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CES Chief Says That Obama Administration is Stifling Innovation
January 8, 2010 12:40 PM
comment(s) - last by
CEA President Gary Shapiro says the government is silencing innovation
The Obama administration has already had a profound impact on technology. From
charging Intel with antitrust violations
taking majority ownership of GM and Chrysler
, the administration's actions have profoundly affected the tech landscape. And as new decisions, such as the
proposed ACTA treaty
Copenhagen climate promises
loom, the Obama administration is a hot topic at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show.
Obama's Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra was in Las Vegas yesterday, but received a
rather icy welcome
from Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro, who admonished the Obama administration's approach on many topics.
He offered mild criticism of the bailout of the financial and auto sectors, which he called "panic spending". And he stated, "When it comes to innovation, there's a lot the government can do, and there's a lot they should not do. The government doesn't spur innovation or entrepreneurship. The government often gets in the way."
Mr. Shapiro complains that the Obama administration isn't doing enough to make sure that the U.S.'s trade policy allows our goods to compete with cheaper goods elsewhere. He also complains that they are dragging their feet about implementing measures to allow the faster transfer of tech savvy workers from nations like China and India.
An apologetic Chopra commented, "We have to eat our own dogfood. Gary is right about the federal deficit. We are in an economic crisis but we are going to tackle it. We have to get it right."
Mr. Chopra is a graduate of John Hopkins and worked in government and as the managing director at a health think tank before taking on the role of government CTO. The tech industry's leadership has thus far been rather mixed in their opinions on his leadership and that of the Obama administration.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
1/8/2010 12:47:59 PM
My weenie is this big!
- says the guy in the picture.
1/8/2010 12:57:37 PM
Easy, but still, made me laugh :)
1/8/2010 2:15:41 PM
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August: social media roundup
Happy Birthday to the #Hashtag – Everyone’s favourite social media feature turned 10 last month after it was first used on 23rd August 2007 by Chris Messina, a former Google engineer, who asked “How do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?” Since then its use has grown exponentially, with 125 million hashtags now tweeted every day on average – and that’s just on Twitter. The hashtag has become such an integral part of modern culture that its adapted usage was added to the dictionary in 2014. To compare 2007 against current use, the most tweeted hashtag 10 years ago was used around 9,000 times; this year, the most popular was tweeted more than 300 million times. Included in over 1 billion tweets, #NowPlaying is the most shared hashtag of all time, the most popular regularly-occurring hashtag is #FF, for ‘Follow Friday’, and the most used hashtag last year was #Rio2016, closely followed by #Election2016 and #PokemonGo.
Businesses spend more on digital ads than traditional media advertising – For the first time, digital advertising has made a bigger contribution than traditional media to the UK’s total advertising spend. In the first quarter of 2017, the digital slice of ad spend hit a new high, helped by faltering spending for traditional media. Spend on internet adverts grew by 10.1% during Q1, an increase that was driven mainly by mobile which saw a 36.2% year-on-year increase. In comparison, total spending on adverts only grew by 1.3%, seeing its lowest increase since mid-2013. In the first quarter of this year, newspapers and magazines suffered the most. Total spending with regional news brands fell by 16%, spend on magazine brands decreased by 13.9% and national news brands saw a reduction of 6.6% compared to the same time in 2016. Spend on TV adverts fell by 6.2%. It is therefore the substantial increase in digital advertising (coupled with a strong performance from cinema advertising) that has contributed to the small increase in total ad spend in Q1. eMarketer also predicts that digital will be the only major media type in the country that will see double-digit growth for the year, indicating the strength of online advertising compared with traditional media.
Facebook morphs into YouTube – Facebook has launched its video offering! Facebook Watch is its new, TV-like rival to YouTube that will let users discover videos from outside of their news feed more easily, create lists of videos to watch and have an easier way to follow shows from particular artists, brands and publishers. To help populate it and inspire other creators, Facebook has funded a number of original “community-oriented” shows. Partners who produce original video content exclusively for Facebook will earn 55% of revenue generated by ad breaks that are inserted into the content – Facebook takes the rest. Facebook’s plan with Watch is to keep people on the platform, so it can serve users more adverts and boost revenue. Watch reflects YouTube’s functionalities, with sections such as “Most Talked About”, “Shows Your Friends Are Watching” and “What’s Making People Laugh” (based on reactions). Despite rumours that Facebook was launching a feature to rival Netflix, Watch far more closely resembles YouTube.
Facebook wants a slice of the influencer marketing pie – A couple of months ago, Facebook launched its Business Partner feature which let influencers more obviously mark when they are working alongside a company. The platform has now introduced the ability for influencers to tag brands they’re working with in their posts, which advertisers can then boost directly without needing to share themselves. Companies are able to authorise certain accounts to tag them, and will be able to access analysis on reach, engagement, total spend and CPM to determine how effective their campaigns are. This update is likely to change the way in which these relationships work. An influencer’s “influence” – in terms of their their follower numbers – is deemed of less importance, since this reach can now be achieved through paid spend. It means that Facebook campaigns will now combine the network’s excellent audience-targeting capabilities and the chosen influencer’s pre-existing reach, and that brands can choose influencers who are the perfect fit for their product or service without concerning themselves with their follower numbers.
Facebook allows brands to advertise to event attendees – Facebook is adding yet another Custom Audience targeting option to its top-of-the-class advertising arsenal; the new feature will let brands target their adverts to users who RSVP’d to their events. The new Custom Audience will consist of users who either responded ‘Going’, ‘Interested’, or ‘Going or Interested’ to the company’s event, and allows advertisers to further target those who have already expressed an interest in the brand in question. This feature lets advertisers target those who engaged with their events as far back as 180 days in the past. It is likely to encourage brands to use events more, firstly to build on users’ interest in their company as well as to follow up with them afterwards. The platform will also allow advertisers to target a ‘lookalike’ audience of users who have similar characteristics to those included in the Custom Audience.
Stories – the new way to access world news? – Google and Facebook have both made moves that show they see Stories as a news-sharing format. Google is preparing to launch ‘Stamp’, a combination of Snapchat’s Stories format with Google’s proprietary Accelerated Mobile Pages. This means news outlets can share slideshows of photos, videos and text that will appear in search results as well as being hosted on a publisher’s site. Facebook is seemingly choosing to integrate its news into Stories. The social network lets public figures share Stories with their followers and is also testing viewing on desktop and Live Stories. This allows journalists to string together photos and videos to create an immersive news experience, especially so when live broadcasting comes into play. Exactly how Facebook Stories fits into the social media landscape makes more sense when it is considered a news-focused complement to Instagram and WhatsApp Stories (both of which are also owned by the platform). The next step is to open Stories to publishers. Both are focusing on a more graphical approach to news, choosing to show rather than tell. These developments could reinvigorate news consumption, although only time will tell how successful it will be.
YouTube – the new Twitter? – Another social network that is dipping its toe into news-sharing is YouTube. Twitter re-categorised its mobile app in the Apple App Store, choosing to file it under ‘News’ rather than ‘Social Networking’. Perhaps with this in mind, YouTube has updated its mobile apps and desktop homepage to include a ‘Breaking News’ carousel. This move indicates the site’s intention to make it easier for users to find important and trending content amongst the 300 hours of videos uploaded every minute. It’s not yet known if this will be populated by an algorithm or whether a dedicated team of editors will curate the news in this section. It is also not yet clear if the carousel only appears during breaking news cycles or if it will contain more ongoing news events. The update does seem to be a move to make YouTube’s video browsing simpler, taking some of the focus off recommended videos, but how exactly it will work in practice – and how well it will be received by users – remains to be seen.
Native video spreads across social media – Reddit now allows users to upload videos directly from desktop and mobile, without the need to rely on third-party services. Reddit’s mobile apps will let users record videos and post them, as well as upload already existing videos they have in their camera roll. Desktop users can upload videos directly from their computer. Each video can be up to 15 minutes long and will also be able to be converted into GIFs with the native GIF converter. In other news, LinkedIn will now let any user upload a video to the site via the mobile app. The idea behind this is that users will share projects, product demonstrations and other work-related videos, and it follows a limited release earlier in 2017 where videos were shown to be shared over 20 times more than other content. The next step is live video which, from a professional point of view in terms of meetings and events, could prove invaluable.
Native video is coming… to LinkedIn – Along with Reddit, LinkedIn is launching an update that will allow users to shoot native video within the mobile app. For now, the feature is only available to a group of 500 LinkedIn influencers which includes some of the biggest names in business, but social media experts have no doubt that this will be opened up to everyone in the near future. The native video feature allows people to shoot videos for up to 30 seconds. When a user you already follow posts a video, it will appear on your feed and you will have the opportunity to comment and respond to other users’ comments. This new in-app video feature is accessible via a new icon located next to the already-existing camera icon. What opportunities are there for businesses? As well as another way to share engaging content, people speculate that this open up to advertisers in the not too distant future…
Facebook removes accidental clicks on ads – We have probably all had moments of scrolling through Facebook and clicked on an ad without meaning to. Businesses have, quite rightly, had enough of paying for ads that users have clicked on by accident. Luckily, Facebook has found a solution. The social media giant announced it is sorting out the issue of unintentional clicks by discounting instances where a user bounces back after two seconds or less. The likelihood is that if you clicked on an ad and then immediately clicked back, you probably didn’t care about the ad in the first place. Facebook’s Product Marketing Manager Brett Vogel said ‘Unintentional clicks end up delivering really poor experiences for people and advertisers. It’s not a good path for publishers to build sustainable businesses’.
Twitter is testing an ad subscription for $99 a month – Twitter is testing new ways to monetise the social network. The platform is testing a $99 per month advertising subscription, where users will see their tweets and profile automatically amplified for 30 days. This includes analytics, so the advertiser can see the exact additional reach, engagement and followers being driven by the campaign. Twitter’s pitch to encourage users to sign up for the test version is that the service is incredibly low friction – the user does not have to create dedicated ads but rather their posts and profile will be promoted as is. The programme is currently being beta tested and is being offered to some users as a 30-day-free promotion. Twitter will send a report card every other week highlighting the additional reach, followers and engagements achieved by the promotion. The platform says that this allows users “to grow [their] audience and [their] influence without starting a campaign or ever creating an ad”. It will be interesting to see whether users choose to take Twitter up on its offer, or if they would prefer to stick with traditional advertising as it currently stands.
Instagram tests joint live streaming – Instagram now allows users to stream live broadcasts with a friend in split-screen mode. This is easy to do, by just tapping an icon on the bottom right and choosing the friend to add, the screen will be split vertically. Everything else works the same. This comes after Instagram “noticed that a lot of folks were using [live streaming] with friends in person”, and so this new feature simply brings this offline behaviour online. The idea behind this development is that live video will function more as a virtual conversation being broadcast in public. The platform describes it as “a fun way to go live with a friend”, envisioning this update as a way to overcome the intimidation that many users may feel when sharing a live stream alone. Broadcasters can add anybody who is currently watching their video, and they can be removed and replaced at any point. This feature is currently undergoing testing and will be rolled out globally in the next few months.
Facebook Live’s popularity is growing – A report from digital performance agency L2 shows that brands are growing increasingly confident about Facebook Live. The report shows that live-streaming on the platform is growing in popularity, climbing from a 1% share of Facebook’s posts in August 2016 to an impressive 4.4% in June 2017. What’s also interesting is that this upward trend is followed by a surge in promotion of Live video. For the first time, in June, promotion for Live videos was more than pre-recorded video posts. According to L2, live videos also fare much better in terms of engagement. In fact, they yield up to 25% more when compared to conventional video posts. Thinking about utilising Live for your business? What are you waiting for?
YouTube allows users to share videos within its app – YouTube’s mobile app is stepping its game up. Users can now share videos and chat with friends, all within the app. When sharing a video, the user begins a conversation with the friend or group of friends. The other users can then reply with videos or their own message and can ‘heart’ messages, as well as invite others into the conversation. YouTube has said that it has been “experimenting with a better way to share videos”, avoiding the hassle of copying and pasting a link. A blog post written by one of the app’s product managers says that, “like chats around the water cooler, shouldn’t sharing a video be as easy as saying, “Have you heard this new song?”. While the new functionality isn’t yet available to everybody, it soon will be and it will be interesting to see if this keeps people on the app.
Will advertisers use GIFs in future? – One of the internet’s last non-monetised elements is finally considering testing sponsorship. Giphy, the search engine for GIFs, is testing sponsored GIFs in messages. In short, users searching for GIFs to send may be served a sponsored GIF when they’re searching for something to send within a message. This gives brands opportunities to work existing content into people’s messages and, given the ubiquitous use of GIFs across the internet, will be a fairly simple way of infiltrating a widely-used method of communication. This concept reflects the idea behind sponsored Snapchat filters, and the hypothesis that sponsored content will be easier to connect with if sent by a friend. It also opens brands up to a potentially vast audience: Giphy has said that of the 250 million monthly active users, 200 million of these use its owned and operated integrations every day. This shows an already-engaged audience that could provide a fantastic source of revenue for advertisers. However, since testing has not yet begun, it remains to be seen how this will work in practice and how it will succeed.
Instagram updates threaded comments – Instagram has announced a major upgrade to its comments section that will let people thread different conversations under a single post. This means that when users hit ‘reply’ on a comment, the comment will appear in a ‘nested’ thread, like it does on Facebook, rather than before when all replies lived in one column which can get a little confusing. Chatting back and forth on a post will now become as easy on Instagram as it is on Facebook. The threaded comments come with the 24th iteration of Instagram so users will need to update their app to experience the changes.
Written by Becca Ingram, Digital Strategist (@_beccaingram)

domain: news


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Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier has learned that Supermassive Games, the developer of Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures, is going to make massive cuts. According to the journalist, about 90 employees will be fired, that is, about 30% of the total staff.
Since July 2022, Supermassive Games has lost its independence and became one of the internal studios of Nordisk Games – this is the gaming division of the Danish company Nordisk Film.
Soon Supermassive Games itself confirmed the cuts, announcing the reorganization of the studio. The company did not specify the number of cuts.
According to Bloomberg, since the beginning of 2024, more than 6,000 thousand people have lost their jobs in the gaming industry. Companies are shrinking amid a slowdown in global economic growth and a large number of releases vying for the player’s attention and wallet.
Supermassive Games is currently working on Little Nightmares III, The Casting of Frank Stone and The Dark Pictures Anthology: Directive 8020. The British studio also worked with PlayStation and 2K Games at one time.


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In a deal that values social networking Web site Facebook.com at an extraordinary $15 billion, Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said it agreed to invest $240 million in the site as part of an expansion of their advertising ties.
The agreement allows Microsoft to handle advertising on Facebook in international markets, where Facebook is experiencing tremendous growth. Previously, Microsoft handled advertising for the site in the U.S. market.
The investment, which gives Microsoft a 1.6 percent stake in a company that was born in a Harvard University dorm room three years ago, was a deal Microsoft had to make in order to keep pace with Google Inc.'s growing might on the Internet
"This was a must win for Microsoft," said Allen Weiner, an analyst with Gartner Inc. who follows the big technology firms. "It would have been a nice win for Google."
In recent years, all the wins have been going to Google. Last year, Google bought YouTube for $1.6 billion and this year it purchased pioneering Internet ad firm DoubleClick for $3.1 billion, both properties Microsoft was believed to have had a serious interest in purchasing, Weiner said.
Google also has an advertising relationship with Facebook rival MySpace.com.
"Microsoft needed to pay whatever it took to win this," Weiner said. "The credibility this gives Microsoft in the marketplace is pretty big."
Both Google and Microsoft operate services that use sophisticated computing tools to place advertising on Web sites, and they are battling for significant accounts.
Google is far ahead in terms of generating ad revenue. According to The Associated Press, Microsoft's online ad revenue was $1.84 billion for the fiscal year ended in June, far below Google's $13.3 billion for the same period.
A hot commodity
Facebook is a big catch because it is currently the hottest property on the Internet. On Wednesday, the company said it had nearly 50 million users with a user base that is doubling every six months.
That rapid growth kicked in last year when Facebook allowed anyone to join the social network. Previously, it had been open only to students with a ".edu" e-mail extension.
Then, in May, the site opened its development platform so third-party softwaremakers could create interactive applications, called widgets, specifically for Facebook. There are about 6,500 applications available for Facebook users after only four months; it launched with just a handful.
"We'll use the capital to fund all the innovation and growth we're seeing today," Owen Van Natta, Facebook's chief revenue officer, said in a conference call. "That's what we'll be focusing on."
Facebook is averaging 200,000 new users each day, with almost 60 percent of those users coming from outside the United States.
With this deal, Microsoft will now have more exposure to those international users. Facebook's previous agreement with Microsoft's AdCenter advertising platform, signed last year and extended this year through 2011, was only for U.S. banner advertising.
Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft's platforms and services division, said the Redmond, Wash., company did not pay too much for a relatively minor stake in Facebook.
"If you believe [Facebook] can get to 200 million, 300 million users," he said, "you can easily get to that level of monetization."
Considering Facebook's current rate of growth, "I could see them getting to 200 million to 300 million users," said Michelle Warren, a senior research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group.
"My belief is that Facebook is popular now, but will it be popular in two years?" she asked. "Will kids want to go there if there parents have a profile on Facebook?"
MySpace remains the giant in the social networking field, with more than 100 million users, but it has lost some momentum to Facebook, which is adding users far more rapidly. Facebook had 134 percent more users in September than a year ago, while MySpace increased 12 percent, according to Internet tracking firm Hitwise.
That's one reason why Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp. owns MySpace, said last week that his social site will open its platform to allow outside developers to create the same type of applications popular on Facebook.
The Microsoft investment was important for Facebook because it is considering an initial public offering, analysts said. Van Natta would not comment on "an IPO at this time," saying there has been a lot of speculation about Facebook's financing.
"Facebook wanted a base to value the organization," Warren said. "It looks like they may have gotten an extra $5 billion [in valuation] from Microsoft," assuming that published reports over the last month were accurate in valuing Facebook at $10 billion.
Yet it's unclear if Google was even involved in talks with Facebook since it already has an advertising deal in place with MySpace.
"I'm not sure Google would have done something with Facebook," she said.
Van Natta would not comment about potential suitors, but he did say there were "a lot of folks interested in partnerships."
MySpace declined to comment on the deal, and Google did not reply to a request for comment.
Even if Microsoft paid too much, Weiner said it was a wise decision.
"They are in the game, which is what they needed," he said.
- - -
- Facebook.com was the ninth most-visited Web site in the U.S., receiving 0.96 percent of all Internet visits for the week ended Saturday.
- U.S. traffic to Facebook .com has increased 102 percent in the past year.
- Among a custom category of leading social networking Web sites, Facebook.com received 15 percent of U.S. visits last week. That was the second most among social networking sites, behind MySpace.com, which received 76 percent. Windows Live Spaces received 0.4 percent for the same week.


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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Muffins sold under seven brand names at retailers nationwide are being recalled because they may be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, according to a recall notice from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
Give and Go Prepared Food Corp. announced the voluntary recall of certain muffin products that could contain the Listeria organism, which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems.
While healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms like high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and stillbirths among pregnant women, the FDA said.
According to the FDA notice, muffins were sold at retailers including 7-Eleven, Walmart, and Stop & Shop. They were sold under seven brand names, including: Uncle Wally’s; The Worthy Crumb; Stop n Shop; 7-Eleven; Freshness Guaranteed; Great Value; and Marketside.
There have been no reports of illness related to this issue, according to the FDA.
Consumers who have these products should immediately dispose of them and not eat them. Consumers should make note of the lot code of the products, which is found on the label, and provide it if they contact Give and Go Prepared Food Corp.
You can contact the company at 1-844-366-1171 to obtain more information about the recall.
Listeriosis can cause different symptoms, depending on the person and the part of the body affected. Symptoms can include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions, in addition to fever and muscle aches.
People with invasive listeriosis usually report symptoms starting one to four weeks after eating food contaminated with Listeria. It is treated with antibiotics.


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Consuming cannabis may now be legal in Virginia, but getting caught with pot behind the wheel can still get you in trouble.
Under the commonwealth’s new laws, which went into effect on July 1, having an open container of cannabis in your car is considered a Class 4 misdemeanor. That’s Virginia’s lowest-level criminal offense, meaning you won’t get jail time, but you could receive a penalty of up to $250.
And here’s where things get tricky: An open container gives a judge “permissive inference”—the right to assume that you’ve consumed cannabis. That could lead to far more serious charges, such as driving under the influence.
But one Virginia couple from Suffolk wants to protect drivers from open container violations.
Sarah Morton and her husband, Ron, recently launched LOCKGREEN, a Black-owned company that sells cannabis “stashboxes” designed to prevent drivers from getting open container charges. Roughly the size of a lunchbox, the containers are equipped with a 3-digit locking mechanism, and are carbon-lined to prevent any cannabis odors from seeping out, according to the company’s website.
“Our mission is to educate people about the law and provide these stashboxes as a way to help them stay compliant with the law, and stay out of trouble,” Morton told The Outlaw Report.
A former consultant turned entrepreneur, Morton says she’s long been a cannabis advocate. Since 2017, she’s sat on the board for the Virginia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). In the lead-up to July 1, Morton participated in many forums on legalization and organized educational events in her Hampton Roads community on Virginia’s new laws. She said she hopes the stashboxes can help pot users avoid unnecessary interactions with law enforcement.
“We know that the Black community has been so disproportionately affected by the War On Drugs,” she said. “If there’s any way we can stop these violations, we’re going to do it,” she continued.
Before moving to Virginia, Morton’s husband worked in the cannabis industry in Maryland and Colorado. He’s now pursuing a degree in Medical Cannabis Science and Therapeutics at the University of Maryland’s School of Pharmacy, the nation’s first graduate program dedicated to studying medical pot.
Virginia code defines an open container as “any vessel containing marijuana or marijuana products, except the originally sealed manufacturer’s container.”
Whether or not a lockbox fits that definition is unclear. In general, experts agree it’s safer not to travel with cannabis in your car. But if you need to, NORML recommends keeping cannabis in a locked box or in your car’s trunk.
At around $50 a piece, LOCKGREEN stashboxes are now available for pre-order on the company’s website. Morton said she hopes to start shipping them by late August, though the pandemic could lead to manufacturing delays. She and her husband designed the stashboxes themselves, including the print on the front, a commemoration to legalization in the commonwealth.
“We went through so many different prototypes and different designs,” she said. “There was a lot of research, love, and intention that went into it.”


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Frederator Studios, the company behind the recently announced Castlevania series for Netflix, has picked up Double Fine’s Costume Quest for Amazon. In a blog post announcing its first project with the online giant, Frederator said that the team is “truly happy” about it but has saved details for another blog post. However, we’ve been told that the cartoon will be out sometime next year.
The blog post went on to thank a number of people including Double Fine’s Tim Schafer and Greg Rice alongside the original creator of the world, Tasha Sounart. “Thanks to Pat McHale for coming on board to direct that initial short. Pre-production artists included Bob Flynn, JoJo Baptista, Aymeric Kevin, Ryan Andrews, Joe McGrory, Mira Lark Crowell, Larry Leichliter, and Wendy Jacobsmeyer,” the post continues. “We’ve much appreciation for Digital eMation, Inc., which handled the animation, and Salami Studios (with Thomas J. Maydeck, C.A.S.), the studio which oversaw the post-production.”
You can read the full post here.
Any of our readers looking forward to this?


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Walmart joins other big retailers in applying to Vt. hazard pay program
MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) - More national companies are applying for Vermont’s hazard pay grant program.
State officials Tuesday reported that Walmart Lowe’s, CVS, and Walgreens, have joined Shaw’s in applying to the Frontline Employees Hazard Pay Grant Program. Under the program, employers can apply on behalf of their essential workers to provide them with $1,200 or $2,000 grants. The deadline to apply was extended last week to Wednesday and $8 million has been added. That’s enough to cover nearly 5,000 Vermonters who would be eligible if their employers applied.
Officials say Home Depot is among the large retailers that have still not applied.
Copyright 2020 WCAX. All rights reserved.


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Nelson County, Virginia
It’s been a busy week already for the folks at Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton. They have been in the process of offloading a new tank that will double their draft and bottled beer distribution in stores and restaurants. “We just recently got to the momentous mark of having our draft and bottled beer in over 100 restaurants and stores across Virginia. This new tank is going to help us double that within a year,” Mandi Smack, co-owner of BMB tells us.
Blue Mountain opened just under two years ago back in the fall of 2007 as we first reported here.
The new tank has about 1000 gallons of capacity! That’s a lot more than your average 12 ounce beer!
Congrats on the upgrade BMB! This is great news!


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Indian police said that they had accused an executive of Amazon’s local unit of a case of marijuana smuggling through the online retailer. Police of Madhya Pradesh arrested two men with 20 kg of marijuana on 14 November. They discovered that they were ordering from the Amazon India website and smuggling the substance in the form of stevia leaves to other Indian states.
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The state police said that executive directors of Amazon India were accused under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act due to differences in documents provided by the firm to the police. The police estimate that nearly 1,000 kg of marijuana worth $148,000 was sold through Amazon. The company said in a statement that it does not allow the listing and sale of legally prohibited products and takes strict action against sellers in case of any violation. “The issue was notified to us, and we are investigating it,” Amazon said of the claimed marijuana smuggling.


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As the whole crypto market blasted upward on Sunday, the price of Bitcoin and Ethereum skyrocketed and smashed over recent price barriers. According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin has surged more than 5% in the last 24 hours to $47,020, while Ethereum has risen 5% to $3,292. Currently, the famous bitcoin is up 14%, and Ethereum is up 15%.
Other famous crypto coins like Polkadot (DOT) is up 7% in 24 hours, Dogecoin (DOGE) is up 6%, Solana (SOL) is up 5%, Avalanche (AVAX) is up 4%, XRP is up 3%, and Cardano (ADA) is up 3%. This price rise is not an immediate action, but many factors cause it.
Bitcoin’s stock correlation is at a 17-month high, and the S&P 500 has been advancing for a week. Do Kwon has stated in a Twitter Spaces that he intends to acquire billions of dollars in Bitcoin and store it in reserve to support the stable coin TerraUSD (UST). The official Bitcoin wallet address of the Luna Foundation has $1.1 billion, and Kwon plans to collect $10 billion in bitcoin.
According to Glassnode, the popular cryptocurrency bitcoin’s exchange holdings are also lowest in three years. This indicated a rise in demand and interest in removing bitcoin from exchanges and storing it in cold storage, such as hardware wallets. Bitcoin’s market capitalization topped $1 billion on February 28, 2013. The well-known cryptocurrency was trading at $92, with the price increase attributed to banking concerns.


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Forecourt & Convenience Retailer Awards
Topaz Dublin Port took the top prize at this year’s ceremony, which was hosted by Miriam O’Callaghan in Dublin’s Clayton Hotel
The founder of Applegreen and Topaz Dublin Port was among the winners at Ireland’s Forecourt & Convenience Retailer Awards held in Dublin’s Clayton Hotel on September 6.
After undergoing rigorous independent judging ahead of this year’s awards, Topaz Dublin Port overcame world-class competition from throughout the country to take the top prize of forecourt and convenience retailer of the year.
Hosted by broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan, the awards – now in...
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Making some history, again
As the Ireland Hockey team get their Olympic campaign started, midfield star Chloe Watkins reflects on what it means for their families and supporters watching at home, what it has taken to get there and how the team culture has put them in a position to compete with the best in the world
Champagne Super Nova: Viatel Group reaches stellar heights with third acquisition
The deal to acquire Cork-based Nova Telecom will feed Viatel’s ambitious expansion plans and fuel the company’s impressive growth trajectory


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The European Islamic Investment Bank (EIIB) has declared its first exit from an extremely successful oil venture in the US.
London-based EIIB had invested $17.5 million in acquiring a 78 per cent stake in TriTech. TriTech has now decided to sell its as…
- Market Extra: It was the worst September for stocks since 2002. What that means for October.September more than lives up to its reputation as an ugly month for stocks. Here's what the data says about October performance.
- Market Extra: Why housing has ‘a lot of wiggle room’ in a recession, even if prices drop 15%The strong labor market and huge equity cushion for property owners will help insulate the housing market in a recession, says Al Otero, portfolio manager for HAUS, Armada ETF Advisors.
- Market Extra: What investors need to know about October’s complicated stock-market historyOctober has been described as a "bear killer," known for its historically strong returns. But also associated with historic crashes.
- What's Worth Streaming: Here’s what’s new to HBO Max in October 2022, and what’s leaving'The White Lotus,' 'Avenue 5' and 'Pennyworth' return for new seasons, while 'Inside Amy Schumer, 'Reno 911' and 'Key & Peele' are going away.
- The Moneyist: ‘Things are rocky between us’: My girlfriend and I sold our Florida home. Our $200,000 profit was wired to her account. She refuses to give me my fair share. What’s my next move?‘I'm getting pushback when I've asked for my share of the proceeds.’
- The Wall Street Journal: Futures exchange CME considers brokerage, taking cue from crypto rival FTXCME Group Inc. criticized crypto exchange FTX’s plan to cut out the middlemen in the futures markets. Now, the Chicago exchange giant is taking a step in the same direction.
- The Ratings Game: Bed Bath & Beyond eyes turnaround, but fundamentals and underlying trends remain ‘challenging,’ say analystsStruggling home-goods retailer and meme-stock phenomenon Bed Bath & Beyond reported its fiscal second-quarter results and touted its turnaround plan.
- Earnings Results: Nike stock drops 10% as execs predict cheaper clothing for at least the rest of the yearNike Inc. on Thursday reported earnings and sales that topped expectations, though margins took a hit during the quarter as freight costs, markdowns and the effects of a tougher foreign-exchange backdrop piled up.
- TaxWatch: Hurricane Ian victims now have until early 2023 for tax deadlines, including extensions on this year’s income-tax returns, IRS saysThe IRS has already pushed back the filing deadlines for other natural disasters, including Hurricane Fiona victims in Puerto Rico.
- Brett Arends's ROI: Looking for a cheap retirement spot? Europe is a good deal for AmericansThe skyrocketing dollar—and collapsing foreign exchange rates, including the pound, euro, yen and others—is good for retirees, and future retirees


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Released on September 10, Tales of Arise is already a popular success. Bandai Namco Entertainment has indeed just revealed the first sales figures, and after a single week, more than a million copies have already been sold worldwide. Be careful though, because it is specified that these are distributed copies and not actual sales, but this does not prevent the Japanese publisher from specifying that this is a record start for the series. . This almost unexpected success is undoubtedly the simultaneous release in the world, even if this episode also seems to have great qualities which have pushed players to massively buy day one. Bandai Namco Entertainment takes the opportunity to clarify that the saga now accounts for 25 million units sold in total since its creation. Could this be the start of some mainstream popularity for the franchise? Still, on Steam, we also recorded a connection record, with 60,000 players simultaneously.
Tales of Arise has been available since September 10 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X | S and PC, with a demo available as well.


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Folks editing their WordPress blogs from an Android device running Lollipop are in for a treat. The latest version of the app applies a fresh taste of material design. At the end of the day, the experience doesn't look fundamentally different, but you get a full hamburger menu, a floating action button, and a sidebar that slides out on top of everything else.
Android's system-level sharing menu has always been a great asset, making it easy to get content into different apps quickly. Fliktu is a new app created by the lead Android developer of Pocket that adds some more features to sharing and opening links. All you need to do is give your device a little flick.
Seven hundred million is a big number. 700 million of almost anything is a lot, but when you're talking about users, it's the kind of number that makes investors and analysts start to drool. It's also the amount of monthly users that popular alternative messaging app WhatsApp now has, at least according to an announcement by CEO Jan Koum. For context, Facebook initialized a purchase of WhatsApp last February (finalized in October) for approximately 22 billion dollars, when the service reportedly had "only" 450 million users.
When Fuhu announced the 20- and 24-inch Big Tabs, we all kind of chuckled and gave them a pass. Surely kids would like huge tablets, right? I think so. But now things are just getting out of hand - the company just announced 32, 43, 55, and 65-inch Big Tabs. Tablets the size of TVs. It's insanity, I say.
All of the Big Tab XL models are capable of doubling as TVs (thankfully), which makes them a little more justifiable.
A messaging service is only useful so long as a certain amount of your contacts use it along with you. So we'll refrain from making jokes at BlackBerry's expense (not a small effort, mind you) or pointing you towards alternatives like Hangouts or WhatsApp. If you use BlackBerry Messenger, and your friends and/or associates do too, pointing out other options isn't going to do much for you. But here's something that will: BBM is getting Android Wear support!
There may be a major trade show happening this week, but it's still Update Wednesday. Google has updated its 'Google' app (formerly known as Search) to version 4.1. We are still digging around for new features, but we've already found a few goodies and put the APK up for your enjoyment.
First up, there's a new space in settings called "Now Cards," which - as the name suggests - gives you control over the cards Google presents to you.
AT&T has announced that it's taking the concept of rollover minutes or texts and applying it to data starting January 25th. This will only affect Mobile Share Value plans, but it will impact new and current customers alike.
The policy shift likely isn't coming out of the goodness of the carrier's heart (teehee, as if carriers have hearts). Instead, this looks like a calculated response to T-Mobile's recent decision to start rolling unused data over into the next month.
The developer dashboard has been updated, and there's some big movement this month. In the post holiday window, KitKat is up a healthy 5.2% and Gingerbread drops another 1.3%. One thing you won't see on the chart is Lollipop. Android 5.0 still hasn't hit the 0.1% threshold to be included in the data, just like last month.
If you have wireless charging in your phone or tablet, odds are good that it's based on the Qi standard. However, Qi isn't the only standard out there. The Power Matters Alliance (PMA) and Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) have agreed to merge in hopes of standing up to the current market leader.


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Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire – A $10 million equity investment has been approved by the Board of Directors of African Development Bank (ADB) in the South African based private equity investment company Phatisa Food Fund2 (PFF2) to boost agriculture and nutrition across Africa.
A press statement issued in Abidjan and copied to West African Journal Magazine says the project will cover the entire African continent, with a sharper focus on Sub-Saharan Africa.
PFF2 will focus on food/consumer related investments including integrated food production, processing, services and inputs (seed, fertilizer & chemicals), mechanization, distribution, logistics and infrastructure, packaging, food services and retail, the release said.
PFF2 is averaging investments of about #0 million in the West African countries of Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and in Ugandan, Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa and southern African countries of Zambia, Malawi,, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
The release further said, PPF2’s investment strategy is aligned with the Bank’s High5 priorities of feeding and industrializing Africa. It is in line with the Bank’s Ten Year Strategy, focusing on inclusive growth, strengthening agriculture and food security, and access to local finance, among other Bank strategies as well as government agriculture and agro-industry policies across African countries.
Press Statement – AFDB


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Yahoo has entered a new sports content and advertising deal with Time Warner-owned Turner Broadcasting System. The partnership gives Yahoo video and editorial content from the official sites of several sports leagues, including NBA.com, PGATOUR.com, PGA.com and NASCAR.com, which Turner manages. Meanwhile Turner now has the exclusive right to sell all advertising in that content on Yahoo.
“We focus on seeking out the best monetization opportunities for our assets,” said Todd Teresi, SVP of Yahoo Publisher Network, who suggested Turner’s TV sales capabilities and bundled cross-platform offerings would help Yahoo get in on an otherwise evasive advertiser market. Because Turner has ad deals with the leagues involved, and has a hold on the ad market when it comes to their content, it makes sense for Yahoo to partner with the broadcasting company rather than try to compete for ad dollars, he explained.
“This is part of our strategy of best monetization of our assets and seeking out the best sales forces to be part of our network,” he told ClickZ News. “We’re better off partnering with companies that have created a sustainable competitive advantage. Now we’re able to tap into budgets we really weren’t able to tap into before.”
The agreement also gives Yahoo a foothold in television. For instance, said Teresi, Yahoo could benefit from Turner’s relationships with PGA Tour television and Web sponsors like FedEx if the advertiser also chooses to buy on Yahoo.
Yahoo does have competencies in ad sales around specific sports, including football and baseball. In April, for instance, Major League Baseball Advanced Media signed a deal giving Yahoo rights to feature subscription-based live games in a co-branded video player, as well as the ability to sell video ads in that content through the 2010 season. “We have a lot of strength [in the [MLB] market,” said Teresi.
From the point of view of Turner, the deal allows the network to “extend our reach… and generate incremental revenue for our league partners,” said David Levy, president of Turner Broadcasting Sales. In some cases, the companies expect unique users to nearly double as a result of the relationship.
“There’s not a lot of duplication in the audiences,” said Levy.
Additionally, Turner will have exclusive rights to user data from the Yahoo league sites that feature its content, according to Levy. Access to behavioral data may also allow Turner to target ads to sports fans while they’re visiting other Yahoo destinations, for instance Yahoo Real Estate or Yahoo Travel. Levy added the information gleaned from Yahoo can’t be employed to target ads to those users while on NASCAR.com or other league sites.
Unlike other similar content and advertising deals Yahoo has with publisher partners such as WebMD for health content, and CNET for technology content, Turner is now the sole seller of advertising in the golf, basketball and NASCAR content it distributes on Yahoo. The exclusivity factor is especially significant for Turner. “This helps us build our sports digital strategy… but also manage and control it,” Levy said.
“Advertisers want to be able to go to one organization to be able to cross all platforms,” he continued, “so it’s a way to properly manage the inventory.”
Levy stressed the pact enables Turner to form similar partnerships with other publishers. “We can take the same model or a similar type model and extend it to other platforms, for instance AOL,” he said.
While many of Yahoo’s publisher deals, including its deals with newspaper publishers, are aimed at establishing Yahoo’s ad platform as the primary system for those partners, that’s not necessarily the case for Turner. “It can run either way,” said Teresi, explaining Turner will use Yahoo’s ad platform for things like behavioral targeting and forecasting, “but they’re not replacing their existing standalone platforms.”
Businesses near ‘PokeStops’ are enjoying a huge surge in footfall due to the popularity of Pokémon Go, according to our first major ... read more
A new organization, The Coalition for Better Ads, has been launched to “leverage consumer insights and cross-industry expertise to develop and implement ... read more


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In Motion Takes Hotspots on the Road
July 31, 2003
The startup is offering a mobile hotspot service to corporate transportation companies that uses cellular technology to power in-vehicle Wi-Fi networks.
Mobile networking startup In Motion Technology Thursday launched a mobile hotspot service that uses high-speed cellular networks to provide Internet connectivity in vehicles.
The onBoard Mobile Gateway bridges code division multiple access (CDMA) 1X wireless wide area networks (WAN) and 802.11 wireless local area networks (WLAN), said Kirk Moir, CEO of Vancouver, British Columbia-based In Motion. Moir said the company will resell CDMA 1X cellular service from Verizon Wireless and Sprint as part of its Hotspot Managed Service bundle, which also includes the Gateway, as well as installation and maintenance services.
Aimed at ground transportation providers, such as limousine and taxi companies, the Mobile Gateway allows passengers to take advantage of the cellular network using a standard laptop or PDA with Wi-Fi. Moir said Carey International is currently testing the service in its vehicles in New York, with plans to expand to Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco sometime in the fourth quarter.
The actual Mobile Gateway device is "about the size of a loaf of bread," Moir said, and is mounted in the trunk of the vehicle and connected to the car's battery. An antenna on the rear deck of the car picks up the signal from the 1X network.
CDMA 1X offers average data speeds of 70-80 Kbps, but Moir said In Motion can top that. "We are looking to accelerate beyond the standard 3G cellular network," he said.
Indeed, the Mobile Gateway includes the first generation of In Motion's acceleration software, which Moir said speeds up Web surfing by about 20 to 50 percent. He said the company will roll out new versions of the technology in the next 18 to 24 months.
To account for any gaps in network coverage, Moir said In Motion would provide local content on the Gateway that "is of use to the mobile professional." He wouldn't elaborate on exactly what types of content would be available, but said the company would provide further details in August.


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Photos of Samsung SM-W2018: Samsung published working on a Flip cellular phone which the Smartphone maker is expected to launch the next year 2018. Ahead of send-off, the reported Samsung flip cellular phone has been various leaks. The actual picture of the cellular phone was come out in the social networking site and reveals the form of the gadget. The approaching flip cellular phone is going to achieve the SM-W2017 which Samsung Incorporation announced the last year 2016.
Photos of Samsung SM-W2018 have now link on the social networking sites. This photo was published by MMDDJ on social media like Twitter and it is a clearly obvious that from the image that this is a kind of cellular phone that is flappable. In addition to this cellular phone, it is a likelihood of the SM-W2018 is that it’s demonstrating the serial number of the cellular phone when booting up as shown in the picture above. As expected, Samsung is no guest to flip the cellular phones, despite of what is deliberate to be a general drop in the appeal of the design factor, and the company has persisted releasing new models proposed at specific regions. Currently, come out the Samsung SM- G9298 which was declared last August 2017 and before that, the SM-W2017 which was declared way back November last year 2016 and which this most recent model is deliberate to be the follow-on gadget too.
Which is where belongings get more concerned as the SM-W2017 was constructed to be an ultra-premium gadget. In addition to playful a flip cellular phone form aspect, the SM-W2017 also came with a profound build quality and also a specification list to rival most common at all-time leader of the cellular phones. This is particularly being submitted with this follow-on gadget. Last July this year 2017, a report came through indicating the SM-W2018 may come with another set of the specification to compete for the recent crop of the leader of the Smartphone. For example, the proposal is the SM-W2018 will feature 6-gigabyte Random Access Memory or RAM and 64 gigabytes of storage and willpower by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. Spec combinations which can construct these 2017 flagship gadgets.
Inattentive of its premium idea, specification and build quality has been the case with former flip cellular phones from Samsung, all evidence point to this recent one also being a cellular phone which will be restricted in its availability. Particularly, it is improbable to make it to markets outside of China. More relevant to most buyers though, it that likes the prior version it is wanted that the SM-W2018 will appear with a very high price join. It greatly eclipses the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8, the iPhone x and the Pixel2 XL for that matter.
As for if the cellular phone will come out to India or not, considering the fact that Samsung has consistently been very choosy when it comes to its flips cellular phones. Samsung has previously tried keeping his flip cellular phones restricted to selected markets in China and in South Korea.


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|By PR Newswire||
|February 11, 2014 11:24 AM EST||
TULLAHOMA, Tenn., Feb. 11, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- From Tennessee to Kentucky to Ireland, stories of old whiskies forgotten in the back of rickhouses and warehouses drift among distillers the world over. From lunch breaks to happy hours, their debates over which whiskey would taste best has become the stuff of legend. To offer resolution and introduce a new line of rare spirits to a growing base of whiskey aficionados, DIAGEO (NYSE: DEO) today announced the official start of the Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Company.
The goal of The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Company is to locate lost and forgotten barrels of whiskey from around the world and share them with discerning adult fans. The first two variants to be released from the company will include the 20-year-old Barterhouse Whiskey and the 26-year-aged Old Blowhard Whiskey. Both brands are expected to begin appearing on select shelves throughout the U.S. in March 2014 under strict allocation due to limited supply.
Barterhouse Whiskey stocks were discovered in old warehouses at the Stitzel-Weller facility in Louisville, Ky. Rumor has it warehouse workers have already begun lining up for the first taste of this beautiful whiskey with a soft nose reminiscent of warm spice, biscuit and buttercream. The whiskey's mellow taste includes notes of roasted grain, charred oak and a brown sugar finish. Barterhouse Whiskey is bottled in Tullahoma, Tenn. and will be expected to sell for a suggested retail price of $75.
Old Blowhard Whiskey was also found at Stitzel-Weller and is hand bottled in Tullahoma. At 26-years-old, the whiskey contains exuberant, rich flavors with undertones of smoke and honey followed by a gentle finish – dry and spicy with a hint of orange peel. Carrying a suggested retail price of $150, Old Blowhard Whiskey is meant to be sipped slowly and best enjoyed among gregarious friends and unyielding debates.
"The whiskey warehouses and rickhouses these spirits come from are special places filled with the incredible smells of seasoned oak, rough textures of weathered wood and amazing tastes of precious liquid," said Ewan Morgan, Master of Whiskey for DIAGEO. "It's every worker's dream of finding that forgotten barrel of delicious whiskey and sharing it with their friends. That's exactly what we're doing."
Like the rickhouse and warehouse workers who uncover them and the consumers who drink them, Orphan Barrel Whiskies have distinctive personalities in taste and packaging. Barterhouse Whiskey packaging nods to the inspiration behind the whiskey's name. A vintage khaki and brown label features a sly fox front and center after he's made a smooth deal at the local trading post. Because when there's no money on the table, Barterhouse Whiskey turns give and take into an adventure in provocation and persuasion.
Based in a beautiful nautical blue, the Old Blowhard Whiskey label features a powerful whale exhaling through its blowhole before launching into another opinionated debate. Powerful fonts rooted in swagger proclaim the spirit's impressive age statement and status as a Kentucky Bourbon.
The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Company is headquartered in Tullahoma, Tenn. where the whiskies are bottled and owned and operated by DIAGEO, the world's leading premium drinks company. DIAGEO continues to invest in the growing whiskey and bourbon categories via the Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling company and its existing line of whiskies including Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal Canadian Whisky, Bulleit Bourbon, George Dickel Tennessee Whiskey, Bushmills and more.
Orphan Barrel whiskies have been waiting years to be uncovered so DIAGEO and the rickhouse workers who guard these rare spirits remind consumers lucky enough to get their hands on a bottle to sip slowly and responsibly.
About The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Project
The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Company is an endeavor to rescue long forgotten barrels of rare and delicious whiskey and share them with others. We are inspired by creativity, delicious whiskey, good times and great stories. The project is owned and run by DIAGEO. The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Company is headquartered in Tullahoma, Tenn. However, we like to think the project is founded in dark, quiet corners of rickhouses around the world where artisanal whiskies were forgotten, just waiting to be discovered.
Currently, The Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Company has released two variants – Barterhouse Whiskey and Old Blowhard Whiskey. As new and interesting whiskies are discovered, they will be added to the family to provide adult consumers a great selection of rare whiskies.
DIAGEO is the world's leading premium drinks business with an outstanding collection of beverage alcohol brands across spirits, beer and wine. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, JεB, Windsor, Buchanan's and Bushmills whiskies, Smirnoff, Ciroc and Ketel One vodkas, Baileys, Captain Morgan, Tanqueray and Guinness.
DIAGEO is a global company, with its products sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the New York Stock Exchange (DEO) and the London Stock Exchange (DGE). For more information about DIAGEO, its people, brands, and performance, visit us at www.diageo.com. For our global resource that promotes responsible drinking through the sharing of best practice tools, information and initiatives, visit DRINKiQ.com.
Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.
Zack Nobinger, Taylor Strategy
Mike DaRe, DIAGEO
More and more brands have jumped on the IoT bandwagon. We have an excess of wearables – activity trackers, smartwatches, smart glasses and sneakers, and more that track seemingly endless datapoints. However, most consumers have no idea what “IoT” means. Creating more wearables that track data shouldn't be the aim of brands; delivering meaningful, tangible relevance to their users should be. We're in a period in which the IoT pendulum is still swinging. Initially, it swung toward "smart for smar...
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Regulatory requirements exist to promote the controlled sharing of information, while protecting the privacy and/or security of the information. Regulations for each type of information have their own set of rules, policies, and guidelines. Cloud Service Providers (CSP) are faced with increasing demand for services at decreasing prices. Demonstrating and maintaining compliance with regulations is a nontrivial task and doing so against numerous sets of regulatory requirements can be daunting task...
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Get deep visibility into the performance of your databases and expert advice for performance optimization and tuning. You can't get application performance without database performance. Give everyone on the team a comprehensive view of how every aspect of the system affects performance across SQL database operations, host server and OS, virtualization resources and storage I/O. Quickly find bottlenecks and troubleshoot complex problems.
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Without a clear strategy for cost control and an architecture designed with cloud services in mind, costs and operational performance can quickly get out of control. To avoid multiple architectural redesigns requires extensive thought and planning. Boundary (now part of BMC) launched a new public-facing multi-tenant high resolution monitoring service on Amazon AWS two years ago, facing challenges and learning best practices in the early days of the new service. In his session at 19th Cloud Exp...
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"We build IoT infrastructure products - when you have to integrate different devices, different systems and cloud you have to build an application to do that but we eliminate the need to build an application. Our products can integrate any device, any system, any cloud regardless of protocol," explained Peter Jung, Chief Product Officer at Pulzze Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
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The cloud promises new levels of agility and cost-savings for Big Data, data warehousing and analytics. But it’s challenging to understand all the options – from IaaS and PaaS to newer services like HaaS (Hadoop as a Service) and BDaaS (Big Data as a Service). In her session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Hannah Smalltree, a director at Cazena, provided an educational overview of emerging “as-a-service” options for Big Data in the cloud. This is critical background for IT and data professionals...
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Internet of @ThingsExpo has announced today that Chris Matthieu has been named tech chair of Internet of @ThingsExpo 2017 New York The 7th Internet of @ThingsExpo will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, New York. Chris Matthieu is the co-founder and CTO of Octoblu, a revolutionary real-time IoT platform recently acquired by Citrix. Octoblu connects things, systems, people and clouds to a global mesh network allowing users to automate and control design flo...
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You are moving to the Cloud. The question is not if, it’s when. Now that your competitors are in the cloud and lapping you, your “when” better hurry up and get here. But saying and doing are two different things. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 18th Cloud Expo, Robert Reeves, CTO of Datical, explained how DevOps can be your onramp to the cloud. By adopting simple, platform independent DevOps strategies, you can accelerate your move to the cloud. Spoiler Alert: He also makes sure you don’t...
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President Obama recently announced the launch of a new national awareness campaign to "encourage more Americans to move beyond passwords – adding an extra layer of security like a fingerprint or codes sent to your cellphone." The shift from single passwords to multi-factor authentication couldn’t be timelier or more strategic. This session will focus on why passwords alone are no longer effective, and why the time to act is now. In his session at 19th Cloud Expo, Chris Webber, security strateg...
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"We are an all-flash array storage provider but our focus has been on VM-aware storage specifically for virtualized applications," stated Dhiraj Sehgal of Tintri in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
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The WebRTC Summit New York, to be held June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, announces that its Call for Papers is now open. Topics include all aspects of improving IT delivery by eliminating waste through automated business models leveraging cloud technologies. WebRTC Summit is co-located with 20th International Cloud Expo and @ThingsExpo. WebRTC is the future of browser-to-browser communications, and continues to make inroads into the traditional, difficult, plug-in web co...
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Redis is not only the fastest database, but it has become the most popular among the new wave of applications running in containers. Redis speeds up just about every data interaction between your users or operational systems. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Dave Nielsen, Developer Relations at Redis Labs, shared the functions and data structures used to solve everyday use cases that are driving Redis' popularity.
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Enterprise IT has been in the era of Hybrid Cloud for some time now. But it seems most conversations about Hybrid are focused on integrating AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google ECM into existing on-premises systems. Where is all the Private Cloud? What do technology providers need to do to make their offerings more compelling? How should enterprise IT executives and buyers define their focus, needs, and roadmap, and communicate that clearly to the providers?
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Amazon has gradually rolled out parts of its IoT offerings, but these are just the tip of the iceberg. In addition to optimizing their backend AWS offerings, Amazon is laying the ground work to be a major force in IoT - especially in the connected home and office. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Chris Kocher, founder and managing director of Grey Heron, explained how Amazon is extending its reach to become a major force in IoT by building on its dominant cloud IoT platform, its Dash Button strat...
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"We are a custom software development, engineering firm. We specialize in cloud applications from helping customers that have on-premise applications migrating to the cloud, to helping customers design brand new apps in the cloud. And we specialize in mobile apps," explained Peter Di Stefano, Vice President of Marketing at Impiger Technologies, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at 19th Cloud Expo, held November 1-3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
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Keep up to date with the latest news from all areas of the Collectors Club of Great Britain here, whether it's the latest new stamps, collecting event & auction news, rare book discoveries or new diecast model releases we've got it covered.
The heroic nurse Edith Cavell, who helped more than 200 Allied soldiers escape from German-held territories in the First World War, is to be honoured by The Royal Mint.
The Post Office of Gibraltar has made history with the first ever postage stamp to feature the words 'Queen of Gibraltar'.
The much anticipated announcement of the new releases in Corgi's Vanguards range for July to December 2015 catalogue.
The June 2015 issue comes to you with 12 assorted projects for all skill levels plus 10 collection and review articles for just £4.25
The recently discovered ‘Lady Cotswold’ sheets of nineteen, ten and six Chinese Imperial Dragons stamps, which were snapped up at a provincial auction by a UK stamp dealer for £79,000 as reported in the April issue of Stamp & Coin Mart, have now been sold again across three lots in Hong Kong for more than £603,000.
The Royal Mint is to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo with precious metal editions of the Battle of Waterloo 2015 UK £5 coin.
A guide to identify Matchbox models, plus some rare variations worth thousands.
See what Dinky diecast is potentially worth up to £20,000!
Highlighting some of the most sought after Corgi Toys, plus a history of the company.


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The FIDO Alliance published its second annual Online Authentication Barometer, which gathers insights into the state of online authentication in 10 countries across the globe. New to the Barometer this year, the Alliance has begun tracking authentication in the metaverse.
MORE FIDO in the News
Intelligent CISO: Passing on passwords in 2023 (finally)
Passwords are often an organisation’s weakest link. On World Password...


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Why electric cars could be a worthwhile investment
After a summer so scorching that even the most stubborn of climate change-deniers will be left scratching their heads, it’s clear that the planet needs saving. Temperatures are unquestionably on the rise and it seems there will be no respite, with the sun set to burn unsuspecting Brits at an unparalleled level. Surely then, it’s time for an actionable and sustainable change. Cue the zenith of the electric car.
Though electric and hybrid car owners are far from a majority, they are the start of an eco-friendly elite. The time has come where switching from gas-guzzlers is easier than ever, and more and more people are waking up to the advantages of swapping their insatiable petrol tanks for clean rechargeable batteries. Aside from the obvious emissions advantages, the cars are quieter and far cheaper to maintain. In addition, as they contain far fewer moving elements, it’s far easier to find the parts you want online, and you can do it on websites such as www.bestpartstore.co.uk.
Car manufacturers are investing more money into a fuel-free future and from sports to luxury brands, the performance of electric cars is continually evolving, with more models on offer, shorter charging times and longer ranges. So when your car conks out, going electric could be the best way to save money, time, and the planet to boot.
The editorial unit


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Sales growth of EVs dimmed across major EU markets in H1 2018
According to a Tuesday disclosure by EY consultancy, the growth of sales of electric-vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid car across the major European Union (EU) markets recorded a year-on-year drop in the first half of 2018.
As per EY, the main reasons for the decline in EV and plug-in hybrid sales growth in EU’s leading markets were the battery limits of these vehicles and an inadequate charging infrastructure.
Going by the figures disclosed by EY, registrations of EVs in the EU recorded an increase of 33 percent during the January-June 2018 period. In comparison, the increase in EV registrations recorded in the EU during the same six-month period in 2017 was 54 percent.
In reporting the dimmed EV sales growth in the EU during January-June 2018, EY has also pointed out that even though the EV demand was quite strong the EU’s biggest auto market Germany, it could not counterbalance the meek demand in the UK, which is the EU’s second-biggest auto market.
Against the backdrop of the EY report, the consultancy’s partner Peter Fuss said in a statement that EVs are “a niche product” as of now, and added: “Charging infrastructure remains inadequate and the models currently available mostly don’t offer a good enough range.”
In a move which marks a notable attempt by Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council to promote the use of electric vehicles (EVs), a pilot project has been initiated by the council for using street lamps as EV charge points.
Close on the heels of its recent announcement of a $500 million funding round, electric-car startup BYTON has now unveiled an all-electric and autonomous sedan concept which is called the ‘BYTON K-Byte Concept.’
Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has strong fan following in India but Tesla Motors hasn’t made an official entry to Indian automobile sector.
Electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors has recently released a new image of its forthcoming Model Y all-electric compact SUV. The image, in the form of a design sketch, was released by the automaker at its shareholder meeting held recently.
In a recent press release, Australia-based integrated lithium miner and refiner Kidman Resources Limited has announced an offtake agreement which the company has signed with US-based electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer Tesla Motors.
In Berlin this week, German automaker Audi shared some notable details about the 1,576-pound, 95-kWh lithium-ion battery pack of the company’s forthcoming 2019 e-tron battery-electric SUV.


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Sometimes, it sucks to be right.
Early last October, award-winning baker Michelle Gayer of the Salty Tart left Midtown Global Market, where she'd been located for more than a decade. A move within the market led people to think she'd already left, and sales dropped way down.
But her new location in south Minneapolis wasn't super easy to find, either. In mid-November, we urged folks to seek it out, cautioning that the tough-to-find building on Harriet Avenue and Lake Street might "trick people into thinking Gayer's left south Minneapolis for good," and adding, "We're worried if that happens... she actually might."
As of Tuesday, she has. She announced the closure and closed the shop the same day.
“It’s a lot of things,” Gayer told the Star Tribune. “I need a break. I’m exhausted. It’s too much responsibility for one girl, and I want to spend more time with my kids.”
She also said she tried to grow too quickly.
What does this mean for the rest of Salty Tart operations? Well, Gayer is cutting off wholesale accounts, and isn't sure what'll happen with her MSP Airport outpost. The bakery's St. Paul cafe, a more robust, sit-down operation in Lowertown's Market House Collaborative, is staying open.


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Australian Digital Health Agency chief suddenly quits
Dan Murphy's looks to Netflix, Spotify for algorithm advice
Trade war goes digital: countries eye tariffs on Internet economy
Govts agree on national API standards
Macquarie Uni races tech giants to build AI medical scribe
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FBI opens investigation into US taxpayer data theft
As many as 15,000 fake tax returns lodged using IDs.
May 29 2015 11:20AM
FBI offers $3.8m reward for GameOver Zeus mastermind
Largest ever bounty for alleged cyber criminal.
Feb 25 2015 11:17AM
FBI ups the ante to recruit “a lot” of cyber-agents
Ethical hackers invited to apply.
Dec 30 2014 5:30PM
Photos: Meet the FBI's most wanted cyber suspects
Alleged Zeus, cyber espionage operators among targets.
Dec 12 2014 12:13PM
US launches cybercrime unit in reaction to spying concerns
New division will work with private sector to strengthen security.
Dec 8 2014 10:35AM
Australian Govt to rethink cyber security strategy
Six-year old policy to be refreshed.
Nov 27 2014 11:40AM
Why the G20 Summit won't be hacked
[Opinion] Global meeting is about as hackable as a dinner party.
Nov 11 2014 5:10PM
Staples investigates suspected credit card breach
North-east US outlets look to be affected.
Oct 22 2014 6:25AM
FBI seeks out victims of recent industrial espionage hack
Detects suspected Chinese cyber intrusion.
Oct 16 2014 9:44AM
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Sydney man charged over $139,000 theft.
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True extent of data breach finally made public.
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Singapore facility to host 200 staff.
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Two plead guilty to theft of Xbox source code, US Army software.
Oct 1 2014 2:20PM
European banks put cyber crime under the lens
Pin hopes on improved cooperation with law enforcement.
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Australia to assist in co-ordinating investigations.
Jul 25 2014 10:22AM
eBay-owned website defrauded of US$1m in cyber-heist
Six charged in New York.
Jul 24 2014 11:24AM
US arrests Russian politician's son over hacking theft
Russia cries kidnap.
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AFP investigations 'pointless' without metadata.
May 6 2014 6:02AM
Strategies for cyber security
Trust and transparency remains critical to incentives.
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AG says privacy safe under cyber crime laws
Never mind the critics, privacy is safe in the hands of the cyber crime convention, writes Attorney-General Robert McClelland.
Aug 30 2011 2:31PM
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The D&H 2019 Tech Conference: West Coast Edition is set to kick off on March 28 in City of Industry, California. This one-day event will feature a new keynote presentation, ProAV displays, cloud solutions, and 60+ manufacturer partners.
D&H recently announced a major expansion of its ProAV offerings, including the establishment of a dedicated ProAV team of professionals, new services, and a new hire.
The distributor expands its connected office lineup
At the D&H 2018 Technology Conference: Mid-Atlantic Fall show, Co-President Dan Schwab sat down with Dealerscope to reflect on the distributor's 100-year celebration, and to look ahead at the next 100 years.
With its Mid-Atlantic Fall Show scheduled for this week, D&H created some excitement a few days early by announcing the addition of the AirSelfie2 to its product lineup.
Consumer electronics distributor D&H Distributing announced that its final technology conference of the year will take place on October 25 at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center.
D&H celebrates 100 years at its Summer show
One of the earliest supporters of smart home and DIY devices, D&H continues to build its offering, providing a top-flight pPortfolio to retailers and dealers.
As D&H’s schedule transitions from a sales focus to an educational focus, this first conference of 2018 delivers customer engagement and a new format.


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Global investment firm KKR (KKR) agreed to buy Envision Healthcare Corp (EVHC) in an all-cash transaction of $9.9 billion. The is expected to close by the fourth quarter of 2018, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. According to data by Nasdaq, 9 out of 11 analysts covering the EVHC stock recommends ‘Strong Buy.’
Envision had on November 1, 2017, announced that it was looking at “strategic alternatives to enhance shareholder value.” According to the company, the Board spent the last seven months exploring many options to achieve this, including potential acquisitions, capital structure alternatives, portfolio optimization, continued operation as a standalone business, and finally, a potential sale of the whole company. Discussions with 25 potential buyers finally ended up in the KKR deal.
The all-cash deal of $46 per share represents a 32% premium to Envision’s volume-weighted average share price (VWAP) as on November 1, 2017. KKR shares are currently trading up 0.8% at $23.17, while EVHC is up 2.66% to $44.80.
In November, when the company said it was looking for strategic alternatives, the shares tanked to close at $28.03 on the first day of the month. From there, Envision has seen just small bouts of ups and down till last weekend.
With a strong roster of analysts backing the stock, marking it bullish, we can expect the price to go up further closing in on the deal value. Even though this is not much from the $60-mark it hit around this time last year, this upbeat trading is helping shareholders get back some value from the investment. Let’s hope KKR turns this arm around and gets Envision to deliver after the deal goes through later this fiscal year.
Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) reported third quarter 2021 earnings results today. Total revenues fell 25% year-over-year to CAD55.1 million. Adjusted EBITDA loss amounted to CAD24 million. Cash balance as
Media behemoth The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) reported second-quarter revenues that declined from last year as customers stayed away from theatres and parks due to pandemic-related safety issues and
Shares of Tattooed Chef Inc. (NASDAQ: TTCF) have gained 57% over the past 12 months but has dropped 25% since the start of this year. The sentiment on the stock


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Findings in a new report released by Verto Analytics: 222 million U.S. Facebook users tend to spend 14 hours per month in the company’s app. (That’s 335,000 years worth of time, by the way.) Google reaches 228 million U.S. users, but they spend a little less than four hours a month using the company’s services. Add in the company’s video giant YouTube, which captures about five hours of its users’ attention monthly, and Google still only has a little less than nine — five hours less. Which means in a user-and-time chart, Facebook is all by itself. This matters mostly because in a world of free services in which we — the great device-using unwashed — are the product, and ad dollars drive innovation and competition, reach times engagement equals revenue. In short: Attention winners become financial winners.
- The Day Apple Shipped A Revolution via @forbes forbes.com/sites/gilpress… #Apple #iPhone #digitization gPressed 17 hours ago
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New Delhi: Drug firm Dr Reddy’s Laboratories today announced the launch of Finrid, a drug used in the treatment of chronic pain, in India.
“Being a controlled substance, Finrid will be sold through an independent distribution structure and will be available across hospitals and palliative care centres in India,” Dr Reddy’s said in a statement.
Controlled substances are produced using narcotic substances and are sold through special channels.
The product is licensed from Sparsha pharma and is the first opiod (derived from Opium) transdermal patch to be developed in India, it added.
Finrid is available in transdermal patch form, which means it is administered through skin in patients suffering from chronic pain because of diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other problems.
The drug is administered through an adhesive patch that is placed on the skin to deliver a specific amount of drug into the blood stream.


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A bill tabled by some senators in the U.S. would require satellite radio companies to compensate the music industry for downloads, according to industry and congressional sources.
The legislation is aimed at compensating copyright holders as satellite radio services become distribution services.
The "Perform Act," or the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006," would require satellite, cable and internet broadcasters to pay fair market value for the performance of digital music.
Additionally, the bill would require the use of readily available and cost-effective technological means to prevent music theft. It was tabled by U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and majority leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. and a hearing on the issue is scheduled for today.
"I believe that the Perform Act would help strike a balance between fostering the development of new technologies and ensuring that songwriters and performers continue to be fairly compensated for their works," Feinstein said.
Record industry executives argue that the new devices like U.S. largest satellite radio, XM Radio for instance, allow customers to save songs on the receivers without paying for the download rip off the copyright holder.
Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. supported the legislation. The bill protects copyright holders by ensuring that "the same rules apply to all of the satellite, cable and Internet services, which avail themselves of a compulsory license under" the nation's copyright laws, Bronfman said.
Sirius Satellite Radio has reached deals with the major record companies that compensate them for downloads on its S-50 receiver that allows customers to record content, but XM Radio has not. A pair of devices, the Pioneer Inno and Samsung NeXus, allows customers to record programming.
XM executives contend that the devices are nothing more than a high-tech way to record radio programming, which is protected. XM Chairman Gary Parsons' said that the draft law will "lead to a new tax being imposed on our subscribers."
The company already pays millions in copyright royalties to the record companies, and said their push for a new royalty is a negotiating tactic designed to push those rates higher. The copyright office is currently reviewing those rates.
"The reason the recording industry is now insisting on a different standard has nothing to do with fairness," Parsons said. "XM and the record industry are in the middle of renegotiating their performance license. By changing the standard now, the recording industry hopes to stack the deck in its favor."


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UPS Laying Off Thousands of Employees, What Does It Mean for 21,000 Workers in Pennsylvania?
One of the largest employers in the state of Pennsylvania just announced plans to lay off employees, and it could affect a lot of the state’s working class.
Could you or your loved ones be affected?
UPS Announces Plans to Lay Off 12,000 Employees Nationwide
Before we look at the effect of UPS workers on Pennsylvania, let’s dig into this:
Shipping giant UPS just announced that they plan to lay off as many as 12,000 employees nationwide.
They cited a decline in volume, revenue, and operating profits across the company. The news was shared on a company earnings call on Tuesday (January 30).
Labor issues played a role in the loss of business in the second half of 2023.
“Some of this performance was due to the macro environment and some due to disruptions associated with our labor contract negotiations as well as higher costs associated with the new contract,” UPS CEO Carol Tome said.
Last summer the company negotiated contracts with unions. As those negotiations dragged on, customers shifted shipments to other carriers like FedEx. UPS has only won back about 60% of that lost business, CNN reports.
Which Employees Is UPS Most Likely to Lay Off?
This round of layoffs will mostly affect managers and contractor positions, CNN reports.
It's reported that UPS has about 85,000 managers in a global staff of nearly 500,000 union employees.
How Many Pennsylvanians Will UPS Lay Off?
The company has a substantial footprint in the state of Pennsylvania. A UPS facility in Dauphin County is actually the company's fourth largest in the entire country.
As of 2020, it was estimated that "more than 21,000 UPS employees" bring UPS services to Pennsylvania, the company said in a press release.
It was not immediately unclear how many Pennsylvanians will be affected by the layoffs that UPS has planned in 2024.
LOOK: Highest-paying jobs in Philadelphia that don't require a college degree
Gallery Credit: Stacker


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|The ministry urges seafood producers to tighten control over usage of medicine in aquaculture.|
The Ministry of Fisheries will impose a compulsory period for seafood producers to apply food safety and hygiene regulations.
Only businesses, which abide by food safety and hygiene standards set by the Fisheries Ministry in line with the obligatory period, will be allowed to process seafood for exports.
Furthermore, the Fisheries Ministry will check, supplement and adjust related regulations targeting seafood processing and export establishments, and keep fishing ports under regular control in a bid to prevent contamination of chemicals and antibiotics in raw and semi-processed materials.
The ministry has also urged local seafood producers to tighten control over usage of medicine in aquaculture, particularly in shrimp nursing, and provide fishermen with basic information about banned medicine and chemicals.


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When I was at InfoComm last week, I made a point of stopping by the PPDS exhibit to see the company’s latest pots and pans, but also get my head straight on a very involved announcement about the U.S. business.
I was told by a contact there that explaining the set-up of PPDS in the US and globally has long been one of those things where the person asking is encouraged to have a seat, because the story gets long and complicated. I did have a seat and it was, indeed, a tale with numerous turns.
PPDS is the pro display division of the Taiwanese firm TPV. The Dutch consumer goods company Philips had divested the commercial display business in 2008 – with separate owners in Europe and Asia taking than the U.S., where Philips was under Funai and later Envision Peripherals.
So the U.S. business operated differently from the rest of PPDS in marketing Philips displays – because of the legacy deals and ownership. But now the U.S. business is aligned with the global business and the U.S. folks report up to global execs.
The U.S. business has become, says the PR, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the TPV Group, “as the company enters a new, accelerated hypergrowth phase in North America.”
This highly strategic development fully aligns the business with PPDS’ wider global operations, unlocking immeasurable benefits and opportunities for its partners and customers. This includes adding more choice and value to the market, while offering unrivalled partner support, facilitating projects on both a local and global scale across industries including Corporate, Education, Healthcare, Hospitality, Retail and Transportation.
Operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of TPV, the world’s largest manufacturer of LCD displays, the transfer of activities from EPI (effective from May 1), means PPDS US will now utilize the full manufacturing strengths and resources enjoyed by teams across PPDS’ other international markets, including priority access to core components and materials for manufacturing continuity, and end-to-end supply chain systems enabling full control and monitoring of logistics streams.
With this latest development in its global growth program, PPDS has set an ambitious target to achieve a top three market position in North America, cementing its position as one of the world’s fastest growing enablers of professional display solutions.
Franck Racapé, Head of Global Commercial at PPDS commented: “As part of the company’s long-term plan to exponentially expand Philips professional display sales on a global level, our growth in the North American market is a milestone in our success. Our current business dynamic in North America is very promising and we look forward to further accelerating the trend, offering total display solutions for customers in all sectors, and positioning Philips professional displays as we believe they should be.”
In preparation for this latest evolution of the US business, PPDS has made a number of significant structural changes over the past 12 months. These include a major company rebrand in February (2021), switching to PPDS – previously Philips Professional Display Solutions. More than just a new name, PPDS represents the transition of the business from a provider of displays to a total solutions enabler, forming strategic complimentary relationships with key third party partners, both locally and globally, including AppSpace, Crestron, D-Tools, Logitech, Intel, Navori, and Skykit, to name just a few, adding more solutions, choice and value to the channel and the wider market.
The U.S. business is now run by display industry vet Vince Schuster, who was appointed in last fall as the VP Professional Displays.
PPDS/Philips was a bit player in the U.S. pro display market for a buncha years, but has been really coming on lately – maybe not worrying Samsung and LG just yet, but certainly competing with Sony and Sharp/NEC, and likely getting ahead of Panasonic. The latter’s focus at InfoComm last week seemed more on technology like projection.