text:
As Donald Trump obliviously barrels toward a trade war with China, voters in farm country feel like they’re witnessing a slow-motion nightmare come to fruition. Just after China announced new tariffs Monday on 128 products worth about $3 billion, Illinois hog farmer Brian Duncan told the Chicago Tribune:
“We were hoping it was just brinkmanship and cooler heads would prevail. But instead, some of our worst fears seem to be coming true,” said Duncan, who’s also vice president of the Illinois Farm Bureau. “This is significant, real and serious for rural America.”
That was before Wednesday, when China announced another round of retaliatory tariffs on more than 100 products worth $50 billion, including soybeans, cars, chemicals and airplanes.
Amid tumbling stocks and fretting farmers—a loyal Trump voting bloc—the man who sits in the Oval Office demonstrated his trademark casual cluelessness for the concerns of anyone but himself. “We are not in a trade war with China,” he declared on Twitter Wednesday morning. And then Trump doubled down on China’s latest move with this pearl of wisdom regarding the U.S. trade deficit with the behemoth economy:
When youÃ¢ÂÂre already $500 Billion DOWN, you canÃ¢ÂÂt lose!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018
You’re talking about their livelihoods, you dipshit. Yes, yes, they can lose. (Naturally, Trump didn’t even get the trade deficit figure correct—it’s closer to $375 billion.)
One out of every 3 soybeans grown in the U.S. is exported to China, largely to feed a rapidly growing hog industry for a booming middle class in China, said Rincker, who’s also a board member of the Illinois Soybean Association.
That amounted to more than $14 billion in soybean exports to China in 2016, according to the American Soybean Association.
Illinois was the top soybean-producing state in 2017, with about $3 billion in exports, according to estimates from the Illinois Soybean Association. China is the largest export market for whole soybeans.
China targeted soybeans for a reason:Eight of the biggest soybean exporting states voted for Trump in 2016, according to CNN. And Trump obviously couldn’t care less.


text:
Following the disclosure that cable giant Comcast lost 149,000 pay-TV subscribers in the quarter, and 733,000 subs in 2019, with increased sub losses mounting in 2020, CFO Mike Cavanagh went on the offensive on the Jan. 23 fiscal call, dismissing much of the sub losses to so-called unprofitable customers.
It’s a slippery strategy considering ongoing systemic changes how consumers get their home entertainment largely revolve around loss-leader business models (i.e. SVOD) banking on the realization budget-minded consumers in mass quantities will make up for individual fiscal shortfalls.
Cavanagh said video remains a valuable market so long as it relates to Comcast’s burgeoning broadband business. The company added 1.4 million high-speed Internet subscribers in 2019. The executive said broadband centric consumers are coveted to the extent they increase their “lifetime value” to Comcast.
“We’ve consistently said that there is a segment of the market that either doesn’t value a traditional pay-TV service or isn’t profitable for us to serve,” Cavanagh said on the call. “We’re not chasing [that] segment of the market and we saw fewer new connects with these customers.”
But it is precisely “these customers” that are not just cord-cutters anymore, they’re also traditional pay-TV subs tired of paying more than $100 monthly for channels they never watch.
NBC Universal’s pending Peacock streaming service is aimed in part at departing Xfinity (and third-party) pay-TV subs by offering loss-leader pricing ($5) and ad-supported options.
“I think by the end of this year, you’re going to see the $5 Peacock product be offered for free to a lot of [third-party] cable and satellite customers,” Cavanagh said.
The CFO said that in addition to Peacock, the company would focus marketing efforts around Xfinity Flex, a broadband-only platform offering access to more than 100 video and music services, including Netflix, HBO, YouTube, Showtime, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Pandora and iHeartRadio.
“We are prioritizing Flex as a key initiative in 2020,” he said.

domain: news


text:
Why Small Business Owners Don't Offer Wi-Fi: Five Myths
She knew her business was likely early in using Wi-Fi in her area, which she describes as "out in the sticks," but she also predicted that one day her customers – and her small business – would rely on providing Internet service. "I think that to have a competitive advantage at all, you have to have Wi-Fi," Dahlke said, looking back on her decision.
But there are some small business owners who avoid installing and providing Wi-Fi because they think it’s too costly or too technical, among other reasons found in new research by Bredin and Comcast Business. Still, three out of five small business owners who do not offer Wi-Fi to patrons said they were planning to do so or considering.
Though the reasons they gave for not providing Wi-Fi service explain their hesitation, research and other small business owners’ experiences show these challenges might actually be myths.
Like many technologies, equipment was more expensive and difficult to use when Wi-Fi first came on the market.
"There’s a lot of truth to the fact that when the technology was first produced, you had to be a little bit technologically savvy to be able to set it up," said John Gasowski, Comcast’s director of Business Internet Product Management.
When Dahlke first installed Wi-Fi almost 10 years ago, her telecommunications company sent her a device in the mail, which she recalls was a "clunky old setup."
Now, the software included with devices is more intuitive and includes wizards that walk you through the installation process. "It’s almost difficult to make a mistake," Gasowski said.
Many companies, like Comcast, do not even require the business owner to purchase a separate device to set it up, saving on some of the costs that used to be required for Wi-Fi. In the past, the customer would have to purchase a retail device and plug it into their modem or DSL equipment.
"I don’t think some (business owners) realize how easy it is nowadays," Gasowski said. "It’s literally plug-and-play."
Some managers fear their employees will spend more time on social networking sites than performing their jobs. But, as Gasowski points out, offering Wi-Fi for employees might actually boost their productivity.
"I think Wi-Fi provides a convenience and a tool that the employees can use, in most cases to perform their jobs better because they have access to Wi-Fi to find information easier," Gasowski said.
Three out of five survey respondents who do not offer public Wi-Fi said they do have a Wi-Fi network that is used only for business functions. So in many cases, those employees already have the opportunity to take advantage of using the internet if they want.
To prevent such distraction, Dahlke suggests having rules in place. At Ashlawn Farm Coffee, for example, her employees are not allowed to use their cell phones.
Like the change in WiFi equipment over the years, price has fluctuated as well. Wi-Fi devices typically cost more than $100 when they first debuted on the market, but consumers can find them for half that price now.
Customers no longer have to purchase expensive equipment. Instead, technology companies can offer monthly fees for businesses to rent devices or cost-saving packages that provide both private and public WiFi spots.
According to Bredin’s survey, 32 percent of respondents who do not offer public Wi-Fi said they agreed or strongly agreed that providing the service would be too expensive.
"I think they’re thinking the devices cost a lot, when in fact they don’t," Gasowski said. A small business owner could be equipped with Wi-Fi for less than $50 for basic service and sharing a broadband with the public.
Comcast, for example, offers free private WiFi that is separate from the public Wi-Fi hotspot, which a small business owner receives as part of a package. This option allows business owners to maintain a private, secure network separate from the one they offer to their customers.
In terms of monthly payments, small business owners could expect to pay as low as $20 a month with a contract through some providers, Gasowski said.
"Even those costs, with the return that the business generates by providing free Wi-Fi, they’re offset pretty easily," he said.
If an average restaurant can attract two additional customers per month by offering free Wi-Fi, the customers’ bills likely make up the cost of offering the Internet, Gasowski explained.
Bredin’s research also shows that Wi-Fi draws customers and increases sales. Almost 70 percent of survey respondents said that Wi-Fi has encouraged repeat business, and 70 percent of food and beverage businesses said offering Wi-Fi results in higher sales per customer per visit.
Dahlke’s second Ashlawn Farm Coffee location sits by a train station in Saybrook, Conn., and thrives off travelers stopping for a warm drink or meal while they access the Internet for business or personal needs.
"Why wouldn’t you have Wi-Fi? A customer might be put off when a business doesn’t offer WiFi," she said.
An owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Oregon told the National Federation of Independent Businesses that offering Wi-Fi was a "negligible" investment. The only overhead cost was an extra router to keep the business’ WiFi network separate from the public network. "Free Wi-Fi works best for any business that wants to encourage customers to spend time in their establishment," the NFIB’s article states.
An article by FindLaw, a Thomson Reuters publication, cautions small business owners that offering Internet access comes with some security risk. Someone could download copyrighted materials using your Wi-Fi hotspot or engage in other illegal online activities at your location.
While these things can happen, there are a number of security measures business owners can put in place. To prevent security breaches, the article suggests using an encryption service and placing a password on your Wi-Fi network so you can share it with paying customers.
Gasowski said some providers and software services allow business owners to limit the types of websites customers can visit. Don’t want anyone accessing gambling websites while dining or working? You can block that type of site from your network.
He said Comcast is working on options that would allow business owners to control how and when customers use their public Wi-Fi networks. Beyond allowing businesses to schedule times of use or block types of sites, Comcast plans to allow them to access metrics that give insight into how people access the Internet, including the types of devices they use.
At Ashlawn Farm Coffee, Dahlke has noticed that people who linger to use the Wi-Fi are often polite. "I think they see if there are plenty of tables available, they’ll linger, but when it starts to get busy, usually they tend to be polite and move along," she said.
And the added benefit of a customer lingering to use the Internet is that "they’ll end up having two coffees or a sandwich or soup, so it benefits us in that way," Dahlke added.
But according to the research by Bredin, 23 percent of survey respondents agreed or strongly agreed that offering Wi-Fi would encourage customers to loiter or block areas of the business.
Gasowski said there are ways to prevent this fear if it does happen. Many Wi-Fi providers offer scheduling capabilities to either allow or block Wi-Fi access during certain times. A small business owner might choose, for example, to disable Wi-Fi during its busiest hours or when a business is closed.
With these options in place, and improvements in equipment and service costs, Gasowski said business owners that provide Wi-Fi are already seeing increased sales and objectives.
You might think that Wi-Fi at a doctor’s office might not drive patients. But patients typically spend a lot of time in waiting rooms, so a doctor offering Wi-Fi could have an advantage over one who does not.
"It’s almost like a statement of professionalism that you’re with the new technology and the latest advancements," Gasowski said.


text:
New Adventures by Disney excursion tours Hollywoodby Leah Zanolla
Nov 10, 2011
Adventures by Disney has announced a new excursion that will take guests on a tour of Disney highlights in Hollywood. The "Lights...Camera...Magic!" tour will be a one-day experience that will include a tour of the Walt Disney Studios, the Disney Archives and a chance to shop at the Studio Store. After lunch at the Studio Commissary, board a bus to Hollywood for a walking tour and behind the scenes tour of either Grauman's Chinese Theater or the Kodak Theater. The day will end with a private reception in Malibu at the famed beachfront restaurant, Gladstone's. This excursion can be booked as an add-on to a stay at one of the Disneyland Resort hotels, or on your own by calling 866-363-4763. The first tour will take place December 20, 2011 and will run on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays through March 2, 2012. The price is $199 for adults and $189 for children ages 3-9 (not recommended for children under 3).
- News Source
- Subscribe to receive DIS Updates and News by email!
- News Feed
- Last Updated: Oct 19, 2014 - 9:25:27 AM
Other Disneyland News Stories
- Club 33 members upset about more changes to benefits
Club 33 members are upset about increased annual dues and decreased benefits.
- New Anaheim transportation hub to open next month
A new Anaheim transportation hub is scheduled to open in early December.
- Last surviving child of Knott's founder dies
Marion Knott, youngest daughter of Knott's Berry Farm founders Walter and Cordelia Knott, passed away recently at age 92.
- Knott's Berry Farm announces new 4-D attraction
Knott's Berry Farm has announced Voyage of the Iron Reef, a new interactive ride set to open Spring 2015.
- Superheroes take over the inaugural Avengers half marathon
Runners dressed in costume for the inaugural running of the Avengers Superheroes Half Marathon this weekend in Anaheim.


text:
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 16 – Russian company Betmaster is the latest entrant into the lucrative Kenyan market, launching in Nairobi as its first African home with plans of expanding to Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana.
The company hinges on the campaign of responsible betting and offers a unique user friendly platform for passionate sport fans.
The betting firm will have several user-friendly initiatives such as Betmaster news, a weekly newsletter that the firm will be making available every week both online and published inside one of the leading newspapers on Saturdays.
The publication will offer advice, detailed analysis, statistics and betting tips on all major leagues that will allow Kenyans to make informed decisions when betting.
Betmaster new markets director, Thanos Marinos noted that Africa has become a hub for a lot of foreign investments contributing favorably to economic development and Kenya is one of the 3 largest betting markets in Africa.
“Our business will be guided by our ethos of innovativeness and responsible betting. Betmaster Kenya market is launching in tandem with Betmaster Mozambique so all of us, from the shareholders to the management and the customer service employees, are very excited and proud to see our brand positioned strongly in Africa,” Marinos said during the company’s launch.
He also disclosed that the company will look to expand its wings to DRC and Uganda.
The main drive for the company is to ensure that their clients get a safe and trusted environment where they can place their bets and win via their website betmaster.co.ke and sms-based betting options.


text:
President, Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday in Abuja stated that his administration remains resolute in empowering workers of textile and garment industry in Nigeria.
The president made this remark at the 31 annual national education conference organized by the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN).
The president applauded the Union for her show of sportsmanship that has ensured a harmonious working relationship with the government thereby leading to increased productivity. The president who was represented by Prof Josiah Ajiboye, Registrar, Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria challenged other labour leaders to emulate the model of textile and garment workers.
“Today, I congratulate your Union of the occasion of the 31 annual education conference. It is commendable that your Union devotes significant resources to the education of the members on the right way to fit since we started in 1989.
“There is no doubt that your Unions rise in first state in the continues education of members and they contributed to the well acknowledged, mature and fledging industrial relations system in the textile and garment industry. I am delighted to know that despite the past challenges facing textile sector, industrial peace and harmony has remained intact.
“They have not been a single national strike and work stoppage in the textile industry. It is commendable that through industrial bargaining and regular social dialogue with your employers, your Unions have reportedly signed about 45 nationally agreements as a way of caring for the members. As Nigerian industrial relations are above the challenges of avoidable disputes and strikes among workers, I call on other unions and employers of labour to emulate your model of a peaceful contestation and cooperation between workers and employers in the textile industry.
“During the last June 12 democracy celebration, I made known the decision of the government to create one hundred million jobs in a decade and the Nigerian Union of textile and garment factory have the capacity to transform Nigeria rural economy and we found that the sector is already creating more than 2million jobs as earlier envisaged.
“Our borders are porous and must be effectively manned which is what this government is trying to do. I want you to note that everything is being done by this government to increase our internally generated revenue.
“The federal government signed unprecedented Mous between the service Chiefs of uniform services and the textile and garment manufacturer for the enforcement of the executive order 003. I’m happy to tell you that both military and paramilitary are keying into the local initiatives in making sure that they patronize our local textile and garment industry for their uniforms. The existing 40,000 textile and garment workers must be trained and retrain. I want to use this opportunity to call on the CBN and ITF to collaborate with your Union in providing special funding for your members” he said
The secretary of the Union, Comrade Issa Aremu congratulated the president for his efforts in revatlizing the textile and garment factory, he however challenged government to be more result oriented.
“Next year Nigeria will be 60 years, I think we need to show that evidence of independence. Government have to double up. When China was 60, China ran the fastest rail service ever known in the world. At 60, China has uplifted close to 500 million people out of poverty. At 60, China has gone to the moon. At 60, China is fast developing in terms of stability. At 60, China is producing what it consumes and consuming what it produced. At 60, China have evolved very strong policies against corruption. Some of the stories we hear in Nigeria, if it were to be China, some of these criminals who looted public funds will not be alive today. What is good for China is also good for Nigeria. On Kogi and Bayelsa elections, I want to say today that votes must count” he concluded


text:
Editor’s note: This article is part of an ongoing franchise series, which highlights brands that are new to or aggressively expanding via franchising. Is your restaurant starting to franchise? Email us at [email protected].
When Mike Layne attended Texas A&M in the 1990s, he noticed that College Station, Texas, was missing something. He couldn’t find any good chicken tender places. So in 1994, he opened a small restaurant, the first Layne’s Chicken Fingers, across the street from the university, said Layne’s COO Samir Wattar.
In 2017, Garret Reed, an experienced restaurant executive, and his business partner Matt O’Reilly bought the brand with the intention to franchise. At that point, the company had three restaurants. Reed and O’Reilly began opening new locations in Texas, including Dallas-Fort Worth.
A year later, Wattar came across the restaurant brand when a location opened near his home in Frisco, Texas.
“What attracted me the most was the environment [and] how I felt when I walked into the restaurant, and the way the employees were behaving and reacting to my visit,” he said. “When I tried the food, that’s what sold me the most. … I became a regular.”
Wattar met Layne’s owners through a friend and became chief operating officer in 2021. He has experience in restaurant operations, training, supply chain and franchise development. Prior to Layne’s, he worked at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop as VP of supply chain and franchise development. He also was an executive at Mooyah’s Burgers, Fries and Shakes and helped grow the brand from 32 units to over 100, he said.
Since joining the company, Wattar helped prepare the brand to aggressively franchise. That meant going back to the basics and ensuring that it can best service not just the customers, but also the franchisee with operational, marketing and supply chain support. For example, its College Station franchisee had a different distributor than the Dallas-Fort Worth operator, which Wattar streamlined so the brand has only one vendor and one distributor, he said. Layne’s Chicken Fingers’ sister company Main & Main Capital Group, a real estate and development company founded in 2004 that has developed fast casual brands, provides expertise for real estate.
The company also built a robust training program for managers that is about four weeks long. It also offers a weeklong training for franchisees within a corporate location to show the operator everything about the brand.
Inside the Layne’s Chicken Fingers menu
Layne’s Chicken Fingers adds breading to its tenders instead of batter, which COO Samir Wattar said helps create crispiness.
The restaurant offers five sauces, three of which are made in-house — Layne’s sauce, honey mustard and ranch — as well as jalapeno ranch and barbecue. In 2021, the company added spicy chicken tenders, which makes up 20% of its sales mix as of March, Wattar said.
The manager training, which is completed at Layne’s Chicken Fingers’ headquarters in Dallas, takes the manager through every job from back office tasks, which involves learning the store’s food and labor costs, to on-the-job training such as how to greet guests and how to fry and serve the chicken.
Managers are also trained on the meaning behind the chain’s logo, dubbed Astro Chicken, of a chicken wearing a space helmet. The image symbolizes the zaniness of a chicken, which tries to fly,but can’t, to the seriousness of taking on and completing a mission like flying into space, Wattar said.
Astro Chicken also falls within its four brand pillars: “hot food fast,” “perfect every time,” “15 to one” (meaning service has to be 15 times better than the food) and “everything we do is over the top.” The last pillar means that everything the company does, from how it treats its employees to how it serves its guests and franchisees, exceeds expectations, he said.
Customer service is a core component of the company’s culture. Employees aren’t given scripts on what to say to customers and are expected to act naturally, Wattar said. If they see a mother with a stroller coming in the door, an employee typically goes to help them with the door. If a customer ordered two or three meals, a staff member will typically help the customer carry the bags to the car, Wattar said. At the drive-thru, they are conversational, saying things like “How can I kick it up for you today?”
The brand, which now has 10 units, started selling franchised units last year and has since sold 63 units to eight operators, Wattar said. One of its newest Houston locations, which opened in a former liquor store in March, offers drive-thru only service — a first for the system.
The brand will also open in inline, endcap and drive-thru locations depending on the real estate parcel and what is around it. For example, a franchisee found a 950-square-foot inline location, which is much smaller than the average Layne’s Chicken Fingers location, which is around 2,200 square feet with a drive-thru. But this format was similar to other restaurants in the area, so Layne’s bought the site and it functions more like a fast casual, Wattar said.
Development plans: Layne’s Chicken Fingers’ goal is to have 50 restaurants open by 2027, Wattar said. While the company is selling units outside of Texas, it would like to sell out the state as it has done in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin. Its first restaurant outside of Texas is expected to open in May next to the University of West Virginia. It has also sold units in Pittsburgh, Northern Virginia and Madison, Wisconsin, he said.
Ideal franchisees: The company partners with multi-unit operators that commit to a minimum of three units, Wattar said. When it first meets a prospective operator, Layne’s Chicken Fingers assesses whether the franchisee has the infrastructure, financial wherewithal and passion to support the brand.
Franchise quick facts
- Minimum net worth: $750,000
- Minimum liquidity: $250,000
- Franchise fee: $35,000
- Royalty fee: 5%
- Marketing fee: 2%


text:
The more people browse the web, the more digital footprints they will create.
These are the data that can be used by advertisers to track users wherever they go on the web. Ads are the economy of the web. But when it comes to privacy, trackers are more often work in mysterious ways that may in certain times, violate people's privacy.
Apple has long touted its approach in preserving its users' privacy.
Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) allowed a few exceptions when it was introduced back in 2017, and websites were able to use those exceptions to identify users based on what was being blocked and track their activity.
Having made its iOS more polished that its Android counterpart in terms of maintaining users' privacy, the company since iOS 13.1 has introduced stricter third-party cookie blocking features that prevents websites from identifying Safari users and tracking their web activity.
And in iOS and iPadOS 13.4 and Safari 13.1 on macOS, Apple takes this a step further by making ITP to block all third-party cookies by default.
This move shows how Apple is cracking down on any effort to circumvent tracking prevention.
According to Apple engineer John Wilander in a WebKit blog post.
As Apple is becoming a privacy-focused company, more than ever before, making Safari to block all third-party cookies by default will prevent advertisers from following and tracking the web browser's users around the web.
Most Safari users won't notice the changes, as ITP has been doing this in some capacity since it was first launched.
"It might seem like a bigger change than it is. But we’ve added so many restrictions to ITP since its initial release in 2017 that we are now at a place where most third-party cookies are already blocked in Safari," the Apple engineer added.
Anti-tracking measures aren't anything new.
The Tor Browser for example, was the very first web browser to actually feature a full third-party cookie blocking by default. Then there was Brave, which was followed by Mozilla Firefox, which also included 'Enhanced Tracking Protection' from websites trying to do cryptojacking on visitors' computer.
Safari in joining the club marks a huge change that may disrupt how advertisers advertise and how publishers earn money from showing ads, given that Safari is already conquering a healthy 18% share of the global browser market.
Besides the third-party cookie blocker, Safari also limits local storage for websites' all script-writables for just one week, after which the data will be automatically deleted.
This move could potentially break Offline Web Apps, indicating Apple never really wanted to support them.
Google for its part, has also made a similar commitment to block user tracking via third-party cookies in Chrome, but has planned to achieve that by 2022.
The company can in fact do it sooner if it really wanted to, but it's the advertisers that have asked it in an open letter to drop the idea altogether, because the move would "choke off the economic oxygen from advertising that startups and emerging companies need to survive."
As a workaround, there can be an alternative approach to successfully replace blocking third-party cookies and make advertisers happy, but at the same time capable of protecting user privacy.
After all, Google lives on ads. And by blocking ads, Google is literally choking itself by blocking trackers.


text:
“We are aiming to issue 100,000 accounts in Zambia before December 2018. We are currently in talks with a potential sponsor bank, with whom we hope that we would be able to expand to other African countries,” the team said.
Zazu will have a prepaid card with a companion app for users to tack spending and control on the card. The card will cost $2 with a monthly subscription of $2. The bank works simply. Users download Zazu, register and order their Zazu cards. Then they top up their Zazu account with their existing credit or debit card, and get ready to access all of the features of a cutting edge digital only account.
“Once the card is in your hands, you just activate it by following the instructions provided. Once activated, the Zazu card can be used at 44 million locations in over 220 countries worldwide,” says the firm on its site.
Users can set spending goals, see where they are spending their money and know exactly how much is left on their card, right from the iOS or Android phone app.
Zazu will also have cash deposits at participating retailers, Zoona, MTN, Airtel wallets or buying Zazu vouchers from distributors.


text:
Singer Cheryl Cole designs lippy named Red Passion
Cheryl Cole has launched her own lipstick for charity.
The bright L’Oreal cosmetic has been named Red Passion – a shade Chezza thought about carefully when designing the limited edition must-have.
‘I chose one I felt would flatter most hair and skin types, and is the red that everyone wants in their make-up bag,’ says Cheryl, 28.
Geordie Cheryl launched her charity, which helps needy teenagers in the North East, last February.
‘Too many young people grow up thinking no-one cares and don’t believe they can make anything of themselves,’ says Cheryl.
‘They have so much potential – but can go off the rails without the right care and support.
‘I want my foundation to help them realise their potential and get their lives on track.’
MORE PHOTOS Cheryl Cole looking red hot at the Elle Style Awards 2011>>


text:
The nearly 10 crore farmers who hold kisan credit cards will soon be able to use their card as a deposit account and a debit card.
This will help the government scale up its financial inclusion plan quickly without relying on bank accounts alone.
KCC, which has been instrumental in faster delivery of credit to farmers, is like an overdraft account with a bank that has to be operated through a cheque book or withdrawal slip. The card is used only to store the details of the account.
"We are working on revamping the current concept of KCC. It is aimed at providing more financial freedom to farmers who can use this at various point of sales," said a finance ministry official, requesting anonymity.
The revamped card will have features of both credit card and deposit account.
"This would reduce the need for multiple accounts in the bank," said the official.
Banks will give interest credit to farmers with credit balances in KCCs to encourage them to remit farm sale proceeds into their KCC account.
"Today, farmers avail the full credit amount in one go and end up paying higher interest amount. If it becomes a debit card, they will use it as and when required and pay substantially lower interest burden," said UC Sarangi, former chairman of Nabard, or the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development.
For the source of this story, click here.
Do you know more about this story? Contact us anonymously through this link.


text:
Walmart, a ruthless retailer known for abusing employees and pulverizing local businesses, just installed Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom onto its board of directors. And why the hell not? Walmart is desperate for some Silicon Valley magic to rub off on its burdened brand.
Wal-Mart has been shoring up its e-commerce operations, aiming to ward off competition from Amazon.com Inc. and squeeze more growth from the Internet. It redesigned its website last month to be more compatible with tablets and mobile devices and said it was modernizing the technology used to run its search engine and recommendation tools.
"Wal-Mart is investing in e-commerce capabilities through talent, technology and fulfillment," Chairman Rob Walton said in the statement. "Kevin's passion and deep knowledge of social media align with our focus to engage customers through our digital and physical channels."
Saying a kid who made an app for filtering pictures of dogs and street art is ready to help lead the world's biggest retailer is like saying the co-founder of WhatsApp is qualified to head a multinational telecommunications giant. But when you have to spin slave labor in the age of social media, it helps to have the man who runs social networks on your side.


text:
When the Nord N10 5G and Nord N100 were announced last October in Europe, OnePlus disclosed that the two budget phones will arrive in North America later. Nearly three months after that and OnePlus is finally bringing the two new phones to the continent.
The two phones will be available starting January 15 according to a tweet by the OnePlus US account. The OnePlus Nord N10 5G will be available in a single configuration – 6GB RAM + 128GB – and a single color variant – Midnight Ice for $299.99. The OnePlus Nord N100 which is a 4G phone will be available with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage and in Midnight Frost for $179.99.
You can sign up for Early Access and get 10% off the Nord series between the 5th and 15th of January. It appears OnePlus will also sell the phone a week earlier to lucky buyers.
The official OnePlus US website states that the phones will be available in 2 days. Those who purchase the Nord N10 5G will get a free pair of OnePlus buds Z while those who purchase the Nord N100 will get a free pair of OnePlus Bullets Wireless Z.
The Nord N10 5G has a 6.49-inch LCD display with an FHD+ resolution and a 90Hz refresh rate. There is a hole in the top left corner of the screen for a 16MP front-facing camera while the back is home to a quad-camera setup that consists of a 64MP primary camera, an 8MP ultrawide angle camera, a 2MP macro camera, and a 2MP depth sensor.
Inside the phone is a Snapdragon 690 processor that draws juice from a 4300mAh battery with support for 30W fast charging. You also get a rear-mounted fingerprint scanner, NFC, an audio jack, stereo speakers, a MicroSD card slot, and a USB-C port. OnePlus ships it with OxygenOS 10.x based on Android 10.
The OnePlus Nord N100 is a 4G device with a 6.52-inch HD+ 90Hz screen and a punch hole for an 8MP camera. It has a Snapdragon 460 processor, a 5000mAh battery, and support for 18W fast charging. A 13MP triple camera setup is on the back along with a fingerprint scanner. It also has a USB-C port, stereo speakers, and an audio jack but no NFC. It runs Android 10 out of the box but will get updated to Android 11 along with the Nord N10.
ALWAYS BE THE FIRST TO KNOW – FOLLOW US!


text:
The Shapermint CMO believes Kim Kardashian West’s Skims is one of his company’s greatest assets.
Kim Kardashian West and Massimiliano Tirocchi seem to be unlikely compatriots: She has 246 million Instagram followers; he has 2,164. Every time she leaves her Calabasas mansion, she makes tabloid headlines; when Tirocchi leaves his Montevideo, Uruguay apartment, he walks down the street as a brown-haired passerby. Yet, they’ve both built major shapewear brands, and Tirocchi’s direct-to-consumer marketplace, Shapermint, made $150 million in 2020 revenue, while Skims made a comparable $145 million.
Tirocchi, 28, cofounded Shapermint in 2018 (a year before Kardashian West launched her shapewear company) not from experience with paparazzi-friendly undergarments but by studying purchase decision data from the drop shipping company he founded as an academically unmotivated student at Universidad ORT Uruguay. Upon realizing that shapewear items like camisoles and leggings were among the most popular items sold, he identified a $70 billion shapewear market opportunity.
Today, the bootstrapped company employs 250 employees (all of whom were remote before it was the norm) and, according to Tirocchi, grew revenue by 73% from 2019 to 2020 by selling legacy shapewear brands Wacoal, Hanes, Maidenform, Bali and its own Shapermint offerings. While a Skims bodysuit retails for $68, Shapermint’s Empetua version sells for $27.99 and has helped the three-year-old company capture 20% of the U.S. women’s shapewear market with 4.4 million customers, most of whom are young moms, representing the millennial customer responsible for a large portion of sales across the industry.
“We were able to grow from $0 to $200 million in two years because the core of the business is profitable customer acquisition,” says Tirocchi, who grew the company to $250 in sales from its 2018 inception. “We are reading data and combining that with creative to figure out how we communicate.”
Tirocchi credits his success as Shapermint’s cofounder and chief marketing officer to his multinational upbringing: He was born in Italy and lived in Belgium, Argentina and Uruguay before 18 because his father worked in the governmental consulate. This forced the 2021 Retail & Ecommerce Forbes 30 Under 30 alum to become socially nimble and focus his energy on developing friendships and entrepreneurial ventures outside his ever-changing classroom.
He started his first company, Bloglea—a network of 15 Spanish-language blogs dedicated to things like cooking, family, games and cars—in 2012 at the age of 18. Through his business studies at Universidad ORT Uruguay, he met Santiago Zabala and Lucas Vera, who converged on the idea to monetize Bloglea by selling advertising. Making between $10,000 and $30,000 per month, the cofounders looked at companies like unicorn Warby Parker, and aimed to do for shapewear what Warby Parker did for eyeglasses. The trio applied the network model they’d developed with Bloglea to ecommerce, calling the parent company Trafilea and drop shipping products ranging from bras to towels, and selling them via dedicated websites to customers around the world.
The three noticed their shapewear website—called Shapermint—carrying revenues for the company. Taking feedback from customers, they invested heavily in Facebook ads, spending up to six-figures per day and moved employees to work exclusively on Shapermint. Today the company spends over $100,000 per day on Facebook advertising and has reached 6 million people through the platform.
“We saw shapewear as an untapped industry. We have competitors, Spanx being the most famous one, but their price is high and they weren’t reaching new audiences as they were selling their product in a certain way,” says Tirocchi. “Our approach, it’s different because we start by listening to the consumers. We noticed they didn’t want to have hundreds of products; they couldn’t find comfortable shapewear—and it was expensive.”
Though Shapermint had its best year ever in 2020, Shapewear, as an industry, was rocked by the pandemic with overall sales decreasing by 36%, according to NPD apparel industry analyst Kristen Classi-Zummo. While industry-wide sales have rebounded to 2019 levels, the top-selling products have changed. Rather than waist cinchers and corsets, people are purchasing tanks, thongs and leggings as they search for versatile products that fit into a work-from-home and sometimes-leave-home lifestyle. “Dressing today is not about looking more formal; it’s about looking more polished,” says Classi-Zummo. “Shapewear came from this restrictive background—I think it’s empowering women now. Women are taking control of this category by rooting it in comfort and showing off natural curves.”
In 2018, before the world learned that Kim Kardashian West enjoys loafing around her house in a corset, shapewear still had a large degree of shame associated with it. For consumers, shapewear conformed female bodies to societal standards of beauty, attaching a degree of ugliness for consumers who felt pressure to mold their figures into cinched waists as the garments reeked of 1950s marketing promises of “curbing curves.” Shapermint’s highest performing ads promise quite the opposite: “I’ve never felt this comfortable wearing a bra,” says a model in one Facebook ad as she poses in a full coverage wire-free bra.
He sees Kim Kardashian not as a threat, but as an ally. “When you have that type of celebrity pushing and selling a product, it makes it more normalized,” he says. “Since she got started, many more people are interested in the category.”


text:
July 24, 2012
German automaker Mercedes-Benz is letting fans interact with its new A-Class models as an inaugural partner of the SimCity Social Facebook game.
Consumers on Facebook can add branded game pieces such as a car factory, billboard and Mercedes showroom filled with A-Class models to their virtual cities. Luxury brand gaming efforts seem to be a push to reach a very young demographic and therefore may not increase dealership visits and sales.
“Mercedes is aiming at a younger, entry-level car buyer who aspires to own a luxury automobile, and is using the game as a tool to alert this younger audience about the availability of the A-Class car,” said John Casey, founder of Freshfluff, New York.
“Further, the strategy is to engage this younger demographic via a social game and platform where they can be reached cost-effectively,” he said.
“The game will probably resonate more with a younger crowd in Europe since that is where the car is more prevalent, but the beauty of social games is that if the game itself is fun and worthwhile, that should virally spread across the pond to a younger audience in the United States, and so will word about the availability of the A-Class.”
Mr. Casey is not affiliated with Mercedes, but agreed to comment as an industry expert.
Mercedes did not respond before press deadline.
SimCity Social lets players build their own cities with virtual currency and interact with friends as “neighbors” in the game.
Until September, players have the opportunity to buy Mercedes buildings for their cities and see A-Class vehicles driving on their streets.
Mercedes dealership in SimCity Social
The automaker chose to market via the game due to the parallels between the A-Class’ new-generation design and technology and to reach its audience via social media, per Mercedes.
The game and Mercedes pieces are available internationally.
Dealer game piece
SimCity Social offered to give consumers a preview of what is to come in the PC version of the game scheduled to be released in 2013.
Get in the game
A few other luxury automakers have partnered with third-party game developers to push model ranges.
For instance, Lexus’ online campaign for the U.S. Open tournament included a free virtual golf game on the U.S. Open’s Web site.
Throughout the game, players saw branded tee marketers, flagsticks and wind indicators and each avatar wore a golf shirt and hat with the Lexus logo. In addition, commercials for the Lexus RX F SUV played to demonstrate Lexus’ “pursuit of perfection." (see story).
Also, British automaker Bentley Motors updated its vehicle offerings on the Sports Car Challenge mobile application to include its Bentley Continental GT V8 that allows iPad users to virtually test drive the model.
Consumers can find a dealer, go for a test drive and pick out parts of a Bentley vehicle before they take it out for a virtual spin (see story).
Meanwhile, high-end department store chain Nordstrom often reaches out to young consumers via mobile gaming.
The retailer used gaming app “Draw Something” to raise awareness for its scholarship program (see story).
In addition, Nordstrom targeted aspirational consumers through mobile banner ads for its Nordstrom Rack locations in the popular mobile app "Words With Friends" (see story).
Gaming will probably help brands increase visibility, but may not directly increase sales.
“Social gaming is another online branding opportunity,” Mr. Casey said. “I am not completely sold on social gaming being an effective method to sell more cars or products for a luxury brand.
“If the goal is to nudge a younger demographic and get them to at least become familiar with your brand and product, then it is a fun way to create a little excitement, but that would be the extent of what to expect from a social game,” he said.
However, Mercedes’ decision to be involved in social gaming is to be more engaging to younger consumers than digital advertising.
“It does add an element of fun around the brand and allows the Mercedes name the opportunity to spread via social media among a younger audience,” Mr. Casey said. “This also makes the brand more hip and relevant to younger demographics.”
Tricia Carr, editorial assistant on Luxury Daily, New York


text:
Update from Mobile Technology Advisor
Summertime, for many of the organisations within the Karten Network marks a time to enjoy some well-earned rest, to reflect on all that was achieved, the lessons learned and to start thinking about the future. Apple and Google at their respective developer conferences have announced what they have install for the coming year.
From Google we can expect to see a faster more secure version of Android, codenamed Nougat. This latest version amongst many improvements and new features such as multi-window Support, enhanced notifications and new emojis also has an improved accessibility features. Vision settings are now also directly on the Welcome screen for new device setup.
Looking a bit further into the future, Android Nougat supports integration with Google’s new mobile Virtual Reality platform, Daydream. It will be exciting to see what evolves from Daydream in the next year or two.
There have been more developments on Google’s Project Ara – aimed at developing a modular smartphone. This system would allow you to easily interchange components rather than purchasing a new phone. A beta version of this is expected to be released later this year.
Google also announced “Android Instant Apps” which allows people to access apps, or strictly speaking a part of an app that they need to complete a task without actually installing an app. This opens up a number of possibilities for both users and developers and hints at a potential change to how all the major app stores will function in the future. Apple too has announced changes to its app store model recently.
Lastly, Google announced two new apps, Allo and Duo, available for Android and iOS in the coming months. Allo is a feature rich messenger app with an accompanying intelligent chat bot. While it may be a little unnerving to have an artificial intelligence helper as part of your conversations, it is expected that this will make conversations quicker and easier – time will tell. Allo is associated with a mobile number so no Google account will be needed to use it, this does however mean, at least for now it is limited to mobile phones only.
Duo is Google’s video chat app, similar to Apple’s Facetime app. Duo was built by the same team that created WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) and is reported to have extremely good video compression and data handling allowing calls to made even on low bandwidth networks. Duo’s has an easy to use interface and a feature called "Knock Knock" that allows the person you’re calling to see a video preview of you before they even answer. As with Allo, Duo is associated with a mobile number so no Google account will be needed to use it.
From Apple we can expect to see improvements to Apple Watch. WatchOS 3 introduces a new Dock for easier access to apps and the ability to launch apps instantly. Navigation has been improved and there is a new Control Center. But most significantly, for the first time ever wheelchair users are specifically catered for. WatchOS 3 measures wheelchair pushes contributing to all-day calorie goals and "time to roll" instead of "time to stand" notifications.
Apple unveiled iOS 10, described by Apple CEO Tim Cook as the "biggest release ever". A large number of improvements were made to apps, services, Messages, Siri, Photos, Maps, Apple Music, News, Apple Pay, Control Center etc. The Lock screen has been redesigned with 3D-touch enabled notifications. Messages have been improved to include background animations, bubble effects, rich links, annotate photos and videos, hidden "invisible ink" messages and predictive emoji.
It's also now possible to delete almost all pre-installed apps that are unneeded – although technically speaking they are hidden rather than deleted.
The keyboard in iOS 10 now has contextual predictions making intelligent suggestions based on information like location and calendar availability or contacts.
Apple announced a number of accessibility improvements. tvOS used in Apple TV is now switch accessible.
New display and colour adjustments including the option to tint the entire display on a Mac, Apple TV, and iOS device, has been added. This increases the contrast and reading ability.
Taptic Time is a new VoiceOver feature on watchOS 3 uses a series of distinct vibrations to silently and discreetly help someone tell the time.
iOS 10 has a new Magnifier feature that enables someone to use the camera to magnify objects in their physical environment. Various colour filters can be enabled to increase contrast of the image.
iOS 10 now allows for Software TTY calls to be placed without any additional hardware. In addition to a new built-in TTY-specific QuickType keyboard and predictions. Finally, Improvements have been made in iOS 10 to Speak Selection and Speak Screen.
iOS 10 is expected to be released later this year. However, there are already significant changes in iOS 9.3, most notably the focus on new features and tools specifically designed to support education. This primarily consists of, Apple School Manager, Managed Apple IDs, Shared iPad, and the new Classroom app.
The Classroom app (available in the App Store) is a new iPad app that is installed on the teacher’s iPad and uses a combination of Bluetooth and wireless to guide learning, share work and manage student devices.
Apple School Manager, a web portal of tools hosted by Apple that enables you to support the deployment, use and management of Apple devices. It also allows you to create Managed Apple ID’s. These are designed to meet the needs of educational institutions and are owned and controlled by each school/college.
The new Shared iPad feature which enables multiple students to share the same iPad using their Managed Apple ID. This functionality is enabled as part of the device enrolment process and most probably used in combination with your Mobile Device Management (MDM) system. Ideally with a local OS X Server's Caching Server. There is still some uncertainly in practice how many users can truly be supported per device due to storage constraints, especially if the Managed Apple ID iCloud accounts are limited to 5GB of storage each.
Whether an attempt to counter Google’s rapidly growing market share, particularly with the use of Chromebooks in the US educational setting, or purely an initiative driven by Apple CEO Tim Cook one thing is clear, the changes in iOS 9.3 and iOS 10 marks a significant change to support the use of iPads within the educational context.
It would be great if there are centres that could share their experience and any resources they have with Apple Education and Mobile Device Management systems. These would be a welcome addition to the Karten Network Mobile Technology Resource. Or you can email me directly: email@example.com


text:
Zelda fans already got a stellar new game with “Tears of the Kingdom” this year, but Nintendo just dropped another exciting nugget of news: the gaming giant is working on a live-action movie based on the Legend of Zelda franchise. Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the thirty-seven-year-old franchise, announced the news this evening. “I have been […]
© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.


text:
techno.rentetan.com – Huawei has announced that on 29 July it is going to present its next “flagship products” and it’s generally expected that the Huawei P50 series can finally be launched.
Huawei was expected to announce its new phone line in spring, as usual, but it was a bit different this year.. The manufacturer confirmed it is delayed, but the phone would be released as soon as possible,
When’s the start?
Huawei confirmed that on 29 July 2021 its next flagship products are launched, with Huawei P50 smartphones commonly thought to include. The time is 19:30 on the Chinese website; the global times are as follows:
- San Francisco – 04:40
- New York – 07:30
- London – 12:30
- Berlin – 13:30
- New Delhi – 17:00
- Tokyo – 20:30
- Sydney – 21:30
How can I look at it?
The launch event on YouTube on the Huawei Mobile channel is expected. You will also be able to see it on the consumer site of Huawei: Consumer.Huawei.com. Both of these locations are listed at the event announcement, but no evidence of the livelihood has yet been seen.
Huawei has not also widely published the event, we suspect it is focused on China, where Weibo is widely mentioned. If we find the livestream, then we’re going to update it and host them here so you can see it.
What are we hoping for?
Just, series Huawei P50. In the first six months of 2021, there were a number of leaks, so that is no longer exactly a secret. Actually, Huawei has kissed the phone himself.
We currently expect the series to feature the flagship processors, the cameras of Leica and the OLED displays of the Huawei P50 and P50 Pro.
Since it first appeared, a lot has been said about the camera design. It looks like Huawei has an exceptional design, featuring two outstanding discs in the back of the telephone that are split multiple lenses.
You can read our dedicated feature for more information about what we know about the P50 and P50 Pro.


text:
It was an ambitious, albeit risky project.
And the project came to be seen as a failed attempt at a sustainable glassmaking process.
But the challenge to glassmakers to develop a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to produce glass was eventually made possible thanks to the work of a company called Glass-Away.
The firm has been using glassmaking techniques for nearly 20 years to produce products that are a far cry from traditional glass manufacturing.
Glass-away glass is now used in many homes and commercial buildings around the world.
It’s also been used to make some of the most expensive glass products on the market.
Here’s a look at some of Glass-Aid’s key glass products, and what the glass is made of.
Glass away: A glass-based, plastic coating for home and commercial applications (Photo: Glass-Amusements)Glass-Aways products are made from a combination of recycled glass, recycled polyurethane foam, glass beads and polystyrene.
The glass beads are designed to absorb light and reflect it back into the glass, giving the product a transparent appearance.
This process can also produce a durable, long-lasting product, said Glass-amusements founder and CEO Andrew O’Connell.
“It’s really a no-fuss way of manufacturing,” he said.
Glass-aways can also be used in the form of a “sandbag,” which is a flexible and lightweight plastic that can be stacked in a container and then covered with a layer of glass.
This can be a perfect way to add some extra insulation to your home, said O’Brien.
“It’s also a great way of using the plastic in a commercial application, where you’re really not going to have any need for glass as a building material,” he added.
The glass-averse can also make their own glass, using a process called “polyurethanes” (Photo, left: O’Donnell)”We have the most glass in the world, but that’s a problem,” said OBrien.
“So we have to go back to glass making as an engineering challenge.”
The glass industry is undergoing a renaissance, with companies like Glass-Advance being growing and innovating with the introduction of the latest technologies.
But some glassmakers are struggling to find the right materials for the glass they’re using.
“Glass is one of those things that’s really in flux and in flux, and it’s hard to get a grip on what the right material is going to be,” said GlassaWay’s O’Connor.
“If you have a good glass-making process, and you’ve got a good supplier and you have an industrial design process, you can come up with a good material, but if you don’t have that kind of process, it’s going to get pretty expensive.”
Glass-Amuses CEO O’Connors team is making an effort to improve the glass supply chain to make sure they are producing the right glass products at the right time.
Glass products are being used to replace glass that is being cut from the bottom of the glass bowl and the sides of the bowl.
The team is working with the U.S. government to reduce the cost of glass, and to increase the availability of glass in America.
O’Connell said Glass Amusements is not currently involved in any commercial glassmaking projects.
But Glass-ameruses partners are working with major glassmakers, such as the glass makers of Bocce Ball, to produce new glass products.
O’Leary said he hopes the new products will also be more sustainable and have a longer shelf life.
“Our customers have to be very cautious in terms of what they use,” he told ABC News.
“We don’t want them to take it out on the world.”
Read more from ABC News:Glass-Aid, Glass-Artisans in the News:


text:
Their posts and operative tasks will be delegated to the company’s namesake designer and to Daniele Corvasce.
— Jan 24, 2014
Executive previously served as the company’s chief operating officer and chief financial officer.
— Jan 23, 2014
The Bulgari heir and former head of LVMH’s watches and jewelry division will become an adviser to Bernard Arnault.
— Jan 20, 2014
The outgoing executive will receive cash payments totaling $6.5 million, representing two times his base salary and target bonus.
— Jan 13, 2014
Edwin Lewis, who’s been chairman and ceo of the company since its acquisition by Falconhead, will leave after a brief transition period.
— Jan 7, 2014
The first chief executive officer of the Italian Camera della Moda discusses Milan's fashion industry with WWD.
— Jan 6, 2014
The well-known marketing and branding expert created his consultancy firm, Emotional Branding LLC, in December 2007.
— Jan 5, 2014


text:
Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger: Hulu Owners 'Committed to Selling'
Speaking on the sidelines of the annual Allen & Co. gathering of media and tech moguls in Sun Valley Wednesday, he said it’s a “good time to be in the content business.”
NEW YORK - Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger said on the sidelines of the Allen & Co. gathering of media and tech moguls in Sun Valley, Idaho on Wednesday that the owners of online video service Hulu are “committed to selling,” Bloomberg News reported.
It was the first public comment by an executive of one of the Hulu owners since news emerged that the joint venture is on the auction block.
Hulu owners Disney, News Corp., Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal and private equity firm Providence Equity Partners recently started a sales process after being approached by Yahoo about a deal. Some have suggested that they could simply look at bids, but not sell - a notion that Iger seemed to shrug off on Wednesday.
Iger declined to comment on the specifics of discussions or the possible deal timing. “I don’t want to comment on any aspect of the deal,” he said, according to Bloomberg. “It’s a good time to be in the content business though, the branded content business.”
Bankers for Hulu have met with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and others that make up a field of about 10 potential interested parties. According to Bloomberg, AT&T has also been approached.
Analysts have said that a sale could bring more than $2 billion.
Spokesmen for NBCUniversal, News Corp. and Providence Equity Partners declined comment. A Hulu spokeswoman also had no comment.
- 'Lindsay' Recap: Lohan Attempts Career Comeback With Self-Proclaimed 'New Chapter'
- 'How I Met Your Mother': Cristin Milioti Debunks Morbid Finale Theory (Video)'
- Josh Duhamel to Co-Star in Vince Gilligan's 'Battle Creek'
- A Train, a Trestle and 60 Seconds to Escape: How 'Midnight Rider' Victim Sarah Jones Lost Her Life
- 'Divergent' Star Shailene Woodley: The Next Jennifer Lawrence?
- MOST SHARED
- MOST POPULAR


text:
It’s been a big year so far in Australia for fashion meeting compassion.
Perth-born fashionista Kym Ellery has become the latest in a slew of designers who have pledged to drop fur.
Following intense pressure from PETA, Ellery announced that from 2017, the label will no longer feature items made with fur. This came after tens of thousands of PETA supporters signed a petition and bombarded Ellery’s social media channels with anti-fur messages and the hashtag #FurIsDead.
The high end label has also withdrawn designs featuring pelts from its online and retail stores.
In July, the Telstra Perth Fashion Festival also announced it was banning fur from its entire 2016 event.
How to Help More Animals Used for Fur
Animals suffer for fur, whether they’re farmed or trapped. Killing methods on fur farms are often prolonged and extremely painful, and animals trapped in the wild can suffer for days before dying of shock, blood loss, dehydration or from attacks by predators.
Fur production also involves the use of toxic chemicals which pollute the environment.
It’s important that we keep speaking out as well as urging brands to choose kindness and stop selling items made from animal fur.
Make sure you’re an ethical fashionista by pledging to keep animal fur out of your wardrobe.


text:
Add Argentina to the list of countries potentially affected by sloppy Equifax security.
Should you trust credit monitoring company Equifax to keep your personal data safe? The answer to that question may be getting clearer. Not only did the firm suffer one of the largest data breaches in history -- 143 million people's names, social security numbers, home addresses and more hacked, click here for more info -- but experts keep managing to poke holes in the company's security.
The latest comes from Argentina, where Equifax reportedly used the word "admin" as both the username and password for an employee web portal designed to protect both employees and customers who submitted credit disputes. (It doesn't take Edward Snowden to know that's a bad idea.)
According to cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs -- perhaps best known for his role in revealing the 2013 Target data breach that resulted in the theft of around 40 million credit card numbers -- the Argentinian site was secured so poorly that anyone could theoretically impersonate an employee by simply reading their username and password off the site, or even add themselves as a new "employee" to the database.
Perhaps worse, they would have been able to read some 14,000 credit dispute complaints from ordinary Argentinian citizens, which were stored in plain text instead of being encrypted. After being contacted by Krebs about the vulnerability, the company took the portal down.
Equifax wouldn't fact-check specific details for us, but provided this statement:
We learned of a potential vulnerability in an internal portal in Argentina which was not in any way connected to the cybersecurity event that occurred in the United States last week. We immediately acted to remediate the situation, which affected a limited amount of public information strictly related to consumers who contacted our customer service center and the employees who managed those interactions. We have no evidence at this time that any consumers, customers, or information in our commercial and credit databases were negatively affected, and we will continue to test and improve all security measures in the region.
Other recent reported Equifax screw-ups include: A tool to check if you've been hacked that didn't seem to work, and a credit-monitoring site that itself appears to be hackable.
On Monday, two US senators demanded that Equifax answer detailed questions about how, precisely, Equifax was hacked, how long the company was aware, and to shed light on three Equifax executives who sold stock after the hack was discovered but before it was made public.


text:
Finnish mobile manufacturer, Nokia might be a struggling brand, but it has not stopped it from trying to be innovative in terms of its products. Nokia has now launched a few cheap devices for the users with low budget.
The company on June 6, announced the launch of three of its touch screen phones from the Asha series. Nokia released an official press statement, which mentioned that features of the phone.
The press statement from the company mentioned that the phones will have impressive gaming features and is best for those who do not plan to shell out much money for a new handset. The new handset will be available in the Indian market in the month of October this year.
But the pricing for the Indian market is yet to be revealed. The three new models are Nokia Asha 305, Nokia Asha 306 and Nokia Asha 311. The Asha 311 has a 3 inch scratch resistant capacitive glass screen with polarization filters for better visibility even in sunlight. The phone has been powered by 1 GHz processor, 3.2 mega pixel camera along with 3.5 internet capabilities. The customers of all the three new phones will get 40 EA games for free to download.


text:
Calgary company eliminating food waste while landing you free take-out
Picture this: You’re rushing to hit your favourite take-out spot before closing.
You’re a little worried that they’ll be out of their fried noodles/pizza slices/whatever it may be, by the time you walk in the front door.
Instead, you’re in luck! They’re selling whatever they have left at a discount before closing time, and you walk out of there with a nice, warm meal for a pretty penny — or even for free.
It might seem like these breaks may only happen when the stars align, but a Calgary company is working to turn that situation into a daily affair.
- See also:
GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) is an app created in an effort to connect donors (individuals, restaurants, grocers, etc.) who may be looking to get rid of a surplus of food, with buyers (individuals who want to eat said food) in a quick, easy, and affordable way.
The way it works is that restaurants with leftovers that they’re looking to get rid of, or people who are trying to clear out their pantry, can put what they’re offering up on the app alongside a price-point (which can be free) and a window of time for pickup.
That offer is then broadcast out to buyers, who have the chance to reserve the food exchange — which will be set at a $10 maximum.
If there is any payment for the food, all funds are donated to Leftover Foundation or Brown Bagging For Calgary’s Kids, according to a release from the app’s creators.
“Each year, Canadians waste 183 Kg of food per person, adding up to six million tons of food waste making it the third largest contributor to greenhouse emissions in the world behind China and the US,” said Ivonne Gamboa, CEO of GOAT, in the release.
“The app is a connecting platform that brings together restaurant owners or individuals who are looking to donate food with members of their community. GOAT offers healthier meal options near them for free or at an affordable price point.”
The idea for the app was created in Gamboa’s kitchen while packaging food to share with a family member who had recently moved to the country, the release states.
It also noted that the amount of global food waste is only increasing, with 1.3 billion tonnes of food — resulting in 3.3 billion metric tonnes of CO2 emitted into the air — every year, and GOAT is hoping to be a positive change starting right here in Calgary.
The simple truth is we all waste so much food – so why don’t we share it? From this idea, GOAT was created – as a means of connecting people,” the release states.
“We connect those with surplus food to those who will enjoy it. With busy lifestyles, a diminished sense of community and sometimes unfortunate economic downfalls, GOAT aims to bring communities and people together to achieve something extraordinary… one SHARED MEAL at a time.”
The app is currently available for download on the App Store and Google Play, and the easiest way to find it (while avoiding a few goat simulator apps, because that’s apparently a thing) is to search GOAT Share_Eat_Repeat — or simply visit the company’s website.
GOAT was one of 15 new Calgary companies featured at this year’s Startup Calgary Launch Party.


text:
- Subscribe NowLimited Time Offer
Sign Up for the Wichita Business Journal Afternoon Edition Newsletter
Send this story to a friend
Versona Accessories coming to Bradley Fair
Bradley Fair has landed another new retailer for the Wichita market, this time Versona Accessories, according to Laham Development, which owns and operates the lifestyle center on North Rock Road.
The women’s specialty retailer of jewelry, handbags, belts, scarves, hair accessories, sunglasses, footwear and more will take 7,500 square feet on the west side of The Fresh Market, which opened in June.
Both occupy the nearly 30,000 square feet formerly held by Ultimate Electronics.
Versona’s expects to open in spring and employ about 25 people, according to a news release from Laham Development.
“We’ve been watching them and had our eye on them for quite a while,” says Cathy Erickson, vice president of Laham Development.
Versona, a brand of The CATO Corp., operates 22 stores, the release says.
John Stearns covers real estate, development and banking.
- Most popular
- Dillons closing two Wichita stores
- Wichita developer Don Slawson dies
- Forbes ranks Kochs as America’s second-richest family
- Red Beans seeing 'tsunami' of customers, helping staff find other jobs
- What happens to unsold fireworks
- Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems assessing parts damage after derailment
- Recovering 737 fuselages from river could take days
- Wimbley opening second Wings and Things
- Saint Luke’s in KC to open Wichita kidney transplant program
- Why Boeing’s forecast is especially good for Wichita
Sign up to receive afternoon and morning edition newsletters and breaking news as it happens.


text:
Ocean shipping: POLA/POLB see strong June volumes
Even though year-over-year comparisons were relatively easy, June volumes at the Ports of Los Angeles (POLA) and the Port of Long Beach (POLB) turned in strong performances.
The Port of Los Angeles adjoins the separate Port of Long Beach, employs over 16000 people, and is the busiest container port in the United States. Photo courtesy of Port of Los Angeles
in the NewsIAM, IoT and the Connected Supply Chain New shipper survey reveals that small businesses face “import overhead” Happy 100th Birthday, New England Motor Freight! What a ride, chairman says U.S. rail carload and intermodal volumes are mixed for week ending February 10 Memo to Washington D.C.: Stop talking about raising the gas tax, go do it More News
POLB imports, which are primarily comprised of consumer goods, hit 262,053 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) in June for a 27.0 percent annual gain. And exports, which are primarily comprised of raw materials, were up 1.8 percent to 116,112 TEU. Total POLB shipments-at 520,100 TEU-were up 25.8 percent compared to June 2009.
At the POLA imports-at 371,888 TEU-were up 32.26 percent year-over-year, and exports-at 154,558 TEU-were up 12.64 percent year-over-year. Total POLA shipments-at 526,446-were up 25.83 percent year-over-year.
In an interview with LM, POLA Director of Communications Phillip Sanfield said June was another solid month and added that for the first six months of 2009, the POLA is up 14.99 percent—at 3,663,699 TEU—year-over-year.
“But the first have of this year has been solid, with June being exceptionally strong. It was the strongest June we have ever seen in terms of volume, including the heyday of 2006.”
While these numbers are encouraging, Sanfield said they must be viewed cautiously, as some of these volumes could be due to inventory replenishment. He added that POLA volumes have been up for four consecutive months heading into Peak Season, which has been dormant in recent years.
As for Peak Season, Sanfield is cautiously optimistic, noting there is likely to at least be some type of peak activity compared to last year, although how volumes grow over the next 90 days remains to be seen.
“We are seeing the month-to-month growth and hearing the same signals about retailers being cautious and employment numbers, housing, and credit….and that the second half of the year may not be as robust as the first half.”
The strong June performance at both ports represents an improving global trade environment. This was reflected in numbers released this week by the United States Department of Commerce, which revealed U.S. exports in May hit $152.3 billion, which was $3.5 billion more than April.
POLA Assistant Director of Communications Art Wong said in a recent interview that while there have been improvements in exports and imports in recent months, these numbers need to be viewed with caution.
“The numbers clearly show the worst is behind us-with the [trough] being 2009-and comparing this year with the same period last year, it is easy to show a little bit of improvement and make it look dramatic,” said Wong. “But it is not clear how much stronger the economy is…this year.”
About the AuthorJeff Berman, Group News Editor Jeff Berman is Group News Editor for Logistics Management, Modern Materials Handling, and Supply Chain Management Review. Jeff works and lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, where he covers all aspects of the supply chain, logistics, freight transportation, and materials handling sectors on a daily basis. Contact Jeff Berman
Subscribe to Logistics Management Magazine!Subscribe today. It's FREE!
Get timely insider information that you can use to better manage your entire logistics operation.
Start your FREE subscription today!
The Future of Retail Distribution Navigating the Reverse Supply Chain for Connected Devices View More From this Issue


text:
Free sweets wiith orders made during the Olympics
(PRWEB UK) 28 July 2012
Officestationery.co.uk has announced that for the duration of the London 2012 Olympic Games they are offering a free bag of Haribo Games Mix with every order.
With the games now upon us, the team at Office Stationery wants to brighten their customer’s day when the stationery delivery arrives with some Olympic themed sweets!
Owen Cass, a company spokesman, commented that, “We held a similar offer a couple of months back when the weather was very bad and customers were in need of some cheering up. This was a huge success and much positive customer feedback was received saying what a great idea it was.”
He continued, “Now that the Olympic Games have started just half an hour from our Head Office we have sourced some Olympic themed Haribo Games Mix sweets to help all of our customers get into the spirit of the games – who doesn’t like sweets?, even more so when they are free!”
Finishing he explained, “The offer is open to all customers with sales of any value. All they need to do is enter the Promo Code: FREEHARIBO8 at the checkout stage on the website.”
Officestationery.co.uk is a supplier of office related items including paper, pens, office furniture and electrical business equipment. They offer a bespoke printing service as an essential aid to their many business customers. The company directors have over 40 years of cumulative experience within the office supplies sector and therefore have a wealth of knowledge and experience to help you make the right choices when it comes to purchasing your office stationery.


text:
A new study by Exact Target/CoTweet finds the frequency of email, Facebook and Twitter use among US smartphone owners to be significantly higher than among those without a smartphone.
- 45% of smartphone owners check their email “constantly” during the day, vs. only 28% of non-smartphone owners
- 23% of smartphone owners check Facebook “constantly” vs. only 12% of non-smartphone owners
- 5% of smartphone owners check Twitter “constantly” vs. only 2% of non-smartphone owners
ExactTarget‘s research was based on a survey of 1,500 US Internet users adults age 15 and older, from December 2010 through January 2011. See an article from MarketingProfs for more results from the survey.


text:
The number of daily bitcoin transactions hit a fresh high over the weekend, just days after Grayscale published a report praising the effect of Ordinals on the crypto network.
On Saturday, the average number of daily transactions over the previous seven days stood at 396,350, highlighting the growing usage of the blockchain which powers the world’s leading digital asset. A day later, Ordinals set its own milestone with over 300,000 inscriptions recorded.
Late last week, the asset management company tackled the thorny topic of Ordinals, which has elicited a mixed response from the bitcoin company. The ‘Market Byte’ article said the protocol represents “one of the larger opportunities for bitcoin adoption, especially as the bitcoin network has historically been viewed as a rigid blockchain ecosystem.”
Bullish on bitcoin
Despite its short lifespan, the Ordinals protocol that lets users create NFTs on bitcoin has already made a significant impact on the network, with the number of inscriptions recently soaring past 2.5 million.
Despite its enormous success, many hard-line bitcoiners are opposed to the protocol, arguing that it clutters the blockchain and detracts from its primary use-case as a peer-to-peer digital currency.
While the Grayscale blog acknowledges these criticisms, it contends that bitcoin-based NFTs are positive for two key reasons. Namely, they boost mining fees and “potentially contribute to a cultural transformation within the bitcoin community.”
The point about mining fees is inarguable: according to Dune Analytics, miners have pocketed over $6.6 million from the trend since Ordinals launched in January. But how might Ordinals positively transform the bitcoin community, according to Grayscale?
The asset manager predicts that the success of Ordinals is “likely to promote a development-oriented community and culture in support of the bitcoin network.” In short, more interest and activity should result in better network security and an improved long-term outlook for the top cryptocurrency.
Ordinals enables users to ‘inscribe’ elements like images, text, PDFs, video, and audio files onto satoshis, the smallest denomination of bitcoin, giving those particular satoshis NFT-like status. The emergence of Ordinals has given rise to the term ‘BRC-20’, a token standard that stores a script file on the bitcoin network and permits token transactions between users.
Bitcoin’s recent hot streak
Bitcoin has enjoyed a healthy start to 2023, having climbed for four straight months through April – its longest such streak since a six-month advance to March 2021.
The top cryptocurrency has gained around 70% since last year’s low, and is hovering in the $28.5k range at the time of writing.
BRC-20 started as a late-night twitter thread that theorized a crazy idea of how to do fungible tokens on Bitcoin via the ordinals protocol.
Here we are 54 days later and BRC-20 tokens have a combined market cap of over $150M.
Building on Bitcoin is cool again. pic.twitter.com/TmKdaBpLm4
— Leonidas (@LeonidasNFT) May 1, 2023
Grayscale isn’t the only entity bullish on BTC. At last week’s Consensus 2023 conference, ex-Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan reiterated his optimistic stance, having previously predicted the currency’s value could reach $1 million by June 17. Though he rowed back on that projection, he said government money printing would continue to boost bitcoin’s value.
Geoff Kendrick, head of FX research at Standard Chartered, is a little more restrained than Srinivasan: he says the price of bitcoin could surge to $100k by the end of 2024, a consequence of banking turmoil, the next bitcoin halving, and the forecasted end of Fed rate hikes.


text:
Apple may already be working on a fix for an issue with the rose gold Apple Watch Edition model, according to a new report from 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman.
He says a source told him a particular model may be in short supply because of a "discoloration" issue, but he didn't elaborate.
The rose gold Apple Watch starts at $10,000 depending on what type of band you choose. The most expensive model can cost $17,000. That one features either a rose or yellow gold case with the Modern Buckle watchband.
Preorders for the Apple Watch start April 10, and the watch goes on sale April 24.


text:
Hyundai August 2018 US sales. Hyundai Motor America reported August sales of Hyundai– and Genesis-branded vehicles of 57,542 units, a 6 percent increase in comparison with August 2017. Retail sales for the month were up 12 percent, while fleet deliveries were down 30 percent compared with last year and less than 10 percent of total volume.
Sales by Brand
|Aug-18||Aug-17||2018 YTD||2017 YTD|
Hyundai Brand Highlights
Hyundai vehicles achieved an 8 percent gain backed by the best total August SUV and Tucson sales. Tucson set a monthly sales record for the 18th month in a row with a 19 percent improvement compared with last year. Kona sales exceeded 4,700 units and the all-new 2019 Santa Fe continues to arrive at dealers in larger numbers. The strong performance of Hyundai’s SUV lineup led to total SUV sales of 27,678 units, a 30 percent increase year-over-year and the highest August SUV sales total in company history. On the car front, Elantra achieved its fourth straight month of sales growth with 15,475 units sold, a 2 percent increase.
“Hyundai’s double digit retail sales increase is the result of our improving product mix, and the hard work of our dealer partners and sales and marketing teams,” said John Angevine, director, National Sales, Hyundai Motor America. “It’s a great sign that Hyundai is regaining its sales momentum in the second half of the year, with SUV sales nearly 50 percent of volume and car models, like Elantra standing out in its segment.”
August Product and Corporate Activities
- Redesigned Elantra Unveiled: The redesigned 2019 Elantra made a surprise appearance at the media launch event for the 2019 Santa Fe in Park City, Utah, showing off its new look and SmartSense safety technology.
- Kona Earns IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK+: The 2018 Kona (built after May 2018) was named a TOP SAFETY PICK+ by the IIHS, one of the industry’s highest safety honors.
- Sunday Night Football Sponsorship: Hyundai will have an even bigger presence this football season as the new sponsor of NBC’s Sunday Night Football Kickoff show in addition to its ongoing official car and SUV of the NFL designations.
- Pirelli World Challenge TCR Wins: Hyundai and the Bryan Herta Autosport team continued its racing success with a 1-2 finish in both races at the Utah Motorsports Campus in the PWC TCR class during the second weekend of August. The final race weekend at Watkins Glen (Sept. 1-2) saw Hyundai take home the TCR manufacturer and team championships for the season.
Hyundai Model Sales
|Vehicle||Aug-18||Aug-17||2018 YTD||2017 YTD|
title : Hyundai Motor America reports August 2018 sales
updated : September 4th, 2018
updated_iso8601 : 2018-09-04T11:52:15-04:00


text:
The U.S. administration has called on business to ensure compliance with the sanctions imposed on Russia. Washington warns that Russia can use various tactics to avoid sanctions, including through use of third countries.
The U.S. administration on Thursday, March 3, urged U.S. businesses to enforce sanctions imposed on Russia for its aggressive war against Ukraine, Reuters reported. In a joint statement, the three U.S. departments of Justice, Commerce and Treasury warned: failure to comply with sanctions could lead to prosecution or other enforcement actions.
The PRC, Armenia, Turkey and Uzbekistan could serve as “transshipment points”
The paper states that private companies should be aware of various tactics that can be used to bypass sanctions, such as the use of shell companies and aliases, or obscured shipping information. It is mentioned that countries such as China, Armenia, Turkey and Uzbekistan can be used as “transshipment points” to illegally redirect restricted goods to Russia or Belarus.
“Businesses of all stripes should act responsibly by implementing rigorous compliance controls,” the U.S. government stresses.
The West Fights Transshipment Points
According to the European Union’s statistical service Eurostat, during the first nine months of the war in Ukraine, the volume of supplies of goods from the EU to Russia decreased by 47 percent. During the same period, deliveries of European products to neighboring states such as Georgia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan increased by 48 percent. All EU countries, except for Malta and Sweden, increased their exports to Russia’s neighboring states.
Western countries are trying to combat such “transshipment points”. For example, in December, the European Union called on Turkey, which has increased its trade with Russia over the past year, to reconsider its policy. Josep Borrell, European diplomacy chief, recalled that Turkey is an EU candidate, and Brussels expects that Ankara will not help Moscow to bypass sanctions.


text:
Beetles could soon be helping to feed the world, according to new research.
The insects' larvae - known as mealworms - have been turned into meat by scientists.
Mixed with sugar, they taste just like the real thing, according to South Korean boffins.
It may soon be used in convenience foods such as sausage rolls or chicken nuggets - as a tasty source of extra protein.
The global population is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050 - and nearly 11 billion at the end of the century.
Meat is basically protein, fat and water. Alternatives are desperately needed.
Climate change will have significant implications for diet and nutrition and there is growing demand for resource-intensive animal-based products.
Project leader Dr Hee Cho, of Wonkwang University, said: "Recently, eating insects has become of interest because of the increasing cost of animal protein, as well as the associated environmental issues."
Feeding people with cows, pigs and sheep will require larger amounts of food, water and land. Creepy crawlies are edible, good for you - and much more sustainable.
Dr Ho said: "Insects are a nutritious and healthy food source with high amounts of fatty acids, vitamins, minerals, fibre and high-quality protein - which is like that of meat."
But mealworms suffer from an image problem. In many countries, eating insects isn't common - with squeamish about munching on them, she said.
Some manufacturers are trying to change opinion by selling cooked whole mealworms as crunchy, salty snacks. But acceptance is not widespread.
Dr Cho is promoting a sneakier approach - grinding the little critters into flavoursome seasonings inside easy-to-cook products.
She said: "Mealworm contains beneficial essential amino acids and is high in unsaturated fatty acids."
The oils boost health in a number of ways - including reducing cholesterol, easing inflammation and improving heart rhythms.
Dr Cho said: "Mealworm is one of the most widely used edible insects in the world. However, edible insects are not universally accepted in our food cultures due to their repellant appearance and unique flavour characteristics."
The team first compared mealworm aromas throughout the life cycle, from egg to larva to pupa to adult - identifying differences in the individual compounds.
But all of the stages mainly contained volatile hydrocarbons which evaporate and give off scents.
For example, fragrances of raw larvae were likened to a combination of wet soil, shrimp and sweet corn.
The scents developed during various cooking methods. Steamed mealworms had a stronger scent of sweet corn. Roasted and deep-fried versions had shrimp and oil-like attributes.
Analysis showed chemicals formed that were similar to those in cooked meat and seafood are cooked. They included pyrazines, alcohols and aldehydes.
The findings suggest additional reactions when heated with sugar. The 'process flavours' are produced through caramelisation and fatty acid oxidation.
The result is usually a suite of "meat like" and savory flavours, explained Dr Cho.
In a series of experiments, different manufacturing conditions and ratios of powdered mealworm and sugars produced many varieties caused by 98 volatile compounds.
Samples were tested on a panel of volunteers to provide feedback about which had the best 'meat-like' odour.
Co author Hyeyoung Park, a graduate student, said: "As a result of this study, ten of the reaction flavours were optimised based on consumer preferences."
It is the first time beetle larvae have been used to make fake meats. The researchers hope their results will lead to them being developed for mass production.
Meat-like and savoury flavourings and seasonings will encourage the convenience food industry to include edible insects in their products, said Dr Cho.
The next step is to further improve cooking to reduce any potentially undesirable or off-putting flavours in the final material made from beetle larvae
Ms Park presented the findings at a meeting of an American Chemical Society in Chicago.
by Mark Waghorn SWNS
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.


text:
Asean trade ministers spent a week in the US this month, meeting with congressmen, business leaders and policymakers in the capital and Seattle, to promote the region’s economic potential.
The 10-nation bloc of countries has become one of the fastest-growing regions in the world, but Asean leaders need to convince Americans to look at it as a single unit, Asean’s secretary-general, Surin Pitsuwan, said.
“We are part of Southeast Asia, which is expected to be a locomotive pulling the global economy along,” he said. “And I think in the past we have never disappointed them, and we want to do more.”
Asean has potential in automobile production, green technology and infrastructure, among others, he said.
Cambodia, “with more than 50 percent of its population below 20 years of age,” could be especially attractive to technology investors, Pan Sorasak, secretary of state for the Ministry of Commerce, told VOA Khmer.
“There is also the potential for modernizing Cambodian rice production, which the US should consider investing in,” he said. “And there is tourism, where we can have cooperation among airlines.”
Cambodia lags behind other Asean countries in its human resources and infrastructure, but the bloc works to help members, he said, and members don’t compete for external partners.
Asean includes Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
It is the fifth-largest trading partner and fourth-largest export market for the US, with two-way trade reaching nearly $180 billion in 2008, according to the US-Asean Business Council. US exports to Asean were more than $66 billion that year.


text:
A California court decided on Monday that dating apps and online dating services will no longer be able to offer discriminatory pricing based on age.
Services can not, for example, demand higher payment from users above the age of 30.
The change will likely affect the pricing of Tinder Plus – one of the premium tiers which helped Tinder boost revenue in 2017.
Tinder Plus is currently $9.99 or $14.99 for users under 30, and $19.99 for users aged 30 or over.
Tinder claims that its research has shown customers under 30 have less money, and would be less able to afford the higher rate.
Pricing may be tied to social policies, the court noted, such as children’s’ tickets and senior tickets at cinemas.
Using the actual age of a consumer as the justification for charging a higher rate, however, is characterised as “prohibited arbitrary discrimination” under California law.
Consumers must be considered as individuals, not as members of a group of a certain age, sex or gender.
In 1985, the Supreme Court ruled that “ladies’ nights” at bars amounted to unlawful discrimination. The court referenced this ruling in its decision.
If Tinder was allowed to discriminate on the basis of age-related income averages, the judge noted, then the same logic could apply to food shopping or any other area of consumer spending.
Read more here.


text:
Shop local: Zero-waste converted milk float feeds Hackney
- Credit: Fearghal Corbett
A mobile, zero-waste shop has eliminated the need for approximately 5,500 typical supermarket plastic packs since it launched in Hackney in August.
The Topup Truck delivers ethically-sourced food and home supplies out of an old electric milk float to residents who fill up using their own containers.
While on furlough, founder Ella Shone made use of her background in food and sustainability to develop a business that would make it easier for people to shop without requiring single-use plastic packaging.
“At the heart of Topup Truck is sustainability, community and wellbeing,” said Ella.
“From laundry liquid to pasta to vegan pick‘n’mix, the range has been specially selected to help people convert their cupboards from plastic hell to minimal sustainable perfection.”
You may also want to watch:
Regular Topup Truck customer Jess Stockford said the truck connects “consumers with their food and where it comes from”, and also “stimulates other conversations about other sustainable community projects”.
It is “just a brilliant community asset”, she said, adding that “every neighbourhood should have one”.
- 1 "Outcry" over fortnightly rubbish collection in Stamford Hill
- 2 Campaigners to protest at GP surgeries as outrage grows over US takeover
- 3 Three men who went on stabbing spree in Hackney convicted of murder
- 4 "Predator" jailed after sexually assaulting sleeping woman on Hackney bus
- 5 Hackney police commander calls on community to "play its part" in crime prevention
- 6 Three men charged following Hackney shooting
- 7 Newington Green's Meeting House to stream concert series for Mary Wollstonecraft's 262nd Birthday
- 8 Hackney restaurant exhibits local artists with new art space
- 9 Reopening week saw “record-breaking” days at pubs in Hoxton
- 10 ‘We are still human’: homeless households speak out over living conditions
After Ella noticed a global resurgence in the use of disposables during the coronavirus pandemic, with the plastics industry lobbying for plastic ban pauses, she decided to show that there are alternatives to reduce unnecessary waste.
“We need to make sure we keep safe, but that doesn’t mean trashing the planet with single-use plastics,” the business owner said.
Keen Green podcast host Fearghal Corbett featured Topup Truck on an episode, saying: “As well as the environmental benefits, one thing I hadn’t appreciated until spending time with Topup Truck was how it can bring neighbours together.”
But Ella adds that, along with “bringing neighbourhoods together”, Topup Truck brings with it the further benefits of “supporting local, independent businesses, small ethical wholesalers, as well as Hackney-based suppliers, offering mostly organic, vegan produce”.
Like many businesses, Topup Truck has had to adapt to recent lockdown restrictions, introducing a pre-order system to reduce browsing and chatting time at the float.
This is supposed to be a key part of the experience, but Ella said: “I am [just] so unbelievably grateful that I am still open, and that people are still shopping with us.”
When restrictions lift, the entrepreneur is looking to partner with schools and nurseries to meet parents at collection time, with “hopes to inspire kids to be conscious of our impact on the planet”.
To book supplies, click here


text:
Chief has announced new accessories for its FUSION Series wall mounts, AV carts and stands as well as a new online compatibility tool that allows customers to select the right accessories for their video conferencing needs (see URL below).
According to Chief, accessories can help create the ideal solution for a wide range of video conferencing and digital signage needs. Chief’s newest accessories for FUSION include:
• Wide Video Conference Camera Shelf, for Set-top video conferencing products (FVS251)
• Centre Channel Speaker Adapter (FCC100)
• In-Line Video Conference Camera Shelf (FVS350)
• Mount Connector Kits (FCK008 and FCK016)
• Left/Right Speaker Adapters (FLR100)
Chief’s’ TV Cart series also has a couple of new video conferencing accessories, including a Large Video Conferencing Shelf (PAC716) and a Codec/CPU Interface Adapter (PAC253) that the company says can hide Tandbergs’ popular codecs behind the display for a clean look. Finally, Chief is offering a Large Shelf Accessory (PACCS1) that allows users to add a centre channel speaker or sound bar to a mobile video conferencing solution.


text:
Inflation came in at 19.8% in August, down from 21.4% in July. The August reading marked the lowest inflation rate since March 2020. Rising oil prices in recent months have boosted the Kwanzaa, keeping imported inflation at bay. In addition, fuel and food subsidies helped ease domestic price pressures.
Finally, consumer prices rose 0.76% in August from the previous month, slowing from the 0.81% increase recorded in July. The August result was the weakest reading since April 2015.
FocusEconomics committee members expect inflation to be 22.4% in 2022, 0.5 percentage point lower than last month’s forecast, and 13.7% in 2023.