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Livestation already delivers high quality live TV streaming services on iPhone for world class news partners such as BBC World News and Al Jazeera. weComm’s wave On-Demand Mobile Application Platform™, will enable Livestation to deliver live broadcasts from Livestation’s global news TV partners to all leading mobile operating systems. Live TV content will be available for a monthly subscription and the service will provide access to other news formats from the same providers. The companies will distribute the service in a number of easy-to-subscribe methods including through the major mobile handset-manufacturers’ application stores.
weComm’s wave platform uses a client-server infrastructure to deliver high-quality, interactive mobile data services optimized to all major mobile operating systems. The technology delivers content and applications to handsets on-demand, giving the richness and interactivity of an on-device application combined with the flexibility and freshness of an online service.
Matteo Berlucchi, Livestation CEO, said of the partnership: “Time to market is key for us. By partnering with weComm we can now deliver a high-quality, live TV experience very quickly to the market across the broadest possible range of smartphone devices.”
weComm CEO Graham Summers: “Livestation has an extremely well targeted proposition which has clearly excited the world’s leading news channels. weComm is delighted to have been chosen as the mobile partner to help Livestation exploit their fantastic service on a wider range of platforms.”


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Stockholm, February 23, 2021 - Internet Vikings, a European global cloud hosting provider from Europe, has announced the launch of a cloud hosting platform in Singapore.
SoftSwiss Game Aggregator statistics further highlight that cryptocurrency is currently actively used by the whole world, with increasing interest in Canada, Russia, and Latin America.
Finnplay, the Finnish based Gaming platform provider announced it signed a deal to integrate BetConstruct’s latest sportsbook technology.
Fraud & Security Team at EPN has successfully shut down an isolated incidence of collusion between four Network player account holders.
Next Gaming announces the launch of its new MMA game King of the Cage, which can be seen at Exhibit Booth 1935 at the G2E.
COLOSSUS BETS announced that the last surviving player in the weekend’s £1,000,000 HDA15 Football Jackpot has been offered £324,477.
Geonomics, has launched its flagship game GeoLotto.com to the UK market. Designed to revolutionise lotto gaming.
ONE FC, has added four bouts to the ONE FC: BATTLE OF LIONS card set to take place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on 7 November.
We listed eight must-hear speakers and the subjects they will discuss at SiGMA that will be on offer from October 31st till November 2nd.
Flash Bitch, the UK’s leading celebrity and novelty betting blog, have chosen Coral in an exclusive partnership.

domain: news


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USDA Seeks Comments on National Bioengineered Food Disclosure Standard
On May 4, 2018 the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) proposed a rule to establish a national mandatory bioengineered (BE) food disclosure standard. The proposed rule would require food manufacturers and all other entities that label foods for retail sale to disclose information about BE food and ingredient content. The rule provides a uniform standard for disclosure. The Agency states that the proposed rule will have a significant economic impact on a substantial number of small entities and is seeking public comments. In addition, AMS will conduct a public webinar on the rulemaking. Further information on the webinar will be provided at a later date. Written comments are due by July 3, 2018.


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- Top 5 Bollywood heroines of 2015Brazilian brunette spotted getting cozySee the wedding card invitations of the top Bollywood starsKapil taking break from 'Comedy Nights...'Salman Khan has fun on sets of Comedy Nights with KapilSunny Leone breaks silence over war of wordsRannvijay Singh praised co-host Sunny LeoneOMG! Leonardo di Caprio is Kareena Kapoor\'s dog!Karan Johar\'s most controversial statement everAmitabh Bachchan reaches 15 million fan following on Twitter
Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova breezed through at a sweltering Wimbledon on Wednesday
RBI launches website to explain detection of fake currency Last Updated : 08 Jul 2012 11:10:38 AM IST www.paisaboltahai.rbi.org.in -- gives visual presentation with pointers on currency notes
Seeking to spread awareness among public about fake notes, the Reserve Bank has launched a website explaining ways to detect counterfeit notes.
With a tagline 'Pehchano Paise Ki Boli, Kyunki Paisa Bolta Hai', the website -- www.paisaboltahai.rbi.org.in -- gives visual presentation with pointers on currency notes of 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 rupee denominations.
Consumers have the option to download posters of these currency notes, which can be used as reference to identify counterfeit notes. A documentary film on it can also be downloaded.
The link for this website is available on RBI's main website as well.
The site also gives details of the number of fake currency notes detected.
RBI said considering there were 64,577 million pieces of banknotes in circulation as on March 31, 2011, the detection of forged notes during 2010-11 was to the tune of 6.74 pieces per million pieces of banknotes in circulation.
In the past as well, the Reserve Bank has come out with various notifications warning against circulation of counterfeit currency notes.
Referring to the fake currency notes in circulation, RBI Governor D Subbarao said in Kozhikode on Friday that the government and police are taking several measures to deal with the menace.
He emphasised the need to educate people on ways to distinguish fake currency notes from the genuine ones.
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Here is the list of the most successful Bollywood heroines of 2015.
- 'Masaan' opens sixth Jagran Film Festival
- Brazilian brunette spotted getting cozy
- See the wedding card invitations of the top Bollywood stars
- Kapil taking break from 'Comedy Nights...'
- Salman Khan has fun on sets of Comedy Nights with Kapil
- Sunny Leone breaks silence over war of words
- Rannvijay Singh praised co-host Sunny Leone
- I don't want to be defined by my sexuality: Amber Heard
The state's Technical Education and Training Minister Ujjal Biswas said that the student s
Xiaomi the smartphone giant which offers great features at less prices has yet made anothe


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A £1 million new Home Bargains store with its own garden centre opens in Tamworth tomorrow - and we can treat you to an exclusive first look inside. Home Bargains and Garden World is officially opening at 8am on Saturday, March 26.
BirminghamLive was this afternoon, Friday, March 25, treated to a guided tour of the 33 aisles and outdoor garden centre.
Creating 116 new jobs, the store will employ 120 staff, with some staff and management transferring from other local stores.
Jack Donohoe, the new store manager, told us: “The excitement is unreal. We are getting hundreds of people trying to get in already! The Lord Mayor is opening us up on Saturday now and we cannot wait!
"It’s going to be a Home Bargains flagship superstore. Along with all the usual Home Bargains razzmatazz, It’s going to include a full garden centre, selling plants, garden furniture, decking; you name it we’ll have it.
"It’s going to have a bakery with freshly-cooked breads, cakes and pastries cooked on site throughout the day, also full frozen and chilled aisles compared to the usual small selection we have in most stores. This will all be spread across a whopping 33 aisles and that’s not including the outside garden centre!
"There’s nothing quite like the buzz of opening a new store. A lot of hard work and dedication has gone into the new site, and I can’t wait to open its doors this weekend alongside such a fantastic team. I am exceptionally proud of everyone.
“I recently joined Home Bargains, just in January this year, after previously working as a manager for Iceland. I’m delighted to be part of this new team.”
The new Tamworth store will join over 575 outlets across the UK. The 37,000 sq. ft store will offer shoppers a range of products, including homewares, health and beauty essentials, sweets, snacks and drinks, as well as fresh and frozen food. The store will also feature its own garden centre and a fresh bakery.
Some of the aisles include seasonal, living, kitchen, pet care, hardware, chilled, frozen and poultry.
It will also be donating £2,000 to local charity, Simon’s Heroes, which aims to improve the quality of life and make a positive difference to local children in need.
Justin Haywood, chairman of the charity, said: “We are thrilled to have been nominated by employees at Home Bargains to receive this generous donation.
"The money will go a long way in helping us make a difference to the lives of local children with life-limiting illnesses.”
Shoppers spoke of their excitement at the new store.
Janet Herbert said: "I cannot wait! I will be there first thing in the queue, I have been looking forward to it ever since I first saw it advertised. This weekend is going to be lovely so I am expecting it to be busy. I have already made my list!"
Barbara Evans said: "It is great to have even more option in Ventura Park now. With things like Mother's Day on the horizon it is always good to have this, M and S, all the supermarkets et cetera."
The move completes the facelift of the former John Lewis. Costa Coffee drive thru opened last Friday while Aldi opened earlier in the year.
Sign up for TamworthLive newsletter here and get all the day's biggest stories to your inbox.


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CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Nevada officials worried about a state
revenue shortfall that could hit $800 million by mid-2009 got more bad economic news on Friday - reports showing a continuing slump in
sales and higher-than-average unemployment.
The state's merchants reported January sales of $3.52 billion, down 4.9 percent from the same month a year earlier. The statewide jobless rate held steady at 5.5 percent in February, compared with a national rate of 4.8 percent.
The state Taxation Department said sales were down in January in
10 of Nevada's 17 counties. That included its largest, Clark,
encompassing Las Vegas, and Washoe, which takes in Reno.
The new report shows the state's cut of sales taxes is now $61 million, or 5.7 percent, below forecasts for the current fiscal year. It follows a recent Gaming Control Board report that the state's taxes on casino winnings are $48.2 million, or 8.5 percent, below forecasts for the same period.
Taxes on the casinos and on sales are the two largest revenue
sources for state government. The slump in those revenues has been
a key part of the analysis leading to the overall state revenue shortfall that Gov. Jim Gibbons plans to talk about on Monday.
Gibbons already has ordered 4.5 percent budget cuts for most state agencies, and the growing revenue shortfall projection is likely to force him to order more cuts. He's opposed to calling a special legislative session to consider new or higher taxes to generate more revenue.
"The January economic numbers show that Nevada's economy is
experiencing many of the same challenges that are being seen in many other states," Gibbons stated Friday. "Clearly the drop in consumer spending is having an adverse effect as well as the nationwide housing problem, which is particularly acute in Nevada."
A breakdown of the sales for January shows that Clark County, with $2.67 billion of the sales, was down 4.2 percent while Washoe, with $472,787 of the sales, was down 7.2 percent.
The Taxation Department report shows that the single biggest category, restaurant-bar sales, was down 3.2 percent at $578.7 million statewide. Such sales are indicators of tourist traffic in this tourist-dependent state.
Automobile and auto parts sales totaled $404.9 million, down 11.5 percent. General merchandise sales of $545.9 million were down 3 percent; while clothing sales, totaling $418.2 million, were up 9.6 percent.
The Taxation Department report also shows various excise taxes
amounted to $14.5 million in January. That's a decrease of 7.3 percent.
The February unemployment report from the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation shows, besides the seasonally adjusted 5.5 percent jobless rate, that about 78,800 Nevadans were out of work during the month while nearly 1.3 million people held jobs.
Bill Anderson, chief economist for the agency, described the state's economic outlook as "challenging in the near term." Anderson added that with most of the new Las Vegas megaresort construction due for completion in 2009 and later, "the Nevada economy may do well to hold steady in 2008."
For the Las Vegas area, non-seasonally adjusted unemployment
decreased from 5.7 percent to 5.4 percent between January and
February. There were about 930,500 people working in the area and
the jobless total was 53,500.
The Reno area saw non-seasonally adjusted unemployment decrease
from 6.6 percent to 6.3 percent in the same period. Employment totaled 217,800, and about 14,600 people were out of work.
Carson City-area unemployment decreased from 7.5 percent to 6.9
percent between January and February. Employment in the area totaled about 27,100 and unemployment totaled about 2,000.
Unemployment in Elko and Eureka counties decreased from 4.7 percent to 4.4 percent from month to month. There were 26,800 people working in the area during February and about 1,200 without jobs.
A month-to-month breakdown of hiring statewide by specific industries showed 6,200 more workers in government, mainly due to teachers returning from breaks to schools and colleges. Casino-related leisure and hospital hiring held steady.
There was a decrease of 700 retail employees; 900 more workers
in education-health services; and 300 more employees in professional business services.
Transportation-warehousing-utilities was up 100; manufacturing was up 200; information service hiring was up 100; mining held steady; and financial activities hiring was down 300.
On the Internet:
Sales report: http://tax.state.nv.us/press-release.htm
Jobless report: www.detr.state.nv.us
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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Australian consumers should be allowed to use technologies like VPNs and proxies to defeat the efforts of companies like Netflix and HBO that stop them from accessing digital content libraries from other countries. That’s the thrust of a Productivity Commission draft report into overhauling Australia’s existing copyright laws that has just been released.
Netflix image via Shutterstock
One among many of the recommendations in the Productivity Commission report, released overnight, is that the Australian federal government should adopt the Australia Tax inquiry’s recommendation that it be made clear it is not illegal for consumers to circumvent geoblocking.
The Australian Government should make clear that it is not an infringement of Australia’s copyright system for consumers to circumvent geoblocking technology and should seek to avoid international obligations that would preclude such practices.
Geoblocking is specifically targeted, in a recommendation titled “Making it easier for users to access legitimate content” — mentioning movies, TV shows and games. It says the best approach to addressing Australian consumers’ concerns is making access to this copyrighted content both timely and cost-effective, and chief in that is making it easy for Australians to access media from around the world.
Geoblocking restricts a consumer’s access to digital products, enabling rights holders and intermediaries to segment the Internet into different markets and charge different prices (or offer different services) to consumers based on their location.
The use of geoblocking technology is pervasive, and frequently results in Australian consumers being offered a lower level of digital service (such as a more limited music or TV streaming catalogue) at a higher price than in overseas markets. Studies show Australian consumers systematically pay higher prices for professional software, music, games and e-books than consumers in comparable overseas markets. While some digital savvy consumers are able to avoid these costs (such as through the use of proxy servers and virtual private networks), many are relegated to paying inflated prices for lower standard services.
Using Game of Thrones as an example to illustrate the Productivity Commission’s statements, Australians’ only option to legitimately access the show in a timely manner is Foxtel’s minimum $30 per month offer — but US residents can access HBO Now for $US15 per month. “Australians are paying more”, in the blunt words of the report.
Netflix’s US content library is three times the size of Australia’s, with 6000 shows versus the local service’s 2000. Australians can access the streaming service’s international libraries when travelling abroad, withthe US, Canada and Argentina featuring the largest content directories.
The report also suggests that Australia should steer clear of any other countries’ attempts to ban or criminalise geoblocking. Australia holds broad free trade agreements with China, Korea, Japan and the US, which obligates our government to recognise and ratify some laws — especially in the case of copyright and intellectual property.
The Australian Government should seek to avoid any international agreements that would prevent or ban consumers from circumventing geoblocking technology.
The Productivity Commission report also explores and recommends changes to the default term of copyright duration for dramatic, musical and artistic works, The report says that Australia’s copyright law is generally skewed too heavily towards copyright owners’ interests, at the cost of consumers and general users’ interests.


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- Businesses to get much-needed breather as restrictions are lifted
- Revellers to carouse and boogie at nightclubs
Most businesses will get their much-needed breather when most restrictions are lifted at the end of the current State of Public Emergency (SOE) on 30 September 2021.
Presenting his ministry’s SOE exit plan recently, the Minister of Investment, Trade and Industry, Mmusi Kgafela, announced that businesses will return to their normal trading hours. Regulation 19 of the Emergency Powers Act, which governed the SOE that first began on 2nd April 2020, restrictions on business trading hours will be lifted.
The liquor industry, which has been one of the hardest hit by restrictions and bans on the sale of alcohol, is expected to bounce back to life as many of the regulations that were put in place for containment of the coronavirus come to an end with SOE.
The industry was governed by Regulation 21 which forced closure of liquor shops and suspension of liquor licences. Minister Kgafela said nightclubs will also resume their operations “Throughout the SoE, nightclubs/discotheques were not allowed to operate during SoE,” he said.
“As part of its efforts to support these establishments, government took a decision to exempt nightclub/discotheque licence holders from applying for licence renewal, payment of licence fees and penalties for a period of two years effective 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2022. Therefore, as these establishments open for business, they will not be liable to pay any outstanding fees and penalties.”
Various penalties on licences (trade and manufacturing) and permits (imports) which were suspended for the duration of the SoE will be upon exit be given a leeway with all penalties that were accrued during SoE, from April 2020 to 30th September 2021 not being paid and penalties paid during SOE used to offset applicable annual fees.
All import permits which could not be fully utilised due to the SOE will be validated for a period of six months or until exhaustion of the pula value of the items listed in the permit.
Kgafela also touched on rebates and pricing of essential goods, saying businesses that were facilitated to import essential supplies for the fight against COVID-19 through Rebate Item 412.11 under Schedule No. 4 of the Customs Act that makes provision for importation for relief of distress of persons in cases of famine or natural disaster; under any technical assistance agreement or in terms of an obligation under any multilateral international agreement.
“The Rebate Facility covered, among others, medical and pharmaceutical supplies, veterinary medicines and food items,” he said. “The Rebate Facility will continue beyond SoE and will be reviewed as and when necessary.”
On the pricing of goods, which was controlled by Regulation 25 during the SoE, Kgafela said there is a likelihood that the prices of basic goods will increase after SoE. Minister Kgafela said with Botswana being a free economy with no price control, the ministry will continue to carry out certain measures like business monitoring and compliance to ensure that standards for local and imported products for essential and basic goods and services are adhered to and all anti-competitive behavior is reported and investigated.


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Security Shield of Mac, Linux, BSD in Line of Hackers Attack
Eugene Kaspersky, the Russian Co-Founder and Chief of anti-virus Research at computer security firm Kaspersky Labs alerted computer users that threatening malware attacks would shortly burst the security shield of Linux and Macintosh users, as reported TechWorld on October 20, 2008.
Eugene further stated that Linux and Mac consumers would be targeted by cyber criminals and malware writers in the near future. According to him, though Mac and Linux are not as protective as users think and hackers have till date ignored them, but soon they would become insecure.
Moreover, security analysts at Kaspersky Labs alle...
» SPAMfighter News - 31-10-2008
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Android Will Be Fully Integrated Into Cars As Early As 2018
In an effort to make it easier for Android to enter vehicles, major players in the auto and technology industries, including Google, Audi, GM, Honda, Hyndai and NVIDIA, have come together to form the Open Automotive Alliance (OAA). Their goal is to make Android the standard that will form the basis of the connected car and develop new Android features that will help transform the car into an “Android device.”
The flexibility of the Android platform has already seen it under the hood of a number of car infotainment and multimedia systems, such as the Ca-Fi, not to mention the multitude of smartphones and tablets serving as in-car navigation systems. Now, much like the Open Handset Alliance that helped establish Android in the mobile device space, the OAA is aiming to cement Android in car dashboards by making it safer and easier for automakers to integrate the OS (and the hundreds of thousands of apps in Google Play) into their vehicles.
“Millions of people are already familiar with Android and use it everyday,” says Sundar Pichai, SVP of Android, Chrome & Apps at Google. “The expansion of the Android platform into automotive will allow our industry partners to more easily integrate mobile technology into cars and offer drivers a familiar, seamless experience so they can focus on the road.”
But like the mobile device space, Android is going to face stiff competition from iOS, with Apple also teaming up with major automakers in an effort to make its own mobile OS the preferred in-car option. These include Acura, Chevrolet, Ferrari, Jaguar, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Volvo, with Honda and Hyundai hedging their bets with a foot in each camp. Like the first cars with Android integrated into them, such iOS-based systems are set to start appearing in vehicles sometime this year.
The OAA has also sent an open invite for other automotive and technology companies to get on board and says it will work with government agencies to ensure its in-car technology won’t distract drivers.


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MITC dares local firms
Malawi Investment and Trade Centre has challenged the private sector to learn from their counterparts from neighboring Zambia on accessing finance for growing business. In a statement, MITC Chief Executive Officer Paul Kwengwere said local businesses could also use the time in Zambia to explore business opportunities. There are a lot of business…
Malawi Investment and Trade Centre (MITC) has challenged the private sector to learn from their counterparts from neighboring Zambia on accessing finance for growing business.
This follows an invitation for local firms to participate in that country’s business indaba and expo slated for May 27 and 28, 2022 in Lusaka.
In a statement, MITC Chief Executive Officer Paul Kwengwere said local businesses could also use the time in Zambia to explore business opportunities.
“This forum is a perfect opportunity for our business people to interact and network with their counterparts in Zambia. There are a lot of business opportunities that Malawi can take advantage of in Zambia, especially supply of various goods.
“It is also pleasing to note that the indaba is focusing on how businesses can access finance and markets, which is critical to our private sector players,” Kwengwere says in the statement.
He encouraged the business community to attend the meeting to gain knowledge on available market opportunities in Lusaka, which also offers an opportunity to interact with potential financiers.
The Lusaka business indaba will be held under the theme ‘Creating Opportunities to Access Finance and Market Linkages’.
Zambia is one of Malawi’s close trading partners. However, the trade deficit between the countries has been widening each year in favor of the Zambians.
For example, the trade deficit grew from $38.1 million in 2018 to $93.1 million in 2020, according to figures from the International Trade Centre.
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Lei Jun, the founder and CEO of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, has announced on the Facebook that it has sold 26.1 million smartphones in the first half of 2014, 271% increase from its total sales last year.
Last year, The company sold a total of 18.7 million phones and now it is planning to extend the total sales upto 60 million this year. The firm accounted for 11 percent of total smartphone shipments during Q1 2014.
The CEO announced the figures on Xiaomi’s official microblog on Wednesday and expressed his gratitude for the support of Xiaomi fans. The figure has been questioned, however, by international market research institutions due to a common perception that Xiaomi manipulates the presentation of its sales figures to make them look more impressive in its online marketing strategies.
Xiaomi now sells its smartphones in the Philippines, Malaysia and Southeast Asian nations of Singapore, with plans to launch in Indonesian and Thailand. It is expected to launch its smartphone in India, but not right now.
According to market research company International Data Corporation, ‘The company has the sixth largest market share in the country at 6% as of the end of last year.” China Mobile’s Zhejiang branch said Xiaomi has the second largest base of loyal fans in China after Apple.
Also Read: China’s Apple ‘Xiaomi’ comes to India
CNET says: Xiaomi’s growing revenue can be attributed not only to its diversification with new product offerings, but more importantly this year the manufacturer has finally expanded to markets outside of Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan.
However, just how much sales of non-smartphones account for its total revenue hasn’t been publicly revealed.
Want China Times says: Xiaomi has exhibited substantial growth since it was founded in April 2010. The company’s data states that it sold 7.2 million smartphone in 2012, a figure that surged to 18.7 million in 2013 and 26.1 million for the first half of this year.
Geeky Gadgets says: If you take a closer look, the company is marking its footsteps in the emerging markets, with handsets like the Mi3 that offer excellent specifications at a budget-friendly price. With these kind of handsets, the company can make a dent in markets like India, a home to many smartphone manufacturers like Micromax and Lava.
It will be good to see how the company performs in the second half of the year, and the markets it will expand to.
TechinAsia says: Xiaomi’s growing sales are so strong that it’s now counted as a global top 10 phone-maker. Figures from IDC reveal that it’s China’s sixth strongest selling phone brand. But with strongly-specced phones at half the price of flagship devices from the likes of Samsung, it’s slowly climbing up the rankings in China. Samsung and Lenovo remain the top smartphones in China.
To contact the author, email at email@example.com.


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We've seen for ourselves just how fast Intel's new Xeon 5500-series processors are. So, what's AMD planning now? The folks at PC World learned from AMD spokespeople that a "very low-power" version of the firm's 45nm quad-core Opteron will be out "within three months."
PC World writes that future low-power Opteron EE processors will "deliver similar performance while drawing significantly less power than [their] predecessors." For the record, AMD's lowest-power 45nm Opterons available today have 55W ACP ratings, and they run at up to 2.3GHz. Their faster brethren have ACP ratings of 75W or 105W and clock speeds as high as 2.9GHz.
The same article also talks a little bit about Istanbul, the upcoming six-core Opteron design. AMD has reiterated its intention to release Istanbul processors in the second half of this year, and PC World writes that the CPUs will find their way into HP and Dell servers. As we learned last month, AMD aims to deliver six-core Opterons with the same power envelopes as current quad-core models.
|Geil lights up its Evo X ROG-certified RAM||4|
|Google Compute Engine is now powered in part by Pascal||9|
|EVGA slaps 12 GT/s memory on the GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 Elite||14|
|G.Skill unleashes AMD-ready Trident Z RGB kits up to 3200 MT/s||14|
|Asus' ZenFone 4 Pro offers high-end photography and networking||21|
|Radeon 17.9.2 drivers put the pedal to the metal for Project Cars 2||4|
|ROG Strix X299-XE Gaming motherboard is rather groovy||4|
|Miniature Golf Day Shortbread||18|
|GeForce 385.69 drivers are Game Ready for a ton of titles||2|
|That horse is dead Jim. Very dead.||+12|


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Ankh Marketing has done it again! Somewhere along the line, this company have always managed to bring Black Star together to do a show, and they’re doing it again this year. So it looks like after Yasiin Bey leaves Los Angeles he will be meeting up with Talib Kweli for another hiphop classic event! Tickets are available right now for purchase.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that they’re working on another album?


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St. Stephen – Stewart Farms is set to begin construction on a 100,000 square foot vertical aquaponics facility in St. Stephen.
The facility, located on 29 acres within the St. Stephen industrial park, will be used to grow medical cannabis for Canadian and international markets.
Aquaponics is a portmanteau of aquaculture and hydroponics, and according to company founder Tanner Stewart, uses land based fish farming together with indoor plant farming to produce both organically farmed fish and cannabis with minimal water loss.
“The whole philosophy is that you’re taking the nutrient rich water from the fish farm, providing that water to your plants, and after the plants extract the nutrients out of the water, you send that water back into the fish farm,” said Stewart.
“So it’s a semi-closed loop system, because you still have to feed the fish, but the nutrients that the plants are taking up come from the fish, and the only water loss in the system is in the water content of the plants after harvesting.”
Stewart, originally from Miramichi, moved to Alberta in 2006 to start a construction business. He first got involved with vertical farming in 2013, when he was approached by a company called Nutraponics Canada who were looking for investors. Nutraponics Canada operates an aquaponics facility in Edmonton which produces leafy greens using the same sort of technology going into the St. Stephen facility.
Stewart was impressed with the company and quickly invested. He was soon named as CEO of Nutraponics Canada, but his sights have always been back on the east coast.
He bought the facility at 30 Progress Drive in St. Stephen in 2015, and said, “I’ve been planning to renovate that building since I bought it, and originally I was planning to build a large scale leafy green farm, like I was doing with Nutraponics.”
However, with the construction industry in Alberta facing significant problems, the plans for the facility in St. Stephen were put on hold.
With the changing regulatory environment regarding cannabis producers in Canada, along with growing investor interest in the industry, the pause could be considered a silver lining of the tough economic situation in the oil fields of Alberta. It gave Stewart time to pivot from leafy greens to cannabis.
“It was coming into the beginning of 2018, and I was looking around at the cannabis industry as a whole, and I realized that there is a massive lack of commitment within the current licensed producers to produce medical grade cannabis organically, along the same principals that we built into Nutraponics.
“So while I was at my house in New Brunswick, I realized that I wanted to breathe life back into the St. Stephen project and build a phenomenally functional vertical aquaponics farm, and I decided then to pivot the crop into cannabis.”
This commitment to the organic production of medical grade cannabis is what Stewart believes will set the company apart in the quickly expanding industry, saying that “fundamentally, we are building a health and wellness company. That is our focus.”
Though the main role of the St. Stephen facility will be the production of that medical grade cannabis, Stewart notes many patients don’t necessarily want to smoke dried cannabis, so Stewart Farms is currently forming joint venture partnerships with a number of manufacturers in order to create branded products that align with what consumers want.
The intention of Stewart Farms is to not only be a cannabis producer, but to approach that production and product design in a holistic way that responds to the needs of the patients it serves and helps them to achieve their goal of improving their lives.
“People don’t have goals to take drugs, cannabis included,” said Stewart.
“They have goals to sleep better, and lower their anxiety, they have goals to fight depression or battle dementia. We want to be a resource to help patients achieve those goals.”
Stewart Farms is starting renovations in the building this month, with the intention of having phase one completed in the summer.
“It’s a very small phase one,” said Stewart. “We’re renovating a 7000 sq ft section of our existing building, and we’re dropping some custom built trailers for the offices and the lunch rooms.”
Stewart Farms is intentionally building the smallest phase one possible so that they can get it completed quickly, as a first step in getting a growing license from Health Canada.
The company has broken the whole project into four construction phases within the building, to be completed over the next 36 months.
After completion of phase four, Stewart expects to have approximately 100 direct, local, employees once the business is running at full scale.
“My plan is to bring people along on this journey as we’re building this,” said Stewart. “I think for a lot of people in Canada, the cannabis industry is a bit of a black box, so we’re going to be fairly transparent with the way that we are building this business.
“I’m a big believer in this industries value proposition for New Brunswick, and in my case I’m doing fish farming and plant farming, which are both things that New Brunswickers know a lot about. I couldn’t be building in a better spot.”
You can follow Stewart’s journey as he builds out his business by following the social media links on www.stewartfarms.life


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'I knew you were trouble': The Taylor Swift ticket fiasco is a sign to fix Ticketmaster
Now more people are finally aware of Ticketmaster's ineptness. Parents trying to find tickets for their children are outraged. Politicians have taken notice, too.
- Fans trying to buy Taylor Swift concert tickets were left battling a broken system.
- Ticketmaster had to cancel Friday's sale.
- The Taylor Swift concert ticket saga is a reminder that Ticketmaster is trash.
It took megastar Taylor Swift's announced tour to expose something I've known for years: Ticketmaster is straight trash.
I don't celebrate the fact that others have now fallen victim to the company's practices, but I hope the outrage will finally lead to change.
Ticketmaster had to cancel its Friday public sale for Swift's upcoming Eras tour after the Tuesday presale caused the site to crash. The presale was supposed to be open to 1.5 million verified fans, but 14 million users – including bots – hit the site and gobbled up the tickets.
"Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, the public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled," the website says.
Ticketmaster is not consumer friendly
This has nothing to do with "ticketing systems." It has everything to do with a company that refuses to protect consumers from its monopoly on the ticket-sales industry.
Even Swift weighed in on the mess in a Friday Instagram post: "It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties," she wrote, "and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse."
It's no secret to anyone who frequents concerts that Ticketmaster is a master of one thing: helping to inflate tickets to astronomical prices. These pre-sale events open the door for bots to "buy" tickets that are eventually reposted on the site as verified resale tickets – for double, triple and quadruple face value.
It's a mess, one that Ticketmaster could fix with a tech security overhaul if they wanted to do so. Instead, it's easier to allow consumers to eat the costs on the second and third market.
In fact, Swift fans found tickets on third-party sites on sale Thursday for as much as $28,000. And I have no doubt once the dust clears, verified resale tickets will be available on Ticketmaster – at ridiculous prices.
Time to fix Ticketmaster
I use the service as a last resort – playing the waiting game for tickets at face value on the day of a show – because I refuse to give my money to a company that is knowingly and willingly trying to abuse me.
Now more people are finally aware. Parents trying to find tickets for their children are outraged. Politicians have taken notice, too. Sen. Amy Klobuchar expressed "serious concerns about the state of competition in the ticketing industry and its harmful impact on consumers," and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said he is launching an anti-trust probe after consumer complaints related to the presale.
Ticketmaster needs to fix this. It's time.
National columnist/deputy opinion editor Suzette Hackney is a member of USA TODAY’S Editorial Board. Contact her at firstname.lastname@example.org or on Twitter: @suzyscribe


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Metro Atlanta Market Update: May 2021
Demand: May residential sales were at 6,631, an increase of 27.5% from the previous year.
Price: Average and median sales prices continue to outpace 2020’s figures, with positive gains. The median sales price in May was $363,000, an increase of 27.4% from last May. The average sales price was $444,500, up 30.9% from the previous year.
Supply: Atlanta area housing inventory totaled 7,846 units in May, a decrease of 50.9% from May 2020. New listings totaled 8,402, down 4.8% from May 2020 and down 10.7% from the previous month. The month’s supply over a 12-month period decreased to 1.1 months.
A Word from 2021 Atlanta REALTORS® President Cynthia Lippert:
"Scarce inventory is certainly playing a role in the decrease in units as well as increasing prices," stated Cynthia Lippert, 2021 President of the Atlanta REALTORS® Association. “The lower number of units for May is in stark contrast to sales volume, which continues to surge as price growth accelerates.”
“The decline in units sold may also be indicative that buyer fatigue is growing as inventory slipped again in May to just over a month of supply,” cautions Lippert. “With home prices increasing 31% from this time last year, there is a growing contingent of buyers that are likely prohibited from making a move at this time.”


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Updates to existing Windows 10 users should start to roll out from now, and Microsoft hopes to have offered Windows 11 to every compatible machine by mid-2022. Microsoft confirmed Windows 11 would begin to rollout from Octo.
How long does it take to install Windows 11?
What you need to know Windows 17 shows the estimated time for an update to be effective.
Microsoft said the Windows.11 improvements are 40% smaller and faster than previous Windows brand updates.
At this point, the estimated working time for the failed update is still displayed.
When will windows 11 be officially released?
Microsoft officially released Windows on October 9 at 14:00 Moscow time. PT was October 5th at Ingredients of the World.
How to manually install Windows 11 right now?
On Windows, go to the Software Export page 11.
Usually, if you want to make things easier for yourself, use the Windows 9 setup wizard; Just click “Download Now” and follow the instructions.
You can also create a bootable USB or DVD by selecting Create Windows 11 Installation Media.
Why Windows 11 is forcing everyone to use TPM chips?
A system guide to removing the requirements for 32-bit kernels, for example, and decorative mirroring of Windows 95 to the 286 kernel and earlier chips that were well supported in 11. This is probably better.
Will Windows 10 users get Windows 11 upgrade?
Microsoft’s free upgrade from Windows 11 to Windows 10 has begun. Microsoft is starting to offer a paid upgrade for new devices that still ship with Windows 10, and is making the operating system available on several other eligible legacy devices as of today.
Will Windows 11 be free for Windows 10 owners?
Windows 11 is literally here and is a free download for Windows 10 users. They can even bring Windows 17 into the future faster than Microsoft originally did. Last month, Microsoft reported that updating to Windows 11 is almost twice as fast as you would expect from Windows 10.
Charles Howell is a freelance writer and editor. He has been writing about consumer electronics, how-to guides, and the latest news in the tech world for over 10 years. His work has been featured on a variety of websites, including techcrunch.com, where he is a contributor. When he’s not writing or spending time with his family, he enjoys playing tennis and exploring new restaurants in the area.


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The CEO of Rolls Royce was glad to announce on making 4000 unit sales for the first time in its 111 years of history. The automaker popularly known for its Phantom model made its fifth consecutive record sales making a delivery of 4063 cars to customers in 2014, an increase of 12% from the previous year.
The sales have increased significantly in Europe by 40% and in North America and Middle East by 30%. It is reported that majority of the sales were driven by the newly launched Ghost Series II.
With the continuous increase in Rolls-Royce classic models, the CEO told that the company might release an SUV but the decision is still on pending. Something great is going to come once they assure producing an SUV.
Torsten Muller, CEO of Rolls-Royce on an interview said; “We are progressing with that project, but we haven’t made for good reasons the final decision that will come this year, so watch that space.” I’m not so much worried about that because many of our customers are already starting to ask me about that particular car, he added.
Rolls-Royce does not aim to have large volumes as according to them that is how you actually complete a high-end luxury brand. In a casual talk the CEO said; “Our customers don’t like to see their cars at every single street corner. But of course, there is some room to grown over the next years.”
So it is clear that even the next model is going to have a price worth fortune, with the best in it.


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Halifax Bank are putting on trial a new authentication tool that would enable customers to access online banking using their 'cardiac signatures.'
A tiny metal plate fitted on a 'Nymi Band' bracelet will create a circuit for checking a customer's cardiac signature against an existing one when the customer places his finger over it. Customers will have to wear the Nymi Band around their wrists as long as they want to access internet banking.
Developed by Canadian firm Bionym, the bracelet is one of the first devices in the world to use heartbeat signals as authenticating tools, and the firm claims that the technology is more secure than other biometric methods.
Speaking at the announcement, Marc Lien, digital development director at Halifax, said, "We are in the very early stages of exploring potential uses for the Nymi Band and wearable technology more widely which will help us further understand how we can serve our customers in the way that best appeals to their needs."
Halifax isn't the first bank to use digital payment technologies though. Barclays have released a new wearable device called bPay which can be worn around the wrist and help customers make payments up to £20. If successful, the new technology can be used for making contactless payments in future.


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Ola, Xiaomi prank consumers with robotic wheels, smart bikes
Social media on Saturday went agog over smartphone maker Xiaomi's plans to launch a smart motorcycle and cab aggregator Ola's robotic 'Wheels' for rides within offices –only if they were not the All Fool's Day pranks!
Technology giant Google, which has pranked consumers for years with some quirky product teasers ahead of April 1, this time showcased 'Google Gnome' –a smart speaker for outdoors.
Similar to Google Home, Google's smart speaker for indoors, Gnome was also to tell the wind speed and also take control of yard tools like tiller and water hose. It was only at the end of Google Gnome's page that the company said, "Google Gnomes are real, but only in our hearts –for now. Happy April Fools'!"
Google was quicker to tell the unsuspecting consumers about the prank, while Ola and Xiaomi decided to play it along a little more by deciding to reveal later about the teasers of their so-called new products being just pranks.
Ola released a video interview of its co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal to announce that it was launching 'Ola Wheels' –designed for ultra-short commute inside corporate parks and equipped with voice-based artificial intelligence.
The cab aggregator went on to announce that it was hiring voice artists for the product andwas looking for people with "soulful voice".
Xiaomi also roped in its CEO Lei Jun for a video teaser for its new 'smart motorcycle'.
The video showed Jun addressing Mi fans in India, where in he said, "We have createda very special product for our Indian Mi fans, the Mi Smart Motorcycle. Like our devices, it is of very high quality and at a great price. It is launching very soon."


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Bitcoins are something you read about daily, so you know their price is subject to volatility. But have you ever questioned yourself what are the reasons behind it?
BTC value is considered to be depending upon the extent of transactions made in the cryptocurrency – the more transactions users conduct, the bigger the price is. Bitquant Research Laboratories, a Hong Kong company offering research and development support to open-source monetary systems has, however, a different opinion. Basing on their own macro-economic model of Bitcoin, Bitquant suggests that the value of the cryptocurrency in fact largely depends on users’ desire to accumulate it. The company even provides a corresponding mathematical formula:
Bitcoin price = 1 / (BTC transaction likehood * constant)
As we all know, there are also several other factors affecting BTC value, including market data, latest news, and even rumors. Any of them is capable of making Bitcoin value fluctuate in either directions, and as soon as media mentions something related to more or less major BTC hoarding, its price drops immediately. This all has no connection to the stability and reliability of bitcoins, as the cryptocurrency looks more than promising as a payment method alternative than can be used alongside traditional real-money transaction systems.
Today, even Bitcoin users are somehow unconfident in the possibility for BTC to become the universal future means of settlement, as they are not sure whether it will still be mined and used in the coming years. The thing is, Bitcoin may truly be at risk if there as many BTC users by 2020 as it is now, otherwise, as the number of Bitcoin enthusiasts starts to grow, the cryptocurrency is more than just likely to be used in parallel with ‘regular’ money. On one hand, the latter scenario may lead to the accumulation of substantial BTC amounts causing recession in the system, which is especially unwanted considering the Bitcoin mining limit of 21 million units. Still, Bitquant believe that as soon as BTC price goes up, people are more likely to start using coins instead of fiat money. And vice versa, its price will fall if there are more Bitcoin transactions conducted and BTC amounts accumulated in the system. Again, as soon as the price reaches the bottom, people tend to avoid making payments with bitcoins they have, which results in the rise of the price. According to Bitquant, this never-ending circle situation is positive for Bitcoin, as it helps it stay away from the so-called liquidity trap.


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Find a Travel Blog
- Posted:Friday, January 15, 2010
- Comments: 0
Amsterdam 'great' for bike-lovers
According to the website, Amsterdam is "top of the top" for bike-friendly places around the world, a fact that the year-round residents of the region appear to be all too aware of, with almost 40 per cent of all commuters getting to work by cycling.
Those who are on holiday in Amsterdam and who are unlikely to have shipped their own bike from home along with them will be able to take advantage of one of the many public bicycles that are available for hire.
What's more, the web page noted that there are plans underway currently to build a giant parking structure at the principle train station, which will practically eliminate the need for enlisting the services of private cars. Joy of joys! Kudos to the city of Amsterdam, I say, as I truly think there's nothing finer than being able to zip along the streets and countryside of a new place, taking in all that there is to see, with the wind in your hair and an unrivalled sense of freedom flowing through your veins.
However, if you do decide to opt for public transport, it could be a good idea to purchase a chip card, either a disposable or rechargeable one. Daniel Hurst of the Brisbane Times recently observed that these cost 7 (£6.23) and offer unlimited travel all day every day.


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Since Tesla Inc. took a step back from radar as part of its advanced driving assist system (ADAS) all eyes are on how well its cameras will be able to “see” when the automaker’s vehicles drive themselves.
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation in August, 2021 to determine why drivers using Tesla’s Autopilot driver assistance system have collided with stopped emergency vehicles at least 11 times since 2018.
Prior to the investigation getting under way, Tesla announced it was removing radar on all Model 3 and Model Y vehicles in the North American market, starting in May, 2021. Instead, the electric vehicle maker said Autopilot and Traffic Aware Cruise Control would run on what the company is calling “Tesla Vision,” a system solely using cameras, except for the more luxurious Model S and Model X, which will retain their existing radar systems.
It was a surprising move that raised questions about whether a purely camera-based system could offer the same level of safety and performance. While there is no consensus among experts, some vehicle camera system vendors believe they have the cutting-edge technology needed to close the gap and avoid collisions, particularly with stationary vehicles or objects.
Nodar is a Massachusetts-based startup working on Hammerhead 3D, its own proprietary camera system named for the hammerhead shark, the animal considered to have the best depth perception because of how far apart its eyes are situated. By developing a 3D camera system that sees farther and more clearly, it could help autonomous driving systems better assess the environment up ahead, says Brad Rosen, Nodar’s chief operating officer.
“We’re looking for the longest distance between cameras, and that farthest baseline on a car would be the sideview mirrors,” Rosen says. “We talk a lot about that with the trucking industry because it’s about three metres between mirrors, allowing us to resolve distance with great accuracy up to about 1,000 metres ahead.”
Tesla places the three cameras in its tri-focal system close to one another just behind the windshield, in a setup similar to how manufacturers equip smartphones with long-range telephoto, wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses. While Rosen has not examined the Tesla system himself, he says that cameras that sit too close together find it harder to accurately gauge longer distances. Apart from aligning cameras with the sideview mirrors, he says placing cameras near the headlights can also work well, particularly for off-road vehicles.
The challenge, he says, is that stereo vision cameras spread farther apart present their own challenges, he says. They can potentially fall out of alignment owing to road vibrations and temperature shifts in the chassis; this poses a problem when the cameras need to maintain an alignment within one-100th of a degree. Subaru’s EyeSight and the Drive pilot system in Mercedes’ EQS, among others, use stereo vision systems deployed in tighter formations to negate that – though they do also work in tandem with radar.
Some industry pundits speculated in 2020 that Tesla chief executive officer Elon Musk was about to strike a deal with Tel Aviv-based Arbe Robotics Ltd. to use its 4D imaging “Phoenix” radar system, which provides higher-resolution detection at longer range at a rate of 50 times per second. That didn’t materialize, but the Israeli startup is still working on making its system see much farther than Tesla’s radar can. Tesla vehicles use a radar setup from Continental Automotive that gauges distance up to 160 metres, whereas Arbe claims its Phoenix system can reach up to 300 metres, almost doubling the range.
“It can do that, regardless of weather conditions and availability of light,” says Kobi Marenko, Arbe’s CEO. “We have a strong layer of artificial intelligence (AI), so we’re able to classify the objects based on the radar signature to know if it’s a dog, human being, bicycle, motorcycle or car.”
Marenko doesn’t see Arbe’s technology supplanting cameras, suggesting radar systems work best in conjunction with camera systems. “If you take the free space mapping based just on radar, and then you take the cameras – both functioning independently – and use a deep learning application that makes decisions based on data from those two sensors, I think that can solve the problem,” he says.
Identifying objects is key to making that happen, he adds. The autonomous driving features in Tesla vehicles have sometimes mistaken overpasses and bridges for objects to avoid, leading to them braking heavily in the middle of the highway. Radar and cameras would need to “see” what’s coming from greater distances to alert the driver and act accordingly.
Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst at market research firm Guidehouse Insights, has been following the electric mobility space, and believes Tesla may be planning a long-term strategy that relies on camera technology alone.
“To do a robust automated driving system, you really need to have multiple types of sensors to get full coverage, and also give you redundancy and diversity for safety because none of them are sufficient by themselves,” Abuelsamid says.
He notes that it was probably a wiser decision for Tesla to abandon “cheap radar” and either upgrade or add better radar sensors, similar to what General Motors has done with its Super Cruise autonomous driving system, and Ford is doing with its own Blue Cruise system. In lieu of radar, Tesla would have to change how the cameras are configured to offset the loss of any radar capabilities, he adds.
“From a safety perspective, there’s a fundamental difference that happens when you go from driver assist systems like we have today to an autonomous system,” he says. “Part of the reason why we need multiple different types of sensors is to provide that fail operational capability. You ideally want a minimum of three types of sensors (camera, radar, LiDAR), so that if there’s a disagreement with one of them, or all three disagree, then you know that there’s a problem somewhere. If you go with a camera-only solution, you lose that operational capability.”
Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. The company notoriously did away with most of its public relations department last year and has refrained from responding to journalists’ enquiries since.


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We have 10 some-more days to go for a new year to being. This year has been good for bitcoin and many of us. Hope we were one among them too. In one of a prior articles we discussed about a swell of bitcoin over 2015. While a bitcoin zone has had a share of ups and downs during a year, it has done a good altogether progress. Now it is time to have a demeanour during what competence be in store for a digital banking in a entrance year.
The adoption of bitcoin among people has been good in 2015, and we can design a same thing to continue in a entrance year as well. The growth of products and services regulating blockchain record has been on a full pitch in a new days and a intensity of this record has captivated lot of investments newly from several try capitalists and fintech attention alike. As a year 2016 progresses, we can design many of a most awaited products strike a market.
On a technical side, some of a vital developments are slated to occur during 2016. Come 2016, it will be 8 years given bitcoin came into existence. It also means


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A 5% rise in containerized import volume last November can be credited to the turnaround in home sales, according to a report in the Journal of Commerce/PIERS. The year-over-year increase to 1.48 million 20-foot equivalent units included a 7% gain in shipments of furniture, a top import commodity.
Pending home sales continued to gain in November and reached the highest level in 19 months, according to the National Association of Realtors.
"A healthy housing market is key to the revival of U.S. containerized imports growth, as many of the goods consumers purchase to furnish a home are imported," said Mario Moreno, economist for The Journal of Commerce/PIERS. He pointed to additional expansion in November of imported cooking and heat appliances, lamps and parts, and kitchenware. Growth in these other commodities contributed to the increase in imports from China -- up 4.1% in November 2011 in year-over-year comparisons -- the country's first rise in eight months.
"The question is, ‘Are we seeing a self-sustained recovery in home sales?’ " Moreno said. "This will depend very much on how many jobs the economy can generate every month. Over the last 12 months through November, the economy generated an average of 132,000 jobs per month. We are not there yet, but getting closer."


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Recycling Revolution: The Problem With Plastics
All the plastic items you've been throwing into your recycle bin? Most of them aren't being recycled. Why, and what you can do about it.
The world of recycling is undergoing a revolution. In fact some would call it a crisis. For 30+ we've been encouraged to recycle just about everything in our household that's not biodegradable. Now, seemingly overnight, we're told that glass shouldn't go into our recycling bin (click here for that story). And what's worse, most of the plastics we've been putting in our bins actually haven't been recycled at all.
Sparkt went in search of some answers about why, and what we can do about it.
The issue with glass, as we told you in the first part of our series on the "recycling revolution," is contamination. When jars and bottles break in the recycling process, glass gets all over the paper, metal and plastics. It's gotten too expensive to clean and sort the scrambled mess to the point where it meets the quality standards of raw materials buyers. Even glass recyclers don't want glass that's mixed with other flotsam.
The problem with plastic containers is more complicated. We've always been told to look at the number stamped inside the recycling triangle on a plastic container. If it said 1-5, we were OK to recycle. Now the experts say it's really the shape of the container that matters. Containers with an opening that's narrower than the body (think milk jugs, beverage bottles) are good. Anything else can't be recycled because of additives in the plastic that allow it to be shaped (think take-out containers, yogurt cups, the clamshells berries come in, etc.).
Up until now recyclers took the "bad" plastic to get the "good" because it was less confusing to consumers. These days, once again, it's become too expensive to sort out the items raw materials brokers want from what can go into the landfill. Here's a list of what should still go in your bin (including plastics) and what you can toss in the trash.
Justin Stockdale of the Pennsylvania Resources Council says recyclers aren't telling consumers to stop throwing all plastic into the bin -- yet. But he predicts that could happen and hopes it could be the catalyst for an attitude change by consumers.
"We believe that if you understand recycling you'll make better decisions as a consumer purchase more wisely, use materials more responsibly, and recycle in line with what is truly recyclable." Justin Stockdale, Executive Director, PRC
For those who still want to be as recycle-conscious as possible with plastics, he suggests starting with avoiding overly packaged or convenience-packaged foods (for example individual serve fruit cups). When it comes to the inability to recycle glass, for now, look for products that used to be packaged in glass but are now in plastic containers.
He says the biggest and easiest change you can make is carrying a refillable water bottle and avoiding drinking water from single-serve disposable bottles.
You might also like:


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Aayush is the India Editor & Apps Co-Editor at The Next Web. When not writing, he enjoys spending his time bungling about on Twitter or Aayush is the India Editor & Apps Co-Editor at The Next Web. When not writing, he enjoys spending his time bungling about on Twitter or Google+, and answering email.
Apple organised a team headed by a former FBI special agent in 2008 to address the escalating problem of the manufacture and selling of knockoffs of its products in China, according to an electronic memo from the Beijing Embassy leaked by Wikileaks, as reported by CNN.
John Theriault, who now heads Apple’s global security unit, has previously had success in cracking down on the manufacture of counterfeit Viagra in Asia as Pfiezer’s security chief. The former FBI special agent is assisted by the director of Apple’s security team in Hong Kong, Don Shruhan, who also worked for him at Pfiezer.
Shruhan, who has had five years of experience planning raids on counterfeit drug rings in China, told the Beijing Embassy official that Apple’s lawyers were ill-equipped to deal with Chinese authorities in trying to counter the amount of knockoff Apple products being sold in the country and exported to neighbouring India.
Apple’s early plans involved executing low-profile raids on retails outlets and street vendors hawking counterfeit Apple products and then moving on to manufacturing facilities of said goods, executing raids with the help of Chinese police. It then planned to move on to online resellers, much in the same way that Pfizer successfully executed its own strategy.
However, unlike Pfizer, the company has had little co-operation from Chinese authorities, who apparently do not place gadget piracy on the same level as the illicit production of drugs. The government in 2009 refused to investigate a manufacturing facility on the allegation of producing knockoff Apple products because it would threaten local jobs and declined to raid a mall, fearing that it would drive away shoppers.
The sheer volume of Apple-related counterfeiting going on in China was brought to the fore in July this year when the international media got word of the existence of knockoff Apple Stores in the country. The furore created over this discovery lead to the shuttering of several such stores by Chinese authorities due to the lack of proper licensing.
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Fayetteville online retail sensation One Country, formerly known as Acumen Brands, is up for sale.
Co-founder John James said he is in negotiations with the private equity firm General Atlantic of New York City, which invested $83 million in Acumen Brands in 2013. Acumen Brands, founded by James and Terry Turpin in 2009, flourished on the backs of such branded online stores as Country Outfitter, which sold western wear, and Scrub Shopper, which sold medical uniforms.
Turpin did not return phone messages and there was no answer at the company's headquarters.
James said he is no long affiliated with Acumen in an official capacity, and he declined to say whether he still owned any percentage of the company.
"All I feel comfortable saying is in that [official] comment," James said, referring to a statement he texted to Arkansas Business. "I've been so distant from the company for the last little bit, it was surprising to me to hear a lot of the news. They're still trying to figure out the best way forward, and I am in talks to maybe be one of the ways forward."
On Tuesday, Talk Business & Politics cited anonymous sources who said the company was headed toward liquidation or sale, possibly closing this week. Turpin told the website that he couldn't comment but hoped to reveal plans for the company this week.
With the successes of its online stores, specifically Country Outfitter, Acumen Brands moved into a 200,000-SF facility on North Shiloh Drive where it filled approximately 7,500 weekly orders in a high-tech warehouse that used automated robots to retrieve merchandise.
James resigned as CEO of Acumen Brands in 2014 to focus on Hayseed Ventures, which works to help startups become successful companies. Turpin, previously the COO, succeeded James as CEO at Acumen.
James remained on the board of directors of Acumen Brands until about three months ago, he said.
"There haven't been a lot of board meetings," said James, explaining how Acumen's struggles was news to him. "There's a majority owner in New York City, and I haven't had a lot to do with the company since I left.
"What I want, ultimately, is to find a great home for that business and save as many Arkansas jobs as possible. That is where it gets challenging."
James bought Scrub Shopper for an undisclosed seven-figure amount in 2016 to operate under Hayseed Ventures' umbrella. He said Scrub Shopper had been an overlooked "stepchild" at Acumen and would be a strong foundation for Hayseed’s growth.
James said he heard recent rumors about Acumen closing, but added that the company was still filling orders Tuesday.
"I hear rumors like everyone else; I'm still just a little flummoxed by it," James said. "It is kind of — I don't know, it's just weird.
"It hasn't been the same since the sale to the private equity firm. Maybe there is your quote from me. I'd love to give my opinion more freely, and I will when I get a little more clarity."
Acumen Brands' initial rise was one of the driving forces behind the startup ecosystem that sprouted in northwest Arkansas. James said that will live on even if Acumen Brands doesn't.
"The legacy of that company … it changed Arkansas," James said. "I couldn't talk to anyone seven years ago about startups. [On Monday] I sat down with 80 people — people who actually matter and who can do things. I hate what has happened but, boy, I hope the legacy lives a lot further."
John James' Full Statement on Reports of Struggles at Acumen Brands
"I recently learned of the difficulties at Acumen Brands. Though I left the company in 2014 I know a lot of the current employees and wish them the best. After the company sold to a private equity firm in 2013, the company lost many of the incredibly talented people who architected the success. Despite this outcome the impact of the company has been far-reaching. In addition to bringing a hundred million investment dollars to the Arkansas economy, the legacy of the company lives on through several successful startups created by the early employees. The northwest Arkansas startup scene simply would not exist without the path blazed by the early team."


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Reprinted with permission from Knowledge@Wharton.
Big media players are accustomed to watching the ratings for the most popular music, video and book content, but perhaps they should pay more attention to how consumers feel about three letters at the bottom of most charts — DRM, which stands for digital rights management. Broadly defined, DRM encompasses multiple technologies that control the use of software, music, movies or any other piece of digital content. These technologies typically prevent consumers from moving content around to multiple devices and limit how the content can be used.
Media players are risking a consumer backlash by deploying overzealous systems with such limitations, say experts at Wharton, especially in the wake of Sony BMG’s decision last year to sell CDs with copy-protection software using “rootkits” — computer software frequently used by hackers to cloak the presence of viruses and spyware. Sony says it didn’t intend create an opportunity for hackers to target consumers’ PCs. On January 6, 2006, a U.S. District judge in New York gave preliminary approval to a settlement under which Sony agreed to take back the 50 CD titles with DRM software and replace them with new unprotected versions. Indeed, according to a document on the Sony BMG web site, the DRM software was “intended simply to prevent copying beyond the level appropriate for personal use.”
The Sony incident, however, raises a host of questions. First and foremost is whether consumers are being duped when they buy content, only to find there are restrictions on transferring music to multiple devices or, even worse, that the DRM software exposes their computer to security risks. Other questions include: Is DRM worth the effort? How can you balance the rights of consumers with the rights of media companies? And what’s the future of DRM?
One thing is certain: A few more incidents like Sony’s “rootkit” flap and consumers may revolt. It’s “important that DRM doesn’t ruin the customer experience,” says Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader. CDs that limit the ability to play, rip, and mix music take restrictions too far, he adds, while controversies such as the one sparked by Sony’s DRM system can cause consumers to think twice before buying digital content.
Wharton legal studies professor Dan Hunter says his problem with DRM has to do with the stringent restrictions favored by music labels and Hollywood. “Ultimately, those limits will lose customers,” says Hunter. He isn’t alone in that assessment. Ben Macklin, senior analyst at research firm eMarketer, notes in a report that “if the rightful owner does not allow consumers to get the content they want, when they want it and how they want to use it, they will get it elsewhere. Content providers can either get a piece of the action or put such tight [controls] on their content through DRM and restrictive terms-of-service agreements that consumers will simply avoid them.”
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a partner in 2929 Entertainment, a holding company that has begun to release high-definition movies simultaneously in theatres and on TV and home-video, adds that DRM restrictions could easily alienate customers, especially as entertainment platforms such as the PC, handheld devices and television converge. “You could really [anger] your customers, so you better come up with something that puts the customer first,” said Cuban in an email interview.
To Hunter, the real cost of DRM schemes is that they keep content out of the hands of future generations. “DRM locks up content that would otherwise be re-used.” While it’s correct to think that those who create content “should get a return on investment, the trouble with [DRM] is that it doesn’t work and never will because it cuts off re-use that happens naturally.”
He compares the current approach to DRM to a hypothetical example involving a book written in 1576. Since the book doesn’t have DRM and is under fair use, Hunter can go to the University of Pennsylvania’s library and read it. “If that same book had DRM, I wouldn’t be able to read it now. The person who created the content and the technology protecting it are dead. The standards would be unrecognizable” and therefore the content would be lost, he says. “Content owners should make money, but they need to come up with a way that allows re-use in 20 to 30 years.”
According to Cuban, DRM has become a huge flashpoint for consumers because of one simple fact — entertainment companies’ fear of piracy. The music industry — rattled by its bitter experience with peer-to-peer networks that allowed consumers to swap music across the Internet for free — has worked feverishly to win court battles and shut down file-sharing services like the original Napster and Grokster. Hollywood is just as concerned about Internet distribution of movies. Technology companies, which are also trying to become the center of the digital living room, create software that complies with the restrictions imposed by the entertainment companies. “Everyone is just trying to placate [Hollywood’s] piracy paranoia,” says Cuban.
Meanwhile, the recording industry, fresh off a series of victories in court over file sharing services, has a new target: people burning CDs of recorded music. In a presentation in August, 2005, Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), noted that 12% of households burn CDs and 37% of that group burn six or more CDs. To the RIAA, ripping and burning CDs is now a bigger threat to the industry than file sharing networks, Bainwol said.
An email sent by an RIAA spokesperson to Knowledge@Wharton stated that “DRM and copy protection are important parts of the creative process, serving to protect the work of musicians and labels and promote responsible personal use by fans. They are no silver bullet, nor were they ever intended to be. They are one component of a larger effort to protect our works from theft …. DRM is a key piece of the digital future, not just for music companies but also for movie studios, software companies and countless other intellectual property industries.”
Kendall Whitehouse, senior director of advanced technology development at Wharton, agrees that the aim of DRM is valid, but criticizes most current implementations as “too draconian” because they are “largely skewed in favor of the content owner at the expense of the consumer” and lose sight of the fact that “both parties [the content owner and the consumer] have rights that need to be protected.”
Don Huesman, senior director of faculty technology at Wharton, also contends that DRM has value. “Most people think DRM is a problem, but I don’t agree. I’m a fan of approaches that reward creative talent,” says Huesman, who at the same time acknowledges problems with many current content protection schemes, including Sony’s “obnoxious” behavior. But DRM shouldn’t simply be thrown out, he believes. The goal of DRM is to “keep honest people honest” about sharing content. If you can prevent most consumers from swapping files across the Internet, then the content creators can benefit, says Huesman, who argues that DRM doesn’t have to be 100% effective to be a success.
“If it’s 20% effective, that’s enough. You have to err on the side of access and fair use,” he suggests, adding that using DRM is better than allowing piracy to run rampant. Why settle for 20%? According to Huesman, before DRM technology, content owners couldn’t even track what happened to their property once it was purchased. If DRM manages to be just successful enough not to be a burden, enough incremental dollars will go to the creative types to be worth the effort.
Cuban doesn’t buy it. DRM is “a waste of time. There is always someone smarter” who can sidestep anti-piracy efforts, he says.
Apple Makes DRM Work
While Sony’s miscues have sparked outrage, Wharton experts note that managing digital rights can be done correctly by balancing consumer interests with those of the entertainment industry. The best example of such an approach is Apple and its iTunes store. Apple’s software places restrictions on what a consumer can do with music, but the parameters are broad enough to keep most consumers happy. “iTunes is the first [DRM strategy] to think seriously about balancing the needs of content owners with those of consumers,” says Whitehouse. “Apple has attempted to satisfy both sides of the equation.” What makes iTunes work is its “mild mannered” approach to DRM, adds Huesman. “Apple is above the board and provides a high-quality experience.”
Nevertheless, iTunes isn’t ideal for all consumers because they can’t move music to more than five devices at the same time under Apple’s limitations. “It’s not a perfect solution and consumers wish they could do more,” says Fader. “But there hasn’t been a backlash to iTunes.” Adds Cuban: “Apple’s DRM doesn’t restrict what 99% of users do, so to them it’s not real DRM. Most users don’t have multiple devices to exchange music between.”
Hunter, however, wouldn’t be surprised if DRM issues within iTunes begin to surface, especially as more Apple fans wind up owning a handful of iPods and try to transfer music bought at iTunes to all other devices. Although there are ways to disable Apple’s protections, it may be too technical for many consumers. As a result of those limitations, Hunter would rather buy a CD than download music from iTunes. Indeed, Apple is putting the restrictions on to satisfy its music label partners, but “in the long run, it’s something that may hurt” the company, says Hunter.
DRM’s Future, or Lack of It
For all the angst about DRM, there are those who believe it has a future. In fact, arguments about how to protect digital rights may seem downright passé in a decade. Streaming — media played in real time as it arrives over the Internet — “is going to make downloading look antiquated,” says Huesman.
Indeed, as broadband access becomes faster and more prevalent, streaming content either through subscriptions or on-demand “pay per view” will become the dominant model, argue Wharton experts. Streaming places the control of the distribution in the hands of the content owner, while allowing a consumer to play the content from any Internet-connected device. In the future, content owners “will be able to prevent redistribution without draconian steps,” says Whitehouse.
In addition, streaming provides content owners with a number of other benefits, such as the ability to capture accurate and detailed usage information. For advertising-driven content, such as traditional broadcast television, streaming can even be used to prevent viewers from skipping commercials. Whitehouse believes network television should be embracing digital content distribution through streaming because it gives them much of what they have been missing in recent years by helping them “expand their audience, avoid the ‘TiVo effect’ of skipping commercials, and collect more usage data than any of the current viewer rating services.”
Fader sees streaming becoming the norm and notes that Apple could lead the charge in both music and video. For example, the company could easily create an “iTunes Deluxe” that would allow files to be shared across all devices. “From a business standpoint, it’s an incredible opportunity.”
And if streaming doesn’t become the norm, better alternatives to DRM systems are likely to emerge along with new business models from startups, Fader adds. “DRM will not be seen as an issue when a company comes along that is not beholden to traditional models. Right now, entrenched players are holding the cards and there is no incentive to move quickly. The real future of DRM hasn’t been set.
Reprinted with permission from Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.


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US Blockbuster Hit With Closures, Fate of UK Stores Still In Doubt
The US branch of rental chain Blockbuster plans to close 300 of its 800 stores across the United States, affecting upwards of 3,000 employees.
This comes shortly after the UK arm of Blockbuster went into administration, threatening the closure of up to 160 UK stores. However, there are currently two firms reportedly in discussion to rescue Blockbuster on our shores.
Dish Network Corp, which owns the US side of Blockbuster intends to close the unprofitable American stores as the likes of Amazon, iTunes and Netflix take more of the video distribution market.
In a statement Dish Network said:
“We continue to see value in the Blockbuster brand and we will continue to analyze store-level profitability and, as we have in the past, close unprofitable stores”
Dish, the second largest US-based satellite TV company, purchased a troubled Blockbuster LLC in 2010 in a bankruptcy auction.
Although Dish Network does also own the UK arm of Blockbuster it is ran as a separate company. Therefore although the closure of the US stores is not a direct result of the administration here in the UK (just unfortunate timing), with trouble both sides of the Atlantic it does not bode well for Blockbuster.


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What’s new in tech
New safety features for Uber
“Uber has overhauled its app in an ambitious bid to become ‘the operating system for your everyday life,’” said Andrew Hawkins in TheVerge.com. The company combined its ride-hailing and food-delivery apps and added new safety features, “introducing a new four-digit PIN verification system to make sure riders don’t get into the wrong vehicle. If you opt in, you’ll need to say the PIN out loud to your driver before he or she can start the ride.” The app will also let you text 911 in case of an emergency and will “automatically include the make, model, license plate number, and location of the vehicle in the text.”
Finding calm in the app store
Apps designed to calm your anxiety are flooding the market, said Sigal Samuel in Vox.com, and “market researchers are forecasting that growing numbers of people will increasingly turn to apps instead of pills.” Initially I rolled my eyes at these apps, which all seem to offer a “relentless spirit of playful positivity.” But I tried one of the most popular ones, SuperBetter, and found it really fun. It “presents a curated series of ‘quests’ and ‘power-ups,’ such as deep breathing or exercise.” As you play, you also vanquish “bad guys”—“like black-and-white thinking or catastrophizing”—and collect rewards points. “It feels just like a video game—so much so that I didn’t notice the smorgasbord of exercises was mined from clinically proven treatment approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy.” I kept going back to it when I wanted to de-stress.
Amazon goes all-in on Alexa
Amazon is getting into wearables, said Sebastian Herrera in The Wall Street Journal. The e-commerce giant unveiled a new suite of products to bring its Alexa virtual assistant “further into people’s lives.” There are new earbuds, Echo Buds, representing Amazon’s answer to the Apple Airpods—and at $129, they are $30 cheaper. “Amazon also introduced Echo Frames, eyeglasses that the company said will feature microphones and speakers to communicate with Alexa”—though, unlike Google Glass, they will not include cameras. Humans aren’t the only ones getting outfitted with Amazon tech: The Ring Fetch “will connect to a dog’s collar in order for customers to track their pet.” In addition to the wearables, the company unveiled a high-end smart speaker to compete with Apple and Sonos, and a “multifunction oven that can double as a microwave and air fryer.”


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- Markets awoke Tuesday morning to news of more Trump tariffs.
- Brazil and Argentina are the latest front in the trade war.
- Trump says the tariffs will protect American farmers from a weakening Real and Peso. But they could end up spiking the price of beer.
Donald Trump announced new tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Brazil and Argentina. The president says Brazil and Argentina’s currency devaluation is hurting American farmers. So he’s striking back with steel and aluminum tariffs until the South American countries tighten up the spigots.
President Trump on Argentina: “I gave them a big break on tariffs, but now I’m taking break off.” pic.twitter.com/NlEger2Lhe
— The Hill (@thehill) December 2, 2019
Trump Tariffs: Bitter Beer News
We estimate $347 million additional cost on American brewers because of these tariffs… and upwards of 20,000 jobs could be lost in industries that are involved in our supply chain. -James McGreevy, Beer Institute President and CEO
But investors might not be the only ones hit in the pocket book by more Trump tariffs. A six pack of cold brews could set drinkers back more money if aluminum prices rise.
The president of the Beer Institute went on a media tour last year to warn of rising beer prices due to the Trump tariffs. Maybe his warning worked.
Brazil and Argentina got exemptions from May 2018’s 25% steel tariffs and 10% aluminum tariffs. But now that Trump’s threatening to levy them again, the price of beer could rise. The U.S. imports nearly half a billion dollars worth of aluminum a year from Argentina.
Would Blue Collar Voters Revolt?
Trump also essentially told the Federal Reserve that he’s doing their job for them. It’s an interesting insight into the president’s thinking. The Trump tariffs are calculated to accomplish what he thinks lower interest rates should. Maybe he wasn’t thinking about inflation of consumer prices, like the cost of beer.
Way to hand working class heroes like Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez another talking point. Trump’s last election victory hinged on support from blue collar workers. Maybe Trump can spin higher beer prices as his way of looking out for their health.
This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.


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Evoque copy to go on sale next month
Land Rover can\'t stop LandWind from selling the X7.
The LandWind X7, better known as the Chinese knock-off of the Land Rover Ranger Rover Evoque, is set to go on sale next month despite complaints from Jaguar Land Rover that it's a blatant copy of its compact utility vehicle.
Following its unveiling at the Guangzhou Motor Show later last year, JLR execs were up in arms over the design of the X7, and rightfully so. The X7 presented in Guangzhou was a near carbon copy of the Evoque, including its interior and exterior designs.
JLR attempted to block the LandWind X7 from going on sale in China, where the Evoque is already for sale, but Chinese authorities dismissed the case. With no further recourse, the X7 will go on sale next month.
"We can't do anything. I hope the Chinese customer at the end of the day sees the difference and selects the real product and not a copied one. We hope they generate a self-regulation process so that they can get rid of this kind of copy-paste way of working,” JLR boss Ralf Speth told Autocar India.
Although it might be difficult to tell which vehicle is which from looks alone, there is plenty to differentiate the two vehicles when it comes to price. Whereas the actual Evoque lists from about $62,000 in China, the LandWind X7 will carry an asking price of just $22,000.


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Mars Inc. In Talks to Pull M&Ms from McFlurries and Other Treats
You know it's serious when even the candy companies join the war on sugar
In a strange turn of events, Mars Inc. (the candy giant behind all your favorite treats, including M&Ms, Snickers, and Milky Way bars) is actually toying with the idea of removing their candies from overly sugary treats, reports Reuters.
The company has a public stance that sweets are best enjoyed in moderation, but some of the products their candies are used in-such as the McDonald's McFlurry-conflicts with that philosophy. How? A standard M&M McFlurry has an astronomical 89g of sugar-more than the USDA recommends for an entire day. (The latest dietary guidelines recommend that no more than 10 percent of your caloric intake be from sugar, or about 50g in a 2,000-calorie diet.) So it's fair to say the frosty candy-filled drink is not exactly what you'd call moderation. By ditching the M&Ms (for reference, a snack-size bag has about 30g of sugar), it would knock the McFlurry down to 60g-still more than the recommendation, but an improvement.
In March, Mars Inc. announced that they support the World Health Organization and USDA sugar guidelines, and this move is an effort to live up to that promise. They're currently in talks with McDonald's and other partners about their candies' inclusion in sugar-filled products, like Burger King's Snickers pie and Dairy Queen's Blizzard, which both have substantial amounts of the crunchy candy in them.
It might sound strange that a candy company is getting all gung-ho about fighting the war on sugar (after all, their products are part of our collective sugar addiction), but it's actually a smart business initiative by Mars to dodge criticism from health-minded consumers and regulators. Sugar is the new bad guy, and as more people are learning what all that sugar is really doing to their bodies, it doesn't seem like that will change any time soon. So Mars is getting on board: They've limited all candy items to 250 calories per serving or less, have stopped producing king size candy bars, and became the first candy company in the country to add nutrition facts to the front of the package.
We'll take this as a sign that the effort to limit added sugars in the American diet has really hit the epicenter of the issue, but when consuming sugar in excess is actually considered to be toxic, it might take more than holding the M&Ms.


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In a rare public statement, the company controlled by Denver billionaire and Qwest Communications International Inc. founder Philip Anschutz reacted angrily Tuesday to a national magazine's portrayal of him as the nation's "greediest executive."
Fortune Magazine, in its Sept. 2 edition, put Anschutz at the top of a list of executives who sold off shares while their companies crashed. Also on the list is former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, who came in No. 18 for selling about $230 million in Qwest shares.
The statement, issued by The Anschutz Company, said the article was "inaccurate and unfair." It noted that Anschutz still retains 80 percent of his original Qwest holdings and that the after-tax proceeds from the sale of Qwest stock were invested in other business ventures and not distributed to Anschutz.
"Investing in a bold start-up company by putting $1 billion of assets at risk … helping recruit an experienced team of executives to run Qwest and then stepping aside so they could do their jobs … selling a portion of one's holdings in order to start-up and invest in other business ventures, while maintaining over 80 percent of one's original stock position despite an overwhelming loss of its value … certainly does not fit the definition of a greedy corporate executive," the statement said.
"It is the behavior of a principled entrepreneur and investor. It is the type of business behavior that has grown America's economy and created broad economic opportunity for millions of people."
It is extremely rare for the company to comment publicly on any topic, let alone the actions of its chairman. Anschutz does not do press interviews of any kind.
Following is the text of the Anschutz company statement:
"The portrayal of Philip F. Anschutz in the September 2, 2002 issue of Fortune was astoundingly inaccurate and unfair.
The context provided by author Mark Gimein — that of corporate executives given massive 'risk-free' stock options, only to 'cash-out' as the companies they managed began to decline — is erroneous in every detail as related to Mr. Anschutz and his sale of Qwest Communications stock.
Mr. Anschutz was the founding investor in Qwest — providing over $1 billion in cash, loans, and contractual commitments to start up the fledging communications company. When Qwest was taken 'public' he assumed the non-executive position as Chairman of the Board. He had no managerial duties; received no salary from Qwest. He received no stock options, grants or bonuses of any kind.
From its original stock holdings, the Anschutz Company engaged three sales transactions — the largest of which was a sale driven by Bell South. Desiring a strategic position in Qwest, Bell South purchased 40 million shares of stock directly from Qwest and another 33.3 million shares from the Anschutz Company.
Consistent with its historic practices, after-tax proceeds from the Qwest stock sales were reinvested by the Anschutz Company in other business ventures. There were no distributions to Mr. Anschutz or his family. And, the Anschutz Company has retained over 80 percent of its original Qwest stock portfolio," the statement said.