe in, to access investment. This partnership will truly help empower some incredible entrepreneurial talent!
For more information and to apply visit: https://clear.co/partner/francesca-james/?redirected=true
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Blind ambition to 'build bigger, go faster'
Updated: 2011-09-05 14:10
By Marvin Zhu (China Daily)
Automakers expand even amid unused capacity
The erratic pursuit to "build bigger, go faster" prevails in fast-moving China - and the auto industry is no exception.
Since China surpassed the US to become the largest automotive market in the world in 2009, industry players are in a fierce race to expand.
Trillions of yuan have poured into the business over the past two years. Carmakers are in a frenzy to ramp up production.
The expansion drive is set to raise China's vehicle output to 31 million units by 2013, double the total of 2009.
Global automakers in China are more conservative. Accounting for nearly half of the total annual output of light vehicles, the total capacity of their joint ventures has increased steadily to 5.4 million units during the last four years - or about half the number Chinese carmakers have rolled out in the same period.
Hyundai and Volkswagen plan to add about 1 million units, while Nissan and GM will add just over half a million by 2013. Chasing a bigger market share, most global automakers are building new plants.
Currently, the average capacity utilization rate of their joint ventures is 96 percent. Leading automakers such as Shanghai VW, FAW-VW, Shanghai GM and Dongfeng Nissan have stated they are running 30 percent over their designed capacity. Some production lines are running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But expansion plans need to meet certain official requirements.
The China National Development and Reform Commission requires an automaker to build a new energy vehicle under a local brand to set up a new plant.
FAW-VW, one of the earliest joint ventures in China, which has strong relationship with the government, didn't get the green light for their new Foshan plant until they promised to roll out the Kaili, a locally branded electric vehicle.
Chinese companies are much less constrained. They are theoretically required to make use of existing capacity through a merger or an acquisition before a new plant is allowed to be built. But that requirement is not strictly followed.
With a utilization rate of around 60 percent, Chinese automakers, especially the State-owned ones, are still aggressively expanding.
Chang'an Group, which has added 1 million units in the past two years, is planning 1 million more units by 2014. SAIC Group, including its own passenger vehicle business and the three-party JV SAIC-GM-Wuling, will double their total capacity from 1.2 million in 2009 to 2.6 million units by 2014. Chery, Dongfeng, FAW have grand expansion plans in the pipeline as well.
In the race to become the biggest builder of all, quality is often compromised. Also, State-owned automakers' R&D capabilities lag far behind global players and they have been relying heavily on the technology of foreign partners over the past decades.
Quality problems hit FAW and Dongfeng when demand fell and forced them to cut prices. Chang'an and Wuling, meanwhile, are under great pressure as inventory grows as a result of the decline in minibus demand after the expiration of government subsidies.
Despite the high cost of irrational expansion plans, the aggressive drive for growth continues. Apparently, size and speed matter most for decision-makers at the State-owned companies who seek political benefits at the expense of quality and taxpayer safety.
There are a few independent Chinese manufacturers such as Geely and Great Wall who build new capacity but try to ensure their products are of high quality and competitive.
As their sales grow, so does their capacity utilization rate. They stand out as all around them the majority of local players continue to go for bigger and faster above all else.
The author is a senior analyst at JD Power Asia Pacific.
July 'price war' challenged carmakers 2011-08-22 14:18
Automaker sees vehicle sales dropping in Q4 2010-05-26 11:14
Automaker profits surge in first quarter 2010-05-17 13:10
China's non-State automaker produces 2m cars 2010-03-26 15:11
Chinese carmakers predict sales rebound 2011-05-13 09:46
- CNOOC plans oil spill fund
- Survey reveals more confidence in milk products
- Structural challenges loom ahead
- Blind ambition to 'build bigger, go faster'
- Chery begins Venezuela assembly
- CNOOC says suspension to reduce production
- China to boost new-energy vehicle purchases
- Land prices in Chinese cities fall


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The video game industry, no phone list australia which has seen a boom in recent years, was boosted in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic. no phone list australia It ended the year with a growth of 20% and a global turnover of 200,000 million dollars (more than 165,000 million euros). Given the current situation, no phone list australia with mobility limitations for many people around the world and after the major brands have renewed their console offerings, no phone list australia it is expected that the gaming environment will continue to expand and record high consumption figures. They have long generated more income than cinema and sports combined.
Refold , a marketing and communication company based on data analysis, has analyzed this market, no phone list australia to help brands position themselves in an environment such as eSports platforms , where advertisers have a large open space for their advertising investment. “ no phone list australia The world of videogames has become one of the great stars of entertainment. no phone list australia It was a very interesting channel for advertisers to connect with a young audience that is not easy to reach in other areas, no phone list australia and the number of followers is growing non-stop, expanding considerably in terms of more mature age segments and with the incorporation of women in a high percentage.
Without a doubt, it is one of the territories that brands cannot forget, both in regards to gaming and eSports in particular no phone list australia ”, explains Belen Nazr , director of Refold Marketing, a company that has great expertise in this area . Exponential growth The year 2020 closed with one Gambling Email List of the great changes in the gaming world , no phone list australia with the arrival of the PlayStation 5 -which almost exhausted its stock when it was released- and the Xbox Series X. no phone list australia This renewal has provided a new boost to the industry of the video game, where Refold experts have identified five major trends for 2021: The 5G revolution The gaming world is waiting for 5G to be extended, no phone list australia which will become the great revolution and will allow mobile games to grow much more.


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To further expand on this concept of openness in business, Gutsche recently appeared on BNN's Business Day PM to discuss the use of transparency in branding. McDonald's, for example, unveiled a marketing campaign where they encouraged the public to ask them questions about their manufacturing process. Every question (aside from those with profanity contained in them) would be publicly answered to make the company more open and authentic to the public. As Gutsche adds, this is the biggest asset that social media provides—the ability for companies to connect with their customers in an open and meaningful way.
As the founder of Trendhunter.com, the largest trend hunting website in the world, Gutsche is plugged in to the latest in consumer behavior. In his wildly popular keynotes on innovation, he combines the crowd-sourced information he gathers on his site with research from his book Exploiting Chaos to help companies get ahead in these uncertain economic times. Insightful and practical, his talks cut through the noise and help audiences master the skills they need to become more innovative in the marketplace.


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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Las Vegas economy has been extremely harsh given the markets reliance on visitation and conventions. Following five consecutive years of accommodating more than 42 million visitors, Las Vegas hosted just over 19 million people in 2020 (the lowest number of visitors since 18.1 million in 1989). Continued weak performance is anticipated through the first half of 2021.
The 10 marketing network carriers reported 397,802 scheduled domestic flights in December 2020 compared to 389,587 flights in November 2020 and 679,941 flights in December 2019. Of those 397,802 scheduled flights, 1.1%, 4,253 flights, were canceled.
Africas destinations have been some of the hardest hit in terms of hotel occupancy. The region closed 2020 with weekly occupancy trending between 20%-25%, and more recently during the week ending 7 February, occupancy was still at just 24.8%. When compared with other key regions, only Europe (21.4%) reported lower occupancy for that opening week of February.
Londons short-term rental industry recorded a month-over-month increase in occupancy but declines in average daily rate (ADR) and revenue per available room (RevPAR), according to January 2021 data from STR.
Texans displaced by freezing temperatures and outages pushed the states occupancy to a 50-week high, according to an analysis by STR.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) held its Canada Town Hall yesterday, to present the annual BTI Outlook focused on Canada, and the Associations regional plans for the year ahead.
Short-term rentals in Miami, Nashville and Philadelphia showed mixed performance results during January 2021, according to data from STR. Short-term rentals continued to post higher occupancy levels than hotels in each of the three markets.
Commercial real estate should be riding the wave of a fast economic rebound in the months to come
Boeing forecast: 20-year demand for 4,400 new airplanes valued at $700 billion – Annual passenger traffic growth of 5.7%, nearly 50% higher than global average – Long-term demand for aftermarket commercial services worth $790 billion
Boeing Forecasts Resilient Aviation Market for Latin America and Caribbean Despite Near-term Challenges


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Meta has released digital collectibles support on Facebook with a restricted group of creators, after the launch of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) support on Instagram in May. A select set of American creators have been permitted by Meta to post-digital collectibles on Facebook in a phased rollout. The artwork will be marked as “digital collectibles,” much like Instagram, and these producers will be able to show NFTs on their profiles under a new tab. The official debut occurs one week after Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, announced that NFT support would soon be tested on Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg stated during the announcement that the firm is expanding some of its current monetization capabilities to additional creators as well as introducing new ways for creators to monetize their work on Facebook and Instagram. In order to give creators more money directly, Zuckerberg added, Meta will continue to make its planned independent news items, fan memberships, badges, and paid online events available to them for free until 2024. Zuckerberg revealed that Meta is experimenting with a specific Instagram location where content creators can be found and compensated for their work.
Brands can publish fresh collaboration opportunities on the creator marketplace, according to Meta. Once a company has identified a creator with whom they want to work, they may submit them a project with all the pertinent information, such as details regarding payment and deliverables.
Regarding the company’s current monetization options, Zuckerberg disclosed that Meta is allowing more creators on Facebook to participate in the Facebook Reels Play Bonus program and also enabling cross-posting of Instagram Reels to Facebook for the purpose of monetization. Zuckerberg also disclosed that Facebook Stars, the digital tokens that permit supporters to show their love for their preferred creators, are expanding to include all qualified creators. Creators who have amassed at least 1,000 followers within the last 60 days are now qualified to join.
Finally, Zuckerberg mentioned that the business would soon also be bringing this test to Facebook, beginning with a small number of creators residing in the United States. Creators will be able to cross-post on Facebook and Instagram thanks to the Facebook test. Nevertheless, according to sources, the sharing function between the two platforms has not yet been released but will do so shortly.
A product manager at Meta named Navdeep Singh posted pictures of the digital collectibles support. In accordance with the screenshots, you can put NFTs on your timeline, and clicking on them will display information about that digital collectible, including information about the collection and its creator. NFTs created on Polygon and Ethereum were supported by Instagram at launch, and support for Solana and Flow is forthcoming. Although Meta did not specify, it is likely that Facebook supports the same blockchains.
Additionally, Zuckerberg stated that Meta would develop 3D or augmented reality NFTs that could be added to Instagram Stories using Spark AR, the company’s software-based AR technology. More producers from around the world are now able to display their NFTs on Instagram thanks to Meta’s expansion of its NFT test there. Only a few American creators had access to the help prior to the expansion.
There won’t be any charges for sharing or posting a digital collectible, according to Meta. The business has also stated that it will not, for the time being, allow users to convert digital collection posts into advertisements.
Finally, Meta claims that it is aware that NFTs highlight crucial environmental issues and that, as part of its commitment to sustainability, it is assisting in reducing the emissions effect that could be linked with digital collectibles by investing in renewable energy.


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* REALNETWORKS TO INTRODUCE MEDIA SERVER CHALLENGER
This afternoon, streaming media giant RealNetworks will announce a new version of its media server software, dubbed the Helix Universal Server, that's compatible with Microsoft Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Windows Media Video (WMV) formats. But according to a report in "The New York Times," the server software will essentially duplicate the functionality of the Microsoft Windows Media Services (WMS) software that ships in current and future Windows Server products. And that, of course, might cause a bit of concern in Redmond.
"A rational way for \[Microsoft\] to respond would be to say, 'This is great,'" said RealNetworks' CEO Rob Glaser. "That would be \[the\] Microsoft of the future."
RealNetworks, of course, makes the most popular streaming audio and video formats, and its expensive server software is required to deliver such content. Still unclear is what the company hopes to gain by releasing and charging for software that comes free with every copy of Windows Server. But Glaser says his company can deliver performance as much as four times faster than Microsoft's free server.
Perhaps most intriguingly, the company will reportedly make the source code to Helix Universal Server available to partners and competitors, so that they can more easily build add-ons. RealNetworks will officially unveil Helix Universal Server during a press event this afternoon, the company says.


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These included its Unix operating systems, its middleware and the OpenView systems management platform.
The company laid out a roadmap for its software shortly after the completion of the acquisition. Now it must execute on its stated intentions, particularly beefing up its HP-UX operating system with features from Tru64 Unix, continuing to invest in and develop OpenView and developing its partner approach toward middleware.
HP's decision to phase out Tru64 Unix, which it inherited from Compaq, and integrate some of its key features into its own HP-UX, has been likened to a "a multiple organ transplant" by long-time DEC/Compaq/HP observer Terry Shannon.
"There are a lot of special things that reside down within the Tru64 Unix kernel, and HP has cashiered most of the Tru64 kernel developers. How will they implement this merged enterprise Unix?" said Shannon, who publishes a specialist newsletter.
The new version of HP-UX will draw from Tru64 Unix's clustering technology, but otherwise remain fairly close to older versions, said Mary McDowell, senior vice-president and general manager for industry standard servers in HP's enterprise services group.
"HP decided for HP-UX and that was the right decision, because HP-UX is clearly the market leader compared with Tru64 Unix," said David Freund, an analyst at Illuminata.
However, he cautions that grafting Tru64 Unix's clustering capabilities and file system into HP-UX may be more difficult than HP anticipates. HP is on the record as saying that the first version of HP-UX to feature Tru64 Unix's TruCluster Server and Advanced File System will be HP-UX 11i version 3, due in 2004. "It remains an open question whether they can hold to that timeframe," Freund said.
HP does have in its favour that Tru64 Unix users are "religiously faithful", Freund said. "They bought into that platform for specific reasons, such as its performance attributes and clustering capabilities," he said.
Consequently, most of those users have adopted a wait-and-see attitude for the moment, he said.
To get them to migrate from their Tru64 Unix Alpha systems to HP-UX servers using Intel's 64-bit Itanium chip, HP will need to deliver clustering functionality that is equivalent to what these users have with Tru64 Unix today, not just a subset of it, Freund warned. Otherwise, HP risks seeing these users bolt to its competitors, he said.
HP's Linux strategy is also on the minds of customers, especially in relation to the future of OpenVMS, which HP has pledged to continue to develop and support along the lines of a plan sketched out by Compaq before the acquisition.
Many users fear that HP will phase out support for OpenVMS as it promotes the new HP-UX and Linux as the operating systems for the remaining Alpha systems and future Itanium boxes.
HP also plans to port OpenVMS and the operating system of its NonStop Himalaya servers, called the NonStop Kernel, over to Itanium.
When it comes to middleware, HP chose to pursue a partnering strategy rather than develop its own products. It struck deals with BEA Systems and Oracle to bundle a version of their Java application servers with HP's systems.
The decision was a U-turn for the company, which two years earlier had shelled out an estimated $470m (£296m) to acquire Bluestone Software. That company's products became HP's Netaction family of middleware.
On the other side, HP strengthened its ties with Microsoft to offer customers .net software. HP said it emerged as a "platform neutral" supplier in a world where enterprises want a mixture of Java and .net products. Some analysts called it a smart move, others said HP missed a chance to become a leader in middleware.
"HP needs to continue to sell its story of how and why its [middleware] partner approach is best" compared to the strategies of Sun Microsystems and IBM, each of which develops its own middleware, Illuminata's Freund said.
HP is also positioning its OpenView systems management platform as its enterprise-level offering and tying other management tools to it, through integration or links.
"For much of its life, OpenView has been an afterthought," Freund said. Now it appears HP has made it a higher priority and made a bigger commitment to it, he said.


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- Nikola jumped 17% on Thursday after the embattled auto maker said it started production of its electric semi-trucks.
- The Nikola Tre is a semi-truck that is estimated to have up to 350 miles in range per charge.
- The company said it expects to build 300-500 of the electric semi-trucks in 2022.
Nikola seems to be turning a corner on its troubled past and is moving ahead with its strategy of building electric semi-trucks for the freight industry.
Nikola soared as much as 19% in premarket trade on Thursday after the company said it began production of its Tre truck, an electric semi-truck that is estimated to have up to 350 miles in range per charge. Shares were up 17% at the opening bell to $10.66.
The company said it expects to build 300 to 500 of the electric semi-trucks in 2022. The comments came during an analyst event on Wednesday, and ahead of an investor presentation late Thursday afternoon.
Despite Thursday's surge, Nikola stock is still down 88% from its record high of $93.99. That surge came just a few months after it went public via it was briefly valued higher than Ford and helped spark a wave of new SPAC deals.in June of 2020, in which
But the sugar high in Nikola stock didn't last long in 2020 after its founder, Trevor Milton, resigned and was charged with fraud. At issue was the misrepresentation of progress at the company, with Nikola rolling an inoperable truck down a hill and filming it as if the truck was working.
With new management at the helm of Nikola, the company scrapped its consumer-targeted electric pick-up truck and is instead focusing all of its efforts on electric semi-trucks. And now it appears that the company will beat Tesla to market. Tesla first unveiled its electric semi-truck in 2017, but a series of product delays means the truck won't be released until 2023 at the earliest.
The relatively short range of Nikola's Tre means the semi-truck will be best used for local applications. But Nikola said it still has long-term ambitions to develop longer-range semi-trucks powered by hydrogen gas and fuel cells.
Nikola said deliveries of its Tre truck will begin in the second quarter, while European deliveries will begin in the third quarter.


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BAN Vs AFG | Match 31 Jun 24, 2019
AFG 49/1 (11.0)
Latest News on Narendara Modi
Showing of 0 - 10 from 5 results
Narendara Modi - Total results - 5
May 21, 2017
Varanasi has the potential to generate 676 MW of power using solar rooftop panelPrime Minister Narendra Modi's parliamentary constituency Varanasi has the potential to generate 676 MW power from solar rooftop panels alone.
Mar 28, 2017
Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun meets Prime Minister Narendara Modi, assures more jobs in IndiaChinese technology company Xiaomi's founder and CEO Lei Jun met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday and said the company was committed to creating more jobs in India.
Mar 08, 2017
Congress alleges government is indulging in extortion in the name of Digital IndiaThe Congress on Tuesday alleged that the Narendra Modi government was indulging in "plain extortion" in the name of Digital India by levying various taxes and charges on digital transactions.
Dec 31, 2016
BHIM app faces high server loads on launch dayThe day of the launch saw a few issues for the app as the official BHIM twitter account sent a message saying that the app is facing server issues and that a new version of app will be launched to solve the issue.
Apr 07, 2014
Kerjiwal, Digvijay Singh cop more social media flak than Modi, finds new studyArray


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The Fittest on Earth will be crowned. All options for hosting the 2020 Reebok CrossFit Games are being explored.— The CrossFit Games (@CrossFitGames) April 13, 2020
CrossFit Inc. just confirmed via a Tweet that the Fittest on Earth will be crowned. In other words, the 2020 CrossFit Games will take place. They are evaluating all option available which could include an online option.
The online option will be interesting since CrossFit Games start with the Open witch takes place online so this year it may also end online. The format might be similar to the Open but instead of competing over the course of a five weeks everyone will compete over the weekend similar to previous CrossFit Games. Will the games be recorded, or will each person have a live stream? That remains to be seen.
What are your toughs on how the 2020 CrossFit Games should be this year taking into consideration COVID-19 pandemic? (Comment Below)
Stay connected with fitnessvloggers.com and on all our social medias for up to the minute news related to the 2020 CrossFit Games.


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KUALA LUMPUR: Hektar Real Estate Investment Trust (Hektar REIT) posted a 36 per cent drop in net profit to RM26 million for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2023 (4QFY23) from RM40.8 million in the preceding quarter.
The company experienced a 1.3 per cent revenue decrease in the fourth quarter (4Q) to RM27.5 million from RM27.9 million in the previous quarter.
Hektar Reit attributed the decline in revenue to ongoing repositioning and tenancy remixing strategies at Subang Parade, along with extensive cost optimisation efforts implemented throughout the year.
Hektar Asset Management Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Johari Shukri Jamil emphasised that the previous year highlighted the company's ability to remain resilient despite challenging market conditions.
"With our occupancy rates, rental reversions, and financial management, we are poised to continue our growth trajectory.
"Our ongoing efforts to deliver sustainable value to our unitholders and enrich the community centric experiences at our malls remain our top priority," he said.
In its quarterly report, the company expressed caution regarding the outlook for the current year, citing the volatile economic environment driven by a hawkish monetary policy in response to uncertain consumer sentiments, as well as ongoing supply-chain and logistics issues arising from geopolitical concerns.


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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday announced a new imprisonment for London and the East and South-East of England. The cause is a new strain of coronovirus that has been discovered. The new version will be much more contagious.
In an effort to prevent this new type of virus from entering the country, a strict travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK applies during the holiday season. Nicola Sturgeon said, “If we can avoid this, we cannot afford to enter the country.” Scotland will be under the most stringent restrictions for three weeks from 26 December, he said, in how many homes, and only on Christmas day, are allowed to live.
Wales has also taken action in response to a new version of the virus, with lockdown restrictions taking effect on Saturday midnight instead of the Christmas period.
Freelance twitter maven. Infuriatingly humble coffee aficionado. Amateur gamer. Typical beer fan. Avid music scholar. Alcohol nerd.


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Insulation company, Celotex, will launch its ‘Insulating Scotland’ campaign on September 28th. The company’s custom designed campervan begins a Scotland roadshow, taking to the road to spread the word of products and services that comply to the new Scottish Building Regulations.
The Insulating Scotland campaign will see Celotex travel around Scotland in a Bespoke VW campervan, delivering a series of technical clinics at various venues. During the two-week roadshow, the Celotex team will travel to a number of different locations across Scotland, and to minimise environmental impact, they have introduced a series of solutions to offset more CO2 emissions than released.
Celotex will also continue educate on regulatory compliance by offering specifiers and contractors industry-leading guidance to aid understanding and implementation of the latest Building Regulations.
Paul Evans, Head of Marketing at Celotex, said: “Our Insulating Scotland campaign will ensure that industry professionals across Scotland can easily access all they need to know about the new Section 6 Building Regulations. With further reductions in CO2 emissions required for Scotland, Celotex product and service solutions will continue to help simplify compliance to these new levels.”


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Police in Clearwater, Fla., are investigating the March 16, 2014, theft of an autographed wrestling shoe once worn by Hulk Hogan. WTSP-TV, Tampa
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Police are investigating the theft of an expensive piece of memorabilia — an autographed wrestling shoe once worn by Hulk Hogan taken from his shop on Clearwater Beach.
The shoe, valued at $5,500, was taken Sunday about 5:20 p.m. by a white female in her 50's.
Police say four women — possibly from Michigan on spring break — came into Hogan's Beach Shop at 5:16 p.m. Four minutes later, a large statue of Hogan fell over outside the premises, and store workers were temporarily distracted.
That's when the theft occurred.
Employees did not know the Steve Cardillo wrestling shoe was missing until Tuesday evening.


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|The fiat currency printing press continues to roll out more money through QE|
So, with all of that new fiat currency created through QE, why have we not seen sky high inflation yet? The reason we have not seen high inflation is that people and businesses are still squirreling away Pounds, Euros and dollars because they remain anxious worried about the prospects for the economy.
Sooner or later, however, the Federal Reserve and other western central banks will have created so much new paper fiat currency through QE that at that point, the urge to buy – whether it's capital goods or consumer goods or commodities – will revive the economy, and the recession will come to an end. That will reduce the level of caution people feel to something near normal. The result will be that all of the excess money that has been created since 2008 will come pouring out. For a little while it will look like everything is going well – the economy will seem to be booming, we can all go back to our old ways. But then the extra printed money will set off massive inflation, and then the good times will be over. When that day comes, make sure you have some amount of real asset investments such as forestry or farmland in your portfolio as a hedge.
Contact us at email@example.com t learn how we can protect you from the dangers of QE and the ravages of inflation.


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I had a phone call late last week with a semantic startup called Siri that was spun out of SRI International (the birthplace of the computer mouse and the LCD screen, among many other important technologies). Most startups are willing to talk about their products “off the record” but this one wouldn’t divulge much beyond the fact that they’ve raised $8.5 million in Series A funding from Menlo Ventures and Morgenthaler.
What we do know is that the company was incorporated in December 2007 with the goal of commercializing aspects of the CALO cognitive learning system, which receives heavy funding ($200 million plus) from the PAL arm of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a supporter of research in a broad range of technologies that could potentially benefit the Department of Defense.
From the sound of things, Siri’s 19 developers – mostly engineers who count Yahoo, Google, Apple, Xerox, Nasa, and Netscape as their former employers – have been working on a system that will use artificial intelligence to automate many of the tasks that people currently conduct manually online. The founders describe themselves as out to change the fundamental ways that people use the internet, apparently by leveraging artificial intelligence that will learn from you and then give you the luxury of thinking less on your own.
All of this sounds very high and lofty, and we won’t know for sure whether this is all hot air until we actually see a product. But the company is very concerned that existing companies (Google, Microsoft or Apple, perhaps?) might seek to copy their ideas – hence the tight-lipped secrecy, which is expected to remain the status quo until the first half of 2009.
Until then, you can check out the startup’s teaser website which, appropriately enough, is located at stealth-company.com.